The intensity of the authorities: the United States is preparing to elect a president and renew Congress.
The risks of political turbulence after November 3 are extremely high, international experts say.
This day has come. Today, the Americans will not only elect a president for the next four years, but will also renew the Senate by a third, as well as the entire House of Representatives. But it looks like whoever wins the presidential election – Donald Trump or Joe Biden – both risk partnering with at least a half-hostile Congress. The first results will appear in Florida and North Carolina.
In Florida, early ballots are counted 22 days before the election. Most parcels in the state close at 7pm. So Florida will be one of the first to show the first results, taking into account early voting. According to forecasts, Republicans in Congress are likely to slightly outperform their rivals in the Senatorial battle, while Democrats should retain the lower house. Meanwhile, the gap between Joe Biden and Donald Trump has narrowed on the eve of the elections, which means the outcome of the fight for the White House is still unclear. It is quite possible that the determination of the winner will take more than one day. In the meantime, business in American cities prepares for unrest and barricades shopping centers, the risks of unrest in 2020 are unprecedentedly high.
Against the background of a heated battle between 77-year-old Joe Biden and 74-year-old Donald Trump for the presidency, the electoral race to the US Congress remained somewhat neglected. In addition to the election of the head of the White House, on November 3, the Americans will renew 35 out of 100 seats in the Senate, and will also vote for a new composition of 435 members of the House of Representatives. Given that the American leader in many things has to act with an eye on Congress, the party configuration of the federal legislature is equally important to the country’s political course.
US presidents are constantly faced with the problem of an unfriendly majority in Congress. This fate was not spared by Donald Trump, who received the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives as his partner two years ago, while retaining, however, the Republican Senate. The lower house not only prevented the owner of the Oval Office from “making America great again,” but also launched a whole impeachment against him. And although the attempt to expose Donald Trump from the White House with the shameful stigma of a traitor to the Motherland failed, so much nerve, effort and money was spent that it would probably be enough to solve some more pressing issue for the people. The Democrats lost, but a blow was dealt to the president’s reputation, indestructible one.
Meanwhile, according to the latest polls, Donald Trump closed the gap with Joe Biden before the race finish. According to realclearpolitics calculations, a Democrat “almost certainly” is gaining not 232 out of 270 electoral votes required to win, as predicted a week ago, but 216. Donald Trump – 125. A serious struggle has unfolded for 197 electors, which, apparently, will not end and on the morning of November 4th.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 94 million people took part in early voting, of which almost 60 million were sent by mail. For comparison, in 2016 the total number of voters in the elections turned out to be slightly more than 133 million. Experts are sure that the counting will drag on for several days, and the picture of the results of the in-person voting on November 3 and early expressions of will can be strikingly different.