U.S. election night recap: Donald Trump declared victory in speech to supporters

This U.S. election night live blog is now closed. For latest updates read Wednesday’s live blog.

4:15 a.m. ET

Zelensky tries to cast Trump win as positive for Ukraine

– Mark MacKinnon

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tried Wednesday morning to cast Donald Trump’s apparent win in the U.S. presidential race as good news for his country, though few experts in Kyiv share that opinion.

“Congratulations to Donald Trump on his impressive election victory!” Mr. Zelensky wrote on X shortly after Mr. Trump claimed victory in a speech to supporters. “I appreciate President Trump’s commitment to the ‘peace through strength’ approach in global affairs. This is exactly the principle that can practically bring just peace in Ukraine closer. I am hopeful that we will put it into action together.”

Ukrainians fear that a “just peace” is not what Mr. Trump – who said on the campaign trail that he could end the 2 ½ year old Russia-Ukraine war “in 24 hours” – seeks for Ukraine. Mr. Trump has repeatedly complained about the tens of billions of dollars in military and economic assistance the U.S. has given to Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion. His running mate JD Vance has suggested a peace plan that would freeze the conflict along its current front lines, while guaranteeing Ukraine’s “neutrality.”

That would be a disaster for Kyiv – conceding almost 20 per cent of its territory while also giving up on its goal of NATO membership as a guarantee against another Russian attack. But Mr. Zelensky has no choice but to welcome Mr. Trump’s apparent victory and to try and find ways to work with him.

There was little immediate reaction from Moscow to Mr. Trump’s claims of victory, but remarks by Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, suggest the Kremlin is pleased.

“Their convincing victory shows that ordinary Americans are tired of the unprecedented lies, incompetence, and malice of the Biden administration,” Mr. Dmitriev said, according to Reuters. “This opens up new opportunities for resetting relations between Russia and the United States.”

3:56 a.m. ET

British PM congratulates Trump

– Paul Waldie

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer joined other world leaders in congratulating Donald Trump.

“As the closest of allies, we stand shoulder to shoulder in defence of our shared values of freedom, democracy and enterprise. From growth and security to innovation and tech, I know that the UK-US special relationship will continue to prosper on both sides of the Atlantic for years to come,” Mr. Starmer said in a statement.

Mr. Trump’s expected victory will pose a challenge for Mr. Starmer whose Labour Party won a massive majority in the July election.

The two men met in September in New York and Mr. Trump had high praise for the British Prime Minister. But Mr. Trump’s campaign later accused the Labour Party of sending dozens of paid activists to campaign for his opponent Kamala Harris. The Labour Party insisted that the staffers were not being paid, but the slight likely won’t go unnoticed by Mr. Trump.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy also once called Mr. Trump a “neo-Nazi sociopath”.

3:50 a.m. ET

NATO secretary-general congratulates Trump, emphasizes strength of Alliance

– Eric Reguly

NATO’s new secretary-general, Mark Rutte, was quick to congratulate Donald Trump on his election victory this morning. No surprise there, because NATO has been in a low-grade panic for months about the prospect of the NATO skeptic taking the White House.

Mr. Rutte, the former prime minister of the Netherlands, said that “Through NATO, the U.S. has 31 friends and allies who help to advance U.S, interests, multiply American power and keep Americans safe.”

Mr. Trump has made it abundantly clear that he thought NATO was full of deadbeats who did not pay their fair share of defence spending. He has not said what’s in store for NATO, where the United States is by far the biggest sponsor – it spends more on defence than the next 10 countries around the world combined. As president, he threatened to yank America out of NATO unless its member states, including Canada, spend far more on defence.

His recent remarks have been cryptic. His campaign website said only that “We have to finish the process we began under my administration of fundamentally re-evaluating NATO’s purpose and NATO’s mission.”

NATO wants allies to spend at least 2 per cent of their GDP on defence; so does Mr. Trump. “Two-thirds of allies now spend at least 2 per cent of their GDP on defence, and defence spending and production are on an onward trajectory across the Alliance,” Mr. Rutte said this morning.

That leaves one third in the deadbeat category. Watch their defence spending rise fast now that Mr. Trump will be U.S. president.

3:30 a.m. ET

World leaders offer their congratulations to Trump

– Mark MacKinnon

Even before Donald Trump gave his victory speech at Mar-a-Lago, some foreign leaders were posting their congratulations to him via social media.

First and fastest were right-wing nationalist politicians whose policies align with Mr. Trump’s, and who are looking forward to his return to the White House.

“The biggest comeback in US political history! Congratulations to President Donald Trump on his enormous win,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban posted to X as Mr. Trump was speaking, using almost the same wording as the apparent president-elect. Mr. Orban, whose increasingly authoritarian government has been held up as a model by some of Mr. Trump’s allies called the U.S. election result. “A much-needed victory for the world!”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been at odds with President Joe Biden’s administration over the conduct of the wars in Gaza and Lebanon, was equally effusive. “Congratulations on history’s greatest comeback! Your historic return to the White House offers a new beginning for America and a powerful recommitment to the great alliance between Israel and America,” Mr. Netanyahu wrote on X, over a photograph of he and his wife Sara standing with Mr. Trump.

3:15 a.m. ET

China says it will work with next U.S. leadership for ‘win-win co-operation’

– James Griffiths

A Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman says the U.S. election results would not affect China’s policy towards its largest trading partner and geopolitical rival. ”Our policy towards the United States is consistent and we will continue to view and handle China-U.S. relations in accordance with the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win co-operation,” Mao Ning said. Analysts say Beijing largely viewed the election as a lose-lose, with both Mr. Trump and Vice-President Kamala Harris advocating for a tough stance on China, though the Democrat’s position never came close to Mr. Trump’s threat to enact 100 per cent tariffs on Chinese goods, which could have devastating effects on the global economy. Writing on election eve, Foreign Policy editor James Palmer noted that “on a personal level, China’s leadership will likely be more comfortable with Trump than Harris. ”For one thing, Trump is a known quantity — and he frequently praises [Chinese President Xi Jinping] even as he denigrates China,” Mr. Palmer said. “And it’s not just his four years of relations with China that make him a more familiar figure; it’s also that he represents a type for which the Chinese leadership has a well-worn playbook: older businessmen with easily stroked egos and family interests in the country.”

3:05 a.m. ET

Oil prices fall as Donald Trump inches closer to presidential victory

– Eric Reguly

Oil prices fell Wednesday morning on the prospect of a clean Republican sweep in the U.S. election. In early trading European time, Brent crude, the effective international benchmark, was down 1.5 per cent, to US$74.40 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. benchmark, was down a bit more. Two factors appear to have driven the decline. The first is that Donald Trump has campaigned on a pro-fossil fuel policy, also known as “Drill, baby, drill.” The United States is the world’s top producer of oil and it now appears unlikely that the Republicans will place curbs on production for the sake of the climate. More oil translates into lower prices. The second factor is the surging U.S. dollar, partly driven by the almost certain Trump victory. Oil is priced in dollars. A rising dollar makes oil more expensive for holders of other currencies, such as euros. Higher prices mean less demand, hence the fall.

2:55 a.m. ET

Trump declares victory in speech to supporters

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Donald Trump declared victory early Wednesday as he addressed his supporters in Florida. The former U.S. President promised that he would “not rest until we have delivered the strong safe and prosperous America. ”Every single day,” Trump said, “I will be fighting for you with every breath in my body.” This was, I believe, the greatest political movement of all time,” he said. Trump has won Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania – and is three electoral votes short of winning the presidency.

2:35 a.m. ET

Trump wins Pennsylvania, leaving him 3 electoral votes shy of clinching the White House

Donald Trump won Pennsylvania early Wednesday, putting him just three electoral votes shy of defeating Kamala Harris to win the White House. A win in Alaska or any of the outstanding battleground states — Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona or Nevada — would send the Republican former president back to the Oval Office. Pennsylvania, a part of the once-reliable Democratic stronghold known as the “blue wall” with Michigan and Wisconsin, was carried by Trump when he first won the White House in 2016 and then flipped back to Democrats in 2020. Trump also flipped Georgia, which had voted for Democrats four years ago, and retained the closely contested state of North Carolina.

2:20 a.m. ET

Opinion: Can Americans and the world take another four years of Trump?

– Marsha Lederman

The reasonable are turning to one another with shock and fear. Can this be for real? It is. Can we take another four years of this? Of chaos? And nasty, juvenile low-blows? We will have to. It appears Americans have voted for the guy who called the Vice-President a “sleazebag” at his big final campaign event. Women’s rights have already taken a huge hit because of Donald Trump. What’s in store now for American women? And immigrants – what kind of environment will a second Trump term create for them? There is good reason to fear for Ukraine, to fear for the planet. What is it? Is it impossible for the U.S. to elect a woman – even over a narcissistic, lying felon? Why do so many people vote against their own interests? I truly don’t understand it. Things feel very heavy right now.

2:08 a.m. ET

The GOP is on the path of winning the White House and both chambers of Congress

– Tony Keller

It’s looking more and more like a clean sweep.The Republican Party, after flipping a couple of Senate seats on Tuesday, is poised to hold a majority in the U.S. Senate. The GOP also has a path to retain its narrow control of the House of Representatives, though that’s not yet certain because a number of close races remain to be called. And former President Donald Trump, who in the early hours of Wednesday was leading in seven out of seven battleground states, is on the verge of being returned to the White House. As of early Wednesday morning, there are still uncounted votes, and it’s still mathematically possible for Ms. Harris to win. But the far more likely outcome is Mr. Trump’s re-election.

1:19 a.m. ET

Harris will not speak on election night, supporters told

– Justine Hunter

As Kamala Harris’s path to victory narrowed, supporters at her party headquarters were told she will not make an appearance on election night. Cedric Richmond, co-chair of her presidential campaign, delivered the news at the Democrat’s main election event at Howard University, Ms. Harris’ alma mater, in Washington, DC. “You won’t hear from the vice-president tonight, but you will hear from her tomorrow,” he told the crowd, explaining that there are still too many votes to be counted in the closely-contested race. “She will be back her tomorrow to address not only her HU family, not only to address her supporters, but also to address the nation.”

1:05 a.m. ET

Donald Trump wins Georgia

– The Associated Press

Former President Donald Trump wins the swing state of Georgia, returning its 16 electoral votes to the Republican column. Joe Biden narrowly carried Georgia in 2020, but Republicans have won every other Georgia presidential vote since 1996. Trump tried to overturn his 2020 loss in Georgia, setting off a political and legal struggle that led to his indictment in the state. While the state has two Democratic U.S. senators, Trump’s victory proves Georgia still has a Republican bent. Six candidates appeared on Georgia ballots, but votes for Claudia De la Cruz and Cornel West weren’t counted.

12:54 a.m. ET

Republicans win Senate majority

– Laura Stone

Republicans have won a majority in the Senate, reclaiming control of the chamber for the first time in four years.

The Republicans flipped two seats from the Democrats on Tuesday night, in West Virginia and Ohio, and held off a challenge in Nebraska, to overturn the balance of power in the Senate.

