Election 2024 live updates amid neck-and-neck polls as Harris and Trump make push in battleground states

First Lady Jill Biden plans to travel to North Carolina on Monday where she will attend political events, the White House said on Saturday. According to a preliminary schedule released by her team, the first lady will arrive Monday morning in Greensboro, North Carolina. 

From there she will travel to different political events in Winston-Salem, Carrboro, and Chapel Hill.

US First Lady Jill Biden waves as she exits the plane upon her arrival at the Hosea Kutako International Airport in Windhoek on February 22, 2023. 

TARA METTE/AFP via Getty Images

North Carolina has emerged as a top battleground state in the 2024 presidential election. Both candidates had campaign events in the state on Saturday and Kamala Harris’ plane was parked by Donald Trump’s plane at the Charlotte Douglas International Airport. 

President Biden also headed to North Carolina on Saturday afternoon with his granddaughter Natalie.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

In a sign that both campaigns are targeting voters in battleground states as Tuesday’s election nears, the airplanes carrying the presidential and vice presidential candidates have been forced to share the tarmac.

Air Force Two — which Vice President Kamala Harris uses for travel — was parked near the plane used by former President Donald Trump at the Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport overnight into Saturday. The candidates had spent the night at hotels just three blocks apart after dueling rallies on Friday night.

On Saturday, both planes were again parked near each other at Charlotte Douglas International Airport as both Harris and Trump held campaign events in North Carolina. 

A CBS News reporter at the airport said both planes were about half a football field apart.

Meanwhile, the planes used by Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz were both parked near each other for the second day in a row.

On Friday, their planes shared the tarmac at Detroit’s Wayne County Airport. It was the same sight at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas on Saturday.

CBS News’ Olivia Rinaldi and Shawna Mizelle contributed to this report.

The FBI released a statement on Saturday warning that two videos circulating online were falsely claimed to have come from the federal law enforcement agency. 

Both videos focus on election security; the first video states the FBI apprehended “three linked groups committing ballot fraud.” The other, they said, had to do with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, though they did not elaborate on the subject matter.

“These videos are not authentic, are not from the FBI, and the content they depict is false,” the FBI said in a statement.

“Election integrity is among our highest priorities, and the FBI is working closely with state and local law enforcement partners to respond to election threats and protect our communities as Americans exercise their right to vote,” the FBI said in their statement. “Attempts to deceive the public with false content about FBI operations undermines our democratic process and aims to erode trust in the electoral system.”

Reporting contributed by Robert Legare.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz went door-knocking in Nevada on Saturday as part of a final push to motivate voters ahead of Tuesday’s election.

Walz, Kamala Harris’ running mate, was joined by Nevada Rep. Dina Titus and a local field organizer as they knocked on doors in the Meridiana neighborhood in Henderson.

At one home, Walz spoke with a couple and acknowledged the race will be close in Nevada and conceded “We won’t get all of them.” He encouraged them to get their friends to vote.

Just before, Walz stopped by a local Democratic field office to kick off a Las Vegas “Get out The Vote” canvass launch. He was joined by actresses Eva Longoria, Jordana Brewster and Gina Torres to speak to volunteers and local campaign organizers gathered at the office.

“You chose to come here because you love America and you know that all the privileges that come to this with this country,” Walz said during his remarks. “There is responsibility and generation who has come before us [that] protected this democracy in times of peril. And I think we all know we’re in one of those moments.”

Walz next heads to Arizona for a campaign stop.

CBS News’ Shawna Mizelle contributed to this report.

Former President Donald Trump is rallying his supporters in North Carolina every day until Election Day on Tuesday, in a flurry of late activity in a state he won both in 2016 and 2020.

The last time North Carolina backed a Democrat for president was in 2008, when former President Barack Obama won.

“We stand on the verge of the four greatest years in American history,” Trump said in remarks released by his campaign before his first event, in Gastonia on Saturday.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Gastonia, N.C., Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024.

Chris Carlson / AP

Trump will also campaign in Salem, Virginia, on Saturday before returning to North Carolina for an event in Greensboro. He will be in the eastern city of Kinston on Sunday and in Raleigh on Monday.

Those four rallies will bring his total events in North Carolina since Oct. 1 to nine. His running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, has been in the state six times during the same period, most recently on Friday.

Roughly half of North Carolina’s 7.8 million registered voters had already voted as of Friday, buoyed by early in-person voting, which ends on Saturday afternoon, the Associated Press reported.

