Live Updates: 2020 Election
Results, News And Analysis
THE latest 2020 election update posted by NPR at 2233 ET 3 NOV, it is going to be a long week.....
Trump Wins Missouri, Per AP call
President Trump has been called as the winner of Missouri and its 10 electoral votes by The Associated Press. Missouri was historically a swing state but has voted for the Republican presidential nominee in each election going back to George W. Bush in 2000.
Sen. Lindsey Graham Wins Reelection In South Carolina
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham defeated Democrat Jaime Harrison to win reelection, according to the Associated Press.
Perhaps no other U.S. Senate race drew more national attention during this election cycle as both candidates set fundraising records.
Harrison, the former chair of the state’s Democratic party and former staffer to House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, raised $57 million in the final quarter, the most by any U.S. Senate candidate in history. In all, Harrison raised a total of $108 million.
Graham, by comparison, raised $28 million in the third quarter, about half of Harrison’s haul but a quarterly record for Senate Republicans. In all, Graham raised $74 million.
Harrison tightened the race in recent months, making Graham’s fluctuating positions an issue. In the closing weeks to the election, Cook Political Report rated the race a “toss-up” after once being considered a safe bet for Republicans.
As a former presidential candidate in 2016, Graham was a fierce critic of President Trump. However, Graham grew to become one of Trump’s biggest allies on Capitol Hill over his first term.He serves as Judiciary Committee chairman, and presided over the push to get Amy Coney Barrett, the president’s most recent nominee to the Supreme Court, confirmed. Graham was also a vocal defender of Trump during the Senate impeachment trial, and other controversial moments during Trump’s first term as president.
↑ Back to topTuberville Wins: Republicans Pick Up Senate Seat In Alabama
Alabama Democratic Sen. Doug Jones lost his bid to serve out a full-term in the Senate, losing handily to former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville, according to The Associated Press. Jones won a 2017 special election against controversial former Republican Judge Roy Moore to fill the seat of GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions, who left the Senate to serve as President Trump’s attorney general. Sessions ran in the Senate Republican primary this year, but his soured relationship with the president made it all but impossible for him to win.
Jones’ reelection was always an uphill battle in a conservative state where Trump still enjoys considerable popularity. His loss heightens the hurdle for Democrats to win control of the Senate. Republicans currently control it 53 to 47. The party will, at a minimum, need to net gain four seats and win the White House. So far Democrats have picked up one seat in Colorado, where GOP Sen. Cory Gardner was defeated by John Hickenlopper.
Jones, a former U.S. attorney, has been mentioned as a possible contender to serve in a Biden administration if Democrats win the White House.
AP Data Temporarily Misrepresent Nebraska Results
A bug in The Associated Press’ system incorrectly caused all five of Nebraska’s electoral votes to appear for President Trump. This glitch affected some customer displays, including NPR’s. As of 10 p.m., Trump had won three of the state’s five electoral votes and the change has been corrected on NPR’s site.
Nebraska awards two of its electoral votes to the statewide winner and the others to the winner in each of the state’s three congressional districts. The AP had called the state and NE-3 for Trump, but there are no calls for the 1st and 2nd districts yet.
↑ Back to topDemocrats Pick Up Senate Seat With Hickenlooper Win In Colorado
Democrats secured a key, but unsurprising, victory in Colorado that was a must-win on their path to winning a possible Senate majority.
Former Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper defeated incumbent GOP Sen. Cory Gardner in a race that polls consistently showed Hickenlooper ahead. The win is Democrats’ first pick-up of the night.
Once a more competitive swing state, Colorado has increasingly leaned toward Democrats. Gardner was able to overcome that lean in 2014, when he ousted incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Udall in a bad midterm election year for Democrats. However, Gardner found himself in a familiar bind for many Republicans in 2020: hesitant to criticize President Trump too much for fear of alienating the GOP base, and never getting credit from Democrats and independent voters when he did. Gardner, 46, has been described as a young star in the GOP and it is possible that this is not his last bid for elected office.
Hickenlooper initially ruled out a 2020 Senate run, but changed his mind after his presidential bid fizzled out. Like most Democratic candidates, he also outraised his opponent this year. Hickenlooper campaigned as an independent-minded Democrat, who will be able to reach across the aisle in the Senate.
↑ Back to topMcConnell: Kentucky Keeps ‘Front-Row’ Seat In The Senate
Mitch McConnell will keep his seat in the Senate, defeating former Marine Corps fighter pilot Amy McGrath in one of this year’s most expensive contests. It’s too soon to know if he’ll still be majority leader next year.
“Tonight, Kentucky said we’re keeping our front-row seat in the Senate,” McConnell told supporters. “We don’t yet know which presidential candidate will begin a new term in January. We don’t know which party will control the Senate. But some things are certain already. We know grave challenges will remain before us — challenges that could not care less about our political polarization.”
After a fiercely contested election season, McConnell said it will be important for whoever is in power next year to unite the country, as it continues to wrestle with the coronavirus pandemic.
“Our fellow citizens are not our enemies,” he said. “There is no challenge that we cannot overcome together.”
McConnell recalled his own childhood battle with polio, a decade before scientists developed a vaccine, and expressed confidence that this new scourge will also be overcome.
“We have everything we need to defeat this virus and come back stronger,” he said.
Texas: Biden Improves On Clinton’s 2016 Margins In Major Cities
Former Vice President Joe Biden is seeing big margins in some of Texas’ largest cities — places that will be critical for him if he has a fighting chance in the Lone Star State.
In Travis County, home to the state capital of Austin, Biden is up by 48 points with just over 70% of precincts there reporting. Four years ago, Hillary Clinton won that county by 39 points.
A similar proportion of precincts are reporting in Bexar County — home to San Antonio — and Tarrant County — home to Fort Worth. In Bexar, Biden’s up by 20 points, compared with Clinton’s 14-point win last cycle. In Tarrant County, which went for Donald Trump by 9 points during his 2016 win, Biden is running even with the president.
Even in Collin County, where the president is leading with about 70% of precincts reporting, Biden has cut significantly into Trump’s 2016 lead. Biden has so far shrunk Trump’s margin from 17 points then to just 4 points Tuesday night.
In Harris County, which is home to Houston and the most populous county in the state, Biden’s running on par with Clinton: He has a 13-point lead compared with her 12-point win.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, QAnon Endorser, Wins House Seat In Georgia
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a controversial Republican who has expressed support for the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory, has won her campaign in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District.
Her victory had been expected ever since Greene won her party’s nomination; the district is heavily Republican, and her long-shot Democratic rival dropped out of the race in September. He still won 21% of the vote, according to The Associated Press.
The QAnon conspiracy theory that Greene once embraced posits that a mysterious figure named “Q” is dropping crumbs of information to reveal a vast conspiracy, perpetually on the cusp of being brought down in dramatic fashion. The details of the conspiracy vary widely but often include bizarre, unfounded accusations of satanic activity and child trafficking. The conspiracy theory has been linked to multiple incidents of violence.
In 2017, Greene posted a video in which she called Q a “patriot” and said Trump’s presidency offered a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take this global cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles out.” She also spread other conspiracy theories on a blog and expressed anti-Muslim sentiment, including stating that “anyone that is a Muslim, that believes in sharia law, does not belong in our government.”
Greene has since distanced herself from her pro-QAnon statements, saying she has shifted her position over time. “This wasn’t part of my campaign,” Greene told Fox News. “It hasn’t been anything I’ve talked about for quite a long time now.”
Some high-profile Republicans initially denounced Greene’s statements, but she was embraced by Trump and a number of other powerful figures within the Republican Party. Next year she will be heading to Congress. As NPR’s Sue Davis has noted, her election and the president’s vocal support for her reflect a shift within the GOP where once-fringe beliefs are now rising in prominence within the corridors of power.
↑ Back to topWhy AP Called Virginia Early For Joe Biden
Not long after the polls closed Tuesday, Virginia turned blue on NPR’s electoral map. Only 10% of the vote had been counted, and those votes showed President Trump ahead of former Vice President Joe Biden. So how did NPR report Virginia for Biden?
NPR follows The Associated Press race calls. The AP uses a variety of information to call a race. Unlike projections used by some television networks, an AP race call is only made when the candidate running behind has no possible path to victory.
The AP pulls from early returns and data from something called VoteCast, a massive preelection survey that the AP is using this year instead of exit polls. The AP also couples all that with historical trends and demographic data to make the call.
In this case, the AP also said it looked at a representative selection of precincts that showed Biden “comfortably” ahead of Trump and that data matched up with VoteCast and early voting statistics.
Hillary Clinton won Virginia by over 5 points in 2016. The state also has a Democratic governor and the Democrats took control of both chambers of the legislature in 2019. While Virgnia used to be much more competitive, the growth of Washington, D.C., suburbs has turned the state bluer in recent years.
