US voters hungry for results as election season reaches climax

The race, replete with unprecedented events – two assassination attempts on Trump, the surprise departure of President Joe Biden and the rapid rise of Harris – continued into the dawn of Election Day, even after billions of dollars in spending and months of frantic campaigning.

The breakneck presidential battle between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris came to an uncertain conclusion on Nov. 5 as millions of Americans headed to the polls to choose between two vastly different visions for the country’s future.

The race, replete with unprecedented events – two assassination attempts on Trump, the surprise departure of President Joe Biden and the rapid rise of Harris – continued into the dawn of Election Day, even after billions of dollars in spending and months of frantic campaigning. The first ballots cast yesterday reflected divisions across the country.

Overnight, six registered voters in the tiny New Hampshire hamlet of Dixville Notch split their votes between Harris and Trump, voting just after midnight. Americans began arriving at polling places to vote Tuesday morning across the East Coast and Midwest.

In Raleigh, North Carolina, Johnny Graves set up a DJ booth outside a polling place at the Lincoln AME Church, pumping up morning voters with Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the USA.”

Taylor Grabow, a 27-year-old nurse, said she voted for Harris after previously voting for Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020, supporting Harris’ opposition to the criminalization of abortion. “I woke up in such a good mood and excited,” she said.

In Asheville, North Carolina, Jeannie Buddenberg, a 38-year-old housewife, took her twin daughters to vote in Haw Creek. She voted for Trump.

“There’s a lot of politics in the classroom and I feel like politics and introducing different kinds of sex education at younger and younger ages is being pushed too much,” she said. “Let’s go to school and learn to read.”

Trump’s campaign suggests he could declare victory on Election Night even if millions of ballots remain to be counted, as he did four years ago. The former president has repeatedly said that any defeat could only be due to widespread fraud, repeating his false claims from 2020.

The winner may not be known for days if the difference in fortunes on the battlefield turns out to be as small as expected. No matter who wins, history will be made. Harris, 60, the first female vice president, will become the first Black woman and South Asian American to win the presidency.

Trump, 78, the only president to be impeached twice and the first former president to be convicted in criminal cases, will also become the first president to win non-consecutive terms in more than a century.

Opinion polls show the candidates neck and neck in each of the seven states likely to decide the winner: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Harris leading among women by 12 percentage points, while Trump leads among men by seven percentage points.

The contest reflects a deeply polarized nation whose divisions have only deepened in the fiercely competitive race. During the election campaign, Trump uses increasingly dark and apocalyptic rhetoric. Harris called on Americans to unite, warning that a second Trump term would threaten the foundations of American democracy.

Even before Tuesday, more than 80 million Americans had already voted by mail or in person, and lines at several polling places were short and orderly Tuesday morning. Control of both houses of Congress is also possible.

Republicans have an easier time getting into the U.S. Senate, where Democrats are defending several seats in Republican-leaning states while the House looks like a toss-up.

During the campaign, Trump criticized first Biden and then Harris for their handling of the economy, which polls show voters are most concerned about despite low unemployment and falling inflation.

But he showed a characteristic inability to stick to the message, at one point questioning Harris’ black identity and vowing to protect women “whether they like it or not.” His unbridled approach seemed designed to ignite his supporters rather than broaden his appeal.

Even more than in 2016 and 2020, Trump has demonized immigrants who crossed the border illegally, falsely blaming them for fueling a violent crime wave, and vowed to use the government to persecute his political rivals.

Polls show he has made some gains among black and Latino voters. Trump has often warned that migrants are taking jobs away from these counties.

Instead, Harris tried to assemble a broader coalition of liberal Democrats, independents and disaffected moderate Republicans by calling Trump too dangerous to elect. She campaigned for reproductive rights, an issue that has energized women since the US.

The Supreme Court in 2022 struck down a nationwide right to abortion. Harris has faced anger from many pro-Palestinian voters over the Biden administration’s military and financial support for Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.

While she did not predict a change in U.S. policy, she said she would do everything possible to end the conflict. After Biden, 81, pulled out over concerns about his age, Harris tried to turn the tables on Trump, pointing to his erratic rallies as evidence of his unfitness and tried to win over young voters considered a critical voting bloc .

Trump pitted Harris supporters Taylor Swift and Beyoncé against Elon Musk, the world’s richest man who has played an increasingly prominent role as a surrogate and major donor to Trump’s cause. Tuesday’s vote follows one of the most tumultuous half-years in modern American politics.

In May, a New York jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records to conceal payments to a porn star.

Four weeks later, Trump and Biden faced off for their only debate, where the incumbent delivered a disastrous performance that reinforced voters’ existing concerns about his mental acuity.

In July, Trump narrowly dodged a would-be assassin’s bullet at a rally in Pennsylvania shortly before the Republican National Convention.

Just a week later, Biden dropped out of the race, bowing to pressure from Democratic Party leaders. Harris’ entry into the race has reinvigorated her party, and she has raised more than $1 billion in less than three months while erasing Trump’s lead over Biden in public polls.

There are a total of 538 Electoral College votes across the United States, and the winner will be the candidate with 270 or more. In all but two states, the presidential candidate with the most individual resident votes receives all of the state’s Electoral College votes.

If both candidates win all the states that history and polls show are almost certain to vote for them, Kamala Harris would be 44 votes away from winning and Donald Trump would need 51 more votes to become president.