Voters are choosing between Kamala Harris and Donald J. Trump, a decision that has divided and drained the electorate. Nearly every poll in the seven battleground states has shown the race to be a tossup.
Election Day has arrived. Here’s the latest.
A grueling campaign season entered its final hours on Tuesday with voters deciding a divisive and chaotic presidential race that would give the United States its first female leader or return to the White House a former president who has shattered the norms of American politics.
The campaign has epitomized all the dysfunction and polarization in American politics. To the end, nearly every poll in the seven battleground states showed the race to be a tossup between Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice president, and Donald J. Trump, the Republican former president, who would be only the second president in American history to serve nonconsecutive terms.
As Election Day got underway, voters and election officials were in some cases navigating challenging conditions, including the aftermath of natural disasters. Poll workers set up a temporary tent polling station in Yancey County, N.C., where communities are still recovering from Hurricane Helene. In Asheville, N.C., officials sent voters from two precincts to a center southeast of the city after hurricane damage compromised access to their usual polling place.
There were only scattered early reports of problems with voting. In Cambria County, Pa., a software malfunction prevented voters from scanning their ballots, the county solicitor, Ron Repak, said in a statement to a local television station, WJAC. The county has asked a court to extend the time for voting and has called experts to fix the issue, Mr. Repak said, adding that “all votes will be counted and we continue to encourage everyone to vote.”
More than 80 million voters had already cast an early ballot — either by mail or in person — in a weekslong early voting season that was relatively seamless.
Ms. Harris told an Atlanta radio station on Tuesday morning that her Election Day focus was on “making sure everybody knows the power of their voice through their vote.”
“I think this is an inflection point in terms of this is the moment where we have two very different visions of the future of our nation,” she said, in an interview with The Big Tigger Morning Show on V-103.
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Mr. Trump said Tuesday “will be the most important day in American History.”
“Voter enthusiasm is THROUGH THE ROOF because people want to Make America Great Again. That means lines are going to be long!” he wrote. “I need you to deliver your vote no matter how long it takes. STAY IN LINE!”
If the polls are correct, and the race is this tight, it could be days before the next president is known. If the polls are wrong, the nation could awake Wednesday morning knowing who will succeed President Biden in the White House.
Mr. Trump is planning to spend Election Day in Florida, where he will vote before returning to his home in Mar-a-Lago, his residence in Palm Beach. Ms. Harris will be working out of the Naval Observatory, the vice president’s residence in Washington, where she will do interviews with radio stations in all seven battleground states, aides said.
It is, with all its tension and uncertainty, a fitting conclusion for an extraordinary contest that was marked by two assassination attempts on Mr. Trump, and Mr. Biden’s withdrawal from the race in July.
Here’s what else to know:
U.S. warns of foreign election interference: U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials are warning that Russia, and to a lesser extent Iran, will most likely flood social media with misinformation on Election Day and for weeks afterward in an effort to subvert confidence in the presidential election.
Voters on edge: The intensity of the political season, and the crisis in the Middle East, have compounded anxieties in Jewish and Arab American communities across the United States.
Rogan endorses Trump: Joe Rogan, the enormously popular podcast host who brought Mr. Trump, his running mate JD Vance, and Elon Musk onto his show in recent weeks, endorsed the former president in a post on social media.
When will we know? Counting the votes will extend beyond election night on Tuesday, and determining the outcome of the presidential race could, too. Here’s a look at how votes are counted in the seven battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — and when to expect results.
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Brent McDonald and Dillon Deaton
Nov. 5, 2024, 11:00 a.m. ET7 minutes ago
Brent McDonald and Dillon DeatonReporting from Yancey County, N.C.
We spoke with workers setting up early for Election Day at a temporary tent polling station on the football field at Cane River Middle School in Yancey County, N.C. It is one of seven tent polling sites in the area that was hit by Hurricane Helene, filling in for traditional sites like schools or fire departments that are either damaged or being used in the recovery effort. The Red Cross is housing displaced people at the school next door. Joyce Anglin, a judge for the Price’s Creek precinct, said the tent still felt like “disaster mode.”
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transcript
0:00/1:05
“We’re in the middle of the middle school football field, set up in our lovely camp for the day. In the midst of everything, it has been like a zombie apocalypse movie. Everything around here is a lot of destruction, and a lot of heartbreak and a lot of hard times for people. So, as I say, we’re doing what we have to do.” “This side of the county right here does not have water. So yeah, we’re still in disaster mode. This tent alone will tell you we’re in disaster mode. And we will continue to be there. I’m ready to get this over with and see who wins. And hopefully, no matter who wins, presidential, governor or whatever, anything that has — affects us in this county, that they will realize, no matter what they send us, we still need help.”
