Eleven counties to watch in Tuesday's US presidential election

Seven battleground states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – are expected to play a decisive role in Tuesday's US presidential election between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump.

Here are 11 counties to watch in those states with estimated vote tallies by Edison Research at 12am ET (9am UAE time on Wednesday). Early results based on partial returns may not be predictive of the final vote tallies in the counties.

Home to Phoenix, Maricopa County is key to winning the Southwestern state as it makes up about 60 per cent of the statewide vote. In the 2020 election, Democratic President Joe Biden won this county by 2.2 percentage points, while Trump won the county by almost 3 percentage points in 2016.

In Maricopa County, Arizona, where estimates that 50 per cent of the ballots have been counted, former President Trump won 49 per cent of the votes tallied so far and Harris won 51 per cent.

Democrats see the large and racially diverse Cobb County in Atlanta's northern suburbs as somewhere they could pick up the large number of votes needed to win the state. That's what Biden did in 2020 when he won the county by some 14 percentage points. In 2016, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton carried Cobb county by just 2 percentage points and lost the state to Trump.

With an estimated 95 per cent of the ballots in Cobb County counted, Harris was winning 57 per cent and Trump 42 per cent.

In central Georgia, Baldwin County is much smaller than Cobb but an indicator of Black voter turnout. About 40 per cent of voters in the county are Black. This is one place in Georgia where Biden's 2020 margin was narrower than Clinton's in 2016.

With nearly all ballots counted, Trump had won 51 per cent of the votes and Harris 49 per cent.

Home of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Washtenaw County saw Biden take 73 per cent of the vote in 2020. The university is the focus of a Democratic get-out-the-vote effort for young voters. Harris' ability to match Biden's performance may be affected by frustration with the administration's policies in the Middle East.

With estimates of 70 per cent of the ballots counted, Harris won 65 per cent of the votes tallied so far to 32 per cent for Trump.

North Carolina's capital, Raleigh in Wake County, has boosted statewide turnout for Democrats in recent elections. That was the case in 2020 when Biden won 65 per cent of the vote there, still not enough to keep Trump from carrying the state.

In the county, with estimates that nearly all of the ballots have been counted, Harris had won 62 per cent of the votes tallied so far and Trump had won 36%.

Erie County in northwestern Pennsylvania has voted for the winner in the last four elections, including Biden in 2020, who won the county by a single percentage point. In 2016, Trump won the county by 2 points.

With estimates that 75 per cent of the ballots have been counted, Harris won 51 per cent of the votes tallied so far and Trump won 48 per cent.

North of Philadelphia, Bucks County in Pennsylvania is another highly competitive county due to its large population of working-class voters. Trump has made major inroads into that demographic in his eight years on the national political stage. The former president lost this county to Biden in 2020 by 4 percentage points, handing the state to the Democrat.

With estimates that 55 per cent of the ballots have been counted, Harris won 50 per cent of the votes tallied so far and Trump won 49 per cent.

The suburbs of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania's capital, have supported Trump in the last two elections. But Democrats could cut those gains in Cumberland County by attracting the area's growing population of white-collar workers. In 2020, Trump won this county by 11 points.

In Cumberland County, where Edison Research reports that nearly all ballots have counted, Trump won 54 per cent of the votes tallied so far and Harris won 45 per cent.

The populous western suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, have been another stronghold for Trump in the past two campaigns, and the Republican won here by more than 20 percentage points each time. Voters in this county will need to support Trump at similar levels in order for the Republican to win back the state after Biden carried it in 2020.

In Waukesha County, Wisconsin, with an estimated 95 per cent of the ballots counted, Trump won 59 per cent of the votes and Harris won 40 per cent.

Home to Detroit's 1.7 million residents, Wayne County, Michigan, is about 40% Black. In 2020, Biden won here with more than 68 per cent of the vote, helping him clinch the Midwestern state.

Polls in Wayne County, Michigan, closed at 8pm ET (5am UAE time on Wednesday). Edison Research has not yet reported any votes.

In the northwestern corner of Nevada around Reno, Washoe County is less racially diverse than the Las Vegas area, but has been trending more Democratic in recent elections. Biden won this county by more than 4 percentage points in 2020.

Polls in Washoe County, Nevada closed at 7pm PT (7am UAE time on Wednesday). Edison Research has not yet reported any votes.

The share of each county's vote that has been counted so far is based on estimates by Edison Research of the number of votes that are likely to be cast there.