America decides
THE last time Davion Atkins watched a United States election he crowded around a computer screen and ended up walking around the city ‘‘like a zombie’’.
This year, the 30yearold healthcare assistant at a Dunedin resthome will be in a Dunedin city centre bar cautiously optimistic of a result he finds more favourable.
Political group Democrats Abroad New Zealand is hosting five ‘‘election night watch parties’’ around New Zealand in Hamilton, Auckland, Wellington, Queenstown, and Dunedin this afternoon.
Mr Atkins, a member of the small group of expat Democrats in Dunedin, said the community he grew up in, in Lynwood, Los Angeles County, California, needed a win for the Democrat nominee.
‘‘Tomorrow, I’m hoping obviously for a Joe Biden victory,’’ Mr Atkins said.
‘‘And it looks like we are going to get that.’’
The more than 95 million Americans who had cast their votes in the 2020 presidential election by yesterday, left him optimistic there would be a high voter turnout.
He understood about 1 million Democrats Abroad had voted, himself among them.
A number of polls have forecast Mr Biden will win the election, beating US President Donald Trump today.
Mr Trump was elected in a win that surprised most pollsters four years ago.
The Otago Daily Times did attempt to solicit views from American supporters of Mr Trump in Dunedin for this story.
WASHINGTON: Americans head to the polls today to conclude a bitter and divisive US election campaign, as Republican President Donald Trump seeks to overcome Democratic rival Joe Biden’s lead in opinion polls to win four more years in the White House.
The voting caps a campaign dominated by the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 231,500 people in the US and put millions out of work, and shaken by nationwide protests over racial injustice against Black Americans.
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. He has kept a relatively steady lead in national polls.
But Trump is close in enough swing states to possibly piece together the 270 statebystate Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency. He beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election despite losing the national popular vote by about 3 million ballots.
More than 98 million early votes had already been cast in person or by mail as of yesterday, according to the US Elections Project at the University of Florida, a recordsetting pace fuelled by intense interest in the election and concerns about voting in person during a pandemic.
The number is equal to about 71.4% of the entire turnout in 2016 and represents about 40% of all Americans who are eligible to vote.
Trump has questioned the integrity of the election results for months, making unsubstantiated claims that mailin voting is rife with fraud and refusing to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses. Trump has also said votes should only be counted on election day, even though many states often take days or weeks to tally ballots.
The uncertainty and the prospect of prolonged legal battles have fuelled unprecedented anxiety about the election’s outcome and aftermath. Several cities are boarding up buildings in anticipation of possible protests, including around the White House and in New York City.
The two candidates have focused on about a dozen competitive state battlegrounds, nearly all states Trump won in 2016. Much of their attention has gone to Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, the three traditionally Democratic states Trump narrowly won in 2016, propelling his upset victory over Clinton.
If Biden can hold all of the states 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 mustwin for Trump, as a loss there would block most of his viable paths to winning the Electoral College.
Voters across all states are also casting ballots on a range of other issues, including for 35 Senate seats, the entire House of Representatives, state and local offices and referendums on issues from tax policy to drug laws.
The first election results were announced last night in the villages of Dixville Notch and Millsfield in New Hampshire. Biden won all five votes in the village of Dixville Notch. Trump secured a majority of 16 votes in Millsfield, while five people voted for Biden. Polling stations opened at midnight (local time) in the two villages, which have kept up the tradition since 1960.