Voting for the U.S. Presidential elections is set to take place today, and both candidates have been campaigning tirelessly to claim the top spot.

Many political observers billed the unpredictable race for the 47th President of the US as the most consequential one in decades while appearing to project a grim picture for the country’s future under a Trump presidency.

In her closing remarks in her Michigan rally on Sunday, Kamala Harris sought to strike on an optimistic note, saying that the U.S. had an opportunity for a “fresh start” and could “turn the page on a decade of politics driven by fear and division.” Donald Trump focused on the security of the U.S.-Mexico border, attacking Democrats and saying he will improve the economy, during his closing arguments in Raleigh, North Carolina on Monday.

An early voting station was set up at the John Jay College in the Manhattan area of NYC. Voters flocked the read and cast their ballots days ahead of the main election day on November 5. Suzan, the coordinator of the station, said the early voting process is witnessing a very positive response.

November 05, 2024 09:08 Texas, Missouri judges deny requests to block DOJ from sending poll monitors

U.S. judges have denied requests from the Republican-led states of Missouri and Texas to block the federal government from sending lawyers to their states on Election Day to monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws.

Both states are among the 27 that the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) said it would send staff out to monitor at voting locations, as it has done regularly during national elections. -Reuters

  November 05, 2024 08:45 Democratic mayors in San Francisco and Oakland fight to keep their jobs on Election Day

Voters are deciding whether to reelect San Francisco Mayor London Breed — the first Black woman in the role — or to pick one of her four challengers in a pricey and competitive race that’s heated up over homelessness and public safety.

Crime and homelessness also drove frustrated residents of nearby Oakland to collect enough signatures to place the recall of Mayor Sheng Thao on Tuesday’s ballot. They blame Thao, who won office just two years ago, for a long list of city woes. - AP

  November 05, 2024 08:36 Three term Democratic lawmaker tries to hold key US Senate seat in Republican friendly Montana

Three-term incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana faces perhaps his toughest reelection challenge yet on Tuesday, with control of the Senate on the line in a state that’s veered sharply rightward since the 68-year-old grain farmer’s first election.

Republicans have pinned their hopes on Tim Sheehy, a former U.S. Navy SEAL and founder of an aerial firefighting company. Sheehy, 38, had early backing from party leaders including former President Donald Trump, clearing the political newcomer’s path to win the June primary.

This is the first time Tester’s name appears on the same ballot as Trump, who won Montana by wide margins in 2016 and 2020. - AP

  November 05, 2024 08:24 The top US House races in Oregon garnering national attention

One of the most competitive U.S. House races in the country is playing out in Oregon, where the state’s GOP-held 5th Congressional District is considered one of just over two dozen toss ups nationwide.

Oregon’s newest congressional district, the 6th, is seen as a likely win for Democrats compared to the 5th, according to the Cook Political Report. This gives a slight advantage to incumbent U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas, a Democrat who is running once again against Mike Erickson, a Republican she defeated in the 2022 midterms by roughly 2.5 percentage points. - AP

November 05, 2024 13:19 Texas border districts again in thick of fight for House control

Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas faced his first election on Tuesday since his indictment on bribery charges, one of three closely watched races along the US-Mexico border where Republicans are trying to widen inroads in the predominately Hispanic region.

Mr. Cuellar and his wife have pleaded not guilty to charges related to the couple’s ties to the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan. Republicans mounted an aggressive campaign in 2022 to oust Mr. Cuellar, one of his party’s most outspoken moderates, but lost by double digits and pulled back in the district this year despite the indictment.

- AP

November 05, 2024 13:12 Republicans try to hold onto all of Iowa’s congressional districts

Republicans represent all of Iowa’s four congressional districts, but Democrats are hopeful of their chances in Tuesday’s general election.

Two of the districts are seen as especially competitive, including the 1st district in southeast Iowa and the 3rd district in central and southern Iowa. Republicans are expected to more easily retain control in the 2nd district in northeast Iowa and in the largely rural 4th district in western Iowa.

- AP

November 05, 2024 13:00 Republican Mike Kehoe faces Democrat Crystal Quade for Missouri Governor

Republican Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe is facing Missouri state Rep. Crystal Quade on Tuesday for the governorship. Kehoe is strongly favored to win in the heavily Republican state, where Quade is the House minority leader. 

