Live updates on voting on Election Day: USPS misses deadline; misleading robocalls, isolated incidents of glitches

Isolated incidents of technological glitches and some efforts to suppress voting – in the form of misleading robocalls being probed by the FBI in several states – kept poll watchers and voters vigilant Tuesday on one of the most divisive Election Days in modern history.

More than 100 million ballots were cast before the first poll sites opened Tuesday, according to the U.S. Elections Project website, but long lines still greeted voters at some locations.

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which has battled in the courts to expand voting access this election season, detailed some Election Day complaints handled by its hotline. Pennsylvania, Florida and Michigan – battleground states all – drew the highest volume of calls. Many of them were standard fare for the day, such as glitches with voting machines.

More disturbing were the robocalls made to voters in some states trying to persuade them to stay home and avoid unsubstantiated safety issues. The FBI is investigating the calls, which a senior official at the Department of Homeland Security called attempts at voter intimidation and suppression.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel tweeted that her office had reports of multiple robocalls going to Flint residents telling them that, because of long lines, they should vote on Wednesday.

Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide

"Obviously this is FALSE and an effort to suppress the vote," Nessel tweeted. "No long lines and today is the last day to vote. Don’t believe the lies! Have your voice heard!"

In Pennsylvania, some sites opened late and had long lines, particularly in Philadelphia.

“We’ve also received complaints about voter intimidation and yelling about mask requirements,” said Kristen Clarke, executive director of the Lawyers' Committee.

President Donald Trump has relentlessly cast doubt on the security of the election, particularly mail-in ballots. And Mike Roman, Trump’s director of Election Day Operations, organized an army of 50,000 volunteers to monitor day-of voting in Democratic-leaning areas on Tuesday. 

Experts say that in addition to stirring up conspiracy theories, such efforts can be designed to discourage voters from turning out.

Challenger Joe Biden has blasted Republican efforts as voter suppression. 

"It's time for Donald Trump to pack his bags and go home," Biden told supporters in Pennsylvania.

There was good news, too: Department of Homeland Security officials said Tuesday that there was no indication that foreign interference had compromised early voting and reaffirmed that the American election system was secure.

USA TODAY is keeping track of what's happening as voters around the country cast ballots. Here are some important resources today: 

• Did you vote yet? Here's when the voting polls open and close in every state.
• You can keep track of results as they roll in here.
• Follow minute-by-minute Election Day results and headlines from USA TODAY's politics team here.

Here is our promise to you: We'll be monitoring polling places nationwide, correcting misinformation and providing accurate results. More from USA TODAY's Editor-in-Chief Nicole Carroll.

Historic early voting: Numbers compiled by the U.S. Elections Project website show more than 100 million people voted before Tuesday. USA TODAY's politics team has the latest updates from the campaign trail here.

Judge orders multistate sweep for undelivered mailed ballots

The U.S. Postal Service failed to meet a Tuesday deadline for a judge’s order to conduct a sweep of its mail processing facilities in more than a dozen states across the United States to search for undelivered absentee ballots that could number in the hundreds of thousands.

The required 4:30 p.m. ET response to U. S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan said the post office was “unable to accelerate" its ongoing daily review process to conduct the sweep Sullivan had ordered between 12:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. "without significantly disrupting preexisting activities on the day of the Election.”

The USPS said it's reviewing 220 facilities across the country for potential incidents involving election mail, including searching staging and non-staging areas. Time is of the essence. In 29 states, mail ballots are only counted if they arrive by Election Day.

Sullivan, based in Washington, D.C., ordered the sweep Tuesday morning after the agency said about 300,000 ballots that had arrived at its facilities had not been scanned as delivered.

Changes in the postal service implemented under new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a major GOP donor, led to mail delays nationwide and raised questions about the agency's ability to deliver amid the pandemic-driven spike in mail voting.

In a federal court filing, the postal service reported its performance processing score for handling ballots to be returned had fallen for the fifth day in a row. On Sunday, Sullivan had ordered the USPS to implement "extraordinary measures" to ensure the delivery of ballots by the state deadlines on Tuesday. Twenty-nine states require absentee ballots to be received by Election Day.

– Dinah Voyles Pulver 

FBI looking into misleading robocalls

The FBI is investigating the source of a barrage of robocalls that have urged prospective voters in recent weeks to stay at home because of unsubstantiated safety concerns, a senior Department of Homeland Security official said Tuesday.

The official, who asked to remain anonymous to candidly discuss ongoing election security issues, said the calls represented attempts at voter intimidation and suppression. While the official said the FBI was reviewing the matter, he said the nature of the calls were similar to other intimidation tactics that emerge “in every election.”

