MILLIONS of Americans will be flocking to the polling places to cast their vote for the 2024 election.
With some schools closing to facilitate voting, many people are wondering if gas stations will be open.
Will gas stations be open on Election Day 2024?
There has been confusion over whether Election Day is a federal holiday or not.
Only five states recognize Election Day as a public state holiday where workers will be paid for the day off.
Those states are New York, Maryland, West Virginia, Hawaii and Illinois.
Voting is compulsory for employees in those states.
It is also a public holiday for New Jersey, Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, Rhode Island and Virginia.
However, it will not be mandatory for people in those states to cast their votes.
For the rest of the country, Election Day is a normal work day.
But whether it’s a federal holiday or not, gas stations will be open.
What is closed on Election Day?
Some schools are closed to double up as polling places on Election Day, giving children the day off.
Banks, post offices and shipping services will be operating.
How do the US presidential elections work?
BY Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter
The Democratic and Republican parties nominate their candidates with a series of votes – called state primaries and caucuses – in the run up to the election in November, held every four years.
This gives members the opportunity to choose who they want to lead the party into an election – this year, Donald Trump and following Biden’s resignation, Kamala Harris.
There are also some independent candidates running for president – arguably the most well-known was Robert F Kennedy Jr who pulled out in August and endorsed Trump.
In US elections the winner is not the candidate who gets the most votes across the country.
Instead Trump and Harris will compete to win smaller contests held in each of the 50 states.
Many of the states often vote the same way – but seven of them – Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona – tend to go in either direction.
Each state has a number of electoral college votes – partly based on population sizes – with a total of 538 across the country up for grabs.
The winner is the candidate that gets 270 or more, marking a majority in the electoral college.
All but two of the US’ 50 states – Maine and Nebraska – have a winner-takes-all rule.
Meaning whichever candidate gets the highest number of votes wins all of the state’s electoral college votes.
In 2016 Hillary Clinton won more votes nationally than Donald Trump – but she still lost the election because of electoral college votes.
The candidate who will win this election is the one who secures 270 or more college ballots.
Usually the winner is declared on the night, but it can take days to finalise the result.
In 2020 Joe Biden wasn’t officially announced as the president-elect until November 7.
The new president will be sworn into office in January on the steps of the Capitol building in Washington DC.
