Latest from Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada and other swing states in US election
Voters line up to cast their ballots at a voting location at the Farmersville Elementary School on Election Day in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, U.S., Nov. 5, 2024. (AFP Photo)
Millions of voters in swing states across the United States cast their ballots Tuesday as both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump seek to woo the electorate in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
House Speaker Mike Johnson calls Donald Trump “president-elect” in congratulatory message
Update: 02:20 AM EST
US House Speaker Mike Johnson congratulated Donald Trump, calling him the “president-elect” following recent developments.
CNN projects Trump victory in key battleground state Pennsylvania
Update: 02:10 AM EST
CNN projects that former President Donald Trump will win Pennsylvania, a key battleground state, which has 19 electoral votes. To win the 2024 presidential election, a candidate needs at least 270 electoral votes.
NBC News projects Trump wins four of Nebraska’s five electoral votes
Update: 01:56 AM EST
NBC News projects that Trump has won four of Nebraska’s five Electoral College votes, bringing him closer to regaining power.
Fox News projects Trump victory in key swing state Pennsylvania
Update: 01:40 AM EST
Fox News has projected that Donald Trump will win Pennsylvania, a key swing state with 19 electoral votes.
‘Donald Trump is very likely to win the presidency’
Update: 01:31 AM EST
“While it might be several hours until the race can be called, our estimates say Donald Trump is very likely to win the presidency. Kamala Harris almost certainly needs to win Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, and Trump is a clear favorite in each,” Nate Cohn, NYT’s chief political analyst says
NY Times estimates Trump’s chance of election victory exceeds 95%
Update: 01:26 AM EST
The New York Times estimates Trump has over a 95% chance of winning the election.
Trump projected to sweep all swing states in NYT Forecast
Update: 11:35 PM EST
According to The New York Times’ election forecast model, Trump is now projected to have significant advantages across the remaining swing states, with North Carolina already called in his favor.
Pennsylvania, with its crucial 19 electoral votes, has emerged as the key tipping point state showing a 70% Republican lean. The model projects Trump leading with 299 electoral votes to Harris’s 239 in its current estimate.
The forecast shows strong Republican probabilities across other battlegrounds, with Georgia exceeding 95% Republican lean, Arizona at 78%, and both Michigan and Wisconsin at 66%.
Nevada, though closer, also leans Republican at 63%. For the first time tonight, Trump has also taken a narrow lead in the projected popular vote estimate at +1.0%.
The Times’ model now considers Trump “likely” to win the presidency, noting that Harris would need to sweep Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin to change the projected outcome – a scenario the model currently sees as increasingly unlikely given current voting patterns.
NYT’s needle forecasts swing states turning Republican, Pennsylvania giving Trump the White House
Update: 10:05 PM EST
The New York Times’ predictive “needle” model is currently forecasting Republican advantages across key battleground states, though these are projections rather than actual results.
According to the model’s real-time forecast, Michigan has emerged as the potential tipping-point state, with the needle showing a 56% probability of a Republican win.
Pennsylvania, carrying 19 crucial electoral votes, is similarly positioned with the model giving it a 56% Republican lean in its final outcome projection.
The model shows even stronger Republican probabilities in the Sun Belt states, with Georgia at 82%, North Carolina at 80%, and Arizona at 70% likely to go Republican.
Nevada’s forecast indicates a 56% Republican lean, while Wisconsin remains the most competitive with a slight 52% Republican tilt. However, it’s crucial to note that these are probability forecasts from the Times’ election model based on polling data, reported votes, and expected voting patterns – not actual results.
The model currently gives Trump a 71% chance of overall victory, though Harris maintains a projected razor-thin popular vote lead of +0.3%. As with all forecasts, these probabilities could shift as actual votes are counted throughout the night.
Trump triumphs in North Carolina
Update: 09:40 PM EST
Decision Desk HQ has projected Donald J. Trump as the winner of North Carolina in the 2024 Presidential race, narrowing Vice President Kamala Harris’s remaining paths to the White House.
North Carolina, with a demographic breakdown of 63% Non-Hispanic White, 11% Hispanic, 21% Black, 3% Asian, and 1% Native American, has historically been a battleground state.
Trump won the state by a narrow 1.3 percentage points in 2020 and by 3.6 points in 2016, making it a closely contested region in this election as well.
Polls closed in battleground states Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona
Update: 09:00 PM EST
Polls have closed in three key battleground states as of 9 p.m. ET, namely Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona with all three states currently too close to call.
In 2020, President Joe Biden won Michigan and Wisconsin by slim margins. However, Vice President Harris may face challenges in Michigan, particularly in areas with large Arab American populations, where Trump’s outreach has capitalized on dissatisfaction with the current administration’s stance on Israel during the Middle East conflict.
