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Kinling Lo

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In a nail-biting race, Donald Trump needs just three more electoral votes to beat opponent Kamala Harris to the White House, with most media polls calling victory for him in key swing states.
While the vote count continues, this is what has been happening since the polls opened on Tuesday morning:
Wins and losses:

Trump has won the swing states of Pennsylvania and Georgia – which account for 19 and 16 electoral votes, respectively – AP has reported. Trump flipped both states after losing them by marginal votes in the 2020 Presidential election.


Trump is leading Harris as ballots continue to be counted. After winning Pennsylvania, he has 267 of 270 delegates needed, according to AP, while his opponent is at 244 electoral votes.


Republicans have won the Senate, with 51 seats secured as of the latest vote counts. There are still votes in the count for other seats but it will not change the majority.


Democrats currently hold a 51-49 majority in the Senate.


Votes for the House are still being counted, with Democrats currently at 173 seats and Republicans at 192.

Where are the candidates?

At around 3.20 am ET, Trump was introduced as the “president-elect” as he stepped on to the stage at his campaign headquarters in Florida with his running mate J.D. Vance and their families.


Trump lauded the election result as a “massive victory for democracy and for freedom”, saying it represents a “historic alignment” of Americans of all backgrounds.


Harris cancelled a speech at Howard University, a historically Black college in Washington where she was an undergraduate, as her campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond told supporters they “still have votes to count”.


Vote count

Counting is still underway, but Trump has so far checked three of the seven swing states – Georgia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. The other four swing states to watch are Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin, according to AP.


Final polls closed in Hawaii and Alaska at midnight and 1am ET, respectively.


It could be some time before there is a clear indication on final results. It took four days for the race to be called in 2020 because of the expansion in postal voting and other arrangements that were introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic.


It is uncertain how long this year’s count will take. Factors in past elections have included the tightness of the race as well as how ballots are counted in the different states. Major swing states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin only start processing postal ballots on Election Day morning.


In 2020, Trump was highly critical of postal voting, which was used by more Democrats than Republicans. The University of Florida’s Election Lab said more than 80 million Americans voted early this year – half of 2020’s total turnout.


Exit polls

According to the first exit polls, the top issues of concern for voters are the state of democracy and the economy


Voters questioned by NBC after they cast their ballots ranked those two issues as the most important by far, with around one-third of respondents citing both of them, followed by abortion and immigration.


The NBC exit poll also found that democracy itself is the issue that matters the most to Harris voters while the economy is most important to those voting for Trump.


Exit polls from CNN and NBC both recorded 43 per cent of voters who say they are “dissatisfied” about the way things are going in the country.

Sentiment

US stocks closed sharply higher after a broad rally on Tuesday. Stocks have all closed in positive territory for the past five presidential elections this century, starting in 2004.


The S&P 500 closed up 1.2 per cent, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 1.4 per cent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added about 1 per cent, up 427 points.


However, shares in Trump Media & Technology Group – seen by some as a predictor of the former president’s electoral chances – lost 1.1 per cent on Tuesday.


Turnout for this election is unclear, but is expected to be high. The 2020 race saw the highest turnouts in decades, with two-thirds of the eligible voting population taking part – a record for any national election since 1900.

What’s next?

Should Trump win a new term in the Oval Office after losing to Biden in 2020, a Republican Senate will be key to approving judicial and administration nominees.


The current Supreme Court has a 6-to-3 conservative supermajority. A majority of three-fifths of senators – 60 votes – would be required for major legislation.



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The Republican candidate has won in Georgia and is projected to win the key state of Pennsylvania


The Republican candidate has won in Georgia and is projected to win the key state of Pennsylvania.


US-China relations

Trump on course to win after securing three swing states in US election

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The Republican candidate has won in Georgia and is projected to win the key state of Pennsylvania

The Republican candidate has won in Georgia and is projected to win the key state of Pennsylvania