US Election 2016: Live Election Results, Polls, Numbers, Exit Polls

US Election 2016: Live Election Results, Polls, Numbers, Exit Polls
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump pumps his fist after a campaign speech, in Sarasota, Fla., on Nov. 7, 2016. AP Photo/Chris O'Meara
Epoch Newsroom
Updated:

The Latest on Election Day 2016 (all times EST):

12:42 a.m.

The mood is dark at Hillary Clinton’s election night party.

Stony-faced supporters were crying and anxiously staring at the big screens showing election results. Some began leaving as the race wore on into the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Thousands had gathered at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City for Clinton’s election night party. The glass-ceilinged building was picked as a nod to what aides expected would be the historic election of the first female U.S. president.

Clinton, her family and close aides have spent hours ensconced in a suite at the Peninsula New York, a luxury hotel in midtown Manhattan.

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12:30 a.m.

Donald Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway is describing the mood inside Trump Tower as “buoyant.”

She tells The Associated Press that the team is hopeful as results continue to roll in.

A Trump victory would represent a stunning upset against his rival Hillary Clinton.

Thousands of his supporters are gathered in a midtown Manhattan hotel ballroom watching the results on Fox.

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12:25 a.m.

Former Navy SEAL Eric Greitens has won the Missouri governor’s race, beating Democratic Attorney General Chris Koster. The contest offered voters a vivid choice between experience and a fresh start.

Greitens, a first-time Republican candidate, has touted himself as an outsider and pledged to tackle corruption in the state Capitol. Koster took the opposite approach, emphasizing that his nearly 22 years in elected office make him qualified to run state government.

Without a voting record, Greitens was running on his time as a Navy SEAL officer and founder of a charity for veterans, The Mission Continues. Greitens’ lengthy resume also includes stints as a Rhodes scholar and White House fellow, champion boxer and martial artist, a best-selling author and motivational speaker.

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12:23 a.m.

Republicans have clinched continued House control for the new Congress. They'll likely lose seats from their current historic high, but they won enough seats to extend their six-year streak of commanding the chamber.

With voting results still being counted early Wednesday, Republicans have won at least 218 House seats. That exceeds the number needed to control the chamber.

Democrats started the year hoping Donald Trump’s divisive presidential candidacy would cost Republicans bushels of House seats. His impact on down-ballot candidates proved spotty.

Republicans now control 247 seats in the House. With a smaller GOP majority, dissident hard-right conservatives could have added leverage to press House Speaker Paul Ryan and other party leaders on the budget and other issues.

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12:21 a.m.

Hillary Clinton has won Nevada and its six electoral votes.

Her victory there in the presidential election brings Clinton’s Electoral College total to 215. Republican Donald Trump has 244 votes.

It takes 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.

Clinton’s win in Nevada is the first time since the 1940s that the Democrats have carried the state in three consecutive elections.

The winner of the U.S. presidential election has failed to carry Nevada only once.

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12:05 a.m.

Democrat Jay Inslee has been re-elected governor of Washington, beating challenger Bill Bryant.

Inslee, a former congressman, touted his environmental record throughout the campaign. He said the state is requiring the biggest polluters to reduce emissions and is promoting alternative energy.

Bryant, a former Seattle Port commissioner, sharply criticized Inslee in the months leading up to the November election. He said Inslee had mismanaged state departments, especially the state’s mental health system. He also said Inslee had failed to come up with a plan to fund K-12 education, as mandated by the state Supreme Court.

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12:02 a.m.

Donald Trump has won the battleground state of Iowa.

He was awarded the state’s six Electoral College votes early Wednesday.

Trump now has 244 electoral votes. His Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton has 209.

Iowa had voted for a Republican only once since 1984 but polls remained tight throughout the campaign. Trump proved popular with the state’s sizable evangelical population while Clinton and her allies campaigned frequently in its college towns.

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11:53 p.m.

Donald Trump has won Utah.

The Republican nominee was awarded its six electoral college votes.

He now has 238 electoral votes. His Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton has 209.

Utah is normally one of the safest states on the map for Republicans. But the presence of independent Evan McMullin changed the calculation this year as polls consistently reflected a tight three-way race. Trump also had struggled with Mormons, who are normally reliably Republican voters.

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11:44 p.m.

Kate Brown has been re-elected governor of Oregon over Republican newcomer Bud Pierce.

Brown became governor in February 2015 after the resignation of John Kitzhaber over an influence-peddling scandal. Brown was then secretary of state and next in line to succeed him.

Tuesday’s gubernatorial vote was a special election to fill the remainder of Kitzhaber’s four-year term.

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11:43 p.m.

Donald Trump’s victory in Ohio demonstrates the Republican nominee’s ability to energize working-class voters outside of America’s largest cities.

Mahoning County stands out as a working-class county where organized labor still maintains political clout. Trump didn’t win the county that surrounds Youngstown. But he might as well have.

