Judge rejects GOP challenge of Mississippi timeline for counting absentee ballots
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by the Republican National Committee that sought to block Mississippi from counting absentee ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but received up to five days after after it.
Wisconsin Supreme Court changes course, will allow expanded use of ballot drop boxes this fall
The Wisconsin Supreme Court is changing course and will allow officials to place ballot drop boxes around their communities in this fall's elections in the presidential swing state.
New law requires all Louisiana public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments
Louisiana has become the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom.
Nevada can start tabulating ballots earlier on Election Day for quicker results
Nevada election officials can start tabulating in-person Election Day votes as they come in, rather than waiting for polls to close.
After blaming his 2020 loss on mail balloting, Trump tries to make GOP voters believe itโs OK now
At rallies and in social media posts, former President Donald Trump has been trying to assure Republican voters that casting ballots by mail and other forms of early voting are โall good options.โ.
Republicans file lawsuit to block count of Nevada mail ballots received after Election Day
The Republican National Committee is suing to stop Nevada from being able to count mail ballots received in election offices after Election Day.
GOPโs David Owen wins Virginia legislative race over Democratic opponent who livestreamed sex videos
Republican businessman David Owen has won election to Virginiaโs House of Delegates against Democratic opponent Susanna Gibson.
Ohio's Issue 1 would have made protecting abortion rights harder. Data shows why it failed
Ohio voters have rejected a proposal that would've made it more difficult for voters to amend the state constitution, including one measure set for the November ballot that would guarantee abortion rights in the state.
Republicans set to push mail ballots, voting methods they previously blasted as recipes for fraud
After years of criticizing mail voting and so-called ballot harvesting as ripe for fraud, Republicans at the top of the party want to change course.
Nonprofits strain to support voters in Georgia Senate race
Nonprofit organizations in Georgia are digging deep to ramp up their operations again after Election Day to inform voters about the closely watched runoff race for one of the state's Senate seats.
Midterms free of feared chaos as voting experts look to 2024
Fears of aggressive poll watchers sowing chaos at polling stations or conservative groups trying to intimidate votes didn't materialize on Election Day as many election officials and voting rights experts had feared.
Lengthy vote counts frustrate, but don't signal problems
Lengthy vote counts in states such as Arizona or California can frustrate candidates and their supporters, but they don't indicate anything is wrong with the voting or the tallying of ballots.
Fight over election tally threatens Arizona certification
The two Republicans who control the elected board in a rural Arizona county have sued their own election director to force her to conduct a greatly expanded hand-count of ballots cast in the Nov. 8 election.
Why AP called the Arizona's governor race for Katie Hobbs
The Associated Press called the Arizona governorโs race for Democrat Katie Hobbs on Monday after the latest round of vote releases gave her a lead that the AP determined she would not relinquish.
Supreme Court rejects another bump stock ban case
The Supreme Court has again declined to hear a lawsuit involving a Trump-era ban on bump stocks, the gun attachments that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly like machine guns.
Why the AP called the Arizona Senate race for Mark Kelly
Blake Masters wasnโt posting the numbers of votes he needed in Election Day ballots as they were counted and released days later by officials in Arizonaโs biggest county.
COUNTY-BY-COUNTY: Here are Central Floridaโs early voting figures ahead of Election Day
With Election Day on Tuesday, here are the numbers for Central Florida's early voters and mail-in ballots ahead of the midterms.
How to read your social media feeds on Election Day
Voters in the U.S. who go on Twitter, TikTok, Facebook or other platforms to learn about Tuesdayโs pivotal midterm elections are likely to encounter rumors, hearsay and misinformation.
Tropical moisture could reach Central Florida by Election Day
Conditions into next week will continue to become more unsettled as a low-pressure system over the southwestern Atlantic approaches the Florida east coast by mid-week.
โSit down and shut up:โ Lake supervisor of elections battles voting misinformation
Alan Hays, Lake Countyโs supervisor of elections, said voting misinformation is inviting disaster ahead of Election Day.
GOP voters told to hold onto mail ballots until Election Day
Republican activists who believe the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump have crafted a plan that, in their telling, will thwart cheating in this yearโs midterm elections.
EXPLAINER: What to expect at polling places this year
Voting could feel different in this year's midterms, as the election falsehoods told by former President Donald Trump and many of his supporters have created a ripple effect across the country.
Sample ballots are going out across Central Florida. How to see yours online
Voters should check their mailboxes over the next couple of weeks for an important mailer that will help them before the November election.
Nevada county's plans to hand-count early ballots challenged
A rural county in Nevada where conspiracy theories about voting machines run deep is planning to start hand-counting its mail-in ballots two weeks before Election Day, but the process risks public release of early voting results.
In-person voting starts in Minnesota, 3 other early states
In-person voting for the midterm elections has started in Minnesota, South Dakota, Virginia and Wyoming, in a landscape that has changed since the pandemic drove a shift to mail balloting in the 2020 presidential contest.
Central Florida election officials remind voters to check their polling location
Ahead of the primary election Tuesday, election leaders are reminding people who plan to vote in person on election day that it must be at their assigned polling location.
EXPLAINER: How mailed ballots slow results in Pennsylvania
Counting of mailed ballots in Pennsylvania is drawing renewed scrutiny amid a too-close-to-call U.S. Senate primary between Republicans David McCormick and Dr. Mehmet Oz. Former President Donald Trump blasted the stateโs elections procedures on social media, even though there are no indications of any wrongdoing with those ballots other than a printing error that was slowing the tally in one county.
Judge: Same-sex marriage license denials violated rights
A federal judge has ruled that a former Kentucky clerk violated the constitutional rights of two same-sex couples, who were among those to whom she wouldnโt issue marriage licenses.
Midterm elections are less than 1 year away. Hereโs an early overview of what to expect in 2022.
For those who enjoyed a break from political ads for a little while, get used to them ramping up again after the holiday season, if not sooner.
Report shows big spike in mail ballots during 2020 election
A new report shows fewer than one-third of voters who cast ballots in last yearโs U.S. presidential election did so at a polling place on Election Day as the coronavirus pandemic led states to greatly expand mail-in balloting and early voting.
Wisconsin Supreme Court says don't purge voters from rolls
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has ruled that the state elections commission should not remove from the rolls voters flagged as possibly having moved, something conservatives have wanted done for nearly two years.
EXPLAINER: Varying views on how to keep accurate voter rolls
Maintaining accurate voter rolls is a bipartisan concern, but there is little agreement on the best way to do it. Republicans say Democrats are too lax, resulting in bloated voter rolls that undermine confidence and invite fraud. Here is an explanation of how voter rolls are maintained, how states do it differently and the conflicts over this yearโs legislative proposals. WHAT ARE VOTER ROLLS AND HOW ARE THEY MAINTAINED? In 2016, New York Cityโs Board of Elections improperly removed more than 200,000 names from the voter rolls.
Sick of 2021? โJust Scream!โ hotline offers relief
If youโve been screaming on the inside for the last few months, now you can do it out loud for all the world to hear. is a hotline that lets you scream into your phone. Elementary school teacher Chris Gollmar created the project to help people reduce their stress. The hotline was launched just before Election Day and Gollmar says since then heโs received more than 70,000 phone calls. To get in on the screaming action or to just listen to others scream, click here.
Biden win over Trump in Nevada made official by court
The Nevada Supreme Court made Joe Biden's win in the state official on Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020, approving the final canvass of the Nov. 3 election. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)LAS VEGAS โ The Nevada Supreme Court made Joe Bidenโs win in the state official on Tuesday, approving the state's final canvass of the Nov. 3 election. Steve Sisolak results that will deliver six electoral votes from the western U.S. battleground state to Biden. Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican who has avoided the public eye in recent weeks, presented the results to the court. That was up from a turnout of 76.8% during the presidential election in 2016, when Democrat Hillary Clinton carried Nevada by a little under 2.5% over Trump.