Overall, the DHS official said there have been no major disruptions, with technical glitches causing only temporary outages.

In multiple tweets, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel cautioned voters against assorted misinformation campaigns surrounding Election Day. One text targeting voters in the Dearborn area, the Washington Post reported, wrongly advises voters “intending on voting for Joe Biden” to vote for Trump – and vice versa – because of “ballot sensor issues.” A robocall being delivered to Flint-area voters falsely tells them “they should vote tomorrow” because of long lines in the area.

Nessel also tweeted that she had been to the polls in Detroit and Dearborn.

"No reported issues," she wrote. "It’s safe and secure and everything is running smoothly. No need to worry about a long wait or any disturbances."

– Kevin Johnson and Joshua Bote

Watchdog group fields intimidation, mask, technology complaints

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law detailed a series of hotline calls in the first few hours of voting Tuesday. Executive Director Kristen Clarke said the highest call volume was coming from Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan and Texas. Many of the callers reported technology issues, people having trouble accessing poll sites, sites that opened late or voter ID and registration issues, Clarke said. Some of the most “serious concerns” were in the Georgia counties of Spalding, Morgan and Gwinnett.

In an afternoon call, Clarke said the 2020 election was thus far characterized by "record turnout levels," and that they had not seen "major systemic problems or attempts to restrict voters." 

In her last call of the night, while pointing out that many polling places in Georgia had to stay open later than originally planned, Clarke said that overall, the "extraordinary voter protection efforts proved strong and robust this election cycle," though she warned that "voter intimidation incidents can't be ignored, even if they're not widespread." 

She added that she was "very disappointed" by the United States Postal Service failing to meet the deadline set by a federal judge. 

– Grace Hauck and Lindsay Schnell

Massachusetts woman not allowed to vote while wearing Black Lives Matter mask

A woman voting in Hanson, Massachusetts, a suburb south of Boston, was asked to remove her Black Lives Matter mask before casting her ballot on Election Day, prompting an intervention from state election officials who clarified that support for the protest movement does not constitute the type of campaigning banned inside Massachusetts polling places.

The voter successfully cast her ballot after switching masks, according to the Election Protection Coalition, a watchdog group that raised concerns about the incident.

The voter, who was not identified, entered the town’s only polling place at the Hanson Middle School wearing a protective mask marked with the words Black Lives Matter.

Town Clerk Elizabeth Sloan, Hanson’s highest-ranking election official, said she asked the voter to leave and change masks before returning to cast her ballot. During the interaction, Sloan said she cited a Massachusetts law that prohibits campaigning within 150 feet of a polling place, including political signage and apparel directly related to candidates and ballot questions up for a vote.

But experts in election law were adamant that the voter in Hanson should not have been asked to remove her Black Lives Matter mask.

“That is not campaign material,” said Rashaan Hall, an ACLU lawyer who helped coordinate the Election Protection Coalition’s hotline for concerned voters. “That is not electioneering.”

– Ben Berke, The (Brockton, Mass.) Enterprise

Pennsylvania Gov. Wolf dismisses Trump criticism over mail-in ballots

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf shrugged off menacing statements directed his way from President Donald Trump, saying Pennsylvanians "will not be intimidated. You can watch us count every vote and have a fair election." 

The president, outraged over state rules for mail-in ballots, used one of his last pitches to Pennsylvanians to sow doubt in the state's democratic process. "Governor, please don’t cheat, because we’re all watching," Trump said. "We’re all watching you, governor. We have a lot of eyes on the governor."

As of Tuesday morning, only one case of election fraud had been reported in Pennsylvania – a Republican man in Luzerne County tried to fill out a ballot for his dead mother. 

– Candy Woodall

Black voting group reports attempts at intimidation

Members of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation shared observations of voter intimidation, long lines and some hopeful moments on a Tuesday briefing on voter concerns.

Voters in Mississippi were waiting in long lines, not always able to access curbside voting and had reported receiving false calls telling them their precinct had been closed. An election protection worker in Florida said her team contacted authorities after a man with a sign supporting President Donald Trump attempted to harass voters in line. At one precinct near the Poconos in Pennsylvania, Trump supporters reportedly charged their cars at voters who were in line along a highway.

“Folks being able to think they can show up to our communities and intimidate us from voting is my biggest concern,” NCBCP President Melanie Campbell said.

-- N'dea Yancey-Bragg

Easy does it: How to avoid being overcome by election misinformation

Distortions and flat-out lies are expected to flow swiftly Tuesday and in the election's aftermath as the misinformation age threatens to disrupt civil discourse and cause Americans to question the results. The best way to avoid being fooled by misinformation – besides getting your news from this blog – is to take a mental step back during breaking news, experts say. Read more here.

