US election 2020: Polls open in US to vote for Trump, Biden
US Election Day is in full swing with a record number of Americans voting in the shadow of an out of control pandemic and two polarising leaders.
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Americans were voting on Tuesday under the shadow of a surging coronavirus pandemic to decide whether to reelect Republican Donald Trump, one of the most polarising presidents in US history, or send Democrat Joe Biden to the White House.
A record-breaking number of early votes — some 100 million — have already been cast in an election that has the country on edge and is being closely watched in capitals around the world.
Scotty, a Delaware cab driver, said he was “excited” to vote as he walked into a polling station at Delaware Community College. “I think we need a change and that’s my aim to go in there and change it.”
Tanya, a Delaware student, told News Corp Australia that she had voted for the first time in 2016.
“I voted for Hillary Clinton and that didn’t go so well. Today I’ve voted for Biden and Harris. Hopefully the person I voted for wins but more importantly, I hope there’s no animosity between Americans and start like a civil war or something. I’m a bit worried because the country is so divided right now, I just hope that whoever wins, we’re united.”
The 77-year-old Mr Biden, who served for eight years as vice president to Barack Obama, leads Mr Trump in national polls and in many of the battleground states that will decide the White House.
The former senator from Delaware, who is making his third bid for the presidency, began his day with a visit to the church in Wilmington, Delaware, where his son, Beau Biden, and first wife and daughter are buried.
Mr Trump, 74, who is seeking to become the first US president to win reelection after being impeached, dismissed the polls showing him trailing Biden.
“I think we have a very solid chance of winning,” he said Tuesday morning on Fox and Friends.
“We think we’re doing very well everywhere. The crowds have been incredible.”
“Our country can never be the same country if they win,” Mr Trump said, adding that America would become a “socialist” nation.
At the same time, Mr Trump has cast doubt on the integrity of the election and threatened legal challenges, claiming the only way he can lose is if the results are “rigged.”
VOTERS COME OUT EARLY
Casting her vote in New York, Megan Byrnes-Borderan, 35, said Mr Trump’s threats were “part of why it is so scary.” “I believe that Trump will go through all odds to try to win the election,” she said.
Trump has waged a campaign against mail-in voting for months, claiming it could lead to fraud and all ballots should be tabulated on Election Day.
Several states, including battlegrounds Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, do not begin counting mail-in ballots until Election Day itself.
The first polling stations opened at 6am EST in New York, New Jersey and Virginia for the day, marking the start of US Election Day as Donald Trump seeks to beat forecasts and defeat his challenger, former vice president Joe Biden.
The result of the vote is being viewed as a comment on Mr Trump’s rollercoaster ride of a presidency, whereas Mr Biden has urged Americans to vote to restore “our democracy”.
After last-minute rallies across battleground states and nearly 100 million people casting ballots by mail and in-person amid a deadly pandemic, anxious Americans today bring the race to a conclusion.
Approximately 60 million voters are expected to go to the polls today.
Some people have been lining up since the early hours of the morning to vote.
“This is the first time I’ve ever had to wait in line,” said Christine Burns, a schoolteacher from the Bronx who turned up to vote at a local polling station before work. “I waited in line for thirty minutes and by the time I left the line was even longer.”
It is believed to be the first election in history in which more people have voted in advance of election day than on it.
The first polling stations to open in the country were in two New Hampshire villages, Dixville Notch and Millsfield, starting at midnight.
A tiny hamlet of 12 residents near the Canadian border, Dixville Notch did the count: five votes for Biden, and none for Trump.
But where many early votes are believed to have been cast by Democrats, Trump’s side is hoping for a massive wave of Republican supporters voting in person on Tuesday.
DONALD TRUMP, GAMBLERS PREDICT VICTORY
US President Donald Trump said he felt good about his chances for victory as US election day opened on Tuesday, predicting that he would register big wins in key states such as Florida and Arizona.
“We feel very good,” a hoarse-voiced Mr Trump told Fox News in a phone interview.
“We think we are winning Texas very big. We think we are winning Florida very big. We think we are winning Arizona very big,” he said.
“I think we are going to do very well in North Carolina. I think we are going to do well in Pennsylvania. We think we are doing very well everywhere.”
Running behind in most opinion polls, Mr Trump bashed Democratic opponent Joe Biden, “biased” media and the “extreme” left as he repeated his argument for re-election to four more years in the White House.
“Joe Biden is not prime time” he said.
Mr Trump called it “terrible” and “dangerous” that millions of votes mailed in might still not be counted on Wednesday.
But he downplayed allegations that he planned to prematurely declare victory on Tuesday evening before enough of the vote is tallied to determine the winner.
“I think we’ll have victory, but only when there’s victory,” he said. “There’s no reason to play games.”
A British gambler has reportedly staked $US5 million on President Trump winning Tuesday’s election — a wager believed to be the largest-ever political bet, according to the New York Post.
The former banker used private bookmakers registered on a Caribbean island and went all-in after consulting with “Trump camp insiders,” according to the report.
“Word of this bet has done the rounds and we think it’s the biggest ever made on politics,” one betting industry source said.
While illegal in the US, betting on politics is popular in the UK and many other countries — and the 2020 election is shaping up to be the biggest betting event of all time.
