2016 Election Day: Live Updates

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Donald Trump was elected America's 45th president Tuesday, an astonishing victory for a celebrity businessman and political novice who capitalized on voters' economic anxieties, took advantage of racial tensions and overcame a string of sexual assault allegations on his way to the White House.

His triumph over Hillary Clinton will end eight years of Democratic dominance of the White House and threatens to undo major achievements of President Barack Obama. He's pledged to act quickly to repeal Obama's landmark health care law, revoke the nuclear agreement with Iran and rewrite important trade deals with other countries, particularly Mexico and Canada.

The Republican blasted through Democrats' longstanding firewall, carrying Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, states that hadn't voted for a GOP presidential candidate since the 1980s. He needed to win nearly all of the competitive battleground states, and he did just that, claiming Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and others.

Global stock markets and U.S. stock futures plunged deeply, reflecting investor alarm over what a Trump presidency might mean for the economy and trade.

A New York real estate developer who lives in a sparking Manhattan high-rise, Trump forged a striking connection with white, working class Americans who feel left behind in a changing economy and diversifying country. He cast immigration, both from Latin America and the Middle East, as the root of the problems plaguing many Americans and taped into fears of terrorism emanating at home and abroad.

Trump will take office with Congress expected to be fully under Republican control. GOP Senate candidates fended off Democratic challengers in key states and appeared poised to maintain the majority. Republicans also maintained their grip on the House.

Senate control means Trump will have great leeway in appointing Supreme Court justices, which could mean a major change to the right that would last for decades.

Trump upended years of political convention on his way to the White House, leveling harshly personal insults on his rivals, deeming Mexican immigrants rapists and murderers, and vowing to temporarily suspend Muslim immigration to the U.S. He never released his tax returns, breaking with decades of campaign tradition, and eschewed the kind of robust data and field efforts that helped Obama win two terms in the White House, relying instead on his large, free-wheeling rallies to energize supporters. His campaign was frequently in chaos, and he cycled through three campaign managers this year.

His final campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, touted the team's accomplishments as the final results rolled in, writing on Twitter that "rally crowds matter" and "we expanded the map."

The mood at Clinton's party grew bleak as the night wore out, with some supporters leaving, others crying and hugging each other. Top campaign aides stopped returning calls and texts, as Clinton and her family hunkered down in a luxury hotel watching the returns.

At 2 a.m., Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta told the crowd to head home for the night. "We're still counting votes and every vote should count," he said.

(AP) Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania has narrowly defeated Democrat Katie McGinty in the most expensive political race in Senate history.

Republicans will retain control of the Senate after Toomey's win in Pennsylvania if they hold Louisiana, Alaska as expected.

Toomey's victory will keep Republicans in control of the Senate if GOP candidates in Alaska and Louisiana hold onto those seats, as expected.

Toomey, a former three-term congressman, was considered one of the most vulnerable Senate incumbents. A fiscal hawk, he was seeking a second term after compiling one of the most conservative voting records in Congress. Toomey tried to distance himself from Donald Trump as he appealed to moderate Democrats and independent voters willing to split their tickets, particularly in Philadelphia's heavily populated suburbs.

McGinty, who has never held public office, was trying to become Pennsylvania's first female senator. The 53-year-old worked in Bill Clinton's White House and was recruited by top Washington Democrats to challenge Toomey.

Shalibh Kumar of the Republican Hindu Coalition told Breitbart News at the victory party for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump that his organization swung 25,000 votes for Trump in Florida, Ohio, and other swing states.

“The Republican Hindu Coalition was given charge of delivering the maximum number of votes in Florida, North Carolina, and Ohio … Out of the three, Florida had the maximum number of votes.” https://twitter.com/joelpollak/status/796209487938015232 Kumar attended the party with his daughter, former Miss India Manasvi Mamgai, who is also a Bollywood actress.

Republican nominee Donald Trump is projected to win Iowa’s 6 electoral votes, beating his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton by a large enough margin that several networks have called the race with less than two thirds of ballots counted. Iowa was considered a key battleground state headed into Tuesday’s election. Located in the influential Midwestern region and known for holding the first primary in the nation, Iowa was long considered a Republican stronghold until the state went blue in both 2008 and 2012 for President Barack Obama. Chuck Grassley has also won reelection for a seventh term, saving his Senate seat from Democratic challenger and former lieutenant governor Patty Judge. Grassley was predicted to win despite heavy criticism from Democrats for his blockage of Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. Grassley was an early Trump supporter.

The New York Times runs an election tracker web page that calculates the odds of presidential victory, popular vote margins, and projected Electoral College totals, in addition to monitoring the final state-by-state results.

At the beginning of Election Eve, the tracker gave Hillary Clinton an 85% to win the election. Within two hours, the odds had shifted to a 50-50 race. At 10:30 PM Eastern time, with the last few decisive swing states waiting to be called, the odds stood at 90% for Trump. It was an amazing ride for the election tracker, raising some interesting questions about how the odds were calculated, and what data the Times was feeding into its system in advance of the formal state calls.

Hillary Clinton is projected to win the state of Colorado and its nine electoral votes, according to NBC News.

https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/796194542286475264 Clinton leads Republican rival Donald Trump 49% to 43% with 58% of precincts reporting. In the weeks leading up to the vote, Clinton herself did not campaign in the state but deployed several top surrogates: Bill and Chelsea Clinton, Al Gore, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren. Clinton last appeared in Pueblo, CO, on October 12th. Trump swung into Denver, CO, this past Saturday to make a final push in the state. Dr. Ben Carson campaigned in the Denver metro area one day earlier. Going into Election Day, RealClearPolitics' polling average showed Clinton with a 2.9 percent lead over Trump.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 (UPI) — Republicans will maintain at least a foothold in the federal government by retaining their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, though control of the Senate is still too early to call.

