2022 midterm election results

US officials “continue to see no specific or credible threat to disrupt election infrastructure” as polls open across the country for the midterm elections, a senior US cybersecurity official told reporters Tuesday morning.

Officials have not seen any significant hacking activity on Election Day that they can attribute to any given hacking group, an official from the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency told reporters in a background briefing.

Officials are expecting the possibility of low-level cyberattacks that may temporarily knock state and local websites offline, but nothing that will prevent voters from casting a ballot, the CISA official said. 

“We continue to remain in high confidence in the security or resilience of the elections,” the official added. 

US Cyber Command, the Defense Department’s hacking unit, and the National Security Agency are “sharing real-time” intelligence with government agencies to help defend the midterm elections from foreign threats, the four-star general who heads both operations said in a statement Tuesday. 

Cyber Command has taken a much more active role in defending US elections from foreign interference since Russia’s 2016 intervention. That included an operation during the 2018 midterm elections that temporarily blocked internet access for a notorious Russia troll farm. 

Nakasone reiterated what US intelligence officials have said for weeks: They are wary of foreign influence campaigns that continue after Election Day as the vote tallies come in. 

“Our work does not end on Nov. 8,” Nakasone said. 

Twelve states activated National Guard troops for local and state-level cyber election support, according to a Defense Department spokesperson.  

Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Illinois, Louisiana, North Carolina, New Mexico, West Virginia and Washington state activated National Guard troops for cyber election support. A total of 92 members were activated across the 12 states to assist, the spokesperson added. 

During election primaries in May and June, the National Guard provided cyber support to eight states, the spokesperson added.

CNN's Barbara Starr and Ellie Kaufman contributed reporting to this post.

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson cast his ballot with his wife, Jane, at a polling location in Oshkosh on Tuesday. Afterwards, he spoke to reporters, saying his message to every Republican voter is to "get out and vote."

The Wisconsin Republican, who’s been locked in a dead even race with Democratic Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, told reporters he’s “cautiously optimistic” about his chances on election night.

“But again, my message to Republican voters is assume this is a dead even race, get out and vote,” he said. “Get every one of your friends, family members that are going to vote for Republicans, get there get out to vote.”

Watch his comments in full:

A federal judge barred poll workers at an election site in Beaumont, Texas, from engaging in certain conduct that Black voters said was intimidating.

US District Judge Michael J. Truncale, of the Eastern District of Texas, issued the temporary restraining order Monday in a case brought by Beaumont’s chapter of the NAACP, which alleged that White poll workers spoke aggressively to Black voters, hovered too close behind Black voters while the voters operated voting machines, and declined to help Black voters cast their ballots.

Truncale prohibited poll workers in Jefferson County from engaging in the specific behaviors outlined in the NAACP complaint. However, he rejected the NAACP’s request that he remove the official who is presiding as the election judge at the voting site where the conduct allegedly occurred.

The lawsuit put forward declarations from several poll workers, voters and a local pastor who had been at the election site, a community center where a vast majority of voters are Black. They said they witnessed White poll workers aggressively demand that Black voters loudly recite their addresses, even after those voters’ identities had been confirmed, while making no such demands of White voters. 

They also alleged that the White poll watchers and workers were following Black voters to the voting machines and standing close enough behind the votes that they could watch them mark their ballots. Additionally they said that the White poll workers refused to help Black voters insert their ballots into a ballot scanning machine, while giving that assistance to White voters.

Airon Reynolds, a pastor of a local church who is Black, attested that he had tried to talk the Mary Beth Bowling, the election judge, and county clerk Laurie Leister last week about the alleged behavior. He said Bowling refused his request that she change her behavior and that Leister would also not direct Bowling to stop the conduct.

Attorneys for the county officials did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Voters in Bensalem, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, told CNN what motivated them to get out and vote in today's midterm elections, including issues around the economy, crime and abortion.

Rosanne and Jack Payson have lived in the Philadelphia suburb for 45 years.

"I don't like Donald Trump. Voting for a Republican like Mastriano means that we're going to have more trouble," Jack Payson told CNN's Jason Carroll.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano is facing Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro in the governor's race.

Rosanne Payson said the Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade is one of the issues that motivated her to vote.

Pennsylvania voter Brittany Castor said she identifies as a Republican and has voted for candidates in both parties in her life, but the issue of a woman's right to choose "absolutely" drove her to the polls this year.

Joseph and Susan O'Rourke said that crime, the economy and the border are the key issues for them.

Joseph O'Rourke said that GOP Senate candidate Mehmet Oz has spoken well about those three issues. On the gubernatorial side, he said while "I don't think we have a good selection," he voted for Mastriano.

He added that, like other swing voters in Bucks County, he voted for former Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, and then voted for President Biden.

On swing voters in Pennsylvania, voter Jack Payson said, "I really think that it is good that people are flexible, that they should take into account all of the issues, that they should have the right to change their mind." 

Voter William Castelberg Jr. said that crime and the economy brought him to the polls.

