Election 2020 live updates: Northern battleground states remain too close to call

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas declared victory over attorney Grace Yoo in his race to represent a Koreatown-to-Crenshaw district on the Los Angeles City Council, setting the stage for a return to City Hall after an 18-year absence.

While returns were still being tabulated, Ridley-Thomas held a commanding lead over his opponent Wednesday, with 61.4% of the vote compared with Yoo’s 38.6%.

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Holly Mitchell wins seat on L.A. County Board of Supervisors

State Sen. Holly Mitchell wins the L.A. County Board of Supervisors 2nd District seat, which spans southwest from Culver City to Carson.

Mitchell will not only assume a four-year term on the board, which acts much like a five-headed executive with broad control to create social programs, build medical clinics and appropriate money, but is generally expected to stay in the position for the next 12 years, as supervisors rarely lose a race once elected.

In recent months, following a summer of protests and a national reckoning on racism, the candidates have focused far more resources on highlighting their records on criminal justice reform and building skepticism among voters about which candidate is being most forthright.

WASHINGTON — Democratic control of the House was never realistically in question in 2020, but Democrats’ and pundits’ prediction that they would increase their margins by five to 20 seats by making inroads into President Trump’s strongholds didn’t pan out.

Instead, Republicans exceeded expectations, netting at least six seats. That included defeating one of the few remaining rural Democrats in the House, Minnesota’s Rep. Collin Peterson, the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee.

But the biggest victory might have been for Republican women, who secured at least five seats, bringing the GOP closer to its pre-2018 numbers. There are currently 13 Republican women and 88 Democratic women in the House, according to Rutgers’ Center for American Women and Politics.

In the last three presidential elections, Wisconsin has gone to the winning candidate. The Badger State is looking crucial again, with votes still to be counted to see if Joe Biden can maintain the wafer-thin lead he took over President Trump in the tabulation early Wednesday.

Wisconsin has a track record of extremely close races for president, most recently in 2016, when Trump beat Hillary Clinton by fewer than 23,000 votes. Trump scored 47.22% of the tally and Clinton 46.45%, crumbling the “Blue Wall” that Democratic candidates had traditionally relied on in the Midwest.

In 2004, when George W. Bush was running for reelection, challenger John Kerry bested him by only about 11,400 votes in Wisconsin, but Bush went on to win a second term anyway. Four years before that, Bush narrowly lost to Vice President Al Gore as well, by a mere 5,700 votes, but became president because of a Supreme Court ruling.

In this century, only the 2008 and 2012 presidential races in Wisconsin were decisively won, both times by Barack Obama, first against John McCain and then against Mitt Romney.

Obama’s running mate, of course, was Biden.

PORTLAND, Maine — The costliest political race in Maine history didn’t conclude on election day: Neither Republican Sen. Susan Collins nor Democratic Maine House Speaker Sara Gideon were able to declare victory.

Ballots were still being counted to determine a winner in the hard-fought contest, one of several that were crucial in determining whether Democrats would be able to take control of the Senate.

“We’re doing really well, but I know it’s not over until it’s over,” Collins told reporters late Tuesday in Bangor before calling it a night.

Gideon, for her part, did not appear before reporters at a Portland hotel but issued a statement saying she was grateful to her supporters.

“It’s clear this race will not be called tonight, and we are prepared to see it through to the finish. Over the coming days, we will make sure that every Mainer has their voice heard in this election,” she said.

The Senate race was the most expensive in Maine history, with Gideon raising nearly $70 million, more than double the $27 million that Collins raised. But that didn’t include so-called dark money. All told, more than $120 million was spent by both candidates and their allies on advertising.

With most but not all votes counted, Collins held a slim majority, but it was too early to declare a winner.

Further complicating the picture is Maine’s ranked-choice voting system. If no candidate wins a majority of first-place votes, then there need to be additional tabulations, aided by computers, in which last-place candidates are eliminated and votes reallocated to ensure a majority-vote winner.

The fate of the presidency hung in the balance Wednesday morning as President Trump and Joe Biden dueled over three familiar battleground states — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — that could prove crucial in determining who wins the White House.

It was unclear when or how quickly a winner could be determined. A late burst of votes in Wisconsin gave Biden an extremely narrow lead, but it was still too early to call the race. Hundreds of thousands of votes were outstanding in Michigan and Pennsylvania.

By Tuesday night’s end, the margins were exceedingly tight, with the candidates trading wins in other battleground states across the country. Trump picked up Florida, the largest of the swing states, while Biden flipped Arizona, a state that has reliably voted Republican for decades.

Neither candidate has yet reached the 270 electoral college votes needed to capture the White House.

In an extraordinary move from the White House, Trump issued premature claims of victory and said he would take the election to the Supreme Court to stop the counting. It was unclear exactly what legal action he might try to pursue.

Biden, appearing in front of supporters in Delaware, urged patience, saying the election “ain’t over until every vote is counted, every ballot is counted.”

LAS VEGAS — Early results showed Joe Biden with a slim lead over President Trump in Nevada, but it was too early to declare a winner in the race Wednesday with a large number of ballots yet to be counted.

The Nevada secretary of state’s office said a new batch of results would be released Thursday after 9 a.m. Mail-in ballots received on election day had not yet been counted, along with any mail ballots postmarked no later than Nov. 3 that arrive over the next week and any provisional ballots.

The number of outstanding mail ballots is difficult to estimate, the elections office said, because Nevada opted to automatically mail ballots to all active registered voters this year, and it’s hard to predict how many will choose to return them.

No Republican presidential candidate has carried Nevada since 2004, but the state has remained a battleground. Trump fell just shy of winning Nevada and its six electoral college votes four years ago, and this year he campaigned hard in the state hoping for better luck.

Democrats and Joe Biden’s campaign said that while they have been successful in recent elections in Nevada, they weren’t taking anything for granted this year.

By Tuesday evening, shortly before polls closed, turnout in Nevada was already 8% higher than all of 2016.

Joe Biden moved past President Trump to take a razor-thin lead in Wisconsin early Wednesday after the state counted mail-in votes from the overwhelmingly Democratic stronghold of Milwaukee.

A victory in the state could help Biden find a path to the 270 electoral college votes required to win the presidency. Other key states such as Pennsylvania and Georgia, where Biden currently trails, were still waiting to count votes from significantly pro-Democratic cities that could tip the balance away from Trump.

Votes were still being counted in Wisconsin, and the state was still too close to call early Wednesday after the crop of Milwaukee votes was tallied. As of about 2 a.m. Pacific time, Biden led 1,582,605 votes to Trump’s 1,574,461, an extremely narrow advantage of 49.4% to 49.1%.

WASHINGTON — Democrats’ hopes of sweeping to a Senate majority faded as marquee contests stretched into overtime early Wednesday and some of the most vulnerable Republican incumbents remained in contention while the vote counts dragged on.

Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine, whose defeats had been considered essential building blocks of a new Democratic majority, held narrow leads over their opponents in nearly complete results. If they eke out wins, Democrats’ path to a majority would all but vanish.

Given the races remaining to be called, perhaps the best Democrats could achieve is a 50-50 split, which would give them a majority only if Joe Biden won the presidential election and his running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, then became vice president and presided over the Senate as its tie-breaker.

Democrats had headed into election day favored to win a slight majority in the Senate, but returns were mixed early on as polls closed across the country.

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WASHINGTON — As the country settles in for a prolonged count to determine the winner of the 2020 election, this much is clear: Democratic hopes for a wave of votes that would sweep away barriers to progressive policy changes have suffered a significant setback.

Joe Biden continues to have a strong chance of winning the presidency by carrying the big industrial states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, as well as Arizona, where he holds a strong lead. The party will also retain control of the House.

But in the final weeks of the campaign, favorable polls and a flood of campaign money had raised Democratic hopes of a significantly larger victory, one that would decisively repudiate the Trump-era Republican Party, expand Democrats’ House majority, give them clear control of the Senate and open the way to passage of long-stalled legislation on voting rights, climate change, immigration reform and other Democratic priorities.

