Ahead of Election Day, read up on what the Electoral College is and why 270 electoral votes are needed to win
When Americans cast their votes on November 5, they are not directly electing the presidential candidates themselves. Voters are casting ballots for competing slates of “electors” who will in turn cast the actual votes for president and vice president on December 17.
Collectively, the electors from all 50 states and the District of Columbia are referred to the “Electoral College.” The presidential candidate who wins the majority of the popular vote on election night does not necessarily win the White House. In order to win the presidency, a candidate must win a majority of votes in the Electoral College.
The Electoral College is comprised of 538 electors who represent all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Each state has between three and 54 electoral votes. A candidate needs a majority of electoral votes – 270 – to win.
In 48 states and the District of Columbia, all electoral votes are awarded to the candidate who wins a plurality of the popular vote in that state. This is known as the “winner-take-all” system. Two states – Maine and Nebraska – do not award their electoral votes according to a winner-take-all system.
Read more about the Electoral College below:
Read more about how the US election works.
Our live coverage of the presidential race has moved here.
NOW: Walz is speaking in Detroit, Michigan
Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz, is now speaking at a rally in Detroit Michigan.
It’s the latest battleground state stop for the Minnesota governor, who has crisscrossed the country touting Harris’ vision for America.
Read more about the promises Harris has made during her campaign so far.
Michigan’s political landscape: Michigan is one of the critical “blue wall” states Democrats are hoping to pick up in order to win the presidential race. Nearly 3.2 million people have already voted in the state, which amounts to about 44% of active registered voters.
Georgia poll worker charged with threatening fellow poll workers
A poll worker in central Georgia was arrested on federal charges Monday for making bomb threats to other poll workers in a letter mailed to the Jones County Elections Superintendent, the Justice Department said.
Nicholas Wimbish, 25, of Milledgeville, Georgia, has been charged with mailing a bomb threat, conveying false information about a bomb threat, mailing a threatening letter, and making false statements to the FBI.
Wimbish was serving as a poll worker at the Jones County Elections Office on October 16 when he allegedly had a verbal altercation with a voter, according to a criminal complaint. The following day, Wimbish mailed a letter addressed to the Jones County Elections Superintendent that he “allegedly drafted to make it appear as if it came from a voter,” the complaint said.
Prosecutors said the letter threatened that Wimbish and others “should look over their shoulder,” that “I know where they go,” and also threatened to “rage rape” the “ladies” and warned them to “watch every move they make and look over their shoulder.”
The letter concluded with a handwritten note, “PS boom toy in early vote place, cigar burning, be safe,” according to the complaint.
CNN did not immediately identify an attorney for Wimbish. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 25 years in prison.
“It is disturbing,” Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer with the Republican Georgia secretary of state, told CNN about the incident.
“These are your neighbors, your fellow Americans, fellow Georgians. These guys are just doing their jobs. They are being threatened this way and it’s not fair. I also know that particular office and all of our offices are resilient, and nothing will stop them from doing their job,” Sterling said.
The FBI Atlanta Field Office is investigating the case.
Trump continues pushing unfounded claims of cheating on eve of election
Former President Donald Trump continued pushing unfounded claims of cheating on the eve of the election as he called the Democratic Party “vicious machine” and claimed states are an “agent of the federal government.”
Trump, who regularly lies about the outcome of the 2020 election, said it was “the worst thing that ever happened to the country.”
“They wanted to make a deal so badly and then we had that bad election, that horrible disgusting, worst thing that ever happened to the country was that election,” Trump said.
Trump said the race against Vice President Kamala Harris was “really not tight” as polls show the two candidates deadlocked nationally.
Harris to voters in Pittsburgh: “We need everyone to vote”
Vice President Kamala Harris continued to mobilize Pennsylvania voters the night before the election, telling a crowd in Pittsburgh that they “will make the difference in the election.”
During a roughly 11-minute truncated stump speech, Harris reiterated that “momentum is on our side,” as she vowed to offer a new generation of leadership.
“I am ready to offer that leadership as the next president of the United States,” she said.
Similar to her prior events today, Harris avoided mentioning Donald Trump by name, instead outlining her vision of moving past “a decade of politics driven by fear and division.”
“We have an opportunity in this election to finally turn the page on a decade of politics driven by fear and division,” Harris said. “We are done with that. We’re done. We’re done. We’re exhausted with it — and Pittsburgh, we are not going back.”
