Polls close in swing states as America chooses between Harris or Trump

(AP) — A divided America weighed a stark choice for the nation's future Tuesday as a presidential campaign marked by upheaval and rancour approached its finale.

Voters were deciding whether to send Republican Donald Trump back to the White House or make Vice President Kamala Harris the first female president.

Polls closed Tuesday evening in Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina, some of the closely fought battlegrounds expected to decide the election, along with two dozen other states. On Election Day, tens of millions of Americans added their ballots to the 84 million cast early as they chose between two candidates with drastically different temperaments and visions for the country.

Trump won Florida, a one-time battleground that has shifted heavily to Republicans in recent elections. He also notched early wins in reliably Republican states including Kentucky, Tennessee and Indiana, while Harris took Democratic strongholds like Vermont, Massachusetts and Maryland.

The economy and immigration are the top issues facing the country, voters said, but the future of democracy was also a leading motivator for many Americans casting a ballot in Tuesday's presidential election. AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of more than 110,000 voters nationwide, found a country mired in negativity and desperate for change.

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Those casting Election Day ballots mostly encountered a smooth process, with isolated reports of hiccups that regularly happen, including long lines, technical issues and ballot printing errors.

Harris has promised to work across the aisle to tackle economic worries and other issues without radically departing from the course set by President Joe Biden. Trump has vowed to replace thousands of federal workers with loyalists, impose sweeping tariffs on allies and foes alike, and stage the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.

Harris and Trump entered Election Day focused on seven swing states, five of them carried by Trump in 2016 before they flipped to Biden in 2020: the “blue wall” of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin as well as Arizona and Georgia. Nevada and North Carolina, which Democrats and Republicans respectively carried in the last two elections, also were closely contested.

Trump voted in Palm Beach, Florida, near his Mar-a-Lago club, and said afterward that he was feeling “very confident.”

Harris, the Democratic vice president, did phone interviews with radio stations in the battleground states, then visited Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington carrying a box of Doritos — her go-to snack.

“This truly represents the best of who we are,” Harris told a room of cheering staffers. She was handed a cellphone by supporters doing phone banking, and when asked by reporters how she was feeling, the vice president held up a phone and responded, “Gotta talk to voters.”

The closeness of the race and the number of states in play raised the likelihood that, once again, a victor might not be known on election night.

Trump said Tuesday that he had no plans to tell his supporters to refrain from violence if Harris wins, because they “are not violent people.” His angry supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after Trump tried to overturn his loss in 2020. Asked Tuesday about accepting the 2024 race's results, he said, “If it's a fair election, I'd be the first one to acknowledge it.” He visited a nearby campaign office to thank staffers before a party at a nearby convention centre.

After her DNC stop, Harris planned to attend a party at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington.