The outcome of the US presidential election was in the balance on Wednesday as several states continued to count their votes, including some of the most competitive battlegrounds where the count could take days to complete.
Democratic candidate Joe Biden has a slight advantage over Republican President Donald Trump with 227-213 electoral votes. That leaves 98 electoral votes to be assigned and possible paths to victory for both candidates. The winner must secure 270 votes.
Here’s the situation in nine states. Vote counts are provided by Edison Research.
Alaska
Trump has a wide advantage and is expected to dominate the state. Still, only 56% of the expected votes have been counted, with Trump leading between 62.9% and 33%.
Arizona
Biden has a significant advantage, and the Associated Press and Fox News have already called the state for the Democrat. With 86% of the expected votes counted, Biden leads with 50.7% to Trump’s 47.9%, according to Edison Research.
Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs told ABC News that Maricopa County, which includes densely populated Phoenix, had about 400,000 pending ballots to be counted and that it would release more results later Wednesday.
Georgia
Trump maintains a narrow lead, but several of the large counties around Atlanta that lean toward the Democrats still have a substantial number of votes to count. With 95% of the expected votes counted, Trump is ahead with 49.7% to Biden’s 49%.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said he expected to have a result by the end of Wednesday.
Under Georgia law, if the margin between candidates is less than or equal to 0.5 percentage points, a candidate may request a recount within two business days after the results are certified.
The Trump campaign filed a lawsuit demanding that Chatham County, which includes Savannah, separate and secure late-arriving ballots to ensure they are not counted. The campaign said it had received information that late-arriving ballots in the county were incorrectly mixed with valid ballots.
Maine
Maine is one of two states that divide their Electoral College votes between the winner of the state popular vote and the winner in each of their constituencies.
Edison Research has assigned Biden two votes for the statewide result, which he leads by 53.8% to 43.2% with 87% of the state’s expected votes counted. He also called the state’s 1st Congressional District for Biden, giving him a third state electoral vote.
Trump has a 51.4% to 45.1% lead in the state’s second congressional district. The Associated Press cast Trump as the winner of the fourth state vote on Wednesday, with just 53.7% of the expected votes.
Michigan
Biden has a growing margin, with CNN and NBC projecting Biden as the winner there just before 4:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT) on Wednesday. Biden leads Trump by 50.3% to 48.1% with 99% of the state’s expected votes counted.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said Wednesday night that all valid ballots in the state had been counted and that a lawsuit by Trump seeking to stop vote counting there was “frivolous.”
Nevada
Long seen as a Biden-prone solid state, Nevada is now at stake. Edison Research data shows that 86% of the expected votes are available and Biden’s lead is only 49.3% to 48.7% for Trump.
State officials expect the remaining votes, mostly mail ballots, to be counted by 9 a.m. PST (1700 GMT) Thursday. Clark County, the largest in the state and home to Las Vegas, has garnered 84% of the expected votes so far and Biden is ahead there 52.9% against Trump’s 45.4%.
North Carolina
The margin between Trump and Biden is less than 2 percentage points, as the president clings to a 50.1% to 48.7% lead for the Democrat, with 95% of the expected votes counted.
The state allows mail-in ballots postmarked Tuesday to be counted if received by November 12. On Wednesday morning, the Biden campaign said it expected the final result to take several days, and state officials said later Wednesday that a result would not be known until next week.
Pennsylvania
Of the states on the battlefield, Pennsylvania has the longest to go in the vote count, and Trump so far maintains an advantage. With 88% of the expected votes counted, Trump has risen 50.8% to 47.9% for Biden.
Officials can accept mailed ballots up to three days after the election if they are postmarked Tuesday. About 1 million votes remain to be counted, Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf said Wednesday.
If the margin of victory is within the middle of 1%, state law requires a recount.
Trump’s campaign said Wednesday it was suing to temporarily halt vote counting in Pennsylvania and also asked to intervene in a U.S. Supreme Court case over mail-in ballots in the state, which could determine the winner of the ballots. elections.
Wisconsin
The Trump campaign said Wednesday it would request a vote recount in Wisconsin, where the margin between candidates is less than 1 percentage point.
Biden is up 49.4% to 48.8% for Trump with 99% of expected votes counted, according to Edison Research. Edison said he would not call for a race in Wisconsin or in any state where the margin is narrow enough to allow a candidate to require a recount under state law. Some media outlets, including NBC and the Associated Press, screened Biden as the winner.
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