Trump vs Harris: Live election 2024 results map

Follow along for live updates as the polls close Tuesday evening and the candidates race for 270 electoral votes

This Election Day, voters across America are going to the polls to cast their vote for the 47th president of the United States.

As election workers count ballots and voting data is released, media outlets will begin to call states in favor of either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump this evening. While outlets will likely call the final result in the days or week(s) after November 5, their determination is only ever a projection. The election will be officially certified on January 6 by Congress.

NBC News, among other outlets, released the results of their exit polls on Tuesday afternoon. Voters ranked the state of democracy as their number one issue, while the economy came second.

Traditionally, exit polls are conducted via in-person interviews with voters outside of polling centers after they’ve cast their ballot. Pollsters are posted outside of voting centers ahead of and on Election Day. They also conduct phone and text surveys to reach voters who mailed in their ballots.

Check back this evening for live election updates from The Independent as exit poll data is released and the final ballots are cast.

Both candidates are gunning for 270 electoral votes, the golden number needed to secure the White House.

Thanks to early voting data and exit polls, media outlets will likely begin to release information on the results at 5 p.m. ET. However, it will still be hours until meaningful information comes in. The first polling centers to close will shut their doors at 6 p.m. local time, while some polling centers will stay open until 8 p.m. local time — including many on the West Coast.

Experts previously told The Independent that the timeline for calling the race largely depends on two things: how close the election is in individual states and the specific laws of those states regarding counting votes and potential recounts, which all vary.

Senate and House races

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for election tonight.

In the Senate, only 34 out of 100 seats are being elected, as senators serve six-year terms with a third being elected every two years.

The makeup of the Senate in particular hangs in the balance. Before this election, Democrats had 47 senators and 4 allied independents, while the Republicans had 49.

Of the 34 seats up for grabs, 18 of those were previously held by Democratic senators, posing a threat to their slim majority.

Battling for the swing states

The seven swing states — Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Michigan and Wisconsin — will be the center of attention in this election. Together they hold 93 electoral college votes, without which neither candidate can win the election.

Results will be refreshed live as they come in. Check back for updates.