Instead, the election results so far have proved the continued strength not only of President Trump, but of the country’s deeply entrenched partisan divide. Democratic hopes of a Senate majority dwindled through the night, raising the likelihood that even if he’s elected, Biden will face a divided Congress as well as a Supreme Court with a conservative majority that was strengthened last month with the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Biden publicly expressed confidence Tuesday night while Trump accused Democrats and the media of trying to “disenfranchise” his supporters.

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PORTLAND, Ore. — Protesters marched in Portland and Seattle on Tuesday night, calling for racial justice as election results came in.

In Seattle, two groups of demonstrators took to the streets. Speakers said that as president, neither Donald Trump nor Joe Biden would do enough to protect the lives of Black and Indigenous people.

On Portland’s east side, Black speakers and performers appeared on a stage in front of a few hundred people who began a march about 7 p.m. “No cops, no prisons, total abolition,” protesters chanted.

Also on Tuesday, lawyers for the U.S. Department of Justice asked a judge to put an emergency hold on his order limiting crowd control by federal officers during protests to a nine-block area in downtown Portland.

U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman issued the injunction Monday, finding that federal officers had infringed on protesters’ rights.

Joe Biden’s campaign manager called President Trump’s comments at the White House statement “a naked effort to take away the democratic rights of American citizens.”

“The president’s statement tonight about trying to shut down the counting of duly cast ballots was outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect,” Jen O’Malley Dillon said of Trump’s claims that the election outcome would be fraudulent if ballots continued to be tallied.

“It was unprecedented because never before in our history has a president of the United States sought to strip Americans of their voice in a national election,” she said in a statement. “Having encouraged Republican efforts in multiple states to prevent the legal counting of these ballots before Election Day, now Donald Trump is saying these ballots can’t be counted after Election Day either.”

LAS VEGAS - “I think the president is confused, if you want to treat it charitably,” election law expert Edward Foley said after watching President Trump’s statement from the White House.

“What he describes doesn’t match the reality of the legal process as it applies to counting votes. The votes will be counted in each and everyone of these states.

”Trump falsely claimed the pending election outcome was “a fraud on the American public” and called for a stop to the counting of the remaining ballots. “He doesn’t have any role to play in that as a candidate. And the office of the presidency doesn’t have any role to play in that,” said Foley, a law professor at Ohio State University, where he directs its election law program.

As a candidate Trump could file lawsuits if he has a legal claim, Foley said, “but you can’t just try to stop the counting of votes because you don’t want them counted.”He also called Trump’s conception of the role of the Supreme Court as “mistaken.”

“There’s a chance the Supreme Court could get involved on a narrow category of ballots that might have some questionable validity, but it’s not in anyway inevitable that that small slice of ballots would be outcome determinate in any of these states,” he said. “The Supreme Court is not going to stop the counting of votes in general. There wouldn’t be any legal basis for that.”

President Trump addressed supporters at the White House and said he would ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in the continued counting of ballots to “stop a major fraud in our nation”.

“This is a fraud on the America public, this is an embarrassment on our country. We were getting ready to win this election — frankly we did win this election. So our goal now is to ensure the integrity for the good of this nation … so we’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court, we want all the voting to stop, we don’t want them to find any ballots at 4 o’clock in the morning and add them to the list.”

Trump, speaking after 2 a.m. to a packed room of maskless supporters, sounded disappointed as he alluded to an early projection from Fox News calling Arizona for Democratic nominee Joe Biden, a pickup that could clear Biden’s path to victory.

“We were getting ready for a big celebration, we were winning everything, and then all of a sudden it was just called off,” Trump said.

Citing “millions” of votes cast in his support in several states, Trump said “a very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people” as states continue to count ballots in narrow contests, including in major Democratic strongholds in Georgia, Arizona and Pennsylvania.

Trump listed off voting statistics from Ohio, Texas and Florida, which have been called in his favor by media observers. He then implied that continued vote counts in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Georgia, where remaining votes are expected to show Democratic pickups, would illegitimately tilt the election away from him.

“It’s a very sad moment, to me it’s a very sad moment,” Trump said. “We will win this, and as far as I’m concerned, we have. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election.”

President Trump delivered a hazy claim of victory early Wednesday morning over Democratic challenger Joe Biden even as millions of votes remained to be counted, calling on the Supreme Court to “stop a major fraud in our nation” and hand him the presidential election.

In an extraordinary 2:30 a.m. appearance at the White House, Trump called the pending outcome “a fraud on the America public” and “embarrassment on our country.”

“We were getting ready to win this election -- frankly we did win this election,” he said, citing victories in some states that had yet to be decided. “So we’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court, we want all the voting to stop, we don’t want them to find any ballots at 4 o’clock in the morning and add them to the list.”

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Joe Biden won Arizona on Tuesday, becoming just the second Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state since 1948.

President Trump won four years ago with just 48% of the vote, and Democrats made a major effort to flip the Grand Canyon State, counting on a growing Latino population, an influx of newcomers from places like California and resistance to Trump among voters in the sprawling Phoenix suburbs.

The last Democrat to carry Arizona was Bill Clinton, who scratched out a win with 47% in support in 1996.

Arizona has 11 electoral votes. It takes 270 to be elected president.

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GOP Sen. Steve Daines has won his bid for reelection in Montana, beating back a surprisingly strong challenge in a solidly Republican state.

His victory over Gov. Steve Bullock moved Republicans a step closer to retaining their majority in the Senate, where they now have a 53-47 advantage.

Bullock, who won reelection as governor in 2016 even as Trump won the state by 20 percentage points, failed to repeat that feat of ticket-splitting success against the GOP incumbent in a state where Trump has remained very popular.

But Daines had a tougher than expected challenge from Bullock, who ran unsuccessfully for Democrats’ presidential nomination. He bested Daines in fundraising and was boosted by praise for his handling of the state’s coronavirus crisis.

Voters have approved Proposition 17, giving Californians who are on parole after being convicted of a felony the right to vote in future elections.

The measure restores the vote to some 50,000 parolees by changing the state Constitution, which disqualified people with felony convictions from voting until their incarceration and parole are completed.

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President Trump speaks to the nation. As some tightly contested battleground states continue to count ballots, the president has gone onto Twitter to make unsubstantiated claims about the legitimacy of the election, claims that were flagged by the social media company.

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Voters rejected Proposition 20, a California initiative that sought to toughen sentencing in criminal cases and reduce the number of prison inmates eligible for early parole.

California voters have rejected Proposition 21, which would have allowed cities and counties to apply rent controls to housing more than 15 years old. The measure’s defeat marks the second time since 2018 that voters have opted against expanding rent control.

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When President Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday night to share his opinion that “they” are “trying to STEAL the election,” Twitter was ready.

Within 15 minutes of the post going up at 9:49 Pacific time, the president’s tweet had been flagged with a noticeable disclaimer, stating “some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic processes.” The warning label included a link to “learn more” that led to detailed company policy for flagging and slowing the spread of misinformation.

Beneath the president’s message, Twitter also appended a notice linking to the same policies.

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A $100-million effort to impose new regulations on the dialysis industry was defeated Tuesday.

Proposition 23 would have required dialysis clinics to employ at least one doctor who would be on site whenever patients are receiving treatment. Supporters of the measure, including the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, said dialysis clinics were putting profits over patient care by not having a doctor available in the event of complications or an emergency.

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President Trump won Texas on Tuesday, extending a 44-year Republican winning streak.

Trump won the state handily four years ago, but polls suggested Democrat Joe Biden had a reasonable shot at an upset. A victory would have killed Trump’s reelection chances and been a political game-changer if it signaled a lasting realignment in a state that is foundational to the GOP.

Texas has 38 electoral votes. It takes 270 to be elected president.

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WILMINGTON, Del. — Joe Biden made brief remarks to his supporters at a drive-in rally in his hometown, urging them to be patient and “keep the faith.”

“I’m here to tell you I believe that we’re on track to win this election,” he said early Wednesday morning local time. Biden projected confidence that key states in the upper Midwest and southwest will end up in his column. The loudest cheers in the crowd came when the former vice president said he would win Pennsylvania, his birthplace.

The crowd, which had been intensely focused on monitoring results on their phones and via MSNBC projected on the big screen, seemed to relish Biden’s optimism, responding with claps and honks for their favored candidate.

Immediately after Biden left the stage, Tom Ross turned to his companions and announced, “I feel better.”

“It was good to hear it directly from him,” explained Ross, 52, a former chair of the Delaware state GOP. Biden promised that he and his running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, who did not appear onstage, would have more to say later on Wednesday.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.

(Seema Mehta/Los Angeles Times)

DETROIT — Turnout in this overwhelmingly Democratic city is expected to meet or exceed the 53% that helped place Barack Obama in the White House in 2008.

City Clerk Janice M. Winfrey said Tuesday evening that she expects turnout to be between 53% and 55% and that vote counting was on pace to be complete by Wednesday evening. David Baxter, an election consultant for the city, said the turnout suggested that the city’s voters were highly motivated.

“Fifty-three percent is probably the highest turnout that we’ve had in more than 20 or 30 years in Detroit,” he said. When Obama won Michigan again in 2012, the Detroit turnout was 51%. But when it fell to 48% in 2016, Donald Trump won the state.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who had earlier predicted that an official tally of the vote would be completed Friday, said processing absentee ballots has been going faster than expected. If Detroit completes its tally Wednesday, the state will likely be able to offer a fairly complete unofficial tally soon afterward, she said.

“I expect we’ll have a very clear picture, if not a final picture, of the unofficial results from Michigan in the next 24 hours,” she told reporters at Ford Field, one of the places ballots were being counted in Detroit.

The time to tally the vote is impacted by the record-breaking number of voters who cast absentee ballots. Benson said that for the first time in state history, the number of Michigan residents who voted early — 3.3 million — exceeded those casting their ballots in person on election day — between 2 million and 2.5 million.

Republican Joni Ernst has won the Senate race in Iowa, securing reelection to a second term after a surprisingly competitive campaign.

Ernst’s victory over Democratic businesswoman Theresa Greenfield moved Republicans a step closer to retaining their majority in the Senate, where they now have a 53-47 advantage.

The contest drew national attention because Ernst’s unexpectedly tough race was seen as a warning sign of the toll Trump’s political struggles were taking even on once-strong incumbents.

President Trump won Florida on Tuesday, maintaining his grip on a state crucial to his hopes for reelection.

Four years ago, Trump eked out a win in the country’s most populous battleground with just 49% of the vote.

Florida has 29 electoral votes. It takes 270 to win the White House.

President Trump won Iowa on Tuesday, his second straight victory in a state that tilted Democratic until 2016.

Iowa sided with Democrats in six of seven presidential elections, but Trump won in a landslide four years ago.

The Hawkeye state has six electoral votes. It takes 270 to win the White House.

Vicente Sarmiento

(Gustavo Arellano/Los Angeles Times)

A cheer went up at 8:06 p.m. among the 30-plus people outside Festival Hall in downtown Santa Ana as the first results came in for Orange County’s local elections.

Everyone’s man for Santa Ana mayor, Councilman, was in the early lead over his next-closest competitor.

The race was historic even before the polls closed. Six candidates were running to replace the termed-out Miguel Pulido, who had served for 26 years, one of the longest mayoral reigns in a major American city. And Sarmiento was running as perhaps the first-ever Bolivian American mayoral candidate in the United States.

“We did the research, and I think I‘m it,” said Sarmiento, 56, who was already the first-ever Bolivian American council member. “There’s just almost none of us in American politics.”

Sarmiento came to Santa Ana in 1965 as a 1 year old and joked that he’s now “more comfortable with tortillas and tacos than salteñas and chuño,” referring to two classic Bolivian dishes.

He eventually carved out a niche as a three-term councilman in Santa Ana, one of the most Latino big cities in the U.S. But the mayoral race was an uphill battle.

His opponents include Santa Ana Councilman Jose Solorio and former Councilwomen Claudia Alvarez and Cecilia Iglesias. Alvarez got developer money; Solorio received the backing of the city’s power police union. And Iglesias — whom voters recalled this past summer — was the only Republican in the race.

But Sarmiento’s longtime advocacy for housing affordability and pushing to break an ICE contract with Santa Ana to house detainees in the city jail earned him a vigorous contingent of young santaneros as supporters.

Those activist helped Bernie Sanders win Orange County during the California primary but had felt politically adrift when Joe Biden won the Democratic presidential nomination.

In Sarmiento, they found their man.

“Those youth saw that the electoral process could result in fundamental change,” said Sarmiento, who endorsed Sanders. “And no disrespect to my opponents, but they never caught on to that.”

His supporters munched on tacos and ceviche as Sarmiento gave a brief speech thanking everyone for their support. “It looks like we’re doing good,” said the soft-spoken lawyer In Spanish. “We can’t sing victory just yet, but hopefully almost.”

Joe Biden won Minnesota on Tuesday, extending the longest Democratic winning streak in the country.

Minnesota has backed the Democrat for president in every election since Richard Nixon’s landslide victory in 1972. President Trump had hoped to snatch the state away from Biden after losing by fewer than 45,000 votes, a 2% margin, in 2016.

Minnesota has 16 electoral votes. It takes 270 to win the White House.

PHILADELPHIA — Republican state lawmakers in Pennsylvania are trying to block the counting of thousands of presidential election ballots that arrive in county offices on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

A state Supreme Court ruling upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court declared that ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 or with illegible postmarks must be counted in the presidential election if they are received by local election offices by Friday afternoon.

GOP lawmakers are furious at Pennsylvania’s Democratic secretary of state, Kathy Boockvar, for instructing county election officers to tally those ballots, even though she she has ordered them segregated and counted separately in case the U.S. Supreme Court grants the Republicans’ renewed request to invalidate them.

State Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati and Majority Leader Jake Corman called on Boockvar to resign, saying she was trying “to weaken the state’s voting system and damage the integrity and confidence in our elections.”

“As leaders, we simply cannot stand by and allow Kathy Boockvar’s blatant disregard for the legislative process and the law to continue,” they said in a joint statement.

Boockkvar responded that “they’re the ones that should resign for not having allowed Pennsylvania and this nation to start pre-canvassing ballots early, as 46 other states across the country have done. We would be getting results a lot sooner if they had,” she said.

Pennsylvania law bars election officials from starting the time-consuming procedure of processing ballot envelopes until the morning of an election, which could delay its results for at least several days.

With millions of Pennsylvania voters casting ballots by mail for the first time this year, election officials around the state called on the GOP-controlled Legislature and the Democratic governor to change the law, but they failed to reach an agreement.

With the nation now in suspense over the slow ballot count in Pennsylvania, a state that could decide the presidential election, Boockvar cast the Republicans’ moves as part of the GOP’s broader efforts to suppress votes.

“Look, they don’t like the late counting of ballots, because they don’t like anything that allows more eligible voters to be enfranchised,” Boockvar said. “So let’s be clear about that.”

President Trump won Ohio on Tuesday, a state vital to his chances of winning reelection, according to Fox News and NBC News.

No Republican has ever been elected president without carrying Ohio. Although Trump won handily four years ago, polls suggested a closer contest this time, and Democrat Joe Biden made a last-ditch effort to seize the Buckeye State and cripple the president’s campaign.

Ohio has 18 of the 270 electoral votes it takes to win the White House.

SACRAMENTO — Californians convicted of felonies but who are on parole would be allowed to vote in future elections under a ballot measure, Proposition 17, that was garnering support from voters in early election returns on Tuesday.

The measure would restore the vote to some 50,000 parolees by changing the state Constitution, which disqualifies people with felony convictions from voting until their incarceration and parole are completed.

Proposition 17’s supporters include the California Democratic Party; Sen. Kamala Harris, Democratic nominee for vice president; and Assemblyman Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), who authored the measure.

Check this page for live California election results

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SACRAMENTO — A ballot measure that would abolish California’s cash bail system was trailing in early election returns Tuesday.

Proposition 25 would replace the use of money bail as a condition for getting out of jail while awaiting trial with a system allowing release by judges based on a determination of public safety or a defendant’s flight risk.

If the ballot measure passes, the new system would take effect on Oct. 1, 2021, a delay meant to allow time for the courts to develop new rules and procedures.

Check this page for live California election results

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SACRAMENTO — The fate of Proposition 15, an effort to remove high-value business properties from the low-tax protections enacted by California voters more than four decades ago, was unclear in early election returns on Tuesday, the culmination of an expensive and fierce campaign over how much to spend on government services and the economic impact of raising taxes.

The ballot measure was supported by a razor-thin majority with more than 8 million ballots counted, a lead that was far from certain with millions of votes left to count.

The ballot measure seeks to curtail the rules governing property taxes that were established by Proposition 13 in 1978, which set the annual levy at 1% of a property’s value and allows only small adjustments to the assessed value until there is a change in ownership. Those strict limits apply to all property owned in California — both homes and businesses.

Proposition 15 would create a separate set of tax rules for commercial and industrial property holdings worth $3 million or more. County tax assessors would be required to revise the value of those business properties to reflect current market prices, increasing the total taxes paid.

Check this page for live California election results

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SACRAMENTO — Proposition 20, a California initiative that would toughen sentencing in criminal cases and reduce the number of prison inmates eligible for early parole, was rejected by state voters on Tuesday

The measure by law enforcement and prosecutors hit the ballot just as the Black Lives Matter movement was drawing new attention to demands for change in the criminal justice system to reduce incarceration and its disproportionate effect on people of color.

The initiative would add 22 crimes, including felony domestic violence, rape of an unconscious person and human trafficking of a child, to the list of offenses that make prison inmates ineligible for early parole under a previous initiative approved by voters in 2016.

The ballot measure voted on Tuesday also would increase penalties for repeat shoplifters and members of organized theft rings, and collect DNA samples from adults convicted of some misdemeanors.

Check this page for live California election results

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Supporters wait for Democratic nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris make their final statements at a drive-in rally at Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware, (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

(Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

WILMINGTON - The coronavirus pandemic has influenced every facet of this presidential campaign, and the Democrats’ election night party was no exception.

Instead of packing into a ballroom to imbibe and take in results, Biden-Harris supporters drove their cars to a Wilmington, Del., parking lot, a socially distanced approach to watching the returns on big screen and take in a soundtrack of Sam Cooke and Lady Gaga songs.

Richard Rollo, a 48-year-old attorney from Wilmington whose wife worked for Joe Biden decades ago, projected cautious optimism, saying he was prepared for a long night of waiting.

“I think [Biden’s] going to give a speech tonight that says ‘stay calm,’” said Rollo, whose vote for the former vice president on Tuesday was the first he had ever cast for a Democrat.

For Kathy Caudle of Pike Creek, the chance to attend an election night party, no matter how unconventional, was a “one-in-a-lifetime” experience.“To be able to celebrate this event here in this little state of Delaware is just amazing,” said Caudle, 66.

California voters might rewrite the rules of the internet Tuesday with Prop. 24, which if passed would impose new restrictions on data collection and boost enforcement of privacy regulations.

Early results released by the secretary of state’s office after the polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday showed 58.6% of voters supporting the measure, and 41.4% opposing, with 11.4% of precincts partially reporting and millions of ballots remaining to be counted. The final results may not become clear for days or weeks to come.

The ballot measure seeks to reinforce and redefine parts of the California Consumer Privacy Act, a 2019 law that gave state residents new rights as to how companies collect and use their personal information. Prop. 24 would close several loopholes in that law and make it easier in some circumstances for people to opt out of having their data collected or processed.

Check this page for live California election results

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A new property tax break for older California homeowners, easing their tax burdens if they move, is leading in early returns Tuesday night.

Should the results hold and Proposition 19 succeeds it would mean that those 55 and older will be able to blend the taxable value of their old home with the value of a new, more expensive home they purchase, resulting in property tax savings that could reach thousands of dollars a year.

Check this page for live California election results

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SACRAMENTO — Proposition 18, which would allow 17-year-olds to vote in primary and special elections if they turn 18 before the next general election, was too close to call early Tuesday night as elections officials across California continue to tally ballots.

If the proposed amendment to the state Constitution is approved, California would join at least 18 other states that allow some 17-year-olds to cast ballots, from red states such as Kentucky and Mississippi to blue states that include Illinois and Maryland.

Check this page for live California election results

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A bid to expand rent control in California is trailing in early returns Tuesday night.

Should the results hold and Proposition 21 fails, it would mean that once again landlord groups have convinced voters that stricter limits on rent hikes are not a solution to California’s housing affordability problems. A statewide ban on most new forms of rent control would remain in effect.

Landlords won a similar battle in 2018 when voters turned down the Proposition 10 rent control initiative. Like that campaign, total fundraising for Proposition 21 eclipsed $100 million. Landlord groups, notably large real estate investment trusts Essex Property Trust, Equity Residential and AvalonBay Communities, outraised supporters of Proposition 21 more than 2-to-1. Nearly all the more than $40 million behind the Yes on 21 campaign came from the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which similarly funded the failed 2018 initiative.

Check this page for live California election results

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WASHINGTON - Demonstrators wandered listlessly outside the White House as it became clear that the night would not deliver the clear repudiation of President Trump that they hoped for.

India Travis, 32, a hairdresser, sat on the sidewalk with a friend watching CNN on her phone.

“If Biden won, I wanted to be here and around people,” she said.Now she wasn’t so sure.“I felt more confident in the beginning than I do now,” Travis said. “But there’s still hope.”

Sean Murphy of Irvine registered to vote with 30 minutes to spare. He rode down the street from where he was staying to the Main Street Branch Library in Huntington Beach on his bike, its blue wheels contrasting with the darkened sky.

The 19-year-old restaurant worker didn’t feel too strongly on his vote. In fact, he wasn’t even planning on voting. He changed his mind at 7 p.m. only after he realized he could still vote.

“I felt like I should vote to make a positive difference,” he said, saying he’d cast his ballot for Joe Biden. “I don’t like either candidate but I felt like Biden was the lesser of two evils.”

Jessica DeCastro, 24, of Huntington Beach also cast her vote with minutes to spare.

DeCastro backed Trump for his experience as a businessman. The mortgage worker had been too busy to cast her ballot earlier, and pushed it to the final minutes.

“I’m just glad to have gotten my vote in on time,” she said.

SACRAMENTO — A $100-million effort to impose new regulations on the dialysis industry appeared to be heading for defeat in early results Tuesday.

Proposition 23 would require dialysis clinics to employ at least one doctor who would be on site whenever patients are receiving treatment. Supporters of the measure, including the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, said dialysis clinics were putting profits over patient care by not having a doctor available in the event of complications or an emergency.

Opponents, however, argued the measure was the latest attempt by SEIU-UHW to weaponize the ballot box to try to force the dialysis industry to spend millions to defend itself when the union’s real interest is getting clinic workers to unionize. The dialysis industry put more than $100 million into fighting the measure, saying the unnecessary added cost would lead to dialysis clinics closing, which would put patients at risk.

Check this page for live California election results

Read more>>>

SACRAMENTO — A statewide ballot measure that would allow affirmative action programs to be reinstated in California trailed in early election returns Tuesday night.

Under Proposition 16, public universities would be allowed to consider race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin to address diversity in admissions and other programs. Both state and local governments also would be allowed to consider those factors when hiring government employees and awarding government contracts.

The proposition, placed on the ballot by the Democrat-controlled California Legislature, would repeal Proposition 209, a highly controversial measure approved by voters in 1996 that barred affirmative action programs in the state.

Check this page for live California election results

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The $200-million Proposition 22 campaign led by Uber and Lyft was ahead in early election results as of Tuesday evening, but it remains too early to tell if the companies will succeed in their effort to seek an exemption from California employment law and continue treating workers as independent contractors.

