Millions of Americans headed to the polls on Tuesday, to vote for their new President, as well as choose candidates in ‘down-ballot’ races, including contests that will decide control of the U.S. Congress.

As the historic race for the White House between U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, and her Republican opponent, former U.S. President Donald Trump, approached its final hours, the candidates, who are running neck and neck, focused their efforts on crucial battleground States, hoping to extract every single available vote on November 5.  Some 75 million Americans — just under half of all eligible voters — had cast their vote by Sunday in early voting.

U.S. Elections 2024 voting | Live updates

Ms. Harris wrapped up her campaign in Philadelphia where America’s ‘founding fathers’ signed the Declaration of Independence.

Mr. Trump closed out his campaign in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as he had done so in 2016 and 2020. The two candidates have had contrasting tones in their closing speeches over the last few days, with Ms. Harris striking a more optimistic note and stepping back from a direct focus on Mr. Trump, marking a shift from what she had done even days earlier.

Among the celebrities who joined Ms. Harris in Philadelphia were singer Lady Gaga and TV host Oprah Winfrey.

Abortion and reproductive rights of women have become a core ballot issue, with polling data showing women of all ages gravitating more towards Ms. Harris (and, for other reason, men towards Mr. Trump).

“For more than half of this country’s life, women didn’t have a voice. Yet we raised children. We held our families together. We supported men as they made the decisions. But tomorrow, women will be a part of making this decision,” Lady Gaga said.

‘New leadership’

“The momentum is on our side,” Ms. Harris said, adding that she was ready to offer “a new generation of leadership”.

“This could be one of the closest races in history,” she said, asking her supporters if they had made a voting plan.

“…You will decide the outcome of this election, Pennsylvania,” she said. Ms. Harris spent her day campaigning in Pennsylvania, where 19 Electoral College votes are up for grabs. At least 270 electoral votes are required to win the White House.

“We are optimistic and we are excited about what we can do together,” she said, adding that the country was ready to “finally turn the page on a decade of politics that has been driven by fear and division,” she said.

At a rally in Atlanta on Monday night, Mr. Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance, who has in many respects been following the Trump playbook during the campaign, said Ms. Harris was “trash”

“In two days, we are going to take out the trash in Washington, D.C., and the trash’s name is Kamala Harris,” he said. He appeared to suggest that Ms. Harris had called Mr. Trump’s supporters “garbage”. However, Ms. Harris has not done so. President Joe Biden said he had misspoken when he said Mr. Trump was surrounded by “garbage” after a comic opening at a Trump rally referred to Peurto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”

Mr. Vance confirmed that his wife had also voted for Mr. Trump (and himself). Usha Chilukuri Vance, Mr. Vance’s wife, is of Indian origin and was a registered Democrat a decade ago.

Mr. Trump concluded his campaign with a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The rally continued into the wee hours of Election Day (Tuesday).

Democrats are preparing for Mr. Trump not accepting the election results. The FBI has set a national command post to monitor election-related threats (not new or specific to this year).

At his final rally, the former President leaned into his usual messages about illegal migrants, the promise of a better economy under him and attacking Democrats. Mr. Trump promised to end inflation, including by increasing production of oil and gas domestically.

“Kamala has delivered soaring prices and true economic anguish at home, war and chaos abroad, and a nation-destroying invasion on our southern border,” he said, adding that some of the “greatest criminals” were entering the country. Mr. Trump said the border issue was bigger than any economic issues.

He asked, rhetorically, whom Chinese President Xi Jinping would call if he had a question on war, on Taiwan, or anything else.

“Who the hell does he call?… Maybe they’ll call me,” he said.

Mr. Trump called former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi “evil, sick, crazy”, stopping short of using a sexist insult to describe her.

During his term there were no wars, Mr. Trump said, adding that he had concluded the war against the Islamic State (IS), a fight he had inherited from the Obama administration.

Mr. Trump was joined on stage by some his family after the rally as well as Amer Ghalib, the Mayor of America’s only Muslim majority city, Hamtramck. Mr. Ghalib is one of two Michigan Muslim mayors who has endorsed the former President. The Biden administration’s support for Israel in its offensive in Gaza has created a challenge for Ms. Harris with Arab Americans, many of whom live in Michigan.

Mr. Ghalib spoke of his endorsement breaking a “wall of fear” and a “wall of isolation” between the Arab American community and Mr. Trump.

Mr. Trump continued to cast doubt on the electoral process, calling again for elections to be completed in one day and for discontinuing the use of voting machines. In 2020, Mr. Trump had criticised early voting, associating it with fraud, but this year he urged supporters to vote early. Republicans are hoping that early voting will result in favourable outcomes for them.

Sanders bats for Harris

Independent Senator from Vermont, who was a former presidential hopeful and is a progressive voice in the U.S. Senate, Bernie Sanders, encouraged those who were unhappy with the Biden administration’s positions on Israel to stick by Ms. Harris.

“And for all of those people out there who believe in democracy, who believe in women’s rights, who believe that climate change is real and not a hoax, don’t sit it out,” Mr. Sanders told CNN on Monday night.

“You may disagree with Kamala Harris on this or that issue, but it’s absolutely imperative that we get out and vote,” he said. Mr. Sanders disagreed with Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris on Israel, adding, however, that Mr. Trump was far worse.

With Ms. Harris as President, there was a much higher chance of changing policy towards the Netanyahu government, said Mr. Sanders, who had campaigned for the Vice-President last week.

If Mr. Trump wins, “the global struggle against climate change is over”, Mr. Sanders said.

He warned that Mr. Trump would declare victory no matter what and say that if he loses it will be because of fraud.

Down-ballot races

While all eyes are on Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris, there are crucial down-ballot races being decided on Tuesday. Control of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives is on the ballot. Thirty-four seats in the Senate (where Democrats have a razor-thin 51:50 majority) are in play. Independent Senator from West Virginia, Joe Manchin, who caucused with Democrats is not seeking re-election with Republicans standing a strong chance of winning his seat. Democrats are defending their seats in Ohio and Montana.

Democrats have a strong chance of taking the House (which the Republicans currently control), where all 435 seats are being contested. A split Congress could create policy deadlock, creating challenges for the next President.

Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Suburban Collection Showplace on October 26, 2024 in Novi, Michigan. Photo: Getty Images via AFP

The story so far:

Around 24.4 crore people are eligible to vote for the U.S. presidential election slated for November 5. In 2020, two-thirds of the eligible voters voted. The next President of the U.S. will be decided less by these national numbers than by a few thousand voters in some key places, which are called battleground or swing States, thanks to the unique features of the country’s electoral system.

What transpired in the last two elections?

The last two elections of 2016 and 2020 demonstrated the outsize impact of the swing factor in several States, even as the country became more polarised. In 2020, President Joe Biden had a national lead of around 70 lakh votes over Donald Trump, but what mattered more were the small margins with which he won key States. Of around 67 lakh votes cast in Pennsylvania, Mr. Biden led over Mr. Trump by 81,660; in Michigan, he had 1.54 lakh more, of the total 54 lakh polled; in Wisconsin, Mr. Biden led by just 20,682 votes in a total of more than 32 lakh votes.

Editorial | Neck and neck: On the U.S. presidential election

In 2016, Mr. Trump had trailed his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton by two percentage points, which was in excess of 20 lakh votes, but he could still emerge as the winner because he won key swing States. For instance, he won Pennsylvania by 44,292 votes of the total 61.7 lakh votes polled; Wisconsin by 22,748 of the 30 lakh votes; and Michigan, by 10,704 of the 48 lakh votes polled.

How is the winner chosen?

The winner of the U.S. presidential contest is selected not by a majority of national popular votes, but by a majority in the electoral college of 538, which is 270. Members of the electoral college are apportioned between the States. Most U.S. States have a “winner-takes-it-all” system that allots all electors to the candidate who gets more popular votes. So, whether a candidate has one or one million votes more than their opponent in California, for instance, all 54 electoral college votes of the State, will be awarded to him or her.

Similarly, all 19 electoral college votes of Pennsylvania will be awarded to the winner of the popular votes within that State, regardless of the margin. This system could create the anomaly of a candidate winning the election, without winning more popular votes than the opponent, nationally. That is also why the main opponents this time, Mr. Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris, are trying to turn the battleground States in their favour in the last lap of campaigning ahead of election day.

Which are the key States that will play a role in picking the winner?

Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, and North Carolina are the battleground States of 2024; and the contest between Mr. Trump and Ms. Harris is a dead heat, going by all opinion polls. The average polling error for more than five decades in the U.S. is 3.4%. In all the seven swing States, in nearly all the polls, the leading candidate has a lead well within this margin. Like the last two elections, the margins could be very narrow and these States will decide who will be the President for the next four years. It is also possible that most of these States could swing to either side, as it happened in the last two elections, rather than being evenly divided between the two.

Even a minor swing among significant voting blocs in these States could turn the tide either way. Both candidates are trying to tailor their messages, particularly targeting these States. For instance, Latinos make up nearly a quarter of Arizona’s voters. That possibly explains Mr. Trump’s recent attempts to portray his opponent as being disrespectful of the Catholic church. In Georgia, Black votes count considerably, and Mr. Trump has been trying to mobilise them behind his anti-immigration politics. Latest polling figures show Mr. Trump gaining more ground among Latinos and Blacks. Michigan, a State that turned Republican in 2016 and Democrat in 2020, has around two lakh Muslim voters. Democrats, and Ms. Harris, face a crisis of credibility among them, against the backdrop of the conflict in West Asia. They may not vote for Mr. Trump but could turn indifferent towards Ms. Harris. Mr. Trump had won North Carolina in 2016 and 2020, but Ms. Harris is making some new inroads, according to polls.

In the last stretch, there will be further concentration of firepower by both sides on the small numbers that count as big in the elections. Catching the swing voters in these States is what both candidates are focussing on now.

Liz Cheney
| Photo Credit: AP

Liz Cheney, one of Donald Trump’s fiercest Republican antagonists, will join Democrat Kamala Harris at a campaign event in Wisconsin on Thursday (October 3, 2024) aimed at reaching out to moderate voters and rattling the former president.

Ms. Cheney was the top Republican on the House committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, insurrection, earning Mr. Trump’s disdain and effectively exiling herself from her own party.

Ms. Cheney lost her Wyoming seat to a Trump-endorsed candidate two years ago and she endorsed Ms. Harris, the Democratic nominee, last month. The two women will appear together in a historic white schoolhouse in Ripon, where a series of meetings held in 1854 to oppose slavery’s expansion led to the birth of the Republican Party.

Ms. Harris is opening a two-day stay in Wisconsin and Michigan, and Mr. Trump will be in Michigan on Thursday as the two candidates grapple for wins in the “blue wall” battleground states, which also include Pennsylvania.

eMs. Harris’ visit to Wisconsin comes one day after a federal judge unsealed a 165-page court filing outlining prosecutors’ case against Mr. Trump for his attempt to overturn his 2020 election defeat. Mr. Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy and obstruction.

It’s uncommon, to say the least, for a candidate to give a nod to the origins of the opposing party in the closing weeks of a presidential campaign. Not only that, the Cheney name was once anathema to Democrats who deplored Dick Cheney, Ms. Liz’s father, for his role as vice president under George W. Bush.

But now both Cheneys are backing Harris, part of a cadre of current and former Republican officials who have broken with the vast majority of their party, which remains in Mr. Trump’s corner. Ms. Harris wants to portray her candidacy as a patriotic choice for independent and conservative voters who were disturbed by Mr. Trump’s unwillingness to cede power. Mr. Trump continues to deny his defeat with false claims of voter fraud.

Ms. Harris on Friday will hold a campaign rally in Flint, Michigan, continuing her tour of states that have been critical to Democratic victories. Mr. Trump won Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan in 2016, and Joe Biden won them in 2020.

U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris (R) shakes hands with former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a presidential debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 10, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Republican Donald Trump said on Thursday (September 12, 2024) he would not participate in another presidential debate against his Democratic rival Kamala Harris ahead of the Nov. 5 election, as several polls showed that she beat him.

“THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!” the former president wrote on social media site Truth Social, after participating in a debate against President Joe Biden in June and Vice President Harris earlier this week.

Although Mr. Trump touted his performance on Tuesday against Ms. Harris, six Republican donors and three Mr. Trump advisers who spoke to Reuters earlier this week said they thought Ms. Harris had won the debate largely because Trump was unable to stay on message.

The debate attracted 67.1 million television viewers, according to Nielsen data.

While Mr. Trump said in his post that polls showed he won the debate, several surveys showed that respondents thought Ms. Harris did better.

