Who's Winning the 2016 US Presidential Election

The 2016 race that began 595 days ago and involved 22 major candidates is expected to end Tuesday as millions of voters head to the polls across the U.S. to cast their ballots for president, vice president, their representatives in Congress and other elected officials.
On Monday, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, a former secretary of state and former first lady, held a small 4-percentage-point lead over GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, according to a CBS News poll measuring the state of the race before the polls opened. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, is Clinton’s vice presidential nominee and Republican Gov. Mike Pence is Trump’s running mate. Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein are two independent candidates who will appear on some or all ballots. Evan McMullin is another independent candidate who could perform well in his home state of Utah.

In order to win the presidency, a candidate must win 270 electoral votes -- a majority of the 538 electors. CBS News will be keeping an eye on 13 battleground states: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.

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3:12 a.m. ET CBS News projects Trump wins the 2016 presidential election.
3:04 a.m. ET Donald Trump just finished speaking to his reporters at the Hilton hotel in midtown Manhattan, declaring victory in the presidential race and confirming that Clinton had conceded.
“I just received a call from Secretary Clinton. She congratulated us on our victory and I congratulated her and her family on a very, very hard-fought campaign,” he said. “To all Republicans and Democrats and independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people.”
“I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans and this is so important to me,” he added.
Trump pledged to fix the “inner cities,” and rebuild highways, cities, airports, schools and more.
“We will double our growth and have the strongest economy everywhere in the world,” he said. “We must reclaim our country’s destiny and dream big and bold and daring.”
He thanked all of his family members and advisers as well as the Secret Service.
“To be really historic, we have to do a great job. I look very much forward to being your president,” said Trump, who then hinted he might be interested in serving as president for two terms.
-- CBS News’ Rebecca Shabad
2:52 a.m. ET CBS News projects that Trump has won Pennsylvania.
2:49 a.m. ET CBS News projects Trump wins Wisconsin.
2:42 a.m. ET CBS News’ Major Garrett reports that Clinton called Trump to concede, per a senior Trump aide. The Clinton campaign has not confirmed it yet.
2:21 a.m. ET CBS News projects that Trump wins Maine’s 2nd congressional district, which means he’s won one electoral vote so far in the state.
2:01 a.m. ET Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta just came out to speak to reporters at the Javits Center and said they’re going to wait it out until the votes are counted.
“It’s been a long night and it’s been a long campaign. I can say we can wait a little longer. They’re still counting votes and every vote should count. We’re not going to have anything more to say tonight,” he said.
2:00 a.m. ET CBS News projects Clinton wins Maine.
1:55 a.m. ET Trump effect? Canada’s immigration website crashes amid U.S. election uncertainity
The Canadian government website for immigration crashed Tuesday night as Americans on both side of the political divide experienced anxiety over the presidential election. And Google reported web search terms like “Canada immigration” spiked as the GOP candidate did unexpectedly well in the presidential election.


“It’s been a long night and it’s been a long campaign. I can say we can wait a little longer. They’re still counting votes and every vote should count. We’re not going to have anything more to say tonight,” he said.
2:00 a.m. ET CBS News projects Clinton wins Maine.
1:55 a.m. ET Trump effect? Canada’s immigration website crashes amid U.S. election uncertainity
The Canadian government website for immigration crashed Tuesday night as Americans on both side of the political divide experienced anxiety over the presidential election. And Google reported web search terms like “Canada immigration” spiked as the GOP candidate did unexpectedly well in the presidential election.


In New Hampshire, where the number of votes separating Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump has been as low as 34 votes at one point Tuesday night and remains locked at 47 percent each, the rules are fairly liberal. Any candidate can call for a recount if the margin is within 20 percent.
“Any candidate for whom a vote was cast for any office at a state general election may apply for a recount, provided that the difference between the votes cast for the applying candidate and a candidate declared elected is less than 20 percent of the total votes cast in the towns which comprise the office to be recounted,” according to New Hampshire election law.
Pennsylvania demands a margin of 0.5 percent, and a recount would be triggered by the secretary of state. “A candidate for a public office which appears on the ballot in every election district in this Commonwealth was defeated by one-half of a percent or less of the votes cast for the office,” the law says. Nearing 1 a.m. Wednesday morning, Trump led Clinton there 48.5 percent to 47.9 percent.

In Michigan, there’s a mandatory recount triggered by a difference of 2,000 votes or less. But any candidate suspecting there’s either fraud or a mistake can petition for a recount. At 12:52 a.m., Clinton lagged behind Trump by 52 thousand votes -- 1.785 million to 1.837 million.
Like Michigan, Wisconsin also allows any candidate to request a recount if fraud or a mistake is suspected. The candidate has three days to make the request and has to foot the bill if the margin between the candidates exceeds a half percent.
Minnesota has tight requirements for a federal recount -- a losing candidate can request a recount if the margin is a razor thin quarter of a percent. Also, since 2008, all recounts in Minnesota are to be conducted manually.