If you’re still on the fence about voting in this election, think about what really matters – about the values we were taught, the kind of country we want to be, and how this is a moment when your vote really does count.
Your vote could determine the fate of our republic – the… pic.twitter.com/qv46tK0r89

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) November 5, 2024

Silicon Valley, a stronghold of Democratic politics, is experiencing a shift as more voices, seemingly emboldened by Elon Musk, have openly declared their support for Donald Trump. The South African-born tech mogul is leading this change, committing nearly $100 million to the Republican's presidential campaign, while leveraging his X social media platform and personally campaigning in crucial swing states to aid Trump's White House bid.

"Musk is revered by a lot of people in Silicon Valley," said tech entrepreneur and author Vivek Wadhwa, who teaches at Carnegie Mellon University. "More people on the right are just saying 'Look, we're fed up, we're going to vote for Trump,' and they're doing it fearlessly and are impacting the opinion of others."

Musk's embrace of Trump has amplified ideological currents that have long existed quietly in the California tech scene, best represented today by Peter Thiel, a conservative investor who worked with Musk at PayPal 25 years ago.

A Pennsylvania judge declined on Monday to halt billionaire Elon Musk's $1 million giveaways to registered voters in US election battleground states. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, a Democrat, sued Musk and his pro-Trump political action committee, America PAC, last week, calling the $1 million awards "an illegal lottery scheme." Krasner had asked that the daily giveaways be shut down, but Common Pleas Court Judge Angelo Foglietta declined to do so after a daylong hearing on Monday featuring Musk's lawyers and prosecutors. Foglietta did not immediately provide a reason for his decision, though no more giveaways were planned in Pennsylvania.

Joe Rogan, the influential host of one of the world's top podcasts, delivered a last-minute endorsement of Republican candidate Donald Trump Monday, on the eve of a historically close US presidential election. Rogan made the endorsement while promoting the latest episode of his wildly popular show, The Joe Rogan Experience, which featured an interview with billionaire Trump supporter Elon Musk. Musk "makes what I think is the most compelling case for Trump you'll hear, and I agree with him every step of the way," wrote Rogan, on social media. "For the record, yes, that's an endorsement of Trump."

As the great Congressman John Lewis reminded us, democracy is not a state—it is an act.
Now is our time to act. And together, we will win: https://t.co/VbrfuqVy9P. pic.twitter.com/P0lBnwXGIE

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) November 5, 2024

A security fence rings a Las Vegas building where Nevada tabulates votes. An Arizona sheriff has his department on high alert to guard against potential violence with drones and snipers on standby. Governors of at least three states have called for National Guard troops to help maintain the peace.

As a tense America votes for either Republican Donald Trump or Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris for president, concerns about potential political violence have prompted officials to take a variety of measures to bolster security during and after Election Day.

Many of the most visible moves can be seen in the battleground states that will decide the presidential election, states like Nevada where protests by supporters of former President Donald Trump broke out after the 2020 election.

With sacred chants, ringing of bells and offerings of flowers and bananas, a Hindu priest in Kamala Harris' ancestral village in southern India conducted prayers for her victory on Tuesday, hours after she and her opponent Donald Trump closed out their campaigns.

The temple ceremony in Thulasendrapuram, in Tamil Nadu, was organised by local villagers and attended by more than a dozen of them and a few tourists. Harris' maternal grandfather PV Gopalan was born more than a century ago in Thulasendrapuram before migrating to the state capital Chennai. He was a high-ranking government official at the time of his retirement. After lighting incense, the priest ended the prayer pronouncing "Kamala Harris should win", as he offered vermilion powder and ash to those attending.

During the campaign, Trump hammered first Biden and then Harris for their handling of the economy, which polls show is at the top of voters' concerns despite low unemployment and cooling inflation. But he showed a characteristic inability to stay on message, at one point questioning Harris' Black identity and vowing to protect women "whether they like it or not."

His unbridled approach seemed designed to fire up his supporters, rather than expand his appeal. Even more than in 2016 and 2020, Trump has demonized immigrants who crossed the border illegally, falsely accusing them of fomenting a violent crime wave, and he has vowed to use the government to prosecute his political rivals.

