By Nick Corasaniti and Jim Rutenberg
As voting got underway after months of partisan attacks on the process, the worst fears about a disrupted Election Day had not materialized by Tuesday afternoon, though disinformation was widespread and officials remained on guard in case things went awry later.
Reports of issues at the polls Tuesday morning were sparse and represented a mix of glitches typically seen at polling stations and newer-style, foreign disinformation attacks.
They included bomb threats in Georgia that state authorities almost immediately traced to Russian email domains but that still forced a brief closure of two polling locations.
Still, with memories of the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol still fresh, voters in much of the nation had to navigate bulletproof glass and security fences at polling locations. Some have also become accustomed to conservative activists hunting for examples of rare fraud — an edgy new normal for the country’s democratic process.
Four years ago, voting seemed relatively smooth on Election Day as well, only to be followed by eruptions of menacing protest and former President Donald Trump’s false claims of victory, which mounted as counting continued for days.
This year, too, some of Trump’s supporters have been primed to see fraud in the normal process of administering elections, and the day saw a stream of false allegations of election malfeasance on social media as well as bold predictions that Trump had already won the election.
In that environment, small issues swiftly became inflated. In Cambria County, Pennsylvania, a rural red county east of Pittsburgh, machines were unable to scan voters’ ballots in the morning. The issue was eventually resolved, and a court ordered polling locations throughout the county to remain open two extra hours, until 10 p.m.
But Trump supporters on Elon Musk’s social network, X, suggested the problems were part of plot to disenfranchise voters in a county that heavily favored Trump four years ago.
The very present threat that Trump would try to overturn the results again added to the anxiety being expressed by voters at polling locations throughout swing states, many now equipped with panic buttons and police officers stationed outside.
Eleanor Boyle, 77, from Warminster Township in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, said that while she had faith in Pennsylvania and national elections, the voting had left her anxious and unsettled. She fears Trump supporters will not accept a loss; she watched the Jan. 6 chaos at the Capitol in horror.
“I’m very worried that there could be violence throughout the whole country, not just the Capitol,” said Boyle, who goes by Bunny. When she mentioned to her sewing group that she planned to volunteer at the polls, “people asked if I was afraid — even here, in Warminster.”
Officials were prepared. As District Attorney Larry Krasner of Philadelphia put it while warning those who might make trouble at polling stations, “F around and find out.” Yet the message did nothing to stop partisan polling observers from seeking to copy down serial numbers from the backs of voting machines at a southwest Philadelphia precinct, leading to those people’s temporary expulsion.
And, in Georgia, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said at a press briefing that he had a message to Russia regarding the bomb threats: “We’re not going to be intimidated.”
But there was also a level of hypervigilance that led to accusations of voter intimidation that did not pan out. For instance, a report that conservative activists had “intimidated” voters outside a polling station in Lee County, North Carolina, amounted to an overheard, harsh comment directed at a Latino voting rights group at the same polling station.
Dana Nessel, the Democratic attorney general of Michigan, said that voting had gone largely smoothly in her state Tuesday, as was to be expected; she recalled that Election Day in Michigan in 2020 was largely calm, and it was not until the counting process began that disputes broke out. This year, she said, poll workers, election officials and law enforcement are ready for it.
“The important thing for me to let people know is that there’s going to be accountability.”
Even after casting his own vote in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump denigrated the election system while speaking with reporters, questioning the functionality of voting machines and repeating his calls for a return to paper ballots. Again, he said he appeared to be winning, but also indicated that he would not prematurely declare victory as he did overnight four years ago — as some trusted advisers, including conservative provocateur Steve Bannon, have urged him to do again.
“If I lose an election, if it’s a fair election, I’m going to be the first one to acknowledge it,” he said, “and I think it’s — well, so far, I think it’s been fair.”
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