The FBI says bomb threats sent to polling locations in several states originate from Russian email domains and have been deemed non-credible.

The FBI did not identify the states in question, but Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said earlier Tuesday that the state’s election process had snuffed out some bomb threats he says came from Russia.

Officials in Fulton County, Georgia, said they got “multiple calls” and the threats forced a brief closure of two polling places.

The bomb threats were among multiple disturbances U.S. officials are tracking. But Cait Conley, a senior adviser to the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, told reporters on a call Tuesday that there were no national-level security incidents that were threatening to disrupt the election on a wide scale.

Officials continue to warn of what they say is an unprecedented level of foreign influence and disinformation that they expect will persist beyond Election Day.

In the 2020 presidential election, Florida reported the results of more than 99% of ballots cast within a few hours of polls closing.

In California, almost one-third of ballots were uncounted after election night. The state was making almost daily updates to its count through Dec. 3, a full month after Election Day.

This wasn’t unusual or unexpected.

California, the nation’s most populous state, is consistently among the slowest to report all its election results. Florida, the third-most populous state, is generally among the first to finish.

The Constitution sets out broad principles for electing a national government and leaves the details to the states. The choices made by state lawmakers and election officials as they sort out those details affect everything from how voters cast a ballot, how quickly the tabulation and release of results takes place, how elections are kept secure and how officials maintain voters’ confidence in the process.

The gap between when California and Florida are able to finalize their count is the natural result of election officials in the two states choosing to emphasize different concerns and set different priorities.

▶ Read more about how the two states differ in their vote-counting systems

U.S. Capitol Police say the man was stopped Tuesday during a security screening at the Capitol Visitor Center. Authorities say he smelled of fuel and was carrying the flare gun and torch.

Officials have canceled public tours of the Capitol for the remainder of the day.

Police say they’re still investigating.

The arrest comes as authorities are on heightened alert for security issues around the nation’s capitol and have increased patrols in areas downtown and near the White House around Election Day. Nearly four years ago, a mob of Donald Trump’s supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

They take college football very seriously in Clemson, South Carolina.

But no, they did not take away Tigers coach Dabo Swinney’s right to vote just because his team lost to Louisville last week.

Let’s explain: Dabo Swinney’s given first name is William. Dabo Swinney went to vote on Tuesday. The state of South Carolina said William Swinney had already voted.

“I’m like, ‘Dang, they done voted me out of the state. Lost a game. ... They done shipped me off,’” Swinney said.

Here was the issue: Dabo’s oldest son, also named William, voted last week. They counted William Jr. as William Sr., apparently. Hence, the confusion. Dabo Swinney got to submit a paper ballot and there will be a hearing Friday to get it all cleared up.

“It was quite an experience this morning,” the coach said. “Me and Will, our two votes will count on Friday.”

While it might take days to determine the balance of power in the House and Senate, some races will be called right as polls close.

How is that possible?

Race calls at poll closing time in uncontested or landslide races have been a routine part of election nights for decades. The Associated Press will consider multiple factors and analyze available data before determining whether a winner can be declared when polls close in a given state. But the AP will never declare the outcome in a competitive contest before enough votes are counted to make the winner clear.

Michigan voters are deciding between Democratic U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin and Republican former congressman Mike Rogers in a tight U.S. Senate battleground contest that could sway the balance of federal power.

Slotkin had a clear head start, but as Republicans became more confident about Donald Trump’s presidential prospects in Michigan, the contest drew more attention from funders who believed Rogers had a good chance of becoming the first Republican to win a U.S. Senate seat in the state in 30 years.

The race could determine whether Democrats continue to hold their slim majority in the Senate, where they’re defending more seats than Republicans in this election.

▶ Read more about Michigan’s Senate race

Election Day voting unfolded largely smoothly across the nation Tuesday but with scattered reports of extreme weather, ballot printing errors and technical problems causing delays.

Most of the hiccups occurring by mid-day were “largely expected routine and planned-for events,” said Cait Conley, senior adviser to the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, in a news briefing. She said the agency wasn’t currently tracking any national, significant incidents affecting election security.

Helping voting run relatively smoothly on Election Day was the fact that tens of millions of Americans had already cast their ballots. Those included record numbers of voters in Georgia, North Carolina and other battleground states that could decide the winner of the presidential race.

