Voting for the presidential and Congressional elections has begun in the eastern states of the USA. Kamala Harris, who was elected as the Democratic candidate after President Joe Biden withdrew his candidacy, and Republican candidate Trump are competing for the presidency. For the vice presidency, Ohio Senator James David Vance, a Republican, faces Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat.
VOTING FOR THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES IS ALSO
In addition to voting for the new president of the United States, the American people are also voting for the entire 435-seat House of Representatives, the two houses of Congress, and 34 seats in the 100-member Senate.
THE WINNING ELECTION WILL BE OATHED ON JANUARY 20
In the country, which has three different time zones, the start and end of voting varies by state.
Voting starts at 06:00 (14:00 UTC) in New York and Virginia, and at 07:00 (15:00 UTC) in the most critical states, Florida and Pennsylvania, and the capital Washington DC.
The polls will close at 19.00 in Virginia and Florida (Wednesday 03.00), in Washington DC and Pennsylvania at 20.00 (Wednesday 04.00 in CET), and in New York at 21.00 (Wednesday 05.00 in CET).
The candidate who wins the presidential election will be sworn in on January 20, 2025 and become the 47th president of the United States for a period of 4 years.
BALLOT BALLOTS HAVE STARTED TO OPEN IN THE US ELECTION
Voting started at midnight in the village of Dixville Notch, near the Canadian border in the US state of New Hampshire.
6 voters in the village of Dixville Notch went to the polls to vote starting from 00:00 local time.
According to the post-election count, 3 votes of 6 voters went to Harris and 3 votes went to Trump.
82 MILLION PEOPLE VOTED EARLY
According to data shared by the University of Florida Election Laboratory, more than 82 million citizens have voted so far in the early voting process, which started in mid-September.
Of those, more than 44 million voted in person, while over 37 million voters voted early by mail.
While early voting continues until election day in many states, early votes cast by mail or by going to the polls will be counted after the polls close today.
US President Joe Biden also voted early in his hometown, Delaware, for the presidential elections.
POLLS SAY ‘TRUMP’
According to the average of the polls in the 7 swing states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin, which are critical due to the system called the “Electoral College”, Trump is narrowly ahead of Harris with 0.8 percentage points. He was taking the race.
On the other hand, nationwide polls showed that Trump and Harris were neck and neck.
- According to the survey results conducted before these elections in which the Congress will be determined, it seemed likely that the Republicans would gain the majority in the Senate and the Democrats in the House of Representatives.
THE CANDIDATE WHO REACHES 270 DELEGATES WILL BE PRESIDENT
In US Presidential elections, voters vote primarily for delegates of the party they support. In this system, called the “Board of Delegates”, a total of 538 delegates are determined, distributed with different weights to each state. The candidate who reaches more than half of this number, that is, 270 delegates, is entitled to become the President.
The fact that the person who gets more delegates, rather than the one who gets more votes in total, becomes president is known as one of the remarkable features of the American political system, where the balance between states is observed.
Source: AA