CreditCredit…Dillon Deaton for The New York Times
Zolan Kanno-Youngs
Alan Rappeport
Nov. 5, 2024, 11:00 a.m. ET7 minutes ago
Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Alan RappeportZolan Kanno-Youngs covers the White House and Alan Rappeport covers the Treasury Department. They have both reported on the Biden administration’s racial equity agenda.
Harris promotes her plans for Black men, hoping to boost their turnout.
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Credit…Kenny Holston/The New York Times
In the final stretch of the presidential campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris has been promoting her “Opportunity Agenda for Black Men” to help boost turnout among a vital constituency whose support for her has been slipping.
A close read of the plan, which focuses on the economy, entrepreneurship and jobs, shows how much Ms. Harris has learned over the past four years about enacting policies built around race. Such policies usually get held up in court or attacked by Republicans who cast them as unfair and woke-ism run amok.
That’s why the fine print of her plan for Black men says it’s actually a plan for Black men “and others,” a strategy to make sure it could survive legal and political challenges if she’s elected.
When President Biden and Ms. Harris entered office in 2020, they proposed a sprawling racial equity agenda that would distribute federal funds with a specific eye on communities of color and disadvantaged groups.
That effort encountered political obstacles and lawsuits at almost every turn.
In the end, some of the Biden administration’s most prominent racial equity proposals were stalled, scaled back or redesigned to be colorblind, including those aimed at helping Black farmers who have endured generations of racial discrimination.
As the Democratic nominee, Ms. Harris has been mindful of those setbacks.
During their 2020 presidential run, Ms. Harris narrated a campaign video featuring an illustration of a Black person climbing a mountain next to a white person, but starting from below ground level. She explained that equity is different from equality, suggesting that people who start with fewer resources should get more help so that everyone is on equal footing.
But this year, her campaign has been careful to say that the policies in her agenda for Black men will be available to all Americans. That includes a proposal for one million loans that would forgive up to $20,000 for entrepreneurs, an expansion of affordable banking options and a framework for protecting cryptocurrency assets. The plan also includes a promise to legalize marijuana and launch a health initiative that focused on the diseases, like sickle cell, diabetes and prostate cancer that disproportionately affect Black people.
Alvin Jones II, the national executive director of Black Connect, an organization for Black entrepreneurs, said he worried Ms. Harris’s strategy would still face Republican opposition.
“A lot of people feel there’s going to be a way that those who oppose this agenda are going to prevent this agenda from being effective the way it’s meant to be,” Mr. Jones said. “There’s so much anxiety.”
Former President Donald J. Trump has made some inroads with Black voters by tapping into economic frustrations. While a vast share of Black voters say they back Ms. Harris, even modest erosion in their support could be consequential in a campaign that is effectively tied.
Biden administration officials argue that the numbers of Black-owned small businesses have increased dramatically despite the efforts to stall the White House’s policies. Even though the administration had to retool some programs, the officials say, the policies aimed at Black people tend to also help other minorities or people on the lower end of the income scale.
The debate about how policies should prioritize race was thrust into the spotlight in 2023, when the conservative majority in the Supreme Court in 2023 rejected race-conscious admissions at colleges, effectively ending affirmative action.
But the Biden-Harris administration had been wrestling with it already.
The White House in 2021 tried to provide billions of dollars’ worth of debt relief to Black farmers, but the effort was blocked by a legal group formed by the former Trump administration official Stephen Miller. The Biden administration then rewrote the program so that any farmer who faced discrimination was eligible for relief money.
Rick M. Esenberg, who represented white farmers in the lawsuit, said Ms. Harris’s team appears to have learned from legal setbacks.
“It seemed that the Biden administration was going beyond what the court had historically permitted and they had their heads handed to them,” said Mr. Esenberg, the president and general counsel of the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty.
Still, Ms. Harris has made some progress winning over groups that were frustrated with Mr. Biden and wary of Mr. Trump.
Mr. Jones, one of the leaders of the entrepreneurial network, Black Connect, said while he found Ms. Harris’s plan “refreshing,” the fact that it is not specifically for Black men gave him pause.
“It’s like for everybody,” he said.
She has persuaded some voters though. While campaigning in Georgia in October, Ms. Harris met with John W. Boyd Jr., the president of the National Black Farmers Association, and discussed her agenda and ways to provide debt relief to Black farmers and to help them avoid foreclosures.
“She said she was open to working with me on a path forward on debt forgiveness,” said Mr. Boyd. “I thought it sent the right signal.”
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John Keefe
Nov. 5, 2024, 10:49 a.m. ET19 minutes ago
John Keefe
More than one-third of voters cast ballots before Election Day, either absentee or in-person — an early-voting pace that’s unlikely to top the 2020 pandemic-era election, but is still on the high side.