Hillary Clinton won by just 3 percentage points and less than 3,500 votes. Four years ago, President Barack Obama outpaced Mitt Romney by almost 25,000 votes on his way to a 28-point margin in the county. Clinton fell more than 20,000 votes shy of Obama’s total.

Youngstown is represented in Congress by a Democrat who offers some of the same populist appeal to labor as Trump. But those loyalties to Rep. Tim Ryan apparently didn’t transfer to Clinton.

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11:37 p.m.

Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Scott has won election as governor of Vermont.

He defeated Democrat Sue Minter.

The popular construction company executive and part-time race-car driver had served three two-year terms as Vermont’s part-time lieutenant governor. He was previously in the state Senate.

Scott takes over in January from Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin, who decided not to seek a fourth two-year term.

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11:36 p.m.

The crowd at Donald Trump’s election watch party is jubilant as returns continue to roll in putting him closer to 270 Electoral College votes.

Supporters packed into a hotel ballroom in midtown Manhattan are breaking into chants of “USA!” and embracing each other in groups.

Others are breaking into song, bellowing “God Bless America” at the top of their lungs.

The screens in the ballroom are turned to Fox News. When the station shows images of Clinton’s election headquarters, the room breaks into boos and chants of one of Trump’s slogans: “Drain the swamp!”

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11:33 p.m.

Donald Trump has won Georgia.

The Republican nominee on Tuesday was awarded its 16 electoral votes.

Trump now has 232 electoral votes while his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton has 209.

The Democrats had some hopes that changing demographics in Georgia could allow then to flip the reliably Republican state but their efforts fell short.

11:33 p.m.

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Donald Trump has won Georgia.

The Republican nominee on Tuesday was awarded its 16 electoral votes.

Trump now has 232 electoral votes while his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton has 209.

The Democrats had some hopes that changing demographics in Georgia could allow then to flip the reliably Republican state but their efforts fell short.

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11:29 p.m.

Hillary Clinton has won Washington state and its 12 electoral votes.

Trump supporters react as Fox News predict Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will carry North Carolina, at the Republican Party of Seminole County, Fla. election watch event in Altamonte Springs, near Orlando, Fla., on Nov. 8, 2016. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP)
Trump supporters react as Fox News predict Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will carry North Carolina, at the Republican Party of Seminole County, Fla. election watch event in Altamonte Springs, near Orlando, Fla., on Nov. 8, 2016. Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP

The victory in Tuesday’s elections brings the former secretary of state’s electoral vote total to 209. Republican Donald Trump has 216.

It takes 270 votes to win the presidency.

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11:15 p.m.

California voters passed a ballot measure to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, giving a big boost to the campaign to end the drug’s national prohibition.

Adults older than 21 can legally possess up to an ounce of marijuana and grow six plants.

California was one of five states where votes were considering the legalization of recreational marijuana Tuesday. Four other states were considering measures to legalize medicinal marijuana.

So far, voters in Florida and North Dakota have also passed marijuana measures Tuesday.

Collectively, it’s the closest the U.S. has ever come to national referendum on marijuana.

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11:15 p.m.

Arizona voters have booted Sheriff Joe Arpaio from office in his bid for a seventh term after his legal problems in a racial profiling case culminated in a criminal charge two weeks before Election Day.

The 84-year-old Republican became a national figure by cracking down on illegal immigration and forcing jail inmates to wear pink underwear. He lost to Democrat Paul Penzone on Tuesday.

The race became a referendum on Arpaio’s legal woes. Federal prosecutors brought a contempt-of-court charge stemming from his defiance of a judge’s order to stop carrying out patrols targeting Latinos.

Arpaio has faced criminal investigations in the past without being charged or losing his seat. That changed Tuesday despite a devoted base of supporters and strong fundraising, mainly from out-of-state donors.

He still faces the possibility of jail time.

11:11 p.m.

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Donald Trump has won battleground North Carolina and its 15 electoral votes.

The victory in Tuesday’s elections brings the billionaire’s electoral vote total to 216. Democrat Hillary Clinton has 197.

North Carolina was one of the hardest-fought contests of the election and is one of the map’s newest swing states. It consistently went for Republicans until Barack Obama captured it in 2008. Republican Mitt Romney narrowly won the state in 2012.

At least 270 electoral votes are needed to win the presidency.

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11:06 p.m.

Hillary Clinton has won Oregon.

The Democratic nominee on Tuesday was awarded its seven electoral votes.

Clinton now has 197 electoral votes. Her Republican opponent Donald Trump has 201.

Several key battleground states have yet to be won.

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11 p.m.

Hillary Clinton has won California and Hawaii. Donald Trump has won Idaho’s four electoral votes.

The results in the West bring Clinton’s electoral vote total to 190 and Trump’s to 201. It takes 270 votes to win the presidency.

