Trump or Biden? Big turnout, few hiccups as voters choose

Millions of voters braved coronavirus concerns and occasional long lines on Tuesday to choose between President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden in an epic election that will influence how US confronts everything from pandemic to race relations for years to come. Those who turned out in person joined 102 million fellow Americans who voted days or weeks earlier, a record number that represented 73 per cent of total vote in 2016 presidential election. Spirits were high and positive in many polling places after a long, exceptionally divisive campaign.

" most important issue is for us to set aside our personal differences that we have with each or," said Eboni Price, 29, who rode her horse Moon to her polling place in a rthwest Houston neighbourhood.

Biden entered Election Day with multiple paths to victory, while Trump, playing catch-up in a number of battleground states, h a narrower but still feasible ro to clinch 270 Electoral College votes. Control of Senate was at stake, too: Democrats needed to net three seats if Biden captured White House to gain control of all of Washington for first time in a dece. House was expected to remain under Democratic control. With worst public health crisis in a century still fiercely present, pandemic and Trump's handling of it was inescapable focus for 2020.

president began his day on an upbeat te, predicting that he would do even better than in 2016. But during a midday visit to his campaign hequarters, he spoke in a gravelly, subdued tone. "Winning is easy," Trump told reporters. "Losing is never easy, t for me, it is t." Trump left open possibility of dressing nation Tuesday night, even if a winner h t been determined. Biden h scheduled a nighttime speech from his Delaware hometown but, hours before slated to deliver it, he turned ncommittal, saying, "If re is something to talk about tonight, I will talk about it. If t, I will wait till votes are counted next day."

"I am superstitious about predicting what an outcome is going to be until it happens...but I am hopeful," said Biden, who earlier h me a last pitch in critical state of Pennsylvania.

"It is just so uncertain ... you cant think of an election in recent past where so many states were up for grabs."

momentum from early voting carried into Election Day, as an energised electorate produced long lines at polling sites throughout country. Voters braved worries of coronavirus, threats of polling place intimidation and expectations of long lines caused by changes to voting systems, but appeared undeterred as turut appeared it would easily surpass 139 million ballots cast four years ago. major problems arose on Tuesday, outside typical glitches of a presidential election: Some polling places opened late, robocalls provided false information to voters in Iowa and Michigan, and machines or software malfunctioned in some counties in battleground states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Texas.

cybersecurity ncy at Department of Homeland Security said re were outward signs by midday of any malicious activity. record-setting early vote -- and legal skirmishing over how it would be counted -- drew unsupported allegations of fraud from Trump, who h repeatedly refused to guarantee he would hour election's result. Biden visited his childhood home and church in Scranton on Tuesday as part of a get-out--vote effort before awaiting election results in his longtime hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. His running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, was visiting Detroit, a heavily Black city in battleground Michigan.

Biden and his wife, Jill, also stopped at St. Joseph's on Brandywine in Wilmington, Delaware, with two of his grandchildren in tow. n y walked to his late son Beau Biden's grave in church cemetery. Beau, a former Delaware attorney general, died of brain cancer in 2015 and h encourd former vice president to make ar White House run. Trump called in to "Fox & Friends", where he predicted he would win by a larger electoral margin than he did in 2016, when he tallied 306 electoral votes to Democrat Hillary Clinton's 232. He invited hundreds of supporters to an election night party in East Room of White House.

first polls close at 6 pm Eastern time in swaths of Indiana and Kentucky, followed by a stey stream of closings every 30 minutes to an hour throughout evening. last polls in Alaska were shutting down at 1 am Eastern time on Wednesday. hard-fought campaign left voters on both sides er to move on, although result might t be kwn for days. "I believe re is a lot of division and separation," said Kelvin Hardnett, who was among more than two dozen voters who lined up more than an hour before polling site at Cobb County Civic Center outside Atlanta opened on Tuesday. "And I believe that once we get past names and titles and personal ndas, n you kw, we can focus on some real issues."

A new fence was erected around White House. And in downtowns ranging from New York to Denver to Minneapolis, workers boarded up businesses lest vote le to unrest of sort that broke out earlier this year amid protests over racial inequality. Just a short walk from White House, for block after block, stores h ir windows and doors covered. Some kept just a front door open, hoping to attract a little business. Both candidates voted early, and first ly Melania Trump cast her ballot on Tuesday near Mar-a-Lago, couple's estate in Palm Beach, Florida. Mrs Trump, who recently recovered from COVID-19, was only one t wearing a mask as she entered polling site.

Her spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said first ly was only person at polling site besides poll workers and her staff all of whom were tested. Whoever wins will have to deal with an anxious nation, reeling from a once-in-a-century health crisis that has closed schools and businesses and that is worsening as wear turns cold. campaign has largely been a referendum on Trump's handling of virus. Trump has long insisted nation is "rounding turn" on virus. But Dr Deborah Birx, coordinator of White House coronavirus task force, broke with president and joined a chorus of Trump ministration scientists sounding alarm about current spike in infections.

"We are entering most concerning and most dely phase of this pandemic," Birx wrote in a memo distributed to top ministration officials.

She ded that nation was t implementing "balanced" measures needed to slow spre of virus. In Virginia Beach, choice was Biden for 54-year-old Gabriella Cochrane, who said she thought former vice president would "surround himself with brightest and best" to fight pandemic. In Concord, New Hampshire, 70-year-old Linda Eastman said she was giving her vote to Trump, saying, "Maybe he was t perfect with coronavirus, but I think he did best that he could with what he h."