A map showing the share of early votes in each state relative to the share of early votes in 2020. Most states are below 2020 figures.
2024 early and absentee vote
As a share of 2020 turnout
AL
AK
AZ
AR
CA
CO
CT
DE
DC
FL
GA
HI
ID
IL
IN
IA
KS
KY
LA
ME
MD
MA
MI
MN
MS
MO
MT
NE
NV
NH
NJ
NM
NY
NC
ND
OH
OK
OR
PA
RI
SC
SD
TN
TX
UT
VT
VA
WA
WV
WI
WY
Note: Includes absentee ballots and early in-person votes. The New York Times
Ken Bensinger
Nov. 5, 2024, 10:44 a.m. ET23 minutes ago
Ken BensingerReporting on politics
The administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, Meagan Wolfe, said that based on early voting figures in the state and the total vote counts from 2020, she anticipated that more than half of the state’s voters were likely to cast their ballots in person today. A total of 1.51 million early votes were cast this year. In 2020, there were 3.3 million total votes in the battleground state, which President Biden won by just over 20,000 votes.
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Credit…Carlos Osorio/Associated Press
Jazmine Ulloa
Nov. 5, 2024, 10:40 a.m. ET27 minutes ago
Jazmine UlloaTraveling with Gov. Tim Walz
In Detroit, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota has boarded his campaign plane with his wife, Gwen, and children, Hope and Gus. They waved from the top of the stairs as reporters shouted questions. Walz started the morning by joining radio shows in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Georgia, encouraging listeners to vote. The Walz team is headed to Harrisburg, Pa., for a final campaign event before meeting up with Vice President Kamala Harris at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington, to watch the election results.
Theodore Schleifer
Nov. 5, 2024, 10:36 a.m. ET31 minutes ago
Theodore Schleifer
Elon Musk pushes ‘ballot curing’ in Pennsylvania, eyeing tight margin.
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Elon Musk gesturing at a lectern.
Elon Musk’s group, America PAC, has been essential to former President Donald J. Trump’s turnout operations.Credit…Kenny Holston/The New York Times
Elon Musk’s super PAC has been emphasizing “ballot curing” in the final days of the presidential campaign, a highly expensive strategy meant to pick up a few additional votes in a razor-thin election.
Mr. Musk’s group, America PAC, has sent a new last-minute field team into the state of Pennsylvania, according to two people with knowledge of the move who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it. One of the people said it was described to him as an “emergency” squad. A spokesman for America PAC declined to comment.
Former President Donald J. Trump has outsourced much of his on-the-ground effort to boost voter turnout to America PAC, and canvassers for Mr. Musk’s group have knocked on about 10 million doors.
In Pennsylvania, a voter who makes a mistake on their mail-in ballot — such as a missing signature or an incorrect date on the outer envelope — can “cure” it by casting a provisional ballot at the polls on Election Day. Some states allow voters to cure their votes later, but in Pennsylvania, 8 p.m. on Election Day is the deadline.
Ballot curing can reap additional votes for candidates who adopt the tactic, but it often has a poor return on investment: It is painstaking labor that involves getting lists of disqualified mail-in ballots from county election offices and contacting voters one by one. The number of ballots that have fixable issues is fairly low, especially relative to the resources that must be invested to find the people who have fixable ballots.
The fact that Mr. Musk’s super PAC is also pushing “ballot curing” in Pennsylvania suggests that, in the final hours, he and his team think the state will be very tight and that curing even a few ballots could be worth it to help Mr. Trump win the state.
Blitz Canvassing, a large contractor of America PAC, is leading the ballot curing operation for the super PAC in Pennsylvania, the people with knowledge of the move say. Blitz Canvassing has not been involved in the super PAC’s Pennsylvania door-knocking operations to date, making it all the more notable.
America PAC has also recently focused on ballot curing in the state of Michigan, which has a longer window of time during which the process is permitted. Some canvassers in that state had been informed to stay put there after Election Day, The New York Times has reported. America PAC declined to comment.
All of these small tactical moves by America PAC are under the microscope given just how essential the super PAC is to Mr. Trump’s turnout operations. The Trump campaign is counting on Mr. Musk’s group to largely lead its get-out-the-vote operations and has been planning for a surge of people to knock on doors over the final 24 hours.
Mattathias Schwartz contributed reporting.
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Ali Watkins
Nov. 5, 2024, 10:27 a.m. ET40 minutes ago
Ali Watkins
Trump can vote, despite his felony convictions.
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Former President Donald J. Trump walking between curtains.
