US Election 2020: Joe Biden has 238 electoral votes against Trump’s 213

The United States election results are getting tighter. US President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden are battling it out for the White House, with polls gradually closing across the United States.

All eyes are on the key battleground states of Arizona, Iowa, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin. The results of these states are crucial for both contenders.

Donald Trump prevailed in the hotly contested Rust Belt state of Ohio- one he seized in 2016 and which is key to his efforts to win reelection over Joe Biden. The Republican incumbent won one of the key battlegrounds, Florida while Biden got Arizona.

As of now Biden had 238 electoral votes against Trump’s 213. A candidate needs 270 votes to win the presidency.

Biden, searching desperately for states to recapture from Trump, was eyeing the so-called “blue wall” states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that sent Trump to the White House in 2016.

So far Trump has won Alaska, Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia, Wyoming, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah.

Biden meanwhile has taken Democratic-leaning states like California, Colorado, Columbia, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.

Why Electoral College is crucial in United States election?

The winner of the election is determined through a system called the electoral college. Each of the 50 states, plus Washington DC, is given a number of electoral college votes, adding up to a total of 538 votes.  More populous states get more electoral college votes than smaller ones.

A candidate needs to win 270 electoral college votes to win the election. In every state except two- Maine and Nebraska- the candidate that get the most votes wins all of the state’s electoral college votes.

Due to these rules, a candidate can win the election without getting the most votes at the national level. This happened at the last election, in which Donald Trump won a majority of electoral college votes although more people voted for Hillary Clinton across the US.