Attorney says Giuliani ‘secreted away’ his property from poll workers who won $148M judgment

Attorney says Giuliani ‘secreted away’ his property from poll workers who won 8M judgment
Attorney says Giuliani ‘secreted away’ his property from poll workers who won $148M judgment
Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — On Election Day 2024, Rudy Giuliani cannot escape the consequences of his defamation of two Georgia poll workers in the aftermath of Election Day 2020.

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the former New York City mayor to appear in court later in the week to explain why he allegedly “secreted away” his property and failed to transfer anything into the custody of former election workers Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss, as he was ordered to do last month to fulfill a $148 million judgment.

A judge last year found that Giuliani had defamed the mother and daughter when he falsely accused them of committing election fraud while they were counting ballots in Georgia’s Fulton County on Election Day in 2020.

Two weeks ago, Giuliani was ordered to transfer personal property “including cash accounts, jewelry and valuables, a legal claim for unpaid attorneys’ fees, and his interest in his Madison Avenue co-op apartment” to Freeman and Moss as part of the judgment.

When the receivership controlled by the two election workers was finally granted access to Giuliani’s Manhattan apartment, they discovered Giuliani “had moved virtually all of its contents out approximately four weeks ago–something that neither Defendant nor Defendant’s counsel had bothered to mention,” the poll workers’ attorney, Aaron Nathan, said in a letter to the court.

“Defendant nor his counsel thought to mention that the receivership property contained in the Apartment had been secreted away,” Nathan said in the letter.

“More concerningly,” the attorney told the judge, “Defendant and his counsel have refused or been unable to answer basic questions about the location of most of the property subject to the receivership.”

“Save for some rugs, a dining room table, some stray pieces of small furniture and inexpensive wall art, and a handful of smaller items like dishes and stereo equipment, the Apartment has been emptied of all of its contents,” Nathan’s letter said. “Notably, that includes the vast majority (if not all) of the valuable receivership property that was known to be stored there, including art, sports memorabilia, expensive furniture, and other items not conspicuous enough to appear in listing photographs.”

When the receivers asked Giuliani’s representatives where the items are located, Nathan said those inquiries were “met predominantly with evasion or silence.”

A spokesperson for Giuliani said in response that “Mayor Giuliani has made available his property and possessions as ordered.”

“A few items were put into storage over the course of the past year, and anything else removed was related to his two livestream programs that stream each and every weeknight across his social media platforms,” the spokesperson said. “Opposing counsel, acting either negligently or deliberately in a deceptive manner, are simply attempting to further bully and intimidate Mayor Giuliani until he is rendered penniless and homeless.”

Giuliani is scheduled to appear in court this Thursday afternoon.

His lawyer had asked if Giuliani could appear by phone since he was scheduled to appear on a live radio broadcast at that time, but the judge would not allow it.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Election security updates: FBI says bomb threats appear to originate from Russia

Election security updates: FBI says bomb threats appear to originate from Russia
Election security updates: FBI says bomb threats appear to originate from Russia
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(WASHINGTON) — From the polling place to the courtroom, ABC News tracks the latest election security developments as experts warn about the spread of misinformation and disinformation from within the U.S. and abroad.

Security experts stress that the nation’s voting infrastructure is highly secure, and that isolated voting issues do not indicate widespread election fraud.

How to watch ABC News coverage of Election Day

On Election Day, voters around the country will eagerly wait to hear if former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris comes out on top in the race for the White House.

ABC News will have full coverage of the presidential election results and many other key down-ballot races on Election Day and the days afterward as votes continue to get counted.

Voting hours extended at 2 North Carolina polling places

The North Carolina State Board of Elections approved extending the voting hours at two precincts after both opened late this morning due to technical issues.

The Gardners School precinct in Wilson County and Pilot Mountain Precinct in Burke County will be open for 30 additional minutes.

The extended hours in the two countries will not impact the timing of results for the rest of the state, authorities said.

-ABC News’ Peter Charalambous

US Capitol Police arrest man with flare gun, torch

The U.S. Capitol Police said they arrested a man who smelled like fuel and had a flare gun and a torch while going through screening at the Capitol’s visitor center.

Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger told reporters that officers found a flare gun, lighter, and torch lighter in the man’s jacket and two bottles that appeared to contain some sort of accelerant, possibly gasoline.

The suspect had papers he told officers he intended to deliver to Congress. Investigators are working to determine what his intentions were. Capitol Police said they’re unclear if he wanted to set himself on fire or his items.

The officers were tipped off because the suspect had “heavier clothing than was warranted for a day like today,” Manger said, as afternoon temperatures in D.C. were around 75 degrees.

The visitor center has been closed for tours while police investigate.

-ABC News’ Luke Barr

Election integrity expert warns about the spread of misinformation

In a closely contested election, even the slightest hint of doubt about whether votes are counted accurately could incite violence and exacerbate political divisions in the U.S.

ABC News’ Linsey Davis sat down with Michael Waldman, president of NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice, to talk about the unprecedented security of U.S. elections and the threat of misinformation.

Read more here.

New York State Assembly candidate arrested for harassing voters

A New York State Assembly candidate was arrested the morning of Election Day at a polling site in Queens.

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

After he was given numerous commands to stop, police handcuffed him.

-ABC News’ Aaron Katersky

Law enforcement agencies prepared for unrest beyond Election Day

Law enforcement officials say they’re prepared to deal with unrest on Election Day, but expect the threat to continue in the days that follow.

Election workers across the country are being bombarded with threats and law enforcement agencies nationwide are dedicating “substantial resources” to ensure public safety during the election, a new threat assessment obtained by ABC News says.

“It is more likely that in the aftermath of the election results and the counting of the Electoral College votes, that individuals who believe that the election was rigged, stolen, or unfairly decided could decide to conduct lone offender or lone wolf attacks in response,” said Javed Ali, the former senior counterterrorism coordinator at the National Security Council and now an associate professor at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.

Read more here.

-ABC News’ Luke Barr

FBI says election threats appear to originate from Russia

The FBI says in a statement that they are aware of the bomb threats and “many of which appear to originate from Russian email domains.”

“None of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far,” the FBI said.

The threats are in several states, according to the agency.

“As always, we urge the public to remain vigilant and report suspicious activity to state or local law enforcement, or submit tips to the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) or online at tips.fbi.gov.”

-ABC News’ Luke Barr and Pierre Thomas

National voter hotline receives 6,000 calls, reports no major issues

Representatives from the nation’s largest voter help hotline echoed what ABC News heard from state election officials in the battlegrounds: So far, so good. There have been no major disruptions or other issues beyond isolated, garden-variety episodes, the hotline said.

The Election Protection Hotline (1-866-OUR-VOTE) is run by the nonpartisan Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and is staffed by 4,776 volunteer lawyers across 50 states. ABC News has profiled and embedded with this service in previous elections.

As of noon ET, the hotline has received 6,000 calls from voters. The majority of the calls have come in from Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida and Michigan.

Most of those were reporting frustration with long lines, delays in polling place opening, or difficulty using electronic voting machines.

So far, organizers have seen no widespread episodes of violence or intimidation.

The longest lines tracked by hotline are in Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania, particularly near college campuses. Legal teams are seeking voting extensions at select polling places in Georgia, Illinois and Kentucky, where there were delays in opening this morning — but nothing out of the ordinary.

-ABC News’ Devin Dwyer

Arizona county official addresses misinformation about voting centers being shut down

At a press conference, a Maricopa County official debunked misinformation circulating on X about voting centers in the county being shut down due to issues with the printers.

“There have been no vote centers that have been shut down,” said Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates.

Earlier today, Tyler Bowyer, an executive with Turning Point USA who was charged in the Arizona 2020 fake elector case, posted on X that the right-wing group was sending buses to move people to functioning voting centers in Maricopa County.

“We have reports of multiple vote centers with ink issues in Maricopa County,” Bowyer posted.

Gates said the printers in question are being addressed. “We are out there going ahead and servicing the printers as we normally would,” the Maricopa County official said in response to Bowyer’s tweets.

The Maricopa County supervisor said that as of Monday, more than 1.5 million voters in the county had returned early ballots. About 70- 75% of those votes will be reported in the first batch of results at 8 p.m., he said.

Gates also said that if voters get in line at 7 p.m., they will have an opportunity to vote no matter how long lines are.

“Stay in line and go ahead and vote,” he said.

-ABC News’ Laura Romero

FBI arrests man who threatened mass shooting if Trump wins election

The FBI arrested a man in Michigan who allegedly posted threats online saying he would carry out a mass shooting on conservative Christians in the event former President Donald Trump wins the 2024 election, according to newly unsealed charging documents.

Isaac Sissel was taken into custody yesterday in Canton, Michigan, just two days after law enforcement reviewed his online posting.

The criminal complaint says Reddit had previously reported Sissel to the FBI in late September over various accounts he had with threatening usernames, including, “ShootUpTrulyRally” “WillShootTrumpSoon,” “PlannigToShootTrump” and “PlanningToKillTrump.”

Law enforcement contacted Sissel yesterday at a Travelodge hotel in Canton and found no weapons in a consented search of his room, though the affidavit notes “this was not surprising given that SISSEL stated [in his online post] that he ‘hid the gun.'”

Sissel further told agents Trump “was a threat…that should have been assassinated, and that everything would be better if Trump was dead,” the affidavit says. While he said he wouldn’t personally assassinate Trump, he told agents he believed there would be violence during the election “and wouldn’t rule out joining Antifa to protest.”

Sissel, according to the affidavit, is a transient who has more recently lived around the University of Michigan campus and has several open warrants for his arrest on charges of stalking, harassment and harassing communications.

The arrest underscores the FBI’s aggressive response to counter a wave of violent threats surrounding the presidential election, particularly in the wake of the two assassination attempts targeting Trump. In the affidavit, the FBI specifically noted Trump’s plans to appear in Michigan for a rally late Monday.

According to his court docket, Sissel has not been arraigned and has not entered a plea to the charge as of Tuesday afternoon. He has not yet been assigned an attorney.

-ABC News’ Alexander Mallin

Philadelphia DA says behavior at polls ‘more aggressive,’ no arrests made

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said that while he believes behavior at the polls has been “a little bit more aggressive,” no arrests have been made in the city.

Matt Stiegler, senior adviser to the DA, said the office is “monitoring” reports of voters recording poll workers. Stiegler said the DA has gathered these from media reports, but he wouldn’t say whether poll workers have reported cases of being recorded.

“Hidden camera recording of election workers and voters and poll workers, that’s not normal,” Stiegler said. “If that’s occurring, then that’s a significant escalation of what’s happened in the past.”

Krasner said his office has seen no indications of voter fraud. Any irregularities, however, would likely not be reported until later in the evening, he noted.

“We do not have reports of anything that looks like voter fraud…We do not expect to have it, but if it’s there, we want to know about it. We don’t want to hear a bunch of crazy fiction later about how things happen,” he said.

“If we start to hear about it at nine o’clock after the polls are closed, you should be rightly suspicious of what you are hearing.”

DA Krasner repeated his warning yesterday that consequences would be in order for lawbreakers.

“There are handcuffs, there are cells, there are courtrooms, and there are Philadelphia jurors who are definitely going to want to know why it is a person tried to erase their votes, block their votes, bully their votes, or take away their votes,” he said. “We’re voting in Philly. We’re voting our conscience. We’re voting for whoever is our favorite candidate.”

-ABC News’ Chris Boccia

Voting hours extended in Pennsylvania county after tech issues

A Pennsylvania judge ordered the voting hours to be extended for two hours in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, after the location experienced technical issues on Tuesday.

The polls will now close at 10 p.m., per the order, and any ballots cast after 8 p.m. will be cast by provisional ballots.

Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter in law and current co-chair of the RNC, praised the ruling as “good news.”

-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin

Raffensperger confident Georgia will have results tonight, says bomb threats ‘of Russian origin’

Georgia’s top election official on Tuesday morning projected confidence that the critical battleground state will have the large majority of its election results available tonight, saying that election day in the state has been “smooth sailing by and large” and a “tremendous” day.

Specifically on timing, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that the state’s 4 million early votes as well absentee ballots will be uploaded and reported no later than one hour after the polls close, which for most locations will be 7 p.m.

“So by 8pm, you’ll have probably 99% of all that … so you get a good idea of what the race looks like,” he said.

With regards to votes from today, Raffensperger said “before the end of the night, you’ll have all of that.” He noted smaller counties are aiming to have all of their results in by 10/1030 p.m. “at the latest.”

Notably, Raffensperger was also asked about bomb threats made Tuesday, which he said were “of Russian origin.”

“We identified the source and it was from Russia,” he said, after hedging briefly on the source.

“They’re up to mischief it seems,” he said of Russia: “They’re not our friends anyone who thinks they are hasn’t been reading the newspaper.”

Raffensperger said he thinks they will pass 1 million votes today, and said they are ready for any litigation to come their way.

“We’re gonna follow the law, follow the Constitution, and report the results accurately.”

-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin

DC polling site briefly closed due to suspicious package

A polling location in Washington, D.C., was briefly closed for less than an hour Tuesday morning after “officers were notified of a suspicious package,” police said.

The city’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal responded to the scene near the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library and quickly determined the item posed no threat.

The polling site has since reopened.

-ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson

Arizona’s top election official gives update, speaks on Russian video

At a press conference on Tuesday, Arizona’s top election official said “everything in the state of Arizona is running about as smoothly as it could be.”

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said there have been minor incidents Tuesday including a county that briefly lost power and a polling site that opened late after an employee forgot their keys to the polling site. Fontes added that his office received eight calls today— four from counties reporting individuals who were electioneering within 75 feet of polling locations.

When asked by reporters about poll watchers, Fontes said county officials are aware that party observers have to be credentialed and added that the Department of Justice sent federal monitors to four counties. Fontes also warned that it is against the law to photograph or record inside a polling location.

“If you want to memorialize the moment, get outside the 75-foot line, take your selfie and then go in and vote,” Fontes said. “Not only do we want to protect the process, but the privacy of the other voters and our staff that are engaged in this process. “

Fontes said that it will take longer for election officials to process results because of the two-page ballot and a new state law that requires poll workers to count the number of mail ballot envelopes dropped off at the location before they deliver results to the central counting facility.

“Please exercise patience,” the Arizona Secretary of State said.

When asked about the Russian manufactured video that was released on Monday, Fontes said the video is an “attempt from foreign actors to influence our election and make people lose faith in the work [election officials] do.”

“I’ve got the National Guard working to monitor our computer systems 24/7,” Fontes said.

-ABC News’ Laura Romero

5 ‘non-credible’ bomb threats in Fulton County led to evacuations

The head of elections in Fulton County — the largest in the critical battleground state of Georgia — on Monday said they had a smooth start this morning with all locations opening on time and tens of thousands of voters casting their ballots, though two locations were briefly evacuated after a series of bomb threats.

Elections director Nadine Williams said the county received 5 “non-credible” bomb threats that lead to two voting locations being evacuated for approximately 30 minutes each. The county is working on going to court to extend the hours for those locations.

“All polling sites are secure with an active security presence,” Williams assured.

“Outside of these brief interruptions, Election Day has been quiet, with minimal issues reported,” she continued, “and we remain prepared to address any misinformation or additional disruption to ensure a smooth experience for all voters today.”

Williams said that as of 9:40 this morning, 29,500 ballots have been cast in the county.

Regarding timing of the results, Williams said that the 417,000 votes from advance voting, as well as the mail ballots received through Monday, will be uploaded by 8 p.m. tonight.

As far as the rest of the locations, Williams said that barring no long lines tonight, those memory cards with today’s votes should be back at the main center where they “are hoping before midnight we should see the rest of the results come up.”

“As [memory cards] arrive, we will start uploading,” Williams said.

-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin

FBI ‘aware’ of 2 fabricated news clips, press releases urging not to vote and rigged inmate voting

The FBI is aware of two fabricated news clips and press releases urging people not to vote and rigged inmate voting, according to a statement they released on Tuesday morning.

“The FBI was made aware of two instances of its name and insignia being misused in promoting false narratives surrounding the election,” the FBI said in a statement. “The first is a fabricated newsclip purporting to be a terrorist warning issued by the FBI. The fabricated newsclip reports falsely that the FBI purportedly stated that Americans should ‘vote remotely’ due to a high terror threat at polling stations. This video is not authentic and does not accurately represent the current threat posture or polling location safety. 

Additionally, a fabricated video containing a fabricated FBI press release alleges that the management of five prisons in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona rigged inmate voting and colluded with a political party. This video is also not authentic, and its contents are false.”

This is the second such warning the FBI has given in recent days.

US cyber agency ‘not tracking’ any ‘significant incidents’

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is not tracking any “national level significant incidents” on election day, according to a top CISA official.

Cait Conley, a senior advisor to the CISA Director and the official in charge of election security said in the early hours of voting, there haven’t been any major incidents.

“We are tracking instances of extreme weather and other temporary infrastructure disruptions in certain areas of the country, but these are largely expected, routine and planned for events separately,” she said on a call with reporters on Tuesday.

Additionally, Conley told ABC News that they are “not aware” of any foreign influence operations going on right now but they “remain incredibly vigilant and in close communication with our federal government partners in case such instances were to arise.”

Monday night, the intelligence community, including CISA attributed two Russian influence operations including one in Arizona that were spreading misinformation about the election.

-Luke Barr

Officials brace for Election Day under cloud of threats, lawsuits

As millions of Americans prepare to descend on polling locations across the country, election officials and law enforcement authorities are focused on administering a fair and safe election under a cloud of threats, online disinformation, and the potential for a grueling legal fight in the weeks ahead.

Although a typical Election Day inevitably includes some hiccups like long lines or weather-related issues, this year election workers face the additional challenge of a heightened threat environment and an onslaught of litigation concerning voting rules and ballot counting.

Even so, election officials on Monday expressed confidence in their ability to execute on Election Day. Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt said the vote in his state would be “free, fair, safe, and secure.” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that “at the end of the day, it’s going to be fair and fast and accurate.”

And in North Carolina, Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the state’s Board of Elections, said, “Despite all the naysayers, despite all false information and sensationalist rhetoric out there about elections, and despite a devastating hurricane, we are making this happen in North Carolina.”

-Lucien Bruggeman

Trump says he is running against ‘evil Democrat system’

Former President Donald Trump used his final campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to attack high profile Democrats including President Joe Biden and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Trump told attendees he is “not running” solely against Vice President Kamala Harris. “I’m running against an evil Democrat system,” he said. “These are evil people.”

Trump launched into attacks on Biden, pushing unfounded claims that Harris only became the nominee because Democrats wanted to be “politically correct.”

Trump then made fun of Harris’s name calling it “a strange name,” before pivoting back to criticize Biden.

“I wasn’t running against Biden either,” Trump said. “He was stuck in a basement. I didn’t even run against him. Now running against a very evil system, and we have to defeat that system, and America’s future will be an absolutely incredible one.”

The former president also mouthed an expletive when referring to Pelosi. “She’s a crooked person,” he added. “She’s a bad person, evil.”

-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soo Rin Kim and Kelsey Walsh

Trump suggests supporters to blame if he loses

Former President Donald Trump’s final campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, saw the Republican presidential nominee urging supporters to head to the polls while also again casting doubt on the security of the electoral process.

Multiple times throughout Trump’s speech he told supporters to go out to the polls “tomorrow.” However, given the rally was happening after midnight, people in the crowd started yelling “today” and then Trump falsely said the election was happening on Wednesday.

“It sounds so much better when you say tomorrow, Wednesday,” Trump said. “But that’s okay. I want to be exactly accurate for them, but go out today and vote. And I guess seven o’clock or whatever, whatever time it is, doesn’t matter, and we’re going to have the greatest victory in the history of our country.”

Trump then suggested that his supporters might be to blame if he does not defeat Vice President Kamala Harris.

“There’s nothing they can do” if Republicans turn out, Trump said of his opponents. “In other words, to make you feel a little guilty, we would only have you to blame.” Later, Trump claimed he has the “silent majority” and urged his supporters to “speak up.”

The former president also again cast doubt on the security of voting machines, despite officials and experts confirming the security of the election system.

“Perhaps I will be president in less than 24 hours, or maybe it will take these machines that we pay so much for two weeks,” Trump said, claiming that paper ballots would be cheaper, faster and more secure.

“What the hell is happening in the inside of those machines?” he continued. “If you wait, we want the answer tomorrow, tonight,” Trump said, quickly correcting himself. “We want the answer tonight.”

“You have to cheat,” Trump said about Democrats. “Who the hell is going to approve that stuff? Who’s going to prove open borders with criminals pouring into our country by the millions now they have to cheat. They have to cheat, and they do, and they do it very well, actually.”

-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soo Rin Kim and Kelsey Walsh

Walz ends campaign addressing ‘guys in the crowd’ on reproductive rights

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz spoke for less than five minutes during his final campaign rally of the 2024 presidential race — focusing on reproductive rights.

The governor and his wife, Gwen, participated in the campaign’s Election Eve festivities on Monday in the pivotal battleground state of Michigan following their blitz through Wisconsin.

“You could probably tell from these rallies, all across the country tonight, this team is running like everything’s on the line — because everything’s on the line,” Walz said in Detroit.

Addressing the “guys in the crowd” about reproductive rights, Walz said the issue “really underlines the stakes in this election.”

“I want you to think about the women in your life that you love,” he said. “Their lives are at stake in this election. Donald Trump appointed those Supreme Court justices who repealed Roe v. Wade, and he brags about it.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, Walz said, would codify reproductive freedom if a bill came upon her desk as president.

“When Congress passes that bill to restore reproductive freedom, President Harris will sign it into law,” Walz said.

“Kamala and I trust women, it’s that simple. Now tomorrow, women all across America, of every age, both parties, are going to send a loud and clear message to Donald Trump, whether he likes it or not.”

Walz ended his remarks by stressing the historical significance of Tuesday’s election.

“There’s going to be a day you’re going to be sitting in that rocking chair, and you’re going to be rocking on that porch,” Walz said. “And a little one is going to come home from school and ask, what did you do in the 2024 election, where the American experiment survived, where the rule of law survived, where decency survived?”

Walz added, “And you’re going to be able to answer: ‘Every damn thing I could’.”

-ABC News’ Isabella Murray

Dixville Notch, New Hampshire votes split evenly between Harris and Trump

The first six ballots of the 2024 presidential election have officially been counted in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire.

Of the six registered voters in the town, three votes were cast for Vice President Kamala Harris and three votes went to former President Donald Trump.

Oprah joins Harris onstage for final campaign rally in Philadelphia

Vice President Kamala Harris’ final campaign rally in the 2024 presidential election was a star-studded event outside of the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Monday.

Famed talk show host, Oprah Winfrey, joined Harris onstage where they aimed to motivate voters ahead of Election Day.

“One more day, just one more day in the most consequential election of our lifetime,” Harris said. “And momentum is on our side.”

Joe Rogan and Elon Musk defend Trump’s controversial Liz Cheney comments

On Joe Rogan’s podcast, Elon Musk defended various comments Donald Trump has recently faced backlash for, saying he’s being misunderstood.

The two defended Trump’s recent violent rhetoric against former Rep. Liz Cheney, suggesting she should have a rifle “with nine barrels shooting at her,” claiming the former president’s comments have been misconstrued.

“A lot of people reached out to me — they’re like, oh, Trump says he wants to execute Liz Cheney. I’m like, that is utter b—s—. That’s not what he said at all. It’s not what he said at all,” Musk claimed.

“What he’s saying is that, look, if Liz Cheney actually had to fight at the front lines, [she] should think twice about going to war. It’s easy to be a warmonger if you don’t have to, you know, risk dying at the front lines,” Musk said, despite the fact that the backlash Trump faced was about the violent rhetoric itself.

Cheney, a Republican who was once a rising star in her party but lost reelection largely over her vocal criticism of Trump, has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.

The two women have appeared together at several events as Harris works to woo disaffected Republican voters.

Harris rallies Pittsburgh to cross the finish line with her: ‘Momentum is on our side’

For her second rally of the day, Vice President Kamala Harris addressed a crowd of about 15,000 against the backdrop of an old steel mill in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Accompanied by Katy Perry’s power vocals, Harris encouraged supporters to utilize their hard-earned momentum to cross the finish line.

“Pittsburgh, this is it. Tomorrow is Election Day. Tomorrow is Election Day, and the momentum is on our side,” she said. “Our campaign has tapped into the ambitions, the aspirations and the dreams of the American people, and we know it is time for a new generation of leadership in America, and I am ready to offer that leadership as the next president of the United States.”

She urged the crowd to “turn the page” to chants of “We’re not going back.”

“And we have an opportunity in this election to finally turn the page on a decade of politics driven by fear and division. We are done with that,” she said. “We’re done. We’re done. We’re exhausted with it, and Pittsburgh, we are not going back. We’re not going back.”

She continued: “Ours is not a fight against something. It is a fight for something. It is a fight for the future, and it is a fight for freedom, like the fundamental freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own life and not let the government tell her what to do.”

Harris’ fairly brief speech was nearly line-for-line the same as her one in Allentown, Pennsylvania, earlier in the day. Her campaign has said that the speeches are being timed ahead of her next and final stop in Philadelphia.

Harris continued to avoid directly using former President Trump’s name, barely referring to him at all except to acknowledge that voters are ready for a president who doesn’t stew over an “enemies list.”

“We are ready for a president who knows the true measure of a leader is not based on who you beat down, it is based on who you lift up,” she said. “And instead of stewing over an enemies list, I will spend every day working on my to-do list. All full of priorities to improve your life.”

-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow and Will McDuffie

Trump says he’s going to let RFK Jr. ‘pretty much do what he wants’

In his “closing message” in Pennsylvania, just a day before the 2024 election, former President Donald Trump touted his relationship with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Trump called the former independent presidential candidate “a credible guy” and said he’s going to be very involved in his administration.

“Bobby Kennedy, you know, he’s a credible guy… He’s going to be very much involved. You know, he’s got a tremendous view on health and pesticides and all this stuff. And we’re not really a healthy country,” Trump said.

Then Trump said he would allow RFK Jr. “to pretty much do what he wants.”

