US Presidential Election 2024: As the United States heads to polls on Tuesday to cast their votes in the 2024 Presidential Elections, voters are set to decide between Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and Republican opponent Donald Trump. Today marks the 60th presidential election in the US.

Notably, among the 230 million eligible voters, only 160 million are registered. Over 70 million have already cast their ballots through postal or at early in-person polling stations.

As Election Day draws near, here are a few important things to know about the Presidential polls.

Who’s Eligible To Run For President?

To be eligible to run for President of the United States, candidates must meet three key requirements outlined in the U.S. Constitution.

• The President must be a natural-born citizen of the U.S.
• He/She must be at least 35 years old
• He has been a resident of US for 14 years.

Any candidate who meets the above criteria can declare their candidacy. The candidate is also required to register with the Federal Election Commission and name a principal campaign committee if he spends or raises more than USD 5,000 for his campaign.

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2020 Election Results

The November 2020 general election, along with Georgia, Guam, and Louisiana’s general runoff elections, resulted in the election of the 117th Congress. In 2020, Democratic Joseph Biden received 8,12,83,501 popular votes (51.31%), Republican Donald Trump garnered 7,42,23,975 popular votes (46.85%), Libertarian Jo Jorgensen got 1,865,535 popular votes (1.18%), while independent Kanye West received 70,950 popular votes (0.04%).

Who Is leading?

Most of the polls have predicted a tight contest between Trump and Harris, with all the leads projected within the margin of error. According to the national polls, as provided by the ‘five thirty-eight’ platform of ABC News, Harris (48) has a minor lead of 1 percentage point against Donald Trump (46.9).
NBC News and Emerson College have projected a 49%-49% tie nationally between the two candidates. Ipsos has projected a three-point lead (49%-46%) to Harris, while, AtlasIntel has projected a two-point lead (50%-48%) to Trump.

Role of Indian-Americans In The Elections

There are more than 5.2 million people of Indian origin residing in the US today. Indian Americans are now the second-largest immigrant group in the US. This year, another reason that Indian Americans have been in the limelight is the possibility that for the first time in the nation’s history, a candidate of Indian heritage, Kamala Harris could become the President.

Although Indian Americans remain committed to the Democratic Party, their attachment has declined. A Carnegie Endowment survey revealed that 47 per cent of respondents identify as Democrats, down from 56 per cent in 2020. It is interesting to note that 61 per cent of registered Indian American voter respondents plan to vote for Harris while 32 per cent intend to vote for Trump. There has been a modest shift in the community’s preferences, with a greater share of respondents willing to vote for Trump since the last election.

There is also a new gender gap in voting preferences, with 67 per cent of Indian American women intending to vote for Harris while 53 per cent of men say they plan to vote for Harris. Twenty-two per cent of women intend to vote for Trump while 39 per cent men plan to cast their ballots for him.

Timing Of Polling And Counting

The polling hours will vary across the states, but most locations will vote between 6 am to 8 pm on Tuesday (local time). Though, exit polls will start coming once voting starts, the final results will come only after counting is closed in all states.

The first polls will close at around 7 pm ET (5:30 am IST) in six states including Georgia. The final polls will close in the blue state of Hawaii and in the red state of Alaska at 12 am ET (10:30 am IST). Total votes will close by 1 pm ET (11:30 am IST), following which counting will start. The results in small states can be projected soon after polling states, some key battleground states may take hours in projecting the winner.

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