By james art 
Swing states, electoral college votes, candidates up and down the ballot and millions of potential voters: Here’s the US election, broken down by the numbers.
– Two –
Several independents ran — and at least one, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., made a number of eyebrow-raising headlines.
But the presidential race ultimately boils down to a binary choice, with the two major-party candidates — Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump — seeking to lead a polarized America.
– Five –
November 5 — Election Day, traditionally held on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
– Seven –
The number of swing states — those that don’t clearly favor one side over the other, meaning they can be up for grabs.
Harris and Trump are courting voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, focusing their campaign efforts there to ensure victory.
In an extremely close election, just a handful of votes in each of those states could decide the outcome.
– 34 and 435 –
Voters won’t just decide who occupies the White House on Election Day – they’ll also renew the US Congress.
Thirty-four seats in the Senate and all 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for grabs.
In the Chamber, members have a two-year term. Republicans currently hold the majority, and Harris’ Democrats will be hoping for a turnaround.
There are 34 seats available in the Senate out of 100 for a six-year term. Republicans hope to overturn the Democrats’ narrow majority.
– 538 –
Welcome to the Electoral College, the indirect universal suffrage system that governs presidential elections in the United States.
Each state has a different number of electors – calculated by adding the number of their elected representatives in the House, which varies by population, to the number of senators (two per state).
Rural Vermont, for example, has only three electoral votes. Meanwhile, giant California has 54.
There are a total of 538 electors spread across the 50 states and the District of Columbia. To take the White House, a candidate must win 270 votes.
– 774,000 –
The number of pollsters who have made sure the 2020 election goes smoothly, according to the Pew Research Center.
There are three types of election officials in the United States.
The majority are poll workers — hired to do things like greet voters, help with languages, set up voting equipment and check ID cards and voter registrations.
Election officials are elected, hired or appointed to perform more specialized duties, such as training election officials, according to Pew.
Election observers are usually appointed by political parties to oversee the counting of ballots – which is expected to be particularly contentious this year thanks to Trump’s refusal to agree to unconditionally accept the result.
Many poll workers have already spoken to AFP about the pressure and threats they are receiving ahead of the November 5 vote.
– 75 million –
As of Nov. 2, more than 75 million Americans had voted early, according to a University of Florida database.
Most US states allow in-person voting or voting by mail to allow people to deal with scheduling conflicts or the inability to vote on Election Day itself on November 5.
– 244 million –
The number of Americans who will be eligible to vote in 2024, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.
How many of them will actually vote, of course, remains to be seen. However, the Pew Research Center says the 2018 and 2022 midterm elections and the 2020 presidential election produced three of the highest turnouts of its kind seen in the United States in decades.
“About two-thirds (66 percent) of the eligible voting population turned out in the 2020 presidential election — the highest percentage for any national election since 1900,” Pew said on its website.
That translates to nearly 155 million voters, according to the Census Bureau.