WASHINGTON: Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris notched early wins in reliably Republican and Democratic states, respectively, as a divided America made its decision in a stark choice for the nation’s future Tuesday.
Polls closed in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Nevada, the seven closely fought battlegrounds expected to decide the election, but the results there were too early to call. Balloting continued in the West on Election Day, as tens of millions of Americans added their ballots to the 84 million cast early as they chose between two candidates with drastically different temperaments and visions for the country.
Trump won Florida, a one-time battleground that has shifted heavily to Republicans in recent elections. He also notched early wins in reliably Republican states such as Texas, South Carolina and Indiana, while Harris took Democratic strongholds like New York, Massachusetts and Illinois.
The fate of democracy appeared to be a primary driver for Harris’ supporters, a sign that the Democratic nominee’s persistent messaging in her campaign’s closing days accusing Trump of being a fascist may have broken through, according to AP VoteCast. The expansive survey of more than 110,000 voters nationwide also found a country mired in negativity and desperate for change. Trump’s supporters were largely focused on immigration and inflation — two issues that the former Republican president has been hammering since the start of his campaign.
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.
Harris has promised to work across the aisle to tackle economic worries and other issues without radically departing from the course set by President Joe Biden. Trump has vowed to replace thousands of federal workers with loyalists, impose sweeping tariffs on allies and foes alike, and stage the largest deportation operation in US history.
Harris and Trump entered Election Day focused on seven swing states, five of them carried by Trump in 2016 before they flipped to Biden in 2020: the “blue wall” of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin as well as Arizona and Georgia. Nevada and North Carolina, which Democrats and Republicans respectively carried in the last two elections, also were closely contested.
Trump voted in Palm Beach, Florida, near his Mar-a-Lago club. He called into a Wisconsin radio station Tuesday night to say: “I’m watching these results. So far so good.”
Harris, the Democratic vice president, did phone interviews with radio stations in the battleground states, then visited Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington carrying a box of Doritos — her go-to snack.
“This truly represents the best of who we are,” Harris told a room of cheering staffers. She was handed a cellphone by supporters doing phone banking, and when asked by reporters how she was feeling, the vice president held up a phone and responded, “Gotta talk to voters.”
The closeness of the race and the number of states in play raised the likelihood that, once again, a victor might not be known on election night.
Trump said Tuesday that he had no plans to tell his supporters to refrain from violence if Harris wins, because they “are not violent people.” His angry supporters stormed the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after Trump tried to overturn his loss in 2020. Asked Tuesday about accepting the 2024 race’s results, he said, “If it’s a fair election, I’d be the first one to acknowledge it.” He visited a nearby campaign office to thank staffers before a party at a nearby convention center.
After her DNC stop, Harris planned to attend a party at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington.
Federal, state and local officials have expressed confidence in the integrity of the nation’s election systems. They nonetheless were braced to contend with what they say is an unprecedented level of foreign disinformation — particularly from Russia and Iran — as well as the possibility of physical violence or cyberattacks.
In Georgia’s Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold that includes most of the city of Atlanta, 32 of the 177 polling places received bomb threats Tuesday, prompting brief evacuations at five locations, county Police Chief W. Wade Yates said. The threats were determined to be non-credible but voting hours were extended at those five locations.
Bomb threats also forced an extension of voting hours in at least two Pennsylvania counties — Clearfield, in central Pennsylvania, and Chester, near Philadelphia.
Both sides have armies of lawyers in anticipation of legal challenges on and after Election Day. And law enforcement agencies nationwide are on high alert for potential violence.
Harris, 60, would be the first woman, Black woman and person of South Asian descent to serve as president. She also would be the first sitting vice president to win the White House in 36 years.
Trump, 78, would be the oldest president ever elected. He would also be the first defeated president in 132 years to win another term in the White House, and the first person convicted of a felony to take over the Oval Office.
He survived one assassination attempt by millimeters at a July rally. Secret Service agents foiled a second attempt in September.
Harris, pointing to the warnings of Trump’s former aides, has labeled him a “fascist” and blamed Trump for putting women’s lives in danger by nominating three of the justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. In the closing hours of the campaign, she tried to strike a more positive tone and went all of Monday without saying her Republican opponent’s name.
Voters nationwide also were deciding thousands of other races that will decide everything from control of Congress to state ballot measures on abortion access in response to the Supreme Court’s vote in 2022 to overturn Roe v. Wade.
In Florida, a ballot measure that would have protected abortion rights in the state constitution failed after not meeting the 60 percent threshold to pass, marking the first time a measure protecting abortion rights failed since Roe was overturned. Earlier Tuesday, Trump refused to say how he voted on the measure and snapped at a reporter, saying, “You should stop talking about that.”
In reliably Democratic New York and Maryland, voters approved ballot measures aimed at protecting abortion rights in their state constitutions.
JD Jorgensen, an independent voter in Black Mountain, North Carolina, which was hit hard by Hurricane Helene, said voters should have made up their minds before Tuesday.
“I think that the candidates, both being in the public eye as long as they both have been, if you’re on the fence, you hadn’t really been paying attention,” said Jorgensen, 35.