After a long night, and an even longer four years, America will be waking up this morning to discover that what is arguably the most consequential and divisive presidential election is still yet to produce a clear result. Both candidates have claimed victory, albeit in very different ways.

Joe Biden told his supporters that he still believed he was on course for victory and encouraged people to keep faith and be patient.

Pres. Trump spoke in the early hours saying the election is a fraud and an embarrassment to the American public claiming he had won. He also promised to take such a fight to the Supreme Court, but there is absolutely no evidence that this election was anything other than completely fair. Millions of ballots are still being counted, as they should in accordance with individual states rules. Such a claim is not truly a surprise though, after all Mr Trump has been pushing the voter fraud theory since he was elected back in 2016. However, one shouldn’t underestimate how big it is for the very man sworn to defend the constitution to stand there and openly try to undermine it.

The mood in both parties was bullish early on in the evening with the Democrats saying they were cautiously optimistic, and Republicans very much the same. It was clear very early on that this was likely to be the election with the highest ever turnout in US history, indeed some precincts in Pennsylvania reported a turnout of upwards of 90%.

Results So Far

Based on what has come through, it seems that Mr Trump has done better than most pollsters predicted. Democrats had hoped they could make an early knockout blow by taking some key states such as Florida, without which Mr Trump’s path to the White House would become near on impossible, but it does not seem that will come to pass. Similarly, Texas would have been a big coup for the Democrats should they have been able to snatch victory there, but again it is currently projected to break for Mr Trump.

Other results are yet to throw up a huge surprise and therefore, at the time of writing, Joe Biden stands on 224 electoral college votes while Donald Trump has 213 – a candidate will need to get 270 in order to get the keys to the White House.

Key Battlegrounds

There are still a number of key states yet to produce a clear result as they work through the large number of early ballots that came in. Interestingly, the Democrats might be able to take the formerly safe Republican state of Arizona in what will be a huge setback in Donald Trump’s quest for election.

It does seem though, that the election might well be decided around the so-called rustbelt. Specifically, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania where if he is to stand any hope of taking victory, Mr Biden must win at least two of those three states. However, only Wisconsin is likely to report its likely result any time soon so we may yet have to wait a couple of days to Find Out Which Way, Michigan and Pennsylvania might go.

What we have is an election that will turn into a long, hard-fought slog over the very near future. It relies on patients, fortitude, and respect for due process. Sadly, those qualities seem to be in short supply.

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