Election 2024 updates: Trump wins presidential race; GOP sweeps Pa. row offices

Donald Trump spent his first day as president-elect receiving congratulatory phone calls from his defeated opponent, world leaders and President Joe Biden as he began the process of turning his election victory into a government.

Vice President Kamala Harris called Trump to concede the race and to congratulate him, while Biden invited the man he ousted from the White House four years ago to an Oval Office meeting to prepare to return the keys.

A source with knowledge of the Trump campaign said transition talks to take over power on Jan. 20, 2025, had not begun in earnest. Instead, the president-elect was busy taking calls from leaders, domestic and international, donors and key supporters. Transition discussions are expected to ramp up later in the week, as attention turns to naming an inaugural committee and a formal transition team.

» READ MORE: Trump to meet Biden at the White House, the president commends Harris for her campaign

Less than 24 hours after Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States, social media users began pushing two conflicting narratives to suggest election fraud, one that revived false claims by Trump that the 2020 vote was stolen from him and the other questioning how Vice President Kamala Harris could have received so many fewer votes in 2024 than President Joe Biden in 2020.

Both narratives hinge on a supposed 20 million vote gap between Harris and Biden.

Here’s a closer look at the facts.

Claim: President Joe Biden won approximately 20 million more votes in the 2020 election than Vice President Kamala Harris earned in the 2024 race, proving either that Trump has cheated his way to a second term or that there was widespread fraud four years ago.

The facts: The claims are unfounded. Votes from Tuesday’s presidential election are still being counted, so any comparison with previous races would not be accurate. In addition, election officials and agencies monitoring the vote have reported no significant issues with Tuesday’s election. Claims of widespread fraud in 2020 have been debunked countless times.

» READ MORE: Fact focus: A multimillion vote gap between 2020 and 2024 fuels false election narratives

Donald Trump started this year fighting two federal prosecutions that threatened to send him to prison. But he will end it free and clear of his most significant criminal legal problems.

With his resounding victory at the polls, and a longstanding Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president, the key question is not if, but when, prosecutors move to dismiss or delay his federal election interference case in Washington, D.C.

Trump recently said he would fire special counsel Jack Smith “within two seconds” after he returned to the White House. Now, that won’t be necessary to bring his federal criminal troubles to an end.

Smith is taking steps to end both federal cases against Trump before the president-elect takes office, according to a source familiar with the Justice Department deliberations.

» READ MORE: Special counsel Jack Smith taking steps to wind down federal cases against Trump

Shares of Tesla soared Wednesday as investors bet that the electric vehicle maker and its CEO Elon Musk will benefit from Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

Tesla stands to make significant gains under a Trump administration with the threat of diminished subsidies for alternative energy and electric vehicles doing the most harm to smaller competitors. Trump’s plans for extensive tariffs on Chinese imports make it less likely that Chinese EVs will be sold in bulk in the U.S. anytime soon.

“Tesla has the scale and scope that is unmatched,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives, in a note to investors. “This dynamic could give Musk and Tesla a clear competitive advantage in a non-EV subsidy environment, coupled by likely higher China tariffs that would continue to push away cheaper Chinese EV players.”

Tesla shares jumped 14.8% Wednesday while shares of rival electric vehicle makers tumbled. Nio, based in Shanghai, fell 5.3%. Shares of electric truck maker Rivian dropped 8.3% and Lucid Group fell 5.3%.

» READ MORE: Tesla shares soar more than 14% as Trump win is seen boosting Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company

During a victory speech early Wednesday, Donald Trump boasted of the country’s vast reserves of oil and natural gas.

“We have more liquid gold than any country in the world. More than Saudi Arabia. We have more than Russia. Bobby, stay away from the liquid gold,” Trump told Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a former environmental lawyer and presidential candidate who could play a role in shaping health policy in the next Trump administration.

Trump’s goal in a second term will be to boost fossil-fuel production, his campaign has said. But he will be entering the White House after what will almost certainly be the hottest year on record in 2024. Greenhouse gas emissions, which trap heat and mainly come from burning fossil fuels, reached an all-time high last year. And global temperatures are on track to rise to a level that scientists say will heighten the risk of much more dangerous climate impacts, from more destructive storms and heat waves to rising sea levels that could swamp coastal cities.

Trump, however, has long cast doubt on the scientific consensus that the Earth is getting hotter primarily because of human-caused emissions. In recent months, Trump railed against wind turbines and electric vehicles, which experts say would help curb climate pollution, and he threatened to claw back unspent climate funding.

Yet, a second Trump administration will not be able to stop the country’s transition to cleaner sources of energy, analysts and activists say. Costs for a lot of those technologies are falling fast. Companies are under pressure from their customers and investors to deal with climate change. And states led by Democrats and Republicans alike are reaping economic benefits from new factories and power plants that have received government support.

» READ MORE: Trump’s victory promises to shake up U.S. energy and climate policy, analysts and activists say

Kamala Harris said Wednesday that “we must accept the results of this election” as she encouraged supporters to continue fighting for their vision of the country after her loss to Donald Trump.

The Democratic vice president said the battle would continue “in the voting booth, in the courts and in the public square.”

“Sometimes the fight takes a while,” she said. “That doesn’t mean we won’t win.”

Harris delivered her remarks at Howard University, her alma mater and one of the country’s most prominent historically Black schools, in the same spot where she hoped to give a victory speech.

» READ MORE: Harris says nation must accept election results while urging supporters to keep fighting

Incumbent Democratic Rep. Brian Munroe bested Republican challenger Daniel McPhillips to win the 144th state House district in Bucks County.

“I am honored to have the privilege of continuing to represent District 144 for another term in Harrisburg,” Munroe said in a statement Wednesday. “I pledge to continue my work of funding our police and emergency services, ensuring our schools receive all the resources they need, bringing even more grant money back to HD 144, and protecting reproductive freedom.”

The 144th District encompasses Warminster and Warrington townships, parts of New Britain Township and Ivyland Borough. Democrat Brian Munroe flipped the seat in 2022, defeating then-Republican incumbent Todd Polinchock by just 515 votes.

Munroe, a Navy veteran, criticized McPhillips for publishing “outright lies” about his service record in campaign ads.

While in the House, Munroe has co-sponsored legislation on expanding health care, social media safety for children, supporting veterans and law enforcement officers and more. He campaigned on abortion rights in 2022 and has continued to advocate for reproductive rights.

McPhillips is a lifelong resident of Warminster and currently serves as the Bucks County Recorder of Deeds. He touted public safety, jobs and the economy and education as his top priorities.

Bomb threats that U.S. officials linked to Russian email domains disrupted what was generally a smooth voting experience across America on Election Day.

There have not been the same disruptions at vote-counting facilities as in 2020, when supporters of then-President Donald Trump falsely claimed the election had been stolen.

On Tuesday afternoon, Trump baselessly warned about “cheating” in Philadelphia, but those claims essentially halted when polls closed and results started being reported. Trump won Pennsylvania and the presidency, according to race calls by The Associated Press.

» READ MORE: Bomb threats disrupted what was otherwise relatively smooth voting on Election Day

Donald Trump’s presidential win is going to be certified in Congress in January by the candidate he beat, Vice President Kamala Harris.

Under the Constitution, the vice president is the head of the Senate, and it’s the role of the Senate president to declare the result of a White House election.

That happens Jan. 6.

Under normal circumstances, the vote-tallying procedure performed by the vice president is a mere formality and it’s the final step in the complicated technical process of electing a new administration.

For example, in 2000, after the grueling 36-day Florida recount battle, Democrat Al Gore conceded the presidency on Dec. 13 to Republican George W. Bush.

Gore, too, was the vice president, and he certified Bush’s win.

“The whole number of the electors appointed to vote for president of the United States is 538,” Gore said from the rostrum, going on to read off his own loss to Congress. “George W. Bush of the state of Texas has received for president of the United States 271 votes. Al Gore of the state of Tennessee has received 266 votes.”

But this nearly didn’t happen four years ago.

Trump refused to accept defeat and sparked a violent insurrection at the Capitol, when then-Vice President Mike Pence was to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s win. Trump’s supporters chanted “Hang Mike Pence” as they ransacked Capitol offices.

Trump had wanted Pence to “do the right thing” and declare Trump the winner. Trump and his allies spent days in a futile bid trying to convince Pence that the vice president had the power to reject electors from battleground states that voted for Biden, even though the Constitution makes clear the vice president’s role in the joint session is largely ceremonial, much like a master of ceremonies.

Pence acknowledged that reality in a lengthy statement to Congress. He laid out his conclusion that a vice president cannot claim “unilateral authority” to reject states’ electoral votes. He gaveled in the joint session of Congress on Jan. 7, 2021, to certify for Biden.

President-elect Donald Trump and his allies have already articulated ambitious plans for his first 100 days in office.

He has promised on Day 1 — within the first few hours in fact — to close the U.S. border with Mexico and launch the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.

Trump has promised to gut President Biden’s climate subsidies and resume energy exploration, including offering tax breaks to oil, gas and coal producers.

“We’re going to drill, baby, drill,” Trump said at his rally at Madison Square Garden in New York late last month. “And I will terminate the ‘green new scam’ and will cut your energy prices in half, 50%, within one year from Jan. 20.”

» READ MORE: What Trump’s first 100 days in office could look like

This dispatch originally appeared on NPR.

A second Trump administration has the potential to reshape the economy in fundamental ways.

President-elect Trump has promised to slap tariffs on imports, order large-scale deportation of immigrants and cut taxes and government regulations during his second term.

While it’s not certain when — or how — those policies might be enacted, here’s what they could mean for the U.S. economy.

Harris called Trump and congratulated him on winning the presidential election, a senior Harris aide told reporters.

Harris talked about the importance of a peaceful transfer of power and being a president for all Americans, the aide said.

She is scheduled to deliver remarks at 4 p.m. ET at Howard University.

Three races for the U.S. House in Pennsylvania remained uncalled by The Associated Press on Wednesday, as vote counting continued and Republicans fought to keep their slim majority in the chamber.

A House majority would give the GOP a full sweep of power in Congress alongside President-elect Donald Trump in the White House.

In all three of Pennsylvania’s uncalled races, the Republican candidate held a slight lead, with some votes still outstanding.

One uncalled race was the contest in an Allentown-based district in eastern Pennsylvania, where three-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Susan Wild conceded to Republican Ryan Mackenzie.

Mackenzie is a member of the state House of Representatives. Democrats hold a slight registration advantage in the district, but its close political divide made Wild a perennial target of Republicans.

Also uncalled was a race in a northeastern Pennsylvania district around Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, where six-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright was trying to fend off Republican Rob Bresnahan, a first-time candidate and developer who runs a family construction company.

Bresnahan claimed victory early Wednesday morning.

Democrats hold a slight registration advantage in the district, but voters there backed Trump in 2020’s presidential election, making Cartwright just one of five Democrats nationally running for reelection in a Trump district.

The other uncalled race is in southern Pennsylvania, where Republican Rep. Scott Perry is seeking a seventh term in his Republican-leaning district around the cities of Harrisburg and York.

Challenging him is Janelle Stelson, a longtime local TV news anchor who is a Republican-turned-Democrat.

Perry was chairman of the Freedom Caucus, a hardline faction of conservatives and was the only lawmaker to have his cellphone seized by FBI agents investigating the web of Trump loyalists who were central to his bid to remain in power in 2020. Perry has not been charged with a crime.

Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, 14 other incumbents were reelected.

This dispatch originally appeared on NPR. 

The election results show that the status quo is not a compelling message for voters, leaders of the Uncommitted Movement said in remarks to media this morning.

The Uncommitted Movement is an organization led by Arab and Muslim American Democrats opposed to U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza and Lebanon. The group is based in Michigan, where the city of Dearborn is home to one of the largest Arab American communities in the country.

Organizers Lexis Zeidan and Abbas Alawieh spoke to reporters in Michigan about what they think of the election results and how their work will change during Trump’s term.

“I think our community is about to be subjected to a lot more surveillance and violence and our community won’t be alone in that,” Alawieh said.

He referenced a plan known as Project Esther. The Forward, a Jewish American publication, said the plan proposes the federal government train its powers on “virulently anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and anti-American groups” that it calls the “Hamas Support Network,” or HSN. The proposal suggests using counterterrorism and immigration laws against leaders of groups like Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine, the Forward wrote last month.

Groups like Uncommitted will stand in opposition to Trump’s agenda for the next four years, Alawieh said, “but it’s going to take all of us, and it’s going to take the Democratic Party adopting a different approach that mobilizes people and really helps them believe that a different policy to the future is possible.”

The Democratic Party is not safe from the group’s criticism despite the party’s failures at the polls, they said.

“One of the things that I’m intent on doing is laying bare for our communities across the country, and including our community here in the Arab Muslim community, that I believe actually it’s Democrats’ fault for abandoning our party,” Alawieh said.

“Donald Trump’s playing us. Democrats are allowing him to play us. We’ve got to resist his political project of exploiting our pain, so that he can further marginalize us and other communities,” he said.

Neil Makhija, of the Montgomery County Commissioners, said the county’s cyber security system fought off numerous attacks on computer systems that originated outside of the country.

“Our IT department… had set up the security infrastructure to keep us safe from cyberattacks,” Makhija said. “We received over a million attempts at intrusion to our county network, and 600,000 of those came from Russia.”

He added their defensive systems held despite what he believed was an onslaught of cyberstalking.

“So we haven’t done the full comparison to our assessment, but it does seem quite high and that was alarming, but thankful we have a firewall that was successful and we have no reason to believe that the IT system was intruded upon.”

Makhija said that, in addition to the Russian attacks, there were attempted intrusions from Bulgarian servers that were held off by the county’s firewall.

The announcement came at a post-Election Day press conference on Wednesday. Count leaders said that, despite the attacks, things went smoothly with an increase in mail ballots and successful in-person voting.

An investigation into the attempted intrusion continues, but county officials say the system remains safe.

This dispatch originally appeared on NPR.

Vice President Harris will deliver remarks at 4 p.m. ET at Howard University in Washington, D.C., the White House said.

Incumbent U.S. Sen. Bob Casey is not ready to give up his seat just yet, even as the margin of votes show the three-term senator trailing behind newcomer GOP candidate David McCormick in his re-election bid.

Casey’s campaign released this statement via email just before 10 a.m. Wednesday, signaling the senator is not ready to concede and will wait on votes from Philadelphia to be counted.

“There are more votes that need to be counted in areas like Philadelphia and it’s important that every legal ballot will be counted. When that happens we are confident the Senator will be re-elected,” the statement read.

» READ MORE: Casey campaign ‘confident’ despite trailing GOP challenger McCormick by 1%

Donald Trump ‘s impending return to the White House means he’ll want to stand up an entirely new administration from the one that served under President Joe Biden. His team is also pledging that the second won’t look much like the first one Trump established after his 2016 victory.

The president-elect now has a 75-day transition period to build out his team before Inauguration Day arrives on Jan. 20. One top item on the to-do list: filling around 4,000 government positions with political appointees, people who are specifically tapped for their jobs by Trump’s team.

That includes everyone from the secretary of state and other heads of Cabinet departments to those selected to serve part time on boards and commissions. Around 1,200 of those presidential appointments require Senate confirmation, which should be easier with the Senate now shifting to Republican control.

Here’s what to expect:

What will the transition look like?

Though the turnover in the new administration will be total, Trump will be familiar with what he needs to accomplish. He built an entirely new administration for his first term and has definite ideas on what to do differently this time.

He’s already floated some names.

Trump said at his victory party early Wednesday that former presidential hopeful and anti-vaccination activist Robert Kennedy Jr. will be tapped to “help make America healthy again,” adding that “we’re going to let him go to it.” Ahead of the election, Trump didn’t reject Kennedy’s calls to end fluoridated water. Trump has also pledged to make South African-born Elon Musk, a vocal supporter of the Trump campaign, a secretary of federal “cost-cutting,” and the Tesla CEO has suggested he can find trillions of dollars in government spending to wipe out.

The transition is not just about filling jobs. Most presidents-elect also receive daily or near-daily intelligence briefings during the transition.

In 2008, outgoing President George W. Bush personally briefed President-elect Barack Obama on U.S. covert operations. When Trump was preparing to take office in 2016, Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, briefed Michael Flynn, her designated successor in the new administration. In 2020, Trump’s legal challenges of the election’s results delayed the start of the transition process for weeks, though, and presidential briefings with Biden didn’t begin until Nov. 30.

Who is helping Trump through the process?

Trump’s transition is being led primarily by friends and family, including Kennedy Jr. and former Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, as well as the president-elect’s adult sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and his running mate, JD Vance. Transition co-chairs are Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick and Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive who previously led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s first term.

Lutnick said this year’s operation is “about as different as possible” from the 2016 effort, which was first led by Chris Christie. After he won eight years ago, Trump fired Christie, tossed out plans the former New Jersey governor had made and gave the job of running the transition to then-Vice President-elect Mike Pence.

At the start of his first term, Trump assembled an original Cabinet that featured some more mainstream Republicans and business leaders who ultimately disappointed, or broke publicly with him, or both. This time, Trump has promised to value loyalty as much as possible — a philosophy that may ensure he makes picks that are more closely aligned to his ideological beliefs and bombastic professional style.

Unlike the campaign of Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s team didn’t sign any pre-Election Day transition agreements with the General Services Administration, which essentially acts as the federal government’s landlord. He has therefore already missed deadlines to agree with GSA on logistical matters like office space and tech support and with the White House on access to agencies, including documents, employees and facilities.

» READ MORE: Donald Trump’s transition starts now. Here’s how it will work

Republican incumbent Rep. Joe Hogan won with roughly 9% of the vote over Democratic challenger Anna Payne in the race for Pennsylvania’s 142nd state House district in Bucks County.

In 2022, Hogan had won the seat by a razor-thin margin of just 76 votes.

The 36-year-old from Levittown now lives in Langhorne. During  his first term in the House, Hogan co-sponsored legislation related to crime prevention, mental health and substance abuse, school safety and more.

Payne, 37, is a Middletown Township supervisor who campaigned on health care access, abortion rights and more.

Three-term Democratic Rep. Susan Wild has conceded in her race against Republican Ryan Mackenzie in a hotly contested Pennsylvania congressional district, though The Associated Press still hasn’t called the race.

Republicans had targeted the seat as a possible flip that would boost their prospects for keeping the House majority.

“I congratulate my opponent on winning this seat, and I am going to do everything to ensure a smooth transition, because the people of this district deserve nothing less,” Wild said in her statement.

Incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman has defeated Republican challenger Darius Mayfield, Libertarian candidate Vic Kaplan and Green Party candidate Kim Meudt in the 12th Congressional District race.

The Associated Press declared Watson Coleman the winner at 9:29 p.m. on Tuesday, November 5.

The race was a repeat of the 2022 election when Watson Coleman defeated Mayfield. In that contest, she captured 63.1% of the vote, while Mayfield received 35.9% of ballots cast.

Watson Coleman focused this year’s campaign on lowering the cost of living, expanding access to health care and affordable medication, protecting women’s rights and helping those who are under-resourced.

» READ MORE: Democrat Bonnie Watson Coleman wins reelection in N.J.’s 12th Congressional District

Incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Chris Smith has defeated Democratic challenger Matt Jenkins, Libertarian candidate John Morrison and Green Party candidate Barry Bender in the 4th District Congressional race. This is Smith’s 22nd  consecutive win from his constituency.

The Associated Press declared Smith the winter at 8:32 p.m. on Tuesday, November 5.

This is the second time Smith has defeated Jenkins. In 2022, the Republican received 66.9% of the vote, compared to 31.4% for his Democratic rival.

The 4th Congressional District encompasses 19 towns in Monmouth County and 21 in Ocean County. 38% of registered voters in the district are Republicans and 22% are Democrats. Most others are independents.

Smith, who was born in Rahway, New Jersey, grew up in Iselin, and was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1980. During his time in Congress, he has chaired a number of bipartisan caucuses, and he has been recognized for his work in combating human trafficking and supporting those with autism and Alzheimer’s disease.

Smith said he was seeking reelection to address a chaotic situation at the border, and to fight inflation, crime and threats to parental rights.

He also vowed to work for American energy independence and represent his constituents in Washington D.C.

» READ MORE: Chris Smith wins reelection in N.J.’s 4th Congressional District

Incumbent Republican Rep. Kathleen “K.C.” Tomlinson has defeated Democratic challenger Anand Patel to retain her seat representing Pennsylvania’s 18th state House district.

Tomlinson won the 2022 race with a little over 52% of the vote, defeating Democratic opponent Laurie Smith by 1,099 votes.

The 36-year-old is a lifelong Bensalem resident. She has represented the district since 2020, when she won a special election and replaced current Bucks County Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo, after DiGirolamo decided to step down.

Tomlinson has positioned herself as a moderate Republican willing to work across the aisle.

In the past year, Tomlinson has sponsored or co-sponsored legislation in the House related to public safety and crime prevention, requiring price transparency for hospitals, protecting victims of stalking, establishing “looting” as a second-degree felony, holding financial institutions responsible for preventing exploitation of elders and more.

Patel, 47, is a small business owner, and served on the Bensalem Township School Board.

Democrat Herb Conaway defeated Republican Rajesh Mohan to represent New Jersey’s 3rd Congressional District. Conaway will succeed incumbent Andy Kim, who was elected earlier Tuesday evening as the next Senator from the Garden State.

The Associated Press called the race at 2:28 a.m. for Conaway, a long-time assemblyman from Burlington County. The Green Party’s Steve Welzer and Libertarian Chris Russomanno each received less than 1% of the vote.

The 3rd District has leaned more Democratic since a bi-partisan state commission redrew the congressional maps in 2021.

Conaway, who is also the public health director for Burlington County, made clear after his primary victory that Congress needs to codify the right to abortion access. One of his key campaign issues was security at the southern U.S. border.

Incumbent U.S. Rep. Tom Kean Jr. has defeated Democrat Sue Altman, Libertarian candidate Lana Leguia and Green Party candidate Andrew Black in the 7th Congressional District race.

The Associated Press declared Kean Jr. the winner at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday, November 6.

In what was billed as one of the most competitive races in the nation, Kean Jr. focused his campaign on inflation, immigration and border security, public safety and energy independence.

Kean Jr. began his political career when he was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly in 2001. He became the state senator in the 21st Legislative District and served as the Republican minority leader for 14 years before running for Congress in 2020.

He lost that race to Democrat Tom Malinowski, but after the 7th District was redrawn to include about 17,000 more registered Republicans, he defeated Malinowski in a 2022 rematch.

Kean Jr. comes from a political family. His father Tom Kean Sr. was the governor of New Jersey, and his grandfather Robert Kean was a congressman.

In the final weeks of the campaign, after a Monmouth University poll found Altman was gaining on Kean Jr. and the race was a statistical toss-up, the Democrats’ House Majority super PAC spent approximately $4 million on television and digital advertising to help the Altman campaign.

Altman, who focused her campaign on affordability, abortion rights and fighting GOP extremism, also received financial help from the super PAC One Giant Leap, but in the end, Kean Jr. was able to win reelection.

The 7th Congressional District includes parts of Central and North Jersey, all of Hunterdon and Warren Counties and parts of Morris, Somerset, Sussex and Union Counties.

» READ MORE: Republican Tom Kean Jr. reelected in N.J.’s 7th Congressional District

Donald Trump scored a decisive victory in a deeply divided nation. And in so doing, the Republican president-elect exposed a fundamental weakness within the Democratic base and beat back concerns about his moral failings, becoming the first U.S. president with a felony conviction.

The Republican former president won over frustrated voters with bold promises that his fiery brand of America-first economic populism and conservative culture would make their lives better. He will be tested immediately, however, and there are reasons to believe his plans for mass deportations and huge tariffs may hurt the very people who enabled his victory.

Still, he is set to enter the White House on Jan. 20, 2025, from an undisputed position of strength.

The results left Democrats facing an urgent and immediate reckoning, with no obvious leader to unite the anti-Trump coalition and no clear plan to rebuild as an emboldened Trump prepares to re-take Washington.

Here are some key takeaways:

With modest shifts, Trump undermines the Democrats’ coalition

Black voters — men and women — have been the bedrock of the Democratic Party, and in recent years, Latinos and young voters have joined them.

All three groups still preferred Democrat Kamala Harris. But preliminary data from AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 115,000 voters nationwide, suggested that Trump made significant gains.

Voters under age 30 represent a fraction of the total electorate, but about half of them supported Harris. That’s compared to the roughly 6 in 10 who backed Biden in 2020. Slightly more than 4 in 10 young voters went for Trump, up from about one-third in 2020.

At the same time, Black and Latino voters appeared slightly less likely to support Harris than they were to back Biden four years ago, according to AP VoteCast.

About 8 in 10 Black voters backed Harris, down from the roughly 9 in 10 who backed Biden. More than half of Hispanic voters supported Harris, but that was down slightly from the roughly 6 in 10 who backed Biden in 2020. Trump’s support among those groups appeared to rise slightly compared to 2020. Collectively, those small gains yielded an outsize outcome.

» READ MORE: Election takeaways: Trump’s decisive victory in a deeply divided nation

Donald Trump has promised sweeping action in a second administration.

The former president and now president-elect often skipped over details but through more than a year of policy pronouncements and written statements outlined a wide-ranging agenda that blends traditional conservative approaches to taxes, regulation and cultural issues with a more populist bent on trade and a shift in America’s international role.

Trump’s agenda also would scale back federal government efforts on civil rights and expand presidential powers.

A look at what Trump has proposed:

Immigration

“Build the wall!” from his 2016 campaign has become creating “the largest mass deportation program in history.” Trump has called for using the National Guard and empowering domestic police forces in the effort. Still, Trump has been scant on details of what the program would look like and how he would ensure that it targeted only people in the U.S. illegally. He’s pitched “ideological screening” for would-be entrants, ending birth-right citizenship (which almost certainly would require a constitutional change), and said he’d reinstitute first-term policies such as “Remain in Mexico,” limiting migrants on public health grounds and severely limiting or banning entrants from certain majority-Muslim nations. Altogether, the approach would not just crack down on illegal migration, but curtail immigration overall.

Abortion

Trump played down abortion as a second-term priority, even as he took credit for the Supreme Court ending a woman’s federal right to terminate a pregnancy and returning abortion regulation to state governments. At Trump’s insistence, the GOP platform, for the first time in decades, did not call for a national ban on abortion. Trump maintains that overturning Roe v. Wade is enough on the federal level.

Still, Trump has not said explicitly that he would veto national abortion restrictions if they reached his desk. And in an example of how the conservative movement might proceed with or without Trump, anti-abortion activists note that the GOP platform still asserts that a fetus should have due process protections under the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. That constitutional argument is a roadmap for conservatives to seek a national abortion ban through federal courts.

» READ MORE: Donald Trump has sweeping plans for a second administration. Here’s what he’s proposed

Republicans have swept the races for Pennsylvania’s row offices in the 2024 general election.

Republican Dave Sunday defeated Democrat Eugene DePasquale in the race to become Pennsylvania’s highest ranking law enforcement official. He will succeed Democratic Attorney General Michelle Henry, who was selected by Gov. Josh Shapiro when he assumed office in 2022 to finish out his second term.

She decided not to run to retain the office — making way for a crowded primary. Sunday vanquished state Rep. Craig Williams in the GOP primary.

Incumbent Republican Stacy Garrity will return to Harrisburg for a second term as Pennsylvania’s treasurer and the steward of more than $150 billion in state assets. Garrity defeated Democratic challenger Erin McClelland.

Republican incumbent Tim DeFoor staved off Democratic challenger Malcolm Kenyatta in the race for auditor general.

DeFoor was first elected in 2020 and became the first Republican to hold that office in more than two decades. He also previously made history as the first Black person to hold statewide elected office.

» READ MORE: Dave Sunday defeats Eugene DePasquale in Pa. AG race; Stacy Garrity wins second term as Pa. treasurer; Tim DeFoor secures second term as Pa. auditor general

Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States on Wednesday, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who refused to accept defeat four years ago, sparked a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts.

With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency.

The victory validates his bare-knuckle approach to politics. He attacked his Democratic rival, Kamala Harris, in deeply personal – often misogynistic and racist – terms as he pushed an apocalyptic picture of a country overrun by violent migrants. The coarse rhetoric, paired with an image of hypermasculinity, resonated with angry voters – particularly men – in a deeply polarized nation.

As president, he’s vowed to pursue an agenda centered on dramatically reshaping the federal government and pursuing retribution against his perceived enemies. Speaking to his supporters Wednesday morning, Trump claimed he had won “an unprecedented and powerful mandate.”

The results cap a historically tumultuous and competitive election season that included two assassination attempts targeting Trump and a shift to a new Democratic nominee just a month before the party’s convention. Trump will inherit a range of challenges when he assumes office on Jan. 20, including heightened political polarization and global crises that are testing America’s influence abroad.

His win against Harris, the first woman of color to lead a major party ticket, marks the second time he has defeated a female rival in a general election. Harris, the current vice president, rose to the top of the ticket after President Joe Biden exited the race amid alarm about his advanced age. Despite an initial surge of energy around her campaign, she struggled during a compressed timeline to convince disillusioned voters that she represented a break from an unpopular administration.

Trump is the first former president to return to power since Grover Cleveland regained the White House in the 1892 election. He is the first person convicted of a felony to be elected president and, at 78, is the oldest person elected to the office. His vice president, 40-year-old Ohio Sen. JD Vance, will become the highest-ranking member of the millennial generation in the U.S. government.

» READ MORE: Trump wins the White House in political comeback rooted in appeals to frustrated voters

Pennsylvania Republicans won the state attorney general’s race and kept the other two statewide row offices Tuesday, while several legislative races were close and the partisan control of the state House hung in the balance.

York County District Attorney Dave Sunday, a Republican, beat former Auditor General Eugene DePasquale to become Pennsylvania’s top prosecutor.

Sunday, a Navy veteran, emphasized his prosecutorial experience in the campaign against Democrat DePasquale. The attorney general oversees hundreds of lawyers.

The job came open because Attorney General Michelle Henry did not seek election after being appointed to fill the last two years of now-Gov. Josh Shapiro’s unexpired term. Shapiro is a Democrat.

Two incumbent Republicans were reelected to the other row offices: Treasurer Stacy Garrity of Athens in rural Bradford County and Auditor General Tim DeFoor of Harrisburg.

» READ MORE: Republican Dave Sunday wins Pennsylvania’s attorney general race

Former President Donald Trump won Pennsylvania on Wednesday, defeating Democrat Kamala Harris in the critical battleground state. Both candidates campaigned vigorously in the state, visiting it more often than any other. Trump won Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes four years after Democrat Joe Biden carried the state, flipping it from Trump’s column in 2016 on his way to capturing the “blue wall.” No Democrat has won the White House without also winning Pennsylvania since 1948. The Associated Press declared Trump the winner at 2:24 a.m. EST.

» READ MORE: Trump wins Pennsylvania, leaving him 3 electoral votes shy of clinching the White House

Donald Trump is expected to speak to supporters at his campaign headquarters. Watch below.

Democratic incumbent Sen. Bob Casey left his election watch party early Tuesday night after polls reported GOP challenger David McCormick in the lead for the U.S. Senate race.

Casey mingled in the upstairs area of the Scranton Cultural Center while nearly 100 supporters circled in and out of the venue below.  One supporter could be heard as she voiced her concern over the tight race and described the mood as “somber” and “disappointing.”

