With just over a week until the winner of the US election is expected to be announced, citizens are casting their last votes to decide the 46th President of the United States.

As the heated battle between Trump and Biden draws to a close, we speak to Dr Rubrick Biegon from the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent for a recap on the election.

Who is running?

There are currently 1,222 candidates registered as running for President, according to the Federal Election Commission. The vast majority are not expected to win, but run to champion underrepresented viewpoints such as those of the Libertarian Party's Jo Jorgensen or the Birthday Party's Kanye West.

As the Democrats and Republicans are the most well known and powerful parties in the US, there is no doubt one of their candidates will win.

Current President, Donald Trump, is running for the Republican side, which favours deregulation and lower taxes but also a variety of socially conservative policies like restricting abortion and immigration.

Dr Biegon said: "Overall, Trump in terms of policy has been a fairly traditional Republican - which contrasts with his style. He's governed in a way which has more or less pleased Republican elites and he still has the support of the vast majority of Republican voters."

Former Vice President to Barack Obama, Joe Biden, is running for the Democrats. As the centre-left party, they favour more government intervention in the economy, higher taxes and are generally more socially liberal, in favour of affordable college tuition and banning assault weapons.

Where there is a massive divide between the progressive and centrist factions of the Democratic Party, Biden is seen as the compromise between the two.

But is this election about policy at all?

Dr Biegon argues this is not really what people are voting for or what the candidates are running on this year.

He added: "The election doesn't seem to be very much about policy at all compared to previous elections. It's very much about personality.

"Trump is running on very similar themes to what he ran on in 2016. Biden is running as the anti-Trump and really focusing on Trump's character, personality and temperament - suggesting he would be a more normal President.

"The one issue where this is not the case is with the pandemic. Trump scores very negatively on this which probably helps to explain why he's down in the polls as he hasn't been seen as handling the pandemic very well."

Will who wins impact the UK?

The short answer is no, not really.

Despite Trump putting forth a more nationalist 'America First' trade policy, he seems to take the UK-US 'special relationship' seriously and is likely to agree on similar terms to Biden when it comes to a post-Brexit trade agreement.

However, the University of Kent expert adds: "Trump is obviously very unpopular with the UK public. So if the two sides wanted to come to an agreement on a trade deal, it would be easier to get an agreement ratified with a Biden administration because Trump is such a toxic figure."

How does voting in the US work?

US citizens vote on a 'first past the post' ballot, where each voter puts one cross next to one preferred candidate on or before election day, November 3.

But the winner of the election is not the person with the most public votes, but votes in the Electoral College. Each state has a certain number of 'electoral votes' based on the population and number of senators and representatives in Congress.

The largest state, California, has 55 electoral votes, Texas has 38, New York has 29 and so on. Each electoral vote has an 'elector' who casts the vote based on the public result in their state. There are 538 votes overall and a candidate needs a majority of 270 to win the election.

This years election will decide the President and who sits in the upper and lower chambers of Congress - the Senate and House of Representatives. The chambers of Congress debate and write bills for the President to sign into law.

However, with Covid-19 in the mix, much more voting will be done earlier or by mail. As some states count their mail votes after election day, the winner could be announced days or even weeks later if the initial result is too close.

Who will win?

Polls for voting intention show Biden has been ahead since he was confirmed the Democrat's nominee in April. On October 19, 51% of Americans in these polls intended to vote for Biden and 42% for Trump, according to Real Clear Politics.

However, this is only slightly ahead of where Hilary Clinton was at the same point in the election four years ago - so Biden may not have clinched it yet.

Dr Biegon predicts: "I don't have a particular reason to think the polls are going to be way off. The polls could be wrong, I'm certainly not going to say that Trump has no chance.

"But I think Biden is far enough ahead now in most of the swing states that even if he were to underperform his polls by 3-4%, he would still win those key states and capture the presidency. I think a Biden victory is certainly the most likely outcome at this point."

Will Trump refuse to leave office?

On multiple occasions, Trump has suggested a Biden win can only happen if the election is rigged and increased use of mail-in voting would lead to large scale voter fraud.

So when Trump answered a question a month ago about peaceful transfer of power with, "There won’t be a transfer, frankly. There will be a continuation,” it made many onlookers very nervous.

Dr Biegon said: "One of the more likely scenarios is that Trump doesn't actually publicly concede the election but just goes along with it and leaves office. He'll make excuses as to why he's lost, say the vote is rigged.

"I suppose there's some possibility that he tries to hang on to power in some way. But the people around him will ease him out of office and the public performance he gives will suggest he was wronged somehow and shouldn't have lost."

The election takes place on Tuesday, November 3

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