The vote is widely seen as a referendum on Trump and his particularly brash and murderous presidency
New York:
The United States began voting on Tuesday in an election tantamount to a referendum on Donald Trump’s particularly brash and murderous presidency, which Democratic opponent and frontrunner Joe Biden urged Americans to end to restore “our democracy. “.
The country is more divided and angry than at any time since the Vietnam War of the 1970s – and fears that Trump might challenge the election result only fuel these tensions.
Despite an often surprisingly laid-back campaign, Biden, 77, leads in nearly every opinion poll, supported by his consistent message that America must restore its “soul” and gain new leadership amid a crisis. coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 231,000 people.
“I have a feeling we are coming together for a big win tomorrow,” Biden said in Pittsburgh, Pa., A vital electoral battleground where he was joined by pop superstar Lady Gaga. “It is time to stand up and take back our democracy.”
But Trump was typically defiant until the end, campaigning at a breakneck pace with crowded rallies in four states on Monday, and repeating his gloomy and unprecedented claims for a US president that the polls risked being rigged against him.
After almost incessant speeches in a final three-day sprint, he found himself in the early hours of Tuesday in Grand Rapids, Michigan – the same place he concluded his epic anti-luck campaign in 2016, beating the apparent favorite Hillary Clinton.
Despite poor poll results, the 74-year-old Republican real estate mogul expected to pull off another upheaval.
“We’re going to have another great win tomorrow,” he told the Michigan crowd, who chanted back, “We love you, we love you!”
“We are going to make history again,” he said.
Packing Trump Bags
While Tuesday is officially Election Day, in reality Americans have been voting for weeks.
With a huge expansion of postal voting to guard against the Covid-19 pandemic, nearly 100 million people have already made their choice.
Biden is on the rise after indications that Democratic enthusiasm for early voting may match the more visible energy at Trump’s impressive rallies.
In one of the great political bets in US history, Biden stuck with socially distant gatherings with small crowds until the last moment, which contrasts surprisingly with Trump’s constant large gatherings where few supporters care as much about the masks.
But the Democrat, making his third attempt at the presidency, clearly feels his calmer approach and strict attention to pandemic protocols is what Americans want after four tumultuous years.
“It’s time for Donald Trump to pack his bags and go home,” Biden told supporters in Cleveland on Monday.
“We’re done with the chaos! We’re done with the tweets, the anger, the hatred, the failure, the irresponsibility.”
In cold downtown Pittsburgh, Justine Wolff said she had already voted for Biden and cautiously hoped he would win Pennsylvania, which, along with Florida, could be the tightest of all the swing states that decide to close national elections.
“I hope people saw the writing on the wall,” said the 35-year-old nurse. “We need some kind of a change because it’s not working for anyone.”
But where many early votes are said to have been cast by Democrats, Trump supporters are hoping for a massive wave of Republican supporters voting in person on Tuesday.
“Whether he wins or loses is history,” said Kolleen Wall, who turned out to be cheering on Trump in Grand Rapids. But “when you come to one of these rallies, all you think about is, how could he not win?”
The polls opened at 6:00 a.m. (11:00 GMT) in the eastern states of New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Connecticut and Maine.
But the first polling stations to open in the country were in two New Hampshire villages, Dixville Notch and Millsfield, starting at midnight.
Small hamlet of 12 inhabitants in the middle of the forest, near the Canadian border, Dixville Notch has traditionally voted “first in the country” since 1960.
The vote took a few minutes, as did the count: five votes for Biden and none for Trump.
Violence warning
Trump himself plans to visit his campaign headquarters in Virginia on Tuesday, while Biden will travel to his hometown of Scranton, the rambling Pennsylvania town that Trump also visited on Monday.
There are fears that if the election is near, protracted legal chaos and possibly violent unrest could ensue – not least because Trump has spent months trying to undermine public confidence in the voting process in a country already deeply divided along political fault lines.
He has stepped up those warnings in recent days, focusing in particular on the Pennsylvania rule allowing the counting of mail-in ballots received within three days of Tuesday.
In a tweet posted Monday with a warning tag via Twitter, he said it “would allow rampant and uncontrolled cheating.”
“It will also induce violence in the streets. Something must be done!” Trump tweeted.
(This story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
