Harris or Trump? Long Lines of Voters in Tense US Election
This combination of pictures created on November 4, 2024 shows former US President and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump in Waterloo, Iowa, on December 19, 2023 and US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on November 4, 2024. ©Photo by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI and ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)

Millions of Americans headed to vote Tuesday in a presidential election defined by drama and uncertainty, with Kamala Harris and Donald Trump left to await the outcome of a desperately close race after months of intense campaigning.

The result, perhaps coming overnight, or not for several days, will either make Harris the first woman president in the country's history, or hand Trump a comeback that sends shock waves around the world.

The bitter rivals spent their final campaign day trying to get supporters out to the polls and courting any last undecided voters in the swing states expected to decide the outcome.

But Democratic vice president Harris, 60, and Republican former president Trump, 78, were in a dead-heat in opinion polls despite the most volatile White House contest of modern times.

Americans lined up across the country including in Black Mountain, North Carolina, where the Election Day voting station was a makeshift tent erected after severe flooding.

Long queues also formed in Erie, a critical city in battleground Pennsylvania.

"It's way, way, way more people here than the last" election, Marchelle Beason, 46, told AFP after casting her ballot for Harris at an elementary school.

A final presidential outcome may not be known for several days if the results are close, adding to tensions in a deeply divided nation.

And there are fears of turmoil and even violence if Trump loses, and then contests the result as he did in 2020.

History to be made

On Monday, Harris went all-in on must-win Pennsylvania, rallying on the Philadelphia steps declaring: "Momentum is on our side."

Trump, who would become the first convicted felon and oldest person to win the presidency, cast himself as the only solution to a country in terminal decline and overrun by "savage" migrants.

"We can fix every single problem our country faces and lead America - indeed, the world - to new heights of glory," Trump told his closing rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Harris hammered home her opposition to Trump-backed abortion bans in multiple states - a vote-winning position with crucial women voters.

At her final rally, she notably avoided mentioning Trump after targeting him directly as a threat to democracy for his dark rhetoric and repeated threats to exact retribution on his opponents.

His return to power would instantly fuel international instability, with US allies in Europe and NATO alarmed by his isolationist "America First" policies.

Trading partners are also nervously watching his vow to impose sweeping import tariffs.

Trump has said he would not seek election again in 2028.

But he also hinted he would refuse to accept another loss, and recently has brought up baseless claims of election fraud while saying he should "never have left" the White House.

 

Gregory Walton and Danny Kemp with AFP

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