It remains unclear what the GOP majority will be in the House, but NBC News was first to report they will at least remain in the majority and it is likely Speaker Paul Ryan will remain in that leadership roll to begin 2017. In the battle for the Senate, two of the nine races most likely to decide control have been called, one for Republicans and one a pickup for the Democrats — the first of five they will need to win an outright majority. GOP Sen. Marco Rubio won re-election to his seat in Florida, a race he entered late, only after his presidential campaign faltered. And Tammy Duckworth, the Democratic Illinois congresswoman, defeated incumbent GOP Sen. Mark Kirk in a race that was widely predicted would hand Democrats one of the seats they were looking for. The map for the Senate favored Democrats this year, with all but one of nine seats most likely to decide the balance being held by Republicans. The nine races where a seat is open or most likely to change hands were in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Nevada, Florida and Indiana. Of that group, seven seats belong to Republican incumbents trying to hang on. Only two are open seats, Indiana and Nevada. The only one in Democratic hands presently is Nevada, where Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid is retiring. Coming into Tuesday, the House seemed a much safer bet for Republicans — and the election night tallies proved true. The GOP held an enormous 59-seat advantage coming into Tuesday. The non-partisan Cook political report listed 18 seats as pure tossups, not enough to flip control of the chamber to Democrats, even if they ran the table in all of them.

(AP) Illinois Democrat Tammy Duckworth has unseated first-term Republican Sen. Mark Kirk in one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country.

Duckworth, a double amputee who lost both legs in the Iraq war, has served two terms in the House.

Kirk, who suffered a stroke in 2012, was considered one of the Senate's most vulnerable Republicans and was targeted early by Democrats seeking to retake control of the chamber.

Kirk worked for months to convince voters that he's independent of his party by criticizing GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. But Kirk hurt his own campaign with a series of controversial statements. He had to apologize to Duckworth last month after mocking her immigrant background and her family's military history.

Duckworth, 48, will be the second Illinois woman to serve in the Senate.

(AP) Indiana Republican Rep. Todd Young has defeated former Sen. Evan Bayh in a Senate race that could be crucial to determining party control. The seat is now held by Republican Sen. Dan Coats, who is retiring.

An onslaught of stories about whether Bayh really lived in Indiana and his extended job search in his final year in office undercut his candidacy.

National groups have poured tens of millions of dollars into the Senate race, one of a half dozen nationally that could determine whether Democrats take over the Senate majority.

Young, a three-term congressman from southern Indiana, doesn't have the name recognition of Bayh, whose father, Birch Bayh, was a senator for 18 years. But Young ran a strong race and was supported by outside groups.

(AP) Marco Rubio failed in his bid to end up in the White House, but he's still going back to Washington. Florida voters elected him to a second term in the Senate on Tuesday.

He had wavered for months before deciding to run for re-election. He beat back a challenge from Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy, who has repeatedly tried to link Rubio to Donald Trump.

The two Senate candidates differed starkly on a number of issues - including guns, health care, foreign policy, economic issues and abortion. Each sought to leverage voter discontent with both the GOP and Democratic nominees.

Rubio held onto had a narrow lead in polling going into Election Day over Murphy, who was abandoned by his own party after Democratic bosses decided to pull ad money from expensive Florida and invest it in Missouri, North Carolina and Indiana, instead.

(AP) Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman has defeated former Gov. Ted Strickland in a race that once looked like one of the Democrats' best bets to flip a Senate seat.

Portman, a former U.S. trade representative and budget director, was first elected to the Senate in 2010. He ran a strong campaign, branding Strickland early on as "Retread Ted" and tying him to Ohio's sinking economy during Strickland's governorship, which coincided with the national recession.

Portman kept Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at a distance leading up to Tuesday's election. Portman didn't campaign with Trump and withdrew his endorsement when a 2005 tape of Trump making lewd comments about kissing and groping women surfaced last month.

Portman's TV ads touted his work to combat the heroin epidemic, including a new law Portman co-sponsored.

(AP) South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott, the South's first black senator since Reconstruction, has won his first full term.

Scott defeated Democrat Thomas Dixon, a community activist and pastor.

The Senate's only black Republican, Scott said he would vote for Donald Trump, even as he has characterized some of Trump's statements and actions as "disgusting," ''indefensible" and "racially toxic."

Scott, one of only two black senators, said on the Senate floor this summer that he has repeatedly been pulled over by law enforcement and was once even stopped by a Capitol Police officer who apparently did not believe he was a senator.

Scott, 51, was appointed to the seat in 2013 following the resignation of Sen. Jim DeMint, then won election to the final two years of that term.

As stories of malfunctioning machines in Pennsylvania spread, Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Mike Kelly said voters must call the state Republican Party’s hotline if they have a concern.

