Georgia will hold a vote recount
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger has just announced that the state's presidential contest will go to a recount
Here's how the events are unfolding following the election day-
Trump: 'This is no longer about any single election'
President Donald Trump's team has put out a statement, saying that “the American people deserve to have full transparency into all vote counting and election certification".
"This is no longer about any single election. This is about the integrity of our entire election process," the statement says, reports the CNN.
The statement accuses Democrats of resisting the "basic principle" that "all legal ballots must be counted and all illegal ballots should not be counted", and says Trump will "pursue this process through every aspect of the law".
"I will never give up fighting for you and our nation," the statement concludes.
Trump has repeatedly suggesting counting postal votes that arrive after election day is "illegal".
But late postal ballots can be counted in around half of US states - as long as they are postmarked by 3 November (election day).
This includes the key states of Pennsylvania, Nevada and North Carolina, where a winner is yet to be projected. The deadlines for how late a postal ballot can arrive varies from state to state.
The president has made multiple, unsubstantiated claims of election fraud, which have been denied by local election officials.
Sources close to the White House say some officials are beginning to quietly back away from Trump
Sources close to the White House said some senior officials inside the White House and the campaign are beginning to quietly back away from Trump, in acts of self-preservation, as the returns in Pennsylvania and Georgia indicate the President will not win reelection.
"It's over," one key adviser to the administration said of the race. The adviser went on to say there are concerns about what Trump will do, beyond the question of whether he will concede the race, reports the CNN.
"God. Who knows," the adviser said when asked what Trump might do next, conceding there were multiple officials in the campaign and the White House who were shaking their heads after Trump's litany of false statements Thursday evening in the White House briefing room.
Some in the campaign, the adviser said, questioned the Trump team's decision to dispatch the likes of Rudy Giuliani and Trump's sons to make unfounded allegations of voter fraud, arguing that likely diminished the president's claims of wrongdoing.
The adviser said Trump is well within his rights to contest the election results but is going about it in exactly the wrong way.
A separate adviser to the campaign described Trump as increasingly isolated in his claims of a stolen election.
"He is mostly alone here," the adviser said of Trump's claims of voter fraud.
The sources noted, however, there are still some aides and allies around the president telling him what he wants to hear. That will keep the drama going, the sources added.
One pressure point for Trump is that some in the administration are already beginning to look beyond the 2020 race and toward 2024.
One adviser said some inside the administration and the GOP are starting to measure their actions based on ambitions for the next campaign cycle.
Romney says Trump 'wrong to say election was rigged'
Utah Senator Mitt Romney has joined a number of Republicans criticising the president's comments on election fraud last night, reports the BBC.
Romney, once a presidential candidate himself, tweeted that saying the election was "corrupt" or "stolen" was wrong, and "damages the cause of freedom here and around the world".
Romney has long been critical of the president.
Biden's growing lead in Pennsylvania makes it increasingly harder for Trump to catch up
Pennsylvania's latest update on ballots shows Biden is increasing his lead in the Keystone State.
The latest update on 2,617 votes came from Bucks County, shows Biden picked up 1,732 votes and Trump picked up 853 votes. Biden got 66% of the vote in Bucks County in the latest batch, reports the CNN.
Currently, approximately 20,000 of the outstanding votes in Pennsylvania are still in Philadelphia County, where Joe Biden has been getting over 80% of the votes with each batch, King noted, adding that the mail-in ballots are consistently delivering a higher percentage of votes in each batch to Biden.
There are approximately 175,880 absentee ballots left to be counted across Pennsylvania, according to the election site.
As Biden approaches a margin of 10,000 votes over Trump in Pennsylvania, history shows that once you get to that number, it can be almost “impossible” to overturn in legal challenges or recounts, King added.
Biden's Nevada edge grows
According to the latest numbers just released, Biden is holding his lead over Trump by around 22,000 votes in Nevada.
An estimated 91% of votes have been counted so far, and around 76% of the total vote is expected to have been via mail-in ballots, reports the BBC.
Nevada is one of a handful of states that chose to send mail-in ballots (also known as absentees) to every registered voter in the state.
Before the election, Trump repeatedly denounced the move, known as universal vote-by-mail, saying it would open the process up to tampering.
Researchers have found no evidence of any widespread electoral fraud
Pelosi: 'We did not win every fight. But we did win the war'
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, the top Democratic lawmaker in Washington, is speaking from Capitol Hill about the latest developments, where she says it is clear that Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris are on their way to the White House, reports the BBC.
On Democrats' inability to retake the Senate from Republicans, and losses in the House of Representatives, she says this: "We did not win every battle in the House. But we did win the war."
"Be confident. Be patient," she says to Democrats, adding: "We look forward to continued victories, and there are some out there."
"While we prepare for the new Biden administration, we must also move swiftly forward with a new coronavirus relief bill," she says referring to economic talks that fell through before the election.
Georgia will hold a vote recount
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger has just announced that the state's presidential contest will go to a recount.
He said that 4,169 votes remain to be counted, and that some 8,000 military absentee ballots are still in the mail and will only be counted if they arrive by the end of the day, reports the BBC.
"Right now Georgia remains too close to call," he said, adding: "With a margin that small there will be a recount in Georgia."
"Interest in our election obviously goes far beyond Georgia's borders. The final tally in Georgia at this point has huge implications for the entire country."
"We are looking at a margin less than a large high school," Raffensberger's aide Gabriel Sterling added after the Republican official left without taking questions. Sterling, who oversees voting for the state, added that the reason for the recount is due to how close the race is, and that they have not seen "any widespread irregularities" that would indicate foul play.
There are just more than 4,000 votes left to count in Georgia
There are 4,169 outstanding ballots to be counted across a handful of counties in Georgia, Gabriel Sterling, the state's voting system implementation manager, said in a press conference on Friday , reports the CNN.
Biden took the lead in Georgia earlier this morning.
Trump cannot find a route to 270 electoral votes without Georgia and Pennsylvania, so his chances of securing reelection will hinge on developments in the two states.
Biden campaign on reports Trump won't concede: US can escort "trespassers out of the White House"
Joe Biden’s presidential campaign is responding to reports that President Donald Trump has no plans to concede the race, reports the CNN.
"As we said on July 19th, the American people will decide this election. And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House,” campaign spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement.
Trump campaign says it will challenge Biden’s victory
The Trump campaign released a statement Friday morning making clear they will contest the election, calling any projections of Joe Biden as the winner "false" and the race "far from final."
"This election is not over. The false projection of Joe Biden as the winner is based on results in four states that are far from final," Trump campaign general counsel Matt Morgan said in a statement, reports the CNN.
Morgan's statement continued: “Georgia is headed for a recount, where we are confident we will find ballots improperly harvested, and where President Trump will ultimately prevail. There were many irregularities in Pennsylvania, including having election officials prevent our volunteer legal observers from having meaningful access to vote counting locations. We prevailed in court on our challenge, but were deprived of valuable time and denied the transparency we are entitled to under state law. In Nevada, there appear to be thousands of individuals who improperly cast mail ballots. Finally, the President is on course to win Arizona outright, despite the irresponsible and erroneous ‘calling’ of the state for Biden by Fox News and the Associated Press.”
"Biden is relying on these states for his phony claim on the White House, but once the election is final, President Trump will be re-elected," Morgan concluded.
A republican lawyer in Pennsylvania, who is not part of the Trump legal team but is familiar with election challenges, says legal challenges in the commonwealth get Trump nowhere.
“These challenges are not going to impact the outcome because none of them are going after the actual vote casts, they are all process challenges,” the source said.
Airspace now restricted over Biden’s home
New restricted "national defense airspace" has been put in place over Democratic nominee Joe Biden's home in Wilmington, Delaware.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) posted the Temporary Flight Restriction on Wednesday, the day after the general election.
An FAA notice to pilots available online shows the one mile radius no-fly zone is now active until next Wednesday morning. reports the CNN.
The FAA says airspace has also been temporarily restricted over the nearby Chase Center, where the stage is set for a possible Biden victory speech – should he ultimately win the presidential election.
Biden pulls ahead in Pennsylvania
Biden has taken the lead over Trump by 5,587 votes, with 95% of the state's precincts reporting.
The state could hand him the 270 electoral college votes needed to win, reports the BBC.
Biden has taken the lead in Pennsylvania with 95% of votes counted, the BBC's results system shows. If he wins Pennsylvania, he wins the presidency.
If he wins Pennsylvania, he wins the presidency.
Trump has told people he has no plans to concede
In conversations with allies in recent days, President Trump has said he has no intention to concede the election to Joe Biden, even if his path to a second term in office is effectively blocked by losses in places like Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Aides, including his chief of staff Mark Meadows, have not attempted to bring Trump to terms of what’s happening and have instead fed his baseless claim that the election is being stolen from him, reports the CNN.
Trump’s allies have grown concerned that someone is going to have to reckon with the President that his time in office is potentially coming to an end, though they have not decided who should be the one to do it. There has been talk of potentially Jared Kushner or Ivanka Trump doing so, sources said.
McConnell: "Every legal vote should be counted"
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tweeted Friday:"Every legal vote should be counted. Any illegally-submitted ballots must not."
McConnell's tweet marks his first public comment since President Trump's remarks in the White House yesterday, in which he claimed, without evidence, that there was widespread voter fraud, reports the CNN.
There have been no legitimate allegations of widespread voter fraud in this race.
"Here’s how this must work in our great country: Every legal vote should be counted. Any illegally-submitted ballots must not. All sides must get to observe the process. And the courts are here to apply the laws & resolve disputes. That's how Americans' votes decide the result," McConnell tweeted.
Georgia matters in the presidential math. But it’s symbolically important too
For much of this year’s campaign, Democrats saw Georgia as a relatively remote target. Joe Biden did not visit the state until a week before the election. But with Biden now pulling into a narrow lead, the state could block President Trump from reaching the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency.
Beyond its value in Electoral College math, the prospect of winning Georgia holds enormous symbolic significance for the Democrats, who last carried the state under Bill Clinton in 1992, reports the New York Times.
Georgia’s demographics have grown more favorable for the party, with an increasingly young and diverse population creating an opening there as it has in other Sun Belt states that were once solidly Republican.
And since Stacey Abrams lost a tight contest for Georgia governor in 2018, she has tried to help register more nonwhite voters and resist voter suppression, efforts that Democrats have said made the state more competitive.
Biden team is mounting a push to get supporters and allies to validate election legitimacy
Joe Biden is waking up today on the cusp of realizing a quest he started more than three decades ago: Winning the presidency.
But it also comes with a stark reality. If he wins, he will have to fight for the legitimacy of his own victory, reports the CNN.
Even as the votes are still being counted in Pennsylvania, his native commonwealth that could put him over the top, his advisers have mounted an aggressive behind-the-scenes push to get his supporters – and, even more importantly, Republicans to help validate the sanctity of the election.
The Biden campaign took note of President Trump’s dire tone in the White House last night and began a plan that is underway today to get his old allies in the Senate – and others from a lifetime in public life – to speak to the legitimacy of the election.
In Wilmington, Delaware, with the sun already rising in the morning sky, the stage is still waiting for Biden. He will address the country at some point, but aides said the timing is out of their hands.
Pennsylvania to update 'in next hour or two'
Joe Biden has taken the lead in Georgia, but there's another key contest on the east coast still very much at stake - Pennsylvania.
As things stand Donald Trump is leading his Democratic challenger by about 20,000 votes in the Keystone State, reports the CNN.
That advantage has been shrinking as mail-in and absentee ballots come in, in particular from around the city of Philadelphia.
The city's commissioner Al Schmidt has said to expect another update on the count "in the next hour or two".
“The counting in Philadelphia has continued uninterrupted from the beginning. We had a brief pause yesterday for about two hours as a result of some litigation, but it's just critically important that we continue counting every eligible vote cast by voters in Philadelphia," he said.
He added that observers from both the Republican and Democratic parties have been watching the count "the entire time".
President Trump's campaign filed a lawsuit to stop the count and demanded more scrutiny of the process, a suit the state's supreme court rejected on Thursday.
Philadelphia will have another vote count update in "the next hour or two," city commissioner says
Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt said that there will be a vote count update in “the next hour or two.”
“We have been counting for the past several hours. And I expect you'll see another update in the next hour or two,” he said, reports the CNN.
“The counting in Philadelphia has continued uninterrupted from the beginning. We had a brief pause yesterday for about two hours as a result of some litigation, but it's just critically important that we continue counting every eligible vote cast by voters in Philadelphia,” he said.
“We got about 360,000 total mail-in ballots in Philadelphia. We've counted about a little over 306,000 … and [are] at 50,000 some yet to report.”
The next update will not be the total 50,000 ballots, Schmidt said, adding that “it’s important that we all do this in the right way and that we report information until the official channels like we always do.”
Schmidt also said that election observers have been watching the vote count process “the entire time.”
“Observers from the Democratic Party and Republican Party, from the Biden campaign and the Trump campaign, have been in our counting area observing right up against where the process is taking place from the very beginning on election morning when we began this,” he said.
Trump needs Georgia votes to keep his hopes for a second term
Trump cannot afford to lose Georgia's 16 electoral votes if he is to keep alive his hopes of a second term.
