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      After wild election, Americans endure night of agony awaiting results

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      After months of angst and waiting, at the end of an election ride crazier than any in memory, after the assassination attempts and the bloodied ear, Joe Biden’s shock departure and Kamala Harris’s stunning arrival, after the childless cat ladies and the Springfield, Ohio, culinary dogs, after all the vitriol and the gathering sense of doom – at last, it was show time.Finally, tens of millions of anxious voters were done with the wildest campaign in their lifetimes and found themselves in that next stage of exquisite suffering that is the American way of democracy: the TV election night bubble.At least it was soothing to hear cable news rivals – as starkly divided as the presidential candidates they cover – find common ground as they opened proceedings.“It’s election night in America, in one of the closest and most consequential presidential races ever,” proclaimed CNN. “This is it, America! It’s time for you to decide the most unprecedented election of our times,” declared Fox News.View image in fullscreenAs is traditional with US elections, the news of the first polls to close was as dramatic as watching paint dry. The first-in-the-nation states to wrap up voting were Indiana and Kentucky, both reliably in Trump’s bag.At 7pm on the east coast the temperature began to rise, with polls closing in six states that control 60 of the 270 electoral college votes needed to win the White House.The first of the Big Seven battleground states to close its polling stations was Georgia.More than 5 million Georgians are projected to have voted, exceeding 70% turnout in what is turning out to be an exceptionally passion-filled race. Early exit polls from Georgia gave some troubling food for thought for the Harris campaign.View image in fullscreenWhile the vice-president did well with Black and young voters, edging up her margins on Biden’s four years ago, the exit polls recorded a sharp swing among independent voters, who make up 31% of the Georgia electorate.Trump was recorded in the exit polls to be up by 54% to Harris’s 30% among these voters – an eye-popping contrast to 2020, when Biden was favoured by 9% over Trump among independents. It was an early, and isolated, finding – how it pans out through the hours ahead could prove instructive.North Carolina, a state that has only gone Democratic in presidential races twice since 1976, is another of the battleground which both candidates have frantically sought and a must win for Trump.And North Carolina did become the first of the contested battlegrounds to be called, while votes in six other swing states were still being counted, as a win for Trump.As early counts came in, there were signs of Trump also narrowly edging ahead in key counties in Georgia. Should that razor-thin lead firm up, it would leave Harris having to win all three of the all-important Rust belt “blue wall” states – Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin – to keep her hopes alive.View image in fullscreenRelatively early in the evening, the North Carolina governor’s race was called for the Democrat, Josh Stein, over the embattled Republican lieutenant governor Mark Robinson, who CNN has linked to an online persona describing himself as a “black NAZI!”.Robinson has denied the allegations. But the fear in the Trump camp is that his fall from grace may harm the former president’s chances.As the night wore on, the Trump team expressed bullishness on their chances. Some had begun to talk about winning all three of the blue wall states – a phenomenon which, if it happened, would repeat how Trump tore down the wall in 2016.Florida continued its relentless march to the ultra-right on election night. As recently as 2016, Florida was seen as one of the pre-eminent battleground states.How different the Sunshine state looked on Tuesday, its 30 electoral college votes passing seemingly effortlessly to Trump. For the first time since 1988, the Miami region backed the Republican candidate.That fits the increasingly intense love affair between Trump and Cuban Americans in southern Florida. Whether it speaks of a wider drift of Latino voters from the Democratic party will be closely interrogated in coming days.Exit polls from Pennsylvania and Michigan both pointed to a similarly dramatic shift in the Hispanic vote towards Trump compared with four years ago, despite the controversy that erupted over the “island of garbage” remark made by a Trump surrogate at his Madison Square Garden rally.View image in fullscreenFlorida, one of 10 states with abortion rights on their ballot, also rejected an amendment that would have secured the right to an abortion up to fetal viability. That leaves standing the current state law, in which abortions are banned after six weeks, a point at which many women are not even aware they are pregnant.As the first polls closed on the eastern seaboard, Trump and Harris retreated into their caves to await the coming storm. Both professed to have boundless confidence, though upon what basis was left to the imagination.Trump, who voted in Palm Beach, Florida, near his Mar-a-Lago home-cum-club, had limped towards the finishing line, a final blitz of rallies across multiple battleground states leaving him sounding hoarse and looking haggard. No wonder – he has been at it for the past 721 days since he announced his presidential run, making Harris’s 92-day sprint seem like a cake-walk.View image in fullscreenEven as he concluded his pitch for the presidency, Trump watered the seeds of potential election denial that he has planted in a chilling repetition of 2020. “If it’s a fair election, I’d be the first one to acknowledge it,” he told reporters as