The results were not surprising. California, with 55 electoral votes, has voted for Democrats beginning in 1992. Hawaii has chosen Democrats consistently since 1988.

Idaho has voted for Republicans beginning in 1968.

10:50 p.m.

Donald Trump has won the key battleground state of Florida.

Trump on Tuesday was awarded 29 electoral votes.

He now has 197 electoral votes. His Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton has 131.

Both candidates have spent an extraordinary amount of time in Florida, one of the most important prizes on the map. Trump calls Florida his “second home” and his campaign acknowledged that a win there is vital to his White House hopes.

Barack Obama captured the Sunshine State in both 2008 and 2012.

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10:43 p.m.

Hillary Clinton has won Colorado.

The Democratic nominee captured its nine electoral votes Tuesday. She now has 131 total electoral votes while her Republican opponent Donald Trump has 168.

Colorado has become an attainable state for Democrats in recent years thanks to shifting demographics.

Clinton tried to woo a surge in Latino voters and the state’s college-educated whites while Trump repeatedly made pitches to Colorado’s large military population and swaths of rural voters.

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10:40 p.m.

Hillary Clinton has won Virginia.

The Democratic nominee has captured its 13 electoral votes.

Virginia was reliably Republican for decades until Barack Obama won it twice, thanks in part to huge turnout from Washington, D.C.’s suburbs. Clinton’s running mate, Tim Kaine, is a senator from Virginia, though Trump made a late push in the state.

The victory gives her 122 electoral votes. Her Republican opponent Donald Trump has 168.

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10:37 p.m.

Donald Trump has won the electoral prize of Ohio, a state known for picking presidents.

The Republican wins the state’s 18 electoral votes in Tuesday’s election, bringing his total to 168. Hillary Clinton has 109.

Clinton had appeared ready to concede Ohio’s 18 electoral votes to Trump as polls showed him pulling ahead even in some traditionally Democratic blue-collar areas. But Trump struggled after release of a video in which he talked about groping women and kissing them without their permission.

Republican voters watch election results, moments after first polls closed at 7 p.m. EST, during the Republican Party of Seminole County, Fla. Election Watch Party in Altamonte Springs, near Orlando, Fla., on Nov. 8, 2016. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP)
Republican voters watch election results, moments after first polls closed at 7 p.m. EST, during the Republican Party of Seminole County, Fla. Election Watch Party in Altamonte Springs, near Orlando, Fla., on Nov. 8, 2016. Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP

Republicans held their nominating convention in Cleveland. Governor and one-time Republican presidential rival John Kasich refused to endorse Trump.

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10:25 p.m.

Donald Trump has won Missouri.

The Republican nominee was awarded its 10 electoral votes. The result was not as a surprise, as the last Democratic victory in the Show Me State came in 1996.

Trump now has 150 electoral votes. His Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton has 109.

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10:21 p.m.

Hillary Clinton has won New Mexico and its five electoral votes.

That brings her electoral college vote total in Tuesday’s election to 109. Republican Donald Trump has 140 votes.

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10 p.m.

Donald Trump has won Montana.

The Republican presidential nominee on Tuesday was awarded the state’s three electoral votes.

Supporters cheer as they watch election returns during Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's election night rally in the Jacob Javits Center glass enclosed lobby in New York, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Supporters cheer as they watch election returns during Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's election night rally in the Jacob Javits Center glass enclosed lobby in New York, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016. AP Photo/David Goldman

The result was not a surprise, as Montana was considered a safely Republican state.

Trump now has 132 electoral votes. His Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton has 104 votes.

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9:40 p.m.

Preliminary exit polls show the racial divides that were expected to define the 2016 presidential election.

Polls conducted for national media by Edison Research show Republican Donald Trump winning a majority of white voters while Democrat Hillary Clinton is drawing support from about three out of four nonwhite voters.

Trump’s support is strongest among whites without a college degree. He’s winning nearly two-thirds of them. Whites with college degrees are split between Trump and Clinton. Trump is winning both among white men and white women, though his margin is much higher among men.

Clinton’s strongest support comes from African-Americans. She’s winning about nine out of 10 black voters. She’s winning about two out of three Hispanics and Asian-Americans.

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9:30 p.m.

Republican Donald Trump is maintaining Republicans’ advantage among white voters nationwide, but perhaps not by the usual margin that the party’s nominees have enjoyed.

Pedestrians watch the election results on large screens in Times Square, New York, on Nov. 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Pedestrians watch the election results on large screens in Times Square, New York, on Nov. 8, 2016. AP Photo/Seth Wenig

Preliminary exit polls of voters who have already cast presidential ballots show Trump winning a majority of whites. He has not quite reached the roughly six-out-of-10 share that Mitt Romney notched four years ago in his unsuccessful challenge of President Barack Obama.

