Live Election Day coverage: DHS officials say election secure, urge patience with results

Today is the day. It’s Election Day and President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden will now wait for the votes to be counted. Today’s election may result in changes in Congress, where Democrats want to regain control of the Republican-led Senate and Democrats hope to expand their advantage in the House. USA TODAY will have live election results.

Refresh this blog all day for updates as the candidates make their final pushes. USA TODAY will have live coverage from the presidential election and all of the marquee races from around the country and will be monitoring the voting process for any issues as Americans continue to turn out in record numbers.

Democrats up by 115k votes in Florida heading into Election Day

The Tuesday morning update from the Florida Division of Elections shows that nearly 9.1 million people voted by mail through Monday evening, or at early voting locations.

That’s a voter turnout of 63% before the polls opened Tuesday. Florida’s 29 electoral votes are key to a victory for both sides. Polls heading into Election Day showed Democrat Joe Biden leading President Donald Trump in the Sunshine State.

Democrats led by 115,416 ballots when the polls opened, but Republicans are expected to have a stronger Election Day turnout. How strong the GOP push is, and how independents break, will be crucial factors in the race.

Florida’s voter turnout hit 75% in 2016. The record is 83% in 1992.

DHS officials: Election is secure, no indication of foreign influence on early voting

Department of Homeland Security officials said Tuesday there was no indication that foreign interference had compromised early voting and reaffirmed that the American election system was secure.

But acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf also called for the public’s “patience,” indicating that mail-in ballots and other early voting tabulation could extend beyond Tuesday.

“Voters should be patient while waiting for the outcome,” Wolf said, speaking from DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency headquarters. “This process may require time.”

Election results: It’s Election Day. Take a breath. Here’s when you’ll start seeing results and what to expect

While President Donald Trump has suggested that he might declare victory before the vote is counted, Wolf said election system authority rests with the states.

“Elections are run by the states,” Wolf said. “We’ll rely on… local election officials.”

Christopher Krebs, chief of DHS’ cyber unit that monitors for possible system intrusions, said the vote is “secure” though he cautioned that “we are not out of the woods yet.”

He referred to earlier actions by Russia and Iran to obtain voter registration information in an attempt to undermine voter confidence.

Iran had used the information to send threatening emails to potential voters. The emails falsely represented the senders to be affiliated with the Proud Boys, a far-right group with a history of violence who were pushing for Trump’s reelection.

Krebs cited the incident as an example of how federal authorities have improved their capacity to detect and quickly identify foreign actors attempting to disrupt the election.

– Kevin Johnson

Battleground states: These are the 12 states that will determine the 2020 election

From India, with love

Vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris’ supporters in her family’s ancestral village in India gathered at a temple to hold special prayers aimed at boosting the Joe Biden-Harris ticket, according to a Reuters video crew who visited the area this week.

Harris is the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants and she is the first Black American to be selected as a vice presidential candidate of a major party, as well as the first Indian American woman in this role.

The battle for the House: Will Democrats expand their control in the House? Here are the races and surprises to watch

According to Reuters, a local politician in Thulasendrapuram, in India’s South East, conducted an “abhishekam” in the presence of about 20 villagers. The practice involves pouring milk over a Hindu idol while religious verses are recited.

A separate Hindu fringe group hundreds of miles north in Delhi, joined a priest wearing saffron robes to conduct fire rituals and chant verses aimed at helping to secure President Donald Trump’s victory, according to Reuters. Members of Hindu Sena (Hindu Army) held up pictures of Trump with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with whom he has a close political relationship.

– Kim Hjelmgaard

The fight for the Senate: Can Republicans hold on to the Senate majority? Here’s how Democrats could win control from the GOP.

The results are in for 2 New Hampshire towns that historically vote after stroke of midnight

Two tiny New Hampshire communities that vote for president just after the stroke of midnight on Election Day have cast their ballots, with one of them marking 60 years since the tradition began.

The results in Dixville Notch, near the Canadian border, were a sweep for former Vice President Joe Biden who won the town’s five votes. In Millsfield, 12 miles to the south, President Donald Trump won 16 votes to Biden’s five.

Normally, there would be a big food spread and a lot of media crammed into a small space to watch the voting, Tom Tillotson, town moderator in Dixville Notch, said last week. But that’s no longer possible because of the coronavirus pandemic. It’s also hard to observe the 60th anniversary of the tradition, which started in November 1960.

