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US Election 2020 Results LIVE Updates: Donald Trump’s lead down to 26,000 votes in Pennsylvania; CNN dubs Georgia 'virtual tie'

startup news November 05, 2020

09:58 (IST)

2020 US election results LATEST Updates

Around 14,000 ballots still outstanding in Georgia, CNN

There are approximately 14,097 ballots still outstanding across Georgia, according to a statement by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Almost all of the outstanding ballots are absentee ballots, Raffensperger’s office told CNN earlier Thursday.

09:47 (IST)

2020 US election results LATEST Updates

Georgia is a virtual tie, says CNN 

President Donald Trump's lead over former Vice President Joe Biden in Georgia has shrunk to 1,775 votes, said CNN. The two candidates are tied at 49.4% each.

09:22 (IST)

2020 US election results LATEST Updates

Biden trailing in Pennsylvania by thin margin 

In Pennsylvania, Democratic nominee Joe Biden is trailing by just under 26,000 votes. He’s been winning the mail-in ballot counts by huge margins, and could very well take the state.

The state had backed Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, but voted for the Democratic candidate in 2012, 2008, 2004 and 2000. Trump needs the state’s 20 electoral votes to win.

09:20 (IST)

2020 US election results LATEST Updates

About 16,000 votes left to be counted in Georgia

Georgia has 16,000 votes yet to be counted and leads are changing in favour of Joe Biden. His wins in Michigan and Wisconsin have proven to be key victories and now, all eyes are on Georgia and Pennsylvania where Biden is closing in on Trump.

09:12 (IST)

2020 US election results LATEST Updates

Trump may not concede even if Biden declares victory, says CBS News

Attacking the integrity of election and claiming without evidence that Democrats are trying to "steal" votes from him, Donald Trump in his White House address questioned why the mail-in ballots seemed to be "one-sided favouring Joe Biden". 

The president vowed to fight the results in court, suggesting the Supreme Court will intervene. Earlier, the Trump campaign had filed law suits in key states but judges in Georgia and Michigan tossed two of them out.

However, CBS News reported that Trump does not plan to concede even if Joe Biden declares victory in the coming days.

08:44 (IST)

2020 US election results LATEST Updates

'Chill': Greta Thunberg uses Trump's mockery as he tries to stop votes

Greta Thunberg, Swedish teen environmental activist, has a message for Donald Trump. The 2020 US Presidential elections does not appear to be going very well for Trump and to add insult to injury, he just got mocked by the 17-year-old climate change activist with the exact same words he had used in 2019, when she was named Time magazine’s person of the year.

With Trump raging on Twitter in all capital letters and throwing out allegations of voter fraud even as his election day lead in Pennsylvania and other states continued to erode, Thunberg threw his words straight back at him.

"So ridiculous," Thunberg tweeted in reply to Trump’s earlier "STOP THE COUNT!" rant.

"Donald must work on his Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Donald, Chill!"

08:28 (IST)

2020 US election results LATEST Updates

US television networks cut away from Trump's claims of election fraud 

At least three leading television news networks in the US cut away from Donald Trump's address from the White House on Thursday evening and expressed doubts on its legitimacy.

NBC, ABC and CBS — which together drew about 22 million viewers during their evening news broadcasts last week — all initially aired the White House briefing before cutting away. NBC News' sister network, MSNBC, did so, too, though CNN and Fox News carried the entire thing as the president cast doubt on the integrity of the election process and alleged wrongdoing and fraud, without evidence.

On CNN, anchor Jake Tapper said: "What a sad night for the United States of America, to hear their president say that. To falsely accuse people of trying to steal the election. To try to attack democracy that way with this feast of falsehoods."

On CNBC, former Fox News anchor Shepard Smith also cut off the president, saying, "There has not been one scintilla of truth in anything he has said."