After hours of waiting, Casey left as the polls showed McCormick with a less than 1% lead over the three-term Senator.

As supporters began to trickle out, Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti took the stage and told the remaining dozen of supporters “We are going to reelect Senator Casey but we’re not going to be able to call that tonight.”

Cognetti then asked the crowd to pack patience and not give into defeat.

“Tomorrow we’ll hopefully get a result, but we need to set expectations. This could take a couple days,” she said as she thanked supporters. “It’s been a long campaign and some long days of door knocking. Tonight is a long night and I think we have another long day ahead of us tomorrow, we are confident that when all the votes are counted Sen. Casey will be back in DC fighting for us.”

» READ MORE: Incumbent Bob Casey uncertain of future of Senate seat in Pa. as GOP challenger David McCormick shows gains in race

Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick has bested Democratic challenger Ashley Ehasz and retained his seat representing Bucks County and parts of Montgomery County in the United States House of Representatives.

The Associated Press declared Fitzpatrick the winner at 1:23 a.m. EST.

In 2022, Fitzpatrick defeated Ehasz with less than 10% of the vote.

Fitzpatrick, 50, has represented the area in Congress since 2017. Before his entry into politics, he worked as a FBI special agent and federal prosecutor.

In this year’s GOP primary, Fitzpatrick resoundingly defeated anti-abortion activist Mark Houck. Fitzpatrick has often followed a bipartisan approach, and has broken with party lines on a number of occasions including abortion issues, gun control legislation, and climate preparedness.

Ehasz, 36, campaigned on abortion access, arguing that Fitzpatrick was not as moderate as he claimed to be.

In the race for the White House, former President Donald Trump leads Vice President Kamala Harris by roughly 220,000 votes for the state’s 19 electoral votes, with about 90% of votes counted at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday.

The Trump campaign announced that former President Donald Trump plans to address his supporters at Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida.

Harris left her campaign rally at Howard University headquarters before addressing the crowd.

Several key races are still too close to call in Pennsylvania, according to the Associated Press.

Republican Senate Candidate Dave McCormick leads Democrat incumbent Bob Casey with 90% of votes counted.

In the race for auditor general, Democrat Malcolm Kenyatta trails incumbent Timothy DeFoor with 82% of votes counted.

Republican Dave Sunday leads Democrat Eugene DePasquale, a former state auditor general, in the race for Pennsylvania’s attorney general, with 82% of votes counted.

Republicans have taken the Senate majority for first time in four years. The unexpected battleground of Nebraska pushed Republicans over the top late Tuesday. Sen. Deb Fischer brushed back a challenge from independent newcomer Dan Osborn.

That came after Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas defeated Democrat Colin Allred. Democratic efforts to salvage their Senate majority slipped further out of reach with Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio lost his reelection to Republican Bernie Moreno.

Early on, Republicans picked up the seat in West Virginia. House races are in a state-by-state slog. The control of Congress is at stake this first presidential election after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.

A crowd was still gathered at the Republican watch party in Newtown at midnight, cheering on the Fox News announcement that Republicans have taken the majority in the United States Senate.

In Bucks County, the margin in the presidential race is razor-thin. According to the Associated Press, as of midnight, Donald Trump is up by 0.2 percentage points in the county over Kamala Harris, with 54% of the votes counted.

“I think for the first time since 1988, we’re going to win Bucks County,” Jim Worthington told a cheering crowd earlier in the night.

Party attendee and Bucks resident Lois Torok said she is “cautiously optimistic.”

“I think our country is in dire need of change, and all the people here offer a lot of hope to everyone for everything,” Torok said. “Including young families and people who are retired … We’ve had three difficult years, and we’re just hoping that things improve.”

Torok said if Trump wins, she wants to see him address immigration, inflation and the cost of fuel.

Doylestown resident Andrew Loewy said he hopes Trump will improve foreign policy.

“I think he could really turn things around in the Middle East,” he said. “As we saw during his administration, he was able to bring Israel and several of the Arab states together and normalize relations. And I think doing that could help kind of checkmate Iran.”

In an intimate backroom of the Cherry Street Tavern, young Republicans gathered for an election watch party. The event hosted by Philadelphia Young Republicans also drew attendance from those outside the city.

Scott Graham, 21, of Williamstown, New Jersey, heard about the event through Talk Radio 1210 WPHT Philadelphia and saw the Philadelphia Young Republicans’ Instagram post. He arrived at the event with his brother, Shane, 18, looking to “just have fun.”

This is the first time both brothers voted in a presidential election and the second Philadelphia Young Republicans event they have attended.

When asked how they’re feeling tonight, Scott said, “I am very nervous, I am scared. But I’m confident, I think we’re gonna win.”

Shane added, “I think we’re gonna win, but something sketchy is gonna happen.” When asked what that meant, they both emphasized that if a winner is not announced on Tuesday it will provide time to “cheat.”

While there has been no evidence of voter fraud, the issue was top of mind for many young voters.

“It’s gonna be too big to rig,” the brothers repeated multiple times.

The Young Republicans of Philadelphia watch party in Center City attracted a range of voters, including young, self-proclaimed members of the alt-right.

An avowed alt-right accelerationist, 23-year-old Harrowgate resident Otto Rothman, attended the event hoping that “some radical change happens” under a potential Trump presidency.

Although he shared a table with other young Republicans who he referred to as his “buddies,” Rothman shared that he felt out of place among other Trump supporters.

“I feel like I’m the enemy everywhere,” Rothman said. “Not just because of race, ethnicity, political belief, or anything, but just because of my social positioning.”

As he spoke, Rothman grabbed items that other attendees had left on his table, including an abandoned “Make America Great Again” hat and a scarf and slowly added them to his own outfit to “instigate” conversations with the people around him.

“I think I’m a passionate, considerate guy, but because of weird political sidings, both sides have decided to hate me. I think if [Trump wins], there’s a chance to move on from [the judgment of] … being the right-wing.”

When asked if he had any anxieties about the election results, Rothman replied, “No, not at all. We’re gonna win.”

State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, who is vying to be the state’s next auditor general, has ended his watch party early.

It is still too early to call a victor. While Kenyatta said he expects to be in a “strong position” when the dust has settled, he gave his supporters their time back.

“We don’t want to hold you. It is going to be a long night. It might go into the morning and we don’t want anybody spending the night,” Kenyatta joked.

He thanked the room of supporters, who flocked to the basement of the Divine Lorraine Hotel in North Philadelphia.

“We’re just going to keep following the results. I’m going to keep huddling with my team and making sure that we actually do hear the voice of the people of Pennsylvania,” he said.

Republican incumbent Jeff Van Drew will represent New Jersey’s 2nd Congressional District for another two years. He bested Democrat Joe Solerno and the Green Party’s Thomas Cannavo, according to the Associated Press at 10:20 p.m.

The 2nd Congressional District, which did not see any major shifts when it was redrawn in 2021, is one of two districts represented by Republicans. Though the number of registered Republicans grew nearly 5% compared to the 2022 midterms, unaffiliated voters outnumber the two major parties.

Van Drew, who famously switched political parties in 2019, continued to take hardline conservative stances on issues including border security and immigration. Salerno, a first-time political candidate, campaigned on bridging the two-party divide and being a voice for constituents in the South Jersey district.

Philadelphia City Councilmember Nicolas O’Rourke is one of many elected officials floating in and out of state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta’s watch party. Kenyatta is vying to be Pennsylvania’s auditor general.

O’Rourke told WHYY News that he is there to support his friend and fellow legislator, “hoping for a wonderful victory for him.”

If elected, Kenyatta will become the first openly gay person to be elected to statewide office in Pennsylvania.

The Working Families Party (WFP) issued a memo Tuesday, reflecting on the work the party did to help elect Democratic candidates across the Commonwealth.

According to Shoshanna Israel, the Mid-Atlantic Political Director for the party, organizers knocked on 733,000 doors across Pennsylvania and logged 61,608 positive IDs for Kamala Harris’ ticket.

WFP also threw its support behind Kenyatta and Democratic attorney general candidate Eugene DePasquale. O’Rourke, who made history as a WFP candidate by ousting the GOP from at-large council, said the idea isn’t just to “collect elected officials.” It’s to build a governing majority “for the many and not the few.”

“It is important for us to make sure that we identify those non-delusional, viable candidates that are ideologically aligned [and] value-driven that want to see material advances to human beings,” O’Rourke said.

Police in Philadelphia say at least 11 polling locations were targeted with bomb threats as polls closed Tuesday night.

Locations include:

The 900 block of South 7th Street, 1000 block of South 4th Street, 400 block of Queen Street, two locations in the 700 block of Catharine Street, 1100 block of Catharine Street, 200 block of Washington Avenue, 900 block of Federal Street, 1200 block of Wharton Street, 1200 block of Carpenter Street, 1000 block of East Erie Avenue.

The department said it happened at 6:43 p.m. and at 6:55 p.m.

Police K9 units searched all of the locations, but nothing was found, the department said.

An investigation is underway by the South Detectives Division.

The Philadelphia Police Department is urging anyone with information regarding this incident to call 215-686-3013.

Tips can be submitted anonymously by calling or texting our PPD’s tip line at 215-686-TIPS (8477).

Democratic Rep. Donald Norcross won reelection to a U.S. House seat representing New Jersey on Tuesday. Norcross defeated Republican Teddy Liddell in southern New Jersey’s 1st District, which encompasses Camden, just across the river from Philadelphia.

A former union electrician and state lawmaker, Norcross was first appointed to the House to fill a vacancy in 2014. This year, he won a sixth term in the House. The Associated Press declared Norcross the winner at 10:03 p.m. EST.

» READ MORE: New Jersey’s Donald Norcross wins 1st Congressional District race

Philadelphia’s Democrats, gathering to watch the results together at the Ruba Club in Northern Liberties, say they are optimistic they turned out the vote needed to give Vice President Kamala Harris the edge to defeat Donald Trump.

Alongside party stalwarts, dozens of foreign press packed their cameras and equipment into the club’s tiny concert venue in Northern Liberties, eager to broadcast election results from what has become one of the most watched counties in the presidential election.

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker is expected to speak later this evening, along with State Sen. Sharif Street. Meanwhile, dozens of pizzas piled up on a table for the volunteers and diehard Dems packing the hall.

“Especially after the rally last night, it has felt very electric,” said Lia Inman, a board member of the Philadelphia Young Democrats. “The excitement for Harris has been phenomenal especially for young people.”

Inman said Trump’s claim of “cheating” in Philadelphia is an attempt to sow distrust in valid election results.

“I think he is trying to stir the pot as much as possible, I think he is doing his best already to create doubt in a city he knows he’s not going to pull,” Inman said.

Federal, state and city officials say Trump’s claims of fraud at the polls in Philadelphia have no merit. Trump has offered no details or evidence.

Democrat Sarah McBride won election to a U.S. House seat representing Delaware on Tuesday. With her victory over Republican John Whalen III, McBride is poised to become the first openly transgender person to serve in Congress. She was elected to the Delaware state Senate in 2020.

McBride has built a national profile as an LGBTQ+ advocate and raised more than $3 million dollars in campaign contributions, most from out of the state. Whalen, a home builder and retired state trooper, was making his first bid for public office. The Associated Press declared McBride the winner at 9:43 p.m. EST.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt urged people to be patient with the state’s vote counting for the 2024 general election after the majority of polls closed across the state.

“I want to reassure Pennsylvania and all the folks across the country who are paying attention to our commonwealth that every legal, eligible vote will be counted accurately and that the will of the people will be respected,” Shapiro said.

Shapiro also asked for patience with the counting process.

“Counting millions of votes accurately, it takes some time and our goal is to get it right,” he said.

Shapiro said a handful of improvements have been made since the last presidential election: counties have gained more experience handling and counting mail-in ballots, new equipment has been purchased to count ballots more efficiently and there will be significantly fewer mail ballots compared to 2020, down to 2 million from 2.5 million.

Schmidt directed people to the Department of State’s website to track results and will give an update and take questions at 10 p.m. when polls in Cambria and Luzerne Counties have closed.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro says all but two counties in the state have closed their polls. He urges those in line to stay in line. 

Multiple bomb threats have been called into polling locations and municipal buildings across Pennsylvania in the last hour. They are being investigated by local law enforcement and the FBI, but there is no current threat.

For Bucks County Donald Trump supporters, the Newtown Sports and Event Center is the place to be as results roll in.

Republican activist and businessman Jim Worthington owns the center.

“A lot of these people are patriots,” Worthington said of the crowd gathered Tuesday night. “They get out and vote, they knock on doors. They’re just good people. And I just wanted to get them all together and throw them a party.”

Worthington’s businesses have been the site of several Trump campaign events throughout this election cycle. On Monday night, Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, held his last campaign event at the Newtown Athletic Club, down the street from the center. 

Worthington said turnout has been great so far for Republicans in early voting. 

“We’re down 1.5 to one,” he said. “In 2020, we were down four to one for the early voting and vote by mail. So that’s significant.”

Michelle Tully, of Newtown, said she’s been supporting Trump since 2016 and came to the party to be with other like-minded voters. 

“We just want to see our guy win, it’ll be our Super Bowl,” she said. 

Tully said she’s seen firsthand how divided Bucks County is politically. 

“I have half of my friends which are very liberal, and half of my friends which are very conservative,” she said. “I love them dearly. We have great conversations.” 

But, Tully said, she’s not sure if the division will go away after the election. 

“That’s my biggest hope,” she said. “So if Harris gets in, I hope that everybody in this room would be accepting and wishing her well, and I think that they are. But I think if Trump gets in, I don’t think that’s the case.”

Regardless of who wins, Worthington said the election watch party is his way of saying thank you to the many Trump supporters who have been organizing since 2016. 

“This is his last hurrah, right?” he said. “President Trump’s done after this, win or lose, he’s never running for president again, so that’s what this is all about.”

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said there were “phony” bomb threats in the city on Tuesday as voters headed to the polls — but he still counted the day as a success.

At a polling place at St. Maron’s Church in South Philadelphia, a threat delayed voting for 23 minutes, so a court extended voting until 8:23 p.m.

“No one hurt. No boom. None of that happened,” Krasner said. “It has been a success in terms of the normal running of an American Election, despite the challenges that the times, perhaps, present.”

At a polling place in Southwest Philadelphia, an individual was detained after making a comment indicating they would bomb the location.

“There’s no indication that it was any more than words,” Krasner said. “There’s no indication that there was capacity to carry it out.”

County officials evacuated the Government Services Center in West Chester, Pennsylvania, Tuesday following a bomb threat there.

Earlier Tuesday, the FBI said it was aware of bomb threats at polling places in several states, none of which had been determined to be credible. Many of the threats appeared to come from Russian email domains, the FBI said.

Former President Donald Trump claimed on social media Tuesday afternoon that there was a “lot of talk about massive CHEATING” in Philadelphia.

Krasner and other city officials called the claim false.

Several polling places in Philadelphia had lines at various points on Tuesday, Krasner said — including after polls closed at 8 p.m. Anyone in line by the close of polls is still allowed to vote.

“There is no evidence to substantiate that there has been any kind of cheating that is of any significance at all,” Krasner said. “We certainly hope that in a democracy people are going to accept whatever the actual outcome of that election is.”

As results for Pennsylvania continue to come in, Republicans gathered at Cannstatter Volksfest Verein are keeping a close eye on the party vote in Philadelphia.

There’s hope that former President Donald Trump can get more votes in the city than he did in 2020 — enough that he can win Pennsylvania.

“It’s all about the margin,” said GOP ward leader Tim O’Brien.

“Biden won by five touchdowns over Trump. If Trump loses this time by only four or 3 ½ , there could go Pennsylvania,” he added.

Anecdotally, some wards with strong Republican registration in Northeast Philly saw 65% to 70% turnout today — considerably higher than 2020, said O’Brien.

