ATLANTA, Georgia (Reuters) – Donald Trump is declared victorious in more than twenty states for the US presidential election, including North Carolina, among those considered decisive, results which allow him to beat his rival Kamala Harris and move closer to a return to the White House.
However, while the counting of votes continued across the country, these results did not yet prejudge the outcome of the vote which will depend, as expected, on the six other so-called “swing states” – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin – capable of swinging victory to one camp or the other.
According to projections from the firm Edison Research, Donald Trump is credited with 230 “major voters”, including 16 pocketed in North Carolina, compared to 169 for Kamala Harris, who won notably in California and in the state from New York.
To win the presidential election, a candidate must reach the threshold of 270 votes in the Electoral College, which has 538 electors. The seven pivotal states represent a total of 93 electors.
Pennsylvania, with 19 electoral votes, is considered crucial, both for the former Republican president and for the outgoing Democratic vice-president. In this state, with 80% of the estimated number of votes counted, Donald Trump was ahead of Kamala Harris (51.2% of the votes against 47.8%) according to Edison Research.
In Georgia (16 electors), the Republican was in the lead with 50.8% of the votes against 48.3% for the Democrat after counting 92.3% of the estimated number of votes.
However, in these two decisive states, the identity of the winner remained to be determined, in particular due to the counting of votes in large cities traditionally leaning towards the Democratic side.
During the 2020 presidential election, decisive states experienced a “red mirage”, Donald Trump having been given the lead on the evening of the election, before a “blue turn”, when his Democratic rival Joe Biden had him exceeded, including the counting of postal ballots.
FEARS FOR DEMOCRACY
An exit poll by Edison Research shows that nearly three-quarters of voters say they think American democracy is under threat, underscoring the anxiety in the country after a tense and polarizing campaign.
This is a notable element, as the economy was cited as the main concern of Americans, ahead of democracy, in opinion surveys carried out week after week ahead of the election.
As this Election Day approaches, Donald Trump has used increasingly dark rhetoric, while continuing to fuel – unfounded – doubts about the reliability of the electoral system, as he did in 2020, at the outcome of his defeat against Democrat Joe Biden, which he never recognized.
Kamala Harris once again warned, during her final campaign rallies, that a return of her Republican rival to the White House would threaten the foundations of American democracy.
The projections are based on only a portion of the tens of millions of Americans who voted, some of whom voted in advance and by mail, with more clarity expected late in the evening, or even in the coming days, due to the long process of voting. counting in some states.
Hours before polls closed, Donald Trump said via his Truth social network, without evidence, that there was “a lot of talk about massive CHEATING” in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He had already made similar accusations four years ago about large cities voting predominantly for Democrats.
The Republican candidate also subsequently made similar accusations on Tuesday targeting Detroit, Michigan, one of the seven swing states.
“DISINFORMATION”
“I don't react to nonsense,” Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey told Reuters of Donald Trump's accusations.
An official from the municipality of Philadelphia also rejected any supposed fraud via the social network “There is absolutely no truth to these accusations. This is yet another example of misinformation,” wrote Seth Bluestein. “Voting in Philadelphia was safe.”
Millions of Americans waited in orderly lines across the country to vote Tuesday, with rare disruptions reported in a handful of states – including false bomb threats that the FBI blamed Russia.
Across the country, officials worried before the vote about possible unrest, recalling the scars of the bloody insurrection against the Capitol on January 6, 2021 by supporters of Donald Trump in an attempt to prevent Congress from certifying the victory election of Joe Biden.
“If I lose an election, if it's a fair election, I'm the first to admit it,” Donald Trump told reporters during the day at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, where he voted and was due to vote. spend election night.
The Republican's campaign team has suggested that the former president could declare himself the winner of the vote as early as Tuesday evening, even though millions of ballots will still have to be taken into account, as Donald Trump did in 2020 – wrongly.
HISTORICAL MOMENT
To know the identity of the next tenant of the White House, we may have to wait several days, while all the ballots in key states are counted, if the differences between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are as slim as 'indicated by the polls before the vote.
After a tense campaign, marked in particular by the two assassination attempts against Donald Trump, including one on July 13 from which he escaped by a few millimeters, and by the abandonment of Joe Biden from his re-election campaign, American voters were asked to decide between two diametrically different visions for the country.
In both cases, a page of history will be written.
Kamala Harris, 60, the first woman of color to hold the vice-presidency, would become the first woman to reach the White House if she wins.
The only American president to have been targeted by two impeachment procedures and the first former president to be criminally convicted, Donald Trump, 78, can become the first in more than a century to win two non-successive mandates. .
In parallel with the presidential election, control of Congress is also at stake, as a third of the seats in the Senate and all of the seats in the House of Representatives are renewed.
According to American media projections, the Democrats are on track to lose their narrow majority (51-49) in the Senate, with the assumption that the Republicans control both houses of Congress. However, Democrats virtually need just five more seats to swing the majority in the House of Representatives.
SEE ALSO:
LIVE – The latest developments in the presidential election
(Joseph Ax, Nandita Bose, Trevor Hunnicutt and Brad Heath in Washington, with Gram Slattery in Pittsburgh, Jarrett Renshaw in Philadelphia, Andrea Shalal in Michigan, Gabriella Borter in Arizona, Helen Coster and Stephanie Kelly in North Carolina, Steve Holland in Florida, Tim Reid, Bianca Flowers and Rich McKay in Georgia; French version Jean Terzian, edited by Blandine Hénault)
par Joseph Ax, Alexandra Ulmer, Stephanie Kelly et Gram Slattery