The President cannot find a route to 270 electoral votes without Georgia and Pennsylvania, so his chances of securing reelection will hinge on developments in the two states, reports CNN
Biden takes the lead in Georgia
Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden is currently leading in the poll results in the state of Georgia.
Biden is ahead of Trump by 917 votes in Georgia, reports the CNN.
Decision Desk puts Biden ahead by a whisker with what it says is about 99% of estimated votes counted.
Biden is behind Trump by less than 500 votes in Georgia
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is just 463 away from Donald Trump in Georgia. He got 49.4% or 2,447,769 votes so far while Trump got 2,448,232 or 49.4% of the vote counted.
Georgia's Clayton County has just 3,500 of its 30,000 mail-in and provisional ballots left to count, the director of the county's board of elections, Shauna Dozier, told CNN.
Climate activist Thunberg hits back at Trump over anger management taunt
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg hit back at Donald Trump on Twitter late on Thursday saying the US president should "chill" about the election, a repost to his tweet last year mocking the teenager over what he called her anger management issues.
Commenting on Trump tweeting "STOP THE COUNT!" on Thursday, as the election race in the United States went to the wire, 17-year-old Thunberg tweeted:
Facebook, Twitter purge violent rhetoric as tensions rise over election
Facebook Inc removed on Thursday a fast-growing group in which supporters of US President Donald Trump posted violent rhetoric, as it and other companies tackled baseless claims and potential violence after a contentious election.
The "Stop the Steal" group, which called for "boots on the ground to protect the integrity of the vote," was adding 1,000 new members every 10 seconds and had grown to 365,000 members in a day.
Trump sons attack Republicans for 'weak' backing
President Donald Trump's two sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump have rebuked Republicans for failing to back the president as he struggles to win re-election.
Don Jr, President Trump's eldest son, accused the party of being "weak", while his brother Eric warned: "Our voters will never forget you if your [sic] sheep!" reports BBC.
The spat reflects an emerging rift between Trump disciples and the Republican party.
The election still hangs in the balance but Democratic White Whouse hopeful Joe Biden appears to be closing in on victory.
2 armed men arrested for plotting to attack Pennsylvania convention center
It's thought the plan was to possibly carry out an attack at the convention center where votes from the election are still being counted, reports Daily Mail.
Police have taken the duo into custody when a weapon was found.
US Postal Service says 1,700 ballots found in Pennsylvania facilities
The US Postal Service (USPS) said about 1,700 ballots had been identified in Pennsylvania at processing facilities during two sweeps Thursday and were in the process of being delivered to election officials.
In a court filing early Friday, USPS said about 1,070 ballots, had been found at the USPS Philadelphia Processing and Distribution Center. About 300 were found at the Pittsburgh processing center, 266 at a Lehigh Valley facility and others found at other Pennsylvania processing centers.
Ballots must be received by Friday evening in Pennsylvania in order to be counted. The vote for the US president remains extremely close and Pennsylvania is one of the states that remains undecided.
Who's leading in 5 key states
Judge denies Trump attempt to stop Pennsylvania count
It was reported earlier that Trump had launched legal action to stop vote counting in several battleground states where his narrow lead is shrinking rapidly.
A federal judge in Pennsylvania has refused the Trump campaign's request to have the counting stopped, reports BBC.
Judge Paul Diamond also addressed complaints by the Trump campaign that their observers had not been given equal access to the venue. He said both Republicans and Democrats were now allowed to send 60 representatives each to monitor the count.
"I don't understand entirely why this couldn't have been agreed to, absent judicial intervention," Diamond added.
We need to fight Trump vote count claims: Biden
Joe Biden in a series of tweets, has called for every vote to be counted - a rebuttal to Donald Trump's attempts to halt the counting of ballots in key states through legal action.
In his latest tweet, Biden said, "They have assembled the largest election protection effort in history to fight back,” reports BBC.
As votes continue to be counted, Trump's lead over Biden is rapidly shrinking in a number of battleground states, including Pennsylvania and Georgia.
Trump campaign files new federal lawsuit against Philadelphia election officials
The Trump campaign filed a new lawsuit Thursday afternoon against Philadelphia elections officials for allegedly violating their due process rights by blocking the observation of ballots in the city.
This complaint doesn't seem to include any details about how and why canvassing might have been blocked, reports CNN.
This case appears to be mirroring the case in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court from earlier today.
This is a new claim in federal court alleging violations of constitutional instead of state law. There is a 5:30 p.m. hearing scheduled.
Pelosi to House Democrats: "We did not win every battle, but we won the war"
On an ongoing caucus call, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is giving a positive assessment of the outcome of Tuesday's election, a Democratic source on the call tells CNN. This is despite House Democratic losses that likely mean she will hold a smaller majority in the new Congress.
"This was a big win," she told House Democrats, referring to Joe Biden nearing a White House win, keeping the House majority and likely gaining at least a seat in the Senate. reports CNN.
"We did not win every battle, but we won the war," Pelosi said, according to this source.
Pelosi said that they "recognised from the start [2020] would be a steeper climb" to hold some of their seats because House Democrats did so well in deep red districts in 2018 when Trump wasn't on the ballot.
Pelosi is also talking up the importance of the two possible Georgia Senate runoffs to take back the Senate majority.
Rep. Cheri Bustos, a who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, blamed bad polling for the outcome and for the bullish predictions headed into Election Day, according to two sources on the call.
"Voters looked more like 2016 than projected," Bustos told Democrats, one of the sources said.
Pelosi, giving an upbeat assessment, tells Democrats that "we have created a mandate for Biden to lead our country in a unified way."
The source said that Pelosi is using the word "mandate" repeatedly.
The call with her members comes amid Democratic hand-wringing about what went wrong Tuesday for their congressional candidates.
Trump campaign loses lawsuit seeking to halt Michigan vote count
A judge has tossed a lawsuit brought by US President Donald Trump’s campaign in hopes of halting vote-counting in Michigan.
Michigan Court of Claims Judge Cynthia Stephens made the ruling during a court hearing on Thursday. She said she planned to issue a written ruling on Friday.
Campaign officials for Trump have said they filed the Michigan lawsuit to stop the counting there and gain greater access to the tabulation process.
The lawsuit was a “messaging exercise,” said senior campaign advisor Bob Bauer for Democratic challenger and former US Vice President Joe Biden. “It has no other purpose than to confuse the public about what’s taking place and to support their baseless claims of irregularity,” Bauer said in the call with reporters.
Trump's lead in Pennsylvania shrinks as momentum favors Biden
US President Trump's lead in Pennsylvania has significantly gone down in the last 48 hours, with him leading by about 115,000 votes. At one point Trump led by more than 600,000 votes.
What's being counted now are mail-in ballots, which are disproportionately coming in for Joe Biden, King explained. The momentum is currently working in favor for Biden reports CNN.