Delaware’s Sarah McBride Becomes Nation’s First Openly Transgender State Senator
Transgender activist Sarah McBride has defeated Republican Steve Washington in Delaware to become the nation’s first openly transgender state senator. McBride previously made history in 2016 when she spoke at the Democratic National Convention, becoming the first transgender person to do so at a major-party convention.
McBride interned at the White House during the Obama administration and served as the national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign. She celebrated her win tonight, saying on Twitter, “I hope tonight shows an LGBTQ kid that our democracy is big enough for them, too.”
What To Watch For At 10 p.m. ET: Iowa And Nevada
Polls in Iowa, Nevada, Montana and Utah are set to close at 10 p.m. ET. Here’s what we’re watching for as precinct results come in and early votes continue to be counted.
Iowa: Iowa is rated as a toss-up race, according to NPR’s latest electoral analysis, a notable shift given that Donald Trump won the state in 2016 by over 9 points. The state has a total of six electoral votes.
Iowa is also the site of a close Senate race. Incumbent Republican Sen. Joni Ernst attempts to hold on to her seat as she faces a challenge from Democratic candidate Theresa Greenfield. The two candidates remain virtually tied, each securing just slight polling leads at times over the past several months.
Montana: In the presidential race, NPR classifies Montana as a lean-Republican contest rather than a likely Republican contest, pointing to Trump’s considerably lower lead there compared with the 2016 race. There are a total of three electoral votes in play.
Also, former Montana Gov. Steve Bullock is going up against current Republican Sen. Steve Daines for U.S. Senate. While Daines held a polling lead in September, the two are now neck and neck. The race is considered a toss-up by the Cook Political Report.
Nevada: Nevada is rated as lean Democrat for the presidency. The state has six delegates. Joe Biden has consistently led against Trump in state polls since March.
U.S. House races to watch: Competitive congressional races are also expected in Iowa and Utah.
↑ Back to topFlorida: Republicans Have A Good Feeling, So Far
Republicans are feeling good about Florida tonight, and with good reason.
President Trump has cut significantly into Hillary Clinton’s 2016 margin in Miami-Dade County so far. Clinton won 63% of Miami-Dade. Joe Biden is underperforming there by 9 points, only at 54%, but still with only about half the county in. We’ll see how or if things move.
Trump made a significant push with South Florida Latinos. The campaign sold that Trump was the only thing standing between America and socialism, a message that so far looks like it resonated with Cuban Americans and Venezuelan Americans.
Biden is cutting into margins in traditionally redder counties and places Trump won in 2016, but with votes coming in from the Panhandle, a Trump stronghold, the president is ahead now by more than 200,000 votes.
Democrats, however, got a good early sign out of Virginia. Different from 2016, the state was called just about half an hour after polls closed. That’s a sign that Biden’s win there will likely keep pace with his double-digit lead in the polls coming into Election Day.
If Trump were to win Florida, it would be a blow to Democrats, but Biden has plenty of other pathways. They are crossing their fingers for good news out of North Carolina, where Biden has an early lead with two-thirds of the vote in, and possibly out of Georgia, Pennsylvania and maybe even Ohio, where Biden is currently up with about half the vote in.
Stay tuned. This could be a very strange map.
What To Watch At 9 p.m. ET: Polls Close In Arizona And Texas
At the top of the hour, polls will close in 14 more states. Here’s the full list paired with NPR electoral ratings.
Arizona (toss-up)
Texas (toss-up)
Michigan (lean Dem.)
Minnesota (lean Dem.)
Wisconsin (lean Dem.)
Nebraska (NE-1 lean Rep., NE-2 toss-up, NE-3 likely Rep.)
Kansas (likely Rep.)
Louisiana (likely Rep.)
North Dakota (likely Rep.)
Nebraska (likely Rep.)
South Dakota (likely Rep.)
Wyoming (likely Rep.)
Colorado (likely Dem.)
New Mexico (likely Dem.)
New York (likely Dem.)
Though reports are subject to change as early votes are counted along with in-person ballots, all eyes will be on the returns coming out of key states including Texas and Arizona, both considered toss-up races by NPR in the presidential election.
As Polls Close, AP Calls Several States For Biden Or Trump
As polls begin to close on the East Coast and the Midwest, the Associated Press has called a number of states in the heated presidential race between the Republican incumbent President Trump and his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.
As of 8 p.m. ET, the AP has reported Trump has won the reliably red states: Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, South Carolina and West Virginia.
Biden has so far clinched victories in the Democratic strongholds of: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont.
Though the polls have closed in a handful of additional states and the District of Columbia, the AP reports that races in states including Maine, Missouri, New Hampshire, and swing state heavy-hitters Ohio, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Florida, remain too close to call.
Over the last several days, campaigns across key battleground states have reached a fever pitch, with both candidates hoping to secure these states’ coveted electoral votes and secure their party’s control in Washington.
The last U.S. polls close at 1 a.m. ET.
↑ Back to topMcConnell Wins Kentucky Senate Seat
Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell handily won reelection Tuesday, beating retired Marine Corps fighter pilot Amy McGrath in one of the year’s most expensive Senate races. McGrath outraised and outspent McConnell, pouring more than $73 million into the contest by mid-October. But it wasn’t enough to deny McConnell a seventh term. Whether the Republican lawmaker retains his title as majority leader will depend on the outcome of other Senate races. Republicans came into the election with a 53-seat majority in the Senate. Democrats need a net pickup of four seats to take control of the chamber or three seats if Joe Biden wins the White House (which would give Kamala Harris a tie-breaking vote in the Senate as vice president).
McConnell’s time as majority leader has already left a lasting impression. By preventing then-President Barack Obama from filling judicial vacancies — including the Supreme Court seat left open by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia — and prioritizing the confirmation of judges under President Trump, McConnell has engineered a considerable rightward shift in the federal courts.
“A lot of what we’ve done over the last four years will be undone sooner or later by the next election,” McConnell said last month, referring to the Senate’s legislative record. But McConnell sees the judicial effort as a more lasting legacy. Last month, he warned that Democrats “won’t be able to do much about this for a long time to come.”
After Epic Early Voting, Some States See Lighter In-Person Turnout On Election Day
Long lines have become an iconic image of this election, as some voters waited for hours to cast their ballots early. And on Tuesday that pattern continued in places like New York City and Las Vegas.
But in many polling places across the U.S., voters encountered little to no wait on Tuesday. Some polling places reported lower-than-usual turnout. But it wasn’t because of a lack of enthusiasm but because of the phenomenal number of citizens who voted early.
In hotly contested North Carolina, between early voting and absentee voting, more than 62% of the state’s eligible voters had cast their ballots before Election Day, according to the State Board of Elections.
The result, as member station WUNC observed, was lighter-than-usual turnout on Tuesday at many polling places across the state.
In Georgia, a primary this June and early voting this fall were both marred by massive lines and long waits. But Election Day was different — Georgia Public Broadcasting described “more of a constant trickle than the anticipated fire hose.”
More than 4 million Georgia residents had already cast their ballots before Tuesday. An hour after voting opened, the average wait across the state was just 12 minutes, The Associated Press reported.
A number of polling places in Virginia were quiet on Tuesday:
In Texas, KUT’s Mose Buchele was monitoring wait times at Austin polling stations and summed it up on Twitter: “Pretty much a consistent sea of green since this morning.” That meant polling stations across the city were reporting wait times of less than 20 minutes.
In San Antonio, Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen had been hoping for 175,000 in-person votes cast, Texas Public Radio reported. Later in the evening, she told reporters that she no longer expected the county to hit 100,000.
Meanwhile in Michigan, some polling places experienced long lines, thanks in part to a record number of same-day voter registrations, MLive reported. And lines in Las Vegas were the result of technical difficulties.
↑ Back to topPolls Close In A Handful Of Key Battleground States: Here’s What To Watch
Over a dozen states will close their polls at 8 p.m. ET, including Florida and Pennsylvania — two of the most competitive states in the presidential race. Final polls are also set to close in North Carolina at 8:15 p.m. ET. Here’s the full list of the states paired with NPR electoral ratings.
Florida (toss-up)
North Carolina (toss-up)
Pennsylvania (lean Dem.)
Maine (ME-1, likely Dem.; ME-2, toss-up)
Missouri (lean Rep.)
Alabama (likely Rep.)
Mississippi (likely Rep.)
Oklahoma (likely Rep.)
Tennessee (likely Rep.)
New Hampshire (likely Dem.)
Connecticut (likely Dem.)
Washington, D.C. (likely Dem.)
Delaware (likely Dem.)
Illinois (likely Dem.)
Massachusetts (likely Dem.)
Maryland (likely Dem.)
New Jersey (likely Dem.)
Rhode Island (likely Dem.)
Trump Approval Is Underwater In Multiple Swing States
As we wait for results from swing states, AP VoteCast data show that President Trump has a negative approval rating in six of the states NPR will be closely watching throughout the night.
In Florida, for example, Trump has a net approval of -16 points — 42% of voters approve of the job he is doing as president, and 58% disapprove.
Likewise, in Arizona, he’s at -14, with 43% who approve and 57% who disapprove.
He’s more narrowly underwater in Georgia (-7 points), North Carolina (-4), Pennsylvania (-6) and Wisconsin (-8).
Those feelings of disapproval are polarized. In all six states, the overwhelming majority of those who disapprove say they “disapprove strongly” of Trump’s handling of the presidency (as opposed to those who “disapprove somewhat”). Similarly, a majority of those who approve of him in each state “approve strongly,” though in all six states, approve responses are split less extremely than disapprove responses.
None of this necessarily means Trump will lose these states; it is of course possible for a voter to disapprove of Trump but still think he’s the best option (or to approve of Trump but think Joe Biden is the best option).
↑ Back to topKey States To Watch: Polls Close Shortly In Ohio
Polls will close in Ohio and West Virginia at 7:30 p.m. ET. North Carolina was originally slated to close all polls at that time as well but won’t start releasing results until 8:15 p.m. ET, citing delays.
Initial reports may change as additional results continue to come in and early votes are counted. That said, all eyes will be on Ohio at 7:30 p.m. ET, which remains a key toss-up race, according to NPR’s electoral analysis.
Ohio: While President Trump currently holds a slim polling edge in the state, he and former Vice President Joe Biden have alternated in securing small leads since the spring. The state — and its 18 electoral votes — have crossed party lines in recent elections, siding with Trump in 2016 and Barack Obama in both 2008 and 2012.
↑ Back to topCOVID-19 Is Easily The Biggest Issue Of This Election
A solid plurality of voters — 42% — said the coronavirus pandemic is their No. 1 issue in this election, according to the first wave of data from AP VoteCast, a large-scale poll of voters conducted over the last few days. The only other issue that even comes close is the economy and jobs, at 27%. Everything else — health care, immigration, abortion and climate change, for example — comes in below 10%.
Of course, COVID-19 and the economy are tied inextricably together; controlling the pandemic would allow the economy to heal.
When asked which of the two they want the federal government to prioritize, a solid majority — 61% — said it wanted the government to focus on limiting COVID-19’s spread, “even if it damages the economy.” Thirty-seven percent prioritized boosting the economy, “even if it increases the spread of coronavirus.”
The early VoteCast data do not yet say how these responses correlate to whether people voted for Joe Biden or President Trump. However, some questions show the degree to which COVID-19 is a liability for Trump in this election. Fifty-eight percent of voters disapprove of his handling of the pandemic, and just 35% said he is better able than Biden to handle the pandemic. Meanwhile, 49% of voters said Biden would be better able to handle the pandemic.
↑ Back to topPennsylvania Officials Debunk ‘Deliberately Deceptive’ Misinformation Spread By Trump Allies
Officials in Pennsylvania are debunking misleading claims of voting irregularities and other problems in the battleground state that researchers say are being spread online by Republican political operatives and right-wing influencers.
“We are seeing significant amplification and discussion of unfounded allegations that there have been instances of voter fraud or attempts to ‘steal the election,’ many of which have already been disproved,” said Lisa Kaplan, founder of the Alethea Group, which helps campaigns fight misinformation.
Given the tight presidential race in Pennsylvania, its residents have been flooded by disputed claims on Twitter and other Internet platforms. In September and October, Pennsylvania saw the most misinformation about voting of any state, according to Zignal Labs, which tracks social media.
On Tuesday, these misleading posts were amplified by those on the right with large social media followings, such as Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, and former White House aide Steve Bannon, as well as conservative media including Breitbart and the Gateway Pundit, according to the Election Integrity Partnership, a coalition of researchers tracking online misinformation.
Mike Roman, the Trump campaign’s director of Election Day operations, shared a tweet claiming that signs supporting Democratic nominee Joe Biden outside polling places in Philadelphia violated election rules. “Bad things are happening in Philly,” Roman wrote.
Texas GOP Looks To Rural Conservatives To Stanch Blue Wave
In this extraordinary election year, Texas has moved into the toss-up column. Democrats believe the explosive growth of the state’s megacities will mean more young, Latino and Asian American voters will vote for change. Republicans are counting on rural conservatives to be a firewall against any blue wave.
In Dripping Springs, a down-home community in the Hill Country west of Austin, voters are considered pragmatic and conservative.
“None of these candidates are perfect. And I wasn’t voting for who I was gonna marry or who I want to be my best friend,” said Danielle Guinn, a 49-year-old teacher who describes herself as a Republican. “I’m voting for who I think will run the country and the state and the county better.”
Recent polling has shown Joe Biden and President Trump in a dead heat in once reliably red Texas, but Ben Broughton wasn’t buying it.
“I feel more confident [of a Trump victory] than I did in ’16,” he said, standing outside a Dripping Springs polling place in a cap with the message “All Aboard the Trump Train.” The 62-year-old retired Exxon Mobil contractor now keeps honeybees.
“I don’t have faith in the polls. They oversample the Democrats. For every Biden sign, you see 100 Trump signs.”
Thirty minutes down the highway in liberal Austin — where most voters are as blue as a Texas bluebonnet — it’s easy to find never-Trumpers.
“He’s a racist, bigot and homophobe,” said Jonathan Henderson, a 38-year-old writer. “I guess those are the top three.”
Debora Taylor, a 46-year-old Uber driver, said she was born in Argentina and has lived in the United States for 21 years.
“I’ve always been so proud of the U.S., the presidents and the government in general,” she said, walking to her car after voting. “But not this time. Not with Trump. He’s such an embarrassment. Everything is just so wrong with him in office.”
↑ Back to topIn Swing State Florida, Voters Are Engaged
Both major-party presidential candidates are fighting hard for Florida and its 29 electoral votes. Polls predict a tight race in the swing state, and voters are engaged.
“I did proudly vote for Donald Trump,” said Emma Gray after casting a ballot at the Freedom Church in Tallahassee, Fla.
Gray said she’s an independent voter who doesn’t identify with either party. President Trump’s tenure hasn’t been perfect, she said, but she thinks her family is better off.
“I may not always agree with everything he says,” Gray said. “But his view of America and the economic success he brought to America really speaks to me.”
But other voters said they are ready for a change.
“It’s been a crazy four years of constant chaos and fear just in general,” said Benton Sanderson of Tallahassee, a 33-year-old restaurant worker who suffered an economic blow because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Sanderson voted “straight blue,” he said.
So did Mentonia Hutchinson, a mental health case worker and supporter of Democrat Joe Biden. She said there has been too much racial conflict under Trump.
“I don’t particularly care for the character that I’ve seen,” said Hutchinson.
Here in Leon County, as elsewhere in Florida, voting was steady. There were no widespread reports of long lines or disruptions around polling places. Election officials are expecting record turnout. Nearly 9 million Floridians have already cast a ballot either by mail or through early voting.
“When the turnout is high, Democrats win,” says John Hedrick, chairman of the Leon County Democratic Executive Committee.
But Republicans say their voters are more likely to show up on Election Day, and they’re counting on a red wave to once again deliver Florida for Trump. He won in 2016 by a narrow margin of about 113,000 votes.
↑ Back to top
Trump Campaign Manager Says It Is A ‘Tight Race’
President Trump’s campaign manager and other top campaign officials expressed confidence tonight in Trump’s chances based on reports they’ve gotten from key swing states.
“We feel better and more confident about our position now in 2020 than we did at this exact moment in 2016,” Jason Miller told reporters. Miller, a senior adviser, was in the campaign’s war room four years ago when Trump pulled off an improbable Electoral College victory.
The Trump campaign took a risky bet that it could turn out the vast majority of Republican voters on Election Day, while Joe Biden’s campaign and Democrats encouraged early and absentee voting. “The Biden campaign cannibalized their votes,” said Bill Stepien, Trump’s campaign manager.
What he means is that the Biden campaign got voters who otherwise would have voted on Election Day to turn out early — but the Biden campaign doesn’t have enough Election Day votes to ensure a win. That’s based on Trump campaign data and voter modeling.
“With the lack of a ground game on the Biden campaign side, they left a ton of votes on the table,” Stepien said. Meanwhile, Republicans have been “driving turnout” on Election Day, he said.
But the true strength of both campaigns’ Election Day operations will be known only when the votes are counted.
“We believe this to be a tight race,” said Stepien. “We believe every vote’s going to matter. It’s going to come down to turnout. We think we are better positioned in that type of campaign. We are executing the plan we have been building and organizing for the past three years.”
↑ Back to topKey States To Watch At Top Of The Hour: Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky
The presidential election enters its final stage at 7 p.m. ET, as polls close across six states. Here’s the list of states paired with NPR’s electoral ratings.
Georgia (toss-up)
South Carolina (likely Rep.)
Kentucky (likely Rep.)
Indiana (likely Rep.)
Virginia (likely Dem.)
Vermont (likely Dem.)
Note that reports from precincts may change as early votes continue to be counted along with votes cast in person today. That said, here’s what we’ll be watching for at the top of the hour.
Georgia: Georgia hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1992, but former Vice President Joe Biden holds a narrow lead over President Trump in average state polling. A total of 16 electoral votes are at stake. Georgia is also the only state in the U.S. with two Senate seats up for grabs tonight. Both races are considered toss-ups by the Cook Political Report. Republican Sen. David Perdue is fighting for reelection against Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff. And Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler faces off against Republican Rep. Doug Collins and Democrat Raphael Warnock in a special election.
It’s also important to note that both Senate races are subject to runoff elections, meaning a candidate must receive over 50% to win. If no candidate gets over 50%, the top two contenders in the race will face off again on Jan. 5.
South Carolina: While Trump is expected to win South Carolina, its Senate race is highly contested. Incumbent Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham faces a challenge from Democrat Jaime Harrison. While Graham is considered one of the most senior members of the U.S. Senate, Harrison has risen in prominence over the past several months. The two candidates remain neck and neck in recent state polling.
Kentucky: Though Kentucky is also expected to vote for Trump, eyes are on the state’s U.S. Senate race. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is up for reelection and faces Democratic opponent Amy McGrath. While McConnell is favored to win, the race will remain closely watched, considering he is the leader of the Senate.
↑ Back to top30 Things To Read, Watch Or Listen To … Instead Of Refreshing That Results Page
Election night has just begun, and you know perfectly well the results won’t be in for a long time. Maybe hours. Maybe longer.
But if you’re having trouble thinking about anything else, you’re not alone.
Instead of staring at that map and waiting for the colors to fill in, or endlessly scrolling through Twitter (it doesn’t make time go any faster!), why not spend this waiting period digging into a political profile, podcast episode or video that can actually shed some light on what’s happening tonight? Here are some ideas to get you started …
Ponder the candidates
How did Joe Biden get the nomination?
A personal reflection on Kamala Harris and mass incarceration
How Trump has weaponized masculinity and why it matters
Mike Pence and the religious right
What’s the future of the Republican Party?
Trump Will Leave Office ‘When His Tenure Is Done,’ Campaign Adviser Says
With just hours of voting left, a top official on President Trump’s reelection campaign said it’s possible the president can pull off a victory. But when asked whether the president would concede and commit to a peaceful transfer of power should he lose, the aide was noncommittal.
“When the president leaves office, when his tenure is done, and I believe that’s going to be in four years, of course he will leave office,” Steve Cortes, a senior adviser for strategy on the Trump campaign, said on Tuesday afternoon on NPR’s All Things Considered.
“I don’t think that’s going to be in a few months. I think that’s going to be in four years,” he added.
NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly pushed Cortes on a hypothetical, asking whether the president would — if the vote appeared to be going his way — wait until all the ballots were counted before declaring victory.
“Once it is clear that we are winning, he will declare victory,” Cortes said.
Kelly interjected quickly: “What’s your benchmark for ‘clear’?”
“We’ll know once we get to it,” Cortes said, without providing specifics.
Cortes said the Trump campaign is confident the president will prevail in his reelection bid, in part because Democrats “have exhausted practically all of their high-propensity voters.”
He surmised that if Republicans have a massive turnout, it could push Trump to victory.
NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez noted earlier Tuesday that the president told reporters at his campaign headquarters in Arlington, Va., that he didn’t have a concession speech or a victory speech prepared.
“You know, winning is easy. Losing is never easy. Not for me, it’s not,” Trump said.
Kelly asked Cortes whether Trump was managing expectations or if he was worried about the outcome.
“Listen, I don’t think he’s doing either, quite frankly,” Cortes replied. “The president thinks he’s going to win.”
↑ Back to topTrump Campaign Sets Up War Room At White House
The Trump campaign has established a “war room” on the White House grounds, in a move that further blurs the line between the executive branch and the campaign.
The campaign is using space in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building — the large complex adjacent to the West Wing — for election night, campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said.
Past presidents have generally tried to keep the official trappings of the presidency separate from the operations of their campaigns. But, Trump has resisted adhering to those norms, including delivering his speech for the Republican National Convention at the White House.
Murtaugh defended the move, which was first reported by the New York Times.
“The war room needed to be in close proximity to the president and there is no expense whatsoever to American taxpayers for the use of a room in the EEOB, where events like prayer services and receptions for outside groups frequently occur,” Murtaugh said in a statement.
“Every piece of equipment, including WiFi and computers, was paid for by the campaign, and no White House staff is involved. The arrangement has been approved by White House counsel,” he said.
↑ Back to topLargely Peaceful Election Day So Far
Despite worries about organized voter intimidation, Election Day around the U.S. has been largely peaceful so far.
There have been reports of isolated incidents of unruly voters and disputes with poll workers. Others involve voters resisting mask requirements.
Some voters have expressed discomfort about the presence of civilians with holstered firearms in states that allow open carry. Rules on firearms in polling places vary, often depending on whether the polling place is located in a building with special protections, such as a school. Ten states ban weapons from voting sites outright.
Police in Charlotte, N.C., say they arrested an armed man who was asked to leave a precinct location but then returned. He was arrested for trespassing.
The relative absence of reported intimidation and threats so far has been a relief, but police departments aren’t ready to relax yet. In the last few weeks, several big-city chiefs have said they’re more worried about what might happen after the polls close, especially if celebrations or protests turn violent.
In a news conference marking the midway point of a peaceful Election Day, the New York Police Department’s chief of department, Terence Monahan, said that the department’s intelligence bureau would continue to monitor events and that thousands of additional officers would be “at the ready.”
“My message to anyone who wants to cause violence and destruction is, ‘Don’t even try it. We know who you are, and you will be arrested,’ ” Monahan said.
↑ Back to topBiden Campaign Sounds Bullish On Election Day
The Biden campaign is sounding more confident on this, the final day of the 2020 campaign season than it has in months about its election odds, based on early vote data estimates.
Until Tuesday, Joe Biden and his aides have been very cautious when talking about their big polling leads — wary of projecting the same kind of confidence Democrats had in 2016, when Trump won.
"We start Election Day with a clear path to 270. We think that we have a big lead," campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon told reporters during a briefing Tuesday.
O’Malley Dillon said the campaign’s early vote data projections show Democrats have an 8-point advantage in battleground states (though, obviously, that’s much tighter in states like Florida). And she expressed optimism that the campaign will have a sense of "where the race is" by the end of the night. She insisted Democrats do not need the critical states of Florida and Pennsylvania to build a path to victory.
Part of her confidence comes from the early vote lead Democrats have built in key states, such as North Carolina, Wisconsin and Michigan.
In Michigan, for example, the Biden campaign estimates President Trump would need to win 62% of the vote tonight in order to win the state. O’Malley Dillon said that would mean Trump would have to beat his own 2016 Election Day result by more than 10 points — a difficult but possible scenario.
↑ Back to topBiden In Wilmington: ‘I Feel Hopeful’
Joe Biden plans to watch election night returns at home with his family in Wilmington, Del., and the longtime senator and former vice president told reporters he sees multiple paths to victory.
“Toward the end, I never feel confident. I feel hopeful,” Biden said. He said he was feeling good about voter turnout among key groups in his coalition — women, young people and older African Americans.
“If Florida came in and I won, it’s over. Done,” Biden said. “I think we’re going to do well, we’re going to reestablish that ‘blue wall,’ I feel good about that, but it’s just so uncertain. You can’t think of an election in the recent past where so many states are up for grabs. The idea that I’m in play in Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Florida …”
Biden was also asked how he would respond if President Trump tried to prematurely declare victory before a clear winner is determined — something that Trump said on Tuesday he didn’t plan on doing.
“Presidents can’t determine what votes are counted or not counted and voters determine who’s president,” Biden said. “No matter what he does or says, votes are going to be counted.”
Like Trump, Biden also hedged on whether he would speak publicly later on Tuesday. “If there’s something to talk about tonight, I’ll talk about it,” he said. “If not, I’ll wait till the votes are counted the next day.”
Biden’s final day on the campaign trail was punctuated by personal and nostalgic stops — including the family plot where his son Beau is buried and his childhood home in Scranton, Pa. He even visited the pool where he was a lifeguard as a young man.
Republicans File More Mail Voting Lawsuits In Swing States
Republicans and Trump campaign allies continued to file last-minute lawsuits related to voting and vote-counting on Tuesday.
In Pennsylvania, a Republican House candidate filed suit, accusing election officials of illegally handling more than a thousand mail-in ballots before they were supposed to.
Officials in Montgomery County allowed some voters to fix issues with their absentee ballots before Election Day, the lawsuit alleges, which meant that officials would have had to have started the processing of those ballots earlier than Nov. 3, breaking state law and giving some voters in the state more voting opportunities than others.
