November 4, 2024, presidential campaign news

AlphaFox78's account on X has been posting misinformation

An American social media influencer said he was paid $100 by a pro-Kremlin propagandist to post a fake video of Haitian immigrants claiming to vote in the US presidential election. The payment was one of several the man said he received from the propagandist — a registered Russian agent — to post on social media in the run-up to the election.

The pro-Trump influencer, who uses the @AlphaFox78 handle on X, is an American man living in Massachusetts, CNN has learned. He agreed to speak to CNN about the posts on condition of anonymity.

The account, which has a history of posting right-wing memes in support of former President Donald Trump, was the first to post the now-debunked video that purportedly showed a Haitian immigrant claiming he would vote at least twice in Georgia for Vice President Kamala Harris.

The Georgia Secretary of State said everything in that video was faked, from the actors to the ID cards, and was produced and disseminated by Russian influence actors.

In phone and text interviews with CNN over multiple days, the person behind the account, which has amassed more than 650,000 followers on X, said he posted the video without fact-checking the claims made in it.

“I don’t have any idea where it came from or anything — I’m just the guy who shared it,” he said.

Simeon Boikov, seen here in a video taken in the Russian consulate in Sydney where he is currently seeking asylum, paid an American X user $100 to post content, some of which has since been deemed Russian disinformation.

The man said Simeon Boikov, a Russian propagandist podcaster known online as “AussieCossack,” offered him $100 to post the video, which he agreed to. A person with knowledge of the situation confirmed to CNN that multiple payments were sent from Boikov to the Massachusetts man.

Documents reviewed by CNN show that Boikov is a registered foreign agent for Russia in Australia, where he works for Russian state media, writing and posting online in English and Russian.

Read more about the fake video here.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar appears on CNN on Monday, November 4.

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar said she is positive that Vice President Kamala Harris will win the election on Tuesday and that she thinks people are going to be surprised by how many voters turn out to cast their vote based on their “deep belief in democracy.”

The Minnesota lawmaker, who was with Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz earlier on Monday, told CNN she has noticed high energy across the seven battleground states around Harris and the campaign.

Klobuchar said that other lawmakers and those who have been knocking on doors in key states have said that voters are telling them “they just can’t handle the chaos of Donald Trump.”

Klobuchar said Harris is ending her campaign with a “positive, optimistic message and Donald Trump is spiraling — and that’s not what we need in a leader right now for this country.”

From the beginning of her candidacy, Klobuchar said, Harris united the party and then started reaching out to Independents and Republicans.

Vice President Kamala Harris makes a stop at the home of a family in Reading, Pennsylvania.

Vice President Kamala Harris went door knocking in Reading, Pennsylvania, where she stopped by two homes to greet voters.

At the first home, Harris greeted a couple who had an adult son with the same name as her stepson, Cole. At the second home, Harris greeted a woman and her husband.

“It’s the day before the election, but I just wanted to come by and say I hope to earn your vote,” Harris told them.

The woman told Harris “you got my vote already,” adding that she will be working the polls tomorrow. She also explained that her husband will be voting for Harris on Election Day.

Reading is one of the five scheduled stops for Harris across Pennsylvania on Monday, ending in Philadelphia.

Strategy in final hours before Election Day: Harris and senior campaign staffers have directed staffers to keep their heads down and focus on mobilizing voters, according to a Harris adviser, capitalizing on what the campaign argues is momentum on their side.

Earlier Monday, Harris thanked volunteers at a canvassing event in Scranton, Pennsylvania. “What you all are signing up to do today, and what you’ve been doing, like let’s enjoy it,” she said.

“Let’s get out the vote,” Harris chanted before telling the crowd: “Let’s win.”

But while officials remain cautiously optimistic, they acknowledge it will be a close race — and a potentially lengthy process.

Remember what’s at stake: Pennsylvania is the most important battleground state of the 2024 election. Both Harris and Donald Trump have made the commonwealth’s 20 electoral votes central to their respective paths to victory. In 2016, Trump became the first Republican to win Pennsylvania since George H.W. Bush in 1988. In 2020, Joe Biden, a Pennsylvania native, flipped the state. According to AdImpact, Pennsylvania voters have seen nearly $300 million worth of presidential advertising – the most of any state in the nation.

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Kamala Harris knocks goes door-knocking in Pennsylvania

00:57 - Source: CNN

At his third of four battleground stops on Monday, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance looked to again tie Vice President Kamala Harris to the Biden administration’s record as he boasted about the “big tent” support for former President Donald Trump on Monday.

As he often does, Vance called the Republican Party “big tent,” mentioning Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and former US Ambassador Nikki Haley, the latter who never ended up joining Trump on the campaign trail despite CNN previously reporting she was in talks to appear with him potentially at a Fox News town hall in late October.

“We’ve got in this commonsense movement, we’ve got the lieutenant governor and the governor of Georgia, Nikki Haley on the right, and Tulsi Gabbard and Bobby Kennedy on the left. This is a big tent, my friends. So, it’s not just red team versus blue team,” Vance said.

While Kemp is supporting Trump, he didn’t vote for him in the Republican primary. As CNN previously reported, Kemp refused to call a special legislative session to help Trump as he sought overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia.

Sen. JD Vance speaks at a campaign event on November 4 in Atlanta.

While speaking at a rally in Atlanta, GOP Sen. JD Vance on Monday urged Georgia voters to get out and vote as he pointed at the narrow victory for President Joe Biden there in 2020.

Early voting in Georgia ended on Friday and Republican election officials’ efforts to slow the tide of election misinformation have been hampered by deep mistrust between them and fellow conservatives.

He pointed out that Biden narrowly won the Peach State in 2020. Biden defeated Trump in Georgia by less than 1 percentage point, becoming the first Democratic presidential nominee to win the state in nearly three decades.

“So here’s the request that I’m going to make of every single person here. I want every single one of you again to get out there and vote for Donald J. Trump 10 times,” he joked, claiming that line would get him headlines for voter fraud.

“The legal way to vote 10 times is to get your friends to the polls and take yourself to the polls and get nine of your friends and family to go along with you,” he said.

Vance also hit Harris over the Biden administration’s policies, using dark rhetoric to describe immigration in Georgia, before also making a call for unity, saying “to not discard lifelong family relationships” or friendships “because people vote the wrong way.”

He added, “in two days, we are going to take out the trash in Washington, DC, and the trash is named Kamala Harris.”

Elon Musk speaks at a town hall at the Roxain Theater on October 20, in Pittsburgh. Musk also awarded an attendee $1 million dollars during the event.

A Pennsylvania judge ruled Monday that Elon Musk’s daily $1 million giveaway to voters can continue, in a victory for the tech billionaire, though the sweepstakes is set to end Tuesday on Election Day.

Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Angelo Foglietta rejected arguments from the city’s district attorney, Larry Krasner, who argued that the sweepstakes was an illegal lottery that violated state law and must be halted immediately.

Eli Witherby, a 20-year-old valet in Philadelphia, cast his ballot for former President Donald Trump, while his girlfriend cast hers for Vice President Kamala Harris.

“Everyone’s entitled to their own opinions,” Witherby said. “At the end of the day, I’m gonna stick to my guns.”

Two rowers, they met through mutual friends, and while they don’t talk politics too much, Witherby said they respect each other’s different views.

Witherby said Harris “wouldn’t be nominated for the presidential race if she was an idiot.”

“She’s a smart woman. She’s very intelligent woman, but I believe that we need someone else who’s smarter, intelligent, who’s done it before,” he told CNN.

One factor motivating Witherby to support Trump is the economy. “Everything was cheaper,” he said, referencing in particular the price of gasoline.

Witherby, who lives in Philadelphia but is originally from Oklahoma, sees Democrats as “very polarizing” and didn’t appreciate President Joe Biden’s “garbage” gaffe.

Witherby said he’s over the name-calling on both sides and that he was encouraged by the vice presidential debate between Sen. JD Vance and Gov. Tim Walz.

“The vice presidential debate was a breath of fresh air,” he said. “It gave me confidence for the future, if we had those two running for the presidency, that it would be, you know, I don’t have to worry about someone’s character being insulted on national television.”

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance is speaking now in Atlanta.

The Republican senator from Ohio arrived in the battleground state of Georgia to talk to voters about immigration and the economy, according to the campaign’s website, after stops in Flint, Michigan, and La Crosse, Wisconsin, on Monday.

Georgia political landscape: Neither Donald Trump nor Kamala Harris have a clear advantage in Georgia, according to CNN polls conducted by SSRS, with likely voters in Georgia divide 48% for Trump to 47% for Harris. In 2020, President Joe Biden was the first Democrat to win Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992 and Arizona since Clinton in 1996.

Former President Donald Trump on Monday said Vice President Kamala Harris “copied my routine” on Saturday Night Live after Harris appeared on the show over the weekend.

Harris made an appearance on the show’s cold open on Saturday in a skit where comic and actress Maya Rudolph was playing Harris and talking to the real Harris through a mirror.

Trump appeared on “The Tonight Show” in 2015 and participated in a similar skit where host Jimmy Fallon was playing Trump and talking to the real Trump through a mirror.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during her campaign rally, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on November 4.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday said she is “proud of my long-standing commitment to Puerto Rico and her people” as she rallied in Allentown, Pennsylvania, which includes a sizable Puerto Rican population.

While Harris has largely shied away from mentioning her opponent during this final day of campaigning, her remarks were a subtle rebuttal to the rally former President Donald Trump held recently in Madison Square Garden, which featured a speaker who described Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”

Workers process absentee ballots at Fulton County Operations Hub and Elections Center, in Atlanta on Monday.

A divided Georgia Supreme Court on Monday paused a state judge’s ruling that gave more than 3,000 voters in Cobb County several more days to return their absentee ballots after local election officials admitted they were late sending them out.

The ruling will only affect the voters within a group of some 3,240 who live in the US and don’t get their absentee ballots in on time. Any voters in that group who live overseas will still have their ballots counted as long as they’re postmarked by Election Day and received by November 8.