Transition or tropics? EPA chief looks at final trips abroad
After months of travel to battleground states before Election Day, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency now is looking at taxpayer-funded trips abroad, including the tropics, in the Trump administration's last weeks. Administrator Andrew Wheeler had been invited next month to Taiwan, a trip with an estimated cost of $45,000, EPA spokesman James Hewitt said Thursday. โAdministrator Wheeler remains head of the agency and will continue to advance environmental progress both here and abroad,โ Hewitt said. The New York Times, which first reported Wheelerโs travel plans, said Wheeler and other EPA officials were expected to travel by chartered flight to minimize exposure to the coronavirus. Hewitt, the EPA spokesman, did not immediately respond to a question asking whether Wheeler was doing any planning to help the agency transition from one administration to the next.
Native American votes helped secure Biden's win in Arizona
Native Americans were among the difference-makers who swung the race to Biden in Arizona. That show of force is now translating into leverage for Native Americans seeking more representation in top levels of the federal government. Native voters say they were motivated by many of the same things as other voters. She also was part of a group helping to boost voting among Native Americans. โPeople need to start paying attention to not only Navajo votes but across the board nationally, Native votes,โ Davis said.
Poll workers contract virus, but Election Day link unclear
FILE - In this Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020, file photo, poll workers assist a voter on Election Day at Frank McCourt High School, on New York's Upper West Side. Poll workers in some states who came in contact with voters on Election Day are now reporting they have tested positive for the coronavirus despite painstaking efforts to secure election sites. In most places, poll workers were required to wear masks. The cases emerged while election workers continued counting thousands of ballots. It's difficult to trace cases back to polling places because the virus manifests in different ways, and some people never get symptoms.
States cite smooth election, despite Trump's baseless claims
But the election was largely smooth, in large part because 107 million voters that cast their ballots early and took the pressure off Election Day operations. Election experts said the large increase in advance voting โ 107 million people voting early in person and by mail โ helped take pressure off Election Day operations. Among the many lawsuits filed since Election Day is one in Nevada by the Trump campaign alleging voter fraud. โOn Election Day, we didnโt have any reports of anything significant," said Lisa Schaefer, who leads the bipartisan County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania. โThe system held up given the extraordinary circumstances that election officials faced,โ said Amber McReynolds, who leads the National Vote at Home Institute.
Trust Index: Are โillegalโ votes being counted?
Election officials in states across the country are releasing vote totals for the presidential election, some question the ballots being counted after Election Day. I easily WIN the Presidency of the United States with LEGAL VOTES CAST. โI easily win the Presidency of the United States with legal votes cast,โ President Trump posted on Twitter. Votes cast after the deadline in state law are not legally cast votes. โ Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) November 6, 2020โVotes cast after the deadline in state law are not legally cast votes,โ Rubio said.
EXPLAINER: What is a 'cured' ballot?
Here, Christina A. Cassidy, a reporter for The Associated Press who covers voting and election security, offers some insight into the post-election process for fixing ballots:UNDER WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES CAN A BALLOT BE CURED? In states that lack such a process, ballots with these problems are generally not counted. But a few states do not use signature verification to validate a mail ballot, including Pennsylvania. In a few states, if the problem is identified before Election Day, the voter is sent a replacement ballot. Partisan poll watchers can report concerns to party officials, who can raise objections and file lawsuits.
Analysis: Trump's vote diatribe both shocking, unsurprising
And he had demanded in advance that the results be known on Election Day, which is never a given. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell waited until Friday morning to tweet that โEvery legal vote should be counted. All sides must get to observe the process.โWhether that dynamic will continue if fuller election results deliver the presidency to Biden is another key unanswered question. If the vote count goes against him, does he really want to be remembered as the president who burned down the building on his way out the door? ___EDITORโS NOTE -- Nancy Benac is White House news editor and has covered government and politics for The Associated Press for four decades.
