News breaking in Australian Wednesday 6th November 5pm AEST (2am US Time): Trump wins 2024 election after clinching Pennsylvania
Results on Thursday 21st November in Associated Press
(Candidate needs to reach 270 electoral votes of ** 538 electoral votes in total). Mr Trump has 312 electoral votes Ms Harris has 226 electoral votes Senate (100 seat) Republicans 53 Democrats 47 In Doubt 0 House (435 seat) Republicans 219 Democrats 213 In Doubt 3 **Electors Since 1964, there have been 538 electors. The number of electors from each state is the same quantity as the state's Congresspeople (members of the House of Representatives and two Senators). There have been 435 state representatives (since 1911), and 100 senators (since Hawaii and Alaska were added as the 49th and 50th states in 1959). Plus 3 votes from Washington DC (since the adoption of a special amendment in 1961). Back in 1911, the House of Representatives had its size capped at 435 voting seats, each representing a district of roughly similar size. Subsequently, seats have been reapportioned in the lower house based on changes in population. These changes are recorded by the US Census, which is conducted every 10 years. Based on the 2020 census (331 million) each representative vote represented on average 761,169 individuals. The six states with the most electors are California (54), Texas (40), Florida (30), New York (28), Illinois (19), and Pennsylvania (19). The District of Columbia and the six least populous states — Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming — have three electors each.
Click here for "Caucus or Primary", how each state's Republican and Democratic parties choose their presidential candidate. "Caucus", first used in Boston ca 1719, is apparently derived from a native American word meaning "Party Conference". History of the Parties The initial two parties were "Federalists" and "Democrat Republicans". After Democrat Republican James Monroe was re-elected unopposed in 1820, in 1824 the "anti-Jackson" party under John Quincy Adams (who became president) renamed themselves the National Republican Party. They lost to Democrat Party Andrew Jackson in 1828. After the Whig Party won in 1840 and 1848 but lost in 1852, the Republican Party reformed in 1854 with an Anti-slavery platform and then won under Abraham Lincoln in 1860. The first primary election was conducted by the Democrat Party in Louisiana in 1892. In 1897 there were 11 states conducting primaries. Many excluded/ignored African American voters, until 1944, when the US Supreme Court declared it to be unconstitutional. After the 1968 Democrat loss to Nixon by Vice President Hubert Humphries (though nominated, he'd actually had no primary vote win in 14 states — Democrat President Johnson had started as a candidate in the primaries, but withdrew due to huge anti war sentiment), in 1972 all states started to hold Democrat primaries. Republicans followed suit, to some degree, afterwards.
In the lower chamber, all of the 435 seats come up for election in each two-year cycle. All elected members may have an unlimited number of two-year terms. In the upper chamber, the Senate's 100 members sit for six-year terms. One-third of the seats come up for election in each two-year cycle. Each state has two senators, regardless of its population – this means that Wyoming, with a population of less than 600,000, carries the same weight as California, with almost 40 million. All elected members may have an unlimited number of six-year terms. Most legislation needs to pass both chambers to become law, but the Senate has some important other functions, notably approving senior presidential appointments, for instance to the supreme court. In most states, the candidate with the most votes on election day wins the seat. However, Georgia and Louisiana require the winning candidate to garner 50% of votes cast, if no one does, they hold a run-off election between the top two candidates.
Results as at Monday 12th December in
Final count Republicans 222 Democrats 213 with close seat (Colorado 3) won by Republicans following a recount. With 218 seats forming a majority, it means that Republicans will now control the Lower House.
Republicans 49 Democrats 51
Results as at Friday 8th January in
Mr Trump has 232 electoral votes
Mr Biden has 306 electoral votes with Joe Biden 7 million votes ahead.
7th November At 11:25am Saturday EST (2:25am Sunday AEST) the Associated Press called the race in Pennsylvania and the US election for Biden, who held a 34,243 vote lead, after it determined that the remaining ballots left to be counted would not allow Trump to catch up. However Donald Trump refused to concede.
14th December On Monday evening US time (Tuesday morning Australian time) Joe Biden officially "clinched" the presidency after the Electoral College confirmed his victory.
19th December “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th,” Mr. Trump tweeted. “Be there, will be wild!”
6th January Wednesday afternoon, a woman was shot and killed, and four others died as a pro-Trump mob battled police, broke into the U.S. Capitol and swept through the halls of Congress. Click here for a timeline of the day's events.
In Georgia, Fulton County suspended counting ballots for the day out of an abundance of caution, county officials said.
On Wednesday night US time (Thursday afternoon Australian time) Associated Press announced that Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock had won both Senate runoff races in Georgia, giving Democrats control of the US Senate and easing the path for President-elect Joe Biden’s appointments and legislative agenda.
Prior to the 2020 election, the Democrats controlled the house with 232 seats, compared to 197 Republican seats, 1 Libertarian seat, and 5 vacant seats. After the final count, this current estimate from NBC Democrats 222 Republicans 213 indicates that Democrats will control the lower house, but with a reduced majority.
Current count Republicans 50 Democrats 50 The runoff elections in Georgia took place on January 5 for the two Senate spots, as neither Georgia candidate gained the required 50% of the vote necessary in that state. Both seats have been declared for the Democrats. The Senate is split 50-50, and Kamala Harris will have the power to cast tie-breaking votes as US vice-president.
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