i ran a great campaign. i think it was maybe the best of the three boats out here. >> got to talk to voters. all right. >> i think it's one of the most important elections of my lifetime. >> it feels very important. >> it's very important to vote

if you want to see changes. we're choosing who's running our country. it feels good to vote. >> i'm leslie brinkley at the contra costa county registrar's office, where it looks like things are on track for record setting turnout. >> i'm diane lim at san francisco city hall. i'm alison kosik in new york. we have team coverage with reporters in the bay area and across the country on this election day. good afternoon. i'm karina nova. the polls opened this morning and we should start getting some national results in less than an hour. voters across the bay area headed to the polls today with some big decisions from mayors to recalls to a number of propositions and, of course, a president. we have that team coverage for you this election day. julian glover is live at howard university in washington, d.c, where vice president harris will be watching the results. dionne lim is catching up with voters in san francisco, but we begin in contra costa county with leslie brinkley. >> hi there. we just got brand

new numbers from the registrar of voters here. it seems like it's a big day here in contra costa county. 25, 29,000 people plus have voted so far in person today, 347,000 vote by mail in drop box ballots that were received before today are being tabulated right now. upstairs in the building behind me. and they're expecting at least 300,000 plus more ballots to come into their hands today. the registrar says they've gotten 1400 phone calls and that is unprecedented. a calm, consistent flow of voters showed up to 147 locations in contra costa county, with more people dropping off ballots and designated boxes or the drive through than actually voting in person. >> i usually do a drop off. yeah, it kind of feels a little more official to me. you know, it kind of makes it a moment.

>> we've been seeing a lot of our drop boxes overfilled, overflowing our ballot box drivers are out there picking up our ballots from those drop boxes, so we're aware that they're getting full. and we're doing multiple trips to go retrieve those and keep those ballots safe. >> ballots are already being counted. and by tonight, this room will be full of workers compiling the results. while there are local city council seats and a county supervisor position, open all eyes are on the presidential race. >> i'm very nervous about whatever the outcome is going to be. i feel there's a lot of division and there might be backlash on either side, so it's nerve wracking. i've never seen it that way. i'm going to be watching keeping up until, you know, we see who wins. >> hopefully tonight, if not tomorrow morning. >> the last presidential election turnout was around

8,081%. this time they're expecting turnout to top 85%. and so far, it seems to be on track for that. reporting live in contra costa county in martinez. i'm leslie brinkley, abc seven news. >> leslie, thank you so much. and now to san francisco, where abc7 news anchor dion lim is talking with voters at city hal. and dion, how has it been all day today, karina? the lines are steadily getting longer, however, for the most part, things are running smoothly and that is what election officials want to see. >> it was peaceful outside san francisco city hall on election tuesday, though we saw plenty of colorful characters, furry friends and those out holding signs and making their voices heard from inside. we had a chance to get behind the scenes of the election center, which serves as support to all 501 polling centers in the city. this atrium was packed with poll volunteers on standby, ready to jump in and help. john arndt,

the director of elections, told us turnout has been robust in 2020. it was 86%. but during a time when election worker safety has been an issue across the country. arntz shared what additional measures have been put in place a broadening of the scope of support from security related agencies and also the city has staffed in a greater scope and an emergency couple got engaged on halloween. >> it's really refreshing knowing that we're both, you know, helping encourage further democracy by voting. and we were able to choose each other. and now we're going to get to choose our president. >> this couple didn't realize it was election day, but were pleasantly surprised. >> we got a lot of really sweet compliments from everyone who said we look really nice, so it's always a plus and told us to vote right after. >> yeah. >> congratulations to all of the

happy couples. makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. polls close at eight tonight, so plenty of time to cast your vote in san francisco. dion lim, abc seven news. >> all right, dion, thank you. and hundreds of people turned out for a free election luncheon at john's grill. a san francisco tradition. mayoral candidate aaron peskin was there, as were other candidates running for office. former oakland mayor libby schaaf with some thoughts about the presidential candidates. >> one is a dear friend. i know what a good person she is and how much she will do for america. the other tried to put me in jail when i was the mayor of oakland. i was defending our right as a sanctuary city. >> the luncheon, hosted by former san francisco mayor willie brown, gives politicians a chance to relax after a long and heated campaign season. all right, now to the peninsula, where abc7 news reporter lena howland spoke with voters excited to make a difference. >> i think it's one of the most important elections of my

lifetime. there are many issues that are important on the ballot. feels good. >> yeah, it's surprising how quickly it came, but i'm glad that it's here. >> voters in san mateo county wasted no time on election day, heading to the polls as soon as they opened at 7:00 tuesday morning. >> feels fulfilling. i mean, i feel like i'm just doing my civic duty, doing my part, being a part of this country. it's a it's a right that not a people, not a lot of people get to enjoy. not a lot of people get to experience. so i'm glad to be able to do it myself. >> mina bresler voted early by mailing her ballot in weeks ago. >> i got a little text that said my vote was received and counted. >> still, she wanted her two daughters to be a part of the process. so they hand delivered donuts to poll workers carrying on a bit of a family tradition. >> you know, i grew up, my mom took me to the polls every year in the garages of our neighbors in los angeles, and i grew up with an understanding that it is important to participate in any way we can. and voting is the most important way. you know, we didn't have the vote vote forev. the women and show my i want toy girls that theirey matter. voict

and theya lima was matter. >> alicia lima proud to cast her ballot. >> to graduate. i was at the last minute, but i did it all right. >> she doesn't take lightly. after her family immigrated here from el salvador back in the 80s. >> we need to vote to make changes, especially when immigrant day. now we are citizens here. they were not born here. but please vote so we can make a difference. >> now, here in san mateo county, we are expecting to see their first batch of results by 810. in san mateo, lena howland abc seven news. >> former president donald trump is spending election night at his mar a lago resort in palm beach, florida, after casting his ballot this morning. trump said he feels confident about winning. this is a live picture of the palm beach convention center, where his supporters will gather tonight. vice president kamala harris just made a stop at the democratic national committee headquarters in washington, d.c, to thank volunteers and make calls to voters. later, she'll have dinner with her family before heading to a watch party at her

ama mater, howard university. and now to abc seven news anchor julian glover. live at howard university. julian, what do you have for us from there? >> hey there. good evening. karina. we're live here on the yard here on howard university's campus. this is typically where students come between classes to gather. homecoming concerts are held, but tonight it will play host to vice president kamala harris election night watch party. behind me on the stage, a gospel choir doing some last minute rehearsal before what could be one of the biggest performances of their life. we want to tell you about what's going to be happening here because we can't move the camera. so just use your imagination over to the right. there are risers where staff members, friends, longtime supporters of vice president kamala harris will be gathering to watch those election night results roll in. we know that vice president kamala harris mainly was off of the campaign trail today, but many of her most loyal supporters have been out there door knocking. they've

been phone banking, trying to get out the vote in those crucial, pivotal swing states. we caught up with one of those people, derrick johnson, a lifelong friend. she's known him since they were 16 years old. he told us what this moment means to him. >> it would mean so much to every young person, not just black, not just women, but every young person. what the american dream is all about. not about greed. not about, you know, privilege. it's about the opportunity to become and be the best person that you can possibly humanly be. and that's what she's done with herself. >> again, howard is in historically black college and university. that's why you hear that gospel choir practicing behind us right now. we do want to remind you that everything happening here on the yard, it's an invite only affair. so students here at howard university, they won't be able to watch this unless they are part of a sorority or fraternity, like vice president kamala harris, who of course pledged aka alpha kappa alpha

while she was a student here at howard university. the rest of the students will likely be watching at the gymnasium on campus. we'll have live coverage throughout the night here from washington and howard university. for now. reporting live. julian glover, abc seven news. >> and julian, from what we hear in the background, they sound great and ready. thank you so much. we're looking forward to it. and we'll have more from julian and all of our reporters tonight on our election streaming special coming up at 8:00, and stay right here at 4:00 for complete national and local coverage of election 2024. and our election coverage continues next. the long lines across the country, especially in those battleground states as people wait to cast their vote. >> i'm alison kosik in new york. as millions of americans descend on polling locations across the country, how election officials and law enforcement have prepared for the day that's coming up. >> i'm spencer christian with a look at our red flag warning for high fire danger and the accuweather seven day forecast in

is almost over. while more than 83 million people voted early, there was still a big turnout today at the polls, with only a few reports of problems, including long lines and a few technical issues. but the key is those battleground states and reporter josh einiger, from our sister station in new york, joins us live from pennsylvania. and, josh, we've seen some long lines there at polling places. >> yeah, we sure have not. not at this particular polling place tonight where they're starting to pick up some signs. they still have a little more than an hour, almost two hours left to go, karina. but but i'll tell

