Americans hopeful as voting in US presidential election enters high-gear

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - Voters in the US state of Maryland struck an upbeat note Tuesday as they join millions of Americans who are casting their ballots in this year's pivotal presidential race.

"I really think it's time, you know, for women to be respected in a different way from how we have historically been treated," Amy Dixon, a self-described "very strong Democrat" who cast her ballot for Vice President Kamala Harris, told Anadolu as she brought her daughter to cast her first ballot at the Silver Spring Civic Center.

"I think in either case, it's going to be a difficult morning, and there's a lot of work to do moving forward so that we can come better together, but I'm hopeful that it'll be a good future," she added.

That sentiment was echoed by Lynette Duke, a resident of Silver Spring, who said women's rights was her priority issue.

"I have a young child, a young daughter, and I want her to have a choice. I'm one that feels that children should have a right to live, of course, but I still think people should have the right to choose," she said.

But Dolores Reyes, a vocal supporter of Republican nominee Donald Trump, said she was supporting the ex-president because the Biden administration has not "been able to solve any problems."

"Look at the Middle East. Look at Russia and Ukraine; hasn't been solved. They haven't solved any problems. There's still homeless people, people who are on the street, people who don't have a job, people whose housing is terrible, people who are killing each other. They haven't done a darn thing," she said.

Voters are casting their ballots as Trump and Harris find themselves neck-and-neck heading into Tuesday's election. A compilation of polling from the RealClearPolitics website has Harris ahead by just 0.1% nationally after she gained ground in recent weeks against Trump, erasing his one-time lead.

The race is similarly close when looking at the seven key battleground states -- Arizona, Georgia Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Harris is ahead in Wisconsin (+0.4%) and Michigan (+0.5%), but Trump is leading in the other five.

The outcome is all but certain to hinge on the results in those state, and the spreads are well-within the polls' margins of error.

Given the tightness of the contest, it is highly unlikely that a winner will be declared Tuesday night as had been the normal up until 2020. It could take days for a victor to be announced.

Jean Pratt, a naturalized US citizen originally from France, said the top issue for him this year was "sanity" as he cast his vote for Harris.

"I think that I'm looking for people competent, thoughtful, use your logic, pragmatic. I want somebody who can work for everybody. That's it," he said.

Further down the ballot, voters will determine the composition of the next US Congress.

In the Senate, 34 seats are up for election. Senators are elected to six-year terms and one-third are elected every two years. Roughly four of the races are considered toss-ups, including contests in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, which are currently held by Democrats.

Republicans are slightly favored to win numerical control of the Senate, but whoever emerges victorious will be left to navigate a precarious razor-thin majority. In the 100-seat Senate, due to procedural rules, parties often need 60 rather than just 50 votes to pass legislation.

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for election, and as with the Senate, most forecasts have the chamber near-evenly split. Just a couple of dozen competitive elections will determine whether Republicans or Democrats will control the House.

At the state and local levels, voters will decide on a range of initiatives and races, from school boards to state-level ballot measures that can hold the weight of law. A total of 11 governor’s races across the nation are being contested.