By Zeke Miller, Michelle L. Price and Will Weissert, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — A presidential campaign marked by upheaval and rancor headed for its Election Day finale on Tuesday, as Americans decided whether to send Donald Trump back to the White House or elevate Kamala Harris to the Oval Office.
Voters faced a stark choice between two candidates with drastically different temperaments and visions for the world’s largest economy and dominant military power. More than 82 million people voted early. Those casting Election Day ballots mostly encountered a smooth process, with isolated reports of hiccups that regularly happen, including long lines, technical issues and ballot printing errors.
Trump voted in Palm Beach, Florida, near his Mar-a-Lago club, and said afterward that he was feeling “very confident.”
“It looks like Republicans have shown up in force,” he told reporters, wearing a red “Make America Great Again” cap. He said he had not prepared a speech on the results — win or lose — saying, “I’m not a Democrat. I’m able to make a speech on very short notice.”
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump and former first lady Melania Trump walk after voting on Election Day at the Morton and Barbara Mandel Recreation Center, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, left, shares a laugh with second gentleman Doug Emhoff, after reuniting in Pittsburgh, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, aboard Air Force Two, just before taking off from Pittsburgh for her final campaign rally in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, votes with his son at the St Anthony of Padua Maronite Catholic Church on election day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, fills out his ballot with his grandson, Milo Molina, left, 8, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki
A voter fills out their their ballot during early voting in the general election, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, in Fall River, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
An elections official sorts counted mail-in ballots on the first day of tabulation, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024, at the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York)
People line up to vote at the Chicago Early Voting Loop Supersite in Chicago, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Bennett College student Zairen Jackson listens to a fellow student answer a question during a roundtable in Greensboro, N.C., Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives at a campaign rally at PPG Paints Arena, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Pittsburgh, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
A political advertisement for Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris is displayed on the Sphere, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at PPG Paints Arena, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Pittsburgh, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris arrives to speak during a campaign rally in Memorial Hall at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa., Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
An image of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump hangs in the window of a campaign office as a pedestrian passes by, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Hamtramck, Mich. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump embraces Patty Morin, mother of Rachel Morin, during a campaign rally at Santander Arena, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Reading, Pa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally at Jenison Field House on the campus of Michigan State University, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, in East Lansing, Mich. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump is reflected in the bullet proof glass as he finishes speaking at a campaign rally in Lititz, Pa., Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally at Jenison Field House on the campus of Michigan State University, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, in East Lansing, Mich. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Supporters react as Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally at Jenison Field House on the campus of Michigan State University, Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024, in East Lansing, Mich. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Oprah Winfrey, third from right, speaks as she stands on stage at a campaign rally supporting Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
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Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump and former first lady Melania Trump walk after voting on Election Day at the Morton and Barbara Mandel Recreation Center, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
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Harris, the Democratic vice president, did phone interviews with radio stations in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada. She stands to be the first female president if elected and has promised to work across the aisle to tackle economic worries and other issues without radically departing from the course set by President Joe Biden.
Trump, the Republican former president, has vowed to replace thousands of federal workers with loyalists, impose sweeping tariffs on allies and foes alike, and stage the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.
In Scranton, Pennsylvania, Liza Fortt arrived at her polling location in a wheelchair and not feeling well. But she said she ventured out anyway to vote for Harris.
“It means a lot to me and my grandkids, my granddaughters, my nieces. … I was just waiting for this day to come,” said Fortt, who is 74 and Black. She said she never thought she’d have such an opportunity, to cast a ballot for a Black woman in a presidential race.
“I’m proud, to see a woman, not only a woman, but a Black woman,” Fortt said.
Harris and Trump entered Election Day focused on seven swing states, five of them carried by Trump in 2016 before flipping to Biden in 2020: the “blue wall” of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin as well as Arizona and Georgia. Nevada and North Carolina, which Democrats and Republicans respectively carried in the last two elections, also were closely contested.
First-time voter Jasmine Perez, 26, cast her ballot at the Las Vegas Raiders’ stadium in Nevada for Trump, citing his spiritual values.
“What really attracted me to Donald Trump is I’m a Christian,” Perez said, noting of the former president, “I like that he openly promotes Christianity in America.”
Candidates for president and vice president of the United States, Democrats Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and Republicans former President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, are seen on part of a mail-in election ballot in New York on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison)
The closeness of the race and the number of states in play raised the likelihood that, once again, a victor might not be known on election night.
In 2020, it took four days to declare a winner. Regardless, Trump has baselessly claimed that if he lost, it would be due to fraud. Harris’ campaign was preparing for him to try to declare victory before a winner is known on Tuesday night or to try to contest the result if she wins. Four years ago, Trump launched an effort to overturn the voters’ will that ended in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Trump said Tuesday that he had no plans to tell his supporters not to refrain from violence if Harris wins, because they “are not violent people.” Asked about accepting the race’s results either way, Trump said, “If it’s a fair election, I’d be the first one to acknowledge it.” He visited a nearby campaign office to fire up staffers before a party at a nearby convention center.
Harris voted by mail in her home state of California. She’ll have a watch party at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington.
Each candidate would take the country into new terrain
Harris, 60, would be the first woman, Black woman and person of South Asian descent to serve as president. She also would be the first sitting vice president to win the White House in 36 years.
