By Elishya Perera
WASHINGTON DC (CWBN)_ National polls opened on election day, as voters will enter booths across America in the next few hours and cast their ballots in one of the most unconventional US presidential races ever.
What time do voting polls open and close?
The opening and closing times for polling stations vary depending on states, cities or counties.
On the other hand, some states will allow eligible voters to vote after the polling station has closed, if they were already in the queue, while some states would not permit this.
Most polls opened at 6am (local time) today, while in some places, including Vermont, voters are able to cast their ballots from 5am.
While, the first polls on the East Coast close at 19:00 ET (00:00 GMT), all polling stations will be shut by 21:00 ET on 3rd November, which is 02:00 GMT on 4th November.
However, the clear result of the election, which has been significantly impacted by postal ballots owing to the pandemic, might not be known until sometime after Election Day, since mail-in ballots can be received late and will still be counted in many states.
Some of the key Battleground states allow ballots to be sent in late, including Texas (by Nov 4), Pennsylvania (by Nov 6), North Carolina (by Nov 12) and Ohio (by Nov 13). The remaining swing states – Florida, Georgia, Arizona, Wisconsin and Michigan – require mail ballots to be received on or before 3rd November.
Millions of Americans are expected to vote on Election Day; especially a large number of Republican supporters are anticipated to turn up in person to vote today, after Trump’s unfounded warnings about mail-voting fraud.
Nevertheless, according to a tally by the U.S. Elections Project at the University of Florida, by last evening (Nov 2) more than 95 million Americans had cast their votes, which accounts to 69% of the entire voter turnout for the 2016 election.
A presidential election amidst a pandemic
The Coronavirus pandemic has already had a significant impact on the running of the election, as the President himself was diagnosed with Covid-19 just a few weeks ago. This marked a major blow for Trump who has been trying desperately to convince the American public that the country is “rounding the turn”, even as cases continue to rise.
On 30th October the Unites States set a new daily record with more than 98,000 infections in a day, as the country’s leading infectious-disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci said, the nation is “in for a whole lot of hurt” if people do not make an “abrupt change” in public health practices and behaviors.
On 10th October, Trump’s doctor announced that the President was no longer contagious, nine days after being diagnosed with the virus. “I am happy to report that in addition to the President meeting CDC (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention) criteria for the safe discontinuation of isolation, this morning’s Covid PCR sample demonstrates, by currently recognised standards, he is no longer considered a transmission risk to others,” the President’s physician Sean Conley said.
However, the Trump campaign have continued to hold rallies with thousands of supporters without masks, downplaying the pandemic and undercutting medical experts, while the Democrats are “taking it seriously from a public health perspective”, according to Dr. Fauci, as the former vice president Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala D. Harris have consistently worn masks in public, and have held socially distanced events.
What do opinion polls suggest?
Even though the pandemic and its economic impact has taken centre stage at this year’s Presidential Election, nevertheless, President Donald Trump and former vice president Joe Biden remain divided on many other key issues including healthcare, immigration, foreign policy, racism, as well as climate change.
While Joe Biden had a big head start, however, Republicans appear to be catching up and narrowing the gap in several key states, and the US presidential election is gearing up to be a close race. On the eve of the vote, according to the final poll conducted by “YouGov America”, an international research data and analytics group headquartered in London, Joe Biden holds a 9-point lead over Donald Trump, with the Democrat on 53.2% compared to the Republican’s 44.3%. Similarly, the “CNN Poll of Polls” tracking the average poll result in the race gives Biden a 10-point lead of 52% to Trump’s 42%.
However, it is important to note that while the latest polling average puts Biden ahead of Trump nationally, national polls are not necessarily a good way to predict the results of the election, since it is the Electoral College votes which determine the final results. On the other hand, several opinion polls, particularly some swing state polls, severely undercounted Trump supporters in 2016.
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