Plaster collectible figurines of US presidential candidates Kamala Harris (R) and Donald Trump are displayed on the market as vehicles queue earlier than crossing to america on the San Ysidro Port of Entry in Tijuana, Baja California State, Mexico, on November 4, 2024, throughout US Election Day. (Photograph by Guillermo Arias / AFP)
WASHINGTON — A presidential marketing campaign marked by upheaval and rancor approached its finale Tuesday as voters weighed a stark selection for the nation’s future in deciding whether or not to ship Republican Donald Trump again to the White Home or elevate Vice President Kamala Harris to the Oval Workplace.
With simply hours till polls shut, tens of hundreds of thousands of Individuals added their ballots to the 84 million forged early as they selected between two candidates with drastically completely different temperaments and visions for the nation. These casting Election Day ballots largely encountered a clean course of, with remoted stories of hiccups that usually occur, together with lengthy traces, technical points and poll printing errors.
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Harris stands to be the primary feminine president if elected and has promised to work throughout the aisle to sort out financial worries and different points with out radically departing from the course set by President Joe Biden. Trump has vowed to exchange 1000’s of federal staff with loyalists, impose sweeping tariffs on allies and foes alike, and stage the most important deportation operation in U.S. historical past.
Harris and Trump entered Election Day centered on seven swing states, 5 of them carried by Trump in 2016 earlier than they flipped to Biden in 2020: the “blue wall” of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin in addition to Arizona and Georgia. Nevada and North Carolina, which Democrats and Republicans respectively carried within the final two elections, additionally had been carefully contested.
Trump voted in Palm Seashore, Florida, close to his Mar-a-Lago membership, and mentioned afterward that he was feeling “very assured.”
Harris, the Democratic vp, did telephone interviews with radio stations within the battleground states, then visited Democratic Nationwide Committee headquarters in Washington carrying a field of Doritos — her go-to snack.
“This actually represents the most effective of who we’re,” Harris informed a room of cheering staffers. She was handed a cellphone by supporters doing telephone banking, and when requested by reporters how she was feeling, the vp held up a telephone and responded, “Gotta speak to voters.”
The closeness of the race and the variety of states in play raised the probability that, as soon as once more, a victor won’t be identified on election night time.
Trump mentioned Tuesday that he had no plans to inform his supporters to not chorus from violence if Harris wins, as a result of they “aren’t violent folks.” Requested about accepting the race’s outcomes, he mentioned, “If it’s a good election, I’d be the primary one to acknowledge it.” He visited a close-by marketing campaign workplace to thank staffers earlier than a celebration at a close-by conference heart.
After her DNC cease, Harris deliberate to attend a celebration at her alma mater, Howard College in Washington.
Federal, state and native officers have expressed confidence within the integrity of the nation’s election techniques. They nonetheless had been braced to deal with what they are saying is an unprecedented degree of international disinformation — notably from Russia and Iran — in addition to the opportunity of bodily violence or cyberattacks.
Either side have armies of attorneys in anticipation of authorized challenges on and after Election Day. And legislation enforcement companies nationwide are on excessive alert for potential violence.
Every candidate would take the nation into new terrain
Harris, 60, can be the primary lady, Black lady and particular person of South Asian descent to function president. She additionally can be the primary sitting vp to win the White Home in 36 years.
A victory would cap a whirlwind marketing campaign in contrast to another in American historical past. Harris ascended to the highest of the Democratic ticket lower than 4 months in the past after Biden, dealing with huge stress from his celebration after a disastrous debate efficiency, ended his reelection bid.
In Scranton, Pennsylvania, Liza Fortt arrived at her polling location in a wheelchair and never feeling properly. However she mentioned she ventured out anyway to vote for Harris.
“It means quite a bit to me and my grandkids, my granddaughters, my nieces. … I used to be simply ready for this present day to return,” mentioned Fortt, who’s 74 and Black. She mentioned she by no means thought she’d have such a possibility, to forged a poll for a Black lady in a presidential race.
“I’m proud, to see a girl, not solely a girl, however a Black lady,” Fortt mentioned.
Trump, 78, can be the oldest president ever elected. He would even be the primary defeated president in 132 years to win one other time period within the White Home, and the primary particular person convicted of a felony to take over the Oval Workplace.
He survived one assassination try by millimeters at a July rally. Secret Service brokers foiled a second try in September.
A Trump victory would affirm that sufficient voters put apart warnings from a lot of Trump’s former aides or as a substitute prioritized issues about Biden and Harris’ stewardship of the economic system or the U.S.-Mexico border.
It will all however guarantee he avoids going to jail after being discovered responsible of his position in hiding hush-money funds to an grownup movie actress throughout his first run for president in 2016. His sentencing in that case may happen later this month. And upon taking workplace, Trump may finish the federal investigation into his effort to overturn the 2020 election outcomes.
First-time voter Jasmine Perez, 26, forged her poll on the Las Vegas Raiders’ stadium in Nevada for Trump, citing his religious values.
“What actually attracted me to Donald Trump is I’m a Christian,” Perez mentioned, noting of the previous president, “I like that he overtly promotes Christianity in America.”
Harris, pointing to the warnings of Trump’s former aides, has labeled him a “fascist” and blamed Trump for placing girls’s lives at risk by nominating three of the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. Within the closing hours of the marketing campaign, she tried to strike a extra optimistic tone and went all of Monday with out saying her Republican opponent’s title.
JD Jorgensen, an unbiased voter in Black Mountain, North Carolina, which was hit exhausting by Hurricane Helene, mentioned voters ought to have made up their minds by now.
“I feel that the candidates, each being within the public eye so long as they each have been, if you happen to’re on the fence, you hadn’t actually been paying consideration,” mentioned Jorgensen, 35.
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