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Tag: Hillary Clinton

  • US election night shooting: Gunman shoots officers 20 times

    US election night shooting: Gunman shoots officers 20 times

    Five people have been reported injured in a shooting next to a polling station in Azusa, Los Angeles, as the 45th Presidential election kick starts.

    The Nation gathered that a gunman is on loose after Los Angeles polling station shooting.

    Similarly, trouble has was reported in Detroit, Michigan, after rival voters clashed when a male voter shoved a woman.

    At Los Angeles, the shooter fired at least 20 shots at officers who tried to stop him before entering a nearby house to evade arrest.

    As at the time of filing this report, officers of the LA Police Department have surrounded the apartment and evacuated the area during the standoff.

  • US election: Long queue at swing-state polling stations

    US election: Long queue at swing-state polling stations

    Americans going out to polling sites Tuesday were reporting lengthy lines and hours-long wait times, especially in the toss-up states that will determine who becomes president.

    Some polling sites in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania described turnout as “unprecedented,” with voters waiting several hours to even enter the buildings, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

    Questlove, best known for being the drummer and frontman of the band The Roots, said on Instagram he was expecting a two-hour wait in Philadelphia.

    He posted an image of Netflix television titles and wrote underneath: “Welp, Netflix about to be my friend in this two-hour wait of a line … Happy to see this positive turnout.”

    However, voters at other places in Philadelphia reported breezing through the poll sites.

    Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, must hold onto the urban and college-educated voters of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh in order win Pennsylvania, where Republican Donald Trump has had success with working-class voters.

    Related Post: Eric Trump posts, delete illegal ballot selfie on Twitter

    In the north-eastern swing-state of New Hampshire, Twitter users posted images of lines stretching far outside polling places in the state’s biggest city, Manchester, even before they officially opened at 6 am (1100 GMT).

    There were concerns ahead of Tuesday about voter intimidation tactics from supporters of Trump, who has repeatedly called the election is “rigged” despite no evidence to support the claim.

    Political provocateur and Trump backer Roger Stone had called on people to descend on polling places as independent poll watchers as part of an effort dubbed “Stop the Steal.”

    Kristen Clark, the president of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a group running an independent effort to address voter complaints, said it had received scattered reports of voter intimidation in parts of the battleground state of Florida.

    But if there was trouble at the polls, the cause often was often due to technical issues.

    The worst appeared to be in Durham County, North Carolina, where officials decided to extend opening times there by one and a half hours after computer failures at six sites prevented workers from checking the voter registration.

    North Carolina has been one of the most highly contested states in this election. The state’s many African American voters pushed it to the Democrats in 2008, but it returned to Republicans four years later.

    Turnout among African-American voters had trailed during early voting, providing a worrying sign for Democrats.

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  • Trump alleges rigging in favour of Clinton

    Trump alleges rigging in favour of Clinton

    •Clinton, Trump, others vote in presidential election

    Millions of Americans went to the polls to  decide who their 45th president will be. The final result is expected to be announced today. Four candidates were jostling to succeed Barack  Obama, who is stepping out  of the White House next year. The contenders are: former American First Lady and one-time Secretary of State, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of the Democratic Party; billionaire businessman Donald John Trump of the Republican Party; former New Mexico State Governor Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party and Mrs. Jill Stein of the Green Party.  But the race was clearly between Trump and Clinton.

    DEMOCRATIC and Republican parties candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump joined millions of voters across the United States (U.S.) yesterday in casting ballots for President Barack Obama’s successor.

    The election dropped the curtain on a long and bitter campaign between the two leading contenders.

    But Trump alleged that the process was being electronically manipulated to favour his opponent.

    Mrs. Clinton started her day by casting her vote in Chappaqua, New York, where she and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, have lived since he left office in 2001.

    “I know the responsibility that goes with this,” she said, as she greeted people at the polling station.

    “So many people are counting on the outcome of this election and what it means for our country, and I’ll do the best I can if I’m fortunate enough to win today.”

    Trump, the Republican presidential nominee voted in New York City at the polling station nearest his home in Trump Tower.

    Arriving at the polling station with his wife Melania, who also cast a ballot, Trump said: “Everything’s very good,” he said when asked what he had heard about early returns.

    People shouted “loser” and booed the candidate from behind a barrier set up by police on the street. Some also shouted, “Go, Donald” and gave him a thumbs up.

    Trump introduced a new twist to the process with his alleged claim on reports of automatic voting machines in various places failing to register Republicans’ votes and instead switching them to the Democrats.

    He reported made the claim in an interview with Fox News in which he again expressed doubt over whether he would accept the result of the election if he does not win.