The Supreme Court’s order directs local election officials to segregate any ballots received after 7 p.m. on Election Day and before 5 p.m. on November 8 and to not destroy them “until further order of the Court.” Whether those late arrival ballots should be counted at all is a question that will be litigated after the election.

The court’s decision is a major win for Republicans who argued that if the extension issued last week by a Cobb County judge remained intact, “state law is necessarily suspended … for only one group of voters.”

A group of civil rights groups sued the county on Friday over its delay in getting the ballots out in a timely manner, saying it would lead to the disfranchisement of thousands of voters who might not be able to return the ballots in time to be counted. The county said in a statement a day earlier that “a surge of last-minute absentee ballot applications” was to blame for the delay in mailing several thousand of them out.

The 2024 US election cycle has seen an “unprecedented amount of disinformation,” including falsehoods “aggressively peddled and amplified by our foreign adversaries at a greater scale than ever before,” a top US cyber official said on Monday.

During the early voting period, there have also been “small-scale” incidents, such as the destruction of ballot drop boxes and low-level cyberattacks, but “nothing that has the potential to materially impact the outcome of the presidential election,” Easterly said.

On Monday, multiple widely viewed posts on social media platform X featured fabricated election-related content purporting to come from major news outlets like CNN and CBS.

CNN reported on Saturday that CISA has retreated from some of the key work it did in the 2020 election to counter false and viral information about voting spread by Americans.

Asked if CISA plans to rebut false information about the election process spread by former President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, Easterly did not directly answer the question.

“It is very unfortunate and very irresponsible for anybody of (a) position of influence, of authority — regardless of party or politics — to be spreading inaccurate information about our elections,” she said generally. “It is corrosive to our democracy; it does the work of our foreign adversaries for them and it’s creating very real threats to election officials of both parties.”

Former President Donald Trump holds up a fist at a campaign rally at the Santander Arena in Reading, Pennsylvania, on Monday.

Advisers, allies and aides have all implored former President Donald Trump to stay on message in the final day of his campaign, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

While there is an overall belief that nearly all voters have made up their mind with one day to go until Election Day, some close to Trump fear any unplanned, inappropriate or insulting rhetoric could potentially cause voters to stay home in a race where every vote counts.

Yesterday in Pennsylvania, after Trump spent more than 20 minutes sowing doubt about the 2024 election, he suggested he wouldn’t mind people someone “shooting through the fake news” to get to him, in reference to his two assassination attempts. He also said he shouldn’t have left the White House.

“How hard is it to get up there and said “Kamala broke it and I’ll fix it,” one ally said, expressing frustration at Trump’s comments.

Senior advisers assured allies that Trump was aware of what was at stake. Later in the day Sunday and Monday morning he appeared to stick mainly to his prewritten remarks.

Sources also said that allies had advised Trump to keep it tight and not deviate from the script too much, noting that his lengthy remarks were also an issue. Trump was two hours late for an event in North Carolina on Sunday, and by the time he started speaking, rally attendees were already leaving.

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt, center, speaks to reporters during a tour of the ballot counting center in Philadelphia, on October 25.

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt reiterated on Monday that it may take some time before all eligible votes are counted in the key battleground state.

The Department of State “has never had final, official results on Election Night” regardless of when other projections come in, Schmidt said.

Pennsylvania’s process for counting mail-in ballots is one reason why Schmidt said he cannot predict what percentage of eligible votes will be counted on Election Day and warned that it may take several days to know the official results.

“Nearly 2 million mail-in ballots have already been returned,” Schmidt said, but cautioned that, unlike several other states, Pennsylvania counties cannot start opening mail-in ballots until 7:00 a.m. ET on Election Day.

Counties will start submitting unofficial results once polls close around 8 p.m. local time and will continue to update those numbers throughout the night and the days that follow, he added.

“All registered voters will have a chance to make their voices heard,” Schmidt said, urging the public to verify that election information is coming from trustworthy sources.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz expressed confidence about the outcome of the election and drew contrasts between his running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris, and former President Donald Trump.

“We’re going to elect a new generation of leadership with Kamala Harris. A new way forward,” Walz said.

The Democratic vice presidential candidate was speaking at an event in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, on Monday.

He said that Harris’ speech last week on the Ellipse was what a president should sound like. He contrasted that with Trump’s rally in Madison Square Garden where speakers made a series of violent and vulgar remarks.

“It may feel like we’re running like everything’s on the line – because it is,” Walz said.

Walz talked about Harris’ background of being raised by a single mother and becoming a prosecutor who fought for other people. He said the vice president would be able to bring that experience to the White House to help Americans.

“She and I want to build an economy that if you work hard, you don’t just barely skate by, you get a chance to get ahead,” Walz said, which includes people from all parts of the country. “Everybody in this country should get a shot to succeed.”

He later told dozens of people gathered in an overflow room after the event that “the blue wall must hold,” and emphasized the importance of getting people to the polls.

“All of the work, all of the ads, all the money, all the rhetoric really comes down to operationally how many people we get to the polls,” Walz said.

This post has been updated with additional comments from Walz. CNN’s Aaron Pellish in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, contributed reporting.

A fake image showing fabricated vote results from CNN of Vice President Kamala Harris leading former President Donald Trump in Texas has been viewed millions of times on the social media platform X.

But by Monday afternoon the fake image had been viewed at least 10 million times on X, shared mostly by pro-Trump paid and “verified” accounts, which means the posts have broader reach.

Many of the accounts are falsely claiming the faked image shows plans to “steal” the election, or that CNN “accidentally” aired the image, which even in its faked form, shows an incomplete vote count.

This post has been updated with new details.

Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly described the fake image.

Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz is speaking at an event in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, a key battleground state for Vice President Kamala Harris’ path to the White House.

Harris and former President Donald Trump are tied in the presidential election, according to the polling. Both campaigns have spent significant time and money in the Badger state.

The DC National Guard has been approved to assist DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services starting on Election Day through the following week, Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said on Monday.

“(Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin) approved a request last week from the District of Columbia for DC National Guard troops to support the DC fire and emergency medical services from November 5 through 13,” Ryder said. Ryder noted that this is a routine practice for the Department of Defense to authorize the DC National Guard “to support or augment security for large scale events in the district, and activated guardsmen will remain under the command and control of the DC National Guard.”

Ryder added that roughly 60 Guardsmen from six other states have been activated to support their states — though he did not say which states that included. Hundreds of other guardsmen are on standby to assist if needed, he said.

Election supplies are loaded into a voting tent set up by FEMA the day before the US presidential election, in Burnsville, North Carolina, on Monday.

A strong cold front will push east on Election Day, bringing rain to the critical battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan with a widespread area of rain stretching from the Great Lakes to East Texas.

Rainfall has been noted to slightly reduce voter turnout in previous elections.

Wisconsin looks to have the worst weather of CNN’s seven battleground states, with widespread showers and even thunderstorms that could produce isolated wind gusts more than 60 mph and a brief tornado.

Warm temperatures will create mild conditions for voters in eastern states, with record highs expected in Detroit (77 degrees F), Pittsburgh (81) and Albany, Georgia (86).

ARIZONA: Temperatures are seasonal, or a bit cooler than average through Tuesday. Phoenix: Mostly sunny, cool. High: 73. Low: 50. Winds: E 5-10 mph.

GEORGIA: Temperatures will climb around 10 degrees above average with record warm highs in the 80s for southern Georgia. Atlanta: Mostly cloudy but dry. High: 78. Low: 64. Winds: SE 10-15 mph.

MICHIGAN: Skies stay overcast with healthy rain chances, especially for western parts of the state. Grand Rapids: Rain likely. High: 70 (Record 75 set in 1978). Low: 49. Winds: SSW 10-15 G 25 mph. Detroit: Mostly cloudy, breezy. Rain arrives late. High: 77 (Record 74 set in 2022). Low: 54. Winds: SSW 15-20 G 40 mph.

NEVADA: It stays dry, sunny, and seasonal with temperatures right around average. Las Vegas: Mostly sunny. High: 69. Low: 47. Winds: Light and variable.

NORTH CAROLINA: Temperatures will be well above November’s average with highs in the middle and upper 70s. Raleigh: Mostly sunny, warm. High: 78. Low: 59. Winds: SE 5-10 mph.

PENNSYLVANIA: A few clouds may roll in, but it stays incredibly warm and dry. Pittsburgh: Mostly sunny, very warm. High: 81 (Record 80 set in 1948). Low. 63. Winds: S 6-15 mph.

WISCONSIN: Rain chances are high with totals mostly at or under 1 inch. Milwaukee: Rain likely. High: 65 (Record 73 set in 1978). Low: 41. Winds: SSW 15-20 mph.

Vice President Kamala Harris is speaking to voters in Allentown, Pennsylvania, ahead of polls closing on Election Day.

Her visit to Allentown is the second of several she plans to make throughout Pennsylvania on the eve of Election Day. That state is considered one of the most important battlegrounds this election cycle.

Hundreds of Harris supporters wait in line to attend the Harris-Walz Crossing Rally & Concert in Philadelphia, on Monday.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign on the eve of the Election Day will host a series of interconnected “Get Out The Vote” events across battleground states — featuring famous artists and speakers, according to the campaign.

The series of organizing events in all seven battleground states is “meant to capture the grassroots enthusiasm” and each event will be tied together with a national live stream show.

O’Malley added that the events are meant to serve as “a massive mobilization and volunteer engagement opportunity. We’ll have organizing packet drop offs as part of it, of course, we would end with a big event that has a true organizing component to it. Front row seats are going to be given to folks who have completed phone banking and door knocking shifts over the last few days.”

Vice President Kamala Harris plans to spend Election Day conducting radio interviews across battleground states, her campaign says, as she works to convince any remaining undecided voters to cast ballots for her in the final day of the campaign.

After stumping in every swing state over the past week, Harris will be in Washington as the voting concludes. But she hopes to make one final push on the airwaves to anyone who hasn’t yet voted as she prepares for the results to start coming in.

