US election: Trump or Harris? Election day in the USA has begun

It is the start of a historic election day: the first polling stations have opened in the USA. Americans don’t just vote on whether Democrat Kamala Harris or Republican Donald Trump moves into the White House. The election night from November 5th to 6th could throw world politics even more out of balance than before.

At stake is not only the domestic political stability of the USA, but also its future role in international alliances and transatlantic cooperation. The ties between Germany and Europe and the United States are huge in the economic sphere and even have existential dimensions in the defense sector.

First results: Tie at Dixville Notch

The first decision was made at midnight (local time): the small village of Dixville Notch in the state of New Hampshire announced a draw. Three votes each for Harris and Trump were announced on a handwritten board. The voter turnout was 100 percent.

Since 1960, the polling station in Dixville Notch has opened at midnight on election day. Since there are only six registered voters in the ski resort near the Canadian border, voting and counting are carried out quickly. In the 2020 election, US President Joe Biden won here without a dissenting vote against Trump.

Even if the results in the small ski resort did not always reflect who ultimately became president, the result could be seen as a symbol of the close political race in the divided country. According to US media, the polls have rarely been as close as this time – and the outcome of the election is completely unpredictable.

Queues at the first polling stations

In the morning (local time) the polling stations opened in larger cities and municipalities in the east of the country. For example, they opened at 7 a.m. (1 p.m. CET) in Washington DC, and an hour earlier in New York. Voters are already allowed to go to the polls in most of the “swing states” that are particularly contested and could decide the election – for example in North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and also in Arizona in the west of the country. Longer queues immediately formed at some polling stations.

Because the USA spans several time zones, polling stations open over several hours. In the west coast state of California, you can vote from 7 a.m. local time (4 p.m. CET). Hawaii and Alaska are at the bottom of the list: here, voters can vote until 6 a.m. CET on Wednesday, and in the Aleutian Islands – a group of islands in the North Pacific – an hour longer.

Almost 83 million voted early

However, many voters have already voted. Almost 83 million US citizens voted by mail or in pre-opened polling stations by midday before Election Day alone, as the University of Florida’s “Election Lab” reported. This corresponds to more than half of the total votes cast in the presidential election in 2020.

Big shows at the end of the election campaign

Harris and Trump addressed everyone else with large final rallies the night before the election. Harris appeared confident of victory in a meticulously planned and star-studded event in Philadelphia in the “swing state” of Pennsylvania. In front of the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the setting for the cult film “Rocky,” the 60-year-old said: “Tonight we’re ending it the way we started it, with optimism, with energy and with joy.” She didn’t mention Trump’s name – her speech lasted less than half an hour.

Just a little later, Trump launched into a lengthy, angry monologue with attacks on his political opponents in front of an excited crowd in Grand Rapids in the “swing state” of Michigan. Of Harris, the 78-year-old said: “She has a very low IQ, and we don’t need a person with a low IQ. We’ve had that for four years. And our country is going down the drain.”

Trump did not follow his advisors’ wishes to stick more closely to his speech manuscripts. Harris was “a left-wing radical lunatic,” he complained. Trump’s candidate for US Vice President, JD Vance, insulted Harris with drastic words: “We are going to take out the trash in Washington DC, and the trash is called Kamala Harris,” he said.

It’s no coincidence that Harris and Trump held their final rallies in Pennsylvania and Michigan. Pennsylvania is considered to be potentially decisive in the election – there are 19 electoral votes up for grabs here, more than in any other “swing state”. Since it is foreseeable in the vast majority of states which party will secure victory there, Democrats and Republicans focused their election campaign primarily on seven key states where the outcome is still open.

However, election day is not only awaited with excitement, but also with concerns about riots or violence. In the capital, some business people in the center barricaded their shop windows with wooden panels.

Trump once again sowed doubts about the integrity of the election and accused the Democrats of fraud. He never acknowledged his 2020 election defeat against Joe Biden. This year he seems to be preparing a similar narrative, claiming that only fraud can rob him of victory.

Results may only take days

Trump is also creating false expectations about the vote count. “We want the answer tonight,” said the 78-year-old at the end of the election campaign. However, this is considered unlikely. Postal votes in particular delay the counting process. The first major polling stations on the east coast of the USA close at midnight German time. Unlike in Germany, there is no prediction of the election winner.

In 2020, Biden was not declared the winner until Saturday, day four after the election date. Many Americans, however, found out about Trump’s victory in 2016 when they got up the morning after the election.

The US President is indirectly elected by the people. The voters’ votes decide the composition of the electoral college, which elects the president on their behalf in December. Each state has a certain number of votes, which is roughly based on the number of inhabitants.

The principle of “the winner takes it all” applies to elections in almost all states: the candidate who wins there receives the votes of all the electors in the state. To get into the White House, a candidate ultimately does not need the most votes of the people (“popular vote”), but rather the majority of the 538 voters (“electoral vote”) – i.e. at least 270.