Trump and Harris make multiple stops to rally supporters on Election Day eve. Here’s the latest campaign news
The nominees on the Republican and Democratic tickets spent the final day of an extraordinary US presidential campaign rallying supporters in critical battleground states.
The dash to motivate voters in what appears to be a toss-up election was happening as election officials were beefing up security amid a warning from US intelligence agencies of “global efforts to manipulate US public opinion.”
Here’s what to know:
Kamala Harris: The vice president spent the day in different parts of Pennsylvania as her campaign officials projected optimism about what they’ve frequently called an aggressive ground game in the state while acknowledging it’s going to be a close race.
Here’s what Harris did today so far today: The campaign concludes later tonight with a rally in Philadelphia. So far, she’s gone door-knocking in Reading, presented a vision of unity and togetherness to people canvassing for her in Scranton and declared her long-standing commitment to Puerto Rico in Allentown.
Tim Walz: The Minnesota governor kicked off his last day of campaigning with a celebratory send off in his hometown of Minneapolis with dozens of supporters, including high-ranking Minnesota Democratic allies.
He spent his day in different parts of Wisconsin: He touted Harris’ record, credited her for bringing “back joy to the politics,” and projected optimism for tomorrow, when voters get to “shape the future for generations to come.” he said at a rally in Milwaukee.
Donald Trump: The former president hit three battleground states. In his rally in North Carolina, Trump said he was visiting to urge people to “get out and vote,” adding, “if we get everybody out and vote there’s not a thing they can do.” In Reading, Pennsylvania, he suggested Harris should be put “in the ring” with former heavyweight champion boxer Mike Tyson, while in Pittsburgh, the former president hailed a late endorsement from influential podcaster Joe Rogan. Trump is scheduled to hold his final rally tonight in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
JD Vance: The Ohio senator also jetted around across the country to urge people to get out the vote. In La Crosse, Wisconsin, he criticized Harris’ work on immigration. In Flint, Michigan, he said leaders like Harris have “failed to do their job” and Trump could usher in a “golden age of American prosperity.” In Atlanta, he pointed to President Joe Biden’s narrow margin of victory in 2020, and urged people to go vote.
Legal challenges:
- A divided Georgia Supreme Court on Monday paused a state judge’s ruling that gave more than 3,000 voters in Cobb County several more days to return their absentee ballots after local election officials admitted they were late sending them out.
- A Pennsylvania judge ruled that Elon Musk’s daily $1 million giveaway to voters can continue, in a victory for the tech billionaire, though the sweepstakes is set to end tomorrow.
Disinformation:
- In a last-ditch effort to make voters aware of alleged foreign interference in the 2024 election, the US intelligence community issued a statement late Monday warning about global efforts to manipulate US public opinion and the possible violence that could come as a result.
- American social media influencer said he was paid $100 by a pro-Kremlin propagandist to post a fake video of Haitian immigrants claiming to vote in the US presidential election.
- Election officials in Lincoln, Nebraska, debunked a video that falsely claimed to show a young man illegally putting other people’s ballots into a drop box outside a library.
NOW: Harris is speaking to voters in Pittsburgh
Vice President Kamala Harris is speaking at a rally in Pittsburgh as she continues on a campaign blitz in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania.
Her stop in Pittsburgh is her third in the state on the eve of Election Day after rallies in Scranton and Allentown and ahead of her final stop in Philadelphia where she will be joined by Oprah Winfrey and Lady Gaga, among other celebrities, musicians and elected officials. That state is considered one of the most important battlegrounds this election cycle.
Joe Rogan endorses Donald Trump on eve of the election
Popular podcast host Joe Rogan officially endorsed Donald Trump on the eve of the election, a move Trump’s team swiftly touted as a major win in the final hours of their campaign.
Advertising a recent interview with Elon Musk on X, Rogan said the billionaire “makes what I think is the most compelling case for Trump you’ll hear, and I agree with him every step of the way.
At a rally in Pittsburgh Monday, Trump hailed an endorsement from Rogan.
“It just came over the wires that Joe Rogan just endorsed me, is that great. Thank you, Joe. That’s so nice. And he doesn’t do that, and he tends to be a little bit more liberal than some of the people in this room now,” Trump said.
Trump last month appeared on Rogan’s podcast, which is consistently the No. 1 podcast across the globe, after years of Rogan saying he would not have the former president on his podcast and recent attacks from Trump himself.