Harris’ communications director Michael Tyler said the interviews are intended to make sure “that those final voters who are on their way to work, on their way home taking a lunch break, understand the stakes, but understand her vision for where she wants to take this country over the course of the next four years.”

The Harris campaign views its final-day mission both to convince any remaining undecided voters to support Harris while also mobilizing those who may not be regular or reliable voters to get to a polling station.

Poll workers demonstrate how ballots will be processed on election day during a press tour of the Philadelphia election warehouse on October 25.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign continues to believe it has “multiple pathways” to 270 electoral votes and has not closed out any potential paths at this stage, campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said Monday.

The path through the so-called “Blue Wall” states – Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania – remains the “most straightforward path,” but the campaign sees “equally favorable” paths in Sun Belt states, she said.

The Harris campaign also offered its views on the timing of election results, suggesting that the team will remain “calm and confident” as votes come in – during what could potentially be a lengthy process.

Early in the night on Tuesday: The Harris campaign expects “most of the results from Georgia and North Carolina” will come in relatively early, said O’Malley Dillon, noting that if those states are close “it might not be called until later.” The campaign also expects “near complete results” relatively early from Virginia, Florida, Ohio, and Colorado. At this point in the evening, the campaign is cautioning that “everyone should be very careful not to over-index on these results in any one state.”

By the end of the night Tuesday: The Harris campaign expects “near-complete results” from Georgia, North Carolina, and Michigan, and “partial results” from Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Arizona.

By Wednesday morning: The Harris campaign expects “most results” from Wisconsin by Wednesday morning, as well as “additional results from Pennsylvania and potentially Michigan,” O’Malley Dillon said.

On Wednesday and beyond: The Harris campaign said additional results will be coming in “from Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada,” as well as a “small number of remaining ballots tabulated” in other battleground states.

“Keep in mind that some ballots will continue to be counted for many days,” O’Malley Dillon cautioned.

Residents of Mecklenburg County wait in line to cast their ballots on the last day of early voting, in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Saturday.

The executive director of North Carolina’s elections board pleaded with candidates to accept the results of the election at a news conference Monday.

Karen Brinson Bell said this year her state has done more planning for possible threats than in past elections.

“I would just make a plea to the candidates and election officials: Have a peaceful transition of power. Accept the results. Concede defeat, when necessary,”Brinson Bell said, adding that the election is administered by bipartisan community members who have sworn oaths to ensure that results are determined accurately.

Brinson Bell said some election offices have installed panic buttons and further secured entrances ahead of the election.

“I’ve worked in elections for nearly 19 years now, and post-election hostility, threats, harassment were not something that we planned for, for most of my career, but it certainly has become the case,” she said.

She also referenced harassment and threats officials in Georgia, Arizona and Michigan and other battleground states faced after the 2020 election.

“We have tried to learn from them, understand the relationships that we need to have with law enforcement,” Brinson Bell said. “What we’ve done is to prepare as best we can and consider it more of an insurance policy that we hope we never have to exercise.”

Even with that added security, Brinson Bell said the state remains committed to transparency, and she invited people with questions to come and observe checks on tabulator systems and canvass meetings where results are presented to board members.

“Understand why we are able to certify these elections,” she said.

Shares of former President Donald Trump’s social media company roared higher on the final day before the US presidential election.

Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT), the parent company of Truth Social, surged 16% Monday. There was no apparent catalyst for the increase.

The stock has been highly volatile since it went public in March: It quadrupled in value over a five-week span before plunging by 41% over the past three trading sessions.

Traders have used Trump’s stock as a kind of barometer for the former president’s perceived reelection chances. The company’s shares do not trade on the fundamental health of the company’s business, which is minuscule by comparison with its better-known rivals such as X, TikTok and Instagram.

Although polls show the presidential race remains extremely tight, online betting markets in recent weeks have given Trump the edge over Vice President Kamala Harris, and market analysts credit the Trump stock’s increase to the trend in prediction sites.

Similarly, when Harris began to make a comeback in online betting markets, Trump’s media stock began to implode. The precipitous decline shaved $2.4 billion off Trump’s net worth between Wednesday and Friday, cutting deeply into the $3.6 billion in gains Trump made during the previous month.

Monday’s gains added about a half billion dollars back to Trump’s net worth.

Sen. J.D. Vance speaks to supporters during a rally in Flint, Michigan, on Monday.

At his final event in Michigan before Election Day, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance said a second Trump administration would protect the Michigan auto industry, while Vice President Harris would destroy it with electric vehicle mandates.

He claimed that “when Kamala Harris talks about the electric vehicle mandate, you know that would destroy 117,000 Michigan auto worker jobs.”

As CNN’s Daniel Dale previously reported, the number of people employed in auto manufacturing in Michigan has increased by about 15% under the Biden-Harris administration; it is now at its highest level since 2007, though the number of people employed in auto parts manufacturing in the state has fallen about 6%.

As Axios reported in September, Harris’ campaign would not say if she supports mandates on electric and hydrogen vehicles by 2035. The campaign has said she does not support a mandate on electric vehicles.

Some more context: United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain has emerged as a prominent backers and aggressive advocate of Harris, frequently slamming Trump’s labor policies and warning that second Trump administration would be damning to the movement.

A man walks at the Fulton County Operations Hub and Elections Center in Atlanta, on Monday.

As Fulton County prepares for another Election Day under the microscope, several security procedures are in place to help secure the counting process, officials said Monday.

Memory sticks from polling locations will arrive at the Fulton County elections hub with a police escort, officers will be in place at the elections hub 24 hours-a-day, and cameras will be recording various steps in the tabulation process (although those cameras will not be live-streamed).

As the county prepares to tally ballots, it’s also grappling with legal challenges from the Republican National Committee over hundreds of absentee ballots that were hand-delivered over the weekend. Those ballots are being segregated amid pending litigation.

Officials said they will also remain vigilant about identifying possible misinformation, though they lamented that those efforts eat up election workers’ time and attention.

“You asked if it takes away the time from the staff, and it does,” said Nadine Williams, director of registration and elections in Fulton County. “Unfortunately, that’s our biggest challenge is misinformation, to have to answer calls and emails about things that are not true.”

People wait in line to vote during early voting at a polling station in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Sunday.

The first wave of unofficial results of battleground Michigan could start coming in as early as Tuesday night, the Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson told reporters on Monday. The last polls will close at 9 p.m. ET.

Those first numbers will include votes cast in person at early vote centers, she said, since those ballots were immediately put into tabulators, as well as from absentee ballots that have already been returned and tabulated, thanks to Michigan’s new law that allows for early tabulation. More than 80% of absentee ballots sent to voters have already been returned.

Voters can still return their mail ballots to their local clerk’s office or a ballot drop box before 8 p.m. tomorrow. In-person, same-day voter registration is also an option for people showing up at polling places.

She reminded reporters that in 2020, Michigan had 3.3 million citizens vote early and 2.2 million show up on Election Day, but clerks weren’t able to pre-process absentee ballots until 7 a.m. on Election Day. Clerks in Michigan’s larger municipalities were able to start processing and tabulating as early as a week ago.

The secretary of state said she is “optimistic and hopeful” she would have results earlier than in 2020.

Benson said based on the trends her office is seeing now, “we’re on pace to see another high turnout election” in Michigan. Nearly 3.2 million people have already voted, which amounts to about 44% of active registered voters. More than 1.2 million of those voters took advantage of the state’s new in-person early voting option.

The FBI has established an election command post in Washington, DC, to monitor and respond to election-related threats in the lead-up to and after the election in coordination with state, local and federal partners.

The office is staffed by 80 people per shift across a dozen agencies and will run 24-hours a day every day this week as election results come in.

The office is not looking to curtail free speech or monitor social media, James Barnacle, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, told reporters Monday during a walk-through of the command post.

“However, when information is threatening, and it rises to the violation of federal laws, then we look to take action,” Barnacle said.

Barnacle said that there has been a slight increase in threats reported to the center compared to past elections.

“The threat reporting that we’re getting in here is a little more – not a huge volume increase,” Barnacle said. “People are more aware of reporting information to the FBI.”

The threats, Barnacle said, include those to election workers, cyber threats and foreign malign influence campaigns, including from Russia, China and Iran as those countries are “looking to undermine democracy, sow discord and undermine Washington’s standing in the world.”

The command post brings different experts together as well as law enforcement partners so that information around threats can quickly be disseminated to officers on the ground, Barnacle added. FBI offices across the country will all be running their own command posts this week as well, which will coordinate with the national command post in DC.

Supporters watch as Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Vice President Kamala Harris is working to present a vision of unity and togetherness as she rallies across Pennsylvania with less than a day to go until the election.

“What you are all signing up to do today, and what you’ve been doing - like, let’s enjoy it, you know?” Harris said to people who will be canvasing on her behalf.

Speaking near Scranton, she added: “We are a people-driven campaign, and we love the people and we see in the face of a stranger and neighbor, right? And that’s the spirit of what we are doing.”

The event at Montage Mountain Resorts marks her first of five campaign events today. The vice president again avoided saying her Republican rival’s name, instead referring to Donald Trump as “the other guy.”

“There’s a huge difference between me and the other guy, which everybody here knows, which is why you are here to help us get out the vote,” Harris said.

The divisiveness in contemporary American politics, Harris said, “makes people feel alone.”

The post was updated with more of Harris’ remarks from Scranton, Pennsylvania

The mayor of Allentown, Pennsylvania, said that the Harris-Walz campaign’s ground game in the key battleground state “is what’s going to make the difference” this cycle, arguing that they seem to be outperforming the GOP.

He said volunteers were also knocking on voters’ doors in other areas of the sate, including along the route from Allentown to Philadelphia.

Tuerk also predicted that comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s comments comparing Puerto Rico as “garbage” during former President Donald Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden will alienate voters — particularly in Allentown, with its significant Puerto Rican population.

