LIVE UPDATES: 2024 general election in Seattle, Washington state
Tuesday is the final voting day of the 2024 election. Various national, state, and local races are at stake. Follow KUOW’s live coverage and results as they come in.
6:45 p.m.
Who's winning so far? A look at the state of the race
With polls closing across the country and the Associated Press race calls starting to come in, you might be wondering where the night is headed.
Unfortunately for nail-biting viewers, it's still too early to say.
Here's what we do know as of just after 9 p.m. ET:
- The candidates have clinched some predictable victories, with Harris winning reliably blue states like Illinois, New York and Massachusetts, and Trump once again dominating in red states like Texas, Ohio and Florida.
- Trump holds an early lead, with 178 electoral votes to Harris' 99. A candidate needs 270 to win — and there are still 261 electoral votes waiting to be awarded.
- Polls have yet to close in the western part of the country, and votes are still being counted in many eastern and midwestern states.
- Key swing states including Wisconsin, Georgia and Pennsylvania, where results were already expected to take hours or even days, are warning of further delays due to threats and other issues affecting certain polling sites.
Read more here.
– NPR
6:40 p.m.
Party time: Inside the GOP and Let’s Go Washington watch parties
Washington Republicans from around the region have gathered in Bellevue to watch election results roll in. They’re enthused for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and gubernatorial candidate Dave Reichert, and energized by four conservative-backed initiatives on the state ballot.
One voter told KUOW he retired early in part because he disagreed with having to pay into long-term care insurance under the WA Cares Fund. He doesn’t think it will benefit him and hopes Initiative 2124 will pass, making the program voluntary to enroll in. Other folks disagreed with the state’s cap-and-trade carbon emissions program, which funds the Climate Commitment Act. Initiative 2117 is seeking to ban such programs, and would thus gut the CCA if successful.
Brian Heywood, the hedge fund manager who funded the campaign to get those and two other initiatives on the ballot, held his own watch party at a high-tech “virtual production studio” called Vossler Studios in Kirkland. Organizers wouldn’t tell KUOW which movies had been filmed there because they have not been released and are, therefore, “secret.”
– Amy Radil & Joshua McNichols, KUOW
6:38 p.m.
Republicans are favored to flip the U.S. Senate. Here are key races to watch
Republicans are favored to take control of the chamber next year thanks to a 2024 election map that has Democrats defending seven seats in conservative or swing states and on offense just two in the safe Republican states of Texas and Florida.
Democrats narrowly control the Senate 51-49 today, but have already lost an open seat in West Virginia, according to the AP.
Arizona: Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego has consistently polled ahead of Republican Kari Lake in the closing weeks of the election. Gallego has performed particularly well among Latino voters, who have a large, and growing, influence in the state.
Nevada: Incumbent Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen appeared poised to win the race early this election cycle, but in the final two weeks, the Senate Leadership Fund directed more than $6 million to the state in a “Hail Mary” effort to boost Republican challenger Sam Brown.
Michigan: The race was consistently tied through the final weeks of the election as Republican Mike Rogers and Democrat Elissa Slotkin campaigned to replace Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who is retiring. As part of the so-called “blue wall,” Michigan was closely contested by both Harris and Trump.
Read more here.
– NPR
5:48 p.m.
Party time: Inside the WA Democrats’ watch party
It is just after 5:30 p.m. at the Washington Democrats' watch party. The Cowboy Kamala vibes are starting to appear. Party members are handing out 200 sparkly blue cowboy hats with lights around their rims. Some folks brought their own hats.
The folks who have arrived so far are gravitating toward a large screen near the back of the room where NBC News is broadcasting live results of the presidential election.
– Jeanie Lindsay, KUOW
5:36 p.m.
Seattle Police monitoring possible election threats
The Seattle Police Department says it's monitoring intelligence assessments, as officers prepare to respond to any election-related incidents.
In a statement, the department told KUOW the agency is prepared “to engage with and assist any First Amendment activities.”
Chuck Wexler, head of the Police Executive Research Forum, a national nonprofit, said police across the country are “in a better place” than they were in 2020 when it comes to handling demonstrations.
“If you think about 2020, it had probably been 20 years since the police had faced that kind of pushback,” Wexler said. “The demonstrations in 2020 were against the police.”
Wexler said he expects any upcoming protests to be more focused on the election, not law enforcement.
Governor Jay Inslee has also put Washington National Guard members on standby to potentially support local police.
– Amy Radil, KUOW
5:34 p.m.
You can register to vote until 8 p.m. tonight
You can register to vote and cast a ballot until 8 p.m. Tuesday, Election Day, in Washington state. Registration today is only available in-person at designated locations.
