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The Latest Developments in the US Elections Across the Country

Elections
Posted at 10:30 PM, Nov 08, 2016
and last updated 2016-11-08 18:35:31-05

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

10:11 p.m.

Incumbent Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina has turned away a strong challenge from former state Rep. Deborah Ross. It was one of the nation's most closely watched Senate races as Democrats sought to regain control of the upper chamber on Tuesday.

The 60-year-old Burr has been in Congress since 1994. Ross is a lawyer and former state director of the ACLU who energized Democrats and hoped to score an upset.

Burr was forced to apologize recently after saying he was surprised that a gun magazine with a photo of Hillary Clinton on the cover hadn't put a bull's-eye over her face. Ross had called the comments "dangerous and irresponsible."

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10 p.m.

Republican Charles Grassley of Iowa won a seventh Senate term and retained a seat his party has held for six decades.

Democrats had been optimistic that their candidate, Patty Judge, could break that winning streak on Tuesday, given her previous elections to statewide office as agriculture secretary and lieutenant governor.

Grassley chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee. He's sought to tamp down talk among Republicans about blocking nominees to the Supreme Court if Hillary Clinton becomes president.

Grassley said Republicans "can't just simply stonewall" nominees to the high court, reaffirming the Senate's traditional advise-and-consent role on judicial picks.

The court has had a vacancy for months since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in February.

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10 p.m.

Utah's junior senator, Republican Mike Lee, has sailed through his first re-election battle.

Lee is a popular conservative in a state that hasn't elected a Democratic senator in four decades. He was first elected in 2010, propelled by a swell of tea-party voters who helped him oust longtime Republican Sen. Bob Bennett.

Lee earned national attention for his sharp criticism of GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. Even so, Lee has been floated as a possible Supreme Court pick by Trump. An ally of Texas Sen Ted Cruz, Lee helped spearhead an unsuccessful fight to derail President Barack Obama's health care law that led to the 2013 government shutdown.

Lee was challenged in Tuesday's election by Misty Snow, 31-year-old a transgender woman and grocery store clerk who says she ran because millennial and progressive voices weren't being heard.

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9:55 p.m.

Just moments after securing a fourth term in the U.S. Senate Chuck Schumer began looking forward to gaining even more clout. But he promised Tuesday not to ignore New York.

He told a crowd that even as he's on the cusp of becoming the majority leader in the Senate, "I'll be working for New York as ever because I love New York and it's in my bones."

He also fired up the crowd for Democrat Hillary Clinton. She won the state of New York and its 29 electoral votes.

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9:33 p.m.

Twelve-term Republican Rep. John Mica has been bested by Democrat Stephanie Murphy in a district that has gained more Democratic voters in recent years.

Mica hadn't had a strong Democratic opponent since being elected in 1992. But redrawn congressional maps made his central Florida district more competitive, and Democrats pumped money into the race.

Going into Tuesday's election, Republicans held a 247-188 advantage in the House of Representatives, including three vacancies. Democrats need a net gain of 30 seats to capture control of the House.

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9:19 p.m.

Georgia Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson has won a third term against Democrat Jim Barksdale and Libertarian Allen Buckley.

Isakson, a conservative, has criticized some of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's remarks while saying he will support the GOP ticket.

Barksdale, who owns an Atlanta investment firm, gave $3.5 million toward his first political campaign, but struggled to gain momentum against Isakson, the state's senior senator and chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.

Buckley's presence on the ballot complicated the race. Under state law, Isakson needed at least 50 percent of the vote Tuesday to avoid a January runoff election.

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9:10 p.m.

Arkansas Republican Sen. John Boozman has won a second term, fending off a challenge by Democrat Conner Eldridge, a former federal prosecutor.

Boozman served five terms in the House before winning a Senate seat in 2010. He campaigned as someone who puts Arkansas first, while Eldridge touted his work prosecuting a county judge for corruption.

Eldridge trailed Boozman in fundraising and faced an uphill challenge in Arkansas, where Republicans hold all statewide and federal offices.

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9:05 p.m.

Former Republican Gov. Charlie Crist appears to have revived his political career as a Democrat, winning a House seat against an incumbent Republican who distanced himself from the GOP.

