The much-talked-about 2024 United States presidential election, the 60th quadrennial presidential election, will be held today (November 5).
Americans as well as voters in each state and the District of Columbia will choose electors to the Electoral College, who will then elect a president and vice president for a term of four years.
The presidential election will take place at the same time as elections for the U.S. Senate, House, state governorships, and state legislatures. Key swing states for the presidential election include Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
The winners are scheduled to be inaugurated on January 20 in 2025 as the 47th president and 50th vice president of the United States respectively. Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, the current vice-president of the United States (US), and her Republican rival Donald Trump, the former president of that country, have been running neck-and-neck for weeks.
The Guardian reports, new polling shows Kamala Harris leading among early voters in the country’s battleground states. Kamala has an 8 per cent lead among those who have already voted, while Trump is ahead among those who say they are very likely to vote but have not yet done so. The poll, from the New York Times and Siena College, also found Kamala was slightly ahead in three swing states, with Trump up in one and the other three too close to call.
It has been reported that some results may come in more slowly this year due to changes in how individual states - including all seven swing states that will ultimately decide the race - have administered their elections since 2020.
National and swing state polls have tightened as November 5 draws closer, so there could be very narrow margins of victory in several places, which may require votes to be recounted, reports BBC.
It is also possible that some results may come in more slowly this year due to changes in how individual states, including all seven swing states that will ultimately decide the race, have administered their elections since 2020.
On the other hand, vote counting has been sped up in places like Michigan, and far fewer votes will be cast by mail this time than in the last election, which was held during the Covid-19 pandemic.
This means there are a number of possible outcomes-- a winner declared on election night, the next morning or possibly days or weeks later.
The 2020 election took place on November 3, but US TV networks did not declare Joe Biden the winner until late morning on November 7.
On Monday (November 4), with just one day remaining until the 2024 US presidential election, campaigning has hit overdrive.
With only hours of the Election Day, Kamala Harris spoke in Michigan, while Trump used a rally in Pennsylvania to complain about gaps in the bulletproof shields surrounding him and suggested he would have no concerns about reporters being shot at if there were another assassination attempt against him.
Al-Jazeera reports, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump were on a tour of swing states aiming to sway undecided voters. On Sunday, Harris was in Michigan, while Trump focused on North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Georgia.
A recent New York Times/Siena poll shows that Trump and Harris are effectively tied in Pennsylvania, each receiving 48 percent of the vote.
Meanwhile, according to FiveThirtyEight’s National Polls tracker, Harris holds a narrow lead of 1 percentage point over Trump.
However, this lead is shrinking, indicating that either candidate has a strong chance of winning.
Key battleground states include Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Nevada.
According to FiveThirtyEight’s daily tracker, Kamala Harris holds a narrow lead in Michigan and Wisconsin, with margins of approximately 0.8 points and 0.6 points, respectively.
On the other hand, Donald Trump is gaining ground in Arizona, where he currently has a 2.5-point advantage over Kamala Harris. In North Carolina and Georgia, his lead hovers at about 1.5 points. Additionally, Donald Trump maintains a 0.9-point advantage in Nevada and holds a slim margin of 0.3 points in the crucial state of Pennsylvania.
Many Arab Americans, who have historically favoured Democrats, have shifted towards the Republican presidential candidate this election amid widespread anger and frustration over US support of Israel’s devastating war on Gaza.
AFP reports, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump embark on a final frenzied campaign blitz Monday with both hitting must-win Pennsylvania on the last day of the tightest and most volatile US presidential election in memory.
Trump has promised a ‘landslide’ as he seeks a sensational return to the White House, while Kamala said the ‘momentum’ was on the side of her bid to be America’s first woman president.
But the polls suggest a different story on the eve of Election Day -- total deadlock in surveys nationally and in the seven swing states where the result is expected to be decided.
Now a race of dramatic twists, including two bids to kill Trump and Kamala’s shock late entrance, is coming down to the most viciously fought-over battleground.
Kamala Harris spent the whole day campaigning in the rust-belt state of Pennsylvania, culminating in a huge rally in its biggest city Philadelphia featuring singer Lady Gaga. Trump traveled to North Carolina, Pennsylvania and then Michigan.
Pennsylvania is the single biggest swing state prize under the US Electoral College system, which awards influence in line with population.
- 'You're fired' -
Both sides said they are encouraged by huge early turnout numbers, with over 78 million people having voted already, around half of the total number of ballots cast in 2020.
The incredible closeness of the 2024 White House race reflects a deeply divided United States, as it chooses between two candidates whose visions could scarcely be more different.
Former president Trump has doubled down on his dark and violent rhetoric in his pursuit of a second term which would make him the first convicted felon and, at 78, the oldest major party candidate ever elected.
Kamala Harris has meanwhile made an astonishing rise to the top of the Democratic ticket after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race in July.
Kamala Harris is hoping abortion is a key issue that can hurt Trump, especially with woman voters, while Trump has focused on migrants and the economy and dubbed political opponents the ‘enemy from within’.
They have both embarked on a frenetic zig-zag through the swing states, with raucous rallies and even an appearance by Kamala Harris on the famed television show ‘Saturday Night Live’.
On the campaign trail Sunday, Donald Trump mused to supporters that he wouldn’t mind if journalists were shot, raised baseless allegations of election fraud and dwelt in gory detail on crimes by undocumented immigrants.
‘Kamala -- you're fired, get out’, Trump told cheering supporters in Macon, Georgia.
Donald Trump also said he ‘shouldn't have left’ the White House after he lost his 2020 reelection bid to Biden, and then tried to overturn the results, culminating in the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol.
Fears are mounting that he would again refuse to accept defeat.
- ‘We have momentum’ -
For Kamala Harris’s part, after a series of more encouraging recent polls, she told a raucous rally in Michigan on Sunday that "we have momentum -- it's on our side."
Kamala Harris also courted the large Arab-American community in Michigan that has denounced US handling of the Israel-Hamas war, saying she would do ‘everything in my power to end the war in Gaza’.
The world is anxiously watching the election, which could have profound implications for conflicts in the Middle East and Russia's war in Ukraine.
The final days of the campaign have meanwhile seen both candidates roll out high-profile surrogates.
Right-wing tech tycoon Elon Musk has been making controversial $1 million giveaways to registered voters, while Kamala Harris has relied on the star power of former president Barack Obama and ex-first lady Michelle Obama and singer Beyonce.
But outgoing President Biden has been notably absent from the trail since a gaffe in which he referred to Trump's supporters as ‘garbage’ last week.
Biden will spend most of the last day of the campaign at the White House, while Harris will start her day with an event in his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania.