“Bobby’s going to pretty much do what he wants. I want him to do something really important for our country, make people healthier,” Trump said.

RFK Jr. previously said he would oversee public health agencies in Trump’s administration including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture.

Harris expresses support for Puerto Rico on Spanish-language radio show

In a Spanish-language radio interview released Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris again vocalized her support for Puerto Rico.

“My commitment to Puerto Rico is longstanding. Even when I was in the United States Senate as representative of California, I took on a responsibility for myself of also prioritizing the needs of Puerto Rico, because I was aware that Puerto Rico did not have a U.S. senator, and so I was responsible for getting more resources to Puerto Rico,” she said in an interview on Univision Radio.

She vowed to continue honoring that commitment “when I am elected president of the United States, God willing, and with the votes of the people listening right now.”

She positioned her inclusive approach as a stark contrast to former President Donald Trump’s language in recent weeks, which she called “hateful.”

“Trump’s comments are hateful [and] are, you know, just furtherance of these tropes that are really unfair and meant to divide and demean people,” she said, citing what Jennifer Lopez said onstage while campaigning for Harris last week.

Harris also called immigration reform “one of [her] highest priorities.”

“The immigration system is just broken,” she said, listing a few of her approaches to fixing it, including securing the border, hiring more asylum judges, creating more humane asylum processes and creating a pathway for “hard-working people” to earn citizenship.

-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow and Will McDuffie

JD Vance says Pennsylvania will ‘take out the trash in Washington, DC’

Sen. JD Vance delivered his closing message to the voters of Newtown, Pennsylvania, on Monday, advocating for former President Donald Trump to be elected back to the White House.

Vance told the crowd that the only way the country would get a person who is fit to be president is by voting for Trump.

“So tomorrow, we’re going to say to Kamala Harris, you are fired. We don’t want you in the White House. We don’t want you in the Oval Office, we don’t want you anywhere near the halls of power,” the vice presidential candidate said.

Vance again brought up the recent “garbage” comment controversy, falsely claiming Harris called Trump supporters “garbage.”

“So, to Kamala Harris, you shouldn’t be calling your citizens garbage. You shouldn’t be criticizing people for daring to criticize you for doing a bad job. And our message to the leadership, to the elites of the Democratic Party — the people of Pennsylvania are not garbage for struggling under your leadership. But tomorrow, the people of Pennsylvania are going to take out the trash in Washington, D.C., and we’re going to do it together,” Vance said.

Megyn Kelly says she supports Trump because he will be a ‘protector of women’

Megyn Kelly took the stage at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Monday.

The conservative media personality explained why she’s backing Trump in the 2024 presidential election, saying, “He will be a protector of women, and it’s why I’m voting for him.”

Kelly then suggested that she supports Trump because he takes care of the common man.

“He will look out for our boys to our forgotten boys and our forgotten men. Guys like you, who maybe have a beer after work and don’t want to be judged by people like Oprah and Beyonce, who will never have to face the consequences of her disastrous economic policies,” Kelly said, seemingly referencing Vice President Kamala Harris.

-ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh, Lalee Ibssa and Soo Rin Kim

Harris’ senior adviser says she could win all 7 swing states

David Plouffe, a senior adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris, told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Monday night that the campaign believes it could win all seven swing states.

“It’s very important that we have multiple pathways to 270, and you know, just a couple hours ago, reviewing all the early vote data, what we’re projecting for Election Day, how we think undecideds are breaking, we have a credible pathway to all seven states tomorrow night to go into Kamala Harris’ column,” Plouffe said.

“But we believe they’re all going to be close,” he added.

Asked if he believes Harris could win all seven states, he said, “Yes.”

Plouffe said that the campaign believes it is winning more late-breaking voters than former President Donald Trump is, and he credits the campaigns’ different approaches to their field operations.

“I think outsourcing your field effort — meaning the folks knocking on doors, making calls – largely to exclusively paid canvassers, historically just doesn’t work,” he said. “You want people showing up who are committed to your candidate.”

He called that a “secret weapon for us” and said that volunteers were “knocking on 2,000 doors a minute in Pennsylvania over the weekend.”

But, he acknowledged, both campaigns “have a lot riding on tomorrow, on actual Election Day.”

-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow and Will McDuffie

Harris visits Puerto Rican restaurant in Pennsylvania

Vice President Kamala Harris visited a Puerto Rican restaurant in Reading, Pennsylvania, Monday night, accompanied by the state’s governor, Josh Shapiro, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

A woman, who appeared to be the owner of the restaurant, Old San Juan Cafe, showed Harris a spread of food.

The vice president joked, “I’m very hungry. I don’t get a chance to eat as often as I’d like.”

Later, Harris and Ocasio-Cortez huddled with the restaurant owner to discuss the rapid growth of Latino-owned small businesses.

-ABC News’ Will McDuffie, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Fritz Farrow

Joe Rogan endorses Donald Trump for president

Joe Rogan has endorsed former President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.

The podcast host’s endorsement accompanied the release of a three-hour-long interview with Elon Musk, making the case for his support for Trump.

“The great and powerful @elonmusk. If it wasn’t for him we’d be f—–. He makes what I think is the most compelling case for Trump you’ll hear, and I agree with him every step of the way,” Rogan wrote.

“For the record, yes, that’s an endorsement of Trump. Enjoy the podcast,” he continued.

Michelle Obama to young voters: ‘You have to vote for Kamala Harris’

Michelle Obama went on social media to share a “message to all the young people out there,” encouraging them to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris as the next president of the United States.

“Look, I know it’s easy to feel what we do doesn’t matter. Like the world’s problems are too big and complicated to tackle. Like nothing’s ever going to change at all,” she said in a video, pointing to contentious issues like reproductive health rights and climate change.

“That’s exactly why you have to vote: because we need a better leader than Donald Trump. We simply cannot afford another four years of his incompetence, weakness, and division,” she added.

The former first lady goes on to say that Harris is the opposite — suggesting that the Democratic presidential candidate will “expand your freedoms” and “protect the planet.”

“While he denigrates anyone who is different than him, while he looks out only for himself, Kamala will be a president for all Americans. I know she will listen to you. And that’s why you have to vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz on November the 5th,” she said, before urging young people to make a plan to vote on Election Day.

-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow and Will McDuffie

In closing message, Trump sets the stage to challenge election results

In what campaign aides are classifying as his “closing message” speech, former President Donald Trump is already setting expectations for his supporters to challenge the results of the election, saying Vice President Kamala Harris only has a 4% chance of winning the race.

“So based on what I’m hearing — she’s at 4%. And so we never want to take anything for granted. But we’re really doing well,” Trump said during his rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Trump again falsely accused Democrats of cheating in the 2024 election, but added that it’s “too big to rig.”

“I do believe it is too big to rig. They’ll try. And they are trying, you know, though. It’s too big to rig. This is a big movement,” Trump said.

Doubting the fact that President Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 Election, Trump said that he has since learned.

“This is that big, powerful, vicious party — that’s a vicious machine. They can take all these bad ideas and win elections.” he said.

The comments come as the Trump campaign has 230,000 poll observers along with 500 attorneys in every battleground state.

-ABC News’ Soo Rin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh

Harris makes 2 stops at residents’ homes in Reading, Pennsylvania

Vice President Kamala Harris made two stops at residents’ homes in Reading, Pennsylvania, and asked for their votes.

At the first stop, Harris greeted a family and followed them to their door so that she could talk to them.

At the second stop, Harris rang the doorbell and surprised the residents, a couple. She hugged the woman who answered the door.

“You know, it’s the day before the election, and I just wanted to come by and say I hope to earn your vote and wanted to just thank you for just giving us the time for this conversation,” Harris told the couple, before they conversed together briefly on one of her recurring campaign messages: finding common ground.

The woman said that Harris had received her vote already, and that she would be working the polls on Tuesday, while her husband would be voting on Election Day.

-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow, Will McDuffie and Oren Oppenheim

Marianne Williamson says she voted for Harris

Former Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson said she cast her vote for Vice President Kamala Harris while emphasizing that no matter who wins, she will do “whatever I can to further the ideal that ultimately love will win.”

“No matter who wins, the result is going to be heartrending to roughly half the country. I feel like I want to put my arms around millions of people and tell them it’s going to be OK. I voted for Kamala,” she said, in part, in a statement posted to X.

-ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd

Russia ‘manufactured and amplified’ video claiming election fraud in Arizona: Officials

The intelligence community is yet again sounding the alarm on a Russian “manufactured and amplified” video claiming election fraud in Arizona — and warned that the activity from Russia will likely focus on battleground states.

“Since our statement on Friday, the IC has been observing foreign adversaries, particularly Russia, conducting additional influence operations intended to undermine public confidence in the integrity of U.S. elections and stoke divisions among Americans,” the FBI, ODNI and CISA said in a statement Monday night.

“The IC expects these activities will intensify through election day and in the coming weeks, and that foreign influence narratives will focus on swing states,” officials added in the statement.

Russia, according to the intelligence community, is the “most active threat” in the election.

“Influence actors linked to Russia in particular are manufacturing videos and creating fake articles to undermine the legitimacy of the election, instill fear in voters regarding the election process, and suggest Americans are using violence against each other due to political preferences, judging from information available to the IC,” the statement continued.

“These efforts risk inciting violence, including against election officials. We anticipate Russian actors will release additional manufactured content with these themes through election day and in the days and weeks after polls close,” officials said in the statement.

Content with the hallmark of a Russian influence operation includes a video claiming election fraud in Arizona and an article falsely claiming that U.S. officials across swing states plan to orchestrate election fraud using a range of tactics, such as ballot stuffing and cyberattacks.

CISA said to seek out trusted sources of information — the election officials themselves.

-ABC News’ Luke Barr

Harris, Trump remain closely matched on Election Day eve: Ipsos poll

Harris is effectively tied with Trump among likely voters in an Ipsos national poll published Monday evening.

If the election were held today, half of likely voters said they would vote for Harris and 48% said Trump, the poll found.

When American adults were asked which candidate has a better plan, policy or approach to the following issues, Harris led on health care and political extremism, while Trump had more support for the economy, immigration and war/foreign issues, the poll found.

The poll was conducted Nov. 1-3 and has a margin of error of +/- 3.4 percentage points for likely voters and +/-3.0 percentage points for American adults.

-ABC News’ Emily Chang and Oren Oppenheim

‘It’s as if he is trying to lose,’ Trump adviser tells Jonathan Karl

A close Trump adviser told ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl it’s as if the former president “is trying to lose,” Karl told “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir.

“The Trump campaign just sent me reams of data saying they are ahead in the early vote, they’re doing everything they need to do to win, but I have to tell you, talking to senior advisers, people that have been advising Trump for a long time, I’m hearing newfound anxiety,” Karl said. “They say he’s been off-message.”

Karl said the Harris campaign has been “feeling anxiety for a long time, but they feel like this is closing in the right direction for them” and that Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally last month “was a turning point in this campaign.”

Georgia poll worker arrested for allegedly mailing bomb threat to election officials

A Georgia poll worker was arrested Monday and charged with allegedly sending a letter threatening to bomb an elections office in the state’s Jones County last month, the Justice Department announced.

Nicholas Wimbish, 25, allegedly sent the threat after he had a verbal argument with a voter in the Jones County Elections Office on Oct. 16, according to prosecutors.

The following day, he allegedly mailed a letter to the Jones County elections superintendent purporting to be from the unidentified voter that stated Wimbish had “give[n] me hell” and was “conspiring votes” and “distracting voters from concentrating,” according to prosecutors.

The letter allegedly stated that Wimbish and others “should look over their shoulder” and that the “young men will get beatdown if they fight me” and “will get the treason punishment by firing squad if they fight back,” according to the DOJ.

The letter was allegedly signed, “PS boom toy in early vote place, cigar burning, be safe,” prosecutors said.

During an interview with the FBI on Oct. 23, Wimbish allegedly blamed the letter on the voter he had interacted with, according to the complaint. During a search of Wimbish’s personal computer, the letter was allegedly found in the print spooler, according to the complaint.

Wimbish faces several charges including mailing a bomb threat, conveying false information about a bomb threat, and making false statements to the FBI. He faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison on the cumulative charges if convicted, prosecutors said.

Court records do not list any attorney information for Wimbish.

-ABC News’ Alexander Mallin

Maryland election officials debunk disinformation about ballot marking devices

The Maryland State Board of Elections released a new statement on Monday aimed at correcting disinformation about ballot marking devices.

“Ballot marking devices do not flip or switch votes,” the statement read. “Unfounded claims of machines flipping votes have resurfaced and circulated in many elections.”

The board said it has not been able to substantiate any claims “of vote flipping or changing of votes by a ballot marking device,” and said any such allegation must be submitted as an administrative complaint along with an “affidavit sworn under the penalties of perjury.”

-ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson

Vance reminds Georgia voters that Trump lost state by fewer than 12,000 votes

While speaking to a large crowd in Atlanta on Monday, Sen. JD Vance urged voters in Georgia to go out tomorrow to cast their ballots while reminding them how close the race in the state was in 2020.

“Tomorrow is the day that we vote for lower grocery prices and more affordable housing,” he said. “Tomorrow is the day that we vote to close the border and make Donald J. Trump the president of the United States.”

Vance referenced that Trump lost Georgia to President Joe Biden by fewer than 12,000 votes.

“I didn’t realize how small this was in 2020. Georgia was decided by less than 12,000 votes,” he said. “That is crazy.”

-ABC News’ Hannah Demissie

Walz addresses excited crowd of Wisconsin voters

Speaking to a fired-up crowd Monday in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz emphasized that U.S election systems are secure and that Vice President Kamala Harris would win the presidential race on Tuesday.

“Just tell yourself how great it’s going to be when we get this thing done,” Walz said. “It may take a little bit here — we got patience. Our system is secure, our elections are safe.”

“We will win,” Walz continued, “And when that thing is done, we’re not ever going to have to see this guy on TV again.”

-ABC News’ Isabella Murray

Hundreds of National Guardsmen ready for election support across the country

At least 245 National Guard personnel across 18 states and Washington, D.C., have been either activated by their governors or are on standby, according to Pentagon officials.

Many are helping state governments with cybersecurity efforts, while others are there to assist law enforcement and first responders in the event of protests or security incidents.

There are 126 personnel activated in Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Iowa, Illinois, North Carolina, New Mexico, Oregon, Wisconsin and Washington, a U.S. official confirmed to ABC News.

There are 119 personnel on standby in Colorado, D.C., Florida, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia, according to the official.

That amounts to an average of about 13 personnel currently activated or on standby per state/district.

These figures could shift at the discretion of the governors, the official said.

The move to utilize the National Guard comes after authorities said ballot boxes in Oregon and Washington were set on fire with incendiary devices last month. The governors of both states said they were putting Guard units on standby to aid local law enforcement. Nevada’s governor told local reporters he wanted Guard personnel on standby in Las Vegas and Carson City.

In D.C., Guard personnel will be on standby specifically to assist with the city’s fire and medical services Tuesday through Nov. 13, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said during a briefing Monday.

-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty and Matt Seyler

51 attorneys general condemn election-related violence ahead of results

A bipartisan coalition of 51 attorneys general has penned a letter condemning violence in response to election results.

“Regardless of the outcome of Tuesday’s election, we expect that Americans will respond peacefully and we condemn any acts of violence related to the results,” the coalition wrote. “A peaceful transfer of power is the highest testament to the rule of law, a tradition that stands at the heart of our nation’s stability. As Attorneys General, we affirm our commitment to protect our communities and uphold the democratic principles we serve.”

“We call upon every American to vote, participate in civil discourse and, above all, respect the integrity of the democratic process,” the letter continued. “Let us come together after this election not divided by outcomes but united in our shared commitment to the rule of law and safety of all Americans. Violence has no place in the democratic process; we will exercise our authority to enforce the law against any illegal acts that threaten it.”

-ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson

Pennsylvania counties continue to investigate potential voter registration fraud

Officials in several counties across Pennsylvania continue to investigate potentially fraudulent voter registration applications, as Trump has pushed some misleading or false claims about the incident.

Authorities in Lancaster, Berks, Monroe and York counties are investigating thousands of voter registration applications they say are potentially fraudulent, according to various officials around the state. Amid the ongoing investigations, some of the applications have been confirmed to be fraudulent while some have been determined to be legitimate, according to updates.

Still, as recently as last week Trump said Lancaster County was “caught … with 2,600 votes.”

“They found, as I understand it, I mean, I don’t know what’s happened to the last day or so, but they in Lancaster, they found 2,600 ballots, all done in by the same hand,” Trump said Sunday in Pennsylvania.

But, according to the Pennsylvania attorney general, Trump’s characterization is untrue. In a statement last week, the state’s top prosecutor, Michelle Henry, said that “the investigations regard voter registration forms, not ballots.”

On Monday, Lancaster County officials also updated that out of the approximately 2,500 applications under investigation, more than half were confirmed to be valid. According to Lancaster County Commissioner Ray D’Agostino, 57% of the applications were verified, 17% were determined to be fraudulent, and 26% are still being investigated and are either incomplete or not verified.

D’Agostino stressed that the investigation with the DA is still ongoing. “We take this very seriously,” he said.

In York County, officials last week said their investigation into a batch of 3,087 applications led to 47% having been “verified as legitimate” and were approved, 29% were incomplete and are pending, and 24% were declined and are being investigated by the DA.

Election officials have emphasized that this alleged fraud was contained and stopped — and say the instance highlights the effectiveness of the system. Henry said the fraud attempts “have been defeated.”

“These attempts have been thwarted by the safeguards in place in Pennsylvania,” Henry said in her statement last week.
-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin

Over 80 million Americans have voted early

On the eve of Election Day, over 80 million Americans have voted early, according to the University of Florida Election Lab.

The tally includes both early in-person voting and absentee ballots.

Georgia Supreme Court reverses deadline extension for voters who received ballots late

In a win for the Republican National Committee, the Georgia Supreme Court on Monday ruled that thousands of voters whose mail-in ballots were delayed will not have extra time to send them back.

The ruling from the court reversed a lower judge’s ruling that had granted 3,000 voters an extension of the mail-in-ballot deadline, after Cobb County election officials admitted they missed the deadline to ship them out.

The deadline for mail-in ballots to be received in Georgia is Election Day — but the lower judge had given those voters an extension for them to be postmarked by election day and received by Nov. 8, the same deadline for overseas ballots.

The RNC had appealed the ruling, saying it was a violation of the election code and that voters still had other ways they could vote, including in person.

The Georgia Supreme Court ordered the Cobb board to “keep separate” the absentee ballots of those voters that are received after the deadline on Election Day but before Nov. 8 “in a secure, safe, and sealed container separate from other voted ballots.”

Cobb County had previously been ordered to ship out all of the delayed ballots by Nov. 1 with express shipping and overnight return envelopes.

The court also ordered the board to notify the voters by email, text or public announcement of the change.

-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin

Trump: ‘If we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole ball of wax’

At a rally in Reading, Pennsylvania, on Monday, Trump called on residents to turn out and vote tomorrow.

“If we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole ball of wax,” he said. “It’s over. It’s over.”

“We’re just one day away. Oh, we’ve been waiting for this. I’ve been waiting four years for this,” he said.

DC mayor says no known threats, but not taking any chances
Washington, D.C., officials say they have no credible threats to the city, however, they will be fully activating police and have received support from Virginia and Maryland law enforcement agencies.

“I feel very strong about the district’s preparation,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said Monday. “I feel very sad that this is the state of things to be honest with you, but the way that I deal with anxiety is to work and to make sure that we are as prepared as we can be, and that people, all people, win or lose, do the right thing.”

D.C. police will have increased patrols in key areas downtown and around the White House, Police Chief Pam Smith told reporters Monday.

“[The] proactive presence is a preventive measure, and while there is no credible threat to the District of Columbia, we want residents and visitors alike to feel sure that MPD is here prepared and dedicated to keep communities safe across all seven districts.,” Smith said.

The mayor said before Jan. 6 and the inauguration she expects to make a National Guard request for additional assistance, but no request will be made for election week.

-ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson

Judge’s decision coming ‘shortly’ on Elon Musk giveaway case

Philadelphia Judge Angelo Foglietta said he plans to issue a decision “shortly” after a nearly six-hour hearing over Elon Musk’s America PAC’s million-dollar giveaway, as Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is seeking an emergency injunction to stop the sweepstakes.

During closing arguments, a lawyer for Krasner called Musk’s giveaway “one of the great scams of the last 50 years” by deceiving more than a million swing state voters to sign a petition in the hopes of winning a million dollars.

“There is nothing random about that process,” the lawyer, John Summers, said. “This was a profound, devastating and widespread deception.”

Summers argued that Musk attempted to “influence the election” by encouraging hundreds of thousands of voters to sign a petition while preselecting the winners based on their “suitability” to serve as spokespeople for the political action committee. Summers argued that even if the lottery was not random, it’s still illegal under Pennsylvania law.

“They essentially advertised this as a lottery. It’s not a defense that what we said it was isn’t true,” Summers said.

Andy Taylor, a lawyer for Musk’s America PAC, argued that the DA’s case falls apart after today’s revelation that the alleged lottery awarded preselected winners.

“It’s an opportunity to earn. It’s not a chance to win,” Taylor said, emphasizing the winners’ roles as spokespeople for the PAC.

Taylor emphasized that the case centers on a petition in support of the First and Second amendments, arguing that shutting down the giveaway would infringe on free speech.

“You are going to smother in the crib the rights of millions of Pennsylvanians from exercising constitutional magnitude free speech,” Taylor said.

Speaking outside court, Krasner’s attorney declined to comment on the specifics of the case, simply acknowledging, “It’s in the hands of the judge.”

-ABC News’ Peter Charalambous

CISA continues to see threats toward election officials

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency continues to see threats towards election officials a day before Election Day, according to a top official for CISA, the cyber arm of the Department of Homeland Security.

In a call to reporters Monday, Cait Conley, who is in charge of CISA’s election security portfolio, called these threats “fundamentally un-American.”

CISA Director Jen Easterly said most local elections officials are in touch with law enforcement.

“We’ve not seen specific reporting about violence at polling places, so I certainly don’t want voters to feel at all intimidated about going to voting locations,” Easterly said, saying it should “really be a day of celebration.”

Easterly said they “expect” disruptions throughout Election Day, and they are prepared for it. Foreign adversaries — particularly Russia, China and Iran — are looking to “undermine American confidence and the legitimacy of our elections and to stoke partisan discord,” she said.

-ABC News’ Luke Barr

Trump campaign looks to Vance to help them over the finish line in Pennsylvania

From the moment he arrived in Milwaukee, after being named former President Donald Trump’s running mate, it was clear that one of Sen. JD Vance’s primary roles was to help deliver battleground Pennsylvania for the former president.

The day Vance was announced as Trump’s vice presidential pick in July, Trump told ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jon Karl that he was “going to leave [Vance] in Pennsylvania.”

Pennsylvania’s importance in this election can’t be overstated — it’s a crucial swing state with 19 coveted electoral votes where Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are neck and neck. Whoever wins the state is very likely win the presidential election. During the 2020 election, Pennsylvania was the state that sealed the presidency for President Joe Biden.

Click here to read more about Vance’s efforts in Pennsylvania.

-ABC News’ Hannah Demissie

Musk’s sweepstakes winners were vetted, signed NDAs: Political adviser

Before announcing the winners of Elon Musk’s $1 million giveaway, America PAC employees conducted background checks on them, vetted their social media and had them sign non-disclosure agreements, Elon Musk’s political adviser Chris Young testified during an ongoing hearing in Philadelphia on Monday.

The inside look at how winners were selected is at odds with how Musk himself described the “random” selection process.

“Were you surprised that he used the word ‘randomly’?” Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s attorney, John Summers, asked.

“That’s not the word I would have selected,” Young said.

Young testified that he reviewed candidates based on the location of Musk’s next rally before vetting the people who signed America PAC’s petition in support of the First and Second amendments.

“I essentially used the petition like a job application,” Young said, with America PAC considering the number of eligible voters that the candidate referred to the petition, their personality and social media history.

According to Young, Musk was notified when a candidate was selected. Young also said that winners signed non-disclosure agreements preventing them from talking publicly about their “consulting agreements.”

While the testimony contradicts Musk’s public statements, Young insisted that the winners “earned” their money by doing work on behalf of the PAC, seemingly supporting the defense argument that the giveaway is not an illegal lottery.

“Anyone who participated in the program knew what they were entitled to for their participation in the program,” Young said.

Closing arguments in the hearing will happen after a brief break.

-ABC News’ Peter Charalambous

‘Candidates don’t get to decide who wins elections’: Michigan secretary of state

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson was asked during a press briefing Monday about the possibility that Trump could declare victory tomorrow before all the votes are actually counted.

“Candidates don’t get to decide who wins elections, voters do,” Benson responded. “And so we will keep reminding folks of that truth. Candidates certainly can say and will say whatever they want to say, it doesn’t change the facts. It doesn’t change the tallies of the votes that are cast on paper ballots that will be audited after the fact and securely tabulated throughout the election to ensure the accuracy of the results, whatever those results may be.”

Benson added that they “hope and expect and ask all the candidates to respect the will of the people and respect those results, and to not claim something is true when it’s not.”

In 2020, Trump claimed to have won the election only hours after polls closed on Nov. 3, 2020, before final results were in.

Benson said she and her staff will be debunking false statements and conspiracy theories as they arise, but that “truth and transparency are on our side.”

“We’ve seen how completely innocent things can be misused to spread false aspersions about our election, so let’s all be vigilant,” she said.

She also urged the public to question what they see on social media.

“Don’t assume anything that you’re seeing from a source other than a trusted voice or an election official has truth until you cross-check it with other sources of information,” she said.

-ABC News’ Mike Levine

Trump expected to host dinners at Mar-a-Lago on election night with club members, donors and close friends

Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to host multiple dinners on election night at his Mar-a-Lago club — including with his close friends, donors and club members, multiple sources familiar with the dinners told ABC News.

Trump is expected to dine with an intimate group of close friends Tuesday night, and there will be a separate Mar-a-Lago club member dinner in the ballroom. A source familiar with the dinners said there won’t be any formal speeches but Trump will likely stop by to greet them all.