08:03 (IST)

2020 US election results LATEST Updates

Trump's lead in Georgia and Pennsylvania shrinks

According to the Guardian, Biden is trailing behind the US president in Georgia by just under 2,500 votes, as election officials continue counting ballots. In Pennsylvania, Biden is trailing by 48,800 votes after officials released a new batch of ballot counts from Delaware county.

The Democratic nominee has a good chance of winning both states, with uncounted ballots from liberal-leaning counties yet to be tabulated. 

07:59 (IST)

2020 US election results LATEST Updates

Some states still in play in presidential race

A handful of states remained in play as of Thursday in the tightly contested US presidential race. The outcome of contests in Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Nevada will determine whether Democrat Joe Biden, or President Donald Trump wins.

The solidly Republican state of Alaska has also not been called because it is only 50% counted and will not release absentee numbers until Nov. 10. It is not expected to impact the outcome.

07:47 (IST)

2020 US election results LATEST Updates

Trump attempts to falsely declare victory in election

"If you count the legal votes, I easily win," said Donald Trump in an address at the White House, adding that if "illegal votes" are counted, "they can try to steal the election from us".

The Republican leader did not provide any evidence to back up any of his claims. It was the first time he addressed the nation since election night.

07:37 (IST)

2020 US election results LATEST Updates

Trump repeats unproven voter fraud claims in White House speech

Donald Trump has reiterated unproven claims that widespread voter fraud marred the United States presidential election, which remains too close to call as ballot counting continues in several key states.

In a Thursday evening address at the White House, the US president struck a typically defiant tone, accusing pollsters of interfering in the election process and Democrats of engaging in fraud – an unproven claim he has repeated throughout the week.

07:34 (IST)

2020 US election results LATEST Updates

Donald Trump trailing Joe Biden by just 56,833 votes in Arizona

In Apache county, which encompasses Navajo Nation, Joe Biden won 81 percent of about 2,200 votes. In Pima county – which encompasses Tuscon and leans liberal, a batch of about 28,000 ballots favored Donald Trump.

The big batch of late-arriving ballots were expected to break Biden’s way – that it didn’t mean that Biden’s lead in Arizona has continued to tighten. Another bid dump of ballot results from Maricopa county is expected momentarily.

07:30 (IST)

2020 US election results LATEST Updates

Republicans break with Trump over vote-fraud claims

Some Republicans are breaking with President Donald Trump’s attempts to falsely declare victory in the election and claim without evidence that Democrats are trying to "steal" it from him. Trump escalated those allegations late Thursday, telling reporters at the White House that the ballot-counting process is unfair and corrupt.

Trump did not back up his claims with any details or evidence, and state and federal officials have not reported any instances of widespread voter fraud.

Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican who spoke at a recent Trump campaign rally, did not address Trump directly, but said in a tweet Thursday night that if any candidate believes “a state is violating election laws they have a right to challenge it in court & produce evidence in support of their claims.''

US Election 2020 Results LATEST Updates: President Donald Trump's lead over former Vice President Joe Biden in Georgia has shrunk to 1,775 votes, said CNN. The two candidates are tied at 49.4% each.

At least three leading television news networks in the US cut away from Donald Trump's address from the White House on Thursday evening and expressed doubts on its legitimacy.

In Pennsylvania, Biden is trailing by 48,800 votes after officials released a new batch of ballot counts from Delaware county.

The US president struck a typically defiant tone, accusing pollsters of interfering in the election process and Democrats of engaging in fraud.

A judge in Georgia has dismissed a lawsuit by the state Republican Party and US president Donald Trump's campaign that asked him to ensure a coastal county was following state laws on processing absentee ballots, AP reported.

Chatham County Superior Court Judge James Bass did not provide an explanation for his decision on Thursday at the close of a roughly one-hour hearing. The county includes the heavily Democratic city of Savannah.

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.

Joe Biden's campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon said that the Democratic presidential candidate was closing in on the lead of US president Donald Trump in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania. She also said that while Georgia is a "toss-up" and is a "very very close" race, "the state is leaning towards the former vice president".

