US election: The key results we're still waiting for that will decide who becomes president

Credit: AP

The US election could run on at least a few days longer, with some vital states yet to declare a result.

A huge swell of postal voting - as a result of the pandemic - has complicated the counting and some officials say they won't finish until Friday or later.

Many states have clearly fallen as expected for one side or the other, including California, South Carolina and New York.

Ohio and Florida are the only ones of the eight so-called swing states to have decided a winner, both backing Mr Trump.

Here are the remaining five battlegrounds that will determine the next president of the United States.

  • Pennsylvania (20 votes)

  • Arizona (11 votes)

  • North Carolina (15 votes)

  • Georgia (16 votes)

So why are these states so important?

Each state gets a number of electors based on its population and the number of senators and representatives it has in the US Congress. California has the most electors - 55 - but some states have just three electoral votes - Wyoming, Alaska and North Dakota and Washington DC.

Each state is allocated a set number of electoral college votes. Credit: usa.gov

There are 538 electors in total and the presidential candidate needs the votes of at least 270 electors - more than half of all electors - to win the presidential election. In all eight of the above states, the winner of the popular vote gets all the electoral votes for that state. For example, whether the Democrat candidate wins 99% or 51% of the vote in that state, they would still receive all the state’s electoral college votes.

This means there are potentially 88 all-important electors to play for.

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