London, U.K. (The Guardian). Joe Biden has been elected the 46th president of the United States. This election has shown how important independent, fact-based journalism is to a functioning democracy. Help us deliver the high-quality news, data and information you need.
Why does it matter?
Long a Republican stronghold, southern Georgia has recently become more of a battleground state due to its growing black electorate. In the 2018 governor’s election, Republican Brian Kemp defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams by just 1.4 percentage points.
Why does it matter?
Historically Republican-leaning, North Carolina has become increasingly competitive in recent years. The state’s recent voting patterns mirror a national trend towards more polarisation, with cities swinging further towards the Democrats and rural areas towards the Republicans.
Who is controlling Congress?
Americans are also electing members to the two chambers of Congress, the main law-making body of the US. Those chambers are the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Without support in the Senate and the House, the president's ability to enact key policies is severely limited.
HOUSE
Democrats
215 -4
Republicans
+5 196
SENATE
Democrats*
48 +1
Republicans
-1 48 * Includes 2 independents
How does the election work?
The winner of the election is determined through a system called the electoral college. Each of the 50 states, plus Washington DC, is given a number of electoral college votes, adding up to a total of 538 votes. More populous states get more electoral college votes than smaller ones.
A candidate needs to win 270 electoral college votes (50% plus one) to win the election. In every state except two – Maine and Nebraska – the candidate that gets the most votes wins all of the state’s electoral college votes. Due to these rules, a candidate can win the election without getting the most votes at the national level. This happened at the last election, in which Donald Trump won a majority of electoral college votes although more people voted for Hillary Clinton across the US.
How are the results reported?
The election results on this page are reported by the Associated Press (AP). AP “call” the winner in a state when they determine that the trailing candidate has no path to victory. This can happen before 100% of votes in a state have been counted.
Estimates for the total vote in each state are also provided by AP. The numbers update throughout election night, as more data on voter turnout becomes available.
States won for Biden and Trump in orden alphanumbers.
