The U.S. West also started voting tonight...Interest in Arizona

[Anchor]
The official curtain has risen on the U.S. presidential election.

At 2 p.m. today in our time, the voting began in the Northeast of the United States.

Voting will also begin sequentially in the central and western U.S. with different time zones.

Connect locally. Reporter Lee Jungmi!

[Reporter]
I am in western California, United States.

[Anchor]
When does the U.S. West start voting?

[Reporter]
It's still the night of the 4th in California, the United States where I am.

There are eight hours left until the voting starts.

This is because it is the western part of the Pacific time zone, the latest of the four time zones that apply to the U.S. mainland, except Hawaii and Alaska.

Voting begins here at 7 a.m. tomorrow and midnight Korean time today.

However, early voting, which began at the end of last month, continued this evening.According to the University of Florida Institute

, 81 million people in the United States have completed early voting so far.

Here in California, more than 8 million people voted in advance.

In California alone, more than 45% of those who voted during the 2020 presidential election have already voted.

The number of early voting is expected to increase further, considering mail-in ballots that have not arrived at the polling place.

However, unlike in the past, both parties encouraged early voting this time, so it is not easy to predict which side will be ahead with early voting rates.

The U.S. presidential election is a form in which each state's electors vote to drive the winning candidate in that state.

To win this presidential election, we need to secure a majority of 270 out of 538 electors.

California, where I am, has 54 out of 538 electors.

It is the highest among 51 U.S. regions, accounting for 10% of all electors.

The number of people alone will determine the election, but California is not expected to play a crucial casting boat in the race as it is classified as a strong Democratic district.

This is because the Democratic Party candidate has won all of the last eight presidential elections.

I met with voters at the early voting center, and Democratic supporters expected nothing unusual this time.

On the contrary, Republican supporters also predicted that California would change this time.

In fact, before former President Clinton won, he stressed that Republican candidates won the previous six presidential elections in a row.

Let's hear from voters who met at the early voting center in California.

[Nicola Nesbitt / Trump supporter] When I was growing up, California was a Republican. Now I think many people, even Democratic supporters, will vote for Trump. Because I'm tired of the way California operates now.]

[Stacey Johnson / Harris supporter] I heard California has more Democratic supporters than Republicans, though. Of course, my parents keep saying this. I think the state of California will still be strong Democrats.

[Anchor]
Isn't there a competitive state classified as a sun belt in the western United States?

[Reporter]
It's called the seven major contenders that determine the outcome of the election.

Of the seven states in the Rust Belt and Sun Belt, two are in the West.

It's Arizona and Nevada.

It's an area that borders the state of California where I am.

Arizona has 11 electors and Nevada has six electors.

Nevada has won two recent presidential elections with both Democratic candidates.

In Arizona, Trump won in 2016 and Biden in 2020, so we're particularly interested in Arizona.

That's why the two presidential candidates visited Arizona on the weekend ahead of Election Day.

Harris emphasized that Obamacare should continue and shouted that there is no going backwards.

Trump accused Hillary and Harris of being liars while simultaneously undermining them in the presidential election.

[CAMALA HARRIS / Democratic presidential candidate (last 1, Arizona): Trump wants to get rid of health insurance, known as Obamacare. We are not going back in time. It's not going back.]

[Donald Trump / Republican presidential candidate (last 1st, Arizona): Hillary is a liar and she had a terrible scandal, but this one (Harris) is on top. My IQ is low. She doesn't even know she's lying. This is not the kind of president you want.]

A poll conducted by the New York Times and the University of Siena in competing states from the 24th of last month to the 2nd showed Harris leading within the margin of error, but only Arizona out of seven states showed Trump leading by 4 percentage points.

Because of this, Trump's Republican Party encouraged Arizona residents to vote until the end.

Harris' Democratic Party has emphasized restoring abortion rights, targeting women's votes. Let's listen to it.

[Tim Walz / Democratic vice presidential candidate (last 3rd, Arizona): What Trump means is that women, whether they like it or not, are denied in emergency rooms and miscarried in parking lots. People who survived sexual assault or incest are forced to stay pregnant whether they want to or not.]

{JD Vance / Republican vice presidential candidate (last three days, Arizona): We're in a very, very good situation in Arizona. But we have a huge advantage in Arizona right now. I don't want to be complacent or complacent.

In Arizona, voting begins in seven hours.

It is a mountainous terrain famous for the Grand Canyon, so there are many tickets that arrive late because the proportion of mail-in ballots is large due to the nature of the region, and mail-in ballots are accepted even on election day.

In addition, state law allows voting papers with minor problems such as signatures to be modified up to five days after election day, so it will take up to 13 days to finish counting and counting.

This is YTN Lee Jungmi in Western California, USA.

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video: Han Kyung-hee

Graphic: Woo Hee-seok, Kyung-yoon,