Little is certain at the outset of Election Day 2020. Votes are being cast. Ballots are being tallied. And Americans are on watch.
It’s Election Day. Polling places across the country are open, and we see already long lines of people waiting to cast their ballots. A large turnout is expected given that both campaigns have labeled this election a matter of life or death.
Vote like your freedoms, your livelihood, and our future depends on it… Because they do! pic.twitter.com/QNQKtaBzzC
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 3, 2020
The excitement is palpable as Americans get out to voice their final say. Today, President Trump will stay in the White House, around which new walls were set up last night in anticipation of the riots.
Hillary Clinton has tweeted already stating that: “The vote you help turn out today could be the vote that makes the difference”, which indicates that Joe Biden’s vote is riding on people showing up in high numbers in person at the polls.
Conservative voters across the world are, by default, more disciplined when it comes to showing up, rain or shine, and the Biden campaign has been focused largely on mail-in early votes due to their messaging around the pandemic.
It comes down to a very simple act that, in practice, is not always that simple.
As the morning unfolds, I am getting ready to go to the White House where I will be working day and night for what is shaping up to be a very intense twenty-four hours.
Will there be a transition of power?
No one knows yet how the election will turn out. In my conversations with experienced reporters, who, due to the nature of the work, have good instincts to predict the election outcome, I find that this time no one is willing to place their bets on a winner.
Since the beginning, I have said that I’ve expected a tight election, even when the polls were showing a large blow out in favor of Joe Biden.
Over 100 million people have already voted. As the first results come in tonight, we will start to get an idea of the general trend. Unless some big difference between the two in the trend immediately becomes evident, no one will be able to determine tonight the ultimate winner of the election. This will be reliant ultimately on proportions of mail-in vs in-person voting across the two predominant parties.
GOP in Philadelphia reported this morning that voting machines are down in Westmoreland and other Philadelphia counties which are “opposite sides of the state, both pro-Trump strongholds”.
REPORT: Voting machines down in Westmoreland and Philadelphia Counties. Opposite sides of the state, both pro-Trump strongholds. #PAForTrump
— Philly GOP (@PhillyGOP) November 3, 2020
Joe Biden is already out in Pennsylvania making his last pitch to voters, and President Trump is on his way to the RNC annex in Virginia to thank the campaign staffers.
At 10 am, Melania Trump entered the Morton and Barbara Mandel Recreation Center in Palm Beach to vote. She was the only person not wearing a mask. She waved and smiled at reporters.
She left, flanked by the Palm Beach supervisor of elections, Wendy Sartory Link. She said she was feeling “great.” Asked why she did not vote with her husband last week, she said, “It’s Election Day, so I wanted to come here to vote today for the election.”
She wore a beige sleeveless dress.
With the nation divided, the election wave is coming. Whether it will be a red or blue one we will soon find out.