US Presidential Election today : Voting And Counting

The United States will vote for its next President on today, November 3. However, more than 97 million Americans have already voted in mail-ins and early in-person voting, according to a tally by the US Elections Project at the University of Florida.

Voting by mail is high this election because of the coronavirus pandemic, posing manpower, technical and legal challenges across thousands of election jurisdictions, each with its own procedures and rules.

Latest opinion polls show a tight race between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Mr Biden, 77, is leading in the national polls and most of the battleground but President Donald Trump has insisted that they are wrong and he will repeat his upset victory of 2016.

Voting And Counting

Most states will begin polling at 6 am EST (4:30 pm SL Time November 3). Most polling stations on the East Coast will open at 6:00 am or 7:00 am (1100 or 1200 GMT) on Tuesday.

The counting will begin as soon as voting is over in a particular state. The results are also publicly announced.

This means that the East Coast starts counting while voting in the West may not have been completed. Officials in many states, such as Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania – all key states where the outcome is unpredictable – have said that counting the large numbers of mail-in votes could take at least another day and perhaps three days.