15 year-old Klara Hammudeh explains what really matters in the presidential election
November 2, 2024. Abortion rights in the center of Women's March in Washington D.C.
November 5, 2024
America votes! Key things you need to know about the Harris-Trump showdown
Today at 6am, polling stations will open throughout the United States, and 240 million Americans will be eligible to elect the 47th president of the US (together with the vice president) and also who will take all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 34 of the 100 seats in the Senate.
At 9pm, the polling stations will close and, after the votes are counted, the world will learn whether the next president will be current vice president Kamala Harris (who took over from Joe Biden as presidential candidate only in July) or former president Donald J. Trump, who has survived several assassination attempts over the years.
Here are the key things you need to know about the 2024 presidential elections in the United States.
Each vote counts, but swing state votes matter more
Voters from each of the 50 states choose a previously decided number of electors (the number depends on how big the state population is, with California and Texas holding the largest number of electors – 54 and 40, respectively).
In most states, the winner of the state election takes all the electoral votes for that state. There are 538 electors in the electoral college – so securing 270 votes means winning the election.
Many states have a clear political majority, and it would be a big surprise if these voted differently than expected. They are called either ‘red’ states – that is, Republican (for example, Texas and Oklahoma) – or ‘blue’ states – which are expected to vote for the Democrats (California and New York are the most obvious examples).
Harris or Trump? It all depends on the peculiarities of the US electoral system
In between, there are 93 votes in so-called “swing states”, in which there is no clear majority, and where most of the campaigning and advertising has been focused. In 2024, there are seven swing stateswhich can vote either way: Pennsylvania (19 votes in the electoral college), Georgia (16), North Carolina (16), Michigan (15), Arizona (11), Wisconsin (10) and Nevada (6).
Who will win? All eyes on Pennsylvania!
There is no way to tell who will win the election. The race is tied almost exactly, and the election will be decided at the last moment, with mobilisation of the voters on both sides in the swing states likely becoming the deciding factor.
According to the final Siena polls for the New York Times, Donald Trump is likely to take over in Arizona (he leads by 4 points there) and Michigan (where he leads by only 1 point). On the other hand, Harris can take Georgia (+1), Nevada (+3), North Carolina (+3) and Wisconsin (+3).
Polls do not show any majority in Pennsylvania, which, with its 19 votes in the electoral college, is considered to be the crucial state: it’s next to impossible to win the election without winning Pennsylvania.
Not surprisingly, both candidates called their final rallies in Pennsylvania – on election eve, Kamala Harris will appear in Philadelphia, and Donald Trump will woo voters in Reading.
Harris or Trump? Candidates as different as their visions for America
Certainly not ‘fell out of a coconut tree.’ Who is Kamala Harris – and could she defeat Trump?
Kamala Harris (who just turned 60) is the Democratic candidate, running with Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota. Harris, the current vice president, took the mantle from Joe Bidenon July 21, after Biden was forced to abandon his reelection efforts following a disastrous appearance in the presidential debate against Trump in late June.
Harris, born and raised in California, has been a US senator (2016–20), attorney general for California (2010–16) and district attorney in San Francisco (2004–10). During the campaign, she has underlined that her entire career has been focused on public service.
“I took on perpetrators of all kinds. Predators who abused women. Fraudsters who ripped off consumers. Cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type. In this campaign, I promise you, I will proudly put my record against his any day of the week,” Kamala Harris saidat her first rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, back in July.
Screenshot of a Donald Trump's pre-election newsletter.
Donald Trump (aged 78) is the candidate for the Republican Party, who shares the ticket with JD Vance, a senator for Ohio.
Trump rose to fame as a billionaire real estate entrepreneur from New York and the host of career reality TV show The Apprentice. In 2016, he defeated Hillary Clinton and became the 45th president of the US. He failed to secure reelection in 2020 (although he still claims, without any evidence, that his loss was a result of election fraud on the part of the Democrats).
The Democrats hoped that legal problems would prevent Trump from running, but despite numerous cases against him and people from his circle – in one of the most famous cases he was found guilty on 34 counts related to concealing a “hush money” payment to an adult film star – he was able to run a successful campaign.
Over the last three months, Trump and Harris have clashed on numerous key issues, with economy, abortion, immigration and international affairs standing out as those which divide the Americans the most.
“They’ve taken your money, they’ve thrown open our borders to criminals… They’ve sent our blood and treasure to fight in stupid foreign wars–This Tuesday is your chance to stand up and declare you are not going to take it anymore,” Donald Trump wrote in one of his latest social media posts, calling on voters to support him on November 5.
Kamala Harris has defended the record of the current administration on answering the economic challenges arising from the covid-19 pandemic and the fallout of the war in Ukraine, and put a lot of effort into persuading female voters to refuse Trump reelection because of his role in overturning the Roe vs Wade Supreme Court ruling in 2022.
