US elections start with the opening of polling stations Trump promises to win, and Biden calls on voters to restore democracy

US Presidential elections have begun in the United States, as two small cities in the state of New Hampshire opened the doors of polling stations.

With Democratic candidate Joe Biden advancing in the polls including critical swing states, Republican President Donald Trump is vigorously competing to stay in office for another four years.

Voters in all states also vote on a host of other issues, including 35 Senate seats, House seats, numerous state and local offices, and a slew of referendums on issues ranging from tax policy to drug laws.

In turn, the Democratic candidate for the US presidential elections, Joe Biden, called on voters to “restore” democracy, in a speech he gave Monday in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during his last major election rally on the eve of the elections scheduled for Tuesday.

“It is time to stand up and restore our democracy,” Biden said at the end of his speech. We can do that”.

The former vice president organized his last rally in the same city from which he launched his campaign 18 months ago and in the state that Republican President Donald Trump won in 2016 by a narrow margin over Hillary Clinton.

“I have a feeling that we will achieve a huge victory together tomorrow,” he added, stressing that if he is elected President of the United States, he will seek “to control Covid-19 from the first day” because he takes over the keys to the White House.

Former President Barack Obama, who threw his weight in the last half of this election race in support of his former deputy, said during a gathering in a city in Florida that Trump “never took a day seriously” of his presidential duties.

The first black president of the United States accused his successor of “using presidency like a TV show to attract attention,” again calling on voters to go massively to the polls on Tuesday to cast their ballots.

“We cannot leave any room for doubt,” he said.

For his part, Trump announced that he will travel Tuesday to the headquarters of his election campaign in Virginia.

“Tomorrow we will win another four years in the White House,” Trump said at a campaign rally in North Carolina.

“In this way, we can do the work that we have started,” he added hours away during another rally in Michigan.

In what appeared to be a provocative move, Trump went between these two gatherings in the city of Sacranton, Biden’s hometown, where he renewed the description of his opponent as a “sleepy atmosphere”, accusing him of being “troubled”, “corrupt” and “controlled by the main media”.

Polling stations opened their doors on the east coast of the United States, for voters in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Maine to choose the presidential elections between President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, in addition to voting in elections for the states and local authorities.

Polling stations opened in these states at 6:00 am (1100 GMT), including in major cities such as New York.

Pennsylvania, a major swing eastern state, is seen as a major battleground in these elections, and polling stations open at 7 am local time.

Polling stations will continue to open across the nation’s six time zones. 

The first centers on the East Coast will also be closed starting at 7 pm Tuesday (00:00 GMT Wednesday), and the last polling stations will close several hours later in Alaska.

Turnout for early voting was around 75% of total voter turnout in the 2016 elections, but tens of millions could still vote on Election Day itself.