The difference appears to come among white women. Trump is posting about the same, if not a slightly wider margin among white men as Romney did in 2012. But his lead over Clinton among white women appears to be in single digits, short of Romney’s double-digit advantage four years ago.

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9:28 p.m.

Donald Trump has won Louisiana and its eight electoral votes.

That extends his Electoral College total in Tuesday’s elections to 137, compared with Hillary Clinton’s 104.

History was on Donald Trump’s side in the state. Louisiana hasn’t given its electoral votes to a Democrat since Bill Clinton won 52 percent of the vote two decades ago.

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9:26 p.m.

Hillary Clinton has won Connecticut.

The Democratic nominee on Tuesday was awarded Connecticut’s seven electoral votes.

The result was not a surprise, as Connecticut was considered a safely Democratic state.

Clinton now has 104 electoral votes. Her Republican opponent Donald Trump has 129.

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9:15 p.m.

Republican Eric Holcomb has won the governor’s race in Indiana and Democrat Jim Justice has won the governor’s race in West Virginia.

Holcomb defeated Democrat John Gregg in Tuesday’s election and will succeed Gov. Mike Pence. Pence is presidential candidate Donald Trump’s vice presidential running mate.

In West Virginia, Gregg defeated state Senate President Bill Cole.

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9:08 p.m.

Republican Donald Trump has won Arkansas and its six electoral votes.

That brings his electoral vote total in Tuesday’s election to 129. Democrat Hillary Clinton has 97.

It takes 270 votes to win the presidency.

The result was expected. Earlier polling showed Trump leading Clinton by double digits in the state where she served as first lady for 12 years while her husband was the governor.

The once reliably blue state has turned red in recent years. Republicans now control all of Arkansas’ statewide and federal offices, as well as a majority of seats in both chambers of the state legislature.

Arkansas has backed the Republican candidate for the White House in every election since 1980—except for years when Bill Clinton was running for president.

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9:05 p.m.

Hopeful Hillary Clinton supporters have gathered on a Brooklyn street corner they expect to be prophetic: The intersection of President and Clinton Streets.

Photos and video posted on social media Tuesday show hundreds of people gathered for a block party where the streets cross.

Residents of the Carroll Gardens neighborhood watch election results on a projected screen during a block party for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at the intersection of President and Clinton streets, in the in the Brooklyn borough of New York, on Nov. 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
Residents of the Carroll Gardens neighborhood watch election results on a projected screen during a block party for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at the intersection of President and Clinton streets, in the in the Brooklyn borough of New York, on Nov. 8, 2016. AP Photo/Mark Lennihan

Organizers have set up a large screen to stream election coverage. A food truck is dispensing tacos to the crowd.

The street signs in the intersection have been an attraction all Election Day for Clinton boosters snapping selfies.

It is just under a mile from Clinton’s national campaign headquarters in Brooklyn.

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9 p.m.

Donald Trump has won Texas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Kansas and Nebraska while Hillary Clinton has won New York and Illinois.

Trump also on Tuesday won two of Nebraska’s congressional districts. In the state that awards by congressional district, one remains too close to call.

Trump was awarded Texas’ 38 electoral votes, the second-largest prize on the map. He also won six from Kansas, four from his victories in Nebraska and three apiece from Wyoming, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Clinton was awarded 20 from Illinois and 29 from New York, the state both candidates call home. Trump had declared he would try to win New York but never mounted a serious effort there.

The Republican nominee now has 123 electoral votes. Clinton has 97.

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8:55 p.m.

Hillary Clinton is watching election returns with a collection of close campaign aides and her family in a suite at the Peninsula New York, a luxury hotel in midtown Manhattan.

Aides say the group is snacking on salmon, roasted carrots and fries—along with vegan pizza and crème brulee for former President Bill Clinton, who’s careful about his diet. Her granddaughter, Charlotte, is wearing a dress emblazoned with the campaign logo.

Clinton and her husband have also been working on her election night remarks with her speechwriters.

Later Tuesday evening, they'll move to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City for her election night party. It’s a building with a glass ceiling—a nod to the historic moment.

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8:51 p.m.

Donald Trump has won Mississippi and its six electoral votes.

That brings his Electoral College total in Tuesday’s election to 66, compared with Hillary Clinton’s 48.

The outcome was not unexpected. Mississippi has voted for Republicans in every presidential election starting with 1972, with the exception of Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1976.

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8:40 p.m.

Hillary Clinton has won Rhode Island and its four electoral votes.

That brings her total Tuesday to 48, compared with Donald Trump’s 60.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton takes the stage and waves with President Barack Obama during a campaign event at Independence Mall in Philadelphia on Nov. 7, 2016. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton takes the stage and waves with President Barack Obama during a campaign event at Independence Mall in Philadelphia on Nov. 7, 2016. AP Photo/Matt Slocum

It takes 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.

