First polls open, kicking off 2024 US Election

The first polls have opened in the east coast's Vermont at 0500 ET (1400 GST) on Tuesday, kicking off the 2024 US Election and capping weeks of campaigning by candidates Trump and Harris that has left them virtually even in preliminary opinion polls. 

Next, polling stations are expected to open in New York and Virginia, followed by thousands of others across the country. 

The latest election will determine whether the first female president will be elected, or the first the first convicted felon.

Tuesday's vote will not only determine the next US president, but also the makeup of the House of Representatives and the Senate. 

All eyes have been on the seven swing states- Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. However, whether Trump or Harris become the next US president will depend on the Electoral College, as opposed to the popular vote.

The winner will be the person who gets to a simple majority of 270 of the 538 electors on offer across the 50 states, whether or not they get more votes than their opponent nationwide.

Electors are allocated based on how many representatives a state has in the House of Representatives, plus its two senators. The District of Columbia gets three, despite the fact that the home to Congress has no vote in Congress.

If the two candidates have a tied number of votes, the election is thrown to the House, where each state's congressional delegation gets one vote. That has happened only twice, in 1801 and 1825.

As of Sunday, 77,317,453 people in the US had already cast their votes, according to a tracker on AP News. It is estimated that more than 230 million people are eligible to vote in the US. But only about 160 million of them are registered voters, however, not all will take to the polls.

Trump has dubbed the 2024 race “the most important” one the country has ever seen, while Harris says it is the “most consequential” of voters’ lifetimes. 

“With your vote tomorrow, we can fix every single problem our country faces and lead America – indeed, the world – to new heights of glory,” said Trump as he delivered his closing pitch at the final rally of his campaign in the early hours of the morning in Grand Rapids, in the swing state of Michigan.

Harris said “the momentum is on our side” as she signed off in Philadelphia.

Opinion polls show Trump and Harris in a tight race. The winner may not be known for days after Tuesday's vote, though Trump has already signaled that he will attempt to fight any defeat, as he did in 2020. 

Polls are set to close between 1900 ET (0400 GST) on Tuesday and 0100 ET (1000 GST) on Wednesday, depending on the state.