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One of the most contentious and controversial presidential elections in history is too close to call as polls closed throughout the East Coast Tuesday night.
Chappaqua's Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bedford estate owner Donald J. Trump are running neck-and-neck in the key battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia and New Hampshire as precinct results are coming in.
Florida and North Carolina were projected to be won by Trump around 11 p.m., about an hour after he became the projected winner in Ohio.
Michigan and Pennsylvania are now critical states for Clinton to pull out victories as Trump has been pulling in higher than projected margins in rural areas. No Republican presidential candidate has ever won the election without winning Ohio since Richard Nixon lost to John F. Kennedy in 1960.
With 95 percent of results in, Trump holds a near 2-percentage point lead in Florida as his potential path to pull out the 270 of the 538 electoral votes needed for victory remains very much alive.
New York, Connecticut and New Jersey have all been projected to be won by Clinton.
Clinton is aiming to become the first woman and the first spouse of a former president to become chief executive in the nation's 240-year history. She and her husband, Bill Clinton, who served as 42nd president from 1993 to 2001.
Clinton is scheduled to hold an election night event at the Javits Convention Center in midtown, with its literal glass ceiling serving as a backdrop.
Trump's election night event will be held at the New York Hilton Midtown.
Clinton, 69, has one of the most impressive résumés of any presidential candidate, having served as secretary of state and U.S. senator from New York, in addition to first lady.
Clinton is also the first Westchester resident to run for president in the general election in 140 years. The last was Samuel Tilden of Yonkers, who won the popular vote but lost in the Electoral College to Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876.
The fallout of setting up a private email server at her Chappaqua home was a recurring issue during the campaign, and reached its peak in late October when FBI Director and Yonkers native James Comey revealed the bureau was investigating a new batch of emails it uncovered. Comey announced late last week the investigation said no additional action was warranted and most of the emails were duplicated of emails previously reviews.
Trump, 70, a real estate magnate and reality TV star, has spent most of his life in the bright spotlight of the public. He shook up the Republican presidential primary field of 16 contenders with his "outsider" appeal that was heightened by his ostentatious, non-conventional demeanor and unpredictable statements. In the presidential race, charges of sexual abuse by approximately a dozen women followed the release of a graphic tape in which he boasted about groping women.
It's the first presidential contest between two New Yorkers in 72 years, when Frank D. Roosevelt defeated Thomas Dewey. Both Clinton and Trump are familiar faces in the Hudson Valley. The Clintons purchased a home in Chappaqua in 1999, and it's their primary residence.
Trump, who owns an estate in Bedford, also owns Trump National Golf Club Hudson Valley in Stormville and Trump National Westchester in Briarcliff Manor.
In addition, The Trump name adorns Trump Tower At City Center in White Plains, Trump Plaza in New Rochelle, Trump Park Residences in Yorktown and the Donald J. Trump State Park on the Westchester/Putnam border.
For updated state-by-state results, click here.
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