Early indications suggested Trump would win Georgia – but it’s now looking very close. Why?
The chart below shows how the vote share in narrowing as more mail-in votes are counted.
Mail-in votes are thought to favour Biden – one theory being that Democrats are taking the pandemic more seriously and are therefore more likely not to vote in person.
A similar trend is being seen in Pennsylvania – though interestingly, the opposite is happening in Arizona, where Biden’s initial lead has been substantially reduced.
Trump tweets ‘Stop the Count!’
STOP THE COUNT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 5, 2020
15:06
Key points:
- Election still too close to call – live results here
- Biden’s path to 270 Electoral College votes more achievable than Trump’s – and he believes he will win once all votes are counted
- Democrat is on 253 and needs to win Pennsylvania (20) or two of Arizona (11), Georgia (16), Nevada (6) and North Carolina (15)
- He is narrowly ahead in Arizona and Nevada and is closing the gap in Georgia and Pennsylvania as mail-in votes are counted
- Trump declared himself the winner on election night and is pursuing legal action in at least three states over unsubstantiated claims of ‘fraud’. He wants a recount in Wisconsin
- What’s coming up today? Georgia, Arizona and Nevada could declare; Trump campaign to make ‘major announcement’ at 4.30pm UK time
- First candidate to 270 Electoral College votes wins – Biden the slight favourite as things stand
- Live reporting by Sunita Patel-Carstairs
14:50
Trump campaign to make ‘major announcement’
Donald Trump’s campaign says it will make a “major announcement” later.
Former director of national intelligence Ric Grenell, former Nevada attorney general Adam Laxalt, chairman of the American Conservative Union Matt Schlapp and Nevada GOP Chair Michael McDonald will host a press conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, at 8.30am PST (4.30pm UK time).
It is not known what will be said, but Mr Trump has made unsubstantiated claims of “major fraud” and says he’ll go to the Supreme Court over the election.
His campaign has launched legal challenges in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia and asked for a recount in Wisconsin.
Has the race been targeted by disinformation – and how are social media giants responding?
According to a joint assessment by US intelligence agencies, the Russian state sponsored a disinformation campaign which brought the integrity of the last presidential election into disrepute. Has anything similar been identified in 2020?
Votes are still being counted in a number of key states and the margins for victory remain wafer-thin. It is in this period of uncertainty following the votes being cast that provocations could have the most damaging impact.
Chris Krebs, the director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), has stated CISA will “remain vigilant for any attempts by foreign actors to target or disrupt the ongoing vote counting and final certification of results”.
He noted a report by Reuters which identified Twitter accounts falsely claiming to be part of the Associated Press, declaring election results before they were actually finalised – although the operators of those fake accounts are unknown at the moment. Read more here.
14:38
3m more people voted for Trump this time – so why is the result on a knife edge?
Sky’s Alistair Bunkall explains the turnout is much higher this time round compared with four-years-ago which is why the distribution of votes on both sides is huge.
The latest popular vote count:
Joe Biden: 71,659,189 (50.5%)
Donald Trump: 68,096,745 (48%)
Joe Biden has received more votes than any US presidential candidate in history, beating Barack Obama’s previous record of 69,499,428.
Donald Trump has expanded his margins in many rural and small town areas.
Three million more people have voted for Mr Trump this time – and the votes are still being counted.
“One of the reasons for this is that there was no meaningful – no disrespect to Kanye West – third party candidate this time,” says Bunkall.
“Whereas in 2016, the Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson actually was reasonably successful in taking about 3% of the popular vote, which in turn had quite an impact on Hillary Clinton’s bid.
“It is just interesting to look at the sheer numbers of people voting for both candidates this time and what that then tells you about American society.
“When you consider the total turnout as we know it so far is just shy of 142 million – when some of these states are coming down to tens of thousands of votes, it’s remarkable,” adds Bunkall.
14:27
Biden tweets ‘every vote must be counted’
Joe Biden is closing in on Donald Trump in the key battleground of Georgia, hoping to flip a third state from the Republicans and put himself within touching distancing of the White House.
