Harris, Trump: Americans await outcome

• Whoever wins is set to make history

• ‘Time to abolish Electoral College system’

• Emergence of any of them won’t have impact on Nigeria – Ex-ambassador

The first result in the 2024 United States’ Presidential election is out and Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are tied. The duo have three votes each in a tiny New Hampshire village that produced the first result of the election day. This is an illustration of how tight the race is across the country.

Dixville Notch, where there are just six voters, has a tradition dating back to 1960 for being the first place in the country to complete in-person voting.

An accordion version of the US national anthem rang out before voters cast their ballots at midnight. The count was completed 15 minutes later.

Polls across the US will close between 6p.m. and 1 a.m. EST (12 midnight and 7am in Nigeria on Wednesday), and results will start trickling in once polls begin to close.

In a frantic push for more votes, Harris and Trump urged voters to head to the ballot box. In her first post to X on Tuesday, Harris said: “America, this is the moment to make your voices heard.”

Joe Biden, in solidarity, also called on voters to “make history” by electing Harris as his successor as he prepared for a quiet election day at the White House. “Go vote,” he said in a post to X.

Similarly, ex-president, Barack Obama said the race for the White House could be decided by “a handful of votes” in each precinct in a new video, urging voters to head to the polls.

“Folks, this election is going to be close,” he said in the video posted to X.

Obama has been hitting the campaign trail in support of Harris and Tim Walz along with his wife Michelle and former president Bill Clinton.

On his part, Trump, in a post shortly after his final rally wrapped up in Michigan in the early hours of Tuesday, said: “It’s time to get out and vote—so together, we can make America great again!!!”

In one of its live updates, the CNN said a gender divide in Michigan could preview the state’s electoral results.

Aljazeera said latest polls show Harris, Trump tied as voting under way.

USA Today quoted Trump repeating fraud claims; while Harris said swing states will decide it.

Whoever wins is set to make history

Harris would be the first woman, and Black and South Asian American to serve as commander-in-chief in the country’s 248-year history if she wins. While there is no question that Harris’s candidacy is historic, she has deliberately downplayed the identity-focused aspects of her campaign, pitching herself as a candidate for “all Americans”.

A Trump victory, meanwhile, would hold a different kind of historical significance. The 78-year-old would become the first person convicted of a felony and elected to the US presidency, having been convicted of 34 felony counts in a New York hush-money case a little more than five months ago.

He would also be the first president to serve non-consecutive terms in more than 100 years.

‘We expect to win’

JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate, said: “We do expect to win,” after casting his vote in Cincinnati, Ohio.  He, however, said many people will end up disappointed nonetheless.  He added that his “most important message” is Americans must be able to argue and disagree about politics without losing friends.

“I know myself, I’ve had a lot of friends – not a lot – I’ve had a few friends who have cast their friendship aside because I decided that I want Donald J. Trump to be the winner in the last election and in this election,” he said.

“I think that’s a tragedy and I’m not going to follow that example. I’d say to everybody – whether you’re voting for Donald Trump or voting for Kamala Harris – remember, friends and family… is what really, really matters.”

Those in Trump’s close circle are confident of victory. A senior adviser told CNN that if the voters they have predicted to turn out do cast their ballot, then the former president “ought to win”.

“It’s a matter of achieving that. It’s close. It’s really close,” the adviser said. Trump’s advisers told the network they think he has had a stronger performance during this election than ever before.

Pennsylvania is key

Pennsylvania is “almost certainly” going to decide the election, a political commentator has said. Trump and Harris have focused both their campaigns on the state, which has a crucial 19 electoral votes up for grabs.  Dr Thomas Gift, founding director of the centre on US politics at University College London, said according to forecasts, a win for Harris in Pennsylvania puts her odds of winning the election at 91%, while for Mr Trump it would be 96%. He said it has been impossible to turn on the television in Pennsylvania “without seeing an ad for either the Trump or Harris campaigns”.

“I just spoke to my parents, who are in Pennsylvania now, and they said they received nine flyers in the mail in one day. So it’s clear that these candidates are spending an enormous amount of funds in Pennsylvania,” Dr Gift adds.

“They’ve been crisscrossing the states in recent days. It’s going to be the decider almost certainly.”

Before the polls opening, more than 80 million people had cast ballots in early voting in the US.

‘Time to abolish Electoral College system’

Meanwhile, Carolyn Jefferson-Jenkins, a two-term president of the League of Women Voters of the United States, has called for the abolition of the Electoral College system in the country.

Speaking at the US Embassy in Nigeria’s Election Roundtable yesterday in Abuja, Jefferson-Jenkins, who work as an adjunct assistant professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said there was a need to amend the constitution.

To win the US presidency, a candidate has to win support in enough key states to reach that magic Electoral College number of 270 votes. A candidate who wins the popular vote may not win the White House, as was the case for instance in 2016 when Hillary Clinton lost to Trump.

That’s because it’s not each individual American but rather a group of 538 “electors” who select the president. Before the election, the political parties in each state choose a slate of electors: people who ultimately cast a vote for the president in the Electoral College. Very often, the electors are party officials or supporters.

Each state gets the same number of electors as it has representatives in the US House of Representatives and the US Senate.

Some people in the US say the Electoral College should be scrapped in favour of the popular vote. Others argue the system ensures highly populated states do not overshadow smaller ones.

“I’m one of the people who want the abolishment of the Electoral College,” she said, adding: “When it was introduced, it was to protect the small states but it has now become what it was meant to protect against.

“To abolish the Electoral College system, we need to amend the constitution. In the past eight years, we have been aware of flaws in our constitution,” she said.

Emergence of any of them will not have impact on Nigeria- ex- US ambassador

A former Nigerian diplomat, Joe Keshi, has said there would be no major difference in the relationship between Nigeria and the US if any of Trump and Harris becomes the president.

The former Nigerian Ambassador to the US said their first and primary interest is to defend the interest of the US, not that of Nigeria or Africa.

“If they need Nigeria to do anything, they will come and lobby the country and if we need them, we will go and lobby them. Beyond that, there is nothing more.

“They will not represent us, they will represent the United States of America but they will maintain the relationship we have,” he said.

According to the former diplomat, Nigeria does not have a strategic relationship with the US but only maintains cordial relations with the country.

“They are two different things. Strategic relationship, you can see in the relationship between Israel and the United States of America and it is the same thing between America and Europe.

“Even if Nigeria was in crisis, I am not sure they will do as much as they have done for Israel for us,” Keshi said.

He said over the years, the US had not shown enough interest in Nigeria though it had been promoting its own interests in Nigeria and Africa in general.

He, however, said: “Emotionally, everybody hopes that Kamala Harris wins”, adding that “we will be able to deal with her better than Trump.

He argued that Nigeria should not wait on the US for everything, including technology, adding that the government should make a concerted effort “to go and take it”.

“Take China for example, it sent thousands of its students all over Europe to learn a couple of things and they went back home and began to use it, which is why China is where it is today; which is why India is where it is today,” the former ambassador to US said.