Early in the evening, Republican Jim Justice defeated Democrat Glenn Elliott to capture the Senate seat in West Virginia vacated by retiring U.S. Senator Joe Manchin.

Trump-backed Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno also defeated three-term Democratic incumbent Senator Sherrod Brown in Ohio. And in Nebraska, GOP incumbent Deb Fischer fended off a challenge from independent Dan Osborn.

12:37 a.m. ET

World markets look ahead to a Trump victory

– Eric Reguly

Early trades around the world appear to be pricing in a Donald Trump victory and the pro-growth, low-tax policy that he has advocated.

Just before dawn Western European time, S&P futures were up 1.3 per cent, the U.S. dollar surged and the yields on 10-year U.S. Treasuries climbed (bond prices and yields move in inverse directions).

Bitcoin, widely viewed among investors as a “Trump trade,” hit an all-time high, rising above US$75,000. The move reflects their belief that Mr. Trump would regulate cryptocurrencies lightly. Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, rose 6.5 per cent..

The dollar rally reflects currency traders’ view that Mr. Trump, should he win the White House, plus the Senate and the House of Representatives, would implement sweeping tax cuts and tariffs, which could stoke inflation. Rising inflation could trigger higher interest rates, which in turn could put upward pressure on the dollar and Treasury yields.

12:14 a.m. ET

Votes in swing states still being tallied, but Harris’s path to victory becomes very narrow

– Tony Keller

The first sign that Vice-President Kamala Harris was in trouble came early in the evening in Virginia. Virginia is not supposed to be a swing state.

President Joe Biden won it by a margin of more than 10 percentage points in 2020, but at 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday night, with more than half the votes counted, Ms. Harris was trailing Donald Trump. As the evening wore on, and votes from deeply blue urban counties rolled in, Ms. Harris’s vote total would pass that of Mr. Trump. As I write this, with an estimated 91 per cent of the votes counted, Ms. Harris is ahead of Mr. Trump in Virginia by 3 percentage points, and is almost certainly on her way to claiming the state’s 13 electoral votes.

But again: Mr. Biden won this state by more than 10 points. Ms. Harris had room to underperform in Virginia, and still win – but not in the swing states that Mr. Biden won by narrow margins in 2020, namely Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, or in North Carolina, where Mr. Trump narrowly won in 2020.

She appears to be doing a bit worse than Mr. Biden did four years ago in the swing states. And she could not afford to do worse.

There are still votes to count in the battleground states, but as of midnight, Ms. Harris’s path to victory had become very narrow.

11:48 p.m. ET

Moreno wins Ohio, flipping key Senate seat to Republicans

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– Laura Stone

The Republicans flipped another key Senate seat on Tuesday, with businessman Bernie Moreno beating three-term Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown. The win means the Republicans could win back control of the Senate – and the next president’s agenda – from the Democrats.

Mr. Moreno is a Trump-backed Colombian-born candidate who focused on immigration and border security during the campaign. Mr. Brown, one of Ohio’s longest serving and best-known politicians, focused his campaign on middle-class voters and made access to abortion a priority. In addition to the Ohio seat, Republicans flipped a West Virginia Senate seat vacated by Joe Manchin, who is retiring.

11:53 p.m. ET

Kamala Harris wins Virginia

– The Associated Press

Vice-President Kamala Harris won Virginia, adding 13 electoral college votes to her tally. Harris’s victory marks the third time Donald Trump has lost the Old Dominion state. The Democratic nominee for president has won Virginia in every election since 2008. Trump won North Carolina, capturing one of the seven heavily contested battlegrounds while votes in five other swing states were still being counted. In the race for Senate control, Republicans picked up crucial wins in West Virginia and Ohio. Top House races are focused in New York and California, where Democrats are trying to claw back some of the 10 or so seats where Republicans have made surprising gains in recent years.

11:44 p.m. ET

Support for Democrats among Black voters eroding, an important shift in a closely-contested election

– Nathan VanderKlippe

Jerard Stokes voted as a faithful registered Georgia Democrat until 2020. But when he marked a ballot for Joe Biden, he told himself, “if they get in office and they don’t do anything that impacts me and my family — then I’m not going to them again.”

It was the rising cost of living that caused him to lose faith in his party, he told The Globe at a Republican election night gathering in Atlanta. Donald Trump’s promises to cut taxes on tips and overtime, meanwhile, promise a meaningful impact to his income from work in valet parking and hospital logistics.

So Mr. Stokes, who is Black, cast his ballot this year for Mr. Trump. And, he says, “I’m not the only one in my family. My uncle, two of my cousins and three of my nephews” — all joined him in voting Republican for the first time.

Across the U.S., exit polls suggested support for the Democratic ticket eroded among Black voters by several points, in what could prove to be an important shift in a closely contested election.

11:23 p.m. ET

Trump wins North Carolina, narrowing Harris’ path to victory

– Associated Press

Donald Trump won the battleground state of North Carolina on Tuesday, fending off a challenge from Kamala Harris, who was looking to flip the state and expand her pathways to 270 electoral votes. Trump had made stops to the state in each of the last three days of the campaign to deprive Harris of the pick-up. Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon told staff in a memo that the “blue wall” of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin was now the Democrat’s “clearest path” to victory.

10:47 p.m. ET

Trump ticket leading in Ohio county where he claimed immigrants ate pets

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– Justine Hunter

What about Springfield, Ohio, which Donald Trump put on the map when he made baseless claims that immigrants were killing and eating family pets in the city?

Springfield is the largest community in Clark County, with a population of about 60,000. The community has had a large influx of immigrants from Haiti and during the Sept. 10 debate with Kamala Harris, Mr. Trump repeated unsubstantiated claims as fact to an audience of millions.

“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs,” he said during in a portion of the debate about immigration. “The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”

Those claims have been traced back to social media reports that have been debunked by officials for the City of Springfield, who said they had seen “no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”

Voters in Clark County rewarded Mr. Trump on election night.

With 77 per cent of votes counted, NBC News reports the Trump ticket is leading in Clark County by a wide margin – 62.6 per cent, with Ms. Harris pulling just 36.3 per cent of the vote.

10:30 p.m. ET

U.S. stock futures, dollar surge as markets lean toward Trump win

- Reuters

U.S. stock futures and the dollar surged in Asia on Wednesday as investors wagered Republican Donald Trump could win the U.S. presidential election, though officially the race remained too close to call.

Trump took the early lead over Democrat Kamala Harris as solid Republican-leaning states reported first, but critical battleground races, in the handful of states likely to decide the election, were unlikely to be called for hours.

Treasury yields climbed to four-month highs as some betting sites swung to favour Trump, while futures markets were still confident the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by 25 basis points on Thursday.

Analysts generally assume Trump’s plans for restricted immigration, tax cuts and sweeping tariffs if enacted would put more upward pressure on inflation and bond yields, than Harris’s centre-left policies.

Trump’s proposals would also tend to push up the dollar while potentially restricting how far the Fed might ultimately be able to cut rates. Reflecting that, Fed fund futures for next year eased into the red with December down 11 ticks.

10:10 p.m. ET

Early wins in reliably Democratic, GOP states as polls close in seven swing states

- The Associated Press

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris notched early wins in reliably Republican and Democratic states, respectively, as a divided America made its decision in a stark choice for the nation’s future Tuesday.

Polls closed in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Nevada, the seven closely fought battlegrounds expected to decide the election, but the results there were too early to call. Balloting continued in the West on election day, as tens of millions of Americans added their ballots to the 84 million cast early as they chose between two candidates with drastically different temperaments and visions for the country. Trump won Florida, a onetime battleground that has shifted heavily to Republicans in recent elections. He also notched early wins in reliably Republican states such as Texas, South Carolina and Indiana, while Harris took Democratic strongholds like New York, Massachusetts and Illinois.

10:06 p.m. ET

Key for Kamala Harris is exodus of suburban women from Republicans

– Adrian Morrow

Possibly the key for Kamala Harris is to further press forward one of the major political realignments of the Trump era: While the Democrats have bled white, working-class voters to the Republicans (and Donald Trump is hoping to add some non-white men to his vote total), the Republicans have seen an exodus of suburban women. Ms. Harris’s bet is that anger over Mr. Trump’s role in ending Roe v. Wade can motivate even more of these voters to come out for the Democrats than in the last few election cycles.

Watch places such as Oakland County, Michigan, in suburban Detroit.

The Democrats had a very good result in Michigan’s state elections in 2022, when a state constitutional amendment to protect abortion was on the ballot. Tellingly, while Governor Gretchen Whitmer won re-election by more than nine percentage points against an anti-abortion challenger, the Democrats won the popular vote for state legislative races by only about a point. This suggests that there is a substantial number of split-ticket Republican voters who will vote against their own party if they particularly dislike the candidate on offer.

But, as always: That happened in a lower-turnout state election when abortion was explicitly on the ballot. It remains to be seen whether the same effect will be replicated Tuesday night.

9:59 p.m. ET

Do celebrity endorsements even work?

– Adrian Lee

The buzziest celebrity endorsement from this election cycle came, of course, from Taylor Swift, who sent her first official endorsement of a presidential candidate in September to her 284 million Instagram followers.

But do celeb shoutouts really work?

Most of the arguments they move the needle will cite a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee study that posited that Oprah Winfrey’s endorsement of Barack Obama during the 2008 Democratic primaries directly led to more than a million votes in his favour. But nobody in 2024, not even Ms. Swift, is the equivalent of Oprah in 2008, a time when the culture wasn’t nearly as fragmented and when social media had relatively low influence.

In the dying days of the monoculture, Ms. Winfrey loomed massively in the American imagination, arguably more so than Ms. Swift today. Ms. Winfrey’s endorsement also spoke to a narrower slice of people, and her fan base skewed Democrat to begin with. Recall, too, that six years ago, Ms. Swift’s endorsement of two Democratic lawmakers in Tennessee failed to prevent the Republican from winning, which is as close to an equivalent as we’ll get.

So I doubt that Ms. Swift, despite the importance of her Pennsylvania birthplace to the electoral map, will prompt a big shift.

9:56 p.m. ET

History made in several states

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- The Associated Press

Already several states will send history-makers to the Senate.

Voters elected two Black women to the Senate, Democrat Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Democrat Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland, in a historic first.

Blunt Rochester won the open seat in her state while Alsobrooks defeated Maryland’s popular former governor, Larry Hogan. Just three Black women have served in the Senate, and never before have two served at the same time.

And in New Jersey, Andy Kim became the first Korean American elected to the Senate, defeating Republican businessman Curtis Bashaw. The seat opened when Bob Menendez resigned this year after his federal conviction on bribery charges. Read more.

9:52 p.m. ET

Dark moment for reproductive rights in America

– Marsha Lederman

Voters in Florida have delivered another dark moment for reproductive rights in America. Floridians have voted to keep the ban on abortion after six weeks, put in place by Governor Ron DeSantis in 2023. The measure, known as Amendment 4, would have expanded abortion access in the state, allowing abortions before viability -- thus overturning the six-week ban. It required 60 per cent voter support for passage, which it failed to achieve.

