Voting machine snafus, polling place floods. Was there election interference?

WASHINGTON – There were voting machine snafus in New York, flooded polling places in the Southwest and bomb threats in Toledo, Ohio, but midterm Election Day in America has so far proven largely uneventful.

Despite fears by election workers and voting rights groups, armed federal authorities haven't shown up at the polls to question voters or to seize ballots and election machines. And the threat of interference by Russia or other foreign adversaries hasn't materialized, as it has in recent past elections.

With about 50 million people voting early and millions more going to the polls, an election that will decide control of Congress has been, for the most part, quiet. But the day opened with ballot scanners failing throughout Westchester County, New York, home to one of the most closely watched House races in the country.

The cause remained unclear for part of the day, after local election officials retracted an initial claim that paper ballots were too thick for voting machines. By afternoon, the Westchester County Board of Elections said the malfunction was linked to "an update to the county's election programming" released after initially testing Election Day equipment.

"We strongly encourage all voters to remain in line, exercise patience and, most importantly, cast their ballots," the board wrote on its website. "Let us be absolutely clear: Every eligible vote will be counted."

New York Attorney General Letitia James wrote on X that her office was monitoring the issue. Westchester is home to New York's 17th Congressional District, where Republican Rep. Mike Lawler faces Democrat Cait Conley.

In Georgia, some Fulton County voters reported receiving text messages regarding polling place changes. In a post on X, Fulton County said it did not send the text messages and that voters should verify their polling place on the Georgia My Voter page or call 404-612-7020.

Meanwhile, heavy rain and flash flooding were expected to make polling places harder to reach in Florida and parts of the Southwest, including Colorado, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. The flooding, in particular, contributed to some polling location closures and disruptions, with some areas receiving 10 to 20 inches of rain in the 24 hours leading up to Election Day, AccuWeather reported.

In Toledo, Ohio, an elementary school that was serving as a polling location received two bomb threats on Election Day, pausing voting until law enforcement could sweep the premises and declare it safe.

Patty Mazur, spokesperson for Toledo Public Schools, told USA TODAY the first call came into Beverly Elementary School around 10:30 a.m. local time and the second one a few minutes later. Toledo voters have a hotly contested race in Ohio's 9th Congressional District between Democratic incumbent Marcy Kaptur and Republican Derek Merrin.

In California, Rep. John Garamendi’s office said there was an evacuation in downtown Vallejo amid a reported bomb threat at or near his district office, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Garamendi is facing off against Republican Rudy Recile.

Two hours before polls closed in Michigan, a bomb threat temporarily closed a polling site in a high school 25 miles outside of Detroit.

Some voting lines were topping two hours in Texas' Tarrant County. But, for the most part, there was no evidence of widespread logistical problems at the polls.

Justice Department deploying election monitors

President Donald Trump's Justice Department sent about 1,000 monitors and observers to all 50 states to watch the vote amid claims by Trump and his DOJ political appointees – without evidence – that widespread voter fraud to help Democratic candidates exists.

Assistant U.S. Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said the deployment is the largest-ever Election Day monitoring operation for the Justice Department. Historically, DOJ monitors have checked compliance with federal voting rights laws.

Multiple voting rights groups monitoring polling sites across the country told USA TODAY they recorded instances of federal monitors entering poll sites and asking voters "unusual questions."

Two plainclothes Justice Department monitors stopped voters in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, as they left the polls Nov. 2 and asked to see their phones, according to Juan Proaño, chief executive officer of the League of United Latin American Citizens. In Bernalillo County, New Mexico, he said, federal election monitors asked people "unusual questions," prompting the county clerk to report them to the department.

Poll monitors with the League of Women Voters reported similar instances in Arizona, Maryland, New Mexico, and Ohio. But multiple groups insisted that these were isolated incidents and that local and state officials responded quickly.

"When you send out volunteers into the field, sometimes wires get crossed," said All Voting is Local CEO Hannah Fried. "The important thing is that officials did exactly the right thing and voters were able to keep voting."

This election cycle, DOJ has been trying to make sure noncitizens aren’t voting, going so far as to sue California over claims that tens of thousands of them are on the voter rolls and might vote illegally. It also sued more than two dozen states for refusing to turn over detailed voter roll data demanded by federal attorneys earlier this year. Virtually all of those lawsuits have been stopped by various courts.

