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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Joan E Greve (now), Martin Belam,Tom McCarthy and Maanvi Singh (earlier)

Growing lead for Biden in Nevada and Pennsylvania – as it happened

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We’re moving to a new live blog now – follow all the latest on the US election here:

Donald Trump’s reelection campaign has released another statement from the president, in which he calls for “full transparency” in the vote count.

“We believe the American people deserve to have full transparency into all vote counting and election certification, and that this is no longer about any single election. This is about the integrity of our entire election process,” Trump said.

“From the beginning we have said that all legal ballots must be counted and all illegal ballots should not be counted, yet we have met resistance to this basic principle by Democrats at every turn. We will pursue this process through every aspect of the law to guarantee that the American people have confidence in our government. I will never give up fighting for you and our nation.”

Okay, so there are a few fact-checks we need to make here. It is not true that Trump has consistently called for all legal ballots to be counted. He sent a tweet yesterday that said, “Stop the count!” The tweet made no distinction between legal and illegal ballots; it simply called on election officials to stop counting votes.

And every ballot that is being counted right now represents a valid vote. There has been absolutely no evidence election officials are trying to count invalid ballots. In the lawsuits it has filed in several battleground states, the Trump campaign has failed to produce any evidence that invalid ballots are being counted.

Election officials in multiple battleground states have also consistently defended the integrity of their counts.

Ex-Trump campaign manager close to book deal – report

Former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale is close to a deal to write a book, Bloomberg News is reporting, in perhaps the first instance of a Trump alumnus seeking to cash in on their experience after the 45th president has left the White House – presuming Joe Biden wins the election, as seems likely, and Trump agrees to leave.

Trump books have been big bestselling business ever since January 2018, when the Guardian broke news of Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury.

Bloomberg White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs got the Parscale scoop:

Jacobs added: “Some in Trump’s inner circle are aware … and are concerned the ex-campaign manager could reveal damaging information about the president and his family.”

Maggie Haberman, of the New York Times, said: “Among the reasons this is notable – Parscale is said to be one of the people who never signed a [non-disclosure agreement].”

Parscale was behind the data operation which helped upset Hillary Clinton in 2016. Promoted to lead the campaign in 2020, he famously bragged of having built a “Death Star” which would obliterate Biden.

It didn’t, and Parscale lost his role as campaign manager shortly after a disastrous indoor rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma in June, which saw Trump embarrassed and which even preceded the death from the coronavirus of Herman Cain, a former candidate for the Republican nomination who like many supporters of the president attended the indoors event without wearing a mask.

At the time, Lincoln Project co-founder and former Republican consultant Rick Wilson told the Guardian: “Brad broke the first rule of American politics: under promise and over deliver.”

In late September, amid continued questions about how funds raised for the re-election campaign had been spent as well as why Trump was lagging in the polls, Parscale was hospitalised in Florida after reportedly threatening to harm himself.

His wife, Candice Parscale, told police that she ran from their house, alarmed by her husband’s behavior. When officers arrived, she said the couple had argued and he had pulled out a handgun and loaded it. Candice Parscale also said her husband had post-traumatic stress disorder and had become violent, showing police bruises on her arms. Police photographed the injuries, the Miami Herald reported.

Parscale subsequently stepped down from the Trump campaign entirely.

Today so far

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • Joe Biden appears poised to win the White House, after taking the lead in Pennsylvania. Biden now leads Donald Trump by 12,497 votes in Pennsylvania, but the AP has not yet declared a winner in the state. Biden is clearly intending to declare victory, with plans to deliver a primetime address tonight.
  • Georgia will hold a recount to settle the virtual tie between Biden and Trump in the state. As of now, Biden leads Trump by just 1,558 votes in the state, where about 5 million ballots were cast in the presidential race.
  • Biden’s lead in Nevada grew to 20,137 votes, following an update from Clark county, where Las Vegas is located. But the AP has not yet called that state either.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Joe Gloria, the Clark County Registrar of Voters in Nevada, said the county would provide another ballot update this afternoon.

Clark county posted the results of about 30,000 ballots this morning, and Joe Biden’s lead in the state has grown to 20,137 votes.

Gloria had said yesterday that the county would report the results of 51,000 ballots today, but he clarified that a staffer made an error because they incorrectly equated the number of ballots and the number of pages for the machine to process. (Some ballots had two pages.)

According to Gloria, there about 63,000 mail-in ballots and 60,000 provisional ballots left to be processed. The counting is expected to continue through the weekend, Gloria said.

Updated

Biden to deliver primetime address

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are expected to address the nation in a primetime speech this evening, a campaign official confirmed to The Guardian.

Biden is on the verge of victory after taking the lead in Pennsylvania, whose 20 electoral college votes would lift him above the 270-vote threshold to become the next president.

Both candidates are expected to speak.

It appears Donald Trump is now in the Oval Office, as a Marine is stationed outside the door.

The president has nothing on his public schedule today, but he has continued to tweet out baseless allegations of voter fraud, as Joe Biden looks poised to declare victory in the presidential race.

Trump has not been seen on camera since last night, when he held a White House press conference that was just a stream of lies about the election.

Updated

The Guardian’s Nina Lakhani reports from Pennsylvania:

The arduous wait continues in Pennsylvania, where Joe Biden currently leads by 12,497 votes.

At a press conference a few minutes ago, Lisa Deely, chairwoman of the city commissioners overseeing the count in Philadelphia, said 40,000 votes are still to be counted there, including military and provisional ballots.

It could take several days to complete this reporting, as some of these ballots will need to be adjudicated. Biden has so far won 81% of votes in Philadelphia.

Another big batch of outstanding votes are in Alleghany county, home to PA’s second biggest city Pittsburgh, where counting was suspended yesterday due to a legal challenge over 29,000 ballots. We’re still waiting on 37,000 or so ballots to be counted there.

In short, Biden will almost certainly pull off a comfortable win in Pennsylvania with 40,000 to 100,000 votes depending on who’s back of the envelope math you want to believe. But, the state may not be called for a few hours yet.

Speaking at a press conference, Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney was asked for his response to Trump’s baseless accusations of voter fraud in the city.

Kenney replied, “I think what the president needs to do is, frankly, put his big boy pants on. He needs to acknowledge the fact that he has lost, and he needs to congratulate the winner.”

Updated

Philadelphia officials hold press conference on vote count

Philadelphia officials are holding a press conference, as the vote count continues in the city.

Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney said, “While some including the president continue to spew baseless claims of fraud — claims for which his team has not produced one iota of evidence — what we see in Philadelphia is democracy, pure and simple.”

The Philadelphia vote has already helped Joe Biden build a lead in Pennsylvania, and the remaining ballots are expected to bolster that lead.

Asked if he believed Biden would be elected president when all the ballots were counted, Kenney said, “Yes.”

Johnson expresses confidence in 'checks and balances' of US government

UK prime minister Boris Johnson has refused to be drawn on the outcome of the US election, insisting “we should wait and see” while the votes are being counted.

Amid unfounded voter fraud claims by Donald Trump, Johnson also stressed he had every confidence in the checks and balances of the US constitution, as well as making clear he would work with whoever emerges as the winner in the contest.

Speaking on Friday as Joe Biden edged towards victory by taking the lead in the remaining key battleground states of Pennsylvania and Georgia, Johnson said: “If I were a voter in America I don’t think I’d want anybody in another government commenting on my election, our election in our country, and I think while the votes are being counted … we should wait and see.

“And I have every confidence in the checks and balances of the American constitution.”

Questioned on whether he would miss Trump – who has been supportive of Johnson – if he did exit the White House, Johnson said: “Let’s be clear, the prime minister of the United Kingdom is always going to work very, very closely with whoever is … the president of the United States and that’s going to be the case whatever the outcome of this election.”

Mitt Romney criticized Donald Trump for peddling baseless accusations of voter fraud in the presidential election, as Joe Biden appears poised for victory.

The Republican senator said the president is “within his rights” to request recounts in close states and call for investigations of specific alleged irregularities.

But Romney noted Trump was “wrong” to push baseless claims of a rigged election because “doing so damages the cause of freedom here and around the world.”

Some of Romney’s Republican colleagues have said Trump should produce evidence if he believes the election was tainted by fraud. The president’s reelection campaign has produced no evidence to back up these claims.

