US presidential election 2024: Americans vote to decide between Harris and Trump

Election Day polling stations opened Tuesday on the U.S. East Coast, marking the final opportunity for Americans to vote in the fiercely contested 2024 presidential race. More than 82 million people have already cast their ballots through early voting, choosing between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris.
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How to follow the US election results

After votes are cast, local election officials, who may be appointed or elected, process and count them. Tallying methods vary from one location to the next.

A final outcome may not be known for several days if the results are as close as the polls suggest, adding to the tension.

Rather than waiting for winners to be declared by local authorities, US news outlets call races based on what they see in the voting. So, wait for news outlets to make the decision.

But this process is not official and results still have to be certified at the state level, with every ballot accounted for.

Republican Vice-Presidential nominee casts ballot

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance cast his ballot in person. Vance cast his ballot at the St. Anthony of Padua Church in Cincinnati from the state of Ohio.

According to CNN, the senator and running mate of former US President Donald Trump was in good spirits when he arrived to cast his vote with his wife, Usha Vance and their children.

Following casting his vote, Vance told the reporters present there that he was thankful to those who came out to vote and also to witness "one of the great traditions in American democracy."

"I feel good; you never know until you know, but I feel good about this race," Vance said, as reported by CNN. "I felt good about my own race a couple of years ago when I voted in this exact same spot. Hopefully, it goes as well for President Trump and me as it went for me a couple of years ago in the state of Ohio," he added.

Stock markets rise

US markets opened higher on Tuesday, as voters across the country headed to the polls in one of the closest-fought presidential races for decades, which carries significant economic consequences.

Shortly after the markets opened on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.1 per cent at 41,848.30, while the broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.4 per cent to 5,735.59.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 0.6 per cent to 18,291.31, fueled by a more than 16 percent rise in the share price of defense software firm Palantir after it reported better-than-expected earnings results.

More polls open

Polling locations for the US presidential elections have now opened in another nine states, including two swing states of Arizona and Wisconsin, CNN reported on Tuesday.

Other states include the states of Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota (municipalities with fewer than 500 registered voters can open polling places as late as 11 am local time), South Dakota (some polls open at 6 am local time depending on the time zone), North Dakota (polls can open between 8 and 11 am local time), Oklahoma, and Texas (polling locations in CT open at 8 am local time and locations in MT open at 9 am local time).

Polling has now opened across 34 states in the US in what is termed to be one of their most consequential elections, which will decide the direction of not just the US but also have an influence on global geopolitics for the next four years.

According to CNN, earlier polls had been opened across 25 states, including Alabama, Delaware, Washington DC, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Connecticut, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Vermont and New Hampshire, among which Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania are swing states.

Polling hours will vary

The polling hours will vary across the states, but most locations will vote between 6am and 8pm on Tuesday (local time). The first polls will close at around 7 pm ET (5:30 am IST) in six states, including Georgia. The final polls will close in the blue state of Hawaii and in the red state of Alaska at 12 am ET (10:30 am IST). Total votes will close by 1 pm ET (11:30 am IST), following which counting will start.

Extraordinarily turbulent election

American voters deliver their verdict Tuesday after an extraordinarily turbulent election that will either make Kamala Harris the first woman president in US history or deliver Donald Trump a comeback that sends shockwaves around the world.

As polling stations open nationwide on Election Day, Democratic vice president Harris, 60, and Republican former president Trump, 78, are dead-even in the tightest and most volatile White House race of modern times.

The bitter rivals spent their final day of the campaign frenziedly working to get their supporters out to the polls and trying to win over any last undecided voters in the swing states expected to decide the outcome.

Election day ballot

The US presidential election day ballot can be two or three white pages: Not just a spot to vote for Kamala Harris or Donald Trump, but also House and Senate races as well as local initiatives and proposals, such as funding for community services.

When US citizens fill ballots out, they fill in a bubble rather than ticking or marking an x in a box. It can take roughly 10 minutes to fill one out.

US election 2024 in numbers