Rhode Island has voted for Republicans for president only four times since 1928.

In 2012, President Barack Obama defeated Republican Mitt Romney in the state by about 27 percent.

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8:33 p.m.

Exit polls conducted by Edison Research for national media outlets suggest Hillary Clinton is still struggling with white voters who have put Georgia in the Republican column for every presidential election but one since 1980.

Exit polls in Virginia show Clinton and Republican Donald Trump split white Virginia voters with college degrees. In North Carolina, Trump apparently won a slight majority of college-educated whites. But in Georgia, whites with college degrees sided with Trump by more than 2-to-1.

Among whites with no degree, the gaps were even wider. Trump won about two out of three of those voters in North Carolina and Virginia. In Georgia, he won about four out of five.

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8:27 p.m.

Donald Trump has won Alabama and its nine electoral votes after Sen. Jeff Sessions endorsed the billionaire candidate.

That brings Trump’s total in the Electoral College to 60 votes, to Clinton’s 44 votes.

It takes 270 votes to win the presidency.

The results continue the state’s streak of voting for Republicans every presidential election since 1980.

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8:25 p.m.

A mariachi band has serenaded Donald Trump on the sidewalk outside Trump Tower in New York City.

The group of men in big white sombreros paraded down the sidewalk Tuesday across the street from the skyscraper playing horns and guitars.

The vibrant performance interrupted a mostly low-energy night outside Trump headquarters.

A separate group of about five Trump backers marched along the sidewalk across from the midtown Manhattan hotel where Trump is expected to address supporters later Tuesday night. They chanted, “Lock her up!” as they marched behind police barricades.

A group of enterprising vendors also patrolled the outside of the hotel, selling Trump buttons, shirts and hats.

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8:25 p.m.

Texas authorities say they arrested a man who claimed to be working for Donald Trump for voter fraud.

Phillip Cook, Jr. was arrested after trying to vote for a second time at a polling station in an unincorporated area outside of Houston on Tuesday. Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls says Cook told poll officials and sheriff’s deputies that he was helping the Trump campaign and testing election security.

Nehls said Cook was booked on suspicion of a felony charge.

Trump has alleged widespread voter fraud and that there are insufficient safeguards to protect the integrity of the election.

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8:13 p.m.

Donald Trump has won Tennessee and its 11 electoral votes.

Tuesday’s vote is the fifth presidential contest in a row in which the state voted for the Republican candidate. That includes the 2000 election, when native son Al Gore lost the state to Republican George W. Bush.

It takes 270 votes to win the presidency.

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8:10 p.m.

An election watchdog says some voters were denied provisional ballots at several polling stations in Atlanta.

Georgia Election Protection coalition spokesman Harold Franklin says poll mangers refused to provide provisional ballots to voters Tuesday. He says the group received reports that voters were given no reason for being refused.

Franklin claims voters who are eligible or entitled to a provisional ballot were denied. He did not know the number of voters who were refused, but said the bulk occurred in Fulton County.

Franklin says he spoke with Fulton County election officials, who he said told polling managers to provide voters with ballots. The Fulton County elections office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Election Protection is organized by the Lawyers Committee for Civils Rights Under Law.

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8:09 p.m.

Donald Trump has won South Carolina.

The Republican nominee was awarded the state’s nine electoral votes, giving him 40 for the night. The result was expected as the state has long been a Republican stronghold.

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8:08 p.m.

Democratic Rep. John Carney has won the Delaware governor’s race eight years after losing his first bid to become the state’s chief executive.

Carney easily defeated Republican state Sen. Colin Bonini of Dover in Tuesday’s gubernatorial contest. The victory was driven by voter registration numbers that heavily favor Democrats.

Carney has said job creation and economic development will be among his top priorities, along with improving Delaware’s public education system.

He also has acknowledged that the next governor faces significant challenges given troubling revenue expectations and escalating costs for Medicaid and state employee health care.

Carney will succeed Jack Markell, who defeated Carney in the 2008 Democratic gubernatorial primary.

Carney previously served as lieutenant governor.

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8:05 p.m.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has written in his father, former Rep. Lawrence Hogan, as his choice to be president.

Doug Mayer, Hogan’s spokesman, said Tuesday the Republican governor voted early.

Hogan has been saying for months that he wasn’t going to support Republican Donald Trump. He has said he has been extremely disappointed in the candidates from both major parties.

Mayer says the governor decided to write in the name of the person who taught him what it meant to hold public office with integrity.

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8 p.m.

Democrat Hillary Clinton has won Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware and the District of Columbia while Republican Donald Trump has captured Oklahoma.

Clinton was awarded Massachusetts’ 11 electoral votes, 10 from Maryland, 14 from New Jersey and three each from Delaware and the nation’s capital, giving her 44 for the night. Trump picked up seven from Oklahoma, giving him 31.

The results Tuesday were not surprising. Massachusetts and the District of Columbia are two of the nation’s safest Democratic strongholds.

The last time Oklahoma went for a Democrat was 1964, when it voted for Lyndon Johnson. Maryland last went for the GOP in 1988.

New Jersey has been a safe Democratic state for 20 years. Its governor, Chris Christie, is a close Trump ally but is saddled with low approval numbers.

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7:45 p.m.

A state official says Democrats have gone to court to extend voting across Colorado by two hours after the secretary of state’s voter registration system went down for nearly 30 minutes Tuesday.

Lynn Bartels, a spokeswoman for the secretary of state’s office, says the hearing was scheduled for federal court in Denver.

She says state officials are investigating what caused the outage, which forced in-person voters to cast provisional ballots. Some county clerks were unable to process mail ballots that needed to have the signature verified.

Tauna Lockhart, spokeswoman for the state information technology office, says the system came back up about 3:20 p.m. She says the incident is under investigation by state officials, but there is no evidence the network was hit by hackers.

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7:35 p.m.

The North Carolina Board of Elections has agreed to extend voting in eight precincts in Durham County, where Democrats have a 4-to-1 registration advantage over Republicans.

The state board voted 3-2 Tuesday night to extend voting by an hour in two precincts most affected by a computer glitch. The problem forced poll workers to check for registered voters on paper printouts, causing long lines at some locations.

The board says six more precincts can stay open for a shorter time.

The NAACP’s North Carolina chapter had asked for the eight precincts to stay open for 90 extra minutes. Hillary Clinton’s campaign also supported keeping the polls open later in Durham.

Two groups filed lawsuits seeking to keep the polls open, but a state superior court judge declined to intervene.

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7:32 p.m.

North Carolina got more attention than usual this election, and exit polls show why.

Exit polls conducted by Edison Research for national media outlets suggest a tight finish between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump for the state’s 15 electoral votes.

The polls suggest a majority of men back Trump, while Clinton won a majority among women — with the margins essentially even. The polls suggest women made up slightly more of the electorate.

About four out of five nonwhite voters backed Clinton, while about six out of 10 white voters supported Trump. But the exit polls don’t offer definitive information about actual turnout among those groups, with the estimates again pointing to a close finish.

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7:30 p.m.

Republican Donald Trump has won West Virginia and its five electoral votes.

The Mountain State was one of the billionaire’s biggest supporters in the Republican primary. He is popular for promising to bring back coal jobs. Hillary Clinton had largely been largely shunned for making comments perceived as an affront to the industry.

The dynamic has resulted in one of the few states where Republicans didn’t shy from the brash businessman and instead looked to ride his coattails. Many Democrats for congressional and other races scrambled to distance themselves from Clinton and refused to endorse her.

West Virginia has voted for Republican presidential candidates in each of the last four presidential races.

It takes 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.

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7:15 p.m.

Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams says he has found no evidence of fraud or intimidation at the city’s polls despite Republican candidate Donald Trump’s warnings about voter fraud.

Williams says no major problems have emerged among the 68 complaints his office investigated during the first half of Election Day.

Meantime, several Pennsylvania counties are reporting a handful of complaints about touchscreen machines switching votes. They say the machines are quickly being re-calibrated to fix the problem.

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Pedro Cortes says the GOP reported problems with about 25 machines, out of nearly 24,000 deployed statewide. He says in all cases votes ended up being recorded correctly.

State GOP Chairman Rob Gleason says he doesn’t see anything “nefarious” in the apparent vote switching on older machines.

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7 p.m.

Republican Donald Trump has won Kentucky and Indiana while Democrat Hillary Clinton has won Vermont.

Trump was awarded Kentucky’s eight electoral votes and Indiana’s 11. Vermont gives Clinton three. These are the first states to be decided Tuesday in the 2016 general election.

The wins were expected.

Vermont has voted for a Democrat every election since 1988, while Kentucky has gone Republican every cycle since 2000.

Indiana is normally a Republican stronghold but went for President Barack Obama in 2008. The Republicans captured it again in 2012 and Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, is the state’s governor.

The winning candidate needs 270 electoral votes.

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5:05 p.m.

Seven in 10 Americans going to the polls Tuesday say they think immigrants now in the country illegally should be allowed to stay. Just a quarter say they should be deported.

More than half say they oppose building a wall along the Mexican border to stop illegal immigration, according to preliminary results from the exit poll conducted for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Research.

But immigration isn’t necessarily at the top of the minds of most voters. Just 1 in 10 say immigration is the most important issue facing the country.

Republican Donald Trump made cracking down on immigration a top item on his agenda.

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5 p.m.

Most voters going to the polls Tuesday have a pessimistic view of the U.S. economy.

According to preliminary results of an exit poll conducted by the Associated Press and television networks by Edison Research, about 6 in 10 describe the state of the economy as not so good or poor.

