Headline Roundup • November 5th, 2024
Voting Issues Hit Multiple Swing States
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Several swing states had issues with voting machines, reading ballots, and bomb threats on Election Day.
Pennsylvania: Officials said an issue with how the ballots were printed in Cambria and Bedford Counties prevented them from being counted. The counties affected are largely Republican. A poll worker in Cambria County said people are still voting using ballot boxes and that the votes will be counted once the issue is resolved. āThis should not discourage voters from voting at their voting precincts. The Board has filed a Court Order extending the time to vote within Cambria County," Cambria County Solicitor Ron Repak said in a statement. Voting times in Cambria have been extended from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Wisconsin: Officials in Milwaukee said roughly 31,000 absentee ballots will be recounted because doors on ballot tabulators were not properly sealed. President Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in Milwaukee County with 69.4% of the vote in 2020.
Georgia: DeKalb County voting places were the target of at least five bomb threats. Officials are "in the process of seeking an emergency order extending the voting times at the affected polling locations." Biden won the county with 83% of the vote in 2020.
New Jersey: Burlington County reported an issue with voting machines that delayed voting at some locations by 2 or 3 hours.
For Context: On Tuesday morning, U.S. officials said they've seen no evidence of a nationwide threat to election security. More than 83 million people had already voted before Election Day.
How the Media Covered It: Associated Press (Lean Left bias) downplayed issues with the homepage headline, "Election Day voting unfolds generally smoothly with some scattered issues and delays." In contrast, Fox News' (Right bias) homepage read sensationally, saying, "Voting hours extended in critical battleground state after 'software issue'."
Featured Coverage of this Story
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Milwaukee will rerun about 31,000 absentee ballots after a "sealing" error with the tabulation machines was discovered at the downtown central count site on Election Day, potentially delaying a final count by one to three hours, city spokesman Jeff Fleming said on Tuesday.
The FBI says fake 'Russian bomb threats' have been made to polling places in several states as Americans cast their ballots in one of the closest elections in U.S. history.
Polling places in swing states of Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin were targeted in the plot by the Russians.
But none of the threats have been 'determined to be credible thus far,' the FBI said in a statement on Election Day.
AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File
In Pennsylvania, there are multiple backups in place so voters can cast a ballot if there are issues with the voting machines.
All election equipment used by Pennsylvania countiesāranging from ballot-marking devices used for some in-person voting to machines that tabulate mail and absentee ballotsāis put through a pre-election stress test known as logic and accuracy testing.
Still, things can break down unexpectedly at the most inopportune momentālike voting machines on Election Day.
AllSides Picks
Headline Roundup
Rubio's Iran Testimony to House Committee Draws Divided Media Coverage
June 5th, 2026
.png)
