Agencies

Counting began in the United States after millions of Americans cast their ballots yesterday in a presidential election marked by drama and uncertainty, with Kamala Harris and Donald Trump awaiting the outcome of a desperately close race after month of intense campaign.

The outcome — perhaps overnight, or not for several days — will make Harris the first female president in the nation’s history, or deliver Trump a comeback that will send shockwaves across the world.

The bitter rivals spent their final day of campaigning trying to get their supporters to the polls and courting the last undecided voters in swing states expected to decide the outcome.

But Democratic Vice President Harris, 60, and Republican former President Trump, 78, find themselves deadlocked in opinion polls, despite the most volatile White House competition in modern times.

After stunning twists and turns – from Harris’ dramatic entrance when President Joe Biden resigned in July, to Trump overcoming two assassination attempts and a criminal conviction – tens of millions of voters are expected to cast their ballots, in more than the 83 million who have already voted in advance.

The first ballots cast yesterday reflected the national division. Overnight, the six registered voters in the small hamlet of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, split their votes between Harris and Trump by voting just after midnight.

However, some officials hope that changing vote counting rules in some key battleground states could speed up the declaration of results.

Due to the enormous size of the United States, voting began in Hawaii, one of the last states to do so, approximately 7 hours after voting opened in the country. Hawaii, with four collegiate electoral votes, will be one of the last states to close its polls today at 7:00 p.m. local time (05:00 GMT). Some places in Alaska will stay open an hour later.

Yesterday, both candidates made a final appeal to voters.

“Today we are voting because we love our country and we believe in the promises of America,” Harris wrote on social media.

Trump released a grim minute-long ad, then posted: “This will be the most important day in American history.”

The Republican candidate voted in Florida. His opponent, Kamala Harris, voted by mail in California.

Wearing his signature red cap, Trump told media at the voting center that he “felt great.” “I feel very confident … and it looks like the Republicans showed up strong,” he said.

In an Election Day radio interview, Harris urged Americans to “get out and vote,” especially in battleground states.

“We have to make this happen. Today is voting day, and people have to get out and be active,” she said on Atlanta station WVEE-FM.

Harris said she would host her election watch party at her alma mater Howard University, a historically black college in Washington, DC.

Long lines formed in Erie, a battlefield town in Pennsylvania.

“There are many, many more people here than in the last election,” Marchelle Beason, 46, told AFP after voting for Harris at an elementary school.

“We’re so divided right now, and she’s talking about peace. And everything her opponent has to say is really negative,” she added.

At the same school, Darlene Taylor, 56, who says she lives on disability benefits, said her main problem was “closing the border.”

“We don’t need four more years of high inflation, high gas prices (and) lies,” said Taylor, who wore a homemade Trump shirt.

Meanwhile, a Pennsylvania court yesterday approved a request from the local elections board to extend voting hours in a strongly pro-Trump county by two hours after voting machines in the key state experienced a software glitch on election day.

On Election Day, control of Congress, and by extension the new president’s ability to implement his agenda, is also at stake. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for grabs, as are 34 of the 100 seats in the Senate.

Trump’s campaign has suggested he could declare victory on election night even though millions of ballots have yet to be counted, as he did four years ago. The former president has repeatedly said any defeat could only come from widespread fraud, echoing his false claims from 2020. The winner may not be known for several days if the margins in the field states battle are as thin as expected.

In Georgia, five non-credible bomb threats occurred at polling places across the state, leading to evacuations in two locations. Later, Georgia’s secretary of state told the press that the threats came from Russia.

Meanwhile, the FBI warned Americans about two new fake videos falsely citing terrorist threats and election fraud, the latest in a series of misinformation that officials feared could intensify on Election Day. ‘election.

A fabricated video claiming to be from the federal law enforcement agency falsely discussed a high terrorist threat and urged Americans to “vote remotely,” while another video includes a fake press release claiming to be from of the agency and claiming rigged voting among inmates at five prisons. .

Both are “not authentic,” the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.

Federal, state and local officials warned Americans against attempts to undermine the election with false information and urged American voters to seek credible information from trusted sources.

However, the threats did little to disrupt the voting process, as voters gave their opinions on the next US president.

No matter who wins, history will be made.

Harris, 60, the first female vice president, would become the first woman, Black and South Asian American to win the presidency. Trump, 78, the only president to be impeached twice and the first former president to be criminally convicted, would also become the first president to win nonconsecutive terms in more than a century.

Opinion polls show the candidates are neck and neck in each of the seven states likely to determine the winner: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Harris leading among women by 12 percentage points and Trump leading among men by seven percentage points.

The final outcome of the vote may not be known for several days if the results are close, adding to tensions in a deeply divided nation.

And there are fears of unrest, even violence, if Trump loses and then contests the result as he did in 2020.

The world is also watching with concern, as the outcome will have major implications for conflicts in the Middle East, Russia’s war in Ukraine and the fight against climate change, which Trump calls a hoax.

Some experts said Trump’s return to power would instantly fuel international instability, with U.S. allies in Europe and NATO alarmed by his isolationist “America First” policy.

Trading partners are also nervously watching his promise to impose drastic import tariffs.

Trump has said he will not run for re-election in 2028.