Poll authorities in one of the crucial battleground states, Arizona, said that there are 375,000 ballots still to be counted in the Western battleground, reports said.

Biden holds a 2.35 percentage point lead over Trump in Arizona, an advantage of about 68,000 votes. The vast majority of the ballots yet to be counted are from Maricopa County, the most populous area of the state.

Georgia, Nevada, and Pennsylvania are among the handful of states up for grabs to determine the final outcome of the election. Democratic candidate Joe Biden is currently inching towards a victory with 264 projected electoral college votes. Now Biden needs just six more to win the race to the White House.

Pennsylvania is a controversial state with a massive number of electoral votes – 20. With around 89% of votes are in, and Trump is up 50.7% against Biden’s 48.1%.

As per The New York Times, the presidential race in Georgia appeared headed for a photo finish as Biden steadily gained ground on President Donald Trump. The victor will be awarded 16 electoral votes

Biden's lead in Arizona, which he was projected to win by AP and Fox News, has narrowed. Biden has 50.5 percent of the vote (14,69,341) against Trump, who has 48.1 percent (14,00,951)

According to the AP, Trump is marginally higher with 49.6 percent of the vote (24,30,156) while Joe Biden has 49.2 percent of the vote (24,07,589).

With 71% of mail-in ballots counted in Pennsylvania, officials still needs to count 763,000 of the 2.6 million cast, CNN projected.

On Wednesday, multiple Twitter profiles began promoting a #StopTheSteal protest in front of the Clark County Elections Department.

Trump is in the lead in Pennsylvania by about 3 points but the difference between votes cast for the president and those cast for Biden has been shrinking with each batch of results released.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Wednesday evening that there are still 122,535 uncounted ballots in the state.

The new filings, joining existing Republican legal challenges in Pennsylvania and Nevada, demand better access for campaign observers to locations where ballots are being processed and counted, and absentee ballot concerns, the campaign said.

Biden isn't making any predictions about the outcome of the election as the final hours of voting tick down.

Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien has said that the President is well within the threshold for recount and they will immediately place a request for it.

However, Republican Scott Walker weighed in on Twitter earlier that Biden's lead may be too big for a recount to have any effect

Joe Biden will win at least three of Maine's electoral votes, CNN and NBC News projects.

President Donald Trump in a tweet claimed that the states in which he was leading last night have “started to magically disappear as surprise ballots were counted”. He also says it is “very strange” that the Republican party’s vote share has fallen.

In the race to get the 270 electoral college votes needed to occupy the White House, Joe Biden is currently projected to win 224. Trump is predicted to win 213 based on CNN projections. The outcome of this election, however, is likely to be determined by the tens of millions of postal ballots yet to be counted.

Although the counting of votes is still underway in Wisconsin, as per CNN projections, Democratic nominee Joe Biden is leading in two of the crucial swing states: Michigan and Wisconsin. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is currently leading in another swing state, Pennsylvania.

As per CNN, Joe Biden is ahead by nearly 21,000 votes. Throughout much of the night, President Trump was ahead by over 100,000 votes, but now, with 97% votes reported, Biden is ahead.

The race to the White House is now down to the wire with Donald Trump and Joe Biden battling it out in the key states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania, who are now key battleground states to watch out for as per pollsters.

After winning Florida and Iowa, US President Donald Trump is engaged in a tight electoral battle with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on the three Northern battleground states — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — that could prove crucial in determining who wins the Oval office

Biden has taken the lead in Wisconsin and is hoping that Arizona, where he has a 5-percentage point lead with 82% of the ballots counted.

Democrat Joe Biden's campaign said it will fight any efforts by President Donald Trump's campaign to go to the US Supreme Court to prevent ballots from being tabulated.

Biden won the statewide tally and the 1st Congressional District, good for three electoral votes.

The victory by Biden can be a huge blow to Trump’s chances for reelection. Arizona has backed a Democratic presidential candidate only once in the last 72 years.

Donald Trump expressed confidence about winning Pennsylvania, as the state continues to count ballots.

