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Washington:
In the ultimate hours of an election held amid a pandemic gripping a deeply divided United States, Americans streamed to the polls on Tuesday to decide on between incumbent President Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden on a day with little of the disruption many had feared.
Voters, many sporting masks and sustaining social-distancing to protect towards the unfold of the coronavirus, skilled lengthy traces in just a few locales and brief waits in lots of different locations. There have been no indicators of disruptions or violence at polling websites, as some officers had feared.
The winner – who is probably not decided for days – will lead a nation strained by a pandemic that has killed greater than 231,000 folks and left hundreds of thousands extra jobless, racial tensions and political polarization that has solely worsened throughout a vitriolic marketing campaign.
A 3rd of US voters listed the financial system as the problem that mattered most to them when deciding their alternative for president whereas two out of 10 cited COVID-19, in line with an Edison Research exit ballot on Tuesday.
In the nationwide exit ballot, 4 out of 10 voters mentioned they thought the trouble to include the virus was going “very badly.” In the battleground states of Florida and North Carolina, battleground states that might determine the election, 5 of 10 voters mentioned the nationwide response to the pandemic was going “somewhat or very badly.”
Biden, the Democratic former vp, has put Trump’s dealing with of the pandemic on the heart of his marketing campaign and has held a constant lead in nationwide opinion polls over the Republican president.
Biden, 77, appeared to have a number of paths to victory within the state-by-state Electoral College that determines the winner; not less than 270 electoral votes, decided partially by a state’s inhabitants, are wanted to win.
Trump, 74, is shut sufficient in a number of election battleground states that he might repeat the kind of upset he pulled off in 2016, when he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton regardless of shedding the nationwide in style vote by about three million ballots.
The most intently watched vote outcomes will begin to trickle in after 7 pm EST (2400 GMT) however counting might go on for a number of days.
“I’m hopeful,” Biden advised reporters in his house state of Delaware, after earlier showing within the pivotal state of Pennsylvania to make an 11th-hour attraction to voters.
“What I’m hearing,” Biden added, “is that there’s overwhelming turnout, and overwhelming turnout particularly of young people, of women” and in some states of older Black voters – teams anticipated to favor him.
“I think we’re going to have a great night,” Trump mentioned in Arlington, Virginia, throughout the Potomac River from Washington, the place he thanked marketing campaign staff. “But it’s politics and it’s elections, and you never know.”
“Winning is easy. Losing is never easy – not for me it’s not,” Trump added.
Ahead of Election Day, simply over 100 million voters solid early ballots both by mail or in individual, in line with the US Elections Project on the University of Florida, pushed by considerations about crowded polling locations throughout the pandemic in addition to extraordinary enthusiasm.
The complete has damaged information and prompted some specialists to foretell the best voting charges since 1908 and that the vote complete might attain 160 million, topping the 138 million solid in 2016.
Trump, admitting his voice was “a bit choppy” after making speeches at quite a few raucous rallies within the remaining days of the marketing campaign, mentioned he was not but excited about making a concession speech or acceptance speech. Seeking a second four-year time period, Trump mentioned he wouldn’t declare victory prematurely, including “there’s no reason to play games.”
In Pennsylvania, Biden first stopped at his childhood house in Scranton, the place he signed one of many lounge partitions, writing: “From this house to the White House with the grace of God. Joe Biden 11-3-2020.”
He later visited Philadelphia and used a bullhorn to handle supporters who chanted, “Joe, Joe, Joe.”
“It ain’t over till it’s over,” Biden mentioned in entrance of a block of brick rowhouses.
In anticipation of attainable protests, some buildings and shops have been boarded up in cities together with Washington, Los Angeles and New York. Federal authorities erected a brand new fence across the White House perimeter.
A REFERENDUM ON TRUMP
Supporters of each candidates referred to as the election a referendum on Trump and his tumultuous first time period. No US president has misplaced a re-election bid since Republican George HW Bush in 1992.
In Atlanta, Cody Sellers, 32, a registered Republican and venture supervisor at a house enchancment retailer, voted for Biden.
“Trump is the issue,” Sellers mentioned, shivering within the chilly.
“I really think Trump is bad for our country,” he added. “He’s divisive. We’re on a path to trouble. I’m not thrilled about Biden, but he can do the job and he cares about our country.”
Polling exhibits Georgia, lengthy a Republican stronghold, may be up for grabs this yr however Victor Akinola, 44, caught with Trump.
“The hopes that liberals have for a so-called blue wave is unfounded. Georgians won’t vote en masse against their own local interests,’ said Akinola, who works in information technology.
Among the most closely contested states that are expected to determine the outcome are Pennsylvania, Florida, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Arizona and Georgia, with Democrats hoping that Biden may even threaten Trump in states that once seemed certain to go Republican such as Ohio, Iowa and Texas.
Voters on Tuesday will also decide which political party controls the US Congress for the next two years, with Democrats narrowly favored to recapture a Senate majority and retain their control of the House of Representatives.
The FBI was investigating a spate of mysterious robocalls urging people to stay home on Election Day. New York state’s attorney general also was looking into such robocalls.
A judge ordered the US Postal Service to sweep mail processing facilities on Tuesday afternoon for delayed election ballots and immediately dispatch any for delivery in about a dozen states, including closely fought battlegrounds like Pennsylvania and Florida.
US stocks closed sharply higher as investors bet it would be decided without a prolonged process, leading to a swift deal on more pandemic-related fiscal stimulus.
TURBULENT PRESIDENCY
Trump is seeking another term in office after a chaotic four years marked by the coronavirus crisis, an economy battered by pandemic shutdowns, an impeachment drama, inquiries into Russian election interference, US racial tensions and contentious immigration policies.
Biden is looking to win the presidency on his third attempt after a five-decade political career including eight years as vice president under Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama.
With so much at stake, nerves were frayed.
“I really feel sick to my abdomen, however constructive,” mentioned Nancy Osborne, 71, a retired trainer and Democratic Party activist in suburban Detroit.
Biden has promised a renewed effort to struggle the general public well being disaster, repair the financial system and bridge America’s political divide. The nation this yr was additionally shaken by months of protests towards racism and police brutality.
Some essential states, resembling Florida, start counting absentee ballots forward of Election Day and will ship outcomes comparatively rapidly on Tuesday evening. Others together with Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin are barred from processing the overwhelming majority of mail-in ballots till Election Day, elevating the potential of a vote rely that might stretch for a number of days.
Trump has asserted, with out proof, that mail-in ballots are topic to fraud and has hinted at courtroom challenges.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
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