    “We’re going to see how things play out today. Hopefully they’ll play out well and hopefully we won’t have to worry about it, meaning hopefully we’ll win. I want to see everything honest”, he was quoted as saying.

    It was learnt yesterday that Trump’s team had on Monday filed a lawsuit in Nevada, claiming that officials in Las Vegas had illegally tried to boost the Democrats’ vote by keeping a polling station open late.

    At a polling station in Williamsburg, a neighbourhood in New York City’s Brooklyn borough, Jasmin Stein said she felt somewhat tired of the divisive campaign.

    However, she said she was glad that the election cast a spotlight on underlying anxieties among Americans.

    “A lot of things have been coming to the light that I think the country feels and I kind of would rather have it out in the open than it just be in peoples’ homes,” Stein, 29 said.

    Another voter, Matt Sutton, who works in public relations, said he didn’t want to take any chances to let Trump get elected.

    He said: “It’s amazing that I voted for the first woman president. “I didn’t know if I would even see that in my lifetime,” 29-year-old Sutton said.

    Sutton said he was planning to go to Times Square in the evening to await the results.

    Jessica Quinn, 37, who brought her eight-month-old daughter, Emma, to the polls, said she got so anxious about the elections.

    According to her, she volunteered to work for the Clinton campaign on Monday, making about 30 phone calls.

    “I needed to do something productive with all of my anxiety about what was happening with the election,” Quinn said.

    Both campaigns kept up the pressure until the end. Clinton’s campaign ticked down the minutes until the start of the polls with calls to vote and to “build bridges, not walls,” a dig at Trump’s promise to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico to keep out illegal immigrants.

    Trump highlighted his final round of campaign stops, saying on Twitter: “Today we are going to win the great state of Michigan and we are going to win back the White House!”

    Clinton was favoured to win based on nearly all surveys of likely voters.

    Voters were also electing members of the lower chamber House of Representatives and one-third of the U.S. Senate.

    Voting continued until polling stations close in Hawaii, the state furthest to the west.

    Polls were to close at 6 p.m. in the Eastern Time zone, and early results were expected shortly after that.

    The winner will become the 45th U.S. President on inauguration January 20, and will succeed Obama, the nation’s first African-American president.

    What Americans say

    Pence

     

    Indiana governor Mike Pence, before casting his ballot in his home state, called the experience of voting for himself for vice president as “very humbling.”

    Pence said: “We are so grateful for the support and prayers of people all across the United States for Donald Trump and our firm belief that we can ‘Make America Great Again’.

    “I just would encourage every American who believes like we do that America can be stronger at home and abroad, can be more prosperous, that we can chart a future on our highest ideals to take time today to vote and to join us in support Donald Trump as the next president of the United States.”

     

    Michelle Obama

     

    “The only vote that is down compared to where it was for Barack is the African American vote. And, you know, obviously that’s because our folks love us so dearly.

    “But this election is just as important if — not more — because it’s about the legacy and it’s about the progress and as you both know, we still have work to do,” she added.

     

    Sanders

     

    “I hope today we defeat Donald Trump and we defeat him badly.”

     

    Donald Trump Jnr

     

    “Of course, all we’ve wanted is a fair fight, okay?’ Trump, Jr. said.

    “If he loses, and it’s legit and fair, and there’s not obvious stuff out there? Without question, we just want a fair system,’ Trump, Jr. continued.

    He then asserted that “some stuff’s going on, I don’t know that it’s enough to move elections, but we’ve seen states that it’s a few thousand votes can make a difference.

    “All we want is a fair fight, and I think that’s what we want, not just for this election, but for all elections, so that everyone has a chance to have their voice be heard and not have it manipulated.”

    I’ll do my best if I win, says Clinton

    DEMOCRATIC Party’s standard bearer Mrs Hillary Clinton yesterday cast her vote at New York Primary School in the presidential election, describing the moment as “the most humbling feeling.”

    Taking part in an election in which she was the firm favourite to win, the Democrat was greeted by supporters outside the ballot box in her hometown of Chappaqua, New York.

    If she wins, Clinton would become the America’s first-ever woman to occupy the White House as president.

    She was joined by husband and former President Bill Clinton, who said he’s already “good” at being a political spouse, joking that he had “15 years of practice”.

    As Mrs Clinton emerged from the polling station, she told crowds: “I’m so happy, I’m just incredibly happy.”

    She shook hands and chatted people with the crowd before telling reporters it was “the most humbling feeling” to vote for herself.

