Trump and Harris in close race as polls open: LIVE UPDATES

There have not been any “national-level significant incidents impacting the security of our election infrastructure,” a senior official at the Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency has told reporters.

“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,” Cait Conley said at a briefing on Tuesday.

Conley then claimed that “foreign actors” would likely attempt to manipulate the outcome of the election later on Tuesday, and in the coming days and weeks.

Voting machines have suffered a “software malfunction” and are broken down across Cambria County in Pennsylvania, local authorities have said. The Cambria County Board of Elections has called in IT specialists to address the problem, and filed a court order to extend voting by three hours, spokesman Ron Repak told local media.

With reports of malfunctioning machines coming from neighboring Bedford County, the Pennsylvania Department of State has told voters that they can submit paper ballots, which will be counted later on Tuesday.

Donald Trump has warned his supporters in a post on his Truth Social platform that “lines are going to be long,” urging them to “deliver your vote no matter how long it takes.”

Pro-Trump pundits and commenters have reported high turnout in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania, with male and rural voters – who are thought to favor Trump – dominating lines outside polling stations.

RealClearPolitics has predicted that Donald Trump will defeat Kamala Harris by 287 Electoral College votes to 251. In a final projection with no states counted as toss-ups, the news site’s map shows Trump taking the key swing states of Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, but losing Michigan and Wisconsin to Harris.

RealClearPolitics has kept a running average of multiple different polls throughout the 2024 campaign. For more than two weeks, this average has shown Trump and Harris within less than a point of each other nationwide.

J.D. Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate, has cast his vote in Cincinnati, Ohio. Speaking to reporters afterwards, Vance said that “you never know until you know, but I feel good about this race.” 

Ohio’s 17 Electoral College votes went to Trump in 2020, who defeated Biden by 53.3% to 45.2%. This year, polls show Trump leading Kamala Harris by a similar margin in the state.

Republican observers have been turned away from polling stations in eight Pennsylvania counties, Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Michael Whatley has claimed on social media. Whatley said the GOP responded by deploying “roving attorneys” who managed to secure access for the Republican poll-watchers.

”Let this serve as a warning to anyone out there today who wants to interfere in a free, fair and transparent election process, WE ARE WATCHING & ready to take action,” RNC co-chair Lara Trump, Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law, said in a statement.

A bipartisan coalition of 51 US attorneys general has released a statement calling for a peaceful transfer of power regardless of the election’s result.

“We call upon every American to vote, participate in civil discourse, and, above all, respect the integrity of the democratic process. 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,” it read.

The 2024 US presidential election will be close, Dr. Philani Mthembu, Executive Director at the South African Institute for Global Dialogue, has told RT. He added that in case of a Harris victory, the Democrat would continue the course charted by incumbent Joe Biden, but a potential Trump win may bring much more uncertainty to the table. “In terms of international relations landscape, it would be quite a big divergence between a Trump administration and a Harris administration,” he said.

Polling stations have opened across most of the US, with the swing states of Wisconsin and Iowa starting work at 8:00am Eastern Time (ET). Some polling stations opened even earlier, including those in the key battlegrounds of New Hampshire, Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, and Ohio. Most polls open in Nevada at 10:00am ET.

According to the University of Florida, as many as 83 million Americans voted early, with 45 million voting early in person and just under 38 million sending in mail ballots. As of 2022, there were 161 million registered voters in the US.

Kamala Harris has been caught on camera asking voters in the swing state of Pennsylvania to stage a ‘door knock’ video, according to a clip circulating on social media. The Democrat is seen making a request to a couple in Pittsburgh, asking them to go inside their house. While the family happily obliged, the video caused an uproar on social media, particularly among Trump supporters.