In Pictures: White House race on knife-edge as anxious Americans await election result

Americans woke up on Wednesday not knowing who the next US president would be as votes were still being counted in six key states that could swing the bitterly contested election to Republican incumbent Donald Trump or Democrat Joe Biden. Above, Biden supporter Lala Walker reacts to early election results in Houston, Texas, U.S.

U.S. President Donald Trump gestures after speaking during an election night party with U.S. First Lady Melania Trump, right, and U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, left, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C. Fueling fears of a constitutional crisis, Trump prematurely declared victory overnight and threatened to demand the intervention of the Supreme Court to stop vote-counting but it continued nonetheless. "We did win this election," the 74-year-old president told cheering supporters in the East Room of the White House before the final vote tallies were complete. "This is a fraud on the American public."

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden arrives with his wife Jill Biden to speak to supporters in Wilmington, Del. The Biden campaign slammed Trump's victory claim as "outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect" and a "naked effort to take away the democratic rights of American citizens." "The counting will not stop. It will continue until every duly cast vote is counted," it said. "If the president makes good on his threat to go to court to try to prevent the proper tabulation of votes, we have legal teams standing by ready to deploy to resist that effort."

Rita Brown, a supporter of Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden, watches election results at a watch party in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

Detroit election workers work on counting absentee ballots for the 2020 general election at TCF Center in Detroit, Michigan. - President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden are battling it out for the White House, with polls closed across the United States -- and the American people waiting for results in key battlegrounds still up for grabs.

Alex Suarez (L) and Ralph Reichard (R) supporters of the Democratic party cheer as they attend a watch party in Miami, Florida.

Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers clear demonstrators from train tracks after declaring an unlawful assembly on election night in Los Angeles, California.

U.S. President Donald Trump supporter watches the 2020 U.S. presidential election results come in on Fox News at the DoubleTree Hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota, U.S.

Protesters in Black LIves Matter Plaza, near the White House. Dawn broke over the United States with the presidential election undecided and the specter of hours or even days of uncertainty ahead.

Shannon Erstein and Beka Carlson react to preliminary 2020 U.S. presidential election results in Washington, U.S.

Election officials count absentee ballots in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Wisconsin requires election officials to wait to begin counting absentee ballots until after polls open on election day.

Children watch the election results about Republican U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler, in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.

Karen Valentine throws her arms up in celebration as she hears that U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has been projected as the winner of the state of Illinois as she and a friend set up a tailgaiting party table beside their vehicle in the parking lot where Biden will hold his 2020 U.S. presidential election night drive-in rally because of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic social distancing, in Wilmington, Delaware.

Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk workers, Fernando Dejo, right, and Sabina Vasquez, left, retrieve paper ballots from ballot marking devices (BMD) or vote recorders, as their polling place closes at the Los Angeles City College in Los Angeles. Joe Biden won California and its 55 electoral votes Tuesday, tightening the Democrats’ grip on the nation’s most populous state. Biden had nearly 68% of the vote, with more than 9 million ballots counted about 30 minutes after the polls closed.

Supporters of US President Donald Trump celebrate as they watch Ohio being called for Donald Trump at a Republican watch party at Huron Vally Guns in New Hudson, Michigan.

Workers at prepare and count ballots at the Central Count Facility in Milwaukee, Wis.

Election workers sort absentee ballots to count at the Lansing city clerk's office on election night in Lansing, Michigan. President Trump narrowly won Michigan in 2016, and both he and Joe Biden campaigned heavily in the battleground state in 2020.