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Election Day 2024: Live results and analysis

We're tracking races for president, Senate, House and more across the country.

By538 and ABC News via five thirty eight logo
Last Updated: November 5, 2024, 6:00 AM EST

The big day is finally here: Tuesday, Nov. 5, is Election Day across the U.S. Millions of people will head to the polls today — joining more than 80 million who already voted early or by mail — to decide who controls everything from the White House to Congress to state and local governments.

All eyes are, of course, on the presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. According to 538's forecast, both candidates have a roughly equal chance to win.

The first polls close at 6 p.m. Eastern, and we expect to get initial results shortly thereafter — although it could be days before enough votes are counted to project a winner. Reporters from 538 and ABC News will be following along every step of the way with live updates, analysis and commentary on the results. Keep up to date with our full live blog below!

12:46 PM EST

As voters decide about abortion access in Missouri, Democratic candidate for governor is optimistic

Missouri is among the 10 states where abortion access propositions are on the ballot – and the Democratic candidate for governor says she’s confident Missourians are about to overturn the state’s strict ban on abortion.

"Abortion has been one of the number one topics of conversation in every place I've gone to all across the state," Democratic candidate for governor Crystal Quade, who currently serves as House minority leader in the state legislature, told ABC News on Monday. She added that she had heard about it even from self-identified Republicans who were impacted by the ban.

"Here in Missouri, we have one of the most drastic bans in the entire country … We are going to be overturning a ban," Quade said.

The campaign of Republican gubernatorial candidate Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe did not respond to a request for an interview. He said at a debate in September, "[The amendment] goes way too far."

Mary Catherine Martin, Senior Counsel for the Thomas More Society and an attorney who argued in cases against the amendment, wrote in September, "We implore Missourians to research and study the text and effects of Amendment 3 before going to the voting booth."

12:40 PM EST

Black and Arab American voters could swing Michigan's 2024 election

Michigan gave Biden his highest margin of the three northern battleground states in 2020, but the race was still close, and it looks even tighter this year, with Harris only marginally ahead in 538's final forecast of the state.

Black and Arab Americans will play a key role in either candidate's victory. Polls have shown Black voters, who make up 13% of Michigan's electorate, swinging toward Republicans this year, though how big that shift will be remains to be determined. Michigan also has the largest share of Arab Americans in the country — a community that has been rocked by the wars in Israel, Gaza and Lebanon. Polling among the demographic — which makes up around 4% of the state's population — is limited, but the data we do have shows a major decline in support for Democrats following heavy protests over the Biden administration's response to the conflicts. Any loss of support for Democrats among these key groups could have major implications for which party ends up winning the state's 15 electoral votes.

There are also several key downballot races to watch in the Great Lakes State. Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin is favored to win the state's open U.S. Senate seat (currently held by retiring Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow) over former GOP Rep. Mike Rogers. Slotkin wins 76 in 100 times in 538's final forecast of the race — a clear advantage, but one that still leaves open the very real possibility of a Rogers win.

Michigan is playing host to multiple key U.S. House races too; the state's 7th, 8th and 10th districts are rated as competitive, though Democrats have an edge in the 7th, while Republicans are slightly favored in the 8th and 10th. Incumbent Democratic Rep. Hillary Scholten has a comfortable lead in the 3rd District, though the race could still be competitive if the GOP is having a great night. The race for the state House is a nail-biter, though, with Democrats fighting to hold on to the narrow majority they won in 2022 and the state government trifecta they secured with that win two years ago.

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12:32 PM EST

Harris has cut into Trump's lead on the economy

Biden has been slammed by voters' pessimism over the economy since he took office. Some of that was the result of an economy scrambled by the COVID-19 pandemic, but Americans continued to feel negative about it even as some indicators picked up. A 538 analysis in June found that even which economic indicators voters cared most about were changed by the experience of the pandemic and the lockdowns and recession that came with it. While Biden was the presumptive nominee, Trump maintained a big advantage on the economy with voters.

When we spoke to voters about the economy in May, partnering with the nonpartisan research firm PerryUndem for two separate focus groups with Trump-leaning voters and Biden-leaning voters, the voters felt in general that the cost of living had been better four years ago. That was true for purchases as small as eggs at the grocery store, and as big as housing or college tuition. In general, Biden leaners planned to vote for the president despite the economy because they agreed with him on other issues or disliked Trump, while Trump-leaning voters were voting for him in large part because of the economy, naming proposals like his calls to drill for more domestic oil and to prioritize hiring American workers first.

So a big question for Harris' campaign is whether it's done enough to escape the economic albatross that Biden couldn't seem to shake. The economy remains a top issue for voters, but it does look like Harris is performing better than Biden did. Since entering the race in July, she has worked to reframe the issue around affordability, and championed policies like helping families by homes, and the New York Times/Sienna College poll from Oct. 20-23 found that Harris had cut Trump's lead on the issue to 6 points, compared to 13 points in early September.

Redistricting could play a key role in the fight to control the House

While congressional redistricting typically only happens every 10 years, coinciding with the U.S. Census, five states nevertheless changed their congressional district lines since the 2022 midterm elections due to court-ordered redistricting. These changes can greatly impact the race for control of Congress, since even small shifts in district lines can change the partisan lean of those seats in big ways. Move a boundary a little bit here and a little bit there, and all of a sudden a district that was solidly Republican is now a toss-up (or the other way around). This is even more true in cases where a state's map saw more radical alterations.

In three states, redistricting was mandated under the Voting Rights Act, which in some cases requires the creation of majority-minority districts. Alabama and Louisiana each saw their congressional maps struck down and redrawn to include an additional majority-Black seat, both of which are likely pickups for Democrats. In Georgia, despite redistricting that boosted the number of Black voters in an Atlanta-area district, the new map isn't likely to result in any changes to the state's congressional delegation.

In North Carolina and New York, state supreme courts overturned prior maps as unconstitutional and allowed their state legislatures to redraw the lines to be more favorable to one party or the other. While North Carolina's state legislature aggressively gerrymandered their new map in favor of Republicans, New York's state legislature left their lines mostly unchanged, making tweaks that only minorly benefit Democrats.

All told, Republicans stand to pick up three to four seats in North Carolina thanks to redistricting, while Democrats look positioned to grab two across Alabama and Louisiana. The smaller changes in New York could also help Democrats in a number of competitive races there. Given the tight margins in the current Congress, control of the House of Representatives could ultimately come down to the changes to these states' congressional maps.