“Our votes are sacred,” Kelly told Breitbart News. Kelly said he met a woman in Clinton Township who tried to vote three different times for Donald Trump, but her vote mysteriously switched to Hillary Clinton each time before the voting machine’s screen went blank. She has no idea if her vote was counted and was very upset by the process. There are 18 different polling sites that have had similar problems taking place, Kelly said. The state party is looking into the discrepancies. If votes are only being flipped one way, “it’s a computer fix, not a computer glitch,” Kelly said. Concerned voters can call the GOP hotline: 1-877-91-PAGOP, Kelly said. Calling the hotline if anything worrying occurs is key, Kelly said, and so is reviewing the vote you cast: Voters "have to look at the [ballot] summary to make sure it’s exactly the way you voted.” “We’re hearing these things are changing, and it’s all one way,” Kelly said. “You can say, well, maybe it was a computer glitch, but it’s all people voting for Trump. And it’s defaulting to Clinton.”

CNN's Jake Tapper and Brian Stelter made sure to fact check a Twitter typo from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump before the polls closed on Tuesday. Trump quoted CNN in a tweet about "voting machine problems" in Utah. The tweet used the word "country" instead of "county," and the gumshoes at CNN were all over it! https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/796102093727793152 Tapper devoted airtime to set the record straight; the chyron during the segment read, "TRUMP TWEET MISTAKENLY ALLEGES NATIONWIDE VOTING ISSUES." "The problem is 'problems across the county.' A county, not the country, as Mr Trump tweeted," Tapper said. "It's the difference of an 'r', but kind of an important one." Stelter, to do his part, rushed to Twitter to admonish Trump. https://twitter.com/brianstelter/status/796102676119519237

The latest data from Election Day exit polls reveals a nation divided sharply along demographic lines — not exactly the kind of change that was promised, and that voters expected, from the presidency of Barack Obama.

The Edison Research exit polls, conducted on behalf of a consortium of mainstream media outlets, show that Donald Trump is winning among non-college educated white voters, 65% to 29%. In 2012, Mitt Romney won the same group — but by a lower margin, Politico reports. Other interesting tidbits mentioned by Politico include that “more voters say Clinton is honest and trustworthy (38 percent) than describe Trump as honest and trustworthy (32 percent).” It is not clear whether exit polls are accurate — and, given Trump voters’ hostility to media and pollsters, they may be even less accurate than usual. Clinton and Trump are splitting college-educated whites, and Clinton is winning younger voters — but by lower margins than Obama won them four years ago, according to Politico.

The Colorado Secretary of State confirmed Tuesday afternoon that the state’s voter registration system had crashed in the middle of Election Day. 

The crash was reported at 3:00 p.m. Mountain Standard Time, and was reported fixed about 3:30 p.m., according to local Denver station Fox 31 and the Secretary of State’s office.

Fox 31 reports:

“Unfortunately, our system goes down now and then. It [happened] today and we regret that,” Lynn Bartels, spokeswoman for the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office said on Twitter.

The database is used to confirm voter registration.

While the system was down, clerks couldn’t process mail-in ballots that needed to have the signature verified and people voting in person voters had to use provisional ballots, according to Bartels. 

The news of the crash is likely to fuel speculation of outside tampering or “hacking,” especially given Colorado’s status as an important battleground state, where both campaigns have spent time and resources.

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton had initially pulled advertising from Colorado, but put resources back into the state as it became more competitive again, and as Republican nominee Donald Trump campaigned there.

According to Michigan’s Secretary of State, Ruth Johnson, “turnout is robust” in areas across the Great Lakes States and could achieve a record.

The March presidential primary already shattered a four-decade record with 2.5 million voters. MLive quotes Johnson saying absentee ballot returns are 18 percent over typical elections. Long lines were reported in Grand Rapids, where Donald Trump made a late-night campaign stop on Monday, and in Detroit. Detroit polling places reported “disorganization,” ballot outages, and frustrated voters giving up and leaving. One Detroit voter was unable to leave a polling place on the east side of the city, because his hand got stuck in a voting machine. However, Johnson said of overall performance by voting machines: “So far, so good.” “Things turned heated in Ypsilanti Township, southeast of Ann Arbor, where two voters got into an altercation about their respective candidates. A man ended up shoving one woman, with another woman spitting at people after a group of 5-6 people  started to yell,” MLive reports.

Author Gersh Kuntzman tried to get Madonna to honor her lewd promise to gratify Hillary voters and filmed himself doing so.

From the New York Daily News: It's another broken campaign promise. Madonna has withdrawn from her pledge to provide some, er, satisfaction to Hillary voters, the latest disappointment in an election season full of them. The singer had famously promised the oral sex last month — “And I am good,” she added, lest anyone question her gratification qualifications — but when a Hillary supporter, armed with a selfie of his ballot, showed up to claim the prize, he was greeted with derision. "Ha ha ha ha," laughed the security guard at her Madgesty's Upper East Side manse. "I didn’t get that information, sorry, man." He then hung up, leaving a reporter with the ultimate hanging chad. Indeed, given that I was the only man seeking to have my ballot punched, I wanted to ask a follow-up question: Was Madonna upset that no men showed up to be rewarded for saying “I’m with her”? Read the rest of the story -- and watch the video -- here.

(REUTERS) Americans who had cast their votes for the next president early on Tuesday appeared to be worried about the direction of the country, and were looking for a "strong leader who can take the country back from the rich and powerful," according to an early reading from the Reuters/Ipsos national Election Day poll.

The poll of more than 10,000 people who have already cast their ballots in the presidential election showed a majority of voters are worried about their ability to get ahead and have little confidence in political parties or the media to improve their situation. A majority also feel that the economy is rigged to mostly help the wealthy. The poll, which will be updated as additional responses are tallied and votes are counted throughout Tuesday, found: - 75 percent agree that "America needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful." - 72 percent agree "the American economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful." - 68 percent agree that "traditional parties and politicians don’t care about people like me." - 76 percent believe "the mainstream media is more interested in making money than telling the truth." Read the rest of the story at Reuters.com.

