More than half of states across the country have closed their polls as voters wait to see whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris will win the 2024 election.
As results continue to come in on election night, all eyes are on seven states that are believed to be pivotal this election as they could conceivably be won by either candidate.
Common Cause, a nonpartisan watchdog group monitoring elections across the country, said at a press briefing that elections ran “relatively smoothly” but cautioned that most of the close races won’t be called immediately and it may take days to count the votes.
Virginia Solomón, the President and CEO of Common Cause, said, “We need to prepare the public of this and that it is not abnormal – this only became abnormal when people made claims that everything should be available on election nights.”
Based on CNN’s current projections, former President, Donald Trump has so far swept reliable states and Vice President, Kamala Harris has picked up blue strongholds.
CNN’s current projections said that Harris has 153 electoral votes while Trump has 211 electoral votes.
The seven key battleground states are still too close to call.
Meanwhile, AP News projections have Harris with 187 electoral votes and Trump with 230.
According to projections made so far, Harris won Illinois, California, Rhode Island, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Vermont, Colorado and Delaware.
On the other hand, Trump Trump won Wyoming, Alabama, West Virginia, Indiana, Kentucky, South Dakota, North Dakota, Texas, Arkansas, South Carolina, Florida, Oklahoma, Missouri and Tennessee.
Trump Adviser Projects Confidence
Senior Trump adviser, Corey Lewandowski projected confidence as polls begin to close. “He feels great,” he said of Trump, speaking at the former President’s watch party in West Palm Beach, Florida. He added, “We are ready, when the election is called, to begin the transition to put this country back on track.”
Trump’s campaign sees its easiest path to the nomination running through Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
He argued that Donald Trump “has momentum.”
As for the persistent gender gap in polls, he said, “Women do not vote only on their gender … It’s a fallacy.”
Meanwhile, the mood at Harris’ election night party at Howard University shifted from electric to anxious as race calls began rolling in.
Anxious faces and hushed talk spread through the crowd as the tightness of the race became apparent.
Harris’ campaign Chair, Jen O’Malley Dillon stressed patience and resolve in a message to all campaign staff, arguing that the “closeness of the race is exactly what we prepared for” and predicting the race won’t “come into focus until the early morning hours.”
The message from the campaign Chair was meant for an audience beyond campaign staff, too, as nervous Democrats nationwide watch the race between Harris and Trump narrow to a handful of key battleground states.
Citing turnout in Philadelphia and early vote totals in suburban Bucks County, Pennsylvania; outstanding votes in Detroit; and uncounted vote in Dane and Milwaukee counties in Wisconsin, two Democratic strongholds, O’Malley Dillon noted, “As we have known all along, this is a razor thin race.”
While the longtime Democratic operative noted forthcoming counting in Nevada and Arizona, the memo highlighted how central the so-called “blue wall” states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania are to Harris’ path to victory.
“We’ve been saying for weeks that this race might not be called tonight…This is what we’ve been built for, so let’s finish up what we have in front of us tonight, get some sleep, and get ready to close out strong tomorrow.”
Jen O’Malley Dillon
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