Author: tourist_yp6g7u

Additional reporting by HELINA SELEMON

No matter the outcome of the presidential election, Election Day in New York City went off with very few hitches this year.

Other than ballot scanners that had mechanical glitches in Queens, there were little to no wait times for most voters. Anecdotally, poll workers at various sites in Brooklyn told the Amsterdam News that they had the bulk of voters come in during the early voting period and more or less a “trickle” of people steadily coming in on Nov. 5.

Sen. Zellnor Myrie, chair of the state committee on elections, also credited this ease to the early voting process. Myrie, who spearheaded early voting legislation, said he voted with his mom on Halloween at SUNY Downstate Hospital’s early voting site.

Jason Blanks, who owns a small fashion label, voted early. “It was important to me — I have parents. They’re in their late 70s and 80s and their health is not right, so I’m just thinking about health care,” he said.

Myrie dropped off donuts and coffee for workers at a polling site on McKeever Place and visited polling sites in Brooklyn and Queens on Election Day. He was running uncontested to keep his State Senate seat. He also announced earlier this year that he’s running in the mayoral race in 2025.

“I am in the middle, the heart of my district — Crown Heights. One, to thank all of the poll workers for [upholding] our democracy today,” Myrie said. “If you’re voting, make sure you thank a poll worker. It is more important than ever that all of us participate in our democracy. We have, I think, a lot of rhetoric over what the future of our republic is going to be. If you want to have a say in that future, you must participate. That’s why, not only as the chair of the state senate elections committee, not only as a state senator, and not only as someone looking to lead this city, but as a New Yorker, it’s important for me to come and vote.”

“The fact that we have a woman running for president was good for me,” said one woman at the Brooklyn Museum’s poll site.

Despite the hope, many voters also spoke about a sense of anxiety and fear about the outcome of the national election.

In Georgia, there were bomb threats to polling places in Fulton County, reportedly of Russian origin. Although these threats were deemed “non-credible,” the investigation caused closures and disrupted voting access for many of the county’s Black voters. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and NAACP Georgia State Conference released a letter in the afternoon during Election Day calling on local officials to extend polling hours in Fulton, DeKalb, and Gwinnett County so voters could get to the polls in time.

“The right to vote is sacred, and no individual or foreign entity should be able to undermine the voices of Black Georgians through intimidation tactics,” said Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP.

After the polls closed at 9 p.m., elected officials, advocates, and even the most casual voters tuned in to see the election results. Some watched at home while others attended watch parties around the city.

“This is a consequential election, which will change the course of this nation, and history,” Senator Cordell Cleare said. “It has been a long campaign season and tonight, we will witness the culmination of this pivotal moment in time, with a momentous outcome. Our community has a great investment in the results, and we want to watch them together.”

Henry Butler, a male district leader and three-time presidential delegate, held a watch party in Brooklyn after, like many across New York State, spending the last three months on phone-banking and door-knocking in swing states on Harris’s behalf. He said he was “nervous” about who would win, “because they always underestimate Trump; because people underestimate the racism, and — more importantly — the sexism in America,” Butler said on Election Night. “This is the second time we have a woman running. Women were more qualified than a bunch of men who ran for the first time for president. Hillary [Clinton], when she ran, was probably the most qualified candidate.”

Trump was declared the winner of the presidential election in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

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In a close election that set the nation on edge for months, former President Donald Trump, has won a second term and the 2024 election, beating out Vice President Kamala Harris.

Former President Trump wasted no time early Wednesday morning, declaring victory from West Palm Beach, FL even before the race was called by most news organizations and as votes were still being counted in several battleground states.

“This was the greatest political movement of all time,” Trump said. “And now it’s going to reach a new level of importance because we’re going to help our country heal,” he added.

Harris and Trump were practically tied going into Election Day according to opinion polling. Early Wednesday morning, Trump pulled ahead by 51.0% of the votes. Harris got 47.5% of the votes, according to the unofficial count on Election Night. 