he emerged from the polling station, that “if” reverberating ominously in the air.Harris spent election day at the Naval Observatory, the vice-president’s residence in Washington, enjoying a few hours out of the public glare until Tuesday night, when she was poised to deliver remarks at Howard University, her alma mater, in the same city.As they awaited the people’s will, each candidate nursed their unique claim to history-in-the-making. Harris, 60, was bidding to be the first woman and woman of colour to occupy the Oval Office.Trump, at 78, would be the oldest president in the same space. He would also be the first defeated president in 132 years to re-enter the White House, not to mention that most inconvenient truth – that he would be the first convicted felon to hold the most powerful job on earth.The first tentative clues as to where the country might be headed were gleaned shortly after 5pm eastern time when an initial flurry of national exit poll data gave pundits something to talk about. Yet, typically for this most infuriatingly hard-to-read election cycle, there was plenty of red meat for both sides to chew on.View image in fullscreenFor Harris and her cohort of millions of terrified Americans, convinced that a second Trump presidency would usher in an era of authoritarian rule, there was the affirming result that voters placed “democracy” at the top of their list of concerns. At 35%, the category came in above even that perennial electoral priority, the economy, stupid (on 31%).Abortion came in third at 14% – a warning sign for Trump, having orchestrated the abolition of the right to an abortion in Roe v Wade. Meanwhile, immigration, the issue that above all others Trump has hammered on the campaign trail for months, with his hordes of murdering, drug dealing “illegals” swamping the country, came in a lackluster fourth on 11%.The Harris campaign will also have been heartened by a gaping gender gap revealed by exit polls, with the vice-president winning women by a whopping 12 points (55% to 43%). Trump was conversely ahead with men by nine points, but the telling difference is that women tend to vote in slightly larger proportions.Democracy, abortion, the relatively low standing of immigration, gender gap. So game over?Not so fast.Over in Trumpworld, there were plenty of other contrasting reasons to be cheerful. Though the economy came in second in the list of voters’ issues, the figures beneath the headline were not good for Harris given her role as vice-president in the Biden administration.View image in fullscreenAsked how they rated the state of the US economy, two-thirds of voters in the exit poll said not so good or poor. Three-quarters said they had experienced moderate or severe hardship from inflation.Most punishingly for the Democratic candidate, asked whether voters felt better or worse off than four years ago – the exact same question with which Trump began every one of his Make Aamerica great again (Maga) rallies – 45% said worse off, with only 24% better off and 30% no change.As a long night got into its stride, firm indications of the future that lies ahead remained elusive. That left plenty of room for anxieties to fester about what comes next.At 4.39pm on election day, before any state had closed its polling stations, Trump began cranking up his election denial playbook, just as he had done in 2020. “A lot of talk about massive CHEATING in Philadelphia,” he screeched on his platform Truth Social, alluding to a false claim that fake ballots had been distributed in the sate. “Law enforcement coming!!!”“There is absolutely no truth to this allegation,” a Philadelphia election official, Seth Bluestein, promptly retorted.Both sides have armies of lawyers at the ready, in anticipation of legal challenges on and after election day. And law enforcement agencies nationwide are on high alert for potential violence.It all points to much more angst and waiting ahead for beleaguered American voters – whatever, and whenever we know, the outcome.Maanvi Singh contributed reportingRead more of the Guardian’s 2024 US election coverage

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      Black voters gather at DC hotspots to await results: ‘It’s a historic moment’

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      On Tuesday evening, Black voters milled about Washington DC as they awaited election results. Most voters had cast ballots for Kamala Harris and were excited that a Black woman might become president for the first time. It was a milestone that some didn’t believe that they would witness in their lifetimes.At a watch party at Busboys and Poets, a cultural hub and restaurant, the mood was similar to a New Year’s Eve celebration, with people listening to television pundits discuss the election and socializing with family and friends.View image in fullscreenFor Latoiya Bates, a 49-year-old Georgia resident, it was important to be among Black community on election night. Casting her ballot for Harris was an emotional moment for her. She voted with tears in her eyes and said she was excited due to Harris’s support of reproductive rights and democracy. “It’s a historic moment.”