Many women do not even realize that they’re pregnant at six weeks.

This is considered a political victory for Mr. DeSantis. His former opponent for the Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump – a Florida voter – said while campaigning this summer that he opposed the amendment.

This is a setback not just for reproductive rights, but for women’s rights as a whole. As Michelle Obama said recently while campaigning for Kamala Harris: “I want folks to understand the chilling effect not just on critical abortion care, but on the entirety of women’s health, all of it.”

9:45 p.m. ET

Bomb threats reported in several states turned out to be hoaxes

– Andrea Woo

There is a large police presence at the Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix after a report of a bomb threat. The building is the location of the recorder’s office — responsible for the mail-voting process and where voter registration is maintained for the county’s 2.6 million voters.

The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office told The Globe and Mail that the bomb threats are a national and state trend and that the information was the same as other such threats in the country on Tuesday. There is no credible information, the sheriff’s office said, and the matter appears to be concluding.

The bomb threats in parts of Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania turned out to be hoaxes, but forced evacuations and some polling places had to extend their hours.

9:41 p.m. ET

No surprises as most polls close, with eyes now turning to Eastern battlegrounds

- The Associated Press

There has been little surprise in results so far with polls across most of the country having closed.

Trump won Republican-leaning states including Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas, while Harris won a swath of New England and the Northeast including New Jersey and New York.

Meanwhile, attention is gravitating toward the Eastern battleground states of Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

9:27 p.m. ET

Josh Stein beats Republican Mark Robinson in North Carolina governor race

– Laura Stone

In North Carolina, Attorney-General Josh Stein beat Republican Lieutenant-Governor Mark Robinson in the race for governor, keeping the swing state Democrat blue.

The results were a repudiation of Mr. Robinson, who was initially embraced by Donald Trump, and whose past was littered with controversial comments about abortion, LGBTQ people and gun policy.

Mr. Trump later distanced himself from Mr. Robinson, who was vying to become the first Black governor of North Carolina, after reporting from CNN. The network documented comments made on a pornographic site’s messaging board by an account that appeared to be that of Mr. Robinson, including that he supported slavery and considered himself “a black NAZI.” Mr. Robinson has filed a suit against CNN for its reporting.

Mr. Stein’s campaign also targeted Mr. Robinson for his past comments, including that women who had abortions “weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down.”

9:23 p.m. ET

No, a Democratic congressman did not say a Trump victory would not be certified

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– Patrick Dell

Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin has rejected as false a quote claimed to be from him saying an election victory by Donald Trump would not be certified.

The fabricated quote from Mr. Raskin has been viewed more than eight million times on X.

Replying to the post on X on Tuesday, Mr. Raskin said it is completely false and “one more lie in the stream of right-wing lies designed to undermine our election.”

Mr. Raskin said in an interview with Axios that if Mr. Trump “won a free, fair and honest election, then we would obviously accept it.”

9:09 p.m. ET

Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wins re-election to U.S. House

- The Associated Press

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won re-election to a U.S. House seat representing New York on Tuesday.

Ocasio-Cortez, commonly known by her initials AOC, is an outspoken and nationally prominent voice for the political left. She shocked the party’s establishment in 2018 by defeating 10-term incumbent Joe Crowley in a Democratic primary. At 29, she became the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. Ocasio-Cortez, who represents parts of the Bronx and Queens in New York City, is part of an informal group of progressive lawmakers in the House known as “the Squad.” The Associated Press declared Ocasio-Cortez the winner at 9:04 p.m. ET.

9:00 p.m. ET

Florida rejects abortion measure, further limiting access in the South

- The Associated Press

Florida voters rejected an amendment to enshrine abortion rights in their constitution, keeping in place Governor Ron DeSantis’s six-week ban as the initiative failed to reach the required 60-per-cent threshold. The measure faced an uphill battle in the deeply red state where Trump, a Florida resident, said during the campaign that he would vote against it.

Meanwhile, almost every region of Florida shifted to the right

In comparison to 2020, nearly all of Florida has moved right during this presidential election cycle.

Miami-Dade County saw the greatest increase, with an 18 percentage point shift right. It was enough to move the county from the Democrats’ column in 2020 to the Republicans’ this year.

8:50 p.m. ET

X remains key platform of concern

– Marsha Lederman

For those of us following (nervously) along, a key platform for election discourse and dissemination is X, formerly Twitter (and formerly not nearly as toxic, even in its worst moments). This is alarming. What are we still doing there? The platform is owned and controlled by Elon Musk, who is openly supporting Donald Trump, has thrown untold money at a Trump victory, and is hanging with Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago tonight.

Mr. Musk has shared and amplified misinformation throughout the campaign, and has continued to do so on election day. Among them: a post by someone calling themselves “Insurrection Barbie,” listing the reasons she voted for Mr. Trump. She was motivated, she posted, by her daughter’s rights – including her right to bear arms, her right to practise her religion, and “her right to bodily autonomy without interference from experimental drug companies mandated by her government.”

Another tweet Mr. Musk, Tesla’s CEO, retweeted came from the account belonging to “Tesla Owners of Silicon Valley.” It read: “Legacy media is made up of constant lies and click bait. X is a trusted source for news.” George Orwell would be proud. The rest of us should be wary.

8:41 p.m. ET

Deep dive into swing state of Georgia

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– Adrian Morrow

If you’re looking to (temporarily) stop scrolling and read deeply into one of tonight’s key swing states: I reported on Georgia’s demographic sea changes four years ago to explain how Joe Biden had eked out a narrow win there after the state had gone Republican in the six straight previous elections.

What I found were two trends pulling in opposite directions that also helped explain U.S. politics more broadly. Georgia’s cities and suburbs, particularly metropolitan Atlanta, had been getting more Democratic over the previous two decades because of increasing numbers of Black, Latino and Asian American voters. Rural areas had been getting more Republican.

One of the big questions Tuesday night is whether the first trend can do for Kamala Harris what it did for Mr. Biden, or whether Donald Trump’s attempts to make inroads with Black and Latino voters lessens its effect.

Another data point: Republican Herschel Walker came within three points of unseating Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock in Georgia in 2022, despite Mr. Walker facing a string of scandals during the campaign. (Brian Kemp, the state’s Republican Governor, comfortably won re-election by more than seven points in that election.)

It’s no wonder the state is a toss-up.

8:30 p.m. ET

Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene wins re-election to House

- The Associated Press

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the conservative firebrand who specializes in incendiary political speech, has been reelected to a third term serving a staunchly Republican district in northwest Georgia.

Greene defeated Democrat Shawn Harris, a retired Army general and farmer. The race was not expected to be competitive.

Greene has generated a national profile fighting with Democrats, spreading conspiracy theories online and even trying to boot her own party’s leadership as she unsuccessfully tried to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson from the job this year.

One person she doesn’t criticize is Donald Trump as she carefully links her brand with his.

8:28 p.m. ET

Once the bellwether, Florida slides to Trump

- The Associated Press

Florida is the third-biggest prize of the night in electoral votes, but Trump’s win is no surprise since Florida has been trending Republican for the past decade.

The last Democrat to carry Florida was Barack Obama in 2012, but it since has slipped decidedly into GOP ranks in statewide elections.

Ron DeSantis won reelection by nearly 20 percentage points in 2022, a political lifetime after the contested 2000 presidential election came down to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to stop the recount in the race between Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush.

8:21 p.m. ET

Polls in swing states of Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina begin to close

- The Associated Press

Polls closed Tuesday evening in Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina, some of the closely fought battlegrounds expected to decide the election, along with two dozen other states. On election day, tens of millions of Americans added their ballots to the 84 million cast early as they chose between two candidates with drastically different temperaments and visions for the country.

Trump won Florida, a onetime battleground that has shifted heavily to Republicans in recent elections. He also notched early wins in reliably Republican states including Kentucky, Tennessee and Indiana, while Harris took Democratic strongholds like Vermont, Massachusetts and Maryland.

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. Federal, state and local officials have expressed confidence in the integrity of the nation’s election systems.

8:20 p.m. ET

Republican Matt Gaetz wins re-election in Florida

- The Associated Press

Republican Matt Gaetz won election to a U.S. House seat representing Florida on Tuesday, defeating Democrat Gay Valimont. Gaetz will serve a fifth term representing one of Florida’s most conservative districts, which covers the westernmost part of Florida’s Panhandle. A strong supporter of former President Donald Trump, Gaetz filed the resolution that successfully ousted former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year. McCarthy then helped fund a primary challenge to Gaetz that included commercials alleging that he paid for sex with a 17-year-old, an allegation currently being investigated by the House Ethics Committee. Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing. The Associated Press declared Gaetz the winner at 8:14 p.m. ET.

8:00 p.m. ET

Polls closing as presidential election results trickle in

– Adrian Morrow

Polls have begun to close in the United States in a bitter and tumultuous neck-and-neck presidential race in which a polarized electorate is choosing between two starkly different agendas.

The winner of the election may not be clear for days, given the tightness of the contest and the fact that more than 80 million people have voted early, including many via mail ballots, which can take time to process.

With the result set to hinge on just seven swing states and each campaign’s efforts to shift small, specific demographics of voters, decisive or narrow victories remain possibilities for both candidates. Read more.

7:48 p.m. ET

New votes for Trump from Black voters one of the key questions

– Nathan VanderKlippe

Can Donald Trump win new votes from Black voters? It is one of the key questions in this election, but particularly in Georgia, where African Americans make up nearly a third of the population.

Some of the earliest voter information suggests Mr. Trump may have succeeded in that effort. Exit polling by the Associated Press showed Mr. Trump raising his overall share of Black voters by a point. NBC reported a two-point decline in support for Kamala Harris among both Black men and women, compared with the vote for Joe Biden four years ago.

On Fox News, exit polls suggested an even better performance for Mr. Trump, particularly among Black women. Although Ms. Harris received 89 per cent of votes from Black women, according to Fox, that was down from the 95 per cent who supported Mr. Biden four years ago.

7:47 p.m. ET

A note of caution as polls close and results come in

– Andrew Coyne

A couple of cautionary notes as the results start to roll in. One, the polls are always off by some amount – the only question is in whose favour. The polls understated Republican support in 2016 and 2020; they understated Democratic support in 2012 and 2000 – both nationally and in swing states.

The other cautionary note: Early results are not necessarily indicative of the final number. In Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina, the eventual winner in 2020 was not the leader after 25 per cent of the vote was counted, or 50 per cent, or even 75 per cent. Arizona looked like a Democratic walk early on, but Joe Biden only barely eked out a win. Etc.

So just hold your horses, in other words. We’re not going to know who won, probably, for some time. And we’re certainly not going to know things like margins and turnout. It takes some states forever to count the vote – I’m looking at you, California – and the cumulative change over time can be quite large, as the votes trickle in.

7:40 p.m. ET

Indiana, Kentucky go to Trump

- The Associated Press

Republican Donald Trump won the presidential election in Indiana on Tuesday. The reliably conservative state, where Republicans have held the governor’s office for 20 years, gave Trump its 11 electoral votes over Democrat Kamala Harris. Indiana has been favorable toward Trump in his three races for the White House. In 2016, the year he won the presidency, and again in 2020, Trump took 57 per cent of the Hoosier state vote. The Associated Press declared Trump the winner at 7:00 p.m. ET.