“I mean, people take it very seriously. It’s, it is a big deal, and it’s a big deal that angered a lot of people, and I think it motivated a lot of people to get off their couch and vote,” he said.

However, Tuerk noted that voters in Allentown have been “waiting to hear from” Harris, as she’s traveled across much of Pennsylvania this cycle without stopping in the city.

Harris is in Allentown on Monday, however. She holding a rally and concert this afternoon.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at a campaign stop in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, on Monday.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz touted the country’s elections systems as “the most secure elections in the world” while speaking to supporters in Wisconsin on Monday.

He urged people in the room to cast their ballots and bring people in the community to vote tomorrow, pledging that Vice President Kamala Harris will “win on the votes” and touting the security of the country’s elections systems.

Walz’s comments come as former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have repeatedly claimed that election systems in various states are vulnerable to fraud.

Walz rarely mentioned Trump while speaking in La Crosse, Wisconsin, appearing to follow Harris’ lead after she declined to mention him during her final campaign rally in Michigan on Sunday. Walz attacked “Donald Trump’s abortion ban” at one point and drew contrasts between Trump’s campaign and Harris’ vision for the country throughout his remarks without directly mentioning him.

Walz also attacked Republicans broadly for not living up to their expressed values, including suggesting they want to “plaster” Trump’s face on the American flag.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event at Montage Mountain Resort in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on Monday.

Vice President Kamala Harris is delivering remarks at an event near Scranton, Pennsylvania, ahead of polls closing tomorrow on Election Day.

This is the first of her pre-Election Day rallies in the battleground state.

She will be heading to Allentown, Reading and Pittsburgh before closing out the campaign with a rally in Philadelphia, where she will be joined by Oprah Winfrey and Lady Gaga, among other celebrities, musicians and elected officials.

Stickers sit on a table during in-person absentee voting on November 01, 2024 in Little Chute, Wisconsin.

The presidential race is not the only high-stakes election happening in November. Voters will also be electing lawmakers for Congress and weighing in on key state races and ballot measures.

Republicans are aiming to defend a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, where all 435 seats are up for grabs. In the Senate, 34 of the chamber’s 100 seats are on the ballot as Democrats look to defend a razor-thin majority.

Eleven states are holding governor’s races, 5,808 state legislative seats are up and voters will vote on at least 153 ballot measures.

If the House flips from Republican to Democratic control and the Senate flips from Democratic to Republican control, it would be the first time in over 230 years of congressional elections that the two chambers of Congress changed partisan control in the opposite direction.

With no clear leader in the presidential election, according to the most recent CNN nationwide poll, the battle for Congress will be crucial to determining whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump will have a supportive first branch of government to help implement the new president’s policies.

In state legislatures, Republicans control both chambers in 28 states, while Democrats control both chambers in 20 states.

And Colorado has the most ballot measures, with Arizona, California and New Mexico following behind.

CNN’s Matt Holt, Alex Leeds Matthews and Harry Enten contributed reporting.

Sen. JD Vance speaks at a campaign rally in Flint, Michigan, on Monday.

At a rally in Michigan, Sen. JD Vance said leaders, including Vice President Kamala Harris, have “failed to do their job” on the economy for communities like Flint. He said that would change if Donald Trump is president.

“We got to get out there tomorrow and take every single person you know,” Trump’s running mate said, encouraging supporters to make sure they turn out to the polls on Election Day.

The Republican vice presidential candidate called Flint a “beautiful place to close out the campaign in Michigan.” He promised the crowd that he would come back to the state at the vice president.

Vance said the campaign knows that middle-class people lost their jobs — specifically manufacturing jobs — and are struggling to afford things like groceries and claimed that was because “people like Kamala Harris failed to do their job.” He touted Trump’s record in office, making a pitch to voters that they were better off when he was president, pointing to the inflation rate and border security.

“If we get back to the common sense policies of Donald J. Trump, we can get back to the peace and prosperity of that leadership,” he said, adding that he believes the country is “on the cusp of a golden age of American prosperity” that Trump could usher in.

He slammed Harris’ economic proposals and said that the election is about “whether the American dream is going to be affordable for our fellow citizens.” Vance later claimed that Harris has not given specific answers about what she could do for Americans as president.

He also tried to tie Harris to the Biden administration’s policies and argued that if she wanted to fix the “affordability crisis,” she would have already done it as vice president.

“Stop talking about doing your job and go and do it,” Vance said.

Read about Harris’ and Trump’s proposals on the economy here.

This post has been updated with more of Vance’s remarks.

Republican vice presidential candidate JD is now delivering remarks at an event in Flint, Michigan, a key battleground state.

He is expected to talk about things like the economy and inflation as well as the state’s auto industry, according to the campaign’s website.

Michigan’s political landscape: Joe Biden flipped Michigan after Donald Trump won the state in 2016 as the first Republican to do since 1988. It is part of the the “blue wall” along with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Trump has made appeals to voters of color in areas like Detroit, especially Black and Latino men. These are groups Vice President Kamala Harris have been looking to turn out to the polls for her.

A woman votes on the second day of early voting in Wisconsin at the Milwaukee Area Technical College, on October 23.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz urged voters in Wisconsin to head to the polls on the eve of Election Day during a rally in La Crosse.

“We are within 24 hours of polls opening. You could be anywhere, you came here because you love this country. And I’m grateful to each and every one of you for doing that,” Walz said. “The thing is upon us now, folks. I know that there’s a lot of anxiety, but the decisions that are made over the next 24 to 36 hours, when those polls close, will shape not just the next four years, they will shape the coming generations.”

Walz went on to tout Vice President Kamala Harris’ vision for a unified America listing out her policy stances on the economy, health care and abortion rights.

He added, “When we win this thing — which we will — tomorrow, those are the values we will take to the White House.”

Walz then “humbly” asked those in the crowd for their vote. “This election quite literally could be won through the state of Wisconsin.”

Kamala Harris campaign volunteer Benjamin Reid, left. speaks with Dannah Hayward, as he encourages her to vote during a 'Get Out The Vote' effort two days before election day in Philadelphia, on Sunday.

Kamala Harris campaign officials are banking on what they’ve frequently called an aggressive ground game in Pennsylvania in the final hours of the presidential election, projecting optimism about their strategy in the key battleground state.

“We’ve always been preparing for a close race since day one. We know Pennsylvania will be close, but we’re feeling really good about how we’re positioned going into Election Day,” Brendan McPhillips, a Harris campaign senior adviser for Pennsylvania, told CNN.

Over the weekend, Harris campaign officials say their teams knocked on hundreds of thousands of doors across Pennsylvania.

“We’re very precise about when we’re targeting people that we know where they’re coming from, we know where they stand, and we have a continuously evolving conversation with them throughout the course of the campaign,” McPhillips said, touting the get out the vote efforts on the ground and describing discussions on the ground as “overwhelmingly positive.”

Many of the campaign’s strategies converged in Pennsylvania, including appealing to disaffected Republicans in red, rural counties, and courting Latino voters in Latino-dense areas like Reading, Pennsylvania.

Monday’s stops across Pennsylvania are designed to target the diversity of the state, McPhillips said, in the campaign’s final push to convince voters who are still on the fence.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a rally in East Lansing, Michigan, on Sunday.

The final pre-election NPR/PBS News/Marist poll, released Monday, finds Vice President Kamala Harris with a narrow lead over former President Donald Trump among likely voters nationally, 51% to 47%.

The poll finds likely voters saying, 55% to 44%, that Trump is mainly making proposals he intends to carry out, rather than ones intended to get votes; by contrast, they’re split 49% to 49% on whether or not Harris really intends to carry out her proposals. Likely voters in the survey are about evenly split on which candidate can better handle the economy —50% say Trump, 49% Harris — and give Harris more positive personal ratings than Trump (50% rate her favorably, compared with 45% for Trump).

With the results of the new poll incorporated, the latest CNN Poll of Polls average finds that an average of 49% of likely voters nationwide back Harris and 47% support Trump. Of the five surveys included, two show an edge for Harris, while three show no clear leader in the race.

Election workers open envelopes and sort through ballots at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center in Phoenix on October 23.

Pre-election voting is winding down across the country, with many states wrapping up in-person early voting over the weekend.

More than 77 million ballots have already been cast in 47 states and the District of Columbia, according to data gathered by CNN, Edison Research and Catalist — a company that provides data, analytics and other services to Democrats, academics and nonprofit advocacy groups, including insights into who is voting before November.

Here are some of the key takeaways from early voting:

Former President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Monday.

During his final rally in the battleground state of North Carolina, former president Donlad Trump called on his supporters to elect him in a “landslide that is too big to rig,” repeating baseless claims of election interference and seeding the ground to cast doubt on the outcome of the vote on Election Day.

Trump called November 5 “the most important day in the history of our country” as he offered his closing argument in a presidential race that remains incredibly close, with polls showing Trump and Harris remain tied in many battleground states.

Trump spoke for more than hour during the rally and renewed his promises to close the US border with Mexico.

“We will not be invaded, we will be occupied, we will not be overrun, we will not be conquered,” Trump said. “We will be a free and proud nation once again. Everyone will prosper, every family will thrive and every day will be filled with opportunity and hope and the American dream itself.”

Trump again called on his supporters to “fire Kamala.”

“Together, we will fight, fight, fight and win, win, win,” Trump said.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz is delivering remarks at a rally in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

The campaign event comes after Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance also held a rally in La Crosse earlier this morning.

Both former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have visited the state multiple times to court voters throughout the 2024 election cycle.

Wisconsin is a key battleground state with 10 electoral college votes at stake. The state is a part of the “blue wall” along with Pennsylvania and Michigan. These states used to be more reliably Democratic but have shifted as their populations changed and as Trump has appealed to White voters without college degrees.

In four of the last six presidential elections, Wisconsin has been decided by less than a percentage point on the presidential level.

