WASHINGTON // Donald Trump continued to hold out on whether he would accept the results of the US presidential election contest against Hillary Clinton on Tuesday as Americans streamed to the polls to decide the future direction of the country.
As most polls showed Mrs Clinton narrowly winning, Mr Trump said he understood the importance of a peaceful transition of power but that the system was rigged.
“We have to see how it is,” the Republican nominee said on Tuesday afternoon. “Hopefully everything’s going to be on the straight and up.”
Mr Trump’s campaign began laying the groundwork on Monday night for a possible challenge if Mrs Clinton wins, filing a lawsuit against the Clark County registrar of voters in Nevada because a polling station stayed open until 10pm on November 4 – the last day of early voting in the state.
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In the complaint, the campaign said the polling station should have instead closed at 8pm and that the ballots and voting machines involved should be set aside pending any challenges to the election results. The county said it was already preserving early voting records as required by law.
On the stump, Mr Trump repeatedly raised the possibility of a “rigged” election, saying he was fighting an uphill battle against the media and the Washington political establishment. He urged his supporters to monitor polling stations for signs of fraud, singling out cities with large African-American populations like Philadelphia and St Louis.
Meanwhile, Mrs Clinton’s running mate, senator Tim Kaine, said that between long lines at his Richmond polling place and “what we’ve seen in early vote and absentee voting, we think there is going to be a huge turnout and that is good news for democracy”.
The justice department said it was deploying 500 personnel to polling stations in 28 states on election day to protect voters against discrimination and fraud. That figure was down from the around 780 who were sent out in 2012 – the result of a supreme court decision that limited federal oversight in some jurisdictions.
Mrs Clinton cast her ballot in the village of Chappaqua in New York state. The first woman to be nominated for president by a major US party, the Democratic nominee said she’d thought of her late mother while voting.
“I’ll do the very best I can if I am fortunate enough to win today,” the 69-year-old added.
Even before Tuesday, almost 45 million people had cast ballots in advance for president. Many expressed relief that the end was in sight after an election season in which personal attacks often drowned out the issues.
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“I’m tired of the mudslinging,” said Laura Schmitt, a 54-year-old Republican from Woodbury, a suburb of St Paul in Minnesota, who was voting for Mr Trump. Emetric Whittington, a 51-year-old Democratic mother of three on Chicago’s violence-plagued South Side, agreed. “I can’t wait for this night to be over,” she said.
Mrs Clinton has denounced Mr Trump for calling some Mexican immigrants “rapists”, for promoting a ban on Muslims entering the US, and for a long line of remarks about women that culminated in a leaked recording in which he bragged about grabbing their genitals.
Mr Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly called his opponent “Crooked Hillary” for her use of a private email server as secretary of state and for her complicated ties to the family’s Clinton Foundation.
Clinton voters generally described their candidate as better qualified, while Mr Trump’s said he would break with politics as usual. But some crossed party lines for other reasons.
“I can’t vote for somebody who’s so morally reprehensible,” said Lisa Moore, a 48-year-old Republican from the Glen Rock area of New Jersey, who voted for Mrs Clinton. Democrat Charles Ikner of Cross Lanes, a suburb of Charleston in West Virginia, opted for Mr Trump, saying it was time for “fresh blood” in the White House.
Mrs Clinton was buoyed on Sunday by FBI director James Comey’s declaration that he wouldn’t recommend criminal charges against her following a new email review. He had announced the inquiry late last month, diminishing Mrs Clinton’s surging momentum and threatening Democrats in senate and house races.
But on Tuesday Democrats were taking nothing for granted.
“I hope everybody’s voted early. If not, get out there,” said president Barack Obama.
Mrs Clinton was banking on turnout from Mr Obama’s young, diverse coalition of voters. Several states with advance voting were reporting record turnout, including Florida and Nevada, whose booming Hispanic populations were expected to pull for Mrs Clinton.
In Florida alone, Hispanic participation was up by more than 453,000 votes, nearly doubling the 2012 level.
In Nevada, where more than three-fourths of expected ballots had been cast, Democrats were leading by 42 per cent to 36 per cent.
* Bloomberg, Associated Press