Trump also won Kentucky, adding eight electoral votes to his tally. The Republican nominee for president has won Kentucky in every election since Democrat Bill Clinton carried the Bluegrass State in 1996. Kentucky’s most powerful Republican, Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, once called Trump “morally responsible” for the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. But in a remarkable turnaround, McConnell endorsed Trump’s bid to return to the White House. During Trump’s term, the two worked together to pass a tax cuts package and to put three conservative justices on the Supreme Court. The Associated Press declared Trump the winner at 7:00 p.m. ET.

7:35 p.m. ET

Republicans pick up seat in West Virginia in the race toward Senate majority

- The Associated Press

Republicans picked up a crucial win Tuesday in the race for the Senate majority, as Jim Justice easily notched the West Virginia seat to succeed retiring Sen. Joe Manchin, deadlocking the chamber in a 50-50 split, for now.

Justice, the state’s governor who often appears with his English bulldog “Babydog,” was widely expected to deliver for Republicans as they work to wrest control from Democrats. Republican Donald Trump is popular in the state, and Manchin, who left the Democratic Party to become an independent, declined to seek another term.

West Virginia is the first of several states where Democrats see their slim hold on the chamber at serious risk. In a 50-50 split, the majority goes to the party in the White House, because the vice president can cast tie-breaking votes. There are more races ahead.

7:30 p.m. ET

High turnout ahead of election day, voters urged to stay in line as polls close

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– Justine Hunter

Turnout ahead of election day was high, and as polls begin to close across the U.S., those waiting in line to vote are being urged to stick it out by both presidential hopefuls.

“If you are in line before the polls close, stay in line,” Kamala Harris posted on X.

“Republicans: We are doing GREAT! Stay on Line. Do not let them move you. STAY ON LINE AND VOTE!” Donald Trump echoed on the social media platform.

David Hogg, president of Leaders We Deserve, which aims to elect young progressives to Congress, posted: “I’m hearing there are many long lines to vote across Pennsylvania on college campuses because of record youth voter turnout. PENNSYLVANIA STUDENTS: IF YOU ARE IN LINE TO VOTE STAY IN LINE TO VOTE YOU CANNOT BE TURNED AWAY SO LONG AS YOU ARE IN LINE.”

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson reported: “Turnout is off the charts. All across Michigan.”

In Washoe County, Nev., deputy registrar of voters Andrew McDonald said long lines at polling stations are “because people are turning out in record numbers.”

7:09 p.m. ET

Kamala Harris takes Vermont; Sen. Bernie Sanders wins a fourth term

- The Associated Press

Kamala Harris won the Democratic stronghold of Vermont on Tuesday. The small state has voted in favor of Democratic candidates in the previous eight presidential elections. Vermont Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, has been a critic of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and voted for Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 election. The Associated Press declared Harris the winner at 7:00 p.m. ET.

Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent beloved by progressives, won reelection to a fourth six-year term in the U.S. Senate.

Sanders defeated Republican Gerald Malloy, a U.S. Army veteran and businessman. Also on the ballot were independent candidate Steve Berry, as well as minor party candidates Mark Stewart Greenstein, Matt Hill and Justin Schoville.

The 83-year-old senator is a self-described democratic socialist who caucuses with the Democrats and twice came close to winning the presidential nomination. More recently, he has worked closely with the Biden administration to craft its domestic policy goals on health care, education, child care and workers’ rights. He is the longest serving independent in Congress.

Sanders said he ran again because the country faces some of its toughest and most serious challenges of the modern era. He described those as threats to its democratic foundations, massive levels of income and wealth inequality, climate change, and challenges to women’s ability to control their own bodies.

7:06 p.m. ET

Feelings on the ground in swing states are a toss-up, just like polling results

– Adrian Morrow

After the 2016 U.S. presidential election (or for us Canadians, the Alberta and B.C. elections in 2012 and 2013), people became rightly skeptical of political horse-race polling. The trouble for anyone trying to prognosticate is that the “feeling” on the ground among swing-state voters isn’t any more decisive than the ties we’re seeing in the polls.

I spent a Sunday in Augusta, Ga., late last winter talking to Black voters. Either campaign could probably read the story to buoy their hopes. For the Republicans, the fact that a number of 2020 Biden voters I spoke with were considering not voting would be pretty cheering. But if you’re a Democrat, this story might tell you that a lot of your core voters are still motivated to vote against Mr. Trump.

Similarly, in June, I was in a Pennsylvania swing county. I met a few Trump supporters who told me they have only ever voted to vote for him. That might be good news for Democrats if Mr. Trump is relying on people who rarely vote to carry him to victory. But maybe it’s good news for the GOP if all of those people actually do come out.

As a coda: In both stories, I spoke with Democratic voters who were unhappy about immigration, inflation and military aid to Ukraine. It’s a reminder that different issues and events still matter. People who in 2020 were frustrated with Mr. Trump’s handling of the pandemic may be frustrated now with the Democrats’ handling of the border.

After the votes are counted, there will be no shortage of people trying to tell you they saw the result a mile away. But anyone who has spent time meeting voters in swing states, and is being honest with you, will probably tell you that the whole thing feels as much like a toss-up as the polls suggest.

7:05 p.m. ET

Polls close soon in six states

- The Associated Press

At 7 p.m. ET, polls close in Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia, though some areas of Indiana and Kentucky closed at 6 p.m.

At 7:30 p.m. ET, polls will close in North Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia.

6:55 p.m. ET

Some GOP consultants say Harris overplayed hand on abortion

– Adam Radwanski

Republicans readily acknowledge that, since the Supreme Court overturned abortion rights in 2022, the issue has been a big challenge for their party with female voters. That’s especially the case in a state like Michigan, where the Democrats’ path to victory involves increasing their (already large) margins with college-educated women.

But two prominent Michigan GOP consultants I spoke with Tuesday – Scott Greenlee and Jason Roe – both contended that Ms. Harris overplayed her hand on the subject.

They argued that by making abortion rights a focal point of their pitch to women through many months of the campaign, the Democrats may have gotten diminishing returns. And they suggested that in the race’s final weeks, their own party has done a better job of blunting the warnings about women’s freedoms being taken away, by pointing toward a 2022 voter-approved amendment to Michigan’s state constitution that protects reproductive freedom.

If the Democrats think there’s any truth to that, they aren’t showing it: Even in a very short speech at his campaign’s final Michigan rally, vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz highlighted the issue.

6:50 p.m. ET

Trump didn’t wait for polls to close before attacking potential outcome of election

– Justine Hunter

Donald Trump didn’t wait for the polls to close before he began attacking the potential outcome of the race, using his Truth Social platform to allege electoral cheating. “A lot of talk about massive CHEATING in Philadelphia. Law Enforcement coming!!!” he posted.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner responded on X, calling the claim unfounded. “The only talk about massive cheating has come from one of the candidates, Donald J. Trump. There is no factual basis whatsoever within law enforcement to support this wild allegation,” he posted. Philadelphia’s city commissioner, Seth Bluestein, agreed: “There is absolutely no truth to this allegation. It is yet another example of disinformation. Voting in Philadelphia has been safe and secure,” he posted on X.

Mr. Trump falsely claims his 2020 loss to Democratic President Joe Biden was the result of widespread fraud in multiple states that he had lost. The rhetoric around an election “steal” led to a violent mob of Trump supporters attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, seeking to halt or sway the congressional count of the electoral votes that determine who becomes president.

Meanwhile, Trump supporter and the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, was using his platform, X, to take aim at media sources on election day. “The legacy media hope that a hoax a day keeps DJT away. It won’t work.”

6:43 p.m. ET

Lawsuits in Georgia began well before election day

– Nathan VanderKlippe

In Georgia, the lawsuits started well before election day voting had even begun. First, a trio of voters supported by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Southern Poverty Law Center sued election officials in Cobb County, which lies northwest of Atlanta. The county was late in mailing out about 3,000 absentee ballots, and those people needed extra time to submit their votes or risk disenfranchisement, the suit claimed.

Then Republicans sued Fulton County, which encompasses Atlanta, to block the weekend opening of election offices to accept hand-delivered ballots.

Both suits were rejected by judges.

Yet the legal battles continue. Republicans have filed another suit alleging seven other counties violated advance voting laws. The Southern Poverty Law Center says it continues to fight to ensure late-arriving ballots are counted.

In 2020, Georgia was one of the states where Donald Trump and his allies filed 64 suits contesting election results. They prevailed in just one.

6:20 p.m. ET

Some polls close in Indiana, Kentucky

Polls in a few Indiana districts across the state and polls on the eastern side of Kentucky are the first to close in the nation.

The first large set of polls closes at 7 p.m. ET. That closing includes most of Florida, all of Georgia and Virginia, among others.

6:15 p.m. ET

Tense nerves at peak of election campaign in Springfield, Ohio

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– Shannon Proudfoot

There’s been a feeling of held breath around Springfield, Ohio, the last couple of days. The city became an accidental lightning rod during the campaign, thanks to JD Vance and Donald Trump’s lies about Haitian immigrants supposedly eating pets and geese here.

After those claims were tossed into an already-overheated political atmosphere, white supremacist groups showed up in town, bomb threats closed down schools, businesses and city buildings, and public officials faced death threats. People now have to pass through a metal detector and submit to a bag search to go to city council meetings.

So Springfield could be forgiven for having some jangled nerves at the crescendo of an unhinged election season, but everything looked calm and orderly in the city on Tuesday,, both downtown and at the precincts I visited.

6:11 p.m.

This nail-biting U.S. election differs from others because of country’s divisions

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– Nathan VanderKlippe

There has never been a U.S. election like this one. Its unexpected events have brought new heights of drama to the workings of American democracy, with two assassination attempts and a sitting president dispatched from the ballot partway through his campaign. It is expected to set new records for spending, once those tallies are complete. Yet its polls, showing a lockstep march between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, have given new meaning to “nail-biter.” Read more.

6:06 p.m. ET

Voters overwhelmingly say U.S. democracy is under threat, exit polls show

- Reuters

Nearly three-quarters of voters in Tuesday’s presidential election say American democracy is under threat, according to preliminary national exit polls from Edison Research, reflecting the nation’s deep anxiety after a contentious campaign between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump.

Democracy and the economy ranked by far as the most important issues for voters, with around a third of respondents citing each, followed by abortion and immigration at 14 per cent and 11 per cent, the data showed. The poll showed 73 per cent of voters believed democracy was in jeopardy, against just 25 per cent who said it was secure.

The data underscores the depth of polarization in a nation whose divisions have only grown starker during a fiercely competitive race. Trump has employed increasingly dark and apocalyptic rhetoric while stoking unfounded fears that the election system cannot be trusted. Harris has urged Americans to come together, warning that a second Trump term would threaten the underpinnings of American democracy.

The figures represent just a slice of the tens of millions of people who have voted, both before and on Election Day, and the preliminary results are subject to change during the evening as more people are surveyed. Read more.