“I’m not a Trump supporter in any way, shape or form. I’ve had the opportunity to have him on my show more than once. I’ve said no every time. I don’t want to help him. I’m not interested in helping him,” Rogan said on the Lex Fridman Podcast in 2022. Rogan seemingly endorsed progressive Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders for president in 2020.
The interview was months in the making for the Trump campaign and viewed widely by the former president’s advisers as the crowning achievement of their media strategy to target young men and low propensity voters by having Trump appear on podcasts catering to the demographic.
Last week Rogan posted on X that he had declined an offer from Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign to do an interview.
“Also, for the record the Harris campaign has not passed on doing the podcast. They offered a date for Tuesday, but I would have had to travel to her and they only wanted to do an hour. I strongly feel the best way to do it is in the studio in Austin,” Rogan said. “My sincere wish is to just have a nice conversation and get to know her as a human being. I really hope we can make it happen.”
The Harris campaign declined to comment on Rogan’s post.
CNN’s Kate Sullivan and Shania Shelton contributed to this report.
She was an undecided Pennsylvania voter at CNN’s town hall. Now, she’s leaning toward Harris
When CNN hosted a town hall with undecided voters in Pennsylvania two weeks ago, Pam Thistle was still debating which candidate to support. Now, on the eve of the election, Thistle tells CNN she plans to officially make up her mind tomorrow, but is leaning toward voting for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Thistle is a Pennsylvania realtor who recently lost her husband and, as a widow with children to support, said the economy and paying her bills is her top concern. She’s approached her 2024 choice through a pragmatic lens, often listening closely for the specifics on policies and expressing dismay at personal attacks lobbed during the race.
Thistle said she prefers former President Trump when it comes to handling the economy or dealing with foreign policy. But abortion is also an important issue for her and, in the end, she may just feel more comfortable with Harris as the next commander-in-chief. Thistle added that she “adores” Harris personally.
Thistle told CNN Monday night that she remains undecided but is leaning toward Harris. She’s not 100% decided and will make a final call when she wakes up — on Election Day.
US intelligence officials make last-ditch effort to sound the alarm over foreign election interference
In a last-ditch effort to make voters aware of alleged foreign interference in the 2024 election, the US intelligence community issued a statement late Monday warning about global efforts to manipulate US public opinion and the possible violence that could come as a result.
The US intelligence community “has been observing foreign adversaries, particularly Russia, conducting additional influence operations intended to undermine public confidence in the integrity of U.S. elections and stoke divisions among Americans,” the FBI, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said in a joint statement hours before Election Day 2024.
The new statement comes after the intelligence community warned last Friday of a fake online video purporting to depict a Haitian citizen boasting about illegally voting in the state of Georgia.
CNN reported earlier Monday that an American man who lives in Massachusetts and is a pro-Trump social media influencer said he was the one behind that fake video and that he was paid $100 by a pro-Kremlin propagandist to post it online.
“Russia is the most active threat,” the new statement warns. “Influence actors linked to Russia in particular are manufacturing videos and creating fake articles to undermine the legitimacy of the election, instill fear in voters regarding the election process, and suggest Americans are using violence against each other due to political preferences, judging from information available to the IC. These efforts risk inciting violence, including against election officials. We anticipate Russian actors will release additional manufactured content with these themes through election day and in the days and weeks after polls close.”
In addition to warning about Kremlin-backed interference, the US intelligence community said Iran “remains a significant foreign influence threat to U.S. elections.”
Megyn Kelly joins Trump at his Pittsburgh rally and praises the former president’s stamina
Former President Donald Trump brought out prominent talk show host Megyn Kelly at his Pittsburgh rally tonight.
“Hi everybody. It’s great to see you. Can you believe this guy? Can you believe the energy and the stamina on this guy at his age? I’m ready to go to sleep over there,” Kelly said, standing next to Trump.
Kelly’s support for Trump comes after she feuded with the former president during his first presidential run. In 2015, Trump said that the then-Fox News host had “blood coming out of her wherever” when at a Republican debate Kelly pressed Trump about misogynistic, sexist comments he made in the past, such as calling some women “fat pigs.”
“President Trump gets it,” Kelly said at Monday’s rally. “He will not look at our boys like they’re second-class citizens. And ladies out there who want a bit of girl power in this election, let me tell you something. How can you win when the sons and the husbands and the brothers and the dads you love are losing? It’s not a win.”
Kelly last month also criticized Trump’s campaign last week on “The Megyn Kelly Show,” calling for Trump to “clean up the bro talk” so he doesn’t alienate women following the racist and vulgar rhetoric from speakers at his Madison Square Garden rally.
