Former President Donald Trump was declared the president-elect early Wednesday morning by some news outlets, including Fox News, as his unofficial results get closer to the 270 electoral votes needed to defeat Vice President Kamala Harris.
At the time of publication, the Associated Press projected Trump to have 267 electoral votes against 224 for Harris. Six of those votes will come from Iowa which he won by a projected 14% margin with 95% of precincts reporting.
Despite Trump winning Iowa in 2016 and 2020, some Democrats were hopeful the former California senator would win the state after renowned pollster J. Ann Selzer’s poll showed Harris with a three percentage point lead over Trump.
The former president is projected to win Pennsylvania and Georgia, states he won in 2016 but lost to President Joe Biden in 2020. As of the publication of this article, Alaska, Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin were too close to call by the AP, but all were led by Trump.
If Trump secures victory, he will join Grover Cleveland as the only other president to serve two non-consecutive terms.
While the AP called the presidential race in Iowa for Trump at 9:40 p.m. on Tuesday, local Story County results remained unavailable as of 3 a.m. Wednesday, as 0% of the vote had been reported to the Secretary of State’s office.
Several polling places in Story County reported machine failure early on Election Day, causing election workers to count the ballots by hand after the polls closed at 8 p.m. According to the Des Moines Register, Story County Auditor Lucy Martin said machines at about 12 of the county’s 45 polling locations did not read “certain ballot styles.”
According to previous reporting by the Daily, Martin will request a recount during a special Story County supervisors meeting Thursday morning.
In Iowa’s 4th Congressional District, incumbent Rep. Randy Feenstra (R) is projected to defeat Ryan Melton (D), according to a race call by the AP at 9:45 p.m. on Tuesday. An estimated 85% of votes were counted, last updated at 1:42 a.m. and Feenstra leads 70.3% to 29.7% as of 1:42 a.m.
The AP also called Constitutional Amendment 1 a yes at 9:43 p.m. on Tuesday. The amendment will officially lower the voting age from 21 to 18 years old and prohibit non-citizens from voting.