6:02 p.m. ET

Meanwhile in Germany, coalition government is threatened with collapse

– Doug Saunders

This, most people would agree, is the worst possible moment for any other democracy to have a crisis. Yet the world’s third largest economy seems to have chosen Nov. 5 to have a self-immolation in its coalition government.

Germany’s three-party government was threatened with collapse on Tuesday when the leader of one of the parties, Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the centre-right Free Democrats, faced a rejection of his provocative austerity-based budget proposal from both other governing parties, the Greens and Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats. The three parties held emergency meetings on Tuesday, but appeared to find no common ground, leading many observers to say the coalition is on the brink of dissolving.

Even many of those who were comfortable with Mr. Lindner’s budget ideas – which would cut taxes, put off promised ecological and energy reforms for years and reduce support for Ukraine – were appalled by the timing.

“If Donald Trump is elected president, the world and Europe will need stable governments, reliability and exemplary rules and laws above all,” Stefan Kornelius, foreign editor of the Munich newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, wrote on Tuesday.

“The markets are trembling in anticipation of the decision in the USA, Ukraine is trembling in anticipation of this fateful moment. In this scenario, Germany is still the leading European nation and the third largest economy on the planet. No one can imagine what kind of shock a double crisis in the USA and Germany could trigger in the rest of the West.”

5:50 p.m. ET

Nevada race expected to be tight

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– Gary Mason

The only real sign of the election on the Vegas strip is the massive electronic billboard displaying the latest bets people are placing on Donald Trump and Kamala Harris in real time. Seems like Mr. Trump has the edge in terms of who’s betting on whom – at least he did around 1:30 p.m. Vegas time.

Meantime, the scene at Trump International – or just “Trump” as it’s known in the city – is decidedly different and a safe place for supporters of the former president. In the gift shop it’s everything Trump: MAGA hats (people are being limited to one hat only) are very popular (US$55), so is Trump Sauvignon Blanc (US$55), golf head covers (US$50) and teddy bears (US$45). You can buy everything from Trump T-shirts to pyjama bottoms to shot glasses.

The race in Nevada is expected to be tight. The state has chosen the eventual winner in eight of the last 10 elections. Housing and the high cost of living are huge issues in the state and particularly in Las Vegas.

5:36 p.m. ET

Early arrests and disrupted voting on election day

– Justine Hunter

Heightened concerns about security on election day were underlined by early arrests and disrupted voting.

In Washington, D.C., a man attempted to bring a flare gun, lighter and accelerant into the U.S. Capitol, Reuters news service reported. A man was arrested and the Capitol Visitor Center was closed while the U.S. Capitol Police investigated.

In Queens, N.Y., a Republican candidate for the New York State Assembly was arrested in the morning at a polling station, ABC News reported.

Jonathan David Rinaldi was handcuffed and issued a summons for harassing voters while shouting “baby killers” and holding a sign reading “Vote Rinaldi.”

And near Atlanta, Ga., bomb threats briefly shut down voting at two polling locations, according to U.S. News.

The FBI, in a statement, said it “is aware of bomb threats to polling locations in several states, many of which appear to originate from Russian email domains. None of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far.”

5:25 p.m. ET

Will the VP picks determine the outcome?

– Lawrence Martin

You can find a lot of Democrats who will quietly tell you that Kamala Harris blew it with her running mate pick. And a lot of Republicans who will tell you that Trump blew it with his.

Had Trump chosen Nikki Haley, he would have shrunk the gender gap which is costing him dearly. Instead he chose JD Vance who was on the record insulting childless women.

Had Ms. Harris chosen Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, the vital swing state would very likely be going Democratic.

5:06 p.m. ET

Watch for live results on our U.S. election results map

- Globe staff

Catch up on Donald Trump and Kamala Harris’s presidential battle, state by state. Take a look at the tracker below, powered by the Associated Press wire service, for live results. Read more.

5:03 p.m. ET

Hoax bomb threats linked to Russia target polling places in battleground states, FBI says

- Reuters

Hoax bomb threats, many of which appeared to originate from Russian email domains, were directed at polling locations in three battleground states - Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin - as election day voting was underway, the FBI said on Tuesday.

“None of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far,” the FBI said in a statement, adding that election integrity was among the bureau’s highest priorities.

At least two polling sites targeted by the hoax bomb threats in Georgia were briefly evacuated on Tuesday.

Those two locations in Fulton County both re-opened after about 30 minutes, officials said, and the county is seeking a court order to extend the location’s voting hours past the statewide 7 p.m. deadline.

Republican Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger blamed Russian interference for the election day bomb hoaxes.

“They’re up to mischief, it seems. They don’t want us to have a smooth, fair and accurate election, and if they can get us to fight among ourselves, they can count that as a victory,” Raffensperger told reporters.

The Russian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reuters could not immediately determine how many hoax bomb threats were received in Michigan and Wisconsin.

4:52 p.m. ET

Denver-area authorities look into ballot issues at adult day care facility

- The Associated Press

Authorities in the Denver area are investigating after election officials discovered “discrepancies” with signatures on several mail ballots sent from an adult day care facility in the city.

That’s according to Denver clerk and recorder Paul Lopez in a statement.

Election workers in Colorado check the signatures on mail ballots against voter signatures on file to make sure they’re submitted by the voter the ballot was sent to. Lopez said his office notified law enforcement and the Denver district attorney’s office was investigating. He also said law enforcement in nearby counties were also investigating but did not explain why.

Denver’s KMGH-TV, which first reported the investigation, said ballots from the facility were sent to six counties.

Colorado overwhelmingly votes by mail.

4:50 p.m. ET

Voting machines malfunction in central Iowa county

- The Associated Press

In Central Iowa’s Story County, home to about 100,000 people and the city of Ames, voting machines at some precincts malfunctioned, portending possible delays to reporting results.

“We are aware of technical issues regarding tabulators in some precincts in Story County,” said Ashley Hunt Esquivel, a spokesperson for Iowa Secretary of State’s Office. “The auditor is working with the vendor and our office to resolve it. It is not stopping anyone from casting a single ballot. It may impact how quickly we can report results.”

Story County Auditor Lucy Martin told the Des Moines Register that machines did not read “certain ballot styles” at about 12 of the county’s 45 polling locations. Election workers would have to count ballots at those locations by hand, according to local Democratic and Republican Party officials. The machines were tested and the cause of the technical difficulties was unknown, Martin added.

4:46 p.m. ET

One last push in Detroit to get out the vote

– Adam Radwanski

Organizers for Detroit Action, whose mission is to politically empower “Black and Brown working-class Detroiters,” were rallying about three dozen canvassers for one last push to get out the vote on Tuesday afternoon.

Executive director Scott Holiday said the organization has been finding good traction with the low-propensity voters that it’s trying to mobilize, in hope of boosting Kamala Harris’s chances.

While grudgingly giving Donald Trump credit for courting non-white Detroit votes more than Republican candidates typically do, he also poured some cold water on the narrative that Mr. Trump will pick up a significant number of votes from disaffected Black men.

As for concerns about chaos after polls close, Mr. Holiday said Detroit Action members were at 22 polling stations, to protect voting rights and to document that things are proceeding correctly.

The group also plans to have a presence at the city’s vote-counting centre tonight. That will include counter-protesting if Mr. Trump’s supporters show up outside. But he said Detroit Action will leave if things turn violent.

4:24 p.m. ET

Harris visits Democratic National Committee phone bank in Washington

- The Associated Press

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Kamala Harris used her visit to a phone bank hosted by the Democratic National Committee on Tuesday to both thank the supporters working to turn out the vote and make calls herself.

“This truly represents the best of who we are,” Harris told the supporters making calls at the phone bank. She was then handed a cell phone and joined in the phone bank.

“I am well,” Harris told the person. “Have you voted already?”

The person responded, to which Harris said, “You did? Thank you.”

4:18 p.m. ET

Ontario Premier Doug Ford signals willingness to work with whoever wins the U.S. election

– Ian Bailey

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he is ready to work with whoever wins the U.S presidential election.

“There’s no partnership more important to the economic success of Ontario, to the economic success of Canada than our close ties to the United States,” Mr. Ford said Tuesday to a gathering of members of the Economic Club of Canada in Ottawa.

“That’s why, regardless of the outcome of today’s election, our government stands ready to work with our partners south of the border.”

Mr. Ford called for politicians from Canada and the U.S. to avoid programs that force government agencies to buy goods purchased in a specific country.

He also said the election and a coming review of the Canada-United States-Mexico trade agreement are more consequential for the Ontario economy than anything on the horizon. A joint review of the agreement is scheduled for 2026.

The Premier later sat for a fireside chat with Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, and reiterated that he would work with whoever is elected.

4:16 p.m. ET

Trump supporter Kari Lake casts ballot in Mesa, Ariz.

– Andrea Woo

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Kari Lake, a former television news anchor and Donald Trump ally who is running for a Senate seat in Arizona, has cast her ballot in Mesa.

Before entering the polling station, Ms. Lake stopped to talk to reporters, saying that while long lines at some polling centres are difficult for voters, and the fact that the tabulation of votes may take more than a week to complete is unfair, she is prepared to accept the results of the election.

Ms. Lake has repeatedly refused to acknowledge that she lost the 2022 gubernatorial race to Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs.

Several polls put her Democratic opponent for the Senate seat, Representative Ruben Gallego, ahead, though Ms. Lake closed that gap in recent weeks.

“I will accept the results of the election,” she said Tuesday. “I have had a few concerns, but we’ve done a lot of legwork to prevent any problems.”

4:10 p.m. ET

Gasoline prices may be a bad omen for Harris

– Nathan VanderKlippe

Few prices matter more to modern societies than the price of gasoline, posted in billboard-size digits at countless filling stations. Gas prices reflect the fractures of global conflict and the vagaries of industrial supply and demand. But for drivers, they are also an indicator of economic well-being, one so potent that serious scholarship has been done to see whether they influence how people vote.

One insight: The longer the commutes in a given area of the United States, the more voters there are likely to punish incumbents when prices are higher.

That would seem to be a bad omen for Kamala Harris, because fuel prices are considerably higher in the states where votes are most likely to determine the next president.

In Georgia, for example, prices are up 54 per cent from Nov. 3, 2020, the date of the last presidential election.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, a service that tracks prices, provided average pump prices for 2020. AAA shows current state-by-state averages, in U.S. dollars per gallon.

Here is how much things have changed:

3:42 p.m. ET

Most European leaders are keeping quiet about the U.S. election. Hungary’s PM is the exception

– Doug Saunders

Most European leaders have kept quiet, in public at least, in the runup to the U.S. election. The one big exception is Viktor Orbán, the far-right Prime Minister of Hungary, who has spent recent days lauding the possibility of a Donald Trump victory: “We will open bottles of champagne if Trump comes back,” he told reporters recently.

Today he is making European headlines for declaring over the weekend that if Mr. Trump wins, Europe will have to stop providing military aid to Ukraine and allow Vladimir Putin’s invasion to become permanent through a negotiated deal. (Needless to say, neither Ukrainian nor European Union leaders endorsed that idea.)

