A long wait

Follow Us Get the newsletter We're still a long way from knowing the winner of a presidential race that's looking tighter than some surveys had suggested. With polls closed across much of America, many of the major battlegrounds remain too close to call. President Donald Trump was projected to win Ohio and leads Democratic challenger Joe Biden in Florida — a state his campaign considers crucial to his chances — after out-performing in one of its most populous counties, Miami-Dade. Other still-undecided states include Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Arizona and Georgia. A final outcome could take days or weeks. Trump holds a narrow early lead in North Carolina, while Biden is ahead in early returns in Arizona. Trump won both states in 2016. As Justin Sink reports, Trump's strong initial showing appears to significantly shrink Biden's path to victory. Biden entered Election Day in a strong position, leading nationally by 7.2 percentage points as well as in most swing states, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average. But the turnout on the day was expected to favor Trump in large part because Democrats encouraged their supporters to cast early ballots. The uncertainty that's become a hallmark of 2020 continues. The quick landslide that some Biden supporters were hoping for doesn't seem to have materialized. — Kathleen Hunter  Pedestrians watch election results in New York's Times Square. Photographer: Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg Click here for more photos from Election Day across the U.S., and tell us how we're doing or what we're missing at balancepower@bloomberg.net. Election Headlines Senate up in air | Democrats' bid to wrest control of the Senate remains uncertain. South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham fended off a well-funded challenge from Jaime Harrison, while Democrat John Hickenlooper defeated GOP incumbent Cory Gardner in the first Senate seat to flip parties among the roughly dozen that will determine the majority. Click here for live results. A special Senate election in Georgia is heading to a runoff. As expected, Democrats lost a Senate seat in heavily Republican Alabama that had been held by Doug Jones, who was defeated by former college football coach Tommy Tuberville. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was set to secure a seventh-term. Voters enter a polling place at dusk to cast their ballots at Sherman Township Hall, a former one-room schoolhouse in Zearing, Iowa. Photographer: Mario Tama/Getty Images North America House stays Democratic | Speaker Nancy Pelosi's party is on course to maintain its U.S. House majority. Click here for live results. Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, who expressed support for the QAnon conspiracy theory movement, is projected to have won a congressional seat in Georgia. She ran unopposed in the reliably Republican area. Key Election links: Track Live Results in the Presidential and Congressional Races What More Than 100 Million Early Votes Say About 2020 Turnout Why the U.S. Has 'Electors' Who Choose the President Don't miss the biggest election headlines as they happen. Download Bloomberg's app for Android or for iOS and turn on push notifications. Voting snafus | While the election proved relatively free of irregularities, the failure of digital poll books to identify voters at some local jurisdictions in at least four states could contribute to delayed results, Kartikay Mehrotra and Margaret Newkirk report. Harri Hursti, a cybersecurity expert observing balloting in Georgia, said it's too soon to know if a cyber-attack was involved but that a broader investigation may be needed. A screen displays Tokyo Stock Exchange share prices as Asian markets react to early results.  Photographer: Philip Fong/AFP via Getty Images Market bets | Treasuries jumped in volatile trade, the dollar climbed and U.S. equity futures pushed higher on signs the election could be closer than polls had suggested. "Early prospects for a quick resolution to the U.S. election have given way to the reality of an extended process, not only with regards to the White House but also the Senate," says Ian Lyngen, a strategist at BMO Capital Markets. And finally ... Cindy Ellis waited three hours yesterday to cast her vote in Philadelphia, turning in a mail-in ballot that she'd decided not to use. "I had to vote in person in honor of my dad" said Ellis, adding he died of Covid-19 in August. She was one of millions who braved long lines and reports of trouble with voting equipment in some areas of the battleground state of Pennsylvania. Ellis outside the Sharon Baptist Church. 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