CNN’s Ethan Cohen and Zachary B. Wolf contributed to this report.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

Both presidential campaigns and their allies continued launching new TV ads heading into the final weekend of the White House race, underscoring the intense effort to get their closing message in front of voters. And in the home stretch, both candidates have produced lengthy, feature spots attempting to summarize their campaigns and deliver a final appeal.

On Sunday afternoon, Harris’ campaign went up with a two-minute spot featuring the candidate speaking to the camera, recounting her experience on the campaign trail during a historic, condensed election, and pledging “to be a president for all Americans.”

“Throughout this campaign, I’ve seen the best of America. And I’ve seen what is holding you back and weighing you down. High costs, fundamental rights taken away, and politics that have driven fear and division,” Harris says in the ad, cut with Americana imagery and video from campaign events. “You deserve better.”

And the previous Sunday, the Trump campaign went up with its own two-minute feature ad, promoting Trump’s first-term record, and hailing his decision to run for president a third time – while featuring dramatic moments from the 2024 campaign, including footage of the first assassination attempt against the former president.

Trump’s ad features narration from the candidate and several clips from his campaign events. “Our country has gone to hell. So I made a decision to run. We’re gonna make America great again, greater than ever before,” Trump says in the ad.

Advertisers have spent more than $2.3 billion on the 15-week presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, a stunning ad blitz during which Democrats have outspent Republicans by a total of about $1.4 billion to $933 million.

By comparison, during the final 15 weeks of the 2020 presidential election, advertisers ran a total of about $1.7 billion worth of advertising for the White House race, and Democrats led Republicans by about $1 billion to $631 million, according to data from the ad tracking firm AdImpact.

In 2024, seven critical battleground states — Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Arizona, and Nevada — account for roughly 80% of all the ad dollars spent during the period between Biden’s withdrawal and Election Day.

And one battleground, Pennsylvania, accounts for roughly one-fifth of all the ad spending during the unprecedented campaign sprint, drawing more than half a billion dollars and looming as the top target for both parties.

Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein speaks during a rally in Dearborn, Michigan, on October 6.

A Republican-tied super PAC is airing on Detroit radio a minute-long ad telling voters to support Green Party candidate Jill Stein over Vice President Kamala Harris’ support for Israel.

The ad, uncovered by CNN through a search of ads running on local swing state radio stations, is just the latest effort of Badger Values PAC — a Republican-staffed organization that has been spending heavily in the last two weeks to boost Stein and former President Donald Trump in Michigan and Wisconsin.

The ad is airing on at least two stations, WMGC and WMXD, both urban radio stations.

The advertisement accuses Harris of “blindly supporting Israel” and then quotes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking in Hebrew, saying “we will turn them into rubble” and “we will destroy them,” but does not include the context Netanyahu was speaking about Hamas the night of after the October 7, 2023 terrorist attack.

It also quotes Harris in an interview with CNN earlier this year saying, “I am unequivocal and unwavering in my commitment to Israel’s defense and its ability to defend itself. And that’s not gonna change.”

The group has now spent more than $1,803,417 in its efforts to boost Stein and Trump in the two states according to its latest filings with the FEC. Listen to the full ad, archived by CNN here.

Ohio Sen. JD Vance speaks in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, on Monday.

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance on Monday urged voters in Wisconsin to turn out in large numbers on Election Day now that early voting is done, during remarks in La Crosse.

Vance noted that the campaign event today marks his last visit to Wisconsin before Election Day tomorrow. He promised to come back “as your vice president.”

“We’re going to win this thing,” Vance said, noting that since early voting is over, tomorrow is “our last chance.”

Throughout his VP campaign, Vance has attempted to appeal to women voters through promising stronger public safety. In this rally, he aimed to undercut Harris by using criminal undocumented immigrants as an example.

“Kamala Harris has the audacity to say that she stands for women and young girls. You know, the most important thing Kamala, if you want to stand for women and young girls is you want to make our communities safe enough for women and young girls to be able to walk down the street without being sexually assaulted by a criminal that you let into this country,” Vance said.

Continuing to slam Harris on immigration, Vance said the southern border is where her policies “have worked the worst,” and where Trump’s policies “worked the best.”

Election officials in Lincoln, Nebraska, are debunking a video that claims to show a young man illegally putting other people’s ballots into a drop box outside a library, saying the false claim may have put the young voter in danger.

The Lancaster County election commissioner says the video, which a poster on X claimed to show a “ballot mule,” actually shows “a young man returning his ballot for the first Presidential Election.”

After using surveillance video to identify the voter, the matter was referred to the Lincoln Police Department because “commenters on the social media posts were threatening to harm him,” commissioner Todd Wiltgen said in a written statement.

The Lancaster County Republican Party also took to social media, encouraging people not to spread the rumor.

“Everyone Calm down this is CONFIRMED to be a young man returning his ballot for his first ever presidential election,” the local party posted on its X account.

Former President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Monday.

At a campaign stop in Raleigh, North Carolina, Donald Trump urged his supporters to get out and cast their ballots to “fire” Vice President Kamala Harris.

“Tomorrow, you have to stand up and tell Kamala that you’ve had enough, you can’t take anymore, you just can’t,” Trump said.

On the eve of the election, the former president told his supporters he has multiple campaign stops and that his voice is “holding up, I think, about barely.” But, Trump said North Carolina voters have reliably supported him, and he’s never lost the state.

“I don’t think we’re going to start now,” the former president said.

During the rally, Trump brought Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio on stage.

Rubio told the crowd the country has suffered from a “malaise” under the Biden-Harris administration. He urged voters to elect Trump and make him the 47th president of the United States.

“Together with Donald Trump, we are going to make America not just great, but greater than it has ever been before,” Rubio said to cheers of “USA.”

Lawyers for Elon Musk argued in court Monday that his $1 million giveaway to voters isn’t a lottery and said the super PAC isn’t picking winners “by chance.”

“There is no prize to be won,” Musk lawyer Chris Gober said, and the winners “are not chosen by chance.”

In announcing the giveaway, Musk said: “We are going to be awarding $1 million randomly to people who have signed the petition,” referring to his petition in support of the Constitution. But Gober argued Monday that there is a difference between “randomly” choosing winners and picking them “by chance,” as happens in a lottery.

The judge is weighing whether to shut down the sweepstakes because, the district attorney contents, it is operating as an unlawful lottery outside the rules of state gaming laws.

A lawyer for the Philadelphia district attorney, John Summers, said in response that this argument was “a complete admission of liability” and “a flat-out admission of liability.” Part of the district attorney’s argument in his original lawsuit filed last week was that the sweepstakes winners were not being selected at random.

Musk’s super PAC adopted this framing – that the sweepstakes winners are getting paid to serve as spokespeople – shortly after launching the sweepstakes and attracting significant legal scrutiny.

Correction: An earlier version of this post used the wrong first name for the Philadelphia district attorney’s lawyer. It is John.

Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney said that she was proud to cast her vote for Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov Tim Walz.

During an interview on ABC’s “The View,” Cheney said she believes many of her fellow Republicans are crossing the aisle to vote for Harris this election.

Cheney also said that there is only one “responsible adult” in the race and that voters do not have the luxury of writing in someone. “We have to defeat him,” she said referring to former President Donald Trump.

“I can’t tell you how proud I was to fill in that, you know, circle next to Kamala Harris and Tim Walz,” Cheney said. It’s Cheney’s first time voting for a Democrat.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz kicked off his last day of campaigning before Election Day with a celebratory send off in his hometown of Minneapolis with dozens of supporters, including high-ranking Minnesota Democratic allies.

Before setting off on his final set of campaign events in Wisconsin and Michigan on Monday, Walz thanked supporters on the runway at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Among those in attendance were Minnesota Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum, Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter.

As Walz arrived, along with Minnesota First Lady Gwen Walz and their daughter Hope, the crowd cheered on the tarmac as his walkup song, “Small Town” by John Mellencamp, played on speakers. Walz greeted supporters on the tarmac for several minutes before boarding the Harris-Walz branded campaign plane en route to Wisconsin for his first campaign stop of the day.

2 Chainz performs at a Kamala Harris rally in Atlanta on Saturday.

On the eve of Election Day, celebrity guests and performers will campaign across the battleground states. Here’s who the Harris campaign says will be performing and delivering remarks today:

Las Vegas

• Who’s performing? Christina Aguilera, Los Tigres Del Norte and Sofi Tukker with remarks from Eva Longoria

Pennsylvania

Vice President Kamala Harris is spending the entire day in Pennsylvania and headlining these two events:

• Pittsburgh: Who’s performing? D-Nice, Katy Perry and Andra Day

• Philadelphia: Who’s attending? DJ Cassidy, Fat Joe, Freeway and Just Blaze, Lady Gaga, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Ricky Martin, The Roots, Jazmine Sullivan and Adam Blackstone, and Oprah Winfrey

Phoenix, Arizona

• Who’s performing? La Original Banda El Limón

Detroit, Michigan

Gov. Tim Walz will be headlining this event.

• Who’s performing? Detroit Youth Choir, Jon Bon Jovi and The War and Treaty

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Walz is also headlining this rally.

• Who’s performing? Eric Benét

Raleigh, North Carolina

• Who’s performing? Fantasia Barrino, James Taylor, Remi Wolf, and Sugarland

Atlanta, Georgia

• Who’s performing? 2 Chainz, F.L.Y., Joy of Jesse & Joy, Keyshia Cole, KP The Great, Morehouse House of Funk Marching Band, Pastor Troy and Tamar Braxton

Former President Donald Trump speaks during a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Monday.

In his final campaign rally in battleground North Carolina, former President Donald Trump urged his supporters to help him close out the 2024 election cycle and win the White House.

Trump began his final rally in the battleground state by discussing polls, which he said show him leading. Trump said he’s visiting North Carolina on the eve of the election to urge people to “get out and vote.”

Last week, CNN reported on the latest poll out of North Carolina, where Harris stood at 48% to Trump’s 47% among likely voters. The results were within the margin of error in the state, suggesting no clear leader in the contest.