you, generally speaking, pennsylvanians are tired. they have endured quite a campaign here. there have been nearly two dozen stops across the state from each candidate, and there's been more than half a billion dollars in campaign spending. but now it's all up to the voters in big cities and small towns. pennsylvanians headed to the polls on a bright and sunny fall day, as a platoon of election workers started the laborious process of counting the mail in ballots in an anonymous, secure warehouse in philadelphia. that process took days in 2020, but officials say ballots received before today should be tabulated by midnight tonight. those that arrive today may take longer, even if you don't know the results of the election. >> when you go to sleep tonight, it is not a sign of something nefarious. what it is, though, is it is a sign that the election workers are still doing their job and that they're focused on doing it well. >> we really excited to know they're just a lot of young people who are here calling the neighbors all over the country. >> vice president harris stopped

by the headquarters of the democratic national committee in washington today, thanking them for their work. she mailed her ballot to california last weekend, donald trump voting in person in florida today. >> if i lose an election, if it's a fair election, i'm going to. i'd be the first one to acknowledge it. and i think it's well, so far i think it's been fair. >> still, there have been scattered issues. so they must be getting those rural republican county in pennsylvania reported problems with optical ballot scanners, the county extending voting until 10:00 tonight. drivers are not drives. >> they go to the machines are not synced up. and so they're having to get new flash drives out to all the machines. >> but could it make a difference in a state where every vote might count? >> we are definitely a 5050 split. >> debbie hafer voted for biden last time, and clinton before him this year. she switched to trump a last minute undecided voter filled with anxiety. is this harder than ever before? >> oh yeah. i mean, i've been

one of those undecideds up to the last minute, weighing the back and forth on. the negatives, the negatives of each one of them and which i concluded were worse, a real life undecided voter in this swing county in a swing state. >> meanwhile, just in the last hour and a half or so, donald trump posted on his social media account about what, quote, a lot of talk about massive cheating in philadelphia, despite providing no evidence to support that claim. and no one seems to know what he's talking about. in fact, philadelphia and pennsylvania officials have both pushed hard, pushed back hard and aggressively against that claim, calling it a wild allegation for which there is no factual basis. polls close here in less than two hours. we're

live in bucks county, pennsylvania tonight. josh einiger abc seven news. >> josh thank you. election officials and law enforcement are out in force today, making sure it's not only a fair election, but a safe one. abc news reporter alison kosik continues our team coverage today from security measures at polling places that you can see to those that you don't like fire suppressors installed inside ballot boxes in connecticut. >> officials everywhere not taking chances. we're providing a police officer at all 177 polling locations. civil rights organizations are working with local law enforcement to protect voters at polls and stop voter suppression and fear tactics. in georgia, two voting locations were briefly evacuated in fulton county after receiving non-credible bomb threats that officials believe were from russia. >> we pretty well dispelled that very quickly, but we want to make sure everything stays safe. so law enforcement did go to every one of those locations and all but two precincts, to our

knowledge, did not stop any voting. >> the fbi confirming the threats, saying in a statement they appear to originate from russian email domains. officials hoping a judge will extend polling hours at the impacted sites. this as officials also bracing for what comes after the election. at least 339 national guard personnel across 15 states have been activated ready to help state governments with cybersecurity efforts or protests. all of this amid a barrage of misinformation online. state officials making it clear to voters their ballots will count. we have evidence of the fact that foreign bad actors will try to distract voters from the sanctity and integrity and security of our elections, don't fall for it. nationally, election day voting has gone smoothly. the naacp says it's had at least 150 reports to its election protection hotline since 6:00 this morning. the organization says the reports, which specifically impact black

voters, have mostly involved id and voter registration issues. karina. >> all right. alison kosik, thank you for that report. here in the bay area, the fbi is monitoring the election from a command post in downtown san francisco. >> the things that are priority to us are threats to people, actual acts of violence. i can say that fortunately, we haven't seen any of that happening here, but we are positioned to address that should it happen, either an act of violence targeting a poll worker or targeting somebody who's trying to vote. >> the command post will be staffed 24 hours a day until the election is officially over. our election coverage continues with some of the freebies voters can get today. >> i'm spencer christian. we've had pleasant election day weather, but we do have fire weather conditions. i'll have all the details in my accuweather forecast coming up

