1 month ago
4 Polling stations across the United States began to open up on Tuesday, with voters heading to the ballot box to cast their vote between Republican incumbent President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival, former vice-president Joe Biden.
The 2020 election has been characterised as one of the most polarising presidential races in US history, reported Reuters, which said election day would be "unlike any other", as voters brave the threat of Covid-19 and of violence and intimidation.
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According to AFP, the country is more divided and angry than at any other time since the Vietnam war era in the 1970s, and there are fears that Trump could dispute the election results which only fuels the tension.
Biden leads in almost every opinion poll, but Trump has claimed the polls are wrong as they had been in 2016.
The US presidential election has been plagued by legal battles on how to vote amidst a global pandemic, record-breaking mail-in ballots and early voters, which has made the result difficult to predict, reported Reuters.
The president's son, Donald Trump Jr, posted a tweet that said:
"Vote like your freedoms depend on it... because they do! This election is Freedom vs Marxism. Choose wisely and vote Trump."
According to Business Insider, only 10 incumbent presidents in US history who have been chosen as their party's nomination, have lost the reelection.
"Election polling has suggested Trump's chances of reelection have been dwindling for months, as voters also express disapproval of his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic."
Only a dozen "battleground" states will decide the outcome of the election and it can swing either way.
- Compiled by Amy Gibbings

 
 
English (United States)