Donald Trump has claimed victory in the US presidential election, even though not all the votes legitimately cast have been counted and the result is not clear.

Speaking in the White House in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Trump claimed without evidence: “We did win this election.

“We want the law to be used in a proper manner. So we will be going to the US Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop.”

Voting stopped across the US before Trump spoke. Ballots are still being counted across the country and the result is on a knife edge. 

Joe Biden told supporters earlier on Wednesday he was “on track to win” and was “feeling good about where we are”.

In an email to supporters shortly after Trump’s comments, Biden’s campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon, said it was a “naked effort to take away the democratic rights of American citizens”.

She added: “The counting will not stop. It will continue until every duly cast vote is counted.

“Because that is what our laws – the laws that protect every Americans’ constitutional right to vote – require.”

A total of 270 electoral votes is needed to win the US election, a majority of the total of 538.

Each state is allotted a fixed number of electoral votes, based roughly on the size of its population. Here’s a guide for Brits to the Electoral College system. 

Democratic hopes of a big and quick victory were extinguished after Trump was projected to have won Florida and Ohio.

But Biden’s has a likely route to victory which runs through Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. All three of these states voted for Trump in 2016, but traditionally had voted for the Democrats.

If Biden wins those three, as well as all the states Hillary Clinton won in 2016, he would secure 279 electoral college votes and the presidency.

Biden has also flipped Arizona and its 11 electoral college votes, which voted for Trump in 2016, into his column. 

This gives Biden a buffer and allow him to lose another swing state but still win 270 electoral college votes.

The battle for Georgia, which voted for Trump in 2016, remains tight.