Chester County Commissioner Josh Maxwell posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that law enforcement officials are investigating the bomb threat that was sent to the Government Services Center.

He said it “mirrors the bomb threats sent to election offices across Pennsylvania and the United States.”

County officials have scheduled a press conference at the Chester County Justice Center at 9 p.m.

Chester County emergency officials are investigating a bomb threat sent to the Chester County Government Services Center which mirrors the bomb threats sent to election offices across Pennsylvania and the United States.

— Josh Maxwell (@maxwelljosh) November 6, 2024

The voting hours for the two polling locations at the center have been extended to 10 p.m.

Democrat Rob Menendez wins reelection to U.S. House in New Jersey’s 8th Congressional District.

Democratic Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon won reelection to a U.S. House seat representing Pennsylvania on Tuesday. Scanlon, 65, was running for a fourth term in her Democratic-leaning district based in Delaware County, just outside Philadelphia. Scanlon beat Republican Alfeia Goodwin.

Scanlon, a public interest lawyer before she ran for office, was first elected in 2018. The Associated Press declared Scanlon the winner at 8:43 p.m. EST.

Democratic Rep. Summer Lee won reelection to a U.S. House seat representing Pennsylvania on Tuesday. Lee, 36, was running for a second term in her heavily Democratic district based in Pittsburgh. Lee defeated Republican James Hayes. Lee, a lawyer and former state lawmaker, was first elected to Congress in 2022. The Associated Press declared Lee the winner at 8:12 p.m. EST.

Democrat Matt Meyer, who entered politics eight years ago by knocking out a popular three-term New Castle County executive before setting his sights on becoming governor, rolled to victory in the general election Tuesday over Republican House Minority Leader Mike Ramone.

The Associated Press called the race for Meyer about 8:40 p.m., with 32% of the vote posted on the state’s election results website.

Meyer, a 53-year-old lawyer and former teacher who lives in Wilmington, won 56% of the vote. Ramone, a 63-year-old business owner with homes in Newark and Dewey Beach, received 44%.

Meyer will succeed two-term Gov. John Carney in January and become the first New Castle County executive to hold the state government’s highest post. Meyer had defeated three-term incumbent Tom Gordon in the 2016 Democratic primary and served two terms in that office while eyeing the 2024 race for governor.

Carney, a former congressman and lieutenant governor could not seek a state term, will become mayor of Wilmington after running unopposed Tuesday.

Democrat Kamala Harris won Delaware’s presidential contest Tuesday, easily defeating Republican Donald Trump. Harris’ victory in solid-blue Delaware was a foregone conclusion, given the stranglehold Democrats have held on the state’s three electoral votes for decades.

The last Republican presidential candidate to win in Delaware was George H.W. Bush in 1988. That’s also the last time Delaware voters elected a Republican governor. Delaware’s congressional delegation for years has been composed entirely of Democrats, who also control both chambers of the state legislature. The Associated Press declared Harris the winner at 8:34 p.m. EST.

Vice President Kamala Harris won New Jersey’s 14 electoral votes on Tuesday. Harris’ victory over Republican Donald Trump continues Democrats’ dominance in the state, which has gone with the Democratic candidate for president in every election since 1988.

New Jersey Democrats have nearly 1 million more registered voters than Republicans. Trump has ties to New Jersey, including golf clubs across the state. He also operated casinos in the shore resort of Atlantic City, but they ended in bankruptcy. The Associated Press declared Harris the winner at 8:30 p.m. EST.

Democratic Rep. Brendan Boyle won reelection to a U.S. House seat representing Pennsylvania on Tuesday.

Boyle, 47, was running for a sixth term in his heavily Democratic district in Philadelphia.

U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester defeated Republican Eric Hansen in Delaware’s U.S. Senate race on Tuesday.

Blunt Rochester will become the first woman and first Black person to represent Delaware in the Senate. Only three other Black women have served in the Senate, two of them elected and one who was appointed.

Rochester was considered a virtual shoo-in for the Senate against businessman Hansen, a political newcomer. Democrats hold a significant voter registration advantage over Republicans in solid-blue Delaware, which last sent a Republican to Washington in 2008.

Rochester raised some $8 million for her Senate campaign, while Hansen’s campaign receipts totaled only about $1 million, including more than $800,000 in loans he made to his campaign.

Blunt Rochester will fill the seat left vacant by fellow Democrat Tom Carper, who handpicked her as his preferred successor when he announced his retirement last year. Blunt Rochester once interned for Carper when he was in the House and also served in his cabinet when he was governor.

Blunt Rochester has served four terms at Delaware’s lone representative in the House.

According to the Congressional Record, she has sponsored 90 bills and seven resolutions during her House tenure, many aimed at improving or expanding access to health care, especially for women and minorities. The only measure sponsored by Blunt Rochester to become law is a resolution naming a Wilmington post office in honor of Mary Ann Shadd Cary, a 19th-century anti-slavery activist and publisher.

Rochester began her political career as a case worker for Carper and served in appointed positions as Delaware’s labor secretary, state personnel director and deputy secretary of Delaware’s Department of Health and Social Services. She also has served as CEO of the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League.

Hundreds of Temple University students stayed in line for over an hour at the polling station at Bright Hope Baptist Church as afternoon turned to evening Tuesday, before additional resources were provided to resolve the issue.

Marina Hamal and Angela Bouch, two freshman students at Temple, waited an hour and a half for their first opportunity to vote. Neither of them were frustrated, though.

“They have a lot of events,” Hamal said. “Like they have the booths set up there to take pictures in, and they have a lot of people that are just there to sit around and talk to, and pizza.”

Volunteers from various organizations offered free snacks and drinks. A DJ played on the lawn in front of the line. Actor Paul Rudd, who also visited the polling station at Villanova University, stopped by and thanked students for voting.

Peter Jerdee, a volunteer with the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, came over from Bergen County, New Jersey, to assist with the Harris-Walz “Triple the Vote” campaign. He’d been at a location in South Philly before coming to Temple.

“It’s a very different vibe, much younger crowd here,” he said. “There were no lines there. Here, it’s been a line pretty much around the block.”

Jerdee’s role at the Bright Hope Baptist Church let non-student residents know they could go directly to the front of the line ahead of the students.

One of those residents was Reese Godwin, who said he was voter No. 264 at the station. He said that once he was ushered into the polling station, the process was smooth and wonderful.

Philadelphia City Commissioner Vice Chair Lisa Deeley said that the long lines came to the city’s attention in the afternoon and two additional voting systems and four electronic poll books were brought in to speed up the process.

By 6:45 p.m., the line was down to about 20 people outside the front door.

The issues with delays were reportedly repeatedly at polling places near universities, perhaps a function of heavy college student participation.

“One thing we learned in the pandemic in 2020 and in ‘16 in the presidential election, these young people are resilient and they want to vote,” Deeley said. “So we’re doing everything we can to make sure they can get it done as quickly as possible.”

“I’m 61 years old and we didn’t always have these rights,” Godwin said. “So to see young people who are excited, who are standing in line to go cast their ballots, it just touches my heart.”

Robert Stafford, a Temple junior, said he waited for around an hour and 45 minutes to vote for the first time in his life. Despite the delay, he described it as a good experience.

“I’m not really a big politics guy, but I follow from here to there,” he said, adding of his decision, “Looking back at it, it was a very easy choice for me.”

Democratic U.S. Rep. Andy Kim was elected Tuesday to the U.S. Senate, defeating Republican businessman Curtis Bashaw for the seat that opened when Bob Menendez resigned this year after his federal conviction on bribery charges. Kim becomes the first Korean-American in the Senate. His victory keeps a reliably Democratic seat under his party’s control. A three-term congressman, Kim gained national attention in 2021 when he was spotted cleaning up the U.S. Capitol after the Jan. 6 insurrection, bagging trash.

» READ MORE: Democrat Andy Kim wins N.J. Senate race defeating Republican Curtis Bashaw, 4 others

Following a bomb threat on Tuesday, Chester County officials evacuated the Government Services Center in West Chester Tuesday.

Chester County Commissioner Josh Maxwell posted on X that in-person ballots are set to be delivered there after polls close at 8 p.m. Meanwhile, mail-in ballots are being canvassed and tabulated at a different location.

There was a bomb threat to the Government Services Center in West Chester, PA. It’s being evacuated. Voter Services is located there, and in-person ballots are delivered after 8 pm. Mail-in ballots are canvassed and tabulated at a different location. I will update shortly.

— Josh Maxwell (@maxwelljosh) November 6, 2024

It’s unclear if election officials are facing an immediate threat. A spokesperson for Chester County did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Polls have closed across Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware for the 2024 general election.

Polls will remain open in Laflin Borough, Pennsylvania, until 9:30 p.m. and in Cambria County until 10 p.m., because polls there opened late Tuesday morning.

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker reminded voters they can still vote if they’re in line by the close of polls.

“If you’re in line by 8 p.m., stay in line!” she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “You can still cast your vote.”

All Burlington County, New Jersey polling locations extended their polling hours to 9 p.m., per a New Jersey Superior Court judge. Anyone in line by 9 p.m. will be permitted to vote.

Voters weighed in on races for president, Congress and a host of down-ballot contests.

Follow along as WHYY News tracks general election results this evening: Pennsylvania | New Jersey | Nationwide

Democrats’ hope of keeping control of the Senate is hanging by a thread after the seat flip in West Virginia.

To win control of the chamber, Republicans need to pick up a seat in any one of several battleground states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Montana or Nevada.

Democrats’ best chance at flipping a seat back in their favor is likely in Texas, where Democrat Colin Allred, a current House member, is challenging Sen. Ted Cruz.

The Associated Press declared winners Tuesday in some states where polls had just closed, and in some cases before any votes had been released.

How is that possible?

While hotly contested races that take hours or days to count may attract the most attention, the AP for decades has called landslide or uncontested races at poll closing time.

That’s what happened Tuesday, when AP declared former President Donald Trump the winner in West Virginia, Indiana and Kentucky and Vice President Kamala Harris the winner in Vermont as final polls closed in those states. The AP also declared winners as polls closed in some races for U.S. Senate and governor as well.

The AP considers multiple factors and analyzes available data before determining whether a winner can be declared when polls close in a given state. But the AP will never declare the outcome in a competitive contest before enough votes are counted to make the winner clear.

» READ MORE: How the AP is able to declare winners in states where polls just closed

Here seven counties to watch — one in each swing state — that might give some idea how the race is going and why one candidate or the other won:

1. Montgomery County, Pa.: This wealthy and highly educated Philadelphia suburb is crucial to Democrats’ chances in the state. Biden netted 40,000 more votes here than Hillary Clinton in 2016, a third of the entire statewide vote shift in his favor.

2. Dane County, Wisc.: This heavily Democratic county has seen tremendous growth in the past decade. It accounted for 1-in-6 Democratic votes statewide in 2020, but 80% of the total vote shift in Biden’s favor.

3. Wayne County, Mich.: It’s home to Detroit and Dearborn, and may tell the story of whether Vice President Harris was able to turn out Black voters and how much the war in Gaza was a factor. Wayne is home to the largest concentration of Arab Americans anywhere in the country.

4. Henderson County, N.C.: This is one of the more populous Trump-won counties affected by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina. Turnout there will give some idea of how Trump’s vote is affected.

5. Gwinnett County, Ga.: It has seen a population boom in the past decade, is the most populous suburban county in the state and is now majority non-white. It flipped in 2016 from Republican to Democrat and went by an even wider margin for Biden in 2020.

6. Maricopa County, Ariz.: Biden won Arizona by just over 10,000 votes, a 100,000-vote swing from 2016. And 90% of that came from Maricopa, home to Phoenix.

7. Clark County, Nev.: Almost 70% of all the state’s votes come from this county, home to Las Vegas. It will tell us whether Trump’s appeals on the economy to working-class Latino voters worked. It’s home to a significant share of Asian American and Black voters Harris also needs to help her win.

Click here to read about even more swing counties.

A senior official at the federal cybersecurity agency says no nationwide security problems are threatening the integrity of the elections, and is pushing back on claims of fraud in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Cait Conley, a senior adviser to the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, told reporters that though officials have responded to bomb threats, disinformation and other problems, there are no major incidents with a national-level impact.

Asked about claims of widespread fraud in Pennsylvania being advanced by Donald Trump and some of his supporters, Conley said federal officials had been in close contact with their state and local counterparts across the country and “we see no data or reporting to support these claims.”

Multiple Pennsylvania officials, including Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, have also said they had not seen any signs of cheating and have called the election secure.

Election Day unfolded relatively smoothly as voters faced only scattered disruptions and delays after an election season marked by concerns over disinformation, foreign influence and threats to election workers and voting systems.

Leading into Tuesday, more than 82 million Americans had already cast their ballots in a largely successful early voting period with high turnout despite some hiccups and frustrations in the presidential battleground of Pennsylvania.

And when the final day of voting came, the problems that cropped up were “largely expected routine and planned-for events,” said Cait Conley, senior adviser to the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. She said the agency was not currently tracking any national, significant incidents impacting election security.

Issues affecting voters on Tuesday included typical election mishaps, from a worker forgetting a key in Arizona’s largest county to an election judge failing to show up at the polls in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County. Some precincts around the country faced issues with voter check-in processes and e-pollbooks, causing some delays for voters trying to cast ballots. Some areas had ballot printing mistakes and were printing new ballots and extending voting hours accordingly. Extreme weather across the midsection of the country also caused flooding and some other isolated problems, including knocking out power for at least one Missouri polling place that resorted to a generator to keep voting up and running.

Still, in various states affected by rain, voters enthusiastically huddled under umbrellas as they lined up to cast their ballots, not deterred in a presidential election that many U.S. voters view as crucially important to the future of U.S. democracy.

Read the full story here.

For a winning presidential candidate, overperforming in Philadelphia’s suburbs could be the key to securing Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes.

So, all eyes will be on Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties after polls close at 8 p.m. Anxious onlookers can expect to see results posted for each of the counties around 8:30 p.m.

A spokesperson for Montgomery County told WHYY News that in-person votes are typically tabulated by 1 a.m. The county expects to finish counting mail ballots by mid-day Wednesday.

Spokespeople for Chester and Delaware counties echoed that sentiment.

On WHYY’s Studio 2, Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie Jr. said the county is managing 304 precincts, 200 poll locations and more than 2,000 poll workers. In 2020, Bucks County finished counting on the Thursday after the election.

“A couple things have changed since four years ago. I think we’ve got a higher volume of mail in ballots than we did four years ago, but we’ve also had the last couple years of making our process even better,” Harvie said.

Harvie said the county has been perfecting its election system.

“We are going to be working 24 hours a day until we stop, until we’re through them all,” he said. “I don’t know if it will be Thursday, I’m not really putting out any guesses as to when it could be. It could be a little faster than before.”

WHYY’s Nicole Leonard contributed to this report.

Fayette County in Pennsylvania has gone to court to block a local judge of elections from doing a unilateral hand count of ballots in violation of the state election code.

Marybeth Kuznik, director of the Fayette County Bureau of Elections, said in a court filing that Washington Township Judge of Election Vincent Manetta “reported that after polls close today, he intends to remove the ballots from the ballot box and audit or hand count the votes cast for each presidential candidate.”

Completed ballots are supposed to be run through tabulating equipment. Kuznik asked a judge to order Manetta to comply with state election law. The judge has yet to rule.

University of Delaware freshman Victoria Sheppard and her mother, Mary, reflected on the significance of their votes as they arrived at the polls in Newark this afternoon.

Mary Sheppard, a registered nurse and clinical director, emphasized her belief in the importance of women’s rights and freedom of choice.

“Women’s right to choose, that’s the bottom line,” she said, expressing concerns over candidates who may challenge these rights and her support for those who advocate for women’s health and autonomy.

First time voter Victoria shared her views on the need for inclusive representation.

