Washington DC [US]: It’s election day in the US as polling opens in eight states on Tuesday with former US President Donald Trump going against Vice President Kamala Harris.
According to CNN, polling locations in eight states are now open, including the states of Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire and Virginia.
In Indiana and Kentucky, polls have already begun with some areas in the central time zone to be opened at 5:30 PM (IST).
In Maine, all poll locations have also opened but a few municipalities with less than 500 people could open at 8:30 PM (IST).
The township of Dixville Notch in the state of New Hampshire voted at midnight (local time), in line with a decades-long tradition. At present, Harris and Trump are tied with three votes each.
The voters in the US are heading to vote in one of their most consequential elections, which will decide the direction of not just the US but also have an influence on global geopolitics for the next four years.
The polling hours will vary across the states, but most locations will vote between 6 am and 8 pm on Tuesday (local time). Though exit polls will start coming once voting starts, the final results will come only after counting is closed in all states.
The first polls will close at around 7 pm ET (5:30 am IST) in six states, including Georgia. The final polls will close in the blue state of Hawaii and in the red state of Alaska at 12 am ET (10:30 am IST). Total votes will close by 1 pm ET (11:30 am IST), following which counting will start. The results in small states can be projected soon after polling states; some key battleground states may take hours to project the winner.
Despite the presence of many other parties, the US race is between the Democratic and Republican parties. Vice President Kamala Harris is the candidate of the incumbent Democrats, and she is aiming to create history by becoming the first woman of the US. If elected, she will also be the first Indian-origin President of the United States.
On the other hand, the Republican candidate is former President Donald Trump, who is eyeing a historic comeback to the White House after a bitter exit in 2020. Notably, if Trump wins, it will be the first instance in over 100 years of a president serving two non-consecutive terms in the White House.
Most of the polls have predicted a very close race between Trump and Harris, with all the leads projected within the margin of error.
According to the national polls, as provided by the ‘five thirty-eight’ platform of ABC News, Harris (48) has a minor lead of 1 percentage point against Donald Trump (46.9). NBC News and Emerson College have projected a 49%-49% tie nationally between the two candidates. Ipsos has projected a three-point lead (49%-46%) to Harris, while AtlasIntel has projected a two-point lead (50%-48%) to Trump.