Dixville Notch splits first US Election Day vote 3-3

In a presidential election that couldnrsquot be closer it seemed fitting that the first votes cast on the Election Day were evenly split with three for Donald Trump and three for Kamala HarrisKamala Harris supporters who came from US participate in puja in Harrisrsquos ancestral village in Tamil Nadu PicPTIThe tiny New Hampshire resort town Dixville Notch has a tradition that dates back to1960 for being the first in the nation to complete inperson votingAfter a rousing accordion version of the national anthem the townrsquos six voters began casting their ballots at the stroke of midnight and the vote count was complete 15 minutes laterResidents of Dixville Notch cast their ballots kicking off US election at midnight on Nov 5538Total electors who are appointed by the parties and are almost always party officials or supportersHarris and Trump tie 3 to 3 in Dixville Notch PicsAFPHow the US votesHow are votes castIn the US no one is required by law to cast a vote The US does not have a system of online voting Voters are assigned polling locations within each district Voters enter private polling booths to fill out their ballotsHandmarked ballotsMost voters in the US vote with handmarked paper ballots Typically voters fill in an oval or square next to their preferred candidatersquos name Nearly 70 per cent of registered voters live in jurisdictions that use handmarked paper ballotsBallotmarking devicesSome jurisdictions provide ballot marking devices BMDs that allow voters to cast their votes on a digital device The device then produces a paper record of the vote About 25 per cent of registered voters use BMDsDirect recording electronic votingA small number of voters cast their votes using a direct recording electronic DRE voting system with which voters press a button or touchscreen to cast their votes which then go directly into the computer system Some DRE systems are connected to a Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail printer which produces a paper record of each vote that the voters can confirm before it is recorded in the computer Five per cent of registered voters live in jurisdictions that use DREs for all votersHow many people have already votedAll US states allow voters to cast their ballots before Election Day Mailin ballots are the most common method of early voting All except three states also allow inperson voting before Election Day In Alabama early voting started on September 11 as the state distributed mailin ballots As of Sunday 77317453 people in the US had already cast their votesHow does vote count workIn the US there is no federal system of counting votes and the vote count is left to the states Handmarked paper ballots and ballots marked by BMDs are typically counted using optical scanners and then tabulated digitally to obtain a final tally Different states have different methods of recounting and verifying the final count States have until December 11 to certify their election resultsWhat happens nextThe president is not elected directly by the popular vote but instead by the Electoral College Under this system each state has the same number of electors in the Electoral College as its number of seats in the US House of Representatives and Senate The US has a total of 538 electors who are appointed by the parties and are almost always party officials or supporters To win a candidate needs 270 Electoral College votes These electors will meet on December 17 this year to cast the vote for president and vice president All states except two operate a winnertakesall system in choosing their electors meaning all their Electoral College votes go to whichever candidate wins the most votes77317453 As of Sunday people in the US had already cast their votesCandidatesrsquo names are seen on part of a mailin election ballot in New York PicPTIWhat if therersquos a tieIn the highly unlikely but not impossible event of a tiemdash269 electoral votes eachmdashthe US House of Representatives would decide next president in what is known as contingent election Each statersquos delegation in the lower chamber of Congress would cast one vote A candidate must receive a majority of those votes to winTrump very narrow favourite Political scientistProminent American political scientist Ian Bremmer has said that no result would surprise him in this close contest though he views Trump as the ldquovery narrow favouriterdquo He further highlighted that some polls have shown Trump ldquosurprisingly weakrdquo in Republicanleaning states adding that the minds of undecided voters and turnout operations by the two parties might eventually play the deciding role in the results Bremmer is the president and founder of Eurasia Group a geopolitical risk advisory firm and GZERO Media a company providing intelligent coverage of international affairs Bremmer said ldquoWe view Trump as the very narrow favorite in this race but this is a lowconviction view reflecting the closeness of polling and polls over the weekend that showed him surprisingly weak in Republicanleaning statesrdquoThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever