It’s still looking tight but none of the key states have been called.
I’ve just been on the phone to my sister in Texas, where she of course isn’t watching the election. Then dad called from Norfolk where he is watching like me at gone 2.00am.
So far my biggest question is why Americans seem to make voting so difficult? I live over the road from my local Polling Station, and I can visit it at any time of day during an election, and it’ll take me… oooh… a couple of minutes to be in and out having voted.
In Ohio, meanwhile, queues are still being got through way after the polling stations have shut. Earlier we saw helicopter shots of long snaking lines of voters. It all reminds of the first free elections in post-apartheid South Africa, where millions of previously disenfranchised voters were taking part in their first election. In that instance, you could understand the excitement, and early voting meant massive queues. But surely the USA is used to voting by now? So why does it take you up to three hours to practice your constitutional right?
The size of the country shouldn’t matter – you have x polling stations (or places) for every y thousand electorate. Simple maths. More voters means more polling stations.
All I can say is, well done to those who gave up so much time to get their votes in.