Battleground states too close to call as Trump and Harris get early wins

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris continue to rack up US states, as voters in Florida narrowly reject a measure to overturn its six-week abortion ban.

So far, Harris and Trump have secured states they’re expected to win – the final result will come down to seven swing states.

Vote-counting is picking up in two of them – Georgia and North Carolina – but the result is too close to call.

Harris is ahead with women voters – but not by a landslide, current exit polls suggest.

The second biggest prize is the Senate, which the Democrats narrowly hold. Republicans have taken one seat from them so far.

Electoral College

The importance of the battleground states cannot be overstated.

U.S. presidential elections are not decided by the national popular vote but through the Electoral College, which turns the election into 50 state-by-state contests, with 48 states awarding all their electoral votes to the winner in those states. Nebraska and Maine allocate theirs by both statewide and congressional district vote counts.

The number of electoral votes in each state is based on population, so the biggest states hold the most sway in determining the overall national outcome, with the winner needing 270 of the 538 electoral votes to claim the presidency

Aside from the 19 electoral votes at stake in Pennsylvania, two other battleground states, Georgia and North Carolina, have 16 apiece, and Michigan has 15.

 

Source: BBC and AFP