Election Day live updates: Voters head to the polls in Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky and Mississippi

Ohio voter weighs in on state’s Issue 1 ballot

An Ohio voter spoke to NBC News about the state’s Issue 1 and Issue 2 ballots. Issue 1 would establish a constitutional right to an abortion and Issue 2 would legalize marijuana.

Dana Kletcha said that Issue 1 is racial, socioeconomic, about women and about the general public. She said she hopes that her vote in favor of Issue 1 sends the message that a majority of Ohio voters supports reproductive rights.

Kletcha also said that she’s also voting for Issue 2, saying that there are a lot of people who get in trouble for using marijuana in ways that aren’t legal simply because of their racial or socioeconomic background. Kletcha said she thinks it’s silly for people to be concerned that there will be more individuals walking around high.

Kentucky governor’s race too close to call

The Kentucky governor’s race between incumbent Democrat Andy Beshear and Republican Daniel Cameron is too close to call.

As of 7 p.m. ET, Beshear led Cameron about 58% to 42% with 15% of the vote in.

Polls have closed in Virginia

Polls closed in Virginia at 7 p.m. ET. Voters who are in line can stay in line to cast their ballot.

Ohio will vote on whether to guarantee access to abortion in the state constitution. NBC News’ Stephanie Gosk speaks with Republican women in the suburbs of Columbus about how the issue affects how they vote. 

Polls have closed in eastern Kentucky

Polls closed in eastern Kentucky at 6 p.m. ET.

NBC News Exit Poll: 42% of Ohio voters say their finances are worse than 3 years ago

Four in 10 Ohio voters said that their families’ financial situations are worse today than they were three years ago, according to the NBC News Exit Poll of early and Election Day voters.

Only 21% said their financial situations are better, while 35% said they’re about the same.

Voters who backed Joe Biden in 2020 were far more likely to say their financial situations are better today or the same as they were three years ago, with 83% saying so, compared to just 26% of those who backed Donald Trump. By contrast, 72% of 2020 Trump voters said their finances are worse today than three years ago, compared to 16% of Biden voters.

NBC News’ Steve Kornacki previews the governor’s races in Kentucky and Mississippi and decisions over abortion rights in Ohio and Virginia and breaks down how this year’s Election Day results could affect the 2024 election cycle.

After Roe’s fall, Mississippi Democrats wrestle with backing a ‘pro-life’ candidate for governor

OXFORD, Miss. — In Mississippi’s first governor’s election since the fall of Roe v. Wade — which shuttered clinics across the South and drove pregnant women across state lines for care — abortion rights aren’t on the ballot.

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves and his Democratic challenger, Brandon Presley, both support the state’s sweeping abortion ban.

That has left some Democratic voters here wrestling with deeply held convictions about abortion rights in a surprisingly competitive governor’s race: Should they support Presley’s “pro-life” campaign, which promises to provide a desperately needed lift for vulnerable families? Or should they withhold their vote in protest, which could help Reeves, a conservative who critics say hasn’t done enough to address some of the state’s most persistent socioeconomic challenges, win a second term?

Read the full story here.

Texas city council candidate arrested on child porn charges on eve of Election Day

Brad Benson, a Granbury City Council candidate in Texas’ Hood County, was arrested yesterday and accused of possession of child pornography, according to a police report obtained by NBC News.

The Republican Party of Granbury said in a statement that it was notified this morning of a law enforcement operation involving Benson.

It said that “the Executive committee has conferred, spoken with law enforcement, confirmed more substantial information and unanimously withdraws their support for Mr. Benson.”

“Crimes of this degree tear at the heart and soul of society, and we condemn them in the strongest terms. The Republican Party stands for conservative, family values and the protection of children. These heinous acts are antithetical to what Republicans stand for,” the party said. “It is time for the justice system to act and if Mr. Benson is proven guilty, the punishment needs to be swift and severe.”

Benson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reeves wins undecided voter over on economy

Clad in a hot-pink campaign T-shirt, Kathy McDade waved a campaign sign as polling traffic started to pick up late this afternoon at a precinct in Flowood, Mississippi, about 10 miles north of Jackson.

McDade was there to support Brent Bailey, a Republican running for re-election to the state’s Public Service Commission. McDade, whose family once owned a local grocery store chain in Jackson, said she voted for Republican Gov. Tate Reeves before her volunteer shift.

