Former Vice President Joe Biden has been elected the 46th president of the United States, narrowly emerging victorious from a contentious White House campaign that stretched days past election night, as vote tallies in several swing states were slowed by an unprecedented surge in mail-in ballots.
Biden edged President Trump, who in the days since voting ended has falsely claimed a premature victory and baselessly said Democrats were trying to steal the election. The Trump campaign is still contesting the process in several states, and said in a statement Friday morning: “This election is not over.”
Despite the president’s rhetoric, Biden’s team projected confidence as ballots were tabulated, knowing that large chunks of the vote still to be counted were in diverse Democratic strongholds like Milwaukee, Detroit and Philadelphia.
Americans are also electing members to the two chambers of Congress, the main law-making body of the US. Those chambers are the Senate and the House of Representatives. Biden wins the presidency
Without support in the Senate and the House, the president’s ability to enact key policies is severely limited.
The winner of the election is determined through a system called the electoral college. Each of the 50 states, plus Washington DC, is given a number of electoral college votes, adding up to a total of 538 votes. More populous states get more electoral college votes than smaller ones.
A candidate needs to win 270 electoral college votes (50% plus one) to win the election. Biden wins the presidency
In every state except two – Maine and Nebraska – the candidate that gets the most votes wins all of the state’s electoral college votes.
Due to these rules, a candidate can win the election without getting the most votes at the national level. This happened at the last election, in which Donald Trump won a majority of electoral college votes although more people voted for Hillary Clinton across the US.
How are the results reported?
The election results on this page are reported by the Associated Press (AP). AP “call” the winner in a state when they determine that the trailing candidate has no path to victory. This can happen before 100% of votes in a state have been counted. Biden wins the presidency
Estimates for the total vote in each state are also provided by AP. The numbers update throughout election night, as more data on voter turnout becomes available.
| State | Candidate | Vote | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska | Dan Sullivan (R) Incumbent | 62.3% | 58.37% reporting |
| Al Gross (D) | 32.1% | 58.37% reporting | |
| John Wayne Howe (O) | 5.5% | 58.37% reporting | |
| Alabama | Tommy Tuberville (R) | 60.4% | Declared |
| Doug Jones (D) Incumbent | 39.6% | Declared | |
| Arkansas | Tom Cotton (R) Incumbent | 66.7% | Declared |
| Ricky Harrington (O) | 33.3% | Declared | |
| Arizona | Mark Kelly (D) | 51.3% | Declared |
| Martha McSally (R) Incumbent | 48.7% | Declared | |
| Colorado | John Hickenlooper (D) | 53.4% | Declared |
| Cory Gardner (R) Incumbent | 44.4% | Declared | |
| Raymon Doane (O) | 1.7% | Declared | |
| Delaware | Christopher Coons (D) Incumbent | 59.5% | Declared |
| Lauren Witzke (R) | 37.9% | Declared | |
| Mark Turley (O) | 1.6% | Declared | |
| Georgia (special election) | Raphael Warnock (D) | 32.9% | Runoff |
| Kelly Loeffler (R) Incumbent | 25.9% | Runoff | |
| Doug Collins (R) | 20% | Runoff | |
| Georgia | David Perdue (R) Incumbent | 49.8% | Runoff |
| Jon Ossoff (D) | 47.9% | Runoff | |
| Shane Hazel (O) | 2.3% | Runoff | |
| Iowa | Joni Ernst (R) Incumbent | 51.8% | Declared |
| Theresa Greenfield (D) | 45.2% | Declared | |
| Rick Stewart (O) | 2.2% | Declared | |
| Idaho | Jim Risch (R) Incumbent | 62.6% | Declared |
| Paulette Jordan (D) | 33.3% | Declared | |
| Natalie Fleming (O) | 2.9% | Declared | |
| Illinois | Richard Durbin (D) Incumbent | 53% | Declared |
| Mark Curran (R) | 40.3% | Declared | |
| Willie Wilson (O) | 4% | Declared | |
| Kansas | Roger Marshall (R) | 53.5% | Declared |
| Barbara Bollier (D) | 41.6% | Declared | |
| Jason Buckley (O) | 4.9% | Declared | |
| Kentucky | Mitch McConnell (R) Incumbent | 57.8% | Declared |
| Amy McGrath (D) | 38.2% | Declared | |
| Brad Barron (O) | 4% | Declared | |
| Louisiana | Bill Cassidy (R) Incumbent | 59.3% | Declared |
| Adrian Perkins (D) | 19% | Declared | |
| Derrick Edwards (D) | 11.1% | Declared | |
| Massachusetts | Edward Markey (D) Incumbent | 66.5% | Declared |
| Kevin O’Connor (R) | 33.5% | Declared | |
| Maine | Susan Collins (R) Incumbent | 51.1% | Declared |
| Sara Gideon (D) | 42.2% | Declared | |
| Lisa Savage (O) | 5% | Declared | |
| Michigan | Gary Peters (D) Incumbent | 49.8% | Declared |
| John James (R) | 48.3% | Declared | |
| Valerie Willis (O) | 0.9% | Declared | |
| Minnesota | Tina Smith (D) Incumbent | 48.8% | Declared |
| Jason Lewis (R) | 43.5% | Declared | |
| Kevin O’Connor (O) | 5.9% | Declared | |
| Mississippi | Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) Incumbent | 56% | Declared |
| Mike Espy (D) | 42.1% | Declared | |
| Jimmy Edwards (O) | 1.9% | Declared | |
| Montana | Steve Daines (R) Incumbent | 55% | Declared |
| Steve Bullock (D) | 45% | Declared | |
| North Carolina | Thom Tillis (R) Incumbent | 48.7% | 100% reporting |
| Cal Cunningham (D) | 46.9% | 100% reporting | |
| Shannon Bray (O) | 3.1% | 100% reporting | |
| Nebraska | Ben Sasse (R) Incumbent | 67.6% | Declared |
| Chris Janicek (D) | 26.1% | Declared | |
| Gene Siadek (O) | 6.4% | Declared | |
| New Hampshire | Jeanne Shaheen (D) Incumbent | 56.7% | Declared |
| Corky Messner (R) | 40.9% | Declared | |
| Justin O’Donnell (O) | 2.4% | Declared | |
| New Jersey | Cory Booker (D) Incumbent | 58.4% | Declared |
| Rikin Mehta (R) | 40% | Declared | |
| Madelyn Hoffman (O) | 0.8% | Declared | |
| New Mexico | Ben Ray Lujan (D) | 51.6% | Declared |
| Mark Ronchetti (R) | 45.7% | Declared | |
| Bob Walsh (O) | 2.6% | Declared | |
| Oklahoma | Jim Inhofe (R) Incumbent | 62.9% | Declared |
| Abby Broyles (D) | 32.8% | Declared | |
| Robert Murphy (O) | 2.2% | Declared | |
| Oregon | Jeff Merkley (D) Incumbent | 57.1% | Declared |
| Jo Rae Perkins (R) | 39.3% | Declared | |
| Gary Dye (O) | 1.8% | Declared | |
| Rhode Island | John Reed (D) Incumbent | 66.3% | Declared |
| Allen Waters (R) | 33.7% | Declared | |
| South Carolina | Lindsey Graham (R) Incumbent | 54.5% | Declared |
| Jaime Harrison (D) | 44.2% | Declared | |
| Bill Bledsoe (O) | 1.3% | Declared | |
| South Dakota | Mike Rounds (R) Incumbent | 65.7% | Declared |
| Dan Ahlers (D) | 34.3% | Declared | |
| Tennessee | Bill Hagerty (R) | 62.2% | Declared |
| Marquita Bradshaw (D) | 35.1% | Declared | |
| Elizabeth McLeod (O) | 0.6% | Declared | |
| Texas | John Cornyn (R) Incumbent | 53.6% | Declared |
| Mary Hegar (D) | 43.8% | Declared | |
| Kerry McKennon (O) | 1.9% | Declared | |
| Virginia | Mark Warner (D) Incumbent | 55.6% | Declared |
| Daniel Gade (R) | 44.4% | Declared | |
| West Virginia | Shelley Moore Capito (R) Incumbent | 70.4% | Declared |
| Paula Jean Swearengin (D) | 26.9% | Declared | |
| David Moran (O) | 2.7% | Declared | |
| Wyoming | Cynthia Lummis (R) | 73.1% | Declared |
| Merav Ben-David (D) | 26.9% | Declared |
The US legislature, Congress, has two chambers. The lower chamber, the House of Representatives, has 435 voting seats, each representing a district of roughly similar size. There are elections in each of these seats every two years.
The upper chamber, the Senate, has 100 members, who sit for six-year terms. One-third of the seats come up for election in each two-year cycle. Each state has two senators, regardless of its population; this means that Wyoming, with a population of less than 600,000, carries the same weight as California, with almost 40 million. Biden wins the presidency
Most legislation needs to pass both chambers to become law, but the Senate has some important other functions, notably approving senior presidential appointments, for instance to the supreme court.
In most states, the candidate with the most votes on election day wins the seat. However, Georgia and Louisiana require the winning candidate to garner 50% of votes cast; if no one does, they hold a run-off election between the top two candidates. Biden wins the presidency
How are the results reported?
The election results on this page are reported by the Associated Press (AP). AP “call” the winner in a state when they determine that the trailing candidate has no path to victory. This can happen before 100% of votes in a state have been counted.
Estimates for the total vote in each state are also provided by AP. The numbers update throughout election night, as more data on voter turnout becomes available.
Source The Guardian