– Associated Press

New Hampshire: Joe Biden wins small New Hampshire town that historically votes after stroke of midnight

Voting officially begins on Election Day

Polls have officially opened for Election Day voting, with several East Coast states beginning voting before dawn Tuesday. Nearly 100 million votes were cast before Election Day, leading many experts to wonder how high turnout will be.

The hours of operation for polling sites vary by state and time zone. Anyone who is in line to vote by the time polls close on Tuesday has the right to vote, but it is important to make sure that your local polling place does not close earlier than the official time listed for each state.

Almost two dozen states also allow same-day voter registration, meaning that it is still possible to cast a ballot on Election Day even if you have not previously registered to vote.

President Donald Trump president returned to Washington around 2:30 a.m. EST on Election Day following a final blitz of campaign rallies in four states on Monday.

Trump declared he would win Michigan “so easily” as he wrapped up a midnight gathering in Grand Rapids. Vice President Mike Pence also attended the rally.

Trump’s Democratic opponent Joe Biden spent his last final night of campaigning in western Pennsylvania. Speaking at a drive-in rally in Pittsburgh, Biden said: “I have a feeling we’re coming together for a big win tomorrow!”

His running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, signed off for the night just after midnight EST on Twitter, urging voters to get a good night’s sleep.

“Take a breath,” she said. “We got this.”

– Kim Hjelmgaard

Iran’s supreme leader became the first major international voice Tuesday to weigh in on Election Day. In a televised address, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei mocked the presidential vote and repeated baseless claims pushed by President Donald Trump about voter fraud.

“If you look at their own situation, it’s lovely to watch. The incumbent president, who is supposed to hold the elections, says this is the most-rigged U.S. election throughout history,” Khamenei said, failing to note that individual states run the vote.

Khamenei criticized the vote as Tehran marked an anniversary of the 1979 U.S. Embassy hostage crisis that saw 52 American diplomats and citizens held hostage for 444 days.

His claim that Iran is indifferent as to who wins the U.S. vote comes after Trump pulled the U.S. out of a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers and reimposed sanctions that have crushed Iran’s economy, prevented it from openly selling its crude oil abroad and led to shortages of consumer goods and essential medicines.

Former Vice President Biden has said he would consider re-joining the 2015 nuclear deal that was negotiated by the administration he served in under former President Barack Obama.

While Khamenei insisted the U.S. vote “was none of our business” he also appeared to revel in the anxiety the election has caused amid concerns the outcome could spark social discord, especially if either side attempts to declare victory before results are fully tabulated.

“Such an empire will not last long. It’s obvious that when a regime reaches this point, it will not live for much longer and will be destroyed,” Khamenei said, referring to the U.S. “Of course, some of them if they take office will destroy America sooner, and some others if elected will cause America to be destroyed a bit later.”

It’s Election Day in America

More than 97 million Americans have voted nationwide before voters even began to head to the polls today, according to numbers compiled by @electproject. This represents more than 45% of registered voters nationwide.

Twenty-two states, plus the District of Columbia, offer same-day voter registration. Some of those include swing states of Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada and Wisconsin.

Voters who are in line by the time the polls close on Tuesday are entitled to vote, however. Local polling places may close earlier than what is listed below for respective states.

President Donald Trump’s and Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s campaigns held some of their last events last night, pitching themselves to voters with just hours left in the 2020 election.

Both campaigns found themselves focusing their efforts on key swing states – Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania among them – in the final day of the campaign. The contests could determine the outcome of the presidential election.

Former President Barack Obama stumped for Biden in Miami, Florida, to rally Latino voters in the critical battleground state after some data suggests Democrats lacking with the demographic there.

Voting updates:

• We may not know who won the presidential election tonight. That does not necessarily mean anything is broken, fraudulent, corrupted or wrong. The AP explains.
• A federal judge said Monday that he will not invalidate almost 127,000 votes cast in drive-thru lanes in Texas’ Harris County, the county that includes Houston and is the largest in Texas by population.
• Biden’s lead in USA TODAY’s average of averages, which is based on data from RealClearPolitics and FiveThirtyEight, reached double-digits on Oct. 12, but has since fallen back to a 7.5-percentage point lead.

The presidential election isn’t the only critical race happening today. Here are the races to watch as Democrats and Republicans battle across the country over control of the Senate.

Biden will travel to Scranton and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Tuesday. He will spend election night in his home state of Delaware.

Trump will have his election night party in the East Room of the White House, where approximately 400 people have reportedly been invited.

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