10 months ago Bomb threats disrupt voting in DeKalb County, Georgia By Joshua Barajas Before polls closed in DeKalb County, officials said seven locations, including five polling places, received bomb threats. Voting is temporarily suspended at the polling precincts. County officials plan to reopen the affected facilities, including community centers, libraries and a church, once police conduct bomb sweeps to confirm there are no threats. County officials plan to extend voting in the Democratic Atlanta suburb. Other Georgia counties received bomb threats earlier Tuesday. The threats in Fulton and Gwinnett Counties were found to be non-credible, though the FBI has warned that there could be an amplified level of foreign influence that could last beyond election night. “Rest assured that we are working quickly to ensure every voter will have an opportunity to cast their ballot despite these bomb threats,” Keisha Smith, DeKalb elections director, said in a statement.
10 months ago Georgia judge: Republican absentee ballot lawsuit ‘frivolous’ By Associated Press A federal judge Tuesday scolded Republican Party attorneys for what he called a “frivolous” lawsuit that accused election officials in seven Georgia counties of breaking the law by letting voters hand-deliver their absentee ballots over the weekend. An attorney for the Republican National Committee and the Georgia Republican Party told U.S. District Court Judge R. Stan Baker he wasn’t trying to stop the 1,300 ballots from being counted but wanted them kept separate from other ballots. Baker said Georgia law clearly states that county election officials are required to accept absentee ballots until the polls close on Election Day. Read more about the lawsuit.
10 months ago Senate Democrats face uphill battle By News Desk Nearly every competitive Senate race is currently held by a Democrat. Several are in presidential battlegrounds, including Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada. Gov. Jim Justice has won West Virginia, flipping the seat currently held by retiring Democratic-turned Independent Joe Manchin. This means Democrats must be perfect in every other race on the ballot and win the White House in order to control the Senate again next year. If the Senate ends up evenly divided, it’ll be just the fifth time in U.S. history the chamber has been tied. The last time Republicans controlled the Senate was in 2021.
10 months ago Technical glitch created long waits in Arizona county By Associated Press A technical glitch in ballot printers at more than a dozen polling places in Arizona’s rural Apache County meant long waits for voters. “Poll workers were encouraging people to leave and come back later in the day when the printer was fixed,” said Zane James, who voted in the community of Wheatfields after waiting 2 1/2 hours in 40-degree weather. Rita Vaughan, the Apache County elections director, said technicians fixed the problem after it emerged early Tuesday. She said polling places stayed open and people voted with paper ballots or accessible voting devices used by people with disabilities or language issues. Read more about polling place problems in Arizona.
10 months ago Philadelphia DA disputes Trump’s claim of ‘massive cheating’ in city By Associated Press Ahead of poll closures in Pennsylvania, former President Donald Trump said on his social media platform that there was “talk about massive cheating in Philadelphia” and said law enforcement was on the way. He did not provide details, and there was no immediate indication of what he was referring to, and his spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment about what he meant. Election Day voting had proceeded relatively smoothly across Pennsylvania, with a few counties reporting problems with ballot tabulators. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner issued a statement responding to Trump’s post, saying the only suggestion of cheating was coming from the Republican presidential nominee. “There is no factual basis whatsoever within law enforcement to support this wild allegation,” Krasner said. “We have invited complaints and allegations of improprieties all day. If Donald J. Trump has any facts to support his wild allegations, we want them now. Right now. We are not holding our breath.” Read more about voting in Pennsylvania.
10 months ago Here’s how to watch the Trump and Harris’ election night parties By News Desk Supporters of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have begun to gather at their candidate’s election watch parties. You can watch along on our livestreams of Trump’s event at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and Harris’ election party at Howard University.
10 months ago Polls in Pennsylvania close at 8 p.m. EST By News Desk Polls will be closing in 16 states and the District of Columbia at 8 p.m. EST. One to watch: Pennsylvania, the battleground state with the largest chunk of electoral chips on the table. Follow all of our live election results, plus find updates for battleground state Pennsylvania.
10 months ago Pelosi predicts Democrats will take control of House By Joshua Barajas The battle for control of the House of Representatives is very close. At the moment, Republicans have a slim majority in the House. Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi told the PBS News Hour moments before the first polls closed that Democrats will take back the House and that Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries will be speaker. “It is necessary from the standpoint of our policies, but also in terms of our democracy that on Jan. 6, just as I had the gavel the last time, it’s important for him to have the gavel to make sure that the election is accepted by the Congress of the United States,” she said. Sources in both parties told PBS News’ Lisa Desjardins that they believe Democrats will regain control of the House. Democrats think they could end up with 220 to 224 seats in the House. Republicans are hoping to keep a bare majority.
10 months ago A tribute to the unelected By Joshua Barajas, Lena I. Jackson An art installation in Phoenix displays signs from 58 failed presidential campaigns on the front yard of a private residence. Photo by Lena Jackson/PBS News On Election Day, campaign signs adorn yards, roadways and other areas outside “no electioneering” boundaries at the polls. (They also get stolen.) Artist Nina Katchadourian’s “Monument to the Unelected” is an ode to the enthusiasm-through-advertising expressed in the build-up to an election. The installation is made up of 58 signs of all the candidates who ran for president and lost. Photos by Lena Jackson/PBS News Remember “Choose Hughes in 1916”? (Probably not.) “Parker Davis ‘04” was the Democratic ticket that lost to Theodore Roosevelt in 1904. Henry Clay, whose name is repeated in the installation, unsuccessfully ran for president three times. The signage underscores the “blank spots” in U.S. history, the artist said. Once the votes are cast, a winner is declared, and the memories of the losing campaign fade. Now on display on the front lawn of a private residence in Phoenix, a 59th sign representing the losing campaign will be added to the installation after Tuesday’s election. Correction: This post has been updated to correct the location of the monument. We regret the error.
10 months ago 30,000 absentee ballots in Milwaukee being recounted By Associated Press Election officials in Milwaukee are recounting more than 30,000 absentee ballots because doors on the ballot tabulators were not properly sealed. The recounting was being done “out of an abundance of caution,” said Melissa Howard, spokesperson for the Milwaukee Election Commission. There was no reason to believe that any ballots already counted had been tampered with, she said. Howard said they were taking the step of recounting all of the ballots in an effort to be “completely, fully transparent.” The problem was due to human error, she said. Read more about the recount.