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06-11-2024
WASHINGTON: Donald Trump wins Florida as both he and Kamala Harris pick up several US states.
Vote counting is ramping up as polls close in the key battleground states of Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Democracy and the economy are the top issues for voters, early exit polls suggest.
Americans are also choosing members of the US Congress, and some states are voting on abortion rights.
By law, Georgia has to count its early votes all four million of them by 20:00 EST (01:00 GMT), and the results are already rolling in, showing an early lead for Donald Trump.
We should be careful of reading anything into that at this stage. Small rural counties, the kinds of places likely to have strong Republican majorities, can count faster than big urban ones that are likely to lean Democratic.
If the vote is as close as expected here, it may not be until later tonight when the counting of the in-person polling-day votes are counted – that we get a proper sense of which way this is going but election officials say, one way or another, we should get a result at some point tonight.
This year’s US presidential election has seen a number of unproven allegations of voter fraud and misinformation on the lead up to the big day.
The media explains how misinformation can impact the election.
In Delaware County, Pennsylvania, where polls have just closed, voting lines were still long into the afternoon.
People are waiting about half an hour to enter the polling station in Pennsylvania’s fifth most populous county. Some families stand by while their children played nearby.
A voter surnamed Xiong tells me that in all his past years of voting, he has never seen such a long line lasting this late.
“Usually, people line up before 8 am before work, and by noon, the line was gone but this time, it’s still long,” he says.
“I think everyone understands that no matter which party wins, this election affects us all.”
Xiong is pleased to see the turnout, as Delaware County has historically leaned Democratic. “A high turnout could mean a better chance for Democrats over Republicans,” he says.
One of the most watched states of the evening is Pennsylvania, a politically vital and large state of nearly 13 million people and 19 Electoral College votes that was the scene of intense campaigning from both candidates over the last few months.
Nearly three-quarters of residents in Pennsylvania, where polls have just closed, are white, while 11% are African-American. The state is also home to a growing population of Latinos, who now constitute about 9% of the state.
Pennsylvania is also home to large swathes of rural traditionally conservative communities, as well as Democratic pockets in its major urban centres.
I’ve been here several times this election cycle, and the thing I’ve found most striking is how the overwhelming majority of voters mention the economy and “pocketbook” issues as their major concern this election cycle.
It won’t be until the results are in that we’ll know which of the two a majority of voters trust can address the daily economic issues that matter in their everyday lives.
Polls in most of Pennsylvania, as well as 16 other states, are now closed. In an hour or so, polls will start to close in more than a dozen additional states, including Wisconsin, Arizona and Michigan. (Int’l News Desk)
