KEY FACTS
•Total voters – 255,200,373
•Votes so far – 97,665,370
•Electoral College delegates – 538
•Needed to win – 270 delegates
Americans will decide this Tuesday between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden who occupies the White House in the next four years.
There will also be governorship election in 11 states and two territories. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives will be contested as well as 35 of the 100 seats in the United States Senate.
In the last few days up till Monday, the candidates were on the road, wooing voters in battleground states – Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Florida.
The election has been projected to record the highest-ever turn-out in decades – if not the past century – with a surge of new voters producing the most divisive electorate in America history.
But it may be marred by violence especially should President Trump lose.
Reports indicated that authorities and business owners embarked on enhanced security measures over possible violence related to the high-stakes.
In Washington, D.C., shopfronts are boarding up their windows with plywood or putting up other makeshift barriers, some of them stretching nearly entire blocks.
Fences have been erected around the White House, where demonstrators gathered Saturday night to protest against President Donald Trump. Card-boards on which anti-Trump slogans were written on the fences.
Similar scenes of businesses protecting their properties also appeared on the streets in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.
In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot asked residents to express their political opinions in a safe way.
“What I’m encouraging people to do is to express themselves but do it in a way that honours our traditions. “We don’t have the right to take out our frustration, our anger, on someone else.”
Rich Guidice, executive director of the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications, in a news conference said Chicago “is taking an all-hands-on-deck approach to planning for Election Day security arrangement”.
“We have been performing drills and holding workshops to be ready to respond to any situation or possible event that should occur in this city before, on or after Election Day.”
While officials said there have been no credible threats of violence on or after the election, they could not stress more about being vigilant against those incidents.
Terence Monahan, chief of department for the New York Police Department, said last week while outlining election security plans “it’s no secret that this election is more contentious than in years past.’’
Washington D.C. police have limited leave for officers to ensure adequate staff.
It said the District spent 100,000 dollars on less-lethal munitions and chemical irritants for riot control to replenish a stockpile depleted by clashes over the summer.
Police advisory signs were put up on light poles along streets adjacent to the White House, prohibiting the use of firearms during demonstrations starting Saturday and extending for five days after the election.
Shutdown D.C., an activist group in the nation’s capital, is organising weeks-long demonstrations starting today, calling on participants to join in on election night as an event is planned at the Black Lives Matter Plaza, which is a block away from the White House.
The event will include a giant screen showing election results, as well as performances by bands playing Washington’s signature go-go music.
U.S. stocks were sharply higher yesterday morning, one day before Election Day, when Wall Street expects Biden will win the presidency and Democrats will retake the Senate and maintain control of the House.
Stocks started the day off with a bang in New York, retracing some of their losses from last week, when they recorded their worst week since March.
The Dow traded 1.9 per cent, or some 510 points, higher around mid-morning. The broader S&P 500 rose 1.8 per cent, and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.4 per cent.