Former President Donald J. Trump can vote in Florida.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
Donald J. Trump’s home state of Florida has historically made it difficult for those convicted of felonies to vote, but Mr. Trump will face no such hurdles casting a ballot for himself this Election Day.
Mr. Trump was convicted this year in New York State Court of falsifying records, a verdict that made him the first former president to be a felon. The state of Florida generally forbids felons from voting until they have served out all terms of their sentence, or in some cases, had their voting rights restored through the State Clemency Board.
But those rules will not apply to Mr. Trump. Florida law stipulates that those convicted out of state are beholden to the voting laws of the state in which they were convicted. Mr. Trump will benefit from a 2021 New York State law that allows felons to vote as long as they are not incarcerated.
Although Mr. Trump was convicted in May, he has not been sentenced. After a lengthy legal battle, the judge overseeing his case issued a ruling in September delaying sentencing until after the election, citing the matter’s “unique time frame.”
Sentencing is now expected on Nov. 26, when Mr. Trump could face probation or up to four years in prison.
Mr. Trump had initially said he planned to vote early but ultimately decided he would vote in person on Election Day.
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Glenn Thrush
Nov. 5, 2024, 10:07 a.m. ET1 hour ago
Glenn ThrushReporting on the Justice Department
F.B.I. officials said unknown people had been circulating fake news clips and videos using the bureau’s insignia to push false narratives that voters should avoid polling places because of imminent terror attacks. The new warning came hours after officials warned that foreign actors, led by Russia and Iran, were accelerating misinformation efforts.
Michael Levenson
Nov. 5, 2024, 9:42 a.m. ET1 hour ago
Michael LevensonCovering breaking news
There have been a few reports of technical glitches at the polls this morning. In Cambria County, Pa., a software glitch prevented voters from scanning their ballots, the county solicitor, Ron Repak, said in a statement to a local television station, WJAC. The county has asked a court to extend the time for voting and has called experts to fix the issue, Repak said, adding that “all votes will be counted and we continue to encourage everyone to vote.”
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J. David Goodman
Nov. 5, 2024, 9:38 a.m. ET1 hour ago
J. David GoodmanReporting from Houston
The Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, had a brief spat with the Justice Department over its deployment of election monitors to several counties in Texas, part of a nationwide federal effort to ensure compliance with voting laws. Paxton dropped an emergency lawsuit over the monitors today after he said they had agreed to remain outside of polling places in the state.
Mark Barrett
Nov. 5, 2024, 9:37 a.m. ET2 hours ago
Mark BarrettReporting from North Carolina
“I believe he will protect us and keep us out of future wars.”
Mason Long, 30, a mortgage broker who lives outside Asheville, N.C. Long said opposition to war and a desire for a better economy were at the top of his mind and led him “surprisingly” to vote for Donald J. Trump after backing President Biden in 2020.
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Credit…Mark Barrett for The New York Times
Simon J. Levien
Nov. 5, 2024, 9:33 a.m. ET2 hours ago
Simon J. LevienReporting on politics
Senator JD Vance of Ohio, Trump’s running mate, voted at his local precinct this morning in Cincinnati. During brief remarks to reporters, he said that Trump had called him at 3 a.m. after a final rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., that ran late, but that he had missed the call. Vance said he was headed to Florida, where the Trump campaign is hosting an election night watch party in West Palm Beach.
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Credit…Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times
Simon J. Levien
Nov. 5, 2024, 9:36 a.m. ET2 hours ago
Simon J. LevienReporting on politics
In his final message to the press, Vance was on message about the Trump campaign’s best-performing policy issues with voters: the economy and immigration. Despite his history of disparaging comments about Democrats and rivals, he tried to strike a more optimistic tone. “We ought to be kind to each other,” Vance said, after mentioning friends torn apart by politics.
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Simon J. Levien
Nov. 5, 2024, 9:40 a.m. ET1 hour ago
Simon J. LevienReporting on politics
Vance said America was the greatest country in the world, in contrast to Trump’s frequent and dark assertions that the country is a “failing nation.” He also dismissed the importance of a recent Iowa poll that unexpectedly showed Harris leading.
Leanne Abraham and June Kim
Nov. 5, 2024, 9:28 a.m. ET2 hours ago
Leanne Abraham and June Kim
The first polls will close at 6 p.m. Eastern, starting with several counties in Indiana and Kentucky. The last polls will close at 1 a.m. Eastern, in Alaska. Here is a state-by-state breakdown of what time polls will close throughout the night.
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A map showing the poll closing times by state.
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Mattathias Schwartz
Nov. 5, 2024, 9:27 a.m. ET2 hours ago
Mattathias SchwartzReporting from Pennsylvania
Philadelphia has started counting mail-in ballots at a warehouse in the city’s Northeast. The city moved its Election Day headquarters here after there were large demonstrations outside its counting center in Center City during the 2020 election. Officials say mail-in results will likely come faster this year due to a post-Covid decline in voting by mail and new machines that speed up envelope-opening and scanning.