Earlier on Election Day, Lupita Salgado was registering to vote for the first time at a voting center in Kent. A decision she just came to over the last couple days.
“It was definitely a last minute decision but I was like, if I don’t do it now - it’s now or never,” Salgado said.
About half the states allow same-day registration and Salgado says she’s grateful Washington is one of them. She said she’s voting for change, for her rights and for others who are unable to vote.
At a voting center in Kent today, the line was about a hundred people long – and an hour wait.
Zyn Bells said they were voting in-person because they didn’t register in time to get a ballot in the mail. But they want their vote to count.
“I’m an indigenous nonbinary human being,” Bells said. “If I don't vote, I feel like I'm doing a disservice to other indigenous nonbinary human beings. We've got to represent the little guy, and I’m the little guy.”
Bells works at an early childhood development center and said they had to squeeze in time today to vote.
They said it’s their second time voting for president.
King County runs seven in-person voting centers, including two in Seattle – at Lumen Field and the University of Washington. The centers also have special equipment for voters with disabilities.
– Eilis O’Neill & Liz Jones, KUOW
5:15 p.m.
WA Democrats confident Tuesday night
With just a few hours until the polls close in Washington state, Democrats are feeling confident. But should they be entirely certain of their chances in key races like the governship?
"Let the record show, we're not in the business of making predictions," KUOW Politics Editor Catharine Smith said; in fact, KUOW leaves that to The Associated Press, as does NPR and a variety of other news outlets.
Let's consider what state Democrats are looking for tonight, though.
They not only hope to get their candidate into the governor’s office, as they have for the last 40 years, but also believe they will defeat all four conservative-backed initiatives on the ballot that would roll back legislation championed by progressives.
Democrats are also hoping to pick up seats in the state Legislature, bringing them closer to a supermajority. Washington Democrats' Chair Shasti Conrad told KUOW in May that picking up Senate seats in the state's 10th and 14th legislative districts would be crucial to accomplish that goal by 2026. But Republicans have spent a lot of money and time to make sure that doesn't happen.
Several congressional seats are in play, too.
Republican Rep. Dan Newhouse, the incumbent in Congressional District 4, is fighting to keep representing Central Washington. He’s up against fellow Republican Jerrod Sessler, who won former President Donald Trump’s endorsement. Newhouse was one of ten Republicans in the U.S. House who voted to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection in 2021.
Meanwhile, in Southwest Washington’s Congressional District 3, incumbent Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a Democrat, is in a close race with MAGA Republican Joe Kent. Eyes across the country are on that race, as it’s one of a handful of contests that could determine which party controls the U.S. House in the next Congress.
— Scott Greenstone & Katie Campbell, KUOW
4:40 p.m.
'Smooth day' for King County Elections
Election day has been quiet thus far in King County.
"Fingers crossed, we’ve had a really smooth day," said King County Elections Chief of Staff Kendall Hodson in an email. "Ballot processing has been going strong since 6 a.m."
Turnout is now at about 65% for the county, not including the many ballots that have come in throughout the day Tuesday.
Hodson said voting centers have been "extremely busy," with more than 8,000 people casting their votes at the county’s seven locations.
— Katie Campbell, KUOW
4:20 p.m.
Young voters could have a crucial role in deciding the next president
Voters under 30 turned out in historically high numbers in 2020 compared to past presidential elections, and handily sided with President Biden over former President Donald Trump.
Though voters under 30 have historically turned out at much lower rates than older generations, they could make a difference on the margins in key swing states decided by just a few percentage points.
As of Monday night, about 35% of registered voters ages 18 to 24 in Washington state had voted. Another 39% of registered voters ages 25 to 34 had voted. Compare those numbers to the nearly 78% of voters 65 or older who had already voted.
Vice President Kamala Harris saw a wave of support on social media after President Joe Biden stepped aside and made way for her to claim the Democratic presidential nomination. KUOW spoke with young Democrats in Washington state in July, several of whom expressed more enthusiasm for Harris than they’d had for Biden, whose age caused concerns about his ability to effectively win another term. Democrats have historically had the edge with voters under 30. In 2020, according to the Pew Research Center, 59% of voters under 30 turned out for Biden.
Read more here.
— NPR & Katie Campbell, KUOW
Seattle FBI sees uptick in election-related threats as safety command centers come online
Federal law enforcement in Seattle says it has observed an uptick in threats related to election day. This includes a broader range of threats compared to 2020, from acts of violence, to cyber attacks, to "foreign influence operations" that aim to spread misinformation online.
"Among the most prominent is threats to election facilities and election workers. So we're certainly prioritizing those," said Greg Austin, acting special agent in charge of the FBI's election safety command center in Seattle.
