A flag flying upside down above a large crow

Pictures show the final days of an election like no other

After a tumultuous year, a record number of Americans unite in voting.

Supporters wait for President Trump to arrive at a rally at Scranton airport in Pennsylvania on Nov. 2, a day before the election.

Photograph by Natalie Keyssar, National Geographic
ByTucker C. Toole
November 4, 2020
8 min read

As the 2020 presidential campaign draws to a close, millions of Americans have lined up, in the midst of a pandemic, at schools, churches, and community centers across the country to cast their vote in an election like no other. From last-ditch legal battles over mail-in ballots to voting machines going dead, this election has been a ride, to say the least. “Life depends on it,” said one early voter in Brooklyn, New York, who like a record 100 million others, cast her vote before Election Day even came around. As President Donald Trump and former vice president Joe Biden crisscrossed the country in an effort to rally last-minute votes and people made their way to polling stations, we sent photographers to capture the final days of one of the most historic elections on record.

A woman wearing white clothes, larger sunglasses, and a white visor
Elizabeth Taylor from Winter Park, a suburb of Orlando, Florida, poses at an Eric Trump rally in nearby Longwood, Florida.
Photograph by Christopher Gregory-Rivera, National Geographic
Presidential election memorabilia on a street stand

Trump campaign merchandise outside a rally Eric Trump held in Longwood, Florida, three days before the election.

Photograph by Christopher Gregory-Rivera, National Geographic
A truck with a tire and presidential election vote signs
A truck decorated with Biden-Harris stickers is parked in the driveway of a supporter in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. Door County, where Sturgeon Bay is located, voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, and Donald Trump in 2016, and is considered a bellwether county in the swing state.
Photograph by David Guttenfelder, National Geographic
stacks of paper, american flags, and hand sanitizer

The Luzerne County Democrats headquarters in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. On the day before the election, both Democrats and Republicans held campaign events across the hotly-contested swing county.

Photograph by Natalie Keyssar, National Geographic
Two young women stand for a portrait
On Election Day, college students Ariana Baldwin, 19, left, and Abigail Corrigan, 22, pose after seeing Joe Biden at a campaign event on Pear Street in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Corrigan said she supports Biden because “he has a fresh perspective, supports the working class, and actually has a plan for the pandemic.”
Photograph by Natalie Keyssar, National Geographic
A boarded up hi-rise
A pedestrian passes boarded-up businesses in the Farragut North neighborhood of Washington, D.C. on Monday. Many businesses near the White House and in downtown D.C. have boarded up their windows and doorways in case of unrest
Photograph by Jared Soares, National Geographic
People holding hands in prayer

A few people who participated in the “I Am Change March to the Polls” pray together on Monday, the day before the election. When they tried to march from a church to a courthouse last Saturday, the group of 200 people were pepper sprayed and arrested by the police in Graham, North Carolina.

Photograph by Andrea Bruce, National Geographic
Men standing in a crowd in prayer
Supporters stand in prayer before President Trump’s arrival at a campaign rally at the LaCrosse Speedway in West Salem, Wisconsin.
Photograph by David Guttenfelder, National Geographic
People waiting in a line with flags flying ahead

Trump supporters line up to take buses to a rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina on Monday.

Photograph by Andrea Bruce, National Geographic
Women dancing in flowy dresses

Bomba dancer Barbara Ortiz leads a performance outside the Alafaya Branch Library early polling station in Alafaya, Florida. Bomba is a dance form that originated in Puerto Rico. The Latino vote in Florida is seen as pivotal for the presidential election.

Photograph by Christopher Gregory-Rivera, National Geographic
Two people wearing mailbox costumes holding vote signs
After Biden’s campaign appearance in Scranton, Pennsylvania, two supporters walked down Pear Street dressed as ballot boxes to get out the vote.
Photograph by Natalie Keyssar, National Geographic
A man pointing to a red sign that reads vote here
Delonte Ward points to a voting sign after dropping his ballot off at a Washington, D.C. ballot box on Election Day. He said he saw many mixed messages online about how to drop off his ballot, but he’s confident his vote will be counted.
Photograph by Greg Kahn, National Geographic
a woman at a desk standing behind presidential election materials
Jenis Walsh, Northeast Regional Director for the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, sits at her desk at the Democratic Party’s office in Wilkes Barre. “I have one day left,” she said, “and all we have to do is execute, execute, execute.”
Photograph by Natalie Keyssar, National Geographic
A man standing by a pick up truck with presidential election flags
Mike Alderman poses with his truck outside the Christ the King Episcopal Church polling station in Azalea Park, Florida, after casting his vote for President Trump. “I come out here because I lived through the Obama era of the most terrible economy I’ve ever seen,” he said. “I’m just a patriot supporting the old way America was made.”
Photograph by Christopher Gregory-Rivera, National Geographic
A woman wearing an american flag mask
A young woman named Clarissa, who declined to give her last name, at the Trump rally at Scranton airport in Pennsylvania on Monday.
Photograph by Natalie Keyssar, National Geographic
a woman preparing to vote

First-time voter Alexi Jenkins, 18, arrives to cast her ballot at a polling station in a school gymnasium in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Photograph by David Guttenfelder, National Geographic
A man sitting for a portrait

J. Carl Devine poses in Ocoee, Florida, the site of one of the most violent incidents of voter suppression in American history. On Election Day 1920, two affluent Black men, Mose Norman and Julius July Perry, were brutally attacked by the Ku Klux Klan after organizing the Black community to vote, and a mob attack followed. The death toll is not known, but some estimates are as high as 60. Devine’s grandparents, John and Roxy Williams, worked for Perry and fled Ocoee after the massacre. “I am seeing this election as they saw theirs,” Devine said. “After 100 years, some things haven’t changed. When one group is trying to suppress another group from voting, the whole constitution is in jeopardy. When one person is denied, all of us are denied.”

Photograph by Christopher Gregory-Rivera, National Geographic
A gravestone

Perry’s grave in Ocoee.

Photograph by Christopher Gregory-Rivera, National Geographic
Birds flying past a obelisk
Birds fly past the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C.
Photograph by Jared Soares, National Geographic
National Geographic sent eight photographers into the field to document the lead up to pivotal election decisions: Andrea Bruce in North Carolina, Christopher Gregory-Rivera in Florida, Greg Kahn and Jared Soares in Washington D.C., David Guttenfelder in Wisconsin, and Natalie Keyssar in Pennsylvania. Photographers Graham Dickie and Stephanie Mei-Ling covered large voter turn out in Texas and early voters in New York.