    “I know how much responsibility goes with this and so many people are counting on the outcome of this election, what it means for our country,” she said, adding: “I know how much responsibility goes with this,” Mrs. Clinton said. “What it means for our country… and I’ll do the very best I can if I am fortunate enough to win today (yesterday).”

    Earlier, Mrs. Clinton’s running mate Tim Kaine, joked that he was beaten to being the first to vote at his polling booth by a 99-year-old woman named Minerva Turpin.

    “I wanted to be first at my polling place, but 99-year-old Minerva Turpin beat me to it. Looks like I need to get used to being number two! pic.twitter.com/9YvWOjuKUe”, Senator Tim Kaine (@timkaine) posted yesterday.

    Kaine refused to let the biggest election of his life get in the way of his Tuesday routine.

    After voting at 6 am and doing a round of national morning TV shows, he met a group of friends for breakfast at the City Diner in Richmond.

    According to the AP, Kaine and his friends try to meet every Tuesday at the diner, a few miles from his home.

    The senator and former Virginia governor was greeted with cheers as he walked into the restaurant.

    His vote came hours after Hillary Clinton and her husband Bill voted at a New York primary school at around 8am.

    Huge turnout in Florida    

    THERE were indications that early voting numbers in the State of Florida surpassed the total figure recorded in the highly contested 2000 election.

    Reports said that Florida early voting turnout may tilt the scales in favour of Hillary Clinton, the Deocratic Party’s flag bearer.

    The state is key in the U.S. election. The reports said that if Donald Trump lost the 29 electoral votes at the close of polls, his odds of reaching 270 would have been diminished greatly.

    More than 6.4 million voters made it to the poles between October 24 and November 6 – surpassing the 5,963,110 ballots cast in the controversial 2000 election between George W Bush and then – Vice President Al Gore.

    Latinos in particular, make up a significant portion of Florida voters. They were expected to choose in overwhelming favour of the former Secretary of State.

    Based on early voting alone, Latino turnout has been up by 108 per cent since 2008. Their numbers have gone up by almost 90 per cent since 2012, according to Florida Division of Elections figures.

    Additionally, the African American vote has increased by nine per cent from 2012, as 70,000 participated in early voting.

    Trump: we’ll make America great again

    REPUBLICAN Party candidate Donald Trump yesterday voted in New York in his bid to become United States (U.S.) 45th President.

    He was seen stepping out of an Armoured Personnel Vehicle (APC) at a polling station in Manhattan after his motorcade left Trump Tower.

    Hundreds of onlookers watched on Trump, accompanied by his wife Melania, daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared, arrived at the East Side building.

    The republican waved at supporters as he alighted from the vehicle and gave high-fives to two children but he was also booed by a section of the crowd, according to U.S. reports.

    “It’s a great honour, a tremendous honour”, he said after dropping his ballot in the box. He urged his supporters to turn out and vote.

    In a video posted on Twitter shortly after he cast his ballot, the Republican candidate encouraged voters to find their local polling station and “vote today”.

    “We’re going to make America great again, I promise”, he said. The billionaire businessman said he was feeling confident about the outcome, adding there had been “tremendous enthusiasm” surrounding his campaign.

    He also reiterated his longstanding concerns about voter fraud, commenting “we’re always concerned about that.”

    In a final message to voters, Trump said: “Make America great again. That’s all it is. That’s what it’s all about.”

    Addressing his final rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, he told supporters they were at the “crossroads of history” on their “Independence Day”.

    Police report: all quiet at polls

    LAW enforcement agencies in major United States (U.S.) cities said that, as of midday yesterday, the election was running smoothly with no serious problems reported at the polls.

    There had been fears of polling day disruption in the build-up to what has been termed one of the America’s ugliest elections.

    But so far, there have been no significant threats or violence, NBC News reported multiple major city law enforcement agencies as saying.

    There have also been no internet disruptions so far, law enforcement officials said.

    U.S. presidential election results in last 20 years

    An overview of American elections since 1996, showed that they have chosen a Democratic candidate on three occasions and a Republican on two.

    The report noted that Democrat Bill Clinton was re-elected in 1996 by a considerable margin, gaining 47,402,357 votes (49.24 per cent) by comparison with just 39,198,755 votes (40.71 per cent) for Republican candidate Bob Dole.

    It noted then that the Electoral College vote was even more lopsided with Clinton securing 379 electors to just 159 for Dole. Turnout was a low 49 per cent.

    In 2000, George W Bush was elected the 43rd President. Although, the final decision dragged for several weeks as the Supreme Court was called on to decide the outcome in the key state of Florida.

    Bush, with 50,456,002 votes secured the backing of 47.87 per cent of the electorate, less than Democratic candidate Al Gore with 50,999,897 votes and 48.38 per cent.

