Presidential election results 2020

Heavy turnout in competitive suburban Bucks County, Pennsylvania, is creating very long waits at polling places.

Bucks County Commissioner Gene DiGirolamo told CNN he’s heard from voters who spent three to four hours in line. At Bensalem High School, CNN talked to voters who reported spending about 90 minutes waiting to vote. Officials at this voting location say turnout appeared to be double that of typical election years.

Bucks County Public Information Director Larry King said heavy Election Day turnout may be due to fewer than half of the 488,000 registered voters applying for mail-in ballots. 

 “We did have one polling place where there was a problem with the scanners being able to read ballots. There were some markings on the edge of the ballot that were trimmed a little close, so I think might have held that particularly polling place up a little bit but that to my knowledge has been rectified,” said King. 

King said that he himself waited about an hour and a half to vote this morning and that he expects others might be waiting the same amount of time. 

Both candidates have visited this crucial county in the northern Philadelphia suburbs. Hillary Clinton barely won this county in 2016.

CNN's Kate Bolduan reports:

Gabriel Sterling, Georgia’s Voting System Implementation Manager, says that the average wait time across the state remains at two minutes.   

“Everything has been steady as she goes across the state of Georgia. We are seeing pretty even turnout throughout the day,” Sterling said, updating the press Tuesday afternoon. 

Spalding County, located in west central Georgia south of Atlanta, and Morgan County, located in north central Georgia east of Atlanta are both now fully back online after “data set issues” slowed down voting in some locations earlier.    

Sterling said that the main technical issue Georgia has seen today is having to clean some of the scanners sometimes. 

“When the ballots go through them after a while they just want to clean it to make sure it is registering everything properly. But outside of that it has been steady as she goes pretty much across the state.”   

Sterling told CNN on camera that DeKalb County extending hours at two precincts won’t impact the Secretary of State releasing any statewide results when some of the polls close at 7 p.m. ET.

Democratic nominee Joe Biden has an air of confidence today, his final day of his third presidential campaign.

He wanted to spend the day on the road — he asked his advisers specifically —to get a sense of something he’s missed during this pandemic campaign. He wanted to see the crowds and hear the chants. It belies a nervous energy that he has heading into the final hours

Democrats are confident, but they also know their decision to campaign carefully in the coronavirus crisis took away a central part of the party’s backbone: traditional field organizing, the get out the vote effort that won the White House for Obama and Biden twice before.

“We have no regrets how we ran this campaign,” a campaign official tells CNN, but adds they will wonder if a virtual campaign was enough until the final votes are counted.

92% of all absentee ballots across Michigan have been returned, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson tweeted Tuesday afternoon.

Absentee counting is “going smoothly & very efficiently” and “precincts are islands of calm,” she noted.

Michiganders can drop off their ballots for the next four hours.

Here's the tweet:

Sen. Kamala Harris made a surprise stop at Greater Grace Temple polling place on 7 Mile in Detroit, Michigan, a predominantly Black community, to thank voters for staying in line to cast their ballots on Election Day.

“Encourage people to stand in line, I know it may be asking a lot but when we think about what we want for ourselves, for our children, for our families, for our community over the next four years and for the next generation this is probably o.k. to do compared to what we're going to get in return,” Harris said.

The vice presidential hopeful referred back to the 2016 election results, saying voters can make the difference this time.

With reporting from Deanna Hackney and Vanessa Price

Carl Anderson, the chairman of Pennsylvania's Erie County Board of Elections said Tuesday that things were going well for Election Day. 

Erie County which is located in northwestern part of the state, had one of the narrowest margins of victory for President Donald Trump in 2016, who won the county by a little over a percentage point.

Amid the smoothness of the day, Anderson noted that the county may even be on track to exceed its goal of processing at least 10,000 mail-in ballots by tonight. 

“The word I have asked people for is patience and that seems to be accepted by an overwhelming majority. Very few and very isolated reports of voter intimidation. People have been very respectful,” Anderson added. 

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson tells CNN she expects the state’s vote will be counted sooner than previously expected, with both day-of and absentee ballot counts expected to be reported soon after polls close tonight.

Benson has previously said it could take up to three days for the state’s vote to be counted.

The secretary of state expects cities and counties statewide will report results at about the same time meaning a so-called “red mirage” may not happen in Michigan. 

Benson said there have been no reports of voter intimidation or ballots being challenged in a coordinated fashion across the battleground state. After earlier reports of voters receiving robocalls and text messages with misinformation, Benson said they were “not as widespread as immediately thought.”

“Beyond that, we’re seeing smooth sailing and significantly less problems than we anticipated,” she added.

The FBI is aware of robocalls that are being reported on Election Day that urge voters to “stay home and stay safe.”

“We are aware of reports of robocalls and have no further comment. As a reminder, the FBI encourages the American public to verify any election and voting information they may receive through their local election officials,” the FBI told CNN.

“Robocalls of this nature happen every election and so I think what would be most helpful is repeating that message to the American public that... they happen every election cycle. Be mindful of people that are trying to intimidate you, undermine your confidence, but keep calm, vote on,” according to a senior official with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security agency.

Iowa Secretary of State spokesman Kevin Hall confirmed to CNN that the office has shared information with the FBI regarding a recorded phone call urging Iowans to "stay home and stay safe."

He did not know how many Iowans have received the call.

The Iowa Secretary of State also forwarded the information to the state's Division of Intelligence and Fusion Center, which supports law enforcement, according to Hall

CNN has reached out to the FBI for comment. 

“USTelecom’s Industry Traceback Group is actively tracing these calls. You’re right, it has been around for a bit,” Brian Weiss, spokesman for USTelecom tell CNN.

CORRECTION: This post has been updated to correct reporting on FBI action with regard to the robocalls.

The city of Minneapolis is having a "very smooth" voting day so far with no incidents of equipment malfunction or voter intimidation, said the city's director of elections. 

Minneapolis Elections and Voter Services director Grace Wachlarowicz said that as of noon, an estimated 206,876 ballots have been cast for this election in Minneapolis, with voter turnout hitting around 76%.

In 2016, the city had about 79% voter turnout but with approximately 26,000 less registered voters than in 2020.

Minneapolis is the largest city in Minnesota with a population of at least 435,885 residents in 2019, according to government data.

The wait times within the city are minimal to none, attributed it to the large early voter turnout this year, Wachlarowicz said.

In a typical voting year, approximately 30% of the vote is absentee, while 65 to 70% is in person on election day. This year the numbers are switched, she said, and approximately 65 to 70% of ballots cast so far was done by absentee voting. 

While there was a slight slowdown with poll pads uploading absentee data this morning, it was solved before polls opened and didn't affect voters, according to Wachlarowicz. 

There have also been no reports so far of issues with voter intimidation or political clothing in polling places, and mask-wearing has been adhered to in most situations, she continued.

While there are some instances of people not wearing masks, the voter was either provided one or complied with the designated area away from most voters.