Kamala Harris cancels election night party as path to victory narrows

Donald Trump has won Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia and has taken a lead over Kamala Harris in most of the other four battleground states that will decide the winner of the US presidential election, the BBC's US partner CBS predicts.

According to CBS, Wisconsin is leaning toward Trump and he is ahead in the other so-called Rust Belt state of Michigan. The results are not final.

Incomplete data also suggests Trump has a lead in Nevada, while the race remains tight in the Sun Belt's other battleground, Arizona.

More good news for Trump's fellow Republicans is that the party is expected to win a majority in the Senate.

As expected, Trump captured conservative strongholds from Florida to Idaho, while Harris won liberal states from New York to California, CBS predicts.

The Democrat was expected to spend election night at Howard University in Washington DC, where she was a student, but after midnight it emerged she would not attend.

After campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond's announcement, the crowd virtually disappeared from Harris headquarters at the historically black college.

The party atmosphere from a few hours earlier at Howard had already deteriorated when two swing states were declared for Trump.

Democratic fundraiser Lindy Li told the BBC at Harris' headquarters that things were “pretty bleak at the moment.”

“People are becoming more and more fearful,” she said, “but there is still a way. I’m still holding on to it, but this isn’t the night we wanted.”

Trump was expected to appear shortly at his campaign party in West Palm Beach, Florida, where the mood was celebratory.

Elon Musk, the world's richest man and Trump's mega-donor, is spending election night with the Republican candidate. The billionaire posted a photo showing him talking to Trump overnight.

The result appears to portend a seismic political comeback for Trump.

But the Republican may also have a friendly Congress with which to push his agenda, namely Congress, with both chambers also up for debate in Tuesday's vote.

CBS predicts Republicans will win control of the Senate after wresting two seats from Democrats in West Virginia and Ohio and mounting a major challenge in Texas.

Neither party appeared to have an overall advantage in the House of Representatives, which is narrowly controlled by Republicans.

Some 86 million voters cast their ballots early amid one of the most tumultuous election campaigns in recent American history.

Vice President Harris, 60, only became the Democratic Party's nominee in July after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race due to pressure within the party.

The 78-year-old Trump was the target of two assassination attempts – he narrowly escaped a sniper's bullet in Pennsylvania.

The former president said he felt “very confident” as he voted with his wife Melania on Tuesday near his home in Palm Beach, Florida.

“If I lose an election, if it is a fair election, I will be the first to acknowledge that,” he said.

He previously posted on his social media platform Truth Social that “law enforcement is coming to Philadelphia for 'massive fraud'.”

Philadelphia police told BBC Verify that they were not aware of any voter fraud. The city's top prosecutor said the allegations had “no factual basis whatsoever.”

Both sides have armies of lawyers ready to mount legal challenges on and after Election Day.

If Harris wins, she would be the first woman, Black woman and South Asian American to win the presidency.

Trump would be the first president in more than 130 years to win non-consecutive terms. He is also the only president to be impeached twice and the first former president to be criminally convicted.

CBS exit poll data suggests Harris may have underperformed with women.

According to the figures, around 54% of female voters cast their votes for her. But Joe Biden won the support of 57% of women in 2020.

Law enforcement agencies across the country are on high alert for possible violence.

According to CBS, around 30 bomb threats were directed at polling stations across the country on Tuesday, more than half of them in the state of Georgia alone.