Staff Reporter :
US citizens are set to choose their next President for the Oval Office through balloting today, which will determine the fate of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
This landmark election is poised to be historic, as voters will decide whether they prefer a female candidate for president or wish to see Trump return for re-election.
Leading up to the poll, there has been intense rivalry between Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, both ramping up their final campaign efforts in crucial battleground states to influence the election outcome.
The entire world is closely monitoring this presidential election, given that global politics, trade, business, and strategic interests often revolve around the United States. Many countries have already calculated their future foreign policies based on the expected winner.
Under the Biden administration, the world has faced significant crises, including the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, Israeli attacks in Gaza that have resulted in numerous casualties, and military actions in Iran and Lebanon.
Additionally, the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and rising tensions between the US and China over Taiwan have complicated the global landscape.
Thus, this year’s US presidential election bears significant implications for how the US will shape its foreign policy amidst a turbulent international backdrop.
Meanwhile, Reuters reports that this election, unlike any other in US history, enters its last full day on Monday.
Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, and their respective campaigns are scrambling to galvanise their supporters ahead of a contest that each side portrays as an existential moment for America.
Even with the astonishing blur of events in recent months, the electorate remains divided, both nationally and in the seven battleground states expected to determine the winner on Tuesday.
The closeness of the contest suggests it could take days for a winner to emerge.
Trump, at 78 years old, has survived two assassination attempts-one by mere millimetres-just weeks after a New York jury made him the first former US president to be convicted of a felony.
Harris, 60, ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket in July, giving her the chance to become the first woman to hold the world’s most powerful job after President Joe Biden, 81, faced pressure to drop his re-election bid following a disastrous debate performance.
Trump has made an “unwavering” promise to make a dramatic return to the White House, while Harris calls for the election of the first female president of the United States. She noted that various polls show a range of statistics, and the outcomes in seven swing states are expected to be decisive.
Both candidates dramatically intensified their final campaigns, with Trump facing two assassination attempts during his run, while Harris bravely campaigned in battleground areas.
The significance of capturing the Oval Office in Pennsylvania is underscored by joint rallies held by both candidates in Pittsburgh, a crucial industrial city.
As the largest swing state in the US Electoral College system, Pennsylvania can significantly impact the election due to its population size.
Both sides claim to have energised a large number of voters, with over 78 million ballots already cast-nearly half of the total votes recorded in the 2020 election.
Recent elections have seen record-breaking voter turnout, reflecting the passion that Trump evokes in both political parties.
In the final days of the campaign, both candidates flooded social media and traditional media with last-minute ad campaigns, knocking on doors and making calls to voters.
Harris’s campaign team believes that their extensive voter mobilization efforts have made a difference, with volunteers reportedly knocking on hundreds of thousands of doors in each of the battleground states over the weekend.
The US voting system is primarily based on the Electoral College, which consists of 538 electors. To win the presidency, a candidate must secure a majority of these electoral votes-at least 270.
Voters in each state cast their ballots for their preferred candidate, with the candidate receiving the most votes in a state typically claiming all of that state’s electoral votes (with the exceptions of Maine and Nebraska, which use a proportional system).
The candidate who reaches the required number of electoral votes will become the president-elect and be inaugurated on January 20th.
