US Election 2024 Results: US Election Results: Exit polls show Kamala Harris in the lead. Can Donald Trump still become president?

Voting for the 2024 US election began on Tuesday, the last day that Americans could cast their votes to choose their next president: Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump.More than 82 million voters have already cast their votes in person or by mail using early voting. That's more than 51 percent of the 158 million votes cast in the 2020 election.

It is a historic election in many ways. For one thing, it was the closest it's been in decades: Harris led Trump 48.0 percent to 46.8 percent in the weighted average of national polls compiled by FiveThirtyEight and 48.7 percent to 48 in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls .6 percent.

If Harris prevails, she will become the first woman to win the presidency and the first African American woman, the first Asian American and the first Indian American to rise to the top of American politics.

If Trump wins, he would become only the second president in U.S. history to lose re-election after his first term and then win on his third attempt. The first was Grover Cleveland.

Harris ended her campaign with her final event in Pennsylvania, one of seven battleground states that will decide the outcome of the 2024 presidential race. Trump finished in Michigan, also one of the battleground states. The other five states are Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada. The winner must secure at least 270 of the 538 Electoral College votes. Typically, the candidate who wins the Electoral College vote has also won a majority of the popular vote. But there have been exceptions – twice in the last six US presidential elections. Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump in 2016 despite winning the national popular vote.

Republican George W. Bush in 2000 and Trump in 2016 both became president despite losing the popular vote. It also occurred three times in the 19th century.

This is often cited by critics as the system's main flaw. Proponents of the Electoral College say it forces candidates to seek votes from a range of states rather than just gathering support in large urban areas.

Voters will meet on December 17 to officially cast their votes and send the results to Congress. The candidate who receives 270 electoral votes or more becomes president. These votes will be officially counted by Congress on January 6th and the president will be sworn in on January 20th.

Generally, the voters' convention is a celebratory event where voters simply sign off on their votes for the candidate who won in their respective states.

But in 2016, seven of the 538 voters cast their ballot for someone other than the popular vote winner in their state, an unusually high number. Three of those seven voters voted for Colin Powell, a former U.S. secretary of state, even though they represented states that chose Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Ultimately, Trump won that election.

At least 37 states and the District of Columbia require voters to vote for a promised candidate, according to the nonpartisan group Fair Vote.

FAQs

Q1. When will the results of the 2024 US election be announced?
A1. The results of the 2024 US election will be announced after the election on November 5th.

Q2. Who will run in the 2024 US election?
A2. Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are running in the 2024 US election.