“He’s always had that support, because we are businesspeople,” she said.

After he cast his ballot, Terry Beck, an independent, said he struggled with whether to vote for Reeves before he made a final decision this morning. He ultimately voted for Reeves, he said, because the state is in “fair shape economically.”

On the campaign trail, Reeves has touted investments in workforce development and major economic projects expected to bring jobs paying above the state’s average salary.

“He has the ability to work with industry and other income-generating entities,” said Beck, a retired State Health Department employee.

He acknowledged one policy area, however, over which he disagrees with Reeves: “We need to pass Medicaid expansion. Period.”

NBC News Exit Poll: Ohio voters trust Republican Party more on the economy

Nearly half of Ohio voters today said that when it comes to the economy, they trust the Republican Party more than the Democratic Party, according to the NBC News Exit Poll of early and Election Day voters. By contrast, 42% trust the Democratic Party more to handle the economy.

Self-identified Democrats and Republicans sided with their own party on the issue. Among independents, 44% said they trust the Republican Party more to handle the economy, while 38% said they trust the Democratic Party more, the poll found.

NBC News Exit Poll: Most Ohio voters unhappy with decision overturning Roe v. Wade

Sixty percent of Ohio voters today said they are dissatisfied or angry about the Supreme Court decision last year that overturned Roe v. Wade, according to the NBC News Exit Poll of early and Election Day voters.

Thirty-five percent had positive views of the Supreme Court’s decision, with 18% saying they were enthusiastic and 17% more saying they were satisfied.

Issue 1 on the ballot today asks whether the right to an abortion should be added to Ohio’s constitution. NBC News has not projected the outcome.

How election denialism is affecting a county in Virginia.

NBC News Exit Poll: Ohio voters say Biden and Trump shouldn’t run in 2024

Ohio voters today largely disapprove of the way Joe Biden is handling his job as president, according to results from the NBC News Exit Poll of early and Election Day voters. Fifty-seven percent said they disapprove of the job he’s doing, compared to 41% who said they approve.

Negative views of the president extend to his re-election campaign, with just over 7 in 10 Ohio voters saying they do not think he should be running for another term.

The Republican front-runner, former President Donald Trump, has more support for 2024, but not much more, the poll found. Only about one-third of Ohio voters said he should be running again.

NBC News Exit Poll: Majority of Ohio voters think abortion should be legal

Abortion is on the ballot in Ohio today, and a majority of voters think it should be legal in all or most cases, according to the NBC News Exit Poll of early and Election Day voters.

About 6 in 10 voters said they think abortion should be legal, with 29% saying it should be legal in all cases and 33% saying it should be legal in most cases. About a quarter said they think abortion should be illegal in most cases, while 11% said it should be illegal in all cases.

Issue 1 on the ballot today asks if the right to an abortion should be added to Ohio’s constitution. Polls close at 7:30 p.m. ET; NBC News has not made a projection on the outcome.

Ohio GOP Senate candidate says ballot measure would let a rapist ‘force’ a woman to get an abortion

Ohio Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno falsely claimed in a recent interview that Issue 1 — the ballot measure seeking to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution — would allow a rapist to “force” a woman to have an abortion.

The remark by Moreno, a businessman, is the latest from groups and individuals opposed to Issue 1 to mischaracterize the proposal by tying it to parental rights.

“As a dad of two girls, it’s about having that girl be able to be raped and having a rapist force her to have an abortion — all without your consent — as a minor,” Moreno said in an Oct. 12 episode of the RestoreLiberty.US podcast.

Earlier in the podcast, Moreno mischaracterized Issue 1 as being about “on-demand abortion, late-term abortion, stripping parental rights.” If passed, he said, it will have “opened a door to transgender surgeries, transgender mutilation of children.”

Nonpartisan legal experts say his remarks are rife with inaccuracies and falsehoods.

Read the full story here.

Vivek Ramaswamy says he’s voting against abortion rights and marijuana legalization ballot measures in Ohio

Speaking to NBC News outside of a polling location, GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said he would vote against major ballot measures on abortion rights and marijuana legalization.

“I’ll be voting ‘no’ on both,” he said when asked about how he intends to vote on both issues, adding he thinks “it is appropriate for the abortion issue to be handled by states.”

“But I think it’s also important for the states to come up with the correct answer here,” he added. “And I reject any constitutional measure, like the one being proposed today, that could be interpreted to allow abortion up to the life, up to the time of birth. That’s wrong.”

“Parental consent is also paramount,” he said. “The fact that this would strip back parental consent rights, I do think parents have rights over minors to be able to help them make those right decisions.”

Asked about the ballot measure on marijuana legalization, Ramaswamy said the issue should only be discussed at the federal level.

“I think that there’s room for reasonable discussion at the federal level about what these policies should be, but I don’t think we’re doing a service to the rule of law in this country, where we have continual departures” between state laws and federal law, he said.

“I am open to a rational discussion about what, for example, veterans who suffer from certain conditions of pain or PTSD might be have available to them. Let’s have that discussion at the federal level,” he said. “That’s where the federal drug laws are. But right now, at the state level, I do not think it is healthy for our country to see further chaos and confusion and conflicts between state and federal law.”

NBC News Exit Poll in Ohio: Our methodology

The NBC News Exit Poll was conducted with voters as they left polling places across Ohio on Election Day.

To account for the high number of early and absentee voters and to ensure a sample that represents the ways Americans cast their ballots, the exit poll also includes extensive interviews with in-person early voters at 80 voting centers across the state, as well as a telephone survey to capture the estimated 25% of Ohio voters who cast an absentee ballot.

The Ohio exit poll will include about 3,600 voters in all: approximately 2,800 Election Day voters and 800 early voters.

In Ohio, abortion backers hope for another victory in their unbroken winning streak

One of the marquee Election Day contests is in Ohio, where voters will decide whether to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.

A victory would continue a winning streak for abortion rights supporters. In the nearly 17 months since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, candidates and ballot measures backing abortion rights have won in every election, including in conservative states like Kentucky and Kansas — as well as in an August special election in Ohio that served as a proxy battle ahead of today’s vote.

At stake is Issue 1, a proposed amendment that would insert language in the state constitution codifying the right “to one’s own reproductive medical treatment, including but not limited to abortion” and barring the state from “burdening, penalizing or prohibiting” those rights. The proposed measure specifies that abortion would remain prohibited after fetal viability, but includes exceptions to protect the mother’s life or health.

Read the full story here.

Eyes on 2024: Virginia to test Youngkin’s message and political power

Tuesday’s legislative elections in Virginia will provide key tests for both parties’ messaging ahead of 2024, as well as the state’s GOP governor. 

“I think they’re the most important elections in America because these issues that are so important to Virginians are also the ones that are going to be so important to Americans next year,” Virginia GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.

The battles for the state House of Delegates, which Republicans control, and the state Senate, which Democrats control, could come down to a handful of districts. And they’ll test Youngkin’s own political power as he’s brushed off questions about his presidential ambitions.

NBC’s Gary Grumbach and Katherine Koretski caught up with Youngkin over the weekend while he was campaigning in the Senate’s competitive 10th District, where GOP state Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant is running against Democrat Schuyler Van Valkenburg. 

Read the full story here.

Two clashing forces shape battle for Virginia — and what to expect in 2024

Mark Murray

So much has stayed the same, politically, since Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin won Virginia two years ago — most American voters say the nation is headed in the wrong direction, President Joe Biden remains unpopular and former President Donald Trump continues to loom over the political landscape. 

But so much has changed, too. Most dramatically, the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the Roe v. Wade decision on abortion, which resulted in a more energized Democratic electorate that helped the party in the 2022 midterms and in special elections across the country this year.

And today’s state legislative races in Virginia, where control of the Legislature is up for grabs (and with it, Youngkin’s national ambitions), could hinge on which political force is greater.

Read the full story here.

In deep-red Kentucky, Democrats bet abortion will be a winning issue in the governor’s race

Last fall, voters in deep-red Kentucky delivered a win for Democrats when they rejected an amendment that would have written opposition to abortion into the state constitution.

This year, state Democrats are again banking that voters will side with protecting abortion rights. They’re putting the issue front and center in the closely watched governor’s race on Nov. 7, hoping it will help boost Gov. Andy Beshear to another term.

The race between Beshear, the popular Democratic incumbent, and his Republican challenger, Daniel Cameron, the conservative attorney general, has emerged as yet another test of whether abortion rights can help Democrats in otherwise tough political terrain.

Read the full story here.