Earlier that day, Trump is expected to cast his vote in Palm Beach, Florida.

Several of the attendees of the dinners told ABC News that they’re planning on heading over to the Palm Beach Convention Center after the dinner.

-ABC News’ Soo Rin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh

Harris emphasizes unity while addressing canvassers in Pennsylvania

Harris addressed canvassers in Scranton, Pennsylvania, ahead of a rally later this afternoon in the battleground state, where she emphasized building community and unity.

“I can feel the mood in here because it’s the best of who we are as a democracy,” Harris said at the event at the Montage Mountain Resort. “We are a people-driven campaign, and we love the people, and we see in the face of a stranger a neighbor, right? And that’s the spirit of what we are doing.”

She said the “whole era of this other guy” and discussion about “trying to point fingers at each other and divide each other” makes people feel alone.

“As we are getting out to vote, as we are canvassing, let’s be intentional about building community, about building community, about building coalitions, about reminding people we all have so much more in common than what separates us,” she said.

CAIR sends 600,000 texts to Muslim voters asking them to vote

The nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organization has sent out 600,000 text messages to ask American Muslim voters to vote on Election Day. The Council on American-Islamic Relations has been targeting Muslim voters across the country, including those in key swing states.

CAIR has not endorsed a candidate and will not do so as a 501(c)(3) organization. However, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement, “Turnout numbers for our community so far are promising, but they need to be much higher. We encourage all remaining American Muslim voters to show up on Election Day.”

Acknowledging some Muslim American’s views on the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict, Awad acknowledged that many may be “disillusioned and frustrated due to U.S. support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”

“But sitting on the sidelines of this election will not help the people of Gaza or anyone else,” Awad said. “Elected officials take communities seriously when they fully participate in the political process, including by exercising their right to vote. No matter who you support, showing up to vote is a display of political strength.”

In recent months, some Muslim American activists have called on Muslim Americans to mobilize as a way of leveraging the community’s power post-election.

-ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson

Pennsylvania secretary of state: Election will be ‘safe and secure’

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt projected confidence about the security of the election, saying it will be “free, fair, safe and secure,” during brief remarks Monday.

Schmidt warned Pennsylvania voters to “remain vigilant” about any last-minute misinformation and disinformation that may try to persuade them not to vote.

Schmidt also seemed to try to set expectations for the timing of results in the key battleground state, reminding people that Pennsylvania has “never” had final official results on election night regardless of when the media have called the state.

“We can’t predict what percentage of those votes will be counted on election night,” Schmidt said.

He noted that 2 million mail-in ballots have been returned so far, which officials can’t begin opening until Tuesday morning.

“That means election officials can’t even remove the ballot from their envelope,” Schmidt underscored.

He said counties will begin to submit unofficial election results beginning at 8 p.m. ET — and will continue updating throughout the night and “in the subsequent days.”

-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin

Trump tells hurricane victims to ‘sit back and relax’ at poorly attended NC rally

Former President Donald Trump kicked off his final day on the campaign trail Monday at a poorly attended rally in North Carolina, where the venue was at least a third empty.

Sparsely populated to begin with, dozens of people left the venue in a steady stream throughout the rambling, unfocused speech.

At one point, Trump told North Carolinians who are desperately waiting for help after hurricane devastation to “sit back and relax” until he takes office.

“Those people, they better get that FEMA here fast. But we’re going to on Jan. 20,” Trump said. “Just tell everybody to sit back, relax. On Jan. 20, you’ll see people come in and help you out like we did in the past.”

-ABC News’ Soo Rin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh

Trump tells hurricane victims to ‘sit back and relax’ at poorly attended NC rally

Former President Donald Trump kicked off his final day on the campaign trail Monday at a poorly attended rally in North Carolina, where the venue was at least a third empty.

Sparsely populated to begin with, dozens of people left the venue in a steady stream throughout the rambling, unfocused speech.

At one point, Trump told North Carolinians who are desperately waiting for help after hurricane devastation to “sit back and relax” until he takes office.

“Those people, they better get that FEMA here fast. But we’re going to on Jan. 20,” Trump said. “Just tell everybody to sit back, relax. On Jan. 20, you’ll see people come in and help you out like we did in the past.”

-ABC News’ Soo Rin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh

Philly DA wraps up testimony during hearing on Musk giveaway

During his two-hour testimony at an ongoing hearing over Elon Musk and his super PAC’s $1 million voter sweepstakes, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner characterized America PAC’s admission that winners are preselected as the “most amazingly disingenuous defense I have ever heard.”

“This was all political marketing masquerading as a lottery,” Krasner said during the hearing in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas. “This has been a grift from the beginning. This has been a scam from the very beginning.”

According to Chris Gober, a lawyer for Musk and America PAC, the winners were selected based on their “suitability” as spokespeople, signed a contract and received the million dollars as a “salary” for their work, despite Musk himself publicly saying that winners would be selected “randomly.”

Krasner’s attorney, John Summers, described the claim as “a flat-out admission of liability.” While America PAC has openly acknowledged that winners would serve as spokespeople, the hearing marks the first time they have disclosed that the winners were preselected.

“It is deceptive. It is misleading. It is taking advantage of people,” Krasner said. “They are doing everything under the sun to cover it up.”

Musk’s lawyers have repeatedly argued that the case itself is politically motivated, accusing Krasner of creating a “political circus.” Krasner’s attorney attempted to counter that argument by mentioning that Krasner drives a Tesla — made by the electric car company owned by Musk — and would theoretically bring the same case against Taylor Swift if she arranged a similar scheme for Harris.

“I have brought action against Democrats in the past,” Krasner said. “I would have brought an action against Taylor Swift if she did this. As far as I know, she didn’t.”

The court is currently on a lunch break following testimony from Krasner, who was the hearing’s first witness.

-ABC News’ Peter Charalambous

Harris supporters say they know Republicans who are secretly voting for her

Several Harris supporters at her rally in battleground Michigan on Sunday told ABC News they were confident in Harris’ prospects because they knew Republicans in their community who are casting a ballot for Harris — many of them secretly.

Andrea Galindo said she believes Harris will win “because I know a lot of Republicans voted Democrat.”

Mike Arvizu said his father is a lifelong Republican who is voting for Harris.

“If my father-in-law can do it, there’s a lot more people out there,” Arvizu said.

Their optimism reflects a defining strategy of the Harris campaign: to reach every possible voter in battlegrounds, including Republicans and independents. In her final rally speeches, the vice president is stressing that she would invite those who disagree with her to have a seat at the table.

But voters said that the toxic and divisive nature of politics today means that many of these Republicans aren’t openly saying that they’re backing Harris.

“We’ve become so divided in this country that people don’t even have Thanksgiving with their own family members anymore. I think there is a fear in this country about even talking about politics, especially if you don’t know if someone agrees with you,” said Curtis Hertel, who is running for Congress in Michigan.

But Hertel said he’s seeing more conversation now across party lines, with Harris canvassers making headway even in deep-red areas like Livingston County.

-ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Selina Wang

North Carolina elections chief pleads for ‘peaceful transition of power’

On the eve of Election Day, the head of elections in the battleground state of North Carolina has issued an on-camera plea to candidates on the ballot tomorrow: “I would just make a plea to the candidates and elected officials: Have a peaceful transition of power. Accept the results. Concede defeat when necessary,” Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the state’s board of elections, said during a press conference Monday.

While saying that “there’s more hostility” this election, she also urged candidates, voters and others to “please recognize” that election workers are “members of this community” who have “sworn oaths … [as part of] a bipartisan effort to ensure that every eligible voter is able to cast their ballot, and that these results are tabulated and determined securely, accurately and correctly.”

“Please treat others with dignity and respect,” she said, adding that state and federal law forbids people from trying to intimidate voters or interfere with election officials carrying out there duties — and the penalties can include prison time or fines, or both.

-ABC News’ Mike Levine

‘Swifties for Kamala’ target 250,000 Pennsylvania voters via mailers in closing push

“Swifties for Kamala,” the grassroots organization of Taylor Swift fans working to elect former Vice President Kamala Harris, announced over the weekend they had sent over 250,000 mailers to Pennsylvania voters encouraging them to pledge their support to Harris, make a voting plan and encourage their friends to do the same.

Included in 50,000 of the mailers were friendship bracelets beaded with the words “voting era,” a reference to the bracelets fans trade at Swift’s Eras Tour.

“Every vote in this election matters, especially in Pennsylvania, which could be the state that makes the planets and the fates and all the stars align for VP Harris,” the mailers read. “We think you belong in the voting booth because we are never going back, like ever.”

-ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd

Walz appeals to Wisconsin voters: Election ‘could be won’ through state

Tim Walz called on voters in battleground Wisconsin to vote for an “optimistic” future during a rally in La Crosse.

“This election could be won, quite literally, through the state of Wisconsin, and it could be won right here through La Crosse,” Harris’ running mate said. “That’s how close this thing could be. So we’re taking nothing for granted.”

Walz addressed policies he and Harris will focus on, including working to lower the cost of living for middle class Americans, addressing price gouging on groceries and making reproductive rights enshrined into law.

He said they have an opportunity to vote for “a future that either goes backwards — is divisive, dark and angry — or one that is hopeful, unified, inclusive.”

Musk’s attorney says winners of America PAC giveaway not chosen by chance

At an ongoing hearing in Philadelphia over Elon Musk and his super PAC’s $1 million voter sweepstakes, a defense attorney said the giveaway is a way to recruit spokespeople for America PAC, while the Philadelphia district attorney testified it is a “scam.”

According to defense attorney Chris Gober, the recipients of the million-dollar checks sign contracts after being selected from a pool of people who signed the petition to serve as a spokesperson for the PAC. Tomorrow’s winner has already been decided to be a registered voter from Michigan.

“They were not chosen by chance,” Gober said during the hearing in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas.

Minutes later, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s team played a video in court where Musk vowed the money would be awarded “randomly.”

“So I have a surprise for you, which is that we are going to be awarding a million dollars randomly to people who have signed the petition every day from now until the election,” Musk told a crowd in Pennsylvania on Oct. 19.

Testifying from the witness stand, Krasner slammed the giveaway as a “scam” and “grift” intended to “flood money into American elections.”

“That ain’t a contract and that’s not employment,” an animated Krasner, the first witness in the hearing, said. “There are certain words that stick out — awarding. Doesn’t sound like a spokesperson contract.”

“It is unquestionably supposed to be random selection despite what I think is a very disingenuous version of it that I think I heard today,” Krasner said.

Krasner testified that the America PAC has effectively scammed Philadelphia residents out of their personal information — which they entered to sign the petition to enter into the giveaway — while the giveaway never actually offered them a random chance of winning the million-dollar prize.

“They were scammed for their information,” said Krasner, who is asking a judge to immediately stop the giveaway.

-ABC News’ Peter Charalambous

Former Rep. Liz Cheney responds to Trump’s violent rhetoric about her, compares him to an autocrat

Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney responded to former President Donald Trump’s attacks on her in an interview with ABC’s “The View” on Monday, including a remark he made suggesting she should “have guns trained on her face.”

“He knows what he’s doing,” Cheney said. “He knows it’s a threat with the intent to intimidate. Obviously, the intimidation won’t work.”

Cheney emphasized Trump’s history of violent rhetoric, including how he responded to the violence on Jan. 6.

“For over three hours, he watched police officers be brutally beaten. He was told the vice president had been evacuated, he said, ‘So what?'” Cheney said. “People were rushing in, pleading with him, ‘Tell the mob to leave,’ and he wouldn’t.”

“That level of depravity, he knows he has no defense to that, and he knows that the American people will not entrust again with power anyone who would do something that cruel,” she continued. “And so because he can’t respond to that, he tries to change the subject, he tries to threaten. It’s what autocrats do to try to get their political adversaries to be silent.”

Vance: ‘Tomorrow is our last chance’

JD Vance addressed voters in Wisconsin during a rally in La Crosse on Monday.

“Tomorrow is our last chance,” Trump’s running mate said. “Tomorrow is the big day when we are going to vote in very big numbers in the state of Wisconsin. We’re going to vote for change. We’re going to vote for American prosperity.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is also campaigning in Wisconsin on Monday. Vance called it “tough work” to “convince the American people” that Harris can be president.

“I think that’s the toughest job in the United States of America,” Vance said, saying Harris is “more of the same” high grocery prices, unaffordable housing and “wide open border.”

Alabama GOP mobilizes 400 poll workers in Georgia and Alabama

The Alabama Republican Party announced on Monday it has launched its most comprehensive poll watcher deployment, with more than 400 poll watchers and election lawyers in Georgia and Alabama.

Over 200 Alabama poll watchers and dozens of election lawyers will be stationed in targeted districts across Alabama, which the party says is part of an effort to ensure a “secure and transparent election process.” The Alabama GOP added that the placement of election lawyers across the state “provides an extra layer of security and real-time responsiveness.”

The Alabama GOP is also deploying more than 200 poll watchers to Georgia, supporting the critical southern battleground state on behalf of former President Donald Trump’s campaign.

-ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson

Trump speaks at campaign rally in Raleigh

At a campaign rally Monday in Raleigh, former President Donald Trump urged his supporters to turn up to the polls on Election Day.

“If we get everybody out and vote, there’s not a thing they can do,” Trump told the crowd of North Carolinians, saying the state was “ours to lose.”

Trump smeared the Democratic Party as a “horrendously dangerous party that’s going to destroy our country.”

“We cannot let that happen,” he said. “So here’s my only purpose in even being here today: Get out and vote.”

Musk doesn’t show at hearing on Philly DA’s challenge to $1 million giveaways

Elon Musk was a no-show at the hearing over his $1 million voter sweepstakes in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas on Monday.

Entering court without his client, Musk’s attorney, Chris Gober, criticized Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner for wanting to “silence Elon Musk for supporting Donald Trump.”

“We don’t allow our rights to be trampled upon bipartisan agendas masquerading as legal arguments,” Gober said.

In a late filing this morning, Krasner’s attorney continued to push for Musk to attend the hearing in person because his testimony would demonstrate “he is the beating heart of America PAC’s unlawful lottery and deceptive/unfair practices scheme.”

“Musk cannot distract from his central role by saying that he wants to be busy out campaigning, rather than attending to his responsibilities to this Court,” attorney John Summers said in the filing.

Earlier this morning, America PAC announced that the newest winner of their daily $1 million giveaway is a registered voter from Phoenix. One day remains until the sweepstakes ends on Election Day.

-ABC News’ Peter Charalambous and Chris Boccia

How Nebraska’s ‘blue dot’ could prove pivotal in the Electoral College

Amid an increasingly tight election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in several key swing states, Nebraska, and more specifically, its 2nd Congressional District, has taken on an outsize role in this year’s presidential election.

Because Nebraska currently awards three of its five Electoral College votes based on the results in each of its three congressional districts, the so-called “blue dot,” as the 2nd district has come to be known, could be critical to either campaign’s path to 270 electoral votes.

Early vote tops 78 million

As of 5:30 a.m. ET on Monday, more than 78 million Americans have voted early (a combination of absentee and early, in-person totals), according to the Election Lab at the University of Florida.

The total breaks down into 42,654,364 in-person early votes and 35,348,858 mail ballots returned.

The number of in-person early votes has surpassed 2020’s total number of in-person early votes. However, the overall number of early votes so far (including mail-in and absentee ballots) is still lower than 2020’s overall number.

-ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim

Jeffries says Republicans ‘will take a blow torch’ to social security

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told Good Morning America on Monday that Democrats are “on the right side” of the presidential election’s most pressing issues.

“The extreme MAGA Republicans have clearly and unequivocally articulated what they will do to America moving forward,” Jeffries said.

“They will take a blow torch to social security, they will take a blow torch to Medicare, they will take a blow torch to the Affordable Care Act,” Jeffries said.

Vice President Kamala Harris, Jeffries said, is “closing with a positive vision” while former President Donald Trump and his Republican party are “trying to tear us apart.”

Jeffries will become House speaker if Democrats win back control of the chamber this week.

“The majority of current House Republicans voted not to certify the election in 2020,” Jeffries said. “My colleagues on the other side of the aisle don’t seem to be capable of unequivocally saying that they will certify the election and the verdict that is rendered by the American people.”

“As House Democrats, that’s what we will do,” Jeffries added.

“We believe in democracy even when we disagree with the outcome. That’s been part of what’s made America the greatest democracy in the history of the world.”

Candidates vie for every vote in key swing states

Highlighting how important Pennsylvania and its 19 electoral votes are to her campaign, Kamala Harris is spending her last full day on the trail with multiple events in the state.

Her search for voters includes a rally in Allentown and then she ends with an event in Philadelphia.

Donald Trump is trying to shore up support in battleground North Carolina – where Harris has made inroads – for a rally in Raleigh, before he, too, heads to Pennsylvania for events in Reading and Pittsburgh before ending his final day campaigning in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Israel-Gaza-Lebanon live updates: Netanyahu fires Defense Minister Gallant

Israel-Gaza-Lebanon live updates: Netanyahu fires Defense Minister Gallant
Israel-Gaza-Lebanon live updates: Netanyahu fires Defense Minister Gallant
Omar Al-Qattaa via Getty Images

(LONDON) — The Israel Defense Forces continued its intense airstrike and ground campaigns in Gaza — particularly in the north of the strip — and in Lebanon, with Israeli attacks on targets nationwide including in the capital Beirut.

Tensions remain high between Israel and Iran after the former launched what it called “precise strikes on military targets” in several locations in Iran following Tehran’s Oct. 1 missile barrage.

Netanyahu fires Defense Minister Gallant

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and is replacing him with current Minister of Foreign Affairs Yisrael Katz.

The prime minister and defense minister must have “complete trust” during war, and “over the past few months this trust has been cracked between me and the Minister of Defense,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

Netanyahu said he tried to bridge the gaps, but “they kept widening.”

“They also came to the attention of the public in an unacceptable way, and worse, they came to the attention of the enemy – our enemies were pleased with this and benefited greatly from it,” he said.

Netanyahu said Katz “has already proven his abilities and his contribution to national security as Minister of Foreign Affairs, as Minister of Finance, as Minister of Intelligence for five years, and no less important than that, as a member of the political-security cabinet for many years.”

“He is known as a bulldozer in a combination of responsibility and firmness, quiet firmness,” Netanyahu said.

Families of hostages are critical of Netanyahu’s decision, saying it’s “unfortunate proof of the Israeli government’s poor prioritization.”

“The dismissal of Defense Minister Gallant is a direct continuation of the ‘efforts’ to torpedo the hostage deal,” the families said in a statement. “We demand that the incoming Defense Minister express an explicit commitment to ending the war and implementing a comprehensive deal to return all the hostages immediately.”

Gallant said in a brief statement, “The security of the State of Israel was and will always remain the mission of my life.”

-ABC News’ Will Gretsky

Famine risk looming in north Gaza, health officials warn

Acute food insecurity is a concern across Gaza, but the issue is especially pressing in the northern part of the strip where the Israeli military’s ongoing assault has intensified in recent weeks.

Dr. Abu Safiyeh — who works at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya — said the besieged facility is running out of all food, collecting video footage of the deteriorating situation there.

Safiyeh’s warning followed a statement last week from the United Nations’ food assistance arm warning that “the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza could soon escalate into a famine unless immediate action is taken.”

-ABC News’ Nasser Atta and Joe Simonetti

Gaza situation ‘has not significantly turned around,’ US says

The State Department said Monday that Israel has not done enough to improve humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip, as a 30-day deadline looms for Israeli officials to meet certain requirements or risk potential restrictions on military assistance.

The U.S. set out its conditions in a letter sent to Israeli officials last month and signed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

The letter gave Israel until Nov. 12 to increase the flow of humanitarian aid to the devastated Palestinian territory.

“As of today, the situation has not significantly turned around,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.

“We have seen an increase in some measurements,” Miller continued. “We’ve seen an increase in the number of crossings that are open. But just if you look at the stipulated recommendations in the letter, those have not been met.”

Miller did not say what steps the U.S. would take if the situation did not improve before the deadline. “I don’t want to forecast in any way what it is that we’ll do at the end of those 30 days,” he said.

-ABC News’ Shannon K. Kingston and Joe Simonetti

Deadly Israeli strikes continue in Gaza

Around 30 people were killed by Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip on Monday, according to Palestinian health officials.

At least 20 people — including eight women and six children — were killed by an airstrike on a home sheltering several displaced families in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, officials said.

The town is at the heart of Israel’s most recent offensive in the northern part of the strip, which officials at the Hamas-run Health Ministry say has killed around 1,800 people and injured another 4,000.

Separate strikes elsewhere in Gaza killed at least 10 people, health officials said.

-ABC News’ Bruno Nota and Joe Simonetti

Death toll in Lebanon crosses 3,000: Health ministry

More than 3,000 have been killed since the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began over a year ago, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.

Sixteen people were killed in Lebanon on Sunday, bringing the death toll to 3,002, it said.

60 rockets fired into Israel, IDF says

The Israel Defense Forces said that at least 60 rockets were fired into Israel by Hezbollah on Monday.

Some of the rockets were intercepted and others fell “in open areas,” the IDF wrote on X.

The IDF also said it attacked one Hezbollah launcher suspected of firing up to 30 rockets, posting what it said was a video of the strike to its X page.

-ABC News’ Joe Simonetti

Israeli strikes kill 31 in Gaza, health officials say

Palestinian medics said Israeli airstrikes killed at least 31 people in Gaza on Sunday.

Almost half of the deaths occurred in northern areas, health officials said, where Israel Defense Forces troops are pressing an intense campaign intended to root out surviving Hamas fighters and stop its units from regrouping.

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Monday that around 1,800 people have been killed and 4,000 injured by Israel’s north Gaza campaign, with “widespread destruction of hospitals and infrastructure.”

-ABC News’ Joe Simonetti and Guy Davies

IDF says 4 drones intercepted in north and east

The Israel Defense Forces said in a post to X on Monday that military aircraft intercepted four drones.

Some of the unmanned aircraft were intercepted after crossing into Israel from Lebanon, while the others were shot down before entering the east of the country from the direction of Syria and Iraq, the IDF said.

IDF claims killing of Hezbollah commander in south Lebanon

The Israel Defense Forces said Monday that it killed Hezbollah’s commander of the Baraachit area of southern Lebanon in an airstrike.

The IDF said Abu Ali Rida was responsible for rocket and anti-tank missile attacks on Israeli forces and commanded Hezbollah units in the Nabatieh area.

Israel notifies UN of plans to terminate cooperation with UNRWA

The Israeli government notified the United Nations of its plans to terminate cooperation with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in a letter to the president of the U.N. General Assembly on Sunday.

UNRWA is the main U.N. agency operating in Gaza and is responsible for coordinating and supplying humanitarian aid. It also operates in the West Bank. The Israeli government has accused UNRWA of having ties to Hamas. After the initial accusations, the U.N. conducted an internal investigation, and some UNRWA staff members were fired.

Israel maintains that UNRWA still has ties to Hamas. But aid organizations warn if the agency stops operating in Gaza, the humanitarian crisis there will only worsen.

Israel’s termination of UNRWA in the country follows legislation passed by Israel’s parliament at the end of October severing the country’s ties with the organization.

Israel’s governmental body passed two bills — one banning UNRWA from operating in Israel, including in east Jerusalem, and another prohibiting any Israeli state or government agency from working with UNRWA or anyone on its behalf.

The legislation has a three-month waiting period before it goes into effect. It is set to go into effect at the end of January.

Israeli Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Jacob Blitshtein wrote in the letter released Sunday that Israel will “continue to work with international partners, including other United Nations agencies, to ensure the facilitation of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza in a way that does not undermine Israel’s security.”

-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman

Northern Gaza hospital says Israeli artillery fire injured children

The Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza said Israeli artillery fire hit a floor of the hospital, injuring children who were being treated there.

The hospital also said there was heavy bombing overnight on the block where it is located, threatening the nearby Al Yemen al Saeed Hospital.

The hospital director said in a statement on Sunday the glass of the doors and windows of the facility were shattered by the force of the blasts.

The IDF has not commented on the attacks.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

More than half of registered voters have already cast their ballots: Officials

More than half of registered voters have already cast their ballots: Officials
More than half of registered voters have already cast their ballots: Officials
Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) — While Election Day is finally here, more than 83 million people have already cast their ballots.

Election Day was trending on the busy side, with roughly half of the 161.42 million registered voters still heading to the polls.

In Georgia, one of seven key swing states, long lines were forming outside polling stations, officials said, despite more than 4 million people in the Peach State having already voted.

In Fulton County, Georgia’s most populous county, which includes the city of Atlanta, nearly 30,000 people had cast their in-person ballots by 9:40 a.m. Tuesday, a little more than three-and-a-half hours after the polls opened at 7 a.m., said Nadine Williams, the Fulton County director of registration.

“All polling sites are secure with an active security presence,” said Williams, adding that the county had received five “non-credible” bomb threats Tuesday morning, two of which prompted the evacuation of voting locations for about 30 minutes each.

“Outside of these brief interruptions, Election Day has been quiet, with minimal issues reported and we remain prepared to address any misinformation or additional disruption to ensure a smooth experience for all voters today,” Williams said.

Of the 83 million voters nationwide who have already cast ballots, 45 million did so in person while 38 million mailed in ballots, according to the University of Florida Election Lab. About 37.7% of the early votes were cast by registered Democrats while 35.9% of Republicans voted early, according to the lab.

In the 2020 presidential election, 66% of eligible voters cast ballots, the highest of any national election. President Joe Biden beat Trump 51.31% to 46.85%, according to the Federal Election Commission.

This election is expected to be even closer than 2020.

An ABC News/Ipsos poll released Saturday showed Harris with an overall three-point advantage over Trump among likely voters nationwide, 49% to 46%.

Both Harris and Trump have spent the last week of the campaign barnstorming in battleground states, fighting tooth and nail for every last undecided vote. On Monday, the candidates engaged in a sprint to the finish line, holding multiple rallies in North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

In a sampling of nine states, including the battleground states of Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, 54% of the early voters were women and 43.8% were men, according to the lab. The largest block of early voters, 39.4%, were 41- to-65-year-olds, while voters over 65 represented 34.5% of the early vote.