The fight is the one of the most closely watched ballot measure contests in the country and has been the costliest in state history.

A win for the app-based companies has the potential to create a new campaign paradigm, with companies sidestepping government and spending large sums of money to sway voters with traditional advertisements and more unconventional direct marketing to customers. The measure’s failure could prove the power of California labor unions, underdogs in the race with far fewer financial resources than their foes.

“Yes on 22” held an edge over the opposition with 62% of the vote compared to 38% of the first 1.8 million ballots counted. The ballot measure needs to earn more than 50% of the vote to become law.

Check this page for live California election results

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SACRAMENTO — A ballot measure to authorize $5.5 billion in new funding for stem cell research was narrowly leading in early returns Tuesday.

Proposition 14 asked voters to approve an infusion of cash for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, known as CIRM, for stem cell studies and trials. California voters created CIRM in 2004 after approving a bond measure that year for $3 billion. CIRM used that bond money for research grants, new laboratories and training programs, but unallocated funds ran out last year, prompting supporters of the agency to return to taxpayers for additional money.

Check this page for live California election results

Read more.

Democrat Mark Kelly has won the Senate race in Arizona, ousting GOP Sen. Martha McSally from a seat she won by appointment less than two years ago.

The victory by Kelly moved Democrats a step closer to winning a majority in the Senate, where Republicans now hold a 53-47 advantage.

McSally, who lost a 2018 bid for the Senate, was appointed in 2019 to temporarily fill the seat once held by the late GOP Sen. John McCain. She had to run this year in a special election to hold the seat for the remainder of his term.

The race drew national attention because Kelly was one of Democrats’ star recruits. He consistently beat McSally in polling and was one of the party’s strongest fundraisers.

Democrat Sarah McBride won a state Senate race on Tuesday in Delaware, and would become the first openly transgender state senator in the country when sworn in.

McBride defeated Republican Steve Washington to win the seat that became open following the retirement of the longest-serving legislator in Delaware history.

She won in a heavily Democratic district stretching from northern Wilmington to the Pennsylvania border, and joins several other transgender legislators around the country but will be the first transgender state senator.

“I think tonight’s results demonstrate what I’ve known my entire life, which is that the residents of this district are fair-minded, and they’re looking at candidates’ ideas and not their identity,” McBride said Tuesday night. “It is my hope that a young LGBTQ kid here in Delaware or really anywhere in this country can look at the results and know that our democracy is big enough for them, too.”

McBride interned at the White House under former President Barack Obama and made history at the 2016 Democratic National Convention as the first openly transgender person to speak at a major party convention.

Arizona voters on Tuesday decided the state should join others across the nation that have legalized recreational marijuana in a repudiation of the state’s Republican leadership. A ballot measure for a new tax on the wealthy to fund education was too early to call.

Voters approved Proposition 207 four years after they narrowly defeated a marijuana legalization proposal. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and fellow Republicans in the Legislature have refused to change Arizona’s tough marijuana laws.

Recreational marijuana sales will become legal when election results are certified in about a month. Retail sales could start in May and people can grow their own plants. People 21 and older can possess up to an ounce (28 grams) of marijuana or a smaller quantity of “concentrates” such as hashish.

Voters in New Jersey, South Dakota and Montana also had pot legalization measures on their ballots.

Joe Biden won California on Tuesday, keeping California in the Democratic column for the eighth presidential campaign in a row.

President Trump lost the state four years ago by 30 percentage points and more than 4 million votes and never seriously competed against the former vice president and his running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris.

California, which last had a competitive general election campaign for president in 1988, has 55 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.

Polls have closed in California. Follow along as results trickle in for presidential, congressional, state legislative and local races.

How long will it take to know results?

For most of the last decade, the wait for final results has lasted for close to a month as new election laws have expanded voter access and the number of ballots cast has increased.

It may be frustrating for those waiting to declare victory, but it’s how California elections have been designed to work.

Within days of when ballots were mailed to voters in early October, they’ve been flooding back to county election offices. But there are strict limits on what local officials can do with those ballots before the election is officially over.

Prior to the close of the polls at 8 p.m. on Nov. 3, ballots can be readied for counting by checking signatures on envelopes, removing ballots from the envelopes and then scanning them to ensure no stray marks were made. But the actual vote tally must wait until election night.

The first results Californians see are those from ballots that arrived early and those cast at voting locations on election day. Ballots that arrived too late for election officials to do all the prep work have to wait. And all of this means results can take several days.

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MIAMI - As election returns showed Joe Biden underperforming in Miami-Dade County, dozens of mostly young and Black Floridians gathered for an election night watch party at an outdoor event space in Overtown, a historically Black neighborhood in Miami.

The event was hosted by the Black Collective, a two-year-old nonprofit aimed at uniting members of the African diaspora in Miami.

“Growing up in the’ 90s, we knew what it meant to be divided as Black people,” said Francesca Menes, the co-founder and board chair of the group.

Menes, who is of Haitian and Dominican descent and grew up in the city’s Little Haiti neighborhood, said that despite the divisions within the Black community, outside forces, like the police, don’t differentiate.

“So we said we need to create an intentional space, not a Haitian space, a Jamaican space, a Bahamian space, a Black space to understand that in this country we are Black first,” she said.

The group doesn’t endorse candidates, but has spent this election cycle encouraging people to vote and educating community members by canvassing, texting and releasing a voter guide — in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole — on what’s on the ballot and what powers different elected officials have.

About three dozen people attended the socially distanced event. A projector switched between silently displaying CNN, MSNBC and the results of the Miami-Dade local elections. A DJ played R&B, funk and hip hop hits from the last few decades. Some guests watched the results, but most were socializing or making use of a healing space in the back of the venue.

Kilan Bishop, a 29-year-old post-doctoral researcher from Miami said she attended the event because she wanted to be around people who’d have a similar reaction to the results. Bishop voted for the Biden-Harris ticket on Tuesday, but said her reaction if they won would be “tempered enthusiasm.”

“That is really what I wanted to be around, those who would acknowledge that a Democratic win tonight is one step, but it’s not the step,” Bishop said.Still, a Biden presidency would be “leaps and bounds” ahead of a second Trump term, Bishop said. As the early results in the state came in, especially from Miami-Dade, it wasn’t clear if the state would help Biden get there.

“Regardless of looking at the results, I’m nervous about Florida,” Bishop said. “I feel like the eight years that I’ve been here nothing has ever made sense. I’ve seen so many races swing in unexpected ways.”

Republican Tommy Tuberville has won the Senate race in Alabama, reclaiming a seat in a ruby red state that the GOP lost three years ago in a scandal-driven fluke.

Tuberville defeated Democrats’ most vulnerable incumbent, Sen. Doug Jones, moving Republicans a step closer to retaining their majority in the Senate, where they now have a 53-47 advantage.

Tuberville’s career as football coach at Auburn University helped propel his candidacy in a football-crazed, heavily Repubican state.

Jones, a former federal prosecutor, won a 2017 special election after then-Sen. Jeff Sessions was picked for President Trump’s Cabinet. He scored his unlikely victory after his GOP opponent, former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court Roy Moore, faced allegations of sexual assault and misconduct involving underage girls when he was younger. Moore denied the allegations.

A few more states have closed their polls, including Idaho (Mountain time zone), Iowa, Montana, Nevada, Oregon (Mountain time zone) and Utah.

GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham has won his bid for reelection in South Carolina, beating back a surprisingly strong challenge in a solidly Republican state.

Graham’s victory over Jaime Harrison, a former state Democratic Party chair, moved Republicans a step closer to retaining their majority in the Senate, where they now have a 53-47 advantage.

The race drew national attention because Graham had drawn the ire of Democrats nationwide — and kudos from conservatives — for his vigorous defense of Trump’s Supreme Court nominees Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.

Democrats had argued that Graham was a political opportunist because he had flipped from being one of President Trump’s harshest critics to one of his closest allies. Harrison, who is Black, energized the state’s large African American electorate and broke fundraising records with donations from across the country.