"Crime is big, you know, it's really big in the city of Philadelphia. I would hate to see it come to the suburbs here in Bucks County. The second thing is inflation. You know, there's so many people that can't afford day to day, it's sad," he told Carroll.  

Here are some demographics of the state:

Moving to the state of Georgia changed how former New York resident Andy Hill perceived the importance of his vote.

"I lived in New York previously, and it never seemed urgent to vote for my own rights in New York. But it seems urgent here," he told CNN, acknowledging the important of voting in the battleground state.

Hill voted at an Atlanta polling station on Tuesday morning.

As a seminary student, he said what drives him to vote is whether or not the government protects basic human rights.

Watch here:

During her first public campaign event on Election Day, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul stumped with local leaders at an Upper East Side subway station in New York City, where she talked about one of the hottest-button issues: crime.

Hochul said crime — a major point in opponent Rep. Lee Zeldin’s campaign — is ultimately not a campaign issue for her because she’s been working on it during her tenure as governor already. 

“We’re working on it; he talks about it,” Hochul added.

“If they are thinking Lee Zeldin is going to defend democracy when he had a chance to stand up and call out the insurrectionists, what did he do that day? He went and blamed the Democrats and voted against certifying Joe Biden as our president. That’s how you subvert democracy. That’s exhibit A of subverting democracy,” Hochul said.

Hochul also said she and New York City Mayor Eric Adams are “partners” in fighting crime.

“This is not an election issue for me. ... We said we're going to partner together, for the first time the governor of New York will actually be engaged in helping the mayor of the city. That relationship has only grown stronger; you can ask Mayor Adams himself,” she said.  

Hochul appeared with Rep. Carolyn Maloney, Rep. Jerry Nadler, state Sen. Liz Krueger, Assembly member Rebecca Seawright and Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine at the 86th Street station.

Asked if there is anything New Yorkers might not know about her, she said it might be “how tough I am.”

“There is nothing I can’t handle” she continued, adding the election has “elevated” her strength and desire to serve New York. 

Philadelphia election officials voted Tuesday morning to reestablish a process that’s intended to catch double votes – in a move that is likely to slow down reporting of election results from the largest city in this battleground state.

The decision to reinstitute the often-tedious process, known as poll book reconciliation, could focus national attention on Philadelphia if the consequential US Senate race between Democrat John Fetterman and Republican Mehmet Oz is close. 

The process compares mail ballots with poll books from Election Day to ensure people have not voted twice.

The 2-1 vote by the Philadelphia city commissioner early Tuesday follows a lawsuit from a Republican group that alleged Philadelphia was inviting double votes with a plan to scale back on poll book reconciliation. Although Judge Anne Marie B. Coyle ruled against the Republican organization, she also criticized the move by city election officials to change the poll book process as “erroneous.”

A Philadelphia city election official told CNN that the elections board voted to reinstate the process Tuesday out of an abundance of caution in order to avoid any appearance of impropriety.

The official said they had intended not to use the process because they had not encountered any double votes over the course of the last three elections, and they wanted the process to move along more quickly. 

Although they were not required to reinstate it because of the Republican lawsuit, the official said, but chose to do so to quell any questions that may arise after the fact. They did not want even the perception that they are doing anything wrong, the official said, but they questioned why Philadelphia was the only city to be sued by the Republican group.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Seth Bluestein, the sole Republican on the commission, said that when questions arise about delays in Philadelphia results, it’s because “Republicans targeted Philadelphia … to force us to do a procedure no other county does.”

Bluestein and Lisa Deeley, the Democratic chair of the board, voted to reinstate the procedure. Democrat Omar Sabir voted against it.

The action comes as Philadelphia and other jurisdictions in Pennsylvania grapple with another Election Day issue: The risk of thousands of mail-in ballots being rejected because of missing or incomplete handwritten dates on the return envelope.

Voters in Mercer County, New Jersey, are having to vote manually Tuesday morning due to a problem with the voting machines. The county is home to Princeton, Trenton, Ewing and Lawrence Township.

“No one will be disenfranchised and we are working on fixing the issue at present. It may delay results but we will make sure everyone votes,” said Mercer County Clerk Paula Sollami Covello in an email to CNN. 

The results will likely be tallied later than usual, but Covello did not rule out the possibility that the ballots voted manually could still be tallied Tuesday night.  

The county has Dominion, the machine maker, and other IT professionals coming to fix the problem. Poll workers are on hand to walk voters through the process. 

“There is an issue with our Dominion scanners not reading throughout the county. There is a slot on the top of the scanner and voters can vote — and are voting manually,” Covello added. “No voter should walk away. They can vote manually.”

Voters can and should still go to their respective polling locations. Their ballot will be inserted into the "emergency slot" in the machine, according to an alert posted by Princeton, a town in Mercer County.  

This is a round-up of images showing early scenes around the country on Election Day. Check out what it looks like as voters on the East Coast begin to cast their ballots:

See more photos from today here.