To briefly turn away from the presidential race, the AP just announced Republican Jeff Van Drew won reelection to his House seat

Van Drew was originally elected as a Democrat in 2018, but he switched parties out of alleged outrage over the impeachment of Donald Trump.

The New Jersey congressman was viewed as very vulnerable because of his party-switching, and Democrats had high hopes of flipping his seat, but it didn’t happen.

Freshman House Democrats in several vulnerable seats also lost reelection, so Republicans gained seats in the chamber, even though Democrats were expected to build upon their majority.

Senator Roy Blunt, who is close to Mitch McConnell, signaled that many in the Republican leadership are reluctant to follow Donald Trump along the path to constitutional chaos if the president attempts to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.

“You can’t stop the count in one state and decide you want the count to continue in another state. That might be how you’d like to see the system work but that’s not how the system works,” Blunt said.

Blunt added, “Part of the obligation of leadership is you should always have in your mind how do I leave.”

Reports have indicated Trump does not intend to concede if the presidential race is called for Joe Biden.

Asked about that possibility today, Biden spokesperson Andrew Bates said, “As we said on July 19th, the American people will decide this election. And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House.”

Mitch McConnell refused to answer reporters’ questions about what he would do as the highest-ranking Republican in Congress if the president of the United States refused to concede the election.

“I’m not going to answer any hypotheticals about where we go from here,” the Senate majority leader told reporters when asked what he would do. He declined several more times to answer the question and, referring to an earlier tweet, said that was the extent of his comments on the matter.

Donald Trump has made a series of startling and baseless claims about voter fraud and a rigged election, falsely asserting that he would have won the election already had it not been for a conspiracy involving “illegal” votes.

Senate Republicans have largely been cautious of endorsing – and some have even rebuked – Trump over his baseless claims of a rigged election.

But on Thursday night, Republican senators Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz appeared on Fox to support a number of the president’s evidence-free claims about voter fraud.

Asked by the host, Sean Hannity, if the Pennsylvania state legislature should nullify the delegates that voters select, Graham said, “Everything should be on the table.”

Updated

With the latest batch of ballots from Pennsylvania, Joe Biden’s lead decreased a bit -- from 9,027 votes to 8,867 votes.

The overall trendline has been very favorable for Biden because the outstanding mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania are going to the Democratic nominee by a ratio of about 4:1.

But the AP has not yet made a call in Pennsylvania.

The AP has sent a tweet basically instructing everyone to chill out, as the nation awaits a call in the presidential race.

“The Associated Press continues to count votes in the presidential election and has not declared a winner,” the AP said.

“When the AP does declare a winner, it will be tweeted from @AP and @AP_Politics.”

As a reminder (which I don’t think anyone needs), Joe Biden only needs to win one more state, and he will clinch the presidency.

Biden's leads in Pennsylvania and Nevada grow

Joe Biden’s leads in Pennsylvania and Nevada have grown with the latest updates from the two states.

In Pennsylvania, Biden’s lead now stands at 9,027 votes, which is expected to grow as more results come in from Philadelphia.

The Democratic nominee’s lead in Nevada has also increased to 22,076, or 1.7% of the total.

The AP has not yet called Pennsylvania or Nevada, and we are still waiting on more uncounted ballots in both states.

But Jon Ralston, the widely respected editor of the Nevada Independent, believes the race there is all but over.

The Guardian’s Nina Lakhani reports from Northampton county, Pennsylvania:

In Lackawanna county, which includes Scranton where Joe Biden was born, the Democratic nominee picked up about 10,000 more votes than Hillary Clinton and beat Donald Trump by 8 percentage points compared to Clinton’s 3-point lead.

Lehigh county, which includes Allentown where Trump held a rally last week, went truly blue with 52.5% of the votes, and this is one of the places where grassroots organizers worked tirelessly to get the Latino vote out.

It’s worth mentioning three pivotal counties - Erie, Luzerne & Northampton - which flipped in 2016 after backing Barack Obama twice to help Trump win the White House. Biden has won Northampton by a whisker (0.5%), and is leading Erie by two whiskers (0.9%) with some mail-in ballots left to count. It’s noteworthy that mail-in votes have favored Biden 4:1 in both Democrat and Republican counties. Luzerne stays red.

Northampton county, which is located on the New Jersey border and is remarkably like the TV town Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls, maintains its mantle as a pivotal county - as Northampton goes, the White House almost always goes.

Biden appears poised to win Pennsylvania, but it remains a deeply divided state. The rural manufacturing heartlands, previously viewed as Democratic strongholds in the state, voted overwhelmingly for Trump again.

The Guardian’s Nina Lakhani reports from Northampton county, Pennsylvania:

Joe Biden has significantly outperformed Hillary Clinton in several of Pennsylvania’s suburban counties. In Chester county, just outside Philadelphia, Biden has won at least 177,400 or 57.5% votes compared to Clinton’s 140,188 or 52.6% in 2016. In neighboring Delaware county, Biden has won 62% or 196,000 votes, compared to Clinton’s 59.4% or 169,169 votes.

Both Delaware and Chester counties elected anti-fracking representatives to the state congress in 2016 amid growing opposition to the controversial Mariner East gas pipeline.

Food & Water Action Executive Director Wenonah Hauter said in a statement: “Joe Biden has an opportunity to take the decisive action necessary to tackle our climate crisis with the urgency it requires. ... A real transition to a clean energy future can and must begin with a halt to new fracking - first on federal lands, and everywhere else soon after.”

Biden's lead in Arizona slightly narrows

Maricopa county, the most populous county in Arizona, has just released a new batch of ballots.

With the latest update, Joe Biden’s vote number in Maricopa stands at 972,570, while Donald Trump is at 912,115. That represents a slight decrease in Biden’s lead from a day earlier.

As a reminder, the AP (and the Guardian along with it) have already called Arizona for Biden, but some networks are still waiting to make a determination. The president’s team has continued to insist he can still take the lead.

Election analyst Nate Cohn said he does not believe the latest batch of ballots will be enough for Trump to be on track to win Arizona.

Despite reports that Donald Trump will refuse to concede if the presidential race is called for Joe Biden, a top White House adviser said there would be a peaceful transfer of power.

“I think there will be a peaceful transfer of power,” economic adviser Larry Kudlow told CNBC this morning.

“This is a great country, this is the greatest democracy in the world, and we abide by the rule of law and so will this president,” Kudlow added.

But the White House adviser said there some things to “clear up” in the presidential race, even as election officials in multiple battleground states have voiced confidence in the integrity of their vote counts.

Asked about the possibility that Donald Trump won’t concede, Joe Biden’s campaign pointed to a statement they made earlier this summer, indicating this is a scenario they’ve long anticipated.

“As we said on July 19th, the American people will decide this election,” said spokesman Andrew Bates. “And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House.”

With Biden on the verge of victory, as his lead in Pennsylvania grows, Donald Trump’s reelection campaign is waging a legal campaign in numerous states, though many experts, and some Republicans, have conceded they are unlikely to succeed.

The US constitution does not require a candidate to concede to his opponent, but it is a long-held tradition in American politics and viewed as a marker of a peaceful transition of power.

Georgia secretary of state confirms there will be a recount

Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, has confirmed there will be a recount in the state.

“There will be a recount in Georgia,” Raffensberger said in Atlanta, promising transparency in the process.

Given how close the presidential race is in Georgia, it was expected that the state would conduct a recount.

As of now, Joe Biden leads Donald Trump by just 1,579 votes in Georgia, representing a virtual tie.

The recount will also have huge implications for control of the US Senate. As of now, Republican incumbent David Perdue’s vote share in his race has dipped below 50%, which would force a January runoff.

The other Georgia Senate race is already headed to a runoff. If both Georgia seats are up for grabs in January, it’s possible Democrats could take control of the Senate if they won both those races and the White House.

Updated

There have been reports that Ivanka Trump was viewed as someone who could reason with her father if it became clear Joe Biden had won the presidential race.

However, the president’s eldest daughter is showing no sign of giving up the fight.

“Every legally cast vote should be counted. Every illegally cast vote should not. This should not be controversial,” Trump said in a tweet.