The Harris campaign will be releasing its closing campaign ad, titled “Brighter Future,” on Sunday. The ad will be released on CBS and Fox during football coverage and will emphasize Harris’ plans for new leadership, lowering costs and protecting freedoms. The ad is meant to contrast Trump’s messaging in the final days of the race, the campaign said.

The ad shows some of Harris’ interactions with people during the campaign and has her looking directly into the camera and addressing voters.

“Now I’m asking for your vote because as president I will get up every day and fight for the American people,” she says at the end.

The ad aims to reach undecided and lower propensity voters while they are “tuning in to watch Sunday football,” according to Harris-Walz campaign principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks. 

Vice President Kamala Harris is planning to cast her vote for the 2024 election by mail, her campaign said on Saturday.

Michael Tyler, the campaign’s communications director, said he did not have an exact update on whether or not her ballot has been submitted.

He said the vice president wants to “model behavior for other voters to continue to take advantage of the various modes of voting that we have.”

“On Tuesday, it is simply last call for those final, low propensity voters that this campaign needs to turn out and continue to convince all the way through polls closing on election Day,” Tyler said.

Harris is a resident of California, where mail-in ballots must be postmarked on or before Election Day. County elections offices must receive the ballot no later than Nov. 12.

More than 4 million Georgia residents turned out for early voting – the most in the state’s most recent elections, but only four people may have attempted to cast multiple ballots, the secretary of the state’s office said Saturday.

Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger hailed it as the “most successful” early voting period in the state’s history because “voters trust the process.”

Raffensperger’s office said the state’s safeguards during the early voting period allowed election officials to identify four people who may have violated state law and “potentially used various tactics in order to attempt to cast multiple ballots.”

The secretary of the state’s office said if the investigation shows they broke the law, they will be referred to local district attorneys. The office did not release any additional information.

“Four years of progress brought us here. We’re battle-tested and ready, regardless of what the critics say. And we’re going to hold those who interfere in our elections accountable,” he said in a statement Saturday.

Georgia residents were allowed to vote early between Oct. 15 and Nov. 1.

Georgia shatters early voting records

04:35

New laws aimed at protecting the 2024 presidential election from fears about fraud are creating unexpected barriers for some of the nation’s more than 40.2 million voters with disabilities, disability rights advocates have told CBS News.

Laws in more than 20 states now restrict various elements of mail-in ballots including limiting the kinds of assistance a voter can ask for. Restrictions like those limit the ability of health aides and nurses to help prepare a ballot for the people they care for – and some even threaten criminal charges for aides who help too many people to vote.

“If I owned a nursing home or a group home, I [would] put out a memo to my staff saying, ‘don’t help anybody out because if you end up helping two people out by mistake, you could, could go to jail,’” said Andrew Bizer, a disability rights attorney in New Orleans. “And it also puts the folks with disabilities in a really terrible situation.”

Many of the new laws came after the 2020 elections when former President Donald Trump questioned the security of mail-in voting. 

A new study released by the Rutgers Program for Disability Research found that there has been a 5.1% increase in people with disabilities eligible to vote in 2020. Among that growing population, 7.1 million eligible voters with disabilities live in seven battleground states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. This shows the potential impacts that restrictive mail-in voting laws could have in next week’s election.

Click here to read more on how new laws are impacting Louisiana.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday criticized House Speaker Mike Johnson for his suggestion that Republicans would probably try to cut government subsidies for semiconductor manufacturing.

“It is my plan and intention to continue to invest in American manufacturing,” the Democratic nominee told reporters in Milwaukee.

Johnson has walked back his comments, saying he only meant that Republicans would “streamline” the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act. The Louisiana Republican has said there will be a “very aggressive” first 100-day agenda if Republicans win back control of the White House.

The CHIPS and Science Act has pumped billions of dollars into producing computer chips in the U.S. and has supported union jobs in battleground states.

Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to members of the media at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Andrew Harnik / Getty Images

Harris said Johnson’s comments are just “further evidence of everything that I’ve been actually talking about for months now about Trump’s intention to implement Project 2025.” She is referring to the multi-pronged conservative initiative that includes a detailed blueprint for the next Republican president to usher in a sweeping overhaul of the executive branch. Former President Donald Trump has denied any involvement with Project 2025.

The vice president said Johnson only walked back his comments because “their agenda is not popular.”