"Be careful with making snap judgments based on information that is clearly a developing situation," said Katy Byron, program manager of The Poynter Institute's MediaWise, a fact-checking training organization. "The most misinformation that gets shared is during breaking news stories, developing stories – and the election and the results are that on steroids."

– Nathan Bomey

News from polling sites across the nation:

• Vote totals in North Carolina won't start to get released until 8:15 p.m. ET at the earliest because four of the state's 2,660 voting precincts opened later than the scheduled 6:30 a.m. The state Board of Elections decided to extend voting times at those precincts by the amount of time they were delayed and was also considering extending hours for seven other precincts. 

• A judge in DeKalb County, Georgia, east of Atlanta, authorized the extension of voting hours in two polling places that opened late so voters would have the required 12 hours of voting availability.

• In Pennsylvania, 300 people wrapped around the building and throughout a parking lot at a Doylestown senior center where polls opened about 15 minutes late because of technical issues.

• In Washington, D.C., Kendra Washington, 37, said she felt compelled to vote in person. "I didn't trust the mail-in voting process. I wanted to know that it would count. Mail gets lost, people throw away ballots, and I've had issues with mail in the past."

North Carolina's early voting smashes state record

Early and mail-in voting in North Carolina set a record of 4.57 million ballots received before Election Day dawned, a number already approaching the roughly 4.7 million ballots cast in the entire 2016 election. The state elections board will begin reporting unofficial results shortly after 7:30 p.m., and it expects at least 97% of all ballots will be reported Tuesday night.

Because of the logistics of collecting the ballots and delivering them to county election offices in rural areas, “we may be late into the night, but we will be as expeditious as we possibly can in those returns,” said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the N.C. State Board of Elections.

– Brian Gordon and Paul Woolverton

Twitter labels Trump tweet 'misleading'

Twitter posted a warning label on an election-eve tweet from President Donald Trump noting that his assertion that a recent Supreme Court decision could lead to problems in the election is misleading. Trump has repeatedly slammed a Supreme Court decision last week that will allow some absentee ballots to be received after Election Day in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. In a tweet Monday, Trump warned it would prompt “rampant” cheating and “violence in the streets.”

There is no evidence that either outcome is likely and the court's decision was limited. The 4-4 decision allowed ballots that were postmarked by Election Day – or ballots with illegible postmarks – to be received through Nov. 6, three days after the election.

– John Fritze and Courtney Subramanian

Ohio county overwhelmed by early voters forced to use paper pollbooks

Ohio's Franklin County, the state's largest and home to the capital city of Columbus, was compelled to use paper pollbooks for Election Day, which could slow down the voting process.

Electronic pollbooks allow poll workers to quickly check in voters at their precinct polling location, but problems uploading the most recent data overnight prompted the county Board of Elections to make the change. 

An updated electronic file containing data about who voted early was too large because of the unprecedented level of early voting in Franklin County, officials said. A record number of absentee ballots and early votes were cast in Franklin County, where 53% of its 833,000 registered voters had cast ballots as of Monday evening.

– Rick Rouan, The Columbus Dispatch

More news from polling sites across the nation:

• In the historically diverse community of Mount Airy in Philadelphia, Vickie Fontaine, a 75-year-old retired school teacher, was one of the first in line at her polling location, braving 40 degree temperatures and whipping winds as she waited for the doors to open at 7 a.m. Fontaine, who's Black, said she was carrying on the legacy of ancestors who fought for the right to vote in North Carolina. "If they could stand out and be beaten and suffer trying to vote, I can certainly stand in line," Fontaine said.

• In New York City, Ulysses Ware, 58, said he tried to get a ballot by mail, but said it never came. He wasn’t too worried at the polling site in Brooklyn, though. The process was quick and safe, he said.

• In Texas, Sister Socorro Arenas, 48, originally from Puebla, Mexico, has lived in the U.S. for 20 years. “I have been thinking about what is best for El Paso and the United States,” she said. “I voted for Biden.” But George Chavez, 42, said he was a lifelong Democrat before he voted for Trump in 2016 and he plans to vote Trump again Tuesday.

Concerns about extremist violence, intimidation at polls doesn't materialize

Voters around the U.S. registered just a few complaints of alleged intimidation at polling places by late Tuesday, leaving experts and voting rights advocates thankful that threats by extremist groups to converge on polling places did not materialize.

But they were still on guard for the hours, days and weeks to come. 

Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which runs a national voting complaint hotline, told reporters late Tuesday afternoon there were “very isolated and sporadic” reports of alleged intimidation, including armed individuals at polling places. 

“Fortunately this hasn’t been a systematic or widespread issue,” she said. “We certainly were prepared for this being a bigger problem than it proved to be today.”

President Donald Trump, who has falsely claimed voter fraud is widespread, had called for an army of poll watchers to ensure the election would be fair. Right-wing extremist groups had signaled they would heed the call. Left-wing groups had vowed to confront people they believed were engaged in voter suppression.

But with just a couple hours of voting left in the eastern United States, Tuesday was relatively sedate.

– Donovan Slack and Will Carless

Was my ballot counted? There's a link to track your vote

Only 19 states have a process requiring election officials to notify voters if problems occur with their ballots and offer an opportunity to fix them, according to Votingrightslab.org.

But 47 states and the District of Columbia have portals that allow voters to track the status of their ballot, the National Vote at Home Institute reports. In the majority of states, all voters have access to a statewide ballot tracking system.

Entering your name, address, date of birth and other details into the portal will allow you to see the status of the ballot. Here is how to track a ballot in your state.

Harris County, Texas, closes all but one drive-through vote center

Harris County, Texas, closed nine of its 10 drive-through voting locations Tuesday despite having won a court victory Monday that ensures almost 127,000 Houston-area votes will be counted, pending appeal. 

County Clerk Chris Hollins tweeted that although he believes drive-through voting is "a safe and convenient option for Harris County voters," he noted U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen's belief that the tents used for most of the voting locations do not qualify as buildings, as required to be polling places. 

"I cannot in good faith encourage voters to cast their ballots in tents if that puts their votes at risk," Hollins wrote. The only drive-through voting center will be the Toyota Center.

Illegal voting in battleground Wisconsin? It's not a thing

Amid the nationwide paranoia over voting fraud, a study of illegal voting in Wisconsin determined that it pretty much just doesn't happen. The Wisconsin Elections Commission identified 158 suspected cases referred to 46 county prosecutors from 2016 to 2018. Even if all of them were actually illegal votes, the number is a minute fraction of ballots cast.

The highest number of referrals came in the 2018 general election after the elections commission expanded its capability to detect fraud. The 58 suspected cases out of 2.7 million votes cast represents 0.002% of all votes, or about 1 in every 46,000. Most of the issues, it turned out, were from errors and not fraud.

– Eric Litke, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Election problems: What to keep in mind

This cheat sheet from Columbia Journalism Review offers tips for media organizations reporting on Election 2020 that are a good reminder of what to expect on Election Day. 

• Voting problems aren't failures. They happen every year and, as CJR notes, hiccups such as voting machines not working or polling places opening late don't mean anything is "rigged."
• Some problems, however, are significant. CJR recommends the media scrutinize areas that have a history of voter suppression or obstructing minority voters, calling out Georgia as a place to monitor.
• Don't expect a winner on Election Night. This year is different because mail-in ballots could be as high as 30%. Previously, that number was 3%-5%. It will take a while to tally.
• Seriously, expect to wait. State vote certification deadlines differ and don't have to be reported to the federal level until Dec. 8. Additionally, the Electoral College doesn’t meet until Dec. 14.

Headlines from elsewhere and resources on voting

• From ProPublica: Their Electionland project goes deep on issues that can affect eligible voters' ability to cast a ballot.
• From Pew/Stateline: The Barriers to the Ballot Box project takes on how changes to polling places impact communities.
• Ballotopedia: Resources and guides to not just the election, but also voting.
• From the Associated Press: More voting headlines that should be on your radar.

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Worried about voter suppression? Lawyers have election laws hotline 

Nearly 24,000 lawyers are volunteering to help voters across the country navigate changes in what has become an unprecedented election cycle. Organizers of Election Protection, a national coalition of civil rights and voting rights groups, said the number of volunteers has quadrupled since the 2016 presidential election and the 2018 midterm elections. They’re bracing for even more calls as Election Day nears and in the days and weeks following.

The Election Protection hotline (866-OUR-VOTE) is available all year, but calls have ramped up in recent weeks as millions started casting ballots early in some states. The hotline has received more than 100,000 calls since July, averaging about 7,000 a day, organizers said. At this point in 2016, the group had fielded 21,000 calls since January of that year. 

– Deborah Barfield Berry

Contributing: Grace Hauck in Chicago; Ryan Miller in New York, Joshua Bote and Kevin Johnson in Washington; Alan Gomez in Miami; Kyle Bagenstose in Philadelphia; Lauren Villagran, El Paso Times. Also, The Associated Press