“There’s been so much change in the world,” Bates said, acknowledging the political power of Black women who she said had started a movement. “When she wins, part of her speech should be: ‘We did it. We made America great again.’”Others around the city said that they were concerned about the potential for political violence if Donald Trump loses the election, referencing the January 6 insurrection. “I don’t think that people are going quietly into the night and I also don’t think that it will be a smooth transition,” Dionna La’Fay said outside the White House at Lafayette Square. A 36-year-old Michigan resident who is moving to DC, La’Fay said that she went to the National Museum of African American History and Culture and tried to ground herself in the knowledge of Black resilience throughout the day. While she expects violence, she didn’t see it as any different than other tribulations that Black Americans have endured throughout history: “I am not afraid.”View image in fullscreenBlack voters, who account for 14% of the electorate, are expected to vote for Harris in droves. In a survey of Black Americans in all 50 states by the thinktank Black Futures Lab, 71% of respondents said that they trusted Harris and distrusted Trump, compared with 5% who said the opposite. According to a Black Voter Project survey of more than 1,000 Black Americans, Black support for Harris is at 84%, compared with 13% for Trump.The scene outside Lafayette Square in the early evening was cacophonous, with people blasting music and making speeches. One person strummed an acoustic guitar behind pro-Harris signs, while another person biked around blaring rock music as they hauled a small trailer with Trump signs behind them. Metal fencing surrounded the square in anticipation of post-election unrest.View image in fullscreenMamadou, a 31-year-old Washington DC resident from Guinea, walked around the square with friends. He said that he didn’t vote at all because “I don’t know much about that lady and I didn’t want to vote for someone I don’t know at all”. He also didn’t want to vote for Trump for fear of his draconian immigration policies. Otherwise, Mamadou said, he was supportive of Trump while he was in office, because he believes that Trump “loves the country”.Samson Meche, a 35-year-old biotech research associate, traveled to DC from San Diego to watch the election results. He had cast a mail-in ballot for Harris several weeks ago because he believes that she’s more empathetic than Trump, whom he called a “salesman”. Meche is hopeful that Harris will fight for Palestinian liberation in the future and will soon help end Israel’s war on Gaza, he said. “She’s looking out for me,” Meche said. “Since she is one of us, she’s more of the normal social status. She went from the middle class to a more educated person and she can relate to us better than someone who thinks of himself as an elite.”View image in fullscreenLater in the evening, at the Busboys and Poets watch party, Josh Johnson, a Howard alumnus, felt confident that Harris, a fellow alumna, would win. “It’s exciting to see how far she’s come,” Johnson said. He said that he cast a ballot for Harris because “I’m standing up for my rights as an American. It’s not just about me, it’s about the people I care about.”View image in fullscreenJohnson’s partner, Jackson Burnett, also voted for Harris because he supports her policies and is excited to see what she does for the country. “She’s very much for the people, and for the American population, no matter what race, gender,” Burnett said. He also wanted to be among community on election night to celebrate with everyone, Burnett added, “whether good or bad, just making sure that we come together … and figure out next steps”.“I really hope that after this election,” Johnson said, “that we can move forward to not have the same type of [hateful] rhetoric.”Read more of the Guardian’s 2024 US election coverage

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      A polarized America goes to the polls: ‘I’m in a house divided’

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      America had previously always been “somebody else’s country,” said Christopher La Rose, a health researcher, as he waited just before 7am in Pine Lake, a village that’s too small for postal delivery just outside of Atlanta, Georgia.But that changed recently for La Rose, who is of Guyanese descent, when he became an American citizen. He had the jitters on Monday night, before using his first-ever vote in a US election to back Kamala Harris.View image in fullscreen“I am sincerely concerned about the way that the country could devolve if the other chap got into office,” La Rose said. “I’m concerned about the political party that has coalesced around him, and how they have, in my mind, lost their way, and I’m voting to protect my kids.”Georgia is one of the seven swing states where election results are close enough to fight over and voters in all of those states say they definitely feel fought over.At a busy polling place in Scottsdale, Arizona, the conservative youth organization Turning Point brought out a bright pink party bus adorned with “Trump train” signs, which they will use to take voters to other Scottsdale polling places if the lines become too long. The group also put up signs imploring voters to stay put: “stay in line, don’t leave your country behind,” one sign said.View image in fullscreenA man was also gathering signatures for America Pac, Elon Musk’s group that is paying circulators to sign up other people who could win a $1m prize. “Elon Musk needs our help,” the man told one voter.Musk’s controversial effort to drive turnout is late to the race. In many swing states, most people who are going to vote have already done so. More than 80 million people cast ballots before election day across the country, with 4 million in Georgia alone – 80% of Georgia’s 2020 vote total.Georgia’s in-person votes will be counted and announced about an hour after polls close at 7pmlocal time, elections officials said last week. Georgia officials have meticulously tried to avoid giving election integrity denialists something to wrap a grievance around this year. The election interference attempts of 2020 still resonate.View image in fullscreenGabriel Sterling, election operations chief for Georgia’s secretary of state, at midday on Tuesday that all polling locations were working smoothly, with an average wait – if there is a wait – of two minutes and an average