Polls began closing in Georgia and other states in the U.S. presidential race between U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, after millions of Americans cast their votes Tuesday.
Preliminary exit poll results from multiple major U.S. media outlets released in the final hours of voting showed the economy, immigration and the state of democracy were key issues driving people to vote in the highly-consequential election that will determine control of the White House and Congress.
Polls closed at 7 p.m. Eastern in Georgia, one of the key battleground states seen as crucial for Harris or Trump to win. However, some polling places in the state were allowed to remain open for slightly longer due to hoax bomb threats that delayed voting earlier Tuesday.
The Associated Press declared Trump would win Kentucky and Indiana — both traditional Republican states — while Harris would take Vermont, a solid Democratic state.
Exit polls showed a highly anxious electorate, with large majorities of voters surveyed expressing negative views of the current state of the country.
About three-quarters of voters surveyed in the AP VoteCast, CNN, NBC News, and ABC News exit polls said they were disappointed and even angry about how things were going in the country. Yet CNN’s poll noted that over 60 per cent of respondents believe “America’s best days are in the future.”
The exit polls found between three and four in 10 voters ranked economy as their top issue in this election, followed by around 20 per cent who said immigration. Between 10 and 20 per cent said abortion was their number one issue.
Yet the same polls all found the future of democracy outweighed all those issues as a motivator for voting. Across each exit poll, more than a third to half of voters said democracy was the single most important factor.
Tens of millions of Americans on Tuesday added their ballots to the 84 million cast early as they chose between two candidates with drastically different temperaments and visions for the country. Those casting Election Day ballots mostly encountered a smooth process, with isolated reports of hiccups that regularly happen, including long lines, technical issues and ballot printing errors.
Multiple bomb threats reported at polling places in critical states like Georgia were deemed to be hoaxes emanating from Russian email accounts, according to the FBI.
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Turnout is expected to be high and could break the record set in the 2020 election, when over 66 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot.
The extremely close race is expected to come down to seven battleground or swing states that will decide the winner of the Electoral College, which is used to elect the U.S. president. Trump and Harris have focused most of their time campaigning in those states, particularly Pennsylvania but also Michigan, Georgia, Wisconsin, Arizona, North Carolina and Nevada.
A result may not be declared Tuesday night due to how close the race is and how long it could take to count millions of mail-in ballots, which in some states could not be opened until Election Day. In 2020, which saw a steep increase in mail-in voting due to the COVID-19 pandemic that overwhelmed some counting stations, a winner was not declared until four days later.
Harris stands to be the first female president if elected and has promised to work across the aisle to tackle economic worries and other issues without radically departing from the course set by U.S. President Joe Biden. Trump has vowed to replace thousands of federal workers with loyalists, impose sweeping tariffs on all foreign imports, and stage the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.
Either result would have major implications for Canada, particularly on the economy and immigration but also on foreign policy.
Canada is also bracing for the possibility of unrest and violence in the days following the vote.
Trump, who has frequently spread false claims that he won the 2020 presidential election and whose supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, posted claims of “cheating” in Pennsylvania without evidence on his Truth Social media account as voting continued Tuesday.
In response, Pennsylvania District Attorney Larry Krasner said there is “no factual basis whatsoever within law enforcement to support this wild allegation.”
“If Donald J. Trump has any facts to support his wild allegations, we want them now. Right now. We are not holding our breath,” Krasner said in a statement provided by his office.
Harris, who had earlier sent in her ballot by mail to her home state of California, spent some of Tuesday in radio interviews encouraging listeners to vote.
National exit poll results provide an important window into the thinking of the nation, but may not directly align with the seven battleground states expected to decide the presidential election.
Exit polls capture variations among turnout in various demographic groups, such as men vs. women voters or college-educated vs. non-college educated voters, and can provide insights into how turnout has changed from past elections.
One key advantage of exit polls is all the people surveyed are people who cast ballots in this election.
—with files from the Associated Press and Reuters
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