False claims of Wisconsin voter fraud rely on wrong numbers
The image Eric Trump shared in his post claimed that there was a huge, inexplicable increase in voter turnout in Wisconsin this year. The image showed voter turnout percentages during presidential elections over the last 20 years in Wisconsin, with voter turnout hitting 89.25% this year. The Wisconsin Elections Commission calculates voter turnout based on the entire voting-age population, not just registered voters. But as of 7 p.m. on Sunday, the Wisconsin Elections Commission reported 3,684,726 registered voters. The Wisconsin Elections Commission received โa lot of callsโ about the false rumors, said the state's top elections official Meagan Wolfe.
EXPLAINER: How much misinformation is kicking around?
Karen Mahabir, fact check and misinformation editor for The Associated Press, says her team of reporters has had no shortage of work since Americans stopped voting late Tuesday. Here, she answers three quick questions about the misinformation landscape at the moment. We know they stepped up all their efforts to curb misinformation, which seems to be working for the most part. They're taking action. ___SOME RECENT AP STORIES ABOUT MISINFORMATION:โ Claim that Sharpie pens ruin Arizona ballots misses the markโ Trump and allies spread falsehoods to cast doubt on electionโ Did social media actually counter election misinformation?
EXPLAINER: Have election-related protests materialized?
WASHINGTON โ Two days after Election Day, protests across the United States are scattered, happening in places from Portland, Oregon and Seattle to Washington, D.C. Similar protests โ sometimes about the election, sometimes about racial inequality โ took place in at least a half-dozen cities, including Los Angeles, Houston, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis and San Diego. In Portland, demonstrators engaged in what authorities said was widespread violence downtown. Here, Elizabeth Kennedy, deputy Washington bureau chief for The Associated Press, who is leading coverage of election-related protests, breaks down what AP journalists across the United States have been encountering. There was no widespread violence at the polls or in the immediate aftermath.
Long wait for Hawaii vote spurs call for more voter centers
FILE - In this Nov. 3, 2020, file photo, a long line of people waiting to vote stretches around City Hall on Election Day, in Honolulu. Overall, the stateโs vote-by-mail election appears to have been a big success, leading to record numbers of voters participating. The law also gives voters the option to vote in person at voter service centers, where people may also register to vote or get help with casting a ballot. Ma said people waited between two to four hours on Tuesday at the two voter centers on Oahu, an island with about 549,000 registered voters. Another factor was people who view voting in person on Election Day as sacrosanct and something they wanted to do.
Trumpโs Election Day surge powered by small-town America
With the race unsettled in several key battlegrounds, Trump's strong Election Day surge may not be enough to overcome a Democratic operation that also turned out its vote. But the tight presidential races and unexpected Democratic losses in congressional races demonstrated the resilient power of Trumpโs appeal with rural, white voters and a growing polarization that may outlast his leadership. โBut in this election we found itโs not ticking fast enough for the Democrats.โEven as the winner of the White House was unclear, Republicans had victories to celebrate Wednesday and white, rural voters to thank. Trump held one of his final, largest campaign rallies in Butler, drawing an estimated 54,000 people two days before Election Day. State Republicans spent months signing up new GOP registrants in the county โ the GOP netted 11,000 voters over Democrats since Trump's 2016 election.
After judge's order, Postal Service sweep finds 13 ballots
Postal Service inspectors found just 13 ballots โ all in Pennsylvania โ during an Election Day sweep of mail processing centers ordered by a federal judge. The ballots were found in two separate mail processing facilities and were expedited for delivery to local election offices, according to court records filed Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in Washington, D.C., had given the Postal Service until Tuesday afternoon to search 27 facilities in several battleground areas for outstanding ballots and immediately deliver any ballots discovered to election offices. Justice Department attorneys representing the Postal Service said they could not meet the judge's order without disrupting the agency's own Election Day operations. Instead, they are expedited directly to the boards of elections,โ Postal Service spokesman Dave Partenheimer said.