Of course, her father has called for stopping the count of valid ballots in states like Pennsylvania, as the results there moved against him. The president has also pushed baseless allegations of voter fraud.

Andrew Bates, the director of rapid response for Joe Biden’s campaign, was asked about reports that Donald Trump does not intend to concede if he is declared the loser in the presidential race.

“As we said on July 19th, the American people will decide this election,” Bates said. “And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House.”

CNN reports:

In conversations with allies in recent days, President Trump has said he has no intention to concede the election to Joe Biden, even if his path to a second term in office is effectively blocked by losses in places like Georgia and Pennsylvania.

Aides, including his chief of staff Mark Meadows, have not attempted to bring Trump to terms of what’s happening and have instead fed his baseless claim that the election is being stolen from him.

Trump’s allies have grown concerned that someone is going to have to reckon with the President that his time in office is potentially coming to an end, though they have not decided who should be the one to do it. There has been talk of potentially Jared Kushner or Ivanka Trump doing so, sources said.

Updated

The turnout in Philadelphia has been key to Joe Biden taking the lead in Pennsylvania, and the remaining ballots from the city are expected to help the Democratic nominee build upon his lead.

After Biden took the lead in Pennsylvania, some on Twitter started resharing videos of Donald Trump saying during the first presidential debate, “Bad things happen in Philadelphia, bad things.”

Donald Trump has weighed in on his likely loss in Pennsylvania by once again spreading baseless concerns about the integrity of the vote count in Philadelphia.

“Philadelpiha has got a rotten history on election integrity,” Trump said in a tweet, attributing the quote to Stuart Varney of Fox Business.

There are only so many ways I can say this: there is absolutely no evidence of widespread fraud in the presidential election.

Even Pennsylvania’s Republican senator, Pat Toomey, has disputed the president’s claims of fraud.

“The president’s speech last night was very disturbing to me because he made very, very serious allegations without any evidence to support it,” Toomey said this morning.

Pennsylvania has posted the results of about 3,000 additional ballots in Bucks county, and Joe Biden’s lead has slightly grown to 6,737 votes.

The AP has not yet declared a winner in Pennsylvania, but the remaining ballots in the state are expected to be very favorable for Biden.

As of now, Biden has a lead of 0.1% over Donald Trump in Pennsylvania.

Joe Biden has pulled ahead in Pennsylvania, and some residents of Philadelphia are celebrating that news by dancing in the streets.

We are still awaiting additional results from Philadelphia, which are expected to help Biden expand upon his lead.

CNN’s Abby Phillip said Joe Biden’s potential victory represents “a proving moment” for the political strength of African American women.

“Carrying Joe Biden to the Democratic nomination through the primary: Black women did that,” Phillip said.

The CNN correspondent noted the historic nature of Biden choosing a Black woman, Kamala Harris, as his running mate.

“Not only would Black women put Joe Biden in the White House, but they would also put a Black woman in the White House as well, and that is the sort of historical poetry that I think we will live with for a long time,” Phillip said.

She added, “Donald Trump’s political career began with the racist birther lie; it may very well end with a Black woman in the White House.”

Fox News may soon declare Joe Biden to be the winner of the presidential race, but the network’s anchors have been instructed not to refer to the Democratic nominee as the “president-elect,” according to CNN.

Trump campaign: 'This election is not over'

Donald Trump speaks in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, DC on November 5, 2020.
Donald Trump speaks in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, DC on November 5 2020. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

Joe Biden appears to be on track to win Pennsylvania -- and the presidency along with it -- but Donald Trump’s reelection campaign is not going gently into that good night.

“This election is not over,” Matt Morgan, the campaign’s general counsel, said in a statement. “The false projection of Joe Biden as the winner is based on results in four states that are far from final.”

In reality, Biden is currently at 264 electoral votes based on calls from the AP that the Democratic nominee has amassed insurmountable leads in certain states.

“There were many irregularities in Pennsylvania, including having election officials prevent our volunteer legal observers from having meaningful access to vote counting locations,” Morgan said.

In reality, there is no evidence of widespread fraud in any state, and Trump advisers were allowed to observe the vote-counting process in Pennsylvania. The campaign has been generally vague about what “meaningful access” looks like.

“Finally, the President is on course to win Arizona outright, despite the irresponsible and erroneous ‘calling’ of the state for Biden by Fox News and the Associated Press,” Morgan said. “Biden is relying on these states for his phony claim on the White House, but once the election is final, President Trump will be re-elected.”

Once again, no. Although other outlets have not made a determination on Arizona, the AP and Fox have both said they are standing by their calls. More importantly, even if Trump were to win Arizona, Biden would still have more than 270 electoral votes if he wins Pennsylvania.

But the statement could indicate the stance the president will take if Biden is declared the official winner of the race.

Updated

As Joe Biden is on the cusp of victory in the presidential race, some Democrats are reflecting on their friends and colleagues who did not live to see this day.

Hillary Clinton reshared a 2016 tweet from John Lewis, the congressman and civil rights icon who died in July, and said, “He would be proud today.”

The Guardian’s senior political reporter Daniel Strauss sends the latest from Wilmington, Delaware:

I’m here in Wilmington, Delaware, where press and the larger American political universe are waiting for Joe Biden to potentially declare victory later today after extended vote-counting.

Journalists and additional secret service staff have gathered here, anticipating Biden will get the remaining electoral votes he needs to pass the 270 threshold and win the presidential race.

Biden took a lead in the counting of outstanding ballots in Pennsylvania and Georgia on Friday morning. The Biden campaign itself was quiet, but Biden allies began to declare victory.

“The American people have spoken clearly. Voters across the country stood up, made their voices heard and chose Joe Biden to lead us toward a better future,” said Guy Cecil, the chairman of the Priorities USA super pac.

The AP has not yet declared a winner in the presidential election, but that is not stopping Joe Biden’s team from celebrating.

From Biden’s digital director:

The tweet is a bit tongue in cheek because, back in May, Donald Trump’s then-campaign manager Brad Parscale compared the re-election operation to the Death Star, which of course was blown up in Star Wars: A New Hope.

Updated

Still no official call from the AP, but the federal government appears to be preparing for a presidential transition.

From Julian Borger, the Guardian’s world affairs editor:

This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.

At least one outlet has already called Pennsylvania -- and the presidency along with it – for Joe Biden, but we are awaiting the official word from the AP.

CNN has similarly said it is waiting to make a projection in Pennsylvania, so multiple outlets seem to be waiting on another batch of ballots from Pennsylvania before making a call.

With Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes, Biden would surpass the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.

Updated

Biden takes lead in Pennsylvania

The latest numbers to come out of Pennsylvania have put Joe Biden in a narrow lead of 5,587 votes.

The race is incredibly close, with Biden on 3,295,319 votes, and Trump on 3,289,725.

There are fewer than 150,000 votes left to count in the state, which is worth 20 Electoral College votes.

If Biden were to carry Pennsylvania, it would put the White House out of Donald Trump’s reach – pending the possibility of a supreme court case which could potentially disqualify any ballots which were postmarked on or before election cay, but which arrived on the three days after the election. Currently these are being included in the count, but kept separate in cases they are later struck out.

Biden leads narrowly in Georgia and Nevada, as well as Pennsylvania.

He also has a lead in Arizona – which has been called for Biden by the Associated Press and by Fox News – but which the Trump campaign believe they will still win.

Updated

Donald Trump ally Jason Miller remains vexed that Fox News and Associated Press have called Arizona for Biden. The Trump campaign are still convinced they’ve got the state in the bag, not the Democratic nominee.

Lois Beckett reported for us earlier how their coverage of this election has prompted a backlash against Fox News from Trump supporters.

If Biden were to carry Pennsylvania, it would put the White House out of Donald Trump’s reach – pending the possibility of a supreme court case which could potentially disqualify any ballots which were postmarked on or before Election Day, but which arrived on the three days after the election. Currently these are being included in the count, but kept separate in cases they are later struck out.

Updated

Joe Biden won the nomination for president on the shoulders of older Black voters in the US south. But how do younger, progressive people of color feel about his candidacy in the southern state of Georgia, in play for the first time in decades? And will a dangerous campaign of QAnon disinformation have any bearing on the outcome of the election? Oliver Laughland and Tom Silverstone try to find out in the latest episode of our Anywhere But Washington video series, filmed just before the election.

