“Every vote counts,” recalled Democratic candidate Kamala Harris on the evening of Monday to Tuesday. A few hours before the opening of the polling stations this Tuesday, November 5, to choose the next president of the United States, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris held their final electoral meetings. The election promises to be very close: if we are to believe the polls, everything will be decided by only a few tens of thousands of votes, in seven so-called pivotal states, where the candidates are neck and neck.
Polling stations will open at 6 a.m. local time on the east coast of the United States (noon in France) and millions of people will add their votes to the more than 80 million ballots already cast early or sent by post. It is impossible to know whether it will take hours or days of counting to decide between the Democratic vice-president, possibly the first woman to enter the White House, and the former Republican leader, criminally convicted and targeted by numerous prosecutions. , whose first term (2017-2021) had dragged the country and the entire world into an uninterrupted series of convulsions.
Information to remember
⇒ At a meeting in Philadelphia, Kamala Harris wants to “turn the page” on Donald Trump
⇒ Donald Trump promises to “lead America” to “new heights”
⇒ Voting has started in New Hampshire
‘Every voice counts,’ warns Kamala Harris in Philadelphia
As the American campaign experiences its final moments, the two candidates held meetings in the hotly contested state of Pennsylvania, the “swing state” bringing together the largest number of voters. The Democratic candidate spoke in Philadelphia, the cradle of American democracy, at the foot of a large staircase immortalized in the film “Rocky”, wanting to see there “a symbol of those who are given losers at the start and who climb up to victory.”
“This could be one of the closest elections in history. Every vote counts,” warned Kamala Harris. “We have the opportunity to finally turn the page on a decade of political project guided by fear and division,” she also said. A little before, the star Lady Gaga had called on stage to vote for Kamala Harris, emphasizing that “women would participate in the decision” on Tuesday. Defending the right to abortion is a major campaign theme for the vice-president.
Donald Trump promises to “take America” to “new heights”
Donald Trump promised to “lead America and the world” to “new heights” during his very last campaign meeting in Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) for the presidential election against Kamala Harris.
“With your vote tomorrow, we can solve all the problems facing our country and lead America and the world to new heights of glory,” declared the Republican candidate on the night of Monday to Tuesday. Overflowing with confidence, he assured several times that he was “in a very good position” to win.
New Hampshire opens voting
The electoral laws of this small northeastern state allow municipalities with fewer than 100 inhabitants to open their polling stations at midnight and to be able to close them when all the people registered on the electoral lists have voted. Like the polls, the six voters of Dixville Notch, a hamlet lost in the forests of New Hampshire on the northeastern border of the United States with Canada, did not however succeed in deciding between the candidates for the American presidential election. .
This village launched the vote on Tuesday at midnight, perpetuating a tradition established since 1960, which earned it the title of “First in the Nation”. The vote took only a few minutes, as did the counting and announcement of the results: three votes for Democrat Kamala Harris and three votes for Republican Donald Trump.
America barricades itself, fears of excesses
The former president further fueled tensions in a country on edge by beginning to question the integrity of voting operations. Kamala Harris’ team said it “expected” the Republican to declare himself the winner prematurely, as he did in 2020. Donald Trump never acknowledged his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, after which his supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
At least three states, Washington, Nevada and Oregon, have mobilized National Guard reservists. Elsewhere in the country, some polling stations will be monitored by drones and rooftop snipers. In the federal capital, metal barriers are erected around the White House, the Capitol and other sensitive sites.
Washington accuses Russia of disinformation in key states
American intelligence services accused Russia on Monday evening of being “actively” involved in disinformation operations in the seven key states. “Russia is the most active threat” in these American states, accused the Federal Police (FBI), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in a joint statement. (CISA). “These attempts risk inciting violence, including against electoral officials,” these services are alarmed. According to the ODNI, a video that they attribute to Russian services recently circulated on social networks with an interview with a person claiming that electoral fraud was organized to favor Kamala Harris in Arizona.