Younger voters — 26 to 40 years old — made up 17.5% of the early vote, while 8.7% of voters 18 to 25 cast early ballots, according to the lab.

Some states like North Carolina, another key swing state, have shattered records for early voting.

More than 4.4 million voters have cast early ballots in North Carolina, 4.2 million of them in person, according to the lab. The North Carolina Board of Elections said the number of early voters broke a record, surpassing the 3.6 million early votes cast in the 2020 election, officials said.

In the swing state of Pennsylvania, at least 1.8 million people voted early via mail-in ballots, according to the Florida Election Lab, which reported that 55.7% of the earlier voters were women and 32.8% were men.

Early voting in Georgia began on Oct. 15, and more than 3.7 million people voted in person, while another 265,648 cast mail-in ballots, according to the lab. A breakdown of the early voters showed 55.7% were women and 43.5% were men, according to the lab.

In other battleground states, Michigan saw 3.2 million voters casting mail-in ballots, 55% women and 44.9% men; 2.3 million cast early mail-in ballots in Arizona, 40.8% of whom are registered Republicans and 32% Democrats, according to the lab.

In Nevada, another swing state, a little over 1 million voters cast early ballots, including 543,271 who voted in person and 556,062 who sent in mail-in ballots, the lab reported. Of those who voted early in Nevada, 37.5% were Republican and 33.7% were Democrat, according to the lab.

And in the battleground state of Wisconsin, 1.5 million people voted early, including 949,157 who cast in-person ballots and 561,616 who cast mail-in ballots, the lab reported.

ABC News’ Olivia Rubin contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Stock market surges on Election Day

Stock market surges on Election Day
Stock market surges on Election Day
Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

(NEW YORK CITY) — The U.S. stock market climbed higher in early trading on Tuesday, as voters rushed to the polls and the nation awaited the results of a closely contested presidential election.

The S&P 500 ticked upward about 1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained more than 300 points, jumping about 0.8%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 1.3%.

Gains at large tech firms are helping to boost the market. Shares of Nvidia, an artificial intelligence chipmaker, climbed nearly 3% in early trading.

As of the early afternoon, tech giants Microsoft and Amazon each saw shares rise about 1.5%.

The market upswing follows a flurry of largely positive economic news over the past week. Government data released last week showed robust economic growth over a recent three-month period, alongside a continued cooldown of inflation.

U.S. hiring slowed in October, but fallout from hurricanes and labor strikes likely caused an undercount of the nation’s workers, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data on Friday showed.

Ivan Feinseth, a market analyst at investment firm Tigress Financial, attributed the returns on Tuesday to eager anticipation among investors to move past the U.S. election.

“The nightmare of an endless election and a contentious battle has consumed a lot of the focus and attention. It’s almost over. Then it goes back to the fundamentals of the market,” Feinseth said.

The gains on Election Day extended a banner year for U.S. stocks. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq have each climbed more than 20% this year while the Dow Jones is up about 11%.

The performance has owed to enthusiasm about artificial intelligence as well as resilient economic growth and expectations that interest rates would ease, Feinseth said.

The Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate a half of a percentage point in September, dialing back its yearslong fight against inflation and delivering relief for borrowers saddled with high costs.

The Fed is widely expected to cut interest rates by another quarter of a percentage point when it meets on Thursday, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, a measure of market sentiment.

An expectation of interest rate cuts among investors often sends stocks higher, since lower rates pave the way for cheaper corporate borrowing and the potential for higher profits.

“The market looks toward the future, and the Fed is now on the side of the bulls,” Feinseth said.

Over the full span of the next administration, the market will likely move higher whether the nation elects Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump, experts previously told ABC News. However, each candidate’s policies could favor different types of stocks while posing unique risks, they added.

Trump has proposed a combination of low corporate tax rates and loose regulation that would likely bolster corporate profits and propel the stock market higher, experts said. Prices would likely increase under Harris, as they have under the economic stewardship of President Joe Biden, they added.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Election security updates: Voting hours extended in Pennsylvania county

Election security updates: FBI says bomb threats appear to originate from Russia
Election security updates: FBI says bomb threats appear to originate from Russia
da-kuk

(WASHINGTON) — From the polling place to the courtroom, ABC News tracks the latest election security developments as experts warn about the spread of misinformation and disinformation from within the U.S. and abroad.

Security experts stress that the nation’s voting infrastructure is highly secure, and that isolated voting issues do not indicate widespread election fraud.

How to watch ABC News coverage of Election Day

On Election Day, voters around the country will eagerly wait to hear if former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris comes out on top in the race for the White House.

ABC News will have full coverage of the presidential election results and many other key down-ballot races on Election Day and the days afterward as votes continue to get counted.

Philadelphia DA says behavior at polls ‘more aggressive,’ no arrests made

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said that while he believes behavior at the polls has been “a little bit more aggressive,” no arrests have been made in the city.

Matt Stiegler, senior adviser to the DA, said the office is “monitoring” reports of voters recording poll workers. Stiegler said the DA has gathered these from media reports, but he wouldn’t say whether poll workers have reported cases of being recorded.

“Hidden camera recording of election workers and voters and poll workers, that’s not normal,” Stiegler said. “If that’s occurring, then that’s a significant escalation of what’s happened in the past.”

Krasner said his office has seen no indications of voter fraud. Any irregularities, however, would likely not be reported until later in the evening, he noted.

“We do not have reports of anything that looks like voter fraud…We do not expect to have it, but if it’s there, we want to know about it. We don’t want to hear a bunch of crazy fiction later about how things happen,” he said.

“If we start to hear about it at nine o’clock after the polls are closed, you should be rightly suspicious of what you are hearing.”

DA Krasner repeated his warning yesterday that consequences would be in order for lawbreakers.

“There are handcuffs, there are cells, there are courtrooms, and there are Philadelphia jurors who are definitely going to want to know why it is a person tried to erase their votes, block their votes, bully their votes, or take away their votes,” he said. “We’re voting in Philly. We’re voting our conscience. We’re voting for whoever is our favorite candidate.”

-ABC News’ Chris Boccia

Voting hours extended in Pennsylvania county after tech issues

A Pennsylvania judge ordered the voting hours to be extended for two hours in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, after the location experienced technical issues on Tuesday.

The polls will now close at 10 p.m., per the order, and any ballots cast after 8 p.m. will be cast by provisional ballots.

Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter in law and current co-chair of the RNC, praised the ruling as “good news.”

-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin

Raffensperger confident Georgia will have results tonight, says bomb threats ‘of Russian origin’

Georgia’s top election official on Tuesday morning projected confidence that the critical battleground state will have the large majority of its election results available tonight, saying that election day in the state has been “smooth sailing by and large” and a “tremendous” day.

Specifically on timing, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that the state’s 4 million early votes as well absentee ballots will be uploaded and reported no later than one hour after the polls close, which for most locations will be 7 p.m.

“So by 8pm, you’ll have probably 99% of all that … so you get a good idea of what the race looks like,” he said.

With regards to votes from today, Raffensperger said “before the end of the night, you’ll have all of that.” He noted smaller counties are aiming to have all of their results in by 10/1030 p.m. “at the latest.”

Notably, Raffensperger was also asked about bomb threats made Tuesday, which he said were “of Russian origin.”

“We identified the source and it was from Russia,” he said, after hedging briefly on the source.

“They’re up to mischief it seems,” he said of Russia: “They’re not our friends anyone who thinks they are hasn’t been reading the newspaper.”

Raffensperger said he thinks they will pass 1 million votes today, and said they are ready for any litigation to come their way.

“We’re gonna follow the law, follow the Constitution, and report the results accurately.”

-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin

DC polling site briefly closed due to suspicious package

A polling location in Washington, D.C., was briefly closed for less than an hour Tuesday morning after “officers were notified of a suspicious package,” police said.

The city’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal responded to the scene near the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library and quickly determined the item posed no threat.

The polling site has since reopened.

-ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson

Arizona’s top election official gives update, speaks on Russian video

At a press conference on Tuesday, Arizona’s top election official said “everything in the state of Arizona is running about as smoothly as it could be.”

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said there have been minor incidents Tuesday including a county that briefly lost power and a polling site that opened late after an employee forgot their keys to the polling site. Fontes added that his office received eight calls today— four from counties reporting individuals who were electioneering within 75 feet of polling locations.

When asked by reporters about poll watchers, Fontes said county officials are aware that party observers have to be credentialed and added that the Department of Justice sent federal monitors to four counties. Fontes also warned that it is against the law to photograph or record inside a polling location.

“If you want to memorialize the moment, get outside the 75-foot line, take your selfie and then go in and vote,” Fontes said. “Not only do we want to protect the process, but the privacy of the other voters and our staff that are engaged in this process. “

Fontes said that it will take longer for election officials to process results because of the two-page ballot and a new state law that requires poll workers to count the number of mail ballot envelopes dropped off at the location before they deliver results to the central counting facility.

“Please exercise patience,” the Arizona Secretary of State said.

When asked about the Russian manufactured video that was released on Monday, Fontes said the video is an “attempt from foreign actors to influence our election and make people lose faith in the work [election officials] do.”

“I’ve got the National Guard working to monitor our computer systems 24/7,” Fontes said.

-ABC News’ Laura Romero

5 ‘non-credible’ bomb threats in Fulton County led to evacuations

The head of elections in Fulton County — the largest in the critical battleground state of Georgia — on Monday said they had a smooth start this morning with all locations opening on time and tens of thousands of voters casting their ballots, though two locations were briefly evacuated after a series of bomb threats.

Elections director Nadine Williams said the county received 5 “non-credible” bomb threats that lead to two voting locations being evacuated for approximately 30 minutes each. The county is working on going to court to extend the hours for those locations.

“All polling sites are secure with an active security presence,” Williams assured.

“Outside of these brief interruptions, Election Day has been quiet, with minimal issues reported,” she continued, “and we remain prepared to address any misinformation or additional disruption to ensure a smooth experience for all voters today.”

Williams said that as of 9:40 this morning, 29,500 ballots have been cast in the county.

Regarding timing of the results, Williams said that the 417,000 votes from advance voting, as well as the mail ballots received through Monday, will be uploaded by 8 p.m. tonight.

As far as the rest of the locations, Williams said that barring no long lines tonight, those memory cards with today’s votes should be back at the main center where they “are hoping before midnight we should see the rest of the results come up.”

“As [memory cards] arrive, we will start uploading,” Williams said.

-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin

FBI ‘aware’ of 2 fabricated news clips, press releases urging not to vote and rigged inmate voting

The FBI is aware of two fabricated news clips and press releases urging people not to vote and rigged inmate voting, according to a statement they released on Tuesday morning.

“The FBI was made aware of two instances of its name and insignia being misused in promoting false narratives surrounding the election,” the FBI said in a statement. “The first is a fabricated newsclip purporting to be a terrorist warning issued by the FBI. The fabricated newsclip reports falsely that the FBI purportedly stated that Americans should ‘vote remotely’ due to a high terror threat at polling stations. This video is not authentic and does not accurately represent the current threat posture or polling location safety. 

Additionally, a fabricated video containing a fabricated FBI press release alleges that the management of five prisons in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona rigged inmate voting and colluded with a political party. This video is also not authentic, and its contents are false.”

This is the second such warning the FBI has given in recent days.

US cyber agency ‘not tracking’ any ‘significant incidents’

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is not tracking any “national level significant incidents” on election day, according to a top CISA official.

Cait Conley, a senior advisor to the CISA Director and the official in charge of election security said in the early hours of voting, there haven’t been any major incidents.

“We are tracking instances of extreme weather and other temporary infrastructure disruptions in certain areas of the country, but these are largely expected, routine and planned for events separately,” she said on a call with reporters on Tuesday.

Additionally, Conley told ABC News that they are “not aware” of any foreign influence operations going on right now but they “remain incredibly vigilant and in close communication with our federal government partners in case such instances were to arise.”

Monday night, the intelligence community, including CISA attributed two Russian influence operations including one in Arizona that were spreading misinformation about the election.

-Luke Barr

Officials brace for Election Day under cloud of threats, lawsuits

As millions of Americans prepare to descend on polling locations across the country, election officials and law enforcement authorities are focused on administering a fair and safe election under a cloud of threats, online disinformation, and the potential for a grueling legal fight in the weeks ahead.

Although a typical Election Day inevitably includes some hiccups like long lines or weather-related issues, this year election workers face the additional challenge of a heightened threat environment and an onslaught of litigation concerning voting rules and ballot counting.

Even so, election officials on Monday expressed confidence in their ability to execute on Election Day. Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt said the vote in his state would be “free, fair, safe, and secure.” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that “at the end of the day, it’s going to be fair and fast and accurate.”

And in North Carolina, Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the state’s Board of Elections, said, “Despite all the naysayers, despite all false information and sensationalist rhetoric out there about elections, and despite a devastating hurricane, we are making this happen in North Carolina.”

-Lucien Bruggeman

Trump says he is running against ‘evil Democrat system’

Former President Donald Trump used his final campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to attack high profile Democrats including President Joe Biden and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Trump told attendees he is “not running” solely against Vice President Kamala Harris. “I’m running against an evil Democrat system,” he said. “These are evil people.”

Trump launched into attacks on Biden, pushing unfounded claims that Harris only became the nominee because Democrats wanted to be “politically correct.”

Trump then made fun of Harris’s name calling it “a strange name,” before pivoting back to criticize Biden.

“I wasn’t running against Biden either,” Trump said. “He was stuck in a basement. I didn’t even run against him. Now running against a very evil system, and we have to defeat that system, and America’s future will be an absolutely incredible one.”

The former president also mouthed an expletive when referring to Pelosi. “She’s a crooked person,” he added. “She’s a bad person, evil.”

-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soo Rin Kim and Kelsey Walsh

Trump suggests supporters to blame if he loses

Former President Donald Trump’s final campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, saw the Republican presidential nominee urging supporters to head to the polls while also again casting doubt on the security of the electoral process.

Multiple times throughout Trump’s speech he told supporters to go out to the polls “tomorrow.” However, given the rally was happening after midnight, people in the crowd started yelling “today” and then Trump falsely said the election was happening on Wednesday.

“It sounds so much better when you say tomorrow, Wednesday,” Trump said. “But that’s okay. I want to be exactly accurate for them, but go out today and vote. And I guess seven o’clock or whatever, whatever time it is, doesn’t matter, and we’re going to have the greatest victory in the history of our country.”

Trump then suggested that his supporters might be to blame if he does not defeat Vice President Kamala Harris.

“There’s nothing they can do” if Republicans turn out, Trump said of his opponents. “In other words, to make you feel a little guilty, we would only have you to blame.” Later, Trump claimed he has the “silent majority” and urged his supporters to “speak up.”

The former president also again cast doubt on the security of voting machines, despite officials and experts confirming the security of the election system.

“Perhaps I will be president in less than 24 hours, or maybe it will take these machines that we pay so much for two weeks,” Trump said, claiming that paper ballots would be cheaper, faster and more secure.

“What the hell is happening in the inside of those machines?” he continued. “If you wait, we want the answer tomorrow, tonight,” Trump said, quickly correcting himself. “We want the answer tonight.”

“You have to cheat,” Trump said about Democrats. “Who the hell is going to approve that stuff? Who’s going to prove open borders with criminals pouring into our country by the millions now they have to cheat. They have to cheat, and they do, and they do it very well, actually.”

-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soo Rin Kim and Kelsey Walsh

Walz ends campaign addressing ‘guys in the crowd’ on reproductive rights

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz spoke for less than five minutes during his final campaign rally of the 2024 presidential race — focusing on reproductive rights.

The governor and his wife, Gwen, participated in the campaign’s Election Eve festivities on Monday in the pivotal battleground state of Michigan following their blitz through Wisconsin.

“You could probably tell from these rallies, all across the country tonight, this team is running like everything’s on the line — because everything’s on the line,” Walz said in Detroit.

Addressing the “guys in the crowd” about reproductive rights, Walz said the issue “really underlines the stakes in this election.”

“I want you to think about the women in your life that you love,” he said. “Their lives are at stake in this election. Donald Trump appointed those Supreme Court justices who repealed Roe v. Wade, and he brags about it.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, Walz said, would codify reproductive freedom if a bill came upon her desk as president.

“When Congress passes that bill to restore reproductive freedom, President Harris will sign it into law,” Walz said.

“Kamala and I trust women, it’s that simple. Now tomorrow, women all across America, of every age, both parties, are going to send a loud and clear message to Donald Trump, whether he likes it or not.”

Walz ended his remarks by stressing the historical significance of Tuesday’s election.

“There’s going to be a day you’re going to be sitting in that rocking chair, and you’re going to be rocking on that porch,” Walz said. “And a little one is going to come home from school and ask, what did you do in the 2024 election, where the American experiment survived, where the rule of law survived, where decency survived?”

Walz added, “And you’re going to be able to answer: ‘Every damn thing I could’.”

-ABC News’ Isabella Murray

Dixville Notch, New Hampshire votes split evenly between Harris and Trump

The first six ballots of the 2024 presidential election have officially been counted in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire.

Of the six registered voters in the town, three votes were cast for Vice President Kamala Harris and three votes went to former President Donald Trump.

Oprah joins Harris onstage for final campaign rally in Philadelphia

Vice President Kamala Harris’ final campaign rally in the 2024 presidential election was a star-studded event outside of the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Monday.

Famed talk show host, Oprah Winfrey, joined Harris onstage where they aimed to motivate voters ahead of Election Day.

“One more day, just one more day in the most consequential election of our lifetime,” Harris said. “And momentum is on our side.”

Joe Rogan and Elon Musk defend Trump’s controversial Liz Cheney comments

On Joe Rogan’s podcast, Elon Musk defended various comments Donald Trump has recently faced backlash for, saying he’s being misunderstood.

The two defended Trump’s recent violent rhetoric against former Rep. Liz Cheney, suggesting she should have a rifle “with nine barrels shooting at her,” claiming the former president’s comments have been misconstrued.

“A lot of people reached out to me — they’re like, oh, Trump says he wants to execute Liz Cheney. I’m like, that is utter b—s—. That’s not what he said at all. It’s not what he said at all,” Musk claimed.

“What he’s saying is that, look, if Liz Cheney actually had to fight at the front lines, [she] should think twice about going to war. It’s easy to be a warmonger if you don’t have to, you know, risk dying at the front lines,” Musk said, despite the fact that the backlash Trump faced was about the violent rhetoric itself.

Cheney, a Republican who was once a rising star in her party but lost reelection largely over her vocal criticism of Trump, has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.

The two women have appeared together at several events as Harris works to woo disaffected Republican voters.

Harris rallies Pittsburgh to cross the finish line with her: ‘Momentum is on our side’

For her second rally of the day, Vice President Kamala Harris addressed a crowd of about 15,000 against the backdrop of an old steel mill in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Accompanied by Katy Perry’s power vocals, Harris encouraged supporters to utilize their hard-earned momentum to cross the finish line.

“Pittsburgh, this is it. Tomorrow is Election Day. Tomorrow is Election Day, and the momentum is on our side,” she said. “Our campaign has tapped into the ambitions, the aspirations and the dreams of the American people, and we know it is time for a new generation of leadership in America, and I am ready to offer that leadership as the next president of the United States.”

She urged the crowd to “turn the page” to chants of “We’re not going back.”

“And we have an opportunity in this election to finally turn the page on a decade of politics driven by fear and division. We are done with that,” she said. “We’re done. We’re done. We’re exhausted with it, and Pittsburgh, we are not going back. We’re not going back.”

She continued: “Ours is not a fight against something. It is a fight for something. It is a fight for the future, and it is a fight for freedom, like the fundamental freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own life and not let the government tell her what to do.”

Harris’ fairly brief speech was nearly line-for-line the same as her one in Allentown, Pennsylvania, earlier in the day. Her campaign has said that the speeches are being timed ahead of her next and final stop in Philadelphia.

Harris continued to avoid directly using former President Trump’s name, barely referring to him at all except to acknowledge that voters are ready for a president who doesn’t stew over an “enemies list.”

“We are ready for a president who knows the true measure of a leader is not based on who you beat down, it is based on who you lift up,” she said. “And instead of stewing over an enemies list, I will spend every day working on my to-do list. All full of priorities to improve your life.”

-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow and Will McDuffie

Trump says he’s going to let RFK Jr. ‘pretty much do what he wants’

In his “closing message” in Pennsylvania, just a day before the 2024 election, former President Donald Trump touted his relationship with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Trump called the former independent presidential candidate “a credible guy” and said he’s going to be very involved in his administration.

“Bobby Kennedy, you know, he’s a credible guy… He’s going to be very much involved. You know, he’s got a tremendous view on health and pesticides and all this stuff. And we’re not really a healthy country,” Trump said.

Then Trump said he would allow RFK Jr. “to pretty much do what he wants.”

“Bobby’s going to pretty much do what he wants. I want him to do something really important for our country, make people healthier,” Trump said.

RFK Jr. previously said he would oversee public health agencies in Trump’s administration including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture.

Harris expresses support for Puerto Rico on Spanish-language radio show

In a Spanish-language radio interview released Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris again vocalized her support for Puerto Rico.

“My commitment to Puerto Rico is longstanding. Even when I was in the United States Senate as representative of California, I took on a responsibility for myself of also prioritizing the needs of Puerto Rico, because I was aware that Puerto Rico did not have a U.S. senator, and so I was responsible for getting more resources to Puerto Rico,” she said in an interview on Univision Radio.

She vowed to continue honoring that commitment “when I am elected president of the United States, God willing, and with the votes of the people listening right now.”

She positioned her inclusive approach as a stark contrast to former President Donald Trump’s language in recent weeks, which she called “hateful.”

“Trump’s comments are hateful [and] are, you know, just furtherance of these tropes that are really unfair and meant to divide and demean people,” she said, citing what Jennifer Lopez said onstage while campaigning for Harris last week.

Harris also called immigration reform “one of [her] highest priorities.”

“The immigration system is just broken,” she said, listing a few of her approaches to fixing it, including securing the border, hiring more asylum judges, creating more humane asylum processes and creating a pathway for “hard-working people” to earn citizenship.

-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow and Will McDuffie

JD Vance says Pennsylvania will ‘take out the trash in Washington, DC’

Sen. JD Vance delivered his closing message to the voters of Newtown, Pennsylvania, on Monday, advocating for former President Donald Trump to be elected back to the White House.

Vance told the crowd that the only way the country would get a person who is fit to be president is by voting for Trump.

“So tomorrow, we’re going to say to Kamala Harris, you are fired. We don’t want you in the White House. We don’t want you in the Oval Office, we don’t want you anywhere near the halls of power,” the vice presidential candidate said.

Vance again brought up the recent “garbage” comment controversy, falsely claiming Harris called Trump supporters “garbage.”

“So, to Kamala Harris, you shouldn’t be calling your citizens garbage. You shouldn’t be criticizing people for daring to criticize you for doing a bad job. And our message to the leadership, to the elites of the Democratic Party — the people of Pennsylvania are not garbage for struggling under your leadership. But tomorrow, the people of Pennsylvania are going to take out the trash in Washington, D.C., and we’re going to do it together,” Vance said.

Megyn Kelly says she supports Trump because he will be a ‘protector of women’

Megyn Kelly took the stage at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Monday.

The conservative media personality explained why she’s backing Trump in the 2024 presidential election, saying, “He will be a protector of women, and it’s why I’m voting for him.”

Kelly then suggested that she supports Trump because he takes care of the common man.

“He will look out for our boys to our forgotten boys and our forgotten men. Guys like you, who maybe have a beer after work and don’t want to be judged by people like Oprah and Beyonce, who will never have to face the consequences of her disastrous economic policies,” Kelly said, seemingly referencing Vice President Kamala Harris.

-ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh, Lalee Ibssa and Soo Rin Kim

Harris’ senior adviser says she could win all 7 swing states

David Plouffe, a senior adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris, told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Monday night that the campaign believes it could win all seven swing states.

“It’s very important that we have multiple pathways to 270, and you know, just a couple hours ago, reviewing all the early vote data, what we’re projecting for Election Day, how we think undecideds are breaking, we have a credible pathway to all seven states tomorrow night to go into Kamala Harris’ column,” Plouffe said.

“But we believe they’re all going to be close,” he added.

Asked if he believes Harris could win all seven states, he said, “Yes.”

Plouffe said that the campaign believes it is winning more late-breaking voters than former President Donald Trump is, and he credits the campaigns’ different approaches to their field operations.

“I think outsourcing your field effort — meaning the folks knocking on doors, making calls – largely to exclusively paid canvassers, historically just doesn’t work,” he said. “You want people showing up who are committed to your candidate.”

He called that a “secret weapon for us” and said that volunteers were “knocking on 2,000 doors a minute in Pennsylvania over the weekend.”

But, he acknowledged, both campaigns “have a lot riding on tomorrow, on actual Election Day.”

-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow and Will McDuffie

Harris visits Puerto Rican restaurant in Pennsylvania

Vice President Kamala Harris visited a Puerto Rican restaurant in Reading, Pennsylvania, Monday night, accompanied by the state’s governor, Josh Shapiro, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

A woman, who appeared to be the owner of the restaurant, Old San Juan Cafe, showed Harris a spread of food.

The vice president joked, “I’m very hungry. I don’t get a chance to eat as often as I’d like.”

Later, Harris and Ocasio-Cortez huddled with the restaurant owner to discuss the rapid growth of Latino-owned small businesses.

-ABC News’ Will McDuffie, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Fritz Farrow

Joe Rogan endorses Donald Trump for president

Joe Rogan has endorsed former President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.

The podcast host’s endorsement accompanied the release of a three-hour-long interview with Elon Musk, making the case for his support for Trump.

“The great and powerful @elonmusk. If it wasn’t for him we’d be f—–. He makes what I think is the most compelling case for Trump you’ll hear, and I agree with him every step of the way,” Rogan wrote.

“For the record, yes, that’s an endorsement of Trump. Enjoy the podcast,” he continued.

Michelle Obama to young voters: ‘You have to vote for Kamala Harris’

Michelle Obama went on social media to share a “message to all the young people out there,” encouraging them to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris as the next president of the United States.