It always looked likely that there was going to be considerable legal action around this election. Pennsylvania has been at the heart of a lot of it. John Yoo has an op-ed over at Fox News, outlining the case that means there is going to be a question mark over that Pennsylvania result when it eventually comes. He writes:

The mail-in ballots received after Election Day and Friday this week in Pennsylvania and accepted under the order of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court could decide the winner of the presidential race in that state, even if the winner prevails by a very small number of popular votes.

It is at this point that Trump has a strong case pending in the US supreme court. His campaign and the Republican Party of Pennsylvania can challenge the vote in the state on the grounds that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court unconstitutionally interfered with the state legislature’s sole authority over the time, place, and manner of federal elections and over the selection of presidential electors.

That’s the crux of it. If the supreme court decides the extension was unconstitutional, then all the ballots that arrived between the close of polling 3 November and 6 November will be struck off. They are currently being counted, but held as segregated to facilitate this if it is necessary.

Read it here – you’ll thank me later when this case drags on for weeks but you actually understand what it is about: John Yoo – Trump-Biden presidential race could be decided by Pennsylvania case before Supreme Court

Updated

Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has just made his first statement since Trump’s tirade last night. McConnell says:

It could be read as a slight rebuke to Trump’s declaration that he has won, although, as we have seen, the Republican definition of an ‘illegally-submitted ballot’ appears to be drawn quite widely. Especially by the president.

Ronna McDaniel, the Chair of the Republican National Committee, has also been tweeting this morning. She describes it as ‘Unreal!’ that “less than 48 hours after polls closed in an actual presidential election, [Democrats and media] want to ignore clear irregularities and rush to call states as won.”

If she thinks that is bad, she’ll be absolutely furious when she finds out that one of the candidates for president has already given a national address saying “I easily win”, “I’ve already decisively won” and “we won by historic numbers”.

Edward Helmore reports for us on how markets and business are reacting to slowly unfolding election results:

Wall Street is supposed to hate uncertainty but as the fight over the presidential contest continues, investors couldn’t be happier.

If, as appears likely, Joe Biden wins, he will become the first president since George HW Bush to enter office without control of both the House and Senate – an outcome that indicates at least two years of legislative gridlock.

It’s a scenario Wall Street appears to love. One that may give Republicans in the Senate little incentive to enact a new, larger coronavirus stimulus package that Democrats have hoped for and the power to block tax increases, big spending programs and tougher regulations.

Read more here: ‘The risks are now off the table’: Wall Street looks forward to Biden presidency

Texas’s Republican Gov. Greg Abbott was critical overnight of the speed of the counting in some states, saying that it “undermines trust in elections”.

However, the Washington Post’s Aaron Blake is pointing out just why it is taking longer in some states – because Republicans opposed the measures that would have sped the process up.

Updated

While the election is obviously the main focus of American politics at the moment, it should be noted that it has taken place in a pandemic, and one that appears to be getting worse.

Yesterday, the US reported its highest ever recorded level of new coronavirus cases – 121,888. There were 1,210 Covid deaths.

It beats the previous record of 102,832, set a day earlier.

As Anthony Scaramucci – who was briefly the White House director of communications – has just pointed out, whatever the outcome of the election, the Trump administration will remain in charge of the nation’s coronavirus response until 20 January.

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Updated

Miles Parks writes for NPR today about how Donald Trump has latched on to conspiracies as his legal battles fail and his possible paths to victory narrow. He talks to Justin Levitt, an election law professor at Loyola Law School.

[Trump] claimed that election officials don’t want any election observers in Pennsylvania. In reality, his campaign and lawyers representing Philadelphia sparred over how many election observers should be watching at one time, and how far away they needed to stay from officials who were counting ballots. Observers from political parties are a normal part of the counting process, and officials never tried to argue that Republicans should not be allowed to watch.

Still, the Trump campaign tried to use the issue to argue that the counting of ballots in the city should be halted, a request a federal judge denied. Similar requests were denied in Michigan, and in Georgia earlier in the day.

“It seems like the relief the Trump campaign keeps asking is patently ridiculous,” said Levitt. “They keep saying ‘stop the count!’ and the courts keep saying no.”

Trump on Thursday said he thinks the election may end up decided by the supreme court. That’s a possibility Levitt, and other legal experts, dismiss as “increasingly unlikely”.

“Before [the election], I thought voters would decide this election, not the courts,” Levitt said. “And with every passing day, I think that’s more true.”

The ongoing litigation is not about actually affecting the results at this point, Levitt added, but instead about shaping a narrative or “retroactively bending reality” to fit Trump’s false claims about voting.

“No, I’ll discount that to 90% of it — because at least 10% of it is the ability to keep fundraising.”

Read it here: NPR – Trump latches on to conspiracies, as legal battles fail and path to win narrows

Updated

Joe Biden, the US Democratic presidential challenger, has edged closer to the White House after dramatically overtaking Donald Trump’s vote tally in Georgia for the first time and further closing the gap in Pennsylvania.

By Friday morning in the US, Biden had moved to a 1,097-vote advantage in Georgia with thousands of ballots still left to be counted – many in counties where the former vice-president was in the lead.

The Georgia secretary of state reported late on Thursday there were about 10,000 ballots still to be counted in the state, a must-win for Trump in order to keep any chances of re-election alive in the race for the 270 electoral college votes that will determine the presidency.

Biden’s narrow lead late in the Georgia count came as he urged calm on Thursday night, after an inflammatory and falsehood-filled Trump address from the White House where the president once again claimed he had won.

The latest voting figures were disclosed as an increasingly frantic Trump and his campaign continued to undermine confidence in the election, threatening a rash of litigation amid unfounded claims of election rigging.

With Georgia slipping away from his grasp, Trump’s path to a victory in the electoral college appeared to be closing as election workers in undeclared states including Pennsylvania, Nevada and Arizona continued to count ballots.

Read our latest full election round-up from Julian Borger and Peter Beaumont: Joe Biden inches closer to White House as US election reaches climax

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We’ve been telling people for two months. Guess what? It’s not going to be Tuesday night or Wednesday

That is Georgia’s voting system implementation manager Gabriel Sterling, who has been on the airwaves this morning. He says that Georgia still has 8,197 absentee ballots left to count - with a small bit of early vote in that mix. Currently Joe Biden leads Georgia by 1,097, which would flip it from the Republican victory in 2016.

But, he also had this to say, that vote counting is a process, and they won’t be done yet:

This is a process. There are ballots for military and overseas – they come in today. There’ll be hundreds of Republicans and Democrat operatives around the state finding people to cure their absentees, or to verify their provisional votes. Because this vote counting will continue as we follow the laws in this state.

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Joe Biden almost dropped out of the race to become the Democratic presidential nominee this year after several disappointing results in early voting states – until black voters in South Carolina delivered him a resounding win.

And while the race between Biden and Donald Trump remains too close to call, it appears Black Americans once again stepped up to give the Democrat the backbone of his support, especially in key battleground states including Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Record turnout among African American voters could be the difference between a Biden win and a Biden loss.

“What we’re all re-learning, both the pundits in DC and uninspired Black voters, is the value of our net worth when we show up at the ballot box,” said Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist in South Carolina. “Even when we’re suppressed, depressed, or misinformed, we still show up.”

According to exit poll data, Black voters overwhelmingly backed the Democratic candidate by a margin of 87% to Donald Trump’s 12%. But Seawright had “been saying Black voters will decide the election since 2017”, last predicting South Carolina’s loyal Black moderates would propel Biden to victory in the state’s February Democratic primary.

With ballots still being counted, mail-in or absentee ballots from Democratic-leaning counties, most with large Black populations, are likely to be the deciding factor in who becomes the next US president, amplifying the power of the Black electorate.

Analysts pinpoint a surge in turnout among young people of all races, but especially Black Americans.

Read more of Kenya Evelyn’s report from Milwaukee here: How young, Black voters lifted Biden’s bid for the White House

Joe Biden is inching closer to victory in Georgia. The latest votes tally has both candidates tightly matched, but with Biden 1,097 ahead.

Steve Kornacki has just given this update on the count in Pennsylvania, and a bit of useful background on why the numbers are falling as they are.

First of all, on the count, he says there are about 160,000 uncounted mail ballots in Pennsylvania. On average ,Biden is winning about 75% of that mail vote. Donald Trump leads by 18,000. So, if Biden is on course to get 120,000 of those remaining votes, it would see him win the state.

Why? Kornacki explains:

In Pennsylvania, you had two options. If you wanted to vote, you could vote by mail or you could go in and vote in person on election day. They didn’t have the early voting centres in Pennsylvania.

He went on to say that before the election, asking voters in Pennsylvania if they were intending to vote early, 79% of those who were said they would vote Biden. The people who voted on election day, he said, were “disproportionately Republicans”. Those in-person votes were counted first, now they are counting the mail-in votes.

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Trump supporters across the US increasingly say they no longer trust Fox News, the Rupert Murdoch-owned TV network that has acted as one of the president’s staunchest allies in past years.

As Fox News announced more state-level victories for Joe Biden on Wednesday, Trump supporters across the country grew more vocal in their frustration with the network. Some say they have shifted their allegiance to media outlets that lean even further right, such as One America News, which employs a prominent conspiracy theorist as one of its correspondents.

In Arizona, pro-Trump demonstrators who massed outside an election facility in Phoenix chanted: “Fox News sucks!” A man in Nevada screamed the same slogan repeatedly in the background of a live news feed there.

In Detroit, as Trump supporters chanted “Stop the count!” outside a ballot-counting location, the news that Fox had just called Michigan for Biden had little effect on the demonstration.

“Fox, you can’t even trust them,” said Rob Phail, 51, from South Lyon, Michigan, who had been leading the chants. “They’re the worst chameleons of all. So you’re like, OK, who do you trust?”

Asked whom he would trust to confirm the actual results of the election, he said: “Trump.”

Read more of Lois Beckett’s report here: ‘Fox News sucks!’: Trump supporters decry channel as it declares Biden wins

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If your question is “Why am I seeing different results on different TV channels and websites”, your answer is almost certainly “Because Arizona.”

The US president is elected by winning at least 270 electoral college votes, not the outcome of the popular vote – which Joe Biden is dominating. Because there is no centralised federal election system, it has become tradition in the US that “decision desks” at media organisations make a call that states have been won by one candidate or the other when enough votes have been counted. States that are too close to call – such as Nevada and Georgia at the moment – remain in the balance until a network “calls” them.

The Guardian uses the data collected and analysed by the Associated Press (AP) news agency as the source for when we will call election results. There are a number of other highly reputable election decision desks in US media, including NBC, Fox News and others. They may call races earlier or later than AP. US networks obviously use the decisions from their own desks – other channels and news websites may chose to follow one, or wait for two or more desks to call a state before they count it.

This year, Arizona has brought this into sharp relief. Our total of 264 electoral votes for Joe Biden includes the fact that AP has called Arizona for the Democratic nominee. So has Fox News – attracting the ire of the Trump campaign. Not all decision desks have yet. That’s why you’ll see 253-214 on the New York Times, BBC and other places.

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Key events so far…

  • The US presidential race remains too close to call. Joe Biden holds a popular vote lead of more than 3.8m, and according to the calls of the Associated Press is just six electoral college votes away from victory.
  • Biden has taken a slim lead in Georgia, one of five states yet to be called.
  • To become president, Biden needs to win TWO out of Arizona, North Carolina, Nevada and Georgia or win Pennsylvania.
  • Although Associated Press and Fox News have called Arizona for Biden, the Donald Trump campaign strongly believe that Arizona is still in play and Biden’s lead can be caught there when all the votes are tallied.
  • Trump needs to win THREE out of Arizona, North Carolina, Nevada and Georgia AND win Pennsylvania. It’s not impossible, but it looks like an uphill battle at the moment.
  • Trump spewed a series of lies during an evening press conference at the White House. After the president falsely declared victory, several TV news networks cut away.
  • Biden has urged calm. “We have no doubt that when the count is finished, Senator Harris and I will be declared the winners,” he said earlier today. “I ask everyone to stay calm.”

Updated

Trump’s Twitter back catalogue remains the gift that keeps on giving.

Politico has a piece looking at the people who are looking to have had a very bad election indeed – polling companies:

The pollsters got Donald Trump wrong — again.

When all the votes are tallied, Joe Biden isn’t going to win the popular vote by double digits. Trump lost Wisconsin by a point, not the 17-point defeat one survey suggested. And Trump obviously didn’t go down in an election night landslide, as some polls suggested would happen.

It wasn’t just the public polls that suggested Tuesday would be a big Democratic night. Much of the private polling on which both parties rely suggested Biden would win solidly, and they expected Democrats to benefit down the ballot.

Now that it hasn’t happened, pollsters are wondering whether their methods are fundamentally broken — or just unable to measure Trump’s support, specifically.

“This is not just a few public pollsters out there that missed it. This is something that is unique to this election,” said Patrick Murray, who runs the Monmouth University Polling Institute. “It just seems to be that if the name ‘Donald Trump’ is on the ballot, all bets are off when it comes to the polls being right.”

There’s little evidence that poll respondents are lying, however. More pollsters believe it’s actually a difficulty reaching voters more likely to support Trump in the first place, either because they’re harder to find or are less likely to take phone surveys even if reached.

Read more here: Politico – The polling industry blows it again

There are several reasons presidents cry. Anyone who has ever had one and been up half the night with it – or all the night with it, night after night – can tell you this. Sometimes presidents cry because they’re tired, sometimes they cry because they need their nappy changed, sometimes they cry because they don’t want you to leave them, sometimes they cry because they have a gnawing pain in their tummy, and sometimes they cry because they’re just being impossible that day and you should probably go to bed and leave them to it but somehow you just can’t.

To anyone going through it currently: this phase will pass. Of course, a crying president demands incredible amounts of attention, and while you’re in the thick of it, consumed by this, it might feel like it will never stop, or at least you won’t make it out. There are many moments in the small hours where you stare at this crying thing and think wryly: wow, what happened to my life? I think I vaguely remember when it wasn’t like this.

The television news – I like to think of it as the president monitor, lighting up each time he needs attention – has been on what feels like pretty much constantly in our house since 2016, the year that Trump won (and the UK began its own extended period of toddler meltdown). A child’s formative years are so precious, and I’m sure our children will benefit enormously from all the times I’ve said “Shhhh, I’m watching the president”, or occasionally even been forced to momentarily stop watching the president to deliver a behavioural verdict. “I know why you’re acting up – it’s to get my attention away from the president acting up. Well, it won’t work.”

Read more of Marina Hyde’s column here: What to do when your president has a temper tantrum

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Trump could lose more than just the presidency this January. Twitter has confirmed that, if he leaves office in January, as seems increasingly likely, he will no longer receive special treatment as a “newsworthy individual”.

Twitter’s policy around newsworthiness protects certain people – such as elected officials with more than 250,000 followers – from having their accounts suspended or banned for rule infractions that would otherwise lead to severe penalties.

That policy is what has led to the company muting, but not removing, 12 tweets and counting from the president over the past week, as he continues to break the social network’s rules about casting doubt on the democratic process.

But, Twitter has confirmed, the policy does not apply to former elected officials. They have to follow the same rules as everyone else, and if a tweet breaks those rules, it gets removed – with the account potentially following for regular offenders.

That will present Trump with a choice, if he is indeed removed from office in late January: either tone down the rhetoric, just as the humiliation bites hardest, or face the prospect of his hugely influential following being taken away from him.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is heaping praise on Stacey Abrams and activists’ groups in Georgia for the result it looks like they could be pulling off to flip the state blue.

She also points out that maybe Washington DC could change the way she says it treats those states that appear to be handing Joe Biden the keys to the White House.

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In a move that you suspect will get short shrift whoever ends up in the White House on 20 January next year, Reuters report that Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has said that whoever wins should end American interference in the internal affairs of her city and China overall.

She accused the Trump administration of repeatedly interfering over the past year, citing US sanctions on officials including herself and the suspension of special trading conditions previously granted to Hong Kong.

“That is totally unreasonable,” she said at a news conference wrapping up a four-day visit to Beijing. “I hope that they will come back to normalcy and accept that the relationship has to be built on mutual respect and cooperation.”

The US took issue earlier this year with China’s enactment of a national security law for Hong Kong which was designed in part to snuff out pro-democracy protests that rocked the city for months last year.

Also having their say today was the German foreign minister, Heiko Maas, who has said in an interview: “The US is more than a one-man show. Those who continue to add fuel to the fire in the current situation are acting irresponsibly.”

He also said that “good losers are more important for the working of democracy than great winners”.

Sounds like he’s maybe not that fussed about still being on Donald Trump’s Christmas card list.

Updated

Here’s where we stand at the moment in four of the key races – all of which have enough votes left to count that they could potentially still switch hands once everything is actually counted.

Last night, president Trump described Detroit, alongside Philadelphia, as “two of the most corrupt political places anywhere in our country, easily”. He also said of the city: “I wouldn’t say has the best reputation for election integrity.”

And yet it appears he has performed better there this time around than in 2016 …

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You’ll see Stacey Abrams’ name mentioned a lot in connection with Georgia today, for the work that she has been doing in the state with organising for the Democratic party.

Stacey Abrams speaks at a Get Out the Vote rally Atlanta, Georgia the day before the election.
Stacey Abrams speaks at a Get Out the Vote rally Atlanta, Georgia the day before the election. Photograph: Elijah Nouvelage/AFP/Getty Images

On MSNBC, Tia Mitchell, the Atlanta Journal’s Washington correspondent, explained why. She said:

I consider Stacey Abrams efforts twofold. When she ran for governor in 2018, she built a statewide ground game. She touched each of Georgia’s 159 counties. And so that was important, because she sent a message to Democrats,that they should and can compete statewide in Georgia. She came close, but we know she didn’t quite make it to victory. Then she spent the last two years building up organisations, protecting voter rights, voter access, voter registration. So that, of course, is engaging more voters, new voters, younger voters, a diverse coalition of voters. So those aspects together – she’s receiving a lot of credit for helping to get Georgia into a posture where it could flip blue.

You can watch it here: MSNBC – Stacey Abrams instrumental in Democratic success in Georgia

Anne Gearan had this for the Washington Post overnight on how “Trump’s attacks on vote counts seem to follow an authoritarian playbook”. The word ‘seem’ in that headline may be a little bit on the generous side, to be honest. Gearan writes:

President Trump is fond of the phrase “law and order,” which he sometimes tweets in all-caps as a succinct projection of strength and control. His relationship with the related concept of the “rule of law” is more complicated.

Trailing Democratic nominee Joe Biden in the unresolved presidential contest, Trump is pulling out a playbook perfected by Russian President Vladimir Putin and other authoritarians. It relies on sowing doubt about the institutions of law and government, spreading misinformation or outright lies that serve a leader’s political ends, and relying on a cadre of loyal supporters to believe what they are told, Putin scholars said.

Trump’s attempts to brand legal election practices as fraud and to use the courts — one pillar in the nation’s democratic architecture — to intervene in the counting of votes — another pillar — are the latest examples of what has long been his malleable view of the democratic system.

It’s a strong piece that directly compares the behaviour of the president of the United States of America with the modus operandi of Putin, and finds a lot of similarity in the two men’s approach to government.

Read more here: Washington Post – Trump’s attacks on vote counts seem to follow an authoritarian playbook

There’s a lot being made on social media that two of the states that Biden has possibly flipped to take the White House from Donald Trump are the home states of the late Sen John McCain, frequently on the receiving end of cruel barbs from the president, and the late Rep John Lewis, civil rights icon and an implacable opponent to Trump and to racism in American society.

It should be noted though that Georgia remains in ‘too close to call’ territory, and while the Associated Press and Fox News have called Arizona for Biden, the Trump team still have hopes of turning that particular race around as more votes are counted.

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Here’s Glenn Thrush at the New York Times on the how and why of that very slight Biden lead in Georgia:

The candidates had been locked in a virtual dead heat for much of Thursday, with each controlling about 49.4% of the vote, but with Trump maintaining a slight lead. As absentee ballots were counted early Friday, Biden pulled ahead with 917 more votes.

Flipping Georgia, a state last won by a Democrat in 1992, and where Trump won by more than 200,000 votes four years ago, would represent a significant political shift. But the state has shown signs of trending blue: When Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016, he did so by only five percentage points, a far slimmer margin than Republicans enjoyed in previous presidential elections.

Biden’s late surge in this year’s count – thanks to his dominance in Atlanta, Savannah and the increasingly Democrat-friendly suburbs around both – transformed what had seemed to be a safe Trump state in early tabulations on Tuesday into one of the closest contests in the nation.

Updated

John Legend, who performed in support of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania at a campaign rally just two days before the election, has this to say about Georgia – and you’ll want your sound up:

Legend has long been a vocal critic of the president, recently saying:

Now, some people see the meanness, the bullying, the selfishness of Donald Trump and they mistake it for strength, a kind of twisted masculinity. Some see his greed and they mistake it for being good at business.

Biden takes the lead in Georgia

The votes counted tally in Georgia now shows that Joe Biden has the lead in the state. A reminder: Biden needs to win TWO of Arizona, North Carolina, Nevada and Georgia or win Pennsylvania to reach the White House.

Fox News and Associated Press have already called Arizona for Biden – but not everybody has which is why you may be seeing different electoral college vote counts across different news services.

That doesn’t seal the state for Biden yet, and we may not get a call for a while.

Also worth bearing in mind – the votes being counted now are not late votes, they are most likely to be some of the earliest votes cast by mail in the state.

Updated

Vote counting is continuing in Pennsylvania as duelling protest groups gathered throughout the day yesterday outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center in the centre of Philadelphia.

The battleground state received 358,257 mail-in ballots and the count has resulted in the vote gap narrowing between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. There are around 200,000 votes still to be counted. Trump leads by around 18,000.

Here are some of the scenes around the country yesterday as vote counts continued in the crucial swing states.

Children and adults take part in a display of the “Count Every Vote” slogan in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Children and adults take part in a display of the “Count Every Vote” slogan in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Photograph: Jemal Countess/Getty Images for MoveOn
Adjudicators continue to check ballots at the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office Phoenix, Arizona.
Adjudicators continue to check ballots at the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office Phoenix, Arizona. Photograph: Rick D’Elia/EPA
Trump supporters protest outside the Clark County Election Department in Nevada.
Trump supporters protest outside the Clark County Election Department in Nevada. Photograph: David Becker/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock
NYPD police officers on the street during the ‘We Choose Freedom’ march in New York City.
NYPD police officers on the street during the ‘We Choose Freedom’ march in New York City. Photograph: Andrew H Walker/REX/Shutterstock
Election volunteers count absentee ballots in the swing state of Georgia in Fulton County.
Election volunteers count absentee ballots in the swing state of Georgia in Fulton County. Photograph: Nathan Posner/REX/Shutterstock
A man watches President Donald Trump speak from the White House on his phone at Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington DC.
A man watches President Donald Trump speak from the White House on his phone at Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington DC. Photograph: Samuel Corum/Getty Images

All eyes have been on Facebook and Twitter as social media vectors of disinformation during the election, but a watchdog finds that conspiracy theories and misinformation were also circulating widely on TikTok before their removal. Kari Paul reports:

TikTok has emerged as an unexpected source of misinformation about the US election, with numerous inaccurate or misleading posts circulating as tech companies battle to contain falsehoods from Donald Trump and others.

“TikTok has in the past been a breeding ground for false reports that spread peer to peer,” said Angelo Carusone, the president of Media Matters and an expert on rightwing extremism and misinformation.

The report identified 11 examples of election misinformation on Wednesday that racked up more than 200,000 combined views before TikTok removed them. On Thursday, it found that videos pushing a Qanon-related conspiracy theory about ballots went viral, amassing more than 200,000 views in just a few hours before TikTok removed them for violating its misinformation policy.

Misinformation in these videos included false narratives that claimed ballots being counted for Joe Biden were fraudulent, and that poll workers were handing out markers to Trump voters so their votes would go uncounted.

Some of the content originated from young Republican influencers on TikTok: two pro-Trump pages called Republican Hype House and The Republican Boys echoed Trump’s rhetoric in claiming the election was being stolen. TikTok cracked down on the accounts, flagging some of the videos and leading one of the accounts to post an apology on Wednesday, promising to post less frequently to ensure it does not get deplatformed by TikTok.

