After an eventful and often volatile 2024 U.S. presidential election campaign, many expected that voting day would be no different.
Concerned about possible civil unrest,.
Common Cause, a nonpartisan watchdog group that monitors U.S. elections, said the vote went “relatively well” — but that doesn’t mean Election Day was devoid of drama.
Here’s a snapshot of what happened.
Battleground states hit by Russia-linked bomb threats
Voting five out of seven was marred by dozens of bomb threats, which officials linked to Russia.
Authorities confirmed that threats were made at polling places in Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin on Tuesday.
As a result, voting hours were extended in some locations.
“None of the threats have been deemed credible to date,” the FBI said in a statement, adding that election integrity is among its “top priorities.”
“We will continue to work closely with our state and local law enforcement partners to respond to any threats to our elections and to protect our communities as Americans exercise their right to vote.”
The Russian embassy in Washington said any accusation of Russia interfering in the election is a “malicious slander.”
“Russia has not interfered and does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, including the United States,” it said in a statement.
“As President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly emphasized, we respect the will of the American people.”
Officials reject Trump’s claims of voter fraud in key states
Before the polls closed, Trump claimed on his Truth Social site, without evidence, that there was “a lot of talk about massive cheating” in Philadelphia, a city in the key state of Pennsylvania.
Philadelphia City Commissioner Omar Sabir rejected Trump’s claims.
“To be clear, Philadelphia elections are safe, simple, secure and always have been,” he said.
“There’s no deception, there’s no smoke in this. People say things, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re true. We learned that in 2020.
“We have hard-working people trying to give American citizens the elections they deserve.”
Trump made false claims in 2020 that fraud had occurred in large, Democratic-dominated cities.
In a subsequent Truth Social post on Tuesday, Trump also claimed, without evidence, that there had been fraud in Detroit, the capital of Michigan, another battleground state.
“I don’t respond to nonsense,” Detroit city clerk Janice Winfrey told Reuters.
Thousands of ballots recounted in Milwaukee ‘out of an abundance of caution’
In Milwaukee, about 30,000 absentee ballots are being recounted due to a “sealing error,” potentially delaying confirmation of results by hours.
The city is located in the battleground state of Wisconsin, one of the.
The Milwaukee Election Commission said the error was caused because the doors of the tabulation machines were not closed properly.
“His [the re-count] just out of an abundance of caution,” city spokesman Jeff Fleming said.
“We have no reason to believe there was a compromise on any of the machines.”
The Republican National Committee described the incident as “an unacceptable example of incompetent election administration,” saying “voters deserve better.”
The decision to recount the votes was made in consultation with Republicans and Democrats, the elections commission said.
Election machine malfunction in Iowa
Ballots must be counted manually in an Iowa county due to a voting machine malfunction.
Officials said problems with voting machines were reported at about 12 of 45 polling places in Story County, which is home to about 100,000 people.
“The auditor is working with the vendor and our office to resolve the issue,” the Iowa secretary of state’s office said, adding that this could affect how quickly results could be reported.
A recent poll showed Kamala Harris had a surprise 3 percentage point lead over Donald Trump in Iowa, which typically votes Republican.
Trump disputed the poll results, which came from the respected Selzer organization, saying the race was “not even close.”
Further reporting by the Reuters news agency.
