US Election 2020 Results Highlights: US voters decide between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden on Tuesday, closing an epic campaign marked by rancour and fear that will influence how the US confronts everything from the coronavirus pandemic to race relations for years to come.
The first set of polls closed in Indiana and Kentucky and are nearing a close in a handful of other states along the East coast after millions of voters put aside worries about the virus — and long lines — to turn out in person. The steady stream of closings every 30 minutes to an hour will continue throughout the day. The last polls in Alaska will shut down by 11.30am IST (6am GMT) on Wednesday.
They joined 102 million fellow Americans who voted days or weeks earlier, a record number that represented 73% of the total vote in the 2016 presidential election.
Here are the highlights of the election so far:
Record Voter Turnout: The 2020 US election is on pace to attract the highest voter turnout in more than a century, with close to 102 million early votes cast in person and by mail before the polls even opened on Election Day.
The huge turnout appeared to be spurred by the momentous issues that have upended the lives of nearly every American, including the surging coronavirus outbreak and the struggling economy, the political passions of the Trump era, and the steps that many states took this year to make voting easier and safer during the pandemic.
Biden Leads in Florida, Georgia: Donald Trump and Joe Biden are engaged in an even contest in Florida, with early trends showing Biden leading Trump by three perecentage points. If Donald Trump has any chance of winning the presidency, he can’t stand to lose his home state of Florida, which has over the last few decades reliably picked the winner.
The US President had carried the state in 2016 by just over 1 percentage point, but recent polls have found a narrow race in the state, with a series of surveys showing the race between Trump and Joe Biden within the margin of error. Both candidates have blanked the state of late, with both Trump and Biden headlining events in the state on the Thursday before the election.
Georgia is another must-win state for President Donald Trump that seems to be going the Biden way, and with a relatively quick vote count expected there, it could offer an early window into how Election Night will unfold. Like Florida and North Carolina, it's a state Joe Biden has invested heavily in, and a place where his campaign is bullish. But unlike those states, it has not voted for Democrats in recent presidential elections.
Trump Plays Catch-up: Biden had entered Election Day with multiple paths to victory, while Trump was playing catch-up in a number of battleground states, but has a narrower but still feasible road to clinch 270 Electoral College votes, the magic number needed for presidency. President Trump is, without question, an underdog.
As many as 203 electoral votes are regarded to be solidly in Biden's camp, while Trump can count 125 in his camp.
Control of Senate at Stake: Democrats are favored to emerge from 14 hotly contested U.S. Senate races with full control of Congress in Tuesday's election, but final results from at least five of those contests may not be available for days, and in some cases, months.
With public disapproval of President Donald Trump weighing on Republicans across the country, voters will decide whether to end the political careers of embattled Republican senators, including Trump ally Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and moderate Susan Collins of Maine, among others. In total, 12 Republican-held seats and two Democratic-held seats are in play.
What Pre-Election Surveys Said: Pre-election polls showed Joe Biden was 10 percentage points ahead of Donald Trump in national polling average. The national polling average of Joe Biden is at 52 per cent, while Donald Trump looks way behind at 42 per cent. If the polls are right, Joe Biden could post the most decisive victory in a presidential election in 3 1/2 decades, surpassing Bill Clinton’s win in 1996.
Trump’s Subdued Tone: The president began his day on an upbeat note, predicting that he’d do even better than in 2016. But during a midday visit to his campaign headquarters, he spoke in a gravelly, subdued tone. “Winning is easy,” Trump told reporters. “Losing is never easy, not for me it’s not.”
Trump left open the possibility of addressing the nation Tuesday night, even if a winner hadn’t been determined. He had scheduled a nighttime speech from his Delaware hometown but, hours before slated to deliver it, he turned noncommittal, saying, “If there’s something to talk about tonight, I’ll talk about it. If not, I’ll wait till the votes are counted the next day.”
How long will counting take? Although many winners may be evident quickly after polls close, the increase in postal voting because of the coronavirus pandemic is expected to push back the release of full results in many key states. The New York Times reported that only nine states expect to have at least 98 per cent of unofficial results reported by noon the day after the election. Officials in Michigan and Pennsylvania, two key battleground states, have said full official counts could take several days.