“Look, I know it’s easy to feel what we do doesn’t matter. Like the world’s problems are too big and complicated to tackle. Like nothing’s ever going to change at all,” she said in a video, pointing to contentious issues like reproductive health rights and climate change.

“That’s exactly why you have to vote: because we need a better leader than Donald Trump. We simply cannot afford another four years of his incompetence, weakness, and division,” she added.

The former first lady goes on to say that Harris is the opposite — suggesting that the Democratic presidential candidate will “expand your freedoms” and “protect the planet.”

“While he denigrates anyone who is different than him, while he looks out only for himself, Kamala will be a president for all Americans. I know she will listen to you. And that’s why you have to vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz on November the 5th,” she said, before urging young people to make a plan to vote on Election Day.

-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow and Will McDuffie

In closing message, Trump sets the stage to challenge election results

In what campaign aides are classifying as his “closing message” speech, former President Donald Trump is already setting expectations for his supporters to challenge the results of the election, saying Vice President Kamala Harris only has a 4% chance of winning the race.

“So based on what I’m hearing — she’s at 4%. And so we never want to take anything for granted. But we’re really doing well,” Trump said during his rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Trump again falsely accused Democrats of cheating in the 2024 election, but added that it’s “too big to rig.”

“I do believe it is too big to rig. They’ll try. And they are trying, you know, though. It’s too big to rig. This is a big movement,” Trump said.

Doubting the fact that President Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 Election, Trump said that he has since learned.

“This is that big, powerful, vicious party — that’s a vicious machine. They can take all these bad ideas and win elections.” he said.

The comments come as the Trump campaign has 230,000 poll observers along with 500 attorneys in every battleground state.

-ABC News’ Soo Rin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh

Harris makes 2 stops at residents’ homes in Reading, Pennsylvania

Vice President Kamala Harris made two stops at residents’ homes in Reading, Pennsylvania, and asked for their votes.

At the first stop, Harris greeted a family and followed them to their door so that she could talk to them.

At the second stop, Harris rang the doorbell and surprised the residents, a couple. She hugged the woman who answered the door.

“You know, it’s the day before the election, and I just wanted to come by and say I hope to earn your vote and wanted to just thank you for just giving us the time for this conversation,” Harris told the couple, before they conversed together briefly on one of her recurring campaign messages: finding common ground.

The woman said that Harris had received her vote already, and that she would be working the polls on Tuesday, while her husband would be voting on Election Day.

-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow, Will McDuffie and Oren Oppenheim

Marianne Williamson says she voted for Harris

Former Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson said she cast her vote for Vice President Kamala Harris while emphasizing that no matter who wins, she will do “whatever I can to further the ideal that ultimately love will win.”

“No matter who wins, the result is going to be heartrending to roughly half the country. I feel like I want to put my arms around millions of people and tell them it’s going to be OK. I voted for Kamala,” she said, in part, in a statement posted to X.

-ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd

Russia ‘manufactured and amplified’ video claiming election fraud in Arizona: Officials

The intelligence community is yet again sounding the alarm on a Russian “manufactured and amplified” video claiming election fraud in Arizona — and warned that the activity from Russia will likely focus on battleground states.

“Since our statement on Friday, the IC has been observing foreign adversaries, particularly Russia, conducting additional influence operations intended to undermine public confidence in the integrity of U.S. elections and stoke divisions among Americans,” the FBI, ODNI and CISA said in a statement Monday night.

“The IC expects these activities will intensify through election day and in the coming weeks, and that foreign influence narratives will focus on swing states,” officials added in the statement.

Russia, according to the intelligence community, is the “most active threat” in the election.

“Influence actors linked to Russia in particular are manufacturing videos and creating fake articles to undermine the legitimacy of the election, instill fear in voters regarding the election process, and suggest Americans are using violence against each other due to political preferences, judging from information available to the IC,” the statement continued.

“These efforts risk inciting violence, including against election officials. We anticipate Russian actors will release additional manufactured content with these themes through election day and in the days and weeks after polls close,” officials said in the statement.

Content with the hallmark of a Russian influence operation includes a video claiming election fraud in Arizona and an article falsely claiming that U.S. officials across swing states plan to orchestrate election fraud using a range of tactics, such as ballot stuffing and cyberattacks.

CISA said to seek out trusted sources of information — the election officials themselves.

-ABC News’ Luke Barr

Harris, Trump remain closely matched on Election Day eve: Ipsos poll

Harris is effectively tied with Trump among likely voters in an Ipsos national poll published Monday evening.

If the election were held today, half of likely voters said they would vote for Harris and 48% said Trump, the poll found.

When American adults were asked which candidate has a better plan, policy or approach to the following issues, Harris led on health care and political extremism, while Trump had more support for the economy, immigration and war/foreign issues, the poll found.

The poll was conducted Nov. 1-3 and has a margin of error of +/- 3.4 percentage points for likely voters and +/-3.0 percentage points for American adults.

-ABC News’ Emily Chang and Oren Oppenheim

‘It’s as if he is trying to lose,’ Trump adviser tells Jonathan Karl

A close Trump adviser told ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl it’s as if the former president “is trying to lose,” Karl told “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir.

“The Trump campaign just sent me reams of data saying they are ahead in the early vote, they’re doing everything they need to do to win, but I have to tell you, talking to senior advisers, people that have been advising Trump for a long time, I’m hearing newfound anxiety,” Karl said. “They say he’s been off-message.”

Karl said the Harris campaign has been “feeling anxiety for a long time, but they feel like this is closing in the right direction for them” and that Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally last month “was a turning point in this campaign.”

Georgia poll worker arrested for allegedly mailing bomb threat to election officials

A Georgia poll worker was arrested Monday and charged with allegedly sending a letter threatening to bomb an elections office in the state’s Jones County last month, the Justice Department announced.

Nicholas Wimbish, 25, allegedly sent the threat after he had a verbal argument with a voter in the Jones County Elections Office on Oct. 16, according to prosecutors.

The following day, he allegedly mailed a letter to the Jones County elections superintendent purporting to be from the unidentified voter that stated Wimbish had “give[n] me hell” and was “conspiring votes” and “distracting voters from concentrating,” according to prosecutors.

The letter allegedly stated that Wimbish and others “should look over their shoulder” and that the “young men will get beatdown if they fight me” and “will get the treason punishment by firing squad if they fight back,” according to the DOJ.

The letter was allegedly signed, “PS boom toy in early vote place, cigar burning, be safe,” prosecutors said.

During an interview with the FBI on Oct. 23, Wimbish allegedly blamed the letter on the voter he had interacted with, according to the complaint. During a search of Wimbish’s personal computer, the letter was allegedly found in the print spooler, according to the complaint.

Wimbish faces several charges including mailing a bomb threat, conveying false information about a bomb threat, and making false statements to the FBI. He faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison on the cumulative charges if convicted, prosecutors said.

Court records do not list any attorney information for Wimbish.

-ABC News’ Alexander Mallin

Maryland election officials debunk disinformation about ballot marking devices

The Maryland State Board of Elections released a new statement on Monday aimed at correcting disinformation about ballot marking devices.

“Ballot marking devices do not flip or switch votes,” the statement read. “Unfounded claims of machines flipping votes have resurfaced and circulated in many elections.”

The board said it has not been able to substantiate any claims “of vote flipping or changing of votes by a ballot marking device,” and said any such allegation must be submitted as an administrative complaint along with an “affidavit sworn under the penalties of perjury.”

-ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson

Vance reminds Georgia voters that Trump lost state by fewer than 12,000 votes

While speaking to a large crowd in Atlanta on Monday, Sen. JD Vance urged voters in Georgia to go out tomorrow to cast their ballots while reminding them how close the race in the state was in 2020.

“Tomorrow is the day that we vote for lower grocery prices and more affordable housing,” he said. “Tomorrow is the day that we vote to close the border and make Donald J. Trump the president of the United States.”

Vance referenced that Trump lost Georgia to President Joe Biden by fewer than 12,000 votes.

“I didn’t realize how small this was in 2020. Georgia was decided by less than 12,000 votes,” he said. “That is crazy.”

-ABC News’ Hannah Demissie

Walz addresses excited crowd of Wisconsin voters

Speaking to a fired-up crowd Monday in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz emphasized that U.S election systems are secure and that Vice President Kamala Harris would win the presidential race on Tuesday.

“Just tell yourself how great it’s going to be when we get this thing done,” Walz said. “It may take a little bit here — we got patience. Our system is secure, our elections are safe.”

“We will win,” Walz continued, “And when that thing is done, we’re not ever going to have to see this guy on TV again.”

-ABC News’ Isabella Murray

Hundreds of National Guardsmen ready for election support across the country

At least 245 National Guard personnel across 18 states and Washington, D.C., have been either activated by their governors or are on standby, according to Pentagon officials.

Many are helping state governments with cybersecurity efforts, while others are there to assist law enforcement and first responders in the event of protests or security incidents.

There are 126 personnel activated in Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Iowa, Illinois, North Carolina, New Mexico, Oregon, Wisconsin and Washington, a U.S. official confirmed to ABC News.

There are 119 personnel on standby in Colorado, D.C., Florida, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia, according to the official.

That amounts to an average of about 13 personnel currently activated or on standby per state/district.

These figures could shift at the discretion of the governors, the official said.

The move to utilize the National Guard comes after authorities said ballot boxes in Oregon and Washington were set on fire with incendiary devices last month. The governors of both states said they were putting Guard units on standby to aid local law enforcement. Nevada’s governor told local reporters he wanted Guard personnel on standby in Las Vegas and Carson City.

In D.C., Guard personnel will be on standby specifically to assist with the city’s fire and medical services Tuesday through Nov. 13, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said during a briefing Monday.

-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty and Matt Seyler

51 attorneys general condemn election-related violence ahead of results

A bipartisan coalition of 51 attorneys general has penned a letter condemning violence in response to election results.

“Regardless of the outcome of Tuesday’s election, we expect that Americans will respond peacefully and we condemn any acts of violence related to the results,” the coalition wrote. “A peaceful transfer of power is the highest testament to the rule of law, a tradition that stands at the heart of our nation’s stability. As Attorneys General, we affirm our commitment to protect our communities and uphold the democratic principles we serve.”

“We call upon every American to vote, participate in civil discourse and, above all, respect the integrity of the democratic process,” the letter continued. “Let us come together after this election not divided by outcomes but united in our shared commitment to the rule of law and safety of all Americans. Violence has no place in the democratic process; we will exercise our authority to enforce the law against any illegal acts that threaten it.”

-ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson

Pennsylvania counties continue to investigate potential voter registration fraud

Officials in several counties across Pennsylvania continue to investigate potentially fraudulent voter registration applications, as Trump has pushed some misleading or false claims about the incident.

Authorities in Lancaster, Berks, Monroe and York counties are investigating thousands of voter registration applications they say are potentially fraudulent, according to various officials around the state. Amid the ongoing investigations, some of the applications have been confirmed to be fraudulent while some have been determined to be legitimate, according to updates.

Still, as recently as last week Trump said Lancaster County was “caught … with 2,600 votes.”

“They found, as I understand it, I mean, I don’t know what’s happened to the last day or so, but they in Lancaster, they found 2,600 ballots, all done in by the same hand,” Trump said Sunday in Pennsylvania.

But, according to the Pennsylvania attorney general, Trump’s characterization is untrue. In a statement last week, the state’s top prosecutor, Michelle Henry, said that “the investigations regard voter registration forms, not ballots.”

On Monday, Lancaster County officials also updated that out of the approximately 2,500 applications under investigation, more than half were confirmed to be valid. According to Lancaster County Commissioner Ray D’Agostino, 57% of the applications were verified, 17% were determined to be fraudulent, and 26% are still being investigated and are either incomplete or not verified.

D’Agostino stressed that the investigation with the DA is still ongoing. “We take this very seriously,” he said.

In York County, officials last week said their investigation into a batch of 3,087 applications led to 47% having been “verified as legitimate” and were approved, 29% were incomplete and are pending, and 24% were declined and are being investigated by the DA.

Election officials have emphasized that this alleged fraud was contained and stopped — and say the instance highlights the effectiveness of the system. Henry said the fraud attempts “have been defeated.”

“These attempts have been thwarted by the safeguards in place in Pennsylvania,” Henry said in her statement last week.
-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin

Over 80 million Americans have voted early

On the eve of Election Day, over 80 million Americans have voted early, according to the University of Florida Election Lab.

The tally includes both early in-person voting and absentee ballots.

Georgia Supreme Court reverses deadline extension for voters who received ballots late

In a win for the Republican National Committee, the Georgia Supreme Court on Monday ruled that thousands of voters whose mail-in ballots were delayed will not have extra time to send them back.

The ruling from the court reversed a lower judge’s ruling that had granted 3,000 voters an extension of the mail-in-ballot deadline, after Cobb County election officials admitted they missed the deadline to ship them out.

The deadline for mail-in ballots to be received in Georgia is Election Day — but the lower judge had given those voters an extension for them to be postmarked by election day and received by Nov. 8, the same deadline for overseas ballots.

The RNC had appealed the ruling, saying it was a violation of the election code and that voters still had other ways they could vote, including in person.

The Georgia Supreme Court ordered the Cobb board to “keep separate” the absentee ballots of those voters that are received after the deadline on Election Day but before Nov. 8 “in a secure, safe, and sealed container separate from other voted ballots.”

Cobb County had previously been ordered to ship out all of the delayed ballots by Nov. 1 with express shipping and overnight return envelopes.

The court also ordered the board to notify the voters by email, text or public announcement of the change.

-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin

Trump: ‘If we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole ball of wax’

At a rally in Reading, Pennsylvania, on Monday, Trump called on residents to turn out and vote tomorrow.

“If we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole ball of wax,” he said. “It’s over. It’s over.”

“We’re just one day away. Oh, we’ve been waiting for this. I’ve been waiting four years for this,” he said.

DC mayor says no known threats, but not taking any chances
Washington, D.C., officials say they have no credible threats to the city, however, they will be fully activating police and have received support from Virginia and Maryland law enforcement agencies.

“I feel very strong about the district’s preparation,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said Monday. “I feel very sad that this is the state of things to be honest with you, but the way that I deal with anxiety is to work and to make sure that we are as prepared as we can be, and that people, all people, win or lose, do the right thing.”

D.C. police will have increased patrols in key areas downtown and around the White House, Police Chief Pam Smith told reporters Monday.

“[The] proactive presence is a preventive measure, and while there is no credible threat to the District of Columbia, we want residents and visitors alike to feel sure that MPD is here prepared and dedicated to keep communities safe across all seven districts.,” Smith said.

The mayor said before Jan. 6 and the inauguration she expects to make a National Guard request for additional assistance, but no request will be made for election week.

-ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson

Judge’s decision coming ‘shortly’ on Elon Musk giveaway case

Philadelphia Judge Angelo Foglietta said he plans to issue a decision “shortly” after a nearly six-hour hearing over Elon Musk’s America PAC’s million-dollar giveaway, as Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is seeking an emergency injunction to stop the sweepstakes.

During closing arguments, a lawyer for Krasner called Musk’s giveaway “one of the great scams of the last 50 years” by deceiving more than a million swing state voters to sign a petition in the hopes of winning a million dollars.

“There is nothing random about that process,” the lawyer, John Summers, said. “This was a profound, devastating and widespread deception.”

Summers argued that Musk attempted to “influence the election” by encouraging hundreds of thousands of voters to sign a petition while preselecting the winners based on their “suitability” to serve as spokespeople for the political action committee. Summers argued that even if the lottery was not random, it’s still illegal under Pennsylvania law.

“They essentially advertised this as a lottery. It’s not a defense that what we said it was isn’t true,” Summers said.

Andy Taylor, a lawyer for Musk’s America PAC, argued that the DA’s case falls apart after today’s revelation that the alleged lottery awarded preselected winners.

“It’s an opportunity to earn. It’s not a chance to win,” Taylor said, emphasizing the winners’ roles as spokespeople for the PAC.

Taylor emphasized that the case centers on a petition in support of the First and Second amendments, arguing that shutting down the giveaway would infringe on free speech.

“You are going to smother in the crib the rights of millions of Pennsylvanians from exercising constitutional magnitude free speech,” Taylor said.

Speaking outside court, Krasner’s attorney declined to comment on the specifics of the case, simply acknowledging, “It’s in the hands of the judge.”

-ABC News’ Peter Charalambous

CISA continues to see threats toward election officials

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency continues to see threats towards election officials a day before Election Day, according to a top official for CISA, the cyber arm of the Department of Homeland Security.

In a call to reporters Monday, Cait Conley, who is in charge of CISA’s election security portfolio, called these threats “fundamentally un-American.”

CISA Director Jen Easterly said most local elections officials are in touch with law enforcement.

“We’ve not seen specific reporting about violence at polling places, so I certainly don’t want voters to feel at all intimidated about going to voting locations,” Easterly said, saying it should “really be a day of celebration.”

Easterly said they “expect” disruptions throughout Election Day, and they are prepared for it. Foreign adversaries — particularly Russia, China and Iran — are looking to “undermine American confidence and the legitimacy of our elections and to stoke partisan discord,” she said.

-ABC News’ Luke Barr

Trump campaign looks to Vance to help them over the finish line in Pennsylvania

From the moment he arrived in Milwaukee, after being named former President Donald Trump’s running mate, it was clear that one of Sen. JD Vance’s primary roles was to help deliver battleground Pennsylvania for the former president.

The day Vance was announced as Trump’s vice presidential pick in July, Trump told ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jon Karl that he was “going to leave [Vance] in Pennsylvania.”

Pennsylvania’s importance in this election can’t be overstated — it’s a crucial swing state with 19 coveted electoral votes where Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are neck and neck. Whoever wins the state is very likely win the presidential election. During the 2020 election, Pennsylvania was the state that sealed the presidency for President Joe Biden.

Click here to read more about Vance’s efforts in Pennsylvania.

-ABC News’ Hannah Demissie

Musk’s sweepstakes winners were vetted, signed NDAs: Political adviser

Before announcing the winners of Elon Musk’s $1 million giveaway, America PAC employees conducted background checks on them, vetted their social media and had them sign non-disclosure agreements, Elon Musk’s political adviser Chris Young testified during an ongoing hearing in Philadelphia on Monday.

The inside look at how winners were selected is at odds with how Musk himself described the “random” selection process.

“Were you surprised that he used the word ‘randomly’?” Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s attorney, John Summers, asked.

“That’s not the word I would have selected,” Young said.

Young testified that he reviewed candidates based on the location of Musk’s next rally before vetting the people who signed America PAC’s petition in support of the First and Second amendments.

“I essentially used the petition like a job application,” Young said, with America PAC considering the number of eligible voters that the candidate referred to the petition, their personality and social media history.

According to Young, Musk was notified when a candidate was selected. Young also said that winners signed non-disclosure agreements preventing them from talking publicly about their “consulting agreements.”

While the testimony contradicts Musk’s public statements, Young insisted that the winners “earned” their money by doing work on behalf of the PAC, seemingly supporting the defense argument that the giveaway is not an illegal lottery.

“Anyone who participated in the program knew what they were entitled to for their participation in the program,” Young said.

Closing arguments in the hearing will happen after a brief break.

-ABC News’ Peter Charalambous

‘Candidates don’t get to decide who wins elections’: Michigan secretary of state

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson was asked during a press briefing Monday about the possibility that Trump could declare victory tomorrow before all the votes are actually counted.

“Candidates don’t get to decide who wins elections, voters do,” Benson responded. “And so we will keep reminding folks of that truth. Candidates certainly can say and will say whatever they want to say, it doesn’t change the facts. It doesn’t change the tallies of the votes that are cast on paper ballots that will be audited after the fact and securely tabulated throughout the election to ensure the accuracy of the results, whatever those results may be.”

Benson added that they “hope and expect and ask all the candidates to respect the will of the people and respect those results, and to not claim something is true when it’s not.”

In 2020, Trump claimed to have won the election only hours after polls closed on Nov. 3, 2020, before final results were in.

Benson said she and her staff will be debunking false statements and conspiracy theories as they arise, but that “truth and transparency are on our side.”

“We’ve seen how completely innocent things can be misused to spread false aspersions about our election, so let’s all be vigilant,” she said.

She also urged the public to question what they see on social media.

“Don’t assume anything that you’re seeing from a source other than a trusted voice or an election official has truth until you cross-check it with other sources of information,” she said.

-ABC News’ Mike Levine

Trump expected to host dinners at Mar-a-Lago on election night with club members, donors and close friends

Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to host multiple dinners on election night at his Mar-a-Lago club — including with his close friends, donors and club members, multiple sources familiar with the dinners told ABC News.

Trump is expected to dine with an intimate group of close friends Tuesday night, and there will be a separate Mar-a-Lago club member dinner in the ballroom. A source familiar with the dinners said there won’t be any formal speeches but Trump will likely stop by to greet them all.

Earlier that day, Trump is expected to cast his vote in Palm Beach, Florida.

Several of the attendees of the dinners told ABC News that they’re planning on heading over to the Palm Beach Convention Center after the dinner.

-ABC News’ Soo Rin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh

Harris emphasizes unity while addressing canvassers in Pennsylvania

Harris addressed canvassers in Scranton, Pennsylvania, ahead of a rally later this afternoon in the battleground state, where she emphasized building community and unity.

“I can feel the mood in here because it’s the best of who we are as a democracy,” Harris said at the event at the Montage Mountain Resort. “We are a people-driven campaign, and we love the people, and we see in the face of a stranger a neighbor, right? And that’s the spirit of what we are doing.”

She said the “whole era of this other guy” and discussion about “trying to point fingers at each other and divide each other” makes people feel alone.

“As we are getting out to vote, as we are canvassing, let’s be intentional about building community, about building community, about building coalitions, about reminding people we all have so much more in common than what separates us,” she said.

CAIR sends 600,000 texts to Muslim voters asking them to vote

The nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organization has sent out 600,000 text messages to ask American Muslim voters to vote on Election Day. The Council on American-Islamic Relations has been targeting Muslim voters across the country, including those in key swing states.

CAIR has not endorsed a candidate and will not do so as a 501(c)(3) organization. However, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement, “Turnout numbers for our community so far are promising, but they need to be much higher. We encourage all remaining American Muslim voters to show up on Election Day.”

Acknowledging some Muslim American’s views on the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict, Awad acknowledged that many may be “disillusioned and frustrated due to U.S. support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”

“But sitting on the sidelines of this election will not help the people of Gaza or anyone else,” Awad said. “Elected officials take communities seriously when they fully participate in the political process, including by exercising their right to vote. No matter who you support, showing up to vote is a display of political strength.”

In recent months, some Muslim American activists have called on Muslim Americans to mobilize as a way of leveraging the community’s power post-election.

-ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson

Pennsylvania secretary of state: Election will be ‘safe and secure’

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt projected confidence about the security of the election, saying it will be “free, fair, safe and secure,” during brief remarks Monday.

Schmidt warned Pennsylvania voters to “remain vigilant” about any last-minute misinformation and disinformation that may try to persuade them not to vote.

Schmidt also seemed to try to set expectations for the timing of results in the key battleground state, reminding people that Pennsylvania has “never” had final official results on election night regardless of when the media have called the state.

“We can’t predict what percentage of those votes will be counted on election night,” Schmidt said.

He noted that 2 million mail-in ballots have been returned so far, which officials can’t begin opening until Tuesday morning.

“That means election officials can’t even remove the ballot from their envelope,” Schmidt underscored.

He said counties will begin to submit unofficial election results beginning at 8 p.m. ET — and will continue updating throughout the night and “in the subsequent days.”

-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin

Trump tells hurricane victims to ‘sit back and relax’ at poorly attended NC rally

Former President Donald Trump kicked off his final day on the campaign trail Monday at a poorly attended rally in North Carolina, where the venue was at least a third empty.

Sparsely populated to begin with, dozens of people left the venue in a steady stream throughout the rambling, unfocused speech.

At one point, Trump told North Carolinians who are desperately waiting for help after hurricane devastation to “sit back and relax” until he takes office.

“Those people, they better get that FEMA here fast. But we’re going to on Jan. 20,” Trump said. “Just tell everybody to sit back, relax. On Jan. 20, you’ll see people come in and help you out like we did in the past.”

-ABC News’ Soo Rin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh

Trump tells hurricane victims to ‘sit back and relax’ at poorly attended NC rally

Former President Donald Trump kicked off his final day on the campaign trail Monday at a poorly attended rally in North Carolina, where the venue was at least a third empty.

Sparsely populated to begin with, dozens of people left the venue in a steady stream throughout the rambling, unfocused speech.

At one point, Trump told North Carolinians who are desperately waiting for help after hurricane devastation to “sit back and relax” until he takes office.

“Those people, they better get that FEMA here fast. But we’re going to on Jan. 20,” Trump said. “Just tell everybody to sit back, relax. On Jan. 20, you’ll see people come in and help you out like we did in the past.”

-ABC News’ Soo Rin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh

Philly DA wraps up testimony during hearing on Musk giveaway

During his two-hour testimony at an ongoing hearing over Elon Musk and his super PAC’s $1 million voter sweepstakes, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner characterized America PAC’s admission that winners are preselected as the “most amazingly disingenuous defense I have ever heard.”

“This was all political marketing masquerading as a lottery,” Krasner said during the hearing in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas. “This has been a grift from the beginning. This has been a scam from the very beginning.”

According to Chris Gober, a lawyer for Musk and America PAC, the winners were selected based on their “suitability” as spokespeople, signed a contract and received the million dollars as a “salary” for their work, despite Musk himself publicly saying that winners would be selected “randomly.”

Krasner’s attorney, John Summers, described the claim as “a flat-out admission of liability.” While America PAC has openly acknowledged that winners would serve as spokespeople, the hearing marks the first time they have disclosed that the winners were preselected.

“It is deceptive. It is misleading. It is taking advantage of people,” Krasner said. “They are doing everything under the sun to cover it up.”

Musk’s lawyers have repeatedly argued that the case itself is politically motivated, accusing Krasner of creating a “political circus.” Krasner’s attorney attempted to counter that argument by mentioning that Krasner drives a Tesla — made by the electric car company owned by Musk — and would theoretically bring the same case against Taylor Swift if she arranged a similar scheme for Harris.

