Americans head to polls to decide on next US president

WASHINGTON

Ending a months-long debate and curiosity not only for the United States but also for rest of the world, Americans are heading to polls Nov. 8 to cast their votes to determine who the next U.S. president will be. 
While speaking to their audiences on Nov. 6, in the last hours before polls open, the two candidates in the presidential election presented starkly different views of the nation and evoked similarly disparate reactions from crowds gathered to hear them speak. 

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said he was the “last chance” to fix a broken country while his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton said a “moment of reckoning” had arrived. 

In Iowa, Trump, a populist tycoon who co-opted the Republican Party and created a raucous, nativist grassroots movement in his own image, said Nov. 6 he was the “last chance” to fix immigration and trade. Outside Minneapolis, he said the Somali refugee population there was a “disaster.” Supporters near Pittsburgh booed a song by musician Bruce Springsteen, who was set to campaign with Clinton late Nov. 7. 

Branding 69-year-old Clinton the “most corrupt candidate ever to seek the office of the presidency,” he urged supporters to “deliver justice at the ballot box on November 8.”

Chants of “lock her up” came in waves even as news broke that the FBI again said Clinton should not face prosecution for her email practices while secretary of state.

FBI chief James Comey on Nov. 6 announced he would not change his July recommendation that Clinton not be prosecuted for allegedly putting U.S. secrets at risk by using a private email server. 

Clinton made no direct reference to the FBI reprieve during her Nov. 6 campaign stops.

Instead, she hammered her opponent over his sometimes ugly rhetoric and, implicitly, the alleged covert Russian interference that has poisoned the race.

“There are powerful forces inside and outside of America that do threaten to pull us apart,” Clinton said.

“We’ve arrived at a moment of reckoning in this election. Our core values as Americans are being tested.”

“I really want each and every one of us to think for a moment about how we would feel on November 9, if we were not successful,” she said in Manchester, New Hampshire. 

“When your kids and grandkids ask you what you did in 2016, when everything was on the line, I hope you’ll be able to say you voted for a better, stronger, fairer America,” she added. 

Opinion polls had tightened as Trump began to recover ground lost while battling accusations of sexual assault, and the race looked headed for a photo finish.

The latest polls give Clinton a narrow national lead of between three and five percentage points, but rolling averages point to a closer race, with Trump up in some swing states.

The final Bloomberg Politics-Selzer Co poll released on Nov. 7, Clinton was shown holding a three-point lead over Trump, Reuters reported. 

The poll showed Clinton leading Trump by 44 percent to 41 percent. Libertarian Gary Johnson was at 4 percent and Green Party Candidate Jill Stein was at 2 percent.