The close presidential race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden now hinges on the results of a handful of states, each with different rules on counting votes and contesting results, delaying the declaration of a winner.
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Wisconsin is up for a recount and Pennsylvania is among several states subject to legal battles. Another five have yet to be called by at least some major networks, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona. Excluding those, Biden has 253 electoral votes of the 270 needed for victory, with Trump at 217, including Alaska.
Below is the state of play and potential prospects for these seven states, two days after voters went to the polls across the country in a surge in turnout.
Arizona (11 Votes)
The Associated Press (AP) has called the race for Biden.
Where is:Biden led Trump by about 46,000 votes through Thursday night after the latest results from Maricopa County brought the president closer to 10,576 votes.
Disputes:Biden now leads in Arizona by 1.6 percentage points. Trump’s campaign adviser, Jason Miller, called on the AP and Fox News to drop their calls to Biden. “This was wrong. It was a mistake, ”Miller said Wednesday.
Whats Next:The next results for Maricopa, Arizona’s largest county, are expected at 9 am local time. Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs said much of the state’s pending ballots should be reported by Friday night.
Bottom line:Both the Trump and Biden campaigns express confidence that they will win battlefield status.
Wisconsin (10 Votes)
The AP has called the race for Biden.
Where is:Election commission administrator Meagan Wolfe said Wednesday the vote count was complete. The state does not provide an official count until one is certified on December 1. Unofficial counts showed Biden with 20,808 votes more than Trump.
Disputes:The Trump campaign plans to exercise its right to demand a recount, as the unofficial 0.7 percentage point margin was within the 1 percent that allows such a move. Campaign Manager Bill Stepien said in a statement Wednesday that “there have been reports of irregularities in several counties in Wisconsin that raise serious questions about the validity of the results.” He also suggested that public polls had been used as a “voter suppression” tactic.
Whats Next:The clerks of elections are working through the steps of Wisconsin’s certification process, including an audit of the voting team. If the Trump campaign formally asks for a recount, it can take several days to process. In a tally of the 2016 presidential election, counties completed the process in 10 days.
Bottom line:Toppling an advantage of more than 20,000 is a “big hurdle,” said Scott Walker, a former Republican governor of Wisconsin.
Michigan (16 Votes)
AP called the race for Biden.
Where is: Biden won Michigan with 50.6 percent of the vote, compared to Trump’s 47.9 percent, according to figures posted on the Michigan secretary of state’s website that showed 5.5 million had been counted. of votes. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said Wednesday night that “all valid ballots, and only valid ballots, have been safely and accurately counted.”
Disputes: A state court judge ruled Thursday against an effort by the Trump campaign to halt the counting of absentee ballots until an election inspector from each party was present to observe the process and said the process is over effectively.
Whats Next:There is still the possibility of a recount in Michigan, where the legal standard is easy for challengers to meet.
Bottom line: If Biden’s lead is certified, it would switch a status that Trump won in 2016 to Biden’s column and bring him to the brink of victory.
Nevada (6 Votes)
The state has not yet been called.
Where is it located: Biden has maintained a small lead of around 11,000 votes while the ballots continue to be counted. With about 190,000 ballots to be counted as of Thursday afternoon, according to Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, the results may not be imminent.
Disputes: The Trump campaign announced a lawsuit to challenge the count in Clark County, the home of Las Vegas, on Thursday morning.
Whats Next: Clark County’s results will continue to be released on Friday and throughout the weekend, according to Joe Gloria, the county’s voter registrar.
Bottom line: With Biden at the helm and mail ballots expected to skew Democrats, the outlook looks promising for him. However, with a narrow margin and many ballots yet to be counted, the timing of the final count remains uncertain.
Pennsylvania (20 Votes)
The state has not yet been called.
Where is: Trump led Biden by about 26,000 votes as of 11:15 p.m. EST Thursday, according to the AP, but hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots had yet to be counted. Biden is receiving 77 percent of the votes by mail so far, State Department data shows.
Disputes: The Trump campaign claimed a small victory Thursday morning when a court ordered Philadelphia election officials to watch mail and absentee ballots count from up to six feet away. At noon, the city filed a petition with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court asking it to allow an appeal to overturn that order.
Whats Next: Several hundred thousand mail-in ballots remained to be counted Thursday night, which could take until Friday to complete, Commonwealth secretary Kathy Boockvar said. “We are reaching the final stretch,” he told a news conference Thursday.
Bottom line: Unsurprisingly, Pennsylvania has become a central focus of the political and now legal war on the outcome of the election.
Read also |2020 US elections: where Donald Trump’s electoral demands unfold
Georgia (16 Votes)
The state has yet to be called.
Where is: Trump outpointed Biden by about 1,800 votes as of 10:30 p.m. Thursday, according to the AP. The state had about 47,000 ballots not counting as of 3 p.m., according to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
Disputes: The Trump campaign filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging Chatham County is incorrectly counting absentee ballots received after the state’s deadline. A poll watcher claims that a poll worker was incorrectly storing and counting the ballots.
Whats Next: Gabriel Sterling, the state’s voting systems implementation manager, said he expects most votes to be counted Thursday night, but that it could move to Friday.
Bottom line: While many of the remaining ballots appear to favor Biden’s chances, it is unclear whether the former vice president can make up for the shortfall in this traditionally red state.
North Carolina (15 Votes)
The state has not yet been called.
Where is: Trump led Biden by about 77,000 votes Thursday night, according to the AP. Several absentee ballots and provisional ballots are still pending. Absentee ballots can be counted through November 12, provided they are postmarked for Election Day.
Disputes: No major lawsuits have been filed in North Carolina yet, but provisional ballots could be an area where tension flares. The state had planned to post numbers on the provisional ballots Thursday at noon. In 2016, less than half of the 61,000 provisional votes cast were counted.
Whats Next: Counties have scheduled meetings for November 12 and November 13 to count the results of their pending absentee and provisional ballots after conducting audits and other procedural checks. Due to public notification requirements under state law, those meetings cannot be moved forward. The state Board of Elections will provide a final, official tally that will be certified at a November 24 meeting.
Bottom line: It might take a week to get the final results, but it seems Trump has a better chance of winning the state.
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