    Nevertheless, Bush had the backing of 271 electors to Gore’s 266. The turnout was 51.21 per cent.

    Bush was re-elected in 2004 as he gained a clear majority with 62,040,610 votes (50.73 per cent) over his Democratic challenger John Kerry with 59,028,444 (48.27 per cent) and 286 electors to Kerry’s 251.The turnout then was 56.70 per cent.

    The report stated that in 2008, Obama was elected the 44th president, becoming the first African-American to hold the office.

    It said the senator from Illinois polled 69,498,516 votes (52.93 per cent), against 59,948,323 (45.65 per cent) for John McCain, the Republican senator for Arizona.

    The outcome gave Obama 365 electors and McCain 173. Turnout was 58.23 per cent.

    In 2012 Barack Obama was re-elected, securing the backing of 332 electors. His opponent, Republican Mitt Romney had just 206.

    It explained that Obama secured 51.06 per cent of the popular vote (65,915,795), against 47.20 per cent (60,933,504) for Romney. It described that voter turnout as 54.87 per cent.

  • 790 economists tell voters: Don’t vote for Trump

    790 economists tell voters: Don’t vote for Trump

    A report on CNNMoney, on Tuesday, revealed that America’s economists on college campuses have no love for Donald Trump.

    A letter signed by 790 economists, some who have won the Nobel Prize in economics, urged voters not to vote for Trump.

    “His statements reveal a deep ignorance of economics and an inability to listen to credible experts,” the letter reads. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the letter, which was signed almost entirely by college professors.

    The letter was originally signed by some 370 economists. It was then reopened for new signatures and hundreds of additional economists also put down their names.

    The economists did not endorse Hillary Clinton, but recommended that would-be Trump voters “choose a different candidate.”

    Related Post: Trump on if he’ll concede if he loses: “We’ll see what happens”

    They argue that Trump has deeply misled Americans on trade, manufacturing, immigration and public institutions critical to the credibility of the economy, such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which keeps track of how many jobs the economy creates and publishes a widely-watched monthly report.

    One of Trump’s economic advisers, Peter Navarro, told the Journal the letter “is a headline, whatever.”

    Navarro, an economics professor at the University of California, Irvine, also told the Journal: “You shouldn’t believe economists or Nobel Prize winners on trade.” He confirmed that comment to CNNMoney, but later said that the quote was incorrect.

    Navarro added in a statement: “You don’t need a Ph.D in economics to know Trump’s plan to cut taxes, reduce regulation, increase oil, gas and clean coal production, and eliminate our trade deficit by increasing exports and reducing imports will significantly increase growth.”

    Trump has been heavily criticized for his threats to slap tariffs on Mexico and China, as well his comments about tearing up free-trade deals like NAFTA. His immigration policy to deport millions of undocumented workers has been widely lambasted by economists who say that would shrink the job market and hurt growth.

    Related Post: Topless women storm polling place where Trump was due to vote

    Clinton isn’t unanimously loved by economists either. In September, over 300 economists signed a letter arguing that her economic policies would be bad for the country. They claim that Clinton’s energy policy against fossil fuels, her tax plan and proposal to raise the federal minimum wage would slow down the economy.

    “Her outdated policy prescriptions won’t return our economy to the faster growth rates it once enjoyed,” the economists’ letter against Clinton reads.

    Those economists also did not endorse Trump.

    However, economic analysis of both candidates economic plans — from taxes to jobs to economic growth — leans towards Clinton, according to Oxford Economics, Moody’s Analytics and UPenn’s Wharton School Budget Model.

  • How hackers, social bots, data analysts shaped the U.S. election

    How hackers, social bots, data analysts shaped the U.S. election

    Analysts believed that information technology and data science have played prominent roles in the 2016 U.S. presidential race.

    They said on Tuesday in Los Angeles that the presidential candidates spent millions of dollars on data analysts in order to target specific voters while social bots attempt to manipulate discussions on social media.

    They added that hackers also caused further turmoil by leaking emails.

    “With our lives becoming more digitised, data analysts had become an increasingly important tool in U.S. political campaigns to reach out to voters.

    A report on Statistics Views noted that the Democratic Party has embraced data science early on.

    It said since the 2008 presidential election, the Democratic National Committee began gathering data sets of voters, which included information about “which magazines they subscribe to, whether they like to vote early, and how likely they are to open certain emails.

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    It said further that during this election, the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton hired about 60 analysts under the guidance of the statistician Elan Kriegel, Clinton’s director of analysts.

    “Kriegel was also Barack Obama’s battleground states analytics director in 2012.

    The report said data analysis tools help campaigns identify how to most effectively allocate their resources and be smart about how and when to target their voters.

    It said during the democratic primaries, Kriegel’s analyst team was “responsible for deciding where and when to place each of the 60 million dollars that Clinton invested on TV ads,” wrote the new report, by optimising the “cost per flappable delegate.

    The report attributed Clinton’s success over Bernie Sanders to the efficient use of data analysis.

    It said that by contrast, Donald Trump’s republican campaign was less open about its data operations than its rival.

    You might also like: us election visualisation of early voting results

    It said back in May, Trump told the media that he felt data analyst was “overrated,” and that he planned to win the election solely by his own personality.

    It said that Trump did not invest in data analysis during the primaries but, did start spending millions of dollars in the summer at the insistence of his close advisors.

    “Not only did the campaigns analyse massive amount of voter data, they also actively influenced people’s opinions by manipulating social media.

    Emilio Ferrara, a Research Assistant Professor at the Information Science Institute of the University of Southern California, said that many recent papers have demonstrated how people’s opinions are swayed by what they read online, and bots can contribute to that effect.

    A recent study by Ferrara and his colleague Alessandro Bessi found that nearly one-fifth of all 20 million election-related tweets they collected between mid-September and late October were from “social bots.

    Bots is an automated computer programme that are designed to pose as real people, sometimes without disclosing their true artificial identity.

    The computer scientists found that Twitter accounts identified as pro-Trump bots have mainly been tweeting positive messages, increasing the republican nominee’s popularity, while only half of pro-Clinton bots were spreading positive messages, with the other half criticising the democratic nominee.

    Another set of analysts noted that hackers added, even more turmoil into this year’s already unusual election.

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    They said a large number of emails from John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair, were released in batches on the WikiLeaks website, revealing embarrassing private discussions within the Clinton campaign.

    They noted that analysing some of the leaked emails, some speculate that Podesta fell into the trap of a “phishing email” back in March, which posed as Google’s account services department and directed him to a fake website to give his email password.

    They recalled that in October, the Obama administration officially accused Russia of attempting to interfere with the elections, by hacking the computers of political organisations including the Democratic National Committee.

    “The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security in a joint statement that U.S. Intelligence Community is confident that the Russian Government directed the recent compromises of e-mails from U.S. persons and institutions, including from U.S. political organisations.

    The accusation was dismissed by the Kremlin.

    Julian Assange, Editor-in-Chief of WikiLeaks, also denied that the Russian government or any other “state parties” could have been the source of the Podesta emails.

    Last summer, in an interview with Bloomberg, Kim Dotcom, the New Zealand-based founder of MegaUpload, said that Julian Assange would be Hillary Clinton’s “worst nightmare” in 2016.

    “I know where Hillary Clinton’s deleted emails are and how to get them legally,” the German millionaire tweeted on Oct. 27, adding they “are all stored in the NSA (National Security Agency) spy cloud in Utah.”

  • Clinton, Trump cast ballots in US presidential election

    Clinton, Trump cast ballots in US presidential election

    Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump joined voters across the U.S. on Tuesday in casting ballots for president in an election that brings a long and bitter campaign to a close.

    Clinton started her day by casting her vote in Chappaqua, New York, where she and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, have lived since he left office in 2001.

    “I know the responsibility that goes with this,” she said, as she greeted people at the polling station.

    “So many people are counting on the outcome of this election and what it means for our country, and I’ll do the best I can if I’m fortunate enough to win today.”

    Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has also cast his ballot in New York City at the polling station nearest his home in Trump Tower.

    The candidate arrived with his wife Melania, who also cast a ballot.

    “Everything’s very good,” he said when asked what he had heard about early returns.

    People shouted “loser” and booed the candidate from behind a barrier set up by police on the street.

    Some also shouted, “Go, Donald” and gave him a thumbs up.

    At a polling station in Williamsburg, a neighbourhood in New York City’s Brooklyn borough, Jasmin Stein said she felt somewhat tired of the divisive campaign.

    However, she said she was glad that the election cast a spotlight on underlying anxieties among Americans.

    “A lot of things have been coming to the light that I think the country feels and I kind of would rather have it out in the open than it just be in peoples’ homes,” Stein, 29 said.

    Another voter, Matt Sutton, who works in public relations, said he didn’t want to take any chances to let Trump get elected.

    “It’s amazing that I voted for the first woman president.

    “I didn’t know if I would even see that in my lifetime,” 29-year-old Sutton said.

    He said he was planning to go to Times Square in the evening to await the results.

    Jessica Quinn, 37, who brought her 8-month-old daughter, Emma, to the polls, said she got so anxious about the elections.

    She said that she volunteered to work for the Clinton campaign on Monday, making about 30 phone calls.

    “I needed to do something productive with all of my anxiety about what was happening with the election,” Quinn said.

    Both campaigns kept up the pressure until the end.

    Clinton’s campaign ticked down the minutes until the start of the polls with calls to vote and to “build bridges, not walls,” a dig at Trump’s promise to build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico to keep out illegal immigrants.

    Trump highlighted his final round of campaign stops, saying on Twitter: “Today we are going to win the great state of MICHIGAN and we are going to WIN back the White House!”

    Clinton is favoured to win based on nearly all surveys of likely voters.

    However, the race marked by ugly rhetoric and personal attacks has been surprisingly close, especially since many Americans considered Trump’s campaign little more than a novelty when it began in 2015.

    Since then, he has built a strong campaign around people who feel they have been left behind by the political system.

    Voters are also electing members of the lower chamber House of Representatives and one-third of the U.S. Senate.

    Voting continues until polling stations close in Hawaii, the state furthest to the west.

    Polls will begin closing at 6 p.m. in the Eastern Time zone, and early results are expected shortly after that.

    The winner will become the 45th U.S. president on inauguration day, Jan. 20, and will succeed Barack Obama, the nation’s first African-American president.

  • US election: Visualisation of early voting result

    US election: Visualisation of early voting result

    The people of the United States of America will on Tuesday night choose their next President to succeed Barack Obama, who made history as the first African-American to emerge President in the U.S.

    As Americans go to the polls, the long, unusual and often ugly 2016 presidential campaign has been about the country’s changing demographics and the shifting coalitions of the two major parties as much as about the two main candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

    Below is a visualisation of the early votes cast thus far, showing the percent cast by a given party:

    According to New York Times, in a battle of the belts, it’s Sun vs. Rust.

    The changing nature of the presidential map can be deduced from where Mrs. Clinton went on Monday. She was assured enough of her prospects for winning Florida, a state that George W. Bush won twice, to not return to the biggest battleground of them all, but she held her second event in four days in Michigan, a state no Republican has won since 1988.

    Mrs. Clinton’s aides express confidence that the results will go their way, in large part because of their optimism about Colorado, Florida, Nevada and Virginia, but they are less bullish about their prospects in Michigan and states like Iowa and Ohio. It is a striking turnabout given how rooted Democrats once were in the heavily unionized Midwest and how much they struggled in the South and parts of the West.

  • Trump wins in New Hampshire

    A trio of small towns in a remote corner of New Hampshire cast the first Election Day ballots for United States president early Tuesday, with Donald Trump beating Hillary Clinton 32 to 25 in the overall count.

    The three communities’ small handful of residents voted at the stroke of midnight, in a quadrennial election ritual that goes back to the first half of the 20th century.

    Members of the media far outnumbered the eight eligible voters in Dixville Notch, nestled in New Hampshire’s Great North Woods about 30 kilometres from Canada.

    Clinton, the Democratic Party’s nominee, beat Republican Trump four votes to two in Dixville Notch.

    She also scored a 17 to 14 victory in Hart’s Location, a town with a population of about 40 people. But the real estate mogul trounced Clinton 16 votes to four in Millsfield, a few kilometers south of Dixville Notch.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that it was the first time the community had held such a vote in decades. The electoral law in the New England state allows communities of fewer than 100 people to open their polls at midnight, in what’s become a proud tradition for their residents.

    The event garners headlines and curiosity each election cycle, even if it isn’t considered predictive of how residents of the rest of the small north-eastern state will vote during the daytime hours. New Hampshire has four Electoral College votes and is described as a toss-up state this election, with Trump and Clinton seen as running neck-and-neck.

     

     

  • Seven key things in U.S election

    Seven key things in U.S election

    Donald Trump is attempting to crack Hillary Clinton’s blue wall. And Clinton is hoping for a surge in Latino turnout fueled by opposition to Trump.

    The two candidates are making a last-minute dash across swing states like Florida, Pennsylvania and North Carolina as the 2016 presidential race enters its final hours. They’ve also gone north to Michigan and New Hampshire – two states Democrats have won in recent cycles but could flip this year.

    Here are the key states and signs to study as the night unfolds:

    Trump’s must-wins

    Most plausible paths to victory for Trump start with holding onto two battlegrounds that Mitt Romney won four years ago — North Carolina and Arizona — and flipping three states President Barack Obama carried: Florida, Ohio and Iowa.

