U.S. Election 2024: Polls begin to close

Polls have begun to close across America as the country chooses their next President — Kamala Harris or Donald Trump.

At least six states will see polls close at 7 p.m. with the last ones in closing at midnight in Hawaii and Alaska. The results will likely come down to seven swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Together, these states are likely to deliver the Electoral College votes needed for the winning candidate to get a majority of 270.

The final result, according to McMaster University Political Science professor Don Abelson, will likely come down to who comes out to vote.

“Every vote is going to matter in every county and every congressional district. So if there was ever a time for Americans to exercise their right to vote, it’s today. The implications are going to be significant, you have two candidates with completely different visions of how the United States should move forward and every vote will matter.”

The latest polling suggests the race is a toss-up between Democrat Harris and Republican Trump. This will be Trump’s third time running for President after losing to Joe Biden in 2020 while Harris ran for to become the nominee for the Democrats before joining Biden’s ticket.

She became the 2024 Democratic candidate late in the race after Biden announced he would be dropping out.

With the race so close, a winner may not be declared on election night. In 2020, it wasn’t until four days later that the results became clear.

Trump has suggested that he will accept the results of election. “If it’s a fair election, I’d be the first one to acknowledge,” the results, Trump said, though what meets that definition wasn’t clear. He has falsely claimed he won the 2020 election repeatedly.

Vice President Harris, 60, and former president Trump, 78, both spent the waning hours of their campaigns in the well-trodden swing states of Pennsylvania and Michigan.

Harris was surrounded by celebrities for her final rally in Philadelphia with Lady Gaga and Oprah on hand. “Our people-powered movement reflects a simple and undeniable truth: that we are all in this together,” Harris said.

Meanwhile, Trump took shots at Harris for campaigning alongside celebrities while spending the final hours of the day in Grand Rapids, Michigan, wrapping up around 2 a.m.

“We don’t need a star because we have policy. We have great policy,” he said. Later, he boasted of his own stars: “So many celebrities here, it’s incredible: Mike Pompeo, please stand up,” introducing his former secretary of state.

Voters electing new House of Representatives

Outside of the race between Harris and Trump, most will likely be waiting to see what the new House of Representatives will look like as it could hugely impact the incoming president’s ability to implement their agenda.

As of Monday, there were 220 Republicans and 212 Democrats in the chamber. There were three vacancies after two Democratic representatives died and a Republican representative resigned. In order to form a majority in the upcoming 119th Congress, a party must have 218 of the 435 seats.

Non-credible bomb threats reported at polling locations

The Federal Bureau of Investigations has been investigating bomb threats to polling locations in several states, but none have been determined to be credible thus far, “many of which appear to originate from Russian email domains.”

Other than the threats, Election Day voting has so far unfolded largely smoothly across the nation Tuesday with only scattered reports of delays from extreme weather, ballot printing errors and technical problems.

Helping voting run relatively smoothly on Election Day was the fact that tens of millions of Americans had already cast their ballots. Those included record numbers of voters in Georgia, North Carolina and other battleground states that could decide the winner.

As of Tuesday, Associated Press tracking of advance voting nationwide showed more than 82 million ballots already cast — slightly more than half the total number of votes in the presidential election four years earlier.