Election Watch 2024: Donald Trump Secures Presidential Win, Ousting Kamala Harris in Historic Election

Pennsylvania has given its 19 electoral votes to former President Donald Trump, leaving only three votes to the required 270 to secure the presidency. Trump will be able to obtain these easily just with Alaska’s yet undeclared 3 votes, this according to election coverage by the AP.

Harris now has no path left to 270 electoral votes.

Donald Trump was the 45th and now will be the 47th President of the United States.

With victory now assured Trump is now addressing supporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

8:35 am Nov. 6

All polling locations are now closed and America and the world await final tallies to decide the next US President. Trump has a large lead giving Harris a chance at victory only in Pennsylvania with its 19 electoral votes in the race to reach 270.

AP currently has Trump at 247 and Harris at 214.

Rallygoers deemed Vice President Kamala Harris to be the best for US foreign policy and aid to Ukraine during a campaign event in Georgia recently.

“I think any nation who is in need should be helped,” a 38-year-old local named Nikki told Kyiv Post about her feelings on continuing US aid to Ukraine. “No nation has any right to just go in as a bully and just destroy another country. You can’t do that.”

In conversations with more than a dozen voters who attended the Clarkston rally, liberals overwhelmingly told Kyiv Post that they wanted to continue supporting Ukraine and believed that Harris would be a much better ally to Kyiv and other international partners.

“And the other countries – the bigger countries – that can help and stand up, should do that. It’s their responsibility to help each other,” Nikki added. “I’m not saying we need to go in there to rescue everybody… but we should help and participate to a certain extent.”

“I think we should be in Ukraine, if not with boots on the ground, at least with financial and military support,” another rallygoer named Derek, 46, told Kyiv Post. “We have to respect countries’ sovereignty – Ukraine was a sovereign country that was invaded. We can’t go back to those times when those sorts of things were okay.”

“Watching how our political presence in the world has deteriorated because of the presence of those who are only concerned for themselves and their power, ego, and money – that worries me,” Donna, a 55-year-old high school English teacher, agreed. “I’ve lived out of the country for 20 years, I’ve traveled extensively – I don’t care what they say – people in the world cannot understand this. And they are concerned.”

Kyiv Post attended political rallies of both candidates to talk to voters about what has pushed them to choose Harris or Trump – and what they think about Russia’s war in Ukraine.

In conversations with over a dozen voters who attended a Trump rally in the US state of Georgia, most conservative Americans said they supported Ukraine and believed Russia needed to be stopped. However, many MAGA voters were not sure the US should continue footing the bill and said they thought that Trump was the only person who could end the war quickly.

Although Republican voters expressed sympathy for the plight of Ukrainians going into the third year of full-scale war with Russia, many pointed out that Americans are suffering from back-to-back natural disasters, the opioid crisis, homelessness, and other domestic ailments.

“I think that our money should be going to the [hurricane] victims in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida,” Cameron, a 43-year-old mother and Trump supporter, told Kyiv Post.

“Instead, they get $750, which they’re getting turned down for, while we give another country billions of dollars that has nothing to do with us. I say America first. Take care of us,” she said.

The vice president has picked up the island state of Hawaii along with Virginia, bringing her total count to 209.

Trump remains in the lead with 270 votes.

The next US president will be decided by the Electoral College, as stipulated by the US Constitution. Each state is awarded a certain number of electoral votes – equivalent to the number of seats in Congress – that is awarded to one of the two candidates based on the majority vote in the state.

Most states reward all of their electoral votes to one candidate, except for Maine and Nebraska, which split their electoral votes according to the voting. Nominees need to reach 270 electoral votes to win the election, regardless of who gets the most popular votes across the country.

Republicans nudged ahead in their mission to wrest the closely divided US Senate from Democratic control Tuesday after flipping a state and fending off an effort to unseat their most vulnerable members.

While all eyes are on the White House race between Harris and her Republican rival, hundreds of congressional elections will determine how much of the next president's agenda gets enacted.

Jim Justice, the sitting Republican governor of West Virginia, emerged as an easy victor over his Democratic challenger in the Senate race to replace retiring moderate Joe Manchin, an independent who voted with the Democrats.

The US Capitol is divided into the House of Representatives, where all 435 seats are up for grabs -- and a 100-member Senate, which has 34 seats at stake this year.