BIDEN MAKES HEARTFELT STOP
Joe Biden made an early-morning stop at the graves of his late wife, daughter and son in Delaware as Election Day kicked off across the US.
Mr Biden attended a church service with his wife Jill and two of his granddaughters, Maisie and Natalie, later taking a private moment away from the media to visit the graves of his family.
Asked how he was feeling, he gave the thumbs up and said, “Good!”
Early morning reports stated that lines at polling places across the US were long.
In Delaware, hotel worker Angela Bronson told News Corp Australia she had lined up at a local primary school when the polls opened at 7am.
“There were around 100 people there,” Ms Bronson said, adding the long lines reminded her of when Barack Obama ran.
Ms Bronson, who cast her vote for Mr Biden, said if she didn’t vote, “my ancestors would haunt me.”
Mr Biden, who is making last minute stops, in his hometown of Scranton and Philadelphia will return to Delaware at 3.30pm (7.30am AEDT), where he will wait out election night at the Chase Centre on the Riverfront Convention Centre where he will be joined by wife Jill and vice presidential hopeful Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff.
TRUMP’S FINAL PLEA
With a blood red sunset behind him and a sea of supporters braving the freezing cold to hear his words, Donald Trump made his last argument for why he should be elected in one of five final campaign rallies.
Declaring that his Democrat opponent was a corrupt Washington insider who was now a puppet of the socialist wing of his party, Mr Trump said Joe Biden wanted to shut the country down in fear of COVID.
“Joe Biden is bought and paid for by big tech big media and powerful special interests,” Mr Trump said in Michigan.
“He will always do whatever they want.
“I definitely don’t do what they want.”
Mr Biden took a stage with celebrity backers at a drive-in rally in Pennsylvania, the battleground state that swept Mr Trump to power in 2016 and is again poised to decide the election.
But in an odd move, his star booster was pop sensation Lady Gaga, an outspoken critic of the mining industry that drove a pre-COVID boom in Pennsylvania.
Gaga made a pointed plea to women to vote Mr Trump out.
“To all the women and to all the men with daughters, and sisters and mothers,” she said.
“Now is your chance to vote against Donald Trump, a man who believes his fame gives him the right to grab one of your daughters or sisters or mothers or wives by any part of their bodies.
“Vote for Joe. He’s a good person.”
Earlier, at an outdoor event in Pittsburgh, Mr Biden warned the future of the country was at stake.
“I have a feeling we’re coming together for a big win tomorrow,” he said.
“We are really at one of those inflection points. This is going to be more than just who governs the next four years.
“What happens now, what happens tomorrow, is going to determine what this country looks like for a couple of generations.”
Mr Biden told the crowd that “the power to change this country is in your hands”.
He also spoke about the disproportionate effect COVID-19 has had on the African-American community.
“We’re done with the chaos, we’re done with the racism, we’re done with the tweets, the anger, the hate, the failure, the irresponsibility,” he said.
Thousands of Trump supporters braved below zero conditions and snow flurries for a last chance to see the president in Pennsylvania, before polling booths opened in some states last night.
Mr Trump, 74, chose Scranton, the birthplace of his opponent, to launch his final pitch to Pennsylvanians.
Mr Biden, 77, lived in the scrappy city until he was nine years old and has often characterised the race as a choice between his hometown and Mr Trump’s on Park Ave.
“He left Scranton,” Mr Trump said to cheers.
“This guy is a stone cold phony.”
He also zeroed in on Mr Biden’s plans to “transition” away from fossil fuels.
The US has become energy self sufficient under the Trump administration, in part due to opening up states including Pennsylvania to fracking.
His campaign earlier released a statement slamming the appearance of Gaga, “a fracking activist”.
“Now he’s got Lady Gaga,” he said.
“Lady Gaga — is not too good. I could tell you plenty of stories. I could tell you stories about Lady Gaga. I know a lot of stories about Lady Gaga.”
Among those who crowded onto a tarmac at Scranton airport were Suzanne Gillis, who brought along her granddaughters Gigi, 10, and Lucy, 8 and her sister Anne Marie Vancosky.
“I don’t see how Joe Biden can win this, everyone in Pennsylvania is being Trump because he has done so much for us,” said Mrs Gillis, from Wilkes-Barre.
“I was a Democrat until 2016 but I voted for Trump because our economy was in a lot of trouble.
“We have noticed things are better all over, my husband’s paycheck, everything.”
Farmer Steve Rogers, who own a 350 acre cattle farm in Susquehanna County, is a registered Democrat but voted for Trump in 2016 and plans to do so again.
“I’m voting for him again because I think everything was great in this country until the coronavirus came along, and that was not the president’s fault,” he said.
He and partner Robin Belcher also said they thought Mr Trump could win.
Almost 100 million Americans cast early votes ahead of Election Day due to coronavirus concerns, more than two thirds of the total in 2016, and a record turnout is predicted.
US elections are regulated at state level with many differing systems for overseeing ballots.
Scrutineers can’t even begin counting in Pennsylvania until polls open, while Florida, Arizona and North Carolina are expected to make a call on Election Day.
If Mr Trump loses these states, which he won in 2016, pundits say he will struggle to regain the White House.
Mr Biden focused his efforts on Pennsylvania while Mr Trump held rallies in Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and two in Michigan.
Originally published as US election 2020: Polls open in US to vote for Trump, Biden