Harris says ‘we have so much work to do’ during phone-banking session
Lauren Gambino
Kamala Harris made an unexpected stop at the DNC headquarters this afternoon, where staffers and organizers were phone banking in a last get out the vote push before polls close.
According to the reporters trailing her today, Harris arrived carrying a box of Doritos, her favorite campaign trail snack.
“This is just the best, best, best and I thank you all very much,” Harris said.
She walked over to a phone and picked it up.
“I am well,” she said. “Have you voted already? You did? Thank you!”
The room cheered.
She made another call, and it appeared a child had answered the phone.
“It’s Kamala Harris – Waiting for you to grow 10 years more,” she said. “It’s so important, we have so much work to do.”
Key events
Joanna Walters
Abbas Alawieh, one of the co-founders of the Uncommitted movement, which as a national group declined to endorse Kamala Harris for the White House, has just told interviewers on MSNBC that he’s voted for the vice-president in this election.
He was also a delegate to the Democratic National Convention (DNC) and was asked how he came to his decision.
“This is a moment of deep pain and frustration. We are members of the Arab American, Muslim American community, for months have been oscillating between dealing with our grief, dealing with the fact that so many of our family members are there living under the bombs that the US government is sending Benjamin Netanyahu, but also, trying to do the politically savvy thing,” he said.
He added: “For me personally, my decision, I see it as it’s going to be Trump or Harris in the White House, and it’s Harris voters, it’s young voters, it’s Black voters, anti-war voters all across our country who are going to be the coalition that hopefully pressures” the government.
Elon Musk casts his vote in Texas
Blake Montgomery
Elon Musk, Donald Trump’s most prominent and powerful backer, cast his vote in Texas Tuesday. The billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla tweeted, “Just voted in Cameron County, Texas, home of Starbase!” Starbase is SpaceX’s headquarters, located near Hawthorne, Texas, a rural town north of Houston.
Earlier in the day, the New York Times reported that Musk would spend the evening of the election with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
Adam Gabbatt
Democrats have been fearful of losing the vote of Michigan’s large Arab American and Muslim American communities over the Biden-Harris administration’s response to Israel’s war on Gaza, and at a polling station in Dearborn there was some evidence that they were right to be concerned.
Although it was a small sample size, none of the Arab American voters the Guardian spoke to had voted for Harris – with her tepid response to Israel’s actions clearly front of mind.
“I’m a Democrat, but I did not give my vote to Harris,” said Gus Tarraf, 51.
“Because my people are getting killed. I’m Lebanese…countries are being destroyed: Gaza, Lebanon. Why would I give my vote to her?”
The Arab American population in Michigan has typically voted Democratic, but Tarraf said he believes that this year Harris will only get “20%” of the community’s vote. Tarraf has always been a Democratic voter himself – he voted for Joe Biden four years ago – but he said the situation in the Middle East forced him to switch parties.
Donald Trump was a staunch supporter of Israel during his presidency, and has said little to suggest he will pursue a different strategy to Biden, but Tarraf said there was an urgency to the vote that meant the Republican could be the lesser of two evils.
“Right now I have to think about this moment. At this moment Harris is helping with killing so why not try another one? You have one who killed your brother and sister and father. And one who they’re saying is worse than her – but she killed. He hasn’t killed yet. If he does the same thing next time, then we’ll vote him out.”
Richard Luscombe
Whitney Groenevelt is in an advanced placement federal government and politics class at her Florida high school, and the senior turned 18 in January.
Ahead of her first vote in a presidential election in Broward county, she has been watching “a ton” of politics on television and the internet, and says she is excited to finally be able to take part in a process she has spent years studying.
“I know the way it’s not supposed to work. There’s not supposed to be a convicted felon in office. A convicted felon shouldn’t be able to vote,” she said, referring to Donald Trump’s 34 convictions from his hush money case in May.
Groenevelt, 18, said the preservation of democracy was among the two top election issues for her, the other being women’s health and reproductive rights.
Supporting Kamala Harris, she said, was the right thing to do.
“I watched the debate, and I’ve watched a ton of TV coverage from both left and right to try to get a balanced perspective,” she said.
Harris says ‘we have so much work to do’ during phone-banking session
Lauren Gambino
Kamala Harris made an unexpected stop at the DNC headquarters this afternoon, where staffers and organizers were phone banking in a last get out the vote push before polls close.
According to the reporters trailing her today, Harris arrived carrying a box of Doritos, her favorite campaign trail snack.
“This is just the best, best, best and I thank you all very much,” Harris said.
She walked over to a phone and picked it up.
“I am well,” she said. “Have you voted already? You did? Thank you!”
The room cheered.
She made another call, and it appeared a child had answered the phone.
“It’s Kamala Harris – Waiting for you to grow 10 years more,” she said. “It’s so important, we have so much work to do.”
Joan E Greve
Leaders of the Uncommitted National Movement, which has pushed Kamala Harris to take a tougher stance on Israel in response to the war in Gaza, described this election day as painful for anti-war voters “who feel let down by our party”.
“While our movement rejects a Trump presidency, the willful silence of Democratic Party leaders on Netanyahu’s war crimes has left a void Trump is exploiting with dangerous lies and fraud,” said Layla Elabed and Abbas Alawieh, co-founders of the Uncommitted National Movement.
“Countless more people have been killed by the Israeli military as a result, and thousands of anti-war Democratic votes were recklessly left on the table in the process.”
In September, Uncommitted leaders decided against endorsing Harris, accusing her of failing to meet their requests or do enough to push for a ceasefire in Gaza. However, they have also been urging their base to vote against Trump.
“The majority of Democrats and Harris voters oppose her stance on unrestricted weapons transfers fueling Israel’s illegal actions,” the leaders said. “If she wins, our plan is for this coalition to demand that she confront this moral and political catastrophe.”
Harris arrives at Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington DC
Kamala Harris has arrived at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in Washington DC to meet with staff and those who are phone banking for her campaign.
Harris spoke with several voters by phone, where she was overheard saying that it’s “so important that everybody participates”.
Leona Green, an organizer with the Milwaukee grassroots group BLOC — Black Leaders Organizing Communities — has been knocking doors since 8 am.
“During early voting, it was lovely — the line was majority young and first time voters,” said Green.
But she’s been frustrated to hear from men on Election Day who “feel like a woman can’t handle it.”
“I’m getting that from a lot of males, and it’s just crazy,” said Green. “They think that women are too emotional, can’t make decisions. It’s shocking.”
Still, Green says she thinks young and women voters will outweigh the “old school” views of certain men she’s encountered while canvassing.
“I’m claiming it,” she said.
The FBI has arrested two men in Michigan in separate cases on suspicion of sending political threats online.
Isaac Sissel, 25, of Ann Arbor was arrested after allegedly threatening to commit a violent attack if Donald Trump wins the election.
“I have a stolen ar15 [rifle] and a target I refuse to name so I can continue to get away with my plans,” Sissel allegedly wrote in a message that was sent anonymously to the FBI national threat operations center.
Sissel was arrested Tuesday morning and will appear in court Tuesday afternoon.
Christopher Pierce, 46, of Jackson was arrested after allegedly ending threatening emails to a political action committee (PAC) fundraising for the election.
Philadelphia Democratic party chair Robert Brady said turnout at the polling stations this morning was “extremely high”, adding that a high turnout “is great for us.”
Brady, a former Pennsylvania congressman, told Insider NJ that voter turnout on Tuesday morning was the “highest we’ve ever seen for this point in time”.
“I’ve been doing elections for 50 years and I’ve been chairman for 40 years and right now it’s the highest we’ve ever seen for this point in time,” he said.
Rachel Leingang
I spoke to a man gathering signatures for America PAC, Elon Musk’s outfit that’s offering people $47 per person they get to sign a petition that supports the first and second amendments.
Those signers then can win a $1m prize.
The man, who said his name is Ryan Johnson, said he’s been gathering signatures for various candidates and causes across the country for eight years, one of many traveling circulators who pop from state to state depending on who’s paying.
He said the America PAC petition is the “highest paying petition ever,” with a typical rate for signatures for a ballot measure or candidates being a few dollars per signature.
He claimed he has made upward of $30,000 on PAC signatures in the past 20 days.
“First of all, I’m gonna put it in the bank and not touch it for 30 days to build the discipline of actually having it. And then once I see that it’s there for 30 days, I’ll allow myself to play with it a little bit,” he said.
“So what I will do is I’ll promote my business. I have a women’s resale clothing business on Poshmark. I’ll push that thing to go, because it already earns me about $40,000 a year. So if I can get that up to 100,000 a year just doing that, that’d be super nice.
“Thank God for America.”
Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani appeared outside Donald Trump’s polling place in Palm Beach, Florida this morning before the Republican presidential candidate cast his ballot.
Giuliani showed up in the Mercedes convertible he was ordered to surrender to two Georgia poll workers he was found to have defamed in the aftermath of the 2020 election, the Financial Times reported.
Giuliani said Trump should go after “top people” if he was elected president, adding: “I’d be willing to prosecute them.”
Anna Betts
Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s secretary of state, said that as of this morning, people in Michigan were already voting in record numbers.
Benson said at a press conference on Tuesday that 3.3 million people in the state had already cast their ballot in this election before the polls even opened today, representing 45.8% of active registered voters in Michigan.
“We’re on track to break turnout records” Benson said.
Benson said unofficial results from the state of Michigan will begin to be reported shortly after 9pm ET tonight.
FBI says non-credible bomb threats to polling locations appear to ‘originate from Russian email domains’
Anna Betts
The FBI said on Tuesday afternoon that they are aware of bomb threats to polling locations in several states, many of which, they said, appear to “originate from Russian email domains”.
The bureau said in a statement that none of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far.
“Election integrity is among the FBI’s highest priorities” the statement reads.
“We will continue to work closely with our state and local law enforcement partners to respond to any threats to our elections and to protect our communities as Americans exercise their right to vote”.
