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2024 US elections: Highlights of the night so far | US News
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2024 US elections: Highlights of the night so far | US News

While England is waking up, the outcome of the US elections is not yet clear.

With exit polls released at different times in different states, many of the key battleground states are still too close to call, according to Sky’s partner network NBC News.

Follow live: Early data makes Trump’s camp ‘optimistic’

Donald Trump’s side can be confidentwith republican holds the lead in some key statesBut a clear winner is still far away; these are the biggest moments of voting night so far.

A Fulton County elections worker scans ballots in Georgia. Image: AP
Picture:
A Fulton County elections worker scans ballots in Georgia. Image: AP

‘Russian’ bomb threats close the polls

Polling stations in many of the seven battleground states bomb threats throughout Tuesday.

Security threats, confirmed by the FBI to be “not credible,” briefly prevented people from voting in Fulton County and Georgia’s DeKalb County.

Fraud also occurred in Michigan, Wisconsin and Arizona, but voting was not affected there.

Two counties in North Carolina reported brief closures of voting centers due to computer and printer problems.

Both Georgia and North Carolina said they would have to extend voting hours as a result, but ultimately official polls statewide closed on time, allowing some to continue voting beyond the deadline.

Georgian foreign minister Brad Raffensperger claimed that the fake bomb threats were coming from Russian IP addresses.

“It seems that they are after evil. They do not want us to have a smooth, fair and correct election, and if they can make us fight among ourselves, they can consider it a victory,” he said.

A spokesman for the Russian embassy in Washington described allegations of interference as “malicious slander” and added: “As President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly emphasized, we respect the will of the American people.”

Russia has been accused of interfering in other recent US elections, particularly the 2016 race in which Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton.

Read more
What are the seven battleground states?
When will we find out who won?
Views of experts in key states

It is claimed on the internet that ‘fake Melania’ also voted alongside Trump

When images of Melania Trump voting with Donald Trump in Florida were published on social media, they were met with conspiracy theories that this person was not actually her.

Mr. and Mrs. Trump cast their votes late Tuesday afternoon at the Mandel Recreation Center in Palm Beach.

But people online questioned her appearance, claiming it was a “fake Melania” and suggested Mr Trump had used a stunt double instead.

In a post viewed thousands of times on X, a clip of the former First Lady was captioned: “This is not Melania. This is crazy.”

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump and former First Lady Melania Trump walk after voting on Election Day at the Morton and Barbara Mandel Recreation Center in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024 (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Picture:
The Trumps are at the Barbara Mandel Recreation Center on Tuesday. Image: AP

Sky News analyzed the video and compared it with photos of Mrs Trump taken by the Reuters news agency (showing her next to her husband in the same area) and proved that it was her.

This isn’t the first time ‘Fake Melania’ has trended online. Mrs. Trump’s rare appearance on this year’s campaign trail — a stark contrast to the 2016 and 2020 races — has fueled speculation that the former president has used a doppelgänger to replace her husband at previous events.

Mrs. Trump introduced her husband and X founder Elon Musk on stage at his rally in Madison Square Gardens late last month and has reportedly attended private fundraisers, including those at Trump Tower in New York.

Florida can’t guarantee abortion, but other states succeed

Proposal to guarantee abortion rights in Florida constitution didn’t get enough votes.

The proposal on the ballot would allow women to terminate pregnancies up to 24 weeks. Currently, the law only allows most women up to six weeks before they find out they are pregnant.

This is a victory for Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, who has campaigned heavily against ‘Amendment 4’, threatening criminal charges against government-funded TV ads and TV stations that air ads supporting it.

The amendment received majority support but ultimately fell short of the 60% needed to become state law.

Pro-choice supporters campaigning for Amendment 4 in Florida reacted when the results were announced. Image: AP
Picture:
Pro-choice supporters campaigning for Amendment 4 in Florida reacted when the results were announced. Image: AP

After the Supreme Court decided to overturn the Roe v Wade case in 2022, abortion was put to vote in 10 states.

NBC predicted that, unlike Florida, Democratic-safe states Colorado and New York were among those voting to protect reproductive rights.

In New York, the constitution will now ensure that people cannot be deprived of their rights because of “pregnancy outcomes,” as well as race, religion and other protected characteristics.

In Colorado, reproductive rights would become part of the state constitution (preventing state officials from trying to enforce a local ban) and the current constitutional ban on publicly subsidized abortions would be repealed.

According to NBC’s exit poll, only 14% of voters rated abortion as the most important issue of the general election; On the other hand, the rate of those who said democracy was 35%.

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Trump claimed there was ‘big fraud’ in Philadelphia

Donald Trump made more false claims about election fraud. “There are talks of big cheats in Philadelphia” Tuesday evening before the polls closed there.

“Law enforcement is coming!” he said. He came to the Pennsylvania city to investigate his claims, but there was no evidence of this.

Twenty minutes later, Truth Social shared again on its media platform that police had also begun investigating allegations of election fraud in Detroit, Michigan.

Larry Krasner, the state’s district attorney, said “these allegations have no basis in fact.”

“If there are any facts to back up Donald J. Trump’s wild claims, we want them now. Right now. We’re not holding our breath,” he wrote to X.

Both Pennsylvania and Michigan are among the seven battleground states that have historically decided who wins the White House.

Mr. Trump filed more than 60 lawsuits in 2020 over allegations of voter fraud in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Washington, DC.