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
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 Friday 8th January in
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.
(Candidate needs to reach 270 electoral votes of ** 538 electoral votes in total) Mr Trump has 232 electoral votes Mr Biden has 306 electoral votes **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 2010 census (309 million), each representative vote represented on average 711,000 individuals. The six states with the most electors are California (55), Texas (38), New York (29), Florida (29), Illinois (20), and Pennsylvania (20). The District of Columbia and the seven least populous states — Alaska, Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming — have three electors each.Caucus or Primary selection process
Click here for "Caucus or Primary", how each state's Republican and Democratic parties choose their presidential candidate. History Historically each state's party chose its official candidate through its caucus meeting. The Democratic Party conducted its first primary election in Louisiana in 1892. In 1897 there were 11 states conducting primaries. Unlike the final election run by government officials, primaries were run by party officials. It did allow them to exclude African American voters, until 1944, when the US Supreme Court declared it to be unconstitutional. After the 1968 loss to Nixon by Democrat Vice President Hubert Humphries (though nominated, he'd actually had no primary vote win in 14 states — 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.
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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