The US election results for 2024 are currently showing Donald Trump leading over Kamala Harris. With 63,995,841 votes (47.0%) for Trump and 69,152,192 votes (51.0%) for Harris, the first results are expected to be revealed after 18.00 EST (15.00 PST or 23.00 GMT). Both candidates need to secure at least 270 electoral college votes to win the election.
One of the key battleground states in this election is Georgia, which has historically been a Republican stronghold but has seen a shift due to its growing black electorate. In the 2020 election, Biden won Georgia by less than 12,000 votes, while in 2022, Republican Brian Kemp secured a victory with a 7.5 percentage point lead.
In Michigan, another crucial state, Biden managed to flip it from Trump in 2020. The state has a history of voting for Democrats for president consistently between 1992 and 2012. Currently, Democrats have full control of the state government.
Wisconsin, which had previously sided with the Democratic candidate in all presidential elections from 1988 through 2012, was flipped by Trump in 2016 but reclaimed by Biden in 2020 by a narrow margin.
Biden also managed to win his birth state, Pennsylvania, back from Trump in 2020. Despite Pennsylvania’s history of voting for Democrats in most presidential elections since 1992, it is now seen as a crucial swing state.
The electoral college system in the US determines the winner of the election. Each state, along with Washington DC, is given a certain number of electoral college votes which adds up to a total of 538 votes. The candidate needs to secure 270 electoral college votes to win the election. In most states, the candidate with the majority of votes wins all of the state’s electoral college votes.
The US election is administered by each state, with people voting in 51 mini-elections. A candidate can win the election without winning the national popular vote due to the electoral college rules, as was the case in 2016 when Trump won the presidency despite losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton.
Vote verification and counting processes are in place to ensure oversight and security. Ballots are counted as soon as the polls close, with various verification processes in place for absentee and mail-in ballots. The final results can take days or weeks to be fully finalized due to verification processes and potential recounts in close races.
The election results reported by the Associated Press (AP) are updated throughout election night and in the following days as more data on voter turnout becomes available. AP calls the winner in a state when they determine that the trailing candidate has no path to victory, even before 100% of votes have been counted.
