Donald Trump is set to claim a famous comeback as he is on course to secure enough electorate votes to become the next President of the United States. At 15:03 pm India time, the former US president was leading with 267 electoral votes, while the outgoing vice-president had secured 224, according to the Associated Press.
Harris and Trump have invested significant amount of their election campaign time into the battle ground states, which were key to ensuring the latter's another term as president.
The battleground or swing states are- Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Trump has secured North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Georgia so far and is leading in most of the rest.
Here are the key developments so far in the state:
* Donald Trump leads Kamala Harris by 2.5 points. AP estimates elections officials have counted about 53% of the vote, which means Harris needs to beat Trump by about 3 points in the ballots left to be counted to catch up and take the lead.
* Arizona voters approve letting local police arrest migrants suspected of illegally entering the state from Mexico
* Arizona voters approve constitutional amendment enshrining abortion access.
* Trump, a longtime source of division, calls on country to unite in election night speech. “It’s time to put the divisions of the past four years behind us,” Trump said. “It’s time to unite.”
* Trump vows in his election night speech to fight ‘for your family and your future’
* Donald Trump leads Kamala Harris by 1.5 points. AP estimates elections officials have counted about 52% of the vote, which means Harris needs to beat Trump by about 2 points in the ballots left to be counted to catch up and take the lead.
* The AP’s current count has him at 267 of the 270 electoral votes he needs to win the White House. He is leading in key races left to be called, including Michigan and Wisconsin.
* Donald Trump leads Kamala Harris by 0.7 points. AP estimates elections officials have counted about 51% of the vote, which means Harris needs to beat Trump by less than 1 point in the ballots left to be counted to catch up and take the lead.
* Harris campaign co-chair addresses demoralized election night party: ‘We still have votes to count’
* Harris’ campaign chair stressed patience and resolve in a message to all campaign staff obtained by The Associated Press, arguing that the “closeness of the race is exactly what we prepared for” and predicting the race won’t “come into focus until the early morning hours.”
* Harris will have to now hope the 'Blue wall' of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin stays strong and manage victor in Arizona and Nevada.
* Trump's electoral votes touch 230 after North Carolina win, according to AP. This puts Harris and the Democrats in a difficult position as they still lag the former president with 179 votes
* Another shift that has emerged in AP VoteCast data is among Black and Latino voters, who appeared slightly less likely to support Harris than they were to support Biden four years ago.
* Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, has reported its first votes. The massive county is key for candidates. Its first update included more than a million votes, about half of the expected total there.
* As of 08:57 am IST, Harris is leading the votes with a slight margin of 0.2 percent over Trump.
* So far, 48% of the votes have been counted in Arizona, according to AP estimates.
* NYT predicts the Trump has a 75 percent chance of winning the state
* Abortion is a top issue for some voters, mostly those who back Harris
* Nearly two-thirds of Arizonans who backed Harris said they viewed their ballot as a vote for her, while about a third of her supporters said it was a vote against Trump. That’s according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of more than 4,100 voters in the state. Among Trump’s voters, about 8 in 10 said their vote was for him. Only about 2 in 10 said it was a vote against Harris.
* Hours extended at 9 precincts in eastern Arizona county. A judge has ordered polling places to remain open two extra hours in nine precincts in an eastern Arizona county following a rocky start to Election Day that included malfunctioning equipment and a lack of printed ballots.
* There has been little surprise in results so far with polls across most of the country having closed. Trump won Republican-leaning states including Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas, while Harris won a swath of New England and the Northeast including New Jersey and New York.
* The New York Times is projecting that the state is leaning towards Trump with a lead of around 3.6 percentage point.
* President Biden made a round of congratulatory calls to Democrats who have emerged victorious on Election Day.
* Russian disinformation aiming to reduce trust in the U.S. election received some last-minute help from China, according to research from the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab.
* Several young college voters in Arizona State University are still waiting in line to cast their ballots, according to CNN. The line to vote grew in the final hours, the channel said.
* Polls are closing in Arizona. Don’t expect votes immediately. No votes are reported until all precincts have been reported or one hour after poll close. The first batch of votes reported will likely be large and contain mailed ballots that arrive before Election Day. It’s not clear which party will benefit more from votes cast in person or arriving on Election Day.
* Arizona voters are set to decide whether to guarantee the right to abortion in the state constitution — a vote that could cement access after the presidential battleground came close to a near-total ban earlier this year.
* Democratic Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego, an Iraq War veteran, faces well-known former television news anchor and staunch Donald Trump ally Kari Lake in Tuesday's election for U.S. Senate in a state with a recent history of extremely close elections.
* Arizona voters are set to decide whether to let local police arrest migrants suspected of illegally entering the state from Mexico, an authority that would encroach on the federal government's power over immigration enforcement but would not take effect immediately, if ever.
* Arizona has 15 counties, including Apache and Maricopa.
* Most of the voters in the state cast their ballots through mails and it could take days to complete the counting.
*First results in the state are expected to come out around 08:30 AM India time.
US Election Results: Live Updates
The race remained stubbornly deadlocked for weeks, with some of the election forecasters giving 60-year-old Vice President Harris an edge over former President Trump, 78, in some of the key battleground states like Pennsylvania.
America Election Results: Top Developments
The voting opened at 6 am (6:30 PM IST) in Arizona, which has 11 electoral votes, and will close at 9 pm.
Wisconsin Election Results 2024: Check live updates
In 2020, President Joe Biden won the state with a slim margin of 10,500 votes. However, in the 2024 US elections, Trump has 4 percentage point lead over Harris, surveys have showed.
Except for the 2020 US elections, Arizona has voted for republican candidates for the previous 5 presidential polls. In 1996, Democratic Party’s Bill Clinton secured the state with 46.5 percent of the votes.
Arizona does not release votes until all precincts have reported or one hour after all polls are closed, whichever is first. The state law has provisions for automatic recount of votes if the margin is within 0.5 percent
The state has seen a a high percentage of early and mail-in voters, which could favor Harris. However, later tallies could shift towards Trump.
Trump vs Harris: All about 7 swing states
Additionally, Democratic Arizona Rep. Ruben Gallego, an Iraq War veteran, faces well-known former television news anchor and staunch Donald Trump ally Kari Lake in Tuesday's election for US Senate in a state with a recent history of extremely close elections.
North Carolina Election Results Live Updates
The race is one of a handful that will determine the Senate majority. It's a test of the strength of the anti-Trump coalition that has powered the rise of Democrats in Arizona, which was reliably Republican until 2016. Arizona voters have rejected Trump and his favored candidates in every statewide election since then.
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With agency inputs
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