Mr. Orbán appears to be positioning himself to be Europe’s “Trump whisperer” in the event of a victory. Some outlets speculate that he may face competition in this role from Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, who also comes from the far right but is less extreme in her actions. Mr. Orbán does have one strong and possibly unique advantage, though: Mr. Trump knows his name. We saw that during the presidential debate, when the autocratic Hungarian was the only world leader Mr. Trump named, describing him as “one of the most respected men.”

3:39 p.m. ET

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DJs spinning tunes in Georgia drive the vote

– Nathan VanderKlippe

Standing in front of a mixing board in the corner of a church parking lot in a northwest suburb of Atlanta, DJ Rec got his day started with Lovely Day by Bill Withers.

“Smyrna, welcome to the polls,” he said. “Welcome to the party.”

As voters filed past, he moved through his playlist. One Life by Ne-Yo. Sure Thing by Miguel. I’m Blessed by Charlie Wilson. Shake by Jesse McCartney. Go-Go Gadget Gospel by Gnarls Barkley.

His 7 a.m. start was not entirely an act of charity. The music here, and at voting locations in Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Detroit and Charlotte, is paid for by a group called DJs at the Polls, which boasts that giving election day a beat can increase turnout by a few points.

Communities “should know that democracy is worthy of celebration,” DJs at the Polls says.

Voters seem to be responding, whatever the reason. At midday, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger reported that 500,000 people had already cast ballots, on track for 1.2 million on the day — a new record.

So what makes for a good soundtrack to Election 2024?

“Anything high tempo,” DJ Rec said.

Another tune on his playlist: You Want My Love by Earth, Wind & Fire.

“That’s what it’s all about, man,” he said. “We need to bring love back, no matter what.”

3:30 p.m. ET

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Ukrainian MP compares anxiety over U.S. election to last days before Russian invasion

– Mark MacKinnon

In the last days before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of her country, the staff of Ukrainian MP Inna Sovsun started sleeping in shifts. One aide, whom she describes as “a night owl,” would stay up all night monitoring the news until 6 a.m., when he would finally go to bed and another staffer would take over. It was the night owl who woke everyone else up just after 4 a.m. on Feb. 24, 2022, to let the team know the war had begun.

Ms. Sovsun, a member of Ukraine’s opposition Golos party, said her team may use the same tactics to monitor tonight’s U.S. election, which she considers almost as crucial to her country’s future.

While Kamala Harris is seen as likely to continue President Joe Biden’s policy of providing military support to Ukraine, with some restrictions on how U.S.-supplied weapons are used, fears are high in Kyiv that Donald Trump will strong-arm Ukraine to accept a peace deal that involves ceding territory to Russia by threatening to cut off the flow of aid.

“Everyone is very nervous and anxious,” Ms. Sovsun said in an interview in Kyiv. “We are not 100 per cent satisfied with what the current Democratic administration is doing – we wish they did more and faster. But we are terrified of what Trump is saying.”

3:19 p.m. ET

Opinion: This election has me thinking of what the future holds for young women

– Marsha Lederman

The moment that has stayed with me more than any other from the 2016 election occurred the next morning, shortly after Hillary Clinton’s emotional news conference. Dropping my son off at his elementary school, I stopped to talk to a girl in the hallway. She was in tears. She would have been eight or nine – old enough to be aware of the historic moment that hadn’t happened. She thought Mrs. Clinton was going to win, she told me. That a woman was going to be president.

That girl is now in her final year of high school. I’m thinking about her a lot today.

Texting with the women in my life on this election day, everyone has a lot of butterflies, much more so than eight years ago, when we thought the Democrats had it in the bag. Before we witnessed just how bad Donald Trump was going to be for American women, for reproductive rights. Before Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court he stacked.

Looking at the images coming out of the U.S., I see a lot of young women lining up to vote today, and that is giving me heart. But the result, as we all know, is too close to call. Who knows what tomorrow morning – and the next four years – will look like for them? For us?

3:06 p.m. ET

Man trying to enter Capitol building with torch and flare gun arrested by authorities

– The Associated Press

Police have arrested a man trying to enter the U.S. Capitol with a torch and flare gun

U.S. Capitol Police say the man was stopped Tuesday during a security screening at the Capitol Visitor Center. Authorities say he smelled of fuel and was carrying the flare gun and torch.

Officials have canceled public tours of the Capitol for the remainder of the day.

Police say they are still investigating.

The arrest comes as authorities are on heightened alert for security issues around the nation’s capital and have increased patrols in areas downtown and near the White House around election day. Nearly four years ago, a mob of Donald Trump’s supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

2:56 p.m. ET

Abortion rights on the ballot in 10 states

– Janice Dickson

Voters in 10 states will decide on ballot measures that would enshrine abortion rights into their states’ constitutions Tuesday, with more reproductive rights measures on the ballot than ever before.

After the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, in 2022, nearly half of U.S. states severely restricted or outright banned access to abortion. The consequences have been dire for American women and teens, with some dying as a result of not receiving critical maternal care.

Citizens and legislators galvanized around the issue, putting 11 measures related to reproductive rights on the ballot in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, South Dakota, New York and Nebraska.

Nebraska is the only state to have a countermeasure, which would enshrine the state’s ban on abortions after 12 weeks into its constitution. It includes exceptions in cases of medical emergencies, rape and incest.

Kelly Hall, the executive director of the Fairness Project, which focuses on passing progressive ballot measures in red and purple states, said she expects the majority, if not all, the reproductive rights measures to pass.

“It’s hard to overstate the significance of this moment. It’s the first general election in the United States since the fall of Roe. … It’s not just to send a message to politicians, it’s to actually restore abortion access in Florida, in Missouri, in Nebraska, in Arizona, and the list goes on.”

2:39 p.m. ET

Youth turnout haunts both Democrats and Republicans in Michigan

– Adam Radwanski

What’s been keeping both Democrats and Republicans in Michigan up at night? Young voters.

In interviews conducted as voters headed to the polls, both Mark Burton (Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s former chief of staff) and Jason Roe (a high-profile GOP consultant in the state) generally expressed optimism.

In Mr. Burton’s case, that was largely because Kamala Harris’s campaign along with state-level organizers have done a good job of capitalizing on their party’s ever-growing strength with college-educated female voters, plus early indications of strong turnout among Black voters in Detroit.

In Mr. Roe’s, it was primarily because of Donald Trump’s strength with less educated men, as well as inroads with Arab-Americans and, to a much lesser extent, Black communities.

But when I asked for their worst-case scenarios, they gave mirror-image answers. Mr. Burton’s is that young men come out in large numbers for Mr. Trump, while too many young women prove unmotivated to vote at all. Mr. Roe’s is that college-age men largely stay home while their female contemporaries are motivated to get out and vote.

Chalk it up to the impossibility of ever knowing what youth turnout will really look like, now compounded by not knowing exactly how much the mounting gender divide applies even to the youngest members of the electorate.

2:37 p.m. ET

No, X has not changed the like button for election day

– Patrick Dell

A misleading video circulating widely on X claims to show that the animation for the platform’s like button was changed for election day. The video purports to show the button looking like a ballot going into a box and then becoming a heart.

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A community note attached to some posts with the video says, “The like button has not changed for the US election. This page is harvesting likes through platform manipulation.”

The Globe and Mail is not directly linking to the video so it is not amplified.

Many of the posts on X sharing the video are identical, down to the emojis they use. The posts urge people to “Retweet for Kamala, Like for Trump.” The Globe tested X’s like button on desktop and mobile devices, even while connected to a U.S. VPN, and saw no change.

2:34 p.m. ET

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Maricopa County beefs up security around election centre that was site of unrest in 2020

– Andrea Woo

This is the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center, which in 2020 was the site of days of unrest after Donald Trump claimed he had won Arizona, when in fact he had lost the state to Joe Biden by about 10,500 votes. Trump supporters, many of them armed, descended on the centre to protest the “stealing” of the election.

There have been media reports about officials deploying drones to monitor the site and having snipers at the ready for this election. Around midday Tuesday, there was indeed a drone hovering overhead and a chain-link fence around the site, but there were no visible snipers and the site was calm. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office said there is a robust security plan in place and that it had invested “millions” of dollars in security after 2020.

Chip Everett, a voter in Phoenix, remembers watching news reports of the protests in 2020 and described them as scary.

“We had to have a discussion of whether or not we should own a gun,” he said as he stood outside the centre, about to meet his wife and son to cast their ballots. “It kind of changes your mindset of who your neighbours are going to be.”

2:04 p.m. ET

Young Georgia woman keeps vote under wraps from family

– Nathan VanderKlippe

Elle is a young Georgia graduate student. She is applying for a PhD in public health studies.

And she has a secret.

She cast her ballot for Kamala Harris.

Few people know this. Not her family, which votes Republican. Not her partner, who saw her leave the house nicely dressed Tuesday morning and ribbed her: “Yeah, Trump would be proud of that.”

Elle, whose surname The Globe and Mail is not publishing to spare her trouble at home, has rooted for Donald Trump in past elections. But this year, she just could not do it. She wanted to hear policy ideas and found his bluster off-putting. She also could not stop thinking about the issue of reproductive health – about her own body and her rights as a young woman.

“I really paid attention to what was being said, and the use of the word ‘choice,’” she said. “Because I think some parties use ’choice’ and ‘women’s bodies’ and it’s talk that’s kind of empty, right?”

She knows her surreptitious vote makes her the kind of person the Democratic Party has hoped to reach. Left-leaning groups have launched advertising campaigns, one voiced by Julia Roberts, promising: “In the one place in America where women still have a right to choose, you can vote any way you want. And no one will ever know.”

Elle doesn’t much like that commercial. It cuts too close to home. But her own home has been remarkably similar to those depicted in the ads. Whenever her partner speaks about Mr. Trump, she keeps a studied ambiguity.

”I’m just, like, ‘uh-huh,’” she said.

“We have a very healthy relationship. But for some reason, this campaign has been extremely divisive.”

1:40 p.m. ET

FBI warns against two videos spreading election disinformation

– Reuters

The FBI has issued a warning about two new videos falsely citing terror threats and voter fraud.

One fabricated video purporting to be from the FBI itself falsely cited a high terror threat and urged Americans to “vote remotely,” while another includes a fake news release alleging to be from the bureau and reporting rigged voting among inmates in five prisons.

Both are “not authentic,” the FBI said in a statement, “Attempts to deceive the public with false content about FBI threat assessments and activities aim to undermine our democratic process and erode trust in the electoral system.”

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1:40 p.m. ET

Democrats may struggle with the Muslim vote in Michigan

– Adam Radwanski

At a polling location in a school gym in Dearborn, Mich. – commonly known as the Arab-American capital of the U.S. – I spoke with Sami Khaldi, the head of the local Democratic club.

He’s hoping Kamala Harris will be able to win 50 per cent of the votes from his community this time around – a far cry from the overwhelming support the Democratic nominee usually receives.

