Hillary Clinton... sometimes described as
America's Blond Eminenceand at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as
Another Hamilton Fish...
holds a clear advantage in Electoral College but can she hold this advantage for the next two days? If she does, she will make history as the first woman president of the United States of America.
If her Republican rival Donald Trump breaks this hold, he too will make history as an outsider by demolishing her as well as his own party, which is as scared of his victory as the rest of the world is.
Almost 219 million Americans are eligible to vote this year but only 149.3 million have registered as voters. In 2012, more than 126 million or 57.5 per cent of all voters -- registered or unregistered -- cast their ballots.
This year, the voter turnout could be a little higher as surveys by various polling agencies predict that almost 145 million Americans are likely to vote on Tuesday, which will be 66.2pc of total votes.
But these 145 million voters alone will not decide who will be the next US president, 270 members of the Electoral College will. This is because the US president and vice president are not elected by popular vote. Voters choose electors, who elect the president and his number two.
There are a total of 538 electors who are distributed among 50 federating states according to the number of seats each state has in the US Congress. Congress has two chambers, the House and the Senate. The House has a total of 435 members while the Senate has 100, which adds up to 535 electors but three electors are also given to Washington, DC, which does not have representation in Congress.
The electors usually vote according to the pledge they make during the election, thus those who are pledged to Mrs Clinton will vote for her and those to Mr Trump will vote for him. But the relevant federal law does not require an elector to honour his or her pledge. The 12th amendment to the US Constitution only requires an elector to cast one vote for president and one for vice president.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton holds an umbrella while leaving a campaign field office in Miami, Florida, on Saturday.--AFP (Right) Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends a campaign event in Hershey, Pennsylvania, on Friday.--Rooters