Before the former president took the stage, his son, Donald Trump, Jr., asked those of his father’s supporters who voted early in the state to spend the day urging their friends and family to go to the polls and “take back your country.”

“Get in line, bring your friends, stay in line,” Trump, Jr., said.

Former President Donald Trump is speaking in Raleigh, North Carolina, as he makes his final push in a battleground state that was key to his campaign in 2020.

Trump is campaigning in the state for the third day in a row as he tries to rally voters on the eve of the election.

Former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Monday.

Prior to Trump taking the stage, Alina Habba and Donald Trump Jr. addressed the audience.

Susie Wiles, Eric Trump and Michael Whatley are waiting in the wings while Trump is on stage — it is unclear if they will speak.

Marco Rubio and Sarah Huckabee Sanders were expected to give remarks before Trump came on, per Trump campaign, but they did not speak.

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance is delivering remarks at a rally in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Wisconsin is a key battleground state with 10 electoral college votes at stake. The state is a part of the “blue wall” along with Pennsylvania and Michigan.

The states used to be more reliably Democratic but have shifted as their populations changed and as former President Donald Trump has appealed to White voters without a college degree.

Both Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have visited the state multiple times to court voters throughout the 2024 election cycle. In four of the last six presidential elections, Wisconsin has been decided by less than a percentage point on the presidential level.

CNN’s Ethan Cohen and Zachary B. Wolf contributed to this report.

Elon Musk speaks during an America PAC town hall in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on October 26.

A court hearing on whether to shut down Elon Musk’s $1 million giveaway to registered voters is underway in Philadelphia.

Regardless of the outcome of the hearing, Musk’s sweepstakes is set to end on Tuesday, which is Election Day. Musk and his pro-Trump super PAC have given out $16 million over the past two weeks to registered voters in battleground states – despite the legal scrutiny.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, a progressive Democrat, filed a lawsuit to shut down Musk’s sweepstakes, claiming it violates state gaming laws and threatens the integrity of the 2024 election.

Musk’s lawyers have countered that this is a partisan lawsuit filed to “silence” Musk’s pro-Trump advocacy. Chris Gober, treasurer of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump super PAC, slammed the Philadelphia DA on Monday before the hearing.

“We’re in court today because some district attorney in Philadelphia wants to silence Elon Musk for supporting Donald Trump,” Gober said.

“We don’t back down from bullies. We don’t allow our rights to be trampled upon by partisan agendas masquerading as legal arguments,” he added.

Last week, a federal judge rejected Musk’s request to move the case to federal court.

Vice President Kamala Harris in an interview released on Monday described her commitment to Puerto Rico as “long-standing” and reiterated her campaign pledge to build an “opportunity economy” during a pre-taped radio interview with Univision Radio’s Spanish-language program “El Bueno La Mala y El Feo.”

She also discussed increasing economic opportunity in Puerto Rico and updating the US territory’s faltering electric grid.

“My vision of the economy for growth is what I call an opportunity economy, understanding that everyone has ambition, they have hard work ethic, they have the skills, but not always the access to the resources to achieve their goals and their dreams,” Harris said, discussing her goals of home ownership, small business loans and child tax credits. Harris spoke in English, and her remarks were translated.

People fill out ballots on the last day of early voting in Howell, Michigan, on Sunday.

By almost every measure, the way former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have closed their campaigns for the White House could not present more of a contrast as they make final appeals to voters in a race that remains on a razor’s edge heading into Election Day.

The last full day of campaigning also speaks to the contrasting approaches for the two candidates, with Harris focused on a single state that could hold the key to her pathway to victory while Trump visits three states as he eyes multiple avenues that could lead him back to the White House.

Contrasting closing messages

In one of his final pitches to Pennsylvania voters, Trump promoted unfounded claims about Democrats cheating in the 2024 election, asserted that he “shouldn’t have left” the White House after his 2020 defeat and suggested he would not mind if a gunman were to “shoot through the fake news” to get to him and lashed out at an Iowa poll showing him in a close race in a state he won twice. The overall message and mood from Trump highlights how he has embraced dark rhetoric, vulgar attacks and baseless conspiracies as cornerstones of closing argument instead of drawing a contrast with his Democratic rival on policy areas where polls still show him with advantages among voters.

By contrast, the vice president avoided any mention of Trump in her final pitch to Michigan voters on Sunday, instead anchoring her message around a call to “turn the page on a decade of politics driven by fear and division.” The emphasis on “a new way forward” offered a clear contrast by Harris without amplifying her more direct appeal in recent days of presenting the election as a choice between a president who will focus on a “to-do list” for the American people and another who would be guided by an “enemies list.”

Dueling events on the trail

Harris is set to hold five events across Pennsylvania on Monday, beginning with a canvass kickoff in Scranton. She will follow that with stops in Reading, Allentown and Pittsburgh before closing out the campaign with a rally in Philadelphia, where she will be joined by Oprah Winfrey and Lady Gaga, among other celebrities, musicians and elected officials.

Trump begins his day with a rally in North Carolina — the state that gave him his narrowest win in 2020 and one his Democratic rival is eager to flip. It marks the third consecutive day the former president is spending in the Tar Heel State, one that is crucial to his electoral map. From there, Trump travels to Pennsylvania for a pair of events in in Reading and Pittsburgh.

The dueling events in Pittsburgh and Reading — the Pennsylvania city with the highest percentage of Latino residents — speak to the importance of that voting bloc in the commonwealth — and how the state is poised to play a decisive role in determining which candidate emerges as the country’s next president.

The GOP nominee will hold his final rally of the 2024 campaign the way he ended his previous two presidential runs — in Grand Rapids, Michigan — a nod to Trump’s superstitious tendencies. It is worth noting that Harris also is closing out her 2024 run in the same city she held her final rally during the 2020 campaign as Joe Biden’s running mate.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to reporters in Detroit on Sunday.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday declined to say how she voted on Proposition 36, a California ballot initiative that would allow for increased sentencing for people convicted of retail theft or drug crimes.

Harris, a former California attorney general and San Francisco district attorney, was speaking about casting her vote, saying, “I actually just filled out my mail-in ballot” and sent it to California, her home state.

Proposition 36 would increase the punishment of certain theft and drug crimes by recategorizing them as felonies rather than misdemeanors. It would also require courts to warn people who sell illegal substances that they could be charged with murder if the substance kills someone.

The measure would change parts of Proposition 47, a controversial initiative approved by California voters in 2014 to reduce overcrowding in jails by reducing punishments for some crimes.

Read more about what opponents of the proposal say here.

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

As both presidential candidates near the finish line, they will spend a final full day of campaigning on Monday — and will overlap in two places. Here’s where they are going:

Vice President Kamala Harris:

Former President Donald Trump:

Sen. JD Vance:

Gov. Tim Walz:

Election Day is nearly upon us, and already more than 75 million Americans have cast their vote.

If you’re planning on voting in person tomorrow there are a few things you should know, including what ID you need to take to the polls, what time they open and how to find your nearest polling location.

CNN has collected all that information for you, simply choose your state from the list in the 2024 voter handbook here.

Voters fill out ballots during in-person early voting in Cincinnati, Ohio, on October 31.

The winner of the 2024 presidential race will probably not be called on election night, especially given how close the margins are in key battleground states this cycle.

CNN’s Director of Polling and Election Analytics Jennifer Agiesta breaks down why the way some states count votes can stretch Election Day into Election Week.

Elon Musk embraces former President Donald Trump during a campaign rally on October 5 in Butler, Pennsylvania.

In the run up to the high-stakes 2024 presidential election, Elon Musk has posted a blizzard of false and misleading claims about the election on his social media platform that have generated more than two billion views this year, according to new research analysis from a nonprofit that tracks misinformation.

Musk, the billionaire X owner who endorsed former President Donald Trump in July, has emerged as a leading figure in US politics, in addition to his longstanding reputation as an enterprising science leader at Tesla and SpaceX. He has given more than $118 million to a pro-Trump super PAC and hit the campaign trail to stump for Trump in Pennsylvania.

On his social media platform, Musk has posted a seemingly endless stream of political messages, many in support of Trump and far-right political narratives, generating more than 17.1 billion views since the July endorsement, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). The enormous megaphone would cost a political campaign about $24 million to reach the same audience on the site, the group said.

CCDH’s research is based on an analysis of publicly available data from X about Musk’s own posts and spending by political campaigns to promote ads on the platform. The nonprofit tallied up how many views Musk received on 87 specific posts that contained false claims about the 2024 election that were debunked by fact-checkers. CNN has knocked down many of these bogus and distorted claims as well, including Musk’s baseless assertion that undocumented immigrants are voting en masse in US elections for Democrats.

Read more about the new data that shows how Musk has used the platform to repeat false claims here.

An ExpressVote machine is seen during early voting at a polling station at the Black Mountain Public Library in Black Mountain, North Carolina on October 21.

Former President Donald Trump and one of his most vocal supporters, tech billionaire Elon Musk, have alleged without evidence that the potential for voter fraud is a major threat.

Voting is ultimately an act of faith in democracy, and undercutting the system, despite all the evidence to the contrary, is clearly a strategy on the part of Trump’s allies.

To better understand the security of US voting systems and why there’s no indication that they’re not secure, I talked to CNN’s Zachary Cohen, who covers national security, and Sean Lyngaas, who covers cybersecurity. They’re both part of a larger team of reporters at CNN who are focused on election security. Our conversation was edited for clarity. Here’s an excerpt of our conversation:

WOLF: How does the process of voting generally work with these systems?

LYNGAAS: You have different equipment that handles the voter registration database, so when you show up on voting day or whenever you go to vote, they can compare what’s in that voter registration to what’s in front of them in terms of their records.

About 97% of votes are cast with a paper record. Federal officials, election officials are using that as a point of reference to try to convince people that their vote is secure and accurate, which it is.

Voting machines – some are a touch tablet where you have a panel, and you make your choice and print that out. In other systems, a voter fills out the ballot with a pen and then feeds it into a voting machine.

