From Atlanta to Phoenix, from the plains of the Midwest to the coasts of Florida, voters waited in long lines to decide between two polar opposite world views.
“I encourage everyone to get out and vote,” said the 60-year-old Democratic vice-president, who could become the first woman to lead the world’s leading power.
The 78-year-old Republican, author of a spectacular political comeback after being criminally convicted, said he was “very confident” in his victory, just after voting in West Palm Beach, near his Florida residence.
The former president pledged to recognize his possible defeat “if the election is fair.” “So far I think it’s been fair.”
But at the start of the evening, he denounced on his Truth Social platform an alleged “massive cheating” in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a crucial pivotal state.
A city official, Republican Seth Bluestein, replied on X that there was not an ounce of “truth” in this “disinformation”.
– “Future of democracy” –
More than 82 million Americans have already cast their vote early.
While the first polling stations in Indiana and Kentucky closed at 6:00 p.m. (11:00 p.m. GMT), it is impossible to know whether it will take hours or days of counting to know the final verdict.
Americans are also voting on whether Democrats or Republicans will control the Senate and House of Representatives forming Congress in Washington.
The highly controversial issue of abortion is the subject of several local referendums.
“This election is fundamental for the future of our 250-year-old democracy,” summarized for AFP Sam Ruark, a 50-year-old environmental activist in Asheville, North Carolina, ravaged this fall by a hurricane.
Darlene Taylor of Erie, Pennsylvania, voted for Trump because “we don't want four more years of high inflation, this price of gas and lies.”
Throughout the campaign and hundreds of meetings, two seemingly irreconcilable Americas competed for voters' votes, each side convinced that the other would lead the country to disaster.
The former prosecutor and California senator of Indian and Jamaican descent called her rival a “fascist.” The 78-year-old ex-business magnate with populist rhetoric insisted that she was “dumb as her feet” and was going to “destroy” the United States.
The latest polls give the two adversaries almost tied in the seven crucial states, those which, in this indirect vote, will give the Democrat or the Republican the sufficient number of electors to reach the threshold of 270 out of 538, synonymous with victory.
To try to convince in just three months of campaigning, Kamala Harris focused on a message of protection of democracy and the right to abortion, aimed at women and moderate Republicans.
Donald Trump, who left the White House in 2021 in a chaotic context, having survived two impeachment procedures, replayed in this campaign the same score as in 2016 and 2020, presenting himself as an anti-system candidate.
– Fake bomb threats –
This day of voting concludes a stunning race, marked by the sudden entry into the running of the vice-president in July, replacing aging President Joe Biden, and by two assassination attempts against the former Republican president, four times criminally charged.
The post-election period is a big unknown.
Both sides have filed dozens of lawsuits, while two in three Americans fear an eruption of violence.
Some polling stations have turned into fortresses, monitored by drones and with snipers on the roofs.
False bomb threats attributed to Russian destabilization operations targeted polling stations, briefly disrupting the vote in Georgia (southeast), according to the authorities.
In the federal capital Washington, metal barriers notably surround the White House.
The images of January 6, 2021, when Trumpists attacked the headquarters of Congress, remain in everyone's minds.