The Justice Department has also intervened in a key Senate race in Alaska, with Trump himself saying he ordered DOJ to sue to block certification of the result if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan narrowly loses. The suit targeted a second candidate, Daniel J. Sullivan, after The New York Times reported the retired teacher was recruited by members of Democrat Mary Peltola's campaign. Peltola has denied that.

A federal judge dismissed the case Nov. 1, finding that Alaska couldn’t probe voter confusion without violating the ballot confidentiality of voters. The Justice Department is appealing and has intensified a criminal investigation into the matter, according to Reuters and the Times.

And in a significant escalation on Election Day, the DOJ sent at least 20 letters to individuals or entities informing them they are investigative targets or should preserve records as part of its probe. Voting rights activist lawyer Marc Elias said he got a "target letter" from the Justice Department.

"No one should be surprised that President Trump’s Department of Justice is targeting me and my law firm on Election Day," Elias said in a statement. "This administration has repeatedly weaponized the DOJ against the President’s political enemies despite zero evidence of wrongdoing, and we are the latest targets."

The White House and DOJ have denied they have launched any politically motivated investigations.

"President Trump has done more than any other President to ensure we have free and fair elections," White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said in a recent statement to NPR. While extreme Democrats and the media continue to dismiss concerns about voter fraud, the Trump Administration is taking decisive action to protect our elections including prosecuting election crimes, strengthening election infrastructure security, and protecting vulnerable voters from fraud and coercion."

No armed federal agents at the polls

In January, Trump told the Times he regretted not ordering the National Guard to seize voting machines after his 2020 loss. The following month, he said Republicans "ought to nationalize the voting."

Federal law bars troops and armed federal agents from "any place where a general or special election is held, unless such force be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States."

The Trump administration has said no armed federal officials will guard the polls on Nov. 3, and the Department of Homeland Security has said Immigration and Customs Enforcement is not planning operations at polling locations.

By late Tuesday afternoon, there were no reports of armed federal officials at polling places. ICE sent out a sharply worded statement telling people they will track them down, arrest and prosecute them if they vote illegally. But Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin emerged from the West Wing at 4:32 p.m. to tell reporters he did not send ICE agents to polling sites.

But election officials said they are prepared, and voting rights groups sent their own monitors to thousands of sites nationwide.

In anticipation of potential problems, the nonprofit Whistleblower Aid relaunched The Orders Project on Nov. 2, offering legal counsel to service members who believe they have received unlawful orders, including any orders to deploy to polling places.

Less federal defenses, new rules, slower mail

Election officials are working without much of the federal help they had in 2024 due to Trump administration cuts. The administration has largely dismantled the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, raising fears that fewer staff at polling places could lead to longer lines, decreased access to polling places, and disputes over what kind of ID is required.

Recent Postal Service changes could also mean some mail ballots might arrive too late to be counted, according to elections officials and voting rights experts. They said late postmarks disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters in California, Oregon, and Washington during this year's primaries, the Associated Press reported.

Touchscreen machines that appeared not to initially register Democratic votes drew isolated complaints in Tennessee, including one from Dolly Parton's sister, fueling claims of rigging. Manufacturer ES&S said it had not received widespread reports, and experts say testing would catch tampering, ProPublica reported.

Russian fakes and fears of a foreign-meddling pretext

Russian operatives have spent the final weeks of the campaign spreading fabricated claims about Democratic candidates, AI-altered celebrity videos about Taylor Swift and others, and fake posts impersonating news outlets, researchers and lawmakers have said.

"It's a carnival out there," Democratic Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut told reporters this week. He added: "They're throwing everything out there to generate a sense of chaos and anarchy" to undermine candidates backing U.S. support for Ukraine.

Himes and Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrats on the House and Senate intelligence committees, told USA TODAY last month that a classified intelligence report shows Moscow is spreading disinformation to undermine candidates of either party who back Ukraine, but that there was no evidence foreign actors could tamper with the mechanics of voting.

After the polls close

Potential Election Day snafus could extend past Nov. 3, including through pending cases over alleged noncitizen voters, the use of federal monitors and potential claims of federal intimidation of election officials or voters.

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown, who heads a group of Democratic attorneys general that has war-gamed responses to federal seizures of ballots or voting equipment, told ProPublica he’s bracing for local officials who refuse to certify results that don’t go their candidates’ way: "I worry tremendously about what they might do."

Contributing: Erin Mansfield, Trevor Hughes, Dina Voyles Pulver, Doyle Rice, and Wendy Naugle