Several key states known as "swing states" will be at the center of the 2024 presidential election, with the results in each one playing a massive role in determining who wins the race.
Why? Because these are the states likely to deliver the Electoral College votes needed for the winning candidate to get a majority of 270.
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The states, visited by Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump the most, stretch across four different time zones. Some of the most important sit in the Midwest.
Experts have long said results of the presidential race could take time to call, but what happens in two key Midwest states could shift the timing earlier.
“Only if [Donald] Trump wins Wisconsin or Michigan," Democratic strategist Peter Giangreco told NBC Chicago. "If he wins either those states, it's probably over with. And if we know those states on Wednesday, that'll probably be it. I think the most likely path for Kamala Harris to the presidency is the blue wall states: Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania.”
The full list of seven swing states includes:
- Arizona
- Georgia
- Michigan
- Nevada
- North Carolina
- Pennsylvania
- Wisconsin
Polls closed in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin and North Carolina, but the results there were too early to call. Balloting continued in Nevada and other parts of the West on Election Day, as tens of millions of Americans added their ballots to the 84 million cast early as they chose between two candidates with drastically different temperaments and visions for the country.
Harris and Trump entered Election Day focused on the seven swing states, five of them carried by Trump in 2016 before they flipped to Biden in 2020: the “blue wall” of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin as well as Arizona and Georgia. Nevada and North Carolina, which Democrats and Republicans respectively carried in the last two elections, also were closely contested.
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How will you know who's winning the presidential election and how people voted?
To see how people around the country voted for the next United States president, NBC News' live election map is below. Results will appear as each state is called.
