Trump, Harris locked in tight Presidential race as US votes

Election Day voting was under way across much of the US on Tuesday morning after tens of millions of Americans had already cast their ballots. Those early votes included record numbers in Georgia, North Carolina and other battleground states that could decide the winner.

The early turnout in Georgia, which has flipped between the Republican and Democratic nominees in the previous two presidential elections, has been so robust — over 4 million voters — that a top official in the secretary of state's office said the big day could look like a “ghost town” at the polls.

As of Monday, Associated Press tracking of advance voting nationwide showed roughly 82 million ballots already cast — slightly more than half the total number of votes in the presidential election four years earlier.

That's driven partly by Republican voters, who were casting early ballots at a higher rate than in recent previous elections after a campaign by former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee to counter the Democrats' longstanding advantage in the early vote.

Voters on Tuesday morning were streaming enthusiastically to the polls, even huddling under umbrellas in the rain as they lined up to cast their ballots in Houston and Omaha, Nebraska. Forecasters said voters in Colorado and Montana might see snow later in the day.

In the first hours of voting, some isolated reports emerged of hiccups common to every Election Day, including delays in getting e-pollbooks up and running in Louisville, Kentucky, and a power outage requiring the use of a generator at a polling location in St Louis.

In Pittsburgh and the surrounding areas in swing state Pennsylvania, two polling places faced delays opening when election judges did not arrive or showed up late. Allegheny County officials said one of the sites was up and running, and the other would be soon.

Despite long lines in some places and a few typical glitches, early in-person and mail voting also proceeded without any major problems.

That included in the parts of western North Carolina hammered last month by Hurricane Helene. State and local election officials, benefiting from changes made by the Republican-controlled legislature, pulled off a herculean effort to ensure residents could cast their ballots as they dealt with power outages, lack of water and washed out roads.

By the time early voting in North Carolina had ended on Saturday, over 4.4 million voters — or nearly 57 per cent of all registered voters in the state — had cast their ballots. As of Monday, turnout in the 25 western counties affected by the hurricane was even stronger at 59 per cent of registered voters, state election board Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell said.

Brinson Bell called the voters and election workers in the hurricane-hit counties "an inspiration to us all”.

Besides the hurricanes in North Carolina and Florida, the most worrisome disruptions to the election season so far were arson attacks that damaged ballots in two drop boxes near the Oregon-Washington border. Authorities there were searching for the person responsible.

The absence of any significant, widespread problems has not stopped Trump, the Republican nominee, or the RNC, which is now under his sway, from making numerous claims of fraud or election interference during the early voting period, a possible prelude to challenges after Election Day.