Donald Trump or Kamala Harris? Americans vote to elect their next president

It’s election day in the United States. After months of intense campaigning by Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and her Republican challenger Donald Trump, Americans will head out to vote for their next president.
The first ballots were cast in the minutes after midnight (US time) in a tiny New Hampshire township along the US-Canada border.
On the final day of canvassing, Trump and Harris criss-crossed key battleground states and delivered closing remarks. Former president Trump, who is seeking a return to power, held rallies in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan while Harris addressed supporters in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania.
At Donald Trump’s final rally, the Republican leader argued that his real opponent was not Kamala Harris but an “evil Democrat system”. Harris, meanwhile, did not mention Trump, but ended her 107-day campaign with a pledge to “turn the page on a decade of politics that has been driven by fear and division”.
More than 78 million Americans have already cast their votes, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab that tracks early and mail-in voting across the US.
Various polls have predicted a neck-and-neck contest, which brings the focus on the swing states to decide the fate of the presidential election.
In the US, most states have a very clear preference for either the Republican or Democratic candidate. This leaves only seven key swing states that decide the result — Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina.
Winning the majority of these swing states is often essential for candidates aiming to secure the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.
In the 2024 election, Pennsylvania has emerged as the biggest prize between the two candidates. With the most electoral votes (19) than any other battleground state, Pennsylvania could possibly determine whether Trump or Harris clinches the White House.
In 2016, Donald Trump managed to make inroads in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — the three Great Lakes states that make up the “blue wall” or a Democratic stronghold. However, in 2020, US President Joe Biden wrested the states back to the Democratic camp.
The Electoral College is a system used in the United States to elect the president and vice president. Instead of a direct popular vote, each state is assigned a certain number of ‘electoral votes’ based on its representation in Congress (the total number of Senators and House Representatives). Here’s a breakdown:
Electors: Each state has electors equal to its congressional delegation (House + Senate seats). There are 538 electors total, including three for Washington, DC.
Popular vote: In most states, the winner of the popular vote receives all the state’s electoral votes, except in Maine and Nebraska, which use proportional allocation.
Electoral vote majority: To win the presidency, a candidate needs a majority of electoral votes—270 out of 538.
There is no set national time for voting in the US. Different states start polling as per their local time.
As per CNN, the earliest voting will commence in Connecticut, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine and other states at 6 am local time.
Voting in Arizona, Iowa, Louisiana, Wisconsin will begin after 8 am local time.