Crist, 60, defeated Rep. David Jolly, who has represented Florida's 13th Congressional District since 2014 but who has set himself apart from many Republicans this election season by speaking out about campaign fundraising and refusing to endorse GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Crist, who was governor from 2007 to 2011, ran for Senate as a Republican in 2010, but dropped out of the GOP primary when Marco Rubio passed him in the polls. He ran as an independent and lost in the general election. Crist later became a Democrat and ran unsuccessfully for governor against Republican Rick Scott in 2014.

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9:02 p.m.

Illinois Democrat Tammy Duckworth has unseated first-term Republican Sen. Mark Kirk in one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country. Duckworth, a double amputee who lost both legs in the Iraq war, has served two terms in the House.

Kirk, who suffered a stroke in 2012, was considered one of the Senate's most vulnerable Republicans and was targeted early by Democrats seeking to retake control of the chamber.

Kirk worked for months to convince voters that he's independent of his party by criticizing GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. But Kirk hurt his own campaign with a series of controversial statements. He had to apologize to Duckworth last month after mocking her immigrant background and her family's military history.

Duckworth, 48, will be the second Illinois woman to serve in the Senate.

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9 p.m.

The top Democrat in the Senate, New York's Chuck Schumer, easily beat back a challengeTuesday from Republican attorney Wendy Long to secure a fourth term.

Schumer is a hard-driving lawmaker who rarely shies away from publicity. His mix of partisanship and pragmatism will be tested in a closely divided Senate working with a new president.

Schumer can count supporters in both parties who say the 65-year-old has practical tendencies that will serve him well navigating thorny issues and working across the aisle.

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9 p.m.

South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, won a second term during a campaign when he wavered repeatedly in his support of the GOP presidential candidate leading the ticket.

He was among a handful who urged Trump to step aside to allow vice presidential nominee Mike Pence to run at the top of the ticket. He also criticized Trump's refusal to say if he would accept the results of the election. Still, despite his criticism, he said he would vote for Trump.

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9 p.m.

North Dakota Republican Sen. John Hoeven won a second term against former Democratic state Sen. Eliot Glassheim, who entered the race at the last minute and struggled to raise money.

Hoeven, 59, a former three-term governor, easily won the Senate seat in 2010. He has focused on energy issues in the Senate.

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9 p.m.

Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran has won a second Senate term after serving seven terms in the House. Moran easily fended off a challenge from Democrat Patrick Wiesner, an attorney and certified public accountant.

Moran raised more than $4.1 million through mid-October while Wiesner received less than $14,000 in contributions.

Kansas hasn't elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932.

8:29 p.m.

Indiana Republican Rep. Todd Young has defeated former Sen. Evan Bayh in a Senate race that could be crucial to determining party control. The seat is now held by Republican Sen. Dan Coats, who is retiring.

An onslaught of stories about whether Bayh really lived in Indiana and his extended job search in his final year in office undercut his candidacy.

National groups have poured tens of millions of dollars into the Senate race, one of a half dozen nationally that could determine whether Democrats take over the Senate majority.

Young, a three-term congressman from southern Indiana, doesn't have the name recognition of Bayh, whose father, Birch Bayh, was a senator for 18 years. But Young ran a strong race and was supported by outside groups.

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8:28 p.m.

Alabama's veteran Republican Sen. Richard Shelby has easily won a sixth term against a Democratic challenger who advocated legalizing medicinal marijuana in this conservative state.

Shelby, 82, is a one-time Democrat who has one of the most consistent records of voting against President Barack Obama in Congress. He has supported the Republican ticket, including Donald Trump.

Shelby easily won the money race: He raised nearly $10 million as of June 30 to less than $4,000 for opponent Ron Crumpton,

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8:05 p.m.

Marco Rubio failed in his bid to end up in the White House, but he's still going back to Washington. Florida voters elected him to a second term in the Senate on Tuesday.

He had wavered for months before deciding to run for re-election. He beat back a challenge from Democratic Rep. Patrick Murphy, who has repeatedly tried to link Rubio to Donald Trump.

The two Senate candidates differed starkly on a number of issues - including guns, health care, foreign policy, economic issues and abortion. Each sought to leverage voter discontent with both the GOP and Democratic nominees.

Rubio held onto had a narrow lead in polling going into Election Day over Murphy, who was abandoned by his own party after Democratic bosses decided to pull ad money from expensive Florida and invest it in Missouri, North Carolina and Indiana, instead.

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8 p.m.

