You have probably seen hundreds of stories about who is ahead in the polls. Usually they mean the national vote, where Harris is generally ahead.
But that number is meaningless as the US election isn’t decided by who gets the most votes. Instead, each state awards the winner a certain number of “electoral college” votes, with a total of 270 needed to become president.
Many of these states are a done deal – for example California, New Jersey and New York – these are 99 per cent certain to be won by Harris. Likewise Florida, Texas, Utah. Different states get different numbers of college votes depending on their populations. California is the biggest with 54 votes, and Texas next with 40.
This means that before things really get going, Harris can expect to have 226 votes in the bag, and Trump 219.
93 votes are available in the seven swing states, which Trump and Harris will be battling for.
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