America Decides: Polls Swing Open in Eastern States as Nation Awaits 2024 Presidential Election Verdict

Last updated 5 hours ago

Polls opened in several eastern US states on Tuesday, and began accepting voters who will choose the 47th president of the United States, who is being contested by both Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump.

So far, about 81 million of the 244 million voters have cast ballots in advance, including Harris himself for his opponent, Trump, who will vote Tuesday near his residence in Florida.

Expectations are not only limited to the elections, but also raise worrisome questions about what will happen after them, as Trump has already begun to question the integrity of the vote, and he has yet to concede his defeat in the 2020 election and bring charges against him. Supporters who stormed the Capitol building on January 6, 2021 to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s victory.

The two camps have already begun filing dozens of appeals and complaints with the Justice Department, while a third of Americans fear violence after Nov. 5.

At least two states, Washington and Nevada, mobilized National Guard reserves as a precaution, and in Georgia, alarm buttons were placed within reach of election officials to alert authorities in case of danger.

Across the country, local officials are taking extreme measures to fortify election-related sites, including plans to install snipers on rooftops to protect vote-counting headquarters, “panic buttons” for election workers and surveillance drones flying overhead.

Law enforcement agencies are putting emergency response teams on standby and flooding the streets with extra patrols. At least two states, Nevada and Washington, have activated the National Guard in case of unrest.

Most security preparations are focused on the post-election period, as vote counting continues in some states, notably Arizona and Pennsylvania.

The potential uncertainty of the outcome, along with an expected flood of misinformation on social media in those days, could heighten unrest and spur efforts to disrupt the process, officials said.

“Taking the United States to the Summit”

Republican candidate Donald Trump promised to take “America and the world to new heights of glory” in his closing remarks at his latest campaign rally on Tuesday.

“With your vote, we can solve every problem facing our country and take the United States and even the world to new heights of glory,” he told the crowd in Grand Rapids, the swing state of Michigan.

Whoever wins, the results will be unprecedented. Either Americans will elect a woman to the White House for the first time, or her convictions in criminal cases and her first term from 2017 to 2021 have plunged the country and the world into constant turmoil. vibration

The latest opinion polls show a near-perfect tie between candidates in decisive states that would give either the Democratic candidate or the Republican candidate enough at-large voters on this indirect ballot to achieve the 270-out-of-538-at-large threshold needed to win. .

Expectations will not only be limited to elections, but also raise worrisome questions about what will happen after them, as Trump has already begun to question the integrity of the vote.

The two parties are now engaged in dozens of legal complaints, while one in three Americans fear an outbreak of violence and riots after the vote.