US holds "Super Tuesday" primaries with voters concerned about leading candidates

WASHINGTON -- Polls begin to open in more than a dozen US states on the so-called "Super Tuesday" as part of the 2024 presidential primaries, with voters concerned about the leading candidates of both parties.

Fifteen states, including California, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Texas, as well as the US territory of American Samoa, are scheduled to hold primary elections on "Super Tuesday" while Iowa Democrats will release the results of their presidential caucus on the same day.

Both Democratic President Joe Biden and Republican front-runner Donald Trump aim to secure a series of "Super Tuesday" wins, but neither will be able to collect enough delegates to claim the title of "presumptive nominee."

Tuesday's primaries could also represent the last chance for former South Carolina Governor and former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley's attempt to challenge Trump for the Republican presidential nomination.

US media outlets estimate that the earliest date Trump can clinch his party's presidential nomination is March 12 while the earliest Biden can is March 19.

A majority of American adults are concerned about both Biden's and Trump's mental capability to serve effectively as US president, according to findings from a new survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

More than six in 10 say they are not very or not at all confident in Biden's mental capability to serve effectively as president, while 57 percent say that Trump lacks the memory and acuity for the job, the poll showed.

Four in five American adults think the United States is headed in a wrong direction while one in five think it is going the right way.