From the polling place to the courtroom, ABC News tracks the latest election security developments as experts warn about the spread of misinformation and disinformation from within the U.S. and abroad.
Security experts stress that the nation’s voting infrastructure is highly secure, and that isolated voting issues do not indicate widespread election fraud.
For coverage of each race, see our election updates.
Latest Developments
Nov 5, 2:31 PM
Law enforcement agencies prepared for unrest beyond Election Day
Law enforcement officials say they’re prepared to deal with unrest on Election Day, but expect the threat to continue in the days that follow.
Election workers across the country are being bombarded with threats and law enforcement agencies nationwide are dedicating “substantial resources” to ensure public safety during the election, a new threat assessment obtained by ABC News says.
“It is more likely that in the aftermath of the election results and the counting of the Electoral College votes, that individuals who believe that the election was rigged, stolen, or unfairly decided could decide to conduct lone offender or lone wolf attacks in response,” said Javed Ali, the former senior counterterrorism coordinator at the National Security Council and now an associate professor at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.
Read more here.
-ABC News’ Luke Barr
Nov 5, 2:15 PM
FBI says election threats appear to originate from Russia
The FBI says in a statement that they are aware of the bomb threats and “many of which appear to originate from Russian email domains.”
“None of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far,” the FBI said.
The threats are in several states, according to the agency.
“As always, we urge the public to remain vigilant and report suspicious activity to state or local law enforcement, or submit tips to the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) or online at tips.fbi.gov.”
-ABC News’ Luke Barr and Pierre Thomas
Nov 5, 2:21 PM
National voter hotline receives 6,000 calls, reports no major issues
Representatives from the nation’s largest voter help hotline echoed what ABC News heard from state election officials in the battlegrounds: So far, so good. There have been no major disruptions or other issues beyond isolated, garden-variety episodes, the hotline said.
The Election Protection Hotline (1-866-OUR-VOTE) is run by the nonpartisan Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and is staffed by 4,776 volunteer lawyers across 50 states. ABC News has profiled and embedded with this service in previous elections.
As of noon ET, the hotline has received 6,000 calls from voters. The majority of the calls have come in from Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida and Michigan.
Most of those were reporting frustration with long lines, delays in polling place opening, or difficulty using electronic voting machines.
So far, organizers have seen no widespread episodes of violence or intimidation.
The longest lines tracked by hotline are in Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania, particularly near college campuses. Legal teams are seeking voting extensions at select polling places in Georgia, Illinois and Kentucky, where there were delays in opening this morning — but nothing out of the ordinary.
-ABC News’ Devin Dwyer
Nov 5, 1:47 PM
Arizona county official refutes misinformation about voting centers being shut down
At a press conference, a Maricopa County official debunked misinformation circulating on X about voting centers in the county being shut down due to issues with the printers.
“There have been no vote centers that have been shut down,” said Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates.
Earlier today, Tyler Bowyer, an executive with Turning Point USA who was charged in the Arizona 2020 fake elector case, posted on X that the right-wing group was sending buses to move people to functioning voting centers in Maricopa County.
“We have reports of multiple vote centers with ink issues in Maricopa County,” Bowyer posted.
Gates said the printers are being serviced as usual. “We are out there going ahead and servicing the printers as we normally would,” the Maricopa County official said in response to Bowyer’s tweets.
The Maricopa County supervisor said that as of Monday, more than 1.5 million voters in the county had returned early ballots. About 70- 75% of those votes will be reported in the first batch of results at 8 p.m., he said.
Gates also said that if voters get in line at 7 p.m., they will have an opportunity to vote no matter how long lines are.
“Stay in line and go ahead and vote,” he said.
-ABC News’ Laura Romero
Nov 5, 2:22 PM
FBI arrests man who threatened mass shooting if Trump wins election
The FBI arrested a man in Michigan who allegedly posted threats online saying he would carry out a mass shooting on conservative Christians in the event former President Donald Trump wins the 2024 election, according to newly unsealed charging documents.
Isaac Sissel was taken into custody yesterday in Canton, Michigan, just two days after law enforcement reviewed his online posting.
The criminal complaint says Reddit had previously reported Sissel to the FBI in late September over various accounts he had with threatening usernames, including, “ShootUpTrulyRally” “WillShootTrumpSoon,” “PlannigToShootTrump” and “PlanningToKillTrump.”
Law enforcement contacted Sissel yesterday at a Travelodge hotel in Canton and found no weapons in a consented search of his room, though the affidavit notes “this was not surprising given that SISSEL stated [in his online post] that he ‘hid the gun.'”
Sissel further told agents Trump “was a threat…that should have been assassinated, and that everything would be better if Trump was dead,” the affidavit says. While he said he wouldn’t personally assassinate Trump, he told agents he believed there would be violence during the election “and wouldn’t rule out joining Antifa to protest.”
Sissel, according to the affidavit, is a transient who has more recently lived around the University of Michigan campus and has several open warrants for his arrest on charges of stalking, harassment and harassing communications.
The arrest underscores the FBI’s aggressive response to counter a wave of violent threats surrounding the presidential election, particularly in the wake of the two assassination attempts targeting Trump. In the affidavit, the FBI specifically noted Trump’s plans to appear in Michigan for a rally late Monday.
According to his court docket, Sissel has not been arraigned and has not entered a plea to the charge as of Tuesday afternoon. He has not yet been assigned an attorney.
-ABC News’ Alexander Mallin
Nov 5, 12:52 PM
Philadelphia DA says behavior at polls ‘more aggressive,’ no arrests made
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said that while he believes behavior at the polls has been “a little bit more aggressive,” no arrests have been made in the city.
Matt Stiegler, senior adviser to the DA, said the office is “monitoring” reports of voters recording poll workers. Stiegler said the DA has gathered these from media reports, but he wouldn’t say whether poll workers have reported cases of being recorded.
“Hidden camera recording of election workers and voters and poll workers, that’s not normal,” Stiegler said. “If that’s occurring, then that’s a significant escalation of what’s happened in the past.”
Krasner said his office has seen no indications of voter fraud. Any irregularities, however, would likely not be reported until later in the evening, he noted.
“We do not have reports of anything that looks like voter fraud…We do not expect to have it, but if it’s there, we want to know about it. We don’t want to hear a bunch of crazy fiction later about how things happen,” he said.
“If we start to hear about it at nine o’clock after the polls are closed, you should be rightly suspicious of what you are hearing.”
DA Krasner repeated his warning yesterday that consequences would be in order for lawbreakers.
“There are handcuffs, there are cells, there are courtrooms, and there are Philadelphia jurors who are definitely going to want to know why it is a person tried to erase their votes, block their votes, bully their votes, or take away their votes,” he said. “We’re voting in Philly. We’re voting our conscience. We’re voting for whoever is our favorite candidate.”
-ABC News’ Chris Boccia
Nov 5, 12:36 PM
Voting hours extended in Pennsylvania county after tech issues
A Pennsylvania judge ordered the voting hours to be extended for two hours in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, after the location experienced technical issues on Tuesday.
The polls will now close at 10 p.m., per the order, and any ballots cast after 8 p.m. will be cast by provisional ballots.
Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter in law and current co-chair of the RNC, praised the ruling as “good news.”
-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin
Nov 5, 12:44 PM
Raffensperger confident Georgia will have results tonight, says bomb threats ‘of Russian origin’
Georgia’s top election official on Tuesday morning projected confidence that the critical battleground state will have the large majority of its election results available tonight, saying that election day in the state has been “smooth sailing by and large” and a “tremendous” day.
Specifically on timing, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that the state’s 4 million early votes as well absentee ballots will be uploaded and reported no later than one hour after the polls close, which for most locations will be 7 p.m.
“So by 8 p.m., you’ll have probably 99% of all that … so you get a good idea of what the race looks like,” he said.
With regards to votes from today, Raffensperger said “before the end of the night, you’ll have all of that.” He noted smaller counties are aiming to have all of their results in by 10/1030 p.m. “at the latest.”
Notably, Raffensperger was also asked about bomb threats made Tuesday, which he said were “of Russian origin.”
“We identified the source and it was from Russia,” he said, after hedging briefly on the source.
“They’re up to mischief it seems,” he said of Russia: “They’re not our friends anyone who thinks they are hasn’t been reading the newspaper.”
Raffensperger said he thinks they will pass 1 million votes today, and said they are ready for any litigation to come their way.
“We’re gonna follow the law, follow the Constitution, and report the results accurately.”
-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin
Nov 5, 12:11 PM
DC polling site briefly closed due to suspicious package
A polling location in Washington, D.C., was briefly closed for less than an hour Tuesday morning after “officers were notified of a suspicious package,” police said.
The city’s Explosive Ordnance Disposal responded to the scene near the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library and quickly determined the item posed no threat.
The polling site has since reopened.
-ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson
Nov 5, 11:53 AM
Arizona’s top election official gives update, speaks on Russian video
At a press conference on Tuesday, Arizona’s top election official said “everything in the state of Arizona is running about as smoothly as it could be.”
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said there have been minor incidents Tuesday including a county that briefly lost power and a polling site that opened late after an employee forgot their keys to the polling site. Fontes added that his office received eight calls today— four from counties reporting individuals who were electioneering within 75 feet of polling locations.
When asked by reporters about poll watchers, Fontes said county officials are aware that party observers have to be credentialed and added that the Department of Justice sent federal monitors to four counties. Fontes also warned that it is against the law to photograph or record inside a polling location.
“If you want to memorialize the moment, get outside the 75-foot line, take your selfie and then go in and vote,” Fontes said. “Not only do we want to protect the process, but the privacy of the other voters and our staff that are engaged in this process. “
Fontes said that it will take longer for election officials to process results because of the two-page ballot and a new state law that requires poll workers to count the number of mail ballot envelopes dropped off at the location before they deliver results to the central counting facility.
“Please exercise patience,” the Arizona Secretary of State said.
When asked about the Russian manufactured video that was released on Monday, Fontes said the video is an “attempt from foreign actors to influence our election and make people lose faith in the work [election officials] do.”
“I’ve got the National Guard working to monitor our computer systems 24/7,” Fontes said.
-ABC News’ Laura Romero