“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,” Harris said in a Tuesday interview with The Big Tigger Morning Show on V-103 in Atlanta. “And mine is focused on progress.”
A victory would cap a whirlwind campaign unlike any other in American history. Harris ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket less than four months ago after Biden, facing massive pressure from his party after a disastrous debate performance, ended his reelection bid.
Trump, 78, would be the oldest president ever elected. He would also be the first defeated president in 132 years to win another term in the White House, and the first person convicted of a felony to take over the Oval Office.
He survived one assassination attempt by millimeters at a July rally. Secret Service agents foiled a second attempt in September.
Trump’ s winning would affirm that enough voters put aside warnings from many of Trump’s former aides or instead prioritized concerns about Biden and Harris’ stewardship of the economy or the U.S.-Mexico border.
It would all but ensure he avoids going to prison after being found guilty of his role in hiding hush-money payments to an adult film actress during his first run for president in 2016. His sentencing in that case could occur later this month. And upon taking office, Trump could end the federal investigation into his effort to overturn the 2020 election results.
The potential turbulence of a second Trump term has been magnified by his embrace of the Republican Party’s far right and his disregard for long-held democratic norms. Trump has used harsh rhetoric against Harris and other Democrats, calling them “demonic,” and has suggested military action against people he calls “enemies from within.”
Harris, pointing to the warnings of Trump’s former aides, has labeled him a “fascist” and blamed Trump for putting women’s lives in danger by nominating three of the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. In the closing hours of the campaign, she tried to strike a more positive tone and went all of Monday without saying her Republican opponent’s name.
Federal, state and local officials have expressed confidence in the integrity of the nation’s election systems. They nonetheless were braced to contend with what they say is an unprecedented level of foreign disinformation — particularly from Russia and Iran — as well as the possibility of physical violence or cyberattacks.
Both sides have armies of lawyers in anticipation of legal challenges on and after Election Day. And law enforcement agencies nationwide are on high alert for potential violence.
JD Jorgensen, an independent voter in Black Mountain, North Carolina, which was hit hard by Hurricane Helene, said voters should have made up their minds by now.
“I think that the candidates, both being in the public eye as long as they both have been, if you’re on the fence, you hadn’t really been paying attention,” said Jorgensen, 35.
Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in Palm Beach, Florida, Darlene Superville and Eric Tucker in Washington, and Marc Levy in Allentown, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.
This story has been corrected to reflect that Harris would be the first sitting vice president to win the White House in 36 years, instead of 32 years.
Results are posted after the midnight vote on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Dixville Notch, N.H. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Town Moderator Tom Tillotson, left, accepts the first ballot from Les Otten during the midnight vote on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Dixville Notch, N.H. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
An American flag flies in the wind as a voter leaves a polling site after casting a ballot on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Dearborn, Mich. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Election day worker Sean Vander Waal prepares to open a polling place,Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Dearborn, Mich. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Voters stand in line while waiting for a polling place to open, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Springfield, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Voters line up to enter their polling place at the Cincinnati Observatory on election day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Voters line up to enter their polling place at the Cincinnati Observatory on election day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Voters wait in line to cast their ballots at Scranton High School in Scranton, Pa., on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Voters stand in line outside a polling place at Madison Church, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Phoenix, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)
Voters stand in line outside a polling place at Madison Church, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Phoenix, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)
Election day worker Sean Vander Waal prepares to open a polling place,Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Dearborn, Mich. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
“I Voted” stickers featuring the logo of the Indianapolis Colts are given to voters at a polling location inside the Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Colts, in Indianapolis, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Voters cast their ballots at the Bronx County Supreme Court in New York on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Voters cast their ballots at voting site at The Game Preserve store on Election Day in Indianapolis, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Chicago school teacher Tabitha Berry, a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, fills out a ballot for the general election on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Voters stand in line outside a polling place at Madison Church, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Phoenix, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)
Vesta Avery, 2, helps her mother Alexis Taylor mark her ballot at P.S. M811, The Mickey Mantle School, in New York, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Three-year-old Zayn, sits on his father’s shoulders as he inserts his ballot into a machine to vote at the First Presbyterian Church of Dearborn, on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Dearborn, Mich. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Benay Gould, 7, watches as her dad Charles Herschel marks his ballot at P.S. M811, The Mickey Mantle School, in New York, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Kristin Scruggs votes at the 146-year-old Buck Creek school Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in rural Perry, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Stickers lay on a table inside a polling place, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
Voters cast their ballots at the Bronx County Supreme Court in New York on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Voters wait in line to cast their ballots at Scranton High School in Scranton, Pa., on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
American flags line Main Street on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)
People arrive at a polling place, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Dearborn, Mich. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
A man departs a polling place, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Springfield, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Voters stand in line outside a polling place at Madison Church, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Phoenix, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)
Liza Fortt, 74, center, waits in line to cast her ballot for Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris at her polling place at Scranton High School in Scranton, Pa., on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
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Results are posted after the midnight vote on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Dixville Notch, N.H. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
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Originally Published: November 5, 2024 at 6:17 AM CST
Candidates for president and vice president of the United States, Democrats Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and Republicans former President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, are seen on part of a mail-in election ballot in New York on Sunday, Nov. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison)
