In nail-biting battle, states that'll decide who the next US President will be

Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s future hinges on key battleground states and the results may not be out until midday Wednesday (US Standard Time).

Here’s how the two contenders are placed in the key swing states and when clear results are likely to emerge from each of them:

Pennsylvania

A close contest was always on the cards here with both the parties campaigning aggressively in the days just before the election.

As of 1:30 am (US Standard Time), Pennsylvania’s Department of State reported almost 1.4 million mail ballots. Biden had 67% of them, while Trump had to contend with 32% electoral votes.

Pennsylvania still has more than 1 million votes left to count.

Biden has a clear edge in Philadelphia, where 76% of registered voters are Democrats. Only 75,755 of the expected 3,50,000 to 4,00,000 mail-in ballots had been counted as of 9 pm, with Biden winning 94% of them. State officials say a final result should be ready “within days.”

Waiting for the final results to be announced is waiting for the balloon to explode, after which nothing will be left for people but a hollow excitement.#USElection2020 #USElection pic.twitter.com/54lqPjEGRy

— Qasemebnolhasan (@Qasemebnlhasan) November 4, 2020

Wisconsin

Wisconsin has 10 electoral votes and final results are likely in a few hours even as the election workers struggled with an unprecedented number of mailed-in ballots since Tuesday morning. Biden is banking heavily on this state, knowing well how Trump scored a narrow win here in 2016.

Meagan Wolfe, the state’s elections commission administrator, told media persons that Wisconsin’s voting system is highly decentralised, with 1,850 municipal clerks who administer elections. Smaller municipalities may finish first, Wolfe said on Tuesday night. But the biggest impact will come from a count of Milwaukee, the state’s biggest city, where approximately 1,69,000 ballots were cast.

Milwaukee is likely to complete its count of absentee ballots soon, but some other cities also have votes to report.

Also read: What if US election results run into dispute? This is what may happen

Michigan

Final results may not come until Wednesday evening. This is another state Donald Trump won in 2016 with a narrow margin. The voter turnout in Detroit was around 55% i.e. about 2,50,000 votes.

Georgia

This is primarily a Republican stronghold where Biden seems to be making some inroads. As with other key battleground states, some of the biggest counties in Georgia were struggling with counting absentee ballots.

The picture in Georgia should be clear by Wednesday morning.

North Carolina

Trump was leading here by about 77,000 votes at 1 am. About 62% of the state’s voters cast their ballots before Election Day. The state has up to nine days to count mail-in ballots sent before Election Day.

State officials have said they expect 97% of the vote to be tallied heading into Wednesday morning hours.

Nevada

The final result from this state isn’t expected for several days as it awaits ballots mailed as late as Election Day to arrive. With about 80% of votes counted, Biden was holding a lead of just under three percentage points.

The results started pouring in late Tuesday, with Biden a little ahead of Trump. The count will continue overnight.