The race for the presidency of the United States is too close as polling stations on the East Coast begin to close and key battleground states begin reporting ballots cast for Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
Georgia was the first battleground state to close most polls at 7 p.m. Eastern time and is expected to count ballots quickly, giving the country its first indication of where the race stands. Polls in North Carolina will then close at 7:30 p.m. The Midwestern states of Michigan and Pennsylvania – crucial states on any path to victory – will close at 8 p.m., with Wisconsin following within an hour.
The results in these five critical states will likely determine the election, as will those in the western states of Nevada and Arizona, where polls will close in the next two hours.
Public surveys leading up to election day showed a historically tight race in the national popular vote and in the seven key battleground states. Exit polls released Tuesday night reflect an electorate divided by gender and education, focused on the economy, immigration, reproductive rights and the future of American democracy, issues that drove the 2024 campaign.
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Throughout the day, as the dueling campaigns monitored voter turnout in swing states, officials from both camps expressed cautious optimism that their voters turned out in the numbers they needed to secure victory.
Voting went smoothly across the country, with a few exceptions. Local and federal authorities said Russian actors tried to call in hoax bomb threats to polling places in black-majority counties in Georgia, a ploy to disrupt or delay voting in the state.
Trump, the Republican candidate and former president, is eyeing the returns from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, with a close circle of close friends, family members and one of his most generous financial supporters, Elon Musk. His Democratic opponent, Vice President Harris, is in Washington, D.C., where she told reporters she would have a private dinner with her family before an election night event at Howard University, her alma mater.
READ MORE: Kamala Harris pleads for voters ahead of fateful election night
If she prevailed, Harris would become the first woman ever elected president, as well as the first Asian American and woman of color. She is also the first candidate in modern American history to become her party’s nominee without winning a primary, taking the Democratic mantle from President Joe Biden after he withdrew from the race in July.
A Trump victory would make him only the second president to serve two non-consecutive terms, returning him to the White House after losing to Biden in 2020 and becoming the first convicted felon to rise to the nation’s highest office would be chosen. Trump has campaigned on plans for “retaliation” against his political enemies, promising to stage mass deportations of undocumented immigrants in the United States.
