Counting of votes will begin on November 5 but it could take hours or even days before it is finally known who will be the next United States president.
Washington: The months-long bitter political battle between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump is now in its final week with polls showing a razor-thin margin between the two rivals. Early voting is currently underway with more than 41 million registered voters having already cast their ballot, either in person at a polling station or by postal ballot.
It may be a few hours, possibly by the morning of November 6, as in 2016. Voting closed on November 8 evening and it was all over by 2:30 am on November 9 with Trump winning the battleground state of Wisconsin and its 10 electoral college votes to cross the magic number of 270 electoral college votes. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had called to congratulate him five minutes later.
In 2020, polling was over on November 3 evening but President Joe Biden had to wait until November 7 for Pennsylvania to hand him its 20 electoral college votes and the presidency. The record for the most delayed result could go to the 2000 election when the country waited for more than a month to find their next president, George W Bush — voting ended on November 7 and the state's outcome was known on December 12.
The winner needs 270 votes for a majority in the 538-member electoral college. Seven crucial swing states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — will probably decide the outcome. Among these crucial states, Pennsylvania is perhaps the most significant swing state, called the “center of the political universe”.
Political statistician Nate Silver's analysis revealed that the next leader of the free world will probably be determined by the outcome of voting in Pennsylvania. According to it, if Democratic leader Harris wins the state, her chances of winning the White House increase to 91 per cent, while Trump's potential of winning soars to 96 per cent. Trump narrowly defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania in 2016, winning 48.2 to 47.5 per cent.
A new CNN poll shows a competitive race between Trump and Harris in Arizona and Nevada, with narrow margins indicating no clear frontrunner. Voter support is largely stable, but Harris shows gains among key demographics in Arizona, while Trump leads among White voters in Nevada. In Arizona, Harris still leads among those early votes (53 per cent to 44 per cent for Trump), while in Nevada, Trump has the advantage (52 per cent to 46 per cent).
As many as 82 billionaires are supporting Harris while 52 (including Elon Musk) are backing Trump as the race to the White House approaches the finish line.
In her final remarks, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said that although she was proud of being President Joe Biden's Vice President, her presidency will be different because the challenges are different. Offering her campaign's closing argument from the Ellipse, a portion of the Capitol grounds that hosted President Donald Trump's rally of 2020 that led to a raid by his supporters on the US Congress, Harris presented herself as someone who feels protective about people who are treated unfairly and taken advantage of, saying that's something she got from her mother, the India-born Shyamala Gopalan Harris.
"I have been honored to serve as Joe Biden's Vice President, but I will bring my own experiences and ideas to the Oval Office. My presidency will be different because the challenges we face are different. Our top priority as a nation four years ago was to end the pandemic and rescue the economy. Now our biggest challenge is to lower costs, costs that were rising even before the pandemic, and that are still too high,” said Harris.
In a speech lasting nearly 30 minutes, Harris stressed the contrast between herself and Trump on everything from basic values to vision for the country and foreign policy. "World leaders think that Donald Trump is an easy mark, easy to manipulate with flattery or favor, and you can believe that autocrats like (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong (Un) are rooting for him in this election. I will always uphold our security, advance our national interest, and ensure that the United States of America remains as we must forever be a champion of liberty around the world."
Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s closing rally at Madison Square Garden in New York was “a release of rage at a political and legal system that impeached, indicted and convicted him, a vivid and at times racist display of the dark energy animating the MAGA movement”, according to CNN.
The race is currently tied, according to polls. Harris is at 48.0 per cent while Trump is at 46.7 per cent in the FiveThirtyEight weighted average of national polls. In the RealClearPolitics average of polls, Trump is at 48.6 percent and Harris is at 48.4 per cent.
