Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for our free newsletters here.
Election Day was relatively tame around the country, though it was marred by a string of bomb threats against polling places in swing states that law enforcement officials linked to Russia. The threats forced some temporary evacuations and extensions of polling place hours.
Election officials, braced for disruptions and, forewarned by intelligence officials that foreign adversaries would attempt to create problems, responded quickly to reassure voters and minimize interruptions to voting.
In Georgia, Secretary Brad Raffensperger said “noncredible” bomb threats targeted polling places in the Democratic strongholds of Fulton, Gwinnett, and DeKalb counties, forcing an extension of hours at multiple voting sites. In Arizona, a threat forced the evacuation of the election office in La Paz County and targeted polling places in Navajo County. Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said voters were safe. “No one is under threat as we know it right now,” Fontes said at a press conference. There were also bomb threats in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
In a statement, the FBI said it was aware of the threats, “many of which appear to originate from Russian email domains. None of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far.”
Russia was also behind fake viral videos boosting baseless claims of election fraud, including some asserting noncitizens were illegally voting in swing states such as Arizona and Georgia, according to a joint statement released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Election Day. Separately, the FBI warned that its name and insignia were being used in fake videos about the election.
The election was, however, free of the violence many feared. Rachel Orey, director of the Bipartisan Policy Center Elections Project, said that while risks remain in the days and weeks ahead, the relative calm was “a testament to the preparations election officials have been making over the last four years.”
“Even where isolated issues have occurred, officials have acted fast to mitigate harm and ensure affected voters could still make their voices heard,” said Orey.
Voters swarm to the polls
Turnout in many states was high, and at some polling places, long lines lingered after poll closing times. Swing states and some other areas saw especially long lines, notably in areas serving colleges and universities.
In Pennsylvania, greater than expected turnout on college campuses led to long waits at polling places near Temple University in Philadelphia, where wait times were up to two hours, and Lehigh University in Bethlehem, where some waited nearly seven hours. On Tuesday night, Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt told Votebeat that lines should be expected at college campuses. The failure to account for high turnout in these places was “not a sign that the county did not appropriately plan for Election Day,” he said.
Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Nevada also had long lines at polling sites around universities, according to reports.
“My alma mater, the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, for the first time I am aware, has a very long line at the library, almost two hours,” said Emily Persaud-Zamora, executive director of Silver State Voices, a coalition of civic engagement groups in Nevada. “That’s crazy, but it just shows that young voters are taking this election very seriously, and they’re turning out at a level they may not have turned out at in previous elections.”
Young voters in recent elections have turned out more heavily in swing states, said Alberto Medina, a spokesman for Circle, a research organization focused on youth civic engagement. Some of that is because having an impact on the outcome of a key race is a motivating factor, he said, but campaigns and other organizations spend money to turn out the vote “in states that are really competitive.”
The unpredictable 2024 election season was marked by strange twists and turns. In July alone, former President Donald Trump was shot at during a Pennsylvania rally. President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid after a disastrous debate performance, and Democrats nominated Vice President Kamala Harris, who wasn’t a candidate in a single 2024 primary.
From the start of his political career, Trump has amplified baseless accusations of election fraud, which he continued through the entire 2024 campaign. In some cases on Election Day, Trump or his supporters framed relatively routine issues at polling places as something more sinister. Shortly before 5 p.m., he posted an unsupported allegation of “massive CHEATING in Philadelphia.” A Republican city commissioner, Seth Bluestein, quickly pushed back, calling it “yet another example of disinformation. Voting in Philadelphia has been safe and secure.”
Many Americans chose to vote early
Many states went into Election Day after seeing heavy early voter turnout, according to data tracked by the University of Florida’s Election Lab. Nearly 86 million ballots had already been cast nationwide as of Monday, with similar numbers of Democrats and Republicans choosing to vote before Election Day. That’s less than in the pandemic-plagued 2020 election, when the site’s tracker logged more than 100 million early votes, but still a high number.
Both North Carolina and Georgia were on pace to match or break turnout records set in the 2020 election.
In North Carolina, where early voting has long been popular, 57% of the state’s 7.8 million voters cast ballots before Election Day, a record. Strikingly, early turnout in the 25 counties in the western part of the state affected by Hurricane Helene outpaced the statewide average. Those counties had sufficient poll workers, and state election officials ultimately set up seven Election Day polling places in tents — four in Yancey County and one each in Buncombe, Burke, and Haywood counties, said Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the state elections board.
Bell said on a press call Monday that election officials were expecting more than a million additional voters across the state on Election Day. “Despite all of the naysayers, despite all the false information and sensationalistic rhetoric out there about elections, and despite a devastating hurricane, we are making this happen in North Carolina,” she said.
In Georgia, Raffensperger said 92 of the state’s 159 counties had more than 50% turnout during early voting, which he described in a statement as “unprecedented in Georgia history.” In Wisconsin, the percentage of Republicans voting by mail and early in person grew.
While election day went smoothly, tensions may still flare as states and counties certify election results in the coming days — especially if Trump loses the race, which was not called as of Tuesday night and remained extremely tight. A decision to recount tens of thousands of absentee ballots in Milwaukee because of a minor process mistake could delay results in closely watched Wisconsin.
Delaware is the first state to certify, with a deadline of Thursday. Oregon, which has a deadline of Dec. 11, is the last.
Carrie Levine is Votebeat’s managing editor and is based in Washington, D.C. She edits and frequently writes Votebeat’s national newsletter. Contact Carrie at clevine@votebeat.org.
Jessica Huseman is Votebeat’s editorial director and is based in Dallas. Contact Jessica at jhuseman@votebeat.org.
