Trump casts his ballot in 2024 election

Former President Trump cast his ballot Tuesday in the 2024 election at his polling place in Florida.

Trump was joined by former first lady Melania Trump, and he took questions from reporters about the state of his campaign and the prospect that a winner would not be clear by the end of the night.

“Look, I ran a great campaign,” Trump said, telling reporters he could not think of any regrets. “I think it was maybe the best of the three. We did great in the first one. We did much better in the second one but something happened. And this was the best. I would say this was the best campaign we’ve run.”

Trump scoffed at the idea that a final result would not be known by the end of the night, even as he acknowledged it was possible. Experts have said some states will take multiple days to count ballots and fully determine a winner.

“It should never happen. A thing like that should never happen,” Trump said, calling for the use of paper ballots and the implementation of voter identification requirements.

The former president said he had not prepared a speech for Tuesday night.

Trump is expected to carry his home state of Florida. The fate of the presidency is much less clear, as Trump and Vice President Harris are essentially deadlocked in the polls in the seven battleground states expected to determine the outcome.

As a Florida resident, Trump could also vote on a ballot measure that would bar future state legislation limiting abortion access and overturn the state’s current abortion ban. Trump told Fox News in late August that he planned to vote “no” on the measure, despite his criticism that the Florida abortion ban went too far.

Despite comments last month that he would vote early, Trump opted to vote on Election Day.

The former president has for years sowed doubt about the reliability of mail-in voting, claiming without evidence it is rife with fraud, and he has argued voting should take place on a single day. But his campaign aggressively sought to get supporters to cast their ballot early, either by mail or in person, contributing to high early voting in places like Nevada and North Carolina.

Trump won the 2016 election then lost the 2020 election, though he has repeatedly pushed unproven claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 race. Those claims culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, where Trump supporters tried to stop the certification of President Biden's victory.

"My supporters are not violent people. I don’t have to tell them that. And I certainly don’t want any violence. These are great people," Trump said Tuesday when asked about the prospect of violence.