Trump leads as race in close battleground states continues
Trump leads with 257 electoral votes, winning 27 states, while Clinton secures 215 electoral votes, winning 18 states and DC; Trump once again raises possibility of not accepting results, saying he had seen reports of voting irregularities.
Republican Donald Trump was leading the US presidential race on Wednesday, winning 27 states, which put him at 257 electoral votes. His rival Democrat Hillary Clinton won 18 states and Washington DC, putting her at 215 electoral votes.
With voting completed in all 50 US states, the race was too close to call in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Virginia, states that could be vital to deciding which contender wins the presidency.
As expected, Trump gained early victories in conservative Kentucky and Indiana, later also claiming Oklahoma, Tennessee, Mississippi, West Virginia, South Carolina, Alabama, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Montana, Missouri, Ohio, Idaho, North Carolina, Nebraska, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Utah, Alaska and Wisconsin.
Clinton took most of the Northeast, winning Vermont, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Rhode Island, Delaware, New York, Connecticut, New Mexico, Virginia, Colorado, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Nevada and the District of Columbia.
Going into Election Day, Clinton led Trump, 44 percent to 39 percent, in the last Reuters/Ipsos national tracking poll before Election Day. A Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation poll gave her a 90 percent chance of defeating Trump and becoming the first US woman president.
Trump on Tuesday again raised the possibility of not accepting the election's outcome, saying he had seen reports of voting irregularities. He gave few details and Reuters could not immediately verify the existence of such problems.
The campaign focused on the character of the candidates: Clinton, 69, a former US secretary of state, and Trump, 70, a New York businessman. They often accused each other of being fundamentally unfit to lead the United States as it faces challenges such as an arduous economic recovery, Islamist militants and the rise of China.
Financial markets, betting exchanges and online trading platforms largely predicted a Clinton win, although Trump's team says he can pull off an upset victory like the June "Brexit" vote to pull Britain out of the European Union.
Trump's candidacy embodied an attack on America's political establishment. Clinton represented safeguarding the political order.
A Clinton presidency would likely provide continuity from fellow Democrat Barack Obama's eight years in the White House, although if Republicans retain control of at least one chamber in Congress more years of political gridlock in Washington could ensue.
A win for Trump could shake some of the basic building blocks of American foreign policy, such as the NATO alliance and free trade, and reverse some of Obama's domestic achievements such as his 2010 healthcare law.
The economy, terrorism and healthcare ranked as the top three concerns facing Americans casting ballots in Tuesday's election, according to an early reading from the Reuters/Ipsos Election Day poll.
The poll of about 35,000 people found that 25 percent of voters picked the economy as the "most important problem." Another 14 percent named "terrorism/terrorist attacks" and 13 percent picked healthcare.
A signature Trump issue, immigration, was chosen by 7 percent of voters as the most important issue in Tuesday's poll.
Some 15 percent of Americans who cast a ballot on Tuesday said it was their first time voting in a presidential election, up from 9 percent in 2012, the poll showed. Thirteen percent of voters waited until the final week to make up their minds.
Victory in US presidential elections is earned not by the popular vote, but by an Electoral College system that awards the White House on the basis of state-by-state wins, meaning a handful of states where the race is close assume an outsized importance.
In the closing stages of the race, the two campaigns focused on several crucial battleground states, including Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida, as they tried to piece together state-by-state victories that would give them the 270 Electoral College votes needed to capture the White House.
Clinton had more options to reach 270, with Trump needing a virtual sweep of about a half-dozen toss-up states to win.
'Not good candidates'
Majorities of voters told pollsters they viewed both candidates unfavorably after a particularly bruising and divisive campaign that began in early 2015. For months, polls showed both Clinton and Trump were unpopular, although Trump was more so."They're both not good candidates, but I'd rather vote for 'worse' than 'worser,'" said Estefani Rico, 20, a first-time voter who cast her ballot for Clinton in Miami. "It's nerve racking that in my first time being able to vote I get the worst candidates ever," she said.
Mary Wheeler, 94, held her nose when asked which candidate she was supporting as she stood in line to vote in St. Petersburg, Florida.
"I always vote Republican, so I guess I'll do that," Wheeler said. "He can make a fool of himself but I think he may be able to straighten things out a little bit," she said of Trump.
In Portsmouth, Ohio, Vada Royster, 44, said she voted for Clinton based on her experience for the job. "I chose the lesser of two evils," she said.
Royster's boyfriend, Steve Conley, also said he voted for Clinton even though he did not think a woman should be president.
"I wouldn't trust Trump with the nuclear codes," Conley said. "He's a hothead. I'd be afraid he was going to try to show his power, to prove his power."
Trump was expected to draw support heavily from white voters without college degrees.
Clinton was likely to draw support from college-educated voters and Hispanic and black voters.
Voting appeared to go smoothly despite allegations in recent weeks from Trump that the electoral system was rigged against him.
Asked if believed the election would not be over on Tuesday night, Trump on Tuesday told Fox News: "I'm not saying that. I have to look at what's happening. There are reports that when people vote for Republicans, the entire ticket switches over to Democrats. You've seen that. It's happening at various places."
Local media in Pennsylvania reported that voters in several counties had reported that touch-screen voting machines had not been recording their ballots correctly.
Republicans in Pennsylvania also complained that some of their authorized poll watchers were denied access to polling sites in Philadelphia, local media said.
Trump also sued the registrar of voters in Nevada's Clark County over a polling place in Las Vegas that remained open on Friday during an early-voting period to accommodate people, many of them Hispanic, who were lined up to cast ballots.
A Nevada judge on Tuesday rejected Trump's request for records from the polling site.
Trump and Clinton are seeking to succeed Democrat Obama, who served two four-year terms in the White House and is barred by the US Constitution from seeking another term.
Clinton spent eight years in the White House as US first lady, the wife of President Bill Clinton, from 1993 to 2001 before serving as a senator and as Obama's secretary of state. She also ran for president in 2008, but lost to Obama for the Democratic nomination.
Trump seized the spotlight time and again during the campaign with provocative comments about Muslims and women, attacks against the Republican establishment and bellicose promises to build a wall along the US southern border with Mexico to stem illegal immigration.
Markets up
The Dow Jones Industrial Average index ended up 0.4 percent as investors bet on a win for Clinton, who Wall Street sees as more likely to ensure financial and political stability. Mexico's peso hit a two-month high on Tuesday on the expectation of a loss for Trump, who has vowed to rip up a trade deal with Mexico.
In Asia, markets were on tenterhooks at the start of the day on Wednesday as early results showed wins for both candidates and no clear trend as yet, causing a nervous shift back to safe haven assets.
Democrats also are seeking to break the Republican lock on control of the US Congress.
A strong turnout of voters for Clinton could jeopardize Republican control of the Senate, as voters choose 34 senators of the 100-member chamber on Tuesday. Democrats needed a net gain of five seats to win control. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are being contested. The House is expected to remain in Republican hands.
Trump reveled in the drama of the campaign but the spotlight was not always kind to him. The release in October of a 2005 video in which he boasted about groping women damaged his campaign and left him on the defensive for critical weeks
Clinton, with a long reputation for secrecy, sustained damaging blows from her handling of classified information as the country's top diplomat. It was only two days before the election that FBI Director James Comey reiterated that she would not face criminal charges.
Trump's vice presidential running mate is Mike Pence, the governor of Indiana. Clinton's running mate is US Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia.
