From Signal Staff and News Services  As of press time on Tuesday night, former President Donald Trump led Vice President Kamala Harris with The Associated Press calling 230 Electoral College votes for Trump and 210 for Harris as of 9:50 p.m.   By that same time, Fox News had called it 248-216 in favor of Trump, saying Trump would be the winner in Georgia.  Both presidential candidates scored a series of expected victories, but some of the battleground states that are expected to determine the race remained too close to call as of press time Tuesday night.  The following are perspectives and notes via Signal news services from around the country:  Trump Wins Battleground North Carolina  Trump held four rallies over a three-day stretch in North Carolina leading to Election Day. That emphasis on the battleground state appeared to pay off as he has won North Carolina and its 16 electoral votes, according to The Associated Press, which called the race at 11:19 p.m. Eastern.  North Carolina is a battleground state that both candidates coveted.  In 2008, Barack Obama became the first Democrat presidential candidate to win North Carolina in 30 years. Trump prevailed in 2016 and then edged candidate Joe Biden by 1.3% of the vote in 2020.  North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat who has served as governor since 2017, campaigned in Raleigh with Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday — as did Attorney General Josh Stein, who ran for governor against Republican nominee Mark Robinson. The Associated Press called the race for Stein at 9:15 p.m.  A FiveThirtyEight average of polls on Oct. 30 showed Trump with a slight lead over Harris at 48.3% to 47.2%.  The western portion of the state was severely impacted by flooding and mudslides from Hurricane Helene, displacing many residents.  The mountains of western North Carolina are considered a Republican stronghold.  The 25 counties that compose the disaster area have 1.3 million registered voters. In 2020, Trump won 604,119 votes to Joe Biden’s 356,902 votes in those counties, according to political analyst Ray Bonifay, who highlighted the importance of the region in an Oct. 18 commentary on RealClearPolitics.  On the eve of Election Day, Trump held a 1.3% lead over Harris in the Real Clear Politics average of polls.  Early voting was a key factor in North Carolina’s general election.  In-person early voting started in all 100 counties on Oct. 17 and ended on Saturday at 3 p.m.  The State Board of Elections reported that more than 4.2 million residents cast early voting ballots — a record number.  Turnout in the 25 western North Carolina counties impacted by Hurricane Helene was 58.9% — around 2% higher than the statewide total, the state board said.  At a rally in Kinston over the weekend, Trump praised the people who voted early in areas where homes and businesses were swept away by mudslides and flooding from Helene.  “Many of these people don’t even have a house anymore. The devastation is like something never seen. It’s largely areas where people like Trump that were affected, and even with all of that devastation, they turned out in record numbers early,” Trump said.  “The people of your state, the people of North Carolina, are amazing. I thought we would get 50% of the number that voted in 2020. [Instead] they broke the record,” he added.  Amid the surge of Republican early voters, the Harris campaign canceled $2 million in ad reservations in North Carolina media markets on Oct. 29, according to AdImpact. The previous day, the campaign reserved $2.7 million for an ad blitz.  The Carolina Journal reported that Harris was not abandoning the state, but that she was shifting her focus to the Raleigh-Durham market.  Last week, a day after Biden appeared to call Trump supporters “garbage,” Harris urged Americans to “stop pointing fingers at each other” during a campaign stop in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Oct. 30.  At the same time Harris delivered her address, Trump held a rally in Rocky Mount, which is located around 54 miles east of the state’s capital city.  He called his supporters the “heart and soul” of the country and said that “this election is a choice between whether we will have four more years of gross incompetence and failure, or whether we’ll begin the greatest four years of the history of our country.”  Harris courted conservatives who are reluctant to support the former president.  “We know we have an opportunity in this election to turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump, who has been trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other,” Harris said.  Harris added that she will “represent all Americans, including those who don’t vote for me” and that “the vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us.”  On Monday morning, Trump held a rally at Dorton Arena in Raleigh on the state fairgrounds where he also hosted his last North Carolina appearance in 2016.  He reflected that he was in the midst of his final North Carolina rally as a presidential candidate but expressed optimism of a victory.  “Think of this: I won’t be doing this anymore with North Carolina,” he said. “And I won’t be doing this anymore. This will be our final moment, but the more exciting moment is going to begin,” Trump told the crowd.  “These that we’ve had together, these really were just to create what we’ll hopefully create tomorrow, which is we’re going to make America great again,” Trump said. “So we’ll have many meetings, but we won’t have rally meetings. Maybe we’ll rally in that we’ll rally in our success.”  National Exit Poll Results  Latino Voter Support for Trump Grew in 2024  According to the results of the National Election Pool Exit Poll, Trump is receiving more support from Latino voters in 2024 than he did in 2020.  According to the national sample collected by the NEP Exit Poll, conducted by Edison Research on Tuesday, Trump’s support among Latino voters grew by 13 percentage points between 2020 and 2024.  The results are considered preliminary and will be updated as results continue to arrive.  By race, according to the poll, white voters tended to say they voted for Trump, while minority voters more often said they cast their ballots for Harris.  Among white voters, Trump leads Harris by 12 percentage points. However, Harris holds a commanding lead with Black voters.  Black Americans told the NEP pollsters they prefer Harris over Trump by a 75 percentage point margin.  The lead is smaller among other races.  Latino voters said they broke for Harris by an 8 percentage point margin, while Asian voters said they supported Harris over Trump by an 18 percentage point margin.  However, among those who said their racial group did not fall into any of these categories, Trump is winning by 12 percentage points.  