A federal judge has granted a motion to temporarily hold off counting the votes of those people who fixed issues with their ballots until the matter is resolved, according to The Bucks County Courier Times.
“We believe our process is sound and permissible under the election code,” said Kelly Cofrancisco, a spokeswoman for the Montgomery County Board of Elections, to the Courier Times.
In Nevada, the Trump campaign has filed an appeal to the state Supreme Court after a judge on Monday rejected a lawsuit aimed at halting the processing of some mail-in ballots. The suit focuses on issues Republicans have with how the Clark County registrar was verifying signatures and with the amount of access that observers have for parts of the vote-counting process.
“There is no evidence that any vote that should lawfully be counted has or will not be counted. There is no evidence that any vote that lawfully should not be counted has or will be counted. There is no evidence that any election worker did anything outside of the law, policy, or procedures," Carson City District Court Judge James Wilson wrote in his decision Monday.
In Minnesota, the state Supreme Court rejected an effort by the Trump campaign and state legislators to challenge late-arriving ballots. A federal appeals court ruling last week already requires election officials to segregate ballots that arrive after polls close Tuesday night.
↑ Back to topState Officials Urge Voters To Ignore Robocalls
State officials are warning voters about suspicious robocalls discouraging people from voting or misleading them about when they can cast their ballots.
People in Kansas and Nebraska reported calls telling them to stay home, while some Michigan voters received calls telling them to vote on Wednesday — the day after the election.
“Obviously this is FALSE and an effort to suppress the vote,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel tweeted on Tuesday.
“Disregard these calls. If you have not already voted, today is the day!” the Kansas secretary of state’s office wrote.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the calls. Federal officials said Tuesday that the FBI was investigating them, and the FBI said it was aware of the reports.
“As a reminder, the FBI encourages the American public to verify any election and voting information they may receive through their local election officials,” it said in a statement.
New York Attorney General Letitia James said her office was also investigating robocalls encouraging people to stay home on Election Day.
While robocalls are not a new phenomenon in elections, voters across the country received 10 million suspicious calls in October urging them to “stay safe and stay home,” according to YouMail, a company that blocks robocalls on smartphones.
The calls, first reported by The Washington Post, do not directly mention the election or voting. They began in June. But they have accelerated in the final weeks of the election campaign, reaching all but one of the country’s 317 area codes, YouMail CEO Alex Quilici told NPR.
Quilici said it was unusual for a robocall not to have some kind of “call to action,” such as urging people to hand over personal information or money. He said the calls raised concerns about how the phone system could be misused.
“It feels like a somewhat sophisticated actor trying to understand how they could do something more interesting with what they’re learning,” he said.
↑ Back to topSecurity Update: Election Proceeds But Some Threats Likely Persist
Election Day continued to run as expected, federal officials said in an afternoon update, but they also observed that the game doesn’t conclude at midnight or on Wednesday morning or anytime so soon.
A senior official with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, who briefed reporters on the condition of not being identified, said the “attack surface” for possible cyber-mischief extends through counting and certifying results and then states’ process for officially making their votes through the Electoral College, in mid-December.
“There is no spiking the football here. We are acutely focused on the mission at hand,” the senior official said.
CISA officials also acknowledged the possibility for disruptions or failures in service of websites that report election results as such tallies begin in the coming hours. If that happens, there could be malicious activity — or it could simply be the result of intense traffic, officials say. In any event, websites that report tallies don’t affect the actual count and votes themselves are likely outside the reach of any attacker, authorities say.
There was no new information about robocalls received in several states on Tuesday that urged people to “stay safe and stay home,” even though this is the last day polls are open. The FBI has acknowledged them and New York Attorney General Letitia James said her office was investigating who was behind them.
“Attempts to hinder voters from exercising their right to cast their ballots are disheartening, disturbing, and wrong. What’s more is that it is illegal, and it will not be tolerated. Every voter must be able to exercise their fundamental right to vote without being harassed, coerced, or intimidated,” James said.
↑ Back to topHand Sanitizer And Ballots Don’t Mix
At least two polling places in Des Moines had ballot scanners that briefly stopped working today, and the top county election official says it’s because poll workers and voters were using too much hand sanitizer.
Iowans fill out paper ballots and then put them in a machine that tallies the votes.
Des Moines resident Renee Cramer said she filled out her ballot and waited for about half an hour Tuesday morning for the counting machine to start working. She said dozens of voters waited to place their own ballot in the machine, while some handed their completed ballot to poll workers and left.
The CDC’s voting guidance says voters and poll workers should ensure their hands are dry before handling ballots and voting equipment because hand sanitizers can damage paper ballots.
↑ Back to topVermont’s Republican Governor Votes For Biden
Vermont Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, told reporters outside his polling place that he’d just voted for Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
Scott is the first Republican governor to endorse the Democratic presidential nominee, though at the eleventh hour. Other Republican governors have been critical of President Trump, namely Maryland’s Larry Hogan and Charlie Baker of Massachusetts.
Hogan said last month that he wrote in Ronald Reagan for president instead of Trump, but did not vote for Biden. Baker said Tuesday he left the presidential bubbles blank on his ballot.
Sen. Mitt Romney, another prominent critic of the president within the Republican Party, said last month that he did not vote for Trump, but would not say who he did vote for.
Scott is up for reelection himself in Vermont.
Vermont lieutenant governor candidate, Scott Milne, said he wrote in former Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas for president, as he and Scott both did in 2016.
↑ Back to topWhat It’s Like To Get Past The Fence Around The White House
The National Park Service built an 8-foot-tall metal fence perimeter — billed as “nonscalable” — overnight for several blocks around the White House. The concern: potential unrest on election night and afterward.
By Tuesday afternoon, protest signs had been put up on the fence along Black Lives Matter Plaza just north of the White House. The fence is similar to the barrier erected earlier this year during protests after the death of George Floyd at the hands of police.
The perimeter surrounds the president’s residence, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Lafayette Square and the Ellipse — the field between the White House and the National Mall.
U.S. Secret Service agents are patrolling the area, funneling White House staff, guests and journalists to a few specific security spots around the perimeter. There is an opening in the fence to allow people to reach the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery.
The extra barriers punctuate expectations of unrest in the nation’s capital. The windows of many downtown businesses and storefronts near the White House have been boarded up for days in anticipation of protests after the election.
↑ Back to topIn Las Vegas, Technical Difficulties Lead To Long Lines But Don’t Deter Voters
In Las Vegas, voters such as Denise Spencer said they waited 2 1/2 hours to cast their ballots at a voting center struggling with technical difficulties in Clark County, Nevada’s most populous county.
“We got her done,” Spencer said after finally voting in North Las Vegas.
The 61-year-old said she has lost three very close friends to COVID-19 and blames President Trump for dealing with the pandemic so “nonchalantly.”
“I was going to make sure come hell or high water, I was going to vote against him,” Spencer said.
Michelle Stockton waited in that same line but was voting for a different candidate.
“I voted for Trump. I’m not in for all this socialism, free education and free medical care and all of that,” Stockton said, speaking maskless outside the polling station.
Before the polls even opened, early voting in Nevada had overtaken the total turnout in the 2016 election. The state has shaded blue in recent elections, a Republican presidential candidate hasn’t won Nevada since 2004. Still, the race was close between President Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016, and Trump’s reelection campaign is making a push for the state’s six electoral votes and that includes legal challenges.
The GOP and the campaign filed a lawsuit less than two weeks ago in Clark County aimed at halting early ballot counting. A Nevada judge blocked it on Monday, writing that no evidence was provided of wrongdoing at the polls or the “debasement or dilution” of a citizen’s vote.
On Tuesday, the Nevada Republican Party and the reelection campaign filed an expedited appeal to the state’s Supreme Court.
↑ Back to topInternational Election Observers Are Visiting Polling Stations In 30 States
International monitors are visiting polling stations in 30 states today, including most battleground states. The State Department invites these observers to see U.S. democracy in action.
Former Polish diplomat Urszula Gacek (pictured above speaking with a poll worker in Washington, D.C.) says this year’s election is “one for the memoirs.” She’s leading the election observer team from the 57-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which has been monitoring U.S. elections since 2002. Another 50 European parliamentarians are also in the U.S. as observers.
“We are here very much for the American voter, especially this year, where a lot of confidence in the system has been challenged,” Gacek told reporters outside a polling station in Washington, D.C. “We hope that we also have a calm voice, well-researched facts and that will present people with as true a picture as possible to get.”
Gacek’s 45-person team — smaller than usual because of COVID-19 – has been in the U.S. for six weeks and is spread out across the country, though some states do not allow international monitors to enter polling stations. Gacek says the OSCE has raised concerns about that in the past and will do so again this year.