As with polling in the White House contest, the congressional election looks close. Even with Republicans pressing their advantage in the upper chamber, control of the House was expected to be a toss-up.

Justice's victory wiped out the Democrats' 51-49 Senate advantage, leaving Republicans needing just one more gain to take it back, and setting their sights on Montana, Ohio and possibly Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

Trump is projected to win North Carolina, a battleground state worth 16 electoral votes.

Trump also won Iowa and Kansas in the Midwest. He currently has 230 votes total, according to AP.

Harris gained 54 votes by winning California, 12 votes by taking Washington, eight from Oregon, and one from Maine. Now she has 187 total. 

The seven swing states that are expected to determine the outcome of Election 2024 have all been deemed "too close to call" and have yet to be allocated. 

This year’s battleground states include the "Blue Wall" states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, and the Sun Belt states of Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina, and Georgia.

The swing states will award the following number of electoral votes to one candidate:

• Arizona: 11
• Georgia: 16
• Michigan: 15
• Nevada: 6
• North Carolina: 16
• Pennsylvania: 19
• Wisconsin: 10

The US presidential election is upon us and there can be no doubt that whoever is sitting in the Oval Office will have a profound impact on the future of Ukraine.

Kyiv Post asked Americans living in Ukraine who they planned to vote for in the upcoming American presidential election and why.

Some believe in Democrat candidate Kamala Harris’s social changes, some believe Republican candidate Donald Trump can put an end to the war in Ukraine.  

Here are some of their responses.

Harris gained three electoral votes by turning DC blue. She picked up one more with Maine. Now she has 113 total. 

Trump won Iowa and Kansas in the Midwest, each worth six electoral votes. He currently has 210 votes total. 

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Sunday that a Trump victory would force the EU to reconsider its support for Ukraine.

Orban warned that Europe cannot support Ukraine unilaterally, referencing the Republican candidate’s threats to decrease aid to Ukraine if elected. Both Trump and Orban have opposed continued military assistance to Kyiv before.

“We [in Europe] need to realize that if there will be a pro-peace president in America, which I not only believe in but I also read the numbers that way... if what we expect happens and America becomes pro-peace, then Europe cannot remain pro-war,” Orban said, per Reuters.

European leaders will discuss Ukraine as a top priority at the European Political Community meeting in Budapest later this week. 

Many EU leaders have voiced concern about what could happen to the US-Ukraine relationship if Trump returned to power.

“Europe cannot bear the burden of [the war] alone, and if Americans switch to peace, then we also need to adapt, and this is what we will discuss in Budapest,” Orban said.

“A Trump victory would create grave risks. The situation would be alarming,” former Ukrainian ambassador to the US Oleg Shamshur told AFP. 

Katie Livingstone, correspondent for the Kyiv Post, attended election rallies in Georgia for Republican candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris to find out where supporters on both sides stand on Ukraine.

From domestic to foreign policy issues, they are divided on what’s best for the US  – and in some cases, what line to take on Ukraine.

The Democratic nominee has received the majority of the vote in Colorado, raising her total electoral count to 109.

Trump picked up Utah and Montana for six and four electoral votes respectively. He currently stands at 198. 

The former president is the projected winner of Missouri, worth ten electoral votes.

Trump currently has 188 electoral votes and needs 270 to win.

Polling in several western states is scheduled soon. More than half of states across the country have already finished voting. 

Voters in the US state of Florida cast their ballots Tuesday against a measure that would have overturned the state's ban on abortion after six weeks and allowed the procedure until fetal viability, media reported.

The ballot initiative, which US networks ABC and NBC said had failed, was held alongside the presidential election. It had required at least 60 percent of votes cast in order to pass, a high hurdle to clear in the conservative southeastern state.

The defeat marks a hard blow for abortion rights advocates who had hoped Florida, which is surrounded by states with stringent restrictions, could have once again become a destination for those seeking the procedure in the US southeast.

Abortion rights proponents argue that many women still do not know they are pregnant at six weeks. The extension until fetal viability would have allowed the procedure until approximately 24 weeks.

Florida was one of ten states with abortion referendums on the ballot Tuesday, almost all of which were aimed at safeguarding the right to the procedure or reversing restrictions adopted since 2022, when the Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion.

Trump has pulled ahead by taking all of the electoral votes in Texas and Ohio, bringing his current total count to 178.

Harris picked up an additional 28 votes with the addition of New York, making her current tally 99 electoral votes. 

