New York, Nov 5 (UNI) As polls open across the United States, millions of Americans will decide today whether to return Donald Trump to the White House or make Kamala Harris their country’s first female president.
The battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are expected to be pivotal to the path to victory.
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump each need at least 270 electoral votes to win.
Harris and Trump tied with three votes each in the tiny New Hampshire community of Dixville Notch, which opened and closed its poll just after midnight ET in a decades-old tradition, CNN reported.
The candidates held their final campaign events in battleground states last night.
Harris ended her 107-day campaign in Pennsylvania, while Trump spoke in Michigan — where he has ended three of his presidential campaigns.
Trump and Harris spent the last day before the election cramming in multiple swing state events, with a focus on Pennsylvania. Trump hit three swing states on Monday, travelling from North Carolina to Pennsylvania to Michigan. The 78-year-old Republican former president is scheduled to watch returns on Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate.
Harris spent Monday in Pennsylvania – the most populous swing state with 19 electoral college votes, no Democrat since 1948 has won the presidency without carrying it – making five stops with the finish in Philadelphia, a Democratic stronghold and the US’s original capital.
Harris is holding an election-night party at Howard University, the storied historically Black university in Washington that is her alma mater.
The first polls close at 18:00 EST (23:00 GMT) on Tuesday evening and the last at 01:00 EST (06:00 GMT) early on Wednesday.
In some presidential races the victor has been named late on election night, or early the next morning.
This time, the knife-edge race in many states could mean media outlets wait longer before projecting who has won, BBC reported.
Harris and Trump have been running neck-and-neck for weeks.
Narrow victories could also mean recounts.
In the key swing state of Pennsylvania, for example, a recount would be required if there’s a half-percentage-point difference between the votes cast for the winner and loser. In 2020, the margin was just over 1.1 percentage points.