Biden Will Speak Tonight, Even If Race Too Close To Call
Democratic nominee Joe Biden will address the country tonight, even if the race remains too close to call, his campaign told NPR.
“I think we’ll have enough data in from the core states to have a sense of which direction this race is going,” deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield told NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly. “But if we don’t, if it is close and we don’t, voters should still expect to hear from Biden tonight.”
While earlier results may be possible tonight in Sun Belt states like Florida and North Carolina that began counting their absentee ballots a while ago, states such as Pennsylvania could take up to several days to finish counting all the mail ballots that have been returned.
Speaking with reporters in Philadelphia tonight, Biden left a little more wiggle room about whether he will address the country tonight.
“If there’s something to talk about tonight, I’ll talk about it,” Biden said. “If not, I’ll wait til the votes are counted the next day.”
Biden traveled to Pennsylvania today, beginning with stops in Scranton — the city where he spent his early childhood — before heading to Philadelphia. Pennsylvania’s 20 Electoral College votes are important to both campaigns.
“I wouldn’t actually say it’s make or break,” Bedingfield said. “We’re fortunate to be in a position where we don’t have to win Pennsylvania, we don’t have to win Florida. We have a lot of different ways to get to 270 electoral votes.”
As Biden wrapped up his final day of campaigning, Bedingfield also said that she felt like the campaign struck the right balance between safety precautions and engaging voters in their communities.
“He has campaigned incredibly hard and he has campaigned safely and creatively,” she said. “I think, you know, we made a decision — when the pandemic really shut the country down back in March, we made a decision that we were not going to do anything that put the communities that we would be visiting in jeopardy … He wanted to model responsible leadership. And I think that that’s what people are looking for.”
↑ Back to topHere’s The Smoke On Drug-Related Ballot Measures Around The U.S.
Voters around the country are deciding ballot measures on Tuesday that could reshape state drug laws covering marijuana as well as harder drugs including cocaine and psychedelic mushrooms.
Voters in Arizona, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota will decide whether to legalize marijuana for recreational use, while Mississippians are considering allowing the medical use of marijuana. They’re following a trend that’s rapidly reshaped the way marijuana is viewed by state officials around the U.S. Already more than 30 states have moved to decriminalize marijuana.
Oregon voters, meanwhile, are considering a first-in-the-nation measure that would effectively decriminalize possession of small quantities of harder drugs, including cocaine and heroin. If approved, the measure would make “personal non-commercial possession” of any controlled substance a violation, with a maximum fine of $100. Supporters also hope to create a more extensive system of drug addiction treatment and recovery programs funded with revenue from tax revenues on marijuana sales and with money saved from shrinking the state’s prison system.
Voters in Oregon and Washington, D.C., will decide whether the use of psychedelic mushrooms should be decriminalized. Whatever happens in today’s voting, possession of all these drugs remains illegal under federal law.
↑ Back to topNorth Carolina Will Delay Election Results After Extending Voting Times In 4 Precincts
Election officials in North Carolina voted on Tuesday to extend voting in some of its precincts after four locations opened late.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections said in a statement that four of the state’s 2,660 polling places did not open on time, and as a result will remain open up to 45 minutes past their scheduled closing time of 7:30 p.m. ET.
This means statewide results will be delayed as election officials will hold back tallies until all polling places have closed after 8:15 p.m. ET.
The impacted counties include Cabarrus County, where a polling center’s hours will be extended by 17 minutes to 7:47 p.m. A voting place in Guilford County will now close 34 minutes later than originally planned.
Additionally, two precincts in Sampson County will close late. One in Clinton, N.C., will close at 7:54 p.m. Another, in the city of Dunn, will close at 8:15 p.m.
North Carolina with its 15 electoral votes is a pivotal state that President Trump narrowly won in 2016 and is considered a “toss-up” in NPR’s final electoral map forecast.
Voting in the state could also determine which party controls the Senate, with a tight race between incumbent Thom Tillis, a Republican, and his Democratic opponent, Cal Cunningham.
↑ Back to topIn Arizona, Early And Mail-In Ballots Boost Voter Turnout
It was already 90 degrees and the line a few dozen people deep by the time Elana Mendelson got to her local polling place in Tempe, Ariz. But she didn’t mind one bit. She insisted on voting in person on Election Day because she doesn’t trust the ballot drop boxes and worries they are vulnerable to tampering.
“Basically the whole country is at stake,” she said, while walking back to her car to get her water bottle.
Mendelson declined to say who she’s voting for, saying only: “We need somebody that’s competent in running our country in office.”
Already, thanks to early and mail-in voting, voter turnout in Maricopa County is higher than it was in 2016. Maricopa, which includes Phoenix, has tilted purple in recent years as more Latinos have come of voting age and demographics more broadly have shifted thanks to an influx of younger newcomers from states such as California.
Democrats and Latino voting groups aligned with the party see an opportunity with large turnout in 2020, as polls have shown the presidential race to be a toss-up.
But just like in other battleground states, it’s unclear which party will benefit the most from early voting in 2020 amid a pandemic, protests for racial equality and disasters from climate change among other crises, such as high unemployment.
Registered Republicans still outnumber Democrats in Arizona, as do independents.
Conservative voters like Kathleen Winn say President Trump is the best person to be in charge of the country’s economic recovery.
“I believe this president doesn’t get any of the credit that he deserves for a lot of things he’s done,” says Winn, who lives in Mesa.
Still, the coronavirus and Trump’s handling of it are still very much a factor on voters’ minds, especially as cases in Arizona are increasing after a deadly summer.
Linda Brown, who takes care of her 93-year-old mother in Tempe and voted in October, says she doesn’t appreciate the president’s “cavalier attitude” about the virus.
“I had hoped that when he contracted it himself it would have made a little difference but apparently not,” Brown says.
↑ Back to topPennsylvania Secretary Of State: Votes Will Be Counted ‘Accurately And Securely’
Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar says President Trump’s attempts to undermine voters’ faith in elections — especially when it comes to voting by mail — haven’t worked in the crucial swing state.
More than 2.5 million people had already voted by mail in Pennsylvania before polls opened Tuesday, Boockvar said. That’s about 40% of the total turnout from four years ago and 10 times the number who voted by mail in 2016.
“No matter how you vote, there’s really intense processes in place to make sure every vote is eligible and that every eligible vote is counted accurately and securely,” Boockvar told NPR’s Rachel Martin on Morning Edition. State and local officials have worked to inform voters of their options and the message has been heard “loud and clear,” Boockvar says.
With its 20 electoral votes, Pennsylvania will be one of the most closely watched states in the nation on election night. Republicans in the state had sought to block counting ballots arriving after Election Day. But the U.S. Supreme Court declined to overturn a decision by the state Supreme Court allowing absentee ballots received as late as this Friday to be counted so long as they are postmarked by Nov. 3.
Boockvar, a Democrat, says the “overwhelming majority of ballots,” both mailed and in person, will be counted “within a couple of days.”
“The counties are counting 24/7,” she says. “They are just completely dedicated to counting every vote accurately as quickly as humanly possible.”
Pennsylvania narrowly went for Trump in 2016 after going Democratic in the previous six general elections. Biden and Trump have both campaigned heavily in the state, which could be the final arbiter of the presidency.
↑ Back to topFederal Judge Orders Sweep Of Postal Facilities For Mail-In Ballots
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has ordered the U.S. Postal Service to conduct an Election Day "sweep" of facilities in more than 10 states to make sure no mail-in ballots have been held up.
U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan issued the order for certain postal districts in Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Wyoming and parts of northern New England. The order affects several major cities in those states, including Atlanta, Detroit and Philadelphia.
He told the Postal Service to send "postal inspectors or their designees" to sweep the facilities "to ensure that no ballots have been held up and that any identified ballots are immediately sent out for delivery."
Election officials in several states, along with the NAACP and voting rights groups, have sued the Postal Service, charging that actions by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy had slowed the mail and risked delaying the delivery of mail-in ballots.
The Postal Service says it has suspended those actions and that it is taking extraordinary steps to ensure that mail-in ballots are processed on time. It says it has processed and delivered some 122 million mail-in ballots.
However, data submitted to the court indicates that the Postal Service is not meeting its on-time delivery goals for first-class mail in some key swing states, including Michigan and Pennsylvania.
On Tuesday afternoon, the Postal Service issued a statement saying that the U.S. Postal Inspection Service has been conducting daily reviews at all 220 facilities that process ballots, since October 29th, and that “Ballots will continue to be accepted and processed as they are presented to us and we will deliver them to their intended destination.”
However, attorneys for the Postal Service said they were unable to accelerate the daily review process this afternoon, as called for in Sullivan’s order, “without significantly disrupting preexisting conditions on the day of the election.”
The attorney’s say that inspectors will be in the identified postal facilities throughout the evening.
Some 27.5 million mail ballots are outstanding, according to the U.S. Elections Project.
