U.S. election live blog: Harris, Trump locked in close race on Election Day

NEW YORK — Americans headed to the polls Tuesday to select their next president, with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Donald Trump neck and neck in the battleground states that will decide the tight race, according to polling data.

As Harris and Trump offer starkly different views on the economy, trade, diplomacy and immigration, the outcome could reshape the U.S. for years, with the repercussions felt across Asia and globally.

To win the presidency, a candidate must receive at least 270 of the 538 Electoral College votes. Polls will close as soon as 6 p.m. Eastern time in some states. But it could take days to determine the outcome. Four days of vote counting were needed to confirm Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.

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Compiled by Nikkei staff writers and from wire reports. All times are U.S. Eastern time.

Nov. 5

12:30 p.m. — At a polling site in Bethesda, Maryland, a heavily Democratic area, Trump’s stance on immigration impressed one voter while Harris’ support for reproductive rights swayed another.

Although Maryland is thousands of kilometers from the southern border, Declan Leary, a 25-year-old white writer, said he voted for the former president because every state is a border state.

“They may come into Texas, but they go to every state,” he said, adding that he believes Republican and Democratic politicians succumb to pressure from corporate donors to keep the borders open so that companies can hire cheap labor. “Trump is different.”

Chris, a 19-year-old Black student at Howard University, Harris’ alma mater, and first-time voter, said he voted for the vice president because of her support for reproductive freedom.

“Most issues go away after four years but birth and abortion are a life-changing matter,” he said.

12:00 p.m. — Trump’s tough talk on China is resonating with some Asian American voters in New York’s Chinatown neighborhood, located in Manhattan.

“Trump can control China,” said Jimmy Truong, 37, a Vietnamese American who voted for the first time. Truong said he worries about what Trump tariffs might do to Vietnamese imports, but said controlling China was “more important.”

Sero Chin, 58, is from Hong Kong and has has lived in the U.S. for more than 30 years, but said she only decided to apply for citizenship in order to vote for Trump in this election.

“After Trump came out I have a sensation of belonging in America,” she said, citing communism, illegal immigration and rising crime in New York City as her biggest policy concerns.

8:00 a.m. — Asian Americans are the fastest-growing voting block in the U.S., numbering around 15 million, and could play an important role in deciding the battleground states of Georgia and Nevada.

A September survey commissioned by APIAVote and AAPI Data found that 66% of Asian Americans would vote for Harris while 28% supported Trump. Harris, the daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, would be the first president of Asian-American ancestry, if elected.

Asian American community leaders say Democrats have been more active than Republicans this year in reaching out to Asian voters, pointing to a nationwide series of Harris campaign advertisements in different Asian languages. The Republican Party, by contrast, shut down some of the Nevada community centers it had set up in 2022 to help members of minority groups register to vote.

7:00 a.m. — According to ad tracking firm AdImpact, the top issue mentioned in Trump’s television advertisements was inflation, whereas Harris’ was taxation.

An accounting of ads between July and October showed Trump also highlighting the economy, housing, immigration and crime. Harris also focused on health care, housing, abortion and crime.

In Trump’s most-aired ad, titled “Prices,” Harris is seen saying, “Everyday prices are too high,” citing prices of food, rent, gas and back-to- school clothes. “A loaf of bread costs 50% more today,” she says.

Harris also appeared in her campaign’s most frequently run ad, saying: “As a prosecutor, I never asked a victim or a witness, are you a Republican or a Democrat? The only thing I ever asked them, are you OK?”

6:00 a.m. — Harris will spend election night at her alma mater, Howard University. Graduates of the private, historically black university have included Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and Nobel Literature Prize laureate Toni Morrison, but never a president.

Trump will have a watch party at Palm Beach Convention Center in Florida, not far from his Mar a Lago estate. In 2016, Trump celebrated his election victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton in New York. In 2020, Trump held an election night event in Washington.

Nov. 4

10:00 p.m. — Billionaires Bill Gates and Mark Cuban, actors Harrison Ford and Arnold Schwarzenegger, actress Scarlett Johansson, musicians Taylor Swift, Madonna and Jennifer Lopez, and basketball star LeBron James are some of the celebrities who have endorsed Harris.

Billionaires Elon Musk and Bill Ackman, actors Mel Gibson and Jon Voight, retired American football star Brett Favre, and former astronaut Buzz Aldrin are among some of the famous figures who have endorsed Trump.

7:00 p.m. — The battle to reach the required 270 electoral vote threshold could technically end in a 269-269 tie. In this case, the decision would go to the newly elected House of Representatives.

Each state delegation would have one vote. A majority of states — 26 of 50 — is needed to win. Senators, in turn, would elect the vice president.

The Congress meets in a joint session on Jan. 6, 2025, to count the electoral votes.

4:00 p.m. — More than 81 million votes had been cast by late Monday, with women accounting for 54% of the electorate, a gender gap seen as a good sign for Harris, who has made abortion rights a centerpiece of her campaign.

By party, 38% of the early voters were registered Democrats, 36% were registered Republicans and 26% were independents or members of smaller parties. A relatively larger share of the early voters included Republicans, which could be a helpful for Trump.

In 2016, 47 million voters cast ballots before Election Day. In 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic raised the risk of going to the polls, 101 million people voted early.