By gender, more men are backing Trump while more women are supporting Harris. According to the poll, Trump leads among men by 9 percentage points, while Harris leads with women by 12 percentage points.  By religion, respondents who identified as Catholic or Protestant are more likely to say they voted for Trump.  In contrast, more of those who identified themselves as Jewish, another religion, or not following any religion said they voted for Harris.  Among Protestants, Trump leads Harris by 24 percentage points. With Catholics, he leads the Democrat candidate by 56 percentage points.  Harris leads among Jewish voters by 56 percentage points, with those who adhere to another religion by 28 percentage points, and among those who said they do not have a religion by 47 percentage points.  By income, among respondents who said they are making less than $50,00 a year, Harris was preferred over Trump by 1 percentage point.  With those who said they are making more than $100,000 a year, Harris is leading by 7 percentage points.  Trump is ahead of Harris among voters making between $50,000 and $100,000 annually by 2 percentage points.  More younger voters and voters over the age of 65 said they preferred Harris over Trump.  Harris’s widest lead is among voters aged 18 to 29, by 13 percentage points.  Among voters between the ages of 30 and 44, Harris has a 7 percentage point advantage over Trump. With voters over the age of 65, she holds a slight one percentage point advantage.  Trump is leading Harris among voters aged 45 to 64, by 6 percentage points.  With Americans who said they switched their vote from one party to another, Trump is leading.  According to the exit poll, 5% of respondents said they switched their vote from President Joe Biden in 2020 to Trump in 2024.  By comparison, 4% of the respondents said they voted for Harris in 2024 and Trump in 2020.  North Carolina: Harris Leads Among Black Voters  In North Carolina, Black voters said they supported Harris over Trump by a wide margin, while more white voters said they voted for Trump.  Among black respondents, Harris leads Trump by 75 percentage points.  With white respondents, Trump leads Harris by 22%.  Harris is leading Trump with Latino voters by a 2 percentage point margin in the state.  An equal percentage of respondents who voted for either side told exit pollsters they switched their vote from one party to another in 2024.  All told, 3% of respondents said they switched from Biden in 2020 to Trump in 2024, and another 3% of respondents said they moved from Trump in 2020 to Harris in 2024.  Pollsters asked North Carolina voters about Hurricane Helene, which heavily affected the western portion of the Tar Heel State, “Is federal hurricane aid going to the people who need it?”  Forty-nine percent of respondents agreed, whereas 46% disagreed.  Respondents who said “Yes” to the hurricane relief question were much more likely to be Harris supporters than Trump supporters, according to the poll.  Among that group, Harris is preferred over Trump by a 59% margin. Trump leads Harris by 62% among voters who said “No” to the question.  Pennsylvania Voters Weigh in on Fracking  In Pennsylvania, respondents were asked questions about their membership in a union and their stance on fracking.  Among union households, Harris leads Trump by a 13-point margin, with 56% of this group saying they voted for Harris and 43% for Trump.  As for fracking, 55% of respondents said they “favor fracking in Pennsylvania,” and 37% said they oppose it.  Among those who favor fracking, Trump leads Harris by a 50-point margin. Conversely, Harris leads Trump by a 63-point margin among those who oppose fracking.  ‘Brick Suit’ Man Says Vote Totals Looking Good for Trump  WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — As he and other supporters of former President Donald Trump were glued to TV broadcasts of the election returns, Blake Marnell said, “I believe that President Trump will be declaring victory…and there really won’t be any argument about it after tonight. That’s just my sense.”  Marnell, 60, of San Diego, is known for his eye-catching brick-motif suit signifying his support for construction of a U.S.-Mexico border wall  He said he believes Trump will win the key state of Pennsylvania because “I’m seeing him do better than previous elections” in that state.  Marnell said the former president has run “an incredibly effective campaign.” Specifically, Trump has held meetings, granted interviews and held rallies at a pace that is “pretty much unparalleled,” he said.  Marnell said he has attended dozens of Trump rallies.  He noted that Trump has “really reached out to different sections of the electorate.”  “He brought in people who are not Republicans. He brought in RFK Jr. He brought in Tulsi Gabbard. He continues to attract non-traditional conservatives,” Marnell said.  ‘People in This Room Are Positive’  WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Santos Lopez, 57, said he was hopeful that Republican early voters had followed Trump’s admonition to make the election “too big to rig,” referring to bringing in enough votes to overcome any possible irregularities.  “I think this time people are watching, and I think that’s a lot more getting more involved and making sure their vote counts,” Lopez said in an interview at the former president’s election night watch party at the Palm Beach County Convention Center.  Lopez, who lives in upstate New York, has been a supporter of Trump since the beginning of his political career.  He is part of a group called the Orange County Choppers, motorcycle enthusiasts; he and others wore leather motorcycle vests to the event.  Lopez, a Filipino, said he was enjoying being with a diverse group of people who all support the former president.  “The energy in the room is awesome,” he said, as invited guests watched vote totals being broadcast on large screens.  He and other supporters were feeling a bit anxious yet overall confident, Lopez said, adding, “People in this room are positive.”  Lopez said he believes Americans would vote for Trump because they want to see improvements in the U.S. economy, immigration, world affairs, “and we need to be leaders again in America.”  District of Columbia Goes to Harris  The Associated Press called Washington, D.C., for Vice President Kamala Harris at 10:20 p.m. ET. She was leading former President Donald Trump by nearly 90%, with roughly 74% of the votes tallied.  The District of Columbia is considered a Democratic stronghold. Since it gained the right to vote in U.S. presidential elections in 1964, a Republican has never won its 3 electoral votes.  Candidate Joe Biden won the district by an 86.75% margin in 2020, almost identical to Hillary Clinton’s lead in 2016.  Contributing writers: Janice Hisle, Jacob Burg, Mary Lou Lang, Austin Alonzo, Jeff Louderback.   The post After expected victories, focus turns to battlegrounds   appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.