Longtime Maryland Democratic Rep. Chris Van Hollen won a promotion to the upper chamber, winning election to replace popular Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski, who is retiring after 30 years in the Senate.

Van Hollen, a seven-term Democrat, defeated Republican Kathy Szeliga, minority whip in the state House of Delegates.

Van Hollen, 57, ran as an experienced lawmaker willing to reach across the political aisle to do important work. A key lieutenant to House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, Van Hollen has focused on budget issues and foreign policy. Szeliga worked to use that experience against him, trying to cast him as an insider of dysfunctional Washington.

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8 p.m.

Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal has coasted to an easy re-election against Republican Dan Carter, a little-known state representative from the western part of the state.

After fending off wealthy former professional wrestling executive Linda McMahon in 2010, Blumenthal faced little resistance from Carter, who lacked the money to run a blitz of TV ads.

Blumenthal is a longtime politician in the state, having been Connecticut's longest-serving attorney general before winning his first term in the U.S. Senate. He and Carter appeared together in just one debate, a televised matchup where they disagreed on gun control measures.

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8 p.m.

Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford has won a full-six year term in the Senate.

Lankford is a former congressman who was elected to serve the last two years of former Sen. Tom Coburn's term. Lankford won the seat with nearly 68 percent of the vote after Coburn retired in 2014 before his term was up.

7:30 p.m.

Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman has defeated former Gov. Ted Strickland in a race that once looked like one of the Democrats' best bets to flip a Senate seat.

Portman, a former U.S. trade representative and budget director, was first elected to the Senate in 2010. He ran a strong campaign, branding Strickland early on as "Retread Ted" and tying him to Ohio's sinking economy during Strickland's governorship, which coincided with the national recession.

Portman kept Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump at a distance leading up to Tuesday's election. Portman didn't campaign with Trump and withdrew his endorsement when a 2005 tape of Trump making lewd comments about kissing and groping women surfaced last month.

Portman's TV ads touted his work to combat the heroin epidemic, including a new law Portman co-sponsored.

7:10 p.m.

Vast divides of race, gender and education are keeping the presidential race in two tightly fought southern states close shortly after polls close.

In both Virginia and Georgia, about 9 in 10 black voters and two-thirds of Hispanics backed Clinton, while most whites backed Trump.

That's according to exit polls conducted by Edison Research for national media outlets.

In Georgia, large majorities of whites with and without college degrees backed Trump. In Virginia those two groups diverged. Whites without a college degree backed Trump by a large margin, while those with a degree split their votes between the two major-party candidates.

Women in both states were far more likely than men to back Clinton. Majorities of women in both states said Trump's treatment of women bothers them a lot.

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7 p.m.

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

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

The wins were expected.

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

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

The winning candidate needs 270 electoral votes.

7 p.m.

Vermont Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy has won an eighth term. He's the Senate's longest-serving member. The 76-year-old beat back a challenge from Republican businessman Scott Milne.

Leahy was first elected in 1974 from the liberal state. He's the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee and will likely chair the panel if Democrats reclaim the majority.

He says he hopes "reasonable" Republicans in the Senate will agree to perform their constitutional duty of advice and consent on judicial nominees, including the Supreme Court.

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7 p.m.

South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott, the South's first black senator since Reconstruction, has won his first full term.

Scott defeated Democrat Thomas Dixon, a community activist and pastor.

The Senate's only black Republican, Scott said he would vote for Donald Trump, even as he has characterized some of Trump's statements and actions as "disgusting," ''indefensible" and "racially toxic."

Scott, one of only two black senators, said on the Senate floor this summer that he has repeatedly been pulled over by law enforcement and was once even stopped by a Capitol Police officer who apparently did not believe he was a senator.

Scott, 51, was appointed to the seat in 2013 following the resignation of Sen. Jim DeMint, then won election to the final two years of that term.

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7 p.m.

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who made an early run for the presidency, instead is heading back to Washington for a second term.

Paul defeated Democrat Jim Gray, the mayor of Lexington.

Paul repeatedly clashed with Donald Trump during the GOP primary debates. He later endorsed Trump but spoke little about him while campaigning for re-election.

The candidates spent a combined $8 million on the race, a paltry sum considering the more than $47 million Kentucky's Senate candidates spent in 2014. The Senate race has been overshadowed by the presidential race and the battle for the state House of Representatives - the only legislative chamber in the South still controlled by Democrats.