That doesn’t mean all the remaining votes will go to Donald Trump, who has made an improbable effort to capitalize on anger over the Biden administration’s handling of the war in Gaza and scored a few high-profile Muslim endorsements. Mr. Khaldi predicted they’ll be split among the Republican nominee and third-party candidate Jill Stein, while some voters will skip the presidential choice altogether and only vote down-ballot.

He also said that, while he and his fellow volunteers have seen a strong turnout so far today, some conflicted voters were still making up their minds.

His club has been trying to draw a distinction between President Joe Biden and Ms. Harris while also reminding community members that she’s running against someone who tried to ban Muslim immigrants in his previous term and is a staunch supporter of Israel, but it hasn’t been easy.

“If we didn’t have the Gaza war and now the Lebanon war, I can guarantee this would be a blue city,” he said. “It’s just a unique situation this year.”

1:35 p.m. ET

Canadians look at U.S. election with keen interest - and clear loyalties

– Lawrence Martin

I can’t recall any U.S. election in which the interest among Canadians — and the tension level — has been so high. Everybody I run across wants to talk about it.

There is no doubt where our sympathies lie. Only 21 per cent of Canadians, according to a Global News poll, would vote for Donald Trump, while 64 per cent would cast a ballot for Kamala Harris. Among the reasons are Mr. Trump’s character, his populist ideology and his perceived threat to stability and bilateral relations.

Both the Democrats and the Republicans are protectionist. But Mr. Trump’s talk of imposing a 10-per-cent tariff on imports is worse than anything the other party might do.

Ms. Harris, who went to high school in Montreal, would become one of only a few presidents - others were Franklin D. Roosevelt and William Howard Taft - who spent a lot of time in Canada and knows the country really well. It would obviously be beneficial for Canada-U.S. relations.

12:55 p.m. ET

Voters in Georgia question election spending

– Nathan VanderKlippe

Oceans of political mailouts. Tidal waves of phone calls and text messages. A visual swamp of commercials that has taken over television screens and YouTube channels. And behind it all, a truly vast quantity of money.

The enormous advertising machine of the U.S. election has been propelled by what Open Secrets estimates at US$15.9-billion in spending this year — roughly equivalent to six months of the entire economic output of New Brunswick.

Georgia voter Rob Marvel can’t quite figure out why.

“All the Trump supporters were going to vote Trump, no matter what anybody said. All the Kamala supporters were going to vote for her, no matter what anybody said,” he said.

“I don’t know why they wasted so much money, because I don’t think it probably made any difference at all.”

Mr. Marvel rejected both candidates. He voted for libertarian Chase Oliver.

But his befuddlement reflects one of the contradictions at the heart of modern U.S. elections. Even as the amount of spending increases — this year is expected to set a new record — the number of voters who actually decide elections has shrunk. In 2016, the outcome hinged on fewer than 80,000 votes. In 2020, it was roughly 44,000.

If it’s that narrow again this year, the total expected sum of election spending will work out to a staggering US$360,000 per decisive vote.

12:44 p.m. ET

Why Donald Trump can vote in the U.S. election as a convicted felon

– The Associated Press

Donald Trump has been convicted of a felony and resides in Florida, a state known for restricting the voting rights of people with felony convictions, but he can still vote as long as he stays out of prison in New York state. That’s because Florida defers to other states’ disenfranchisement rules for residents convicted of out-of-state felonies. In Mr. Trump’s case, New York law only removes the right to vote for people convicted of felonies once they’ve been incarcerated. And once they’re out of prison, their rights are automatically restored, even if they are on parole.

12:15 p.m. ET

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Trump casts his vote in Florida

– The Associated Press

“It seems that the conservatives are voting very powerfully,” Republican candidate Donald Trump told reporters in Palm Beach, Fla., after casting his vote. “It looks like Republicans have shown up in force.”

Mr. Trump has suggested he won’t challenge the results of the election – as long as it’s fair. “If it’s a fair election, I’d be the first one to acknowledge” the results, he said, though what meets that definition wasn’t clear.

Mr. Trump said that he had no plans to tell his supporters to refrain from violence should he lose.

“I don’t have to tell them,” because they “are not violent people,” he said.

He also said paper ballots and one-day voting should be the norm. “I’m hearing in Pennsylvania they won’t have an answer till two or three days from now,” he said. “I think it’s an absolute outrage if that’s the case.”

He said he will have “a very special group of people” at his home in Florida, Mar-a-Lago, and a few thousand people at a nearby convention centre to watch the election results.

“It looks like we have a very substantial lead,” he said without citing his sources or saying whether he has a plan for when to declare victory.

12:04 p.m. ET

Analysis: If Trump wins, Musk’s Tesla does, too

– Eric Reguly

Tesla’s Elon Musk and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump make strange bedfellows. The former is America’s premier maker of zero-emission vehicles. The latter is a climate skeptic who has openly opposed EVs, though he has somewhat softened his stand against battery-powered cars since Mr. Musk, Tesla’s boss and the richest man on the planet, funnelled more than US$100-million into a political action committee whose goal is to nudge swing states in Mr. Trump’s favour.

You would think a Trump victory would be bad news for Tesla’s value. He has vowed to kill or substantially dilute the freebies that helped turn Tesla into an EV colossus worth US$780-billion, more than a dozen times the value of General Motors. Those freebies include a federal government purchase subsidy of US$7,500 per vehicle (which applies to all EV makers); loans to build factories (the Tesla plant in Freemont, Calif., was financed by a US$465-million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy); and the right to sell clean-air credits to rival automakers whose fleets do not meet strict emission rules (worth US$9-billion to Tesla since 2018).

Yet if Mr. Trump were to scrap some or all of these goodies, all the EV makers in the United States would take a hit, meaning Tesla would have less competition from GM, Ford and Stellantis, the owner of the Jeep, Chrysler and Ram brands, all of which are having trouble selling EVs. Ending the subsidies might actually increase Tesla’s dominance of the U.S. EV market, not diminish it.

Tesla shares were up 3.3 per cent on election day and 14 per cent higher in the past year. The rise does not necessarily appear to be a bet on Mr. Trump taking the White House. Instead, it seems to reflect Tesla’s no-lose situation. No matter who takes the election – a Harris administration would likely keep the freebies in place – Tesla wins.

11:24 a.m. ET

Both campaigns urge Americans to get out and vote

– Globe Staff

The Trump and Harris campaigns both took to social media Tuesday to urge their supporters to rally on election day and cast their votes. Both campaigns underscored the importance of Tuesday’s election, calling it a “new chapter” and the “most important day in American history.”

11:26 a.m. ET

How Atlanta’s mostly Black residents vote may tip the scales in Georgia

– Nathan VanderKlippe

A large portrait of Kamala Harris stands alongside likenesses of local icons on a mural adorning the outer wall of the Harris-Walz field office for downtown Atlanta. Beside Ms. Harris are Hosea Williams, the civil rights leader and confidant of Martin Luther King, Jr.; Maynard Jackson, Atlanta’s first Black mayor; John Lewis, the Black congressman who fought for voting rights.

It’s a visual tribute to Ms. Harris’s historic candidacy as a Black woman, but also to this city’s particular demographic importance. Nearly half of Atlanta residents are Black, outnumbering white voters. How they vote will shape the outcome in a state likely to determine the next White House.

The election here “is a way to demonstrate the power of the Black vote in a very powerful way,” said Soyini Coke, a management consultant who volunteered early Tuesday to knock on doors for the Democratic Party. Election day, she said, brought a feeling of peaceful confidence. “I’m going to focus on the stuff I can change, which is talking to people and trying to get out and canvass,” she said. “And I’m going to wake up tomorrow morning and it’s going to be what it’s going to be.”

11:00 a.m. ET

Attorneys-general urge peace in face of election results

– The Associated Press

The attorneys-general from 47 states and three U.S. territories are urging people to remain peaceful and to preemptively “condemn any acts of violence related to the results.”

The statement, released Tuesday, was signed by chief prosecutors from every U.S. state except Indiana, Montana and Texas. Attorneys-general from the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands and U.S. Virgin Islands also signed.

“We call upon every American to vote, participate in civil discourse and, above all, respect the integrity of the democratic process,” they wrote. “Violence has no place in the democratic process; we will exercise our authority to enforce the law against any illegal acts that threaten it.”

10:53 a.m. ET

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Harris needs a win in the battleground state of Michigan. Will her efforts pay off?

– Adam Radwanski

Among the seven battleground states that will decide the election, Michigan is one that Kamala Harris really has to win. Democratic nominees have carried it in every presidential vote since 1992 – except for 2016, when Donald Trump stunned them here.

Democrats here give Ms. Harris credit for not repeating Hillary Clinton’s mistake of taking the state for granted. She was a frequent visitor through the fall, and her campaign has plowed in resources.

Whether those efforts pay off will come down to a few key factors. The biggest is whether the Democrats’ growing advantage among suburban women – especially pronounced in a state where Governor Gretchen Whitmer has become something of a party icon – is enough to counter the Republicans’ success in luring away working-class men, including once reliably Democratic union members.

Other keys for Ms. Harris here include whether strong advance-voting numbers among Black voters in Detroit and other urban centres translate into high total turnout and whether her campaign can retain an edge among the Detroit area’s large Arab-American population, which Mr. Trump has been courting with some surprising success amid unrest over the Biden administration’s handling of the war in Gaza.

10:48 a.m. ET

Gender is a factor for some voters in Georgia

– Nathan VanderKlippe

In the heart of Georgia, Hancock County is one of the most predominantly Black counties in the U.S. It’s no coincidence that it’s also one of the more reliable sources of Democratic votes. In 2020, nearly 72 per cent of voters here supported Joe Biden. Whether Kamala Harris can replicate that success is among the key questions in this election.

She stands to be a historic president, the first Black woman to lead the U.S. Yet even in Hancock County, some see her identity as reason for disqualification, not celebration.

A candidate’s skin colour is of no consequence, said Tim Short, a local landscaper who breeds Argentinian hunting dogs. But for him, gender matters.

“Leading by a woman? Women act out of fear,” he said while grocery shopping. In fact, that’s partly why he voted against Hillary Clinton, too. He sees Donald Trump as an embodiment of masculine strength. “He’s going to stand up, you know,” Mr. Short said. “Ain’t nobody gonna push or roll [him].”

10:38 a.m. ET

First votes cast on election day split 3-3

– The Associated Press

In a presidential election that appears to be incredibly close, it was fitting that the first votes cast on election day were evenly split, with three for Donald Trump and three for Kamala Harris.

The tiny New Hampshire resort town of Dixville Notch has a tradition dating back to 1960 of being the first in the nation to complete in-person voting. The town’s six voters began casting their ballots on the stroke of midnight Tuesday and the vote count was complete 15 minutes later.

9:45 a.m. ET

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JD Vance casts his ballot in Ohio

– The Associated Press

The Republican vice-presidential candidate voted in Cincinnati this morning.

“Look, I feel good. You never know until you know, but I feel good about this race,” JD Vance said after he and his wife cast their ballots.

Vance said he would depart for Palm Beach, Florida, later today to be with Donald Trump as results come in.