So far Biden has 224 electoral votes and Trump 213, after Nebraska split its electoral votes between the two - four for Trump and one for Biden, CNN and Fox News projected.

An avalanche of early votes fed Democrats’ high hopes of ending decades of losses in Texas, where polls showed Joe Biden running unusually close.

Thanking the people for the patience, given the early voting and mail-in voting, Democratic Presidential nominee said, "I believe we're on track to win this election."

Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden will deliver remarks in Wilmington at 12.30 am ET. Meanwhile, Trump prevailed in the hotly contested Rust Belt state of Ohio - one he seized in 2016 and which is key to his efforts to win reelection over Biden.

Biden has captured 16 states including his home state Delaware and big prizes California and New York, as well as the US capital.

Fox News Channel on Tuesday night declared that Democrats would retain control of the House of Representatives, picking up at least five seats.

With about 91 percent of the Florida vote in, Donald Trump leads Biden by about 3 points, 51%-48%, reported AP.

Colorado, which went for Democrat Hillary Clinton four years ago, has trended sharply to the left since President Donald Trump’s 2016 election.

Donald Trump has picked up North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Louisiana and Nebraska. The AP also called Indiana for Trump shortly before polls closed in some western states.

Biden has captured his home state of Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Vermont, Virginia and New Jersey, as well as the three electoral votes given to the US capital Washington (District of Columbia).

Democrat Joe Biden is projected to win the state of Virginia by winning its 13 electoral votes.

Democrat Hillary Clinton won Virginia over Republican Donald Trump in 2016, helped in part by her choice of running mate: Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine.

Virginia has grown increasingly liberal over the last four years, and as a result of the 2019 elections, Democrats now control every branch of government in the state.

Donald Trump took to Twitter on Tuesday evening (local time) as polls began shutting around the country and early trends began trickling in.

US president Donald Trump called into talk radio shows in the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin just hours before polls closed. Trump projected confidence Tuesday that he will win key states like North Carolina and Florida and said he’s expecting a “great” evening.

Trump told Wisconsin host Vicki McKenna that he is expecting a strong night based on lines of people waiting to vote. Trump has sown doubts about mail voting, without evidence, and is expecting most of his supporters to turn out on Election Day.

In North Carolina, an armed man loitering at a polling site on Election Day has been arrested and charged with trespassing, AP reported.

Thirty-six-year-old Justin Dunn was legally carrying a firearm but loitered at the Charlotte site after voting Tuesday morning, which prompted a precinct official to call police over fears of voter intimidation. A precinct official accompanied by a police officer asked him to leave the site and banned him from the location.

Police say Dunn left the precinct but returned about two hours later. He was taken into custody and charged with second-degree trespassing.

Publicly listed numbers for Dunn were disconnected when a reporter tried to reach him Tuesday.

Vermont Governor Phil Scott says he voted for Joe Biden for president, making him the first Republican governor in the nation to acknowledge voting for the Democratic presidential candidate.

The Republican governor told reporters Tuesday after casting his ballot in his hometown of Berlin, Vermont, that he had never voted for a Democrat in his life.

“As many of you knew, I didn’t support President Trump. I wasn’t going to vote for him,” Scott said. “But then I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t enough for me to just not vote. I had to vote against.” He says he “put country over party, which again wasn’t an easy thing to do in some respects.”

With the coronavirus now surging anew, voters ranked the pandemic and the economy as top concerns in the race between President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden, according to AP VoteCast, a national survey of the electorate.

Voters were especially likely to call the public health crisis the nation’s most important issue, with the economy following close behind. Fewer named health care, racism, law enforcement, immigration or climate change.

After eight months and 232,000 deaths, the candidates faced a dissatisfied electorate. Many voters said they have been personally affected by the virus. Roughly 6 in 10 said the country is going in the wrong direction.

Voters across the US received anonymous robocalls in the days and weeks before Election Day urging them to “stay safe and stay home” — an ominous warning that election experts said could be an effort to scare voters into sitting out the election, AP reported.