▶ Read more about how Election Day is going so far

A provisional ballot is used to ensure every registered voter can cast a ballot in an election. The unique kind of ballot is cast when there are questions about a voter’s registration status, whether they don’t have photo identification in a state that requires it, or, in some cases, if the voter made an error on their mail-in ballot. The Help America Vote Act of 2002 guarantees access to a provisional ballot.

According to MIT’s Election Lab, how exactly provisional ballots are handled varies from each state, but they’re segregated from traditionally cast ballots on Election Day so each ballot’s status can be determined. According to the Election Administration and Voting Survey compiled by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, roughly 700,000 provisional ballots were cast in federal elections in 2022, and around 550,000 were counted.

Last week, the United States Supreme Court rejected an emergency appeal from Republicans that could have led to thousands of provisional ballots not being counted in Pennsylvania. The ruling will let voters cast a provisional ballot on Election Day if their mail-in ballot is to be rejected for a garden-variety error.

A man was arrested in upstate New York on Tuesday for threatening to burn down a polling site after he was told his registration wasn’t current, police said.

The man went to vote in the town of Fowler near the Canadian border around 6:30 a.m., New York State Police said in a news release.

The man, who had previously been convicted of a felony, was told he was ineligible to vote because he had not re-registered after being released from prison.

The man became irate and began threatening to return with a gun or to burn the place down, police said.

The man fled but was later picked up by state police and brought to the station for questioning. Charges against him were pending.

In a new video posted early Election Day, Beyoncé cosplays as Pamela Anderson in the television program “Baywatch” — red one-piece swimsuit and all — and asks viewers to vote.

In the two-and-a-half minute clip, set to most of “Bodyguard,” a cut from her 2024 country album “Cowboy Carter,” Beyoncé channels the blonde bombshell before concluding with a simple message, written in white text: “Happy Beylloween,” followed by “Vote.”

At a rally for Donald Trump in Pittsburgh on Monday night, the former president spoke dismissively about Beyoncé’s appearance at a Kamala Harris rally in Houston last month, drawing boos for the megastar from his supporters.

“Beyoncé would come in. Everyone’s expecting a couple of songs. There were no songs. There was no happiness,” Trump said.

She did not perform — unlike in 2016, when she performed at a presidential campaign rally for Hillary Clinton in Cleveland — but she endorsed the vice president and gave a moving speech.

“I’m not here as a celebrity, I’m not here as a politician. I’m here as a mother,” Beyoncé said. “A mother who cares deeply about the world my children and all of our children live in, a world where we have the freedom to control our bodies, a world where we’re not divided.”

The Harris campaign has taken on Beyonce’s track “Freedom,” a cut from her landmark 2016 album “Lemonade,” as its anthem.

Alaska voters are deciding Tuesday a hard-fought race for the state’s only U.S. House seat that could help decide control of that chamber. They’re also choosing whether to repeal the state’s system of open primaries and ranked choice general elections just four years after opting to give that system a go.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola sought to fend off GOP efforts to wrest back the seat held for 49 years by Republican Rep. Don Young, who died in 2022. Peltola’s main challenger was Republican Nick Begich, who’s from a family of prominent Democrats and was among the opponents she defeated in special and regular elections two years ago when Peltola, who is Yup’ik, became the first Alaska Native elected to Congress.

▶ Read more about Alaska’s House race

As news outlets get ready for election night, they’re not only focusing on what happens. They’re keeping watch over what doesn’t.

Several plans to combat misinformation are in place across newsrooms that will follow the climax of a hard-fought campaign. The Associated Press and others will take special steps to explain what they do. The New York Times is assigning reporters to comb the Internet for the first sign of new conspiracies. An NPR reporter will look for mischief created by artificial intelligence. ABC News has tried “pre-bunks” to prepare its viewers.

False stories that infected the political debate after Hurricane Helene this fall were a sobering reminder of how quickly things can spread.

Other organizations are making similar promises, including making clear to people when it’s too soon for conclusions to be drawn. “My mantra on election night is radical transparency,” said Rick Klein, ABC News Washington bureau chief.

▶ Read more about how news outlets are preparing to combat potential misinformation on Election Day

In Arizona, puppies are hitting the polls on Election Day.

Joe Casados of the Arizona Humane Society went to the polls with Daphne, a 10-week-old puppy available for adoption.

