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2024 Presidential Election to be decided by Alabama voters, other across the country

This combination of file photos shows Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, left, speaking at a campaign rally Erie, Pa., on Oct. 14, 2024, and Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaking a campaign rally in Uniondale, N.Y., on Sept.18, 2024. (AP Photo)
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This combination of file photos shows Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, left, speaking at a campaign rally Erie, Pa., on Oct. 14, 2024, and Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaking a campaign rally in Uniondale, N.Y., on Sept.18, 2024. (AP Photo)

Alabama voters are getting the chance to cast their votes for president and other local races during the general election. Polling locations are open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. in the Yellowhammer State.

About 77 million Americans already have voted early with Alabamians heading to the polls today. Those looking to cast a ballot in Alabama must present a valid form of photo identification.

The presidential election candidates in the two largest national political parties are Kamala Harris, on the Democratic ticket, and Donald Trump, who's representing the Republican party. Either result on Election Day will yield a historic outcome.

A Trump victory would make him the first incoming president to have been indicted and convicted of a felony, after his hush-money trial in New York. He will gain the power to end other federal investigations pending against him. Trump would also become only the second president in history to win non-consecutive White House terms, after Grover Cleveland in the late 19th century.

Harris is vying to become the first woman, first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to reach the Oval Office — four years after she broke the same barriers in national office by becoming President Joe Biden’s second in command.

Harris is vying to become the first woman, first Black woman and first person of South Asian descent to reach the Oval Office — four years after she broke the same barriers in national office by becoming President Joe Biden’s second in command.

The vice president ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket after Biden's disastrous performance in a June debate set into motion his withdrawal from the race — one of a series of convulsions that have hit this year's campaign.

Trump survived by millimeters a would-be assassin's bullet at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. His Secret Service detail foiled a second attempt in September, when a gunman had set up a rifle as Trump golfed at one of his courses in Florida.

Harris, 60, has played down the historic nature of her candidacy, which materialized only after the 81-year-old president ended his reelection bid following his June debate against the 78-year-old Trump accentuated questions about Biden's age.

Instead, Harris has pitched herself as a generational change, emphasized her support for abortion rights after the Supreme Court's 2022 decision ending the constitutional right to abortion services, and regularly noted the former president's role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The election is likely to be decided across seven states. Trump won Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin in 2016 only to see them flip to Biden in 2020. North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada add the Sun Belt swath of the presidential battleground map. Trump won North Carolina twice and lost Nevada twice. He won Arizona and Georgia in 2016 but saw them slip to Democrats in 2020.

Harris’ team has projected confidence in recent days, pointing to a large gender gap in early voting data and research showing late-deciding voters have broken her way. They also believe in the strength of their campaign infrastructure. This weekend, the Harris campaign had more than 90,000 volunteers helping turn out voters — and knocked on more than 3 million doors across the battleground states. Still, Harris aides have insisted she remains the underdog.

Trump's campaign says it's feeling confident as well, arguing that the former president's populist appeal will attract younger and working-class voters across racial and ethnic lines. The idea is that Trump can amass an atypical Republican coalition, even as other traditional GOP blocks — notably college-educated voters — become more Democratic.

Baillee Majors is the Digital News Coordinator for Alabama Public Radio.
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