“We’re working diligently to protect the integrity of our platform as the election cycle continues,” TikTok said in a statement. “We’re removing election misinformation as it’s identified – proactively through automated technology and human investigations, and reactively via reports from our users and partners.”

Read more here: TikTok – false posts about US election reach hundreds of thousands

Our Politics Weekly Extra podcast is out this morning, and as nail-biting as the US presidential election has been, Jonathan Freedland and Lauren Gambino have also been following the battle for control of Congress. They discuss the latest in both races, where the Democrats were hoping for the “blue wave” to crash over the Senate, and that very much didn’t happen.

What Trump and Biden need to win

I know many of you must have your heads spinning with the possible permutations. Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden can still win the election. Here’s what they each need to do …

Joe Biden
Biden needs to win TWO of Arizona, North Carolina, Nevada and Georgia or win Pennsylvania.

Donald Trump
Trump needs to win THREE of Arizona, North Carolina, Nevada and Georgia AND win Pennsylvania.

You can see that it is an uphill battle for the president, his lead in Georgia is now down to 463.

Updated

Here’s an update on the count situation in Georgia from CBS News. They report:

The two counties with the largest number of ballots left to count were Gwinnett, with 4,800 ballots and Clayton, with 4,355. By 2am some counties had ceased counting for the night – but not Clayton county, part of the home district of the late John Lewis, where Biden is winning roughly 85% of the vote to Mr Trump’s 14%. With 95% of its vote in, Clayton county was still turning in batches of votes, a couple hundred at a time and some people, including former senator Claire McCaskill, seemed pleased by the idea that it was a county represented by the late civil rights icon that just might put Biden over the top in Georgia.

Clayton county superviser of elections Shauna Dozier told CNN that as of 1.27am, Clayton county had 3,500 absentee ballots to count out of 30,000 absentee ballots that had been accepted in the county.

“We’re going to stay here until every single absentee ballot is counted,” Dozier told CNN. “ We’re doing our best to get every vote counted,” she continued, adding that she believes the county will be completed within hours and asks the community for patience.

Iconic civil rights leader and Democratic congressman John Lewis died in July, aged 80.

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Often when Donald Trump gives rambling public speeches like last night, people suggest that he has gone off-script or off-message. But this incredible picture of his press secretary Kayleigh McEnany shows the extent to which he was reading a prepared statement.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany closes a notebook Donald Trump used after he spoke at the White House.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany closes a notebook Donald Trump used after he spoke at the White House. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP

You can even zoom in and see the bits which, like his tweets, are in ALL CAPS for emphasis.

A close-up of the Donald Trump speech.
A close-up of the Donald Trump speech. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP

It seemed like a desperate last stand from a fearful strongman who can feel power slipping inexorably away.

The US president on Thursday returned to the White House briefing room, scene of past triumphs such as that time he proposed bleach as a cure for coronavirus and that other time he condemned QAnon with the words “They like me.”

Trump offered a downright dangerous and dishonest take on this week’s election that vote counting trends suggest he will lose. It was possibly an attempt to intimidate and deter TV networks from declaring a winner in the next few hours.

It also risked inciting protests and violence from supporters encouraged to view Joe Biden as an illegitimate president-elect.

Sombre and downbeat, Trump made false claims from a prepared statement (is that better or worse than ad-libbing lies?)

“If you count the legal votes, I easily win,” he said with a straight face. “If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us. If you count the votes that came in late – we’re looking at them very strongly, a lot of votes came in late.”

It was a bold, dramatic claim with massive implications and absolutely no foundation.

Having often dismissed the significance of Vladmir Putin’s hackers’ meddling four years ago, Trump implied that opinion polls are a more sinister threat.

The president went on to throw in some racism for good measure, targeting Philadelphia and Detroit, both African American majority cities in the battlegrounds Pennsylvania and Michigan respectively.

You can read David Smith’s sketch of Trump’s press conference in full here: Trump may have broken his own record for most dangerous lies in one speech

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If you didn’t see Trump’s press conference last night, here’s a sum up of some of the false claims that he made, and why they are false.

‘We have so much evidence’

TRUMP: “We’re hearing stories that are horror stories … We think there is going to be a lot of litigation because we have so much evidence and so much proof.”

THE FACTS: Trump has produced no evidence of systemic problems in voting or counting.

Pennsylvania

TRUMP: “In Pennsylvania partisan Democrats have allowed ballots in the state to be received three days after the election and we think much more than that and they are counting those without any postmarks or any identification whatsoever.”

THE FACTS: The state supreme court, not “partisan Democrats”, ordered that ballots filled out before the end of election day could be received up to three days later and still be counted.

TRUMP: “Pennsylvania Democrats have gone to the state supreme court to try and ban our election observers’

THE FACTS: That is false. The president is wholly misrepresenting the court case. No one tried to ban poll watchers representing each side.

Michigan

TRUMP: “Our campaign has been denied access to observe any counting in Detroit.”

THE FACTS: That is false. Absentee ballots were counted at a downtown convention centre where 134 counting boards were set up. Each party was allowed one poll watcher per board.

Georgia

TRUMP: “The election apparatus in Georgia is run by Democrats.”

THE FACTS: False. The state’s elections are overseen by a Republican – the secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger.

Legality of votes

TRUMP: “If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.”

THE FACTS: This is baseless. Neither Trump’s campaign aides nor election officials have identified substantial numbers of “illegal” votes. He frequently speaks as if mail-in voting is illegitimate, but it has been done in accordance with state voting rules.

You can read fuller explanations here: Trump’s election results speech – the false claims

Updated

Here’s a reminder of the contrasting approaches of the two candidates last night. Joe Biden urged Americans to stay calm as the result remains unconfirmed. Donald Trump claimed, without evidence, ‘If you count the legal votes, I easily win’, declaring victory again in an election where votes are still being counted. In the popular vote, Trump trails Biden by more than 3.8m votes.

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The flurry of tweets that the president sent about 45 minutes ago were riddled with baseless assertions and falsehoods. Katy Tur did a 30-second takedown of Trump’s claims on MSNBC. Here’s what she said:

Let’s put that tweet up. That’s … none of that is true. None of that is true. Let’s be very clear about it. The legal votes cast are still being counted, and he is starting to lose, so that is not true. ‘The observers were not allowed in any way shape or form to do their job and therefore votes blah blah blah. There are election observers. Bi-partisan election observers in these elections offices watching the votes come in. That is completely not true. So the President is tweeting about it, yes, but what he is saying is not true.

MSNBC was among the networks that cut Trump’s speech last night as it became apparent that it would simply be full of false accusations.

Updated

You all just basically want to know when we’ll get a result, right?

Five states have yet to be called: Alaska, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Several news organizations, including the Associated Press and Fox News’ decision desk, have called Arizona for Joe Biden. The Trump campaign is arguing, however, that call was made too early.

Alaska will end up in the Republican column with near certainty.

In North Carolina, while Trump is the clear favourite, the state accepts postal ballots until 12 November – although that is expected to make little difference.

The race is extremely tight in Georgia. The latest tally has the race separated by around just 600 votes, with further tranches of ballots from Biden-leaning precincts expected before long.

It’s very close, but the sense of Biden coming from behind is an artificially constructed dynamic. Most of the mail-in votes being counted now were actually cast first.

There are about 200,000 ballots left to count in Pennsylvania, where Biden is trailing by just over 18,000 votes. He’s been winning the mail-in ballot counts by huge margins, and could very well take the state. Pennsylvania officials say they expect most votes will be counted by Friday.

Biden is ahead in Nevada, with only Democratic-leaning late postal ballots left to tally. But by state law, ballots postmarked on election day can be counted as long as they are received by 5pm on 10 November, which means counting in the state could continue through the weekend.

This is Martin Belam in London, taking over for Tom McCarthy.

Updated

Donald Trump sent three tweets about 20 minutes ago – that would be around 2.30am at the White House.

In one he warns that the two runoff US Senate elections in Georgia could throw the Senate to the Democrats if he does not win the presidency, making his win all the more important, he asserts.

When you are warning about two Democratic senate candidates winning runoff elections in Georgia, some people would say, that is an indication that you realize the desperation of your circumstance and are stretching ever further for an argument that will stick.

