WASHINGTON — With Election Day in the rearview mirror and Donald Trump on path to the White House, it's becoming more clear that Trump's victory was decisive and the race wasn't as close as analysts and pollsters indicated ahead of time.
Political analysts said before Nov. 5 that the election is was true toss-up between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, and that seven battleground states would decide the outcome: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
By Wednesday morning, Trump had won four of those states: Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Wisconsin
Which candidate has more votes in the 2024 election?
A candidate must win in enough states to have 270 Electoral College votes to become president of the United States.
Once polls close Nov. 5, use the election map below to follow live results in the 2024 presidential election between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump. Use the navigation tools in the map to see results by state and by county. Note final results may not be posted until days after the election, according to experts.
When will election results come in?
After polls close on election night, attention shifts to The Associated Press and the major TV networks to report the results and announce who will be the next president.
Some years, that official race call has come within hours of the first polls closing. But in recent years, it's taken longer to know for sure which candidate has won enough electoral votes to win the White House. With such a close election, it's very likely we won't know the next president on Election Day — or, at the least, not on Election Day on the East Coast.
In 2020, The Associated Press declared President Joe Biden the winner on Saturday afternoon — four days after polls closed. But even then, The AP called North Carolina for Trump 10 days after Election Day and Georgia for Biden 16 days later after hand recounts.
Four years earlier, the 2016 election was decided just hours after most polls closed. The AP declared Trump the winner on election night at 2:29 a.m. (it was technically Wednesday morning on the East Coast).
This time, both campaigns believe the race is extremely close across the seven swing states that are expected to decide the election, barring a major surprise.
The size of the map and the tightness of the race make it hard to predict when a winner could be declared.