Donald Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump spoke to Breitbart on Tuesday afternoon, with just hours left before polls closed on Election Day, explaining that she feels a sense of calm knowing the family did all they could to get her father-in-law elected President of the United States.

“We’re very excited. It's all led up to today," Trump, who is married to Eric Trump told Breitbart during a phone call Tuesday afternoon. "I think we are all sort of a little bit in shock that today is the big day because we've all been working so hard and it's been 18 months [of campaigning] now.”

“There's actually an odd sense of calm that I have, and I think it comes from knowing that really that we all did everything we could and we all really gave it our best out on the campaign trail. Now, it's up to the voters. We feel good about that,” she added. 

Her father-in-law posted on Twitter that he will be watching the results from Trump Tower with his family.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/796099494442057728

“Since the primaries, we’ve all gathered to watch the results come in for every primary and tonight will be no different,” Lara Trump added. “Whatever happens, we will be together as a family, which is how we started this whole thing."

A CNN reporter was rendered speechless after he asked a Pennsylvania woman on Election Day if she was excited for the prospect of America's first female president.

https://twitter.com/CNNPolitics/status/796044229990612994 Jackie Krachala, who was voting for Donald Trump, stood in line with her husband Bill, who is voting for Hillary Clinton, outside a polling place in Washington, PA. The CNN correspondent on the scene asked the couple whether they got along and asked both of them why they supported either candidate. After Jackie explained that she trusts Trump to be a strong leader and stop America from owing other countries, the reporter implied that she should support Clinton because of her gender. "Aren't you excited for the first female president?" he asked. Krachala simply replied, "No!" Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton leads Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump by three percentage points on Election Day, according to RealClearPolitics.

Reports of voter fraud in Philadelphia showcase the “rigged system” Donald Trump promises to clean up if elected president, as Pennsylvania goes down to the wire as a swing state that could determine the 2016 election.

Reports out of Philly say that Republican poll watchers have been thrown out of polling places throughout the City of Brotherly Love. Local Republicans have taken to social media @PhillyGOP to share their accounts with the nation in real-time. A small sampling of these tweets (with “minority inspector” referring to Republican inspectors) just from the morning hours of Election Day include:

• Around 8AM, the Philadelphia Republican Party tweeted, “court-appointed minority inspectors refused entry [to a polling location]. @PhillyPolice have been called.”

• An hour later: “Update: Ward 64-15: reports of electioneering. Our poll watcher has been barred entry.”

• Shortly thereafter: “Update: Ward 13-14: Won’t allow our minority inspector in, threatened to call police. Go ahead.”

• Then around 10AM: “Ward 4 divisions 10, 16, 17—illegal @HillaryClinton lit being distributed inside polling place.”

• And then: “Update: Ward 12-2 (NW Philly)—Sign-in sheet instead of clerk allowing anybody to come in and vote if they sign. Illegal.”

• During that same hour: “Court-appointed minority inspector at 17&Spring Garden—“I was just told… I’m not allowed to be in the room & … to wait outside.”

• Then around 11AM: “Ward 37-9 (North Philly): Poll workers handing out Hillary lit inside polling station.”

• At 9:38AM this morning, a local election worker, Brittany Foreman, tweeted a video of her explaining voter fraud that she claims to have witnessed at her location, giving specific details in her account.

Most of these tweets were tagged with #VoterFraud. Political analysts sometimes say that Pennsylvania is “Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Alabama,” meaning that there are two Democratic strongholds in the Keystone State, surrounded by vast expanses of deep-red support for limited government, faith, marriage, and the Second Amendment. Philadelphia is nothing short of notorious for voter fraud. One of the most infamous examples of voting-law violations in modern history was when The Justice Department secured a court judgment against the Black Panthers for a videotaped incident of voter intimidation, a case that after the government won but before enforcement could take place, Barack Obama’s then-new Attorney General Eric Holder to drop the case and let the Black Panthers go. Some polls are split regarding whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton is likely to win Pennsylvania, with Republicans complaining that voter fraud is so rampant in Philadelphia that it could steal a victory from Donald Trump if the margin is close. Trump has been pounding away on the theme that aspects of the system are “rigged” urging his supporters to turn out in massive numbers to ensure victory when the polls close. Ken Klukowski is senior legal editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @kenklukowski.

(AP) A software glitch that indicated scores of voters showing up at the polls had already cast ballots has led to voting delays in one of North Carolina's most heavily Democratic counties.

North Carolina Board of Elections lawyer Josh Lawson says officials in Durham County quickly concluded that there was a problem with their electronic poll books and began relying on paper rolls to confirm voter registrations. Attempts to vote twice are rare.

Lawson says there's no indication "nefarious activity" caused the computer problems. Rather, he said it could have been a failure to clear out caches of votes cast during the primaries.

About two dozen other counties using the same software have not reported problems.

Lawson said those in line when the polls close will still be allowed to vote.

UPDATE: A Bush spokesman denies the report from Limbaugh, saying the former president did not vote for either candidate.

Conservative radio great Rush Limbaugh announced to his audience Tuesday that he's been told that "George W. Bush and Laura Bush voted for Hillary Clinton today," the Washington Examiner reports. 

"On one level, it's personal. Remember what Trump said about Jeb. And Trump has had some unkind things to say about George W. Bush," Limbaugh explained, referencing Donald Trump's habit during the Republican primary of calling Jeb Bush "low energy."  