At the polls in New York City on Election Day, some voters said they feared another Trump win could change the trajectory of the country. 

Trump had previously served one term as US President from 2016 to 2020, during which he was also impeached twice. He lost his initial reelection campaign to President Joe Biden.

Earlier this year, Trump was found guilty in a New York court of all 34 counts of falsifying business records, becoming the first US president in history to become a felon. The trial centered around Trump snuffing out the illicit relationship he had with adult film star Stephanie Clifford aka Stormy Daniels with hush money ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

He continued to deny the 2020 election results throughout his time campaigning against Biden and then Harris. 

Trump’s last rally in New York City ahead of the election, held at Madison Square Garden, was marked by racist jokes and vulgar speeches. Attendees were MAGA supporters like former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, former wrestler Hulk Hogan, and vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance (R-Ohio). They took turns making racist and sexist comments about Blacks and Latinos –– including a notably offensive comment regarding Puerto Rico.

He has promised to lean into a far-right agenda, known as Project 2025. This includes a rollback of climate regulations, an expansion of oil and gas drilling, the mass deportation of people who entered the country illegally, a reduction in military support for Ukraine, tariffs on all imported goods and a large tax cut, reported the New York Times.

From our previous reporting:

Recently, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, called the current phase of their operation a “bloodless second American Revolution” but alluded to the possibility of more violent insurrection to carry it out if there is resistance.   

The conservative document includes recruitment tactics to identify far-right Republican loyalists to replace civil servants in the federal government, a training program to prepare them to flout government procedures, and a “secret” 180-day playbook for future Republican presidents, said Seeberger.

While the House of Representatives is still in play, Democrats also lost control of the U.S. Senate which means that Trump will likely have a clear path to appointing more conservative federal judges as well as the heads of federal departments. One of the few bright spots was the election for the first time of two Black women to the Senate as Delaware’s Lisa Blunt Rochester and Maryland’s Angela Alsobrooks won their respective races. In New York two important swing districts were won by Democrat Josh Riley and State Sen. John Mannion.

Trump’s language and behavior during the campaign sparked growing warnings from Democrats and some Republicans about shocks to democracy that his return to power would bring. He repeatedly praised strongman leaders, warned that he would deploy the military to target political opponents he labeled the “enemy from within,” threatened to take action against news organizations for unfavorable coverage and suggested suspending the Constitution.

Some who served in his first White House, including Vice President Mike Pence and John Kelly, Trump’s longest-serving chief of staff, either declined to endorse him or issued dire public warnings about his return to the presidency.

Black and Brown Americans and other marginalized citizens and immigrants face an uncertain future in a second Trump term which by all indications will be more conservative and have fewer restraints than his first term.

This story will continue to be updated.

Text from the Associated Press was also used in this story.

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WASHINGTON — Voters in Missouri cleared the way to undo one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion bans in one of five victories for abortion rights advocates, while Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota defeated similar constitutional amendments, leaving bans in place.

Abortion rights amendments also passed in Arizona, Colorado and Maryland. Nevada voters also approved an amendment, but they’ll need to pass it again in 2026 for it to take effect. Another that bans discrimination on the basis of “pregnancy outcomes” prevailed in New York. A measure that allows more abortion restrictions and enshrines the state’s current 12-week ban was adopted in Nebraska and a competing one to ensure abortion rights failed. Results were still pending in Montana.

The Missouri and Florida results represent firsts in the abortion landscape, which underwent a seismic shift in 2022 when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a ruling that ended a nationwide right to abortion and cleared the way for bans to take effect in most Republican-controlled states.

Missouri is positioned to be the first state where a vote will undo a ban that’s already in place. Currently, abortion is barred at all stages of pregnancy with an exception only when a medical emergency puts the woman’s life at risk. Under the amendment, lawmakers would be able to restrict abortions past the point of a fetus’ viability — usually considered after 21 weeks, although there’s no exact defined time frame.