pleasant day in terms of how the weather feels. but we do have fire weather conditions. here's our red flag warning for high fire danger. as you can see, relative humidity has dropped to dangerously low levels. at times it will be below 15%. winds generally out of the north northeast, a steady speed of about 25mph or higher, but gusts will reach or exceed 55mph. obviously, fires can grow quickly under these conditions, and in addition to that, we have a wind advisory in effect for the north bay interior mountains from 4 p.m. today to 3 p.m. tomorrow. in this case, winds, these elevations, i should say winds will be steady. winds out of the north about 30 to 40mph. gusts up to 60mph. and in the very highest elevations, gusts could reach 70mph. right now, the winds are beginning to ramp up a little bit in the easternmost part of the viewing area. rio vista, down to livermore. there breezy conditions and other locations, but not quite gusty yet, but that will change. of course,

these are the forecast headlines today through thursday morning. dry, gusty. high. fire. danger. election day weather mainly sunny skies and the weekend will bring us morning fog and drizzle and cooler conditions in the afternoon. now, right now we're looking at temperature readings of 65 here in san francisco, 72 in oakland, hayward 6974, san jose 70. redwood city 61 at half moon bay, mainly blue sky over the golden gate right now looking northward, 74 degrees in santa rosa. napa 76, petaluma at 70 and with low to mid 70s at fairfield, concord and livermore going into the overnight hours, it will be windy just from coast to inland. overnight lows mainly in the low to mid 50s, but some inland areas will drop down into the upper 40s. highs tomorrow. upper 60s at the coast. low 70s around the bay shoreline and mainly those low 70s even in our inland areas. so it's not going to warm up a lot. and here is the accuweather seven day forecast. so we've got the gusty dry conditions through thursday. friday it will be mild for

november and the winds will be a lot tamer. so not so much concern on friday about fires of morning drizzle and fog on saturday and sunday as i mentioned. then on monday is a good chance of rain. a level one storm, a light storm on the exclusive abc seven storm impact scale, and then we get back to sunny skies next tuesday. >> all right, spencer, thank you. okay. and approximately 22,000 p-g-and-e's customers in 17 counties. seven in the bay area could be in the dark tonight due to those weather conditions and a possible p-g-and-e's power. safety shut off. five polling locations could be affected. p-g-and-e's is staging generators to make sure you can still vote. the polling place at joaquin miller center in the oakland hills closed due to today's red flag warning. alameda county election officials are telling people to instead go to the montera middle school area to cast their votes. you can stay with abc seven news for updated information. as the conditions change over the next few days, you can track the fire danger and access the same live doppler seven used by our

weather team. it's available at abc7 news.com or wherever you stream

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and as you can see at the bottom of your screen, we're just about a half hour away. abc news reporter rachel scott gives us a look at what you can expect at the abc news election headquarters. >> welcome to our 2024 abc news election headquarters. while all the reporting and analysis as vice president kamala harris and former president donald trump speed toward the finish line, and polls begin to close as soon as those results become available, we'll break it all down right here in real time. over at the big board, we'll be

tracking the seven key battleground states. the key counties and cities that will ultimately decide this election. and as that data becomes available, we'll track the number of electoral college votes with the help of a 3d model like this. the magic number, of course, is 270. the first candidate to reach that electoral college number will become our next president. we'll also track results on capitol hill. and what it means for control of congress. when all the counting is done, republicans need to net two seats to take control of the senate. democrats need to net four seats to take control of the house. >> and you can watch it all starting in just minutes at 4:00. watch abc news live coverage of all the national races, and you can watch the local results starting at 8 p.m. when the polls close. that will be on our abc seven bay area streaming channels. if you're feeling a bit stressed over the election, the san francisco museum of modern art wants to help you get your mind off what's happening. it's offering free admission to all visitors today. just make sure to reserve your ticket online ahead of

time. the museum is open until five, so you have some time and a number of businesses like round table pizza, krispy kreme, even ikea are offering election day deals and we've got a complete list for you on abc seven news.com. remember, abc seven news is always streaming 24 over seven. get the abc seven bay area app and join us whenever you want, wherever you are. thank you so much for joining us. i'm karina nova. stay with us tonight for election results. world news tonight with david muir starts now. >> david: tonight breaking news as we come on the air, election night in america. one of the most consequential elections in recent history. and just in tonight, the first exit polls are now coming in. what they tell us about the top issue for voters even above the economy. tonight inside the final hours of both campaigns, the race expected to be