US election 2020: Trump or Biden? Americans vote to choose next Prez

Voters line up outside Frank McCourt High School on Election Day, on New York's Upper West Side, on Tuesday. Pic/AP

After a campaign marked by rancour and fear, Americans on Tuesday decide between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden, selecting a leader to steer a nation battered by a surging pandemic that has killed more than 2,31,000 people, cost millions their jobs and reshaped daily life.

Nearly 100 million Americans voted early, and now it falls to Election Day voters to finish the job, ending a campaign that was upended by the coronavirus and defined by tensions over who could best address it. Each candidate declared the other fundamentally unfit to lead a nation grappling with COVID-19 and facing foundational questions about racial justice and economic fairness.

Workers with Baguer Construction LLC board up a Walgreens on U Street NW. File pic/AP

Biden entered Election Day with multiple paths to victory while Trump, playing catch-up in a number of battleground states, had a narrower but still feasible road to clinch 270 Electoral College votes. Control of the Senate was at stake, too: Democrats needed to net three seats if Biden captured the White House to gain control of all of Washington for the first time in a decade. The House was expected to remain under Democratic control.

Voters brave virus

Voters braved long lines and the threat of the virus to cast ballots as they chose between two starkly different visions of America for the next four years. The record-setting early vote - and legal skirmishing over how it will be counted - drew unsupported allegations of fraud from Trump, who refused to guarantee he would honour the election's result.

At least 98.8 million people voted before Election Day, about 71 percent of the nearly 139 million ballots cast during the 2016 presidential election, according to data collected by The Associated Press. Given that a few states, including Texas, had already exceeded their total 2016 vote count, experts were predicting record turnout this year.

Problems occur every election, and Tuesday was no different. There were long lines early in the day and sporadic reports of polling places opening late and equipment issues. This was all expected given past experience, the decentralised nature of voting in the US and last-minute changes due to the pandemic. Among those braving the polls were voters who may have wanted to vote by mail but waited too long to request a ballot or those who didn't receive their ballots in time.

Fearing poll unrest, US businesses shield shops

Judging by the plywood, it's shaping up to be an Election Day like no other. In Washington, workers on Monday boarded up dozens of businesses. In New York City, businesses from Macy's flagship store to high-end shops in Manhattan had already covered their windows. "We have to be ready," said Ali Khan 66, who works at a Washington liquor store where thousands of dollars in merchandise was stolen in June protests. "They smashed the windows and just walked out with everything."

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