The FBI is investigating calls that seek to discourage people from voting, a senior official at the Department of Homeland Security told reporters Tuesday. Authorities wouldn't offer details.

The brief calls, which featured a computerized female voice, made no mention of the election. But given the lack of details, and the timing, the message was clear, according to Dan Doughty, a Kansas City resident who received the robocall Tuesday morning.

As America set out to vote on Election Day amid the COVID-19 pandemic, state election authorities weighed in on the situation on polling in their respective jurisdictions.

In Arizona, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs said that while Joe Biden has a narrow edge over US President Donald Trump in the state, "either candidate has the possibility to win". "I try to be non-partisan, but we've seen Biden leading pretty much most of the polls that have been done here for Arizona. The margins vary, but he's been ahead," Hobbs told CNN'.

Meanwhile, the report said that voting in Minneapolis was going "very smoothly" so far "with no incidents of equipment malfunction or voter intimidation."

Additionally, in Michigan, the authorities said the vote "will be counted sooner than previously expected, with both day-of and absentee ballot counts expected to be reported soon after polls close tonight", CNN reported.

The North Carolina board of Elections extended voting in four precincts after they opened late on Tuesday, CNN reported, adding that the election results are likely to be delayed by at least 45 minutes in the state.

Democratic vice presidential nominee Senator Kamala Harris urged voters to stay calm no matter what the outcome of the election is and said, "Have faith in the American people. I do strongly believe that we — whoever we vote for — will defend the integrity of our democracy and the peaceful transfer of power. And that there are certain lines that no matter who you vote for, they won't cross."

Speaking to reporters in Detroit, she was quoted by CNN as saying, "The path to the White House and the path to determining who will be the next President of the United States without question runs right through Michigan."

Addressing the campaign team in the bullpen of the headquarters in Virginia, Donald Trump claimed that his campaign was doing "very well" in the states of Florida, Arizona, and Texas. "I think we're going to have a great night and more importantly we're going to have a great 4 years."

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he had built the world''s greatest economy, which was "horribly" interrupted by the "plague" that came from China

First Lady Melania Trump has cast her in-person vote at the Morton and Barbara Mandel Recreation Center in Palm Beach.

According to the US president's son, China, Mexico, Cuba, Liberia, the US states of New York and California along with part of India are the only places that don't want Trump to have four more years in the White House. Curiously, Jammu and Kashmir, according to Trump Jr, would prefer a Trump presidency.

News reports say that 9,069,761 people have already voted in Florida, which is roughly 95 percent of the 9.6 million total votes in the 2016 election. Registered Democrats lead registered Republicans by about 115,000 votes. Nearly 2 million people with no party affiliation have also voted, CNN reported.

In what CNN termed 'only a mildly confident view of his prospects', President Donald Trump asserted that he will call in a win, only when there's a win.

Joe Biden has started Election Day with a visit to church — and the grave of his late son, Beau. Biden and his wife, Jill, made an early morning stop at St. Joseph’s on the Brandywine in Wilmington, Delaware

At least 98.1 million people voted before Election Day, or just shy of 71 percent of the nearly 139 million ballots cast during the 2016 presidential election, according to data collected by The Associated Press. Given that a few states, including Texas, had already exceeded their total 2016 vote count, experts were predicting record turnout this year

President Donald Trump and his reelection campaign are signaling they will pursue an aggressive legal strategy to try to prevent Pennsylvania from counting mailed ballots that are received in the three days after the election. The matter could find its way to the Supreme Court, especially if those ballots could tip the outcome in the battleground state.

On Election day, President Donald Trump is planning to visit his campaign headquarters in Virginia on Tuesday, while Biden will travel to his birthplace of Scranton, the scrappy Pennsylvania town where Trump also visited on Monday

Polls opened at 6:00 am (4.30 pm IST) in the eastern states of New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Connecticut and Maine. But the first polling stations to open in the country were in two New Hampshire villages, Dixville Notch and Millsfield, starting at midnight

Election Day is finally here.