But the ban, and other restrictive laws, are not automatically repealed. Advocates now have to ask courts to overturn laws to square with the new amendment.

“Today, Missourians made history and sent a clear message: decisions around pregnancy, including abortion, birth control, and miscarriage care are personal and private and should be left up to patients and their families, not politicians,” Rachel Sweet, campaign manager of Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, said in a statement.

Roughly half of Missouri’s voters said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 2,200 of the state’s voters. But only about 1 in 10 said abortion should be illegal in all cases; nearly 4 in 10 said abortion should be illegal in most cases.

Bans remain in place in three states after votes

Florida became the first state since Roe was overturned where abortion opponents prevailed on a ballot measure. Most voters supported the Florida measure, but it fell short of the required 60% to pass constitutional amendments in the state. Most states require a simple majority.

The result was a political win for Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican with a national profile, who had steered state GOP funds to the cause. His administration has weighed in, too, with a campaign against the measure, investigators questioning people who signed petitions to add it to the ballot and threats to TV stations that aired one commercial supporting it.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the national anti-abortion group SBA Pro-Life America, said in a statement that the result is “a momentous victory for life in Florida and for our entire country,” praising DeSantis for leading the charge against the measure.

The defeat makes permanent a shift in the Southern abortion landscape that began when the state’s six-week ban took effect in May. That removed Florida as a destination for abortion for many women from nearby states with deeper bans and also led to far more women from the state traveling to obtain abortion. The nearest states with looser restrictions are North Carolina and Virginia — hundreds of miles away.

“The reality is because of Florida’s constitution a minority of Florida voters have decided Amendment 4 will not be adopted,” said Lauren Brenzel, campaign director for the Yes on 4 Campaign said while wiping away tears. “The reality is a majority of Floridians just voted to end Florida’s abortion ban.”

In South Dakota, another state with a ban on abortion throughout pregnancy with some exceptions, the defeat of an abortion measure was more decisive. It would have allowed some regulations related to the health of the woman after 12 weeks. Because of that wrinkle, most national abortion-rights groups did not support it.

Other states guaranteed abortion rights

Arizona’s amendment will mean replacing the current law that bans abortion after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy. The new measure ensures abortion access until viability. A ballot measure there gained momentum after a state Supreme Court ruling in April found that the state could enforce a strict abortion ban adopted in 1864. Some GOP lawmakers joined with Democrats to repeal the law before it could be enforced.

In Maryland, the abortion rights amendment is a legal change that won’t make an immediate difference to abortion access in a state that already allows it.

The Colorado measure exceeded the 55% of support required to pass. Besides enshrining access, it also undoes an earlier amendment that barred using state and local government funding for abortion, opening the possibility of state Medicaid and government employee insurance plans covering care.

A New York equal rights law that abortion rights groups say will bolster abortion rights also passed. It doesn’t contain the word “abortion” but rather bans discrimination on the basis of “pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.” Sasha Ahuja, campaign director of New Yorkers for Equal Rights, called the result “a monumental victory for all New Yorkers” and a vote against opponents who she says used misleading parental rights and anti-trans messages to thwart the measure.

The results end a win streak for abortion-rights advocates

Until Tuesday, abortion rights advocates had prevailed on all seven measures that have appeared on statewide ballots since the fall of Roe.

The abortion rights campaigns have a big fundraising advantage this year. Their opponents’ efforts are focused on portraying the amendments as too extreme rather than abortion as immoral.

Currently, 13 states are enforcing bans at all stages of pregnancy, with some exceptions. Four more bar abortion in most cases after about six weeks of pregnancy — before women often realize they’re pregnant. Despite the bans, the number of monthly abortions in the U.S. has risen slightly, because of the growing use of abortion pills and organized efforts to help women travel for abortion. Still, advocates say the bans have reduced access, especially for lower-income and minority residents of the states with bans.