“That’s why I have the support of Democrats and independents and Republicans because they want a president of the United States who stops playing politics with their lives,” she said.

Former President Donald Trump criticized a pro-Harris ad that assures female voters that their husbands don’t need to know who they voted for. The ad is narrated by actress Julia Roberts, who Trump said he was “so disappointed in.” 

“She’s going to look back on that and she’s going to cringe. ‘Did I really say that?’” Trump said, in part, during a call into Fox News’ “Fox & Friends Weekend.” “It doesn’t say much about her relationship, but I’m sure she has a great relationship. But the wives and husbands, I don’t think that’s the way they deal.”

He added: “Can you imagine a wife not telling a husband who she’s voting for? Did you ever hear anything like that? Even if you have a horrible, if you had a bad relationship, you’re going to tell your husband. It’s a ridiculous ad. So stupid.”

Trump then said that he has “surrounded (himself) with women,” naming his wife Melania, his former press secretary Kellyanne Conway and adviser Susie Wiles. 

During his call into the Saturday show, Trump also repeated the claim that he didn’t know the comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who made the racist joke about Puerto Rico at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally a week ago. 

“They took out this gorgeous, unbelievable, patriotic evening, and they sort of stained it a little bit by a comedian that I have no idea who he is,” Trump said.

Votes cast for Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein in Ohio will not be counted despite her name appearing on the state’s ballot in Tuesday’s election after an appeals court panel denied her motion seeking to force the election chief to tally them.

The three-judge panel on the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday against her request for an injunction targeting Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose on Friday in a dispute over the person listed as her running mate on the ballot.

Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein.

Ross D. Franklin / AP

Stein filed as an independent presidential candidate in Ohio because the Green Party lost state recognition several years ago. She listed Anita Rios — the party’s 2014 nominee for governor — as a placeholder running mate until Butch Ware was nominated at the national convention on Aug. 17.

Ware’s nomination happened after an Aug. 12 state administrative deadline for replacing an independent vice presidential candidate, according to elections officials. LaRose’s office granted a request to remove Rios’ name but said Ware could not be added.

LaRose has instructed Ohio’s 88 county election boards to inform the electorate that votes for Stein “will be void and will not be counted,” according to court documents.

During a speech this summer in front of thousands of supporters, Hungary’s far-right prime minister, Viktor Orbán, detailed the close connections he has nurtured with former President Donald Trump.

“We have entered the policy-writing system of President Donald Trump’s team,” Orbán said. “We have deep involvement there.” 

File: Former President Donald Trump, left, and Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, stand for photographers at the West Wing of the White House in Washington, D.C., on May 13, 2019.  

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The former president speaks highly of the Hungarian leader, too. During his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump described Orbán as one of the world’s “most respected men” — a “strong man” and “a tough person.”

Beneath the close public relationship between the two leaders are what sources have described as frequent and detailed exchanges that delve deeply into political and governing strategy. Should Trump win the election next week, theirs could become a defining foreign policy relationship for a second Trump term.

Click here to read more.

By Flora Garamvolgyi and Madeleine May

With just three days until Election Day, Vice President Kamala Harris is making her final push in two battleground states – Georgia and North Carolina – as she seeks to strengthen turnout among voters in the South.

At a rally and concert in Atlanta, Georgia, Harris will be joined by director Spike Lee. Singer Victoria Monét will deliver remarks. There will be performances by 2 Chainz, Big Tigger, Monica and Pastor Troy.

Harris will then head to Charlotte, North Carolina, where she will be joined by actress Kerry Washington, who will deliver remarks. There will be performances by Brittney Spencer, Jon Bon Jovi, Khalid and The War and Treaty.

Actress Kerry Washington campaigns for Kamala Harris in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Joshua Applegate / Getty Images

No Democratic presidential candidate has carried North Carolina since Barack Obama in 2008, although it has been decided by less than 3 points in every election since.

Harris is planning to make multiple stops in Michigan on Sunday, shifting to a Democratic-leaning state in the so-called Blue Wall where her allies believe she is vulnerable.

CBS News senior White House correspondent Ed O’Keefe and CBS News Congressional correspondent Scott MacFarlane have covered some of the biggest stories of this election cycle. Now, with just three days before Election Day, both give their opinions on the state of the race.

