US elections: Donald Trump v Joe Biden – the race to be president

Voters decided today between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden, closing an epic campaign marked by rancor and fear.

The first results were predictable victories for each candidate, Trump taking Kentucky and Biden winning Vermont.

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The polls closed at 1 p.m. New Zealand time, after millions of voters put aside concerns about Covid-19 and long lines to participate. They joined 102 million Americans who voted earlier, a record number that represented 73% of total votes in the 2016 election.

Due to the high volume of mail-in ballots, the result may not be known for days or even weeks and could end up in court.

In urban centers ranging from New York to Denver to Minneapolis, workers surrounded businesses fearing that the vote, or uncertainty about the winner, would lead to riots like those that erupted earlier this year amid protests over the racial inequality.

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Those who vote in person on Tuesday (Wednesday NZT) join 102 million Americans who voted early, a record total representing 73 percent of the total turnout in the 2016 presidential election.

Biden entered Election Day with multiple paths to victory, while Trump, catching up on various battle states, had a narrower but still feasible path to garnering 270 Electoral College votes.

Control of the Senate is also at stake: Democrats need to win three seats if Biden captures the White House to take control of all of Washington for the first time in a decade. The House is expected to remain under Democratic control.

Trump started the day on an optimistic note, predicting that he would do even better than in 2016, but during a noon visit to his campaign headquarters, he spoke in a grave and moderate tone.

“Winning is easy,” Trump told reporters. “Losing is never easy, not for me it is not.”

Trump left open the possibility of addressing the nation on Tuesday, even if a winner has yet to be determined. Biden also promised a speech.

The Democratic candidate kept his eyes on the critical state of Pennsylvania, and gave his last speech to voters in his hometown of Scranton and the Democratic stronghold of Philadelphia.

On battlefields including Florida, Iowa, Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, some voters showed up at their polling places before dawn to beat the crowd, but still had to wait in long lines to cast their votes.

A new anti-scale fence was erected around the White House. And in urban centers ranging from New York to Denver to Minneapolis, workers closed businesses fearing the vote would lead to riots like the ones that erupted earlier this year amid protests over racial inequality.

Just steps from the White House, block after block, the stores had their windows and doors covered. Some kept the front door open in hopes of attracting a small business.

Both candidates voted early and First Lady Melania Trump cast her vote Tuesday near Mar-a-Lago, the couple’s Palm Beach, Florida property. Melania Trump, who recently recovered from Covid-19, was the only one who did not wear a mask when she entered the voting site.

The campaign has largely been a referendum on Trump’s handling of the virus, which has so far claimed 232,000 lives in the United States.

Trump insists the nation is “turning around” the virus. But Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, broke with the president and joined a chorus of Trump administration scientists who raised the alarm about the current rise in infections.

While daily infections are increasing in all but three states, the increase is most pronounced in the Midwest and Southwest.

Missouri, Oklahoma, Iowa, Indiana Nebraska, North Dakota, Colorado and New Mexico all reported record hospitalizations this week.

Nebraska’s largest hospitals began to limit elective surgeries and sought to bring in nurses from other states to cope with the increase.