In closing pitch, Vance calls Harris a “disaster”
Ohio Sen. JD Vance continued his closing attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday, calling her a “disaster” in front of hundreds of a supporters at a rally in Newtown, Pennsylvania.
“Do you like being unable to afford groceries that vote for Kamala Harris? Are you excited about World War III? Because that’s what’s going to happen when Kamala Harris is the president of the United States. Do you love that wide open southern border given to you by … Kamala Harris. Then tomorrow is your one opportunity to say ‘we’ve had it.’ Tomorrow is your one opportunity to say to ‘Kamala Harris, you’re fired. Get the hell out of Washington. Go back to San Francisco, where you belong,’” Vance said.
Vance made stops in Atlanta, Georgia; Flint, Michigan, and La Crosse, Wisconsin on Monday.
Pennsylvania’s political landscape: In 2020, President Joe Biden beat former President Donald Trump in the Keystone State by more than 80,000 votes, rebuilding the so-called “blue wall” along with Wisconsin and Michigan, that Trump flipped in 2016. Recent CNN polling shows that Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are tied in Pennsylvania.
Biden has no public events on his schedule for Election Day
President Joe Biden will spend Election Day behind closed doors with no public events on his schedule.
The president voted last week in Wilmington, Delaware.
Police respond to a briefly tense situation at Georgia election office
Law enforcement responded Monday to address a briefly tense situation with poll observers at an elections office in Cobb County, Georgia.
Election observers refused to move from seats that were reserved for voters and election officials called on law enforcement to respond, according to Cobb County Communications Director Ross Cavitt. By the time deputies arrived, the situation had been diffused, Cavitt said.
A nonpartisan election observer who did not wish to be named described the GOP poll observers as “confrontational” with staff. In one incident, election staff intervened to try to stop observers from photographing a voter, the observer said.
The observer praised election staffers for working in stressful conditions to address issues with poll watchers, saying, “I think there has been a great deal of work trying to prevent this from having any intimidating or uncomfortable effect on voters.”
Salleigh Grubbs, the chair of the Cobb County GOP who has shared falsehoods about the 2020 election, pointed the finger at local officials, saying the situation was tense because “there’s definitely an attempt by some people with the board of elections to not have people observe like they should.” She said the incident was about an observer trying to capture a photo of a ballot they found to be “unusual.”
NOW: Trump rallies in Pittsburgh
Former President Donald Trump is holding a rally in Pittsburgh the day before the election.
Trump’s rally comes as both he and Vice President Kamala Harris criss-cross Pennsylvania, considered the most crucial battleground state, in the closing hours of this campaign.
Aides are describing Trump’s Pittsburgh speech as his “closing message”
While not his final rally of the evening, aides of former President Donald Trump are describing his speech in Pittsburgh as his “closing message” to the American people.
In the remarks expected to occur this hour, Trump is expected to focus on the issues that his campaign believe can help propel him to the White House including inflation, immigration and crime.
Trump’s event in the critical battleground state will also feature some high-profile speakers like former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Megyn Kelly.
Following the final keystone state rally, Trump will end his campaign in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he ended both his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. That speech is now not expected to occur until at least 11:30 p.m. ET because Trump has been running late.
“We get an opportunity tomorrow to shape the future for generations to come,” Walz says at Milwaukee rally
Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz on Monday said this election will allow voters to shape the future.
He said the last 107 days of the Harris campaign have been “an incredible journey,” and credited the vice president for bringing “back the joy to politics.”
Throughout her career as a prosecutor, an attorney general, a senator and a vice president, Harris has had “one client the entire time — the people of this country,” Walz said.
In his remarks, Walz reflected on his background growing up in rural Nebraska and connected the values he was raised with to those that guide Harris, acknowledging their shared working-class roots.
“Those are the values that animated Kamala and my service. That’s the values that after tomorrow, we’ll be able to take to the White House for the rest of this,” he said.
This post was updated with more of Walz’s remarks. CNN’s Aaron Pellish contributed to this report.
Now: Tim Walz is speaking in Milwaukee
Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz is speaking at a rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Remember: Wisconsin is a key battleground state. Four of the last six presidential elections were decided in the state by less than a percentage point on the presidential level. One of the most politically divided states in the nation, Wisconsin reelected Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Republican Sen. Ron Johnson in 2022.
Democrats are hoping to maximize turnout in Milwaukee and Madison, while cutting the margins in the “WOW” counties – the Republican stronghold counties of Waukesha, Ozaukee, and Washington that surround Milwaukee.