Among voters who said they had heard at least something about Tuesday’s debate, 53% said Ms. Harris won and 24% said Mr. Trump won, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Thursday, September 12, 2024.

The poll showed that 54% of registered voters believed that the single debate between Trump and Harris was enough, while 46% had wanted a second debate.

A majority of debate watchers said Ms. Harris outperformed Mr. Trump, according to a CNN flash poll released shortly after the debate. YouGov showed 54% of those surveyed said Mr. Harris won while 31% said Mr. Trump was the victor.

House Republicans have released their initial impeachment inquiry report into President Joe Biden, alleging an abuse of power and obstruction of justice in the financial dealings of his son Hunter Biden and family associates.

The nearly yearlong inquiry by Republicans stops short of alleging any criminal wrongdoing by the President. Instead, the almost 300-page report out Monday (August 19, 2024) ahead of the Democratic National Convention covers familiar ground, asserting the Biden family traded on its “brand” in business ventures in corrupt ways that rise to the Constitution’s high bar for impeachment.

With Mr. Biden no longer running for reelection, next steps are highly uncertain.

House Republicans have not had support from their own ranks to actually impeach the President, and removal by the Senate is even further afield. Many Republicans prefer to focus attention on the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, with some probes getting underway.

The White House has dismissed the House impeachment inquiry as a “stunt” and encouraged House Republicans to “move on.” “The totality of the corrupt conduct uncovered by the Committees is egregious,” wrote the House Oversight and Accountability, Judiciary and Ways and Means panels leading the inquiry.

The report said the Constitution’s “remedy for a President’s flagrant abuse of office is clear: impeachment by the House of Representatives and removal by the Senate.” Republicans have spent the better part of their time in the House majority with a hyper focus on Mr. Biden and his family’s businesses, encouraged by Donald Trump as the twice impeached and indicted former President makes a comeback bid for the White House.

The impeachment inquiry has been a cornerstone of the House GOP’s effort, launched by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy shortly before he was booted from leadership and formalized in December under new Speaker Mike Johnson. Republicans are investigating many aspects of Biden family finances going back to 2009 when he was vice president to Barack Obama.

Through bank records, interviews from some 30 witnesses, whistleblower accounts and millions of documents, House Republicans allege a years-long practice by Hunter Biden and his associates to solicit foreign business deals using the family’s proximity to power in Washington.

Much of the focus of the report is not on Biden’s time as president, but on the years when the Biden family was in turmoil after the 2015 death of his oldest son, Beau, and as the vice president was bowing out of elected office, declining to run for President in 2016.

Hunter Biden has acknowledged a serious addiction to crack in these years. He was convicted in June of felony gun charges and is set to stand trial next month on federal tax charges.

Former Hunter Biden associate Devon Archer, who was sentenced to a year in prison in 2022 in another matter, told the committee, “At the end of the day, part of what was delivered is the brand.” To tie the elder Biden to his son’s actions, the Republicans rely on a series of phone calls and pop-by dinner meeting visits Joe Biden made while Hunter was conducting business. At times, Hunter would put his dad on speakerphone for his guests as the father and son exchanged pleasantries.

The Bidens are a famously tight-knit family and acknowledge they speak almost daily, including during this time, with the father checking on his son’s well-being.

In his own defiant closed-door deposition to House investigators, Hunter Biden insisted he did not involve his father in his business.

All told, the House Republicans allege the Biden family and its associates received some USD 27 million in business payments from partners or clients in Russia, China and other countries. They allege another USD 8 million in loans, including some from Hunter Biden benefactor Kevin Morris, a Hollywood attorney, and question the purchases of the son’s artwork.

The report said it is “inconceivable” that President Biden did not understand what was going on.

“President Biden participated in a conspiracy to monetize his office of public trust to enrich his family,” the report claims.

Mr. Biden himself declined a request to testify before the House.

Touchbacks to Trump’s impeachments at the hands of Democrats run throughout the report’s pages as Republicans work to contrast his grounds for removal to Biden family’s dealings and “grift.” But the differences are stark, as the indicted Trump faces actual criminal charges, including in the conspiracy to overturn Biden’s 2020 election and draw supporters to Washington on the day of the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack.

The report also accuses Biden of obstructing justice in the probe, revisiting previously aired complaints about the Justice Department’s handling of investigation into Hunter Biden. Attorney General Merrick Garland has forcefully denied those accusations, defending the department against claims of political influence.

