Millions of Americans on Tuesday voted in the US presidential election to decide whether Democrat nominee Kamala Harris will win the race to the White House or the Republican candidate Donald Trump will retain the top post for a second time.

According to the latest projections, Trump, 78, won several strongholds, including Florida, while Harris took a number of eastern states. US networks have projected that Trump is winning 10 states and Harris five. As for electoral college numbers, which will determine the winner in this election, the former President is ahead with 101 votes and Harris trails with 71. Each candidate is aiming for the magic figure of 270 electoral college votes.

Earlier, exit polls showed that most of the voters favoured Harris, 59, over her Republican rival. According to an exit poll by NBC News, 48 per cent of voters nationwide expressed a favourable view of Harris, while 44 per cent supported Trump.

The voters were also asked to choose between five issues – democracy, economy, abortion, immigration and foreign policy.

While 34% of voters said democracy mattered most to their vote, 31% said the economy. Abortion (14%) and immigration (11%) ranked as the next-most important issues and 4% of voters named foreign policy.

An exit poll by CNN said roughly three-quarters of the electorate holds a negative view of the way things are going in the US today. According to the poll, only about one-quarter call themselves enthusiastic or satisfied with the state of the nation, with more than four in 10 dissatisfied and roughly three in 10 saying they are angry.

Exit polls, however, are not always accurate and the preliminary results are subject to change as more voters are surveyed.

The 2024 US Presidential elections are historic because if Harris, the Indian-American who is the first female vice president, wins, she would become the first woman, Black woman and South Asian American to win the presidency.

On the other hand, if the US voters choose Trump, the only president to be impeached twice and the first former president to be criminally convicted, he would become the first president to win non-consecutive terms in more than a century.

Image for representational purpose only
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The nation’s federal law enforcement and election security agencies debunked two new examples of Russian election disinformation on the eve of Election Day, highlighting attempts by foreign actors to sow doubt in the U.S. voting process and warning that the efforts run the risk of inciting violence against election officials.

U.S. Elections 2024 voting LIVE updates

In a joint statement late Monday (November 4, 2024), federal officials pointed to a recent article posted by Russian actors falsely claiming that U.S. officials across presidential swing states were orchestrating a plan to commit fraud, as well as a video that falsely depicted an interview with an individual claiming election fraud in Arizona.

U.S. intelligence reveals that Russia-linked influence actors “are manufacturing videos and creating fake articles to undermine the legitimacy of the election, instil fear in voters regarding the election process, and suggest Americans are using violence against each other due to political preferences,” read the statement issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. “These efforts risk inciting violence, including against election officials.”

The Russian Embassy called the officials’ announcement “baseless” in an emailed statement, saying Russia “has not interfered and does not interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, including the United States.”

Federal officials warned that Russia would likely release additional “manufactured content” on Election Day and posed “the most active threat” when it comes to foreign election influence. The statement also noted that Iran remains a “significant foreign influence threat to U.S. elections.”

Federal officials describe the effort as part of a wide-ranging influence operation by Russia designed to undermine confidence in the electoral process and sow discord among American voters. Intelligence agencies have assessed that Russia, which also interfered on Donald Trump’s behalf in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, again prefers the Republican nominee and is likely to persist in its influence operations well after Election Day.

Besides manufactured videos intended to promote disinformation, U.S. officials also have accused Russian state media of a covert, multimillion-dollar operation to spread pro-Russia content to American audiences and have seized dozens of internet domains they said fostered propaganda.

In their statement, officials also drew fresh attention to Iran’s attempts to interfere in the election, which included a hack-and-leak operation designed to harm Mr. Trump’s candidacy. The Justice Department in September charged three Iranian hackers in that effort.

Iranian actors also have created fake news sites and impersonated activists online in attempts to sway voters, according to analysts at Microsoft. The tech giant said last month that Iranian actors who allegedly sent emails aimed at intimidating U.S. voters in 2020 have been surveying election-related websites and major media outlets, raising concerns they could be preparing for another scheme this year.

As large tech firms and intelligence officials have called out foreign interference this election cycle, Russia, China and Iran have rejected claims that they are seeking to meddle with the U.S. election.

The Arizona video promoted on social media by Russian actors on Monday (November 4, 2024) purported to show an anonymous whistleblower revealing an election fraud scheme. Federal officials said the Arizona Secretary of State’s office had already refuted the content of the video.

Earlier this week, U.S. officials confirmed that a video claiming to show voter fraud in two left-leaning counties in Georgia was fake and the product of a Russian troll farm. And last month, they attributed to Russia another fake video of a person tearing up ballots in what appeared to be Bucks County, Pennsylvania.