"But aside from that, think about party loyalty, think about issues, think about the direction of the country," Limbaugh added. "How does anybody vote for Hillary Clinton?"

Limbaugh issued a stern warning to the "elites in Washington and New York," members of the "club" of powerful, self-interested political and media figures.

"I submit to you that if you're in the club, and by the club I mean the establishment, if you are among the few elites in Washington and New York that actually, for lack of a better term, run the country, you're going to hang together with other club members," Limbaugh said. "That's how I think this happens."

"Hillary Clinton's not seen as a Democrat... She may be, on one intramural level, an opponent, but she's certainly not an enemy when somebody outside the club happens to be running," Limbaugh continued. "Members of the club … they're going to hang together to preserve the existence of the club and its exclusivity."

Although as many as 50 former George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush administration appointees coming out in support of Trump, there were reports earlier this year that George W. Bush would vote for Hillary Clinton. 

(AP) President Barack Obama is hitting the radio airwaves to encourage Americans to go to the polls to vote for Hillary Clinton.

The White House said Obama gave Election Day interviews to six radio stations that target listeners in Orlando, Detroit and Philadelphia. The cities are in states where the race is believed to be close between Clinton and Republican Donald Trump.

Obama told syndicated host Jana Sutter that continuing the work of the past eight years depends on having a "steady, smart, serious" president follow him into office.

He praised Clinton and reiterated his view that Trump is unfit to be president.

UPDATE: District Judge tosses the suit.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's campaign has filed a lawsuit in Nevada demanding Clark County Registar of Voters Joe Gloria to "impound and segregate ballots and voting materials involved in unlawfully extended voting hours." The Trump campaign also submitted a letter to the Nevada Secretary of State calling for an investigation into the "egregious violations of Nevada election law by Mr. Gloria." The lawsuit is focused on early voting in specific locations in Clark County on the last day of early voting, Friday. Voters who get in line before the polling locations' closing times are allowed to vote, but the Trump campaign's lawsuit alleges poll workers at the direction of Gloria allowed people who did not get in the line before the polls had closed. Nevada political reporter Jon Ralston described one of the locations in a Politico article published before the lawsuit.

The line Friday evening stretched outside Cardenas Market in Las Vegas, teeming with Hispanic voters eager to cast ballots. Many had to wait for hours on the last day of a fortnight of early voting in Nevada, plied by food and exhortations from activists who didn’t have to do much. Election officials had to keep the polling place open an extra three hours to accommodate the line, which was described thusly on Twitter by Yvanna Cancela, the political director for the majority Hispanic Culinary union: “Looks like Trump got his wall after all. A wall of beautiful voters.”

Clark County responded to the lawsuit with a brief statement: https://twitter.com/RalstonReports/status/796064435391512576 Democrats built a big lead during early voting in Nevada based on turnout in Clark County where Democrats built an advantage of more than 70,000 ballots cast. To win Nevada's six electoral votes the Trump campaign needed a large election day turnout. The full lawsuit can be read HERE.

The Democracy Institute, a politically independent public policy research organization, published a poll on Monday showing Donald Trump leading Hillary Clinton by five points.

Democracy Institute was the only public poll to correctly predict Brexit, according to the organization’s press release. In the survey conducted Nov. 3 to Nov. 6 with 1,390 likely voters, Trump leads Clinton 50 percent to 45 percent. The results have a 2.5 percent margin of error.

DI USA Election Poll 2016 by Breitbart News on Scribd

DI USA Poll Release 7 Nov 2016 by Breitbart News on Scribd

As election-day voting began to ramp up in the crucial swing state of Florida, two precinct clerks at Herb Skolknick Community Center in Broward County's Pompano Beach were fired over a reported altercation.

Police were called after there were reports of voter intimidation by two poll watchers, one Republican and one Democrat. The situation escalated to a dispute between one Democrat clerk and one Republican clerk, David Booth, from the twenty-third and twenty-fourth precincts.

The precinct's Supervisor of Elections, Dr. Brenda Snipes, fired the two clerks on the spot after learning of the situation.

Booth told NBC 6 Miami that “he was one of the two clerks fired and told to leave the property.” According to the local outlet's description of Booth's account, “there were allegations poll watchers were overstepping their boundaries inside the polling location and involved in voter intimidation.”

Two more clerks have been brought in to replace the two that were terminated and voting is continuing smoothly.

Florida, with its 29 electoral votes, is a must-win state for both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, and the polls have stayed tight between them right up to Election Day. The RealClearPolitics average of Florida polls currently shows Trump with a .2% lead, well within the margin of error for virtually all polls.

Voting machines in Pennsylvania were registering straight Republican votes as Democratic votes early Tuesday, officials say.

The error was due to a calibration issue in Lebanon County's voting machines, where five machines out of the 270 machines available in the county malfunctioned, Penn Live reported. Voters saw the errors after they reviewed their ballots before officially filing them. When questioned about the issue, no one reported their votes were incorrectly cast, according to Lebanon County Election Director Michael Anderson. Anderson said the issue was fixed and there was no indication that anyone's votes were incorrectly registered in the system. Other states have also reported problems with their voting machines on Election Day. In Utah, poll workers have had to resort to paper ballots because the machines in Washington County faced a programming problem. In Texas, a computer used by election clerks at a Houston-area polling station malfunctioned and voters had to be sent to another polling station two miles away.