“I have brought action against Democrats in the past,” Krasner said. “I would have brought an action against Taylor Swift if she did this. As far as I know, she didn’t.”

The court is currently on a lunch break following testimony from Krasner, who was the hearing’s first witness.

-ABC News’ Peter Charalambous

Harris supporters say they know Republicans who are secretly voting for her

Several Harris supporters at her rally in battleground Michigan on Sunday told ABC News they were confident in Harris’ prospects because they knew Republicans in their community who are casting a ballot for Harris — many of them secretly.

Andrea Galindo said she believes Harris will win “because I know a lot of Republicans voted Democrat.”

Mike Arvizu said his father is a lifelong Republican who is voting for Harris.

“If my father-in-law can do it, there’s a lot more people out there,” Arvizu said.

Their optimism reflects a defining strategy of the Harris campaign: to reach every possible voter in battlegrounds, including Republicans and independents. In her final rally speeches, the vice president is stressing that she would invite those who disagree with her to have a seat at the table.

But voters said that the toxic and divisive nature of politics today means that many of these Republicans aren’t openly saying that they’re backing Harris.

“We’ve become so divided in this country that people don’t even have Thanksgiving with their own family members anymore. I think there is a fear in this country about even talking about politics, especially if you don’t know if someone agrees with you,” said Curtis Hertel, who is running for Congress in Michigan.

But Hertel said he’s seeing more conversation now across party lines, with Harris canvassers making headway even in deep-red areas like Livingston County.

-ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Selina Wang

North Carolina elections chief pleads for ‘peaceful transition of power’

On the eve of Election Day, the head of elections in the battleground state of North Carolina has issued an on-camera plea to candidates on the ballot tomorrow: “I would just make a plea to the candidates and elected officials: Have a peaceful transition of power. Accept the results. Concede defeat when necessary,” Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the state’s board of elections, said during a press conference Monday.

While saying that “there’s more hostility” this election, she also urged candidates, voters and others to “please recognize” that election workers are “members of this community” who have “sworn oaths … [as part of] a bipartisan effort to ensure that every eligible voter is able to cast their ballot, and that these results are tabulated and determined securely, accurately and correctly.”

“Please treat others with dignity and respect,” she said, adding that state and federal law forbids people from trying to intimidate voters or interfere with election officials carrying out there duties — and the penalties can include prison time or fines, or both.

-ABC News’ Mike Levine

‘Swifties for Kamala’ target 250,000 Pennsylvania voters via mailers in closing push

“Swifties for Kamala,” the grassroots organization of Taylor Swift fans working to elect former Vice President Kamala Harris, announced over the weekend they had sent over 250,000 mailers to Pennsylvania voters encouraging them to pledge their support to Harris, make a voting plan and encourage their friends to do the same.

Included in 50,000 of the mailers were friendship bracelets beaded with the words “voting era,” a reference to the bracelets fans trade at Swift’s Eras Tour.

“Every vote in this election matters, especially in Pennsylvania, which could be the state that makes the planets and the fates and all the stars align for VP Harris,” the mailers read. “We think you belong in the voting booth because we are never going back, like ever.”

-ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd

Walz appeals to Wisconsin voters: Election ‘could be won’ through state

Tim Walz called on voters in battleground Wisconsin to vote for an “optimistic” future during a rally in La Crosse.

“This election could be won, quite literally, through the state of Wisconsin, and it could be won right here through La Crosse,” Harris’ running mate said. “That’s how close this thing could be. So we’re taking nothing for granted.”

Walz addressed policies he and Harris will focus on, including working to lower the cost of living for middle class Americans, addressing price gouging on groceries and making reproductive rights enshrined into law.

He said they have an opportunity to vote for “a future that either goes backwards — is divisive, dark and angry — or one that is hopeful, unified, inclusive.”

Musk’s attorney says winners of America PAC giveaway not chosen by chance

At an ongoing hearing in Philadelphia over Elon Musk and his super PAC’s $1 million voter sweepstakes, a defense attorney said the giveaway is a way to recruit spokespeople for America PAC, while the Philadelphia district attorney testified it is a “scam.”

According to defense attorney Chris Gober, the recipients of the million-dollar checks sign contracts after being selected from a pool of people who signed the petition to serve as a spokesperson for the PAC. Tomorrow’s winner has already been decided to be a registered voter from Michigan.

“They were not chosen by chance,” Gober said during the hearing in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas.

Minutes later, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s team played a video in court where Musk vowed the money would be awarded “randomly.”

“So I have a surprise for you, which is that we are going to be awarding a million dollars randomly to people who have signed the petition every day from now until the election,” Musk told a crowd in Pennsylvania on Oct. 19.

Testifying from the witness stand, Krasner slammed the giveaway as a “scam” and “grift” intended to “flood money into American elections.”

“That ain’t a contract and that’s not employment,” an animated Krasner, the first witness in the hearing, said. “There are certain words that stick out — awarding. Doesn’t sound like a spokesperson contract.”

“It is unquestionably supposed to be random selection despite what I think is a very disingenuous version of it that I think I heard today,” Krasner said.

Krasner testified that the America PAC has effectively scammed Philadelphia residents out of their personal information — which they entered to sign the petition to enter into the giveaway — while the giveaway never actually offered them a random chance of winning the million-dollar prize.

“They were scammed for their information,” said Krasner, who is asking a judge to immediately stop the giveaway.

-ABC News’ Peter Charalambous

Former Rep. Liz Cheney responds to Trump’s violent rhetoric about her, compares him to an autocrat

Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney responded to former President Donald Trump’s attacks on her in an interview with ABC’s “The View” on Monday, including a remark he made suggesting she should “have guns trained on her face.”

“He knows what he’s doing,” Cheney said. “He knows it’s a threat with the intent to intimidate. Obviously, the intimidation won’t work.”

Cheney emphasized Trump’s history of violent rhetoric, including how he responded to the violence on Jan. 6.

“For over three hours, he watched police officers be brutally beaten. He was told the vice president had been evacuated, he said, ‘So what?'” Cheney said. “People were rushing in, pleading with him, ‘Tell the mob to leave,’ and he wouldn’t.”

“That level of depravity, he knows he has no defense to that, and he knows that the American people will not entrust again with power anyone who would do something that cruel,” she continued. “And so because he can’t respond to that, he tries to change the subject, he tries to threaten. It’s what autocrats do to try to get their political adversaries to be silent.”

Vance: ‘Tomorrow is our last chance’

JD Vance addressed voters in Wisconsin during a rally in La Crosse on Monday.

“Tomorrow is our last chance,” Trump’s running mate said. “Tomorrow is the big day when we are going to vote in very big numbers in the state of Wisconsin. We’re going to vote for change. We’re going to vote for American prosperity.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is also campaigning in Wisconsin on Monday. Vance called it “tough work” to “convince the American people” that Harris can be president.

“I think that’s the toughest job in the United States of America,” Vance said, saying Harris is “more of the same” high grocery prices, unaffordable housing and “wide open border.”

Alabama GOP mobilizes 400 poll workers in Georgia and Alabama

The Alabama Republican Party announced on Monday it has launched its most comprehensive poll watcher deployment, with more than 400 poll watchers and election lawyers in Georgia and Alabama.

Over 200 Alabama poll watchers and dozens of election lawyers will be stationed in targeted districts across Alabama, which the party says is part of an effort to ensure a “secure and transparent election process.” The Alabama GOP added that the placement of election lawyers across the state “provides an extra layer of security and real-time responsiveness.”

The Alabama GOP is also deploying more than 200 poll watchers to Georgia, supporting the critical southern battleground state on behalf of former President Donald Trump’s campaign.

-ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson

Trump speaks at campaign rally in Raleigh

At a campaign rally Monday in Raleigh, former President Donald Trump urged his supporters to turn up to the polls on Election Day.

“If we get everybody out and vote, there’s not a thing they can do,” Trump told the crowd of North Carolinians, saying the state was “ours to lose.”

Trump smeared the Democratic Party as a “horrendously dangerous party that’s going to destroy our country.”

“We cannot let that happen,” he said. “So here’s my only purpose in even being here today: Get out and vote.”

Musk doesn’t show at hearing on Philly DA’s challenge to $1 million giveaways

Elon Musk was a no-show at the hearing over his $1 million voter sweepstakes in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas on Monday.

Entering court without his client, Musk’s attorney, Chris Gober, criticized Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner for wanting to “silence Elon Musk for supporting Donald Trump.”

“We don’t allow our rights to be trampled upon bipartisan agendas masquerading as legal arguments,” Gober said.

In a late filing this morning, Krasner’s attorney continued to push for Musk to attend the hearing in person because his testimony would demonstrate “he is the beating heart of America PAC’s unlawful lottery and deceptive/unfair practices scheme.”

“Musk cannot distract from his central role by saying that he wants to be busy out campaigning, rather than attending to his responsibilities to this Court,” attorney John Summers said in the filing.

Earlier this morning, America PAC announced that the newest winner of their daily $1 million giveaway is a registered voter from Phoenix. One day remains until the sweepstakes ends on Election Day.

-ABC News’ Peter Charalambous and Chris Boccia

How Nebraska’s ‘blue dot’ could prove pivotal in the Electoral College

Amid an increasingly tight election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in several key swing states, Nebraska, and more specifically, its 2nd Congressional District, has taken on an outsize role in this year’s presidential election.

Because Nebraska currently awards three of its five Electoral College votes based on the results in each of its three congressional districts, the so-called “blue dot,” as the 2nd district has come to be known, could be critical to either campaign’s path to 270 electoral votes.

Early vote tops 78 million

As of 5:30 a.m. ET on Monday, more than 78 million Americans have voted early (a combination of absentee and early, in-person totals), according to the Election Lab at the University of Florida.

The total breaks down into 42,654,364 in-person early votes and 35,348,858 mail ballots returned.

The number of in-person early votes has surpassed 2020’s total number of in-person early votes. However, the overall number of early votes so far (including mail-in and absentee ballots) is still lower than 2020’s overall number.

-ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim

Jeffries says Republicans ‘will take a blow torch’ to social security

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told Good Morning America on Monday that Democrats are “on the right side” of the presidential election’s most pressing issues.

“The extreme MAGA Republicans have clearly and unequivocally articulated what they will do to America moving forward,” Jeffries said.

“They will take a blow torch to social security, they will take a blow torch to Medicare, they will take a blow torch to the Affordable Care Act,” Jeffries said.

Vice President Kamala Harris, Jeffries said, is “closing with a positive vision” while former President Donald Trump and his Republican party are “trying to tear us apart.”

Jeffries will become House speaker if Democrats win back control of the chamber this week.

“The majority of current House Republicans voted not to certify the election in 2020,” Jeffries said. “My colleagues on the other side of the aisle don’t seem to be capable of unequivocally saying that they will certify the election and the verdict that is rendered by the American people.”

“As House Democrats, that’s what we will do,” Jeffries added.

“We believe in democracy even when we disagree with the outcome. That’s been part of what’s made America the greatest democracy in the history of the world.”

Candidates vie for every vote in key swing states

Highlighting how important Pennsylvania and its 19 electoral votes are to her campaign, Kamala Harris is spending her last full day on the trail with multiple events in the state.

Her search for voters includes a rally in Allentown and then she ends with an event in Philadelphia.

Donald Trump is trying to shore up support in battleground North Carolina – where Harris has made inroads – for a rally in Raleigh, before he, too, heads to Pennsylvania for events in Reading and Pittsburgh before ending his final day campaigning in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Election Day: Residents in 3 swing states gearing up for historic election

Election Day: Residents in 3 swing states gearing up for historic election
Election Day: Residents in 3 swing states gearing up for historic election
Scott Olson/Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) — While tens of millions of early votes have already been cast, there are still millions of Americans who will be heading to the polls on Election Day. Experts predict the 2024 election will be one of the closest in history, with several key states still in contention that could determine the next president.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have been actively campaigning over the past few months in several swing states. This year, seven swing states are in intense competition: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

To win the White House, a candidate needs 270 electoral votes, different combinations from the collective total of 93 electoral votes from these swing states will ultimately determine the winner.

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, with polling hours varying by state law. Here’s an update on three of the seven swing states in the final hours leading up to the election.

In Pennsylvania, young voters ready to make an impact

Pennsylvania, with 19 electoral college votes, is considered the key to the election and many believe the winner of Pennsylvania will become the next president.

In this battleground state, ABC News spoke with young voters who believe their vote could significantly impact this election. These voters have observed Harris and Trump competing often in their state.

Both candidates held many stops and rallies on Monday.

Two first-time voters, 18-year-old Isaac Gourley and Caleb Root, will be at one of Pennsylvania’s thousands of polling places. They attend Redbank Valley High School in Western Pennsylvania.

They have been listening to both presidential candidates and will decide their vote based on their priorities.

“What stuck out to me was just their — kind of like international — policy,” Gourley said. “You know, how we talk to other people.”

According to a Tufts University study, about 50% of registered voters 18-29-year-olds voted in the 2020 election — an all-time high. In Pennsylvania, they turned out at a rate even higher than the national average: 54%.

“I pay attention a lot to the economy,” Root said.

The rules for counting ballots in Pennsylvania indicate that it may take days to determine the winner. Mailed-in votes cannot be counted until polls open at 7 a.m. on Election Day.

Helene won’t stop voters in North Carolina

Despite initial concerns, voter turnout rates in the 25 North Carolina counties hardest hit by Hurricane Helene surpassed statewide early voting averages leading up to Election Day, with more than 760,000 total ballots cast.

North Carolina and its 16 electoral votes are especially crucial in the razor-thin contest between Harris and Trump. According to the latest NYT/Siena College polling, Harris has a narrow lead over Trump in a race that remains too close to call.

In this historic election that hinges on voter turnout, both campaigns are targeting women, the country’s largest voting bloc.

An ABC News/Ipsos poll shows a clear gender gap between voters. Trump is up 5 points with male voters, while Harris is up by 11 points with women.

During early voting, young women on the North Carolina State University campus marched to the polls with a pro-choice message, inviting men to join them.

“I’m really scared that I feel like I don’t know the rights I have as a woman,” Lizzie Pascal, a student there, said.

Harris leads suburban women voters nationally by 15 points overall; however, Trump has a four-point advantage among white women, according to the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll. That demographic is widely believed to have contributed to his victory in 2016.

Sandy Joiner, president of the Western Wake County Republican Club, has worked to canvass with Republican women competing for state and local seats.

“We have knocked on around 12,000 doors in our area,” Joiner said. “And we have, we have knocked all the doors, so we don’t have any doors left. So what we’re doing now is we’re knocking doors in areas that may not have been reached.”

The same goals drive these women, whether they are encouraging voters to turn out in storm zones, suburbs or on college campuses. Women are likely to hold the key to determining who ascends to the White House when all the votes are counted on and after election night.

How Michigan is a must-win for both Trump and Harris

Experts say Michigan is a must-win for both sides, which is why both candidates campaigned extensively across the Great Lakes.

Once part of the Democrats’ so-called “blue wall,” polling shows that Michigan — and its 15 electoral votes — is a tossup.

While early votes show an increase in women and young voters in college towns, one of the groups that was once solidly Democratic is no longer true blue: union members.

ABC News spoke with Douglas King, an autoworker and UAW member for nearly 30 years. He says the economy, like for so many other Americans, is his top issue.

“I was raised to believe that the Democrats are the party of the working people,” King said. “And maybe at one time they were. I don’t feel that way now.”

Many union leadership endorsed Harris.

In this tightly contested race, the more than 500,000 union workers are crucial for Harris; however, some of them appear to be moving away from voting for the Democratic Party. King, who voted for Barack Obama twice, has decided to support Trump for president for the third time.

“People are afraid to say they’re voting for Trump because Trump supporters are put in a box, that they’re these hateful, racist people that are homophobic, and it’s just not true,” King said. “Trump has a lot of support on the plant floor.”

There are cracks in the old coalition that has consistently voted for Democrats for the past 30 years. However, Trump broke through the blue wall in 2016 by narrowly defeating Hillary Clinton by roughly 10,000 votes in Michigan.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Exploring the loneliness epidemic: From professional cuddlers to social clubs

Exploring the loneliness epidemic: From professional cuddlers to social clubs
Exploring the loneliness epidemic: From professional cuddlers to social clubs
ABC News

(NEW YORK) — Even before the pandemic took hold in 2020, Americans drifted away from their social circles, dedicating more and more time to solitary activities. This shift has deepened feelings of social isolation, leaving many individuals longing for connections and companionship that once felt more accessible.

Approximately 20% of American adults are grappling with “daily loneliness,” according to a recent Gallup report, marking the highest level in two years. The U.S. Surgeon General, often referred to as the “Nation’s Doctor,” declared that we are currently facing a serious loneliness epidemic. They also stated that Generation Z — those born from the mid-1990s to the early 2010s — might be the loneliest generation.

Chronic loneliness — prolonged feelings of loneliness and social isolation — affects not only your mental health but also has physical consequences.

“It can do everything from increase rates of high blood pressure, heart disease, increased rates of dementia, and actually decrease how long we live,” Dr. Kelli Harding, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center, told “Nightline.”. “It’s as risky for health as, you know, smoking 15 cigarettes a day.”

To combat the loneliness epidemic, professional cuddlers like Jasmine Siemon from Bethesda, Maryland, are leading the way. She uses platonic touch therapy to assist adults dealing with issues such as intimacy, anxiety and loneliness.

Siemon told “Nightline” she always does a consultation to see what made the person interested in touch and cuddle therapy.

“I want to know what their touch history is. There’s a clear understanding of having agency over your body in the session,” she said. “At no point am I going to touch you in a way that you’re not comfortable with or that you’re not curious about, and vice versa. So the boundaries are the rigid boundaries — no touching anywhere a bathing suit covers.”

Siemon acknowledged that while her job may sound unusual to some, she has seen how her work has helped people like Elliot Wallace, who has been having cuddle therapy sessions with Siemon for a year.

“I found myself being nervous in certain cases, whether people were very close, like moving in too close or taking up my space or even being touched,” Wallace said. “And I wanted to find a way to not have that [be] threatening anymore.”

Since Wallace works a lot from home, he says it makes it harder for him to meet people. He sought out Siemon to help him discover who he is, so he can be more open and vulnerable with people.

While Siemon says she has seen how her work has helped some people, consulting a professional cuddler may not suit everyone. Experts warn that if cuddle therapy ends suddenly, it can lead to feelings of abandonment, rejection, loss and even despair.

Professional cuddlers are just one option for coping with loneliness, which can manifest in various ways. Kaari Hostler, a recent college graduate who has moved from the Midwest to New York City, hopes to connect with others, but the 22-year-old isn’t seeking love or romance. Instead, she’s looking to make friends.

Hostler was searching for ways to branch out when she came across “The Girls NYC” online. It’s an exclusive social group for women looking to make friends in their early 20s in New York City.

When attending these events, there is one important rule: you must come alone. Similar groups focusing on finding connections, like dinner parties and running clubs, are rising across the U.S.

“We spend so much time online, we end up isolating ourselves,” Hostler said. “It’s not a substitute for actual human interaction.”

Through social media, people can connect and game with others across continents. TikTok trends like “Get Ready With Me” videos — which show the process of someone getting ready for an event or activity — can help you feel connected to your favorite influencers. There are also dating and friendship apps.

However, these are remote and experts say may not be a good substitute for actual human interaction.

“Gen Z has had it tough,” Dr. Harding said. “They didn’t have a traditional graduation from high school. They have also been part of this great experiment of social media we are learning without guardrails.”

Like Hostler, 38-year-old Quincy Winston struggled to make new friends after relocating to Phoenix with his wife, Latoya, in 2015.

However, a heartfelt conversation with his wife sparked an idea.

“Her girlfriends are very organized, very tight knit,” said Winston. “A lot of my friends at the time were distant,” adding his wife told him that “it’s important for men to seek out friendship and build camaraderie.”

In 2022, Winston formed the Phoenix Professional Black Men’s Friends Group, a space for men to meet locally and find new friends.

“So for me, it’s been a self-discovery,” Winston said. “It’s been a journey. I’ll thank my wife every day for kind of opening up about my own emotions and encouraging other men to support other men.”

Winston’s group now has nearly 200 members, and helps men connect with something he says some men may struggle with.

“I think there’s a term out there,” Winston said. “Emotional intelligence — guys, you have to work at that. What do I need to do in order to be a friend and make friends and have friends and keep friends?”

Experts say loneliness does not discriminate, and could happen to anyone at any age.

At the New Ground Estate in London, 26 residents are making history — living at the first and only co-housing community in the United Kingdom dedicated to women aged 50 and over.

Some have likened this housing situation to a real-life version of “The Golden Girls,” the TV show that followed four older women living together in Miami.

“It is really beneficial because there’s that sense of community,” Dr. Harding said. “I think it can also reframe how we think about aging.”

Everyone at New Ground has their own flats but there are also communal living spaces — all run by the ladies themselves.

Jude Tisdall is 73 years old and moved into the community in 2018.

“There’s a few people here who are of a certain age and are inspirational and are fit and still active and doing things,” Tisdall said. “I think that has made me really, really think about is I’m going to live to the nth degree till I die. And that’s what I’ve got to do.”

Kelsey Klimara, Arturo Ruiz, Sabrina Shanghie and Caroline Kucera contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Once the presumptive nominee, President Biden to spend Election Day at White House with no public events

Once the presumptive nominee, President Biden to spend Election Day at White House with no public events
Once the presumptive nominee, President Biden to spend Election Day at White House with no public events
ABC/Lorenzo Bevilaqua

(WASHINGTON) — For the better part of 2023 and 2024, President Joe Biden plotted a course to Nov. 5, 2024. As the incumbent, the veteran politician was the presumptive Democratic nominee, clinching enough delegates in March, and locked in a tight race with former President Donald Trump.

But instead of spending Election Day preparing for an evening speech, the president’s daily schedule is empty beyond his daily briefing by aides: No public events.

The president and first lady Jill Biden will spend election night watching the election results in the White House residence with “long time aides and senior White House staff,” according to a White House official.

“The President will receive regular updates on the state of races across the country,” the official added.

Monday night, Biden also held calls with Democratic state party chairs across the country. Ben Wikler, the chair of the Wisconsin state Democratic Party, told ABC News’ MaryAlice Parks that the call was “electrifying.”

Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, on July 21 in the wake of a disastrous performance in the first presidential debate and under pressure from prominent Democrats.

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” he wrote, in part, in a letter posted on social media. “And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.”

Biden created last-minute controversy on Oct. 29 when he seemed to call Trump supporters “garbage” during a campaign call hosted by the nonprofit Voto Latino.

“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been,” Biden said.

Trump quickly seized on the comments, saying Biden “meant it,” though the president posted a clarification, saying his comment was about the comedian who made the joke and “referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage — which is the only word I can think of to describe it.”

“His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say. The comments at that rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation,” Biden said in the post on X.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Election security updates: FBI ‘aware’ of fake news clip urging people not to vote

Election security updates: FBI says bomb threats appear to originate from Russia
Election security updates: FBI says bomb threats appear to originate from Russia
da-kuk

(WASHINGTON) — From the polling place to the courtroom, ABC News tracks the latest election security developments as experts warn about the spread of misinformation and disinformation from within the U.S. and abroad.

Security experts stress that the nation’s voting infrastructure is highly secure, and that isolated voting issues do not indicate widespread election fraud.

How to watch ABC News coverage of Election Day

On Election Day, voters around the country will eagerly wait to hear if former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris comes out on top in the race for the White House.

ABC News will have full coverage of the presidential election results and many other key down-ballot races on Election Day and the days afterward as votes continue to get counted.

5 ‘non-credible’ bomb threats in Fulton County led to evacuations

The head of elections in Fulton County — the largest in the critical battleground state of Georgia — on Monday said they had a smooth start this morning with all locations opening on time and tens of thousands of voters casting their ballots, though two locations were briefly evacuated after a series of bomb threats.

Elections director Nadine Williams said the county received 5 “non-credible” bomb threats that lead to two voting locations being evacuated for approximately 30 minutes each. The county is working on going to court to extend the hours for those locations.

“All polling sites are secure with an active security presence,” Williams assured.

“Outside of these brief interruptions, Election Day has been quiet, with minimal issues reported,” she continued, “and we remain prepared to address any misinformation or additional disruption to ensure a smooth experience for all voters today.”

Williams said that as of 9:40 this morning, 29,500 ballots have been cast in the county.

Regarding timing of the results, Williams said that the 417,000 votes from advance voting, as well as the mail ballots received through Monday, will be uploaded by 8 p.m. tonight.

As far as the rest of the locations, Williams said that barring no long lines tonight, those memory cards with today’s votes should be back at the main center where they “are hoping before midnight we should see the rest of the results come up.”

“As [memory cards] arrive, we will start uploading,” Williams said.

-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin

FBI ‘aware’ of 2 fabricated news clips, press releases urging not to vote and rigged inmate voting

The FBI is aware of two fabricated news clips and press releases urging people not to vote and rigged inmate voting, according to a statement they released on Tuesday morning.

“The FBI was made aware of two instances of its name and insignia being misused in promoting false narratives surrounding the election,” the FBI said in a statement. “The first is a fabricated newsclip purporting to be a terrorist warning issued by the FBI. The fabricated newsclip reports falsely that the FBI purportedly stated that Americans should ‘vote remotely’ due to a high terror threat at polling stations. This video is not authentic and does not accurately represent the current threat posture or polling location safety. 

Additionally, a fabricated video containing a fabricated FBI press release alleges that the management of five prisons in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona rigged inmate voting and colluded with a political party. This video is also not authentic, and its contents are false.”

This is the second such warning the FBI has given in recent days.

US cyber agency ‘not tracking’ any ‘significant incidents’

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is not tracking any “national level significant incidents” on election day, according to a top CISA official.

Cait Conley, a senior advisor to the CISA Director and the official in charge of election security said in the early hours of voting, there haven’t been any major incidents.

“We are tracking instances of extreme weather and other temporary infrastructure disruptions in certain areas of the country, but these are largely expected, routine and planned for events separately,” she said on a call with reporters on Tuesday.

