WASHINGTON: Early results from the US presidential election, pitting Donald Trump against Joe Biden, show a tight race in the potentially pivotal race of Florida.
With more than 80% of votes counted in Florida, Trump, the Republican incumbent, was neck-and-neck with Biden, the Democratic challenger.
Polls have closed in three other key states, Georgia, Ohio and North Carolina, which are too close to call.
More than 100 million people had already cast their ballots in early voting.
The US appears on course for its highest turnout in a century. The first projections are expected shortly from states which are solidly Democratic or Republican.
Control of Congress is also at stake. As well as the White House, Republicans are vying to hang on to a Senate majority.
The House of Representatives is expected to stay in Democratic hands.
Delaware, the small state Biden represented in the Senate for over three decades, will certainly back him.
Trump is all but certain to win Alabama, a state where Democratic Senator Doug Jones is fighting for his political life against a former US football coach.
Pennsylvania, with its 20 electoral college votes, is the state to watch. The “Keystone state” backed Trump in 2016. Both candidates have ties to the state. Biden was born in a mining town and lived there until the age of 10, while Trump attended university in Philadelphia.
Florida is a big prize and it’s fiercely contested. It carries 29 electoral votes – a significant chunk of the 270 needed to win – and polls suggest a very tight race.
Donald Trump won the state by just over 1% in 2016.
Voting ends across the state in 10 minutes (20:00 EDT, 01:00 GMT). Election officials began processing early votes before election day, so comprehensive results could be reported relatively quickly. They already have 80% of votes counted and it is neck-and-neck so far.
It’s a diverse state, with a large Hispanic population – although the Hispanic vote doesn’t overwhelmingly favour the Democrats as it does nationwide.
That’s because the large Cuban population tends to vote Republican. Many Cuban-Americans fled the Communist regime in their home country and can relate to Republican anti-socialist sentiment.
Older voters in the state could also be crucial – Florida is often referred to a “God’s waiting room” with more than 17% of the population being over 65. Mr Trump’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak could impact the senior vote with elderly people being most at risk.
It’s also where Republican George W Bush secured the presidency in 2000 by just 537 votes, after a highly controversial recount.
Summary:
- The polls have closed in some eastern states, but voting continues elsewhere as Americans add their ballots to 100 million postal votes
- Republican Donald Trump is projected to win Indiana, which carries 11 of the 270 electoral college votes needed to secure the presidency
- Joe Biden is projected to win Vermont, with three electoral college votes, while early numbers suggest a mixed picture in the key state of Florida
- Donald Trump, 74, is seeking to avoid becoming the first incumbent president to lose a re-election fight since George HW Bush in 1992
- National polls suggest Democrat Joe Biden, 77, has a broad lead, but the race is close in key battleground states needed to win the presidency
- The US is on course for its highest turnout in more than a century and counting in some states will not finish on election night
- An exit poll suggests four out of 10 voters nationally think the coronavirus response is “going very badly” but identifies the economy as the top issue
(With inputs from Agencies)
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