The President cannot win reelection without the state's 20 electoral votes. "The math doesn't work," CNN's John King said.
In large population centers in the state like in Montgomery County, Biden is outperforming Trump with mail-in ballot counts and we're still waiting for results to come in from Philadelphia, which has 12% of the state's population, reports CNN.
"This is the biggest population center, the biggest basket, if you will, of available votes," King said. "They're still only reporting 83% of votes," he said.
In 2016 Hillary Clinton won 584,000 votes in Philadelphia County. Currently Biden is just 100,000 votes shy of that with votes still to be counted, reports CNN.
"The expectation is that turnout will be up, so it is not unreasonable to think Joe Biden's going to get really close or maybe even higher than that Hillary Clinton total, which is a game-changing event," King said.
King added that the votes are there for Biden.
"Joe Biden is on the trajectory, if he keeps getting those mail-in ballots, the percentages he's been getting over the last 24 hours, the math is certainly within possibility," he said.
Trump campaign announces Nevada suit, refuses to offer evidence
The Trump campaign said Thursday that it is filing a lawsuit in federal court in Nevada on Thursday, asking the judge to stop counting ballots due to "thousands" of illegal ballots.
Richard Grenell, former acting director of National Intelligence, addressed reporters at a press conference, claiming that the campaign was not being allowed to observe the process, reports NBC.
"Ballots are not automatically legal votes until they are checked and we are not being allowed to check," Grenell said.
It is election officials, not campaigns, that verify voters' ballots.
Both Republican and Democratic poll watchers are observing ballot counting in Nevada, reports NBC.
Georgia judge dismisses Trump campaign lawsuit
A judge in Georgia has dismissed a lawsuit by the state Republican Party and President Donald Trump’s campaign that asked him to ensure a coastal county was following state laws on processing absentee ballots.
Chatham County Superior Court Judge James Bass did not provide an explanation for his decision Thursday at the close of a roughly one-hour hearing. The county includes the heavily Democratic city of Savannah, reports AP.
The suit had raised concerns about 53 absentee ballots that poll observers said were not part of an original batch of ballots.
County elections officials testified that all 53 ballots had been received on time, reports AP.
Biden's lead in Nevada widens
Nevada has reported another round of votes, showing Biden's lead widening from 7,647 votes to 12,042.
Biden's lead has more than doubled in the state since Wednesday, when he held a lead of roughy 5,000 votes, reports CBS.
Trump campaign observers can stand closer while watching ballot processing in Philadelphia, court rules
A Pennsylvania court ruled that Trump campaign observers could stand closer to watch ballot processing in Philadelphia—a relatively inconsequential ruling that Trump campaign associates quickly touted as being a massive win.
Votes that could decide the state are still being counted there, reports CNN.
No court has found wrongdoing in the ballot-counting process in Philadelphia.
“It allows their observers to stand a little closer, but it is not an order that will have any impact on the outcome of the election,” law professor and CNN elections analyst Franita Tolson said Thursday, noting that the decision was “not massive at all.”
Trump says will sue all states claimed by Biden
US President Donald Trump has said that he will file lawsuit against all states where Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden has won.
Trump tweeted on Thrusday about his intentions to sue the states.
"All of the recent Biden claimed States will be legally challenged by us for Voter Fraud and State Election Fraud. Plenty of proof - just check out the Media. WE WILL WIN! America First!" Trump tweeted.
President Donald Trump's campaign filed lawsuits on Wednesday in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia. On Thrusday, the Trump campaign said it is planning to sue Nevada.
Trump campaign remains optimistic about holding Pennsylvania lead
Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien continued to project confidence in the President's path to winning Pennsylvania and securing 270 electoral votes on a Thursday morning campaign strategy call with reporters - even as Donald Trump's lead in the commonwealth continues to shrink.
Saying that he is basing his statements on “numbers and data not gut or spin,” Stepien criticized “the media and the insiders in this city” who have been “trying to count Donald Trump out for years,” from his primary to his impeachment, reports the CNN.
“Donald Trump is alive and well,” Stepien said.
Stepien noted that Trump is “cutting into the Democrats’ lead” in Arizona and the race “is getting closer and closer.” He said that Trump is “still leading” in Georgia and North Carolina, and continued to suggest Trump will win Pennsylvania.
“We still have confidence in Pennsylvania. Our data tells us that we are winning by more than 200,000 votes,” Stepien said, suggesting that votes will come from both Philadelphia and “Trump counties.”
He added, “We will win Pennsylvania.”
Biden campaign will speak at 11 am ET
Joe Biden's campaign announced it will be holding a livestreamed press conference at 11 am ET.
Campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon and senior adviser Bob Bauer will provide an update on the state of the race, as votes continue to be counted, reports the CNN.
Georgia election official says accuracy is the "bedrock" of the vote count
Georgia officials held a press conference to give an update on votes counted so far.
There is currently a razor-thin margin between the candidates in the state, and with 16 electoral college votes, a win in the state would be a huge prize for either candidate, reports the CNN.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said the state had about 90,000 ballots to go by last night, but by this morning there were just around 25,000 ballots left to be counted.
Speaking to WSB-TV in Atlanta, Raffensperger said: “We should be done no later than noon-time today.” That's 17:00 GMT.
Fulton County, home of Atlanta, is expected to conclude counting in the next hour, he said.
Biden is behind by about 18,000 votes in Georgia, according to the latest estimates. If Biden wins Georgia, Trump's chance of winning re-election plunges significantly.
“Fast is great, and we appreciate fast. We more appreciate accuracy. Accuracy is going to be the bedrock upon which people will believe the outcomes of these elections, be it on the winning or losing side, so accuracy is vital and it's the key to all of our processes,” said Gabriel Sterling, an election official for Georgia.
He also noted this is the first time Georgia has used paper ballots in 20 years.
“We told people they could expect some results on election night, we got a lot out there,” Sterling said.
Trump wants vote counting stopped while former top adviser pleads patience
US President Donald Trump offered a three-word, all-caps message in his first tweet of the day on Thursday.
It’s unclear whether Trump’s missive was directed at a particular state or states, since his campaign has also advocated for counting every ballot in places where Joe Biden is ahead., reports the CNN.
If the count were to be halted as it currently stands, Biden would win in Arizona and Nevada, putting him over the top with the electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency.
Minutes before Trump’s morning tweet, a top former aide, Kellyanne Conway, was on Fox News, where she urged patience and a full count.
“They spent three years investigating the President, impeaching the President. We can't wait three hours, three days, three weeks to get a result in our great sturdy democracy as to whom the next President will be? I mean, what is the rush, all of a sudden? I think the rush is, there was no blue wave. There was no early night. There was no Democratic Progressive realignment,” she said during an appearance on Fox News from Trump campaign headquarters in Virginia.
