Election

When some state returns will be in

The New York Times

How Philadelphia students are participating in the 2024 election

Getting Out the Native Vote 

Axios - Security fences have gone up around the White House, the vice president's residence and the venues for both candidates' election-night parties, as authorities brace for post-election unrest. MORE

NBC News - Some of the first polls will close at 6 p.m. ET. Early results could offer clues into how certain voting blocs are leaning. Here are the bellwethers to watch. 

NBC News - A Pennsylvania judge allows Elon Musk’s super PAC to dole out one last cash prize to registered voters. A lawyer for Musk said yesterday in court that the $1 million daily prizes aren’t given away at random. That disclosure, which one legal expert called “absolutely, unambiguously illegal,” could lead to more legal fallout.  

Interesting Facts -  As implied by its name, Election Day is, well, a single day. That wasn't always the case, however: States used to hold elections whenever they wanted within a 34-day period leading up to the first Wednesday in December. This ultimately created some issues, as you might imagine — early voting results ended up holding too much sway over late-deciding voters, for one thing. The current date was implemented by the Presidential Election Day Act of 1845, and federal elections now occur every two years on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

An hour-by-hour guide on how to watch election night like an expert

Interesting Facts - As human space exploration has evolved, trips off world have grown longer and longer. In 1961, Yuri Gagarin spent less than two hours in orbit; today, it’s common for astronauts to stay in space for six months to a year. Because astronauts are spending larger portions of their lives hundreds of miles above us, the voting process has had to adapt. A pivotal moment occurred in September 1996, when NASA astronaut John Blaha went to the Russian space station Mir for a 118-day stay and completely missed voting in the 1996 presidential election. In response, Texas state Senator Mike Jackson proposed legislation to allow astronauts to vote in space. (Notably, many astronauts live in Texas because they train at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.) In 1997, NASA astronaut David Wolf, who was also aboard the Mir, became the first astronaut to successfully vote in space. Wolf told The Atlantic in 2016 that he was particularly moved by the experience, saying that voting “mak[es] a person feel like part of a civilization somewhere.”

Although the idea of voting from a tin can some 254 miles above the planet may sound complex, the actual process is relatively straightforward. The county clerk from the astronaut’s home state (usually Texas) sends an electronic ballot to NASA; at the same time, an encrypted electronic ballot is sent to the orbiting astronaut via NASA’s Space Network, which manages all data and communication from the ISS to ground crews. The astronaut fills out the ballot (even putting “low-Earth orbit” on the address line) and sends it back using NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite to a ground antenna in New Mexico. NASA sends the ballot to Johnson Space Center, and then on to the appropriate county clerk. Throughout, only the clerk and the astronaut have access to the encrypted ballot to preserve its security. This entire process unfolded during the 2020 election, when NASA astronaut Kate Rubins submitted her ballot, calling it “an honor to be able to vote from space.”