The polls have started opening.
President Trump held his last 2020 campaign rally well after midnight on Election Day in Michigan after a marathon day of campaigning in swing states on Monday. Joe Biden had wrapped a few hours earlier after barnstorming Pennsylvania, a critically important state to both parties. Biden swept all five votes in the tiny New Hampshire town of Dixville Notch, which votes at the stroke of midnight on Election Day and is the first to report its results. Mr. Trump won in nearby Millsfield, which also casts its ballots at midnight, with the president taking 16 votes to Biden’s 5. In Texas, where early voter turnout surpassed the total voter turnout in 2016, a federal judge on Monday rejected a lawsuit filed by four Republicans seeking to prevent officials from counting nearly 127,000 votes cast at drive-thru polling locations in the Houston area. Hours after the judge’s order was filed Monday, Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins announced that nine of the county’s 10 drive-thru polling locations would be closed Tuesday. Hollins claimed the closures were enacted to protect ballots from being thrown out. As of Monday,97 million Americans nationwide had already voted, suggesting there will be record turnout at the polls this year. CBS News has compiled a full list of what time the polls close in each state here. President Trump wrapped his final 2020 campaign rally at 1:13 a.m. on Election Day in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Mr. Trump hit his usual campaign points, and when he asked the crowd who had already voted, he said „good, save it for Tuesday.“ The rapper Lil‘ Pump, whom Mr. Trump called „one of the big superstars of the world,“ was invited onstage, although Mr. Trump mistakenly referred to him as „Little Pimp.“ „I’ve come here to say, Mr. President, I appreciate everything you have done for our country,“ Lil‘ Pump said. „You brought the troops home, you’re doing the right thing. MAGA 20 20, don’t forget that!“ Mr. Trump also recounted his victory in 2016, saying that on election night, „we came home late and we watched a beautiful victory. And we’re going to have another beautiful victory tomorrow.“ Hours after a federal judge dismissed a bid by Republicans to throw out ballots from drive-thru polling locations in Harris County, Clerk Chris Hollins announced that nine of the county’s 10 drive-thru polling locations would be closed Tuesday, the final day of voting for this year’s election. Hollins wrote in a series of tweets that Hanen’s order left the door open for challenges to votes cast Tuesday at all but one drive-thru location. Hanen wrote Tuesday that Texas election law allows for „movable structures“ as early voting locations — which he said the tents used to how drive-thru ballot boxes qualify as — but not for election day locations. „In order to allow for drive-thru voting on Election Day while ensuring that all votes will be counted, the only drive-thru voting center on Election Day will be at Toyota Center,“ Hollins tweeted Tuesday night, referring to the arena home of the NBA’s Houston Rockets. „I know that drive-thru voting is a safe and convenient option for Harris County voters, but we also have 800 walk-in voting centers available for Election Day that we have worked tirelessly to make safe for voters and election workers,“ Hollins said. Harris County’s drive-thru sites are all located near to in-person voting locations. Read more. All five voters in the tiny New Hampshire town of Dixville Notch, which is the first town to vote in the country, cast their ballots for Joe Biden. The vote was held at the stroke of midnight. Results are in: 5 votes for Biden/Harris,0 votes for Trump/Pence. #Election2020 #ElectionDay #MidnightVote #DixvilleNotch #PresidentialElection #NHpolitics pic.twitter.com/R24iDOu4pe Les Otten, who said he was a lifelong Republican, cast the first ballot for Biden. „I don’t agree with him on a lot of issues, but I believe it’s time to find what unites us, not what divides us,“ he said in a video posted to Dixville Vote’s Twitter feed. „My vote today is meant to send a message to my fellow Republicans that our party can find its way back,“ he said. „It’s time to return to the values that our conservative government holds dear.“ President Trump held his second-to-last rally of the 2020 campaign in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where there was a microphone problem. That led to Mr. Trump venting about „the worst microphone I’ve ever used in my entire life.“ „And we’re supposed to pay these people, right?“ Mr. Trump quipped of the audio staff after his podium microphone let out a screech. At one point, the president walked to the end of the stage, grabbed another handheld mic, then promptly polled the audience about which microphone sounded better. The consensus was unclear, but eventually the handheld microphone won out. „I’m always saying, I want a perfect mic,“ Mr. Trump noted. After a staffer came on stage to try and fix the president’s microphone, the president said, „I don’t like to pay bills when people do a bad job.“ He eventually relented. „They come from Kenosha so I’m going to pay the bill anyway. What the hell.“ Kenosha is the site of civil unrest this summer after police shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, seven times. A White teen is accused of opening fire at protests over Blake’s shooting, killing two people and wounding a third. At Monday’s rally, Mr. Trump mentioned the unrest this summer by noting he had been there over the summer. „You were in the news, right? You were in the news,“ he said. He also lamented seeing businesses board up in anticipation of violence after Election Day. Joe Biden held his final campaign rally in Pittsburgh on Monday night, finishing out the 2020 campaign with an upbeat message. „Folks, I have a feeling we’re coming together for a big win tomorrow,“ Biden said. He added that „tomorrow is the beginning of a new day“ and there is „nothing that is gonna stop this nation from voting.“ Biden also stressed that he will not ban fracking, after President Trump has repeatedly insisted Biden is against fracking. Fracking has been central to the economy of western Pennsylvania, where Pittsburgh is located. Kamala Harris spoke at a drive-in rally in Philadelphia on the eve of Election Day, appearing with her husband Doug Emhoff and singer John Legend. Harris said she „knew“ America would elect Biden, but „we can’t let up, because it ain’t over til it’s over.“ She told the crowd of about 750 what she had seen while out campaigning, saying she had seen people „lining the streets“ and „the energy out there is real.“ „Across our country, you can feel that something is happening, in big cities and small towns,“ Harris said. Nevada Republicans say they are „evaluating an expedited appeal“ to the battleground state’s highest court after a lower court judge on Monday filed an opinion denying their joint plea with Mr. Trump’s campaign to pause the counting of early ballots in Clark County, the state’s most populous. Democrats in the state have repeatedly decried the GOP’s complaints around the county’s handling of election observers and mail ballots, and Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford in a statement Monday denounced the case as part of „the president’s deliberate attempts to undermine Nevada’s elections.
