By CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY and ALI SWENSON, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Election Day 2024 arrived Tuesday and tens of millions of Americans had already cast their ballots. They include record numbers in Georgia, North Carolina and other battleground states that could decide the winner.

Early turnout in Georgia, which has swung between Republican and Democratic candidates in the previous two presidential elections, has been so strong… more than 4 million voters – that a senior official in the secretary of state’s office said the big day could look like a “ghost town” at the polls.

As of Monday, Associated Press tracking of early voting nationwide showed roughly 82 million votes already cast — just over half of the total number of votes in the presidential election four years earlier. This is due in part to Republican voters, who cast early votes at a higher rate than in previous recent elections after a campaign by former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee to counter Democrats’ long-standing advantage in early voting.

Despite long lines in some places and some setbacks common to all elections, early voting in person and by mail went ahead without major problems.

This includes parts of western North Carolina hit last month by Hurricane Helene. State and local election officials, who benefit from changes carried out by the Republican-controlled legislature, made a herculean effort to ensure residents could cast their votes while dealing with power outages, lack of water and washed out roads.

When early voting in North Carolina ended on Saturday, more than 4.4 million voters – or nearly 57% of all registered voters in the state – had cast their ballots. As of Monday, turnout in the 25 western counties affected by the hurricane was even higher: 59% of registered voters, said state elections board executive director Karen Brinson Bell.

Brinson Bell called voters and poll workers in counties affected by the hurricanes “an inspiration to us all.”

A voter fills out his ballot during early voting in the general election, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, in Fall River, Massachusetts (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

A person walks past a sign during early voting in the general election, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, in Fall River, Massachusetts (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

People wait in line to cast their ballots at an early voting location, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024, in Blue Springs, Missouri (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel).

FILE – A Delaware County secure drop box for mail-in ballot returns is shown May 2, 2022, in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File).

An election worker demonstrates the processing of mail-in ballots during a media preview at the Philadelphia Election Warehouse in Philadelphia, Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

People line up to vote at the Chicago Early Voting Circuit Supersite, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

An elections official sorts mail-in ballots counted on the first day of tabulation, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024, at the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Voters line up to vote as an early voting location opens in Carmel, Ind., Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Bennett College student Zairen Jackson listens to a fellow student answer a question during a panel discussion in Greensboro, N.C., Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

Show title

1 of 9

A voter fills out his ballot during early voting in the general election, Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, in Fall River, Massachusetts (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Expand

In addition to the hurricanes in North Carolina and FloridaThe most worrying disruptions in the election season so far were Arson attacks that damaged ballots in two mailboxes near the Oregon-Washington border. The local authorities were looking for the person responsible.

The absence of significant and widespread problems has not prevented Trump, the Republican candidate or the Republican National Committee, which is now under your dominionto make numerous allegations of fraud or election interference during the early voting period, a possible prelude to the challenges after election day.

He has mischaracterized an ongoing investigation in Pennsylvania on approximately 2,500 potentially fraudulent voter registration applications saying one of the counties was “caught with 2,600 fake ballots and forms, all written by the same person.” The investigation is about registration requests; There is no indication that these are ballots.

In Georgia, Republicans sought to prohibit voters from returning mail-in ballots to their local elections office before polls close on Election Day, votes that are allowed under state law. a judge rejected his claim during the weekend.

Trump and Republicans have also warned about the possibility that Democrats are recruiting masses of non-citizens to vote, a claim they have made no evidence and so? goes against the data, even from Republican secretaries of state. Research has consistently shown that noncitizens registering to vote are rare. Any non-citizen who makes faces the potential for felony charges and deportationa significant disincentive.

A case of noncitizen voting was detected during early voting last month and resulted in felony charges in Michigan after a student from China cast an illegal early vote.

This is the first presidential vote since Trump lost to Joe Biden four years ago and began several attempts to avoid the result and stay in power. That culminated in the violent Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol to stop the certification of results after Trump he told his followers “fight like hell.”

Even now, a solid majority of Republicans believe Trump’s lie that Biden was not legitimately elected, despite opinions, audits and relates in the battleground states that all affirmed Biden’s victory. A survey conducted last month by Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research showed that Republicans remain much more skeptical Democrats say their votes will be counted accurately this year.

Trying to rebuild voter confidence in a system attacked with false claims of widespread fraudRepublican lawmakers in more than a dozen states since 2020 have approved new voting restrictions. Those rules include shortening the deadline to request or return a mail-in ballot, reducing the availability of ballot drop boxes and adding identification requirements.

The last weekend before Election Day, Trump continued falsely claiming the election was being rigged against him and said that a presidential winner should be declared on election nightbefore all the ballots are counted.