US election: Battleground states in focus as voting begins in staggered fashion

Washington: Polling opened in more than two dozen states at 7 am Tuesday, the last day for Americans to cast their ballots to elect their next president: Vice-President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump.

The remaining states will begin polling across the two remaining time zones in a staggered fashion and follow the same pattern to end voting later in the day but the closing times vary widely between 7 pm, such as in Georgia, 8 pm in Michigan and 9 pm local time in New York.

More than 82 million voters have already cast their ballot in early voting either in-person or by post. This is more than 51 per cent of 158 million votes cast in the 2020 election.

It is a historic election in many ways. For one, it has been the closest in decades, with Harris ahead of Trump 48.0 per cent to 46.8 per cent in the weighted average of national polls compiled by FiveThirtyEight and 48.7 per cent to 48.6 per cent in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls.

If Harris prevails, she will become the first woman to win the presidency, and the first African American woman, the first Asian American and the first Indian American to rise to the top of American politics.

If Trump wins, he will become only the second president in US history to lose the re-election after the first term and then win on the third try. The first was Grover Cleveland.

Harris wrapped up her campaign with her last event in Pennsylvania, one of the seven battleground states that will determine the outcome of the 2024 presidential race. Trump finished in Michigan, also one of the battleground states. The other five states are Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.

The winner must secure at least 270 of the 538 electoral college votes.