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

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.

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.

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

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.

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."