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WASHINGTON – Americans vote Tuesday in an election that amounts to a referendum on Donald Trump and his singularly impetuous and painful presidency that Democratic opponent and favorite Joe Biden urged his supporters to end, restoring “our democracy.”
America is more divided and angry than at any time since the Vietnam War era in the 1970s, and fears that Trump may contest the election result are only fueling those tensions.
Despite an often surprisingly relaxed campaign, the 77-year-old Biden leads nearly all opinion polls, encouraged by his consistent message that America needs to restore its “soul” and gain new leadership amid a pandemic of coronavirus that has killed more than 231,000 people.
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“I have a feeling that tomorrow we will come together for a great victory,” Biden said in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a vital electoral battleground where he was joined by pop superstar Lady Gaga. “It is time to get up and take back our democracy.”
But Trump was characteristically defiant to the end, campaigning at a frantic pace with packed rallies in four states on Monday, repeating his dark and unprecedented claims to a U.S. president that polls are at risk of being rigged in his against.
After nearly nonstop speeches in a final three-day sprint, he finished in the early hours of Tuesday in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the same place where he concluded his epic 2016 campaign against all odds, where he defeated apparent favorite Hillary Clinton.
Despite poor poll numbers, the 74-year-old Republican real estate mogul was counting on another surprise.
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“We’re going to have another beautiful win tomorrow,” he told the Michigan crowd, who chanted in response, “We love you, we love you!”
“We are going to make history one more time,” he said.
– Pack Trump’s bags –
While Tuesday is formally Election Day, in reality, Americans have been voting for weeks.
With a huge expansion in voting by mail to protect against the Covid-19 pandemic, nearly 100 million people have already made their decision.
Biden has wind in his sails after indications that Democratic enthusiasm in early voting may be matching the more visible energy at Trump’s impressive rallies.
In one of the big political gambles in US history, Biden stayed in socially estranged gatherings with small crowds until the very last moment, in striking contrast to the constant and large Trump rallies where few supporters bothered with More expensive.
But the Democrat, making his third attempt at the presidency, clearly feels that his calmer approach and strict attention to pandemic protocols is what Americans want after four stormy years.
“It’s time for Donald Trump to pack his bags and go home,” Biden told supporters in Cleveland.
“We end the chaos! We end the tweets, anger, hatred, failure, irresponsibility.”
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In cold downtown Pittsburgh, Justine Wolff said she had already cast her vote for Biden and was cautiously hopeful that he would take over Pennsylvania, which along with Florida may be the narrowest of all the swing states that decide closed national elections. .
“I hope people have seen the writing on the wall,” said the 35-year-old nurse. “We need some kind of change because this is not working for anyone.”
But where many of the first votes are believed to have been cast by Democrats, Trump’s side expects a massive wave of Republican supporters to vote in person on Tuesday.
“Whether he wins or loses, this is history,” said Kolleen Wall, who happened to cheer on Trump in Grand Rapids. But “when you come to one of these rallies, all you think is, how could I not win?”
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The first polling stations to open were in two New Hampshire towns, Dixville Notch and Millsfield, starting at midnight. Most polling stations on the East Coast were supposed to open at 6:00 am or 7:00 am (1100 or 1200 GMT).
A small village of 12 residents in the middle of the forest near the Canadian border, Dixville Notch has traditionally voted “first in the nation” since 1960.
The vote took minutes, as did the recount: five votes for Biden and none for Trump.
– Warning of violence –
Trump himself plans to visit his campaign headquarters in Virginia on Tuesday, while Biden will travel to his birthplace of Scranton, the Pennsylvania city where Trump also visited on Monday.
There is concern that if the elections are closed, it could lead to prolonged legal chaos and perhaps violent unrest, especially since Trump has spent months trying to undermine public confidence in the voting process in a nation that is already bitterly divided by political dividing lines.
He stepped up these warnings in recent days, focusing especially on the Pennsylvania rule that allows absentee ballots received within three days of Tuesday to be counted.
In a tweet marked with a warning tag by Twitter on Monday, he said this “would allow for rampant and uncontrolled deception.”
“It will also induce violence in the streets. Something must be done!” Trump tweeted.
