Elections in the United States: Anxiety runs through the …

From Washington DC

The United States is already voting to choose who will be president from January 2021, if Donald Trump will continue for another four years or if it will be Democrat Joseph Biden’s turn. Polling centers have opened very early, at 6 a.m. in some states, and will remain open in most cases until 8 p.m.

In Washington, the capital which has again begun to guard against the risk of riots on Wednesday, the vote was taking place calmly. Without a ban, the area around the centers is still littered with posters of local candidates and some in favor of Biden. In strongly democratic territory, it is rare to see references to the president.

After the end of its marathon campaign, Trump is following the development of the elections from the White House. The seat of the American executive is completely fenced and traffic is cut off in the neighboring streets. The District of Columbia, like states like Massachusetts and Illinois, is monitoring the situation closely. Shops and buildings barricaded in the capital, members of the National Guard on alert in several cities.

Trump spoke to Fox News early on, when they had just opened the tables on the east coast of the country. He was confident of winning and assured the polls did not reflect the true intention to vote. Currently, national polls show Biden around eight points ahead and also give him an advantage in some key states for the election.

In recent days, an Axios report said Trump was preparing to declare victory on election night. Today, the president told Fox News he will do it “when there is a victory, if there is a victory”, but he was also convinced of his eventual triumph.

Biden, for his part, encouraged early voting via messages on Twitter. “We can overcome these crises. We can take our country back. We can win this battle for the soul of the nation ”, published the Democratic candidate and shared a link with more information on polling stations.

The most recent reports indicate that 100 million people voted before election day. The challenge today for the Democratic and Republican parties is to get the missing voters out, especially in states where polls still show very close results.

To get, the Democratic campaign has a few final activities planned in critical states: Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina and Florida. The southern state is one of the most important tonight: its results should be known quickly, unlike other oscillating states. Showing a favorable result early in Florida is key for both games.

While in most cases the vote goes smoothly, in others the situation is different. Michigan State Attorney General Dana Nessel said on Twitter she was receiving “reports of multiple robocalls” in the Flint area, speaking of long lines and urging voters to vote tomorrow. “Obviously this is FALSE and it is an effort to suppress the vote. There are no long lines and today is the last day to vote, ”he said.

In an election marked by the effect of the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday released a protocol so that people with Covid-19 can still vote. “Voters have the right to vote whether they are sick or in quarantine,” the authority said on its website.

The United States arrived on Election Day with more than 9 million infections and more than 230,000 deaths from the coronavirus, a health crisis that has become one of the main issues of the campaign and the target of Biden’s criticism of the Trump administration.