DTens of millions of Americans are voting on Tuesday to decide whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump will enter the White House, an election under high tension and with historic stakes for the United States and the rest of the world.
Darlene Taylor cast her ballot at an elementary school in Erie, Pennsylvania, a key state that alone could swing the outcome of this extremely close election.
The 56-year-old woman, who lives on social benefits, wears a t-shirt displaying “Trump-Vance”, the tandem she wants to see lead this federation of 50 states and 335 million inhabitants.
“We don’t want four more years of high inflation, this price of gasoline and lies,” she explains.
Wearing a baseball cap, Marchelle Beason, 46, voted for Kamala Harris. “I think it will reconcile the whole population, the whole world, because we are so divided right now,” she said. “She acts for peace, while everything her opponent says is systematically negative. »
Polling stations opened at 6:00 a.m. local time on the east coast of the United States, while more than 82 million Americans have already cast their vote early.
It is impossible to know whether it will take hours or days of counting to decide between the 60-year-old Democratic vice-president and the 78-year-old former Republican leader, whose personalities and visions could not be more different.
“He is out of control”
Two apparently irreconcilable Americas have flocked to their meetings in recent weeks, each camp convinced that the other will lead the country to disaster.
“If she doesn’t win, we’re screwed. Totally. Donald Trump is going to ruin everything. It is out of control,” worries Robin Matthews, a 50-year-old association leader who came to listen to Kamala Harris on Monday evening in Philadelphia.
But for Ruth McDowell, Trump “is the one who will save this country”. This 65-year-old administrative assistant, who came to attend the Republican’s last meeting in Michigan, assures that she will be “very sad for (her) grandchildren” if the vice-president wins.
Kamala Harris called her rival a “fascist”. Donald Trump insisted that she was “dumb as hell” and that she was going to “destroy” the country.
In the federal capital Washington, metal barriers surround the White House, the Capitol and other sensitive sites. An impressive number of downtown stores have covered their windows with wooden boards.
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