Susan Varn, far left, and Ed Cunningham, far right, hold campaign signs as others chat, across from a polling place in Kensington, N.H., on Nov. 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
Susan Varn, far left, and Ed Cunningham, far right, hold campaign signs as others chat, across from a polling place in Kensington, N.H., on Nov. 8, 2016. AP Photo/Elise Amendola

But that economic unhappiness isn’t as high as it was in 2012, when three-quarters called the economy not so good or poor.

Among voters today, 3 in 10 say their personal financial situation has gotten better in the last four years, while nearly as many say it’s gotten worse.

More than half of voters say the economy is the most important issue facing the country, over terrorism, foreign policy and immigration.

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4:50 p.m.

Authorities have beefed up Election Day security for Donald Trump by parking dump trucks filled with sand outside his Trump Tower building on Fifth Avenue.

Police said Tuesday that similar precautionary measures were being taken at other sites around midtown Manhattan where Trump and Hillary Clinton plan to spend election night.

Authorities say the heavy trucks could block an attempted car bombing. They say there are no confirmed terror threats.

The NYPD had previously said it will deploy more than 5,000 police officers to keep order on election night. The deployment also includes police helicopters, mobile radiation detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs.

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4:40 p.m.

A state judge in Nevada has denied a request from the Donald Trump campaign to preserve ballots and voting materials related to what the campaign alleges were irregularities during early voting.

Clark County District Court Judge Gloria Sturman said Tuesday that making the names of poll workers part of the court record could expose them to “public attention, ridicule and harassment.”

She says the county registrar is already required to keep the records, and the Nevada Secretary of State is responsible for investigating the complaint.

Trump campaign attorney Brian Hardy told the judge he wants to preserve records from the final day of early voting at four locations in the Las Vegas area.

The campaign says allowing people to vote past closing time was illegal, but the county says they were accommodating people already in line.

The Trump campaign lodged a separate complaint with the secretary of state.

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4 p.m.

A software glitch that indicated scores of voters showing up at the polls had already cast ballots has led to voting delays in one of North Carolina’s most heavily Democratic counties.

North Carolina Board of Elections lawyer Josh Lawson says officials in Durham County quickly concluded that there was a problem with their electronic poll books and began relying on paper rolls to confirm voter registrations. Attempts to vote twice are rare.

Lawson says there’s no indication “nefarious activity” caused the computer problems. Rather, he said it could have been a failure to clear out caches of votes cast during the primaries.

About two dozen other counties using the same software have not reported problems.

Lawson said those in line when the polls close will still be allowed to vote.

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3 p.m.

President Barack Obama is hitting the radio airwaves to encourage Americans to go to the polls to vote for Hillary Clinton.

The White House said Obama gave Election Day interviews to six radio stations that target listeners in Orlando, Detroit and Philadelphia. The cities are in states where the race is believed to be close between Clinton and Republican Donald Trump.

Obama told syndicated host Jana Sutter that continuing the work of the past eight years depends on having a “steady, smart, serious” president follow him into office.

He praised Clinton and reiterated his view that Trump is unfit to be president.

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2:45 p.m.

Donald Trump is rekindling his unsubstantiated concerns about a rigged election system.

Asked Tuesday afternoon on Fox News if he would accept the election results, Trump continued to demur.

The Republican presidential nominee said: “We’re going to see how things play out.”

He said. “I want to see everything honest.”

Concerns about voter intimidation and fraud led to a flurry of lawsuits in the run-up to Election Day. New voter regulations in more than a dozen states also held the potential to sow confusion at polling places.

But at least in the early going, most of the problems at polling places appeared to be routine—the kinds of snags that come every four years, including long lines, machines not working properly, and issues with ballots or voter rolls.

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2:20 p.m.

It could be the first lawsuit of Election Day. Donald Trump’s campaign is alleging polling place “anomalies” during early voting in the Las Vegas area last week.

A lawsuit filed Tuesday in Nevada court asks that records from four early voting spots that allegedly stayed open too late last Friday be impounded and preserved.

Long lines kept polls open past the 7 p.m. posted closing time at locations that included a Mexican market and several shopping centers. Officials say at one site, the last voter cast a ballot after 10 p.m.

Criticism is also coming from state Republican Party chief Michael McDonald.

But Democrat Hillary Clinton’s campaign is dismissing the Nevada case in a Twitter message, calling it “a frivolous lawsuit.”

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1:30 p.m.

President Barack Obama says his faith in the American people hasn’t wavered.

Asked whether he was feeling nervous about the presidential election outcome, Obama said “I think we'll do a good job” as long as the American people vote.

President Barack Obama walks down the White House Colonnade from the main residence to the Oval Office in Washington, on Nov. 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
President Barack Obama walks down the White House Colonnade from the main residence to the Oval Office in Washington, on Nov. 8, 2016. AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

Lines were long in some areas as voters chose between Democrat Hillary Clinton, Republican Donald Trump and some third-party candidates.

