Americans are heading to the polling station to vote for their next president following a knife-edge campaign by Democratic nominee and vice president Kamala Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump.
Each candidate needs at least 270 electoral votes to win.
Polling began in the eastern time zone at 6 am local time (4.30 pm IST) on Tuesday with long lines of people queuing to cast their vote found in front of several polling stations.
According to reports, more than 82 million people have already taken advantage of early voting to cast their ballots.
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Harris stands to be the first female president if elected while Trump eyes a second term at the White House. Harris’ proposed policies are more about maintaining the status quo, though she has promised to work across the aisle to tackle economic worries and other issues.
Trump, on the other hand, 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 US history.
The seven battleground states—Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin—are expected to be crucial in deciding the victory.
Given the tightness of the race, observers believe that the victor might not be known on the election night. In the 2020 presidential race it took four days to declare a winner.
Trump plans to vote in his adopted home state of Florida and then spend the day at his Mar-a-Lago estate, reported the Associated Press. Harris, meanwhile, has already voted by mail in her home state of California.
