US Election Day: Joe Biden visits childhood home, Melania Trump casts vote

Biden, who voted early, took his grandchildren to his Scranton, where his family had lived before moving to the adjoining state of Delaware, which has been home since.

After a campaign marked by rancor and fear, Americans on Tuesday decide between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden arrives to board his campaign plane at Wilkes-Barre Scranton International Airport, in Avoca, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020, en route to Philadelphia. (AP)

Here’s all you need to know:

Donald Trump Jr gives India to Joe Biden

The American president’s elder son Donald Trump Jr tweeted out a world map as a mock electoral map showing India, with wrong boundaries, painted blue in the color associated with Democrats.

“Okay, finally got around to making my electoral map prediction,” he wrote in the tweet, posted around the time polling started Tuesday morning.

The other countries painted blue were Mexico, China, Sri Lanka and what looked like Liberia.

The map also showed California blue, which it is, and one other state on the east coast.

For the president’s son, who has been a leading surrogate for his father on the campaign trail, to show India blue, even if playfully, would settle a debate that has been raging in the Indian American community about who is getting their support.

“From this house to the White House, with the grace of God,” Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee, wrote on a wall of his childhood home in Scranton, Pennsylvania Tuesday.

Biden, who voted early, took his grandchildren to his Scranton, where his family had lived before moving to the adjoining state of Delaware, which has been home since.

Biden began the day with a visit to the church and then to the grave of his elder son, Beau Biden, who died in 2015 of brain cancer.

“I watch ya all the time,” Anne Kearns, the present occupant of the house told Biden. “I’m so proud of you.” Biden introduced his granddaughters briefly before saying they hadn’t been to Scranton before.

They went inside as Biden said he wanted to look at the kitchen. “I’m told from a person familiar with the house that the kitchen hasn’t been remodeled or anything.”

First Lady Melania Trump votes

Melania Trump, the first lady, cast her vote at Palm Beach in Florida, the family’s adoptive home, on Tuesday.

She was feeling “great”, she told reporters and when asked why she did not vote with her husband last week, she said, “It’s Election Day, so I wanted to come here to vote today for the election.”

The first lady, who had contracted Covid-19 as did her husband and their son, and has recovered since, wore no mask.