The first exit poll of Election Day 2016 emerged just after noon from Morning Consult/Politico, which reports that twice as many voters in 2016 versus 2012 (36 percent versus 18 percent) said that a “strong leader” was the most important factor in choosing a president.

From the Morning Consult website: 

Voters heading to the polls Tuesday are twice as likely to say they want a president who is a “strong leader” than in 2012, according to Morning Consult/POLITICO exit data.

More than one-third (36 percent) of 2016 voters said being a strong leader was the most important quality when picking a president, compared with 18 percent of voters who said the same during 2012 election. It’s an opinion held regardless of partisan leanings: 35 percent of Democrats, 34 percent of independents and 39 percent of Republicans said that was most important. 

After being a strong leader, voters said having a vision for the future, at 29 percent, was most important. Sixteen percent picked having a candidate share their values and care about people like them, respectively.

Democrats were more likely than Republicans to place more value in whether the candidate cares about them (20 percent to 12 percent), while GOP voters said it was more important that the candidate shares their values (19 percent to 14 percent).

Morning Consult, which was founded in 2013, is considered the “breakout” polling company of the 2016 election.

Pollster Frank Luntz announced early Tuesday afternoon that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump may have a realistic chance of winning the state of Michigan in today's presidential election.

"Working-class turnout is looking much higher than expected," Luntz tweeted. https://twitter.com/FrankLuntz/status/796034957038776321 This statement contradicts Luntz's prediction just yesterday that Trump could win the battleground states of A Republican candidate has not won Michigan's electoral votes since 1988, when George H.W. Bush took the White House while riding on the popularity of outgoing president Ronald Reagan. Hillary Clinton has maintained an edge in Michigan polling heading into Election Day, with the RealClearPolitics polling average putting her 3.4 percentage points above Trump -- within most polls' margins of error. An election-eve survey published by the Trafalgar Group showed Trump up two points. Michigan native Michael Moore warned his progressive followers last week that polls showing Clinton ahead were not a guarantee that she would win the state -- as Sen. Bernie Sanders pulled off an upset victory during the Democratic primary despite trailing her by large margins. https://twitter.com/MMFlint/status/793096419657805824 Trump has campaigned aggressively in the Midwestern state, holding his final campaign rally with running mate Mike Pence in Grand Rapids. And Democratic rival Hillary Clinton appears nervous about her performance in the state, spending six figures on ads there and making several campaign stops -- including an appearance by President Barack Obama. Trump has made an appeal to working-class voters with a promise to revitalize U.S. manufacturing through better trade deals, attacking Clinton over the legacy of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and her early support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). In an ironic moment, Moore -- famous for his film Roger & Me about the closing of a General Motors plant in Flint, MI -- inadvertently created a viral ad explaining the reason many working-class voters are supporting Trump. An excerpt of his film TrumpLand, where he discusses Trump's anti-establishment appeal, received millions of views as Trump supporters set it to dramatic music and images. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY-CiPVo_NQ

(AP) Election officials say voting machine problems in southern Utah are forcing poll workers to use paper ballots, potentially affecting tens of thousands of people.

Utah Director of Elections Mark Thomas says a programming problem has affected all voting in Washington County, but so far appears it appears limited to that county.

He says about 52,000 registered voters there have yet to cast their ballots.

Election workers are trying to fix the computer problem and hope they can start using the voting machines later in the day.

Thomas says officials were prepared with backup paper ballots. But he said they will need to print more if the problem persists.

There are about 80,000 total registered voters in Washington County. Some 28,000 have already cast their ballots through early voting.

Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana took a bike ride before heading to his local polling spot on Tuesday alongside wife Karen.

Pence lives and votes in Indianapolis as he lives at the Indiana governor’s mansion. He was headed to his local polling place around the time that his running mate, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was voting at a school in New York City along with wife Melania (see Breitbart News' report on Trump's vote here). Trump voted shortly after 11 a.m. local time in New York. After voting, Trump “chatted with some people at the polls and high-fived some kids there.” A photo of Pence and wife Karen on their bicycles was posted to his Twitter account: https://twitter.com/mike_pence/status/796021567461478400 Earlier the same morning, the potential vice president announced the opening of Indiana polls while urging Hoosiers to vote for Trump, state gubernatorial candidate Eric Holcomb, and U.S. Senate candidate from Indiana Todd Young. Trump is expected to win the state easily. https://twitter.com/mike_pence/status/795945494434422785 Should Trump win on Tuesday, current Lieutenant Governor Holcomb would replace Pence. https://twitter.com/AdelleNaz/status/796021789503737856 https://twitter.com/AdelleNaz/status/796037565094707200 Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana

Many 2016 polls may prove incorrect because so many Americans are undecided or else say they are backing third parties, says Nate Silver, founder of the "data journalism" site fivethirtyeight.com.

“Undecideds are MUCH higher than normal,” Silver said in a Tuesday morning tweet. “So risk of a polling error -- in either direction -- is higher than usual.” https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/796016007127138304 One out of eight voters, or 12.5 percent, are either undecided or declaring support for other candidates during the last few days of the election. That is up from one out of 32 voters in 2012, one out of 27 voters in 2004, and one out of 10 voters in 2000, when Texas Gov. George W. Bush barely beat Vice President Al Gore. So Silver is cautioning people to be ready for a major failure by the pollsters in predicting Americans’ last-minute choices. Clinton is likely to win, said Silver, but:

3) Basically, these 3 cases are equally likely a—Solid Clinton win b—Epic Clinton blowout c—Close call, Trump *probably* wins Elect. Coll.

If the polls understate Trump's support by three percent by a uniform margin of three percent, Clinton still wins, although just barely, Silver said. However, in a prior tweet, Silver noted that Trump is doing much better than 2012 Republican candidate Gov. Mitt Romney in the midwestern states, where he may be able to pick up wins that would give him 270 Electoral votes. https://twitter.com/NateSilver538/status/795444498671267840 Other evidence, described by Breitbart here and here, suggest that the 2016 polls are less reliable predictors than prior years' of the final presidential vote. Also, African-American support for Clinton may be sharply down from support for President Barack Obama in 2016.

WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange has released a statement on the day of the U.S. presidential election, declaring that the American public is the "real victor" of the leaks he published from the Clinton campaign since they are “better informed as a result of our work.”

He went on to claim the organisation had no political bias against Hillary Clinton but could not “publish information we do not have” on the campaigns of Donald Trump and third-party candidates. Assange added that the policy position he has supported is that of Green Party candidate Jill Stein, as she has expressed desire to protect whistleblowers and maintained that WikiLeaks' work should be explicitly protected by the First Amendment. You can read the full statement below:

"In recent months, WikiLeaks and I personally have come under enormous pressure to stop publishing what the Clinton campaign says about itself to itself. That pressure has come from the campaign’s allies, including the Obama administration, and from liberals who are anxious about who will be elected US President. On the eve of the election, it is important to restate why we have published what we have. The right to receive and impart true information is the guiding principle of WikiLeaks – an organization that has a staff and organizational mission far beyond myself. Our organization defends the public’s right to be informed. This is why, irrespective of the outcome of the 2016 US Presidential election, the real victor is the US public which is better informed as a result of our work. The US public has thoroughly engaged with WikiLeaks’ election related publications which number more than one hundred thousand documents. Millions of Americans have poured over the leaks and passed on their citations to each other and to us. It is an open model of journalism that gatekeepers are uncomfortable with, but which is perfectly harmonious with the First Amendment. We publish material given to us if it is of political, diplomatic, historical or ethical importance and which has not been published elsewhere. When we have material that fulfills this criteria, we publish. We had information that fit our editorial criteria which related to the Sanders and Clinton campaign (DNC Leaks) and the Clinton political campaign and Foundation (Podesta Emails). No-one disputes the public importance of these publications. It would be unconscionable for WikiLeaks to withhold such an archive from the public during an election. At the same time, we cannot publish what we do not have. To date, we have not received information on Donald Trump’s campaign, or Jill Stein’s campaign, or Gary Johnson’s campaign or any of the other candidates that fufills our stated editorial criteria. As a result of publishing Clinton’s cables and indexing her emails we are seen as domain experts on Clinton archives. So it is natural that Clinton sources come to us. We publish as fast as our resources will allow and as fast as the public can absorb it. That is our commitment to ourselves, to our sources, and to the public. This is not due to a personal desire to influence the outcome of the election. The Democratic and Republican candidates have both expressed hostility towards whistleblowers. I spoke at the launch of the campaign for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, because her platform addresses the need to protect them. This is an issue that is close to my heart because of the Obama administration’s inhuman and degrading treatment of one of our alleged sources, Chelsea Manning. But WikiLeaks publications are not an attempt to get Jill Stein elected or to take revenge over Ms Manning’s treatment either. Publishing is what we do. To withhold the publication of such information until after the election would have been to favour one of the candidates above the public’s right to know. This is after all what happened when the New York Times withheld evidence of illegal mass surveillance of the US population for a year until after the 2004 election, denying the public a critical understanding of the incumbent president George W Bush, which probably secured his reelection. The current editor of the New York Times has distanced himself from that decision and rightly so. The US public defends free speech more passionately, but the First Amendment only truly lives through its repeated exercise. The First Amendment explicitly prevents the executive from attempting to restrict anyone’s ability to speak and publish freely. The First Amendment does not privilege old media, with its corporate advertisers and dependencies on incumbent power factions, over WikiLeaks’ model of scientific journalism or an individual’s decision to inform their friends on social media. The First Amendment unapologetically nurtures the democratization of knowledge. With the Internet, it has reached its full potential. Yet, some weeks ago, in a tactic reminiscent of Senator McCarthy and the red scare, Wikileaks, Green Party candidate Stein, Glenn Greenwald and Clinton’s main opponent were painted with a broad, red brush. The Clinton campaign, when they were not spreading obvious untruths, pointed to unnamed sources or to speculative and vague statements from the intelligence community to suggest a nefarious allegiance with Russia. The campaign was unable to invoke evidence about our publications—because none exists. In the end, those who have attempted to malign our groundbreaking work over the past four months seek to inhibit public understanding perhaps because it is embarrassing to them – a reason for censorship the First Amendment cannot tolerate. Only unsuccessfully do they try to claim that our publications are inaccurate. WikiLeaks’ decade-long pristine record for authentication remains. Our key publications this round have even been proven through the cryptographic signatures of the companies they passed through, such as Google. It is not every day you can mathematically prove that your publications are perfect but this day is one of them. We have endured intense criticism, primarily from Clinton supporters, for our publications. Many long-term supporters have been frustrated because we have not addressed this criticism in a systematic way or responded to a number of false narratives about Wikileaks’ motivation or sources. Ultimately, however, if WL reacted to every false claim, we would have to divert resources from our primary work. WikiLeaks, like all publishers, is ultimately accountable to its funders. Those funders are you. Our resources are entirely made up of contributions from the public and our book sales. This allows us to be principled, independent and free in a way no other influential media organization is. But it also means that we do not have the resources of CNN, MSNBC or the Clinton campaign to constantly rebuff criticism. Yet if the press obeys considerations above informing the public, we are no longer talking about a free press, and we are no longer talking about an informed public. Wikileaks remains committed to publishing information that informs the public, even if many, especially those in power, would prefer not to see it. WikiLeaks must publish. It must publish and be damned.