Additionally, Conley told ABC News that they are “not aware” of any foreign influence operations going on right now but they “remain incredibly vigilant and in close communication with our federal government partners in case such instances were to arise.”

Monday night, the intelligence community, including CISA attributed two Russian influence operations including one in Arizona that were spreading misinformation about the election.

-Luke Barr

Officials brace for Election Day under cloud of threats, lawsuits

As millions of Americans prepare to descend on polling locations across the country, election officials and law enforcement authorities are focused on administering a fair and safe election under a cloud of threats, online disinformation, and the potential for a grueling legal fight in the weeks ahead.

Although a typical Election Day inevitably includes some hiccups like long lines or weather-related issues, this year election workers face the additional challenge of a heightened threat environment and an onslaught of litigation concerning voting rules and ballot counting.

Even so, election officials on Monday expressed confidence in their ability to execute on Election Day. Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt said the vote in his state would be “free, fair, safe, and secure.” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that “at the end of the day, it’s going to be fair and fast and accurate.”

And in North Carolina, Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the state’s Board of Elections, said, “Despite all the naysayers, despite all false information and sensationalist rhetoric out there about elections, and despite a devastating hurricane, we are making this happen in North Carolina.”

-Lucien Bruggeman

Trump says he is running against ‘evil Democrat system’

Former President Donald Trump used his final campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to attack high profile Democrats including President Joe Biden and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

Trump told attendees he is “not running” solely against Vice President Kamala Harris. “I’m running against an evil Democrat system,” he said. “These are evil people.”

Trump launched into attacks on Biden, pushing unfounded claims that Harris only became the nominee because Democrats wanted to be “politically correct.”

Trump then made fun of Harris’s name calling it “a strange name,” before pivoting back to criticize Biden.

“I wasn’t running against Biden either,” Trump said. “He was stuck in a basement. I didn’t even run against him. Now running against a very evil system, and we have to defeat that system, and America’s future will be an absolutely incredible one.”

The former president also mouthed an expletive when referring to Pelosi. “She’s a crooked person,” he added. “She’s a bad person, evil.”

-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soo Rin Kim and Kelsey Walsh

Trump suggests supporters to blame if he loses

Former President Donald Trump’s final campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, saw the Republican presidential nominee urging supporters to head to the polls while also again casting doubt on the security of the electoral process.

Multiple times throughout Trump’s speech he told supporters to go out to the polls “tomorrow.” However, given the rally was happening after midnight, people in the crowd started yelling “today” and then Trump falsely said the election was happening on Wednesday.

“It sounds so much better when you say tomorrow, Wednesday,” Trump said. “But that’s okay. I want to be exactly accurate for them, but go out today and vote. And I guess seven o’clock or whatever, whatever time it is, doesn’t matter, and we’re going to have the greatest victory in the history of our country.”

Trump then suggested that his supporters might be to blame if he does not defeat Vice President Kamala Harris.

“There’s nothing they can do” if Republicans turn out, Trump said of his opponents. “In other words, to make you feel a little guilty, we would only have you to blame.” Later, Trump claimed he has the “silent majority” and urged his supporters to “speak up.”

The former president also again cast doubt on the security of voting machines, despite officials and experts confirming the security of the election system.

“Perhaps I will be president in less than 24 hours, or maybe it will take these machines that we pay so much for two weeks,” Trump said, claiming that paper ballots would be cheaper, faster and more secure.

“What the hell is happening in the inside of those machines?” he continued. “If you wait, we want the answer tomorrow, tonight,” Trump said, quickly correcting himself. “We want the answer tonight.”

“You have to cheat,” Trump said about Democrats. “Who the hell is going to approve that stuff? Who’s going to prove open borders with criminals pouring into our country by the millions now they have to cheat. They have to cheat, and they do, and they do it very well, actually.”

-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soo Rin Kim and Kelsey Walsh

Walz ends campaign addressing ‘guys in the crowd’ on reproductive rights

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz spoke for less than five minutes during his final campaign rally of the 2024 presidential race — focusing on reproductive rights.

The governor and his wife, Gwen, participated in the campaign’s Election Eve festivities on Monday in the pivotal battleground state of Michigan following their blitz through Wisconsin.

“You could probably tell from these rallies, all across the country tonight, this team is running like everything’s on the line — because everything’s on the line,” Walz said in Detroit.

Addressing the “guys in the crowd” about reproductive rights, Walz said the issue “really underlines the stakes in this election.”

“I want you to think about the women in your life that you love,” he said. “Their lives are at stake in this election. Donald Trump appointed those Supreme Court justices who repealed Roe v. Wade, and he brags about it.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, Walz said, would codify reproductive freedom if a bill came upon her desk as president.

“When Congress passes that bill to restore reproductive freedom, President Harris will sign it into law,” Walz said.

“Kamala and I trust women, it’s that simple. Now tomorrow, women all across America, of every age, both parties, are going to send a loud and clear message to Donald Trump, whether he likes it or not.”

Walz ended his remarks by stressing the historical significance of Tuesday’s election.

“There’s going to be a day you’re going to be sitting in that rocking chair, and you’re going to be rocking on that porch,” Walz said. “And a little one is going to come home from school and ask, what did you do in the 2024 election, where the American experiment survived, where the rule of law survived, where decency survived?”

Walz added, “And you’re going to be able to answer: ‘Every damn thing I could’.”

-ABC News’ Isabella Murray

Dixville Notch, New Hampshire votes split evenly between Harris and Trump

The first six ballots of the 2024 presidential election have officially been counted in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire.

Of the six registered voters in the town, three votes were cast for Vice President Kamala Harris and three votes went to former President Donald Trump.

Oprah joins Harris onstage for final campaign rally in Philadelphia

Vice President Kamala Harris’ final campaign rally in the 2024 presidential election was a star-studded event outside of the Philadelphia Museum of Art on Monday.

Famed talk show host, Oprah Winfrey, joined Harris onstage where they aimed to motivate voters ahead of Election Day.

“One more day, just one more day in the most consequential election of our lifetime,” Harris said. “And momentum is on our side.”

Joe Rogan and Elon Musk defend Trump’s controversial Liz Cheney comments

On Joe Rogan’s podcast, Elon Musk defended various comments Donald Trump has recently faced backlash for, saying he’s being misunderstood.

The two defended Trump’s recent violent rhetoric against former Rep. Liz Cheney, suggesting she should have a rifle “with nine barrels shooting at her,” claiming the former president’s comments have been misconstrued.

“A lot of people reached out to me — they’re like, oh, Trump says he wants to execute Liz Cheney. I’m like, that is utter b—s—. That’s not what he said at all. It’s not what he said at all,” Musk claimed.

“What he’s saying is that, look, if Liz Cheney actually had to fight at the front lines, [she] should think twice about going to war. It’s easy to be a warmonger if you don’t have to, you know, risk dying at the front lines,” Musk said, despite the fact that the backlash Trump faced was about the violent rhetoric itself.

Cheney, a Republican who was once a rising star in her party but lost reelection largely over her vocal criticism of Trump, has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.

The two women have appeared together at several events as Harris works to woo disaffected Republican voters.

Harris rallies Pittsburgh to cross the finish line with her: ‘Momentum is on our side’

For her second rally of the day, Vice President Kamala Harris addressed a crowd of about 15,000 against the backdrop of an old steel mill in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Accompanied by Katy Perry’s power vocals, Harris encouraged supporters to utilize their hard-earned momentum to cross the finish line.

“Pittsburgh, this is it. Tomorrow is Election Day. Tomorrow is Election Day, and the momentum is on our side,” she said. “Our campaign has tapped into the ambitions, the aspirations and the dreams of the American people, and we know it is time for a new generation of leadership in America, and I am ready to offer that leadership as the next president of the United States.”

She urged the crowd to “turn the page” to chants of “We’re not going back.”

“And we have an opportunity in this election to finally turn the page on a decade of politics driven by fear and division. We are done with that,” she said. “We’re done. We’re done. We’re exhausted with it, and Pittsburgh, we are not going back. We’re not going back.”

She continued: “Ours is not a fight against something. It is a fight for something. It is a fight for the future, and it is a fight for freedom, like the fundamental freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own life and not let the government tell her what to do.”

Harris’ fairly brief speech was nearly line-for-line the same as her one in Allentown, Pennsylvania, earlier in the day. Her campaign has said that the speeches are being timed ahead of her next and final stop in Philadelphia.

Harris continued to avoid directly using former President Trump’s name, barely referring to him at all except to acknowledge that voters are ready for a president who doesn’t stew over an “enemies list.”

“We are ready for a president who knows the true measure of a leader is not based on who you beat down, it is based on who you lift up,” she said. “And instead of stewing over an enemies list, I will spend every day working on my to-do list. All full of priorities to improve your life.”

-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow and Will McDuffie

Trump says he’s going to let RFK Jr. ‘pretty much do what he wants’

In his “closing message” in Pennsylvania, just a day before the 2024 election, former President Donald Trump touted his relationship with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Trump called the former independent presidential candidate “a credible guy” and said he’s going to be very involved in his administration.

“Bobby Kennedy, you know, he’s a credible guy… He’s going to be very much involved. You know, he’s got a tremendous view on health and pesticides and all this stuff. And we’re not really a healthy country,” Trump said.

Then Trump said he would allow RFK Jr. “to pretty much do what he wants.”

“Bobby’s going to pretty much do what he wants. I want him to do something really important for our country, make people healthier,” Trump said.

RFK Jr. previously said he would oversee public health agencies in Trump’s administration including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture.

Harris expresses support for Puerto Rico on Spanish-language radio show

In a Spanish-language radio interview released Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris again vocalized her support for Puerto Rico.

“My commitment to Puerto Rico is longstanding. Even when I was in the United States Senate as representative of California, I took on a responsibility for myself of also prioritizing the needs of Puerto Rico, because I was aware that Puerto Rico did not have a U.S. senator, and so I was responsible for getting more resources to Puerto Rico,” she said in an interview on Univision Radio.

She vowed to continue honoring that commitment “when I am elected president of the United States, God willing, and with the votes of the people listening right now.”

She positioned her inclusive approach as a stark contrast to former President Donald Trump’s language in recent weeks, which she called “hateful.”

“Trump’s comments are hateful [and] are, you know, just furtherance of these tropes that are really unfair and meant to divide and demean people,” she said, citing what Jennifer Lopez said onstage while campaigning for Harris last week.

Harris also called immigration reform “one of [her] highest priorities.”

“The immigration system is just broken,” she said, listing a few of her approaches to fixing it, including securing the border, hiring more asylum judges, creating more humane asylum processes and creating a pathway for “hard-working people” to earn citizenship.

-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow and Will McDuffie

JD Vance says Pennsylvania will ‘take out the trash in Washington, DC’

Sen. JD Vance delivered his closing message to the voters of Newtown, Pennsylvania, on Monday, advocating for former President Donald Trump to be elected back to the White House.

Vance told the crowd that the only way the country would get a person who is fit to be president is by voting for Trump.

“So tomorrow, we’re going to say to Kamala Harris, you are fired. We don’t want you in the White House. We don’t want you in the Oval Office, we don’t want you anywhere near the halls of power,” the vice presidential candidate said.

Vance again brought up the recent “garbage” comment controversy, falsely claiming Harris called Trump supporters “garbage.”

“So, to Kamala Harris, you shouldn’t be calling your citizens garbage. You shouldn’t be criticizing people for daring to criticize you for doing a bad job. And our message to the leadership, to the elites of the Democratic Party — the people of Pennsylvania are not garbage for struggling under your leadership. But tomorrow, the people of Pennsylvania are going to take out the trash in Washington, D.C., and we’re going to do it together,” Vance said.

Megyn Kelly says she supports Trump because he will be a ‘protector of women’

Megyn Kelly took the stage at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Monday.

The conservative media personality explained why she’s backing Trump in the 2024 presidential election, saying, “He will be a protector of women, and it’s why I’m voting for him.”

Kelly then suggested that she supports Trump because he takes care of the common man.

“He will look out for our boys to our forgotten boys and our forgotten men. Guys like you, who maybe have a beer after work and don’t want to be judged by people like Oprah and Beyonce, who will never have to face the consequences of her disastrous economic policies,” Kelly said, seemingly referencing Vice President Kamala Harris.

-ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh, Lalee Ibssa and Soo Rin Kim

Harris’ senior adviser says she could win all 7 swing states

David Plouffe, a senior adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris, told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Monday night that the campaign believes it could win all seven swing states.

“It’s very important that we have multiple pathways to 270, and you know, just a couple hours ago, reviewing all the early vote data, what we’re projecting for Election Day, how we think undecideds are breaking, we have a credible pathway to all seven states tomorrow night to go into Kamala Harris’ column,” Plouffe said.

“But we believe they’re all going to be close,” he added.

Asked if he believes Harris could win all seven states, he said, “Yes.”

Plouffe said that the campaign believes it is winning more late-breaking voters than former President Donald Trump is, and he credits the campaigns’ different approaches to their field operations.

“I think outsourcing your field effort — meaning the folks knocking on doors, making calls – largely to exclusively paid canvassers, historically just doesn’t work,” he said. “You want people showing up who are committed to your candidate.”

He called that a “secret weapon for us” and said that volunteers were “knocking on 2,000 doors a minute in Pennsylvania over the weekend.”

But, he acknowledged, both campaigns “have a lot riding on tomorrow, on actual Election Day.”

-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow and Will McDuffie

Harris visits Puerto Rican restaurant in Pennsylvania

Vice President Kamala Harris visited a Puerto Rican restaurant in Reading, Pennsylvania, Monday night, accompanied by the state’s governor, Josh Shapiro, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.

A woman, who appeared to be the owner of the restaurant, Old San Juan Cafe, showed Harris a spread of food.

The vice president joked, “I’m very hungry. I don’t get a chance to eat as often as I’d like.”

Later, Harris and Ocasio-Cortez huddled with the restaurant owner to discuss the rapid growth of Latino-owned small businesses.

-ABC News’ Will McDuffie, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Fritz Farrow

Joe Rogan endorses Donald Trump for president

Joe Rogan has endorsed former President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.

The podcast host’s endorsement accompanied the release of a three-hour-long interview with Elon Musk, making the case for his support for Trump.

“The great and powerful @elonmusk. If it wasn’t for him we’d be f—–. He makes what I think is the most compelling case for Trump you’ll hear, and I agree with him every step of the way,” Rogan wrote.

“For the record, yes, that’s an endorsement of Trump. Enjoy the podcast,” he continued.

Michelle Obama to young voters: ‘You have to vote for Kamala Harris’

Michelle Obama went on social media to share a “message to all the young people out there,” encouraging them to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris as the next president of the United States.

“Look, I know it’s easy to feel what we do doesn’t matter. Like the world’s problems are too big and complicated to tackle. Like nothing’s ever going to change at all,” she said in a video, pointing to contentious issues like reproductive health rights and climate change.

“That’s exactly why you have to vote: because we need a better leader than Donald Trump. We simply cannot afford another four years of his incompetence, weakness, and division,” she added.

The former first lady goes on to say that Harris is the opposite — suggesting that the Democratic presidential candidate will “expand your freedoms” and “protect the planet.”

“While he denigrates anyone who is different than him, while he looks out only for himself, Kamala will be a president for all Americans. I know she will listen to you. And that’s why you have to vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz on November the 5th,” she said, before urging young people to make a plan to vote on Election Day.

-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow and Will McDuffie

In closing message, Trump sets the stage to challenge election results

In what campaign aides are classifying as his “closing message” speech, former President Donald Trump is already setting expectations for his supporters to challenge the results of the election, saying Vice President Kamala Harris only has a 4% chance of winning the race.

“So based on what I’m hearing — she’s at 4%. And so we never want to take anything for granted. But we’re really doing well,” Trump said during his rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Trump again falsely accused Democrats of cheating in the 2024 election, but added that it’s “too big to rig.”

“I do believe it is too big to rig. They’ll try. And they are trying, you know, though. It’s too big to rig. This is a big movement,” Trump said.

Doubting the fact that President Joe Biden legitimately won the 2020 Election, Trump said that he has since learned.

“This is that big, powerful, vicious party — that’s a vicious machine. They can take all these bad ideas and win elections.” he said.

The comments come as the Trump campaign has 230,000 poll observers along with 500 attorneys in every battleground state.

-ABC News’ Soo Rin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh

Harris makes 2 stops at residents’ homes in Reading, Pennsylvania

Vice President Kamala Harris made two stops at residents’ homes in Reading, Pennsylvania, and asked for their votes.

At the first stop, Harris greeted a family and followed them to their door so that she could talk to them.

At the second stop, Harris rang the doorbell and surprised the residents, a couple. She hugged the woman who answered the door.

“You know, it’s the day before the election, and I just wanted to come by and say I hope to earn your vote and wanted to just thank you for just giving us the time for this conversation,” Harris told the couple, before they conversed together briefly on one of her recurring campaign messages: finding common ground.

The woman said that Harris had received her vote already, and that she would be working the polls on Tuesday, while her husband would be voting on Election Day.

-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow, Will McDuffie and Oren Oppenheim

Marianne Williamson says she voted for Harris

Former Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson said she cast her vote for Vice President Kamala Harris while emphasizing that no matter who wins, she will do “whatever I can to further the ideal that ultimately love will win.”

“No matter who wins, the result is going to be heartrending to roughly half the country. I feel like I want to put my arms around millions of people and tell them it’s going to be OK. I voted for Kamala,” she said, in part, in a statement posted to X.

-ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd

Russia ‘manufactured and amplified’ video claiming election fraud in Arizona: Officials

The intelligence community is yet again sounding the alarm on a Russian “manufactured and amplified” video claiming election fraud in Arizona — and warned that the activity from Russia will likely focus on battleground states.

“Since our statement on Friday, the IC has been observing foreign adversaries, particularly Russia, conducting additional influence operations intended to undermine public confidence in the integrity of U.S. elections and stoke divisions among Americans,” the FBI, ODNI and CISA said in a statement Monday night.

“The IC expects these activities will intensify through election day and in the coming weeks, and that foreign influence narratives will focus on swing states,” officials added in the statement.

Russia, according to the intelligence community, is the “most active threat” in the election.

“Influence actors linked to Russia in particular are manufacturing videos and creating fake articles to undermine the legitimacy of the election, instill fear in voters regarding the election process, and suggest Americans are using violence against each other due to political preferences, judging from information available to the IC,” the statement continued.

“These efforts risk inciting violence, including against election officials. We anticipate Russian actors will release additional manufactured content with these themes through election day and in the days and weeks after polls close,” officials said in the statement.

Content with the hallmark of a Russian influence operation includes a video claiming election fraud in Arizona and an article falsely claiming that U.S. officials across swing states plan to orchestrate election fraud using a range of tactics, such as ballot stuffing and cyberattacks.

CISA said to seek out trusted sources of information — the election officials themselves.

-ABC News’ Luke Barr

Harris, Trump remain closely matched on Election Day eve: Ipsos poll

Harris is effectively tied with Trump among likely voters in an Ipsos national poll published Monday evening.

If the election were held today, half of likely voters said they would vote for Harris and 48% said Trump, the poll found.

When American adults were asked which candidate has a better plan, policy or approach to the following issues, Harris led on health care and political extremism, while Trump had more support for the economy, immigration and war/foreign issues, the poll found.

The poll was conducted Nov. 1-3 and has a margin of error of +/- 3.4 percentage points for likely voters and +/-3.0 percentage points for American adults.

-ABC News’ Emily Chang and Oren Oppenheim

‘It’s as if he is trying to lose,’ Trump adviser tells Jonathan Karl

A close Trump adviser told ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl it’s as if the former president “is trying to lose,” Karl told “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir.

“The Trump campaign just sent me reams of data saying they are ahead in the early vote, they’re doing everything they need to do to win, but I have to tell you, talking to senior advisers, people that have been advising Trump for a long time, I’m hearing newfound anxiety,” Karl said. “They say he’s been off-message.”

Karl said the Harris campaign has been “feeling anxiety for a long time, but they feel like this is closing in the right direction for them” and that Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally last month “was a turning point in this campaign.”

Georgia poll worker arrested for allegedly mailing bomb threat to election officials

A Georgia poll worker was arrested Monday and charged with allegedly sending a letter threatening to bomb an elections office in the state’s Jones County last month, the Justice Department announced.

Nicholas Wimbish, 25, allegedly sent the threat after he had a verbal argument with a voter in the Jones County Elections Office on Oct. 16, according to prosecutors.

The following day, he allegedly mailed a letter to the Jones County elections superintendent purporting to be from the unidentified voter that stated Wimbish had “give[n] me hell” and was “conspiring votes” and “distracting voters from concentrating,” according to prosecutors.

The letter allegedly stated that Wimbish and others “should look over their shoulder” and that the “young men will get beatdown if they fight me” and “will get the treason punishment by firing squad if they fight back,” according to the DOJ.

The letter was allegedly signed, “PS boom toy in early vote place, cigar burning, be safe,” prosecutors said.

During an interview with the FBI on Oct. 23, Wimbish allegedly blamed the letter on the voter he had interacted with, according to the complaint. During a search of Wimbish’s personal computer, the letter was allegedly found in the print spooler, according to the complaint.

Wimbish faces several charges including mailing a bomb threat, conveying false information about a bomb threat, and making false statements to the FBI. He faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison on the cumulative charges if convicted, prosecutors said.

Court records do not list any attorney information for Wimbish.

-ABC News’ Alexander Mallin

Maryland election officials debunk disinformation about ballot marking devices

The Maryland State Board of Elections released a new statement on Monday aimed at correcting disinformation about ballot marking devices.

“Ballot marking devices do not flip or switch votes,” the statement read. “Unfounded claims of machines flipping votes have resurfaced and circulated in many elections.”

The board said it has not been able to substantiate any claims “of vote flipping or changing of votes by a ballot marking device,” and said any such allegation must be submitted as an administrative complaint along with an “affidavit sworn under the penalties of perjury.”

-ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson

Vance reminds Georgia voters that Trump lost state by fewer than 12,000 votes

While speaking to a large crowd in Atlanta on Monday, Sen. JD Vance urged voters in Georgia to go out tomorrow to cast their ballots while reminding them how close the race in the state was in 2020.

“Tomorrow is the day that we vote for lower grocery prices and more affordable housing,” he said. “Tomorrow is the day that we vote to close the border and make Donald J. Trump the president of the United States.”

Vance referenced that Trump lost Georgia to President Joe Biden by fewer than 12,000 votes.

“I didn’t realize how small this was in 2020. Georgia was decided by less than 12,000 votes,” he said. “That is crazy.”

-ABC News’ Hannah Demissie

Walz addresses excited crowd of Wisconsin voters

Speaking to a fired-up crowd Monday in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz emphasized that U.S election systems are secure and that Vice President Kamala Harris would win the presidential race on Tuesday.

“Just tell yourself how great it’s going to be when we get this thing done,” Walz said. “It may take a little bit here — we got patience. Our system is secure, our elections are safe.”

“We will win,” Walz continued, “And when that thing is done, we’re not ever going to have to see this guy on TV again.”

-ABC News’ Isabella Murray

Hundreds of National Guardsmen ready for election support across the country

At least 245 National Guard personnel across 18 states and Washington, D.C., have been either activated by their governors or are on standby, according to Pentagon officials.

Many are helping state governments with cybersecurity efforts, while others are there to assist law enforcement and first responders in the event of protests or security incidents.

There are 126 personnel activated in Alaska, Arizona, Delaware, Iowa, Illinois, North Carolina, New Mexico, Oregon, Wisconsin and Washington, a U.S. official confirmed to ABC News.

There are 119 personnel on standby in Colorado, D.C., Florida, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia, according to the official.

That amounts to an average of about 13 personnel currently activated or on standby per state/district.

These figures could shift at the discretion of the governors, the official said.

The move to utilize the National Guard comes after authorities said ballot boxes in Oregon and Washington were set on fire with incendiary devices last month. The governors of both states said they were putting Guard units on standby to aid local law enforcement. Nevada’s governor told local reporters he wanted Guard personnel on standby in Las Vegas and Carson City.

In D.C., Guard personnel will be on standby specifically to assist with the city’s fire and medical services Tuesday through Nov. 13, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said during a briefing Monday.

-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty and Matt Seyler

51 attorneys general condemn election-related violence ahead of results

A bipartisan coalition of 51 attorneys general has penned a letter condemning violence in response to election results.

“Regardless of the outcome of Tuesday’s election, we expect that Americans will respond peacefully and we condemn any acts of violence related to the results,” the coalition wrote. “A peaceful transfer of power is the highest testament to the rule of law, a tradition that stands at the heart of our nation’s stability. As Attorneys General, we affirm our commitment to protect our communities and uphold the democratic principles we serve.”

“We call upon every American to vote, participate in civil discourse and, above all, respect the integrity of the democratic process,” the letter continued. “Let us come together after this election not divided by outcomes but united in our shared commitment to the rule of law and safety of all Americans. Violence has no place in the democratic process; we will exercise our authority to enforce the law against any illegal acts that threaten it.”

-ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson

Pennsylvania counties continue to investigate potential voter registration fraud

Officials in several counties across Pennsylvania continue to investigate potentially fraudulent voter registration applications, as Trump has pushed some misleading or false claims about the incident.

Authorities in Lancaster, Berks, Monroe and York counties are investigating thousands of voter registration applications they say are potentially fraudulent, according to various officials around the state. Amid the ongoing investigations, some of the applications have been confirmed to be fraudulent while some have been determined to be legitimate, according to updates.

Still, as recently as last week Trump said Lancaster County was “caught … with 2,600 votes.”

“They found, as I understand it, I mean, I don’t know what’s happened to the last day or so, but they in Lancaster, they found 2,600 ballots, all done in by the same hand,” Trump said Sunday in Pennsylvania.

But, according to the Pennsylvania attorney general, Trump’s characterization is untrue. In a statement last week, the state’s top prosecutor, Michelle Henry, said that “the investigations regard voter registration forms, not ballots.”

