On a day that was at turns both inspiring and unnerving, millions of people queued up to vote in a US presidential election that threatens to test the long-held ideals of democracy like none before it.
US election 2020 live: California ‘undeniably’ on track for record number of votes
Read more
From New York to Phoenix, from Detroit to Los Angeles, even as the coronavirus surged, citizens waited patiently to determine whether Republican Donald Trump will serve a second term in the White House or make way for his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden.
A record of more than 100 million people had voted early, with Democrats thought to have the edge, so Trump was relying on what he called a “red wave” on election day itself. Experts predicted the final total could be around 160 million, a turnout rate of more than two-thirds of the eligible voting population – the highest in more than a century.
Both candidates signaled confidence before polls closed on Tuesday night. Trump, the first impeached president to run for re-election, expressed faith that turnout at his campaign rallies will prove a more reliable measure of support than conventional national polling, which has consistently shown Biden leading.
“We’re feeling very good,” Trump told the conservative Fox News channel, his voice sounding scratchy after holding 14 rallies in three days in a last-ditch campaign blitz. “We have crowds like nobody has ever had before. I think that translates into a lot of votes, and we’re going to see very soon.”
Q&A How will the Guardian report US election results?
Show
Hide
Though most people will be likely watching the results of the race for the White House, there are more than 7,000 elections taking place across the US on Tuesday 3 November.
In the age of disinformation, it is more important than ever that media outlets report election results as clearly and transparently as possible.
The Guardian will be using data collected and analysed by the Associated Press (AP) as the source for when we will call election results for the presidency, Senate, House races and others. AP has a team of thousands of specialists and correspondents across America, who have trusted relationships with local officials. This will guide their data-led assessment of when it’s time to call a race.
There are a number of other highly reputable election «decision desks» in US media. They may call races earlier than AP. While the Guardian will report this is happening, we will rely on AP’s data to make our own final call.
Should any candidate declare victory prematurely, we will report this claim, but make clear that it is not valid. The only measure of victory is a complete count of all outstanding ballots.
Was this helpful?
Thank you for your feedback.
But the president sounded more downbeat during a visit to his campaign headquarters in Virginia. “I’m not thinking about concession speech or acceptance speech yet. Hopefully we’ll be doing only one of those two. And you know, winning is easy. Losing is never easy. Not for me it’s not.”
Biden, who at 77 would be the oldest US president ever elected if he wins, visited his childhood home in Scranton, Pennsylvania. He wrote in ink on the living room wall: “From this house to the White House with the Grace of God. Joe Biden 11.3.2020.”
He then made a last-ditch appeal to voters in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, grabbing a microphone and addressing an impromptu street gathering in Philadelphia.
“Trump’s got a lot of things backwards,” he said through a face mask. “If you elect me, I’m going to be an American president. There’s going to be no red states or blue states, just the United States of America.”
Later, back home in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden was asked about the risk of Trump claiming victory prematurely. “Presidents can’t determine what votes are counted and not counted and voters determine who’s president,” Biden said. “No matter what he does and no matter what he says, the votes are going to count.”
The election is widely seen as a hinge moment in history that will decide whether Trump was an aberration or a direction. After four years of domestic and international turmoil, Democrats are hoping to seize their chance to halt his populist-nationalist “Make America great again” movement in its tracks. For many, there is a sense of exhaustion.
Biden’s wife, Jill, a teacher, tweeted: “Can you imagine waking up on a Saturday morning and the headlines aren’t about some late-night tweet-storm? I can. We just need to vote.”
If you elect me, I’m going to be an American president. No red states or blue states, just the United States of America
Joe Biden
Trump was hoping for a replay of 2016 when, as a businessman and reality TV star with no prior political experience, he beat Hillary Clinton in a seismic repudiation of the Washington establishment and its consensus on issues long assumed settled. But polls showed Biden significantly better placed than Clinton at the same stage.
Biden appeared on course to win the popular vote, as Clinton did, but Trump still had a narrow path to victory in the electoral college, which determines who takes the White House. All eyes were on the battlegrounds Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida, Georgia, Arizona and North Carolina.
But patience was the watchword. TV networks promised to exercise extreme caution to avoid calling results prematurely, mindful of the confusion that set in during the disputed 2000 election between George W Bush and Al Gore.
Early voting includes 64m mail-in ballots, meaning that the count that could take hours, days or even weeks before producing a definitive winner. There were fears that Trump could exploit that delay to prematurely declare victory, spread conspiracy theories and mobilise armed supporters.
On Monday he threw a match into the tinderbox by suggesting that a supreme court ruling allowing Pennsylvania to accept mail ballots sent by election day and received up to three days later will “induce violence in the streets”. Twitter labelled the tweet with a warning that it “might be misleading about an election or other civic process”.
Trump aides, and conservative media, have also been promoting a rosy narrative about polling and the likelihood of the president achieving victory – raising concerns that he and his supporters will then assume a defeat can only be explained in terms of fraud by Democrats.
Chris Ruddy, a media executive and friend of the president, told the Guardian in a text message: “He’s a very confident guy and I think nothing is shaking that confidence.”
Fearful of potential convulsions, shops were boarded up in cities including Washington, New York and Raleigh, North Carolina. Concrete barriers and a “non-scalable fence” were erected outside the White House, where Trump was due to host an election night party for hundreds of people – yet another potential Covid-19 threat. Biden was set to address the nation from his home city of Wilmington later in the evening.
Eight state attorneys general – representing Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – warned that they will not tolerate voter intimidation. Grassroots activists were mobilising to protect the results and ensure every vote is counted.
Both sides have hired battalions of lawyers for a potential post-election fight. On Monday, a federal judge in Texas rejected a Republican bid to throw out about 127,000 votes already cast at drive-through voting sites in the Democratic-leaning Houston area.
The candidates continued campaigning late into Monday night. Singer Lady Gaga, wearing a white sweater with the word “Joe”, joined Biden at an event in Philadelphia. The former vice-president once again excoriated Trump over his response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has infected more than 9 million Americans and killed more than 230,000 – the worst tallies in the world.
US election 2020 live results: Donald Trump takes on Joe Biden in race for White House
Read more
In the final days of the campaign, Trump has continued to downplay the virus and threatened to fire Anthony Fauci, the top infectious diseases expert in the country, even as the virus surged to an all-time high of nearly 100,000 cases per day.
Trump held a midnight rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which was also his last stop in 2016 and predicted “one of the greatest wins in the history of politics”.
No president has won re-election with an approval rating as low as Trump’s average of 44%. He is in danger of becoming the first incumbent president to lose re-election since fellow Republican George HW Bush was beaten by Bill Clinton in 1992.
Former president Barack Obama, whom Biden served as vice-president for eight years, said Trump’s push to stop counting votes on election night was undemocratic.
“That’s what a two-bit dictator does,” he told a rally in Miami on Monday. “If you believe in democracy, you want every vote counted.”
Свежие комментарии