It focuses heavily on what Republicans have long alleged was a pattern of “slow-walking” investigative steps and delaying enforcement actions to the benefit of the president’s son.

But the report provides no evidence that Biden had any involvement in his son’s investigation, which was launched under Trump’s presidency and has been led by a Delaware US attorney appointed by Trump. The US attorney, David Weiss, was kept on by Garland to insulate the probe from claims of political interference.

Garland has insisted that no one at the White House gave him or other senior officials at the Justice Department direction about the handling of the Hunter Biden investigation.

Beyond Hunter Biden, the report includes details of the involvement of Joe Biden’s brother, James, in the various family businesses.

Republicans have pointed to a series of payments that they claim show the president benefited from his brother’s work. They point to a USD 2,00,000 personal check from James Biden to Joe Biden on the same day in 2018 that James Biden received an equal amount from Americore, a healthcare company.

House Democrats have defended the transaction, pointing to bank records they say indicate James Biden was repaying a loan provided by his brother, who had wire transferred USD 2,00,000 to him about six weeks earlier. The money changed hands while Joe Biden was a private citizen.

Short of impeaching Biden, the House Republicans have issued criminal referrals recommending the Justice Department prosecute Hunter Biden and James Biden, accusing them of making false statements to Congress as part of the GOP investigation.

Attorneys for those men have argued those claims are baseless or a distraction.

Until recently, the president had been a focal point for Republicans in Congress, but his decision last month to drop out of the presidential race and Harris’ ascent to the top of the ticket have forced GOP leaders to reevaluate their marquee investigation.

A year ago, GOP lawmakers had hoped the Biden inquiry would build a strong enough case for impeachment’s “high crimes and misdemeanors.” But the longer the inquiry dragged and the little direct evidence against Biden investigators were able to produce in public hearings or even in closed-door sessions, the more concerns grew from moderate Republicans wary of a vote on the matter.

The report released Monday makes more than 20 mentions of the “Biden-Harris administration,” while previous releases from the committees investigating Biden typically only made direct references to him.

And while Harris is not mentioned on her own in the report, the same committees leading the inquiry have begun to open new probes into her and her vice presidential pick, Tim Walz.

Seeking a return to the White House, Donald Trump has painted an apocalyptic picture of the country if President Joe Biden secures a second term. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has drawn criticism for posting a video on social media that contains the image of a hog-tied President Joe Biden painted on the tailgate of a passing truck.

The Biden campaign was quick to condemn the video for suggesting physical harm to the sitting Democratic President. Mr. Biden has portrayed his likely 2024 opponent as someone who freely evokes Nazi imagery with regard to immigrants, while also stressing in speeches that Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn his loss in the 2020 elections ultimately led to an assault on the U.S. Capitol.

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“Mr. Trump is regularly inciting political violence and it’s time people take him seriously — just ask the Capitol police officers who were attacked protecting our democracy on January 6,” said Michael Tyler, the Biden campaign’s communications director.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung responded Friday night: “That picture was on the back of a pickup truck that was traveling down the highway. Democrats and crazed lunatics have not only called for despicable violence against President Trump and his family, they are actually weaponising the justice system against him.”

The former president posted the video on his social media site, Truth Social. His caption said the video was taken in Long Island, New York. It shows a passing truck decked out with “Trump 2024” and flags claiming support for police.

Shares in Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. began trading on the stock market Tuesday, with the valuation adding billions of dollars to his fortune.

Seeking a return to the White House, Mr. Trump has painted an apocalyptic picture of the country if Mr. Biden secures a second term.

Also Read | Donald Trump warns of ‘bloodbath’ if he is not elected

“If I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country,” he warned at an Ohio rally earlier this month while talking about the impact of offshoring on the country’s auto industry.

Mr. Trump has talked about immigrants “poisoning the blood of our country,” echoing the rhetoric of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. And he once described his enemies as “vermin,” language that his opponents say reflects his authoritarian beliefs.

At one recent rally, Mr. Trump went so far as to cast Mr. Biden’s handling of the border as “a conspiracy to overthrow the United States of America.”

Last year, before his indictment in New York over hush money paid on his behalf during his 2016 campaign, Mr. Trump posted a photo on social media of himself holding a baseball bat next to a picture of District Attorney Alvin Bragg.