This is an Epoch Times News Brief presidential election update. From the News Brief desk, I’m Bill Thomas and here’s what’s happening right now.
The race is down to the wire, millions of people are still voting, and polling locations have closed or will close shortly in a number of eastern states.
We begin in North Carolina, and the director of the state’s board of elections says that the lines have been short, there haven’t been any major incidents, and that officials in the state’s 100 counties will begin tabulating the early voting results as soon as the polls close at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time.
Earlier today, the director said that between 1 million and 1.5 million voters were expected to cast their ballots on Election Day, and that more than 4 million ballots had already been received during the early voting stage.
She also said that nearly all of the unofficial election results will be reported by the end of the night, and that her goal is to upload the majority of results on or before the time they were completed in 2020, which was a little after midnight.
By the way, the state’s board of elections has just voted to extend the hours at two separate polling locations that had minor delays earlier today. Voting in a pair of Burke County locations will now close at 8 p.m., while North Carolina’s remaining polls will close at 7:30 p.m. as originally scheduled.
We continue now in New York City, where support for Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is running high, but voters are saying they still have certain concerns.
One voter in lower Manhattan said that she voted for Harris because she prefers both the vice president’s character and her policies to those of former President Donald Trump. She also said that she will be “scared, upset, and distraught” if Harris doesn’t win the election.
Another voter, who moved to New York City from Indiana five years ago, said that she also favors Harris, and that the historic nature of this election—which may result in the first female U.S. president—is a very important consideration for her.
A third voter, an actor and teacher based in the city, said that she initially supported Harris because of her stance on some key issues, but now she believes that the vice president has a genuine talent for bringing others into her fold and achieving bipartisan unity.
She also said that “anyone who can bring Republicans, and not one, but two Cheneys, over to her side” is capable of “unifying the nation.”
Moving along, the governor of one New England state says that some “hidden” voters could flip his state in favor of Trump.
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu says he thinks there is a good chance that Trump could win his state, which has gone to Democrats in the past two presidential elections.
Sununu, who’s a Republican, said that “high voter turnout usually favors the challenger,” and that he thinks the state is “leaning more toward a Trump win.”
The governor added that “it’s going to be a close race no matter what.”
Sununu also predicted that Trump will draw a higher number of Latino and black votes than any other Republican in history.
So you know, Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), recently campaigned in New Hampshire to appeal for votes, while Harris has spent many millions of advertising dollars in the state.
Sununu thinks it’s likely that the result in New Hampshire will be contested. He also said he would be surprised “if there’s a clear winner tonight.”
This has been an Epoch Times News Brief presidential election update. I’m Bill Thomas and please stay with us for the remainder of the day and into the evening for continuous election coverage.