US intelligence agencies stated that Russia is the most active source of fake articles and videos regarding the presidential elections.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), released a joint statement on Nov. 4 warning about the growing threat of foreign interference in the ongoing US elections.

“Since our statement on Friday, the intelligence community has observed foreign adversaries, particularly Russia, conducting additional influence operations intended to undermine public confidence in the integrity of US elections and stoke divisions among Americans,” the report states.

The intelligence community anticipated that these activities would escalate and continue in the following weeks, with narratives primarily targeting swing states.

“Russia is the most active threat,” the report said. 

Russian-affiliated actors are reportedly creating fake videos and articles designed to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the elections and instill fear in voters, the statement reads. 

The former president is the projected winner in three more states: North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming.

The additional states raise Trump’s electoral vote count to 120. 

Candidates need 270 votes to win the election. 

The candidates’ current electoral vote count is:

Harris – 71 votes

• Vermont
• Maryland
• Rhode Island
• Connecticut
• Massachusetts
• New Hampshire
• Delaware
• Illinois

Trump – 101 votes

• Kentucky
• Indiana
• West Virginia
• Tennessee
• Oklahoma,
• Mississippi
• Alabama
• South Carolina
• Florida
• Arkansas

The former president is the projected winner of Arkansas, according to the AP.

Trump gains another six electoral votes, bringing his total number of electoral votes to 101.

Harris has picked up Illinois and Delaware. Illinois brings in a whopping 19 votes, while Biden’s home state delivers three electoral votes. 

As several more states ended voting for the day at 8 pm EST, the dueling candidates each received more votes.

Harris has picked up Maryland, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. She now has 35 electoral votes. 

Trump is projected to win Tennessee, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, and Florida. He now has 95 electoral votes.

The state of West Virginia has been called for Trump, according to the Associated Press.

With four electoral votes, WV is one of just two states that saw 100% of counties vote Republican during the previous two presidential elections.

Conservative politicians currently hold every elected seat in the state.

Harris has vowed to continue supporting Ukraine in vein with current President Joe Biden’s policies, while Trump has claimed he would “end the war” on Day 1 thanks to his unnerving relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The outcome of the election could significantly impact American aid to Ukraine in the lead-up to an incredibly challenging winter where UAF forces are holding the line with limited supplies and reinforcements.

Check out more of Kyiv Post’s exclusive US Election coverage:

• American Presidential Election – What’s at Stake?
• Do the Views of Trump and Harris Supporters on Ukraine REALLY Differ?
• ‘We Are Sadly Ready for Voter Manipulation’ – US Prepares for Another Long Election
• Who Are Americans in Kyiv Voting For?
• Ukraine Awaits U.S. Presidential Election | Bohdan Nahaylo

7:02 p.m.

In the first call of these 2024 elections, and a surprise to no one, CNN is projecting that Donald Trump wins Kentucky, while Kamala Harris wins the great state of Vermont.

Kentucky, the Bluegrass State, will give Trump eight electoral votes, while the Green Mountain State, home to progressive Senator Bernie Sanders and some 647,463 other people, gives its three to the Vice President.

6:53 p.m.

While the swing-state of Georgia on the whole closes its polling stations at 7 p.m., ten precincts around the largest city of Atlanta announced they have extended voting there by between 20 minutes and 45 minutes because of suspended operations today due to Russian-issued bomb threats and ensuing evacuations.

Elections officials in Georgia nonetheless have said that all results will be filed by the end of Tuesday night.

6:21 p.m.

Polls closed at 6 p.m. in the eastern parts of the staunchly Republican states of Indiana and Kentucky. With about five percent of the total votes counted in those districts, Trump was off to a 66 percent to 33 percent lead in the commonwealth of Kentucky, and a 61 percent to 31 percent lead in Indiana.

Indiana has not voted for a Democratic president since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. Kentucky’s last Democratic selection was in 1996, when they re-elected Bill Clinton, whose Vice President Al Gore hailed from neighboring Tennessee.

Donald Trump again sought to undermine the credibility of voting in the biggest city of must-win Pennsylvania, a soundly Democratic area that was part of the ex-president’s unsupported 2020 fraud claims.

Amid reports of exceptionally high voter turnout in Philadelphia, Trump said on Tuesday evening there was “a lot of talk about massive cheating” in the city, as an official promptly denied the claim, calling it “yet another example of disinformation.”

