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LIVE BLOG: Election Day Coverage From America’s Voice

by Gabe Ortiz on

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We’re finally here — Election Day 2016. As early voting numbers have indicated, Latino and immigrant voters will play key roles in battleground states that will determine who occupies the White House come January.

“Donald Trump opened his White House bid by stoking fears of Mexicans flooding the border,” NBC’s Suzanne Gamboa wrote in a new piece earlier today. “In the end, it may be a Latino voter surge that walls him out.”

“In states crucial to Trump’s win, Hispanics have had an outsized presence at the polls, waiting out long lines in Florida, Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina and other states.”

We’ll be updating this live blog with up-to-the-minute news, commentary, and tweets from around battleground states and around the country as the day unfolds.

More key resources, including Election Eve polling on Latino and Asian-American voters, can be found here: AmericasVoice.org/2016.

7:00 PM EST:

Ann Navarro on CNN:

“I can assure you that Donald Trump is going to get historic low numbers amongst Latinos, he’s going to be probably in the teens. If he breaks 20, it’s a good night for him with Latinos. And it would be sweet, sweet justice if, after everything he has said, after every attack he has made against Latinos, after he has thrown out Latino anchors from press events, after he hasn’t done any outreach, after he has questioned a judge’s citizenship, after he has called Mexicans rapists, it would be sweet, sweet justice if, tonight, it was the Latino vote that defeated Donald Trump.”

6:30 PM EST:

3:15 PM EST:

In Phoenix, hundreds of students — primarily of color — are leading a walkout to urge votes against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio:

3:15 PM EST:

Pretty awesome moment from the judge in that bogus Trump lawsuit we’ve talked about earlier:

3 PM EST:

In typical Donald Trump fashion, his campaign is now suing in the state of Nevada — basically because too many Latinos voted.

From Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress:

At a rally this past weekend, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump complained that “it’s being reported that certain key Democratic polling locations in Clark County were kept for hours and hours beyond closing time to bus and bring and [SIC] Democratic voters in.” County officials deny this allegation, saying that the only voters who were allowed to cast a ballot were those who were in line before the scheduled closing time.

Under state law, “if at the hour of closing the polls there are any registered voters waiting to vote . . . voting must continue until those voters have voted.” So polling officials are not permitted to prevent voters who arrived at the polling place before closing time from voting.

It is unclear what, if any, evidence Trump has that polling places were held open in violation of state law. It is also not entirely clear what the appropriate remedy would be if a violation did occur. Should voters be disenfranchised because they were erroneously permitted to cast a ballot too late? If so, how do election officials identify those ballots?

In any event, in the likely event that Trump does not have any evidence that state law was violated here, his attorneys might want to familiarize themselves with another provision of state law.

Under Rule 11 of the Nevada Rules of Civil Procedure, lawyers must certify to the court that their claims “are warranted by existing law or by a nonfrivolous argument for the extension, modification, or reversal of existing law or the establishment of new law.” Failure to comply with this rule can lead to a court imposing “an appropriate sanction upon the attorneys, law firms, or parties” responsible for filing frivolous litigation.

UPDATE: At a hearing concerning this lawsuit, Judge Gloria Sturman appeared incredulous at many of the arguments raised by Trump’s attorney. At one point she told the lawyer that he has “no cause of action.” At another, after the hearing had proceeded for quite a while, she dismissively told the lawyer “you still somehow think you’re entitled to an order in your favor. Why?”

During arguments over whether elections officials should turn over personal information regarding poll workers who worked at the contesting polling places, Judge Sturman said that “it’s disturbing to me” that poling workers could be harassed because of this lawsuit, if their information is revealed to trolls on Twitter.

It appears unlikely, to say the least, that Trump will prevail.

State political guru Jon Ralston has been livetweeting the whole thing:

2:30 PM EST:

Below are selected excerpts from questions released as part of the first installment of the Latino Decisions and Asian American Decisions election eve national and state polls. More poll findings are available here.

Immigration is a top issue facing the Latino community; economy/jobs/unemployment number one for Asian American community: When asked an open ended question in the Latino poll, a plurality of 39% of Latino voters nationwide said immigration/deportation was one of the most important issues facing the Latino community that politicians should address; 33% said the same about the economy, job creation, or unemployment, while 15% mentioned education/schools. In the Asian American poll, when asked an open ended question, a plurality of 40% of Asian American voters said the economy, job creation, or unemployment was a top issue facing the AAPI community that politicians should address; 17% chose health care; and an additional 17% said race relations or racism.

Two-thirds of Latino voters say immigration was the most important or one of the most important issues to their voting decisions: A combined two-thirds of Latino voters nationwide (66%) said that the issue of immigration was either the most important issue in their decision to vote and their candidate preference (22% said “the most”) or “one of the important issues” (42%). An additional 27% said immigration was “somewhat important”, while only 8% said immigration was “not really important” to their voting decisions.

Nearly nine-in-ten Asian American voters say the economy and jobs are one of the most important issues to their voting decisions: A combined 87% of Asian American voters nationwide say that the economy and jobs are either the most important issue in their decision to vote and their candidate preference (36% said “the most”) or “one of the most important issues” (51%).

Nationwide, 64% of Latino voters and 57% of Asian American voters were not contacted by a campaign, party, or community organization in recent months about voting or registering to vote, though higher rates of voter contact were reported in battleground states: While only 35% of Latino voters nationwide reported a voter contact effort over recent months, the numbers are higher in such battleground 2016 states such as AZ (41%), CO (52%), FL (43%), NC (50%), NV (52%), OH (52%) and VA (46%). In the Asian American survey, 42% of voters reported a voter contact effort over recent months, with higher numbers reported in CA (52%), as well as 2016 battleground states such as FL (54%), NC (49%), PA (63%), and VA (55%).

12:00 PM EST:

In Las Vegas — where Latino and immigrant voters lined up for hours to vote on the final night of early voting in the state — organizers with Immigrant Voters Win are canvassing, complete with a mariachi band, to make sure voters go out and vote today.

In Texas — which has become a battleground state in this election — voters are lining up at the polls.

In Wisconsin, young people are mobilizing their communities to vote:

10:45 AM EST:

Later today, Latino Decisions and Asian American Decisions, along with partners, will be releasing Election Eve polls of Latino and Asian-American voters, which will provide the most accurate and in-depth information on these voters’ election views, choices, and motivations.

Schedule below. For more details, including call in information, click here.

TODAY: Election Day: 1st installment via 2pm EST/11am PT press release; 2nd installment via 4PM EST/1PM PT press call

Election Night: Horse race results (Pres, Senate, Congress) via press release when state polls close, full national data at 11pm EST/8pm PT

7pm EST (4pm PT) FL* and VA*

7:30pm EST(4:30 PT) OH (Latino only) and NC*

8pm EST (5pm PT) IL*, TX*, PA (Asian American only)

9pm EST (6pm PT) AZ, CO, NY, WI (Latino only)

10pm EST (7pm PT) NV*

11pm EST (8pm PT) CA* and national figures*

* Latino and Asian American numbers together

Wed, 11/9: Webinar on Latino poll and election results 1pm EST/10am PT; webinar on Asian American poll and election results 2pm EST/11am PT.

9 AM EST: