Trump ahead with 120 electoral votes, Harris at 99

Washington: Former US President Donald Trump has secured 120 electoral college votes and Vice-President Kamala Harris 99 as polling closed in states at 9 p.m. Eastern time, according to projections by the Associated Press.

The projections are basically in predictably partisan states that have historically voted either Democratic or Republican. They did not include any of the seven battleground states. And there were no surprises from previous outcomes.

Trump was projected to win Kentucky, Indiana, West Virginia, South Carolina, Florida, Oklahoma, Alabama, Tennessee, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Louisiana.

Harris was projected to take Vermont, Massachusetts, Maryland, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Illinois, and New York.

The winner needs to cross 270 of the 538 electoral college votes.

The contest is on in the battleground states of North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.

These projections were announced shortly after the close of polling in some states, including Georgia, one of the seven battleground states that will determine the outcome of the 2024 race for president.

These early projections are based on the history of polling in the state and are based on early trends that are not expected to change much through the night or later, on the completion of the full count of the polled votes.

More than 82 million American voters had already cast their ballot before Tuesday, called Election Day, either through in-person voting at early voting stations or through postal ballot. This was more than 51 per cent of the total of 158 million votes that were cast in 2020, at the height of a raging Covid-19 pandemic.

Harris and Trump ended their campaign with rallies in Pennsylvania and Michigan respectively, also both battleground states. There are in all seven battleground states that will determine the 2024 White House race. Unlike others, they are neither solidly Democratic or Republican and they can swing between the two and are, therefore, also called the Swing States.

IANS