Only a handful of “toss up” states are left in play as he and Mr Trump vie for the crucial 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the US presidency.
So far, Mr Biden is the closest on 253 – also leading in the popular vote and breaking the record for the most number of votes ever cast for a presidential candidate.
Mr Trump has 214 Electoral College votes, also surpassing the number of total people who backed him in 2016 by more than three million.
Despite election administrators’ appeals for patience and calm, the stakes have been significantly raised by Mr Trump’s campaign launching legal challenges.
The president himself has threatened to take his fight to the Supreme Court over the election.
And there have been mass demonstrations for every vote to be counted and counter-protests in states.
Every vote must be counted. pic.twitter.com/kWLGRfeePK
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 5, 2020
14:17
An update from the count in Georgia is expected later this afternoon
13:46
US votes counted as White House race heats up
Sunrise on another day in DC – and we still don’t know who’s won the White House race
The sun rises on another day here in Washington and still we await a result to an election that is getting closer and tighter by the hour. We’re staying on air with the very latest #election2020 #skynewspic.twitter.com/y6Ql2lrkMN— Alistair Bunkall (@AliBunkallSKY) November 5, 2020
13:12
Trump’s demands for recounts ‘have a long shot to get anywhere’ – top lawyer
Donald Trump’s calls for recounts following his unsubstantiated claims of “major fraud” over the election “have all a long shot to get anywhere here”, a top lawyer has said.
Former assistant US attorney for southern district of Florida, David Weinstein, told Sky News’ Adam Boulton: “The issues that are presented and what’s going to get this up to the Supreme Court is the issue of the recount.
“As far as the recounts go it is not even close in any of these states, certainly not within a margin of error.
“His demands in Michigan as well as Pennsylvania that they be allowed to do the recounts – they are not even recounts at this point they are just counting the ballots. So the legs that they have to stand on are very shaky at this point.”
He continued: “Certainly in those states where the margin of victory is in some states less than 1%, others less than 0.5%, they have a right to a recount.
“But the margins that we are seeing across the board even if he succeeds in a recount he is not going to get the swing that he needs to accumulate enough votes to get the states he needs to push him over the top.”
Asked what the point is of the legal challenges being mounted by the Trump campaign, he replied: “It is not so much about the legal merit of these issues.
“The rhetoric that this president has been promoting throughout is that there was fraud and this election was stolen from him. By continuing to present this viewpoint by making these legal challenges it’s providing a rationale for his base to take his message forward after he loses this election, and to promote a rhetoric that says this was not a just result, and quite frankly, that’s not what’s happening here.
“There was an overwhelming number of votes and that converts to the Electoral College votes.”12:46
Trump and Biden’s possible paths to power
Here’s are Trump and Biden’s possible paths to power. ??. Trump: Hold onto Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and take Nevada or Arizona.
Biden: Win in Arizona and Nevada or Georgia and Nevada or Arizona and Georgia. Or just win Pennsylvania.— Cordelia Lynch (@CordeliaSkyNews) November 5, 2020
12:41
The latest from the eye of the US election storm
?? Watch the latest from the eye of the #USElection storm
✖️@RudyGiuliani & @EricTrump arrive in Philadelphia & allege fraud on mass scale at hasty news conference. I ask Mr Giuliani where the evidence is.
✖️Local election official @Commish_Schmidt hits back
✖️ Voters split. pic.twitter.com/317vQsUteO— Mark Stone (@Stone_SkyNews) November 5, 2020
12:37
Why did the pollsters get the results so wrong?
Pollsters were chastised for incorrectly predicting a large Hillary Clinton win in 2016, yet they have they have got it wrong again.
Millions of dollars are spent on looking at who will win a US presidential election, and by how much.
Ahead of this year’s election, Joe Biden was predicted a safe win, with the Democrat leading by up to 16 points a month before, which narrowed down to eight points the day before the election.
It was to be the Democrats’ largest lead on the eve of an election since Bill Clinton in 1996, according to polling analysis website FiveThirtyEight.
