Decision Day: American Voters Render Their Final Verdict
Election Day 2016 is finally here and the candidates appear to be in a very tight race.
National polls show Hillary Clinton ahead of GOP rival Donald Trump, but the two candidates are in a dead heat in several key battleground states.
Voting officially kicked off at the stroke of midnight as it always does in the small community of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire.
Clinton has a slight lead in the average of the most recent polls from the last few days. Still, the race has gotten tighter in key battleground states like Florida and Pennsylvania, among others.
Many analysts, however, still give Clinton the advantage in the Electoral College.
Trump, meanwhile, has focused on must- win swing states he needs to get the 270 electoral votes necessary to take The White House.
Late Monday night, the two candidates issued their final appeals to Americans to come out to vote.
Trump made closing arguments in Michigan, calling on supporters to beat the corrupt system.
"Today is our Independence Day!" Trump declared. "We will make America safe again! We will make America great again!"
Just after midnight, Clinton held her final rally in North Carolina, urging voters to embrace a hopeful, inclusive, bighearted America.
"There is no reason, my friends, why America's best days are not ahead of us if we reach for them together," she told supporters.
Meanwhile, the nation will not only elect a new president but potentially change the direction of the country by retaining or dismantling Republican control the Senate.
Contests in New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania could well go down go down to the wire. All five of those races are within several percentage points and appear too close to call.
Meanwhile, after crisscrossing the country, Trump and Clinton are back in their home state of New York to cast their ballots –leaving the final decision up to voters.