Or at least what we still call Election Day, since nearly 100 million Americans had already cast ballots by Tuesday.

That's the result of an election system that has been reshaped by the worst pandemic in a century, prompting many voters to take advantage of advance voting rather than head to polling places in person at a time when coronavirus cases are rising.

Here's what to watch as the final votes for President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden are cast:

Results, Results...?

We may not know who won the presidential election on Tuesday night. And if so, it does not necessarily mean anything is broken, fraudulent, corrupted or wrong.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested a slower-than-typical result is a sign of trouble.

“I think it’s terrible that we can’t know the results of an election the night of the election,” he said on Sunday. “I think it’s a terrible thing when states are allowed to tabulate ballots for a long period of time after the election is over."

It's unclear what the president thinks is a long period. But it's standard practice to continue tabulating votes after Election Day. But as it turns out that not knowing final results on the voting day itself is not an exception but the norm. The reason is simple enough, that it is physically impossible to count millions of ballots overnight as votes are cast across 51 states both in person, and by mail.

What the headlines mean, when they say that results will be delayed this year is that there may not be enough information available early enough to call out the polls in favour of one candidate over the other.

Does this mean results will come out later than usual?

Yes.

The biggest factor that may slow things down this year is clear: Millions of Americans decided to vote by mail rather than risk contracting coronavirus at a polling place. And in general, those mail ballots take longer to count.

Election workers must remove the ballots from their envelopes, check for errors, sort them and flatten them — all before they can be run through scanners the moment polls close and be tabulated. In states with well-established vote-by-mail programs, this processing happens weeks before Election Day. The results are often released quickly.

But several states did not have this system in place before this year and laws on the books prohibited election officials from processing the ballots well in advance of Election Day. Without a head start, there's virtually no way to process and count all the mail votes on Election Day, while also counting all the in-person votes.

There are three important battlegrounds with restrictions on when the mail vote can be processed — Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

In those states, Republican-controlled legislatures have resisted pleas from election officials to update the laws to allow for a speedier count. (The Michigan legislature did allow processing to begin 24 hours before Election Day in cities, but election officials say that's not enough of a head start.) Instead, they will initially report in-person votes — expected to heavily favor Trump — and gradually update with the more Democratic-leaning mail ballots later.

But don't news organisations call a winner before all the vote is counted?

Yes, there's never been a presidential race in history in which all votes are counted on election night. It's just not physically possible to instantly count that many ballots — possibly as many as 150 million on the night of Nov. 3.

Media organizations, including The Associated Press, declare winners in thousands of races on election night based on the results that are in, voter surveys and other political data.

But in a close race, more of the vote may need to be counted before The Associated Press can call a winner.

Is there any hope for knowing the winner on election night?

Sure. Not all battleground states are slow-counting states. So if several key states release their results promptly, one candidate may have a majority of the electoral vote — even without knowing who won in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania or Michigan.

That becomes more likely if the races in those states are not close.

It's a scenario that puts a lot of eyes on Florida. The state allows its election offices to process mail ballots 22 days before the election. It's also the biggest swing state. As long as the race isn't too close — a big “if” in a place famous for tight races — there could be a close-to-complete count by midnight. And if Trump loses Florida, it's is very difficult for him to reach the 270 electoral votes he needs to defeat former Vice President Joe Biden and return to the White House.

Two other Southern battlegrounds — North Carolina and Georgia — also can begin processing mail ballots early. They are both considered critical states for Trump. However, unlike Florida, neither state has a record of handling a large number of mail ballots. It's unclear how quickly they will count those votes.

Finally, two Midwestern states — Iowa and Ohio — also allow for early processing of mail ballots. Trump won both states handily in 2016, but Democrats believe Biden is competitive there. Results in those two states on election night could give hints about what lies ahead in the critical Rust Belt states that take longer to count.

With inputs from AP and AFP



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