The last election day in the USA is here, after tens of millions of people have already cast their votes

WASHINGTON (AP) — Election Day 2024 arrived on Tuesday and tens of millions of Americans have already cast their votes. That includes record numbers in Georgia, North Carolina and other battleground states that could decide the winner.

Early voter turnout in Georgia, which has swung between Republican and Democratic candidates in the last two presidential elections, has been so robust – over 4 million voters — that a senior official in the State Department office said the big day could look like a “ghost town” at the polls.

On Monday, the Associated Press' nationwide tracking of the primary gave approximate results 82 million ballots have already been cast – just over half the total number of votes in the presidential election four years earlier. That's partly because of the Republican voters who were Cast early votes at a higher rate than in the most recent election, after former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee waged a campaign to offset Democrats' longstanding advantage in early voting.

Despite long queues in some places and some disruptions that are common in all elections, early in-person and postal voting went without any major problems.

That includes the parts of western North Carolina hit by Hurricane Helene last month. State and local election officials benefit Changes made by the Republican-controlled legislature, achieved a Herculean effort to ensure residents could cast their votes while dealing with power outages, water shortages and flooded streets.

As early voting ended in North Carolina on Saturday, over 4.4 million voters — or nearly 57% of all registered voters in the state — had cast their ballots. On Monday, voter turnout was even higher in the 25 western counties affected by the hurricane, with 59% of registered voters, said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the state elections board.

Brinson Bell called voters and poll workers in hurricane-affected counties “an inspiration to all of us.”

In addition to the hurricanes in North Carolina and Floridathe most worrisome disruptions of the election season so far Arson attacks that damaged ballot papers in two drop boxes near the Oregon-Washington border. There the authorities were looking for the person responsible.

The absence of significant, widespread problems has not stopped Trump, the Republican nominee, or the RNC from doing so now under his rulefrom making numerous claims of fraud or election interference during early voting, one possibility Prelude to challenges after election day.

He misrepresented it An investigation is underway in Pennsylvania in about 2,500 potentially fraudulent voter registration applications, saying one of the counties was “caught with 2,600 fraudulent ballots and forms, all written by the same person.” The subject of the investigation are registration applications; There is no indication that these are ballot papers.

In Georgia, Republicans sought to prohibit voters from returning mailed ballots to their local elections office until the end of voting on Election Day, votes allowed under state law. A judge rejected their lawsuit over the weekend.

Trump and Republicans have also warned about the possibility of Democrats recruiting masses of non-citizens to choose, a claim they have made without evidence and that contradicts the data, also from Republican secretaries of state. Research has consistently shown that it is rare for non-citizens to register to vote. Any non-citizen making faces the possibility of criminal charges and deportationa significant negative incentive.

A case of non-citizen voting was uncovered during early voting last month and led to criminal charges in Michigan against a student from China cast an illegal early vote.

This is the first presidential election since then Trump lost to Joe Biden four years ago and began various attempts to do so deal with the result and stay in power. The culmination was the violent attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 to prevent the certification of the results after Trump told his supporters “fight like hell”.

Even now, a solid majority the Republicans believe Trump's lie that Biden was still not legally elected Reviews, Exams And told In the battleground states, everyone confirmed Biden's victory. A survey last month by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed that the Republicans are staying much more skeptical than the Democrats that their ballots will be counted accurately this year.

The aim is to restore voters' trust in a system false claims of widespread fraudSince 2020, Republican lawmakers in more than a dozen states have enacted new voting restrictions. Those rules include shortening the time to request or return a mail-in ballot, reducing the availability of ballot drop boxes and imposing ID requirements.

On the last weekend before Election Day, Trump continued falsely claiming the election was rigged against him and said it should be a presidential winner declared on election nightbefore all ballots are counted.

Vice President Kamala Harris urged voters not to get involved Trump's tactics to question elections. The Democratic candidate told his supporters at a weekend rally in Michigan that the tactic was intended to suggest to people “that their vote doesn’t matter when they vote.” Instead, she urged those who had already voted to encourage their friends to do the same.

Through four years Election lies And Election-related conspiracy theorieslocal election officials were at the door Harassment and even death threats. That's what led to this high sales and resulted in increased security for election offices and polling locations, including Panic buttons and bulletproof glass.

While there were no major reports of malicious cyber activity affecting election offices, foreign actors actively used fake social media profiles and websites to incite partisan hatred and disinformation. In recent weeks, US intelligence officials have done this Attributed to Russia several fake videos claiming voter fraud in presidential swing states.

On the eve of Election Day, they issued a joint statement with federal law enforcement agencies warning that Russia was particularly affected Expansion of its influence activitiesincluding in ways that could incite violence, and would likely continue these efforts long after the vote is cast.

Jen Easterly, the nation's top election security official, urged Americans to rely on state and local election officials for information about elections.

“This is particularly important as we find ourselves in an election cycle with unprecedented levels of disinformation, including the aggressive spread and amplification of disinformation by our foreign adversaries on a greater scale than ever before,” she said. “We cannot allow our foreign adversaries to have a voice in our democracy.”

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