6:45 p.m.

Americans who have voted already in the presidential election appear to be evenly divided on the benefits of international trade.

According to an exit poll conducted by Edison Research for national media outlets, about four out of 10 voters believe trade among nations creates jobs. Another four out of 10 say it takes jobs from Americans.

Republican nominee Donald Trump has railed against decades of U.S. trade policy and has energized working-class voters with his promises to create more jobs at home. Democrat Hillary Clinton has historically supported U.S. trade deals, including as secretary of state.

But she has backed off her support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. President Barack Obama's trade agreement with Pacific Rim nations is still pending.

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6:40 p.m.

OK, so forget those ballot box selfies. Bring on the "I voted" stickers!

Stuck to noses, dogs and children, the stickers are front and center on social media, including many customized by cities and states. Others were served generic designs of stars and flags.

New York City went with the Statue of Liberty. In Tennessee, there were red stickers in the shape of the state. Some Georgia voters got an orange peach, and in parts of Virginia, a fancy eagle emblem was encircled in yellow.

One of the most impressive stickers may have belonged to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where stickers featured one of the famous Blue Dogs painted by New Iberia native George Rodrigue.

But alas, not everyone went home with a sticker. Some polls ran out, prompting some to express their sadness on social media as well.

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6:35 p.m.

A majority of Americans who have cast ballots already are at odds with Republican Donald Trump on two of his signature immigration proposals.

According to the preliminary results of exit polling conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and television networks, just four out of 10 voters say they support building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. A majority oppose the idea.

About seven out of 10 people who have voted already say they'd rather allow workers in the U.S. illegally have a way to apply for legal status than have them deported. About a quarter of voters support deportation.

Trump fueled his rise to the Republican nomination with his promise to build a border wall and deport millions of residents in the U.S. illegally.

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6:25 p.m.

Hillary Clinton is thanking members of a Facebook group called "Pantsuit Nation."

In a message Tuesday, Clinton said the group, which was named for her signature apparel, provides a special place for supporters to build a community. She said that "for some of you, it's been difficult to feel like you could wear your support on your sleeve."

Clinton also joked about the group's moniker, saying "have you ever heard a better name?!"

The Democratic presidential nominee said she was hopeful she would win the presidential contest. If she does, she said she wants "to use those pantsuits for the best occasion of all - celebrating."

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6:05 p.m.

Guests are beginning to gather at Donald Trump's election night party in midtown Manhattan.

The GOP nominee is holding his event in the grand ballroom of a midtown Hilton hotel, where a stage has been decorated with dozens of American and state flags.

Trump's campaign has also set up museum-style glass displays around the venue holding campaign merchandise, including his iconic "Make America Great Again" hats and pins.

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6 p.m.

More than half of Americans who went to the polls earlier Tuesday say Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has the temperament to serve as president. About a third of voters say the same about Republican nominee Donald Trump.

But neither candidate can claim a mandate as the honest candidate according to the preliminary results of exit polling conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and television networks.

About six out of 10 voters say they don't view Clinton as honest. About the same proportion say Trump isn't honest. About three out of 10 voters say they believe neither candidate is honest.

As for what percentage of voters think both nominees are honest, that number is in single digits.

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5:55 p.m.

The Colorado Secretary of State's voter registration system went down for nearly 30 minutes during midday voting Tuesday.

The failure forced in-person voters to cast provisional ballots, and some county clerks were unable to process mail ballots that needed to have the signature verified.

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

She says the IT office has been monitoring its network for activity and said "there were no blips or anything."

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5:40 p.m.

Police say they arrested two women after they took off their tops in protest at the Manhattan polling place used by Donald Trump.

The disruption occurred Tuesday morning at a grade school gym about two hours before Trump arrived.

The women began shouting and took off their tops to reveal anti-Trump slogans painted across their bare chests before police escorted then away.

They were released after being given summonses for electioneering, a violation of rules outlawing political activity at polls.

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5:37 p.m.

At least 2,000 people are already waiting inside the New York City convention center where Hillary Clinton is scheduled to hold her election night party.

Most people are sitting on the floor in an area the size of an airplane hangar. A handful of women are wearing pantsuits to honor Clinton.

Barnard College senior Madeline Walsh is wearing a black pantsuit. She says the garment means its wearer is more than just a woman.

