Who Is Winning The Presidential Election Right Now? Early Voting And Ground Game Show Clear Advantage

UPDATE: 8:24 p.m. EST -- The most recent Election Day polling shows Hillary Clinton locking in the total number of electoral votes needed to secure the presidency with 272 forecasted votes, as well as 48.5 percent of the popular vote. Donald Trump falls just short of the 270 votes necessary to win the election with a predicted 266 electoral votes and 45 percent of the vote. Races across key battleground states were to be too close to call according to most experts, including Florida, North Carolina and Ohio.

Original story: Early exit polling seems to show Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's ground game was an effective machine in the final stretch of the 2016 presidential election. The Clinton campaigned reached out to more voters ahead of Nov. 8 than any major party since 2004, while the Trump campaign only managed to reach eight percent of voters surveyed by Morning Consult. For context, John McCain’s campaign only reached out to six percent of voters before losing to President Barack Obama in 2008.

Roughly 40 million Americans cast early voting ballots, with a surge in Latino voters and a slight drop in African-American turnout, compared to data from 2008. Clinton also outraised and outspent her Republican opponent in the final hours of the race to the White House, garnering $513 million in donations by Oct. 19 and spending $450 million, compared to Trump’s $255 million in donations and $239 million in campaign spending.

Clinton expressed her hopes for the country in a closing argument shared on Facebook just before Election Day. The 69-year-old politician, former lawyer and grandmother discussed her goals to unite the nation in the wake of one of the most polarizing and contentious presidential campaign seasons in modern American history, while outlining some of the campaign promises she has made since announcing her run for the White House, including offering refuge to Syrian refugees and protecting abortion rights.

Polls showed a narrowing race between Clinton and Trump in the final days, with Clinton holding a four-point edge in most national polls just before Election Day. Both candidates made their last-ditch efforts to attract voters across the nation with campaign rallies Monday in several key battleground states.

Clinton maintained an edge up until Election Day in the polls, though track-polling showed a significant drop after FBI Director James Comey announced Oct. 28 the bureau was reviewing an additional set of 650,000 emails possibly related to its previous investigation of the former secretary of state after they were discovered on a laptop used by the Democratic candidate's top aide, Huma Abedin, and her estranged husband, former U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner. He later said Sunday the emails did not implicate Clinton in any illegal activity.