Polls have opened in the US election 2024 after a heated presidential campaign.
Voting has begun as polls opened in more states.
Earlier, polls opened in Vermont and New Hampshire.
The first votes cast on Election Day were evenly split, with three for Donald Trump and three for Kamala Harris.
The tiny New Hampshire resort town of Dixville Notch has a tradition dating back to 1960 of being the first in the nation to complete in-person voting.
The town’s six voters began casting their ballots on the stroke of midnight and the vote count was complete 15 minutes later.
Polls have also opened in other states such as Connecticut, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, New Jersey, New York and Virginia.
Long lines of people queued to cast their vote outside the precinct housed at a Loyal Order of the Moose Lodge, in Wilmington, North Carolina, which opened at 6:30 a.m. EST.
When it opened, 30 to 40 people were in line, and the crowd has grown since.
Elsewhere, at the Gwinnett County Voter Registrations & Elections office in Lawrenceville, Georgia, a line of people waited to hand deliver absentee ballots.
This is also the area where poll watchers check in to get their credentials.
North Carolina is one of seven battleground states and is seen as a bellwether as to how other states may vote, as results tend to be projected quite early here.
This is a state that typically votes for a Republican President.
Barak Obama was the last Democrat to win it in 2008 and before him was Jimmy Carter back in 1967.
However, the state has also most often voted for a Democratic Governor, so there’s a mix.
The cities of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill are heavily Democrat but the surrounding areas are mainly Republican.
There has been a record number of early votes – more than half of the population. Those areas that were hit by Hurricane Helene were the ones that turned up the most in early voting.
Control Of US Congress At Stake
The presidential election is not the only vote being cast today.
There are local and statewide races. There are also 469 pivotal Federal, Washington-based seats at stake for US Congress.
The upper chamber of Congress; the US Senate, is comprised of 100 senators, two from each US state. Senators hold six-year terms and in 2024, 34 of those 100 seats are up for election.
The lower chamber of Congress; the House of Representatives, is comprised of 435 congressmen and congresswomen elected on two-year terms. That means that the entirety of the House is up for election today.
Currently, the US Senate is narrowly controlled by the Democrats, 51-49 while the House is narrowly controlled by the Republicans, 220-212.
Based on current polling, partisan control of the two chambers could flip. This means Republicans hold a greater than 60% chance of winning Congress’s upper chamber.
Republicans are expected to hold 51-52 of the 100 seats in Senate following this week’s election, if results follow the polling.
The House of Representatives, meanwhile, is trending toward the Democrats.
Latest projections show the Democrats holding a greater than 70% chance of controlling the House.
By those same metrics, Democrats are projected to win 222 seats to 213 for the Republicans.
The outcome will play an important role in determining how easily the winner of the presidential election will govern until the next congressional elections in 2026.
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