The issue is resonating with voters. About one-fourth said abortion policy was the single most important factor for their vote, according to AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of more than 110,000 voters nationwide. Close to half said it was an important factor, but not the most important. Just over 1 in 10 said it was a minor factor.

The outcomes of ballot initiatives that sought to overturn strict abortion bans in Florida and Missouri were very important to a majority of voters in the states. More than half of Florida voters identified the result of the amendment as very important, while roughly 6 in 10 of Missouri’s voters said the same, the survey found.

A measure to maintain access was also on the ballot in Montana and the race has not yet been called.

___

Associated Press reporters Hannah Fingerhut and Amanda Seitz contributed to this article.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans seized control of the U.S. Senate late Tuesday after flipping Democratic held seats, holding onto GOP incumbents and wresting away the majority for the first time in four years.
The unexpected battleground of Nebraska pushed Republicans over the top. Incumbent GOP Sen. Deb Fischer brushed back a surprisingly strong challenge from independent newcomer Dan Osborn.

Democrats watched their efforts to salvage their slim majority slip out of reach as tallies rolled in across a map that favored Republicans.
Early in the night, Republicans flipped one seat in West Virginia, with the election of Jim Justice, who easily replaced retiring Sen. Joe Manchin.
Democratic efforts to oust firebrand Republicans Ted Cruz of Texas and Rick Scott of Florida collapsed.
While Texas hasn’t elected a Democrat statewide in almost 30 years, Colin Allred, a Dallas-area congressman and former NFL linebacker, positioned himself as a moderate and leaned into his support for reproductive rights amid Texas’ abortion ban, which is one of the strictest in the nation.
Cruz’s victory came after Democratic efforts to salvage their Senate majority evaporated when Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio lost his reelection to Republican Bernie Moreno, a wealthy Trump-era newcomer.
Brown’s loss to Moreno, an immigrant from Bogota, Colombia, who built a fortune as a luxury car dealer and blockchain entrepreneur, puts the Democrats on the edge of losing Senate control. A three-term senator, he is the first incumbent to lose reelection.
The Ohio race between Brown and Moreno, who was backed by Donald Trump, is the most expensive of the cycle, at some $400 million.
With control of Congress at stake, the contests for the House and Senate will determine which party holds the majority and the power to boost or block a president’s agenda, or if the White House confronts a divided Capitol Hill.
The focus now turns to the Democratic “blue-wall” states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, where Democrats are fighting to protect seats in what’s left of their slim hold on the Senate.
In the end, just a handful of seats, or as little as one, could tip the balance in either chamber. With a 50-50 Senate, the party in the White House determines the majority, since the vice president is a tie-breaker.
Already several states will send history-makers to the Senate.
Voters elected two Black women to the Senate, Democrat Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Democrat Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland, in a historic first.
Blunt Rochester won the open seat in her state while Alsobrooks defeated Maryland’s popular former governor, Larry Hogan. Just three Black women have served in the Senate, and never before have two served at the same time.
And in New Jersey, Andy Kim became the first Korean American elected to the Senate, defeating Republican businessman Curtis Bashaw. The seat opened when Bob Menendez resigned this year after his federal conviction on bribery charges.
Elsewhere, House candidate Sarah McBride, a Democratic state lawmaker from Delaware who is close to the Biden family, won her race, becoming the first openly transgender person elected to Congress.