She continued, “Why are we in such a rush to finish this election prematurely? Let's be patient. Let's take a deep breath. Let's count every legal vote. I think it's a time to be methodical and not emotional.”
Trump, however, repeatedly called to have final election results on election night, saying as recently as Tuesday afternoon that Americans “should be entitled to know who won on November 3.”
Razor thin margins separate Biden and Trump in the un-called states
The race for the White House is still too close to call.
As votes continue to come in, former Vice President Joe Biden has edged closer to the 270-electoral-vote threshold needed to win the presidency, but razor-thin margins separate him from Donald Trump in key battleground states, reports the CNN.
Biden: "Every vote must be counted"
As several battleground states continue to count votes and the margins remain razor-thin, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden tweeted Thursday morning: “Every vote must be counted."
The tweet included a short video showing people who, presumably, voted, reports the CNN.
New Mexico elect all women of colour to US House
New Mexico has become the first state in history to elect all women of colour to the US House of Representatives, reports the BBC.
The group of three includes Representative Deb Haaland, a Democrat who in 2018 became one of the first Native American women elected to Congress. She thanked those who elected her in a tweet.
Republican Yvette Herrell, who is also Native American (of the Cherokee nation), and Democrat Teresa Leger Fernandez, who is Hispanic, were the other two women voted in.
Pennsylvania senator says Philadelphia ballots could push Biden to win the state
Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey said he is confident Joe Biden will win the state, and that ballots still being counted from Philadelphia alone may decide it for the former vice president.
Biden will “be able to overtake [Trump], especially when we get a much higher Philadelphia number,” Casey said, reports the CNN.
“We've only seen with Philadelphia about maybe 70 or so percent of the vote counted. A lot's going to come in this morning. And when that comes in, that alone, just in Philadelphia, might be enough to have the margin go in Joe Biden's direction.”
Casey said he predicts counties surrounding Philadelphia, including Montgomery, Bucks and Delaware, will also push Biden to a win.
The state as a whole has about 750,000 mail-in ballots to be counted, according to the secretary of state’s website, though this figure has not been updated recently.
Casey said that Biden could overtake former President Obama’s numbers from the city.
“President Obama almost won Philadelphia by 500,000. Because the turnout is so much higher, Joe Biden might get to that, but he doesn’t necessarily have to,” he said.
Casey also said that he spoke with Biden after midnight on Wednesday morning and the former vice president was “very upbeat.”
Covid cases linked to New York voting site
At least 10 people who worked at a polling station on a university campus in Southampton in Long Island, New York, have been infected with coronavirus, local reports say.
It happened at an early voting site and forced dozens to self-isolate, reports the BBC.
Those infected people include six poll workers who were helping out at Stony Brook University’s campus.
On Wednesday, 18 states reported record numbers of patients who have been hospitalised with Covid-19, CBS says.
As our chart below shows, the number of daily cases registered in the country went above 100,000 cases for the first time on Wednesday.
Trump's lead in Georgia narrows further as the largest county reports thousands more ballots
President Trump’s lead in Georgia has narrowed over the past few hours, and that just happened again. That’s due to another batch of votes that just came in from Fulton County — the largest county in the state.
Fulton County reported the results of more than 8,000 additional ballots. Trump’s lead in the state narrowed from more than 30,000 at midnight to just more than 18,500, reports the CNN.
Overnight, Fulton had about 20,000 absentee ballots to be counted. The county just reported the results of 8,351 of those, with Biden getting 6,410 of those votes and Trump getting 1,941 of them.
County election workers have been processing and counting those votes all night and continue now. 4% of the vote in Georgia still remains to be counted.
Biden's lead narrows in Arizona
The latest voting data from Arizona has shown Democrat Joe Biden’s lead there narrowing.
Maricopa County - the state’s most populous county - released the results from 140,000 more ballots on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, reports the BBC.
The updated vote totals show Biden leading Donald Trump in Maricopa County by 74,514 votes, almost 11,000 fewer than the previous update.
State-wide, Biden currently has a lead of about 68,000.
In the two new batches of results released by Maricopa County, Trump's share of the vote was about 57%.
But how significant is this to the wider state picture?
In order to win, Trump would have to receive the same proportion of votes that remain to be counted in other parts of Arizona, including in areas that tend to vote for the Democratic party, the New York Times reports.
As we reported earlier, a crowd of some 200 Republican supporters descended on the Maricopa County Recorder's Office as staff were counting ballots overnight.
The protesters were responding to baseless claims on social media that votes likely to be for Donald Trump would not be counted.
Nevada voting system ‘pretty impenetrable’ to legal challenges, says state attorney general
The result in Nevada is still on a knife-edge as vote counting there continues.
Trump campaign has filed legal action in several states, alleging irregularities, reports the BBC.
But Nevada’s Attorney General Aaron Ford says the state is not concerned about any cases that might come its way, sayingits voting system is “pretty impenetrable when it comes to a legal challenge against us”.
Speaking to the BBC on Wednesday, Ford said all the evidence showed that the state had conducted a “free, safe and secure election”.
“We knew the process would take some time but the process is working,” the Democrat said.
“It’s taking time because we have safeguards in place to prevent fraud, such as signature verification, unique barcodes and other tools.”
He also explained how vote counting works when it comes to postal ballots.
“These ballots are mailed back to the local county registrars and they go through a signature verification process and they go through a tallying process that are observed by a bipartisan group of individuals called poll observers,” he said.
“At every level and every step here, there are verification processes at play that can protect the integrity of our elections.”
On the eve of election day, a Nevada judge rejected a Republican lawsuit that sought to halt early vote counting in the Las Vegas area, over procedures for poll observation and mail-in ballot processing.
Election ‘tarnished’ by fraud claims - international observers
An international observer mission said that the US elections were “tarnished by legal uncertainty and unprecedented attempts to undermine public trust”.
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said the vote itself was “competitive and well managed” despite the challenges presented by Covid-19, reports the CNN.
But, it said, “at the same time, the campaign was characterised by deeply entrenched political polarisation that often obscured the broader policy debate and included baseless allegations of systematic fraud”.
In a statement on its preliminary findings, the OSCE mission said “baseless allegations of systematic deficiencies, notably by the incumbent president, including on election night, harm public trust in democratic institutions”.
Before Tuesday's vote, there were hundreds of lawsuits regarding postal and early voting. They centred on a range of issues such as the deadline for posting and receiving ballots and the witness signatures required.
Republican-run states said restrictions were necessary to clamp down on voter fraud, while Democrats said these were attempts to keep people from exercising their civic rights.
In his speech on election night, Donald Trump called the vote "a fraud on the American public".
The Trump campaign now wants to stop the count in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia and Michigan, claiming - without evidence - that there is voter fraud.
About 10,000 absentee ballots left to count in Georgia's Fulton County
Georgia’s largest county has about 10,000 absentee ballots left to count, Fulton County elections director Richard Barron said early Thursday morning.
The county has decided to continue counting through the night and has been tabulating votes at a rate of about 3,000 per hour, reports the CNN.
Fulton County is home to Atlanta and Democratic stronghold.
The county has tabulated all in-person votes and is now counting only absentee votes. The only remaining votes would be provisional and overseas military ballots.
Arizona dismisses 'sharpiegate' claims
Officials in the battleground state of Arizona have rebutted claims that ballot papers marked with sharpies [permanent markers] have been disqualified, BBC reports.
In a post on Twitter the state's top election official, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, said using a sharpie would not invalidate ballots.
Some posts on social media contained claims that Republican voters in Arizona were given sharpies in a bid to make their ballots unreadable.
"The poll workers were taking the pens from voters and making them use Sharpies. Sharpies bleed through. All of the votes marked with Sharpies couldn't be read," one Facebook post read.
Democrats said the claims - dubbed "sharpiegate" - were part of a misinformation campaign to undermine Joe Biden's lead. With 85% of the vote counted in Arizona, Biden was ahead by more than 79,000 votes. Republicans have won every presidential race there since 1952, except for one Democratic interlude in 1996.
Biden's lead narrows in Arizona
The biggest county in Arizona has just released the second of two sets of new votes promised Wednesday night – shrinking Joe Biden's lead there by just over 10,000 vote, CNN reports.
Updated vote totals released by Maricopa County after 2:30 a.m. Thursday show Biden with 912,585 votes and Trump with 838,071.
Previously, Maricopa, the state's most populous county, was reporting 887,457 votes for Biden and 802,160 for Trump.
The release came as Maricopa County officials were forced to close the Phoenix election office building to the public due to growing pro-Trump protests outside.
Trump supporters protest outside Arizona vote center
A crowd of Donald Trump supporters, some armed with rifles and handguns, gathered outside an election center in Arizona on Wednesday night after unsubstantiated rumors that votes for the Republican president were deliberately not being counted, Reuters reported.
Chanting “Stop the steal!”, and “Count my vote”, the mostly unmasked protesters stood in front of the Maricopa County Elections Department in Phoenix, as Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden held a razor thin lead in the critical battleground state. Some news outlets have called Arizona for Biden, but Trump’s campaign says it is still in play.
A victory for Biden in Arizona would give the Democrat 11 electoral votes, a major boost in his bid to win the White House, while severely narrowing Trump’s path to re-election, in a state the Republican won in 2016.
On Election night Fox News and the Associated Press called Arizona for Biden, even though only just over 70% of the vote had been counted, a move that infuriated Trump and his aides.
Protesters out as poll count tensions rise
Protests have sprung up in some cities amid rising tensions over the knife-edge counts in battleground states, BBC reports.
In Portland, Oregon, the national guard were activated after an anti-Trump protest calling for every vote to be counted turned violent. Witnesses said some people broke away from the main group and broke shop windows in the city centre. Police called the incidents a riot.
Meanwhile in Minneapolis, police made arrests after about 200 demonstrators blocked a main road. US media said the group had been protesting against Donald Trump and his call to stop the counting of votes.
Similar protests were also reported in New York, Philadelphia and Chicago.
In Detroit, pro-Trump supporters gathered outside a vote-counting centre, banging on windows and shouting: “Stop the count.” A small anti-count protest was also reported in Phoenix, Arizona.
Trump's lead shrinks in Georgia
President Trump has seen his lead shrink in Georgia to just 28,827 votes, with 95% of the vote now in, CBS News reports.
At 12:30 a.m. on Thursday, Trump had 2,427,542 votes to Joe Biden's 2,398,715 votes. They're separated by a razor-thin margin of 0.6%.
Earlier on Wednesday night as counting continues in numerous counties throughout the state, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that as of 10:15 p.m., there were approximately 90,735 ballots still outstanding.
Heavily Democratic Fulton County, which has currently reported 94% of its vote, said it expected to finish its counting at some point after midnight. Georgia has so far reported 95% of its vote.
Trump's spiritual adviser in passionate prayer for his re-election
Donald Trump's spiritual adviser Paula White-Cain has led a fervent prayer service beseeching God to support the president's re-election efforts, BBC reports.
In particular, she takes aim at the "demonic confederacies that are attempting to steal the election from Trump".
The clips have spread widely on social media - perhaps fuelled by the millions of people waiting to hear more news from states where the vote count still goes on.
States under watch
Pennsylvania, where Trump leads Biden by 164,000 votes, with uncounted ballots remaining in Democrat-leaning Philadelphia county.
Georgia, where Trump is leading by about 28,000 voters – with counting ongoing.
Arizona, where Biden is leading by 79,000 votes - but Trump has been narrowing the gap.
Over 20 arrested in New York City
In New York City, skirmishes broke out between police and protesters in Greenwich Village, ABC News reported.
The NYPD said more than 20 people were arrested in the violence.
"We appreciate and value the importance of freedom of speech. Our top priority is and always will be safety," the department said in a tweet. "We have arrested more than 20 individuals who attempted to hijack a peaceful protest by lighting fires, throwing garbage and eggs in Manhattan."
Trump's lead narrows in Pennsylvania
Donald Trump's lead in the battleground state of Pennsylvania is narrowing, latest figures show, BBC reports.
With 90% of the ballots counted at 23:30 EST (04:30 GMT Thursday) Trump was ahead of Joe Biden by 164,414 votes. On late Wednesday afternoon Trump held a lead of 379,639 votes over Biden.
Outstanding ballots seem likely to favour Biden, the BBC's US partner CBS reports. They are postal votes and of the 3.1 million postal ballot requests made in Pennsylvania, 63% were from Democrats.
With 20 electoral college votes, Pennsylvania is a key election prize. The state voted Democrat in six consecutive races before it swung to Trump in 2016.
What are the paths to victory for Trump and Biden?
According to Guardian, paths to victory remain in the US presidential race for both Donald Trump and Joe Biden, but Biden has more ways to win and appears to be running stronger state to state, based on the places – cities, mainly – where large absentee votes have yet to be counted.
Biden leads the electoral college vote tally 264-214 after he was declared the winner in Michigan and Wisconsin on Wednesday and Trump gained one vote in Maine. Adding Alaska for Trump – which had not been called but where the result is not in doubt – gives the president 217.
From there, four states remained to be called as Wednesday evening approached in the US: Nevada, North Carolina, Georgia, and Pennsylvania.
Trump’s paths
For Trump to find the 53 electoral votes he needs, he would need to win Pennsylvania, plus all three other states.
But a huge Democratic vote share remained to be tallied in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, meaning Trump could have difficulty hanging on to a narrow lead gained elsewhere in the state.
Biden’s paths
Biden has more paths to find his remaining six electoral votes. One path lies through Pennsylvania, which would net 20 votes.
Without Pennsylvania, Biden could win by winning Nevada, where he held a clear but narrow lead. A Biden victory in either of the two reddest states in the mix – Georgia or North Carolina – would almost certainly foretell wins elsewhere and a Biden victory.
Riot declared in Portland protests, 8 arrested
Protests over the election turned violent in multiple cities across the country Wednesday night, ABC News reported.
In Portland, Oregon, a riot was declared and the National Guard was activated due to violence downtown. At least eight people have been arrested, according to the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office.
Republicans retain grip on Senate majority
The presidency is still a toss-up, but most House and Senate races are settled - leaving much unchanged. Whichever candidate wins, it looks as though he will preside over a divided Congress, BBC reports.
The Democrats were hoping to gain control of the Senate by wresting at least four seats from the Republicans. But it appears they have only managed a net gain of one.
Among the disappointments for the Democrats was the fight for a seat in Maine, where Republican incumbent Susan Collins staved off a challenge from Democrat Sara Gideon. Collins, a moderate, had appeared under threat because Donald Trump is deeply unpopular in the state.
And the House of Representatives, too, seems mostly unchanged. Democrats are poised to keep their majority here, though at least six incumbents have lost their seats, without any new Republican seats.
Biden launches transition website
When a candidate wins the presidency, he or she needs to set up what's called a transition team to help prepare to take office in the following January.
As we know, there's no winner in this election yet, but both candidates say they're expecting to be victorious. Both want to set a narrative that the direction of the race favours them.
Now Joe Biden has launched his transition website - Build Back Better, BBC reports.
It states: "The crises facing the country are severe - from a pandemic to an economic recession, climate change to racial injustice - and the transition team will continue preparing at full speed so that the Biden‑Harris Administration can hit the ground running on Day One."
On Wednesday, Biden reaffirmed his pledge to re-join the Paris Climate Agreement on the first day of his presidency.
The US officially withdrew from the accord on Wednesday, something that Donald Trump committed to in 2016.
Trump adviser says "Georgia is a big deal"
A Trump adviser said the obsession for the campaign right now is still Georgia, CNN reports.
"Georgia is a big deal," the adviser said.
Accordin to him, officials inside the campaign believe they will claw back enough votes in the late returns in Arizona to capture the state by a narrow margin.
"We get AZ," the adviser said.
But the adviser acknowledged there is no room for error for the President. With Georgia teetering, Arizona is a must win for Trump.
A separate GOP source close to the campaign said resignation is building inside Trump's team that the election is slipping away. But they're not ready to accept defeat just yet, the source said.
Here are the Pennsylvania areas where counting is still underway
On Wednesday morning after Election Day, President Trump led in Pennsylvania with over 600,000 votes. As of 8 pm ET, his lead has shrunk and he is ahead with less than 200,000 votes. There are still a lot of votes to be counted and there is reason to believe it will help Joe Biden narrow that gap, CNN’s John King said.
Here’s a snapshot of where these remaining votes are coming from:
Philadelphia is currently reporting about 70% of its votes. Currently, Biden is leading in this area with about 79%. In 2016, Hillary Clinton had won the city with over 82% of votes. With this election seeing a higher turnout, “we have every reason to believe [the number of votes for Joe Biden] is going to go up and go up substantially, which again, helps Joe Biden narrow that gap,” King explained.
Montgomery County is reporting about 92% of its votes, with Biden winning nearly 62% of those. With more mail-in ballots being counted, Biden is winning these votes, King added.
Chester County, that is relatively more conservative than Montgomery County and the city of Philadelphia, is also seeing Biden up by 13 -14 points and he could be expected to rack up some more.
In Luzerne County, Trump is leading with 57% of the counted votes. This is where it is possible for the President to pick up some votes, King said, adding that on the other hand, the outstanding votes here could be mail-in votes that have trend towards Biden so far.
Allegheny County, which is home to Pittsburgh, is seeing 89% of its votes reported. With about 11% of the vote still to be counted, Biden is ahead with 58% of the reported votes in his favor.
With Biden closing in on 270 electoral votes, Pennsylvania is a crucial state for Trump to win to stay in the race and keep his path to victory open.
Final results in North Carolina not expected until next week
In a nearly hour-long press conference this afternoon, North Carolina State Board of Elections Director Karen Brinson Bell told reporters that, with very few exceptions, North Carolina's election result tallies will not change before November 12 or 13. These are the dates that most county boards of elections have selected to hold meetings, where absentee by mail ballots will be reviewed before being tabulated, CBS News reports.
Additionally, there are approximately 117,000 absentee mail ballots that were requested by voters, from whom the state board has not received a ballot for just yet. Voters had until Tuesday at 5 p.m. to get their absentee mail ballots postmarked in order to still be counted. Bell said her team will be looking out for those 117,000 absentee ballot requests in the next 8 days and will need to check these ballots to make sure they're appropriately postmarked. They will also be matching these ballots up with voter history information.
Information is still being collected on the number of provisional ballots cast and the state board has sent the county boards surveys for them to complete so that the NCSBE can get a better sense on where the provisional ballots are in the state. Bell said her office will have a report on the provisional ballots by noon Thursday at the latest. Counties will meet to consider provisional ballots on November 13.
Bell said that when the state uploaded its last set of unofficial election night results at 12:28am, nearly 5.5 million ballots had been cast—977,000 absentee by mail ballots, 3.6 million ballots cast during one-stop early voting, and approximately 900,000 ballots cast on Election Day.
Pennsylvania will "oppose every effort" to shut down the vote: State Official
Philadelphia’s ballot counting process is an open and transparent one, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said during a news conference Wednesday evening when asked about the Trump campaign lawsuit to stop the state’s counting of ballots, CNN reports.
Philadelphia has been streaming ballot processing from the pre-canvassing period, he said.
“I think it's being live streamed on their website, so I guess you can get it, anybody can get it anywhere in the world, so I'm not sure how that equals a lack of transparency. It seems to me it’s never been more transparent than it is right now," the governor said
Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said she couldn’t speak to ongoing litigation, but the state will “oppose every effort to at any point shut down the vote.”
Tensions running high in Nevada
A lot of attention is on the state of Nevada right now where the race is extremely tight, BBC reports.
At a news conference in Clark County - which includes the biggest city in the state, Las Vegas - a protester jumped in front of cameras, yelling: “The Biden crime family is stealing this election! The media is covering it up!”.
State officials have said no more results would come on Wednesday, but the counts would be posted on Thursday at 09:00 (17:00 GMT).