Quade and other Missouri Democrats are hoping to wedge their way back into political relevance with help from abortion rights supporters, who could be more energized to vote with an abortion rights amendment on the ballot this year.

Quade supports the amendment, which would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution and if approved would be expected to undo the state’s near-total abortion ban.

- AP

November 05, 2024 12:58 Republican incumbent Josh Hawley faces Democrat Lucas Kunce for U.S. Senate seat in Missouri

Missouri voters will decide Tuesday whether to give Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley a second term or elect Democrat Lucas Kunce, a lawyer who served in the Marines. 

Hawley is heavily favoured to win in the state, where no Democrats hold statewide office and Republicans control both the state House and Senate.

But Kunce is putting up a fight, outraising Hawley and securing support from Missouri-born celebrities John Goodman, Jon Hamm and Andy Cohen.

- AP

November 05, 2024 12:24 Republicans try to hold onto all of Iowa’s four congressional districts

Republicans represent all of Iowa’s four congressional districts, but Democrats are hopeful of their chances in Tuesday’s general election.

Two of the districts are seen as especially competitive, including the 1st district in southeast Iowa and the 3rd district in central and southern Iowa. Republicans are expected to more easily retain control in the 2nd district in northeast Iowa and in the largely rural 4th district in western Iowa. - AP

November 05, 2024 12:14 Republicans hope to retain 3 open Indiana House seats and target another long held by Democrats

Republicans in Indiana hope voters will help them retain three congressional seats without incumbents running, while they also aim to knock off an incumbent Democrat in the northwest part of the state.

Three incumbents are retiring or seeking another office, creating vacancies that generated some hotly contested Republican primaries last spring, including two eight-way races.

In the state’s northwest corner, the GOP is targeting Democratic incumbent Rep. Frank Mrvan, who is seeking his third term in the 1st District. According to Ballotpedia, Democrats have held the seat since 1930, but a Republican-drawn map that took effect in 2022 made the district more conservative. Mrvan won in 2022 with nearly 53% of the vote after taking just under 57% in 2020. - AP

November 05, 2024 12:09 People of Kamala Harris’ ancestral village eager to see her win U.S. presidential poll

An air of excitement and expectancy pervades the Thulasendrapuram village in the district hoping that Democrat Kamala Harris, current vice president, wins in the U.S. presidential elections. 

The villagers have performed prayers at the Sri Dharma Sastha temple in her ancestral village expecting her to trounce former president and Republican Donald Trump, and emerge victorious as Americans vote today to elect their next president.

Thulasendrapuram is the ancestral village of Kamala’s grandfather and former Indian diplomat P.V. Gopalan. Her mother Shyamala was Gopalan’s daughter.

The village hogged the limelight in August 2020 when Kamala was nominated as the Democrat Vice President candidate, and it later celebrated her victory the same year.

- PTI

November 05, 2024 11:51 New Hampshire hamlet tied in first U.S. Election day votes

Voters in the U.S. 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.

- AFP

November 05, 2024 11:49 Texas, Missouri sue to block Justice Department from sending poll monitors

On Monday (November 5, 2024), the Republican-led states of Missouri and Texas sued the U.S. Justice Department to block the federal government from sending lawyers to their states on Election Day to monitor for compliance with federal voting rights laws. 

Both states are among 27 the Justice Department said on Friday it would send staff out to monitor voting locations, as it has done regularly during national elections.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement that sending monitors “infringes on States’ constitutional authority to run free and fair elections.”

- Reuters

November 05, 2024 11:43Battleground states to watch in 2024 November 05, 2024 11:38 Harris and Trump’s final push before Election Day brings them to the same patch of Pennsylvania

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump made their final pitches to voters on Monday (November 4, 2024) in the same parts of Pennsylvania at roughly the same time, focusing on the state that could make or break their chances during the last full day of the presidential campaign. 

In Pittsburgh, Mr. Trump delivered what his campaign aides described as his closing argument after his previous attempt - a mass rally at Madison Square Garden in New York - was derailed by crude and racist jokes. He has also veered off message with falsehoods about voter fraud and invocations of violence.

Read the whole story here November 05, 2024 11:19 Trump vs Harris: Who has the upper hand on the eve of polling day? | In Focus podcast Trump vs Harris: Who has the upper hand on the eve of polling day? | In Focus podcast

In this episode, Sanjay Ruparelia speaks to us about where the candidates stand with regard to key constituencies ahead of the US elections, and who is ahead in the battleground states.