Kamala Harris Becomes Favorite To Win White House On Election Day

By Deepak Arora

NEW YORK, Nov 5: US Vice President Kamala Harris has surprisingly become favourite as the polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight declared the Democratic contender the front-runner to win the White House on election day.

Both candidates, Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, have had razor-thin margins of victory in the contest, which has long been neck and neck.

For around two weeks, FiveThirtyEight listed Trump as their favorite contender to claim the White House. On Monday, it discovered that out of 100 simulations, Trump won 53 times while Harris won 47 times.

However, when an update was released on election day, Harris emerged as the clear favorite by winning 50 times out of 100 over Trump's 49.

Using the model, which takes into account economic, demographic, and polling data, FiveThirtyEight predicted Harris as winner on October 17, when she won 52 times out of 100, compared to Trump's 48 times out of 100.

Notably, the polling agency stated that the odds of there not being an Electoral College winner are fewer than one in a hundred.

Millions vote to pick between Harris and Trump

NEW YORK, Nov 5: Millions of Americans on Tuesday are voting in the bitterly fought, tightly contested 2024 presidential race between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris.

Over the next several hours, we will begin to see how each candidate has fared across crucial battleground states. Election officials across the country will begin counting ballots, with early in-person and mail-in votes expected to be tallied first in most states. Over 82 million people in the country took advantage of early voting to cast their ballots.

Nationally, there are a total of 538 electoral votes, or electors, meaning a candidate needs to secure 270 to win. In the 2020 elections, President Joe Biden won 306 electoral votes to defeat Trump, who could only manage to garner 232 electoral votes.

Besides that, the results of the US presidential elections will decide not only the next president but also which party controls the two chambers of Congress—the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Pollsters predict a closely contested race between Trump and Harris, with the outcome likely hinging on key swing states like Pennsylvania, Florida, and Wisconsin and others, where just a few thousand votes could tip the scales. This also means it could take some time before a winner could be projected.

Earlier on Monday, both Harris and Trump closed their campaign for the president while making their final pitch to voters in Pennsylvania – a state that could prove decisive in deciding who gets to the White House. While Harris focused on optimism about the future and did not mention Trump by name, the Republican nominee criticised his opponent at every turn.

The 2024 United States presidential election emerged as one of the most intense and unpredictable in recent history. From Trump’s courtroom conviction, a bullet grazing his ear, a dramatic debate that dashed incumbent President Joe Biden’s hopes of re-entering the White House to Kamala Harris's last-minute nomination, the campaign has been marked by unprecedented events that captured global attention and made headlines well beyond American borders.

Kamala Harris, who could become the first female president if elected, has pledged to address economic concerns and other pressing issues through bipartisan cooperation, aiming to stay largely aligned with the path set by President Joe Biden.

Trump has promised to replace thousands of federal workers with loyalists, impose sweeping tariffs on allies and foes alike, and stage the largest deportation operation in US history.

First result from US Hamlet place Harris, Trump in a tie

DIXVILLE NOTCH, Nov 5: Voters in the US hamlet of Dixville Notch launched Election Day in the first minutes of Tuesday with a tied vote, mirroring the incredibly close national polls in the White House race.

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump each got three ballots in the tiny community in the northeastern state of New Hampshire which for decades has kicked off Election Day at the stroke of midnight Monday -- hours before the rest of the country's polling stations open.

The Democratic vice president and Republican ex-president have been battling in a tense and exceptionally close race, with opinion polls largely tied.

To a gathered crowd of journalists, the vote opened with a rendition of the US national anthem performed on an accordion.

Electoral laws in New Hampshire allow municipalities with fewer than 100 residents to open their polling stations at midnight and to close them when all registered voters have fulfilled their civic duty.

Dixville Notch's residents voted unanimously for then candidate Joe Biden in 2020, reportedly only the second presidential hopeful to get all the votes since the midnight voting tradition began in 1960.

Dixville Notch voters handed a surprise unanimous victory to Republican White House hopeful Nikki Haley in New Hampshire's primary in January.

Haley ultimately quit the race due to an insurmountable Trump lead -- but Tuesday's vote shows that three voters opted not to back the billionaire in the general election.