Irish voters may still be waiting to hear precisely when we will be going to the polls (there will be downright shock if it is not November 29th that is announced later this week) but it is election day in America.
And, no disrespect to our politicians or own own exercise in democracy, but the choice that will be made between vice-president Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump is, probably, the more consequential one for the future of the world.
The election has not been short of drama from Harris’s replacement of president Joe Biden on the Democratic Party ticket to the attempt on the Republican candidate’s life with an assassin’s bullet grazing Trump’s ear at a July rally.
To use the well-worn phrase for US elections, it is too close to call.
As our Washington correspondent Keith Duggan reports, polling stations across the United States open today with all polling experts, campaign veterans and the campaigns themselves utterly in the dark as to whether Harris or Trump will be sworn in as the 47th president in January.
For weeks, the aggregate polling depicted a presidential race that has become indecipherably close in the seven battleground states which both parties have a strong chance of winning.
While Harris holds a slender majority in national polls, with a 48 per cent to 46.9 per cent advantage over Trump, and is hoping to turn North Carolina in her favour, the Republican candidate has eaten into the slender lead she held in Pennsylvania.
And Pennsylvania, with its 19 electoral college votes, is a key prize both candidates want to turbo-boost their chances of propelling them to the White House.
Trump visited Pennsylvania for the final time with a lunchtime rally in Reading and he closed his campaign with a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Harris was in nearby Allentown in Pennsylvania on Monday and later attended a sunset concert outside the Philadelphia Art Museum featuring, among others, Lady Gaga and Oprah Winfrey.
Philadelphia-based Democratic congressman Brendan Boyle, whose father is from Donegal, predicted in a CNN interview that his state will “likely determine the election”.
Duggan sets out the choice facing US voters outlining how, to more than half the electorate, Trump “represents a nightmarish figure and a lightning rod for potential civil unrest and violence” and to the other half “he stands as a unique saviour; a figure capable of saving America”.
He writes that “late momentum hints at a historic night, with Harris becoming the first woman president of the United States. But although Tuesday has been billed as the night that America Decides, the great fear is that nothing will be resolved.”
Do not expect a result anytime soon.
Elsewhere in our coverage Hugh Linehan provides a helpful guide to watching the US election results unfold overnight, including when polls close in key swing States. Perhaps the most useful piece of advice is “have a nap first”.
Best Reads
Steven Carroll has been reporting from southern and western swing states in the US. His latest piece, however, is from Florida which has been solidly Republican for some time now. Steven reports how the preparations for Donald Trump’s election day homecoming to his Mar-a-Lago resort are under way with the former president due to cast his vote in Palm Beach today.
In Opinion, Michael Brendan Dougherty offers his view that Trump is overconfident and Harris is insecure and Americans are choosing between a man they know far too well and a woman they’d rather not get to know.
Housing is expected to be a key general election issue at home and Jack Horgan-Jones reports on how the Coalition is to agree new housing targets averaging 50,500 new homes per year during the lifetime of the next government.
Stardust survivors’ campaigner Antoinette Keegan plans to run as a National Party candidate in the general election. Meanwhile, in other candidates news, Sinn Féin has selected Maria McCormack to run in Laois in place of outgoing TD Brian Stanley who quit the party last month. Jade Wilson, Ronan McGreevy and Jennifer Bray report.
Seanín Graham reports on how a police investigation into allegedly inappropriate online messages sent by a Sinn Féin councillor in the North, JJ Magee, to a minor, has found that “no criminal offences were detected”. Mr Magee, who denies the allegations, has been suspended from the party.
Playbook
The Cabinet meets this morning. Harry McGee’s tee-up story, which includes how the Government is set to approve the appointment of Ireland’s first full-time ambassador to Palestine, is here.
The 33rd Dáil starts, what will probably be it’s last week of sittings, with Leaders’ Questions at noon.
Government Business in the afternoon (from 3.06pm) includes accelerated consideration of the Finance Bill which must be passed before the election to bring budget measures on tax into effect.
Expect much use of the guillotine mechanism this week to get legislation over the line.
Other Government business includes the Family Courts Bill 2022, and the Public Health (Tobacco) (Amendment) Bill 2024 – to ban the sale of tobacco to people under the age of 21.
The Senad will debate all stages of the Health Insurance (Amendment) and Health (Provision of Menopause Products) Bill 2024 from 3.15pm.
It is a busy day in committeeland.
At 10am the Committee on Environment and Climate Action will hear from Christian Aid Ireland, Trocaire and Oxfam Ireland in advance of the COP29 climate talks.
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment will be before the Education Committee from 11am to provide an update on the draft curriculum specifications at primary level.
The committees on transport; public expenditure; agriculture; and foreign affairs and Defence will all hear from ministers on supplementary estimates – ie extra funding these departments need before the end of the year. This is another clearing the decks exercise ahead of the election being called.
The full Dáil, Seanad and Committee schedules can be found here.
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