number of electoral votes
number of electoral votes
42,586,114 votes (46.0%)
First results expected after 18.00 EST (15.00 PST or 23.00 GMT)
Georgia, long a Republican stronghold, has become a battleground state as the number of black voters increases. In 2020, Biden won by less than 12,000 votes. In 2022, Republican Brian Kemp won by 7.5 percentage points.
Michigan was one of the states where Mr. Biden, who had consistently voted for the Democratic Party in presidential elections from 1992 to 2012, succeeded in flipping the state from Mr. Trump in 2020. As a Rust Belt state, Democrats have complete control of the state government.
Wisconsin sided with Democratic candidates in every presidential election from 1988 to 2012. Trump successfully flipped the state in 2016, but Biden won it back in 2020, albeit by a narrow margin.
In 2020, Biden reversed his state of birth from Donald Trump. This large Rust Belt state is now considered a key battleground state, even though it has voted Democratic in every 2016 presidential election since 1992.
How are elections in the United States conducted?
The winner of the election is determined by a system called the Electoral College.
What is the Electoral College and how does it work?
Each of the 50 states, plus Washington, D.C., will receive a number of electoral votes for a total of 538 votes. States with larger populations receive more electoral votes than smaller states.
A candidate must receive 270 electoral votes (50% plus 1) to win the election.
In all but two states, Maine and Nebraska, the candidate with the most votes receives all of the state’s Electoral College votes.
Electoral votes correspond to electors in each state. These electors vote directly for president based on their state’s general election results. In early January after the presidential election, Congress convenes a joint session to count and certify the electoral votes.
How do people vote in US elections?
Elections in the United States are administered by each state. Whether voting by mail or in person on Election Day, people will essentially be voting in 51 mini-elections in the presidential election.
The provisions of the electoral system allow candidates to win elections without receiving the most votes at the national level. This happened in 2016, when Trump won a majority of the electoral votes, even though more Americans voted for Hillary Clinton.
Some elections use a ranked choice voting system that allows voters to rank candidates in their preferred order. If no candidate receives more than 50% of the votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and the votes of their supporters are counted as the next candidate. The Guardian has marked these elections above, where applicable, and shows the final results, including the redistributed votes.
How are votes counted?
Vote verification and counting involves a number of monitoring and security processes that occur before, during, and after Election Day.
As soon as voting closes, local precincts will count ballots cast in person on Election Day, along with verified absentee and mail-in ballots. The process varies by state, but it typically involves verifying mail-in voters’ signatures and making sure their ballots are properly filled out. Provisional ballots are used when there is doubt about a voter’s eligibility and are stored for later verification.
Verified ballots are usually counted digitally, but sometimes manually. The counts are then sent to county elections offices for tabulation and verification.
This process involves thousands of local election officials who are appointed or elected depending on the state. Partisan and nonpartisan observers can monitor vote counting.
State election officials will then compile county-level results and re-verify them to certify the final results.
Results will be communicated through the media and the Guardian will receive results data from The Associated Press.
Official results may take days or weeks to be fully determined. This is often due to the verification process for absentee, mail-in and provisional ballots. In some states, mail-in ballots can be received and counted several days after Election Day. Voter turnout was high and close races may require a recount, which could delay the release of results.
How are results reported?
Election results on this page are reported by the Associated Press. If the AP determines that the successor candidate has no path to victory, it will “call” the winner. This could occur before 100% of the state’s votes have been counted.
Estimates of the total number of votes cast for each state are also provided by the AP. Figures will be updated overnight and the day after the election as more data on turnout becomes available.
Illustration by Sam Kerr. Cartogram by Pablo Gutierrez.
