Polls have closed in some states and the first results are coming in in the high-stakes presidential match-up between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. According to
538's forecast, both candidates have a roughly equal chance to win.
Voters are still at polling places around the country, casting ballots to decide who controls not only the White House, but also Congress, state and local governments.
Reporters from 538 and ABC News will be following along every step of the way with live updates, analysis and commentary on the results. Keep up to date with our full live blog below!
Mississippi goes to Trump
Mississippi and its six Electoral College votes go to Trump. Like its neighbor Alabama, Mississippi was last won by a Democrat in 1976, when Southerner Jimmy Carter won the presidency in what was the last gasp of the "Solid South." What was once one of the most reliable Democratic regions of the country is now one of the most reliably Republican regions.
More polls closed at 10 p.m.
It's now after 10 p.m. Eastern, which means all polling places have closed in Montana, Nevada and Utah. Here are our forecasts for the races in those states:
Big picture, things are shaping up as expected
Let's zoom out for a second. I'm thinking of the swing states in two categories right now. First, the Southeastern states, where a good amount of the vote is counted and the trends are looking good for Trump. In North Carolina, it's 52-47% Trump with 66% of the vote counted. In Georgia, it's 52-47% Trump with 79% of the vote counted.
Second, the northern battleground states, where we still have a pretty incomplete picture and anything could still happen. Right now, Pennsylvania is 50-50% with 44% reporting; Wisconsin is 50-48% for Harris with 35% reporting; and Michigan is 52-47% for Harris with 16% reporting.
What can we learn from so-called bellwethers?
As we watch results come in and slice and dice the political geography of the most competitive states, I'm cautiously watching a few bellwether areas. Semafor's David Weigel identifies Hamilton County, Indiana, as such a place to watch, where Trump's victory there was more narrow than Republican victories in the past. It's a suburban area that illustrates the general shift toward the Democrats in the suburbs. Right now, with 94% of the expected vote reported, Trump is on track with the same vote share he won there in 2020 -- 52%. Another county that Weigel called attention to is DeKalb County in Georgia, which he considers an indicator of whether Trump is really improving his performance with Black voters. With 87% of the expected vote counted, Trump is at 17% compared with 16% in 2020.
Some observers also look at congressional districts rather than counties. One district that's drawn some attention, especially given all the focus on Pennsylvania, is Pennsylvania’s 7th District, where Democrat Susan Wild is running for reelection. It's probably too early to learn much from this race, with about 52% of votes in -- but Wild’s Republican opponent, Ryan Mackenzie, has a narrow lead.
So there's not much that's new here, and it's worth thinking a bit more deeply about the whole idea of bellwethers, which suggest the power of national trends -- across demographic groups or geographic categories (e.g., suburban voters). But we don't really know exactly what it all means until we have more data.
ABC News projects Trump will win Florida
At 8 p.m., with 76% of the expected vote reporting, Harris is trailing 538's benchmarks for a tied race in the state in every single county. That's not surprising in and of itself; Florida voted for Trump in 2020, after all. But the deficit is large enough for ABC News to project that Trump will win the state's 30 Electoral College votes at the time polls have closed.
With 76% of the vote in, Harris' margin in Miami-Dade County is especially poor, lagging 538's benchmarks by 22 points.