America reaches Election Day and a stark choice between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump

'Polarization' pretty much sums up 2024. Image via AP.

A presidential campaign marked by upheaval and rancor was finally headed for an Election Day finale, as Americans decided whether to send Donald Trump back to the White House or elevate Kamala Harris to the Oval Office.

Voters faced a stark choice between two candidates who have offered drastically different temperaments and visions for the world’s largest economy and dominant military power. More than 82 million people voted early. Those casting ballots on Tuesday mostly encountered a smooth process around the country, with isolated reports of some hiccups that regularly happen, including long lines, technical issues and ballot printing errors.

Harris, the Democratic Vice President, stands to be the first female President if elected. She has promised to work across the aisle to tackle economic worries and other issues without radically departing from the course set by President Joe Biden. Trump, the Republican former President, has vowed to replace thousands of federal workers with loyalists, impose sweeping tariffs on allies and foes alike, and stage the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.

The two candidates spent the waning hours of the campaign overlapping in Pennsylvania, the biggest battleground state. They were trying to energize their bases as well as Americans still on the fence or debating whether to vote at all.

In Scranton, Pennsylvania, Liza Fortt arrived at her polling location in a wheelchair and not feeling well. But she ventured out anyway to vote for Harris.

“I’m proud, to see a woman, not only a woman, but a Black woman,” Fortt said.

Harris and Trump entered Election Day focused on seven battleground states, five of them carried by Trump in 2016 before flipping to Biden in 2020: the “blue wall” of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin as well as Arizona and Georgia. Nevada and North Carolina, which Democrats and Republicans respectively carried in the last two elections, also were closely contested.

Tommy Ray Brewer, a 72-year-old auto mechanic, voted for Trump in Black Mountain, North Carolina, which was hard-hit by Hurricane Helene.

“People are really divided right now. They’re mad. They’re angry because of the situation that the United States is in,” Brewer said. “I have heard people say we’re in the best shape we’ve ever been in. But I say, ‘have you been to the grocery store, have you been to the gas station?’”

The closeness of the race and the number of states in play raised the likelihood that, once again, a victor might not be known on election night. There was one early harbinger from the New Hampshire hamlet of Dixville Notch, which by tradition votes after midnight on Election Day. Dixville Notch split between Trump and Harris, with three votes for each.

In the 2020 presidential race it took four days to declare a winner. Regardless, Trump has baselessly claimed that if he lost, it would be due to fraud. Harris’ campaign was preparing for him to try to declare victory before a winner is known on Tuesday night or to try to contest the result if she wins. Four years ago, Trump launched an effort to overturn the voters’ will that ended in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Trump planned to vote in his adopted home state of Florida on Tuesday, then spend the day at his Mar-a-Lago estate in advance of a party at a nearby convention center. Harris already voted by mail in her home state of California. She’ll have a watch party at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington.

Each candidate would take the country into new terrain

Harris, 60, would be the first woman, Black woman and person of South Asian descent to serve as President. She also would be the first sitting Vice President to win the White House in 36 years.

In a Tuesday interview with The Big Tigger Morning Show on V-103 in Atlanta, Harris was asked about whether she might struggle with Black male voters, who could support Trump or sit the race out. She said that “lived experience” had taught her the difficulties Black men in America can face.

“This is not something I just figured out, that we still have a lot to do to recognize the disparities in what Black men receive and what they are due in terms of access to opportunity,” the Vice President said, adding that during her campaign she’s emphasized issues “from access to capital to what we need to do for health care.”

A victory would cap a whirlwind campaign unlike any other in American history. Harris ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket less than four months ago after Biden, facing massive pressure from his party after a disastrous debate performance, ended his re-election bid.

Trump, 78, would be the oldest President ever elected. He would also be the first defeated President in 132 years to win another term in the White House, and the first person convicted of a felony to take over the Oval Office.

He survived one assassination attempt by millimeters at a July rally. Secret Service agents foiled a second attempt in September.

A victory for Trump would affirm that enough voters put aside warnings from many of Trump’s former aides or instead prioritized concerns about Biden and Harris’ stewardship of the economy or the U.S.-Mexico border.

It would all but ensure he avoids going to prison after being found guilty of his role in hiding hush-money payments to an adult film actress during his first run for President in 2016. His sentencing in that case could occur later this month. And upon taking office, Trump could end the federal investigation into his effort to overturn the 2020 election results.

The election has huge stakes for America and the world

The potential turbulence of a second Trump term has been magnified by his embrace of the Republican Party’s far right and his disregard for long-held democratic norms. Trump has used harsh rhetoric against Harris and other Democrats, calling them “demonic,” and has suggested military action against people he calls “enemies from within.”

Harris, pointing to the warnings of Trump’s former aides, has labeled him a “fascist” and blamed Trump for putting women’s lives in danger by nominating three of the Justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. In the closing hours of the campaign, she tried to strike a more positive tone and went all of Monday without saying her Republican opponent’s name.

Federal, state and local officials have expressed confidence in the integrity of the nation’s election systems. They nonetheless were braced to contend with what they say is an unprecedented level of foreign disinformation — particularly from Russia and Iran — as well as the possibility of physical violence or cyberattacks.

Both sides have armies of lawyers in anticipation of legal challenges on and after Election Day. And law enforcement agencies nationwide are on high alert for potential violence.

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.