US elections live: Walz says ‘we’re feeling good about this’ as millions of Americans cast their ballots | US elections 2024

Reporting from Allentown, Pennsylvania:

Nearly every voter I’ve spoken with today has said the economy is their top issue.

Tiana Peters, a 39-year-old underwriter from Allentown is a Democrat, but she voted for Donald Trump. She also voted for Democrats in lower offices down the ticket.

“The last four years, nothing really good happened,” she said. “Giving away free money to the people that can’t afford houses, financially that doesn’t work, you know.”

“I’ve been wanting to buy a house for years now and under the current haven’t been able to do that. It’s just like half a million dollars for houses in the Lehigh Valley with four bedrooms. It’s just not doable for a family making middle class money.”

Sharonda Casey, 47, came to vote with her son Jamel, 30, and her mother, Barbara, 72 — three generations of her family. She said she voted for Kamala Harris. She cited the assistance Harris has pledged for first time homebuyers as one of the reasons she voted for Harris.

“Where we’re at, the tax credit my son you know having the credit to buy a new home and those promises that were made that’s what I’m voting for. I got a granddaughter — I’m not having more children unless it’s baby jesus, but I wanted to be for her future — but I wanted to be for her future and her right to go to the doctor and get care.

Elon Musk will spend election night with Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, the New York Times is reporting, citing multiple sources.

The tech billionaire will be among a “small group” of people watching the election results with Trump as they come in, the paper writes.

Musk has spent at least $119m on a Super Pac supporting Trump and the two talk several times a week, it says.

The voters in line to cast their ballots at the North Las Vegas city hall voting center Tuesday morning exemplified why Clark County, Nevada is such a bellwether in the election.

About half of all Nevada voters live in this region, in a key swing state where elections have been won and lost by exceptionally slim margins.

In a diverse city with a large proportion of non-partisan voters, locals were carrying deeply varied visions for the future with them as they headed to the polls.

Jimmy McDill, 49, a non-partisan who had dressed up for the occasion in a dashing lavender suit, said he was looking forward to voting for Kamala Harris – in large part because he believes she will help protect Medicare.

McDill, who is disabled, said he worries that Donald Trump would slash medical benefits for low income and disabled Americans like him. A registered non-partisan, McDill said he has voted in every election since he was 18, and has supported candidates from both major political parties. Though, he can’t remember the last time he’s backed a Republican for president.

“Was Hillary Clinton a Republican?” he said, laughing. “No, no she wasn’t. I just can’t recall the last Republican, then.”

Right in front of him in line, Patricia Bradley, 64, was also planning to cast a ballot for Harris. Abortion was top of mind for her, and she was looking forward to voting for Harris and Democratic senator Jacky Rosen, both of whom have made reproductive rights a key focus of their campaigns.

She was also planning to vote for Question 6, a ballot initiative to enshrine abortion access in the Nevada constitution. “I’m feeling kind of nervous,” she said. “But we need to go do our parts today.”

Meanwhile, Idania Oliva, 45, who had come to vote with her mother and mother-in-law, said she was excited to vote for Trump. “He’s for moral values,” she said. She is deeply opposed to abortions, and trusted Trump to restrict access, and secure the US southern border.

“Trump is for God,” she said. “And God is number one.”

A man was arrested by US Capitol police officers at the Capitol visitor center in Washington DC, police said.

The man “smelled like fuel” and had “a torch” and “a flare gun” when he was stopped by officers during a screening process at the center, police said.

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

Reporting from Allentown, Pennsylvania:

Eric Pitre Acevedo is Puerto Rican and was upset by the racist joke a comedian made at Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden late last month.

Acevedo still voted for Trump.

“I feel a little weird voting for him, but I still think he’s gonna be a good president,” he said, standing outside a polling place in Allentown.

“He believes in the family,” he added, expressing concern over how Kamala Harris has handled transgender issues.

Lauren Gambino

The Harris Walz campaign says the vice-president has called into more drive-time radio stations in key battleground states, timing the interviews to the lunchtime hour to encourage Americans to vote.

Harris called into Wisconsin (101.7 The Truth in Milwaukee), Nevada (KCEP with Lady AK in Las Vegas), and Radio Campesina Network (which is based in Phoenix, Arizona, but is also carried in Nevada, among other states).

The campaign says she will do more radio call-ins later today.

Kamala Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz, spoke to reporters before boarding a plane from Pennsylvania to Washington DC during which he said he was “feeling good about this.”

Walz said he has not spoken with Harris in the last 24 hours but praised her remarks at last night’s final campaign rally in Philadelphia.

Asked if he believes that Donald Trump will concede the election if he loses, Walz said he thought Trump “probably will” concede.

He also pledged to “shake hands and work for the winner” if Harris loses.

Advisers urge Trump to declare victory prematurely on election night

Hugo Lowell

Donald Trump has been told by some advisers that he should prematurely declare victory on election night if he’s sufficiently ahead of Kamala Harris in key battleground states like Pennsylvania, according to people close to him, though whether he will heed that advice remains unclear.

The consensus view is that Trump has nothing to lose by claiming he has won if he has a several-hundred-thousand-vote advantage in Pennsylvania or if his internal pollsters think a victory is plausible even if the results are not fully confirmed on Tuesday night.

But even Trump’s most pugnacious allies – including the former White House strategist Steven Bannon who spoke with him last week, one of the people said – have suggested he hold off making a pronouncement if the race is any closer by the time he goes to bed, lest it makes him look foolish.

In the final days of the campaign, Trump and his campaign have projected confidence. It has raised expectations among his supporters that he will win, laying the groundwork for baselessly claiming the election was stolen if he loses and Harris takes the White House. Any premature declaration of victory would also probably play into that phenomenon.

Here’s a clip from Donald Trump after casting his ballot in West Palm Beach, Florida, with his wife, Melania.

Trump told reporters he felt “very confident” and that he was “very honored to find out the lines are long, the conservative lines, the Republican lines.”

Lauren Gambino

Kamala Harris is spending the day at the Naval Observatory, the vice-president’s residence in Washington.

The public is not expected to see the Democratic nominee until later tonight, where she is poised to deliver remarks at Howard University, her alma mater, in Washington DC.

After a sprint across Pennsylvania, Harris arrived at her residence hours before polls opened in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

She spent part of her day calling into radio stations in an eleventh-hour Get Out The Vote push for Americans on their way to work who hadn’t yet cast a ballot. More radio interviews were scheduled for lunchtime and the drive home from work, before polls close.

Per her campaign, she has called into radio stations across three battleground states so far – Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina. More are expected throughout the day.

Asked what her first order of business would be if she wins the election, Harris cited lowering costs – the top voting issue this cycle.

“Bringing down the cost of living for folks,” she said in an interview on NewsRadio KDKAnaming several of her economic proposals on housing, healthcare and the child tax credit. She also noted “fixing what’s going on with our broken immigration system,” an issues that has bedeviled presidents of both parties for decades.