Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump in dead heat as results trickle in

NEW YORK: With the first results of the bitterly contested US polls trickling in today, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were running neck and neck after notching victories in their respective Democratic and Republican bastions in the country.

With the key battleground state of Florida still in play, the Democratic nominee is leading Trump by 68 electoral college votes to 66, CNN reported .

Clinton was projected to win in Vermont with three electoral college votes, Illinois which has 20, Massachusetts with 11, Rhode Island (4), New Jersey (14), Maryland (10), Delaware (3) and Washington DC (3).

Trump, on the other hand, was projected to win in Indiana which has 11 electoral college votes, Kentucky (eight), Tennessee (11), Mississippi (6), Oklahoma (7) South Carolina (nine) and Alabama (nine).

To win the presidential election, a candidate needs 270 of the 538 electoral college votes.

Initial reports indicate that Trump has a more diificult path to victory than Clinton.

In terms of overall vote percentage, Trump has so far received 51.4 per cent of the votes counted so far as against 44.4 per cent gained by Clinton.