“All of my peers, that I know, all come from different backgrounds, different histories, they all have different things about them,” she said. “I want to make sure all those unique personalities are staying. They don’t have to change, they don’t have to run away. Just because ‘this person or that person changed something of the law’ to make them have to go away and not be who they are,” she said.

Democrat Lisa Blunt Rochester is poised to win her race for U.S. Senate, possibly becoming the first woman and the first Black woman to represent Delaware in the Senate. The Sheppards say the election is a pivotal moment for women and marginalized communities, describing it as “powerful.”

The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office posted on the social media platform on X, formerly known as Twitter, that as of around 5 p.m., “no major incidents have been reported” at polls in the city.

But Donald Trump told his followers on Truth Social there had been a “lot of talk about massive CHEATING,” in the city. “Law enforcement coming!!!” he wrote.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner released a statement shortly after the post calling Trump’s allegations “wild.”

“There is no factual basis whatsoever within law enforcement to support this wild allegation,” he said in a statement. “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.”

A spokesperson for the Philadelphia Police Department said they were not aware of any law enforcement response related to polling places in Philadelphia Tuesday.

Seth Bluestein, a Republican member of Philadelphia’s Board of Elections, said there was no truth to Trump’s allegation.

“It is yet another example of disinformation,” he wrote on X. “Voting in Philadelphia has been safe and secure.”

The Trump campaign and its allies began claiming voter fraud in Pennsylvania before Election Day. County and state election officials have pushed back on the claims and said the claims were without merit.

In July, registered Republican voters overtook their Democratic counterparts for the first time since 2007.

As of Nov. 4, registered Republican voters in the county outnumbered registered Democrats by 5,882.

Bucks County hasn’t gone to a Republican presidential candidate since 1988.

“Republicans have a message that’s resonating with a lot of everyday people, and there’s a lot of everyday people here in Bucks County,” said Ed Sheppard, communications chair of the Doylestown Republican Committee.

Sheppard said he thinks Bucks will go to Trump this year — but “it’ll be tight.”

In 2020, Biden won the county with 51.7% of the vote to Trump’s 47.3%. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton eked out a victory over Trump in Bucks in the 2016 elections, taking 48.4% of the vote compared to Trump’s 47.8%.

Volunteers with the Bucks County Democratic Committee greeted voters outside the Doylestown polling station for Districts 5 and 6 across from Sheppard and the Republican poll greeters.

Leila Yusuf, a volunteer with the Bucks Dems, said so far the voter turnout has been “very, very positive,” and the day has gone smoothly.

She said she and other Dems are “staying positive,” and are counting on Democrats’ door-knocking and canvassing ahead of Election Day.

“We are just waiting for the third wave, you know, afternoon, after work,” she said. “So it’s been good. Everybody’s been very civilized.”

Political commentators and analysts say they’re keeping a close eye on Philadelphia’s suburbs, including Bucks County, for ideas on which way Pennsylvania could swing in this presidential election.

Bucks County is home to the state’s fourth largest voting bloc, with more than 493,000 people registered. The number of registered Democrat and Republican voters there are nearly tied, according to county statistics.

Speaking on WHYY’s Studio 2 Tuesday, Democrat and political commentator Solomon Jones questioned whether Vice President Kamala Harris could take the Philly suburbs.

“If she can perform well in those suburbs along with what’s happening in the city, I think she will do well,” Jones said. “But if she doesn’t, she’s got some stuff to worry about.”

Former President Donald Trump lost Bucks County to Hilary Clinton in 2016 by a mere 2,700 votes and the county stayed blue for President Joe Biden in 2020, according to state election data.

Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie said mail in ballots will continue to play a big role this year. Out of the 152,000 mail in applications and ballots the county issued, he said about 125,000 have been returned so far as of Monday morning.

New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer says he hopes Democrats in Delaware will win big statewide tonight. He’s running for governor against Republican state Rep. Mike Ramone.

Delaware is voting for a new senator, congressperson and governor in this one election.

Meyer said the number of open seats means there’s a lot of excitement for the state’s future and the possibility of new energy into the Democratic Party.

Democratic state Sen. Sarah McBride is seeking to become the First State’s at-large representative. She’s running against Republican John Whalen, a former law enforcement officer and businessman.

Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester is facing Republican Eric Hansen and Independent Michael Katz to replace retiring Sen. Tom Carper.

Democrats are gathering at the Chase Center on Wilmington’s Riverfront to watch the election results. Republicans are watching the results from the Christiana Hilton near Newark.

Bill Mich, a poll worker at Doylestown’s District 5 polling station, said Tuesday’s turnout has been “definitely heavier” than he’s seen in six previous elections — including the 2020 presidential race.

Mich said the line was out the door from the time polls opened until 2 p.m. this afternoon.

District 5 reported more than 1,000 voters had cast their ballots as of 5:15 p.m. out of 2,600 registered there. Another 800 voters for the site have already cast their mail ballots, Mich said.

Poll workers for District 6 reported more than 900 voters had cast their ballots on Tuesday out of 2,400 registered for that site.

Mich said the day had been smooth so far. There was a 45-minute wait time earlier in the day, he said, but most voters expected that.

“There’s a lot of people monitoring,” he said.

What’s on the minds of Pennsylvania voters?

The Keystone state, with its 19 electoral votes, is playing an outsized role this election. The vote was close in 2020 and it’s expected to be another nail-biting finish again this year. Polls show Vice President Harris and former President Donald Trump locked in a tight race. Two teams of Morning Edition journalists took road trips through the state to hear what voters had to say.

Near Pittsburgh, we met Ben Wallace, who works in the fracking industry and backs Trump, believing he would be friendlier to this line of work.

But he also backs Trump over what he believes are core American ideals: “The right of self-determination, the right to be a Christian nation, the right to determine your own outcome, the right to be free of government interference.”

On the other end of the state, we met Yasmine Hamou, who works doing voter outreach for the Working Families Party in Philadelphia. Hamou knocked on doors as a child with her mother for former President Barack Obama. She told us seeing Harris’ rise in politics and being on the brink of history is inspiring to her.

“I know how difficult it is when you speak up in the workplace. You have to work 10 times as hard to get half the result as your white peers,” Hamou said. “When I was voting for her, I got a little emotional because I couldn’t believe I was seeing her name.”

You can read what other voters we met on our trip had to say ahead of the election right here.

A Court of Common Pleas judge ordered that disabled voters in Perry County, Pennsylvania, can obtain and return provisional ballots by a Department of State-designated agent if they themselves are unable to travel to a polling place Tuesday, because of their disability.

The ruling comes just hours before polls close in the county. It offers an option for disabled voters whose mail-in or absentee ballots would not count because they were defective ballots.

Meanwhile, in Laflin Borough in Luzerne County, a judge ordered polling places to remain open until 9:30 p.m., after they opened roughly 90 minutes late Tuesday morning.

Democratic state Sen. Sarah McBride stopped at a polling location in Wilmington Tuesday afternoon to cast her vote, flanked by dozens of supporters.

McBride would become the first transgender person to serve in U.S. Congress if she wins Delaware’s lone at-large representative seat. Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester is seeking to replace retiring Sen. Tom Carper in the Senate. McBride would also be the youngest person Delaware’s sent to Washington since President Joe Biden was elected.

McBride gained national prominence when she became the first openly transgender person to speak at the Democratic National Convention in 2016. McBride told reporters that she’s not running to make history, but to make a difference for Delawareans and people across the country.

She is competing for the seat against Republican John Whalen, a retired state police officer and a small business owner.

» READ MORE: ‘‘History often happens one step at a time’: Delaware Sen. Sarah McBride is witnessing history — while making it herself

While NBC’s final polling as of Nov. 2 shows that Democratic nominee Kamala Harris is ahead of Donald Trump with young voters 57% to 41% and female voters by the same margin, there is still a sizable number of first-time female voters casting their ballots Republican today.

According to Pew Research Center polls released on April 9, 2024, 51% of female voters tilt Democratic; about two-thirds of all voters aged 18-24 lean Democratic. However, 44% of women and 34% of voters under 25 support the GOP. From issues of border control to sex education, WHYY News talked to young women showing up at the polls to mark their support for Republican values.

For Rutgers University sophomore Victoria Sorbat, her vote boils down to the issue of “personal choice.” Sorbat, a native of Bucks County, Pa., was raised in a conservative Christian household in which family values and “trust in God” were emphasized.

“[Republicans] are a party of choice,” she said, explaining that she first became invested in the GOP in 2020 because of their views on a person’s autonomy to not receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

» READ MORE: ‘My body, my temple’: First-time female Republican voters in Pa. split on the issue of abortion

New Jersey voters are heading to the polls in large numbers today, and many have cast their ballots already.

A New Jersey Association of Election Officials representative described today’s turnout as “huge,” with long lines at several locations this morning.

Wait times at the polls dropped off this afternoon, but they are expected to pick up early this evening, officials said.

An election spokesperson said at least 1.2 million Garden State residents voted during the state’s 9-day early voting period, and around 800,000 people voted by mail. The spokesperson estimated 50% to 60% of registered voters in N.J. are participating in this election. So far, no significant disruptions have been reported at any polling location. 

Election Day is this Tuesday, but for various reasons, we may not get the results that night.

One such hold-up is the work it takes to process and count mail-in ballots.

Most U.S. states provide some form of early in-person voting and mail-in voting for all voters, and tens of millions of voters have cast ballots early this year.

Because each state has different rules regarding the timeline for processing and counting mail-in ballots, many election officials cannot start tabulating these ballots until Election Day or even after the polls close that night.

Make sure you are aware of when your state starts processing and counting mail-in ballots.

And remember to sit tight and stay calm as results finally do come in.

» READ MORE: When will mail and absentee ballots be counted?

Donald Trump is refusing to say how he voted on Florida’s abortion measure — and getting testy about it.

The former president was asked twice after casting his ballot in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday about a question that the state’s voters are considering. If approved, it would prevent state lawmakers from passing any law that penalizes, prohibits, delays or restricts abortion until fetal viability — which doctors say is sometime after 21 weeks.

If it’s rejected, the state’s restrictive six-week abortion law would stand.

The first time he was asked, Trump avoided answering. He said instead of the issue that he did “a great job bringing it back to the states.” That was a reference to the former president having appointed three conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court who helped overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 2022.

» READ MORE: Trump snaps at reporter when asked about abortion: ‘Stop talking about it’

Millions of mail ballots were requested across the U.S. for the 2024 general election.

As of Tuesday morning, around 85% had been returned in the swing state of Pennsylvania out of the more than 2 million requested.

Still holding onto yours? There are several ways to turn it in.

For suburban Philadelphia voters, ballot drop-off locations for Bucks, Chesco, Delco, Montco and Philly can be found online.

If you have a mail ballot but prefer to vote in person, bring your ballot (and the envelopes it came with) and surrender it to a poll worker. Once you’ve surrendered your mail ballot and signed a declaration, you can cast a regular ballot.

If you requested a mail ballot but didn’t receive one, head to your polling place and ask for a provisional ballot. After Election Day, officials will verify you didn’t already vote by mail and count your ballot.

Mail ballots must be delivered to a drop box or county election officials by the time the polls close at 8 p.m. Mail ballots postmarked by the deadline, but not yet received, do not count.

The tradition of rewarding voters for doing their democratic duty returns this year with free latkes, cookies, doughnuts, frozen yogurt, beer, and other treats.

Stop by these businesses and organizations on Election Day with your “I Voted” sticker (or in some cases, just tell them you voted) and pick up your treat.

Pizza to the Polls

The nonpartisan nonprofit delivers free pizza to voters waiting in long polling lines, and is handing out 1,500 slices in Philly over the course of the day.

Stops on Tuesday will include polling sites at Bright Hope Baptist Church (1601 N. 12th St., 10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.), South Philadelphia High School (2101 S. Broad St., 2:30-4:30 p.m.), and West Philadelphia High School (4901 Chestnut St., 4-5:30 p.m.). There will also be music, art installations, Eagles cheerleader visits, and swag giveaways at the three locations throughout the day.

Famous 4th Street Delicatessen

700 S. 4th St.

The deli is a traditional Election Day gathering spot for politicians, and is also thanking sticker-wearing patrons with either a gratis serving of latkes (potato pancakes) or a cookie of their choice.

Love City Brewing

1023 Hamilton Street

“Anyone who asks for it can get a free 10 oz. beer, but it would be cool if you also voted!” Love City promises. They’ll also have an election watch party from 6 to 11 p.m.: “It might be stressful, but it’s better than stressing alone at home.”

FCM Hospitality

Several FCM Hospitality restaurants and bars will offer a free Mainstay Beer to those showing an “I Voted” sticker. They include Craft Hall, Harper’s Garden, Juno, Lola’s Garden, Lucy’s, Rosy’s Taco Bar, Rosy’s Taco Bar East, and Walnut Garden.

The Philadelphia band Snacktime performed for voters at a polling place in North Philadelphia.

The mostly brass band played drum line-inspired versions of songs like the Beatles’ “Come Together” and Charles Wright’s “Express Yourself” in the spirit of the voting process. They played at midday from a truck bed parked at Penrose Recreation Center with a fully amplified sound system. Dancing ensued.

“It makes the experience a lot more positive,” said first-time voter Balencia Julien. “Especially with the anxiety of the country’s political state.”

The performance was one of several around the city produced by Joy to the Polls, a multi-city get-out-the-vote effort that brings musicians to polling places. The Philly effort culminates in an evening concert in West Philadelphia with headliner De La Soul.

According to poll workers, turnout at Penrose was fairly typical for a presidential election, with the expected lull in activity in the middle of the day. The polling place includes many students from nearby Temple University.

One poll worker did not particularly like having the band outside, saying he did not think it drew more people to vote. He thought it was “corny.”

It was the second poll performance of the day for Snacktime, having played earlier at Bright Hope Baptist Church.

There are other efforts to bring performances to polling places, including DJs to the Polls which planned to install DJs at “hundreds” of locations.

A sample of voters casting their ballots at Bowmansville Fire Company Station 33 in Lancaster County Tuesday morning said the economy and immigration were big issues for them. Many said they voted for Republican candidates former President Donald Trump for president and Dave McCormick for U.S. Senate, who made those issues a big part of their campaigns.

Alan Cooper said he never voted before, but this time was different. “I don’t want people to point the finger at me. I don’t like what’s been going on for the last four years,” he said. “I didn’t vote [in 2020] so it’s on my back. I don’t know if it will matter.”

When asked what issue was most important for her, Kim Evans pointed to the economy.

Randy Hearst, who also voted for Trump and McCormick, said he did so because he was concerned about the economy and immigration.

Michael, who did not want to give his last name, said “his pocket and his money” were the most important for him and that’s why he voted for the former president. “I voted for Trump because I believe he is the man to do the job,” he said.

In 2020, Trump won Lancaster County with 57% of the vote.

» READ MORE: A guide to Pa.’s U.S. Sen. race between Bob Casey and Dave McCormick

As voters head to the polls in New Jersey, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate has wrapped up campaigning, but his Republican challenger continues to rally around the Garden State.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Andy Kim is spending the rest of the day with his family before he heads to his election night headquarters in Cherry Hill. Republican Curtis Bashaw plans to visit volunteers in Colts Neck, then make a stop at the MetroPark train station in Iselin before heading to his election night headquarters in Basking Ridge.

Earlier today, Bashaw stopped in Northfield for a visit with supporters, then made a diner stop in Toms River.

Both candidates are vying for the Senate seat vacated by Bob Menendez this summer after he was convicted on multiple federal corruption charges.

There are almost a million more registered Democrats in New Jersey than registered Republicans. Polls close at 8 p.m.

» READ MORE: New Jersey’s U.S. Senate contest between Democrat Andy Kim and Republican Curtis Bashaw

This dispatch originally appeared on NPR. 

Two things are traditionally true about older voters: they turn out more reliably than younger voters, and they lean Republican.