“We know that voting can be a stressful time for a lot of people. We also want to celebrate everyone doing their civic duty and coming out to vote,” Casados said. “So, we thought what better way than bringing some puppies out to the polls to give someone a little reward and a little serotonin boost just for coming out today and voting.”

Casados said voters thanked them for bringing the puppies.

“I think everyone is very excited whenever they get a chance to see a puppy,” Casados said.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is hoping to brush back a challenge from Republican John Deaton on Tuesday as she seeks a third term representing Massachusetts.

Deaton, an attorney who moved to the state from Rhode Island earlier this year, tried to portray the former Harvard Law School professor as out of touch with ordinary Bay State residents.

Warren cast herself as a champion for an embattled middle class and a critic of regulations benefitting the wealthy. Warren has remained popular in the state despite coming in third in Massachusetts in her 2020 bid for president.

Warren first burst onto the national scene during the 2008 financial crisis with calls for tougher consumer safeguards, resulting in the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She has gone on to become one of her party’s most prominent liberal voices.

▶ Read more about the Massachusetts Senate race

The wait for a House majority will likely extend well beyond the night of the election.

Neither party is expecting to sweep convincingly to House control, meaning that just a handful of seats anywhere in the country could tilt the balance of power. With many of those races on the West Coast, results won’t even start filtering in until late on election night.

California, the nation’s most populous state, is consistently among the slowest to report all its election results. It will likely take days and possibly weeks to know who won in some districts.

Cait Conley, senior adviser to the director of the Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency, said during a briefing that “we are not currently tracking any national level, significant incidents impacting the security of our election infrastructure. We are tracking instances of extreme weather and other temporary infrastructure disruption to certain areas of the country, but these are largely expected routine and planned for events.”

Conley said CISA, the FBI and intelligence communities did anticipate that foreign actors would try to influence the election later today and in the following weeks.

It’s usually possible to determine who won an election before the vote counting is 100% complete. But doing so requires determining how many ballots still need to be tabulated at any point in the vote count, and that’s not as straightforward or clear-cut as you might imagine.

In fact, it’s only gotten more complicated as elections have evolved, making traditional methods of tracking vote count progress less reliable.

For years, the most common way news organizations kept track of the progress in the vote count on election night was to calculate the percentage of precincts that had reported their results. But over the years, that method has become a less and less reliable measurement that does not reflect the realities of modern elections.

The main challenge is that it can take a while for the people running elections to figure out exactly how many people voted in any given election. It often takes local and state officials weeks to arrive at the final, official number.

That’s in part because of mail voting. A local elections office might know exactly how many mail ballots they sent out to voters and have a good estimate of how many have been returned in the days leading up to Election Day. In fact, before officials begin counting votes, it’s often easier to know the approximate number of mail ballots cast than the number of people who turned up on Election Day.

▶ Read more about how and why AP uses expected vote instead of “precincts reporting”

An Alabama county is having emergency ballots printed after discovering that many ballots were missing the back page which contains proposed constitutional amendments.

St. Clair County Probate Judge Andrew Weathington said the problem was discovered Tuesday morning when packs of sealed ballots were opened at polling places. He said it appeared to be a printing error. The proposed ballots were proofed before printing and were correct, he said. He said emergency ballots are being reprinted. The Alabama Secretary of State’s Office confirmed emergency ballots are being printed.

The ACLU of Alabama has asked the St. Clair probate office to extend voting hours by the number of hours it takes to get new ballots, a spokesman for the organization said. Weathington said he’s seeking legal guidance from the Alabama secretary of state and the county attorney.

Alabama voters are deciding local constitutional amendments and one statewide amendment. The statewide amendment relates to allowing a local school board to sell land, located in another Alabama county, to a developer. Voters in the county were also voting on a local amendment related to local school board governance.

The county’s congressional representative, Rep. Mike Rogers, is unoppsed in this election.

Although it serves a similar purpose, AP VoteCast is not an exit poll.

Traditional exit polls, including the one conducted by a consortium of news networks in the United States, rely largely on in-person interviews with voters conducted outside of select polling places after they’ve voted, supplemented with a phone survey to reach mail-in voters. Before AP VoteCast the AP worked with other major news organizations to conduct Election Day exit polls.

AP VoteCast was created in part to reflect significant changes over the years in how people vote, from a world where most people vote by showing up at the polls on Election Day to one where a growing number vote before Election Day.

