By Kenneth Tiven in the USA
All 50 states in the USA have opened their polling places in the presidential election. Most East coast time zone states close the polls by 8PM EST, or 03:30 IST. So initial election results will probably be available around then, indicating the direction of the election. For the record the USA has six time zones including Alaska and Hawaii.
President Trump is waiting at the White House while Biden is at home in Delaware. Biden visited the cemetery where his first wife, infant daughter and son Beau Biden are buried, before going to an event in Philadelphia. Trump visited a nearby campaign office in Arlington, Virginia.
The rush of popular vote result will be between 10 PM (IST 07:30) and midnight (09:30 IST), providing perhaps a less than an absolute sense of who has won. The popular vote is just that, but considered on a state-by-state count it determines the Electoral College votes. However, in most states the mail-in ballots are not counted until election day or thereafter, so a definitive winner will only come if one side or the other wins in a landslide. It’s a bright and sunny day across most of the nation with cool fall weather prevailing. With nearly 100 million votes cast by mail or early voting, the expectation is that waiting lines at polling place may be reasonable this year.
In the crucial states of Pennsylvania and Michigan, election officials said ballot counts will not be entirely completed until Wednesday. City Commissioner Lisa Deeley told media that officials have counted 76,000 ballots and won’t report any extra mail-in ballots until 9 am Wednesday (7.30 pm IST). NPR’s Jeff Brady reported officials saying they expected some 400,000 mail-in ballots from the county. Unlike in India where there are electronic voting machines, officials here can process around 10,000 ballots per hour and will likely take at least two days to finish counting.
Philadelphia represents a critical area for Biden campaign. It’s a Democratic stronghold with more than 1.1 million registered voters — more than 10% of all voters in the Keystone State. In 2016, the turnout was relatively low here and with the increase in rural turnout, Donald Trump won the state.
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