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.
Show your support
How is the election going?
The winner of the election is determined by a system called the Electoral College. A total of 538 electoral votes are added to each Washington DC from each of the 0 states. States with more populations get more college college votes than smaller ones.
To win the election, a candidate needs to win 270 electoral college votes (50% plus one).
The candidate with the most votes in each state except Maine and Nebraska wins the votes of all the electoral colleges in the state.
Because of these rules, a candidate can win an election at the national level without getting the most votes. This happened in the last election, in which Donald Trump won a majority of electoral votes, although more people in the US voted for Hillary Clinton.
How are results reported?
The election results on this page are reported by the Associated Press (AP). “Call” the winner in the AP state when they decide that the candidate behind is no way to victory. This can happen before 100% of the votes are counted in the state.
Estimates for the total votes of each state are also given by A.P. The numbers improve throughout election night as more voter data becomes available.
Back to top
.