The key contests are playing out alongside the first presidential election since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, but also in unexpected corners of the country after what has been one of the most chaotic congressional sessions in modern times.
Voters said the economy and immigration were the top issues facing the country, but the future of democracy was also a leading motivator for many Americans casting ballots in the presidential election.
AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of more than 110,000 voters nationwide, found a country mired in negativity and desperate for change as Americans faced a stark choice between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Congress plays a role in upholding the American tradition of peacefully transferring presidential power. Four years ago, Trump sent his mob of supporters to “fight like hell” at the Capitol, and many Republicans in Congress voted to block President Joe Biden’s election. Congress will again be called upon to certify the results of the presidential election in 2025.
Billions of dollars have been spent by the parties, and outside groups, on the narrow battleground for both the 435-member House and 100-member Senate.
Top House races are focused in New York and California, where Democrats are trying to claw back some of the 10 or so seats where Republicans have made surprising gains in recent years with star lawmakers who helped deliver the party to power.
Other House races are scattered around the country in a sign of how narrow the field has become. Only a couple of dozen seats are being seriously challenged, with some of the most contentious in Maine, the “blue dot” around Omaha, Nebraska, and in Alaska.
Vote counting in some races could extend well past Tuesday.
“We’re in striking distance in terms of taking back the House,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is in line to make history as the first Black speaker if his party wins control, told The Associated Press during a recent campaign swing through Southern California.
But House Speaker Mike Johnson, drawing closer to Trump, predicts Republicans will keep “and grow” the majority. He took over after Kevin McCarthy was booted from the speaker’s office.
One of the most-watched Senate races, in Montana, may be among the last to be decided. Democrat Jon Tester, a popular three-term senator and “dirt farmer” is in the fight of his political career against Trump-backed Tim Sheehy, a wealthy former NAVY Seal, who made derogatory comments about Native Americans, a key constituency in the Western state.
Outgoing Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has spent a career focused on seizing and keeping majority power, but other opportunities for Republicans are slipping into long shots.
In the Southwestern states, Arizona firebrand Republican Kari Lake has struggled against Democrat Ruben Gallego in the seat opened by Sen. Krysten Sinema’s retirement. In Nevada, Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen has been holding out against newcomer Sam Brown.
Democrats intensified their challenges to a pair of Republican senators — Cruz of Texas and Scott in Florida — in states where reproductive rights have been a focus in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision rolling back abortion access. Scott defeated Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a former member of Congress.
What started as a lackluster race for control of Congress was instantly transformed once Harris stepped in for Biden at the top of the ticket, energizing Democrats with massive fundraising and volunteers that lawmakers said reminded them of the Obama-era enthusiasm of 2008.
Fallout from redistricting, when states redraw their maps for congressional districts, is also shifting the balance of power within the House, with Republicans set to gain several seats from Democrats in North Carolina and Democrats picking up a second Black-majority seat in Republican-heavy Alabama.
Lawmakers in the House face voters every two years, while senators serve longer six-year terms.
If the two chambers do in fact flip party control, as is possible, it would be rare.
Records show that if Democrats take the House and Republicans take the Senate, it would be the first time that the chambers of Congress have both flipped to opposing political parties.

