Voters flock to polling stations across America on election day as nation decides between Trump and Biden

US-VOTE-VIRGINIA
Voters cast their ballots at a polling station in Hillsboro, Virginia
AFP via Getty Images
Michael Howie3 November 2020

Polling stations have opened across the US as Americans cast their votes either for incumbent Donald Trump or challenger Joe Biden.

Vermont was the first to open its polls with voting beginning at 5am local time (10am BST). Other Eastern Coast states including New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Maine were next to follow, opening their polls at 6am (11am BST).

Voters in Alaska will be the last to begin casting their ballots, starting at 4pm UK time.  

At the Chavis Community Center in southeast Raleigh, North Carolina, lines were short in the hour after polls opened. Volunteers and voters speculated that the massive early vote and worries about Covid-19 had thinned the crowd.

The most closely watched results will start to trickle in after 7pm Eastern Time (midnight in the UK) when polls close in states such as Georgia, though definitive national results could take days if the contest is tight.

Eric Blakeslee, 47, of Raleigh, who works in information technology, said he voted in person because he was concerned that Republican challenges to mail-in ballots might mean an absentee vote could be invalidated.

"I was really worried about my vote counting,” said Mr Blakeslee, who voted for Biden to end what he called four years of "crazy days."

The voting caps a campaign dominated by the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 231,000 people in the United States and put millions out of work. The country has also been shaken by nationwide protests over racial injustice against black Americans.

More than 99 million Americans have already voted early either in person or by mail, motivated not only by concerns about waiting in line on Election Day amid the pandemic but also by extraordinary levels of enthusiasm after such a polarising campaign.

The record-shattering total is already more than 70 per cent of the total 2016 vote, according to the US Elections Project at the University of Florida. Experts predict the vote could reach 160 million, far exceeding the 138 million ballots cast four years ago.  

US Election: Voters flock to the polls on election day

A line of voters forms through the parking lot of the Coliseum Ball Room on Election Day,  St. Petersburg,Fla.,  Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020 as the polls opened at 7am.
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The election has already prompted a wave of litigation over whether to adjust voting rules in light of the pandemic. On Monday, a federal judge in Texas rejected a Republican bid to throw out about 127,000 votes already cast at drive-through voting sites in the Democratic-leaning Houston area.

Mr Trump has questioned the integrity of the election results for months, making unsubstantiated claims that mail-in voting is rife with fraud and refusing to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses.

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