Iran Sentences Death Penalty to 3 People for the Murder of Nuclear Scientist

American voters waiting outside polling stations across the country were in an orderly state of calm and tranquility.

The solemn nature of the voting process contrasted with the overloaded campaign cycle marked by two assassination attempts on Donald Trump.

“I was thinking about the future of this nation and, frankly, the free world,” 65-year-old New Yorker Brockett Within told AFP as he cast his vote at a polling station in the East Village on Tuesday.

In Georgia, one of the seven volatile states that will determine the outcome of the vote, 27-year-old beauty queen Ludwidg Louizaire said that she was aware of the dangers for the country.

“I think we can all agree that no matter what happens today, history will be made,” said this year’s Miss Georgia pageant winner.

“For me, the bottom line is the continuation of our democracy,” Ken Thompson, a 66-year-old bricklayer, told AFP at Edison Elementary School in Erie, Pennsylvania.

– ‘America First’ –

Voters across the country have expressed their trust in AFP on issues affecting their decisions; They frequently repeated the campaign’s main talking points, from immigration and abortion rights to the economy.

“We don’t need four more years of higher inflation, gas prices and lies,” Darlene Taylor, 56, told AFP in Pennsylvania’s prominent county of Erie, the largest and most valuable of the swing states.

Wearing a homemade T-shirt bearing the names of Trump and vice president J.D. Vance, the woman said her main issue was “closing the border” to immigrants.

Taylor, who said he was living off disability benefits, added, “America comes first and (Kamala) Harris will not support that.”

Liz Orlova, a 22-year-old New York resident, said abortion rights were “at the forefront of my mind” as she voted in the East Village.

U.S. Supreme Court justices appointed by Trump helped repeal federal abortion rights in 2022; It’s an issue Harris has promised to address if elected.

“It’s an extremely terrible situation that this right is being taken away from people across the country,” Orlova said.

– ‘A lot more people’ –

Turnout is expected to be significant in Tuesday’s vote. While Democrats tend to do well among more educated and wealthier voters who vote regularly, Trump has often courted more marginal citizens who have opted out.

Both hope young voters will support them.

Lines outside polling stations on the east coast showed that many Americans were accepting calls from candidates, celebrities and activists to do their part.

“There are many, many more people here than there were last election,” Marchelle Beason, 46, told AFP in Erie after placing an “I voted” sticker.

Others admitted they would be relieved when the generic political advertising on television and the Internet ends and the vote that has kept the country on edge all year is finally decided.

“I’ll be happy when it’s over,” Guy Mills, 62, told AFP in New York.