Polls show he has made some gains among Black and Latino voters, despite the historic nature of Harris' candidacy. Trump has often warned that migrants are taking jobs away from those constituencies.

More than 80 million Americans had already voted before Tuesday, either via mail or in person, according to the University of Florida Election Lab.

Voters in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, went to the polls early Tuesday morning, marking the official start of Election Day voting for the 2024 US presidential election. Six registered voters of the tiny town in the northeastern United States cast their ballots at midnight, following a tradition that dates back decades ago. Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump are tied in the town in a 3-3 vote. Amid heightened security, the vast majority of polling stations across the country open on Tuesday morning and will remain open until the evening.

The policy stance of the newly elected government is going to shape the future of the global economy and market trends early next year. According to a Forbes report, markets may favour a scenario of political gridlock, where policy changes could be limited. Read here

Under the US Constitution, America's founding fathers established that each of the 50 states would hold its own vote for president. Under the complex Electoral College system, each state has a certain number of "electors," based on population. Most states have a winner-take-all system that awards all electors to whoever wins the popular vote. With candidates needing 270 of the 538 electoral votes to win, elections tend to be decided in the hotly contested "swing states" with a history of alternating between Republican and Democratic candidates. Read here

With polls showing a dead heat, Trump promised to lead the United States to "new heights of glory" while Harris said the "momentum is on our side," as the rivals held their last rallies of the 2024 race in crucial battleground states.

The Democratic vice president finished on a high note in Philadelphia in the must-win state of Pennsylvania, with a rally on the steps immortalized by the boxing movie "Rocky." "This could be one of the closest races in history -- every single vote matters," said Harris, who was joined by celebrities including Lady Gaga and Oprah Winfrey.

Former president Trump brought several family members -- with the conspicuous absence of his wife Melania -- up on stage at his closing rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan. There, as in an earlier swing through North Carolina and Pennsylvania, his speech bristled with dark rhetoric. "With your vote tomorrow, we can fix every single problem our country faces and lead America -- indeed, the world -- to new heights of glory," he told the crowd, as the clocks ticked over into Tuesday.

Presidential Polls 2024: US intel warns of "most active" disinformation efforts by Russia; Iran poses "significant" threat
Read @ANI Story | https://t.co/jIahMoICE4#USelections #Presidentialpolls pic.twitter.com/EUzfWE52Ue

— ANI Digital (@ani_digital) November 5, 2024

Asian markets mostly rose Tuesday, a day before results from the US presidential election rolled in, with opinion polls showing a knife-edge vote. Uncertainty about the outcome and worries that the winner might not be known for days has led to warnings that investors could be in for a period of volatility. Eyes will also be on the Federal Reserve's policy decision on Thursday, with expectations for another cut.

Trump, who still refuses to admit he fairly lost the 2020 election to Biden, has hinted that he would refuse to accept another loss, and in the final days of the campaign brought up baseless claims of election fraud while saying he should "never have left" the White House.

A Trump comeback would be historic -- the first non-consecutive second term for a US president since Grover Cleveland in 1893 and just the second ever. 

A Harris victory meanwhile would give the US its first Black woman and South Asian president -- and signal an end to the Trump era which has dominated US politics for nearly a decade.

Harris and Trump are effectively tied in the seven main swing states -- Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin.

American voters deliver their verdict Tuesday after an extraordinarily turbulent election that will either make Kamala Harris the first woman president in US history or deliver Donald Trump a comeback. 

As polling stations open nationwide on Election Day, Democratic vice president Harris, 60, and Republican former president Trump, 78, are dead-even in the tightest and most volatile White House race of modern times.

A final outcome may not be known for several days if the results are as close as the polls suggest, adding to the tension in a deeply divided nation. 

Polling stations open at 6:00 am (1100 GMT) on the US east coast and tens of millions of voters are expected to cast their ballots, on top of the more than 82 million people who have already voted early in the preceding weeks.