Clinton or Trump? America finally heads to the polls
AFTER an exhausting, wild, bitter, and sometimes sordid campaign, Americans finally began voting yesterday for a new president: either the billionaire populist Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, seeking to become the first woman to win the White House.
Early rising voters in nine states mainly along the East Coast got first crack at a pivotal election that has a nervous world watching closely after a campaign like no other.
The name of the winner was not expected to be known before 0300 GMT. Clinton has a slim lead in the polls but no one was ruling out a Trump victory.
Democratic frontrunner Clinton and Republican maverick Trump campaigned into the early hours of election day, presenting radically different visions of the future of the world’s biggest power as they capped a gruelling final day of wooing voters.
The 69-year-old former first lady, senator and secretary of state – backed by A-list musical stars and incumbent President Barack Obama – urged the country to unite and vote for “a hopeful, inclusive, big-hearted America”.
Trump meanwhile pressed his mes- sage with voters who feel left behind by globalisation and social change, wrapping up with a flourish on his protectionist slogan of “America first”.
“Just imagine what our country could accomplish if we started working together as one people, under one God, saluting one American flag,” the 70-yearold former reality television star told cheering supporters.
In a kick-off midnight vote, the residents of tiny Dixville Notch in New Hampshire cast their traditional firstin-nation ballots with a total of eight votes – Clinton getting four and Trump, two. The others went to a fringe candidate and Mitt Romney, the failed Republican hopeful in 2012.
‘Corrupt elite’
No results or exit polls will be available before polling stations begin to close on the US East Coast from 7pm (0000 GMT today), and it may be three or more hours after that before the direction of the race becomes clear.
And even then, questions remain. Trump has repeatedly warned that a “corrupt Washington and media elite” is seeking to rig the race and he said last month that he may not concede defeat if he thinks voting is unfair.
He has also threatened to lodge lawsuits against up to a dozen women who have come forward during the race to accuse him of sexual assault or inappropriate behaviour.
Clinton has pushed a more optimistic vision, despite a wobble in the final weeks of her campaign when the FBI reopened an investigation into whether she had put US secrets at risk by using a private email server – only to close the probe again on Sunday.
In a radio interview on the last night of the campaign, she said the matter was behind her, and she courted voters at her final rallies in Philadelphia with Obama and rocker Bruce Springsteen, and in North Carolina with Lady Gaga.
“Tomorrow, we face the test of our time,” she declared in front of 40,000 people in Philadelphia, a record for her in a campaign where despite her opin- ion poll lead she has struggled to match her Republican opponent’s passionate and raucous crowds. “There is a clear choice in this election. A choice between division or unity, an economy that works for everyone, or only for those at the top; between strong, steady leadership, or a loose cannon who could put everything at risk.”
At the same time, Trump, who hijacked his conservative party and turned it into a vehicle for populist bombast, concluded a last-gasp tour of swing states by painting his rival as doomed to defeat and the corrupt creature of a discredited elite.
‘I will fight for you’
“Do you want America to be ruled by the corrupt political class, or do you want America to be ruled, again, by the people?” he demanded at a rally in New Hampshire, a state Obama won in 2012 that Trump hopes to flip.
Promising to end “years of betrayal”, tear up free trade deals, seal the border, halt the drug trade and subject Syrian refugees to “extreme vetting”, Trump told his supporters: “I am with you and I will fight for you and we will win.”