• Trump says could concede defeat ‘if it is a fair vote’
• FBI says fake bomb threats made against polling stations in some states
• Control of Congress also up for grabs

WASHINGTON: The dizzying presidential contest between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris is hurtling toward an uncertain finish as millions of Americans headed to the polls to choose between two sharply different visions for the country.

The first ballots cast on Tuesday mirrored the nationwide divide. Overnight, the six registered voters in the tiny hamlet of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, split their votes between Harris and Trump in voting just past midnight.

Trump has cast his ballot in Florida after he arrived at the voting precinct in Palm Beach with his wife, Melania Trump.

Speaking to the press after casting his ballot, Trump said he was “very confident” he will win the election and that “it won’t even be close,” while expressing frustration that it may take a while to call the results.

However, he signaled he would be prepared to concede defeat after Tuesday’s vote “if it’s a fair election”, while again raising concerns about the use of electronic voting machines.

“If I lose an election, if it’s a fair election, I would be the first one to acknowledge it. So far I think it’s been fair,” Trump, repeating a caveat that he has used many times on the campaign trail, told reporters after voting in Florida.

Trump’s campaign has suggested he may declare victory on election night even while millions of ballots have yet to be counted, as he did four years ago.

The former president has repeatedly said any defeat could only stem from widespread fraud, echoing his false claims from 2020.

Opinion polls show the candidates running neck and neck in each of the seven states likely to determine the winner: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Reuters/Ipsos polling shows Harris leading among women by 12 percentage points and Trump winning among men by seven percentage points.

Control of both chambers of Congress is also up for grabs. Republicans have an easier path in the Senate, where Democrats are defending several seats in Republican-leaning states, while the House of Represe­ntatives looks like a toss-up.

Bomb threats

Amid concerns over election unrest, the National Guard has been or will be activated in 19 states to help maintain peace. Many of the most visible measures can be seen in the battleground states that will decide the presidential election, states like Nevada where protests by Trump supporters broke out after the 2020 election.

A Georgia poll worker was arrested on Monday on charges that he sent a letter threatening to bomb election workers that he wrote to appear as if it came from a voter in the presidential election battleground state.

Federal prosecutors said Nicholas Wimbish, 25, had been serving as a poll worker at the Jones County Elections Office in Gray, Georgia, on Oct. 16 when he got into a verbal altercation with a voter.

Meanwhile, the FBI warned Americans about two new fake videos falsely citing terror threats and voter fraud, the latest in a string of disinformation that officials expect will intensify as voters head to the polls on Election Day.

The bureau also said that fake bomb threats had been made to polling locations in several states, many of which appear to originate from Russian email domains. “None of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far,” it said in a statement.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2024