Connecticut voters will decide Tuesday whether to get rid of rules preventing the state from joining the 36 others that allow people to cast ballots by mail or through drop boxes without needing an excuse for not going to a polling place in person.
An amendment to the state constitution would lift long-standing restrictions that only allow people to vote by absentee ballot if they are going to be out of town, are sick or disabled, or can’t get to a polling location because of religious restrictions.
“We can finally free our state from the shackles of a long history of overly restrictive voting laws and ensure every eligible voter can cast their ballot conveniently, safely, and securely,” said state Rep. Matt Blumenthal, a Democrat who co-chairs the General Assembly’s Government Administration and Elections Committee.
If voters ultimately agree by a simple majority to allow “no-excuse” balloting, it will then be up to state lawmakers to enact the new system.
“This just enables them to do it,” said Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas.
Thomas, a Democrat, said that if the amendment passes, her recommendation would be for legislators to take a year to research and design a “holistic” system that also includes early voting and voting in person.
Connecticut voters recently agreed to change the state’s constitution to allow early in-person voting, which took place for the first time in the March primaries. There were 14 days of early voting for the general election. Besides being mailed, absentee ballots can also be put in drop boxes located in every city and town, or submitted to local election offices.
Twenty-eight states let voters request an absentee ballot without requiring an excuse, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Eight more states, plus Washington, D.C., go a step farther and automatically mail a ballot to all registered voters without them having to request one.
Critics of Connecticut’s proposed change, mostly Republicans, have questioned the safeguards surrounding the state’s current absentee ballot system.
In the state’s largest city, Bridgeport, there were allegations of abuses of absentee ballots during the Democratic mayoral primaries in 2019 and 2023. Last year, a judge ordered the Bridgeport mayoral election redone after campaign volunteers were caught on camera stuffing wads of other people’s absentee ballots into collection boxes.
“It is clear the current absentee ballot system currently in place is broken,” Sen. Rob Sampson and Rep. Gale Mastrofrancesco, the top Republicans on the Government Administration and Elections Committee, said in a statement.
“In Bridgeport, investigations have shown that people were illegally cheating the system, yet this ballot measure would expand the use of absentee ballots, opening the door to even more fraud and misuse,” they said.
Both said they would also oppose any change that would lead to ballots being automatically mailed to qualified voters.
Thomas had noted that states with universal access have implemented systems with greater ballot security and voter protection. Requiring things like basic personal information, the last four digits of a Social Security number or a driver’s license number might be considered by Connecticut legislators if the amendment passes.
Patricia Rossi, co-president of the League of Women Voters of Connecticut, said the state’s current absentee voting rules left out people who might not be able to make it to a polling place on Election Day for other good reasons, like having to work or act as someone’s caregiver, or because they couldn’t access transportation.
The 2024 election is here. This is what to know:
News outlets around the world count on the AP for accurate U.S. election results. Since 1848, the AP has been calling races up and down the ballot. Support us. Donate to the AP.
Coralys Santana, policy and advocacy strategist for The Connecticut Project Action Fund, a group promoting the ballot measure, contends that easing voting rules would benefit people of all political ideologies.
“There can be a partisan divide if folks choose that,” Santata said. “But I think for the most part, this measure is nonpartisan and is just about equal opportunity and access to the ballot box.”
Much attention has been paid to the historic race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, but the results of down-ballot elections will determine whether the new president will actually be able to implement a legislative agenda next year.
With Republicans defending a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, Democrats only need to flip a handful of seats to wrest back control of the lower chamber, and both parties are going all out to win.
Here are tenHouse races to watch this year:
Arizona’s first congressional district
Republican incumbent David Schweikert is running for re-election in this toss-up district, which covers north-east Phoenix and Scottsdale. As one of 16 House Republicans representing districts that JoeBiden won in 2020, Schweikert is vulnerable, and Democrats have identified the seat as one of its top targets this year.
After post-2020 redistricting moved the district to the left, physician Amish Shah won a crowded Democratic primary there in July. Given that Schweikert secured re-election by less than one point in 2022 and a recent Democratic internal poll showed the two candidates virtually tied, this race will be a hard-fought sprint to the finish line.
California’s 45th congressional district
Republican congresswoman Michelle Steel has emerged victorious from some tough political battles in the past, as she won re-election by five points in 2022, but Democrats hope to bring an end to that winning streak this year.
A recent poll showed Democrat Derek Tran with a narrow lead over Steel in this district, which covers parts of Orange and Los Angeles counties. The Cook Political Report gives Democrats a two-point advantage in the district, but Steel has proven adept at overcoming difficult odds.
Iowa’s third congressional district
Freshman Republican Zach Nunn was previously favored to win re-election in this Des Moines area district that Trump narrowly carried in 2020. Nunn flipped the seat in 2020 after defeating incumbent Democrat Cindy Axne by less than one point.
This time around, Harris is in a strong position to win the district, and Democrat Lanon Baccam’s strong fundraising record has helped put the seat in play for his party.
Maine’s second congressional district
Democratic incumbent Jared Golden is running for a fourth term in this perpetual swing district that Republicans have repeatedly tried and failed to flip. Golden defeated former Republican congressman Bruce Poliquin by six points in 2022, even though Trump carried the district by six points two years earlier, according to data compiled by Daily Kos.
But this time around, Republicans believe they have a strong candidate in Austin Theriault, a state representative and former professional racecar driver who held a slight lead over Golden in a recent poll. Golden has proven politically resilient in this right-leaning district, so a loss could point to broader electoral problems for Democrats in November.
Michigan’s seventh congressional district
Democratic congresswoman Elissa Slotkin’s decision to run for Senate has created an opening in this bellwether district, which both parties have identified as a key target this year.
Former Republican state senator Tom Barrett is running again after losing the 2022 election to Slotkin by six points, and he will face former Democratic state senator Curtis Hertel. The Cook Political Report has described the district as “the most competitive open seat in the country”, so the results here could have much broader implications in the battle for the House.
Nebraska’s second congressional district
This district will play a key role in both the presidential race and the battle for the House. Like Maine, Nebraska allocates a portion of its electoral votes based on congressional districts, and Harris is favored to win the electoral vote of the second district.
With more attention on the second district because of the presidential race, Republican incumbent Don Bacon is facing some tough headwinds in his re-election bid. Bacon defeated Democrat Tony Vargas by just three points in 2022, and recentpolls show Vargas opening up a small lead in this year’s rematch.
North Carolina’s first congressional district
Freshman Democratic congressman Don Davis is running for re-election in this north-eastern North Carolina district, which shifted to the right after the latest round of redistricting.
Much to the relief of Republican strategists, Laurie Buckhout won the congressional nomination over Sandy Smith, a hard-right firebrandwho lost to Davis by five points in 2022.
Republicans are hopeful that Buckhout’s impressive résumé as an army veteran and founder of her own consulting firm, combined with the more favorable district lines, will be enough to unseat Davis. But the incumbent held a six-point lead over his Republican challenger as of late September, one survey found.
New York’s 17th congressional district
Mike Lawler made headlines when he defeated incumbent Sean Patrick Maloney, then the chair of House Democrats’ campaign arm, by less than one point in 2022. This year, Maloney will face off against former Democratic congressman Mondaire Jones in this Hudson valley district that went for Biden in 2020.
Lawler did not get dealt the worst hand from New York’s redistricting process; that distinction goes to fellow Republican freshman Brandon Williams, whose Syracuse-area seat went from Biden +7 to Biden +11, according to the Cook Political Report.
All the same, Lawler will face stiff competition in a race that will be closely watched for broader electoral trends in November. If he cannot hold on to the seat, it could spell trouble for Republicans up and down the ballot.
Pennsylvania’s 10th congressional district
This seat may be harder for Democrats to flip, as the Cook Political Report gives Republicans a five-point advantage in the district. The hard-right views of Republican incumbent Scott Perry, who allegedly played a “central” role in Trump’s campaign to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, could allow Democrat Janelle Stelson to pull off an upset.
Stelson, a former local news anchor, has focused her pitch on attacking Perry as a symbol of a dysfunctional Congress, and her message appears to be resonating with voters. One poll conducted in October showed Stelson leading by nine points, forcing Perry’s allies to allocate more funding to the race.
Virginia’s seventh congressional district
Democrat Eugene Vindman, who first attracted national attention for his role in Trump’s first impeachment trial, is facing a tougher than expected fight in this Virginia district that covers some of the Washington exurbs.
Democrats are looking to hold the seat, which was left open after congresswoman Abigail Spanberger chose to launch a gubernatorial campaign rather than seek re-election.
Internal polls show Vindman running neck-and-neck with his opponent, Republican Derrick Anderson, despite the Democrat’s hefty fundraising advantage. A loss in this bellwether district, which Biden won by seven points in 2020, could spell trouble for Democrats’ hopes of retaking the House.
يعد اختيار الرئيس المقبل للولايات المتحدة الأمريكية الحدث الأهم في هذه الأيام ومحط أنظار العالم أجمع، ولكن بالإضافة إلى ذلك يتخذ الشعب الأمريكي يوم 5 نوفمبر/ تشرين الثاني قرارات أخرى مهمة، فما هي؟
أكد ناجى الشهابي رئيس حزب الجيل الديمقراطى أن كلمة الرئيس عبد الفتاح السيسى فى المنتدى الحضرى العالمى “الذى حضره أكثر من 20 ألف مشترك من 182 دولة”، كانت جامعة شاملة، وكلماتها منتقاة لترجم أهداف المنتدى، مشيرا إلى أنه استعرض خلالها أهم انجازات مصر المعاصرة، والتى اتضح أنها تستحق أن تكون عنوانا للمنتدى والنموذج الذى يتطلع الآخرين لتنفيذه.
ولفت “الشهابى” إلى أن الرئيس السيسى فى كلمته البليغة المعبرة عن المنتدى وأهدافه، أكد أن المنتدى الحضرى العالمى يمثل منصة مثالية لتدشين حوار مثمر وفعال، بين جميع الفاعلين المعنيين، حول كيفية تحسين أوضاع التجمعات البشرية، وتعزيز التنمية الحضرية مشددا على أن هذا الأمر يتطلب مشاركة فعالة من كل الأطراف المعنية.
وأشار «الشهابي» إلى أن الرئيس حدد الأطراف المعنية بأنها المجتمعات المحلية، والمنظمات الدولية، والقطاع الخاص، والمجتمع المدنى، والجامعات والتى طالبها الرئيس، بعقد شراكات وصياغة سياسات وإستراتيجيات، تعكس احتياجات وتطلعات الشعوب فى حياة كريمة ومستقبل أفضل.
وأردف رئيس حزب الجيل أن الرئيس السيسى عرض على المنتدى فى كلمته الرائعة ملخص عن إنجازات مصر فى عهده فأكد أنها قامت بإنشاء جيل جديد من المدن الذكية على رأسها العاصمة الإدارية الجديدة والعلمين الجديدة، ضمن 22 مدينة أخرى، تم بناؤها بشكل مختلف، كما أكد الرئيس أيضا، أننا نفذنا مبادرات، ومشروعات ضخمة على رأسها حياة كريمة لتطوير الريف المصرى، والمناطق العشوائية، ومبادرة “تكافل وكرامة”، لدعم الأسر الفقيرة والأكثر احتياجا.. ومبادرة “سكن لكل المصريين”، التى وصفها الرئيس بأنها أكبر مشروع إسكان اجتماعى موجه لمحدودى الدخل، فى مصر والعالم بأسره.
وأضاف رئيس حزب الجيل أن إعلان فى كلمته أيضا عن إطلاق “الإستراتيجية الوطنية للمدن الذكية”.. و”الإستراتيجية الوطنية للتحضر الأخضر”، يستهدف تعزيز الجهود الوطنية القائمة، فى مجالات التحضر، استنادا إلى المعايير الدولية للاستدامة والشراكة، مشددا أنه نبه فى كلمته أيضا بأن العالم يواجه تحديات عديدة أبرزها نمو السكان وتغير المناخ وندرة المياه كما كشف أن العالم يواجه حروبا لها تداعيات مدمرة مطالبا بوقف الصراعات والعمل على إحلال السلام.
وأكد رئيس حزب الجيل، أن الرئيس السيسى كعادته فى كل المحافل الدولية التى يحضرها لم ينسى الشرق الأوسط فى كلمته الموجزة الشاملة فأكد أنه يشهد حروبا وصراعات لا سيما الحرب الدائرة في غزة ولبنان، ومن ثم هناك ضرورة للاستجابة الفورية والفعالة لوقف نزيف الدماء والدمار والشروع في البناء والتنمية.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Voters in nine states are deciding whether their state constitutions should guarantee a right to abortion, weighing ballot measures that are expected to spur turnout for a range of crucial races.
Passing certain amendments in Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota likely would lead to undoing bans or restrictions that currently block varying levels of abortion access to more than 7 million women of childbearing age who live in those states.
The future legality and availability of abortion hinges not only on ballot measures, as policies could shift depending on who controls Congress and the presidency. Same with state governments — including legislatures that pursue new laws, state supreme courts that determine the laws’ constitutionality, attorneys general who decide whether to defend them and district attorneys who enforce them.
If all the abortion rights measures pass, “it’s a sign of how much of a juggernaut support for reproductive rights has become,” said Mary Ziegler, a professor at the University of California Davis School of Law and an expert on the history of reproductive rights in the U.S.
“If some of them fail,” she added, “then you’re going to see some conservatives looking for guidance to see what the magic ingredient was that made it possible for conservatives to stem the tide.”
Voters have been supporting abortion rights
Abortion rights advocates have prevailed on all seven measures that have appeared since 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the nationwide right to abortion. That decision opened the door to bans or restrictions in most GOP-controlled states — and protections of access in most of those controlled by Democrats.
The abortion rights campaigns have a big fundraising advantage this year. Their opponents’ efforts are focused on portraying the amendments as too extreme rather than abortion as immoral.
Currently, 13 states are enforcing bans at all stages of pregnancy, with some exceptions. Four more bar abortion in most cases after about six weeks of pregnancy — before women often realize they’re pregnant. Despite the bans, the number of monthly abortions in the U.S. has risen slightly, because of the growing use of abortion pills and organized efforts to help women travel for abortion. Still, advocates say the bans have reduced access, especially for lower-income and minority residents of the states with bans.
The bans also are part of a key argument in the presidential race. Vice President Kamala Harris calls them “Trump abortion bans,” noting former President Donald Trump’s role in overturning Roe v. Wade. Harris, meanwhile, has portrayed herself as a direct, consistent advocate for reproductive health and rights, including Black maternal health.
Trump has struggled to thread a divide between his own base of anti-abortion supporters and the majority of Americans who support abortion rights, leaning on his catch-all response that abortion rights should be left up to individual states.
Trump’s attempt to find a more cautious stance on abortion echoes the efforts of many Republican congressional candidates as the issue has emerged as a major vulnerability for the GOP. In competitive congressional races from coast to coast, Republicans distanced themselves from more aggressive anti-abortion policies coming from their party and its allies, despite their records on the issue and previous statements opposing abortion rights.
The 2024 election is here. This is what to know:
News outlets around the world count on the AP for accurate U.S. election results. Since 1848, the AP has been calling races up and down the ballot. Support us. Donate to the AP.
The measures could roll back bans in five states
While the ballot questions have similar aims, each one occupies its own political circumstances.
There’s an added obstacle to passing protections in reliably Republican Florida: Supporters of the amendment must get at least 60% of the vote.
Passing it there and rolling back a 6-week ban that took effect in May would be a blow to Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican with a national profile, who has steered state GOP funds to the cause and whose administration has weighed in, too, with a campaign against the measure, investigators questioning people who signed petitions to add it to the ballot and threats to TV stations that aired one commercial supporting it.
Nebraska has competing ballot measures. One would allow abortion further into pregnancy. The other would enshrine in the constitution the state’s current law, which bars most abortions after 12 weeks — but would allow for further restrictions.
In South Dakota, the measure would allow some regulations related to the health of the woman after 12 weeks. Because of that wrinkle, most national abortion-rights groups are not supporting it.
In some states, notably Missouri, passing amendments may not expand access immediately. Courts would be asked to invalidate the bans; and there could be legal battles over that. Clinics would need to staff up and get licenses. And some restrictions could remain in effect.
Arizona, a battleground in the presidential election, bans abortion after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy.
The ballot measure there gained momentum after a state Supreme Court ruling in April found that the state could enforce a strict abortion ban adopted in 1864. Some GOP lawmakers joined with Democrats to repeal the law before it could be enforced.
The measures would enshrine current access laws elsewhere
In the Democratic-controlled Colorado and Maryland, the ballot measures would largely put existing policies into the state constitutions, though Colorado’s version could also remove financial barriers to abortion. It would take 55% of the vote to pass there.
Measures maintaining access also are on the ballot in Montana, where a U.S. Senate race could help determine control of the chamber, and Nevada, a battleground in the presidential election.
In Nevada, where control of the state government is divided, the ballot measure would have to be passed this year and again in 2026 to take effect.
New York also has a measure on the ballot that its supporters say would bolster abortion rights. It doesn’t contain the word “abortion” but rather bans discrimination on the basis of “pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.”
“And now, the end is near/ And so I face the final curtain.”
Before a roaring crowd on Monday, Donald Trump summoned sons Don Jr and Eric, daughter Tiffany, daughter-in-law Lara Trump and son-in-law Michael Boulos to the stage. Their faces threw the orangeness of the family patriarch into stark relief. Trump insisted that his son Barron and daughter Ivanka were watching from afar. “She loves the whole thing,” he said, not very convincingly.
It was election eve and the former US president gazed out at thousands of supporters gathered at an ice hockey arena in Pittsburgh and apparently ready to follow him through the gates of hell. Like a child awakening to mortality, he suddenly seemed to realise that The Trump Show was coming to an end.
‘Whoever wins, it’s going to be chaotic’: voters on the eve of the US elections – video
“It’s sad because we’ve been doing this for nine years,” he said, as the family looked on. “We’ve had hundreds of rallies, hundreds. Actually numbers that are not even conceivable. I’ve heard 800, 900 – I don’t know – but we don’t even count ’em. And they’re all like this, all these magnificent, magnificent rallies.”
This would be his last one in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania with one to follow in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “Remember, the rallies are the most exciting thing. There’ll never be rallies like this. You’re going to have some leading candidate come in in four years and, honestly, if they’re successful they’ll have 300 or 400 people in a ballroom some place. This is never going to happen again.”
Yes, Donald Trump is already comparing his crowd sizes with whoever runs for president in 2028.
Still, was this a rare moment of wistful self-reflection from the man whom New Yorker writer Mark Singer once memorably described as leading “an existence unmolested by the rumbling of a soul”?
Well, up to a point. In a characteristic brain swerve, Trump, 78, went from sweet nostalgia to a rant about “Barack Hussein Obama” as a “very divisive guy” whose wife, Michelle, was “hitting me” in a recent speech. Then he decried the Russia “hoax” and how Don Jr had been unfairly caught up in it, which led to letting rip at Democratic congressman Adam Schiff as “watermelon head”, “evil” and “human scum”.
Trump’s children laughed at the insults – hardly an uplifting closing argument just hours before polling day. The former president then gave his stream of consciousness full rein, talking fast as he freely associated from his economy to Covid, from the military to Isis, from the border wall to transphobia. It was vintage Trump, like a final episode recap of a long-running series.
But after his family departed – Lara giving a heart sign to the supporters wearing miners’ helmets – Trump pondered the passage of time again. “We have people that have come to hundreds of the rallies and we all love it. They all love the country. They don’t come to our rallies if they don’t love the country.”
Donald Trump greets his family members Photograph: Charly Triballeau/AFP/Getty Images
There might be something achingly poignant and elegiac about it – a lion in winter departing the stage – but for the fact that Trump is a twice-impeached malignant narcissist with a knife at the throat of democracy.
Like Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes in A Face in the Crowd, the rallies were always more natural territory for this carnival barker than sitting behind a desk in the Oval Office. “Is there anything more fun than a Trump rally?” he has often asked rhetorically, even though some people flee before the end (and did again in Pittsburgh).
These are gaudy, raucous spectacles that combine cult-like worship of a demagogue with a church-like sense of community, the vibe of a rock concert with the fired up “us versus them” quality of a sports event.
The rallies are gathering places for the “Make America great again” (Maga) faithful who wear the team colours – red and white – on hats, T-shirts and other merchandise, sold by vendors who tour the country. Monday’s sampling included “I’m voting for the outlaw and the hillbilly” and “Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president”, plus a photo of Trump with the legend “Pet Lives Matter” – a reference to his false claim that Haitian immigrants were eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio.
Greatest hits, and a few misses
One day a university academic somewhere will write a paper about the musical playlist at Trump’s rallies and what it said about the class, age and race of his crowds. On Monday it included Mr Blue Sky by the Electric Light Orchestra, Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5, Nessun dorma by Luciano Pavarotti and It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World by James Brown. Other regulars are An American Trilogy by Elvis Presley, Nothing Compares 2 U by Sinéad O’Connor and numbers from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals Cats and Phantom of the Opera.
The rallies have produced some of Trump greatest verbal hits. “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters,” he told one in Sioux Center while campaigning in Iowa in 2016. None is complete without a swipe or two at the “fake news” media; the crowd turns and jeers as if playing a part.
It was at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, this summer that Trump survived an assassination attempt then, with face bloodied, raised his fist and urging his supporters to “Fight, fight, fight!” (A chant repeated by supporters in Pittsburgh.)
Having lived by the rally, he nearly died by the rally that day. And the rally might yet be his political undoing: what was once Trump’s greatest strength could prove his achilles heel. In Latrobe, Pennsylvania, he mused on the size of the late golfer Arnold Palmer’s penis, giving fodder to critics of his mental stability.
When he fulfilled his lifelong wish to stage a mass rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden, critics drew a parallel with a Nazi event there in 1939. A comedian described Puerto Rico as “a floating island of garbage”, upstaging Trump and potentially costing him vital Latino votes.
He said he “shouldn’t have left” the White House in 2020 and joked that he wouldn’t mind if a would-be assassin had to “shoot through the fake news” to reach him. He revived a bizarre reference to fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter.
When Trump questioned Harris’s college job at McDonald’s, an attendee shouted: “She worked on the corner!” The former president responded: “Just remember, other people said it … not me.”
In Pittsburgh on Monday, Trump could not resist lying about Harris’s crowd size at a duelling rally across the city. “It’s quite embarrassing, it’s all over the internet, she’s screaming and the people – there’s about a hundred people – they’re not moving, they just want to go home, just be done with it.”
Stretching his arms wide, he added: “It’s not quite this!”
These antics have combined with a hypermasculine campaign that seemed intent on alienating women, failing to disown extremists like Laura Loomer and entrusting his fate to campaign neophytes such as Charlie Kirk, Elon Musk and daughter-in-law Lara Trump.
Spare a thought for those Trump campaign managers who tried to run a more professional operation this time and stay focused on inflation and immigration. They are like riders on a bucking horse, clinging on for dear life but bound to be thrown off and trampled in the end.
All of it has led to Tuesday and an all-or-nothing crossroads in Trump’s life. Go one way and he returns to the White House in one of the greatest political comebacks of all time. Go the other and there is the ignominy of two consecutive election defeats – and the prospect of prison. Comedian John Oliver told viewers on Sunday: “Wouldn’t it be great to live in a world where he’s no longer an active threat? Just an annoyance?”
And yet, and yet. A gaffe or insult that many see as disqualifying is merely a laugh line to a Trump supporter. He still drew a big, rambunctious crowd in Pittsburgh, as passionate and committed as ever, many waving “Trump will fix it” signs and one holding a placard that said: “Trump chosen by God.” The former president seemed to feed off the energy.
He broke the news mid-rally that he had been endorsed by podcaster Joe Rogan. He was backed by an array of speakers including former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and rightwing media personality Megyn Kelly, who declared: “He got mocked by the left by saying he would be a protector of women. He will be a protector of women and it’s why I’m voting for him. He will close the border and he will keep the boys out of women’s sports where they don’t belong.”
Trump called Kelly “nasty” back in 2016.
Megyn Kelly speaks during a campaign rally by Republican presidential nominee and former US President Donald Trump in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Photograph: Jeenah Moon/Reuters
Among the crowd, Michael Barringer, 55, a fifth-generation coal miner, was wearing a miner’s helmet. “I love this country,” he said. “You’ve got millions and millions of illegal aliens crossing the border. They don’t speak English. They don’t say a pledge allegiance to the flag. They freeload off of us. I’m all for legal immigration but not coming across the border illegally, taking American jobs, undercutting us.
“I believe that Trump, his first term in office, he renegotiated Nafta, he’s for the American people and that’s why I vote him. I think he’s one of the greatest presidents ever to run for office and hold office.”
Lydia Williams, 40, who works in the oil and gas industry, rejected the gender gap that sees Harris dominating among women. “Her stance on LGBTQ is anti-women,” she said. “I’m a middle school track coach and the fact that my female athletes would have to compete against a male is absolutely asinine.”
The big day is upon us. The nation is on edge. The pollsters’ crystal balls are cloudy. But win or lose, Trump says this is his last campaign and there will never be rallies like this again. Some people, previously disconnected from politics, will miss these cauldrons of love and hate. Others, wary of where rallies have led herds throughout history, will hope that a line can be drawn under a decade of demagoguery.
Read more of the Guardian’s 2024 US election coverage:
أظهرت أول نتيجة اقتراع للانتخابات الرئاسية الأميركية، تم الإعلان عنها في بلدة ديكسفيل نوتش بولاية نيو هامبشاير، تعادل كل من المرشح الجمهوري دونالد ترمب ومنافسته الديمقراطية كامالا هاريس، حيث تقاسم الاثنان الأصوات الستة للبلدة الصغيرة.
وبحسب شبكة «فوكس نيوز» الأميركية، فإن ديكسفيل نوتش بلدة نائية في منطقة نورث كانتري بنيو هامبشاير، وقد أدلى مواطنوها الستة بأصواتهم عند منتصف الليل.
مواطنون في ديكسفيل نوتش يدلون بأصواتهم (أ.ف.ب)
وكانت النتيجة النهائية التي قرأها مسؤولو الانتخابات بالبلدة في نحو الساعة 12:10 صباحاً بالتوقيت المحلي؛ هي 3 أصوات لترمب و3 لهاريس.
مواطن في بلدة ديكسفيل نوتش يدلي بصوته (رويترز)
وبدأت البلدة الصغيرة تقليدها بالتصويت في منتصف الليل عام 1960.
وقبل 4 سنوات، اكتسح المرشح الديمقراطي آنذاك، جو بايدن، جميع الأصوات الخمسة المدلى بها في البلدة.
