The United States in suspense

Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds Agence France-Presse Democratic supporters attend Kamala Harris' election night party at Howard University.

Fabien Deglise In Atlanta, Georgia

Published at 19:42 Updated at 22:02

• United States

Americans were still holding their breath early Tuesday evening as the preliminary ballot count was still unable to deliver a clear result in the race for the presidency of the United States, which remained tight and uncertain for Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris until the last metre before the finish line.

While each candidate had already won the predictable states in their quest for a majority in the electoral college—Texas and Florida for the former president, Vermont and Maryland for the vice president—uncertainty continued for a good part of the evening in several other key states, such as Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.

Voters went to the polls all day Tuesday with radically different motivations, reflecting the polarizing visions of America that the two candidates presented through the final day of their campaigns. An Associated Press poll of 110,000 voters nationwide during the vote showed a divided electorate mired in fear, resentment and hope for change.

Inflation, but also immigration, were among the issues that guided Republicans to the polls. For Democrats ? The future of democracy and freedom of expression in the United States, as well as individual freedoms, particularly those of women, threatened for years by restrictive restrictions on access to abortion, indicate the opinions collected at polling places.

Voters appeared equally divided in their assessment of the country and, more importantly, the trajectory it is now on, with 48 percent of Republicans believing America’s best days are in the past, while 73 percent of Democrats believe the best days are in the future, according to a poll conducted Tuesday by NBC News.

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“We can’t be more divided, and that division is ruining the country,” said Keehln Wheeler, a Republican and president of an Atlanta marketing company, whom we met earlier in the day. “We’re at a crossroads and we have to decide what the future of our country is.”

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“This is a historic election that I absolutely wanted to be a part of,” said Shyae Hood, a college student in her early 20s who was voting for the first time Tuesday. “I’m a proud member of Generation Z and I want to protect American democracy, which ensures our freedoms. And I also want to see the first woman in the White House.”

Overall, voting took place amid anxiety but without major problems, according to officials in several states. In the Atlanta area, a very high turnout during early voting had the effect of reducing the number of people at the polls on Election Day. More than 55% of the state’s voters cast their ballots before November 2, almost twice as many as in the previous presidential election. Of the ten or so polling stations visited on Tuesday, none showed huge lines as has been the case in the past.

During the day, the average waiting time was estimated at one minute and a half by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who indicated that the electoral process was “going well.”

However, lines formed as soon as polling stations opened in several other states, such as Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Pennsylvania, without compromising access to the ballot boxes.

Late Tuesday, the FBI opened investigations into bomb threats made against polling places in Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin, while also casting doubt on the seriousness of the attacks. The agency said the threats “appear to have originated from Russian email domains.” The alerts delayed voting at a handful of polling places in the Atlanta area, with some staying open 30 minutes longer than planned.

Photo: Evan Vucci Associated Press Donald Trump at his campaign headquarters in West Palm Beach, Florida

As he did in the final days of his election campaign, Donald Trump fueled the rumor mill about election fraud on Tuesday afternoon by claiming on his social network that “there is a lot of talk about mass cheating in Philadelphia. Law enforcement is coming!!!” Pennsylvania is at the heart of a very tight duel between the two candidates for the White House. The city’s commissioner, Seth Bluestein, responded to him on the X network, specifying that “there is absolutely no truth to this allegation. This is another example of disinformation. The vote in Philadelphia took place in complete security,” he added.

Tuesday’s election night marked the culmination of a chaotic, stormy, and eventful election campaign. It began with Joe Biden as the Democratic candidate, facing former President Donald Trump, and ended on positive notes from Vice President Kamala Harris, who succeeded the current president after he withdrew from the race last July. Donald Trump, for his part, maintained his radical rhetoric on immigration, while increasing his personal attacks on his opponents, against whom he threatened to call in the military if he were re-elected.

With bated breath, American democracy was still faced early in the evening with the uncertainty of a delicate choice between two options: bringing in Kamala Harris, the first African-American and Asian-descendant woman to the Oval Office, or bringing back Donald Trump, who would become the first elected president to be indicted and convicted of fraud, which was done in a trial held in New York earlier this year. The populist faces several other charges related to the insurrection launched against the Capitol on January 6, 2021, the Republicans' attempt to disrupt the 2020 electoral process and the questionable manipulation of secret documents after his defeat.

This report was funded with support from the Transat International Journalism Fund-Le Devoir.