Harris takes Vermont, Trump Kentucky, Indiana in first projections

Washington, Nov 6 : In the first results of the 2024 race for the White House, US Vice-President Kamala Harris was projected to win Vermont, a reliably Democratic state, and former President Donald Trump was projected to win Kentucky, a solidly Republican state.

These projected results by US media outlets give Harris three electoral college votes and Trump 16 (11 from Indiana and 5 from Kentucky). They must secure at least 270 of the 538 electoral votes to win.

These projections were announced immediately after the close of polling in some states, including Georgia, one of the seven battleground states that will determine the outcome of the 2024 race for President. These early projections are based on the history of polling in the state and are based on early trends that are not expected to change much through the night or later, on the completion of the full count of the polled votes.

Early trends from Georgia will give the first real indication of how the contest will shape up.

If Harris is ahead or looks set to win either Georgia or North Carolina -- President Joe Biden won Georgia in 2020 -- she will open up multiple pathways to the White House.

If Trump wins both states, the race will come down to the three Blue Wall states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, which have been must-win states for Democrats since Trump breached the wall and won all three states to beat Hillary Clinton in 2016.

More than 82 million American voters had already cast their ballot before Tuesday, called Election Day, either through in-person voting at early voting stations or through postal ballot. This was more than 51 per cent of the total of 158 million votes that were cast in 2020, at the height of a raging Covid-19 pandemic.

Harris and Trump ended their campaign with rallies in Pennsylvania and Michigan respectively, also both battleground states. There are in all seven battleground states that will determine the 2024 White House race.

Unlike others, they are neither solidly Democratic or Republican and they can swing between the two and are, therefore, also called the Swing States. They are Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada. Biden had all of them but North Carolina in 2020 to beat Trump.