It’s been a night of increasingly tense election results. Pollsters had projected a big win for the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, but with the major swing states too close to call at the time of recording, his route to the White House appeared to be narrowing
It’s an election that has been described as a battle for America’s soul. Millions of Americans queued up to vote as turnout swelled to record levels on the back of huge mail-in votes. Guardian reporters spent the night in swing states and with the two campaigns as the night unfolded. Daniel Strauss watched as Joe Biden’s early cautious optimism seemed to be undercut by initial results before returning again later on. David Smith was picking up optimism too from the Trump campaign, which was jubilant with early results.
Ed Pilkington told Anushka Asthana that he was having a flashback to 2016 as results from Florida indicated it was heading into Trump’s column, this was later confirmed. At a Republican watch party in Palm Beach, Oliver Laughland described increasing excitement of Trump supporters. Meanwhile in Arizona, Vivian Ho watched on as Democrats became increasingly convinced they had flipped the former red state. It’s a presidential race that could end up hingeing on the result in the swing state of Pennsylvania where Nina Lakhani explains that the counting is nowhere near complete.