Obama said he hopes everyone has “voted early. If not, get out there.”

Representatives for Eric Trump and the New York City Board of Elections did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment.

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1:20 p.m.

It was a quick trip to the voting booth for Donald Trump’s running mate on Tuesday.

Indiana Governor Mike Pence was joined by his wife, Karen, as they voted in Indianapolis. The couple encountered no lines and spent about five minutes filling out their ballots.

Pence told a small crowd afterward that he was grateful for the “support and prayers of people all across the United States” and he pledged a more prosperous America with the Trump-Pence ticket.

Pence and his wife voted in a precinct that has leaned liberal in past elections.

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1:15 p.m.

Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg says a victory for Hillary Clinton on Election Day would be “inspirational” to young women. But she joked that this wouldn’t lead to a “global girlfriends’ network.”

At a Berlin press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel Tuesday, Solberg said a female U.S. president would show women that politics isn’t “something that belongs to men.”

Merkel echoed Solberg’s comments about creating more of a global balance between men and women in power. She declined to comment on whom she'd like to win the election, pointing out that the “trans-Atlantic partnership is certainly a prerequisite for us, especially cooperation in NATO.”

Republican Donald Trump has said that he may revisit the longstanding NATO alliance if elected.

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12 p.m.

Billionaire Warren Buffett is devoting part of Election Day to get-out-the-vote efforts—as he helps drive voters to the polls on a trolley he hired.

The longtime Democrat had promised to help boost turnout at a Hillary Clinton rally in Omaha in August. Buffett says some people have it tougher than others—maybe an illness or trouble with their car. He says he wants to do his part so everyone gets a chance to vote.

More than 1,000 people have volunteered to help Buffett drive voters to the polls.

Buffett is a supporter of Clinton’s, but on Tuesday he declined to talk about that. Instead, he said he just wanted to encourage everyone to vote regardless of party affiliation.

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11:40 a.m.

President Barack Obama says on Twitter that “progress is on the ballot” Tuesday.

He’s urging his more than 11 million Twitter followers to “go vote.” He also says they should make sure that their friends, family and everyone they know votes, too.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump waves after casting his ballot at PS-59, in New York, on Nov. 8, 2016. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump waves after casting his ballot at PS-59, in New York, on Nov. 8, 2016. AP Photo/ Evan Vucci

Trump said: “it’s a great honor, a tremendous honor” to be casting his ballot.

He said he’s feeling confident about the outcome, citing “tremendous enthusiasm.”

As for his longstanding concerns about voter fraud, he says. “We’re always concerned about that.”

His final message to voters: “Make America great again. That’s all it is. That’s what it’s all about.”

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11:05 a.m.

Hillary Clinton is getting some quirky questions in Election Day radio interviews.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, greet supporters after voting in Chappaqua, N.Y., on Nov. 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, greet supporters after voting in Chappaqua, N.Y., on Nov. 8, 2016. AP Photo/Seth Wenig

Clinton phoned WKZL in North Carolina and was asked whether she prefers Pepsi or Coke? Coke, said Clinton.

Toilet paper—over the top or under the bottom of the roll? “Usually over, but I can live with under,” quipped Clinton.

And, sleeping arrangements. Clinton told WXKS in Boston that she won’t switch which side of the bed she sleeps on if elected president. The White House will have to put the storied presidential phone on her side, not on the side that her former president husband sleeps on.

She said: “I have my side, and it works very well for us.” As for Bill, she said, “I think he'll be happy to let me answer it.”

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10:55 a.m.

WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange says he wasn’t trying to influence the U.S. presidential election when his organization published hacked emails from Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

In a statement Tuesday, Assange denied he was trying to support Green Party candidate Jill Stein or take revenge for the jailing of former U.S. intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton waves as she arrives to vote at her polling place in Chappaqua, N.Y., on Nov. 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton waves as she arrives to vote at her polling place in Chappaqua, N.Y., on Nov. 8, 2016. AP Photo/Seth Wenig

Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking secret U.S. government documents to WikiLeaks.

Assange suggests WikiLeaks would publish material on Clinton’s Republican rival Donald Trump, if it received appropriate material and judged it newsworthy.

Assange said Wikileaks has not yet received information on the campaigns of Trump, Stein or other candidates “that fulfills our stated editorial criteria.”

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9:55 a.m.

As voters cast their ballots for president, some are convinced, while others are holding their breath.

In Indianapolis, 50-year old homemaker Ranita Wires said she voted for Hillary Clinton because she trusts her, but said “this has been the worst,” and she’s “so glad it’s over.”

Voters cast their votes in a fire station in Indianapolis, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Voters cast their votes in a fire station in Indianapolis, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016. AP Photo/Michael Conroy