But this year, a significant gender gap has emerged among older voters. In a recent Michigan poll by AARP, women over 50 favored Vice President Harris by 12 points, while former President Donald Trump won men by 17 points.

In a Pennsylvania AARP poll, Trump again won men over 50 by 17 points, but women over 50 were dead even.

One reason for the disparity: While men and women 50 and older both say economic issues are most important to them, women over 50 are more likely to say they trust Harris as much or more than Trump on the economy, says pollster Kristin Soltis Anderson.

“Not just about who’s going to make your grocery bill lower, but also these women are thinking about long-term economic stability type questions,” Soltis Anderson said. “Who is going to make it so that I can retire when I thought I’d be able to?”

“I think it’s because of that that you’ve seen Kamala Harris pull up closer to Donald Trump in the fight for who wins on the economy,” she added.

Also driving the gender gap is reproductive rights.

“Older women were the ones that had to fight like crazy to get reproductive rights,” said University of South Florida political scientist Susan MacManus. “They do not want to see any retrogression on the reproductive rights front whatsoever.”

That’s the reason 80-year-old Gale Siegel chose to vote for Harris.

“I marched for all the women’s rights, ERA [Equal Rights Amendment] with my children and it looks like here I am, in this year, 2024, doing that again,” Siegel said at a Bethlehem, Pa., rally.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said there have been no arrests or trouble reported at the polls so far beyond reports of minor disputes between poll workers and campaign workers that were quickly resolved.

“We want to make sure that elections are fair and honest,” Krasner said, adding that he doesn’t expect any cases of voter fraud, but will investigate and prosecute if any cases are reported.

Voters who experience problems should call the DA’s Election Protection Task Force at 215-686-9641.

The DA’s office is investigating social media reports of poll workers being videotaped, which might be a violation of law, he said.

“The behavior is a little more aggressive than what we have seen in the past,” said Krasner at a Tuesday morning press conference.

In one case, Krasner said, two Republican poll workers wanted to record serial numbers on the back of a voting machine at a poll site at William C. Longstreth Elementary School on the 5700 block of Willows Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia.

Other poll workers asked them to leave, but after a phone call to the DA’s office, they returned to the polling site, after it was determined that the Republican poll workers had the proper credentials.

According to Krasner, so far, there are no reports of anything as serious as 2020 when two Virginia men were arrested outside of the Convention Center where votes were being counted. The men were armed with handguns and had several other firearms in the Hummers, along with hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

The men were later convicted on firearm violations.

Outside the Lackman Memorial Playground and Recreation Center, there was a steady stream of voters between 8:30 a.m. and into 10:30 a.m., with roughly 200 voters over the course of two hours.

In the nearby neighborhood of Bustleton, tucked away from main roads with many single-family units and townhomes nearby, many voters walked to the polls rather than driving.

There was no line, and voters said it was a quick process to get in and out.

Joseph Muncan, who immigrated to the U.S. from Romania 50 years ago, said it was important to “go forward with unity.”

“It’s important, freedom in general,” Muncan said. “Social security. It’s important, medicare. Minimum wages need to be improved. And overall safety, which is very important.”

____

For voters like Ashley, who declined to give her last name for fear of retaliation in the workplace, she said that inflation was most important to her.

“The past couple years have been hard on everybody. I am a nurse and I still feel that the inflation is out of control,” she said. “Three years ago, I was able to rent without an issue living by myself. And now I’m struggling, it’s paycheck to paycheck.”

Ashley said that she used to spend $100 a week on groceries for herself and her child. Now she spends closer to $300 in the same week.

“For the same thing that [I bought] three years ago,” she said. “You could shop at four different grocery stores and it’s all going to be the same at the end of the week. It’s still the same price.”

Ashley declined to share who she voted for in the presidential election but said she voted for Joe Picozzi, part of the young Republicans in Philadelphia, after taking her time and reviewing his proposed policies.

____

For 35-year-old Midhun John, he voted to curb inflation since the economy was his top concern. Both he and his spouse are Christian and wanted to make sure their voices were heard.

“We like changes, but it’s too fast. We see a lot more people struggling out there,” he said. “Just the housing market and the interest rate. I have friends who are struggling to buy a house. I think four years ago, we didn’t have that struggle. It was at two percent now it’s like seven, eight percent.”

He said he doesn’t typically vote for a specific party but a candidate instead.

____

Mary Ann Becker, an older adult, has lived in Port Richmond for years but moved to Bustleton in her 70s.

“I’m most motivated because I believe that Donald Trump should definitely get [into office],” Becker said. “I don’t want another four years of the Harris and the Biden stuff. To me, she was like a puppet. She has no views on anything, all she would do is bash Trump and tell the people, ‘I’m going to make your life better.’”

Becker said she doesn’t appreciate that Vice President Kamala Harris was not voted into office during the primary election.

“I think what Trump did for this country the last time he was in office was amazing. We need him for the border, for the economy,” she said. “Don’t even get me started. It’s bad overseas. He can stop all of that. He’s great, he says what he means and he means what he says and he actually acts on it. That’s why I think Trump should be in there.”

As a Catholic, Becker said that now she leans on her faith after voting and that “it’s on God” to put her preferred candidate back in the White House.

There was already a line of about two dozen voters in front of George Washington High School in Northeast Philadelphia before polls opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday.

It was a politically, racially and ethnically diverse line of voters near the corner of Bustleton Avenue and Red Lion Road.

Within the first hour, about 150 people were in and out of the voting location that holds several divisions in the ward.

Philadelphia voter Patrick Corey, an older adult, said he’s worried about America’s future.

“I’m concerned about possibly World War III. I have a grandson in college and I really don’t want to see him go to war,” Corey said. “That would be number 1 for me. The other issue is the border. We have to have a secure border, bottom line. The other candidate had four years to do something. She did absolutely nothing. It’s time for a change.”

____

David Cruz is a small business owner and the child of an immigrant who came to the U.S. decades ago. Cruz described himself as an independent voter who chooses specific candidates each election cycle.

The 49-year-old said his top three concerns were the economy, specifically inflation and the cost of doing business, plus taxes and immigration.

“I’ve been concerned for the last four years [about the] trajectory of the country, where the economy is going, the high taxes,” Cruz said. “The open border, which is very concerning as an immigrant, seeing the immigration laws not being applied. As someone that came here and followed the process, I’m seeing the path that the current administration is taking is concerning for the next four years. My issue is not that immigrants have come over to this country illegally. My issue is that there’s no plan to stop that from happening. I’m concerned that my children won’t have the same experience that I had [with a good life].”

The economy has been difficult for Cruz, and he’s watched his own workers struggle to make ends meet.

“My biggest issue is the economy. It’s hurt my bottom line, it hurt my family. We can’t continue in this environment,” he said. “Inflation over the last two years has cost me more than $60,000 that I did not expect and that’s unbearable. My fuel costs [have] almost doubled in [the] last two years. My employees are struggling. I need to increase their wage just so they can sustain their living.”

____

Barri Goldstein said her top two concerns were the economy and women’’ right to having an abortion if they need it.

“A woman has the right to choose what to do with her own body and life,” Goldstein said.

She said her neighbors who still drive complain about high gas prices and inflation at the store. She’s old enough that she can get a free SEPTA pass and gave up driving around the city.

The cost of living, “keep going up, the price is never going to come down, I don’t think. Unless there’s a sale.”

____

“Our social security and Medicare [shouldn’t be] touched by a bozo,” said Fidel Rodriguez. “Keep it the way it is now, don’t change it. Don’t give the millionaires all the money they want. The middle class is the one that should be taken care of. Those who worked and spent all the time paying into it.”

Carol Rodriguez, Fidel’s spouse, said that women’s rights was her top issue.

“No one. Not the government, any man should tell a woman what to do with their body. That’s a woman’s right. She should know and do what feels right with her body. That’s it, period,” Rodriguez said.

Lynette Willis, a Northeast Philadelphia voter, said that taking care of seniors and women’s rights were most important to her. She’s already had her children, but she worries about the next generation of women not being able to choose when or if they become mothers. too.

“Seniors, they were here before us. We have to think about them,” Willis said. “As far as women, we are in control of that. Not anybody else. If someone gets raped, now that’s a big thing. You’re going to make them have the baby of someone that violated them. It’s not right. We all want somebody that’s going to be there for everyone. Not for one party. It’s not by gender or race or anything like that. We have to stick together.”

A Pennsylvania state judge on Tuesday ordered polls to remain open for two extra hours in Cambria County, which sought the extension after a software malfunction affected ballot-scanning machines.

County officials said the problem caused some voter confusion, with some leaving without casting a ballot, as well as long lines at some locations. They stressed, along with state officials, that no one was being turned away from the polls and all ballots would be counted.

Election Day is forecast to be sunny and mild, particularly at Montgomery County polling places where its official “I Voted” stickers depict 45 versions of the sun.

The county has coordinated with the youth art nonprofit Fresh Artists to make sticker designs submitted by K-12 students in county public schools. It received 759 entries for a project to interpret the phrase “My Time to Shine,” and 45 were selected for stickers.

The entries include sunny landscapes and smiling suns radiating multicolored lines. They are all mosaics made from obsolete paint color sample chips.

“These 100% kid-designed art stickers will remind voters that they are voting for our children’s future,” said Barbara Chandler Allen, Fresh Artists president and co-founder.

Alas, no one submitted an image of a werewolf ripping off its shirt, as a Michigan middle schooler notably did in another swing state.

Fresh Artists supports art education in low-income public schools by bringing student work into public and corporate spaces. More than 500 pieces submitted to the “My Time To Shine” project will eventually be displayed as reproductions in the new Justice Center, a 325,000-square-foot addition to the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown, expected to be finished in the fall of 2025.

“Fresh Artists is not only bringing beautiful art into our public spaces but also introducing these students to local government and encouraging them to pursue their artistic talents,” said Jamila H. Winder, chair of the Montgomery County (PA) Board of Commissioners and vice chair of the County Board of Elections. “Soon, all of Montgomery County will see that talent on display.”

Several factors contribute to a relatively slow vote counting process in Pennsylvania. Under Pennsylvania law, elections officials must wait until 7 a.m. ET on Election Day before they can begin to process ballots cast by mail and prepare them to be counted. The actual tabulation of mail ballots cannot begin until after polls have closed. Because of the overall volume of mail ballots — they comprised almost a quarter of the total vote in the 2022 midterm elections — and the varying amounts of time it takes the state’s 67 counties to tally these votes, determining a winner in a highly competitive race could take several days, as it did in the 2020 presidential election.

The first vote results reported after polls close are expected to come from mail ballots. Results from later in the night are expected to be a mix of mail votes and votes cast in person on Election Day. Once the vote counting stretches into the day after Election Day and beyond, the vote results are once again expected to come mostly from mail ballots.

Overall, votes cast by mail have tended to favor Democrats, ever since the issue of early and mail voting became highly politicized during the 2020 election. This means the Democratic candidate in a competitive contest could take an early lead in the vote count in the initial vote reports after polls close, even though the race may tighten considerably as more votes are tabulated.

In 2020, Biden took an early, temporary lead after mail voting results began to be released shortly after polls closed at 8 p.m. ET. By about 10 p.m. ET, Trump took the lead as more results from Election Day voting were released. By early Wednesday morning, Trump led Biden by nearly 700,000 votes, but that lead would gradually shrink as more mail ballots were tabulated. Biden eventually retook the lead by Friday morning.

The suburban “collar counties” around Philadelphia are key battlegrounds and have been trending toward Democrats in recent years. In statewide elections, Republican candidates tend to win overwhelmingly in rural areas statewide, while Democrats rely on lopsided support in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Erie and Northampton counties on opposite sides of the state may also hold clues on election night. They are two of only 10 counties across all the presidential battlegrounds that voted for Trump in 2016 and flipped to Biden in 2020.

The Associated Press doesn’t make projections and will declare a winner only when it has determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidates to close the gap. If a race hasn’t been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, like candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear it hasn’t declared a winner and explain why.

In Pennsylvania, races with a vote margin of 0.5 percentage points or less are subject to an automatic recount. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is eligible for a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

It’s Election Day. Polls opened Tuesday across the nation and Americans cast ballots in the 2024 presidential election. In a deeply divided nation, the election is a true toss-up between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump.

We know there are seven battleground states that will decide the outcome, barring a major surprise. But major questions persist about the timing of the results, the makeup of the electorate, the influx of misinformation — even the possibility of political violence. At the same time, both sides are prepared for a protracted legal battle that could complicate things further.

Here’s what to watch on Election Day 2024:

History will be made either way

Given all the twists and turns in recent months, it’s easy to overlook the historical significance of this election.

Harris would become the first female president in the United States’ 248-year history. If elected, she would also be the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent to hold the office. Harris and her campaign have largely played down gender and race, fearing that they might alienate some supporters. But the significance of a Harris win would not be lost on historians.

A Trump victory would represent a different kind of historical accomplishment. He would become the first person convicted of a felony elected to the U.S. presidency, having been convicted of 34 felony counts in a New York hush-money case little more than five months ago.

Trump, who is still facing felony charges in at least two separate criminal cases, argued that he is the victim of a politicized justice system. And tens of millions of voters apparently believe him — or they’re willing to overlook his extraordinary legal baggage.

» READ MORE: Here’s what to watch on Election Day in the U.S.

This dispatch originally appeared on NPR.

Millions of Americans have cast their vote, either early in recent weeks or in-person at polling places today.

But the AP can’t call any races until polls close in their respective state.

That process will unfold throughout the night, given the various time zones at play. Here’s a breakdown of poll closing times:

7 p.m. ET — 60 electoral votes at stake

• Georgia
• Indiana*
• Kentucky*
• South Carolina
• Vermont
• Virginia

*Indiana and Kentucky are in split time zones; the earliest results will be seen in the 6 p.m. ET hour.

7:30 p.m. ET — 37 electoral votes

• North Carolina
• Ohio
• West Virginia

8 p.m. ET — 171 electoral votes

• Pennsylvania
• Alabama
• Connecticut
• D.C.
• Delaware
• Florida*
• Illinois
• Maine
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• New Hampshire*
• New Jersey
• Oklahoma
• Rhode Island
• Tennessee

*Florida and New Hampshire will see some results at 7 p.m. ET. 

8:30 p.m. ET — 6 electoral votes

• Arkansas

9 p.m. ET — 163 electoral votes

• Arizona
• Wisconsin
• Michigan*
• Colorado
• Iowa
• Kansas*
• Louisiana
• Minnesota
• Nebraska
• New Mexico
• New York
• North Dakota*
• South Dakota*
• Texas*
• Wyoming

*Michigan, Kansas, North Dakota, South Dakota and Texas will see some results at 8 p.m. ET.

10 p.m. ET — 16 electoral votes

• Nevada
• Montana
• Utah

11 p.m. ET — 78 electoral votes

• California
• Idaho*
• Oregon*
• Washington

*Idaho and Oregon will see some results at 10 p.m. ET.

12 a.m. ET — 4 electoral votes 

• Hawaii

1 a.m. ET — 3 electoral votes 

• Alaska*

*Alaska will see some results at 12 a.m. ET.

This dispatch originally appeared on NPR.

Vice President Harris ended her campaign focused on persuasion, committing in ads and rally speeches to be a president for all Americans — even those who disagree with her.

Donald Trump closed his reelection effort, as ever, with a message focused on turning out his core supporters and lower-propensity voters. His rally speeches combined “low IQ” smears of his opponent with dire warnings about immigration and crime, as well as a celebration of economic tariffs. He often closed rallies with a message to supporters to get their “asses out to vote.”

Both candidates spent the remaining days of their campaigns focused on appealing to voters in swing states. They’ve each been fighting to win over Latino voters in Pennsylvania, for example, and spent Monday, the last day of the campaign, in the Keystone State. About 580,000 Latino voters live in Pennsylvania.

