WASHINGTON — Americans voted on Tuesday in an election amounting to a referendum on Donald Trump and his uniquely brash, bruising presidency that Democratic opponent and front-runner Joe Biden urged supporters to end, restoring “our democracy.”
The United States is more divided and angry than at any time since the Vietnam War era of the 1970s—and fears that Trump could dispute the result of the election are only fueling those tensions.
Despite an often startlingly laid-back campaign, Biden, 77, leads in almost every opinion poll, buoyed by his consistent message that America needs to restore its “soul” and get new leadership amid a coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 231,000 people.
“I have a feeling we’re coming together for a big win…,” Biden said in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a vital electoral battleground where he was joined by pop superstar Lady Gaga. “It’s time to stand up and take back our democracy.”
Another upset?
But Trump was characteristically defiant to the end, campaigning at a frenetic pace with crowded rallies in four states on Monday, and repeating his dark, unprecedented claims for a US president that the polls risk being rigged against him.
After almost nonstop speeches in a final three-day sprint, he ended up in the early hours of Tuesday in Grand Rapids, Michigan—the same place where he concluded his epic against-the-odds campaign in 2016 where he defeated apparent front-runner Hillary Clinton.
Despite the bad poll numbers, the 74-year-old Republican real estate tycoon counted on pulling off another upset.
“We’re going to have another beautiful victory tomorrow,” he told the Michigan crowd, which chanted back: “We love you, we love you!”
“We’re going to make history once again,” he said.
Biden, who has framed the contest as a referendum on Trump’s handling of the virus, promised a renewed effort to combat the health crisis, fix the economy and bridge America’s political divide.
Packing Trump’s bags
While Tuesday is formally Election Day, in reality Americans have been voting for weeks.
More than 99 million early votes had already been cast in person or by mail as of Monday night, according to the US Elections Project at the University of Florida, a record-setting pace fueled by intense interest in the election and concerns about voting in person on Election Day during a pandemic.
The number was equal to 72.3 percent of the entire turnout in 2016 and represents about 40 percent of all Americans who are legally eligible to vote.
Biden has the wind in his sails after indications that Democratic enthusiasm in the early voting may be matching the more visible energy at Trump’s impressive rallies.
In one of US history’s great political gambles, Biden stuck to socially distanced gatherings with small crowds right up to the last moment, in stunning contrast to Trump’s constant, large rallies where few supporters so much as bothered with masks.
But the Democrat, making his third attempt at the presidency, clearly senses that his calmer approach and strict attention to pandemic protocols is what Americans want after four tempestuous years.
“It’s time for Donald Trump to pack his bags and go home,” Biden told supporters in Cleveland.
“We’re done with the chaos! We’re done with the tweets, the anger, the hate, the failure, the irresponsibility.”
Swing states
Americans will also decide on Tuesday which political party will control the US Congress for the next two years, with Democrats pushing to recapture a Senate majority and expected to retain their control of the House of Representatives.
In chilly downtown Pittsburgh, Justine Wolff said she had cast her ballot for Biden already and was cautiously hopeful he would carry Pennsylvania, which along with Florida may be the tightest of all the swing states that decide close national elections.
“I hope that people have seen the writing on the wall,” said the 35-year-old nurse. “We need some kind of change because this isn’t working for anybody.”
But where many early votes are believed to have been cast by Democrats, Trump’s side is hoping for a massive wave of Republican supporters voting in person on Tuesday.
Trump is close in enough swing states to possibly piece together the 270 state-by-state Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency. He defeated Clinton in the 2016 election despite losing the national popular vote by about 3 million ballots.
“Whether he wins or loses, this is history,” said Kolleen Wall, who turned out to cheer Trump in Grand Rapids. But “when you come to one of these rallies, all you think is, how could he not win?”
Biden and Trump have focused on about a dozen competitive state battlegrounds, nearly all states that Trump won in 2016. Much of their attention has gone to Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, the three traditionally Democratic states that Trump narrowly won in 2016, propelling his upset victory over Clinton.
If Biden can hold all of the states that Clinton won in 2016 and pick up Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, it would be enough to capture the White House.
Polls also show tight races in Florida, North Carolina and Arizona. Florida, with 29 electoral votes, is the biggest must-win for Trump, as a loss there would block most of the president’s viable paths to winning the Electoral College.
The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll in Florida showed Biden with a 50 percent-46 percent lead, a week after the two were in a statistical tie.
Results in Florida, where mail-in ballots can be counted before Election Day, are expected to begin to come in relatively quickly on Tuesday night. But Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin will not begin counting the flood of mail ballots until Election Day, raising the possibility of a prolonged vote count that could stretch for several days.
The first polling stations opening were in two New Hampshire villages, Dixville Notch and Millsfield, starting at midnight. Most polling stations on the East Coast were to open at 6 a.m. or 7 a.m.
A tiny hamlet of 12 residents in the middle of the forest, near the Canadian border, Dixville Notch has traditionally voted “first in the nation” since 1960.
The vote took minutes, as did the count: five votes for Biden, and none for Trump.
Warning of violence
There are worries that if the election is close, extended legal chaos and perhaps violent unrest could ensue—not least because Trump has spent months trying to sap public trust in the voting process in a nation already bitterly divided along political fault lines.
He ramped up these warnings in the final days, focusing especially on Pennsylvania’s rule allowing absentee ballots received within three days after Tuesday to be counted.
In a tweet flagged with a warning label by Twitter on Monday, he said this would “allow rampant and unchecked cheating.”
“It will also induce violence in the streets. Something must be done!” Trump tweeted.
Several cities are boarding up buildings in anticipation of possible protests, including around the White House and in New York City. The famed shopping destination of Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California, will be closed on Tuesday, police said.