Recent polls indicate a close competition between the two candidates, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, for the presidency of the United States.
Five days before the scheduled general elections on November 5, nearly 60 million voters had already sent in either their mail-in vote or in-person early votes up to Wednesday. Simultaneous voting and campaigning characterise American democracy.
A Fox Poll released on Wednesday indicated that Trump edges out Harris by one point in the two battleground states, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, and a tie among them in Michigan. The three other battlegrounds this time are Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and Wisconsin.
CNN had both the nominees tied at 48 per cent in Pennsylvania while Harris is ahead of Trump by six points in Wisconsin and by five points in Michigan. CBS News polled that Trump and Harris were tied at 49 percent in Pennsylvania. For one to win the presidential race 2024, one requires 270 electoral votes.
Real Clear Politics, aggregating all major polls, is giving a slender 0.4 percentage points lead to Trump at the national level, while in battleground states, he has a lead of one per cent. Trump, however, is leading the betting market with 63.1 points against Harris's 35.8.
The editorial board of The Wall Street Journal expressed its opinion on Wednesday that the victory of Harris will be the fourth win for Obama.
Her candidacy is best understood as an attempt to continue the progressive political wave that began in 2006 with the GOP defeat in Congress and rolled ashore as a tsunami amid the financial panic of 2008. She is running for what essentially would be Barack Obama's fourth progressive term," the daily wrote.
"At home, she's no centrist. Abroad, she seems unprepared for the dangers ahead," the journal said.
According to the Washington Post, which reported on Wednesday, Harris had maintained her leads nationally as well as in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada. However, her lead in Pennsylvania dwindled in the last week. Trump remained ahead in Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina, according to the same report.
While they are tied, Harris does run much closer to Trump on trust to handle the economy and further ahead of him on handling democracy in both Michigan and Wisconsin, where she also holds wider advantages on key attributes than in Pennsylvania, differences that help explain her stronger showing in the upper Midwest states.
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