By Zeke Miller, Michelle L. Price, and Will Weissert, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) – A presidential campaign marked by turmoil and rancor neared its conclusion on Election Day as Americans decided whether to send Donald Trump back to the White House or hoist Kamala Harris into the Oval Office.
Polls opened across the country Tuesday morning as voters faced a stark choice between two candidates who have offered drastically different temperaments and visions for the world’s largest economy and dominant military power.
HarrisDemocratic vice president, will become the first woman president if elected. She has pledged to work on all fronts to address economic and other issues without departing radically from the course set by President Joe Biden. Trumpthe former Republican president, has pledged replace thousands of federal workers with loyalists, impose sweeping tariffs on allies and enemies alike, and mount the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.
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The two candidates passed the the last hours of the campaign coinciding in Pennsylvania, the most hotly contested state. They were trying to encourage their bases and Americans who had not yet decided to vote.
“It’s important, it’s my civic duty and it’s important that I vote for myself and vote for democracy and the country that I’ve supported for 22 years of my life,” said Ron Kessler, 54, an Air Force veteran from Pennsylvania, who said he was voting for the second time.
Harris and Trump entered Election Day focused on seven battleground states, five of them carried by Trump in 2016 before switching to Biden in 2020: “blue wall” Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, as well as Arizona and Georgia. Nevada and North Carolina, which Democrats and Republicans won respectively in the last two elections, were also hotly contested.
The tightness of the race and the number of states in play increased the likelihood that, once again, there would be no known winner on election night. The New Hampshire hamlet of Dixville Notch, which traditionally votes after midnight on Election Day, provided an early warning. Dixville Notch was split between Trump and Harris, with three votes for each.
In the 2020 presidential race, it took four days to declare a winner. Regardless, Trump has made unsubstantiated claims that if he lost it would be due to fraud. The Harris campaign was preparing to have attempt to declare victory before a winner is known Tuesday night or attempt to challenge the outcome if he wins. Four years ago, Trump launched an effort to override the will of voters who ended in the insurrection of January 6, 2021. at the U.S. Capitol.
Trump was scheduled to vote Tuesday in Florida, his adopted home state, and then spend the day at his Mar-a-Lago estate before a party at a nearby convention center. Harris already voted by mail in California, her home state. She will hold a party at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington.
Each candidate would take the country into new territory
Harris, 60, would be the first woman, black woman and person of South Asian descent to hold the presidency. She would also be the first sitting vice president to win the White House in 32 years.
A victory would cap a breakneck campaign unlike any other in U.S. history. Harris ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket. less than four months ago, after Biden, under enormous pressure from his party following a disastrous debate performance, ended his reelection bid.
Trump, 78, would be the oldest president ever elected. He would also be the first defeated president in 132 years to get another term in the White House, and the first person convicted of a felony to occupy the Oval Office.
At left Washington abandoned by some allies after Jan. 6, Trump will defeat younger rivals in the Republican primaries and consolidated the support of former allies and harsh critics within his party. At survived an assassination attempt by millimeters at a rally in July. Secret Service agents thwarted a second attempt in September.
A Trump victory would affirm that enough voters gave up on the warnings of many of Trump’s former aides. or instead prioritized concerns about Biden and Harris’ handling of the economy or the U.S.-Mexico border.
He would almost certainly avoid jail time after being convicted of his role in concealing surreptitious money payments to an adult film actress during his first run for president in 2016. His sentencing in that case could come later this month. And after his inauguration, Trump could end the federal investigation into his effort to overturn the 2020 election results.
There is a lot at stake in this election for the United States and the world.
The potential turbulence of a second Trump term has been magnified by his embrace of the far right of the Republican Party and his disregard for long-standing democratic norms.
Trump has used harsh rhetoric against Harris and other Democrats, calling them “demoniacs,” and has suggested military action against people you call “internal enemies.”
Harris, pointing to warnings from former Trump aides, has labeled him a “fascist” and has blamed Trump for endangering women’s lives by nominating three of the judges who overturned Roe v. Wade. In the final hours of the campaign, he tried to strike a more positive tone and spent the entire last day of Monday without uttering the name of his Republican opponent.
On the eve of Election Day, federal, state, and local officials expressed their confidence in the integrity of the country’s electoral systems. However, they said they were prepared to deal with what they see as an unprecedented level of foreign disinformation – especially from Russia and Iran – as well as the possibility of physical violence or cyber-attacks.
Both parties have armies of lawyers in anticipation of legal challenges on and after Election Day. And law enforcement across the country is on high alert for possible violence.
The future of U.S. support for Ukraine, America’s fidelity to its global alliances, and the nation’s commitment to stand up to autocrats hang in the balance.
Harris has pledged to continue to support Kiev’s defense against Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Trump has harshly criticized Ukraine, commended Russian President Vladimir Putin and suggested that would encourage Russia to attack NATO allies. of the U.S. that Trump considers criminals.
Voters across the country were also deciding thousands of other races that will decide everything from control of Congress to state ballot measures on abortion access.
More than 82 million people voted early – shy of the record set during the 2020 pandemic, when Trump encouraged Republicans to just vote on Election Day. This time, he urged his voters to secure their ballots in advance, and they complied in droves.
Associated Press reporters Jill Colvin in Palm Beach, Florida, Darlene Superville and Eric Tucker in Washington, and Marc Levy in Allentown, Pennsylvania, contributed to this dispatch.
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