- Safiu Kehinde
The US has 50 states with 43 of them voting same party every election, that is, they vote either Democrats or Republican.
According to BBC, there are seven states with different voting pattern. They are known as the swing states and can be divided into two groups- The Sun Belt (comprising of Nevada Arizona, North Carolina, and Georgia) and the Rust Belt (comprising of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania).
In US Elections, states with more people are worth more points. These points are reportedly called electoral college points and for the swing states, they range from 6 to 19 points.
Across the US, there are a total of 538 electoral college votes up for grab and the winner will be the candidate that gets 270 or more.
If both candidates win all the state’s that history- and the polls- suggests they are most certain to win, it will leave Kamala Harris with 44 votes short of victory and Donald Trump looking for 51 more votes to become President.
These swing states hold 93 votes between them and for a candidate to win, he or she will need to win at least three swing states.
However, none of these states have been called so far, and it’s important to note that things can change quickly as more votes are counted.
Voting in some states- most especially the swing states is particularly hard to predict, with polls showing they could be won by the Republicans or the Democratic party.
Donald Trump Leads in Most Swing States in Early Results
As at the time of filing this report, Donald Trump is showing strong returns in most of the battleground states reported so far.
He is leading in Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, where the majority of votes have been counted.
In Arizona and Wisconsin, he is inching slightly ahead. More than half of votes have been counted in those two states.
Meanwhile, Kamala Harris is leading in Michigan, though only 32% of the votes have been reported there.