But Graham’s loyalty to Trump helped him consolidate the support of conservatives who had regarded him with suspicion in the past.

(

Daniel Zinnen at Midway City Community Center, WI.

(Jim Rainey/Los Angeles Times)

MILWAUKEE, Wis. - Tried and true Republican Daniel Zinnen drove 100 miles north from the Chicago suburbs Tuesday to help on election day in Wisconsin. His mission: to help assure Republican President Trump served only one term.

Zinnen remains a Republican, though he feels the president has dragged the party away from its roots of fiscal conservatism, family values and sober management. So Zinnen sat on a street corner outside the French Immersion School, a Milwaukee public school that served as a polling place Tuesday.

He came planning to supply food, water and moral support to the dozens, maybe hundreds, of voters he expected to line up to vote in the heavily Democratic working class neighborhood in the city’s northside.

One problem: Not many people came to vote, all day long. So the 58-year-old administrator at a Chicago-area park district did his best to encourage passersby to go vote. He is pretty sure he had some success at that.

Zinnen said he never supported Trump in 2016 and turned against him even more during the former reality show star’s presidency.“He’s the most corrupt and unlawful president we’ve probably ever had,” said Zinnen.

Asked how much it meant to him to help defeat Trump, the leader of his erstwhile party, he said: “I traveled a hundred miles to stand here to try and ensure the validity of the election here in Wisconsin, to try to make sure that happened. I did what I could.

”But with no voters in line and no one needing a snack, Zinnen pulled up his Biden-Harris placard, hefted his bag of mostly un-taken snacks and walked off into the night. He said he would seek out another polling place, hoping to support more voters. And hoping his party’s president would go down to a solid defeat.

GRAHAM, N.C. — On Saturday, law enforcement in Graham, a small city between Durham and Greensboro, responded to a nonviolent march to early voting polls with pepper spray and multiple arrests.

On Tuesday, many of the same activists and community leaders present at the first march led several hundred people from a local church to a polling place and ultimately to the Alamance County Historic Courthouse, the site some of them had been pepper sprayed or arrested.

As night fell, the multiracial coalition chanted, sang and prayed in unity. Behind them, on the other side of a monument commemorating confederate soldiers, a much smaller counter-protest waved confederate flags, called for “four more years” for President Trump, and met the main protest’s chants of “Black lives matter” and “trans lives matter” with their own shouts of “white lives matter” and “confederate lives matter.”

Law enforcement was present in large numbers around the courthouse. The day’s events for the marchers started in the parking lot of Graham’s Wayman Chapel AME church. Organizers passed around facemasks, protective goggles and snacks.

“The mission for Saturday did not happen because of the interference of the police and the sheriff’s office, so today is fulfilling that mission,” said Spencer Blackwell, the vice president of Alamance Alliance for Justice, which has been organizing antiracist demonstrations and registering voters in the area since the summer.

“That mission was to march to the polls.”Blackwell, 24 and a middle school teacher in Greensboro, was also at the Saturday march, where he helped children and elderly attendees escape the pepper spray.

“I believe these things had to happen, because it really brought a light on the things that we deal with, especially here in the city of Graham,” Blackwell said. “We deal with a lot of racism; prejudice; harshness from the police whenever we hold events.”

Sonia Murillo, 53, right, helps her 86-year-old mother Graciela Murillo in navigating Ballot Marking Device in voting a polling station located in Wabash Recreation Center.

(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)

Graciela Murillo was watching the news Tuesday on Telemundo — just as she does every morning — when she made an announcement: She wanted to go vote.

“Damé una pelota para votarla,” Murillo, 86, told her daughter Sonia, 53, confusing the Spanish word for “ballot,” which is “boleta,” with “ball.” “Give me a ball to vote! Yo quiero Donald Trump.”

So after breakfast and lunch — coffee, buttery bread and a sandwich for Graciela, scrambled eggs for Sonia — the mother-daughter duo drove down the street from their Boyle Heights home to the Wabash Recreation Center to vote for the first time together.

Read More >>>

Democrat John Hickenlooper has won the Senate seat in Colorado, beating GOP Sen. Cory Gardner in a state where hostility to President Trump is running high, according to projections by NBC News and Fox News.

The victory by Hickenlooper, the former Colorado governor who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, moved Democrats one step closer to winning a majority in the Senate, where Republicans now hold a 53-47 advantage.

The campaign drew national attention and was seen as a top prospect for Democrats because Gardner was one of just two Senate Republicans who were running for reelection in states Hillary Clinton won in 2016.

Democratic leaders had worked hard to recruit Hickenlooper as a Senate candidate after he abandoned his bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

LAS VEGAS - In Clark County, Nev., 30 vote centers will stay open until 8 p.m. to comply with a court order handed down Tuesday afternoon.

The morning of election day, 29 votes centers opened after 7:10 a.m. because of technical issues, according to Clark County Election Department spokesperson Dan Kulin.

The Trump campaign and the Nevada Republican Party on Tuesday filed a joint lawsuit demanding the Clark County Registrar allow polls in certain locations to remain open for any voter in line prior to 8 p.m. instead of 7 p.m.

The list included Sun City MacDonald Ranch Community Center where some voters waited three hours because of technical glitches.

With election day coming to a close, 23-year-old Daisy Miranda rushed to the Midway City Community Center in Orange County. The dental worker’s long shifts over the last few weeks prevented her from turning in her signed ballot. At 5 p.m., there was a short line, but most voters walked right in.

“I voted in 2016, but there’s so much more at stake this election,” the Midway City resident said. “I’ve had my ballot signed for weeks now.”

In a matter of minutes Miranda was on her way.

Tammy Tran, 40, was in the same boat. She had been waiting to turn in her ballot because she wanted to stay up to date on the news to make the most informed decision.

“I waited to turn it in, because I wanted to experience this historic day. Now it’s the end of the day, people are getting off of work, and there’s only three hours left,” Tran said.

The mother of two knew there was a lot on the line. A Vietnamese American, she said fear and tension percolated throughout her community leading up to election day.

“I’m an immigrant, and I never felt afraid to go out, but what worries me the most about this election and the next 10 years is that people are openly racist, and they’re proud of it.... It’s scary. I’m scared for my kids,” the Southern California Edison employee said. “It’s not just tension, it’s fear.”

Tran cast a vote for Biden but emphasized that her decision was to back Sen. Kamala Harris, who could be the first Black and Asian vice president. Tran’s daughter Annalise will have her fifth birthday in two days, making her an “election baby,” and this year’s birthday wish is for Harris to make history.

“Four years ago, when we didn’t get a chance to see the first woman president, that was devastating for me; we canceled her birthday party. So this year, we’re excited to see the opportunity for a woman to get voted into office,” the moderate Democrat said.

After her quick trip to the polls, Tran went to pick up her daughter and return home to watch the election results.

“There will always be a generational divide, but I think the environment we’re in, we have politicians that feed that and want that to happen,” she said.

Michael McInerny voted for Donald Trump

(Tyrone Beason/Los Angeles Times)

CHANDLER, Ariz. — His mother blocked his number on her phone. His family won’t talk to him. It’s because he supports President Trump.

“I’ve lost so many friends because I support Trump,” said Michael McInerny, 25, who cast his vote as the sun set at the Environmental Education Center in the right-leaning Phoenix suburb of Chandler.

He said people have accused him of being a white supremacist, “even though I’m Hispanic, which I find quite comical.”

McInerny, who grew up in a Democratic household and liked President Obama, said he doesn’t always feel comfortable with Trump’s rhetoric either - especially his remarks about people of color and immigrants. But he believes the president has been unfairly cast as a villain by his detractors and the press.

“I don’t vote based on party -I vote based on policy,” he said. Trump’s efforts to curtail migration and human trafficking across the border with Mexico seem sound to him.”We should critique presidents but we also should give them credit when it’s due,” McInerny said.

He believes Trump will prevail as election results come in but fears that if the president does win re-election, Americans who dislike Trump will cause civil unrest.

Given the smoldering political climate, McInerny, the new father of a 7-month-old girl, worries about the country’s future.

In Houston’s gay-friendly Montrose neighborhood, Buddy’s bar, which also became a polling place, was also a gathering place after polls closed for friends, from left to to right: Michael Walker, 38; Keith Nappier, 53; Joseph Chabot, 36; Craig Sanford, 52, and Levi Weaver, 29.

(Molly Hennessy-Fiske / Los Angeles Times)

HOUSTON — Buddy’s, a gay bar and restaurant in Houston’s LGBTQ-friendly Montrose neighborhood, became a polling place on election day with 14 booths. By the time the polls closed, 154 people had voted at the bar, and dozens were still sipping cocktails outside, where the bass was thumping as speakers blasted “We Are Family.”

“We call it voting in the front, party in the back,” owner Christopher Barry said as he stood on the back patio. Patrons sipped drinks at socially distanced tables as workers set up a stage for a DJ set to start once the polls closed.

Some patrons said they were scared about what would happen election night. Days earlier, they said a Trump supporter had to be escorted from the bar after antagonizing regulars. Earlier Tuesday, a pickup truck with a Trump flag swerved at a drag queen walking across the street.

Some patrons, who normally walked between gay bars in the neighborhood, drove instead. Bartenders warned them to be safe.

“All we can do is provide a safe space, civility and humanity regardless of the results,” said Barry, who survived COVID-19 along with several of his staff who contracted the virus. The restaurant was temporarily shut down this summer.

Massage therapist Joseph Chabot, 36, said he voted at the bar because he was scared to approach his usual polling place in the neighborhood, which had become the scene of dueling Biden and Trump protests Tuesday.

“You don’t want to go to [that] place you’ll be accosted,” he said, referring to his normal polling place. His friend Craig Sanford, 52, a store manager, voted early for Biden and joined the group at the bar Tuesday night figuring there was safety in numbers.

“I wouldn’t come out here by myself. We had to look out for each other,” he said as they stood near the outdoor bar finishing beers and cinnamon-flavored shots. “There’s a lot of anxiety.”

HOUSTON — A popular Houston polling place became a battleground Tuesday as dozens of Biden and Trump supporters staked out opposite sides of the street in a liberal enclave, occasionally crossing for several altercations that drew the sheriff, police chief and at least a dozen officers.

On Tuesday afternoon, a white man crossed from the Trump side of the street and approached several Black women holding “Biden-Harris” signs in front of the Metropolitan Multi-Service Center in the Montrose neighborhood.

Joyden ONeil, 20, a freshman at Purdue University who works at Walmart, said she was holding a sign for the Democratic ticket when the man approached her from across the street to decry Biden’s stance on abortion rights.

“He got to tapping and poking people, and then he pushed me,” said Sekeria Frazier, 20, a freshman at Alabama A&M University, who was wearing a T-shirt commemorating George Floyd.

Thomas Donohoe, 77, a retired industrial electrician from the eastern refinery-town suburb of LaPorte, drove in to join the protest after he was alerted by the Houston Trump Train group. He said that after listening to Biden supporters curse, he crossed the street. He was quickly surrounded by Biden supporters and retreated.

Sheriff’s deputies initially approached the man, but he walked away. A police report was taken.

Jose Casares, 32, an Amazon warehouse worker who switched from Democrat to Republican to vote for Trump in this election, crossed the street carrying a Trump flag to argue face-to-face with Biden supporters. He was escorted back to the other side by police as Biden supporters chanted, “Send him back!”

Casares said he had switched parties because he’s Christian and was inspired by Trump’s opposition to COVID-19 lockdowns that closed churches. “I couldn’t go to church. To me, that’s a spiritual war,” Casares said.

Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo arrived soon after and said the location was the only polling place where opposing groups had staked out territory Tuesday. He called the incident “a pushing match.”

The polls have closed in a number of states, including Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming (Mountain time zone) and Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Texas and Wisconsin (Central) and New York (Eastern).

1. 

   Leon Love of Milwaukee cast the first vote of his life for Joe Biden on Tuesday.

   (James Rainey / Los Angeles Times)

MILWAUKEE — Leon Love had seen plenty of elections come and go. He followed politics closely enough but never made the time to cast a ballot.

Ever.

Love, 51, who lives on Milwaukee’s predominantly Black northside, felt too busy to even vote for Barack Obama, a man whom he greatly admired.

But four years of President Trump got Love to do Tuesday what he had not done before — register and cast his first vote against the incumbent, who, he said, “has made the presidency like a circus.

Love feels Trump gives no credence to the real suffering of Black men at the hands of police.

“We finally have the world’s attention on this issue, and I don’t think Donald Trump leads [on police conduct], and that’s a problem,” he said.

Love has also seen friends and family fall seriously ill with COVID-19 but doesn’t see Trump taking the pandemic seriously.

“He could have gotten on top of it a lot quicker,” Love said. “And he lies. A lot. You know what I’m saying?”

Love felt he had to register his displeasure at the ballot box this time, before Trump undoes the rest of President Obama’s legacy — particularly the Affordable Care Act, which expanded healthcare to millions of Americans.

The lifelong Milwaukee man, who voted in the auditorium of the French Immersion School, called Biden “just more level, more solid.”

“Who would pick Trump to run the country for four more years? He’s got everybody divided. It’s a disaster. We definitely have to make it right.”

Although students in an Advanced Placement Government class at Cleveland Charter High School are just months away from being able to vote, they turned into young pundits Tuesday. Teacher Danielle Aucoin had assigned them a research project analyzing competitive House and Senate races.

Tuesday was their big day to show their understanding of polling, campaign finance and the influence of media and interest groups. Here is Zachary Meyer’s take on the Alabama Senate race and Republican challenger Tommy Tuberville: “His whole platform is ‘I agree with President Trump.’ He’s really just playing to demographics, not coming up with any unique ideas or solutions.”

Whatever their opinions, Aucoin hoped the project challenged students’ critical thinking skills to make them informed voters in the next presidential election.

Even some fifth-graders took election day seriously in their virtual classrooms. “True or false,” teacher Angel Cervantes asked her class at Morningside Elementary School in San Fernando.

“In presidential elections, the person who gets the most votes wins?” On the count of three, they displayed their written answers on Zoom. Then students were given a chance to persuade classmates to vote for their candidate of choice.

Natalie Barragán, long-haired and confident, spoke for Biden: “He won’t lie about deadly viruses,” she said.

Those in favor of President Trump emphasized the 2nd Amendment. For homework, the fifth-graders will color in a U.S. map, keeping track of the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the presidency.

“But don’t overdo it,” Cervantes said. “I don’t want you up past your bedtime.”

Indiana has gone for President Trump again as the state remained in the Republican presidential column.

The home state of Vice President Mike Pence wasn’t in much doubt as Democrat Joe Biden’s campaign paid little attention to the state that has gone for Republican candidates in 12 of the last 13 presidential elections.

Trump won Indiana by 19 percentage points in 2016 over Hillary Clinton.

Roxanna Jacinto, 52, left, helps her mother Salvadora Martir, 73, right, as she votes for the first time on election Tuesday at Dodger Stadium in Elysian Park.

(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Their reasons for coming to Dodger Stadium varied from making sure their vote would count to casting a ballot at a highly Instagrammable polling place.

Of course, on the final day of anything, procrastination is a factor.

Then, there was the spectacle. And for that, the venue did not disappoint on election day.

Read More >>>

PHOENIX — Melody Whetstone had already voted early, but she came out to a suburban polling station on election day to wave a Trump sign.

From her perspective as a financial consultant, President Trump is the best person to steer the economy, safeguard democracy and keep the military out of unnecessary wars.

Whetstone, 53, said her vote also reflected the American values she was raised on: equality, freedom and respect for the law.

Melody Whetstone, 53, left, stands with a friend who didn’t want to be identified at a pro-Trump kiosk.

(Tyrone Beason / Los Angeles Times)

The daughter of an U.S.-born father who served in the Army and a Korean immigrant mother, she recalled her mother’s quest to become a citizen.

