Eyes were on swing states as millions of Americans across the United States cast their votes in a race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris to become the next president.
The battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are expected to be pivotal to the path to victory.
Trump said he was “confident” as he cast his ballot in Florida, while Harris, who sent her ballot by mail, urged people to “get out and vote.”
Harris is one of 82 million people who voted before election day, and polls suggested on Tuesday the race for the White House was neck to neck, according to BBC.
For presidential elections, many states vote for the same party, election after election.
That leaves just a handful of states known as “swing states” where either candidate could win.
Three of the seven swing states at this election are in an area known as the Rust Belt, the former heartland of the US manufacturing industry.
Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin share many similarities in their voter demographics and as a result, have all voted the same way at every election since 1992, according to a BBC report.
Assuming the more predictable states vote as expected, Harris will find herself 44 electoral college votes short of the 270 she needs for victory and Trump will be looking for 51 more votes to reach 270.
If that happens, the election could be decided in the Rust Belt alone.
Americans aren’t just choosing the president – they’re also picking members of the US Congress, and some states are voting on abortion rights.
AFP reported that US Republican presidential contender Trump said he would be prepared to concede defeat after Tuesday’s vote “if it’s a fair election,” while again raising concerns about the use of electronic voting machines.
“If I lose an election, if it’s a fair election, I would be the first one to acknowledge it. So far, I think it’s been fair,” Trump, repeating a caveat that he had used many times on the campaign trail, told reporters after voting in Florida.
Wearing a red “Make America Great Again” cap, he reiterated his previous criticism of electronic voting machines, suggesting they were less secure than paper ballots and would delay the outcome being known.
The election results perhaps coming overnight, or not for several days – will either make Harris the first woman president in the country’s history, or hand Trump a comeback that sends shock waves around the world.
According to AFP, polls show Democratic Vice President Harris, 60, and Republican former President Trump, 78, may be heading for a photo finish after a head-spinning campaign.
Harris made a late, dramatic entrance into the race when President Joe Biden dropped out in July, while Trump has ridden out two assassination attempts and a criminal conviction.
Trump has said he would not seek election again in 2028, but he also recently has repeated vague claims of election fraud while saying he should “never have left” the White House in 2021.
Across the country, voters lined up, including in Black Mountain, North Carolina, where the voting station was a makeshift tent due to recent hurricane damage and flooding.
Long queues also formed in Erie, a critical city in battleground Pennsylvania.
Security threats
The Federal Bureau of Investigation says there have been “bomb threats” to polling stations in several states, and that many “appear to originate from Russian email domains.”
“None of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far,” it says.
BBC reported earlier on hoax bomb threats in Georgia, which Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, said were non-credible and of Russian origin.
The FBI said election integrity was its highest priority and that it was working closely with state and local law enforcement.
The US Capitol police also said it arrested a man who “smelled like fuel” and had a “flare gun” at the Capitol visitor centre in Washington DC.
In a post on X, the police said the man was stopped during the screening process at the centre.
“The man smelled like fuel, had a torch and a flare gun,” the post said.
The centre was closed for tours while police investigated, the post added.
The police force said it would provide more information when it could.
The US Capitol is where Congress, the legislative arm of the Federal Government, sits.
Trump refuses to condemn violence
Former President Donald Trump has asserted that he does not need to instruct his supporters to refrain from violent actions or to accept the election outcome if he loses.
This was according to a live update on CNN on Tuesday.
When asked whether he would urge his backers to maintain peace, Trump replied, “I don’t have to tell them that,” claiming that his supporters are inherently non-violent.
“Of course, there’ll be no violence. My supporters are not violent people,” he added, emphasising his belief in their character.
