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America decides: Results of US presidential elections updates

For the first time tonight Obama needs under 100 votes to stay as president. The Democrats have just held New Mexico, meaning they now have … Continue reading America decides: Results of US presidential elections updates


For the first time tonight Obama needs under 100 votes to stay as president.

The Democrats have just held New Mexico, meaning they now have 172 votes to the Republicans 163.

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Breaking: Obama wins two of the swing states – Wisconsin and New Hampshire – to lead 157 over Romney’s 153.

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More good news for Obama – the Democrats have held onto Pennsylvania.

It’s been blue for the past five elections and it stays that way, despite a big push by Romney to win it. He visited the state today in a last-minute attempt to swing voters towards the Republicans, but it didn’t work.

Obama has now cut the votes deficit to 10 with 143 to Romney’s 153.

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Obama takes Michigan and New York, while Romney wins South Dakota, North Dakota, Texas, Kansas, Louisiana and Nebraska.

Romney is now ahead by 30 votes (153-123) but crucially only one state has changed hands from Democrat to Republican – Indiana.

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A potentially big blow to Mitt Romney’s hopes with Massachusetts set to go Barack Obama’s way.

Massachusetts, remember, is Romney’s home state.

The BBC points out that no president has won an election for nearly a century without winning their home state.

The last time that happened, Woodrow Wilson lost in his home state of New Jersey in 1916.

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The current scores on the doors: Barack Obama 64 and Mitt Romney 40 with the winning post at 270.

However, that doesn’t mean much as all the states have so far gone the way they were expected to fall.

In fact the exit polls in the swing states are a better barometer of how it will end up.

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More results coming in – and it’s all still falling as expected.

Obama is set to win Maryland, Maine, District of Columbia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Delaware and Rhode Island.

Oklahoma has been called for Romney.

The running tally now says Obama 57 v Romney 40 – but again, don’t read anything into this.

The swing states have yet to declare and it’s what happens in those that will decide the election.

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Two more states have declared for Mitt Romney – South Carolina and West Virginia.

That takes the current tally to Romney on 33 and Obama still on just 3.

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The first three states have declared their projected results for the US presidential elections.

Kentucky and Indiana have gone to Mitt Romney while Vermont is Barack Obama’s.

Kentucky has 11 Electoral College votes, Indiana 8 and Vermont 3.

That means the early scores: Mitt Romney 19, Barack Obama 3.

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The race for the White House got underway six-and-a-half hours ago as votes were cast at midnight local time in two tiny villages in northern New Hampshire.

Republican candidate Mitt Romney and his wife Ann have voted in Belmont, Massachusetts.

Romney then set off for two final campaign stops in Cleveland, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Barack Obama and his wife Michelle voted a couple of weeks ago during a campaign stop in their home city of Chicago. The President is reportedly planning a round of TV and radio interviews to press home his message that supporters must vote. “It all comes down to you,” he said in his final rally speech on Monday.

Mr Obama is also planning a game of basketball with his campaign team – as he did when waiting for the result in 2008. At some point in the early hours of Wednesday morning he will head to McCormick Place, Chicago, for either a victory rally or to concede defeat.

Some results have already come in. Voters in the small village of Dixville Notch in New Hampshire cast their vote shortly after midnight – all ten of them. The result was five votes a piece for Misters Obama and Romney.

There was better news for Mr Obama in Hart’s Location in New Hampshire which also votes early. The President won 23 votes to Romney’s nine.

We should know who the next president of the United States will be in the early hours of Wednesday morning – but just exactly how is the winner decided?

The system used to elect the president stretches back to the very beginnings of the US, when the country won independence from Britain.

Under the Electoral College system, each state has a number of votes which is linked to its number of members of Congress, and reflects its population.

The most populous state, California, has the most votes, 55, while other large states like New York and Florida each have 29.

The least populated states, Montana, Vermont and Alaska, for example, have just three votes.

A presidential candidate needs 270 Electoral College votes – a majority of the 538 available – to win.

Despite the presidential race balancing on a knife edge, with both candidates neck and neck in the polls, Bob Dylan has said he thinks President Barack Obama is going to win in a landslide.

Dylan made the prediction last night halfway through the song Blowin’ In The Wind during a concert in the battleground state of Wisconsin.

He spoke to the Madison audience as he was wrapping up his concert; just hours after Mr Obama appeared at a morning rally in the same city with rocker Bruce Springsteen.

Dylan made his comments during his encore when he said: “We tried to play good tonight since the president was here today.”

He added that he thinks Obama will prevail today.

Dylan said: “Don’t believe the media. I think it’s going to be a landslide.”

After his comments, Dylan completed the song to the roar of the crowd.

According to media reports, Misters Obama and Romney have spent a staggering $1billion each on their presidential campaigns.

The battle has been an ugly one with mudslinging and finger pointing on both sides.