Election officials scramble to count ballots in key states
Unlike in previous years, states were contending with an avalanche of mail ballots driven by the global pandemic. Every election, whatโs reported on election night are unofficial results and the counting of votes extends past Election Day. This year, with so many mail ballots and close races in key states, counting every vote was expected to take more time. โThese ballots were cast by tens of thousands of Michigan citizens who have the right to have their vote counted. Slowing the process down was the fact that local election officials could not begin processing and scanning ballots ahead of Election Day, as most states did.
These 9 snap shots give a different view of Election Day across the nation
On Election Day, polls, โI votedโ stickers and maybe long lines may come to mind. Take a look at these snapshots from Election Day and see how it compared to yours. Ahmed Morsi brought his 1-month-old along to cast his vote on Election Day. It was all smiles on Election Day as the pair made their way to the ballot box -- and weโre talking about the horses. Dressed as a Continental soldier, Woods said the 2020 election is a historic one -- and Michigan is a key player.
Race to the White House: See all the possible ways Trump, Biden can still win US presidential election
Polls closed Tuesday night and yet on Wednesday, hours later, neither Donald Trump nor Joe Biden had the 270 electoral votes needed to secure a win in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Election Day is over, so whatโs the holdup? Vote tabulations routinely continue beyond Election Day, and states largely set the rules for when the count has to end. This embed is meant to serve only as a preview of what outcomes America could in the U.S. presidential election. As much as it pains me to write this, itโs possible this presidential election could end in a 269-269 Electoral College tie.
4,400 new COVID-19 cases reported in Florida amid ongoing election battle
As election workers continue to count votes, health officials are keeping tabs on new cases of COVID-19. On Wednesday the Florida Department of Health reported nearly 4,500 new cases. Coronavirus Cases Nov. 3Below is information provided by the Florida Department of Heath for Wednesday, Nov. 3. CasesThe Florida Department of Health reported 4,423 new cases on Wednesday, bringing the stateโs overall total to 821,123 cases since March. DeathsThe Florida Department of Health on Wednesday reported 32 people have recently died from COVID-19.
9 photos that prove Election Day 2020 was different than any other in recent years
Thereโs no doubt that Election Day this year was one for the books. After record-setting early voting, people still showed up in droves on Election Day to cast their ballot. Below are 10 photos -- all from Getty Images -- that give an indication of how different this Election Day looked. (2020 Getty Images)Protesters march through the streets around Black Lives Matter Plaza on Nov. 3 in Washington DC. (2020 Getty Images)Did you feel things were different this year?
Race for US president: Thereโs no winner yet and we donโt know when weโll find out
And the closer the margin in a state is, the more votes are needed for The Associated Press to declare a winner. There are also roughly 20 states that allow ballots received after Election Day to be counted if they were postmarked by the day of the election. Some states, including Florida, began counting absentee ballots days before Election Day โ and had definitive results within hours of the polls closing. And they will prevail.โVote tabulations routinely continue beyond Election Day, and states largely set the rules for when the count has to end. ___Eds: Story has been updated to correct that 2000 Supreme Court decision came more than a month after Election Day, not more than two months
Trump seeks to stop voting, but only counting remains
โWeโll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court โ we want all voting to stop,โ Trump said early Wednesday. No state will count absentee votes that are postmarked after Election Day. Let the rule of law work.โIn any event, there's no way to go directly to the high court with a claim of fraud. The high court refused before the election to rule out those ballots, but conservative justices indicated they could revisit the issue after the election. The Supreme Court also refused to block an extension for the receipt and counting of absentee ballots in North Carolina beyond the three days set by state law.