9:41 a.m. ET

Phoenix area considered one of the country’s key ‘swing counties’

– Andrea Woo

Good morning from Arizona. The Grand Canyon state is a longtime Republican stronghold that has become a battleground state after recent Democratic gains. The state has voted red in every election since 1952, with the exception of 1996, when Bill Clinton defeated Bob Dole by a margin of 2.2 per cent, and 2020, when Joe Biden won the state by just 0.3 per cent.

I’m currently in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix. Maricopa is home to 60 per cent of Arizona’s voters and has come to be regarded as one of the country’s key “swing counties.” It also became a hotbed of misinformation in 2020 after Donald Trump falsely claimed he won Arizona, setting off days of protest by people who believed the election was being stolen.

The majority of ballots in Maricopa are expected to be counted within 24 hours of the polls closing, but because of the sheer number, and the fact it’s a two-page ballot for the first time since 2006, officials say it could take 10 to 13 days to complete the tabulation.

9:28 a.m. ET

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Democratic canvassers get early start on door-knocking in Georgia

– Nathan VanderKlippe

A whiteboard greets the Democratic party faithful arriving for door-knocking assignments in Atlanta today: “14,000 Doors to Victory,” it says. Dianne Inniss, the volunteer leader of operations for Democrats in downtown Atlanta, says she senses an infectious enthusiasm in those fanning out across this city to urge voters to cast ballots.

“The energy that I feel for this election is what I felt for Obama,” she said.

There is reason for skepticism. In Georgia, registered Republicans accounted for 48 per cent of early voting, three points more than Democrats. Georgia also voted Republican in both elections that had Barack Obama on the ballot.

Ms. Inniss says she is optimistic nonetheless, saying she expects even some Republicans to abandon Mr. Trump – a hope shared by the Democratic party more broadly.

“We’ve seen the alternative, which is chaos, division, disunity,” she said. “And I believe that our love of country is more than our love of any one individual or any party.”

9:23 a.m. ET

Analysis: Will women show up for Kamala Harris?

– Lawrence Martin

Women make up a larger share of the U.S. electorate than men. And Kamala Harris’s lead among female voters is larger, most surveys say, than Donald Trump’s lead among men.

Women are super-motivated to defeat Mr. Trump. If they turn out in the great numbers that are expected, it could well make the gender gap the decisive factor in this election.

9:00 a.m. ET

Millions have already cast their ballots in early voting

– The Associated Press

As election day voting was under way, tens of millions of Americans had already cast their ballots. Those early votes included record numbers in Georgia, North Carolina and other battleground states that could decide the winner.

The early turnout in Georgia, which has flipped between the Republican and Democratic nominees in the previous two presidential elections, has been so robust – over four million voters – that a top official in the secretary of state’s office said the big day could look like a “ghost town” at the polls.

As of Monday, Associated Press tracking of advance voting nationwide showed roughly 82 million ballots already cast – slightly more than half the total number of votes in the presidential election four years earlier. That’s driven partly by Republican voters, who were casting early ballots at a higher rate than in recent previous elections after a campaign by former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee to counter the Democrats’ longstanding advantage in the early vote.

8:43 a.m. ET

Why Georgia is pivotal in this year’s presidential race

– Nathan VanderKlippe

Good morning from Atlanta. Georgia isn’t worth watching just because it’s one of the battleground states.

It’s also where important elements of the 2020 vote were determined – and litigated. After Donald Trump lost here by 11,779 votes – a key win for Joe Biden in a state that voted Republican in six previous presidential elections – Mr. Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and asked him to help “find 11,780 votes.” That call formed part of the evidence in an ongoing legal case against Mr. Trump, which his lawyers have successfully delayed until well after the election.

Georgia is also home to Amy Kremer, a key organizer of the Stop the Steal rally in Washington, D.C., that preceded the violent march on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

This year, Georgia is once again pivotal. Polls suggest an exceedingly narrow advantage for Mr. Trump. Just over half of those eligible cast ballots in early and absentee voting, with registered Republicans outnumbering Democrats by three points.

8:25 a.m. ET

Where Trump and Harris plan to spend election night

– The Associated Press

Republican candidate Donald Trump spent the very early hours of election day in Michigan, where he wrapped up a late-night rally in Grand Rapids. The Republican candidate plans to spend the day in Florida, where he is expected to vote in person – despite previously saying he would vote early. He’s scheduled to hold a campaign watch party in Palm Beach on Tuesday night.

Democratic candidate Kamala Harris plans to attend an election night party at Howard University in Washington, a historically Black university where she graduated with a degree in economics and political science in 1986 and was an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

Aside from Howard, she has no public schedule announced for election day.

Ms. Harris said Sunday that she had “just filled out” her mail-in ballot and it was “on its way to California.”

6:45 a.m.

Control of U.S. Congress at stake in tight election battle

– Reuters

Today’s election could flip both the House of Representatives and the Senate, while still leaving Capitol Hill divided between Donald Trump’s Republicans and Kamala Harris’s Democrats.

The outcome will play an important role in determining how easily the winner of the election will govern until the next congressional elections in 2026.

Non-partisan analysts say Republicans stand a good chance of taking back the Senate, where Democrats hold a 51-49 majority. But Republicans could also lose their grip on the House, where Democrats only need to pick up four seats to take back control of the 435-seat chamber.

6:20 a.m. ET

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U.S. election polls open as turbulent campaign concludes

– Reuters

U.S. election polls are open and voting has officially begun, with Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump virtually tied in the race.

A race whipsawed by unprecedented events - two assassination attempts against Mr. Trump, President Joe Biden’s surprise withdrawal and Ms. Harris’s rapid rise - remained too close to call, even after billions of dollars in spending and months of frenetic campaigning.

Mr. Trump’s campaign has suggested he may declare victory on election night even while millions of ballots have yet to be counted, just as he did four years ago. The former president has repeatedly said any defeat could only stem from widespread fraud, echoing his false claims from 2020. The winner may not be known for days if the margins in key states are as slim as expected.

No matter who wins the White House, history will be made.

Ms. Harris, 60, the first female vice president, would become the first woman, Black woman and South Asian American to win the presidency. Mr. Trump, 78, the only president to be impeached twice and the first former president to be criminally convicted, would also become the first president to win non-consecutive terms in more than a century.

6:00 a.m.

Analysis: A look at 11 herculean labours that lie ahead for the next President

– David Shribman

No matter who wins the U.S. election, one thing will be true: the remarkable size of the task that faces the next White House, or what historians often have called the “glorious burden”. Here are some of the elements that already are on – or should be on – the agenda of the leader who will become the 47th president.

Nov. 4

Where to follow election results, and other questions

– Globe Staff

When do polls open? When do polls close? Where can we watch the results come in? Are we even going to know who the winner is tonight?

Yes, you have questions and we have answers. Well, some. That last one is a tough one – this race is exceptionally close and betting odds favour a very long night. However, we’ve tackled some of the most common questions Canadians are asking.

Nov. 4

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In the finals hours of campaigning, Trump and Harris court pivotal swing state voters

– Adrian Morrow

Dashing for the finish line in a neck-and-neck race, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris spent the last day before the U.S. presidential election cramming in multiple swing state events, with a focus on Pennsylvania. Mr. Trump hit three swing states on Monday, travelling from North Carolina to Pennsylvania to Michigan. The 78-year-old Republican former president is scheduled to watch returns on Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate.

Ms. Harris spent Monday in Pennsylvania – the most populous swing state with 19 electoral college votes, no Democrat since 1948 has won the presidency without carrying it – making five stops with the finish in Philadelphia, a Democratic stronghold and the U.S.’s original capital. Ms. Harris is holding an election-night party at Howard University, the storied historically Black university in Washington that is her alma mater.

Nov. 4

Analysis: Trump sticks to familiar rhetoric in campaign’s final hours

– Nathan Vanderklippe

Much of what Donald Trump has to say in the concluding hours of this year’s presidential campaign remains remarkably unchanged from the speeches and promises that thrust him into the White House eight years ago. The constancy of his message is a testament to the former reality TV star’s dedication to a series of issues that have proven popular with Republican voters. It is also a demonstration of how deeply he relies on a predictable formula that, he hopes, remains resonant today, nearly a decade after his first rallies stormed across the United States.

Nov. 4

Elon Musk and X are at the epicentre of U.S. election misinformation, experts say

– Reuters

False or misleading claims by billionaire Elon Musk about the U.S. election have amassed two billion views on social media platform X this year, according to a report by non-profit group Center for Countering Digital Hate.

The platform is also playing a central role in enabling the spread of false information about the critical battleground states that will likely determine the outcome of the presidential race, election and misinformation experts said on Monday.

At least 87 of Musk’s posts this year have promoted claims about the U.S. election that fact-checkers have rated as false or misleading, according to the center’s report. X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Nov. 4

Analysis: This election could decide the political future of Democratic and Republican parties

– David Shribman

Americans’ choices in Tuesday’s presidential race will continue the dramatic transformation of two major parties that, like the country itself, are in massive transition. In unlikely and uncomfortable tandem, both parties simultaneously have rejected their pasts, reconfigured themselves, and together are foreshadowing a political future completely different from the one that has dominated the country for generations.

Nov. 01

Opinion: The U.S. is about to be thrown into chaos. The only real question is for how long

– Andrew Coyne

Chaos theory enjoyed a brief spell at the top of the intellectual charts a generation ago, then largely passed from public consciousness. It may be about to undergo something of a revival.

No matter who wins the U.S. presidential election, that is, the United States seems destined to enter a period of chaos and upheaval. If Donald Trump wins, it may be changed irrevocably, no longer the greatest of the democracies and their champion against the dictatorships, but at best an illiberal, inward-looking semi-democracy, and at worst the dictators’ enthusiastic ally.

But even if Mr. Trump loses, the chances are good that the U.S. will descend into political, social and economic chaos: a short-run crisis of great intensity, followed by a long period of uncertainty, or simply a spiral into greater and greater instability. Mr. Trump himself, he has made quite clear, will not accept any result that does not put him in the White House and out of reach of the multiple criminal prosecutions in which he is embroiled.

Oct. 31

Opinion: Whether it’s Trump or Harris, U.S. foreign policy is headed into uncharted territory

– Konrad Yakabuski

This U.S. presidential election has the entire world on edge. The result will either be a return to the “America First” foreign policy that Republican nominee Donald Trump preached during his first term, or the adoption of an entirely new approach to international relations under an untested Democratic nominee in Kamala Harris.

U.S. allies are not sure which they should fear most: A second Trump presidency that undermines Western alliances and leaves global peace at the mercy of a volatile U.S. leader who uses threats and bribes to get his way, or a Harris administration led by an inexperienced commander-in-chief who is risk-averse and loath to use U.S. military force.

Oct. 22

Open this photo in gallery:

Which swing states should we be watching?

– Adrian Morrow

Just seven states are considered in play for the U.S. presidential election. Explore possible outcomes with an interactive look at what could tip the balance in these locations. Every state has a number of electoral votes allocated based on its total of senators and representatives. To win the presidency, a candidate needs 270 of these, an absolute majority. Assign votes for each swing state below to game out the potential paths to victory.