    A loss in any of the states would severely complicate Trump’s already precarious path to 270 electoral votes. Though if Trump clawed back Pennsylvania or Michigan from the Democrats, who had won both electoral-rich states six times in a row, North Carolina would be more expendable. A win in a state like Pennsylvania or Michigan would allow Trump to offset a loss in North Carolina and still have a shot at reaching 270.

    If that doesn’t happen, holding North Carolina and Arizona, while reclaiming Florida, Ohio and Iowa from the Democrats — plus Maine’s 2nd District — would only get him to 260.

    Trump would need to tack on 10 more electoral votes somehow. New Hampshire’s four and Nevada’s six would get him there. Colorado, with nine electoral votes, Michigan with 15 and Pennsylvania with 20 are also possibilities.

    In his last 48 hours before Election Day, Trump has been pretty much everywhere, including Colorado, Michigan — even Minnesota — searching for the extra votes he needs.

    Clinton’s must-wins

    The key question for Clinton is whether her “blue wall” of Democratic-leaning states on the Great Lakes — Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — will hold.

    Trump has targeted all three, but Clinton has consistently led polls in all three states. However, most voters in Michigan and Pennsylvania cast their ballots on Election Day — which means her campaign hasn’t built the early voting advantage already in place elsewhere.

    If Clinton can do that and pick up just one of North Carolina, Florida or Ohio, she’s all but guaranteed to win.

    If she can’t win one of those three states, she’ll need to hold Virginia, vote-by-mail Colorado, New Hampshire and Nevada — where Democrats have already built a hefty early voting edge.

    Does Latino turnout surge?

    If Clinton wins, her coalition will consist of women, college-educated voters and a swell of new Latino voters.

    In early voting in states like Nevada, and Florida, there’s already evidence of burgeoning Latino turnout. This is best witnessed by the over 57,000 people who voted in Nevada Friday, with pictures of long lines and extended hours at a Latino grocery store in Clark County.

    Many first-time voters, polls show, are turning out to oppose Trump. And Democrats are bullish that Latinos have been under-polled through the entire 2016 election cycle.

    For Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee chairman, this is a ghost of elections past. After the 2012 race, the RNC warned that the party needed to do more to court Latino voters. A nominee who roundly rejected that advice could be the reason the party loses a third consecutive presidential race.

    Just as Trump’s attacks on Mexican immigrants have alienated Latino voters, his attacks on women and allegations of sexual assault have helped Clinton to a large lead among female voters. Clinton’s campaign has highlighted Trump’s most derogatory remarks in TV ads aimed at moderate, suburban women — a constituency that has helped Republican nominees in years past. If she succeeds, it would limit Trump’s strengths to rural areas.

    Does Trump have a “silent majority”?

    Trump’s biggest strength is his overwhelming support from disaffected white voters — particularly men, and especially those without college degrees.

    His campaign has long argued that those voters — many of them independent or Democrats who buy into Trump’s protectionist stance on trade — will carry him on Election Day.

    For this to happen, Trump will also need core Democratic voters to stay at home, as well.

    Already, Trump appears poised to win Iowa, and has polled ahead of Clinton in Ohio. He’s hoping to win enough blue-collar Democrats in Pennsylvania or Michigan to win at least one of those states.

    Michigan, in particular, emerged as a tempting target in the campaign’s closing days — a state hard-hit by the trade deals Trump bemoans. Clinton’s campaign raced to play defense, dispatching the former secretary of state there, as well as President Barack Obama, for last-minute rallies.

    Do African-American voters show up?

    Among Democrats’ biggest concerns has been whether African-American voters — a reliably left-leaning constituency — will turn out in numbers anywhere close to their support for Obama in 2008 and 2012.

    If the answer is no, it could hobble Clinton in key states — particularly Florida and North Carolina.

    Obama is helping carry Clinton’s load with black voters. In a call to Tom Joyner’s radio show, he argued that participating in this election is just as much about him as it is about Clinton.

    “And I know that there are a lot of people in barbershops and beauty salons, you know, in the neighborhoods who are saying to themselves ‘We love Barack, we love — we especially love Michelle — and so, you know, it was exciting and now we’re not excited as much,’” he said. “You know what? I need everybody to understand that everything we’ve done is dependent on me being able to pass the baton to somebody who believes in the same things I believe in.”

    The post-Trump GOP starts now

    Since Trump clinched the GOP nomination in May, Republican Senate and House candidates have been forced to answer for everything he has said — from his attacks on a Gold Star family and an Indiana-born judge’s heritage to his rejection of conservative orthodoxy.

    As soon as the election ends, Capitol Hill Republicans — especially if they retain control of both the House and Senate — will regain power.

