Tuesday, November 3, 2020

US elections: Trump or Biden? Big turnout, few hiccups as voters choose

 

Millions of voters braved coronavirus concerns and long lines to choose between President Trump and Democratic challenger Biden in an epic election that will influence how the US confronts everything



US Election 2020: Millions of voters braved coronavirus concerns and occasional long lines on Tuesday to choose between President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden in an epic election that will influence how the US confronts everything from the pandemic to race relations for years to come.

Those who turned out in person joined 102 million fellow Americans who voted days or weeks earlier, a record number that represented 73 per cent of the total vote in the 2016 presidential election.

Spirits were high -- and positive -- in many polling places after a long, exceptionally divisive campaign.

"The most important issue is for us to set aside our personal differences that we have with each other," said Eboni Price, 29, who rode her horse Moon to her polling place in a northwest Houston neighbourhood.

Biden entered Election Day with multiple paths to victory, while Trump, playing catch-up in a number of battleground states, had a narrower but still feasible road to clinch 270 Electoral College votes. Control of the Senate was at stake, too: Democrats needed to net three seats if Biden captured the White House to gain control of all of Washington for the first time in a decade. The House was expected to remain under Democratic control.

With the worst public health crisis in a century still fiercely present, the pandemic -- and Donald Trump's handling of it -- was the inescapable focus for 2020.

The president began his day on an upbeat note, predicting that he would do even better than in 2016. But during a midday visit to his campaign headquarters, he spoke in a gravelly, subdued tone.

 

 

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