US election results: Exit-polls show Kamala Harris is leading. Can Donald Trump still become President?

US election 2024 polling commenced on Tuesday, the last day for Americans to cast their ballots to elect their next president: Vice-President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump.

More than 82 million voters have already cast their ballot in early voting either in-person or by post. This is more than 51 per cent of 158 million votes cast in the 2020 election.

It is a historic election in many ways. For one, it has been the closest in decades, with Harris ahead of Trump 48.0 per cent to 46.8 per cent in the weighted average of national polls compiled by FiveThirtyEight and 48.7 per cent to 48.6 per cent in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls.


If Harris prevails, she will become the first woman to win the presidency, and the first African American woman, the first Asian American and the first Indian American to rise to the top of American politics.

If Trump wins, he will become only the second president in US history to lose the re-election after the first term and then win on the third try. The first was Grover Cleveland.

Harris wrapped up her campaign with her last event in Pennsylvania, one of the seven battleground states that will determine the outcome of the 2024 presidential race. Trump finished in Michigan, also one of the battleground states. The other five states are Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.

The winner must secure at least 270 of the 538 electoral college votes.

Usually, the candidate who wins the electoral college vote has also won the majority of the popular vote. But there have been exceptions – twice in the last six US presidential elections. Hillary Clinton's lost to Donald Trump in 2016 despite winning the nationwide popular vote.

Republican George W. Bush in 2000 and Trump in 2016 both became president despite losing the popular vote. It also happened three times in the 1800s.

This is often cited by critics as the main flaw of the system. Proponents of the electoral college say it forces candidates to seek votes from a range of states, rather than just piling up support in big urban areas.

The electors will meet on December 17 to officially cast their votes and send the results to Congress. The candidate that wins 270 electoral votes or more becomes president. Those votes are officially tallied by Congress on January 6 and the president is sworn in on January 20.

Generally, the meeting of electors is a ceremonial event where they simply rubber-stamp votes for the candidate who won their respective states.

But in 2016, seven of the 538 electors recorded their vote for someone other than their state's popular vote winner, an unusually high number. Three of these seven electors voted for Colin Powell, a former U.S. secretary of state, even though they represented states that picked the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton. Trump ultimately won that election.

At least 37 states and the District of Columbia require electors to vote for a pledged candidate, according to the non-partisan group Fair Vote.

FAQs

Q1. When will US election 2024 results be declared?
A1. US election 2024 results will be declared after November 5 polling.

Q2. Who are contesting in US election 2024?
A2. Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are contesting in US election 2024.