But, that has not been borne out by the results. Read more here.
US election 2020: Why did the pollsters get the results so wrong? https://t.co/NQnvg065Td— SkyNews (@SkyNews) November 5, 2020
12:31
‘Going down to the wire’
Here’s @SophyRidgeSky with one of my favourite graphics of the election: showing how the race for AZ has narrowed in Trump’s favour and how the race for PA has narrowed in Biden’s favour.
You’ve heard the phrase “going down to the wire”. Well: there’s the wire – in those charts… pic.twitter.com/YXLLDocJWF— Ed Conway (@EdConwaySky) November 5, 2020
12:28
Difference between the polls and results
This shows the difference between the polls & the actual results in some key states. You can see the pollsters were pretty close with Biden, but are still consistently underestimating Trump’s support pic.twitter.com/fa1jUhOnku— Sophy Ridge (@SophyRidgeSky) November 5, 2020
12:23
The latest on the popular vote
Joe Biden: 71,659,189 (50.5%)
Donald Trump: 68,096,745 (48%)
Joe Biden has received more votes than any US presidential candidate in history, beating Barack Obama’s previous record of 69,499,428.
It also appears that more people have turned out, with Mr Trump expanding his margins in many rural and small town areas.
And it’s not over yet – each candidate will have even more votes by the end.12:19
Trump supporter: ‘All over the country it’s not fair’
Trump supporters – some armed with rifles – gather outside vote counting centres for protests
Donald Trump supporters – some armed with rifles and handguns – have descended on election counting centres where mail-in ballots continue to be tallied up.
In the state of Arizona, a mostly unmasked crowd chanted “stop the steal” following unsubstantiated claims that votes for the Republican president were deliberately not being counted.
A reported 300 protesters – some of who were armed – rallied in front of the Maricopa County Elections Department in Phoenix on Wednesday night as Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden held a razor-thin lead in the critical battleground state.
There are currently six states still to declare a winner – Arizona among them – with the president’s path to power now appearing slightly tighter. Read more here.
US election 2020: Trump supporters – some armed with rifles – gather outside vote counting centres for protests https://t.co/DPhXYhfctI
11:56
Electoral College maths
Currently in electoral college: @JoeBiden 253 @realDonaldTrump 214. NV + AZ = 17. That would take Biden to 270 & @WhiteHouse. GA+NC+PA = 51. If Trump wins them all he is still short on 265. He needs one of AZ or NV.
— Adam Boulton (@adamboultonSKY) November 5, 2020
11:54
All eyes on the White House
6am in DC. Few lights on @WhiteHouse. Except L East Wing where news conferences are held and top R Westside where @realDonaldTrump hangs out. pic.twitter.com/mHxkqEwFps
— Adam Boulton (@adamboultonSKY) November 5, 2020
11:51
Here are the current margins in the key battleground states
Georgia – 95% of votes counted, Donald Trump has a 0.5% lead
Pennsylvania – 89% of votes counted, Donald Trump has a 2.6% lead
Arizona – 86% of votes counted, Joe Biden has a 2.4% lead
Nevada – 86% of votes counted, Joe Biden has a 0.6% lead
North Carolina – 95% of votes counted, Donald Trump has a 1.4% lead
11:41
Update from Arizona
86% of the votes in the key battleground state have now been counted. Joe Biden is on 50.5% and Donald Trump on 48.1%.
11:22
‘Britons will adjust to whoever wins’
11:08
This is how the electoral map looks right now with several of the key states yet to be declared
10:38
Kremlin says lack of clarity could have bad impact on global economy
The Kremlin has said the lack of clarity so far following the US election could have a negative impact on the global economy and world at large.
It declined to comment further on the undecided White House race.
10:30
‘Pennsylvania count result may not be a nail-biter’
Of course, there are plenty of other PA counties besides Philly where Biden is still poised to gain a lot of ground w/ mail ballots. Delaware, Lehigh, Cumberland, Bucks, Monroe, Centre, Allegheny to name a few. This isn’t a nail-biter, imo.
