US 2020 Election Update – Live Page

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All eyes on the 4 key states

In Pennsylvania, Biden has now gained an edge over Trump by 5,587 votes. 95% of the state’s precincts have reported results. Analysts believe the remaining mail ballots to be counted could favour Biden – and if Biden wins the state, he gets the 270 votes needed to win the presidency.

Biden has also taken the lead in Georgia with 99% of votes counted. There are approximately 8,197 ballots outstanding, as well as military and overseas ballots.

Biden has a slender lead in Nevada, with 89% of votes counted. Election officials say that, as of Thursday evening, they still have about 190,000 ballots outstanding.

In Arizona, Biden leads by 1.6%, with 90% of votes counted. As of Thursday night, there were approximately 300,000 ballots outstanding.

Vote counting is still ongoing in North Carolina, where Trump leads by 1.4%, with 95% of expected votes counted, and Alaska, where Trump has 62.9% of the vote with 56% of votes counted. But if Biden wins either Pennsylvania, or Georgia, Nevada and Arizona, he would win the presidency.

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Biden pulls ahead in Pennsylvania

Update from election officials 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

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Thursday 5th November

Trump first Republican since 1948 to lose Virginia city

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No, Wisconsin did not have more ballots than registered voters

Christopher Giles said:

“False claims of more votes in Wisconsin than registered voters have been spreading online in the wake of Tuesday’s election.

One tweet claimed: “BREAKING: Wisconsin has more votes than people who are registered to vote. Total number of registered voters: 3,129,000. Total number of votes cast: 3,239,920. This is direct evidence of fraud.”

However, this number of registered voters is outdated – the latest figure as of 1 November is 3,684,726.

That tweet has now been deleted, but people on Facebook and Twitter continue to share a screenshot of the post.

Voter turnout for Wisconsin was significantly higher in this election than in previous years.

The state also allows people to register to vote on election day itself, so the overall number of registered voters could be higher than the current reported figure.”

BBC fact-checked other claims about the vote count here.

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Greta mocks Trump

Do you remember when Donald Trump mocked Greta Thunberg and told her to work on her anger management and go watch a good old fashioned movie with a friend? Greta FINALLY got her own back on the president.

So ridiculous. Donald must work on his Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Donald, Chill! https://t.co/4RNVBqRYBA

— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) November 5, 2020

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Nancy Pelosi talks!

“Though it was a challenging election, all of our candidates made us proud, but especially those in tough races,” Pelosi said, according to a source on a call.

“We held the House. Joe Biden is on a clear path to be the next president of the United States,” Pelosi said.

“This has been a life or death fight for their very fate of our democracy,” Pelosi said. “We did not win every battle but we did win the war.”

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Joe Biden is in Wilmington, Delaware, today, as his campaign projects confidence about the direction of the vote count.

According to a report, Biden and Kamala Harris, received a briefing on the coronavirus pandemic and the state of the US economy today.

A Biden official said, “These are the regular public health and economic briefings the vice president has received since March.”

The Democratic nominee has not declared victory in the presidential race, but he is clearly looking ahead to his potential presidency, having already launched his transition website.

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Joe Gloria said he is hopeful “the bulk” of the remaining ballots will be processed by Saturday or Sunday.

Gloria said the county still needs to process 63,262 ballots, which are expected to lean toward  Biden.

Asked about the president’s baseless accusations of fraud in Nevada, Gloria said, “We are not aware of any improper ballots that are being processed.”

The AP has not yet declared a winner in Nevada, but Jon Ralston, the widely respected editor of the Nevada Independent, says he does not see a path to victory for Donald Trump in the state.

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Judge dismisses Trump’s campaign lawsuit

A Michigan judge has dismissed the Trump campaign’s lawsuit demanding “meaningful access” to vote-counting sites.

The decision comes one day after the AP declared Joe Biden to be the winner in Michigan and its 16 electoral votes.

The Biden campaign has dismissed the lawsuits as “meritless” attempts to distract from the Democratic nominee’s victories in key states.

Bob Bauer, a Biden campaign attorney, said of the lawsuits earlier today, “It is to create an opportunity for them to message falsely about what’s taking place in the electoral process.”

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Penn decided tonight

Pennsylvania could be decided tonight, secretary of state says.

There are still 550,000 ballots left to be processed, but officials are ahead of schedule and most will be counted by this evening, Boockvar said.

The key is Philadelphia, where there’s about 100,000 outstanding ballots and where Joe Biden is winning a whopping 80% of votes.

Reminder: as things stand, Trump cannot win without Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral college seats. His lead has shrunk from 618,000 on Wednesday morning to 111,000 right now.

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Trump 2024

Mick Mulvaney, Donald Trump’s former acting chief of staff said he expects the president to run again in 2024 if he loses to Joe Biden.

“I would absolutely expect the president to stay involved in politics and would absolutely put him on the shortlist of people who are likely to run in 2024,” Mulvaney said during a webinar hosted by an Irish think tank.

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Why the media is reporting different figures

“The Guardian uses the data collected and analysed by the Associated Press (AP) news agency as the source for when we will call election results. There are a number of other highly reputable election decision desks in US media, including NBC, Fox News and others. They may call races earlier or later than AP. US networks obviously use the decisions from their own desks – other channels may chose to follow one, or wait for two desks to call a state before they count it.”

Read more on The Guardian 

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It’s not just about the presidential, Senate and House races. A lot of states were asking residents to vote on iter issues – one being abortion. 

Kate Smith from CBS News looks ar two different outcomes in Colorado and Louisiana. She writes: 

“In Colorado, voters protected access to abortion later in pregnancy, striking down a ballot measure that would have banned nearly all abortion procedures after 22 weeks of pregnancy. But in Louisiana, anti-abortion rights groups saw a major victory: 62% of voters approved a constitutional amendment that clarifies the state’s Declaration of Rights does not protect the right to an abortion, an addition that would make it nearly impossible to keep abortion legal in the state if Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Read it here: CBS News – Abortion ballot measure results show starkly divided opinion on reproductive issues

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Trump’s Tweets get flagged for misinformation

Twitter flagged more of Trump’s tweets for pushing misinformation about the election results. The president shared a tweet thread this evening trying to “claim” multiple battleground states that he has not won. Obviously, those “claims” have no legal standing in a US election.

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Nevada result TODAY

The Nevada result should come through today. It is expected at lunchtime in the US, around 5pm in the UK.

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One state away for Biden

Based on the states that AP has called, Biden needs just one more state to get over the 270 threshold in the Electoral College to be declared the winner.

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Biden makes history

Joe Biden has won more votes than any US presidential candidate in history – but the race for the White House remains too close to call.

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Quick look at the key States!

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This is so confusing. https://t.co/xgU41fnw1s

— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) November 5, 2020

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Election ‘tarnished’ by fraud claims – international observers

An international observer mission says 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.

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”.

Read more here

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Trump supporters protest outside Arizona poll centre

A crowd of some 200 Republican supporters descended on the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office as staff continued counting ballots overnight in the state of Arizona.

The protesters were responding to claims on social media that votes likely to be for Donald Trump would not be counted.

There is no evidence for this. Officials have reiterated that they are following procedures and counting all votes.

Watch the video on BBC News

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It’s just after 05:30 am GMT: This is where the race to 270 stands