The final NPR/PBS News/Marist poll shows the state of the race essentially unchanged, a statistical dead-heat.

A regular part of Harris’ rally speeches was a line noting that while Trump has an “enemies” list, she has a “to-do list” of policies to improve the lives of the American people, from expanding home-care options for seniors to measures aimed at increasing the stock of available housing.

And while Trump occasionally talks about policy during rallies, he devotes a lot of time to his perceived enemies. During a Halloween campaign event in Arizona, Trump called former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney a “radical war hawk” and said “let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face.”

Here’s how you can tune into the latest developments this Election Day:

• 🖥️ WHYY.org: Read the latest live coverage and explore our voter guides on candidates and key races
• 🎧 WHYY-FM: Local and national experts offer insights into what’s happening
• 📱 WHYY App: Read the latest election updates and stream WHYY-FM
• 📧 The Swing: Get periodic newsletter updates on the 2024 election and how it impacts you locally

Voters across the U.S. are heading to the polls today to cast ballots in the 2024 general election. Polls open at 6 a.m. in New Jersey, and at 7 a.m. in Pennsylvania and Delaware. Polls will close at 8 p.m. nationwide.

Reporters from WHYY News and Billy Penn are following each of the major campaigns — including the close race for president and the contentious contest for Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate seat,

Here’s your voter game plan:

Pennsylvania

• Voter FAQs: WHYY News’ Pa. voter guide has the answers you need
• Key races to watch
  • Row offices: Attorney general | Auditor general | Treasurer
  • U.S. Senate: Bob Casey vs. David McCormick
  • U.S. House
    • 1st District | Bucks, Montgomery counties
  • Pa. state House
    • 13th District | Chester County
    • 18th District | Bucks County
    • 142nd District | Bucks County
    • 144th District | Bucks County
    • 160th District | Chester, Delaware counties
  • Ballot questions: Here’s a breakdown of what to expect in Philly’s suburbs
  • Voting by mail: Here’s what to know about filling out and returning your ballot
  • Counting the votes: Follow along with WHYY as votes are tallied this evening

New Jersey

• Voter FAQs: WHYY News’ N.J. voter guide has the answers you need
• Key races to watch
  • U.S. Senate: Andy Kim vs. Curtis Bashaw
  • U.S. House
    • 1st Congressional District | Burlington, Camden. Gloucester, counties
    • 2nd Congressional District | Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Ocean, Salem counties
    • 3rd Congressional District | Burlington, Mercer, Monmouth counties
    • 4th Congressional District | Monmouth, Ocean counties
    • 7th Congressional District | Hunterdon, Morris, Somerset, Sussex, Union, Warren counties
    • 12th Congressional District | Mercer, Middlesex, Somerset, Union counties
• Voting by mail: Here’s what to know about filling out and returning your ballot
• Counting the votes: Follow along with WHYY as votes are tallied this evening

Delaware

• Voter FAQs: WHYY News’ Delaware voter guide has the answers you need
• Lt. gov. election: Kyle Evans Gay vs. Ruth Briggs King

For continuing live coverage, candidate guides and key voter info, WHYY News’ 2024 voter hub has everything you need in one place. Follow the latest via WHYY.org, the WHYY App, and WHYY-FM.

Tens of thousands of people stood in 50-degree weather as Vice President Kamala Harris made her closing argument of the presidential election in a near midnight speech on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, after another blitz around the state.

Black Eyed Peas member, will.i.am performed “YES SHE CAN,” Harris’ walk-up song, into an Oprah Winfrey embrace.

Harris called on the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection to come out strongly on Election Day, a bid for the mostly Democratic city to turn out and help her build an urban bulwark in what is likely to be a show of force in more rural parts of the state.

“Philadelphia, are you ready to do this?” she asked to screams of “yeah!” “Are we ready to vote? Are we ready to win?”

» READ MORE: Kamala Harris makes final pitch for White House in Philly to 30,000 on Rocky steps

That’s about half the number who voted overall in 2020. More people voted early that year because of the pandemic. Still, several states have reported record levels of early voting because former President Donald Trump has urged Republicans to vote that way now.

Early voting data only tells you who has cast ballots, not who they voted for. We’ll have to wait for Tuesday night to find that out. But, meanwhile, you can pour over the early vote data in your state.

Henry Bailey, Nathan Nazareth, Oden Calvert and Eric Stellato, all seniors at Drexel University, said tonight’s “Vote for Freedom” rally was the first political event any of them had been to — and that they skipped class to get in line early.

“It’s historic,” Stellato said. “We gotta show our support and show that, I don’t know, people do generally care about this. Even people like us.”

When asked what he meant, Stellato explained that he might not fit the mold of someone you’d instantly identify as a Harris supporter.

“We might not be vocal about it, we might not wear stuff or stuff like that or post about it or anything,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean we don’t care, you know? And we definitely talk to our friends about it and have serious conversations.”

Stellato said he liked Trump in 2016 when he was a teenager and “didn’t know better,” but changed his opinion throughout the course of the following four years. Going to college after that, he said, was also a big shift.

“I think we see it with a lot of people now — they see it as like the edgier thing, like the rebellious thing to do,” he said of supporting Trump. “If you’re not informed, his stuff might sound whatever. Then once you realize he’s lying every single sentence, then you start to realize — you might learn better.”

Stellato said he’s concerned that his father, an Ecuadorian immigrant who is now a U.S. citizen, could be harmed by what he imagines could be a sweeping and disorganized mass deportation in a Trump presidency. He also worries about his gay and transgender friends, as well as the women in his life.

Bailey, a registered Democrat who identifies as a moderate, agreed that he was concerned about women’s reproductive rights under a second Trump presidency. Bailey said that while he sometimes wishes Harris leaned more conservative in certain topics, like immigration, he thinks the Republican Party as it stands today is a “total sham.”

“Even if there’s things I don’t agree with her about, it’s way better than Donald Trump,” Bailey said. “He’s made it clear that he doesn’t believe in certain things as far as the Constitution. And also, it’s clear that he’s for the rich. He’s a rich-person president. Not that we haven’t had rich presidents, but he’s clearly a lot more, I guess, Hollywood about it.”

The group of four said that they were excited, nervous and “cautiously optimistic” about what Election Day would bring.

Harris projected the confidence her campaign is feeling at the penultimate event of her presidential run, telling an audience on Monday night in Pittsburgh that “the momentum is on our side.”

“This is it,” Harris said with Carrie Furnaces behind her, a historic steel facility that nodded to Pittsburgh’s history as the heart of the country’s steel industry. “Tomorrow is Election Day, and the momentum is on our side.”

“We must finish strong,” Harris added. “Make no mistake, we will win.”

This is not Harris’ final stop of the night. She will head to Philadelphia for the final event of her campaign.

Ohio Sen. JD Vance promised his Bucks County supporters that a second Donald Trump presidency will bring about “a golden age of American prosperity.”

Vance spent the middle portion of his speech bashing Vice President Kamala Harris’ record on immigration and the economy.

He urged the crowd in Newtown to “do everything” to persuade their neighbors and help send the GOP ticket to the White House.

“I’m asking the people of Pennsylvania to make me your next vice president,” Vance said as he closed out Monday evening’s rally.

» READ MORE: ‘Are you excited about World War III?’: JD Vance paints grim picture of Harris presidency in closing argument to Pa. voters

Trump says he wants to see the successful Penn State wrestling team compete against migrants, painting a picture of people crossing the border illegally as strong and nasty.

“I want the migrants to go against the champion, and I think the migrant might actually win,” Trump said, describing migrants — as he often does — as killers who’ve spent time in jail.

He said he met the wrestlers recently and told them “they might be the only guys in the country who can beat the hell out of the migrants.”

He had a similar riff at a rally earlier Monday.

Immigration has been Trump’s signature issue since the day he announced his first campaign for president. He often uses dehumanizing language to describe migrants and massively inflates the danger posed by immigrants, who commit crimes at lower rates than native-born Americans.

Trump began his Pittsburgh speech by painting a bleak picture of America under Democratic leadership and promising to fix it. He said Americans have suffered “catastrophic failure, betrayal and humiliation.”

“We do not have to settle for weakness, incompetence, decline and decay,” Trump said. “With your vote tomorrow, we can fix every single problem our country faces and lead America, and indeed the whole world, to new heights of glory.”

“A vote for Trump means your groceries will be cheaper,” Trump said. “Your paychecks will be higher, your streets will be safer, your communities will be richer, and your future will be brighter than ever before.”

Trump has claimed his plans to increase energy production will help him lower prices, even as he plans to dramatically raise tariffs.

He’s repeating his campaign’s closing message that: “Kamala broke it. I will fix it.”

JD Vance wasted no time launching jabs at Vice President Kamala Harris.

“I watch Kamala Harris on ‘The View’ so you don’t have to,” the senator from Ohio said to 2,500 supporters who gathered to hear him in Newtown, Bucks County.

The GOP vice presidential nominee lambasted Harris’ recent press run. He said Harris is “pretending” that she is different from President Joe Biden.

“We know what Kamala Harris’ leadership means for Pennsylvania. It means more people dying from fentanyl,” Vance said.

He accused Harris of copying platform ideas from his running mate Donald Trump, such as Trump’s promise to not tax tips.

“We don’t want the fake copy of Donald J. Trump,” Vance said. “We want the real thing.”

Beating bumper-to-bumper traffic, more than 2,500 people gathered inside the Newtown Athletic Club in Bucks County to hear Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance.

Venue owner Jim Worthington, as well U.S. Reps. Dan Meuser and Lloyd Smucker, riled up the crowd, stressing the need to vote Tuesday.

“We are in a great position at this point to deliver a victory for our candidates,” Meuser said.

He called Vance a “great American story” and bashed Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz.

“He’s better at loading tampons in boy’s bathrooms than he is at loading a shotgun,” Meuser said.

Upper Darby Councilwoman Danyelle Blackwell, a Democrat, was at the “Vote for Freedom” rally in Philly tonight. She stood in an ADA section close to the stage, dancing with others nearby. She said she’s feeling confident about tomorrow.

“Oh, we’re going to win,” she said. “It’s going to be the first woman [president]. It’s going to be historic. We’re going to work together and we’re going to have peace.”

“And the Electoral College, they better not do the same thing they did with Hillary,” Blackwell added, referring to the fact Hillary Clinton won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College tally, 304-227. “Because we got the popular vote — we got it already. We got it before and we’re doing it again.”

Asked about what an event like this offers, Blackwell said it would help get out the vote, but also that it was a good experience for possibly anxious voters across the region.

“You need music. Music calms the soul. Human nature needs to have the arts, theater. We need this to help us calm down.”

On the eve of the election, the Democrats’ get-out-the-vote rally and concert, which will culminate with an appearance around 11 p.m. by Vice President Kamala Harris, is drawing a large crowd as the sun goes down in Philadelphia.

The star-studded “Vote for Freedom” event is taking place on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at the foot of the Philadelphia Art Museum, and long lines of people are working through Logan Circle. Nearby streets are teeming with people.

Lady Gaga, The Roots, Ricky Martin, and DJ Cassidy are set to perform at the event, with Oprah Winfrey, Fat Joe, and Philly’s own DJ Jazzy Jeff expected to deliver speeches. Harris is expected to take the stage later in the night, after she and her husband Doug Emhoff arrive from an earlier rally in Pittsburgh.

Philly is a crucial source of votes for the Vice President, and turnout in the city could well determine who takes the White House. Harris visited Philly often in the weeks leading up to the ballot count. Former President Donald Trump was in the region on Monday, too.

Every presidential election cycle, constitutional law expert Alison LaCroix can count on people asking her one question when they learn what she does for a living.

“Why do we have the Electoral College?” she says she’s asked – again and again. “It’s good news in terms of people being aware that it exists,” says LaCroix, who teaches law and history at the University of Chicago, “but bad news in the sense that people feel like, ‘Why does it exist, and is it useful?’”

A majority of Americans — more than 60% — support abolishing the Electoral College, according to a September report by the Pew Research Center. But the system has survived an unprecedented number of attempts to change it.

“There have been more proposals for Constitutional amendments on changing the Electoral College than on any other subject,” according to the National Archives, citing more than 700 efforts to dismantle the process.

Backers of the Electoral College idea say the system balances power among large and small states, brings stability, and is an obstacle to demagogues. But critics call the Electoral College an indirect process that’s undemocratic and rooted in racism. It’s also the reason we have swing states.

» READ MORE: How has the Electoral College survived, despite being perennially unpopular?

On Tuesday, millions of people in Pennsylvania will travel to their local polling place to cast a ballot.

Election officials want everything to go smoothly, but disruptions sometimes happen.

The most common disruptions at precincts are late openings, lack of staffing and voting machine issues, according to Jeff Greenburg, a 13-year election director veteran. He is now a senior advisor on election administration for The Committee of Seventy, a nonpartisan organization focusing on engagement and public policy advocacy.

Anyone can report a problem with the election process. They can call their county elections office, contact the Department of State, or reach out to a voter hotline run by nonprofits.

» READ MORE: This is how precincts in Pennsylvania handle unexpected issues on Election Day

Elon Musk’s $1-million-dollar-a-day giveaway in swing states can continue through Tuesday’s presidential election following a ruling by a Pennsylvania judge.

Common Pleas Court Judge Angelo Foglietta did not provide a reason for the ruling after Musk’s lawyers said the winners are not chosen by chance but are instead paid spokespeople, according to the Associated Press.

The sweepstakes held by Musk’s political action committee, America PAC, was announced last month during a Donald Trump rally in Harrisburg. The CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and the owner of X promised to give away $1 million a day to people who signed his PAC’s petition supporting the First and Second Amendments.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner sued Musk and his PAC last Monday calling the giveaway “indisputably an unlawful lottery” and saying it violates state election law. One of Krasner’s deputies further described the sweepstakes as a “scam” that is “designed to actually influence a national election.”

More than 1 million people from the seven swing states have registered for the sweepstakes, however, it’s not clear if anyone has received the money. The PAC pledged they would get it by Nov. 30, according to an exhibit shown in court.

Philadelphia rapper and prison reform activist Meek Mill surprise released a new track, “Who You Voting For” on Monday afternoon, sharing a snippet of the song with the caption, “I made this last night … who you voting for???” on TikTok.

“My homie say vote for Trump / You want that stimulus / I wanted two from him but the way he movin’ venomous,” he starts the song. “I’m going probably vote Kamala.”

“It ain’t fair when your lawyer look like Trump / D.A. lookin’ like Kamala,” he continues, critiquing Harris’ past as a prosecutor. “We Thanksgiving to the system / They’ve been eating us for lunch / And it’s the last supper / Hope you be with us for once, Mrs. Harris.”

In 2017, Meek Mill was sentenced for probation violations involving a decade-old gun and drug possession case. The Pennsylvania trial judge sentenced him to two to four years in prison, but a court ordered his release in April 2018.

On July 24, 2019, an appeals court tossed his conviction over doubts about the arresting officer’s credibility. The next month, Meek Mill pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor gun charge in a deal that resolved the 2007 arrest, ending his legal limbo with the criminal justice system. He is now an activist for justice reform.

On the eve of his race against Republican challenger David McCormick, Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey stumped one final time in the Philadelphia suburbs Monday afternoon. 

“I don’t want to overstate this and I don’t want to add even more pressure on your shoulders but — wow,” Casey said, addressing a packed Bucks County firehouse. “When you look at some of the numbers in the last couple of election cycles, the percent of the vote that a candidate gets in this county is very close to what they get statewide. So, no pressure.”

Political heavyweights were expected in full force across Pennsylvania on the final day leading up to a contentious U.S. presidential election. Casey’s rally in Warrington, Pa. was no different. 

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker joined Casey behind the lectern and touted his colleague’s character in the upper chamber of the United States Congress. Booker likened Casey’s spirit to that of his own late grandfather.

