US Election News Live – Latest 2020 Updates As Polls Open

Democrats pressuring last minute for Latino turnout in Arizona

Democrats sent a marching band and a group of mariachis to march through the streets of Phoenix as part of a last-minute campaign to win the vote in Arizona’s key battlefield state.

Joe Biden was found to have a very narrow lead over Donald Trump in the state, and an Ipsos / Reuters poll placed the Democratic challenger at 49 percent to the president’s 47 percent.

The 11 votes from the Arizona Electoral College could be key to Biden’s success, and Democratic strategists hope that greater turnout among Latino voters will help turn the state in their favor.

Should you trust the polls?

Hillary Clinton is not currently President of the United States. This fact suggests that polls should not always be trusted, given that they mostly predicted a Clinton victory in 2016.

Pollsters have offered their explanations for how they got so wrong in the last election, from a large number of undecided voters to a futile focus on the popular vote.

Some simply claim they got it right.

However, they have taken steps to ensure that the same mistakes are not made again this year, which you can read here:

The ‘wall’ of the White House is erected before the elections

A large “non-scalable” fence has been put up around the White House in preparation for possible protests around the elections.

The wall was put up overnight before the polls opened when the president returned from a final campaign rally in Michigan.

Latest poll shows candidates tied in Iowa

It looks like Iowa could go either way today. Iowa is among the smallest states with respect to the Electoral College, with 6 votes.

Companies rally after warnings of election unrest

Business and property owners across the United States have been covering their windows in anticipation of civil unrest in the wake of the elections.

Police departments are on alert, and the NYPD Strategic Response Group says they remain optimistic “but prepared for the worst.”

The president himself intervened, warning that there would be “violence in the streets” after the Supreme Court ruled that postal votes can be counted after Election Day. Trump claimed in a tweet that this would allow “uncontrolled cheating,” a claim that he was unable to provide evidence for and that Twitter called misleading.

Construction crews work on boarding stores around Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, California AP

Workers cover the windows of a Moncler store in New York Getty

High turnout expected today after record early voting

A turnout of around 150 million has been forecast for the election, largely due to a record number of people voting early.

Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight predicts 154 million voters, which would be roughly 17 million more than the previous cycle.

More than 100 million Americans had already voted before the polls opened today.

First vote cast on Election Day

Just after midnight, a longtime Republican cast his vote to become the first American to vote on Election Day this year.

The first vote was cast in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, continuing a tradition that dates back to 1960 when Richard Nixon obtained all the votes in the city.

Today’s voter, Les Otten, said he was a “lifelong Republican who voted for Joe Biden for president.”

The other four voters in Dixville Notch followed Otten, giving Biden a landslide victory in the small town.

Good morning and welcome to The independent Live coverage of Election Day in the United States.