A nation on edge heads to the polls

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (AP):

Michael Gregoire marched along a downtown sidewalk in the tense days before the midterm elections, waving a hand-painted sign at passing traffic: 'DEFEAT REPUBLICANS 2018'.

"The survival of the country is going to depend on this election," he said, as another man stopped for a moment to argue. The strangers faced each other from opposite edges of the great American divide, Democrat versus Republican, both convinced the election is among the most consequential in their lifetimes and that they must save the nation from the other side.

"I'm voting for Donald Trump," Stuart Kanter said. "He's not on the ticket. But, in a way, actually he is."

President Donald Trump looms large over today's election, which is expected to draw historic numbers to the polls and will determine which party controls Congress.

For Gregoire and Kanter, and for voters across the country, the election represents something far greater than whatever Senate and House races appear on their ballots.

'HE'S JUST IRRESPONSIBLE'

It is a competition for the soul of America - a referendum on Trump and the venomous political culture that many blame for gridlock in Congress and a recent spate of hate crimes and politically motivated attacks.

Don Albrecht, a 75-year-old accountant and Republican who voted for Trump in 2016, lives blocks away from the Louisville grocery store where two people died. He'd pulled into the parking lot minutes after the gunfire erupted, saw the police cars and shaken employees, and felt like the country's poisonous political climate had landed in his backyard. He wishes he could take back his vote for Trump.

"He has diarrhoea of the mouth and diarrhoea of the brain. He's just so irresponsible," said Albrecht, who worries Trump's embrace of the far right is remaking his party.

He's undecided going into election day. He can't remember ever voting for a Democrat, but said he might this time in protest.

Young people, who historically sit out of midterm elections, and women are both expected to be pivotal forces today.

In Georgia, Democratic campaign volunteer Adrienne White said she struggled to recruit volunteers ahead of the 2016 presidential election but that it's been easy this year, especially among women.

In Pittsburgh, where residents just finished burying those gunned down at the Tree of Life synagogue, some voters saw their election day decisions as a way to send a message that the country is headed down a dark and dangerous path.

"This is probably the most important election in the past 100 years. This will turn the tables," said Barbara Villa, 71, who with her husband planted a crop of 'Vote Blue' signs outside their home.