Washington. There are only a few hours left for the voting to begin for the presidential election in the US on Tuesday. Along with America, the whole world is eager to know whether Kamala Harris will become the first American woman president or Donald Trump will return to power.
Both the contenders for the White House have put maximum emphasis on the voters and have attacked many swing states. They are trying to win the last remaining states before the very tense US presidential election. The 2024 White House race is now in its final phase. Even at this time, Trump and Kamala Harris are almost at par.
The most interesting thing is that more than 7.5 crore people have already voted before the election day on Tuesday. This is almost half of the total votes cast in 2020. On November 5, polling stations in some US states will start functioning between 7 am and 9 am (US time). According to Indian Standard Time, the US elections are scheduled to begin around 4.30 pm on November 5 and will continue till 6.30 am on November 6.
Where is the US presidential election headed?
Most polls suggest that this election is likely to be historically close. Nationally, polls expect performance in seven swing states to determine the outcome. But Harris got a surprising boost when a Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa poll on November 2 suggested she had pulled ahead of Trump in the state of Iowa. Trump won Iowa in his previous two presidential campaigns by more than 9 percentage points in 2016 and by 8 points in 2020.
The poll of 808 likely voters between October 28 and 31 shows Harris leading Trump by 44 to 47 percent in Iowa, which has been heavily trending toward Republicans in recent years. That’s within the error margin of 3.4 percentage points, but it represents a shift from a September Iowa poll that showed Trump with a 4-point lead.
An Emerson College Polling/RealClearDefense survey of the same number of likely voters taken between November 1 and 2 produced a different result, with Trump leading Harris by 10 points. This poll also has a margin of error of 3.4 percentage points. The Emerson College poll also had Trump with a strong lead over Harris among men and independents, while Harris was doing well among people under 30.
Eye on swing states
On November 3, the final New York Times/Siena poll captured the shifts in swing states. But the results of all seven were within the margin of error. According to an October AP-NORC poll, 43 percent of voters trust Kamala Harris more on the economy, compared to 41 percent on Trump. However, in a Gallup poll, 54 percent of respondents believed Trump would handle economic issues better, underscoring a significant divide among voters. Whoever wins Iowa will get six electoral college votes. A total of 270 electoral college votes are needed to capture the White House. Both parties are focusing their attention on swing states like North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin in the final days of their campaign.