On Monday, Lancaster County officials also updated that out of the approximately 2,500 applications under investigation, more than half were confirmed to be valid. According to Lancaster County Commissioner Ray D’Agostino, 57% of the applications were verified, 17% were determined to be fraudulent, and 26% are still being investigated and are either incomplete or not verified.

D’Agostino stressed that the investigation with the DA is still ongoing. “We take this very seriously,” he said.

In York County, officials last week said their investigation into a batch of 3,087 applications led to 47% having been “verified as legitimate” and were approved, 29% were incomplete and are pending, and 24% were declined and are being investigated by the DA.

Election officials have emphasized that this alleged fraud was contained and stopped — and say the instance highlights the effectiveness of the system. Henry said the fraud attempts “have been defeated.”

“These attempts have been thwarted by the safeguards in place in Pennsylvania,” Henry said in her statement last week.
-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin

Over 80 million Americans have voted early

On the eve of Election Day, over 80 million Americans have voted early, according to the University of Florida Election Lab.

The tally includes both early in-person voting and absentee ballots.

Georgia Supreme Court reverses deadline extension for voters who received ballots late

In a win for the Republican National Committee, the Georgia Supreme Court on Monday ruled that thousands of voters whose mail-in ballots were delayed will not have extra time to send them back.

The ruling from the court reversed a lower judge’s ruling that had granted 3,000 voters an extension of the mail-in-ballot deadline, after Cobb County election officials admitted they missed the deadline to ship them out.

The deadline for mail-in ballots to be received in Georgia is Election Day — but the lower judge had given those voters an extension for them to be postmarked by election day and received by Nov. 8, the same deadline for overseas ballots.

The RNC had appealed the ruling, saying it was a violation of the election code and that voters still had other ways they could vote, including in person.

The Georgia Supreme Court ordered the Cobb board to “keep separate” the absentee ballots of those voters that are received after the deadline on Election Day but before Nov. 8 “in a secure, safe, and sealed container separate from other voted ballots.”

Cobb County had previously been ordered to ship out all of the delayed ballots by Nov. 1 with express shipping and overnight return envelopes.

The court also ordered the board to notify the voters by email, text or public announcement of the change.

-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin

Trump: ‘If we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole ball of wax’

At a rally in Reading, Pennsylvania, on Monday, Trump called on residents to turn out and vote tomorrow.

“If we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole ball of wax,” he said. “It’s over. It’s over.”

“We’re just one day away. Oh, we’ve been waiting for this. I’ve been waiting four years for this,” he said.

DC mayor says no known threats, but not taking any chances
Washington, D.C., officials say they have no credible threats to the city, however, they will be fully activating police and have received support from Virginia and Maryland law enforcement agencies.

“I feel very strong about the district’s preparation,” Mayor Muriel Bowser said Monday. “I feel very sad that this is the state of things to be honest with you, but the way that I deal with anxiety is to work and to make sure that we are as prepared as we can be, and that people, all people, win or lose, do the right thing.”

D.C. police will have increased patrols in key areas downtown and around the White House, Police Chief Pam Smith told reporters Monday.

“[The] proactive presence is a preventive measure, and while there is no credible threat to the District of Columbia, we want residents and visitors alike to feel sure that MPD is here prepared and dedicated to keep communities safe across all seven districts.,” Smith said.

The mayor said before Jan. 6 and the inauguration she expects to make a National Guard request for additional assistance, but no request will be made for election week.

-ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson

Judge’s decision coming ‘shortly’ on Elon Musk giveaway case

Philadelphia Judge Angelo Foglietta said he plans to issue a decision “shortly” after a nearly six-hour hearing over Elon Musk’s America PAC’s million-dollar giveaway, as Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is seeking an emergency injunction to stop the sweepstakes.

During closing arguments, a lawyer for Krasner called Musk’s giveaway “one of the great scams of the last 50 years” by deceiving more than a million swing state voters to sign a petition in the hopes of winning a million dollars.

“There is nothing random about that process,” the lawyer, John Summers, said. “This was a profound, devastating and widespread deception.”

Summers argued that Musk attempted to “influence the election” by encouraging hundreds of thousands of voters to sign a petition while preselecting the winners based on their “suitability” to serve as spokespeople for the political action committee. Summers argued that even if the lottery was not random, it’s still illegal under Pennsylvania law.

“They essentially advertised this as a lottery. It’s not a defense that what we said it was isn’t true,” Summers said.

Andy Taylor, a lawyer for Musk’s America PAC, argued that the DA’s case falls apart after today’s revelation that the alleged lottery awarded preselected winners.

“It’s an opportunity to earn. It’s not a chance to win,” Taylor said, emphasizing the winners’ roles as spokespeople for the PAC.

Taylor emphasized that the case centers on a petition in support of the First and Second amendments, arguing that shutting down the giveaway would infringe on free speech.

“You are going to smother in the crib the rights of millions of Pennsylvanians from exercising constitutional magnitude free speech,” Taylor said.

Speaking outside court, Krasner’s attorney declined to comment on the specifics of the case, simply acknowledging, “It’s in the hands of the judge.”

-ABC News’ Peter Charalambous

CISA continues to see threats toward election officials

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency continues to see threats towards election officials a day before Election Day, according to a top official for CISA, the cyber arm of the Department of Homeland Security.

In a call to reporters Monday, Cait Conley, who is in charge of CISA’s election security portfolio, called these threats “fundamentally un-American.”

CISA Director Jen Easterly said most local elections officials are in touch with law enforcement.

“We’ve not seen specific reporting about violence at polling places, so I certainly don’t want voters to feel at all intimidated about going to voting locations,” Easterly said, saying it should “really be a day of celebration.”

Easterly said they “expect” disruptions throughout Election Day, and they are prepared for it. Foreign adversaries — particularly Russia, China and Iran — are looking to “undermine American confidence and the legitimacy of our elections and to stoke partisan discord,” she said.

-ABC News’ Luke Barr

Trump campaign looks to Vance to help them over the finish line in Pennsylvania

From the moment he arrived in Milwaukee, after being named former President Donald Trump’s running mate, it was clear that one of Sen. JD Vance’s primary roles was to help deliver battleground Pennsylvania for the former president.

The day Vance was announced as Trump’s vice presidential pick in July, Trump told ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jon Karl that he was “going to leave [Vance] in Pennsylvania.”

Pennsylvania’s importance in this election can’t be overstated — it’s a crucial swing state with 19 coveted electoral votes where Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are neck and neck. Whoever wins the state is very likely win the presidential election. During the 2020 election, Pennsylvania was the state that sealed the presidency for President Joe Biden.

Click here to read more about Vance’s efforts in Pennsylvania.

-ABC News’ Hannah Demissie

Musk’s sweepstakes winners were vetted, signed NDAs: Political adviser

Before announcing the winners of Elon Musk’s $1 million giveaway, America PAC employees conducted background checks on them, vetted their social media and had them sign non-disclosure agreements, Elon Musk’s political adviser Chris Young testified during an ongoing hearing in Philadelphia on Monday.

The inside look at how winners were selected is at odds with how Musk himself described the “random” selection process.

“Were you surprised that he used the word ‘randomly’?” Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s attorney, John Summers, asked.

“That’s not the word I would have selected,” Young said.

Young testified that he reviewed candidates based on the location of Musk’s next rally before vetting the people who signed America PAC’s petition in support of the First and Second amendments.

“I essentially used the petition like a job application,” Young said, with America PAC considering the number of eligible voters that the candidate referred to the petition, their personality and social media history.

According to Young, Musk was notified when a candidate was selected. Young also said that winners signed non-disclosure agreements preventing them from talking publicly about their “consulting agreements.”

While the testimony contradicts Musk’s public statements, Young insisted that the winners “earned” their money by doing work on behalf of the PAC, seemingly supporting the defense argument that the giveaway is not an illegal lottery.

“Anyone who participated in the program knew what they were entitled to for their participation in the program,” Young said.

Closing arguments in the hearing will happen after a brief break.

-ABC News’ Peter Charalambous

‘Candidates don’t get to decide who wins elections’: Michigan secretary of state

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson was asked during a press briefing Monday about the possibility that Trump could declare victory tomorrow before all the votes are actually counted.

“Candidates don’t get to decide who wins elections, voters do,” Benson responded. “And so we will keep reminding folks of that truth. Candidates certainly can say and will say whatever they want to say, it doesn’t change the facts. It doesn’t change the tallies of the votes that are cast on paper ballots that will be audited after the fact and securely tabulated throughout the election to ensure the accuracy of the results, whatever those results may be.”

Benson added that they “hope and expect and ask all the candidates to respect the will of the people and respect those results, and to not claim something is true when it’s not.”

In 2020, Trump claimed to have won the election only hours after polls closed on Nov. 3, 2020, before final results were in.

Benson said she and her staff will be debunking false statements and conspiracy theories as they arise, but that “truth and transparency are on our side.”

“We’ve seen how completely innocent things can be misused to spread false aspersions about our election, so let’s all be vigilant,” she said.

She also urged the public to question what they see on social media.

“Don’t assume anything that you’re seeing from a source other than a trusted voice or an election official has truth until you cross-check it with other sources of information,” she said.

-ABC News’ Mike Levine

Trump expected to host dinners at Mar-a-Lago on election night with club members, donors and close friends

Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to host multiple dinners on election night at his Mar-a-Lago club — including with his close friends, donors and club members, multiple sources familiar with the dinners told ABC News.

Trump is expected to dine with an intimate group of close friends Tuesday night, and there will be a separate Mar-a-Lago club member dinner in the ballroom. A source familiar with the dinners said there won’t be any formal speeches but Trump will likely stop by to greet them all.

Earlier that day, Trump is expected to cast his vote in Palm Beach, Florida.

Several of the attendees of the dinners told ABC News that they’re planning on heading over to the Palm Beach Convention Center after the dinner.

-ABC News’ Soo Rin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh

Harris emphasizes unity while addressing canvassers in Pennsylvania

Harris addressed canvassers in Scranton, Pennsylvania, ahead of a rally later this afternoon in the battleground state, where she emphasized building community and unity.

“I can feel the mood in here because it’s the best of who we are as a democracy,” Harris said at the event at the Montage Mountain Resort. “We are a people-driven campaign, and we love the people, and we see in the face of a stranger a neighbor, right? And that’s the spirit of what we are doing.”

She said the “whole era of this other guy” and discussion about “trying to point fingers at each other and divide each other” makes people feel alone.

“As we are getting out to vote, as we are canvassing, let’s be intentional about building community, about building community, about building coalitions, about reminding people we all have so much more in common than what separates us,” she said.

CAIR sends 600,000 texts to Muslim voters asking them to vote

The nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organization has sent out 600,000 text messages to ask American Muslim voters to vote on Election Day. The Council on American-Islamic Relations has been targeting Muslim voters across the country, including those in key swing states.

CAIR has not endorsed a candidate and will not do so as a 501(c)(3) organization. However, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement, “Turnout numbers for our community so far are promising, but they need to be much higher. We encourage all remaining American Muslim voters to show up on Election Day.”

Acknowledging some Muslim American’s views on the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict, Awad acknowledged that many may be “disillusioned and frustrated due to U.S. support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”

“But sitting on the sidelines of this election will not help the people of Gaza or anyone else,” Awad said. “Elected officials take communities seriously when they fully participate in the political process, including by exercising their right to vote. No matter who you support, showing up to vote is a display of political strength.”

In recent months, some Muslim American activists have called on Muslim Americans to mobilize as a way of leveraging the community’s power post-election.

-ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson

Pennsylvania secretary of state: Election will be ‘safe and secure’

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt projected confidence about the security of the election, saying it will be “free, fair, safe and secure,” during brief remarks Monday.

Schmidt warned Pennsylvania voters to “remain vigilant” about any last-minute misinformation and disinformation that may try to persuade them not to vote.

Schmidt also seemed to try to set expectations for the timing of results in the key battleground state, reminding people that Pennsylvania has “never” had final official results on election night regardless of when the media have called the state.

“We can’t predict what percentage of those votes will be counted on election night,” Schmidt said.

He noted that 2 million mail-in ballots have been returned so far, which officials can’t begin opening until Tuesday morning.

“That means election officials can’t even remove the ballot from their envelope,” Schmidt underscored.

He said counties will begin to submit unofficial election results beginning at 8 p.m. ET — and will continue updating throughout the night and “in the subsequent days.”

-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin

Trump tells hurricane victims to ‘sit back and relax’ at poorly attended NC rally

Former President Donald Trump kicked off his final day on the campaign trail Monday at a poorly attended rally in North Carolina, where the venue was at least a third empty.

Sparsely populated to begin with, dozens of people left the venue in a steady stream throughout the rambling, unfocused speech.

At one point, Trump told North Carolinians who are desperately waiting for help after hurricane devastation to “sit back and relax” until he takes office.

“Those people, they better get that FEMA here fast. But we’re going to on Jan. 20,” Trump said. “Just tell everybody to sit back, relax. On Jan. 20, you’ll see people come in and help you out like we did in the past.”

-ABC News’ Soo Rin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh

Trump tells hurricane victims to ‘sit back and relax’ at poorly attended NC rally

Former President Donald Trump kicked off his final day on the campaign trail Monday at a poorly attended rally in North Carolina, where the venue was at least a third empty.

Sparsely populated to begin with, dozens of people left the venue in a steady stream throughout the rambling, unfocused speech.

At one point, Trump told North Carolinians who are desperately waiting for help after hurricane devastation to “sit back and relax” until he takes office.

“Those people, they better get that FEMA here fast. But we’re going to on Jan. 20,” Trump said. “Just tell everybody to sit back, relax. On Jan. 20, you’ll see people come in and help you out like we did in the past.”

-ABC News’ Soo Rin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh

Philly DA wraps up testimony during hearing on Musk giveaway

During his two-hour testimony at an ongoing hearing over Elon Musk and his super PAC’s $1 million voter sweepstakes, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner characterized America PAC’s admission that winners are preselected as the “most amazingly disingenuous defense I have ever heard.”

“This was all political marketing masquerading as a lottery,” Krasner said during the hearing in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas. “This has been a grift from the beginning. This has been a scam from the very beginning.”

According to Chris Gober, a lawyer for Musk and America PAC, the winners were selected based on their “suitability” as spokespeople, signed a contract and received the million dollars as a “salary” for their work, despite Musk himself publicly saying that winners would be selected “randomly.”

Krasner’s attorney, John Summers, described the claim as “a flat-out admission of liability.” While America PAC has openly acknowledged that winners would serve as spokespeople, the hearing marks the first time they have disclosed that the winners were preselected.

“It is deceptive. It is misleading. It is taking advantage of people,” Krasner said. “They are doing everything under the sun to cover it up.”

Musk’s lawyers have repeatedly argued that the case itself is politically motivated, accusing Krasner of creating a “political circus.” Krasner’s attorney attempted to counter that argument by mentioning that Krasner drives a Tesla — made by the electric car company owned by Musk — and would theoretically bring the same case against Taylor Swift if she arranged a similar scheme for Harris.

“I have brought action against Democrats in the past,” Krasner said. “I would have brought an action against Taylor Swift if she did this. As far as I know, she didn’t.”

The court is currently on a lunch break following testimony from Krasner, who was the hearing’s first witness.

-ABC News’ Peter Charalambous

Harris supporters say they know Republicans who are secretly voting for her

Several Harris supporters at her rally in battleground Michigan on Sunday told ABC News they were confident in Harris’ prospects because they knew Republicans in their community who are casting a ballot for Harris — many of them secretly.

Andrea Galindo said she believes Harris will win “because I know a lot of Republicans voted Democrat.”

Mike Arvizu said his father is a lifelong Republican who is voting for Harris.

“If my father-in-law can do it, there’s a lot more people out there,” Arvizu said.

Their optimism reflects a defining strategy of the Harris campaign: to reach every possible voter in battlegrounds, including Republicans and independents. In her final rally speeches, the vice president is stressing that she would invite those who disagree with her to have a seat at the table.

But voters said that the toxic and divisive nature of politics today means that many of these Republicans aren’t openly saying that they’re backing Harris.

“We’ve become so divided in this country that people don’t even have Thanksgiving with their own family members anymore. I think there is a fear in this country about even talking about politics, especially if you don’t know if someone agrees with you,” said Curtis Hertel, who is running for Congress in Michigan.

But Hertel said he’s seeing more conversation now across party lines, with Harris canvassers making headway even in deep-red areas like Livingston County.

-ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Selina Wang

North Carolina elections chief pleads for ‘peaceful transition of power’

On the eve of Election Day, the head of elections in the battleground state of North Carolina has issued an on-camera plea to candidates on the ballot tomorrow: “I would just make a plea to the candidates and elected officials: Have a peaceful transition of power. Accept the results. Concede defeat when necessary,” Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the state’s board of elections, said during a press conference Monday.

While saying that “there’s more hostility” this election, she also urged candidates, voters and others to “please recognize” that election workers are “members of this community” who have “sworn oaths … [as part of] a bipartisan effort to ensure that every eligible voter is able to cast their ballot, and that these results are tabulated and determined securely, accurately and correctly.”

“Please treat others with dignity and respect,” she said, adding that state and federal law forbids people from trying to intimidate voters or interfere with election officials carrying out there duties — and the penalties can include prison time or fines, or both.

-ABC News’ Mike Levine

‘Swifties for Kamala’ target 250,000 Pennsylvania voters via mailers in closing push

“Swifties for Kamala,” the grassroots organization of Taylor Swift fans working to elect former Vice President Kamala Harris, announced over the weekend they had sent over 250,000 mailers to Pennsylvania voters encouraging them to pledge their support to Harris, make a voting plan and encourage their friends to do the same.

Included in 50,000 of the mailers were friendship bracelets beaded with the words “voting era,” a reference to the bracelets fans trade at Swift’s Eras Tour.

“Every vote in this election matters, especially in Pennsylvania, which could be the state that makes the planets and the fates and all the stars align for VP Harris,” the mailers read. “We think you belong in the voting booth because we are never going back, like ever.”

-ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd

Walz appeals to Wisconsin voters: Election ‘could be won’ through state

Tim Walz called on voters in battleground Wisconsin to vote for an “optimistic” future during a rally in La Crosse.

“This election could be won, quite literally, through the state of Wisconsin, and it could be won right here through La Crosse,” Harris’ running mate said. “That’s how close this thing could be. So we’re taking nothing for granted.”

Walz addressed policies he and Harris will focus on, including working to lower the cost of living for middle class Americans, addressing price gouging on groceries and making reproductive rights enshrined into law.

He said they have an opportunity to vote for “a future that either goes backwards — is divisive, dark and angry — or one that is hopeful, unified, inclusive.”

Musk’s attorney says winners of America PAC giveaway not chosen by chance

At an ongoing hearing in Philadelphia over Elon Musk and his super PAC’s $1 million voter sweepstakes, a defense attorney said the giveaway is a way to recruit spokespeople for America PAC, while the Philadelphia district attorney testified it is a “scam.”

According to defense attorney Chris Gober, the recipients of the million-dollar checks sign contracts after being selected from a pool of people who signed the petition to serve as a spokesperson for the PAC. Tomorrow’s winner has already been decided to be a registered voter from Michigan.

“They were not chosen by chance,” Gober said during the hearing in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas.

Minutes later, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s team played a video in court where Musk vowed the money would be awarded “randomly.”

“So I have a surprise for you, which is that we are going to be awarding a million dollars randomly to people who have signed the petition every day from now until the election,” Musk told a crowd in Pennsylvania on Oct. 19.

Testifying from the witness stand, Krasner slammed the giveaway as a “scam” and “grift” intended to “flood money into American elections.”

“That ain’t a contract and that’s not employment,” an animated Krasner, the first witness in the hearing, said. “There are certain words that stick out — awarding. Doesn’t sound like a spokesperson contract.”

“It is unquestionably supposed to be random selection despite what I think is a very disingenuous version of it that I think I heard today,” Krasner said.

Krasner testified that the America PAC has effectively scammed Philadelphia residents out of their personal information — which they entered to sign the petition to enter into the giveaway — while the giveaway never actually offered them a random chance of winning the million-dollar prize.

“They were scammed for their information,” said Krasner, who is asking a judge to immediately stop the giveaway.

-ABC News’ Peter Charalambous

Former Rep. Liz Cheney responds to Trump’s violent rhetoric about her, compares him to an autocrat

Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney responded to former President Donald Trump’s attacks on her in an interview with ABC’s “The View” on Monday, including a remark he made suggesting she should “have guns trained on her face.”

“He knows what he’s doing,” Cheney said. “He knows it’s a threat with the intent to intimidate. Obviously, the intimidation won’t work.”

Cheney emphasized Trump’s history of violent rhetoric, including how he responded to the violence on Jan. 6.

“For over three hours, he watched police officers be brutally beaten. He was told the vice president had been evacuated, he said, ‘So what?'” Cheney said. “People were rushing in, pleading with him, ‘Tell the mob to leave,’ and he wouldn’t.”

“That level of depravity, he knows he has no defense to that, and he knows that the American people will not entrust again with power anyone who would do something that cruel,” she continued. “And so because he can’t respond to that, he tries to change the subject, he tries to threaten. It’s what autocrats do to try to get their political adversaries to be silent.”

Vance: ‘Tomorrow is our last chance’

JD Vance addressed voters in Wisconsin during a rally in La Crosse on Monday.

“Tomorrow is our last chance,” Trump’s running mate said. “Tomorrow is the big day when we are going to vote in very big numbers in the state of Wisconsin. We’re going to vote for change. We’re going to vote for American prosperity.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is also campaigning in Wisconsin on Monday. Vance called it “tough work” to “convince the American people” that Harris can be president.

“I think that’s the toughest job in the United States of America,” Vance said, saying Harris is “more of the same” high grocery prices, unaffordable housing and “wide open border.”

Alabama GOP mobilizes 400 poll workers in Georgia and Alabama

The Alabama Republican Party announced on Monday it has launched its most comprehensive poll watcher deployment, with more than 400 poll watchers and election lawyers in Georgia and Alabama.

Over 200 Alabama poll watchers and dozens of election lawyers will be stationed in targeted districts across Alabama, which the party says is part of an effort to ensure a “secure and transparent election process.” The Alabama GOP added that the placement of election lawyers across the state “provides an extra layer of security and real-time responsiveness.”

The Alabama GOP is also deploying more than 200 poll watchers to Georgia, supporting the critical southern battleground state on behalf of former President Donald Trump’s campaign.

-ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson

Trump speaks at campaign rally in Raleigh

At a campaign rally Monday in Raleigh, former President Donald Trump urged his supporters to turn up to the polls on Election Day.

“If we get everybody out and vote, there’s not a thing they can do,” Trump told the crowd of North Carolinians, saying the state was “ours to lose.”

Trump smeared the Democratic Party as a “horrendously dangerous party that’s going to destroy our country.”

“We cannot let that happen,” he said. “So here’s my only purpose in even being here today: Get out and vote.”

Musk doesn’t show at hearing on Philly DA’s challenge to $1 million giveaways

Elon Musk was a no-show at the hearing over his $1 million voter sweepstakes in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas on Monday.

Entering court without his client, Musk’s attorney, Chris Gober, criticized Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner for wanting to “silence Elon Musk for supporting Donald Trump.”

“We don’t allow our rights to be trampled upon bipartisan agendas masquerading as legal arguments,” Gober said.

In a late filing this morning, Krasner’s attorney continued to push for Musk to attend the hearing in person because his testimony would demonstrate “he is the beating heart of America PAC’s unlawful lottery and deceptive/unfair practices scheme.”

“Musk cannot distract from his central role by saying that he wants to be busy out campaigning, rather than attending to his responsibilities to this Court,” attorney John Summers said in the filing.

Earlier this morning, America PAC announced that the newest winner of their daily $1 million giveaway is a registered voter from Phoenix. One day remains until the sweepstakes ends on Election Day.

-ABC News’ Peter Charalambous and Chris Boccia

How Nebraska’s ‘blue dot’ could prove pivotal in the Electoral College

Amid an increasingly tight election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in several key swing states, Nebraska, and more specifically, its 2nd Congressional District, has taken on an outsize role in this year’s presidential election.

Because Nebraska currently awards three of its five Electoral College votes based on the results in each of its three congressional districts, the so-called “blue dot,” as the 2nd district has come to be known, could be critical to either campaign’s path to 270 electoral votes.

Early vote tops 78 million

As of 5:30 a.m. ET on Monday, more than 78 million Americans have voted early (a combination of absentee and early, in-person totals), according to the Election Lab at the University of Florida.

The total breaks down into 42,654,364 in-person early votes and 35,348,858 mail ballots returned.

The number of in-person early votes has surpassed 2020’s total number of in-person early votes. However, the overall number of early votes so far (including mail-in and absentee ballots) is still lower than 2020’s overall number.

-ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim

Jeffries says Republicans ‘will take a blow torch’ to social security

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told Good Morning America on Monday that Democrats are “on the right side” of the presidential election’s most pressing issues.

“The extreme MAGA Republicans have clearly and unequivocally articulated what they will do to America moving forward,” Jeffries said.

“They will take a blow torch to social security, they will take a blow torch to Medicare, they will take a blow torch to the Affordable Care Act,” Jeffries said.

Vice President Kamala Harris, Jeffries said, is “closing with a positive vision” while former President Donald Trump and his Republican party are “trying to tear us apart.”

Jeffries will become House speaker if Democrats win back control of the chamber this week.

“The majority of current House Republicans voted not to certify the election in 2020,” Jeffries said. “My colleagues on the other side of the aisle don’t seem to be capable of unequivocally saying that they will certify the election and the verdict that is rendered by the American people.”

“As House Democrats, that’s what we will do,” Jeffries added.

“We believe in democracy even when we disagree with the outcome. That’s been part of what’s made America the greatest democracy in the history of the world.”

Candidates vie for every vote in key swing states

Highlighting how important Pennsylvania and its 19 electoral votes are to her campaign, Kamala Harris is spending her last full day on the trail with multiple events in the state.

Her search for voters includes a rally in Allentown and then she ends with an event in Philadelphia.

Donald Trump is trying to shore up support in battleground North Carolina – where Harris has made inroads – for a rally in Raleigh, before he, too, heads to Pennsylvania for events in Reading and Pittsburgh before ending his final day campaigning in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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