Phoenix/IBNS: As the countdown to the most-anticipated US election ends, Americans queue up on Tuesday to decide who between Republican candidate Donald Trump  and Democrat nominee Kamala Harris would occupy the White House next four years, in one of the most hard-fought elections.

With the US providing scope for early voting, 82 million of the 244 million voters have already cast their ballots.

New Hampshire is the first state where the polling started at 6 am local time (4:30 pm IST) while Georgia will be the first state to report the results.

The build-up to the final stage of the election has been quite a dramatic one with two assassination attempts at former US President Donald Trump during his campaign phase and Kamala Harris entering the poll race in a surprising move after Joe Biden decided to opt out after stumbling in his debate with Trump.

If voted to power, Kamala Harris will create history by becoming the first woman, Black, and Asian-American to lead the nation.

America will vote to elect a new President on Tuesday. Photo Courtesy: Kamala Harris and Donald Trump Instagram pages

Meanwhile, Arizona is one of the seven swing states that has emerged to become a pivotal player in this election with wide gender divides on issues including reproductive rights, immigration, and the economy.

Besides, the other neck-to-neck battlegrounds are Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, as per opinion polls.

Voting across the country began at 6 am local time on the final election day. Since the US is divided into different time zones, the eastern part of the country was the first to vote.

At 6 am local time, eight states from the Eastern Time (ET) zone began polling. They included Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire, and Virginia.

In Arizona, President Joe Biden defeated Trump by the smallest margin in the US four years ago, winning by fewer than 11,000 votes. Trump is eyeing redemption here with pre-election surveys finding him leading the race.

Trump has a four percentage point lead over Harris in Arizona, according to a poll by The New York Times and Siena College.

Trump had 49% of support among Arizona voters while Harris had 45%, the survey found.

However, throughout the US and in Arizona especially, the gender gap is quite evident with a large number of women supporting Harris over the abortion law.

The gap between men and women supporting Harris grew to 17 percentage points in the most recent poll, with 53% of likely women voters saying they support Harris and only 36% of likely men voters backing her in Arizona, AZCentral reported.

Democrats had made abortion rights a key issue in the 2022 midterm elections. In March, Harris became the first sitting vice president or president to visit an abortion clinic.

In June 2022, the conservative majority formed by Trump's judicial appointments to the court eliminated the nearly 50-year-old federal right to abortion under Roe v. Wade.

Biden condemned the Supreme Court ruling, and his administration, through the Department of Health and Human Services and the Justice Department, laid out guidelines to ensure access to emergency abortion care under federal law.

Speaking to IBNS, IT professional Cynthia Malini Sharma, who is also a first-time voter, says: "As all polls are suggesting, it's going to be a close call, and I really don't know who is going to win. I know who I would like to see in the White House, and it is not Trump. I feel anxious and worried because I have seen what 4 years of Trump has done to this country.

"Never did I expect a country that is supposed to be a champion for freedom all over the world to take away a woman's freedom to decide what is right for her body and her life. My vote for Harris is not so much a vote for Harris but more a vote against the current Republican party and what it stands for."

Another female voter, who didn't wish to be named, said: "It is a very close race, but I think Kamala will win. Recent polls in Iowa show that she is up at 47% versus Trump at 44%. This has never happened before and Trump won Iowa both in 16 and 2020. I think she is winning and a lot of women will vote for abortion rights!"

However, contrary to these women's beliefs, opinion polls suggested that nearly two-thirds of voters think the country has been heading in the wrong direction under President Joe Biden.

Despite Biden's pledge to make the US a global force in stabilizing the world, several conflicts overseas challenged his position.

US citizens voting in historic presidential polls. Photo courtesy: USAGov Facebook

From wars in Ukraine and Gaza to civil bloodshed in Sudan, overseas conflicts have dominated Biden's foreign policy agenda.

The war between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip had its consequences with Biden's staunch support for Israel creating rifts within his party, and undercutting America's strength to criticize others on human rights and violations of international law.

Immigration is also another key determining issue this election as illegal crossings peaked under Biden's presidency, particularly an influx of unaccompanied children from Central America, overwhelming US border processing centres and fueling Republican criticism.

“The last few times opinion polls did not predict well.. so it's difficult to go by the polls.   Whoever wins America needs a reboot, needs to reorient to a broader thought to improve the economic situation of the country.  Also he/she needs to bring an end to the polarization, and bring the country together and work to provide better to all the people and really work for the benefit of all people," Babu Raman K, project manager in the finance sector and active participant in community outreach programs, told IBNS.

Illegal crossings reached peaks in 2022 and 2023 as more migrants arrived from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela and countries outside the hemisphere, reports Reuters.

Despite the political pressures over migration policies, Biden created a new legal pathway to allow hundreds of migrants in the country and oversaw the restoration of the US refugee program, which admitted more than 100,000 refugees in fiscal year 2024, the maximum in 30 years.

The other vital issue has been the economy with historic job cuts and an unemployment rate that has averaged just 4.2%, including the longest run at 4% or below since the 1960s.

Senior researcher Brian Scott tells IBNS: "People always ask who will win, and that's a mistake. Our elections aren't about who. The question is what idea will win? Trump will tell you the country is broken, and he can fix it. He can't fix it, of course, but the real question is whether or not the majority of us think the country is broken. If we do, we'll vote for a fixer, then we'll fix it ourselves."

"I live in Arizona and in this election, abortion was on the ballot. That's a much more important idea than any person. Elections have become popular recently. More people are interested, more passionate, more likely to participate, and that's a good thing," he said.

Although voting ends Tuesday, the winner may not be known for days if the margins in the key states continue to remain slim as predicted.

Shabarni Basu lives in Arizona's Tempe and works for IBNS. She can be reached via [email protected]