Voters from across Scotland streamed into polling places Thursday to have their say in a historic referendum that could create the world’s newest independent nation, while breaking up one of the West’s oldest and most consequential political unions.
With polls showing an exceptionally tight contest, the pro-breakaway nationalists and the status quo unionist made frenzied appeals that extended right up to the moment voters cast ballots.
"Today you hold Scotland's future in your hands,” read a leaflet that 50-year-old “yes” campaigner Ivan Mckee was passing out to fellow Scots as they stepped into a community center in the heart of Glasgow.
“We think we are going to win,” Mckee said, noting momentum toward “yes” that has been reflected in the polls.“We have been working at this for two years, and it’s all paying off now.”
But the first vote at the center was a “no.”
“I think England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should be united,” said Manoj Narra, a 26-year-old entrepreneur who only made up his mind last week. But he was so excited for the vote that he was up at 4 a.m. — three hours before polls opened — and was at the front of the line.
By the time voting ends at 10 p.m. (5 p.m. EDT), analysts say nearly the whole of Scotland will have voted — or at least nearly all those who meet the referendum’s criteria of being 16 or older with Scottish residency.
Officials expect returns to trickle in throughout the night, with some of the estimated four million ballots arriving from remote isles by ship or helicopter. A final result is due by around dawn on Friday, or after midnight in the Eastern United States.
The vote is being closely watched around the world, not least in Washington, where President Obama late Wednesday tweeted his support for the United Kingdom, which has long been Washington’s closest and most important ally.
“I hope it remains strong, robust and united,” read the tweet, which was signed “bo.”
Nationalists, meanwhile, received a last-minute boost from tennis star Andy Murray, who is originally from Scotland and had been on the fence for months. He tweeted Wednesday night that he had been swayed to “yes” by “no campaign negativity.”
The referendum presents Scots with a simple yet profound choice between retaining their dual identity as both Scottish and British, or dropping the British part after three centuries of political union.
The implications of independence are vast — both for Scotland and for the remnants of the United Kingdom that would be left behind.