US Election 2024: Why is Donald Trump's victory margin against Kamala Harris still unclear? All you need to know

US President-elect Donald Trump has selected the incoming White House chief of staff and more appointments are likely to be announced soon as the Republican leader bagged the minimum number of electoral college votes (270) required to claim the office. However, the margin of his victory against Democratic rival Kamala Harris is still not clear.

Reason: Arizona and Nevada. The election in these two battleground states is yet to be called by US media.

Why US media not projecting winner in Arizona and Nevada

While tens of thousands of votes were added to the tally on Thursday, there remain hundreds of thousands of ballots left to count in Arizona – including nearly half a million in Maricopa County, according to the Associated Press.

“Officials there are still working their way through advance votes that arrived in October. They are expected to firm up those numbers on Thursday,” it said.

Trump is leading in Arizona with 1,385,868 votes while Harris is a close second with 1,230,651 votes. AP estimates suggest that 76% of the total polled votes have been counted so far. Trump leads Kamala Harris by 5.9 percentage points, which means the Democrat needs to beat the President-elect by about 19 points in the remaining ballots to catch up and take the lead.

Late Thursday updates in Nevada's Clark and Washoe counties made only minor additions to the tally in the races for U.S. President and Senate. With the deadline for mail ballots set for Saturday, tens of thousands of ballots may still remain to be counted in the state's two largest counties, making it too early for media to project a clear winner.

In Nevada, current results show Trump with 716,978 votes (50.8%) and Harris trailing at 668,791 votes (47.4%). These figures suggest Trump is on track to claim Nevada’s electoral votes, though the final outcome hinges on the uncounted ballots.

Beyond the electoral college, Trump also seems likely to secure the popular vote. As of Friday morning, he leads with 73.4 million votes to Harris's 69.07 million, highlighting the extent of his support across the nation.