After a campaign marked by rancour and fear, the United States on Tuesday will decide between U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
Voters lined up around the country to cast ballots, with no signs yet of disruptions at polling places, which some had feared after a heated campaign marked by provocative rhetoric. More than 100 million Americans cast an early vote in the 2020 presidential election ahead of Tuesday’s Election Day, according to the U.S. Elections Project at the University of Florida. Given that a few states, including Texas, had already exceeded their total 2016 vote count, experts were predicting record turnout this year. In and around polling places across the U.S., voters were greeted by reminders of an election year shaped by a pandemic that has killed more than 231,000 people in the country, civil unrest and bruising political partisanship. Many wore masks to the polls — either by choice or by official mandate — with the coronavirus raging in many parts of the country.
The first polls close at 6 p.m. ET, but the most closely watched results will start to trickle in after 7 p.m. ET when polls close in states such as Georgia, though definitive national results could take days if the contest is tight.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections voted Tuesday to keep four polling places open longer because they opened late, which is expected to delay statewide reporting of results. The longest extension was 45 minutes for a site in Sampson County — that means the state can’t publicly report any statewide results until 8:15 p.m. ET.