Eyes on US as millions vote for new president
WASHINGTON
Election Day voting began Tuesday after an extraordinary — and for many unnerving — U.S. presidential race that will either make Kamala Harris the first woman president in the country's history or hand Donald Trump a comeback that sends shock waves around the world.
As the first polling stations opened, Democratic vice president Harris, 60, and Republican former president Trump, 78, were dead-even in the tightest and most volatile White House contest of modern times.
Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and her Republican rival Donald Trump will be vying to get to the all-important 270 electoral votes that pushes them past the halfway mark and guarantees them the keys to the Oval Office.
The world is anxiously watching as the outcome will have major implications for conflicts in the Middle East and Russia's war in Ukraine, and for tackling climate change, which Trump calls a hoax.
The most immediate fear is that U.S. democracy will be tested if Trump loses but refuses to accept defeat like he did four years ago, when his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.
With Trump having narrowly survived an assassination attempt in July and police foiling a second alleged plot, the fears of violence are very real.
In Washington, growing numbers of businesses and office buildings are being boarded up in case of unrest.
With this year's race going down to the wire, experts point to a growing risk of delays and complications like legal challenges over the vote count.
Around 81 million people have voted ahead of Election Day, over half of the total ballots cast in 2020.
The first polls were to close at 6 p.m. Eastern Time (3 a.m. today Turkish time) but when the race is tight, it could take days before a victor is projected.
In 2020, U.S. media declared Democratic candidate Joe Biden the winner on Nov. 7, although polls closed on Nov. 3.
In 2016 and 2012, voters had a shorter wait.
Harris and Trump were going head-to-head in a race that remained too close to call, according to the latest polls announced hours before the polls opened, with key swing states presenting narrow leads for both candidates.
According to FiveThirtyEight’s daily tracker, Harris had a 1.2-point lead over Trump nationally, a margin that has remained fairly static in recent days, though it had shrunk compared with a month ago.
In swing states, Harris had a one-point advantage in Michigan and Wisconsin, according to FiveThirtyEight.
Meanwhile, Trump’s lead in Georgia and North Carolina had shrunk to under one point, while he was ahead by 2.2 points in Arizona.
In Pennsylvania and Nevada, less than half a point separated the two: Harris had sneaked ahead in the former, though only marginally, after trailing Trump narrowly for the past two weeks; while the Republican candidate was barely ahead in Nevada.
Yet, the gap between the two candidates remained within the margin of error of polls in all seven swing states.
Pennsylvania has 19 Electoral College votes, the most among the battleground states, while Nevada has the fewest, six.
Trump's winning would make him the first incoming president to have been indicted and convicted of a felony. He would gain the power to end other federal investigations pending against him. Trump would also become only the second president in history to win nonconsecutive White House terms, after Grover Cleveland in the late 19th century.
Harris is vying to become the first woman, first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to reach the Oval Office, four years after she broke the same barriers in national office by becoming Biden’s second in command.
