Election Day: Voters hit the polls in high-stakes 2024 presidential contest
Election Day is here! Welcome to TAG24 NEWS' 2024 election hub, where you can keep up on all the latest developments in the high-stakes race for the White House.
Voters are hitting the polls this Tuesday, November 5, with Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris apparently neck and neck going into the contest.
Meanwhile, third-party candidates – including Dr. Jill Stein (Green Party), Claudia De la Cruz (Party for Socialism and Liberation), Dr. Cornel West (Independent/Justice For All Party), and Chase Oliver (Libertarian Party) – are seeing surging interest in their campaigns, particularly amid ongoing US support for Israeli attacks across the Middle East.
With climate action, racial justice, immigrants' rights, abortion access, and more on the line, the outcome of the 2024 election could not be more consequential.
In addition to the White House race, Americans also have the opportunity to make their voice heard in critical state and local elections and ballot initiatives.
Stay tuned with TAG24 for the most important updates as Election Day progresses.
UPDATE, 1:00 AM ET: New Hampshire hamlet tied in first Election Day votes
Voters in the hamlet of Dixville Notch launched Election Day in the first minutes of Tuesday with a tied vote, mirroring the incredibly close national polls in the White House race.
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump each got three ballots in the tiny community in the northeastern state of New Hampshire which for decades has kicked off Election Day at the stroke of midnight Monday – hours before the rest of the country's polling stations open.
To a gathered crowd of journalists, the vote opened with a rendition of the national anthem performed on an accordion.
Electoral laws in New Hampshire allow municipalities with fewer than 100 residents to open their polling stations at midnight and to close them when all registered voters have fulfilled their civic duty.
Dixville Notch's residents voted unanimously for then candidate Joe Biden in 2020, reportedly only the second presidential hopeful to get all the votes since the midnight voting tradition began in 1960.
Most polling stations on the East Coast will open at 6:00 or 7:00 AM on Tuesday.
Dixville Notch voters handed a surprise unanimous victory to Republican White House hopeful Nikki Haley in New Hampshire's primary in January.
Haley ultimately quit the race due to an insurmountable Trump lead – but Tuesday's vote shows that three voters opted not to back the billionaire in the general election.
UPDATE, 12:00 AM ET: Voters to hit the polls after massive early turnout
The 2024 race is going down to the wire as voters prepare to hit the polls on Election Day. More key states are effectively tied at this point than in any comparable election.
The decisive day opens as over 78 million people have cast early votes, around half of the total ballots cast in 2020.
According to NBC News, around 41% of those ballots were cast by registered Democrats and 39% by registered Republicans, with 20% listed as "other."
Cover photo: Collage: REUTERS & IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire