Millions cast vote in historic US presidential election

Washington: Millions of Americans headed towards polling stations across the United States on Tuesday to elect the 47th President between Republican leader Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in an election billed as one of the most consequential contests for the White House in decades.

The race remained stubbornly deadlocked for weeks with some of the election forecasters giving 60-year-old Vice President Harris an edge over former President Trump, 78, in some of the key battleground states like Pennsylvania.

In her campaign rallies, Harris said supporting the middle class, effecting a tax cut to benefit over 100 million Americans, ensuring affordable housing and lifting the ban on abortions to safeguard reproductive rights of women will be her top priorities as the president.

On his part, Trump has pledged to strengthen the economy, promised to bring down lower energy costs, proposed higher tariffs on foreign goods, especially imports from China and vowed to rid the US of all undocumented immigrants by launching a major deportation programme.

According to various surveys ahead of the elections, the most important issue for people are inflation, prices rise, jobs, healthcare and the overall state of the economy.

In her campaign in the last few days, Harris has been projecting the election as the one to protect the country’s fundamental freedoms, safeguard constitutional values, ensure women’s rights and make a “fresh” beginning.

In his concluding arguments, Trump maintained his aggressive rhetoric and even suggested that he should not have left the White House after the 2020 election, triggering apprehensions that he may not accept the polls if defeated.

“This is the most consequential election in our lifetime,” senior US senator Bernie Sanders told CNN, while explaining why Trump as president will be detrimental to the USA’s foundational values.

Ahead of the voting, both Harris and Trump urged citizens to come out of their homes and vote.

Dixville Notch, a town in New Hampshire state was the first place in the US where the voting began.

The first voting closes at 18:00 EST on Tuesday evening (4:30 am India time Wednesday) and the last at 01:00 EST (11:30 am India time) on Wednesday.

As fears of post-election violence loomed large, cities and towns across the US have been put under strong security cover with police erecting barricades around the White House and the Capitol Hill in Washington DC.

In their final rallies last night, Harris and Trump concluded their campaigns with virtually opposing visions of how to take the country forward with Harris calling for a vision to overcome “hate and divisiveness” and Trump warning of a bleak future under a Democratic regime.

"Tonight, then, we finish, as we started with optimism, with energy, with joy,” said Harris, closing her campaign in Pennsylvania.

In his concluding remarks, Trump said: “My message to you, and to all Americans tonight is very simple, we don’t have to live like this.” The US has 50 states and most of them vote for the same party in every election except the swing states. Based on the volume of population, the states are assigned electoral college votes.

Overall a total of 538 electoral college votes are up for grabs. A candidate with 270 or more electoral votes is declared winner in the election.

If both candidates register victory in all the states that historically support the same party, then it will leave Harris 44 electoral college votes short of victory and Trump 51 votes short.

In that situation, the 93 votes of the swing states will decide who the next American president will be.

The swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, known as part of the Rust Belt, have been traditionally the strongholds of the Democratic Party. However, Trump won the three of them in 2016. The states returned to the Democratic fold in the 2020 election.

Political experts said Harris will be the next US president if she wins the Rust Belt swing states.

The four swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina are called Sun Belt with a total electoral college vote of 49.

The Republicans have a stronger support base in the Sun Belt states. Even if Trump wins all the four Sun Belt states, he will still require to win one more in Rust Belt.

While Harris will watch the election results at her alma mater of Howard University in Washington DC, Trump is having an election watch party at the Palm Beach County Convention Centre near his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

If Harris wins the race, she will make history by becoming the first woman, first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to become the US President.