Nick Hagen
Nov. 5, 2024, 9:08 a.m. ET2 hours ago
Nick HagenReporting from Michigan
Jimmy Reaves, 41, headed off to work after being the first person to vote in his precinct in Hamtramck, Mich. Two poll watchers, Sumana Ahmed, 18, and Jui Abedin, 20, monitored from a public area.
Alex Pena
Nov. 5, 2024, 8:55 a.m. ET2 hours ago
Alex PenaReporting from Arizona
“I voted for Kamala Harris. It’s not something I wanted to do.”
Vatr Jackson, 30, of Maricopa County, Ariz. Jackson said he voted for Donald J. Trump in 2020, but chose Kamala Harris this time because he feels like his views no longer align with those of the current Republican Party.
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CreditCredit…Stephanie Figgins for The New York Times
Lauren Hirsch
Nov. 5, 2024, 8:51 a.m. ET2 hours ago
Lauren HirschReporting from New York for the DealBook newsletter
Business leaders are debating when to speak up about the vote.
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Kathryn Wylde, wearing glasses and a gray coat, looks to one side.
Kathryn Wylde of the Partnership for New York City recently organized a call with business leaders to discuss their role in case there was post-election turmoil. Credit…Michael Cohen for The New York Times
Corporate America has largely stayed silent about the election, fearful of political backlash, employee discontent and potential retribution by former President Donald J. Trump. But as worries of potential civil unrest mount, some business leaders are deliberating when is the time to speak up.
On Monday afternoon, the Partnership for New York City, a nonprofit group representing some of the city’s largest companies, organized a call with Dana Remus, the lead lawyer for Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign, to discuss businesses’ role in case there was post-election turmoil.
The group, which includes some of the country’s most influential business leaders, had urged Congress in 2021 to certify the election results. Monday’s call included more than 100 chief executives, communications advisers and other senior managers.
“Before the election, taking a stand would be a partisan political statement,” Kathryn Wylde, chief executive of the Partnership for New York City, recalled saying on the call. But “if there’s violence — or a threat of political instability, or a contested transition” after the election, she said, “major employers and business leaders will engage.”
Ms. Remus also walked attendees through how electoral legal challenges might play out, especially in light of changes that make it more difficult to invalidate elections.
Business leaders have been reluctant to wade in. Many say that even talking about the peaceful transition of power is political. But amid high levels of misinformation and distrust in institutions, including government and the media, corporate leaders have faced more pressure to publicly call for stability.
“Voting rights and support for democracy is not a partisan issue,” Ken Chenault, the former chief executive of American Express, said at a briefing with business leaders last month. “And it’s critical that business leaders support that.”
Other business groups are beginning to speak up, even if cautiously. The National Association of Manufacturers — which called for invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Mr. Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol — released a statement on Tuesday addressed to the eventual “president-elect” stressing the need for unity.
“The peaceful transition of power is a hallmark of our democracy and is essential to ensuring continued confidence in the rule of law — a commitment that has made America exceptional,” read the letter, which was signed by chief executives including Blake Moret of Rockwell Automation and Mark Smucker of the J.M. Smucker Company.
“As leaders of industries that drive America’s promise, you can count on us as steadfast partners in this work and in building our future together,” the letter said.
DEALBOOK Make sense of the latest business and policy headlines with our daily newsletter. Get it sent to your inbox.
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Ali Watkins
Nov. 5, 2024, 8:36 a.m. ET3 hours ago
Ali Watkins
Voters have begun casting ballots. Here’s when polls open in each state.
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Election workers preparing a polling site.
Election workers preparing a voting site in Brooklyn on Tuesday.Credit…Graham Dickie/The New York Times
Americans headed to the polls on Tuesday to cast their ballots in an extraordinarily close presidential election.
While millions of Americans have already voted early, millions more will vote in person. Here’s when polling places open across the country (all times Eastern):
6 a.m.
Connecticut
Indiana (Polling places in the Central time zone open an hour later.)
Kentucky (Polling places in the Central time zone open an hour later.)
Maine (Municipalities with fewer than 500 residents can open later.)
New Hampshire (It varies by municipality, but polls have to be open by 11 a.m.)
New Jersey
New York
Virginia
Vermont (Polling places can open as early as 5 a.m., but times vary by municipality.)
6:30 a.m.
West Virginia
North Carolina
Ohio
7 a.m.
Delaware
Washington, D.C.
Florida (Parts of the Panhandle located in the Central time zone open an hour later.)
