Almost 100 million Americans have already cast their vote for the next United States president, more than two-thirds of the total number of votes counted in the previous presidential election, as the first election day polling booths open.
A record-breaking 98.4 million Americans have chosen to vote early in-person and by postal ballot this year, according to the , with pre-voting in Texas and Hawaii surpassing their total number of votes in the 2016 election.
By the time the first polling booths in the US opened on Tuesday, more than 71 per cent of the total votes counted in the previous presidential election had already been cast.
Joe Biden secured all five votes in the tiny town of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire - the first in the country to count its votes. Donald Trump did not win a single vote in the town. However, the nearby town of Millsfield saw Mr Trump secure a 16-5 win over Mr Biden.
As on Tuesday, it was expected the total number of early votes would surpass 100 million.
The , with only 55 per cent of eligible voters turning out in the last presidential election.
“There definitely will be an increase [on total voter turn-out], it’s probably a question of how big it is,” David Smith, a senior lecturer with the US Studies Centre, told SBS News on Tuesday, hours before the first election day polling booth opened.
“There seems to have been a lot of increased turn-out from younger people in the early voting, which would be a sign of generally increased turnout.”
Dr Smith said the move towards early voting in this election is likely part of a global trend, seen also in Australia, where voters no longer see the election as a one-day event. “After this, it will really continue that shift towards a completely different understanding of what the election actually is,” he said.
But John Fortier, director of government studies at the Bipartisan Policy Centre in Washington, previously told SBS News the huge early voting numbers may not translate into record-breaking turnout overall.
Traditionally, high mail voting numbers do not necessarily mean increased turnout, Mr Fortier said, just the same number of people voting in a different way.
“We won’t know until tomorrow whether this means that there is massively increased turn-out from last time, or whether a lot of people voted as a precautionary measure … given the rising pandemic,” Dr Smith said.
The coronavirus pandemic, which continues to ravage the US, is likely a significant driver in the spike in postal votes as many Americans seek to avoid further outbreaks.
Last week, the country recorded the global record of new cases detected in one day, with 99,321 infections reported on Friday, local time. More than 231,000 people have so far died of the virus in the country of 328 million.
President Trump has repeatedly disparaged mail-in voting, falsely claiming it will lead to mass fraud, and has pushed to disqualify postal votes that arrive after the 3 November election day.
The Trump campaign has launched a number of legal bids to limit time-frames for counting, despite a number of states allowing postal votes to arrive after election day, providing they are postmarked by that date.
Mr Trump has also threatened legal action in Pennsylvania, which cannot tally early votes ahead of election day, if the count is not completed on 3 November.
"I think it's a terrible thing when ballots can be collected after an election. I think it's a terrible thing when states are allowed to tabulate ballots for a long period of time after the election is over,” he said on the weekend.
“We’re going to go in the night of, as soon as that election’s over, we’re going in with our lawyers.”
Republicans have also attempted to quash a “drive-through” voting system in Houston, Texas, which allowed Americans to cast their vote from their cars in a bid to protect against a COVID-19 outbreak.
But on Tuesday a federal judge in Texas rejected the Republican bid to find the practice unlawful, .
As to whether the huge early voting numbers will mean a longer wait for results, Dr Smith said it depends on the state.
“The count could go on for days or even weeks,” he said. “Donald Trump has already suggested that he thinks the counting of any votes that takes place after 3 November will somehow not be legitimate.
“It could ultimately lead to a constitutional crisis, so that is a real problem.”
First booths open
As of 4pm on Thursday (AEDT) the first booths to vote on election day have officially opened.
Dixville Notch, a small community in the state of New Hampshire, has a proud and storied history of being one of the first places in the United States to cast ballots on election day, gathering as a community to cast votes around midnight.
The US does not have a centralised election body, like the Australian Electoral Commission, meaning each state has different rules for how the election is run.
This means some states are able to start counting postal votes before polls close, while others - such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin - will not begin the process until election day.
SBS will be bringing you live coverage as the US election unfolds. Here's how and when you can tune in:
The earliest polls open at 6am local time - which is roughly 10pm AEDT on Tuesday 3 November - and the latest poll closes at 4pm AEDT on Wednesday 4 November.
You can watch live video and read our live blog on the and as votes are being tallied from Wednesday 11am (AEDT) until 6.20pm (AEDT). SBS will be streaming coverage from our partners, ABC World News America, with all the latest analysis and commentary direct from the United States.
