Millions cast vote in historic US presidential election
Exit polls show state of democracy, the shape of the economy and abortion are the most important issues for American voters in the election
Voting in the US presidential election entered the final hours with millions of Americans already deciding whether to elevate Vice President Kamala Harris to helm the White House or send Republican leader Donald Trump to the top office for a second time.
The race remained stubbornly deadlocked for weeks with some of the election forecasters giving 60-year Harris an edge over former President Trump, 78, in some of the key battleground states like Pennsylvania.
The first polls are already closed in Indiana and Kentucky, two states that traditionally vote for the Republican Party.
In the next few hours, polls are set to close in the seven battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin which will effectively decide who will be the 47th President of the United States.
Much-awaited results
With the voting closing in the next few hours, the people are now bracing for the much-awaited results. According to authorities, 182,000 pre-election ballots were counted already in Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile, exit polls showed state of democracy, the shape of the economy and abortion are the most important issues for American voters in the election.
Almost six in 10 people ranked the state of democracy as their number one issue, according to exit polls released by CBS News.
It was followed by abortion as 5 per cent of the voters felt it was an important issue for them. Over one in 10 chose the economy as a priority issue.
Exit polls
An exit poll by CNN said roughly three-quarters of the electorate holds a negative view of the way things are going in the US today.
Only about one-quarter call themselves enthusiastic or satisfied with the state of the nation, with more than four in 10 dissatisfied and roughly three in 10 saying they are angry, according to the poll.
Voters remain generally optimistic, with more than 6 in 10 saying that America’s best days are in the future, and only about one-third said that they’re already in the past, the CNN poll found.
With agency inputs