Competing claims of voter fraud, intimidation raise tensions

Among the complaints: poll workers in Pennsylvania allegedly asking voters who they planned to vote for and reports of shouting matches erupting between voters in line to cast ballots, said Karen Hobart Flynn president of Common Cause.

The department will gather information on whether voters are asked to show an identity document prior to being issued a ballot or if they are subjected to discriminatory practices due to their race, skin color or native language.

She said one voter stopped to give her hand warmers: “It was really sweet”.

The Guardian reports that while 41 per cent of Americans believe the election is rigged, an independent legal expert determined that out of over a billion ballots cast, there were only 31 cases of voter fraud, nowhere near enough to alter an election even slightly.

They say a weakened Voting Rights Act, incendiary campaign rhetoric and confusion over controversial state laws that restrict voting opportunities have created a flawless storm for Election Day problems. Kelzer says she thinks Trump’s beliefs “are kind of anti-civil rights”.

Despite her ordeal, she said she was supportive of the ID law.

In Utah, election officials said voting machine problems in the southern part of the state were forcing poll workers to use paper ballots, potentially affecting tens of thousands of people who had yet to vote.

And at the Baltimore Montessori Public Charter School in Greenmount West, election judges didn’t open polling until about 7:15 a.m., said voter Will Cocks. But as far as the presidency is concerned, the early voting statistics-how many registered party members voted, their gender breakdown and race-show that women and minorities have been surpassing 2012’s turnout in nearly every state, suggesting they will propel a Clinton victory.

Meanwhile, state election officials were guarding against any attempt to breach their computer systems.

Voting rights advocates have been pushing for improvements to the department’s efforts for more than a year. “Statewide, North Carolina had more early voting hours and more sites than ever before”.

In interviews across the Triangle, voters seemed tired by the election. That’s the highest percentage of eligible citizens registered before a general election in 20 years, the secretary of state’s office said in a statement. Americans are streaming to the polls as the bitter presidential contest between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump nears the finish line. Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine also stopped in Charlotte and Wilmington Monday.

Eric Trump says that his father will concede the election if he loses and the results are “legit and fair”. Pennsylvania is home to one of the most important U.S. Senate elections in the country.

In Ohio, another battleground, voters in the Dayton and Columbus areas encountered technical problems that slowed voting and lengthened lines.

“The sign of a vigorous democracy is one where a lot of people participate”, Kaine said.

Volunteers greet voters just as the polls open on Election Day at Flint City Hall in Flint, Michigan. The toll-free number is 1.866.308.6739 (in English and Español). New voter regulations in more than a dozen states also held the potential to sow confusion at polling places.

Those people are not necessarily changing their votes. As recently as a few weeks ago, Republican-controlled county boards of election in black-majority regions were rolling back early voting hours on weekends, which is when blacks have historically voted-after church. Nine days later, and just two days before Election Day, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said it hadn’t found anything worth looking at. “We’ve had huge parties come in to watch the debates, so we’re kind of hoping for something around the same”. All Indiana polling sites will close at 6 p.m. local time.