Trump suggests Harris should be put “in the ring” with boxer Mike Tyson
Former President Donald Trump on Monday suggested his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, should be put “in the ring” with former heavyweight champion boxer Mike Tyson.
During a rally in Reading, Pennsylvania, Trump was discussing the controversy involving women’s boxing at the Olympics this year. He falsely said two boxers were men who “transitioned into womanhood.”
“Did you see the two boxers? Did you see the two boxers – they were men, they transitioned into womanhood. And they fought a very good Italian. They have women’s boxing in the Olympics. They fought a very good Italian young lady, and boom, she got hit with just the left jab,” Trump said.
Trump was apparently addressing the controversy surrounding Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who became the subject of a storm of online abuse after she defeated Italian boxer Angela Carini in just 46 seconds in a preliminary match.
Khelif, who is not transgender, was subject to a storm of transphobic abuse because she had failed a so-called “gender test” by a now-discredited boxing federation. Her country, Algeria, has strict anti-LGBTQ laws. A boxer from Taiwan, Lin Yu-ting, was subject to a similar controversy over baseless allegations she is transgender.
Trump continued: “Oh, they could fight Iron Mike. I’ll tell ya – Iron Mike would say ‘This is not a good thing.’ I know Iron Mike, and he’s a great guy, Mike Tyson. He’s a good man. Mike’s been through a lot but he could fight, let me tell ya. That guy could fight.”
Trump continued: “Can you imagine Mike – “ before, apparently responding to someone from the audience, he said: “Oh, he says, ‘Put Mike in the ring with Kamala.’ That will be interesting.”
Tyson has a history of violence against women, including being convicted of rape in the early 1990s, for which he served time in prison, and his first wife alleged that he abused her before they divorced.
Trump has long supported Tyson, including saying that the boxer didn’t deserve to go to prison on the rape charges.
A pro-Trump influencer says a Russian agent paid him $100 to post a fake voter fraud video.
An American social media influencer said he was paid $100 by a pro-Kremlin propagandist to post a fake video of Haitian immigrants claiming to vote in the US presidential election. The payment was one of several the man said he received from the propagandist — a registered Russian agent — to post on social media in the run-up to the election.
The pro-Trump influencer, who uses the @AlphaFox78 handle on X, is an American man living in Massachusetts, CNN has learned. He agreed to speak to CNN about the posts on condition of anonymity.
The account, which has a history of posting right-wing memes in support of former President Donald Trump, was the first to post the now-debunked video that purportedly showed a Haitian immigrant claiming he would vote at least twice in Georgia for Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Georgia Secretary of State said everything in that video was faked, from the actors to the ID cards, and was produced and disseminated by Russian influence actors.
In phone and text interviews with CNN over multiple days, the person behind the account, which has amassed more than 650,000 followers on X, said he posted the video without fact-checking the claims made in it.
“I don’t have any idea where it came from or anything — I’m just the guy who shared it,” he said.
The man said Simeon Boikov, a Russian propagandist podcaster known online as “AussieCossack,” offered him $100 to post the video, which he agreed to. A person with knowledge of the situation confirmed to CNN that multiple payments were sent from Boikov to the Massachusetts man.
Documents reviewed by CNN show that Boikov is a registered foreign agent for Russia in Australia, where he works for Russian state media, writing and posting online in English and Russian.
Read more about the fake video here.
Democratic senator says energy is high for Harris in final hours of campaign
Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar said she is positive that Vice President Kamala Harris will win the election on Tuesday and that she thinks people are going to be surprised by how many voters turn out to cast their vote based on their “deep belief in democracy.”
The Minnesota lawmaker, who was with Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz earlier on Monday, told CNN she has noticed high energy across the seven battleground states around Harris and the campaign.
Klobuchar said that other lawmakers and those who have been knocking on doors in key states have said that voters are telling them “they just can’t handle the chaos of Donald Trump.”
Klobuchar said Harris is ending her campaign with a “positive, optimistic message and Donald Trump is spiraling — and that’s not what we need in a leader right now for this country.”
From the beginning of her candidacy, Klobuchar said, Harris united the party and then started reaching out to Independents and Republicans.
Harris goes door knocking in Pennsylvania as campaign tells staffers to keep their heads down, mobilize voters
Vice President Kamala Harris went door knocking in Reading, Pennsylvania, where she stopped by two homes to greet voters.
