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(NEW YORK) -- Americans are going to the polls Tuesday to cast their ballots in the historic election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

Surveys ahead of Election Day found the two candidates in a virtual dead heat nationally and in several key swing states.

Broad economic discontent, sharp divisions about the nation's future and polarized views of the major-party candidates mark voter attitudes nationally in ABC News' preliminary exit poll results.

The state of democracy prevailed narrowly as the most important issue to voters out of five tested in the exit poll.

The country and democracy

Voters broadly express more negative than positive views about the country's direction: Just 26% are enthusiastic or satisfied with the way things are going, versus 72% dissatisfied or angry.

More voters see American democracy as threatened than say it's secure, 73% to 25%. Still, about six in 10 in these preliminary exit poll results say the country's best days are ahead of it, versus about a third who say the country's best days are in the past.

Extremism and candidate favorability

Fifty-five percent call Trump's views "too extreme," and he's underwater in personal favorability, 44%-55%. Fewer call Harris' views too extreme (46%), though she's also underwater in personal favorability, albeit slightly, 48%-50%.

Favorability isn't determinative: Just 40% saw Trump favorably in 2016, when he won the Electoral College (albeit not the popular vote). One reason is that almost as few, 43%, had a favorable view of his opponent that year, Hillary Clinton. (In 2020, Trump's favorability rating was 46%; Joe Biden's was 52%.)

Underscoring the emotion associated with the contest, preliminarily 36% of voters say they'd be "scared" if Trump were elected, while 29% would be scared by a Harris win.

The economy and Biden

The economy remains a key irritant. Voters say it's in bad shape by 67%-32%. And 45% say their own financial situation is worse now than four years ago, versus 30% the same, with just 24% doing better. The "worse off" number exceeds its 2008 level, then 42%, and far outpaces its shares in 2020 (20%) and 2016 (28%).

Biden takes the heat, with just a 41% job approval rating (58% disapprove). It's been a challenge for Harris to persuade voters she's taking a new direction from Biden's. (Biden's approval rating is the lowest for an incumbent president in exit polls since George W. Bush's 27% as he left office in 2008. Trump managed 50% job approval in 2020, yet Biden beat him anyway).

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(CECIL TOWNSHIP, Pa.) -- Fracking has been on the national stage this election season and swing state Pennsylvania, with its 19 electoral votes in play, is at the center of the issue with one the largest natural gas deposits in the U.S.

Hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, sees water and other chemicals pumped into underground rock formations that contain methane or natural gas. The fluids crack the rock, releasing the gas which is then captured and brought above ground.

Eight years ago, Michelle Stonemark built her dream home in Cecil Township, Pennsylvania, on the same street as much of her extended family. She was followed by some new neighbors -- a fracking operation.

As the Stonemarks' home was under construction, a natural gas company built a well pad for oil and gas production just a few feet away.

"I was scared to death. I was scared about what harms it would cause us," she told ABC News' Stephanie Ramos.

It's a significant industry in Pennsylvania, but there is precedent for states banning fracking -- it's happened in California, Maryland, New York, Vermont and Washington.

Only Congress has the power to completely ban fracking, but presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris see it as a topic that resonates with voters in the Keystone State.

Former President Trump says Harris is against the practice.

"Starting on Day One of my new administration, I will end Kamala Harris' war on Pennsylvania energy," he said at an Oct. 26 rally. "And we will frack, frack, frack."

In 2019, when Harris was running for the Democratic presidential nomination, she firmly stood for a ban on fracking. During a CNN town hall on climate change in 2019 when she was still a senator, Harris said, "There's no question I'm in favor of banning fracking."

Now, Vice President Harris has positioned herself as a supporter of fracking. Harris reiterated that she would not ban fracking during the ABC News Presidential Debate.

"I will not ban fracking. I have not banned fracking as vice president of the United States," she said during September's ABC News debate. "And, in fact, I was the tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which opened new leases for fracking."

The Stonemarks documented the experience of living so close to an active fracking operation, with video showing flames shooting into the sky in the middle of the night as excess natural gas was burned off.

Their windows and tools in their garage often vibrate with the hum of machinery at the nearby well pad.

"The noise that comes off of that … are low-level sounds, low-level frequencies, more like a bass that cause vibrations, more like a constant hum, the kind of noise you feel in your chest and in your ears and in your head," Michelle Stonemark told ABC. "We suffered from headaches and nosebleeds during that time."

In Cecil Township, there’s legislation that would require new fracking operations to be placed at least 5,000 feet away from schools and 2,500 feet away from homes. The current minimum distance is 500 feet. The city council passed the resolution on Monday night.

