A record turnout is expected for the US presidential election today as America decides between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
97.6 million people have already cast their ballots early, with the pandemic bringing a massive shift to postal voting.
It’s close to two thirds of the 150 million who came out four years ago.
Polling stations on the US East Coast open up from 11 o’clock Irish time.
President Trump was campaigning in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Michigan yesterday.
And local political analyst and former Fine Gael Senator Pat O’Neill says his performance in those states will be crucial to the outcome noting “There the ones that Hilary lost the last time which were always democratic states, only one of them 70,000 votes between the three of them so it just shows it is so tight and they will have a major say because he’s not going to win California, if he doesn’t win Texas he’s gone”.
He adds “He can still win without winning Florida but, I mean, Florida won’t have a result for about ten days there’s so many postal votes involved in Florida so we’re not even going to have a result Wednesday or Thursday morning because there’s so many postal votes, I mean nearly 90,000,000 people have voted already so usually when there’s a high turnout it’s always a sign it’s against the government”.
