NEW YORK - An anxious America, weary from a vitriolic campaign season and worried about the state of the nation’s democracy, is voting with determination, with roughly 75 million people having cast their ballots in the early voting period.

       In North Carolina, nearly 4.5 million voters set an early in-person voting record in the state amid devastation from Hurricane Helene. Georgia voters also set a record, with four million voters casting early ballots.

       In Pennsylvania, 1.7 million people voted by mail amid increasingly caustic litigation over whose mail ballots should count. Nine states have seen more than 50 per cent of eligible voters already vote.

       Projections from early voting indicate that the overall turnout for the election will probably be between the roughly 60 per cent of eligible voters who turned out in 2016 and the two-thirds of eligible voters who voted in 2020, according to Dr Michael McDonald, a professor of politics at the University of Florida who tracks voting.

       As the nation enters one of the most consequential weeks in recent political history, with swaths of Americans nervous about nearly every aspect of the electoral process, officials across the country have mounted a furious effort to shore up the election.

       Much of their worry stems from the violent culmination of the 2020 presidential race at the Capitol on Jan 6, 2021. In 2024, former president Donald Trump is working from a familiar play book, spreading falsehoods about the election and claiming that Democrats are “a bunch of cheats”.

       Election officials have faced some significant tests. A key county in Pennsylvania failed to deliver thousands of mail ballots to voters, while another county in the state was found to have erroneously turned away voters before a deadline. Russian interference was uncovered in Georgia. Partial passwords for election machines were breached in Colorado.

       Yet officials note that the problems were quickly detected and resolved – signs that the system is working.

       Those Pennsylvania counties added extra days for early voting.

       Reports of voter intimidation or harassment have been sporadic and rare, as have reports of excessively long lines for people waiting to vote.

       Last-minute mass challenges to voters’ eligibility never materialised. Suspicious activity, while sparse, was swiftly dealt with. Harassment of local officials was more episodic than widespread, and a blizzard of litigation did little to disrupt or change voting rules at the last minute. NYTIMES