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) November 5, 2020
10:26
Trump supporters chant ‘stop the count!’ at swing state protests
‘The people of Wisconsin have spoken’ – chairman of Milwaukee Democrats
“The people of Wisconsin have spoken.”
The chairman of the Milwaukee Democrats reacts to Donald Trump calling for a recount in the state. He says Biden’s apparent win in Wisconsin is around the same margin that Trump won the state by in 2016.#KayBurley https://t.co/tVTIM5QKzj pic.twitter.com/AaDNfcahT3
Oregon governor activates National Guard as violence erupts in Portland after election
Police in the city of Portland made arrests and seized fireworks, hammers and a rifle after late night demonstrations, as Oregon Governor Kate Brown activated the state’s National Guard in response to “widespread violence”.
Portland Police said it arrested 11 people in the demonstrations after declaring riots in the city’s downtown area while the New York Police Department (NYPD) said it made about 50 arrests in protests that spread in the city late on Wednesday.
“All of the gatherings that were declared riots were downtown. We have made 10 arrests”, a Portland Police spokesman told Reuters news agency.
There were protests in other cities on Wednesday night as activists demanding that vote counts proceed unimpeded rallied in several cities, including Atlanta, Detroit, New York, and Oakland.
Portland has seen several demonstrations since the death of George Floyd, particularly in the city’s downtown area, with protests occasionally turning into clashes between demonstrators and police as well as between right- and left-wing groups.
The anti-racism protests have demanded an end to police brutality and racial inequality while the more recent demonstrations surrounding the election have demanded for a full count of the votes cast on Tuesday.
Which states haven’t declared a winner yet – and who is currently in the lead?
When a global pandemic led to postal votes becoming the backbone of this presidential election, no one could truly have imagined just how key they would be.
With six states still to declare a winner, the uncounted votes in each could make the difference between a Trump or Biden White House. Read more here.
‘Route to victory for Biden much easier than for Trump’ – former UK ambassador to US
The route to victory for Joe Biden is a much easier one than it is for Donald Trump, a former British ambassador to the US has said.
Sir Peter Westmacott held the post from 2012 to 2016 during the Obama-Biden Democratic presidency.
Asked how he thought Mr Biden might now be feeling, he told Sky News’ Kay Burley: “I suspect he will be feeling cautiously optimistic.
“I do think that the Biden camp would have been a little bit disappointed, to put it mildly, yesterday morning when the big wins of Florida and Texas and so on just weren’t going their way.
“And then the numbers looked like Trump. Trump then declared that he had won and it was a fraud – it wasn’t a big surprise, but it still was a bit of a shock.
“But I think now as the postal votes are being counted… it has become clearer that the route to victory for Joe Biden is a much easier one than it is for Trump. Trump needs to sweep the whole table now if he is to win.
“So I think the Biden camp will be feeling, ‘we are going to get this’ – either later today, or if we have to wait for Pennsylvania, tomorrow.”
Harris’s ancestral village in India gets festive as Biden leads count
Villagers in the Indian ancestral home of Joe Biden’s running mate Kamala Harris have painted slogans on roads wishing her victory.
Thulasendrapuram, located about 200 miles south of Chennai, is where Harris’s maternal grandfather was born more than a century ago.
“From yesterday, we are excited about the final result,” said Abirami, a resident of the village. “Now, we are hearing positive news. We are waiting to celebrate her victory.”
Harris’s grandfather P.V. Gopalan and his family moved to Chennai nearly 90 years ago. He retired there as a high-ranking government official.
Harris, who was born to an Indian mother and a Jamaican father who both immigrated to the United States to study, visited Thulasendrapuram when she was five and has repeatedly recalled walks with her grandfather on the beaches of Chennai.
Trumps unfounded claims of electoral fraud ‘dangerous and irresponsible’
Donald Trump’s unfounded claims of electoral fraud are “historic, unprecedented and very dangerous”, former deputy assistant attorney general Lisa Graves tells Sky News.
“These are the types of comments we have never heard from a president before in the entire history of the United States – someone who basically disregards the constitution which provides a significant amount of time for ballots to be counted and electors to be chosen.”