Robust turnout in competitive Virginia district

Of the 3,200 people who are registered to vote at one precinct in Henrico County, outside of Richmond, more than 1,200 people have already voted today, and 800 people voted during the 45-day early voting period.

Election officials at this polling location say they’ve been doing this for more than a decade here and are “very impressed” with this level of turnout.

Youngkin’s team is predicting this area’s Senate race to be one of the closest in the state. Republican state Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant, an OB-GYN, is running for re-election against Democratic Delegate Schuyler Van Valkenburg.

Youngkin is hoping to hold the Assembly and flip the Senate, which would allow for many of his conservative priorities to move through the General Assembly with ease.

In Mississippi’s governor’s race, health care a top issue

For some voters in here Mississippi’s capital, the state’s high uninsured rates and struggling hospitals were defining issues in today’s gubernatorial election.

At a precinct in Jackson’s Fondren neighborhood, Evan Parker, 35, said he’s backing Presley, the Democratic nominee who has made Medicaid expansion a focal point of his campaign.

Republican incumbent Gov. Reeves opposes expansion.

As an alternative, Reeves announced a plan that his administration estimates will send nearly $700 million to the state’s hospitals, but unlike expansion wouldn’t provide health insurance.

Parker, a professor at a local college, said Medicaid expansion provided him with coverage while he was “a poor graduate student” living in Louisiana. He said moving back to Mississippi and seeing people “suffering without health care” was a “grave injustice.”

“I think health care is a right,” Parker said.

Mississippi is one of 10 states that has not expanded the public health insurance program. Almost 11% of the state’s residents lack health insurance.

CISA sees no threats so far to today’s elections

The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which is responsible for providing cybersecurity aid to election officials, has not seen any issues of concern so far in today’s elections.

“We continue to see no specific or critical threat to disrupt election infrastructure or Election Day operations,” a senior CISA official said on a press call this morning.

That doesn’t constitute a guarantee that every election will run smoothly, the official said.

“Things are going to come up. And with 30 states conducting elections across numerous jurisdictions, we should expect to see some examples of standard operational disruption, whether it’s from Mother Nature or human error,” she said.

Virginia says purged voters are back on rolls

The 3,400 Virginia voters erroneously purged from the rolls by state authorities have been re-registered to vote, a spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Elections said today.

Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s elections staff said last month they had purged thousands of voters during list maintenance operations. The purged voters all had felony convictions but had had their voting rights restored; they were purged after state police reported probation violations as new felonies.

Nearly all states bar those serving felony prison sentences from voting, but Virginia is one of a handful of states that permanently bars those with felony convictions from voting unless they have their rights restored by the governor.

The Virginia State Conference NAACP and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law sued Youngkin’s administration for more information on the state’s felony rights restoration process. They said in a Monday release that the documents they received reveal an arbitrary and opaque process.

Dorian Spence, a vice president at the Lawyers Committee, told NBC News they’ve encouraged voters who fear they may be affected to bring paperwork like their rights restoration letter with them to the polls.

If they are not on the voter rolls as expected, he said, they can use same-day voter registration and cast a provisional ballot. 

Virginia could be a bellwether for abortion measures ahead of the 2024 election cycle as voters head to the polls Tuesday. NBC News correspondent Gary Grumbach reports.

A local Pennsylvania election puts national issues like abortion and Israel to the test

The county executive in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, doesn’t have much, if any, power when it comes to abortion rights. And the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas doesn’t fall under its purview, either.

Yet it’s those national issues that are likely to play a huge role in Tuesday’s election for the most powerful local office in the state’s second-most populated county.

Insiders and strategists on both sides have cautioned against drawing too many conclusions from the results of the Pittsburgh-area battle between Democratic former state Rep. Sara Innamorato and Republican former banking executive Joe Rockey, as well as a hotly contested district attorney battle in the county. But the races will take the temperature of a pivotal voting bloc ahead of next year’s presidential contest and test whether progressive momentum in this Democratic enclave of western Pennsylvania can march on or be met with blowback after years of advances.

Read the full story here.

What to watch for in the 2023 elections

Voters across the country head to the polls for state and local elections on Tuesday — and there are particularly competitive races in four states that will give signals about what voters are thinking and where the national political environment stands ahead of 2024.

Here’s what we’re watching in the key elections in Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio and Virginia.

Read the full story here.