WorldNovember 5, 2024

Election Day voting proceeded smoothly across the U.S. with minor delays due to weather and technical issues. No significant security threats were reported, and early voting saw record participation.

CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY and ALI SWENSON, Associated Press
Voters cast their ballots at the Bronx County Supreme Court in New York on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Voters cast their ballots at the Bronx County Supreme Court in New York on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rain pours down while voters are waiting in line to cast their vote on Election Day Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024 at West Gray Multiservice Center in Houston. (Yi-Chin Lee/Houston Chronicle via AP)
Rain pours down while voters are waiting in line to cast their vote on Election Day Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024 at West Gray Multiservice Center in Houston. (Yi-Chin Lee/Houston Chronicle via AP)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Volunteers check the ballots at the Bronx County Supreme Court in New York on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Volunteers check the ballots at the Bronx County Supreme Court in New York on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Voters stand in line outside a polling place at Madison Church, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Phoenix, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)
Voters stand in line outside a polling place at Madison Church, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Phoenix, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)ASSOCIATED PRESS
A voter casts their ballot at a drop box in Denver on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Chet Strange)
A voter casts their ballot at a drop box in Denver on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Chet Strange)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Election workers process mail-in ballots for the 2024 General Election at the Chester County, Pa., administrative offices, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in West Chester, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Election workers process mail-in ballots for the 2024 General Election at the Chester County, Pa., administrative offices, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in West Chester, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Three-year-old Zayn, sits on his father's shoulders as he inserts his ballot into a machine to vote at the First Presbyterian Church of Dearborn, on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Dearborn, Mich. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Three-year-old Zayn, sits on his father's shoulders as he inserts his ballot into a machine to vote at the First Presbyterian Church of Dearborn, on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Dearborn, Mich. (AP Photo/David Goldman)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Voters work on their ballots at a polling place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Simi Valley, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Voters work on their ballots at a polling place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Simi Valley, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Vesta Avery, 2, helps her mother Alexis Taylor mark her ballot at P.S. M811, The Mickey Mantle School, in New York, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Vesta Avery, 2, helps her mother Alexis Taylor mark her ballot at P.S. M811, The Mickey Mantle School, in New York, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Voters arrive at the 146-year-old Buck Creek School to vote on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in rural Perry, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Voters arrive at the 146-year-old Buck Creek School to vote on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in rural Perry, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ronnie Brookshire votes, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Canton, N.C. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Ronnie Brookshire votes, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Canton, N.C. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Chicago school teacher Tabitha Berry, a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, fills out a ballot for the general election on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Chicago school teacher Tabitha Berry, a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, fills out a ballot for the general election on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Janice Prior votes at the Citizen Potawatomi Nation building Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Rossville, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Janice Prior votes at the Citizen Potawatomi Nation building Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Rossville, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Max Florio, 5, of Chesterfield, N.H., stands just outside the voting booth while his mother, Rufina Tukmametova, fills out her ballot at the polling station in the elementary school on Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Kristopher Radder/The Brattleboro Reformer via AP)
Max Florio, 5, of Chesterfield, N.H., stands just outside the voting booth while his mother, Rufina Tukmametova, fills out her ballot at the polling station in the elementary school on Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Kristopher Radder/The Brattleboro Reformer via AP)ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Election Day voting unfolded largely smoothly across the nation Tuesday with only scattered reports of delays from extreme weather, ballot printing errors and technical problems.

Most of the hiccups occurring by midday were “largely expected routine and planned-for events,” said Cait Conley, senior adviser to the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, in a press briefing. She said the agency was not currently tracking any national, significant incidents impacting election security.

In swing-state Pennsylvania, early reports that Republican poll watchers were not allowed into some polling sites were soon resolved. A Pennsylvania state judge ordered polls to remain open for two extra hours in Cambria County, which voted 68% for former President Donald Trump in 2020. The county sought the extension after a software malfunction affected ballot-scanning machines, though county officials confirmed no one was turned away from the polls and said all ballots would be counted.

A technical malfunction in Champaign County, Illinois, and challenges with e-pollbooks in Louisville, Kentucky, also delayed voting, but those issues were soon fixed and voting was back up and running. In Arizona's Maricopa County, one voting location was slightly delayed when a worker forgot to bring a key.

In Missouri, flooding made one St. Louis area polling site hard to reach and knocked out power to another, requiring poll workers to turn to a generator to continue election operations. Still, in various states affected by rain, voters were enthusiastically huddling under umbrellas as they lined up to cast their ballots.

“We’ll be like post office workers: in rain or snow or sleet,” voter Mary Roszkowski said after she cast her ballot in windy Racine, Wisconsin, wiping raindrops off her face.

In Maine, at least three high schools that served as polling places were subjected to false reports of shooters, but voting continued uninterrupted as police confirmed the calls were hoaxes. In Georgia, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said there were some reported bomb threats to polling places, but all were deemed non-credible and authorities were investigating.

The FBI on Tuesday afternoon said it was aware of multiple non-credible bomb threats to polling locations in several states and said many of them appeared to originate from Russian email domains.

Helping voting run relatively smoothly on Election Day was the fact that tens of millions of Americans had already cast their ballots. Those included record numbers of voters in Georgia, North Carolina and other battleground states that could decide the winner.

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As of Tuesday, Associated Press tracking of advance voting nationwide showed more than 82 million ballots already cast — slightly more than half the total number of votes in the presidential election four years earlier. That's driven partly by Republican voters, who were casting early ballots at a higher rate than in recent previous elections after a campaign by Trump and the Republican National Committee to counter the Democrats' longstanding advantage in the early vote.

Early in-person and mail voting proceeded without major problems, besides some typical glitches expected in any election. That included in the parts of western North Carolina hammered last month by Hurricane Helene. State and local election officials, benefiting from changes made by the Republican-controlled legislature, pulled off a herculean effort to ensure residents could cast their ballots as they dealt with power outages, lack of water and washed out roads. That appeared to continue on Tuesday, with the North Carolina Board of Elections reporting no voting issues.

Besides the hurricanes in North Carolina and Florida, the most worrisome disruptions to the election season so far were arson attacks that damaged ballots in two drop boxes near the Oregon-Washington border. Authorities there were searching for the person responsible.

One case of noncitizen voting was caught during early voting last month and resulted in felony charges in Michigan after a student from China cast an illegal early ballot.

While there have been no major reports of any malicious cyberactivity affecting election offices, foreign actors have been active in using fake social media profiles and websites to drum up partisan vitriol and disinformation. In the final weeks, U.S. intelligence officials have attributed to Russia multiple fake videos alleging election fraud in presidential swing states.

On the eve of Election Day, they issued a joint statement with federal law enforcement agencies warning that Russia in particular was ramping up its influence operations, including in ways that could incite violence, and likely would continue those efforts well after the votes have been cast.

Jen Easterly, the nation’s top election security official, urged Americans to rely on state and local election officials for information about elections.

“This is especially important as we are in an election cycle with an unprecedented amount of disinformation, including disinformation being aggressively peddled and amplified by our foreign adversaries at a greater scale than ever before,” she said. “We cannot allow our foreign adversaries to have a vote in our democracy.”

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This story has been edited.

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