Trump wins Indiana, Kentucky; Biden takes Vermont as count underway

(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump won Indiana and Kentucky and Joe Biden too Vermont as polls are now closed in six more states, including the battlegrounds of Florida and Georgia.

Trump was expected to win Indiana and Kentucky, where the first polls closed, and their combined 19 electoral votes. Biden won three in Vermont. Either candidate needs to secure at least 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. The Associated Press called the race in Kentucky and Vermont. CNN projected Trump the winner in Indiana.

Florida with its 29 electoral votes, Georgia (16) and North Carolina (15) could provide early indications of voters’ mood.

If it’s a close race in some key swing states, it’s possible – maybe even likely – that a winner won’t be known for days or longer.

That’s in part because more than 99 million Americans already voted early or by mail before Tuesday’s polls even opened. States have different rules for counting and processing mail-in votes. Some wait until after all polls close in the state. Some states also will accept mail-in ballots for days after Nov. 3.

In 17 states, mail-in votes were being counted before Election Day, according to Ballotpedia. In 16 states, mail-in votes can start being counted on Election Day before polls close. In the remaining 17 states, mail-in votes can’t be counted until after polls close. Some states require election clerks to match the signatures on mail-in votes with signatures already on file, making the process more time-consuming.

In the key swing state of Pennsylvania, for example, some counties don’t expect to start counting mail-in ballots until Wednesday or later. During Pennsylvania’s June primary, roughly half of counties were still counting ballots a full week after Election Day.

And in states where the final, unofficial results are particularly close, both Trump and Biden have attorneys on standby to legally challenge any potential discrepancies. That could drag the presidential outcome out by weeks.

At 8 p.m. eastern, polls will close in all or parts of more than 20 states.

In 2016, Trump won the electoral vote and the presidency despite losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million votes. By winning the key swing states of Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin, Trump claimed 304 electoral votes to Clinton’s 227.