AP VoteCast captures the views of voters — whether they vote in person on Election Day or weeks ahead of time — by beginning to interview registered voters several days before Election Day. Those interviews conclude as polls close in each state. Interviews are offered in English and Spanish, as needed.

This approach allowed AP VoteCast to reliably survey more than 130,000 registered voters in all 50 states during the 2020 presidential election, and comprehensively explain how Democrat Joe Biden won the presidential election.

▶ Read more about AP VoteCast and how it works

South Carolina Republican U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace is trying to cement her hold on her seat in a state that doesn’t mind sending people back to Congress for decades.

There have been questions over whether Mace’s attention-seeking personality and brashness and willingness to buck her party’s establishment could be a liability. But so far, she’s been embraced by her coastal 1st District.

Mace flipped the seat back to Republicans in 2020 after a stunning upset of incumbent Democratic Rep. Joe Cunningham. She fought off a GOP challenger endorsed by former President Donald Trump in 2022 and breezed to a surprisingly easy win — this time with Trump’s backing — in the 2024 Republican primary without a runoff.

Her fellow Republicans in the South Carolina General Assembly also did her a favor by redrawing the district and sending traditional Democratic precincts in and around downtown Charleston to the state’s only majority-minority district. Under the old map in 2020, Mace won less than 51% of the vote. With the new maps in 2022 she received more than 56%.

Mace’s Democratic challenger as voting ends Tuesday is businessman and former International African American Museum CEO Michael Moore. His campaign has struggled to gain momentum and Mace has barely acknowledged he’s in the race.

▶ Read more about the South Carolina House race

AP has played a vital role in U.S. elections, counting votes and reporting results to the world since 1848. So how do we do it?

One question will be asked over and over on election night: Who won?

The Associated Press will answer that question for nearly 5,000 contested races across the United States and up and down the ballot, from president and state ballot measures to a variety of local offices.

The AP has compiled vote results and declared winners in elections for more than 170 years, filling what could otherwise be a critical information void of up to a month between Election Day and the official certification of results.

What goes into determining the winners? A careful and thorough analysis of the latest available vote tallies and a variety of other election data, with the ultimate goal of answering this question: Is there any circumstance in which the trailing candidate can catch up? If the answer is no, then the leading candidate has won.

▶ Read more about how AP calls races

Flooding has knocked out power to one Missouri polling site, made another one hard to reach and closed dozens of roads in the state.

More than 7 inches (18 centimeters) of rain have fallen in some areas over the past two days. And the National Weather Service issued flood and flash flood warnings and watches across a large swath of the state, extending from its southwest corner to the St. Louis area in the east.

It’s so bad that some drivers were stranded in their vehicles and bus service was disrupted on multiple routes in the St. Louis area.

In Jefferson County, just to the south of St. Louis, the sheriff’s office warned in a news release that one polling site is not accessible by many people because of flooding.

And in St. Louis County, the weather caused electrical equipment to flood in one suburb, knocking out power to a church that’s serving as a polling place, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Poll workers there are now running the elections using a generator.

Despite the problems, many voters lined up in the rain to cast their ballots.

The biggest states to watch in the razor-tight race for House control have been more or less afterthoughts in the presidential campaign. But between New York and California, there are well over a dozen races that could sway control of the House.

A group of New York Republicans has been crucial to their party’s razor-thin majority in the House, but it will be a challenge for the party to hold onto all those seats in districts that extend into New York City’s suburbs.

Then on the West Coast, there are nearly a dozen House elections, from southern California all the way up to Washington, that have been competitive.

Keep in mind there are also tossup races all over the map. The House majority will likely be decided by just a few seats, meaning high-stakes elections in states including Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Colorado and Arizona.

Democrats would take up Vice President Kamala Harris’ economic priorities if she wins and they gain control of Congress, including tax breaks for families with children and middle-class workers. They’re also focused on driving down the cost of housing, potentially through grants for first-time homebuyers.

Another top priority for Democrats is restoring nationwide abortion rights. Harris is also promising to revive a border security bill that was produced through a bipartisan Senate negotiation but rejected by Donald Trump.

Throughout the campaign season, congressional Democrats have largely kept quiet about the specifics of a policy agenda, instead focusing on winning an election they cast as a make-or-break moment for American democracy.

Congressional Republicans have already been looking for ways to extend the tax cuts passed during Donald Trump’s first term as president and will expire at the end of 2025. They’ve also been looking at ways to finish building a barrier along the border with Mexico.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he wants to take a “blow torch” to federal regulations in implementing an ambitious conservative agenda.

Those priorities become much harder if Republicans fail to sweep into power.

A news clip that purports to come from the FBI tells voters they should vote remotely because of a high terror threat at polling stations.

But the FBI says that the clip is bogus, did not come from the bureau and doesn’t accurately represent concerns about safety at polling locations.

Also false is a video depicting a fabricated FBI press release claiming the management of prisons in several key battleground states rigged inmate voting and colluded with one of the political parties.

The FBI did not identify anyone who it thought might be responsible for the manufactured videos. Over the past two weeks, the agency has blamed Russian influence actors for a variety of manufactured internet postings and videos officials say were released as part of a broader disinformation campaign.

In a critical election year, Democrats are looking to flip a once reliably Republican Louisiana congressional seat, where political boundaries were recently redrawn to form the state’s second mostly Black congressional district.

With five people on the ballot for Louisiana’s Sixth Congressional District, Democrats have thrown their support behind longtime politician Cleo Fields, 61. The state senator has been involved in state politics for three decades and served two terms in Congress after being elected in 1992.

Across the aisle, Republicans are looking to preserve the seat, especially in an election year where the GOP is trying to hold on to their majority in the U.S. House. The only Republican on the ballot is former state lawmaker Elbert Guillory, 80.

For nearly 50 years, only one Democrat has won the seat in Louisiana’s 6th Congressional District. But the district’s boundaries have recently been recrafted.

▶ Read more about Louisiana’s House race

The U.S. Postal Service is open as usual on Election Day, but before voters drop their ballots in they should check their state’s deadlines.

Some states require mail-in ballot to arrive by Election Day. Others only require ballots to be postmarked by Election Day. And some states, too, allow mail-in ballots to be dropped off in ballot boxes or at polling places through Election Day.

Voters should check their state election websites to determine the deadlines.

Voters in Puerto Rico will elect a new resident commissioner, the island’s representative with limited voting powers in the U.S. House. The outgoing resident commissioner, Jenniffer González of the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, is running for governor.

There’s another item on the ballot that involves Congress: statehood. Voters will be asked for a seventh time about Puerto Rico’s political status. The nonbinding referendum offers three options: statehood, independence and independence with free association, under which issues like foreign affairs, U.S. citizenship and use of the U.S. dollar would be negotiated. Regardless of the outcome, a change in status requires approval from Congress.

Nearly 2 million voters are eligible to participate in Tuesday’s election, although it remains to be seen how many people will do so. Voter apathy has dominated recent elections.

New Jersey voters are deciding between Democratic U.S. Rep. Andy Kim and hotel developer Curtis Bashaw, a Republican, in the race to fill the Senate seat occupied until recently by Democrat Bob Menendez, who resigned following a federal bribery conviction.

The Senate race has attracted attention because of Democrats’ razor-thin majority. There’s little margin of error for the party in a state like New Jersey, which hasn’t elected a Republican to the Senate in more than 50 years.

“I very much feel the pressure to make sure that we’re delivering not just for New Jersey, but delivering a majority for this country so I can get the important things done,” Kim said recently.

The contest pits Kim, a three-term House member from New Jersey’s 3rd District, against Bashaw, a first-time candidate and businessman from Cape May. Four others including Green, Libertarian and Socialist party candidates are on the ballot.

▶ Read more about New Jersey’s Senate race

Democratic U.S. Rep. Angie Craig is seeking a fourth term in Minnesota’s tightest congressional race, a faceoff against Republican former federal prosecutor Joe Teirab.

And in the race for the open seat being vacated by Democratic U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips, Kelly Morrison, a Democratic former state senator, was favored over retired Washington County District Judge Tad Jude. He’s a Republican who also served on the Hennepin County Board and in both chambers of the state Legislature, where in 1972 at age 20 he became the youngest member ever elected to the House.

Craig and Teirab ran in the 2nd District, which includes a political mix of outer suburbs of Minneapolis and St. Paul south of the Minnesota River, and rural areas farther south that trend Republican. It’s Minnesota’s sole swing district. Morrison and Jude competed in the 3rd District, which includes suburbs surrounding Minneapolis and has gone Democratic in recent elections.

▶ Read more about Minnesota’s congressional races

A federal judge says Missouri can’t block federal officials from observing elections in St. Louis.

At issue is a settlement agreement with the St. Louis Board aimed at ensuring people with mobility and vision impairments can access polling places. The settlement was reached in 2021 under Trump’s Justice Department after federal officials found problems, such as ramps that were too steep and inaccessible parking, according to the court papers.

But Missouri is among several states pushing back against federal election monitors. And on Monday, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft argued in a lawsuit that state law “clearly and specifically limits who may be in polling places.” He also accused the federal government of “attempting to illegally interfere in Missouri’s elections.”

U.S. District Judge Sarah Pitlyk wrote Monday night that the case boils down to two individuals at one polling place to ensure compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, as has happened at least twice before without any problems.

“Being prevented from enforcing its election laws may also be a harm to the State of Missouri, but that harm also has a counterweight in the United States’ interest in enforcing the ADA,” Pitlyk wrote.

Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent beloved by progressives, is seeking to win a fourth six-year term in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.

The 83-year-old senator is a self-described democratic socialist who caucuses with the Democrats and twice came close to winning the presidential nomination. More recently, he’s worked closely with the Biden administration to craft its domestic policy goals on health care, education, child care and workers’ rights.

The longest-serving independent in Congress is being challenged by Republican Gerald Malloy, a U.S. Army veteran and businessman. Also on the ballot are independent Steve Berry, as well as minor party candidates Mark Stewart Greenstein, Matt Hill and Justin Schoville.

Sanders says he’s running again because the country faces some of its toughest and most serious challenges of the modern era. He described those as threats to its democratic foundations, massive levels of income and wealth inequality, climate change, and challenges to women’s ability to control their own bodies.

“I just did not feel with my seniority and with my experience that I could walk away from Vermont, representing Vermont, at this difficult moment in American history,” he said at a recent WCAX-TV debate.

Malloy, 62, who served 22 years in the Army and was a defense contractor for 16 years, said he thought Sanders was going to retire — and thinks he should — after 34 years in Congress. Malloy said Sanders isn’t delivering results.

▶ Read more about the Vermont Senate race

The attorneys general from 47 states and three U.S. territories are urging people to remain peaceful and to preemptively “condemn any acts of violence related to the results.”

The statement, released Tuesday, was signed by chief prosecutors from every U.S. state except for three: Indiana, Montana and Texas. Attorneys general from the District of Columbia and the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands and U.S. Virgin Islands also signed.

“We call upon every American to vote, participate in civil discourse and, above all, respect the integrity of the democratic process,” they wrote. “Violence has no place in the democratic process; we will exercise our authority to enforce the law against any illegal acts that threaten it.”

Fears of election violence persist nearly four years after Trump supporters rioted at the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to stop the election certification. Rather than condemning the violence during his campaign, Trump has celebrated the rioters, pledging to pardon them and featuring a recorded chorus of prisoners in jail for their roles in the Jan. 6 attack singing the national anthem.

When polls opened at 7 a.m. local time in Florida on Tuesday, a majority of the state’s registered voters had already cast a ballot early —

including voting by mail and early in-person voting, according to an analysis of state data by the University of Florida Election Lab.

Of those who waited to vote on Election Day, many were getting their civic duty out of the way early, according to elections officials. In Orange County, home to the city of Orlando, more than 4,700 people voted in the first 20 minutes of polls being open Tuesday, according to a social media post by the county elections supervisor’s office.

Americans will cast roughly 160 million ballots by the time Election Day comes to a close. They’ll choose a president, members of Congress and thousands of state lawmakers, city council members, attorneys general, secretaries of state — and in Texas, a railroad commissioner who has nothing to do with the trains.

This year’s election also comes at a moment in the nation’s history when the very basics of how America votes are being challenged as never before by disinformation and distrust.

It can be tough to make sense of it all. To help better understand the way America picks its president and its leaders — all the way down the ballot — The Associated Press offers the following thoughts on the Top 25 people, places, races, dates and things to know about Election Day. It’s a guidebook, of sorts, to American democracy as it nears its 250th birthday.

▶ Read more about the AP’s Top 25 guide to elections