What a day – no clear winner, a president already falsely claiming victory and a challenger calling for everyone just to calm down a little bit.
The US presidential election is shaping up for a nail-biting finish and will be decided by a handful of states that could swing either way.
Of the 13 states on this watch list, three remain undecided – meaning Donald Trump and Joe Biden are battling for Pennsylvania, Georgia and Nevada. Of the decided states, Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin (both won by Biden) represent a change from the 2016 election.
Currently, Biden has a lead of 248 Electoral College votes compared to Trump’s 213. You can track the full results as they come in.
Hundreds of thousands of votes are also outstanding in Pennsylvania.
Here’s where things stand:
Wisconsin – Biden
Trump has lost the state of Wisconsin and its 10 electoral votes to Biden.
Biden now only needs Michigan, Pennsylvania or Georgia, as well as Nevada where he is leading, to claim overall victory.
The count in one county was reportedly delayed after, er, one of the vote-counting machines ran out of printer ink.
The Trump campaign has said it will “immediately” request a recount in Wisconsin, with Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien claiming there have been “reports of irregularities in several Wisconsin counties”. There has been no evidence whatsoever of widespread fraud.
Pennsylvania
Yet to declare. Winning Pennsylvania and one other larger state would give Biden the 32 votes needed to pass the 270 threshold.
Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf has warned “we may not know the results [on election day]”, tweeting his state has more than a million ballots to be counted.
Georgia
Yet to declare but Trump was leading 51% to 48% after 94% of votes were reported. A burst pipe delayed absentee-by-mail ballot processing for at least two hours.
Michigan – Biden
Biden is the projected winner of Michigan, according to CNN and NBC.
Like Pennsylvania, this was part of the “blue wall” of states that voted Democrat at every presidential election from 1992 to 2012 before a surprise Trump win in 2016.
North Carolina
Yet to declare. Technical issues at four voting locations meant results have been slightly delayed.
Arizona – Biden
Biden has taken the state back from Trump in the first swing of the election – a major coup in the former Republican stronghold.
Florida – Trump
In the biggest coup yet for Trump, he was declared the victor in Florida, seen as one of the crucial states with its 29 electoral votes.
Ohio – Trump
Trump won the state of Ohio, one of the key bellwethers in a presidential election.
Elsewhere, Trump vowed to drag the US election into the courts as he falsely claimed he had beaten Joe Biden to win the presidency while the knife-edge vote is still close to call.
The Republican incumbent baselessly claimed there is a “fraud on the American nation” and said he would go to the Supreme Court to get vote counting stopped, as the nail-biting contest continued. It was not clear on what grounds he intended to try to bring a challenge.
Iowa – Trump
Iowa, a key swing state, was taken by Trump. He took 52.7% of the votes compared to Biden’s 45.4%.
Despite backing Barack Obama in both 2008 and 2012, the midwestern state has supported to Trump in both of the presidential elections he has run in.
Nevada
Nevada has yet to declare a winner and will not do so until Thursday.
With 86% of expected ballots already counted, Biden is holding on to a small lead, with 49.3% of the votes to Trump’s 48.7%. If Biden can hold his leads in Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada he will become president.
Nevada has sided with Democratic presidential candidates since 2008. However, voters in the state also helped to elect Republican president George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004.
Texas – Trump
Despite voters in the state backing the Republican candidate in every single presidential race since 1980, Texas was branded a swing state in the 2020 election, with pollsters suggesting it could be neck-and-neck between Trump and Biden.
But with 96% of expected votes counted, Trump has been declared the victor, with 52.3% of the vote.
New Hampshire – Biden
New Hampshire was one of just a handful of states pollsters thought Trump could steal from the Democrats, despite the fact it has voted blue since 2004.
However, Biden managed to hold on to the state, taking 53% of the votes to Trump’s 45%.
Minnesota – Biden
Minnesota has backed the Democrats since the 1976 presidential election – and has remained loyal this year.
Despite Trump taking almost as many votes as Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016 (44.9% to 46.4%, Biden has held on to the state.
The Democrat took 52.5% of the votes, with Trump receiving 45.4%.
With Minnesota offering 10 electoral votes, it could be a key victory for Biden.