“Law enforcement coming!!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

“There is absolutely no truth to this allegation,” said City Commissioner Seth Bluestein, a Republican. “Voting in Philadelphia has been safe and secure.”

Trump is expected to reject the result if he loses again this year, raising the specter of chaos and violence in an already tense and deeply polarized United States.

When asked Tuesday whether he would accept defeat in the 2024 election, Trump offered a qualified response.

“If I lose an election, if it’s a fair election, I would be the first one to acknowledge it. So far I think it's been fair,” he said.

5:36 p.m.

As long lines for the voting booths continue across America, especially in the seven swing states, voting officials have been reporting on a turnout that surpasses even the record numbers set in 2020, when 66 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots, the highest recorded percentage since 1900.

As one example, in districts around Milwaukee, the largest city in the swing-state of Wisconsin, officials there said turnout was tracking to hit 95 percent of eligible voters.

The total national numbers won’t be available likely until Wednesday, but going into Tuesday, 82 million Americans had already cast their ballots early, either mail-in or in-person.

A record 158.4 million Americans cast their vote in 2020, and the 81 million votes Joe Biden received was the greatest number in history for a president.

In the 2024 edition, according to a CNN poll, the top issues driving Americans on the whole to the voting booths were: the future of American democracy, the economy, and abortion rights, in that order.

Among Kamala Harris supporters, abortion rights took second place behind protecting democracy, with the economy in third place. Self-identified Trump supporters overwhelmingly said that the economy was what brought them to polling stations, at more than 50 percent, with immigration coming in at a distant second, settling in at 20 percent.

4:19 p.m.

The first polling stations to close in the US this evening are in eastern Indiana and Kentucky, closing their doors and working on their tallies at 6 p.m. (Again, all times are Eastern Standard Time.)

At 7 p.m., polls close in western districts of those states, plus Virginia, Vermont, South Carolina, the swing state of Georgia, and all of Florida except its western (Central Standard Time) panhandle.

Then, at 7:30 pm, will come Ohio, West Virginia and the swing state of North Carolina.

Again, ballots across the country will be counted well into Wednesday and perhaps beyond, especially as, by all accounts, voter turnout in these elections has been approaching record levels.

3:54 p.m.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced that a Michigan man had sent the Bureau a message that he planned to kill Donald Trump or another “conservative” target if he is elected.

Isaac Sissel, 25, was arrested on Tuesday morning after he sent the FBI’s National Threat Operations center the following message:

“I shall carry out an attack against conservative christan [sic] filth in the event trump wins the election. I have a stolen ar15 [assault rifle] and a target I refuse to name so I can continue to get away with my plans,” it continued. “Without a specific victim or ability to find the place I hid the gun, there’s not a thing the FBI can do until I complete the attack.”

3:19 p.m.

CNN correspondents also reported debilitating problems with voting machines in Apache County, Arizona, which incorporates a large part of the Native American Navajo nation, an impoverished district representing a massive Democratic voting bloc that has experienced polling station problems in the past.

The county’s voting machines reportedly were only printing the ballots’ propositions and not the candidates. As a result, each polling location in the county had to resort to electronic voting machines, only one of which is available per location.

Arizona is one of seven swing states in this presidential contest, and interestingly has a reverse demographic than much of the rest of the nation: some urban areas, especially Maricopa County around Phoenix, are dependably Republican, whereas some rural areas, such as Apache County, are home to mostly Latino and Native American Democrats.

Apache County voted for Joe Biden in 2020 by a margin of 32 percent. The state as a whole elected Biden by only 0.4 percent that year.

2:54 p.m.

CNN is reporting that a problem with the printed ballots in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, has disrupted voting there.

Scott Hunt, who chairs the Cambria County election board, told the network that machines in the county couldn’t read ballots cast electronically today, because a barcode on them was printed incorrectly. Replacement ballots were on the way to polling stations, he said, adding that ballots cast already that cannot be read by the machine will be hand-counted.

“At this point, our focus is getting people to vote. Their votes will count,” Hunt said.

In the last two elections, Cambria County voted for Trump by a margin of more than 30 percent (68 percent to 31 percent in 2020.)

2:27 p.m.

Two of the 177 polling stations in Fulton County, Georgia, reported “non-credible” bomb threats that authorities are saying were Russian in origin.