Associated Press writers Stephen Groves, Kevin Freking and Farnoush Amiri contributed to this report.

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WASHINGTON — Donald Trump was on the verge of clinching the presidency Wednesday after winning Pennsylvania, putting him just three electoral votes shy of defeating Kamala Harris to secure his return to the White House.
Trump has 267 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the Oval Office. A win in Alaska or any of the outstanding battleground states — Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona or Nevada — would send the Republican former president back to the Oval Office.
Trump is leading in Michigan and Wisconsin, where his two clearest paths to victory rely on Harris not winning enough of the outstanding votes in Wayne and Milwaukee counties. The Associated Press is waiting on the next updates from both locations to determine whether Harris has any path to overtake Trump in either state.
Pennsylvania, a part of the once-reliable Democratic stronghold known as the “blue wall” with Michigan and Wisconsin, was carried by Trump when he first won the White House in 2016 and then flipped back to Democrats in 2020. Trump also flipped Georgia, which had voted for Democrats four years ago, and retained the closely contested state of North Carolina.
Trump’s gains sharply curtailed Harris’ path to victory.
Addressing his supporters early Wednesday from his campaign’s watch party in Florida, Trump said, “Every citizen, I will fight for you, for your family and your future.”
Trump added he was going to make people “very happy” and “very proud” of their vote.
“We have a country that needs help, and it needs help very badly,” Trump said. “We’re going to fix our borders. We’re going to fix everything about our country.”
The crowd at Harris’ watch party at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington, began to file out after midnight after a top Harris ally sent supporters home, with no plans for the Democratic vice president to speak.
“We will continue overnight to fight to make sure that every vote is counted. That every voice has spoken,” Cedric Richmond, co-chair of the Harris campaign said. “So you won’t hear from the vice president tonight, but you will hear from her tomorrow. She will be back here tomorrow.”
Trump also won Florida, a one-time battleground that has shifted heavily to Republicans in recent elections. He also notched early wins in reliably Republican states such as Texas, South Carolina and Indiana. Harris won Virginia, a state Trump visited in the final days of the campaign, and took Democratic strongholds like New York, New Mexico and California. Harris also won New Hampshire and an Electoral College vote in Nebraska that was contested by Republicans.
The Trump campaign bet that it would cut into Democrats’ traditional strength with Black and Latino voters, with the former president going on male-centric podcasts and making explicit racial appeals to both groups. Nationally, Black and Latino voters appeared slightly less likely to support Harris than they were to back Joe Biden four years ago, and Trump’s support among those voters appeared to rise slightly compared to 2020, according to AP VoteCast.
The fate of democracy appeared to be a primary driver for Harris’ supporters, a sign that the Democratic nominee’s persistent messaging in her campaign’s closing days accusing Trump of being a fascist may have broken through, according to the expansive survey of more than 110,000 voters nationwide. It also found a country mired in negativity and desperate for change. Trump’s supporters were largely focused on immigration and inflation — two issues that the former Republican president has been hammering since the start of his campaign.
In another positive sign for the GOP, the party took control of the Senate, with Trump-backed Bernie Moreno flipping a seat in Ohio held by Democrat Sherrod Brown since 2007. They picked up another when Republican Jim Justice won a West Virginia seat that opened up with Sen. Joe Manchin’s retirement.
Those casting Election Day ballots mostly encountered a smooth process, with isolated reports of hiccups that regularly happen, including long lines, technical issues and ballot printing errors. Federal election security officials said there were minor disruptions throughout the day but there was no evidence of any impact to the election system. Officials determined that bomb threats that were reported in multiple states were all not credible and did not impact the ability of voters to cast their ballots.
Harris, 60, would be the first woman, Black woman and person of South Asian descent to serve as president. She also would be the first sitting vice president to win the White House in 36 years.
Trump, 78, would be the oldest president ever elected. He would also be the first defeated president in 132 years to win another term in the White House, and the first person convicted of a felony to take over the Oval Office.
He survived one assassination attempt by millimeters at a July rally. Secret Service agents foiled a second attempt in September.
Harris, pointing to the warnings of Trump’s former aides, has labeled him a “fascist” and blamed Trump for putting women’s lives in danger by nominating three of the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. In the closing hours of the campaign, she tried to strike a more positive tone and went all of Monday without saying her Republican opponent’s name.
Voters nationwide also were deciding thousands of other races that will decide everything from control of Congress to state ballot measures on abortion access in response to the Supreme Court’s vote in 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade.
In Florida, a ballot measure that would have protected abortion rights in the state constitution failed after not meeting the 60% threshold to pass, marking the first time a measure protecting abortion rights failed since Roe was overturned. Earlier Tuesday, Trump refused to say how he voted on the measure and snapped at a reporter, saying, “You should stop talking about that.”
In reliably Democratic New York, Colorado and Maryland, voters approved ballot measures aimed at protecting abortion rights in their state constitutions.

Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in Palm Beach, Florida, Darlene Superville and Eric Tucker in Washington, Manuel Valdes in Las Vegas and Marc Levy in Allentown, Pennsylvania, contributed to this report.

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