While there were no major reports of widespread problems for what is expected to be an historic turnout, there remains fears of violence or unrest at polling sites.
By By Erik Ortiz, Caroline Radnofsky and Charlie Gile, NBC News
Anxieties that Election Day would be marred by widespread voting problems, hacking or intimidation at the polls grew muted by Tuesday afternoon as the lessons of 2016 have so far helped to avoid the disarray of elections past, election officials and voter groups say.
While there have been routine issues during this Election Day, including malfunctioning machines at polling sites and the spreading of misinformation to confuse voters, fixes like more counties having contingency plans in the event of technical troubles seem to be working.
“At this point, this just looks like any other Election Day, and even just another Tuesday,” a senior official with the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency told reporters.
In the swing state of Pennsylvania, the nonpartisan Pennsylvania Election Protection Coalition said volunteers were documenting any potential threats toward voters at the polls, but “there have been no reports of intimidation.”
“So far, we’ve seen mostly the typical minor problems that we see on every Election Day,” Sara Mullen, advocacy and policy director for the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said in a statement.
Election officials said that the record number of people who voted early — more than 100 million — was making it easier to deal with any malfunctions.
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