From Pennsylvania to Arizona, voters embrace calm before the storm in swing states

Voting has begun in the battleground states expected to decide who will be the next US president – Vice-President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump.

Our correspondents on the ground are reporting that polling stations are calm and occasionally festive. Many have also been nearly empty, thanks to this election’s record level of early and mail-in voting.

In past elections, queues have gotten longer closer to the times polls close. Of the seven key swing states, Georgia will close polls first, at 19:00 EST (00:00 GST). They will all wrap up by 22:00 EST (02:00 GST), with western states closing later.

Polling in the state’s largest city – Philadelphia – started this morning with a festive atmosphere. A “DJ at the polls” blasted music for a long queue of mostly smiling voters, who bobbed their heads, nursed coffees and munched on bagels outside a church downtown.

But there were also hiccups.

At City Hall, poll workers had struggled with a stuck door, confusing a handful of would-be voters. Polling booths there were empty an hour after opening.

The whole country is watching how Pennsylvania, which went to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020, will cast its 19 electoral votes. Its mix of rural and urban voters make it extremely competitive. Economics and abortion issues are top of mind here.

One thing to watch for in the results is whether Trump took a greater-than-anticipated share of the state’s Latino population.

–By Bernd Debusmann, Philadelphia

The wounds of Hurricane Helene are still raw in the western mountainous part of the state.

A generator-powered tent has been installed as a polling location in Buncombe County, after the original site was damaged in the September storm.

Roughly two-and-a-half hours after North Carolina polls opened, 35 people had voted here, Buncombe County’s communications director said. This area had high early voting, beating the state-wide average.

The region is dominated by Republicans, and whether or not voters show up here could make a big impact on who takes the state’s 16 electoral votes. Trump barely won North Carolina in 2020, by under 2%.

Debra and Robert Kendrick, who were rescued by canoe after Helene destroyed their local roads, both voted for Trump.

“It was an easy decision,” said Debra, standing on the mud-slicked gravel road outside the tent.

Robert said immigration is his top concern.

“I’m just glad we have a place to be able to vote,” Robert said.

– By Brandon Drenon, Buncombe County

A small group of voters trickled into the polling centre on an abnormally warm Election Day morning in Ann Arbor, with many having already voted early. In the liberal Washtenaw County, Harris is hoping for massive voter turnout to make up for Trump’s expected wins in rural areas.

Courtney Kutcher cast her vote for Harris and believes women’s participation could sway the tight race toward the vice-president.

“For those of us who have daughters and young kids, there’s a lot on the line,” she said.

In this “blue wall state,” which went to Democrats for decades until Trump won it in 2016, there are many different populations who could decide which candidate receives its 15 electoral votes. That includes Arab-Americans and others frustrated with the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the war in Gaza as well the state’s large group of unionised autoworkers.

Michigan went back to Democrats in 2020.

– By Madeline Halpert, Ann Arbor

Outside of a polling station in Atlanta, Georgia the mood is calm and joyful.

Although long lines have been a problem in the past, today people are in and out in about four minutes – an election worker tells me it’s because so many people voted early.

About 4 million votes have already been cast, or about 80% of the electorate if turnout is the same as it was in 2020, when Biden won the state. Republicans had taken the state going back to 2000 and Trump is hoping to get it back this time around.

The state has strict rules about what you can and can’t do while voting. One woman who walked into the site wearing a Harris-Walz campaign shirt was asked to turn the shirt inside out.

But some of the rules have been relaxed.

Last year a court struck a part of the law that made it illegal to pass out water or food to voters in line. Today a non-partisan group is giving out food and blasting music just across the street. Their goal isn’t to tell people how to vote – it’s just to make sure they do.

-By Angelica Casas, Atlanta

Voters have been trickling into locations around Milwaukee slowly and steadily.

There’s a DJ pumping out tunes for people waiting in line inside the Highland Gardens apartment complex . When I ask one of them, Kornisha Lymon, whether she’s enthusiastic about voting, she looks at me like I’m crazy.

“You see me dancing?” she says. “We’re feeling it!”

Kornisha is casting her vote for Harris. To win Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes the vice-president needs a big turnout in majority-black neighbourhoods like this one. Biden carried the blue wall state with a margin of less than 1%.

Veteran political observer Michael Wagner of the University of Wisconsin told me Democrats were feeling enthusiastic about their get-out-the-vote efforts state-wide, and also that the campaign has shifted in recent days.

“There’s less evidence of the ground game being strong from the Trump campaign,” he says.

But Wisconsin is still very much a tossup.

Wagner suggested polls could be undercounting young women – but might also be undercounting young white men without a college education.

“They typically vote for Trump,” he said.

-By Mike Wendling, Milwaukee

In the swing state of Arizona, there’s a steady stream of voters filing into South Mountain High School in Phoenix.

Several voters I chatted with here tell me they were on the fence about voting and said they didn’t like either candidate for president.

Walking out of the voting centre, Krystle Colter tells me she was torn.

“I don’t want to vote for either of them,” she said about Trump and Harris.

She said after talking with family, she decided on Harris over measures that she says protect lower-income families and single mothers.

Abortion was also a difficult issue for her. There is a question this year on the ballot in the state on whether abortion rights should be enshrined in the state’s constitution.

“It’s hard because I don’t believe in abortion for the most part,” she explained to me. “But when someone has been raped or it’s incest, I just can’t imagine that. If I were in that situation it would be hard to be forced to have a child.”

-By Christal Hayes, Phoenix

Nevada has attracted its fair share of canvassers from neighbouring California, where the Democrats are all but certain to win.

Pro-Harris Californians were among 150 volunteers and staffers at a canvassing event in East Las Vegas late Monday.

“I had to put myself physically into the work and not just write cheques or argue over dinner tables,” said Peter Brock of Fairfax, California.

He said he’s noticed there’s a lot of election fatigue among people he’s met knocking on doors. Some residents told him they’ve been visited by canvassers from both parties more than once.

Six electoral votes hang in the balance.

In the sunbelt of the United States and home to vast swaths of desert and ranch-land, Nevada has gone for Democratic candidates in the last six presidential elections. But in 2020, Biden beat Trump by just 35,000 votes.

The economy this year has been a key issue for voters, who regularly cite inflation and housing affordability as concerns.

Trump’s “No Tax on Tips” proposal has resonated with some voters. Harris has meanwhile expressed support for the idea, although she would like to see it paired with the first federal minimum wage increase since 2009.

Reproductive rights are also expected to drive voters to the polls. This election has Nevadans deciding on Question 6, which proposes making abortion access a right enshrined in the state’s constitution.

-By Lily Jamali, Las Vegas