The battleground state has voted Democrat in recent years, but supported Republican George W Bush in 2000 and 2004.
Pelosi says the people have spoken
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in a Dear Colleague letter Wednesday, said it's clear the people have spoken and she declared Joe Biden as the next president. CBS News reported
"The American people have made their choice clear and are sending Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House," the letter said.
But House Democrats are sure to be doing some soul-searching, after losing seats in the House. It's also seeming more likely that Republicans will hold the Senate, halting any Democratic legislative agenda.
"Our Democratic House Majority, working in partnership with the Democratic White House, will now have the opportunity to deliver extraordinary progress. Together, we will continue to deliver on our successful For The People agenda: lower health care costs, bigger paychecks by building green infrastructure and cleaner government," Pelosi wrote.
Thousands of votes are still being counted and neither candidate has yet won the race.
Biden flips Michigan back to Democrats
Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump in Michigan, adding its 16 electoral votes to his general election tally four years after Trump painted it red in a narrow, shocking victory.
Michigan's large population of white and blue-collar voters helped Trump narrowly defeat Hillary Clinton in 2016, by 11,000 votes, but Biden's higher popularity made the state a heavier lift for Trump in 2020. Biden led in nearly every poll taken of Michigan since he won the Democratic primary there earlier this year, though his final results lagged behind his polling results.
Biden also poured in tens of millions of dollars in advertising, heavily outspending Trump. The Democratic nominee visited the state on Oct. 2, after spending much of the summer in quarantine to avoid the coronavirus, and returned again just before the election to appear alongside former President Barack Obama. Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, also stopped in the state on Oct. 25, when she spent much of her time boosting Sen. Gary Peters’ (D-Mich.) reelection bid.
The state was a top destination for both campaigns: Trump also visited Michigan in September and October, holding a two-hour rally just weeks after testing positive for Covid-19. Vice President Mike Pence, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. also made speeches in the state last month. But Trump dialed back his ad spending in Michigan in July and didn't return to the airwaves until late October.
This is where the race to 270 stands at 9 pm ET
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden leads the race for the White House with 253 electoral votes. President Trump has 213 electoral votes.
With approximately 40,000 votes between Trump and Biden in Georgia, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Wednesday night that there are still more than 122,000 uncounted ballots in the state.
Based on these projections, this is where the race to 270 currently stands.
Arizona 'won't report final results today'
Some news just in on the count in Arizona. Megan Gilbertson, with Maricopa County elections department, says final results are not expected for the state today. They’re still counting, BBC reported.
Currently we're looking at around 83% of votes tallied, giving Biden a 51-48% lead in the race for the state's 11 electoral college votes. That's a significant lead, and some US media have already projected it as a Biden win.
Trump campaign files lawsuit in attempt to halt vote in Georgia
The Trump campaign has filed a lawsuit in a third state, Georgia, in an attempt to halt vote counting. The president's campaign has also filed lawsuits to halt ballot counting in Pennsylvania and Michigan, CBS News reported.
CBS News projected Joe Biden won Michigan earlier Wednesday, taking the "blue wall" state back for Democrats after it voted for Mr. Trump in 2016. Pennsylvania and Georgia are left standing as toss-ups, according to CBS presidential results, joined only by North Carolina.
Like its previous lawsuits, the Trump campaign has claimed that absentee ballots received after Election Day should not be counted. In August, however, a federal judge ruled that Georgia mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day can be accepted up to three days after polls close.
"President Trump and the Georgia Republican Party have filed suit to require all Georgia counties to separate any and all late-arriving ballots from all legally cast ballots to ensure a free, fair election in which only legal, valid ballots count," said Justin Clark, Mr. Trump's deputy campaign manager and senior counsel, in a statement.
Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger said that as of 4 p.m. ET Wednesday, there were roughly 200,000 votes left to be counted, and counting could take place into Thursday morning.
"We're on pace to accomplish that responsibly, ensuring that the vote of every eligible voter is heard," he said in a statement. "It's important to act quickly, but it's more important to get it right."
Georgia secretary of state says 200K ballots still need to be counted
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that as of 4 p.m. ET Wednesday, there were roughly 200,000 votes left to be counted. CBS News has estimated Georgia is a toss-up, CBS News reported.
Raffensperger said the state expected vote counting would take place into Wednesday night and even Thursday morning.
"We're on pace to accomplish that responsibly, ensuring that the vote of every eligible voter is heard," he said in a statement. "It's important to act quickly, but it's more important to get it right."
In addition to Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania remain toss-ups, with elections officials continuing to count ballots in each of those states, too.
Michigan official calls Trump's lawsuit 'frivolous'
The top election official in Michigan has criticised a legal challenge launched by the Trump campaign to stop vote counting in the battleground state, calling it "frivolous", BBC reports.
All valid ballots cast in the state had been tabulated accurately, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said.
Mr Trump won the state in 2016 by just over 10,700 votes.
His campaign announced the lawsuit on Wednesday alleging irregularities. Trump is also challenging counts in Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania.
Biden breaks Obama record for most votes
Former Vice President Joe Biden broke the record for the most number of votes cast for any presidential candidate in history by early Wednesday afternoon, Politico reported.
The Democratic presidential nominee surpassed 70,330,000 votes as of 2:38 p.m., according to The Associated Press. Biden's total shatters a previous record for the most votes cast for a president set by Democrat Barack Obama in 2008, with nearly 69,500,000 votes, according to the Federal Election Commission.
Votes for Biden represented 50.19 percent of the total number of votes counted so far, with many more expected.
At the same time, total votes for President Donald Trump were 67,538,973, while votes for others reached 2,268,633. Trump and Biden remained locked in close competition to win the Electoral College, with Biden netting 253 votes to Trump's 214 around 3:15 p.m. A total of 270 are needed to win the presidency.
Trump campaign sues to stop ballot count in Michigan
The campaign of President Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit in Michigan to stop the counting of ballots in the presidential election.
“We have filed suit today in the Michigan Court of Claims to halt counting until meaningful access has been granted. We also demand to review those ballots which were opened and counted while we did not have meaningful access,” the campaign said in a statement.
There is no clear presidential winner in the swing state, which has 16 electoral votes, according to Edison Research. Republican Trump’s opponent, Democrat Joe Biden, has a razor-thin margin in Michigan, where 92% of the expected vote is in.
Trump’s campaign is also demanding a recount in Wisconsin, another state where he is neck and neck with Biden.
Biden takes Wisconsin
CNN has called Wisconsin and its 10 electoral college votes go to Joe Biden.
It is the second state to be flipped from Republican to Democrats, a state Hilary Clinton lost in 2016, reports The Guardian.
Trump's campaign has already announced to ask for a recount in Wisconsin.