US election electoral college votes tracker: Live updates

Winning candidate needs 270 electoral college votes to win the presidency

Joe Biden has now won enough electoral college votes to become the 46th president of the United States, after a fractious election battle.  

A candidate must win 270 votes in the electoral college to win the presidential race and after crucial wins in Pennsylvania and Nevada, Mr Biden secured 290, compared to Trump’s 214.

A total of 538 electoral votes are up for grabs across all 50 states and Washington, DC. The total number of electoral votes assigned to each state varies depending on its population.

Follow live: 2020 election results, updates and analysis

It's the electoral college, not the national popular vote, that will decide whether Donald Trump or his opponent, former vice president Joe Biden, wins the 2020 race. 

In terms of the popular vote, Mr Biden has 74.8 million (51 per cent), compared to Trump’s 70.5 million (48 percent).

In 2016, then Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by almost 3 million votes, but Mr Trump earned almost 57 per cent of the electoral college votes — enough to claim the presidency.

You can see the latest electoral college votes on the tracker below, which will continue to update until the final vote is tallied.