Photo: Logan Cyrus and Ronda Churchill Agence France-Presse The opinion poll, focused on seven crucial states, certainly gives Kamala Harris the lead in a majority of them, and is perfectly tied with Donald Trump in two others, while her rival is ahead of her in Arizona.
Roberto Schmidt – Agence France-Presse, Nicolas Revise – Agence France-Presse, Aurélia End – Agence France-Presse
Published at 11:44
- United States
A poll gives wings to the Harris camp, another reassures the Trump team: two days before the election, the outcome of a presidential duel in the United States has never been so unpredictable.
The whole world is waiting to know if America will open the doors of the White House to a woman for the first time, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. Or if it will send back former Republican President Donald Trump, at the end of a campaign that was as eventful as could be.
More than 76 million Americans have already voted, either early or by mail. On Tuesday, when the polling stations in the world’s leading power close and the count begins, a period of feverish anticipation will begin, marked by fears of violent protests, especially if the result is very close.
According to the latest poll New York Times/Siena, it’s heading that way.
The opinion poll, focused on seven crucial states, certainly gives Kamala Harris the lead in a majority of them (in Nevada, North Carolina, Georgia, Wisconsin), and in perfect equality with Donald Trump in two others (Pennsylvania and Michigan), while her rival is ahead of her in Arizona.
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But this closely watched poll shows that she has lost ground in the most contested state: Pennsylvania, this vast territory in the northeast which has 19 electors out of the minimum 270 that one of the two candidates must reach to win.
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In all cases, the difference is tiny.
The Democratic candidate, who is campaigning in the center and who is counting on the defense of abortion rights to mobilize women en masse, is facing an opponent with an increasingly extreme message.
On Saturday, a local opinion poll delighted the Democratic camp, showing that Kamala Harris was now ahead of Donald Trump in Iowa, a small state in the center of the country where the 78-year-old billionaire seemed assured of a comfortable victory.
As the D-day approaches, the two rivals, who have spent tens of thousands of dollars, are trying to occupy the field and saturate the media space.
On Saturday, Kamala Harris made a surprise appearance in New York on the comedy show “Saturday Night Live”, lending herself to a self-mockery exercise with the comedian Maya Rudolph.
The vice president, a former California prosecutor born 60 years ago to a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, suddenly entered the campaign in July after the resounding withdrawal of Joe Biden, 81 years old.
“Fascist”, “stupid”
On Sunday, she returns to Michigan, an industrial pivot state on the shores of the Great Lakes, where she must convince a blue-collar electorate.
She is expected to call again to “turn the page on a decade with Donald Trump”, a New York real estate billionaire who was elected president to everyone's surprise in 2016 and who has shaken up American democracy as well as relations international.
Kamala Harris portrays him as a “fascist” with a “vengeful” spirit.
The tireless populist tribune, on whom judicial convictions and indictments seem to slide, having emerged unscathed from two assassination attempts, has turned to open insults: he speaks of “Kamala, with a low IQ” and calls her “as stupid as her feet”.
He presents himself as a providential man for a United States threatened by a “Depression of the type of 1929” and “invaded” by millions of “murderous” illegal immigrants.
The voting system in the United States, a federal country, is complex. The presidency is awarded by indirect universal suffrage: Americans vote for a college of 538 electors, distributed among the 50 states, without the total number of votes at the national level being decisive.
A large majority of these states are already considered acquired either to Kamala Harris or to Donald Trump. This is why the candidates' efforts and the suspense are concentrated on the seven “swing states”.
Donald Trump, who returns to Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia on Sunday, is already making numerous allegations of “cheating.”
In Virginia, Brandon Dent, a 22-year-old delivery driver, thinks his champion “will win hands down” but fears that “fraud” could reverse the result.
The former president has never acknowledged his defeat in November 2020. He is being criminally prosecuted for his role in his supporters’ assault on the Capitol, the seat of Congress in Washington, on January 6, 2021.