Washington: There is a close contest between Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump. Opinion polls say that this is a historically close contest. Immigration is a major issue in this. Both are trying to woo the Indian-Americans on this issue. According to the New York Times/Siena College Poll, there is a very close contest between Harris and Trump in seven states. Both parties have put in their full strength before the presidential vote on Tuesday.

According to the New York Times/Siena College survey, Harris has a slight lead in Nevada, North Carolina and Wisconsin, while Trump is ahead in Arizona. There is a close contest in Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, in the Des Moines Register/Mediacom survey, Harris has overtaken Trump in Iowa.

Women voters are responsible for this change. Trump won here easily in 2016 and 2020. Harris got 47 percent support in Iowa as compared to Trump's 44 percent. This is a change from the September survey in Iowa, in which Trump got a four-point lead.
More than 76 million Americans have already voted

Crores of people have already voted under the facility of early voting in America. About 140,000 votes were cast in early voting in New York. People are very excited about it. According to the data of the Election Lab Tracker of the University of Florida, more than 7.6 crore Americans have already voted. There are about 18.65 crore voters in America. They are taking advantage of early voting through mail-in ballots or by reaching individual polling places. This helps voters avoid bad weather, long queues or time management on the day of elections.

It may take time for the results to come

If everything goes smoothly and the margin of victory in key states is huge, the results will be out by midnight. But it seems unlikely, as there is a close contest between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. People will not know the result until Kamala Harris or Donald Trump achieve significant victories in most states, especially swing states.

Traditionally, the losing candidate accepts defeat even before the official announcement when the result is clear. But Trump has not accepted that President Joe Biden defeated him in 2020. If Trump loses, he will definitely challenge it legally. If Harris also loses, it will be a very close contest.

How are presidential elections held in America?

There are many stages of elections in America. These include primaries, national convention, general elections, electoral college etc. The first stage is to select delegates. They are selected from political parties through primaries and caucuses.

In the National Convention, there is a debate between the candidates chosen by the Republican and Democratic parties. The next process is to select electors. The more population of a state, the more electors are elected by the general public from that state.

This is the most important phase of the presidential election. 538 electors are selected from across the country. The party that wins the election needs at least 270 electors.

The president is elected by an electoral college of 538 members distributed among the states according to their population, not by popular vote. Whoever gets a majority of the popular vote in a state gets all of its electoral votes.

Therefore, a candidate may win a majority of the popular vote but still lose if that does not translate into a majority in the Electoral College.

Harris is far ahead of Trump in fundraising

Kamala Harris is far ahead of Trump in raising funds. Her campaign committee has raised $997.2 million from January to October 16, while Trump's campaign committee has raised only $388 million.