At the first home, Harris greeted a couple who had an adult son with the same name as her stepson, Cole. At the second home, Harris greeted a woman and her husband.
“It’s the day before the election, but I just wanted to come by and say I hope to earn your vote,” Harris told them.
The woman told Harris “you got my vote already,” adding that she will be working the polls tomorrow. She also explained that her husband will be voting for Harris on Election Day.
Reading is one of the five scheduled stops for Harris across Pennsylvania on Monday, ending in Philadelphia.
Strategy in final hours before Election Day: Harris and senior campaign staffers have directed staffers to keep their heads down and focus on mobilizing voters, according to a Harris adviser, capitalizing on what the campaign argues is momentum on their side.
Earlier Monday, Harris thanked volunteers at a canvassing event in Scranton, Pennsylvania. “What you all are signing up to do today, and what you’ve been doing, like let’s enjoy it,” she said.
“Let’s get out the vote,” Harris chanted before telling the crowd: “Let’s win.”
But while officials remain cautiously optimistic, they acknowledge it will be a close race — and a potentially lengthy process.
Remember what’s at stake: Pennsylvania is the most important battleground state of the 2024 election. Both Harris and Donald Trump have made the commonwealth’s 20 electoral votes central to their respective paths to victory. In 2016, Trump became the first Republican to win Pennsylvania since George H.W. Bush in 1988. In 2020, Joe Biden, a Pennsylvania native, flipped the state. According to AdImpact, Pennsylvania voters have seen nearly $300 million worth of presidential advertising – the most of any state in the nation.
Vance says GOP is the “big tent” party at rally in Atlanta
At his third of four battleground stops on Monday, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance looked to again tie Vice President Kamala Harris to the Biden administration’s record as he boasted about the “big tent” support for former President Donald Trump on Monday.
As he often does, Vance called the Republican Party “big tent,” mentioning Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and former US Ambassador Nikki Haley, the latter who never ended up joining Trump on the campaign trail despite CNN previously reporting she was in talks to appear with him potentially at a Fox News town hall in late October.
“We’ve got in this commonsense movement, we’ve got the lieutenant governor and the governor of Georgia, Nikki Haley on the right, and Tulsi Gabbard and Bobby Kennedy on the left. This is a big tent, my friends. So, it’s not just red team versus blue team,” Vance said.
While Kemp is supporting Trump, he didn’t vote for him in the Republican primary. As CNN previously reported, Kemp refused to call a special legislative session to help Trump as he sought overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia.
Vance urges Georgia crowd to take friends and family to go vote on Election Day
While speaking at a rally in Atlanta, GOP Sen. JD Vance on Monday urged Georgia voters to get out and vote as he pointed at the narrow victory for President Joe Biden there in 2020.
Early voting in Georgia ended on Friday and Republican election officials’ efforts to slow the tide of election misinformation have been hampered by deep mistrust between them and fellow conservatives.
He pointed out that Biden narrowly won the Peach State in 2020. Biden defeated Trump in Georgia by less than 1 percentage point, becoming the first Democratic presidential nominee to win the state in nearly three decades.
“So here’s the request that I’m going to make of every single person here. I want every single one of you again to get out there and vote for Donald J. Trump 10 times,” he joked, claiming that line would get him headlines for voter fraud.
“The legal way to vote 10 times is to get your friends to the polls and take yourself to the polls and get nine of your friends and family to go along with you,” he said.
Vance also hit Harris over the Biden administration’s policies, using dark rhetoric to describe immigration in Georgia, before also making a call for unity, saying “to not discard lifelong family relationships” or friendships “because people vote the wrong way.”
He added, “in two days, we are going to take out the trash in Washington, DC, and the trash is named Kamala Harris.”
Elon Musk’s $1 million giveaway to voters can continue, Pennsylvania judge rules
A Pennsylvania judge ruled Monday that Elon Musk’s daily $1 million giveaway to voters can continue, in a victory for the tech billionaire, though the sweepstakes is set to end Tuesday on Election Day.
Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Angelo Foglietta rejected arguments from the city’s district attorney, Larry Krasner, who argued that the sweepstakes was an illegal lottery that violated state law and must be halted immediately.
Trump supporter describes dating a Harris supporter in Pennsylvania
Eli Witherby, a 20-year-old valet in Philadelphia, cast his ballot for former President Donald Trump, while his girlfriend cast hers for Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Everyone’s entitled to their own opinions,” Witherby said. “At the end of the day, I’m gonna stick to my guns.”
Two rowers, they met through mutual friends, and while they don’t talk politics too much, Witherby said they respect each other’s different views.
Witherby said Harris “wouldn’t be nominated for the presidential race if she was an idiot.”
“She’s a smart woman. She’s very intelligent woman, but I believe that we need someone else who’s smarter, intelligent, who’s done it before,” he told CNN.
One factor motivating Witherby to support Trump is the economy. “Everything was cheaper,” he said, referencing in particular the price of gasoline.
Witherby, who lives in Philadelphia but is originally from Oklahoma, sees Democrats as “very polarizing” and didn’t appreciate President Joe Biden’s “garbage” gaffe.
Witherby said he’s over the name-calling on both sides and that he was encouraged by the vice presidential debate between Sen. JD Vance and Gov. Tim Walz.
“The vice presidential debate was a breath of fresh air,” he said. “It gave me confidence for the future, if we had those two running for the presidency, that it would be, you know, I don’t have to worry about someone’s character being insulted on national television.”
NOW: JD Vance is speaking to voters in Georgia
Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance is speaking now in Atlanta.
The Republican senator from Ohio arrived in the battleground state of Georgia to talk to voters about immigration and the economy, according to the campaign’s website, after stops in Flint, Michigan, and La Crosse, Wisconsin, on Monday.
Georgia political landscape: Neither Donald Trump nor Kamala Harris have a clear advantage in Georgia, according to CNN polls conducted by SSRS, with likely voters in Georgia divide 48% for Trump to 47% for Harris. In 2020, President Joe Biden was the first Democrat to win Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992 and Arizona since Clinton in 1996.
Trump says that Harris “copied my routine” on Saturday Night Live
Former President Donald Trump on Monday said Vice President Kamala Harris “copied my routine” on Saturday Night Live after Harris appeared on the show over the weekend.
Harris made an appearance on the show’s cold open on Saturday in a skit where comic and actress Maya Rudolph was playing Harris and talking to the real Harris through a mirror.
Trump appeared on “The Tonight Show” in 2015 and participated in a similar skit where host Jimmy Fallon was playing Trump and talking to the real Trump through a mirror.
In Allentown, Harris says she’s “proud of my long-standing commitment to Puerto Rico and her people”
Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday said she is “proud of my long-standing commitment to Puerto Rico and her people” as she rallied in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which includes a sizable Puerto Rican population.
While Harris has largely shied away from mentioning her opponent during this final day of campaigning, her remarks were a subtle rebuttal to the rally former President Donald Trump held recently in Madison Square Garden, which featured a speaker who described Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”
Georgia Supreme Court pauses ruling on deadline extension for returning absentee ballots for over 3,000 voters
A divided Georgia Supreme Court on Monday paused a state judge’s ruling that gave more than 3,000 voters in Cobb County several more days to return their absentee ballots after local election officials admitted they were late sending them out.
The ruling will only affect the voters within a group of some 3,240 who live in the US and don’t get their absentee ballots in on time. Any voters in that group who live overseas will still have their ballots counted as long as they’re postmarked by Election Day and received by November 8.
The Supreme Court’s order directs local election officials to segregate any ballots received after 7 p.m. on Election Day and before 5 p.m. on November 8 and to not destroy them “until further order of the Court.” Whether those late arrival ballots should be counted at all is a question that will be litigated after the election.
The court’s decision is a major win for Republicans who argued that if the extension issued last week by a Cobb County judge remained intact, “state law is necessarily suspended … for only one group of voters.”
A group of civil rights groups sued the county on Friday over its delay in getting the ballots out in a timely manner, saying it would lead to the disfranchisement of thousands of voters who might not be able to return the ballots in time to be counted. The county said in a statement a day earlier that “a surge of last-minute absentee ballot applications” was to blame for the delay in mailing several thousand of them out.
The 2024 election cycle has seen an “unprecedented amount of disinformation,” top US cyber official says
The 2024 US election cycle has seen an “unprecedented amount of disinformation,” including falsehoods “aggressively peddled and amplified by our foreign adversaries at a greater scale than ever before,” a top US cyber official said on Monday.
During the early voting period, there have also been “small-scale” incidents, such as the destruction of ballot drop boxes and low-level cyberattacks, but “nothing that has the potential to materially impact the outcome of the presidential election,” Easterly said.
On Monday, multiple widely viewed posts on social media platform X featured fabricated election-related content purporting to come from major news outlets like CNN and CBS.
