‘It’s very scary’: US capital on edge, voting underway around country

The United States capital is bracing for a rush of people onto its streets on Tuesday evening, with voting in the presidential election underway and the first indications of a possible result expected in just hours.

In Washington DC, security around the White House and Capitol building has been increased, with physical fortifications now in place.

In the safe Democrat district, voters and organisers say they’re excited for a possible Kamala Harris win, but nervous about what that could mean for their city.

The insurrection on January 6, 2021 — the escalation of Donald Trump’s refusal to accept his 2020 presidential election loss — is still very much in the city’s consciousness.

After voting at the Martin Luther King Jnr Memorial Library polling station on Tuesday morning, local time, new mother Kate Hall said she hoped “the country makes the right decision”.

She said Harris “feels like someone who can guide our country towards prosperity and a champion of women’s rights”.

“And then there’s someone who tried to overthrow democracy, so it’s very scary,” Ms Hall said. 

“If you walk around downtown you can see some buildings have already pre-emptively barricading and put wood panelling up to protect their windows because they fear some kind of insurrection.

“As a lifelong supporter of democracy, it’s very scary to think this can happen in our country if one candidate doesn’t win the majority of votes or in the electoral college, that people might try to overthrow democracy.”

The block surrounding the library was cleared for about an hour on Tuesday as a police operation was underway.

The world’s press had gathered at the polling station and were pushed back beyond police cordons after a suspicious package was found, but it was later assessed by police explosives experts to pose no threat.

In Georgia, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said reported bomb threats at polling stations were possibly “of Russian origin”. All were deemed non-credible, and authorities were investigating, he said.

Meanwhile, a man was arrested in upstate New York after threatening to burn down a polling place about 6:30am Tuesday, local time.

On Monday evening, Larry Krasner, the Pennsylvania district attorney, warned people not to “f*** around” with the election.

“We do have the cuffs, we do have the jail cells,” he said.

On Tuesday, Harris used a radio interview broadcast in the battleground state of Georgia to encourage people to vote, saying her and Trump had “different visions of the future of our nation”.

Trump, meanwhile, case his vote at Florida’s Mandel Recreation Centre on Tuesday, and told reporters he felt “very confident” of victory.

“It looks like republicans have shown up in force,” he said.

Software malfunction in Pennsylvania

Several states have kept early voting options that were introduced for the 2020 election in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning Tuesday arrived with more than 82 million Americans having already cast their vote, according to Associated Press. 

Organisers had hoped that would help reduce lines today.

Across the country, election day appears to be unfolding largely smoothly; there have been some reports of flooding affecting a polling station in Missouri, ballot printing errors and technical problems are causing some delays.

Most of the hiccups occurring by midday (local time) were “largely expected routine and planned-for events,” said Cait Conley, senior adviser to the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, in a press briefing.

In swing-state Pennsylvania, early reports that Republican poll watchers were not allowed into some polling sites were soon resolved.

A software malfunction was affecting ballot scanning machines in the state’s Cambria County, but no one was being turned away from the polls and all ballots would be counted, county and state officials said.

Pennsylvania will arguably be the most-watched state this evening as results start to be counted.

Both Harris and Trump blitzed the state yesterday as they made their final bids for its 19 electoral college votes and ultimately, the presidency.

In Pennsylvania’s so-called “rust belt”, it didn’t take long for lines to form outside a polling station in the city of Jeannette, near Pittsburgh, on Tuesday.

The county it’s in, Westmoreland, voted for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, and local Joe Kohosek is hoping the former president turns the whole state red this time.

Like many of the Trump supporters in this part of the US, says he hasn’t “liked where the country’s been going for a long time”.

“With him, it got better for those four years that he was in there,” Joe said, after casting his ballot at the Jeannette Italian Club.

“He’s not a politician, he’s a businessman, and he wanted to run the country like a business.

“That’s how he was running it, and it was working good. No wars.”

Rhonda Kohl, who was also casting her vote in Jeannette, said she was worried about which way Pennsylvania would vote.

“Trump is a buffoon, liar, felon,” she said.

“My husband and I often talk about leaving if he gets elected again, but nobody wants senior citizens. We’ve talked about Canada, but they don’t want us.”

Pennsylvania is part of the “blue wall”, which helped Joe Biden win the White House in 2020. But if Trump manages to flip it, he’s highly likely to become president.

“My biggest concern is the economy,” Rhonda said.

“It’s going to be for rich people, and rich people only.”

Jeannette resident Jen Galbraith is so keen to see Trump back in office, she’s decided to vote in her first presidential election.

Asked why, she instantly cites the most commonly given reason: “The economy.”

“Especially for the middle class, he was just better all round,” she said.

“Groceries, gas, you name it, all of our utilities have gone up. It’s just insane, the price increases over the past few years.”

The wait for a result

Harris graduated Howard University in Washington DC’s north in 1986, but tonight she will return for her election night event as she learns how many Americans voted to make her the first woman to win the presidency.

Preparations for that event have been happening for several days with surrounding streets closed and barricades around the campus.

At the close by Columbia Heights Community Centre, Keith Holder cast his vote this morning and said the energy at Howard tonight was “going to be awesome”.

“I think she’s very smart, I love the rallies that she’s doing. Not only for the singers but [encouraging] young people 18 and up to get out and vote, I think that’s very positive,” he said. 

“The young people in my family … because she did that rally in Atlanta with the rappers. They have never been represented like they’ve been represented with her.”

Mr Holder said he encouraged his nephews and nieces to vote because “we didn’t have rights back then, but now we do so even if the weather is bad, I get out and vote”.

“I see a lot of people to have a handicap to come out and vote so that makes me proud too.

Mr Holder said he thinks people will be out on the streets around Howard: “everyone is going to come out, either way.”

Of course, it could be days until there is a result, with the 2020 election taking more than three days to be called for President Biden.

The first polls in the United States close at 10am AEDT, with the last polls closing by 4pm AEDT.

The embargo on exit polls lifts at 9am AEDT.

Also in Columbia Heights, campaign organiser for a local democratic reform initiative on the ballot Miguel Trindade Deramo said the people he speaks to are “laser focused on the presidential election”.

“We’re all expecting three or four days of anxiety so there’s lots of social planning going on,” he said.

“Everyone’s talking about, what things are you doing for the next four days socially with your friends to make sure that you’re just dispersing your anxiety and taking a walk outside and playing with a puppy, having a dinner party and doing things that are just going to keep you grounded and not biting your nails and stress eating, and scrolling on social media.”

On the last weekend before election day, Trump continued to claim without evidence the election was being rigged against him and said a presidential winner should be declared on election night, before all the ballots are counted.

Vice-President Harris urged voters not to fall for Trump’s tactic of casting doubt on elections.

The Democratic nominee told supporters at a weekend rally in Michigan that the tactic was intended to suggest to people “that if they vote, their vote won’t matter”.

Instead, she urged people who had already cast ballots to encourage their friends to do the same.

ABC/AP