check-in time of 49 seconds.Cyndi Keen, a lifelong Republican, voted a straight Republican ticket on Tuesday. “When it comes down to looking at having a better life for my children, for my grandkids and for myself, I like the Republican policies better,” she said. She thought the results will be close – and her household had voted for different candidates. “I’m in a house divided, my sweetie went the other way. He’s straight Republican but he voted for Harris.”View image in fullscreenCathy Garcia, an activist with the Working Families party from Santa Fe, New Mexico, flew to Atlanta this week. Tuesday morning with eight hours to go, she was beating on doors in Atlanta’s south-eastern suburbs, looking to put the last voter in line. She was accompanied by a far-flung team visiting from safe Democratic states – Massachusetts, California, New York – putting in work where it might count the most.They wrestled with the cellphone app showing them where to find clusters of registered voters who had not yet voted. The apartment complex in south DeKalb county gave them some density to work with, but low-income people tend to be more transient … and less likely to be at home in the middle of the day.Their effort demonstrates the effort the campaigns are making to get every last voter they can to a poll.Kamala Harris was spending the day on Tuesday at the Naval Observatory, the vice-president’s residence in Washington. The public is not expected to see the Democratic nominee until Tuesday night, where she is poised to deliver remarks at Howard University, her alma mater, in Washington DC. But she has been blitzing radio stations with calls across the country in a last-effort push for votes.Trump has ratcheted up outrage in the waning days of the election, wrapping himself and Republican voters in the politics of extreme grievance over descriptions of himself and his supporters as “garbage”, Nazis and fascists. And yet, his comments at rallies have included increasingly strident attacks on undocumented people, who he has called “animals” and “monsters”, and personal attacks on Harris.Trump partisans have cheered him on and adopted his tone.“He’s a big daddy. He’ll smack you if you’re an asshole,” said Joanne Kelchner, 77, a retiree from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, who voted for Trump had harsh words for Harris. “Why is she not proud of her Brahmin heritage?” Kelchner asked. “I mean the elite class of India and pretending that she’s not Black, whatever … God bless us all.”View image in fullscreenBut partisan rancor abounds.“Donald Trump is crazy. I mean, he’s a lunatic and the people I think that vote for him are lunatics because he is crazy,” said Jeannie Strickland, a retiree from Georgia. “He’s trying to get people revved up to fight for him. I think if they put his butt in jail, like they should have done at least two years ago, it might calm him down a little bit, but they don’t do anything to him. I’m scared he’s going to win, and I might have to find an island somewhere and go live somewhere else, because he likes Hitler, and he liked the things Hitler did.”View image in fullscreenBoth sides have armies of lawyers in anticipation of legal challenges on and after election day. And law enforcement agencies nationwide are on high alert for potential violence.Tensions briefly flared outside a polling site in a library in downtown Phoenix, where a group of men decked out in American flag T-shirts had gathered to wave “Union Yes for Harris Walz” signs. As another man in a truck drove past, he hollered at the men: “Fuck you!”Angel Torres Pina, a 21-year-old who serves in the military and who voted for the first time on Tuesday, wanted politics to become less divisive and fear-based. He was somewhat nervous about voting at the library at all. “Am I making the right decisions? Am I making the wrong decisions? Are people gonna bad-talk about me because I voted for what I believe in?” said Torres Pina, an independent who voted for Harris. “I keep seeing on the news about these riots, these protests, these chaos, and it makes me a bit scared for if I’m voting right or wrong.”While many Americans have described how stressful this election is, Dawn Alter, a 50-year-old sales representative from New Berlin, Wisconsin, was in good spirits on Tuesday morning. Alter was supporting Harris, and thought the vice-president stood a chance in Wisconsin – a key swing state.Alter believes Trump has shed support here since 2020, and viewed herself as evidence: she abandoned Trump after supporting the former president in 2020, saying she was tired of the division and “negativity” he has sowed.“It’s a lot of discord, there’s too much misinformation,” said Alter. “There needs to be change and unity – I think those are the two biggest things for me.”In 2016, Wisconsin voters elected Donald Trump by less than a percentage point, and in 2020, the state flipped for Joe Biden by a similarly narrow margin. Polling suggests the presidential race in Wisconsin is essentially a toss-up, and voters were acutely aware of the uncertainty they face.View image in fullscreenMatt Steigerwald, a college lecturer from Wisconsin, said he was “cautiously optimistic”, adding: “Wisconsin is probably going to be pretty tight.” Steigerwald, who joked that he was a “bleeding-heart liberal”, said that even as a left-of-center voter, he found Trump “especially abhorrent”.“I just don’t know how you can support somebody who’s said and done so many awful things, who treats women so poorly, who treats people of different races so poorly – he’s just an awful human being from my perspective,” said Steigerwald. Additional reporting by Carter Sherman, Alice Herman, Sam Levine and Rachael LeingangRead more of the Guardian’s 2024 US election coverage

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