CNN reported on Saturday that CISA has retreated from some of the key work it did in the 2020 election to counter false and viral information about voting spread by Americans.
Asked if CISA plans to rebut false information about the election process spread by former President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, Easterly did not directly answer the question.
“It is very unfortunate and very irresponsible for anybody of (a) position of influence, of authority — regardless of party or politics — to be spreading inaccurate information about our elections,” she said generally. “It is corrosive to our democracy; it does the work of our foreign adversaries for them and it’s creating very real threats to election officials of both parties.”
Allies and advisers implore Trump to keep it short and on message in the final 24 hours
Advisers, allies and aides have all implored former President Donald Trump to stay on message in the final day of his campaign, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
While there is an overall belief that nearly all voters have made up their mind with one day to go until Election Day, some close to Trump fear any unplanned, inappropriate or insulting rhetoric could potentially cause voters to stay home in a race where every vote counts.
Yesterday in Pennsylvania, after Trump spent more than 20 minutes sowing doubt about the 2024 election, he suggested he wouldn’t mind people someone “shooting through the fake news” to get to him, in reference to his two assassination attempts. He also said he shouldn’t have left the White House.
“How hard is it to get up there and said “Kamala broke it and I’ll fix it,” one ally said, expressing frustration at Trump’s comments.
Senior advisers assured allies that Trump was aware of what was at stake. Later in the day Sunday and Monday morning he appeared to stick mainly to his prewritten remarks.
Sources also said that allies had advised Trump to keep it tight and not deviate from the script too much, noting that his lengthy remarks were also an issue. Trump was two hours late for an event in North Carolina on Sunday, and by the time he started speaking, rally attendees were already leaving.
It may take some time before all eligible votes are counted, Pennsylvania secretary of state says
Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt reiterated on Monday that it may take some time before all eligible votes are counted in the key battleground state.
The Department of State “has never had final, official results on Election Night” regardless of when other projections come in, Schmidt said.
Pennsylvania’s process for counting mail-in ballots is one reason why Schmidt said he cannot predict what percentage of eligible votes will be counted on Election Day and warned that it may take several days to know the official results.
“Nearly 2 million mail-in ballots have already been returned,” Schmidt said, but cautioned that, unlike several other states, Pennsylvania counties cannot start opening mail-in ballots until 7:00 a.m. ET on Election Day.
Counties will start submitting unofficial results once polls close around 8 p.m. local time and will continue to update those numbers throughout the night and the days that follow, he added.
“All registered voters will have a chance to make their voices heard,” Schmidt said, urging the public to verify that election information is coming from trustworthy sources.
Tim Walz says “everything’s on the line” in this election as he makes final pitch to Wisconsin voters
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz expressed confidence about the outcome of the election and drew contrasts between his running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris, and former President Donald Trump.
“We’re going to elect a new generation of leadership with Kamala Harris. A new way forward,” Walz said.
The Democratic vice presidential candidate was speaking at an event in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, on Monday.
He said that Harris’ speech last week on the Ellipse was what a president should sound like. He contrasted that with Trump’s rally in Madison Square Garden where speakers made a series of violent and vulgar remarks.
“It may feel like we’re running like everything’s on the line – because it is,” Walz said.
Walz talked about Harris’ background of being raised by a single mother and becoming a prosecutor who fought for other people. He said the vice president would be able to bring that experience to the White House to help Americans.
“She and I want to build an economy that if you work hard, you don’t just barely skate by, you get a chance to get ahead,” Walz said, which includes people from all parts of the country. “Everybody in this country should get a shot to succeed.”
He later told dozens of people gathered in an overflow room after the event that “the blue wall must hold,” and emphasized the importance of getting people to the polls.
“All of the work, all of the ads, all the money, all the rhetoric really comes down to operationally how many people we get to the polls,” Walz said.
This post has been updated with additional comments from Walz. CNN’s Aaron Pellish in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, contributed reporting.
No, CNN is not reporting Harris leading Trump in Texas
A fake image showing fabricated vote results from CNN of Vice President Kamala Harris leading former President Donald Trump in Texas has been viewed millions of times on the social media platform X.
But by Monday afternoon the fake image had been viewed at least 10 million times on X, shared mostly by pro-Trump paid and “verified” accounts, which means the posts have broader reach.
Many of the accounts are falsely claiming the faked image shows plans to “steal” the election, or that CNN “accidentally” aired the image, which even in its faked form, shows an incomplete vote count.
This post has been updated with new details.
Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly described the fake image.
Sources from: CNN.COM