Stonemark supports the legislation, but it may not change her situation. The family has already upgraded their air filters and installed air quality monitors outside, but she's angry about it.

"Every day we wake up and we don't know what we're going to get. We don't know how loud it's going to be, how what it's going to smell like outside," she told ABC News. "[Or] If my kids can play outside; we don't know if we can have people over."

She's also concerned that it's causing health issues for the family.

"We don't know if the nosebleed my daughter has is from fracking. We don't know if the nausea and the headaches that we're feeling are from fracking," she said. "Every day is undue stress and anxiety on myself, my husband, my kids. So, yeah, it pisses me off."

In 2023, a taxpayer-funded study conducted by the University of Pittsburgh found that children who live within one mile of unconventional natural gas development -- including fracking -- were found to be five to seven times more likely to develop lymphoma, a type of cancer. It was also linked to adverse birth outcomes and exacerbating existing asthma symptoms.

In the race for the White House, politicians are hoping a vow to keep fracking will secure them votes. However, the issue is more complex for the people with fracking operations in their backyard. Even pro-fracking Republicans like Scott Byrd are in favor of the proposed changes.

"First of all, I'm very pro fracking," he told ABC News. "It just has to be done in an industrial rural area."

However, Byrd noted that neither of the candidates have offered particulars on the issue.

"I'm mainly motivated by responsibilities as a parent," he said. "You see your two children, you have to do everything you can do to protect them."

In a statement to ABC News, Range Resources, which runs fracking operations in Cecil Township, noted that it works closely with "municipalities and residents to foster open communication, address community concerns, and proactively minimize any potential impacts."

However, it said that the township's ordinance is "a stark outlier from the 50 other municipalities where Range operates, as it seeks to restrict future natural gas development within its borders."

Byrd emphasized the need to frack safely.

"If the technology is not there to do it without hurting children, everybody else, we need to get more into research and development. We're not just going to jump the gun," he said. "They're running with it and ignoring the risks. We have to do something."

Stonewall noted that fracking is a polarizing topic, but it shouldn't be something people are simply for or against.

"I'm neither for it or against it -- I believe it has its place. I believe that we need to be an energy independent nation," she said. "I just don't believe that we need to be doing it at the expense of people living their everyday lives."

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(NEW YORK) -- On Election Day 2024, Rudy Giuliani cannot escape the consequences of his defamation of two Georgia poll workers in the aftermath of Election Day 2020.

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the former New York City mayor to appear in court later in the week to explain why he allegedly "secreted away" his property and failed to transfer anything into the custody of former election workers Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss, as he was ordered to do last month to fulfill a $148 million judgment.

A judge last year found that Giuliani had defamed the mother and daughter when he falsely accused them of committing election fraud while they were counting ballots in Georgia's Fulton County on Election Day in 2020.

Two weeks ago, Giuliani was ordered to transfer personal property "including cash accounts, jewelry and valuables, a legal claim for unpaid attorneys' fees, and his interest in his Madison Avenue co-op apartment" to Freeman and Moss as part of the judgment.

When the receivership controlled by the two election workers was finally granted access to Giuliani's Manhattan apartment, they discovered Giuliani "had moved virtually all of its contents out approximately four weeks ago--something that neither Defendant nor Defendant's counsel had bothered to mention," the poll workers' attorney, Aaron Nathan, said in a letter to the court.

"Defendant nor his counsel thought to mention that the receivership property contained in the Apartment had been secreted away," Nathan said in the letter.

"More concerningly," the attorney told the judge, "Defendant and his counsel have refused or been unable to answer basic questions about the location of most of the property subject to the receivership."

"Save for some rugs, a dining room table, some stray pieces of small furniture and inexpensive wall art, and a handful of smaller items like dishes and stereo equipment, the Apartment has been emptied of all of its contents," Nathan's letter said. "Notably, that includes the vast majority (if not all) of the valuable receivership property that was known to be stored there, including art, sports memorabilia, expensive furniture, and other items not conspicuous enough to appear in listing photographs."

When the receivers asked Giuliani's representatives where the items are located, Nathan said those inquiries were "met predominantly with evasion or silence."

A spokesperson for Giuliani said in response that "Mayor Giuliani has made available his property and possessions as ordered."

"A few items were put into storage over the course of the past year, and anything else removed was related to his two livestream programs that stream each and every weeknight across his social media platforms," the spokesperson said. "Opposing counsel, acting either negligently or deliberately in a deceptive manner, are simply attempting to further bully and intimidate Mayor Giuliani until he is rendered penniless and homeless."

Giuliani is scheduled to appear in court this Thursday afternoon.

His lawyer had asked if Giuliani could appear by phone since he was scheduled to appear on a live radio broadcast at that time, but the judge would not allow it.

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