Read more here.
— Jeanie Lindsay, KUOW
3:50 p.m.
WA Democrats file complaint against state GOP over 'inflammatory' texts to Spanish-speaking voters
Democrats and some Republicans are condemning text messages sent by the Washington State GOP to Spanish-speaking voters in Central Washington.
Voters in the Yakima and Tri-Cities area received texts last week in Spanish saying Democratic candidates for the 14th legislative district hate God and families. The texts claimed three Latina Democrats running for state legislature also support chemically castrating children without their parents’ consent.
“They're trying to sway our grandparents in Spanish to believe in lies,” said Maria Beltran, one of three Latina Democrats targeted in an east Yakima and Pasco-area legislative race.
“It's very inflammatory language, and I don't think that we as candidates or individuals should be engaging in that type of dialog,” said Maia Espinoza, a Republican state Senate candidate and founder of the right-wing Center for Latino Leadership.
Sen. Curtis King, the Republican incumbent in the 14th District, also disavowed the texts. Beltran and King are running for state Senate in the 14th, which was redistricted to be majority-Latino this year by a judge. Democrats now believe they may have a long shot at winning there.
Democrats have filed a complaint with the state’s campaign finance watchdog over the text messages.
Meanwhile, the state GOP doubled down on claims made in the texts in a statement on Monday.
“WA Democrats, Planned Parenthood, and their endorsed candidates are panicking," the statement reads. "They thought a left-wing judge in Seattle had gerrymandered a legislative district in Yakima for them to win. Now, it looks like their endorsed candidates there are going to lose. Why? Because those candidates do not represent the values of the people and the families that live in that district."
— Scott Greenstone, KUOW
Turnout at 57%, expected to exceed 80%
Turnout stood at about 57% as of Monday evening. In King County, that number was about 58%.
By the time all is said and done, officials expect statewide turnout to come in at more than 80%, on par with previous presidential elections.
Voters still have time to get registered and cast their ballots, too. Eligible voters can register or update their registration and vote in person at voting centers until 8 p.m. on Tuesday. Ballots can also be dropped at official drop boxes until 8 p.m.; it's best not to count on mailing your ballots in at this point. Voters can check their ballot's status at votewa.gov. Voters can also sign up for ballot updates via text message by updating their voter registration or by texting "VOTE" to 868392.
The first batch of Washington state results are expected soon after 8 p.m. Find live results here.
— Katie Campbell, KUOW
When do polls close in every state? Here's a timeline
Millions of Americans have cast their vote, either early in recent weeks or in-person at polling places today.
But the AP can't call any races until polls close in their respective state.
That process will unfold throughout the night, given the various time zones at play. Here's a breakdown of poll closing times.
— NPR
What we know from the early exit polls so far
Exit polls will change as the night goes on because they are matched toward actual results at the end of the night. But the early exit polls, as reported by NBC and CNN so far, tell us a few things:
The most important issues for voters in the election mirror what has been reported in pre-election polls like the NPR/PBS News/Marist poll. For more than a third of voters, democracy was the top issue, followed by the economy (about 3 in 10 voters), abortion rights (1 in 7), and immigration (1 in 10). Foreign policy was in low single digits — less than 10% — as a top issue.
Read more here.
— NPR
What do Democratic, Republican, and Independent Washington state voters think about the 2024 ballot?
After months of hearing from the candidates and the positions for and against initiatives, Washington state voters get to have their say in the November General Election. KUOW spoke with six Republicans, six Democrats, and six Independent voters from Bellingham down to Burien, and Bremerton across to Bellevue. We asked each of them the same questions to learn who they are, what matters to them, and how they have decided who and what to vote for.
Read more here.
— Scott Greenstone & Alex Rochester, KUOW
6 tips for staying grounded during the 2024 election
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the flood of election headlines and opinions. But does following the news have to drive us crazy or even further apart?
Here are six tips for forming better news consumption habits that you can put into action today.
1. Search for a story from the opposite perspective
Instead of just accepting one media outlet’s take on an issue and moving on, intentionally type the opposite viewpoint into a search engine to find an article that highlights that. By reading counterarguments, we can check our assumptions, verify our own beliefs, and develop a more nuanced understanding of complex issues.
2. Go straight to the source material when possible
Instead of reading an analysis of a debate, first go and watch the debate yourself to form your own opinion. If you don’t have time to watch it yourself, make sure to vary your recap sources to get a fuller picture. For instance, read a New York Times article as well as a Fox News article so you can catch any editorial bias and form your own opinion.
Similarly, if you are reading an article and it says “originally reported in X, Y, Z news source,” go to the original story instead.
Read more here.
— Jessica Jones & David Albright, KUOW