NEW YORK CITY, New York--Topless women protested inside Donald Trump's polling precinct in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday, before the Republican presidential candidate arrived to cast his vote.

WABC, an ABC affiliate, reports the two women were arrested. https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/795993888305594368 The women had painted a "Femen" slogan on their backs. https://twitter.com/PIX11News/status/796007016762380289 The incident occurred more than an hour before the Republican nominee arrived to cast his vote at P.S. 59. The women reportedly entered the precinct and then took off their tops. They also made anti-Trump remarks. https://twitter.com/news10nbc/status/796020207760375809

Donald Trump voted around 11 am Tuesday morning in New York City for himself. He was accompanied by his wife Melania. Trump waved to the the crowd as he entered the polling place in Manhattan. Once inside, reporters asked what the Republican candidate is hearing about early returns. “Heard good things,” he responded. “Just very good in general." Trump bought a cookie from a young boy to give to Melania before casting his vote, then gave the child a high five. https://twitter.com/Telemundo51/status/796021792120930304 He plans on spending the day inside Trump Tower, according to Fox News. Earlier this morning, two women appeared topless at Trump's polling place and chanted statements protesting his candidacy. https://twitter.com/news10nbc/status/796020207760375809

(REUTERS) Gun control-related ballot measures in four states are expected to pass on Tuesday, opinion polls show, after gun safety advocates poured a massive amount of money into backing the initiatives.

In Maine and Nevada, residents will vote on whether to mandate universal background checks for firearm sales, including private handgun transactions. If those two measures pass, half of all Americans would live in states that have such expanded checks. Eighteen states and Washington, D.C., have already approved similar laws. (Graphic: Gun issues on the ballot here) Voters in Washington state, meanwhile, will consider allowing judges to bar people from possessing guns if they pose a danger to themselves or to others, such as accused domestic abusers. In California, a referendum would ban large-capacity ammunition magazines and require certain people to pass a background check to buy ammunition. Read the rest of the story at Reuters.com.

DIXVILLE, N.H. (AP) -- Donald Trump is off to a very early lead in the 2016 presidential election, winning over the voters of three New Hampshire precincts by a 32-25 margin over Hillary Clinton.

Polls in the tiny New Hampshire towns of Dixville, Hart's Location and Millsfield opened just after midnight Tuesday and closed as soon as everyone had voted. These die-hard voters are proud to have the first word on the big vote. Clinton won more votes in Dixville and Hart's Location, but Trump was the overwhelming favorite in Millsfield, with a 16-4 edge. Libertarian Gary Johnson picked up three votes. Bernie Sanders, John Kasich and 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney got write-in votes. Under New Hampshire state law, communities with fewer than 100 voters can get permission to open their polls at midnight and close them as soon as all registered voters have cast their ballots.

Professor Helmut Norpoth is insisting his prediction of a Donald Trump electoral victory will be vindicated by the polls Tuesday night.

From the New York Post: Moody’s Analytics, which has picked the next president every year since 1980, says Clinton will make history as the first female chief executive, trouncing Trump with 332 electoral votes. That runs in sharp contrast to a model created by Helmut Norpoth, a political science professor at Stony Brook University, that’s predicting Trump will be running the country. Norpoth is sticking by the results of his model — which has correctly predicted the winner of every presidential election since 1912, with the exception of 2000 — despite most polls showing Clinton ahead by at least 3 percentage points. “If [Clinton] was leading by 10 or 20 points, I would say this is not going to be my year, but I don’t see it,” he told The Post. “It’s so close. It’s certainly do-able [for him], even when you look at the polls.” Read the rest of the story here.

(AP) Donald Trump's eldest son says that his family will "respect the outcome" of a "fair election."

Donald Trump, Jr. told CNN's New Day Tuesday that he thinks his father "will remain involved somewhat" if he loses the election. He said he hopes that the energy surrounding his father's campaign "goes back to the people we are trying to fight for, the people who haven't had a voice in a long time."

He said, in retrospect, that "hopefully we shed some light on the process," and enabled people to speak their minds freely, "without being put in some basket, without being boxed in a corner."

*****

Eric Trump says that his father will concede the election if he loses and the results are "legit and fair."

In an Election Day interview with MSNBC's Morning Joe, Donald Trump's son said that "all we want is a fair fight, not just for this election but for all elections."

The Republican presidential nominee has repeatedly warned of a "rigged election," though there is no evidence of widespread fraud in the electoral system.

Eric Trump said, "we've seen states where a few thousand votes can make a difference."

Pressed by MSNBC anchors, he said of his father, "if he loses and it's legit and fair, and there's not obvious stuff out there then without question, yes," he would concede.

(AP) Hillary and Bill Clinton are voting in their hometown of Chappaqua, New York.

The Clintons greeted supporters waiting outside the polling place after casting their ballots Tuesday morning.

https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/795979674237210624

Hillary Clinton said it was "the most humbling feeling" to vote "because so many people are counting on the outcome of this election."

Bill Clinton said he's eager to be a political spouse, joking that he had "15 years of practice."