“When it comes to the future of our country — creating nurturing soil for our generations to come — this is the champion in the Senate,” Booker said.

Casey is expected to complete his statewide “On Our Side: Fight to the Finish” tour Tuesday morning in Scranton when he votes.

» READ MORE: In Bucks County, Pa. Sen. Bob Casey and N.J. Sen. Cory Booker make final election push

Former President Donald Trump is stepping up his demands that the winner of the presidential race be declared shortly after polls close Tuesday, well before all the votes are counted.

Trump set the pattern in 2020, when he declared that he had won during the early morning hours after Election Day. That led his allies to demand that officials “stop the count!” He and many other conservatives have spent the past four years falsely claiming that fraud cost him that election and bemoaning how long it takes to count ballots in the U.S.

But one of many reasons we are unlikely to know the winner quickly on election night is that Republican lawmakers in two key swing states have refused to change laws that delay the count. That will make it look as if Trump is initially leading, even if that changes as more ballots are tallied later. Another reason is that most indications are this will be a very close election, and it takes longer to determine who won close elections than blowouts.

In the end, election experts note, the priority in vote-counting is to make sure it’s an accurate and secure tally, not to end the suspense moments after polls close.

» READ MORE: Trump wants the presidential winner to be declared on election night. That’s highly unlikely

Vice President Kamala Harris urged the overflow audience at her second event on Monday in Pennsylvania to “remind people the power they have” as they encourage their friends and family to vote.

Harris’ event at Muhlenberg College Memorial Hall in Allentown, Pennsylvania, was filled, so the Democratic nominee addressed additional supporters in a nearby venue, thanking them for coming to the event and touting the difference they can make by voting.

“We are fighting to live forward,” Harris said. “We are all in this together.”

Allentown, once known for its steel industry, has become a majority-minority community with more than half of the city identifying as Hispanic, many with ties to Puerto Rico. A comedian at a Trump rally recently called it a “floating island of garbage.”

But they say they’re confident it won’t be possible for foreign adversaries or anyone else to alter the results of the election in any meaningful way.

Jen Easterly, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, told reporters Monday that state governments have already encountered disruptions such as the criminal destruction of ballot drop boxes and cyberattacks that have taken websites temporarily offline.

She said that while assorted problems may continue Tuesday and in the following days, built-in safeguards make it all but impossible to hack voting systems or cause other disruptions that could affect the results of the election.

Easterly said, “We cannot allow our foreign adversaries to have a vote in our democracy.”

Besides physical concerns, officials are also attuned to what they say is an “unprecedented” level of disinformation about the election from Russia and other countries, and are working to call out false claims.

Police escorts, sealed containers and chain of custody documentation: These are some of the measures that Pennsylvania counties take to secure ballots while they are transported from polling places to county facilities after polls close on Election Day.

The exact protocols vary by county. For instance, in Berks County, poll workers will transport ballots in sealed boxes back to the county elections office, where they will be locked in a secure room, according to Stephanie Nojiri, assistant director of elections for the county located east of Harrisburg.

In Philadelphia, local law enforcement plays a direct role in gathering ballots from polling places.

» READ MORE: Under lock and key: How ballots get from Pennsylvania precincts to election offices

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner was emphatic in a Monday morning news conference about sending what he called a “clear message” to anyone with ideas about interfering with the voting process.

“Anybody who thinks it’s time to play militia: ‘F’ around and find out,” Krasner said. “Anybody who thinks it’s time to insult, to deprive, to mistreat, to threaten people: ‘F’ around and find out.”

Krasner warned anyone trying to interfere with the election would face consequences.

“We do have the cuffs. We do have the jail cells. We do have the Philly juries and we have the state prisons,” he said.

ADA Joshua Barnett with the election task force said there have been some concerns about people challenging voters at the polling places.

“Poll watchers in Pennsylvania have to be credentialed. So if you plan to show up and say you’re a poll watcher, and you don’t have the proper credentials, you’ll be removed. If you are a credentialed poll watcher and you attempt to interfere, you’ll be removed,” Barnett said. “Anything that crosses the line into criminal context, we will investigate and prosecute it. ”

Philadelphia police and sheriff’s officers will also participate in Election Day security efforts.

City Commissioner Omar Sabir said about 50,000 mail ballots have yet to be be returned. He called on voters to take their mail ballots to a designated dropbox; alternatively, they may be brought directly to City Hall or a satellite city commissioners office for pickup.

The city has also published a list of Philadelphia voters whose mail ballots contain errors. City officials “strongly advise” those voters request a replacement ballot at one of the city’s satellite election offices.

Sabir said he’s concerned that, despite a massive get-out-the-vote effort, turnout will still fall short of the 68% seen four years ago when almost 750,000 votes were cast. He expects this year’s total to be closer to 600,000 votes when all is said and done.

A lawyer for Elon Musk ‘s political action committee told a judge in Philadelphia on Monday that so-called “winners” of his $1 million-a-day voter sweepstakes in swing states are not chosen by chance but are instead chosen to be paid “spokespeople” for the group.

GOP lawyer Chris Gober also said that the recipients Monday and Tuesday will come from Arizona and Michigan, respectively, and therefore will not affect the Pennsylvania election. He said the recipients are chosen based on their personal stories and sign a contract with the political organization, America PAC.

“The $1 million recipients are not chosen by chance,” Gober said Monday. “We know exactly who will be announced as the $1 million recipient today and tomorrow.”

Musk did not attend the hearing, held on the day before the presidential election. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner took the witness stand Monday and called the sweepstakes a scam as he asked the judge to shut it down.

» READ MORE: Musk PAC tells Philadelphia judge the $1 million sweepstakes winners are not chosen by chance

Republicans are favored to take control of the chamber next year thanks to a 2024 election map that has Democrats defending seven seats in conservative or swing states and on offense just two in the safe Republican states of Texas and Florida.

Democrats narrowly control the Senate 51-49 today, but with West Virginia all but certain to flip Republican after the impending retirement of Sen. Joe Manchin who registered as an independent in May.

Here are the races to watch:

Arizona

Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego has consistently polled ahead of Republican Kari Lake in the closing weeks of the election. Gallego has performed particularly well among Latino voters who have a large, and growing, influence in the state.

» READ MORE: The race for the Senate: Here are the top races to watch

The 2024 election season is upon us. While Election Day is November 5, early voting started in September in some states. As we wait for the final results to be declared, chances are, you’re going to come across false or misleading information.

To avoid spreading misinformation this election season, here are four things to consider.

We won’t know the full picture the night of November 5

Election rules and procedures vary state by state. Within a state, they can even vary between counties. Some states allow mail-in ballots received before Election Day to be processed in advance. Others leave the processing and counting of mail-in ballots until after the polls close on Election Day.

This means results can shift dramatically over the course of election night, depending on which ballots are counted first. This happened in 2020 when states where then-President Donald Trump seemed to lead shifted in favor of Joe Biden late in the evening.

» READ MORE: How to avoid sharing election misinformation

Sitting in El Mofongo Restaurant, Joseph Nuñez hunches over a table, his chin resting in his hands, reflecting on the joke from a comedian a week earlier that had undermined months of his work trying to persuade Latino voters to support former President Donald Trump.

The timing of that joke at Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden — a punchline that called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” just before Election Day — could not have been worse, said Nuñez, who represents Reading on the Berks County Republican Committee. More than 70% of people in Reading are Latino, most of them Puerto Rican.

“We are fighting tooth and nail — I mean literally tooth and nail — every day. We’re on the ground, we’re on the streets,” said Nuñez.

On Monday, this city of about 95,000 people is at the epicenter of the final day of the 2024 election. Former President Donald Trump is slated to have a rally here at 2 p.m. ET, while Vice President Harris will stop by Reading after she holds a rally in Allentown, about an hour’s drive up the Hwy. 222 corridor.

It’s a region that could decide which candidate wins Pennsylvania — and that could well decide who becomes the next president.

But ever since that joke, Nuñez has been taking a lot of incoming. “‘How are you going to represent someone that is just disrespecting us like this? I can’t believe that you’re still vouching for this guy.’ Things like that. I could go on,” he said in an interview. “I’ve been called racist more than I can count.”

» READ MORE: Trump and Harris are in Reading, Pa., today, thanks to a bad joke about Puerto Rico

Election Day is nearly upon us. In a matter of hours, the final votes in the 2024 presidential election will be cast.

In a deeply divided nation, the election is a true toss-up between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump.

We know there are seven battleground states that will decide the outcome, barring a major surprise. But major questions persist about the timing of the results, the makeup of the electorate, the influx of misinformation — even the possibility of political violence. At the same time, both sides are prepared for a protracted legal battle that could complicate things further.

Here’s what to watch on the eve of Election Day 2024:

History will be made either way

Given all the twists and turns in recent months, it’s easy to overlook the historical significance of this election.

Harris would become the first female president in the United States’ 248-year history. She would also be the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent to hold the office. Harris and her campaign have largely played down gender and race fearing that they might alienate some supporters. But the significance of a Harris win would not be lost on historians.

A Trump victory would represent a different kind of historical accomplishment. He would become the first person convicted of a felony elected to the U.S. presidency, having been convicted of 34 felony counts in a New York hush-money case little more than five months ago.

Trump, who is still facing felony charges in at least two separate criminal cases, argued that he is the victim of a politicized justice system. And tens of millions of voters apparently believe him — or they’re willing to overlook his extraordinary legal baggage.

How long will it take to know the winner?

Election Day in the United States is now often considered election week as each state follows its own rules and practices for counting ballots — not to mention the legal challenges — that can delay the results. But the truth is, nobody knows how long it will take for the winner to be announced this time.

In 2020, The Associated Press declared President Joe Biden the winner on Saturday afternoon — four days after polls closed. But even then, The AP called North Carolina for Trump 10 days after Election Day and Georgia for Biden 16 days later after hand recounts.

Four years earlier, the 2016 election was decided just hours after most polls closed. The AP declared Trump the winner on election night at 2:29 a.m. (it was technically Wednesday morning on the East Coast).

This time, both campaigns believe the race is extremely close across the seven swing states that are expected to decide the election, barring a major surprise: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The size of the map and the tightness of the race make it hard to predict when a winner could be declared.

» READ MORE:Here’s what to watch as Election Day approaches in the U.S.

In its final stop of the presidential campaign, the Harris-Walz ticket will be hosting a GOTV rally on Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway, featuring performances by Lady Gaga, The Roots, and more.

Here’s what you need to know:

When is the Harris-Walz rally in Philly?

The GOTV concert will begin at 5 p.m. on Monday.

Who is speaking or performing?

Among those expected to perform or speak are DJ Cassidy, Fat Joe, Freeway and Just Blaze, Lady Gaga, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Ricky Martin, The Roots, Jazmine Sullivan and Adam Blackstone, and Oprah Winfrey.

What road closures are in effect?

The following streets will be closed until approximately 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 5:

• The entire width of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, beginning at 18th Street and extending west through Eakins Oval to 25th Street
• 19th Street between Arch Street and Callowhill Street
• 20th Street between Arch Street and Vine Street
• 21st Street between Winter Street and Hamilton Street
• 22nd Street between Winter Street and Spring Garden Street
• 23rd Street between the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and Pennsylvania Avenue
• Spring Garden Street Tunnel
• Spring Garden Street Bridge
• Kelly Drive between Fairmount Avenue and Eakins Oval
• Martin Luther King Jr. Drive between the Falls Bridge and Eakins Oval
• I-676 westbound off-ramp at 22nd Street
• Kelly Drive from Strawberry Mansion Bridge

The I-676 eastbound off-ramp at 23rd Street will remain open, city officials said.

The following streets will be closed through 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 5:

• Eakins Oval between Kelly Drive and Spring Garden Street
• Kelly Drive (inbound) from 25th Street to Benjamin Franklin Parkway
• Spring Garden Street between Pennsylvania Avenue and Kelly Drive
• Benjamin Franklin Parkway (inner and outer lanes) between 22nd Street and 24th Street

Short, intermittent road closures are also expected between the 2200 and 2400 blocks of Pennsylvania Avenue on Monday to accommodate the movement of equipment.

What about parking restrictions?

Parking will be restricted on the following roadways:

• Pennsylvania Avenue between 22nd Street and Fairmount Avenue (south side of street)
• 22nd Street between Winter Street and Spring Garden Street (both sides of street)
• Spring Garden Street between 22nd Street and Pennsylvania Avenue
• Race Street, between 19th Street and 20th Street

City officials say more road closures and restrictions are possible and urge drivers to avoid the area.

Will SEPTA be affected?

SEPTA bus routes will be detoured from their normal routes.

Detours and specific route changes can be found on SEPTA.org. SEPTA Customer Service can be reached at 215-580-7800 and directly on X (formerly Twitter) @septa_social.

Will there be Secret Service checkpoints?

Before entering the Harris-Walz event site, all guests will pass through an “airport-like” screening checkpoint operated by the United States Secret Service. The following items are prohibited:

• Knives, firearms, weapons, or otherwise dangerous objects
• Bags larger than a clutch (clear bags preferred); diaper bags are exempt
• Liquids of any quantity, aerosols, or gels; medical items are exempt
• Reusable water bottles (full or empty)
• Outside posters or signs, of any size
• Umbrellas of any size
• Vape pens or lighters
• Lawn chairs, non-service animals, bicycles, balloons, drones, laser pointers, packages, selfie sticks, structures, toy guns or recreational mobility devices
• Any other item deemed hazardous by the United States Secret Service

Will nearby cultutral institutions be closed?

The following cultural institutions on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway will be closed Monday:

• Philadelphia Museum of Art
• The Barnes Foundation
• The Franklin Institute
• The Rodin Museum
• Moore College of Art & Design
• The Academy of Natural Sciences
• Parkway Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia
• Parkway Visitor Center and Rocky Shop

Access to the Philadelphia Museum of Art Steps will be restricted through 10 a.m. Tuesday.

Tomorrow, voters across the U.S. will weigh in on races for president, Congress and a host of down-ballot contests.

In the home stretch, all eyes are on the swing state of Pennsylvania. Capping off the presidential campaign season tonight will be a massive GOTV concert on Philly’s Ben Franklin Parkway, with Lady Gaga and The Roots among those slated to perform.

For continuing live coverage, candidate guides and key voter info, WHYY News’ 2024 voter hub has everything you need in one place.

Here’s your voter game plan

Pennsylvania

• Voter FAQs: WHYY News’ Pa. voter guide has the answers you need
• Key races to watch
  • Row offices: Attorney general | Auditor general | Treasurer
  • U.S. Senate: Bob Casey vs. David McCormick
  • U.S. House
    • 1st District | Bucks, Montgomery counties
  • Pa. state House
    • 13th District | Chester County
    • 18th District | Bucks County
    • 142nd District | Bucks County
    • 144th District | Bucks County
    • 160th District | Chester, Delaware counties
• Ballot questions: Here’s a breakdown of what to expect in Philly’s suburbs
• Voting by mail: Here’s what to know about filling out and returning your ballot

New Jersey

• Voter FAQs: WHYY News’ N.J. voter guide has the answers you need
• Key races to watch
  • U.S. Senate: Andy Kim vs. Curtis Bashaw
  • U.S. House
    • 1st Congressional District | Burlington, Camden. Gloucester, counties
    • 2nd Congressional District | Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Ocean, Salem counties
    • 3rd Congressional District | Burlington, Mercer, Monmouth counties
    • 4th Congressional District | Monmouth, Ocean counties
    • 7th Congressional District | Hunterdon, Morris, Somerset, Sussex, Union, Warren counties
    • 12th Congressional District | Mercer, Middlesex, Somerset, Union counties
• Voting by mail: Here’s what to know about filling out and returning your ballot

Delaware

• Voter FAQs: WHYY News’ Delaware voter guide has the answers you need
• Lt. gov. election: Kyle Evans Gay vs. Ruth Briggs King