“She spent day after day learning the language so she could go in front of the judge and answer the citizenship questions — in English,” Whetstone said.

The dream came true in 1976, with Whetstone standing at her mother’s side while she recited her oath.

At the polling station, the Living Word Church in the Phoenix suburb of Ahwatukee, a steady stream of voters file past Whetstone, who wore an army-green cap with “Peace” written on it.

She said she understands that many Americans consider Trump divisive and dishonest.

But she maintained hope that people can “agree to disagree” and remain civil in the days after the election.

“I have a lot of friends who disagree with my stances, and that’s OK,” she said. “It’s always a very healthy discussion.”

One morning last November, Susan Cranz dropped her son off at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita and began to drive home.

Minutes later, she saw teenagers running up the road screaming. At first, she said, she thought it was the cross-country team goofing around.

It was another school shooting.

Cranz’s son, Jonathan, survived the attack. Now, he’s 18 and a first-time voter. The two voted early for Biden, she said Tuesday, because they believe stronger gun control is nonnegotiable.

“That shooting destroyed this town. No one says, ‘How are you?’ It’s only, ‘How are you holding up?’” Cranz said. “I’ve seen this firsthand: You cannot give kids a blanket and a support dog and think they’re ever going to be OK.”

LAS VEGAS — Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak on Tuesday afternoon decried the GOP filing an emergency motion asking for the state Supreme Court to halt the processing of some mail-in ballots in Clark County.

“They’re knocking on courthouse doors. We’re knocking on Nevada doors,” Sisolak said in an interview with The Times. “I’m confident that the judges are going to understand and interpret the way we have: Every vote should count.”

“You shouldn’t have to make a choice between your health, when we’re in the middle of a pandemic, and casting your vote,” he said. “That’s why we have so much mail in.”

The Nevada Republican Party did not reply to requests for comment about the lawsuit.

Ann Merin went to the same private school as Ivanka Trump. Her best friend from high school is a senior official in the Trump administration. Her father-in-law has known the Kushner family through real estate circles since the 1980s. So throughout the early years of Trump’s presidency, Merin, a Democrat in Newport Beach, said she tried to give the president a fair shot.

But when the pandemic struck, her husband — an emergency room doctor — began to see an onslaught of coronavirus patients. Meanwhile, the president was promoting “magical thinking,” she said. “Every day that my husband left for work, I sat in my house, shaking and crying,” Merin said. “We are exhausted.”

Merin said she has seen enough of politicians who “empower themselves by promoting divisiveness and ignoring the death toll.”

She and her husband cast their votes in this year’s presidential race for Democrat and former Vice President Joe Biden, who they believe will make courageous choices to unify the country.

Then they drove to Zion National Park in Utah with their dog, Jackson, for a week of hiking and rest.

Former Vice President Joe Biden scored a home-state victory over Republican President Trump on Tuesday in Delaware.

Biden’s win was not unexpected. Democrats heavily outnumber Republicans in Delaware. They also constitute the entire congressional delegation and control all branches of state government going into the election.

The victory gives Biden Delaware’s three electoral votes.

While Biden spent much of this year campaigning virtually from his Greenville home because of the coronavirus, Trump never visited the state. In 2016, Trump lost in Delaware to Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Biden first ran for president in 1987 but dropped out before the first contests of the 1988 primary campaign amid reports of plagiarism in political speeches and while he was in law school at Syracuse University. Jesse Jackson went on to win Delaware’s Democratic caucuses that year.

Biden also sought the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination but dropped out of the race after finishing fifth in the Iowa caucuses with only 1% of the vote. He nevertheless remained on the Democratic primary ballot in Delaware and garnered almost 3% of the vote, well behind former President Obama and runner-up Clinton.

This year, however, marked a milestone for Biden, who was finally able to notch a presidential election victory in his home state.

Before going up against Trump on Tuesday, he won the state’s July presidential primary over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Sanders and Warren both suspended their campaigns months before the primary, but their names remained on the ballot because they did not officially withdraw as candidates in Delaware by the deadline.

DETROIT — Travey Watson, 22, didn’t vote four years ago because he couldn’t get time off work, and he has regretted it ever since.

Travey Watson

(Seema Mehta / Los Angeles Times)

“A lot of us in Detroit, a lot of us in Michigan didn’t vote the last time, so I feel like I had to this time,” said Watson, after casting his ballot for Democrat Joe Biden at the Greater Christ Baptist Church.

“I like that he’s a Democrat,” Watson said. “I think he’s the first step to change in the country.”

Watson worked as a housekeeper in Shelby Township during the 2016 election and is now a supervisor. He said he wasn’t surprised that President Trump won the state because of all the support he saw for Trump in the community where he works.

“It is not as diverse as Detroit, and it’s a lot of Trump supporters,” he said.

But he is optimistic that Biden will carry the state this year.

“A lot of young people that didn’t vote the last time are voting this time, so I’m hoping for the best,” Watson said.

JACKSON, Miss. — President Trump has won in Mississippi, with its six electoral votes.

Mississippi’s red voting history meant that neither Trump nor former Vice President Joe Biden campaigned heavily in person in the state, which went strongly for Trump in 2016. During that election, Republican Trump won 58% of the vote, compared with Democrat Hillary Clinton’s 40%.

Trump visited Tupelo in November 2019 to help campaign for Tate Reeves’ gubernatorial race. Vice President Mike Pence and Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. also appeared in the state last fall to support Reeves. Before that, Trump visited Mississippi in 2018 in the run-up to the U.S. Senate election to support Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.

Biden visited Jackson ahead of the Mississippi presidential primary in March of this year, speaking at a predominantly African American church and a historically black university, Tougaloo College. U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, Mississippi’s only African American and Democratic statewide officeholder, introduced Biden at both events.

Mississippi has voted Republican in every presidential race since 1980. Every statewide official is Republican except for Thompson, who represents the state’s only majority-Black district. Both houses of the Mississippi Legislature are controlled by Republicans.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has won a seventh term in Kentucky.

The 78-year-old McConnell defeated Democrat Amy McGrath, a retired Marine combat pilot who challenged him as a political outsider. McConnell is the longest-serving Republican leader in Senate history.

As President Trump’s top ally on Capitol Hill, McConnell led efforts to defend the president during his impeachment acquittal in the Senate.

He also worked with Trump on a tax overhaul and orchestrated the Senate confirmation of more than 200 judicial appointments, including Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.

McGrath also lost a race for a House seat in 2018.

COLUMBIA, S.C. — President Trump again won the state of South Carolina, maintaining his solid support in the state during his first term.

Trump defeated Democratic nominee Joe Biden to win the state’s nine electoral votes.

Trump won South Carolina handily in 2016, getting 55% of votes cast to Hillary Clinton’s 41%, and the state had been assumed to be safely in his 2020 win column. Its early primary status makes the state a must-stop destination for both Republicans and Democrats, but South Carolina has rarely seen much in terms of general election campaigning in recent years.

Biden’s victory in the Feb. 29 South Carolina primary started a wave of wins that helped cement his status as the Democrats’ nominee. South Carolina Republicans opted not to hold a primary, an early sign of their support for Trump’s reelection.

The administration did participate by proxy in several of the state’s down-ballot races, endorsing U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s reelection and the campaign of Republican Nancy Mace in the 1st District congressional race.

South Carolina hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter’s 1976 campaign.

Orange County officials said Tuesday that they were investigating reports that someone established a fake voting center in Westminster, accepted ballots and handed out phony “I Voted” stickers.

Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley said the incident was under investigation by his office and the Orange County district attorney’s office, so he couldn’t comment further. At about 3 p.m., he said officials were “on scene and active right now.”

Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer said “there was some kind of operation there and we are looking at it and the law. My investigators are there, we know who they are and we took all their identifications.”

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The polls have just closed in 21 states, including Florida (Central time zone), Michigan (Eastern time zone), Texas (Central time zone) and Pennsylvania. Voting has also ended in Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Kansas (Central time zone)), Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan (Eastern time zone), Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota (Central time zone), Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota (Central time zone), Tennessee and Washington, D.C.