WASHINGTON— The result of the presidential election remained uncertain as Election Day ended, with key battleground states like North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan too close to call before all votes were counted.
As of Tuesday night, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden had 209 electoral college votes and President Trump had 118 electoral college votes.
On an uncertain night, the candidates did pick up states that they were clearly projected to win, with Trump taking Kansas and Oklahoma and Biden taking Virginia and Colorado.
A landslide win for either candidate is unlikely, and election experts were unclear about exactly when the election may come to an end.
“In an election that is really close and really contested, we might not know until the middle to the end of the week who the winner of the overall presidential race is,” said John Fortier, director of governmental studies at the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Key battleground states may not have all their ballots counted for an extended period of time because of the large number of mail-in ballots and state laws that didn’t allow election officials to start counting those ballots until Election Day or shortly before.
“It could come down to Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and it could be days until we get all of the ballots counted in those states,” said Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center.
Voters, who were excited to have their voices heard after a year of unprecedented social upheaval and a global pandemic, will have to wait and see if their favored candidate will take the presidency.
“This is the most important election in my life. And I’ve been voting since 1976,” said Pamela Rigby, a 63-year-old early voter from Baltimore County.
Pre-election anxiety around voting was especially high this year, but in-person voting Tuesday went smoothly in most places. Pre-election fears of long wait times were eased when most lines were either short or moved quickly.
COVID-19 was always going to be a pivotal issue in this election, with some Biden voters viewing Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic as a damning blow to the president’s record.
“I think that there are things that he could have done way better, he could have taken more responsible actions that would have saved thousands of lives,” said Jackie Denning, a 25-year-old voter from Massachusetts.
Some Trump voters, on the other hand, were pleased with the president’s ability to deliver on other issues like the economy.
“Trump is able to deliver on things our nation needs. We need security, we need a better economy, which we have now thanks to Trump,” said Eric Wohlrab, a retired Air Force pilot from Virginia.
The most stunning data was the number of citizens who voted before Election Day. More than 100 million voters cast their ballots early this year, which more than doubled the 47 million voters who voted early in the 2016 presidential election.
“We know that more Democrats than Republicans casted an early ballot,” said Gronke. “Republicans had to make up ground and get more people to the polls, and it’s looking like their voters are showing up on Election Day.”
Trump spent Tuesday in the Washington area, where he stopped by his re-election headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, to thank his staff. He spoke confidently that he thinks he will win, but expressed how he would feel if the election does not go his way.
“Winning is easy,” Trump said. “Losing is never easy, not for me it’s not.”
The president also hosted an large election night party in the east wing of the White House on Tuesday night.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden stuck close to his hometown early in the day as he was in Delaware to visit his son Beau’s gravesite before hitting the trail and heading to his birthplace of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and later Philadelphia. Biden was happy on Tuesday morning to see voter turnout already at a high level.
“What I’m hearing is that there’s overwhelming turnout. And overwhelming turnout particularly of young people, of women, and an overwhelming turnout of African American voters over the age of 65 in places like Georgia and Florida,” said Biden.
His running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, spent the day in Michigan, a state that Biden’s campaign sees as vital to the former vice president’s chances.
“I’m just here to remind people in Detroit that that they are seen and heard by Joe and me, and also that they may actually decide the outcome of this race,” said Harris.
Harris joined Biden in Wilmington, Delaware, in the evening as the election results come in.