    The party will have to decide just what to do with Trump’s rejection of free trade, his calls for a decreased United States role overseas and his criticism of GOP congressional leaders — whether he wins or loses.

    But adopting some of Trump’s policy planks while rejecting his political style might not help much after an election driven by the candidates’ personalities.

    How the loser handles losing

    For a nation divided by a long, bitter contest, this could be the most important question of all: Will the loser concede — and how will he or she do it?

    Trump and Clinton are both historically unpopular presidential nominees. Half the country thinks Clinton is a crook, and the other half thinks Trump is a racist and misogynist.

    And Trump, in particular, has cast the election as rigged — calling into question whether ballots that are mailed in will be counted, playing up inaccurate reports of voter irregularities and claiming that voter fraud is pervasive.

    The loser will play a crucial role in legitimizing the victor — or delegitimizing the winner from the outset.

     

    Culled from CNN.

  • Trump, Clinton to vote mile apart in New York

    Trump, Clinton to vote mile apart in New York

    Rivals Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump will vote barely more than a mile apart on Tuesday in New York after sparring with each other at campaign rallies.

    “Trump will vote at Hilton Hotel in New York, not at Trump Tower and interestingly, Clinton will vote just about a mile apart at the Javits Convention Centre.

    “This is the first time it is happening in the recent history that two leading presidential candidates will vote in the city.

    “This is one of the things that make this election historic and different,” Jeff Ryer, a Republican Chieftain in the state of Virginia told a U.S. correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

    A member of Senate of the state of Virginia, Frank Wagner, said the election night would be an uneasy one for both candidates.

    “What you will see is that they will vote and go to war room to monitor what happens in the states as the votes come in,” he said.

    Reports say spending election night not only in the same city, but barely more than a mile apart in midtown Manhattan, is creating unprecedented security headaches for New York City.

    “For the first time in modern memory, both major party candidates will monitor the results here in New York and will have election night parties in midtown Manhattan,’’ New York Police Commissioner James O’Neill said on Monday.

    The last time two presidential candidates were from New York was in 1944 when Franklin Roosevelt won his fourth term, defeating New York Governor, Thomas Dewey, but celebrations were subdued by World War II.

    Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, live in the suburb of Chappaqua, where they moved in 1999 so that she could run for U.S. Senate. 

    Trump, on the other hand, lives in a penthouse condominium atop the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue.

    The election night jitters come in the midst of a heightened terrorism alert as a bomb that exploded in the Chelsea neighbourhood in mid-September injured 29 people.

    Federal officials have said they have received intelligence warnings of a terrorist threat from the Al Qaeda militant group and Islamic State, which has also called on its supporters to attack election targets.

    Police officials said they would have more than 5,000 police officers out on election night, uniformed and plain-clothed, as well as bomb-sniffing dogs, and what they called “long gun trained” special forces.

    Up until now, the largest deployment of security in New York City was during Pope Francis’ visit last year, which coincided with the UN General Assembly, attended by President Barak Obama and 170 other world leaders.

    Aside from terrorism, the polarising presidential election has elicited strong, occasionally destructive passions.

    High-rise buildings in Manhattan bearing the Trump name have been pelted with eggs repeatedly.

    In Staten Island, the borough where Trump is most popular, a gigantic sign erected on the lawn of a supporter was set on fire in August.

    Besides the competing election night parties, the campaign has generated particular passion and concern.

    Huge crowds are expected at Times square, where people often watch election results in much the same way that they gather on New Year’s Eve.

    Another key location is the 58-story Trump Tower, which has become the epicentre for protests for and against Trump’s candidacy.

    On Sunday, competing crowds tried to drown each other out under the gold marquee of the building as police struggled to keep the sidewalks clear.

    Clinton appears to be planning the larger, more lavish party at the sprawling Javits Centre, which occupies a city block along the Hudson River and can accommodate as many as 85,000 people.

    Her campaign also received a permit for a fireworks display over the river, but the plan has been called off, according to a police official, who said he did not know the reason.

    According to the New York Post, if Clinton wins there will be an after-party at the Peninsula Hotel, just one block away from Trump Tower.

    Heavy security was already in place over the weekend at the Javits Center and television vans with satellite dishes were parked out front.

    On Sunday, the scene was quieter in front of the Hilton, where the only evidence of an impending election event was a sign that read “No Parking on Tuesday”.

    Tuesday’s historic U.S. elections will open at 6 a.m. (noon Nigerian time) and end at 7 p.m. (1 a.m. Wednesday Nigerian time), the Department of Elections, State of Virginia, said.