Voting for the presidential election is going to be held in America today. The world's oldest democratic country will vote today to elect its 47th president. There is a direct fight for the presidency between Donald Trump of the Republican Party and Kamala Harris of the Democratic Party.
Kamala Harris is currently the Vice President of the United States, while Donald Trump has been the President of the United States from 2017 to 2021. In this year's elections, about 7.5 crore or 37% voters have already voted through postal voting.
About 60% voters will be able to participate in the polls to be held today.
In 95% of US precincts, voting is done using ballot paper or ballot marking devices.
How will the votes be counted and when will the results be out?
Voting will end on November 5 at 7 pm US time (November 6 at 4:30 pm IST). After this the counting of votes will begin. Usually the result comes after 1 day of voting.
In the elections held in 2020, the results were declared after 4 days of voting. Indeed, due to covid 19, almost 60% voted by mail. Due to which the counting of votes took more time. This time the election results can come in 1 to 2 days.
At the time of counting, the results come early due to the greater margin of votes between the candidates. If there is a difference of more than 50 thousand votes between two candidates in a state and only 20 thousand votes remain to be counted, the leading candidate is declared the winner. This helps in getting results quickly.
If the margin of victory between the two is narrow, a recount will be conducted to confirm the results as per American law.
In case of recount, results may take longer.
Key issues in the presidential election
There are two major issues in the 2024 presidential election. These include immigration and abortion. Let's understand them one by one…
Immigration: Immigration, meaning the flow of immigrants into the country, has emerged as a major issue in the US election. From 2000-10, 14 million immigrants came to America. Among them, one million tourists have also taken American citizenship. Most of these were people from China, India, Mexico and the Philippines.
On the other hand, surveillance was increased along the 3200 km long Mexico-US border to prevent immigrants from entering the country illegally. A barrier was also installed here.
Republican candidate Donald Trump has also recently called immigrants monsters and animals. Trump has promised that after the election on November 5, he will bring freedom to the country. Immigrants who kill American citizens will be given the death penalty.
During Kamala Harris' tenure as vice president, Donald Trump has repeatedly besieged her on the issue of immigration.
Abortion: Abortion was easy and legal in America until the 1880s. However, in 1873 the U.S. Congress passed the Comstock Act, banning abortion drugs. By 1900, abortion was banned in almost all states.
Abortion can only be done when the pregnancy poses a threat to the life of the mother. In the 1960s, women in America began to agitate for their rights. In 1973, the Supreme Court legalized abortion in the United States in Roe v. Wade.
However, between then and 2017, more than 1,000 laws were passed to limit access to abortion. American women have demonstrated many times against this law and for the right to abortion.
Recently, on November 3, thousands of women protested for abortion rights in the capital, Washington DC.
Two parties dominated elections for 168 years
Elections were held for the first time in 1788-89 after the founding of America. George Washington became the President of America in this election. The Democratic-Republican Party came to power in 1800. This party remained in power for two decades.
After the Democratic-Republican split during the 1824 presidential election, the party split into two factions, the National Republicans and the Democrats. The National Republicans were renamed the Whigs. However, in 1854 another split occurred among the Whigs, leading to the formation of the Republican Party.
In 1856, for the first time, there was a contest for the presidency between the Republican and Democratic parties. From 1856 to 2020, 42 times in 168 years, the two parties have fought elections. Out of these 42 elections, the Republican Party has won 24 times while the Democrats have won 18 times.
However, out of the last 6 elections both the parties have won 3-3 elections.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
