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Joe Biden has been elected the 46th President of the United States
This election has shown how important fact-based and independent journalism is to a functioning democracy. Help us deliver the high-quality news, data and information you need.
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How does the election work?
The winner of the election is determined by a system called an electoral college. Each of the 50 states, plus Washington DC, receives a number of electoral college votes, totaling 538 votes. The most populous states get more votes in the polling stations than the smaller ones.
A candidate must win 270 electoral college votes (50% plus one) to win the election.
In all but two states, Maine and Nebraska, the candidate with the highest number of votes wins all of the state’s electoral college votes.
Due to these rules, a candidate can win elections without obtaining the most votes at the national level. This happened in the last election, in which Donald Trump won the majority of the electoral college votes, although more people voted for Hillary Clinton across the United States.
How are the results reported?
The election results on this page are reported by the Associated Press (AP). The AP “calls” the winner in a state when it determines that the next candidate has no path to victory. This can happen before 100% of the votes in a state have been counted.
The AP also provides estimates of the total vote in each state. The numbers are updated on election night, as more data on voter turnout becomes available.
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