[ad_1]
- Biden is six electoral votes from reaching the 270 needed to reach the White House, according to AP figures.
- AP’s count includes Arizona, a state other networks have yet to call
- Millions of votes yet to be counted, with candidates side by side in various states
- All eyes are on the battle states of Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia, and North Carolina.
- Biden said he “has no doubt” that he will win the election.
- Trump’s campaign has launched legal challenges, demanding that ballot processing be stopped.
Election results based on Associated Press data. All times in GMT / UTC
23:50 President Donald Trump made remarks Thursday night in the White House meeting room, stating that “if legal votes count, I win easily.”
“If they count the illegal votes, they are trying to steal the election from us.”
Trump said there is “tremendous litigation” underway, alleging that mail-in ballots are subject to “fraud.”
“We believe that we will win the elections very easily, and there will be a lot of litigation and it could end up in the highest court in the country, we’ll see.”
Trump added that Democrats “never believed” they could win the election and accused them of pushing mail ballots to commit voter fraud. Trump did not provide any evidence and no cases of voter fraud have been independently reported.
Trump claimed that the counting of votes in states like Pennsylvania is part of a “corrupt Democratic machine” and said that the “voting apparatus” in the few states that remain to be decided is “controlled by the Democrats.”
The hotly contested state of Georgia, where Biden is rapidly closing the gap on Trump’s leadership, is run by a Republican governor, as is Arizona, where the last ballots are still being counted.
read more: OSCE Criticizes Trump’s ‘Unfounded Accusations’ of Election Fraud in the US
22:50 Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar told reporters Thursday night that the ongoing vote count in the critical state of the battlefield was “very safe” and that “the integrity of this vote is unparalleled. “.
Boockvar said the “overwhelming majority” of the more than 300,000 remaining ballots will be counted on Friday.
The Trump campaign has taken legal action in Pennsylvania to try to stop the counting of mail-in ballots postmarked on Election Day, but which can be counted up to three days later. Boockvar said late-arrival ballots are “significantly lower” than expected, adding that he has seen no evidence of voter fraud.
Joe Biden is steadily shrinking Trump’s lead in Pennsylvania, with fewer than 110,000 votes separating the two candidates. A victory for Biden with the 20 electoral votes of the state would win him the presidency.
22:25 Joe Biden gave a short speech at his campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, on Thursday afternoon and said he “has no doubt” that he will win the election.
Biden also urged patience while waiting for the vote count to be completed, adding that democracy can sometimes be “messy,” but “every ballot must be counted.”
21:00 A federal judge in Washington, DC, ordered the United States Postal Service to conduct twice-daily inspections of its processing centers to verify votes mailed with an Election Day postmark, but which may have arrived later.
USPS processing centers have been urged to expedite ballots that are found for delivery to election officials. It is established that Thursday’s order will remain in effect until the end of each state’s deadline to accept ballots.
read more: Fact Check: Could the Courts Decide the Fate of the US Elections?
20:30 The 2020 U.S. election campaign cost about $ 14 billion (€ 12 billion), a record sum that was spent on both the presidential and legislative races.
It was nearly double the amount spent in the 2016 election and more than triple the amount spent in the 2000 election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group that studies the role of money in politics.
There was unprecedented spending in the presidential race, which is expected to bring in total spending of $ 6.6 billion, up from around $ 2.4 billion in the 2016 race.
20:00 Joe Biden has a very slim lead in most states that are still counting ballots, here is the status of the race:
Arizona (11 electoral votes): Biden currently leads with 2.4%, or more than 68,000 votes. 86% of the votes have already been counted. Most of the ballots that remain to be counted are in densely populated Maricopa County, which includes the city of Phoenix. Full results are not expected until 7pm local time (0200 GMT / UTC Friday).
Georgia (16 electoral votes): Trump leads by a very narrow margin of 0.3% or about 13,000 votes. About 98% of the votes have been counted and a full vote recount is expected by Thursday night local time.
Nevada (6 electoral votes): Biden leads with 1%, or about 11,000 votes. 89% of the total votes have been counted. Joe Gloria, the recorder for Clark County, the largest in the state, said at least 63,262 ballots remained to be counted, but some mail-in ballots with Election Day postmarks are still arriving. A full count is not expected until Saturday.
Pennsylvania (20 electoral votes): Trump leads by 1.5%, or 108,772 votes. So far about 92% of the votes have been counted. Biden’s campaign has said it is confident that it can win battlefield status. A result is expected by Friday, but state officials say they could be ready by Thursday night local time.
North Carolina (15 electoral votes): Trump leads with 1.4%, or more than 76,000 votes. About 95% of the votes have been counted. Officials have not said when the full vote count could be released.
Read more: DW Fact Check: Debunking Voter Misinformation Online
19:00 A Michigan judge has rejected a lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump’s campaign that sought to stop the counting of votes in the state. Democratic challenger Joe Biden is expected to win Michigan, a state Trump won in 2016.
Michigan Claims Court Judge Cynthia Stephens said she “had no basis for finding that there is a substantial probability of success on the merits.”
A Georgia judge also dismissed a Trump campaign legal challenge over some 53 absentee ballots in Chatham County, which is leaning toward the Democrats. The judge dismissed the lawsuit after county elections officials testified that all of those ballots had been received on time.
The Trump campaign announced that it would launch additional legal action in Pennsylvania and Nevada. Campaign manager Bill Stepien told reporters in a conference call that Trump was “alive and well” regarding the presidential race.
The campaign predicted that the Republican president would win the US elections on Friday night.
Catch up on past developments here
jcg / nm (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)
[ad_2]
