The polls are open in the United States and Election Day 2020 has begun with largely good weather, although there are pockets of blustery snow showers in the northern parts of the country.
Americans are voting for president, of course, but also are out in force to elect their members of Congress and other representatives in state and local races as well.
In many cases, those votes have already been cast. Thanks to mail-in voting and “early voting” – a new privilege due to the COVID-19 pandemic – 100 million ballots have already been turned in, according to a survey conducted by Edison Research, CNN and Catalist.
In accordance with longstanding tradition, the first in-person voting of Election Day 2020 took place in the tiny town of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire. The first results were made public shortly after midnight Tuesday, and for the second time running, the town voted to support the Democratic ticket. Although Dixville Notch was split on its decision to support Hillary Clinton back in 2016, this time the entire town voted unanimously, 5-0, to support Joe Biden’s bid for the White House.
In New York City and in some other places around the US, merchants have boarded up their store windows as if a Category 5 hurricane is about to hit the area. There have been reports that riots and other violence might be ignited in the wake of a Trump victory at the polls.
They may not be wrong. The last time Donald J. Trump won the election, it took months before members of the Democratic Party and their children were reconciled to the results.
https://reason.com/2016/11/11/upenn-created-a-post-election-safe-space/
In fact some were NEVER reconciled to accepting those results. In the halls of academia, where one might expect professors and educators to provide a positive and healthy example to their students, instead they were handing out crayons and coloring sheets, encouraging students to hug puppies and to sip hot chocolate to adjust to their ‘fears’ and ‘grief.’
The polls will close at various times in different parts of the country, ranging from 7:30 pm to 10:00 pm, depending on where in America you live. In addition to voting in person, various states have set up special polling sites to allow voters to drop off their early voting ballots, and the mail-in ballots are still arriving in some states as well.
All of this means the final tally to name the January 2021 occupant of the Oval Office may not be completed for up to a week, unless there is a completely decisive victory by one or the other candidates at the end of the night on Election Day.