↑ Back to topMelania Trump Casts Ballot In Palm Beach, Without Mask
First lady Melania Trump, who campaigned for her husband near the end of his reelection race in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Wisconsin, voted in person on Tuesday morning in Palm Beach, Fla.
“It’s Election Day, so I wanted to come here to vote today for the election,” she told reporters there for the photo-op.
The first lady, who contracted the coronavirus in September during an outbreak at the White House that briefly hospitalized the president, often is photographed in a face mask. But on Tuesday, she did not wear one as she voted. She was the only person at the polling center without one.
According to an emergency order in Palm Beach County, facial coverings are to be worn in businesses and establishments, in public places and county and municipal government facilities.
↑ Back to topTrump: Winning Is Easy. Losing – Not So Much
President Trump says he has a “big night” planned at the White House to watch election results roll in, but he was circumspect on Tuesday afternoon about whether he intends to deliver remarks at the end of the night.
“You know, winning is easy. Losing is never easy. Not for me, it’s not,” Trump told reporters during a visit to his campaign headquarters in Arlington, Va., saying he didn’t have a concession nor acceptance speech ready.
Trump, who has trailed Democratic opponent Joe Biden in the polls, worked to project confidence about his chances as he raced across swing states in the past two weeks. “I think we’re going to have a great night,” he said on Tuesday. “But it’s politics and it’s elections and you never know.”
Flanked by top aides such as Bill Stepien, Mark Meadows, Jared Kushner and Kayleigh McEnany — some of whom joined him for a grueling, two-day, 10-rally push that wrapped up in the wee hours of Election Day, Trump said he felt “very good,” though his voice was raspier than usual.
“After doing that many rallies, the voice gets a little bit choppy I think,” he said.
↑ Back to topIsrael, With Much At Stake, Waits To See If Trump Stays Or Goes
“Fateful Elections.” “The Moment of Truth.” “Superpower At A Crossroads.”
The front-page headlines of Israeli newspapers on Tuesday reflect the intense interest of a country breathlessly waiting to see whether President Trump stays or goes.
Correspondents dispatched to the U.S. by Israeli newspapers, radio and television outlets have filed reports from battleground states. TV channels are hosting live coverage overnight Israel time, as elections results roll in.
“A lot of politicians aren’t going to sleep tonight,” wrote columnist Sima Kadmon in the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot. “It’s been a long time since Israel was last in a position in which a political election in the United States might immediately impact domestic politics.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is one of Trump’s closest foreign allies. Trump’s fate could affect his own grip on power.
Trump endeared himself to many Israelis by siding with Israel against the Palestinians on policies like moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, where Palestinians also live and stake claims.
Many Palestinians reviled Trump for those same reasons, though some see all U.S. presidents as biased toward Israel.
“Biden and Trump are two sides of the same coin,” writes columnist Hani al-Masri in the Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds.
Israeli public opinion is as divided as it is in the U.S., and leading Israeli newspapers reflect that.
“Trump is bad for Israel, too,” says an editorial in the liberal Haaretz daily. “He provided a tailwind for social Darwinism and Jewish hooliganism, which was expressed in contempt for the Palestinians and for the law, the justice system, state institutions and the media, as well as in alliances with anti-liberal regimes and the flourishing of populism.”
“Freedom versus tyranny,” says the Hebrew headline of an op-ed Tuesday in the right-wing Israel Hayom, arguing that Trump represents freedom. The paper is owned by Trump backer Sheldon Adelson.
The newspaper also interviewed five local fortunetellers. All predicted a Trump win.
↑ Back to topSecurity Update: So Far, ‘Just Another Tuesday,’ Feds Say
Election Day appeared to be “just another Tuesday” from a cybersecurity perspective at the time of a lunch hour update from U.S. officials in Washington.
A senior official with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, who briefed reporters on a teleconference on the condition that he not be identified, sounded a note of cautious optimism about the threat environment. Mostly, things are proceeding as expected, the official said.
Authorities acknowledged individual problems with electronic pollbook systems in Ohio, Texas and Nevada but said officials had been able to fall back on paper systems or restore service or both. The authorities also acknowledged robocalls urging some recipients to “stay safe and stay home” on this Election Day; the FBI is investigating, the officials said, but not much more was known about those calls.
Federal, state and local authorities have been preparing since the 2016 election to work better together and operate a more “resilient” infrastructure for elections, CISA officials said; and they sounded pleased as to what they called the success of that effort.
The senior officials also gave credit to the U.S. cyber-troopers of the Defense Department’s Cyber Command, who have been able to “hunt forward” and observe hostile cyber-miscreants in their own networks or in other venues.
The American operators were able to see their opponents’ prospective targets, monitor how they operate and extract samples of the malware they use, which officials within the United States then can use to help defend networks at home.
↑ Back to topEarly Voting Surpasses 100 Million People
If your polling site seemed relatively uncrowded today, it may be because more than 100 million Americans have voted early this year, according to the U.S. Elections Project.
Make that 100,298,938 as of Election Day morning, to be precise.
Nearly 36 million of those early votes were in person, while 64.5 million votes were cast by mail. Some 27.5 million mail ballots are outstanding, and not all states differentiate between in-person voting and voting by mail.
Of the states that report early voting by party registration, 22 million, or 45%, of the early votes were cast by Democrats; 14.9 million, or 30.5%, were Republicans; and 11.6 million, or 23.8%, had no party affiliation.
Michael McDonald, the University of Florida professor who runs the project, estimates that based on the early vote totals, a record 160.2 million Americans will vote this year, a turnout rate of 67% of eligible voters.
By comparison, some 138 million voted in the 2016 election.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, many elections officials have actively encouraged early voting, including by mail, while President Trump has inaccurately claimed mail-in ballots are rigged.
At least two states — Hawaii and Texas — have had more early votes this year than in the entirety of 2016, and several other states approached their levels from four years ago.
↑ Back to topWhat Makes Pennsylvania So Crucial
In the final sprint of the presidential campaign, both the Biden and Trump camps set their eyes on Pennsylvania, aptly referred to as the Keystone State, a crucial contest that may determine the next president of the United States.
President Trump rallied supporters Monday in Wilkes-Barre two days after holding four separate events across Pennsylvania. Vice President Pence campaigned Monday in Latrobe and in Erie, a county that swung from Obama to Trump in 2016.
The Biden campaign also carpeted the state Monday in a series of stops that reflect its diversity: in Beaver County with union members, in Pittsburgh with African American community leaders and at an event for Latino voters in Lehigh Valley. Jill Biden appeared in Erie as well and attended a rural get-out-the-vote event in Lawrence County.
Both campaigns have emphasized how crucial Pennsylvania is to their electoral prospects. In 2016, Trump flipped the state, winning by less than 1 percentage point. Before that year, Pennsylvania had voted for Democratic candidates in six consecutive presidential elections.
Pennsylvania, which NPR regards as a "lean Democratic" state in the election, is one of the most hotly contested states this cycle.
Trump appears to be more competitive in Pennsylvania than in two other swing states that he won in 2016 — Michigan and Wisconsin.
By NPR’s count, if Trump wins Georgia, Iowa, Florida, North Carolina, Arizona and Maine’s 2nd Congressional District, and Biden retains the support in states that are now leaning his way, the race could become a 259-259 electoral showdown with Pennsylvania as the deciding state. The state’s 20 electoral votes would put either candidate over the 270 threshold needed to secure the White House.
This time, the fight for Pennsylvania and the presidency may hinge on who wins the suburbs and by how much.
Read more about what makes Pennsylvania so pivotal here.
↑ Back to topWhere Trump And Biden Are Spending Election Day
After a breakneck schedule in the days leading up to Election Day, President Trump will not venture far from the nation’s capital on Tuesday. He spoke with Fox and Friends this morning and was then scheduled to make a short drive to visit Republican National Committee offices in Arlington, Va.
Other than that, no other travel is on his schedule.
This evening, Trump is scheduled to host an election night party at the White House inside the East Room.
Initially it was expected that Trump would hold a viewing party at the Trump International Hotel in Washington. However, those plans were reportedly scrapped due to coronavirus regulations in D.C. that prohibit gatherings of more than 50 people.
Nothing other than the White House event is on Vice President Pence’s schedule.
Joe Biden is in Pennsylvania today, where he made a stop in Scranton to tour his childhood home, where he signed a message on the living room wall that read, “From this house to the White House with the grace of God.”
NPR’s Scott Detrow was there to capture some of it, even asking the former vice president what he was thinking about. Biden responded: “My mom.”
Biden will also stop in Philadelphia later in the day.
Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., the Democratic vice presidential nominee, is scheduled to travel to Michigan, which Trump won by less than 11,000 votes in 2016.
Biden and Harris are expected to speak in Wilmington, Del., this evening.
↑ Back to topWhy Patience Is Needed This Election Night
Election Day is finally here. And while many of you may be understandably anxious to find out how a particular state voted, we can’t emphasize enough that patience is key for tonight, and perhaps beyond.
First, let’s point out that state results will not be final on election night; instead, organizations like The Associated Press — which NPR relies on for race calls — determine most winners well before local officials tabulate all votes.
Election results are expected to be even slower this year for a variety of reasons.
For starters, the coronavirus has introduced new complexities in getting a final tally counted. Because of the ongoing pandemic, many states have modified their voting rules, with expanded access to mail-in voting.
That has made things easier for voters. But as Deputy Political Editor Benjamin Swasey points out, with envelopes to open and signatures to check, this process just takes more time than tabulating in-person votes.
Another factor to consider — rules on when election officials can begin counting mail-in ballots vary state to state.
Take two states that will be closely watched today: Florida and Pennsylvania.
Florida, with its 29 electoral votes, allows counties to process ballots ahead of Election Day. Contrast that to Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes, which only allows officials to begin counting votes the morning of Election Day.
That prompted Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) to proclaim: “We’re sure it will take more time than it used to. We probably won’t know results on election night.”
Read more from our viewer’s guide to election night.
↑ Back to topU.S. Officials Say No Foreign Intrusions, But The Full Story Is More Complicated
Early indications from the Defense Department were positive for Election Day: “There is no evidence a foreign adversary has gained access to election infrastructure,” one senior defense official said. “Given the size, complexity and diversity of America’s electoral system, no country has the ability to change the outcome of the election.”
This applies to the actual casting and counting of votes themselves — in other words, it’s nearly impossible, officials say, for a foreign adversary to change results, once votes have been submitted, from Candidate X to Candidate Y.
The polyglot nature of U.S. elections infrastructure, however, means that some places have practices more secure than others, as NPR’s Miles Parks has been reporting this year. And much of the effort expended by foreign adversaries attempting to influence the 2020 election likely hasn’t been on elections systems, according to officials, who say there haven’t been indications about the same degree of cyberactivity as in 2016.
In 2020, election interference has been about false or misleading information and potential threats to systems adjacent to voting — websites that report tallies, without necessarily being related to the tallying, or sites that give information about polling places, say, without affecting their operations. U.S. officials warn about the prospect of “perception hacks,” in which a bad actor defaces a county’s outward-facing systems and then claims to have done much worse. News coverage and subsequent commentary could inflate into a problem more serious than it merits, as NPR’s Greg Myre reported.
NPR correspondents are watching elections operations and U.S. officialdom closely as Americans conclude this year’s unusual voting season on Tuesday. You can read more about election security here in this voters’ guide.
↑ Back to topTrump Says He Will Declare Victory ‘When There’s Victory’
President Trump said on Tuesday that he will declare victory on election night “when there’s victory” and said “there’s no reason to play games.”
Trump made his comments during an interview on Fox and Friends. He was asked at what point he would declare victory. “When there’s victory. If there’s victory. I think we will have victory,” Trump said.
“But only when there’s victory. There’s no reason to play games,” he said.
The comment comes after an Axios report that Trump had told confidants he would declare victory prematurely if it looked like he was ahead, and as the president has complained about a Supreme Court decision that will allow mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania to be counted for three days after the election, as long as they are postmarked before the election.
In his Tuesday morning interview, Trump said he believes he has a “very solid chance of winning.”
Trump is stopping at his campaign headquarters in Arlington, Va., and then heading back to the White House where he will spend Election Day, and night.
↑ Back to topHomeless Ohioans Vote In Person, Though Their Requested Ballots Never Came
Some absentee ballots requested in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, by members of the local homeless community have not been received despite being listed as sent out, the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless said.
About 150 people registered through NEOCH’s September voter drives, spokeswoman Molly Martin said. The organization has tried to track who on the list requested an absentee ballot, as well as whether they received it.
Some of those ballots haven’t yet made it to the voters, she said.
“It’s hard to say how many specifically,” Martin said. “There’s always a chance the [motel] mailroom got the ballot and the person picked it up.”
Martin has spoken with about 10 people whose ballots never arrived, she said. One of those voters is James Harrison, who registered to vote for the first time through a NEOCH event.
Harrison’s ballot was mailed out Oct. 12, he said, but he never received it.
“I never got it,” Harrison said. “I don’t know if it came through the mail here or what.”
Instead, Harrison said he made it to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections to vote in person last Friday, with NEOCH’s help. Harrison uses a walker and has a disability that makes it difficult to write, he said, but his in-person voting process was smooth.
Since they found out I was a first-time voter, they just went to hollering and yelling and that kind of thing,” Harrison said.
In The Indian Village Of Kamala Harris’ Ancestors, Prayers For Election Success
Faithful clanged bells and chanted prayers Tuesday for Kamala Harris at a temple in her maternal ancestors’ Indian village, surrounded by lush green rice paddies.
A bare-chested priest in a south Indian sarong poured milk over an idol of a Hindu god in Thulasendrapuram, a village of a few hundred residents, where Harris’ maternal grandfather spent his boyhood.
Harris is the first person of South Asian descent to be nominated for U.S. vice president. So folks from Thulasendrapuram — mostly farmers with no previous penchant for U.S. politics — are suddenly paying attention to an American election.
“We treat her as our own. Her roots are here,” said S.V. Ramanan, the 70-year-old caretaker of the local temple.
He acknowledges few locals actually knew any of Harris’ relatives personally. Harris’ late grandfather left Thulasendrapuram for the state capital Chennai several decades ago, and it was in Chennai where she has written about visiting him when she was a child. Harris herself was born in California, to an Indian mother and Jamaican father.
Nevertheless, Ramanan says TV crews showed up on his doorstep just hours after Democratic nominee Joe Biden chose Harris as his running mate. He says they haven’t left since. The village is now plastered with Harris billboards, and everyone is celebrating their own connection — however tenuous — to their native daughter.
Meanwhile, Harris’ uncle in New Delhi says his phone has been ringing off the hook since his niece was nominated.
“I think she’ll do a damn good job!” says Gopalan Balachandran.
He says he wishes his sister, Harris’ mother, Shyamala Gopalan, who died in 2009, had lived to see her daughter run for the White House.
“She would probably explode with happiness and emotion!” the uncle says. “She brought up her daughters to do something good for the public.”
↑ Back to topThroughout The Campaign, Biden Has Kept To A Consistent Message
Joe Biden launched his presidential campaign last year with a simple message focused on unity and morality.
“We are in the battle for the soul of this nation,” he said in his launch video.
“If we give Donald Trump eight years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation,” he added.
It’s a simple message and essentially the same one he’s delivering Tuesday as he closes his campaign.
Strategists say one sign of a winning campaign is a consistent message. Think Barack Obama in 2008 with “hope” and “change we can believe in.” Or Donald Trump in 2016 with “make America great again” and “build the wall.”
“We often tell our clients, you should be able to air your launch video at the end of the campaign,” said longtime Democratic strategist Doug Thornell, a managing director with the Democratic consulting firm SKDKnickerbocker.
Despite purity tests from his fellow Democrats during the primaries and then accusations from Republicans that he was too old and too corrupt, Biden has largely stuck to the same message.
And with the uncertainty of COVID-19, Biden’s message of a return to normalcy has found a new resonance. He spoke about trusting scientists as the president downplayed the coronavirus.
Biden is known as a loquacious politician with a tendency for gaffes, but he and his campaign have been disciplined about staying on message.
Of course, the real test in elections isn’t message consistency; it’s whether that message wins votes. And tonight Biden will see whether voters actually wanted the message he was delivering.
↑ Back to topMajor Companies Offering Time Off To Hit The Polls
For millions of Americans, voting on Election Day means carefully rearranging busy work schedules. Despite the inconvenience, the Tuesday after the first Monday in November has been reserved for elections since 1845. While that rule is unlikely to change anytime soon, some major companies have been shifting their policies to make voting easier for their employees.
This year, employees at Twitter, PayPal, Coca-Cola, Cisco, Uber and hundreds of other companies will have the day off to vote. They are joined by companies like Walmart, Starbucks and Apple that are offering extended flexibility and multiple hours off to vote. According to a 2017 report from the Pew Research Center, 14% of registered voters who didn’t vote in 2016 chose not to because of a busy or conflicting schedule. The companies hope the paid time off will help increase voter turnout on Tuesday.
Many corporations have recently turned their attention to increasing voter engagement. Power the Polls, launched by Civic Alliance, a nonpartisan coalition of businesses, partnered with Patagonia, Levi Strauss & Co. and Uber to recruit poll workers at low risk for COVID-19 complications. Time to Vote, aimed at increasing voter participation, is now backed by more than 1,800 companies. More than 200 companies joined in the last two months, the organization says. “No American should have to choose between earning a paycheck and voting,” Dan Schulman, president and CEO of PayPal, one of the three companies that founded Time to Vote in 2018, said in a recent statement.
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