COHEN: There’s a common misconception that the voting machines are the complete process. In reality, they’re one part of a bigger system that goes into casting, then storing and counting votes. In a lot of states, a county will transfer the data they get from the machines themselves via USB and go manually plug that into a computer.

All that data is then gathered and collected online by the secretary of states or by whoever is in charge, ultimately, of preserving that data. Then there is obviously the paper ballot part of it, which is more about reassuring the voter, but also can be used as an audit tool as well.

Read more about how the voting systems work here.

Vice President Kamala Harris will spend today crisscrossing Pennsylvania, making her final pitch to the swing state voters.

Harris starts the day in Scranton delivering remarks and participating in a canvass kickoff.

She then rallies in Allentown, a majority Latino city that her campaign highlighted is home to 34,000 Puerto Ricans. Rapper Fat Joe will join the vice president.

Following the stop in Allentown, Harris heads to Reading where she will make a stop at a Puerto Rican restaurant with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.

Harris, joined by her husband Doug Emhoff, then heads west to Pittsburgh where she will hold a rally and concert in the evening. DJ D-Nice, Katy Perry, and Andra Day are expected to perform.

The vice president finishes the day in Philadelphia, which her campaign called the birthplace of American democracy. In the state’s largest city, Harris will hold a rally and concert at the famous “Rocky Steps” at the Philadelphia Museum of the Arts.

DJ Cassidy, Fat Joe, Freeway and Just Blaze, Lady Gaga, DJ Jazzy Jeff, Ricky Martin, The Roots, Jazmine Sullivan and Adam Blackstone, and Oprah Winfrey are expected to perform or speak.

The final swing through the Keystone State marks the 18th trip to Pennsylvania for Harris since launching her campaign in July.

Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump pumps his fist after speaking at the end of a campaign rally at Atrium Health Amphitheater in Macon, Georgia, on November 3.

If you’re inclined to roll your eyes at the stuffy academics shouting about the damage tariffs do to the economy, I get it. “Tariff” is just one of those words that makes your eyelids feel as heavy as they did in your 9 a.m. undergraduate econ class.

But if you don’t want to heed the many, many economists’ warnings about former President Trump’s fringe economic plans, take it from the people running the companies that make the stuff you buy: Prices will go up. How much and how fast is hard to know, but you can bet your bottom dollar you’ll be needing more dollars to pay for everyday goods if Trump’s sweeping tariffs are put in place.

AutoZone also won’t need to wait until the policies are enacted, Daniele noted. Once they know what the markup will be, “we generally raise prices ahead of that.”

A quick primer on tariffs: They’re a tax on imported goods — clothes, shoes, toys, car parts, appliances, you name it. But the extra money does not come from the foreign companies that produce those goods. The American company doing the importing pays the money to the US Treasury. And more often than not, that means you, the consumer, pay for the tariff.

This isn’t speculation or theory, it’s just the way tariffs work — and we have the last six years of global trade to prove it.

Read more about the impact the tariff’s would have on your wallet here.

While most of the nation’s attention is focused on the top of the ticket, Democrats and Republicans are engaged in an equally fierce battle for control of key state legislatures, including several in presidential swing states.

In addition to the Arizona Legislature, Democrats are hoping to flip the New Hampshire Legislature, make inroads in the Wisconsin House and chip away at Republican supermajorities, including those in the North Carolina and Kansas legislatures and the Wisconsin Senate.

Republicans, meanwhile, are focused on protecting those majorities, as well as targeting narrow Democratic majorities in the state Houses in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Minnesota.

Chaz Nuttycombe, the director of cnalysis.com, which forecasts state legislative races, said Democrats are likely to gain seats nationally this year due to new, more competitive district lines. But on a map full of tight races, particularly in swing states, there’s a chance Republicans could exceed expectations.

“There’s plenty of room for upset, for Republicans to defy those odds and somehow — despite redistricting and 2024 being a bluer environment, most likely, than 2022 … gain seats in state legislatures this year,” he said.

For Democrats, this cycle is part of a yearslong campaign to gain back power at the state level after the 2010 election cycle, when Republicans flipped control of 22 state chambers and gained the upper hand in redistricting.

Read more about the Democratic effort to win over state legislatures here.

Eugene Vindman, the Democratic candidate for Virginia’s 7th Congressional District said the US has a choice between “whether we go down a dark path, a path where this country has seen its best days or a bright future where we have joy and hope and optimism for what we can achieve together,” speaking to CNN’s Kasie Hunt.

Vindman said he was focused on positivity heading into the election and had a “optimistic, joyful” message.

House race to watch on election night: The candidate is in a battle with Republican Derrick Anderson for the seat, which will be one of the most closely watched races early in the night Tuesday. The district, which stretches from the Washington suburbs to the rolling hills of the commonwealth’s Piedmont region, would have backed Biden under the current lines by about 7 points in 2020.

Vindman said there was “work to do” in the area, but his campaign was focussing on ensuring “safe, high quality public schools,” and improving infrastructure across the region.

The other Virginia race to watch is the coastal 2nd District, anchored by Virginia Beach, where GOP Rep. Jen Kiggans is facing off against fellow Navy veteran Missy Cotter Smasal. If either party were to capture both races, that could foreshadow a favorable environment.

CNN’s Terence Burlij contributed reporting.

A voter casts a ballot during early voting in New York City on November 1.

On the last day of the presidential campaign, the massive stakes of the election are heightened by the sense that no one can possibly say who will win.

If Donald Trump wins on Tuesday, he will be only the second defeated president to win a nonconsecutive term. He will complete one of the most staggering political comebacks ever after trying to torch democracy to stay in power after the 2020 election, being convicted of a crime and escaping two attempts on his life this year.

If Kamala Harris wins, she could shatter the line of nearly 250 years of male commanders in chief and become the first woman president. It would be a stunning feat after she unified the demoralized Democratic Party in July when President Joe Biden’s reelection bid was destroyed by the ravages of age.

Read the full analysis.

With Election Day closing in, we look back at the unprecedented events that have shaped the US presidential race.

Former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Macon, Georgia, on November 3.

Vice President Kamala Harris and actress Maya Rudolph participate in the "Saturday Night Live" cold open in New York on November 2.

Election workers sort ballots at a polling location in City Hall during early voting in San Francisco, California, on October 31.

Republican presidential nominee, former US President Donald Trump speaks at the campaign rally at Madison Square Garden on October 27, in New York City.

Singer Beyonce and Democratic presidential nominee US Vice President Kamala Harris embrace as they attend a campaign rally in Houston, Texas, on October 25.

On a recent evening, Democratic state Rep. Judy Schwiebert went canvassing in a north Phoenix neighborhood where yards were adorned with Halloween decorations and Trump campaign signs.

When Schwiebert, who is running for a Republican-held state Senate seat, knocks on doors, she introduces herself as a former teacher, asks whether residents have already voted and emphasizes her support for funding public schools.

Only sometimes does the second-term state representative lean into what her election could mean for Arizona: Democrats need a net gain of two state House seats and two state Senate seats to gain a trifecta for the first time in more than 60 years.

Some context: While most of the nation’s attention is focused on the top of the ticket, Democrats and Republicans are engaged in an equally fierce battle for control of key state legislatures, including several in presidential swing states.

In addition to the Arizona Legislature, Democrats are hoping to flip the New Hampshire Legislature, make inroads in the Wisconsin House and chip away at Republican supermajorities, including those in the North Carolina and Kansas legislatures and the Wisconsin Senate.

Republicans, meanwhile, are focused on protecting those majorities, as well as targeting narrow Democratic majorities in the state Houses in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Minnesota.

For Democrats, this cycle is part of a yearslong campaign to gain back power at the state level after the 2010 election cycle, when Republicans flipped control of 22 state chambers and gained the upper hand in redistricting.

Read the full story.

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell’s potential successors have been crisscrossing the country, cozying up to former President Donald Trump and barnstorming battleground states in the final days of the election to help their party win back the Senate — and help themselves, too.

Sen. John Cornyn and Senate GOP Whip John Thune, the two top candidates to succeed McConnell, have been pouring millions into GOP candidates’ campaign accounts and stumping for them on the trail — part of an effort to lock up support when the secret-ballot leadership election takes place on November 13. GOP senators and top aides say the race could go either way.

A major wild card: The fallout from the presidential election that takes place the week before and the role that Trump will play in trying to anoint a leader if he wins. Yet if Trump loses, Thune and Cornyn will have to make their case on how the GOP can dig out of the political wilderness, arguments that senators say could carry great weight as they cast their secret ballots.

Nevertheless, both Cornyn and Thune recognize Trump’s potential sway, especially with a faction of the GOP conference, and have been zeroing in on bolstering their ties with the former president over the last several months.

A third candidate, Sen. Rick Scott, who is seen by senators as a long-shot in the race, has also been in regular contact with Trump in their home state of Florida, but has been consumed with his own reelection campaign this fall. Scott, who is a McConnell critic, has been more willing to fall in line with Trump than Cornyn or Thune over the last several years.

Read the full story.

Warm water in the Gulf of Mexico that was predicted by climate scientists to feed harsher hurricanes helped supercharge September’s Hurricane Helene. That was before October’s monster storm, Milton, struck killing 24 people.

The science suggests Americans need to get used to more harsh weather events — extreme storms, warmer waters, wildfires and hotter weather. Evacuations and destruction will become more normal.

But climate change, to the extent people are talking about it, did not register this year as an “extremely important” presidential campaign issue.

In Gallup polling from late September, most of which was conducted just before Helene made landfall, registered voters were asked to rate the importance of 22 issues in this year’s election.

Just 5% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, along with slightly more than a third of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters, said climate change was “extremely” important to their vote.

Climate change and transgender rights were the only two of the 22 issues listed by Gallup that half or fewer of respondents said were either “extremely” or “very” important to their presidential vote choice at the time.

Read more on Kamala Harris’ and Donald Trump’s positions on climate change.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger participates during an election forum, on September 19, in Ann Arbor.

