Long lines, enthusiasm but no major problems as US votes
Amid a global pandemic that defined a tumultuous presidential campaign, voters across the U.S. on Tuesday braved worries about getting sick, threats of polling place intimidation and expectations of long lines caused by changes to voting procedures.
The U.S. was on pace to exceed the 2016 presidential vote, driven largely by the nearly 102 million ballots cast ahead of Election Day, part of an early-voting push prompted by the pandemic. And coronavirus cases were on the rise, with new daily confirmed cases up 43 percent over the past two weeks in the U.S., according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
“A lot of people were fearful to come out and vote today and for me I didn't want fear to stop me from voting on Election Day,” said Sadiyyah Porter-Low dry ,39, who cast her ballot at a church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Minor problems occur every election, and Tuesday was no different given the level of voter enthusiasm, the decentralized nature of U.S elections and last-minute voting changes brought on by the global pandemic. But the stakes were high with so much scrutiny on voting this year and the potential for further litigation.
President Donald Trump has already threatened legal action to prevent the counting of ballots that arrive after Election Day, which some states allow. Meanwhile, concerns about mail delivery delays prompted a federal judge to order postal workers in major cities to sweep processing facilities for any remaining ballots before the end of the day.
Officials have already warned that counting ballots could take days due to the avalanche of mail votes, which take more time to process and could result in another round of court battles.
On Tuesday, there were long lines and sporadic reports of polling places opening late, along with equipment issues in counties in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas and Georgia.
There were also reports, as there are every election, of efforts to discourage people from voting that surfaced in robocalls in a few states. The FBI was investigating.
But there were no signs of large-scale voter intimidation or clashes at the polls as some had feared given the level of political rancor this year.
“I would say it is blissfully uneventful,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel told reporters. “We've had virtually no disturbances of any kind.”
In the months leading up to Election Day, election officials had to deal with a pandemic that has infected more than 9 million Americans and killed more than 230,000, forcing them to make systemic changes largely on the fly and with limited federal money. Meanwhile, Trump repeatedly sought to undermine the election with unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud.
He has particularly targeted the crucial battleground state of Pennsylvania, after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed — at least for now — a threeday extension for receiving and counting absentee ballots. Over the weekend, Trump said that as soon as the polls close there on Tuesday, “We' re going in with our lawyers.”