WASHINGTON (AP) — In the run-up to Election Day, President Donald Trump used many of the levers of presidential power to interfere in how states run elections, only to be stopped repeatedly by the courts. On Tuesday, the voters made sure there was no ambiguity in their verdict.
Trump's party lost control of both houses of Congress and got clobbered in races up and down the ballot, even in places like Texas and Iowa. As the rout became clear, the president told The New York Times he was “absolutely willing to accept those results." In a series of phone interviews with media organizations and in a social media post, he acknowledged the loss for his party and said he was willing to work with Democrats.
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It was a far cry from 2020, when Trump falsely insisted he had won and kicked off a campaign to try to overturn the results that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Ever since, Democrats, election officials and voting rights groups feared what Trump might do with the powers of the presidency the next time he suffered a defeat at the polls.
His actions leading up to Election Day alarmed many. He tried to significantly restrict the use of mail ballots by executive order, only to be stopped by the Supreme Court. He sued to overturn a Republican loss in Alaska's Senate race before votes were even counted and tried to force California election officials to set aside ballots cast by people his administration claimed were potential noncitizen voters.
On Tuesday, those who had braced for a drawn-out battle with Trump over election results breathed a sigh of relief.
“I think we're done with the Trump election subversion threat for 2026,” said Rick Hasen, a UCLA law professor.
There may well be election disputes in the days ahead, and it would be normal for the president's party to contest very narrow losses in certain races. Some of the president's unusual election ventures also linger.
Trump's Justice Department remains busy in Alaska, even though a federal judge swiftly dismissed its lawsuit contending that a possible victory by Democrat Mary Peltola couldn't be certified because of the presence on the ballot of a second candidate with the name as her opponent, Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan. FBI agents have been roving around the candidate's small hometown asking his donors if they were confused about who they were supporting.
After The New York Times reported that Peltola's campaign helped recruit the other candidate, Dan J. Sullivan, a retired schoolteacher, Trump demanded the Democrat be prosecuted. His Justice Department took the unusual step of publicizing an investigation of the Democratic campaign, including the disclosure on Election Day that it sent letters to a prominent Democratic election lawyer as part of the probe. It has also threatened California election officials with possible prosecution if they knowingly processed ballots by ineligible voters.
But Hasen noted that the president has no way to try to reverse such a sweeping loss.
“I just don't see a path for him,” Hasen said.
Many voting experts have preached calm as Democrats and even some nonpartisan groups ran tabletop exercises for possible federal seizures of ballots and voting machines or other dire scenarios. The White House has repeatedly scoffed at such ideas, and administration officials for months have denied there would be armed federal officials or military troops at the polls. And they were right — there was no such presence on Tuesday.
Voting, once again, was calm.
“It is just really great to see a normal election happening,” said Virginia Kase Solomón, president and CEO of Common Cause, during a press briefing Tuesday evening.
Perhaps helping the relatively trouble-free final day of voting, millions of Americans had already cast their ballots, with early voting turnout surpassing the last midterm in 2022.
By evening on Election Day, the biggest issues affecting voting were weather-related, with flooding in Florida and parts of the Southwest prompting changes to some polling locations and other emergency measures.
The largest disruption was in Westchester County, just north of New York City, in the heart of one of the nation's most competitive races between Republican Rep. Mike Lawler and Democrat Cait Conley. A judge gave the county permission to bring ballots to a secure warehouse for counting after ballot scanners would not accept paper ballots. Election officials said the problem was a programming update made after polling equipment was initially prepared and tested. The ballots were transported under police escort and were to be scanned later.
One resident, registered Democrat Benjamin Hort, said he opted not to cast a provisional ballot Tuesday and planned to come back later in the day, when he hoped the machines would be operational.
“You would think they would have tested the machines," he said. "Not ideal.”
Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins vowed to launch a bipartisan investigation into what he called a “debacle.”
Lawler conceded late in the evening, but The Associated Press had not yet called the race.
At polling locations across Florida's Broward County, voting was delayed for 20 minutes after polls opened because a new voting system safety feature malfunctioned. Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott apologized to voters who had to wait, and said some left before they were able to vote. The problem was solved by 7:20 a.m., and Scott encouraged those who left to return.
Officials also extended voting hours at three polling sites in Pennsylvania and five in North Carolina after technical issues created delays.
Those are the kinds of problems and hiccups that occur every election.
“It’s been another smooth election,” said Derek Muller, a law professor at Notre Dame who’s repeatedly urged people to avoid nightmare scenarios. “Election administrators should be proud.”
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Associated Press writers Gary Fields in Washington; Geoff Mulvihill in Haddonfield, New Jersey; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Michael Casey and Leah Willingham in Boston; Claire Galofaro in Louisville, Kentucky; Mikella Schuettler in Phoenix and Philip Marcelo and Michael R. Sisak in New York contributed to this report. AP video journalists Mingson Lau in Philadelphia and Cody Jackson in Riviera Beach, Florida, also contributed.
