Washington: Election Day voting unfolded largely smoothly across the US on Tuesday at 5.30 pm IST, but with scattered reports of extreme weather, ballot printing errors and technical problems causing delays.
It is expected that a fairly accurate picture of the winner of the election will emerge by 10 am on Wednesday IST, based on exit polls. The actual counting of votes, and official allocation of Electoral College votes, would take days, and weeks if there are legal challenges.
Meanwhile, in the first result, Dixville Notch, a tiny New Hampshire resort, was evenly divided, with former President Donald Trump and his challenger Vice-President Kamala Harris getting three each. That seemed to mirror the election, which surveys have said is the closest ever.
Most of the hiccups occurring by mid-day were “largely expected routine and planned-for events,” said Cait Conley, senior adviser to the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, in a press briefing. She said the agency was not currently tracking any national, significant incidents impacting election security.
Helping voting run relatively smoothly on Election Day was the fact that nearly 82 million Americans had cast their ballots before Election Day. Those included record numbers of voters in Georgia, North Carolina and other battleground states that could decide the winner.
Despite long lines in some places and a few typical glitches, early in-person and mail voting also proceeded without any major problems.
On the last weekend before Election Day, Trump continued to falsely claim the election was being rigged against him and said a presidential winner should be declared on election night, before all the ballots are counted.
Vice President Kamala Harris urged voters not to fall for Trump's tactic of casting doubt on elections.
Donald Trump casts his ballot in Florida
Trump has cast his ballot in Palm Beach, Florida and says his latest presidential campaign was the best yet.
“I ran a great campaign. I think it was maybe the best of the three. We did great in the first one. We did much better in the second one but something happened. I would say this is the best campaign we’ve run,” he said, standing next to his wife, Melania Trump.
US Presidential Election: Millions of voters head towards polling stations
Millions of Americans headed towards polling stations on Tuesday to elect the 47th President of the United States, capping one of the most bitter presidential campaigns in the country's history. On Monday night, both the candidates, Republican leader Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, spent a considerable amount of time in Pennsylvania, the biggest electoral college prize out of the seven swing states, to sway the remaining undecided voters.
A special 'abhishekam' of sandalwood and turmeric, besides a special 'archana' was performed on Tuesday at a temple in the village of ancestors of Democrat Kamala Harris as the villagers prayed that she becomes the next US president. If she wins, the village leaders are prepared to provide 'annadhanam' (free food/community lunch), local councillor Arulmozhi told reporters.
