The first voting centers in the United States opened this Tuesday at 5:00 a.m. local time (six hours more in mainland Spain) to begin a historic day in which the country will choose between the vice president and Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, and the Former Republican president Donald Trump (in office between 2017 and 2021).
The first to be able to go to the polls were the residents of Vermont (northeast), where the voting centers open between 05:00 local time (10:00 GMT) and 10:00 (15:00 GMT).
At 6:00 a.m. local time, the polling stations in six other states (Connecticut, Kentucky, Maine, New Jersey, New York and Virginia) will open their doors, followed half an hour later by Ohio, West Virginia and North Carolina, The latter is considered a key “hinge” state in determining who will occupy the White House.
Voting center opening hours vary considerably, as the 50 US states and the District of Columbia span six different time zones, and each state has its own election law with specific opening and closing times.
As the morning progresses, at 12:00 GMT, voting will begin in most centers in the District of Columbia and in 17 states with different time zones: Alabama, Delaware, Florida, New Hampshire, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana , Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Wyoming, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan, these last three, “hinge” states.
An hour later, at 13:00 GMT, the centers will open in ten other states with different time zones: Arizona, Iowa, Minnesota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin.
Half an hour later the centers will open in Arkansas, and at 2:00 p.m. GMT they will do so in six other states (Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah).
The last to open will be California and Idaho, at 15:00 GMT, followed by Washington and Alaska at 16:00 GMT and finally Hawaii at 17:00 GMT.
A very close contest
Polls show an especially tight race between Harris and Trump. Nationally, Harris maintains a slim lead of just over a percentage point with 48% support to Trump’s 46.8%, according to the website’s polling average FiveThirtyEight.
However, Americans do not decide by popular vote who will be their next president, but rather they designate a number of electors in each state who make up the Electoral College and who are in charge of choosing the next tenant of the White House.
The Electoral College has 538 delegates and, to win, Trump or Harris need at least a majority of 270.
Most states already know whether they will go for Harris or Trump, so the elections will be decided in only seven key states, where the polls also reflect a very tight race: Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania , Arizona and Nevada.
244 million called to the polls
Some 244 million Americans are called to the polls in these elections. Of them, 80 million have already exercised their right to vote in advance, both at the polls and by mail, according to the University of Florida count, a reference in this regard.
In addition to the president, Americans will elect all 435 members of the House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate today.
They will also vote for several governors and numerous mayors, as well as state legislatures, and will decide on citizen initiatives, including proposals to protect abortion or tighten restrictions on that right in ten states.
Trump has already been elected… in Thailand
The morning’s anecdote is far from the United States, in Thailand, where the baby hippopotamus Moo Deng, who has become a star on social networks, predicted this Tuesday that the Republican candidate, Trump, will win in the presidential elections.
While electoral polls in the United States give very close results, Moo Deng, who lives in the Khao Kheow zoo – about 110 kilometers east of Bangkok – opted for the former president by choosing a pumpkin full of fruit with the name Trump carved, instead of a similar delicacy, with the name of the current vice president, Harris.
Video capture of the baby hippopotamus Moo Deng, choosing the pumpkin with Donald Trump’s name and predicting his victory in the 5N.
The animal, famous for its adorable face and friendly nature, left the pond where it was and approached Trump’s pumpkin determinedly to begin gobbling up the food, according to the video posted on the zoo’s social networks.
For her part, Moo Deng’s mother (whose name translates from Thai as Jumping Pig) opted for Harris.
Moo Deng, a 4-month-old female pygmy hippopotamus, has become an internet sensation, where her fame crosses borders and is reflected in the form of emoticons on social networks, in addition to having her line of products promoted by the zoo.
While the reliability of these predictions is unfounded, other animals have previously become famous for their abilities in predicting outcomes. One of the most famous was Paul the octopus, who was right in 2010 that Spain would win the World Cup held in South Africa.
Source: www.huffingtonpost.es
