US Presidential Election 2016 Megathread

[-:Undertaker:-]

US Presidential Election 2016

American voters are heading to the polls to elect the 45th President of the United States

Polls have opened to American voters after a star-studded climax to a campaign that could elect either the first female president of the United States or a celebrity billionaire who threatens to rewrite the rules of politics forever.

Minutes after midnight the traditional first election day ballot was cast in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, as Lady Gaga in North Carolina and Donald Trump’s running mate Mike Pence in Michigan introduced competing last-ditch rallies.

With a fumbled start that many will hope does not herald more serious voting irregularities to come, residents of Dixville delivered four votes for Hillary Clinton, two for Trump, one for libertarian Gary Johnson and a quirky write-in for the 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

Democrats were cautiously optimistic of national victory after Trump’s promise to build a wall against immigrants appeared instead to be bolstering Clinton’s electoral firewall.

Analysis of early voting behaviour suggested the Republican candidate may have stirred a demographic giant by encouraging up to 87% more Hispanic voters than usual in states such as Florida.

Democrats began election day with an average lead in national opinion polling of around three points, though state-level polling suggested several possible paths to victory also remained for Trump among white working-class voters.

Leaving nothing to chance, Clinton and President Barack Obama held afternoon rallies in Michigan on Monday and appeared on stage together in Philadelphia with Bruce Springsteen, a one-man songbook for America’s blue-collar angst.

But Trump was voicing equal confidence he could pull off a surprise victory that would send shockwaves around the world, hoping to channel anger over jobs and trade into an election day upset without parallel.

“Today is our independence day,” he told the audience in Grand Rapids. “Today the American working class is going to strike back, finally.”

“We have one flawed candidate left to beat,” added Trump, reeling off his list of equally unexpected wins in the Republican primary. “It’s going to be the beginning of a new adventure.”

The Trump camp went into the final day of the campaign needing an almost clean sweep of battleground states such as Florida and North Carolina to win outright, plus a series of shock wins in the rustbelt that looked less and less likely.

But sensing possible danger, the Clinton campaign poured last-minute resources into the industrial midwest, a region where she struggled against a similar antiestablishment surge for Bernie Sanders during the primary election season.

Also up for election are some high profile politicians of the US Senate and the House of Representatives.

Kelley and I are on our last campaign tour of 2016! Join us today: https://t.co/IkD6gY6DmY pic.twitter.com/ywbJx6yeZ2

— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) November 7, 2016

Video: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton make their closing arguments https://t.co/qw1n3Yv93D 🔓

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) November 8, 2016

Electorally Trump needs to win a bigger victory than Clinton in number of states won to win the Presidency. The magic number of electoral college votes required is the 270 mark with states such as Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Michigan and Virginia being key swing states. Especially Florida which is pretty much decisive and certainly was in 2000.

In terms of the Senate and the House of Representatives both are currently controlled by the Republican Party so the Democrats (if they win the Presidency) will be desperate to win the Congress otherwise passing legislation will be very hard and a President Clinton may end up very much as a 'lame duck' as they say in the states.

Anyway vote in the poll. I have included the four main candidates with ballot access on a national scale.

[Misawa]

Clinton is the lesser of two evils, but Trump is perhaps the biggest joke in political history and clearly hasn't a clue what he's doing. Should he win, he'll probably wind up dead.

[wixard]

Poll title would be better as who would you vote for

[scottish]

I want Clinton to win.

[-:Undertaker:-]

Trump for me as I don't want nuclear war with Russia when the Witch of the East meddles in Syria.

Having a US President who says "Grab her by the *****" is better for me than being pulverized in a nuclear Holocaust.

[xxMATTGxx]

Clinton

[j0rd]

**** whichever is elected

[FlyingJesus]

Why is there no poll option for me I want to win

tbh it's gonna be Democrat Pres and Republican Senate agaiiiiin, the only reason it's close is because both of the main nominees are absolute monsters

[Red]

Both bloody awful but Clinton.

[-:Undertaker:-]

A lot of Clinton votes.

George W Bush must be popular on here then.