Georgia
Illinois
Kansas (Polling places located in the Mountain time zone may open an hour later.)
Louisiana
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan (except for parts of the state in the Central time zone, where polls open an hour later)
Missouri
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island (except for the North Shoreham municipality, where polling stations open at 9 a.m.)
South Carolina
8 a.m.
Alabama (Parts of the state located in the Eastern time zone may open an hour earlier.)
Arizona
Tennessee (Some municipalities, including those in the Central time zone, may open later.)
Iowa
Minnesota (Towns with fewer than 500 people may approve later opening times.)
Mississippi
North Dakota (Polls can open as late as 11 a.m.)
Oklahoma
South Dakota (Polling places in the Mountain time zone open an hour later.)
Texas (Polling places in the Mountain time zone open an hour later.)
Wisconsin
8:30 a.m.
Arkansas
9 a.m.
Colorado
Idaho (Some polling places, including those in the Pacific time zone, open later.)
Montana (Some smaller municipalities can open later.)
Nebraska
New Mexico
Oregon (Polling places in the Pacific time zone open an hour later.)
Utah
Wyoming
10 a.m.
Washington (Times vary by county.)
California
Nevada
11 a.m.
Alaska (Some polling places open at noon.)
Noon
Hawaii
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Joanna Daemmrich
Nov. 5, 2024, 8:30 a.m. ET3 hours ago
Joanna Daemmrich Reporting from Pennsylvania
Two dozen people who lined up to vote this morning at an elementary school in Warminster, a suburb of Philadelphia in Bucks County, seemed to be nearly evenly divided between Kamala Harris and Donald J. Trump. Warminster (pop. 33,280) voted for winners of the past two presidential elections by just a few hundred votes: Trump beat Hillary Clinton by 471 votes here, while Joseph R. Biden Jr. defeated Trump by 257.
Lance Booth
Nov. 5, 2024, 8:13 a.m. ET3 hours ago
Lance Booth
Polling places opened in dozens of states as Election Day got underway. Clockwise from top left: Fairview, N.C.; Snellville, Ga.; Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Miami.
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Joel Wolfram
Nov. 5, 2024, 8:07 a.m. ET3 hours ago
Joel WolframReporting from Pennsylvania
In Philadelphia, a line of several dozen voters wrapped around the block outside Kensington Health Sciences Academy as the polls opened at 7 a.m. To win Pennsylvania, Kamala Harris needs strong turnout in the city, where the typically wide margins for Democratic presidential candidates have been shrinking since 2016.
“My anxiety forces me to come first thing,” said Amy Keresztes, 36, a psychotherapist voting for Harris. She said she was worried both about the outcome of the election and the potential for political violence today.
Mark Barrett
Nov. 5, 2024, 7:53 a.m. ET3 hours ago
Mark BarrettReporting from North Carolina
In western North Carolina, about 20 voters stood in two separate lines when the polls at the Fairview Community Center opened at 6:30 a.m. Election officials sent voters from two precincts to the center a few miles southeast of Asheville because damage from the remnants of Hurricane Helene made it hard to reach the usual polling place for one of them. There have been concerns that Helene would reduce turnout in North Carolina counties where it hit hardest. That could hurt former President Donald Trump’s chances in the state.
Mary Chapman
Nov. 5, 2024, 7:47 a.m. ET3 hours ago
Mary ChapmanReporting from Michigan
Some 20 minutes after the polls opened, more than two dozen voters were in line outside a school in Birmingham, Mich., where Kamala Harris hopes to build upon a blue shift in Oakland County.
Maggie Astor
Nate Cohn
Nov. 5, 2024, 7:35 a.m. ET4 hours ago
Maggie Astor and Nate Cohn
These 8 counties could hint at where the election is headed.
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Voters casting ballots at blue booths.
Voters cast ballots in Dearborn, Mich., on Sunday.Credit…Nick Hagen for The New York Times
When the polls close on Tuesday, we will be watching, of course, for statewide outcomes in the presidential battlegrounds. But as we wait for calls, there will be individual counties you can look to for clues — though not definitive ones — to the contours of the vote.
Here are some counties whose results may speak to whether different demographic groups are trending toward Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald J. Trump.
Working-class white voters
Macomb County, Mich.
Macomb County, a stretch of suburbs and exurbs north of Detroit, is home to large numbers of the working-class white voters who broke the so-called Blue Wall in 2016, flipping Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to Republicans for the first time in more than a quarter-century and winning Mr. Trump the presidency.
Four years later, just enough of them returned to vote Democratic, helping Joseph R. Biden Jr. flip those states back. How those voters break this year could be decisive again.
In 2020, Mr. Trump won 53.4 percent of the vote in Macomb County.
College-educated suburban voters
Chester County, Pa.
Chester County, an affluent area west of Philadelphia, is filled with the sort of highly educated suburban voters who have shifted toward voting for Democrats since 2016, one of the more electorally significant realignments of the Trump era.
Educated suburban voters, especially women, helped fuel Democratic victories in 2018, 2020 and 2022. Abortion has been a motivating issue for suburban women, and if we see a big “Dobbs effect” of backlash to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, this is one place where it could be visible.
In 2020, Mr. Biden won 57.8 percent of the vote in Chester County.
Black voters
Fulton County, Ga.
Black voters are a powerful bloc in Fulton County, home to Atlanta, and Mr. Trump has been trying to cut into the Democrats’ advantage there.
Democrats have historically relied on huge margins in heavily Black metropolitan areas in order to win states that, on a traditional results map, appear mostly red because of strong Republican support in geographically large but less populated areas. This was a big part of what enabled Mr. Biden to win Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
In 2020, Mr. Biden won 72.6 percent of the vote in Fulton County.
Latino voters
Yuma County, Ariz.
Yuma County, in the southwestern corner of Arizona along the border with Mexico, is about two-thirds Latino and has been at the center of debates over the effects of illegal immigration. How it votes will offer some indication of how Latino voters are weighing that issue, though it’s important to note that there is also a sizable minority of white working-class voters here.
Another word of caution: It’s tough to identify bellwethers for Latino voters at large, in part because Latinos are so diverse. Cuban Americans in Florida, for instance, are politically distinct from Mexican Americans in Arizona.
In 2020, Mr. Trump won 52.2 percent of the vote in Yuma County.
Arab American voters
Wayne County, Mich.
Wayne County is home to Detroit, a heavily Black city, but it’s also home to Dearborn, a majority-Arab suburb that has been an epicenter of anger at the Biden administration’s and Harris campaign’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas.
Many voters here have historically backed Democrats but are disillusioned with Ms. Harris because she says she would continue to provide weapons to Israel. Some have said they will reluctantly vote for her anyway, but others plan to vote for Mr. Trump or a third-party candidate, or not to vote at all. Victory margins and turnout numbers will both be significant.
In 2020, Mr. Biden won 68.4 percent of the vote in Wayne County.
Jewish voters
Montgomery County, Pa.
Montgomery County is home to significant Jewish populations, particularly in Lower Merion Township, west of Philadelphia. It is an imperfect bellwether — no county is majority Jewish, and many places with the largest Jewish minorities, like New York City, aren’t in battleground states — but it will help show another piece of the electoral impact of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Mr. Trump has been trying to woo Jewish voters, saying his support of Israel would be uncompromising compared with that of Ms. Harris, who has sometimes criticized it. In doing so, though, he has often used antisemitic tropes.
In 2020, Mr. Biden won 62.6 percent of the vote in Montgomery County.
Young voters
Dane County, Wis.
Dane County is home to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and like other counties with large college campuses, it will point to trends among young people, including first-time voters.
Young voters have historically been an important constituency for Democrats, and Ms. Harris has drawn more enthusiasm from them than Mr. Biden was drawing earlier this year. But there are still questions surrounding her support, especially because of Israel, and there is evidence of a growing gender gap caused by young men moving to the right.
In 2020, Mr. Biden won 75.5 percent of the vote in Dane County.
Rural voters
Peach County, Ga.
It’s hard to choose one bellwether county for rural voters because they are spread across such a vast number of counties, most of which are heavily Republican.
But one option is Peach County, a swath of central Georgia that — unlike most rural counties — is closely split between white and Black voters. It has swung back and forth between Republicans and Democrats in past elections.
In 2020, Mr. Trump won 51.8 percent of the vote in Peach County.
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Nataliya Vasilyeva
Nov. 5, 2024, 7:33 a.m. ET4 hours ago
Nataliya VasilyevaReporting from Istanbul
American intelligence officials say Russia is seeking to hurt confidence in the election and undermine the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris. But in Moscow today, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry claimed Russia “doesn’t care” who wins the presidency because of “a bipartisan consensus in the United States on confrontation with our country.” The statement underscored Moscow’s change in tone from 2016, when Russian officials were openly cheering for Donald Trump.
Sean Keenan
Nov. 5, 2024, 7:16 a.m. ET4 hours ago
Sean KeenanReporting from Georgia
It’s drizzly and gray as the polls open at West Hunter Street Baptist Church in Atlanta, but 16 voters so far have lined up to pull the lever. Here in reliably Democratic Fulton County — and especially in the city’s West End neighborhood, which is predominantly Black — most will likely vote for Vice President Kamala Harris. The relatively short line may reflect the unprecedented surge in early voting here. Statewide, more than four million Georgians cast ballots before Election Day, with some 416,000 votes tallied in Fulton, the most populous county.
