Incumbent US President Donald Trump (left) and Democratic candidate Joe Biden. (Photo: orfonline.org)

Late Tuesday (local time), Election Day in the US officially ended, but it was still unknown who the winner is.

The results updated as of 6am, Wednesday (local time), showed President Donald Trump won 213 electoral votes and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden won 238. A candidate needs at least 270 electoral votes to win the election.  States Trump won were Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, West Virginia, Indiana, Missouri, South Carolina, Lousiana, Florida, Ohio, and Texas. Biden won the states of Illinois, New Jersey, Virginia, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Washington DC, Vermont, New York, Colorado, New Hampshire, California, Arizona, and New Mexico.

The counting of votes has continued in 7 states, including battleground states like Pennsylvania (20 electoral votes), Michigan (16 electoral votes), Wisconsin (10 electoral votes),  and Georgia (16 electoral votes). At 9am on Wednesday (local time), there will be an update on the ballot count in Pennsylvania, a state important to both candidates to become the next US president.

President Donald Trump falsely claimed victory over Democratic rival Joe Biden early Wednesday with millions of votes still uncounted.

“We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election,” Trump said. “This is a major fraud on our nation. We want the law to be used in a proper manner. So we’ll be going to the US Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop.” 

Polls have closed and voting has stopped across the country, but election laws in US states require all votes to be counted, and many states routinely take days to finish counting ballots. More votes stood to be counted this year than in the past as people voted early by mail and in person because of the coronavirus pandemic.