Americans began casting their first in-person votes on Friday in a presidential election six weeks away that both Republican and Democratic leaders call the most important in generations.
The stakes are high: Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and other party leaders have described Republican nominee Donald Trump as a threat to democracy, while Trump has said he must win to save the country from Democratic rule.
In-person voting marks a six-week stretch to the November 5 Election Day. It means the end is now in sight to the bitterly divided campaign which in just the past two months has seen Harris take over from President Joe Biden as the Democrats' nominee and Trump narrowly escaping one assassination attempt in Pennsylvania and a second apparent one on Sunday at his Florida golf club.
Most states offer some form of in-person early voting. The first in-person voting was in Virginia, Minnesota and South Dakota with several more states to follow by the middle of October.