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5:35 p.m.

A spokesman says former President George W. Bush did not vote for Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Freddy Ford says the most recent Republican president voted "none of the above for president and Republican down-ballot." That means Bush voted for Republicans in congressional and local races.

It's not a complete surprise. The Bush family includes the two most recent Republican presidents but neither endorsed nor campaigned for the billionaire businessman who captured the party's nomination. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was a one-time favorite to win the GOP presidential nomination until Trump got into the race and branded him with a name that stuck: "Low energy."

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5:30 p.m.

Preliminary presidential exit polls results suggest that a clear majority of Americans going to the polls Tuesday have at least a moderate amount of confidence that votes will be counted accurately.

About half of those polled for The Associated Press and television networks told Edison Research they are very confident in the results. Another third said they are somewhat confident.

Fewer than one out of five say they're not very confident or at all confident in the vote count.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has railed against the electoral system. He's called it rigged and suggested without evidence there is widespread voter fraud that could affect the outcome.

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5:25 p.m.

Just more than half of voters going to the polls Tuesday approve of the job President Barack Obama is doing. But a majority is still upset with the way the federal government is working.

That's according to preliminary results of the exit poll conducted for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Research.

Just under half of those surveyed say they're dissatisfied with the government's performance. About a quarter say they're angry.

About four out of 10 voters said the top quality they're looking for in a candidate is change. That outranks good judgment, the right experience and caring about people like you as the preferred qualities in a president.

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5:22 p.m.

Arizona's most populous county may not know its vote totals today, which could leave in doubt the presidential race in the traditionally Republican-voting state.

Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, expects to have more than 350,000 uncounted early ballots by the time the polls close. Roughly 1.1 million voters in the metropolitan county had returned early votes as of Tuesday, up 140,000 from 2012.

Election workers had counted roughly 800,000, leaving more than 200,000 to count. Roughly 150,000 are expected to have been dropped off at polling sites around the county.

Elizabeth Bartholomew, communication manager for Maricopa County Recorder's office, says, "If there's a large enough gap in votes, you might not be able to call some races."

Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton were running neck-and-neck in Arizona, carried by Republicans in all but one election since 1952.

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5:20 p.m.

Neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton is able to claim favorable standing with a majority of the U.S. electorate.

Six of 10 voters say they are somewhat bothered or bothered a lot by Clinton's use of a private email server while secretary of state, according to preliminary results from exit polling conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and television networks.

More than seven out of 10 presidential voters say they are irked by Trump's treatment of women.

Trump hammered Clinton for how she handled classified information at the State Department. The FBI twice said it had no cause to pursue criminal charges.

Clinton blistered Trump after disclosure of a 2005 video that captured Trump discussing sexually predatory behavior toward women.

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5:10 p.m.

Fewer than half of voters who cast presidential ballots say they made their choice out of a strong preference for their candidate.

That's according to preliminary results of the exit poll conducted for The Associated Press and television networks by Edison Research.

The early exit polls found both Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton are viewed unfavorably by a majority of the presidential electorate. A majority of the electorate also distrusts each of them.

A third of voters said they have reservations about the candidate they backed. A quarter of voters say their vote was mostly about opposing another candidate.

In 2012, the presidential electorate was more optimistic about their choices. That year, about two out of three voters said they strongly backed their candidate.

5:05 p.m.

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

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

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

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

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5 p.m.

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

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

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

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

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

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4:50 p.m.

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

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

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

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

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4:40 p.m.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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4 p.m.

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

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

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

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

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

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3 p.m.

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

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

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

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

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2:45 p.m.

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

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

The Republican presidential nominee said: "We're going to see how things play out."

He said. "I want to see everything honest."

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

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

2:20 p.m.

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

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

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

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

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

1:30 p.m.

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

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

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

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

Obama supports Clinton and voted early last month in his Chicago hometown. He spoke while walking from the White House residence to the Oval Office, following his Election Day tradition of playing basketball with friends.

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1:25 p.m.

Eric Trump may have broken New York state law by tweeting a photo of his completed ballot.

The second son of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump tweeted a photo of a ballot with the oval over his father's name filled in on Tuesday.

The tweet said "It is an incredible honor to vote for my father! He will do such a great job for the U.S.A!" It was later deleted from Trump's Twitter account.