Sean Keenan
Nov. 5, 2024, 7:25 a.m. ET4 hours ago
Sean KeenanReporting from Georgia
A better indication of who could win the presidential contest in Georgia should come from Atlanta’s northern suburbs — including fast-growing counties like Cobb and Gwinnett, which both favored the Democratic ticket in 2020 and 2016, after previously embracing Republicans.
Judson Jones
Nov. 5, 2024, 7:06 a.m. ET4 hours ago
Judson JonesMeteorologist
It’s raining in parts of the critical swing states of Wisconsin and Michigan this morning, and the rain is likely to continue off and on through the rest of the day. This may not seem like a big deal, but scientists have said rain on Election Day can very slightly reduce voter turnout, and that could matter in a tight election.
Nov. 5, 2024, 6:53 a.m. ET4 hours ago
Kellen BrowningBenjamin Oreskes and Eduardo Medina
Trump is courting apolitical young men. Will it pay off?
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Bright lights shine behind supporters of Donald Trump. One of the supporters is wearing a T-shirt that reads “God, Guns, Trump 2024.”
A Trump rally in October in Aurora, Colo. The Republican nominee is trying to court Gen Z male voters, especially white, Black and Latino men without a college degree.Credit…Doug Mills/The New York Times
Back in June, former President Donald J. Trump appeared on a podcast interview with Logan Paul, the wrestler and social media star. They chatted about immigration and the economy, but also about boxing and the existence of aliens — which Mr. Trump described as “very possible.”
Finn Murphy, a 20-year-old college student in Carolina Beach, N.C., generally stays away from politics. But when he listened to snippets of the podcast, he liked what he heard. That’s why, hair still wet from an afternoon of surfing, he was standing in line last week alongside people three times his age to cast his vote for Mr. Trump.
“He’s strong; he’s a man,” Mr. Murphy said. “I’m here to make sure he wins.”
Young men like Mr. Murphy have traditionally been among the least likely to vote in presidential elections. Campaigns and pollsters frequently struggle to reach them, because they are less prone than most to pick up the phone, trust institutions or participate in politics at all.
But in this election, Mr. Trump has made a concerted effort to court Gen Z men, especially white, Black and Latino men without a college degree, seeking out the podcasts and influencers that they flock to and appearing on shows where he exhibits bravado and a disdain for cultural norms.
In recent years, young men have become more conservative and increasingly anxious about their economic status. In two national surveys conducted by The New York Times and Siena College last month, the gender gap among young Americans was stark, with young women backing Vice President Kamala Harris by 42 percentage points, and young men favoring Mr. Trump by 12 points. Mr. Trump is betting that he can harness all of this to motivate a wave of young men to vote on Election Day.
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Maggie Astor
Nov. 5, 2024, 6:19 a.m. ET5 hours ago
Maggie Astor
On the issues: Where Harris and Trump stand on immigration.
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Where Trump and Harris Stand on Immigration
3:16
Maggie Astor, a politics reporter for The New York Times, breaks down where former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris stand on immigration.
Kamala Harris: Ms. Harris supports a bipartisan proposal to hire thousands of new border security agents and asylum officers and close the border if crossings reach an average of more than 5,000 migrants a day over a week. She has called for a pathway to citizenship for immigrants already in the country illegally.
Donald Trump: Mr. Trump wants to round up millions of undocumented immigrants and detain them in camps before deporting them en masse, using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to carry out deportations without due process. As president, he enacted sweeping anti-immigration policies that included separating migrant children from their parents.
Neil Vigdor
Nov. 5, 2024, 5:40 a.m. ET5 hours ago
Neil Vigdor
These places have democracy watchdogs bracing for potential election discord.
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People behind voting booths at a polling place.
Voters in Detroit cast ballots on Sunday.Credit…Nick Hagen for The New York Times
Voting rights groups are keeping tabs on roughly two dozen counties across the United States as potential hot spots for electoral discord, places that in recent elections have seen pushback against the certification of results, or efforts to disqualify some ballots or common procedures.
The counties have repeatedly found themselves at the center of legal disputes, some aimed at overturning former President Donald J. Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election.
Election Day has arrived. Here’s the latest.
A grueling campaign season entered its final hours on Tuesday with voters deciding a divisive and chaotic presidential race that would give the United States its first female leader or return to the White House a former president who has shattered the norms of American politics.
The campaign has epitomized all the dysfunction and polarization in American politics. To the end, nearly every poll in the seven battleground states showed the race to be a tossup between Kamala Harris, the Democratic vice president, and Donald J. Trump, the Republican former president, who would be only the second president in American history to serve nonconsecutive terms.