The polling stations at the Etris Community Center and Gullatt Elementary in Union City had to temporarily close as a result. Both of the polling districts just outside Atlanta are 90 percent Black, and historically have voted Democratic in recent elections. Georgia is one of seven swing states in this election.

 “We’ve heard some threats that were of Russian origin… We always check [bomb threats] out, and we’ll just continue to be very responsible when we hear about stuff like that,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (a Republican) told reporters. “We identified the source, and it was from Russia.”

“They’re up to mischief, it seems, and they don’t want us to have a smooth, fair and accurate election,” Raffensperger added. “Anything that can get us to fight amongst ourselves, they can count that as a victory.”

Trump in Florida: “I feel very confident”

Donald Trump and his wife Melania visited a polling station in Palm Beach, Florida, where they cast their votes in the election.

“If this is a fair election, I will be the first to recognize the results,” Trump said, though he did not specify what qualifies as “fair.”

He also added that he considers his current campaign the best of the three he has led.

Millions of Americans headed to vote Tuesday in a presidential election defined by drama and uncertainty. The bitter rivals spent their final campaign day trying to get supporters out to the polls and courting any last undecided voters in the swing states expected to decide the outcome.

Read here for more.

US intelligence agencies stated that Russia is the most active source of fake articles and videos regarding the presidential elections.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), released a joint statement on Nov. 4 warning about the growing threat of foreign interference in the ongoing US elections.

“Russia is the most active threat,” the report said. 

See here for more.

Pennsylvania has 19 electoral college votes, more than any of the other swing states which could go for either Harris or Trump, with polls showing them locked in a dead heat. Read here for more.

What is the situation in the key battleground states?

We offer you an overview of the averaged data from recent polls in key states, calculated by RealClearPolitics, FiveThirtyEight, and 270towin.

Arizona (11 electoral votes)

RealClearPolitics — Trump +2.8% FiveThirtyEight — Trump +2.2% 270 to win — Trump +1.6%

Nevada (6 electoral votes)

RealClearPolitics — Trump +0.6% FiveThirtyEight — Trump +0.3% 270 to win — Trump +0.6%

Wisconsin (10 electoral votes)

RealClearPolitics — Harris +0.6% FiveThirtyEight — Harris +0.8% 270 to win — Harris +1.1%

Michigan (15 electoral votes)

RealClearPolitics — Harris +0.5% FiveThirtyEight — Harris +1% 270 to win — Harris +1.8%

Pennsylvania (19 electoral votes)

RealClearPolitics — Trump +0.4% FiveThirtyEight — Harris +0.2% 270 to win — tie

North Carolina (16 electoral votes)

RealClearPolitics — Trump +1.2% FiveThirtyEight — Trump +0.9% 270towin — Trump +1.3%

Georgia (16 electoral votes)

RealClearPolitics — Trump +1.3% FiveThirtyEight — Trump +1.5% 270 to win — Trump +1.2%

As we can see, the candidates’ lead in key states is minimal.

Trump leads in Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina, and Georgia, while Harris leads in Wisconsin and Michigan.

Pennsylvania is a dead tie; this state will determine the winner.

After the votes are counted, we’ll compare the accuracy of the polls.

History Professor Allan Lichtman has correctly predicted US presidential elections since 1984 based on his 13 Keys to the White House theory.

If Allan Lichtman is correct, without monitoring the myriads of political polls, his 13 Key model predicted a Kamala Harris victory in the US Presidential election back in September, assuming US eligible voters see the current administration foreign policy in Ukraine as being a success. 

Read more here.

Hungary’s nationalist leader Viktor Orban favors Trump in the US presidential election, saying publicly that he will pop open bottles of champagne if his “dear friend” Donald Trump wins.

8:02 a.m.

In Kosovo, local artist Alkent Požegu created mosaic portraits of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump from grains and seeds.

The original portraits appeared on one of the streets of the city of Gjackova, which is in the western part of the country. 

6:38 a.m.

Representatives of the US election commissions ensured the security of American voting systems.

“Here in Georgia, it’s easy to vote and hard to cheat,” CNN quoted Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger saying. “Our systems are secure and our people are ready.”

Kyiv Post surveyed Americans in Ukraine asking them who they planned to vote for and why. Check out the article here.

6:38 a.m.

Representatives of the US election commissions ensured the security of American voting systems.

“Here in Georgia, it’s easy to vote and hard to cheat,” CNN quoted Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger saying. “Our systems are secure and our people are ready.”