- Early exit polls conducted by CNN has revealed that voters in the 2020 US election are confident that votes will be counted accurately.
Early exit polls conducted by CNN has revealed that voters in the 2020 US election are confident that votes will be counted accurately.
Nine in 10 voters report that voting in their state is easy, with those who report it is difficult in the single digits.
According to CNN, more than nine in 10 voters report they decided on their vote for president before last week, while very few voters decided in the last week.
Also, more than one in 10 were first time voters in 2020, which is relatively stable compared to the makeup of voters in the 2016 election.
Over 100 million Americans have cast their ballots in early voting as opinion polls favoured the Democratic Party presidential candidate, Joe Biden, over the incumbent Republican President Donald Trump.
Biden appears to be ahead in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – three industrial states his Republican rival won by margins of less than one per cent to clinch victory in 2016.
Both rivals spent the final hours of the race rallying in key swing states but national polls give a firm lead to Biden. The BBC reports that it is a closer race in the states that could decide the outcome.
These include Arizona, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
Though Trump won big in 2016 with a wide margin of between eight to 10 per cent in Iowa, Ohio and Texas, the numbers look much closer in all three this time.
This informed the thinking by some political analysts that his chances of re-election were low.
The Economist said Biden is “very likely” to beat Trump while a political analysis website, FiveThirtyEight sees Biden as “favoured” to win the election but says the President could still come out on top.
Both candidates are using the Election Day as an opportunity to drive home the messages they have been hammering to voters for the last few weeks.
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump spoke to Fox News by phone, saying he felt good about his chances of victory and predicting he would win “big” in key states such as Florida and Arizona.
“I think we have a really solid chance of winning,” he said. Asked when he would declare victory, he added, “When there’s victory. If there’s a victory… there’s no reason to play games.”
Biden visited his childhood home in Scranton in Pennsylvania – a key swing state – and addressed a crowd in the town, saying, “We’ve got to restore the backbone to this country. The middle class built this country, Wall Street didn’t.”
The winner of the poll is expected to emerge Wednesday.