An 1890 New York law bans voters from showing marked election ballots to others. A federal judge ruled last week that the law applies to social media posts.

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

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1:20 p.m.

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

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

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

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

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1:15 p.m.

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

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

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

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

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12 p.m.

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

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

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

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

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11:40 a.m.

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

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

Obama has campaigned aggressively to help elect Democrat Hillary Clinton.

He used the "progress is on the ballot" line at many of the get-out-the-vote rallies he headlined for his former secretary of state.

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11:35 a.m.

Election officials say voting machine problems in southern Utah are forcing poll workers to use paper ballots, potentially affecting tens of thousands of people.

Utah Director of Elections Mark Thomas says a programming problem has affected all voting in Washington County, but so far appears it appears limited to that county.

He says about 52,000 registered voters there have yet to cast their ballots.

Election workers are trying to fix the computer problem and hope they can start using the voting machines later in the day.

Thomas says officials were prepared with backup paper ballots. But he said they will need to print more if the problem persists.

There are about 80,000 total registered voters in Washington County. Some 28,000 have already cast their ballots through early voting.

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11:25 a.m.

Donald Trump has voted in New York City.

Hundreds of onlookers watched as Trump, his wife Melania, daughter Ivanka, and son-in-law Jared arrived Tuesday morning at their polling place at a public school on Manhattan's East Side.

Trump said: "it's a great honor, a tremendous honor" to be casting his ballot.

He said he's feeling confident about the outcome, citing "tremendous enthusiasm."

As for his longstanding concerns about voter fraud, he says. "We're always concerned about that."

His final message to voters: "Make America great again. That's all it is. That's what it's all about."

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11:05 a.m.

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

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

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

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

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

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10:55 a.m.

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

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

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

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

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

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9:55 a.m.

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

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

Craig Bernheimer voted for Donald Trump at his local polling station in Tulsa, Oklahoma early Tuesday, saying it has more to do with "what the other didn't bring."

New Mexico truck driver Richard Grasmick said he admired Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and intended to vote for him, but grew disillusioned by Johnson's televised flubs on foreign affairs issues.

He said, "I wanted to go with Gary but he failed me." Grasmick voted for Donald Trump instead.

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9:20 a.m.

Lines were long in some places, but few voters heading to the polls early Tuesday appeared to be encountering problems.

Presidential elections usually include sporadic voting problems, such as machines not working properly. Calls to Election Protection, a national voter helpline, included people reporting long lines as a result of machine problems in three precincts in Virginia. And election officials at a handful of precincts in Durham County, North Carolina, were using paper roll books after technical issues with computer check-in.

Ahead of the election, there was anxiety over whether voters would face problems. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said the election was rigged and Democrats warned that Republicans were planning to intimidate voters. There were also concerns about hackers disrupting election systems.

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8:45 a.m.

Donald Trump's eldest son says that his family will "respect the outcome" of a "fair election."

Donald Trump, Jr. told CNN's New Day Tuesday that he thinks his father "will remain involved somewhat" if he loses the election. He said he hopes that the energy surrounding his father's campaign "goes back to the people we are trying to fight for, the people who haven't had a voice in a long time."

He said, in retrospect, that "hopefully we shed some light on the process," and enabled people to speak their minds freely, "without being put in some basket, without being boxed in a corner."

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8:40 a.m.

Women across the United States are wearing pantsuits Tuesday in a show of support for Hillary Clinton.

Many were inspired by a Facebook group called Pantsuit Nation that has more than 2 million members. Some are also wearing white in honor of the suffragists who wore white when they fought for women's voting rights in the early 1900s.

In Alexandria, Virginia, Heather O'Beirne Kelly says she's wearing a white pantsuit, inspired by the Facebook group and organized efforts to get women to wear white to vote.

New Yorker Denise Shull tried to buy a white pantsuit on Amazon, but they were sold out. She's wearing a black-and-white suit to support Clinton, but also to symbolize "women making progress."

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8:35 a.m.

Hillary and Bill Clinton are voting in their hometown of Chappaqua New York.

The Clintons greeted supporters waiting outside the polling place after casting their ballots Tuesday morning.

Hillary Clinton said it was "the most humbling feeling" to vote "because so many people are counting on the outcome of this election."

Bill Clinton said he's eager to be a political spouse, joking that he had "15 years of practice."

(Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

11/8/2016 1:30:04 PM (GMT -5:00)