This post was originally published on France24
Republican former president Donald Trump won strongholds including Florida and Texas, while Democratic vice president Harris took several eastern states including New York as results started to flow in. But there were no major surprises or breakthroughs, leaving the seven crucial battleground states likely to determine who becomes the 47th US president. A final result could still take hours or even days to materialise if the margins in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona and the other swing states come down to a few thousand votes at a time.