Today's Edition
Washington (dpa)
The first polls have closed in the razor-close presidential contest between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, but it could be days before a winner is declared as voters continued to line up in states across the United States to cast their ballots.
Voting ended at 6 pm (2300 GMT) at some polling places in the states of Indiana and Kentucky. In other parts of the two states, both of which former Republican president Trump is expected to win, residents have an hour longer to vote.
For months, the two candidates' campaigns have focused on the seven swing states that will almost surely decide the election: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
The first wave of statewide poll closures takes place at 7 pm, including Georgia. Trump won the southern state in 2016, but Joe Biden flipped it in 2020, with Vice President Harris hoping to retain the state for Democrats.
Both Harris and Trump are battling to find a path to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. Trump could hit the magic number by picking up Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
Harris, on the other hand, could lose Georgia and its 16 electoral votes if she wins Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin - three hard-fought battleground states where polls show tight races.
Both candidates projected confidence of victory on Election Day.
Trump will spend Tuesday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in West Palm Beach, Florida. Harris, meanwhile, said she will have dinner with family at her Washington residence before joining an election watch party at nearby Howard University, the historically black college she attended.
Voters are also electing a new Congress. Control of both chambers is at stake, with all 435 seats in the House of Representatives up for grabs and about a third of the 100 seats in the Senate.
Republicans are favoured to win the Senate back from Democrats. The fight for the House, which is currently controlled by Republicans, is seen as neck-and-neck.
