U.S. Elections 2024 voting LIVE: Voters to cast ballot for President soon

Voters in the U.S. hamlet of Dixville Notch launched Election Day in the first minutes of Tuesday with a tied vote, mirroring the incredibly close national polls in the White House race. 

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump each got three ballots in the tiny community in the northeastern state of New Hampshire which for decades has kicked off Election Day at the stroke of midnight Monday, hours before the rest of the country’s polling stations open.

The Democratic Vice President and Republican ex-president have been battling in a tense and exceptionally close race, with opinion polls largely tied.

– AFP

On Monday (November 5, 2024), the Republican-led states of Missouri and Texas sued the U.S. Justice Department to block the federal government from sending lawyers to their states on Election Day to monitor for compliance with federal voting rights laws. 

Both states are among 27 the Justice Department said on Friday it would send staff out to monitor voting locations, as it has done regularly during national elections.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement that sending monitors “infringes on States’ constitutional authority to run free and fair elections.”

– Reuters

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Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump made their final pitches to voters on Monday (November 4, 2024) in the same parts of Pennsylvania at roughly the same time, focusing on the state that could make or break their chances during the last full day of the presidential campaign. 

In Pittsburgh, Mr. Trump delivered what his campaign aides described as his closing argument after his previous attempt – a mass rally at Madison Square Garden in New York – was derailed by crude and racist jokes. He has also veered off message with falsehoods about voter fraud and invocations of violence.

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It is likely that if Ms Harris wins, many of her policies towards India will pick up where Mr Biden left off. There may be some greater emphasis on issues that are important to the left flank of the Democratic party — such as stronger or more public positions if the U.S. has concerns about democratic norms and human rights in the actions of the Narendra Modi government.

However, there are second-order changes that could be at least as profound but felt only in the medium to long term. These might occur through Donald Trump’s approach to the Ukraine-Russia war, the conflict in West Asia, and importantly actions vis-à-vis China, the South Asian neighbourhood and the Indo-Pacific.

Outcomes under a hypothetical second Trump administration are uncertain, not least because of the unpredictability that is at the core of Mr. Trump’s strategy and approach.

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The issue of abortion rights is emerging as a significant factor influencing Indian American women’s voting preferences. This demographic group, which is a part of the second-largest immigrant community in the United States, is showing a strong inclination towards supporting candidates who advocate for reproductive rights.

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This tradition began in 1845 when Congress established Election Day as the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

Popular podcaster Joe Rogan, who recently interviewed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for nearly three hours, said on Monday (November 4, 2024) that he has endorsed the former president in the race to the White House. 

Mr. Trump faces Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the November 5 U.S. election in what polls show to be a tight race. Kamala Harris has also gotten multiple celebrity endorsements.

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Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump are making their case before union workers, among others, across the Blue Wall. On Friday evening, the two candidates campaigned within a few miles of each other in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The city is Democratic, with a large Black population, and conservatives are concentrated in the suburbs. Mr. Trump had flipped this State in 2016, while Mr. Biden won by a wafer-thin margin of 0.7% in 2020.

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The U.S. votes for its President on the first Tuesday of November, every four years. The candidates are required to meet certain criteria to be eligible to contest, and the process itself starts months, or even years, in advance.

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42 Broadway in New York, the office of the Board of Elections, is an important address in this election season in the U.S. Michael Ryan, Executive Director, and his Deputy Vincent Ignizio are upbeat about the figures that early voting has drawn for the city. On the first day, about 1,40,000 votes were cast in early voting.

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The race between Democratic leader Kamala Harris and her Republican rival Donald Trump for the White House has been truly unprecedented as it saw drama, tragedy, political comebacks, fierce rhetoric and a historically razor-tight contest.

As the big election day is just a few hours away, many political observers billed the unpredictable race for the 47th President of the U.S. as the most consequential one in decades while appearing to project a grim picture for the country’s future under a Trump presidency.

– PTI