First personal votes cast in US presidential election

In the US presidential election campaign between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, the first votes were cast in person, a milestone six weeks before Election Day on November 5.

Virginia became the first state in the country to allow in-person voting on Friday, and polls there will remain open through Nov. 2. Voting at the national, state and local levels has seen long lines at times.

In two other states, Minnesota and South Dakota, the situation is different because voters there can only submit their absentee ballots in person and cannot send them by mail.

“Why not try to be first? That's fun, right?” Jason Miller, a voter from Minnesota, told the Associated Press.

According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Election Data Science Lab, about 69% of votes cast in the 2020 election were cast through early in-person voting or by mail-in ballot.

Some in a queue in Fairfax, Virginia, told the BBC they felt it was their civic duty to vote early.

“You never know if you're going to get hit by a bus,” one voter said Friday, adding that he wanted to play it safe and not have any regrets. Another said good weather – and a day of working from home – prompted him to cast his vote early.

Virginia has been a reliably Democratic state in recent elections, but some Republicans are optimistic they can win the majority in November. Voters there will also cast their ballots for the state's 11 congressmen and one of its two senators.

Early voting and mail-in voting have been a sensitive issue since the 2020 election, with polls showing that only 37% of Republicans believe people should have the opportunity to vote early. from the Pew Research Center. This figure stands in sharp contrast to the 82% approval rating of the Democrats.

Current polls suggest the presidential race is extremely close, with Harris holding a narrow lead nationally.

In the months before President Joe Biden's decision to drop out of the race, polls consistently suggested he was behind Trump. But when Harris became the Democratic nominee, the race tightened.

In addition to the presidential race, millions of voters in 41 states will also have the opportunity to express their opinion on a particular political position by voting on ballot initiatives on November 5.

Ten states will ask voters whether to enshrine access to abortion in their constitutions. West Virginia will ask voters whether or not to ban physician-assisted suicide, and three states will ask voters whether to legalize recreational marijuana use for adults.

According to an Associated Press count, more than 140 bills are up for vote across the United States.