Signs point to a tight presidential race between Harris, Trump as polls begin to close
The race for president of the United States is too close to call as polls begin closing on the East Coast and key battleground states begin reporting ballots cast for Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
Georgia was the first battleground state to close most its polls as of 7:00 pm Eastern Time and is expected to count ballots quickly, giving the country an early indication of the state of the race. North Carolina’s polls will close next at 7:30 pm. The Midwestern states of Michigan and Pennsylvania — crucial states in any path to victory — will close at 8:00 pm, and Wisconsin’s will follow within the hour.
Results in these five critical states are likely to decide the election, alongside those in the Western states of Nevada and Arizona, where polling stations will close in the next two hours.
Public surveys leading up to Election Day showed an historically tight race in the national popular vote and across the seven key battlegrounds. Exit polls released Tuesday night reflect an electorate divided by gender and education focused on the economy, immigration, reproductive rights, and the future of American democracy, issues that drove the 2024 campaign.
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Throughout the day, as the dueling campaigns monitored voter turnout across the swing states, officials from both camps expressed cautious optimism that their voters were turning out in the numbers they need to secure victory.
Voting went smoothly across the country, with few exceptions. Local and federal authorities said that Russian actors attempted to call in fake bomb threats to polling stations in Black-majority precincts in Georgia, a ploy to disrupt or slow down voting in the state.
Trump, the Republican nominee and former president, is watching the returns from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, with a tight circle of close friends, family members and one of his most generous financial supporters, Elon Musk. His Democratic opponent, Vice President Harris, is in Washington, D.C., where she told reporters she would have a private dinner with her family before holding an election night event at Howard University, her alma mater.
READ MORE: Kamala Harris makes final case to voters before fateful Election Night
If victorious, Harris would become the first woman ever elected to the presidency, as well as the first Asian American and woman of color. She is also the first candidate in modern U.S. history to become her party’s nominee without winning a primary, taking the Democratic mantle from President Joe Biden after he dropped out of the race in July.
A Trump victory would make him only the second president to serve two non-consecutive terms, returning him to the White House after he lost to Biden in 2020, and the first convicted felon elected to the nation’s highest office. Trump has campaigned on plans of “retribution” against his political enemies and has vowed to organize mass deportations of undocumented immigrants across the United States.
