Kamala Harris is hoping to beat Donald Trump (Image: AFP via Getty Images)

Americans go to the polls in US presidential election as Donald Trump takes on Kamala Harris

by · Daily Record

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Americans go to the polls today as Donald Trump takes on Kamala Harris in the US presidential election. Pollsters have suggested the race will be close, with the result expected to be declared overnight.

Republican nominee Trump is aiming to return to office after losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden. He was previously in office between 2016 and 2020, having beaten Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. His running mate is Ohio Senator JD Vance.

Democrat candidate Harris is hoping to step up from her current role as Vice President. She took over from Biden as the nominee in July after he stood down. Biden had initially said he would re-run for the presidency and won the backing of his party in the primaries.

But concerns about his health were raised, particularly after the 81-year-old struggled in a TV debate against Trump. Biden announced his withdrawal about a month later, following pressure from fellow Democrats. Harris' running mate is Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who gained popularity for calling Trump's team "weird".

The President is elected via the electoral college. This means that the winner in each state wins a certain amount of electors. Whoever wins 270 electoral votes wins. This means that occasionally the winner takes less votes. This happened in 2016 where Clinton won nearly three million votes more than Trump but still lost.

Yesterday a poll suggested Scots are the biggest fans of Trump in western Europe. A quarter of adults in Scotland hope that he wins the election. This is much higher than the rest of the UK on 16 per cent. Some 17 per cent want him to win in Spain, 15 per cent in France, 14 per cent in Germany, 13 per cent in Sweden and 7 per cent in Denmark.

Scottish politics

Scotland has higher support for Trump than Italy - which is on 24 per cent - despite the country having a right-wing government. More than half of Scots backed Kamala Harris, according to the Norstat poll reported by The Times. Italy was the only European country which had lower backing for the Democrat candidate.

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