TRANSCRIPT
"Honestly, I'm ready for it to be over with. I'm hoping that, like, people can accept what happens and move on and that everything just blows over and the next four years come to pass."
That’s 22-year-old Brady Lietz.
He’s a Michigan resident who voted for Donald Trump, and like so many others, is ready to move on after a bruising presidential election campaign that saw two assassination attempts and a felony conviction for Republican former president Trump, and the surprise elevation of Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris to the top of the ticket.
Both candidates have been predicting victory...
"Kamala, get the hell out of here. You’re fired."
"Are we ready to win? Are we ready to vote? And we will win."
But it's unclear just which one will be proven right.
More than 80 million people have already cast their ballots by post or in-person early voting, and millions more are now voting on Election Day itself.
Pollsters say neither of the candidates in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada and Arizona has a meaningful statistical lead, amplifying the sky-high uncertainty.
That kind of closeness was mirrored in the first votes to be cast on election day, in the tiny New Hampshire resort town of Dixville Notch, resident Annemarie Pintal telling NBC News there were three votes for Donald Trump and three for Kamala Harris.
"I think New Hampshire is a purple state, and I think it's very divided. And I think even the six of us might be divided."
Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger says his state – one of the seven battlegrounds - is mandated to report its results fairly early.
“All these people that have voted early - that's about 65% expected votes - will be reported one hour after the polls close. All the absentee ballots that have come in will have been ready for tabulation, and those will be reported. That's 70% that'll be reported by 8 p.m. plus or minus, assuming polls all close at seven in those counties. And that really will give you a great, path of what you can expect for that day.”
But Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser says it could take time for the result of the presidential vote to be known.
"A key message that I want to emphasise today is to be patient. While we anticipate timely results from D.C. races, the presidential race may take more time. That is expected. All signs point to a close race that could take time for all of the states to release their declared winner."
In Arizona – one of the other battleground states - the Assistant Manager for Maricopa County Zach Schira says it’s going to be safety first in their count.
"Our team will work diligently to close up those polling locations and to get stuff back. But we are going to prioritise safety and security over speed at all times."
Election officials like Brad Raffensperger also say voters can be confident there’s been no fraud.
"What we've shown we have photo ID for all forms of voting. I've done two citizenship checks. I've done an audit about two years ago, and I did one this past summer proving that only American citizens are on the voter rolls… We have the cleanest voter list in the entire country; we have photo ID for all forms of voting. At the end of the day, it's going to be fair and fast and accurate."
Such reassurances are deemed necessary because of what happened after the last election, when officials were harassed and Trump supporters stormed the capitol on January 6, hoping to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory.
Donald Trump has made repeated suggestions that cheating has been going in this election – and has spent the last four years repeating the falsehood that he won in 2020.
Republicans Elon Musk and Marjorie Taylor Greene have also been among those Trump supporters to revive debunked claims about Dominion voting machines being problematic.
But Mr Trump now maintains he will be the first to acknowledge if he loses this election - and he has dismissed concerns about possible violence over the end result.
"My supporters are not violent people. I don't have to tell them that. And I certainly don't want any violence, but I certainly don't have to tell. These are great people. These are people that believe in no violence. Unlike your question. You believe in violence."
There's already been some threats of violence - namely at least two polling sites in Georgia targeted by hoax bomb threats.
It's unclear who is responsible - but those two locations in Fulton County have now both re-opened, and the county is seeking a court order to extend the location's voting hours past the statewide 7 p.m. deadline.
For University of Virginia Professor Dr Larry Sabato, it’s what happens after election day – when the winner has been declared – that is still open to challenge.
"I'm most worried about the electors because you do have quite a number of states with Trump Republican governors and Trump legislators, and I have no doubt that Trump will push them to steal the electoral vote. And there are ways of doing it. We learned about a lot of vulnerabilities in our system four years ago. Why did we only learn about it then? Because no president has ever attempted to stop the peaceful transfer of power."
But overall, officials in this election say there’s no real cause for concern – and they’re simply preparing for long hours to count the ballots.
Stephen Richer is an Arizona election reporter.
"So over the past three weeks, we have been spending a long time doing the voter registration work, doing the signature verification work, and we are now round-the-clock ballot processing. We are running three shifts, one from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 pm, one from 5 p.m. until midnight, and one from midnight until 6 am"
Still, Washington DC is not taking any chances.
Authorities in the US capital has been making preparations in the event that there’s trouble - and dozens of states across the US have expressed a willingness to send troops to the capital to avoid a repeat of the January 6 violence.
Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser says they have established a facility to coordinate those efforts.
"Our team has one focus, and that is how to keep Washington, D.C., safe and secure for residents and visitors. Throughout election week and beyond we will be operating right here in this new command centre, side by side with our federal and local partners. This facility is the nerve centre of MPD's operations, allowing us to work seamlessly with law enforcement agencies and coordinate major events across the city."
But none of this has allayed the concern being felt by some voters.
For 75-year-old businessman Jerry Ulrich, it will be chaotic, whoever wins.
"I don't feel that either party or either person represents all of us equally, and that never happens. But it is what it is, and I just think it will be chaos. I think there's going to be people challenging the vote, and people my age don't want it. We want calm, we want things happening. You know, if you say you're going to say something, do it."