Ed O’Keefe, Scott MacFarlane on the state of the race

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While voting by mail has become more common since the pandemic, a few recent mishaps have shaken some voters’ faith in the system. Just this week, ballot drop boxes in Oregon and Washington were set ablaze, while in Miami, a stash of sealed ballots fell out of an election worker’s truck, stoking concern among voters.

A woman in Irvine, California seen holding an Official Vote-By-Mail Ballot. 

Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images

If you already cast your vote by mail, or are planning to in the coming days, but are worried about it reaching its final destination, your state might allow you to track your ballot’s status online. Beyond reducing call volume to local election offices, these tracking systems can restore faith in the voting process, said national election expert Amber McReynolds.

Read here for steps on how to track your ballot.

Nicole Wallace, on her MSNBC show “Deadline: White House,” made a public plea Friday night to her old boss, former President George W. Bush, to speak out against former President Donald Trump before Election Day.

Wallace, who was White House communications director in the Bush administration, said she understands better than most that after his presidency, he prefers to speak through his actions, his work with veterans and his presidential library.

But after Trump’s insults and use of violent language about former Rep. Liz Cheney, the daughter of his vice president, Wallace said she contacted his office to see if “anything would change his mind about staying silent before the election.”

An adviser told her Bush did not want to insert himself into the election.

After playing on air some of Bush’s own words about what Americans do to defend liberty in the face of threats, Wallace said, “We have a right to hope that those who have stood for freedom and celebrated those who have protected it might have a last-minute change of heart in the closing hours of this campaign.” 

Texas’ top election official, Secretary of State Jane Nelson said the state will not be allowing federal monitors into Texas polling locations. 

“Texans can be confident in the state’s strong measures to ensure election integrity,” Nelson said in a post on X, where she also posted her letter to the Justice Department.

The Justice Department enforces federal voting rights laws that protect the rights of all eligible citizens to access the ballot. The department regularly deploys its staff to monitor for compliance with federal civil rights laws in elections across the U.S. 

The Justice Department, in its enforcement of federal voting rights laws, regularly sends monitors to ensure voting rights compliance. It had announced plans Friday to send monitors to 86 jurisdictions in 27 states, including eight locations in Texas.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday declined to freeze a decision from Pennsylvania’s highest court that required election officials to count provisional ballots cast by people whose mail ballots are invalid because they lacked mandatory secrecy envelopes.

The order from the justices means that election officials in the key battleground state must tally provisional ballots submitted on Election Day by voters who returned defective mail ballots, either because they didn’t include secrecy envelopes or failed to sign or date the outer envelope.

KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images

Donald Trump held his final Wisconsin rally of the 2024 campaign Friday night, returning to Fiserv Forum, in Milwaukee, the site of the Republican convention, to deliver his closing message to the Badger State. In 2016, he narrowly won Wisconsin but he lost the state’s 10 electoral votes to Joe Biden in 2020.

The rally was plagued by microphone problems. People in the upper sections in the back of the arena couldn’t hear Trump, and he expressed frustration with the technical issues. 

“I’m seething. I’m working my ass off with a stupid mic,” Trump said. 

He then made crude gestures toward the mic stand, complaining it was too low. He held the microphone for the rest of the rally but complained about how heavy it was several times. He also threatened not to pay the contractor. 

“Do you want to see me knock the hell out of people backstage?” Trump asked. “I don’t ask for much. The only thing I ask for is a good mic. And this is the second time today that this happened.”

He loosely blamed campaign manager Susie Wiles for the microphone issue. 

By Olivia Rinaldi and Katrina Kaufman

Andrew Harnik / Getty Images

Both Donald Trump Trump and Kamala Harris campaigned in the Milwaukee area Friday night, going into the final weekend of the 2024 campaign. Harris didn’t deviate much from her standard stump speech in West Allis, Michigan, a Milwaukee suburb of Milwaukee. She urged people to vote who haven’t yet cast their ballots.

“No judgment, no judgment at all — but do get to it,” Harris said, before reviewing the list of her campaign promises and litany of grievances against Trump.

Music star Cardi B says she will vote for Kamala Harris at a campaign rally in West Allis, Wisconsin, on Nov. 1, 2024.

Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images

Cardi B, who spoke shortly before Harris, told the crowd she didn’t intend to vote this year, but “Kamala Harris changed my mind.” 

She called Trump a “bully” and said, “I can’t stand a bully, but just like Kamala, I stand up to one.” Cardi B repeatedly said she was nervous about speaking at the rally. Women, she said, have to work 10 times harder than men “and still, people question us.”