Harris is also aiming to retain Arizona, where Biden won in 2020 by fewer than 11,000 votes — a stark contrast to Trump’s 90,000-vote victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Latest swing state results paint a mixed outcome, with PA leading a blue mirage
Update: 08:30 PM EST
In the latest returns from key battleground states, the race continues to show a divided electoral landscape. Pennsylvania is reporting a significant Harris lead of 45% with a margin of over 248,000 votes. Michigan also shows Harris ahead by 19% with approximately 52,000 votes.
North Carolina presents a tighter race, with Harris leading by a slim 3% margin and about 23,000 votes. Meanwhile, Georgia is showing Trump with an 11% advantage and a margin of roughly 273,000 votes.
Several crucial swing states including Arizona, Nevada, and Wisconsin are still too early to call, with results continuing to come in. The electoral vote count currently stands at 95-35.
Pennsylvania, Georgia too close to call
Update: 08:13 PM EST
After an hour since the first ballots closed, U.S. media projected several early results as Trump is expected to take Florida, Tennessee, Missouri, Alabama, and Oklahoma, giving him a strong early lead.
Meanwhile, Kamala Harris is projected to win Massachusetts, Maryland, and the District of Columbia.
At this stage, the projected electoral vote count stands at 90 for Trump and 27 for Harris with critical swing states of Pennsylvania and Georgia where polls have closed still too early to call.
Polls close in swing state of North Carolina
Update: 07:30 PM EST
North Carolina’spolls officially closed after 13 hours of voting on Election Day 2024, marking a record number of ballots cast.
Approximately 4.5 million ballots were submitted, including early absentee votes, representing 57% of the state’s registered voters. In areas severely impacted by Hurricane Helene, voter turnout surged to 59%, according to election officials.
Polls close in key battleground of Georgia
Update: 07:12 PM EST
Polling stations closed Tuesday in six U.S. states in the bitterly contested election between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former president Donald Trump, including in the key battleground of Georgia.
Polling places also closed in Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia in a landmark contest that saw tens of millions of American cast their ballots early.
U.S. networks projected Trump as the winner in Indiana and Kentucky, and Harris the victor in Vermont.
Democrats, Republicans deny Trump’s ‘massive cheating’ allegations in Philadelphia, PA
Update: 06:48 PM EST
Officials from both major political parties are rapidly rebuffing former President Trump’s recent assertion of “massive cheating” in Philadelphia.
Declaring there is “absolutely no truth” to Trump’s charge, Republican and one of three members of the Philadelphia election board Seth Bluestein responded on social media to reject the allegation. Emphasizing that city voting is “safe and secure,” he referred to it as “another example of disinformation.”
The Department of State under Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro has confirmed that elections all around Pennsylvania, including Philadelphia, are “safe and secure.”
Right now, Trump has not offered any specifics to back up his charge. His spokespeople have not yet answered questions on the specifics of what the allegation meant.
Georgia Secretary of State confirms online bomb threats are sent using Cyrillic letters
Update: 06:24 PM EST
Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s Secretary of State, verified that bomb threats aiming at voting locations all over the state were sent online using Cyrillic letters. This provided election officials with a major hint regarding the likely source of the threats.
Raffensperger described in a briefing earlier this evening in Atlanta how fast state authorities responded, with the FBI shortly entering the inquiry. “We grabbed it fast, then the FBI followed our lead,” Raffensperger added.
After the FBI issued a public statement earlier today, the threats started to fade. Indicating that the matter had defused, Raffensperger said, “I guess they realized that dog won’t hunt today in Georgia.”
Legal action is taken by Pennsylvania’s Fayette County to stop illegal hand counts
Update: 06:24 PM EST
Alleging violations of state election rules, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, has sued to prohibit a local judge of elections from hand counting ballots.
Vincent Manetta, the Washington Township Judge of Election, intends to remove ballots from the ballot box following polls close and conduct an audit or hand count of the votes cast for each presidential candidate, according Marybeth Kuznik, Director of the Fayette County Bureau of Elections, reported in court records.
Kuznik claims that official tabulating tools must be used to handle finished ballots according to the Pennsylvania election code.
The county wants a court ruling guaranteeing Manetta follows these rules.
Trump suggests massive cheating in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Update: 05:27 PM EST
Former President Donald Trump alleged on Truth Social that there is “massive CHEATING” in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and added, “Law Enforcement coming!”
Trump had recently filed a lawsuit against Bucks County, Pennslyvania over voter intimidation.
Meanwhile, Seth Bluestein, City Commissioner of Philadelphia and one of three members of the Board of Elections in charge of election operations and voter registration, refuted Trump’s claims.
“There is absolutely no truth to this allegation. It is yet another example of disinformation. Voting in Philadelphia has been safe and secure,” Bluestein said on X.