She continues: “It’s just extraordinarily inappropriate and dangerous and irresponsible for the president to be claiming that he has the right to declare that the vote counting must stop if he is ahead, must go on if he is behind, and it is just more of the same that we have seen from him.
“He doesn’t seem to have any real respect for the rule of law and he is determined to take this sort of scorched earth path.”
09:14
Trump launches legal action to halt vote counting in Pennsylvania and Michigan and asks for recount in Wisconsin
President Donald Trump has launched legal action as he tries to temporarily stop vote counting in two states, including one that Joe Biden is projected to win, and wants a recount in a third where his election rival has apparently also triumphed.
Mr Biden and his team have said they have lawyers “standing by” to fight any challenge.
The president has vowed to take his case to the US Supreme Court in Washington but what are his claims centred on?
His team is particularly showing concern and anger about the huge influx of postal or mail-in ballots, which were late to be counted in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania – key states now set to prove crucial in who gets the keys to the White House. Read more here.
UK hopes US election result will be ‘swift and soon’ – minister
Justice Secretary Robert Buckland has said the UK wants a “smooth transition” following the US presidential election – whatever the result – and that there is confidence in the country’s legal system to sort any disputes.
Neither candidate has enough votes yet to be declared winner and the Republicans have started legal action in some states.
Mr Buckland told Sky News: “We wish them well and look on with huge interest and the support for a democratic process and a constitution that of course has seen tensions in the past….
“We very much hope all these issues can be resolved and that the transfer of power, the change to a new administration can be as smooth as possible.
“I think any allegations about the vote process are concerning but as I say there is a legal route that can be taken – and I understand it is being taken – and if that is the case then the courts will have to decide on any issues and we hope that any result will be swift and soon, not just for the interests of the American people but the wider world too.”
Here’s the current state of play…
08:53
Counting resumes in Nevada…
08:49
Update from Arizona
61,039 new ballots have been counted in Maricopa County – 59% of them are votes for Donald Trump, as he closes the gap on Joe Biden.
Mr Trump needs between 59% and 64% of the votes in the rest of Arizona to catch up and pass Mr Biden.
Mr Biden’s lead has been cut from 79,500 to 68,390.
08:36
‘Stop the steal’: Trump supporters, some armed, protest outside Arizona counting centre
A crowd of Donald Trump supporters, some armed with rifles and handguns, gathered outside an election counting centre in Arizona on Wednesday night after unsubstantiated rumours that votes for the Republican president were deliberately not being counted.
Chanting “Stop the steal!”, and “Count my vote”, the mostly unmasked protesters stood in front of the Maricopa County Elections Department in Phoenix, as Democratic presidential
candidate Joe Biden held a razor thin lead in the critical battleground state.
Chris Michael, 40, from Gilbert, Arizona, said he came to make sure all votes are counted. He said he wants assurances that the counting was done “ethically and legally”.
A win for Mr Biden in Arizona would give the Democrat challenger 11 electoral votes, a major boost in his bid to win the White House, while severely narrowing the incumbent president’s path to re-election, in a state the Republican won in 2016.
08:30
Why is Georgia a key state in the White House race?
08:25
No more states called overnight and still no winner declared
08:18
Just joining us? Here’s a recap of where we are at
The election is still too close to call – live results here.
Joe Biden is closing the gap in a tight race in Georgia, having already taken Michigan. He also leads in Arizona, where Republicans are protesting outside counting centres. Counter-marches have taken place in Philadelphia with voters demanding every single ballot – absentee votes as well as those cast at polling stations – are counted.
Mail-in ballots continue to threaten early Donald Trump leads in key states, where he is pursing legal action after making unsubstantiated claims of “major fraud” and says he will go to the Supreme Court over the election.
He has held the key battleground states of Ohio, Iowa, Texas and Florida.
It may still be another day before there is a declaration in Pennsylvania.
08:06
‘We will take back what we believe should be ours’, says Trump supporter in stab vest outside counting office in Arizona
(Sky News)