The deep mistrust between conservatives and Republican election officials in Georgia is hampering efforts to slow the tide of election misinformation in the pivotal battleground state.

When Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger warned a video of immigrants voting with multiple IDs was fake and likely a Russian disinformation effort — an assessment backed up by US intelligence agencies — Republican skeptics were unmoved.

Kylie Jane Kremer, a Trump backer who helped organize the January 6, 2021, rally on the Ellipse, posted on social media that if Raffensperger and another top official in the office, Gabriel Sterling, said it was false, “I don’t believe them.”

After US intelligence agencies confirmed what state officials had suspected, she started reposting criticisms of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

While the most pointed criticism is often directed at Raffensperger — who refused to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election despite a direct plea from then-President Donald Trump — and his staff, the skepticism of local election officials underscores one of the key challenges in trying to debunk misinformation this election.

The best sources of accurate and timely election information have been state and election officials. But plenty of conservatives simply don’t believe what election officials are sharing, even when it is backed up by other sources.

Read the full story.

The final Iowa poll released this weekend showed Kamala Harris slightly ahead of former President Donald Trump — in a state he had previously carried — partly thanks to support among women for the vice president, highlighting the role that gender has played in this election.

This gender gap has been seen in other states too, said Sara Sadhwani, an assistant professor of politics at Pomona College.

But, she said, that gender gap breaks along lines of educational attainment — meaning women with college degrees tend to support Harris more, while both men and women without college degrees lean the other way.

And these women could have a strong influence on the election as they tend to be a more reliable voting bloc, she added. While Trump enjoys the support of many young men, that demographic isn’t always reliable — meaning they may not actually turn out to vote, perhaps because “they don’t always see the outcome of an election as being something that’s actually going to benefit them in the future,” Sadwhani told CNN’s Rosemary Church on Monday.

Immigrant communities and people of color also play a significant role, Sadwhani said. She pointed to Pennsylvania, where there are about 100,000 Indian American voters, and a large proportion of Puerto Rican Americans — who could potentially be swayed toward Harris after the offensive joke against Puerto Rico made recently at a Trump rally.

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Professor who has correctly predicted 9 of last 10 elections stands by Harris pick

02:56 - Source: CNN

Presidential historian and professor Allan Lichtman has correctly predicted the outcome of nine of the last 10 presidential elections. And this year, he predicts Vice President Kamala Harris will win.

His system, which is called “The Keys to the White House,” runs through 13 metrics on a checklist to calculate the final prediction, disregarding the polls used in the run-up to an election.

He said that these polls are often just “snapshots” with large margins of error, and that “people don’t respond to pollsters, they lie, they change their minds, and they have to guess who the likely voters are.”

Lichtman was one of the few who correctly predicted Donald Trump would win the 2016 election — which “did not make me very popular” at the time, he recalled.

His 13-point system, each answered with either a “yes” or “no,” takes into consideration a number of factors and circumstances — such as whether there has been social unrest during the previous presidential term, whether the economy is in recession, and whether the incumbent has faced major scandal during their term.

Even though he’s confident in his prediction, Lichtman said he was nervous — partly because of the unprecedented amount of harassment and “hate” that he and his family have received, and partly because “democracy is really on the ballot here.”

“I don’t care so much whether I’m right or wrong, I care about the future of our country, which is in grave jeopardy.”

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump campaign Sunday, November 3.

There are thought to be seven states that could conceivably be won by either candidate. As a result, the campaigns of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have focused their energy in these areas.

They can be broken up into two general categories:

3 Midwestern battlegrounds, aka “the blue wall” — These are the manufacturing and union-heavy states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. They used to be more reliably Democratic but have shifted as their populations changed and as Trump has appealed to White voters without a college degree.

When Trump won the White House in 2016, he won all three. When Joe Biden won in 2020, he won all three. If Harris wins all three this year, she will likely have the electoral votes to be president. But polls suggest close races in all three. Turnout will be key, which for Harris means appealing to suburban women and Black voters.

The blue wall states usually vote the same way. The last time they did not all go to the same candidate was in 1988 — notably also a year when California was red and West Virginia was blue. In those eight elections since 1988, the only time the blue wall states went to a Republican was in 2016, when they were won by Trump.

4 Sun Belt battlegrounds — These states with growing populations include Arizona and Nevada in the West and North Carolina and Georgia in the East. Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina used to be more reliably Republican. Trump won North Carolina twice, but the margins were close in 2020. The last Democrat to win there was Barack Obama in 2008. Biden was the first Democrat to win Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992 and Arizona since Clinton in 1996.

1 vote in Nebraska is a battleground — 48 states award all their electoral votes to the victor. Nebraska and Maine do it differently, awarding votes by congressional district. The state of Nebraska is safe Trump territory, but the congressional district around Omaha is a battleground. That one vote could end up being crucial in the event of a close race in the Electoral College.

Note: It’s the reverse situation in Maine, the only other state that does not award all of its electors to the statewide winner. Trump could pick up a single electoral vote in Maine.

Read more about how the US election works.

Every two years, every seat in the House, all 435 of them, is up for grabs. Most of those seats are relatively safe for either Republicans or Democrats, but there is always the possibility that the majority changes hands.

Democrats are favored in 208 races and Republicans are favored in 212, according to preelection House race ratings from the nonpartisan analysis site Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales. With just 15 races listed as toss-ups, it’s likely that neither party will have a very large majority next year.

Republicans are heading into the election with a small majority, and it’s entirely possible that Democrats win their own small majority for the next House even if they lose the White House and control of the Senate.

It’s important to both parties that they control the House. Presidents want control to enact their priorities. The out-of-power party wants control to block the president’s priorities. In an ideal world, the two sides would work together to find consensus on issues like immigration and the tax code.

In the Senate, only a third of seats are up for grabs every two years — and Democrats are on defense as they try to maintain their slim majority. Of the 34 seats for which there is an election this year, Democrats are defending 20 and Republicans are defending 13. Two of those Democratic seats, in West Virginia and Montana, are likely to be won by Republicans, according to the Senate race ratings. Another one, in Ohio, is rated as a toss-up. Democrats hope they can pick up an unexpected win in either Texas or Florida, but Republicans are on pace to have a slim majority in the Senate next year.

No matter who has control of the Senate, neither party is expected to have a supermajority. That’s important because senators generally abide by a custom of respecting the filibuster. It usually requires 60 votes to enact major pieces of legislation, although both Republicans and Democrats have found ways around that in recent years.

Read more about how the US election works.

Election workers sort ballots at a polling location in City Hall during early voting in San Francisco, California, on October 31.

CNN did not project a winner in 2020’s US presidential race until four days after Election Day. Multiple states were decided by incredibly close margins that year. It could take a while in 2024 as well.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton conceded the day after Election Day even though counting was still happening in multiple states. She acknowledged she would not win.

Trump is unlikely ever to acknowledge defeat. If there are close margins in key states, it could take days to determine a winner. The good news is that many states have made changes since 2020 to make it easier for election officials to get a head start on processing mail-in ballots, which take longer to count.

In 2000, one of the closest elections in US history, the winner was not apparent until 36 days after the election when the US Supreme Court ended recounts in Florida. Things were complicated that year by flawed paper ballots in some Florida counties, something that should not be a problem this year.

But it could also end up not being that close of an election at all, and networks like CNN could project a winner on election night.

Read more about how the US election works.

The tumultuous 2024 campaigns are ending with a contrast that encapsulates America’s fateful choice on Election Day.

Ex-President Donald Trump is darkening what is already the most dystopian closing argument in modern American history and flinging new and baseless claims that Democrats are cheating.

Vice President Kamala Harris, while warning about the perils of a Trump second term, is claiming momentum and invoking optimism and aspiration as she lays claim to a “new generation of leadership in America.”

Voters — more than 75 million of whom have already cast their ballots — are finally face-to-face with an election that could profoundly change the country and the world and that has people on both sides fearing for their way of life should their candidate lose.

Trump is getting more extreme by the hour in outbursts that seem to augur a fresh attempt to defy the will of voters if he loses.

He claimed falsely in Pennsylvania on Sunday that Democrats are “fighting so hard to steal this damn thing” and that voting machines would be tampered with, while saying he shouldn’t have left the White House in 2021.

Harris is trying to reanimate the feeling of joy and possibility that infused her early campaign rallies. On Sunday at a Black church in Detroit, she condemned those who “sow hate, spread fear and spread chaos” in a reference to her rival. “In these next two days we will be tested,” she said. “We were born for such a time as this.”

Read the full analysis.

It’s the last day of campaigning before Election Day, with both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump holding events across key battleground states.

Over the weekend, Trump’s closing messaging got increasingly dark as he used violent and offensive rhetoric against his opponent and the Democratic Party.

Here’s what you need to know:

Vice President Kamala Harris’ cameo on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” triggered the government’s “equal time” provision, a long-standing broadcast rule former President Donald Trump capitalized on Sunday.

“Hello to our great sports fans,” Trump said at the beginning of an unusual 60-second video played during NASCAR postrace coverage on many NBC stations. Trump, wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat, urged viewers to vote.

Almost as soon as Harris was confirmed Saturday to appear on “SNL,” Trump allies raised questions about the Federal Communications Commission’s “equal time” rule. Brendan Carr, a Republican who was appointed to the commission by Trump in 2017, wrote on X “this is a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC’s Equal Time rule.”

The government’s rule tries to ensure if one political candidate gains airtime on a broadcast station, then the candidate’s opponents can request an equal opportunity. News programs are exempt, but entertainment programs like “SNL” are not.

On “SNL,” Harris received about one minute and 30 seconds of airtime “without charge,” according to a network filing with the FCC.

“We’re two days away from the most important election in the history of our country,” Trump said. “We’ve gotta save our country, and it needs saving, it’s in very bad shape.”

Some of Trump’s comments were highly questionable, including his claim “we’re going to end up in a depression based on what’s been happening,” but the video was not subject to fact-checking.