In any case, the importance of Trump’s win to any person or group of people does not matter, now, to the outcome. The votes and the die have been cast.

Trump also tweeted about “illegal votes”, employing caps lock, and wrote “Twitter is out of control,” a sentiment with which no citizen of the United States or indeed the globe could disagree.

Updated

Here’s further reaction from the media-sphere to Trump’s reckless and anti-democratic repetition earlier Thursday of his claim to have won the election and demand to stop counting votes:

Rick Santorum is a former two-term Republican senator from Pennsylvania who appears frequently on CNN:

What IS the sweet spot for election-results-reporting efficiency?

Be reminded that this kind of a wait for the result in Pennsylvania – meaning the wait for the overall result – never needed to happen. The bottleneck was created by the state’s Republican-led legislature’s refusal to allow local elections officials to begin processing mail-in ballots early in the middle of a pandemic. You can read more about that here.

When Trump illegitimately declared victory in the presidential election, again, on Thursday, several US news networks cut their feeds of the 16 minute speech, and numerous Republicans condemned the many falsehoods proclaimed in it, the Guardian’s Maanvi Sing and Max Benwell reported:

MSNBC halted its live stream of the speech just a few minutes in, with host Brian Williams saying: “Here we are again in the unusual position of not only interrupting the president of the United States but correcting the president of the United States.

“It was not rooted in reality – and at this point, where our country is, it’s dangerous.”

Elsewhere in TV land, Trump’s call to stop counting votes in Pennsylvania hit home on a personal basis for CNN anchor Jake Tapper:

Read further:

Late night, host Stephen Colbert got choked up in his monologue on Thursday describing the Trump news conference earlier in the day in which the president continued his assault on democracy by trying to deny the validity of hundreds of thousands of valid votes.

Explaining that he was wearing black because he suspected that Trump would launch such an assault, Colbert said, “We all knew he would do this,” continuing (at around 2:00):

What I didn’t know is that it would hurt so much...for him to cast a dark shadow on our most sacred right, from the briefing room in the White House, our House, not his. That is devastating.

Updated

US records record daily high for new Covid-19 infections

The United States recorded 102,830 new cases of Covid-19 on Thursday – a record daily high, and the second consecutive day the country recorded more than 100,000 infections.

According to the coronavirus resource center at Johns Hopkins University, the United States recorded 1,097 deaths from Covid-19 on Thursday.

The states that recorded the most new cases were Texas (9,509), Illinois (7,538), Wisconsin (5,936) and California (5,519). It’s an open question whether voting activity will emerge as a significant driver of new cases in the coming weeks.

A quick recap...

That’s all from me for now. My colleague Tom McCarthy will continue to bring live updates. Here’s a recap:

  • The US presidential race remains too close to call. We’ve been following along closely as elections officials continue to count ballots in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and North Carolina. Joe Biden currently holds a popular vote lead and is 6 electoral college votes away from victory.
  • Trump spewed a series of lies during an evening press conference at the White House. After the president falsely declared victory, several TV news networks cut away.
  • Of Trump’s allies, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie was the only one to (mildly) chastise the president for his inflammatory comments about the elections. “Show us the evidence,” he said on ABC News. “We heard nothing today about evidence.”
  • On Fox News, the Republican senators Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz amplified the president’s false narrative that the election is being stolen from him. Cruz, a Republican of Texas, baselessly alleged – as the president has done – that election officials are “finding” votes. In fact, they are counting votes.
  • In Georgia and Pennsylvania, Trump’s lead is slipping as more ballots are counted. In Georgia, Biden is trailing by about 1,700 votes. In Pennsylvania, where Biden is trailing by about 22,500 votes, secretary of state Kathy Boockvar said counting would continue into the evening.
  • Meanwhile, Biden’s lead in Arizona is slipping. The president is trailing his opponent by 47,000 votes. Voters in Arizona still have time to “cure” ballots that contain signature errors.
  • Biden has urged calm. “We have no doubt that when the count is finished, Senator Harris and I will be declared the winners,” he said earlier today. “I ask everyone to stay calm.”

The Secret Service is sending officers to ramp up protection for Joe Biden, the Washington Post reports:

The Secret Service is sending reinforcements to Wilmington, Del., starting Friday to help protect former vice president Joe Biden as his campaign prepares for the possibility he may soon claim victory in his bid for the White House, according to two people familiar with the plans.

The Secret Service summoned a squad of agents to add to the protective bubble around Biden after his campaign alerted the Secret Service the Democratic nominee would continue utilizing a Wilmington convention center at least another day and could make a major speech as early as Friday, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the security protocols.

Secret Service spokeswoman Catherine Milhoan declined to comment, stressing that the agency does not publicly discuss security planning for the president or candidates it protects.

Read more here.

Updated

Vote counts are still trickling in.

In Georgia, Joe Biden is trailing Donald Trump by 1,709 votes.

In Pennsylvania, Biden is trailing by 22,576 votes.

In Arizona, Trump is trailing Biden by 47,052 votes.

The races in all of these states remain extremely close.

Another Pennsylvania update: Trump’s lead over Biden has shrunk to 22,398 votes.

The two candidates are neck-and-neck, with Trump carrying 49.59% of the vote, and Biden carrying 49.26%.

Activists hold up flowers and signs stating “COUNT EVERY VOTE” across the street from where votes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Activists hold up flowers and signs stating “COUNT EVERY VOTE” across the street from where votes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Photograph: Mark Makela/Reuters

In Philadelphia, police are reportedly investigating a tip about an alleged plot to attack the Pennsylvania Convention Center, where officials are counting ballots.

6abc Action News reports that law enforcement took a man into custody. “Action News has learned that police got a tip about a group, possibly a family, driving up from Virginia in a Hummer to unleash an attack at the Convention Center,” the network reported.

No injuries have been reported. Read more here.

The Guardian has not yet independently verified the report.

In Arizona, hospitality workers with the Unite Here Local 11 union and other volunteers are planning to help voters “cure” ballots – fix any errors to make sure their votes are counted.

Since the AP, Fox News and other news organizations projected Biden the victor in Arizona on election night, the Democratic candidate’s lead has been shrinking as officials count mail-in ballots.

On Friday afternoon, faith leaders will hold a vigil for those who died during the coronavirus pandemic and offer thanks “prayerfully calling for peace and perseverance in the Holy work to build justice”, according to the union.

The union “activated 300 people to canvass through the hardships of a deadly pandemic and this summer’s record-breaking heat to knock on nearly 800,000 doors and have 200,000 conversations with voters, as well as make 2.5m phone calls,” per a statement.

Arizona law says a voter whose mail-in ballot has a mismatched signature has five business days after election day to fix the issue.

After House Democrats’ hopes of widening their margin in Congress were crushed, they erupted into a heated debate during a private conference call over whether the party’s push to the left cost them seats, the Washington Post reports:

Party leaders had expressed certainty that Trump’s divisiveness and mishandling of the pandemic would help them expand their majority with wins in GOP-held districts — and yet they lost at least a half-dozen seats and failed to retake the Senate. The explanation laid out by centrists, according to multiple people who were on the call and spoke on the condition of anonymity, is that Republicans were easily able to paint them all as socialists and radical leftists who endorse far-left positions such as defunding the police.

“We need to not ever use the word ‘socialist’ or ‘socialism’ ever again. . . . We lost good members because of that,” Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), who narrowly leads in her reelection bid, said heatedly. “If we are classifying Tuesday as a success . . . we will get f--ing torn apart in 2022.”

Other centrists, including Rep. Marc Veasey of Texas, made similar points. Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, a Florida Democrat who suffered an unexpected loss to a Republican challenger, argued through tears that the party’s infighting on Twitter needs to stop.

Liberals, meanwhile, fired back. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, argued that Democrats shouldn’t single out people and ideas that energize the party base. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), a self-described democratic socialist, grew angry, accusing her colleagues of only being interested in appealing to White people in suburbia.

“To be real, it sounds like you are saying stop pushing for what Black folks want,” she said.

Read more here.

Updated

Paths to US election victory

Paths to victory remain in the US presidential race for both Donald Trump and Joe Biden, but Biden has more ways to win and appears to be running stronger state to state, based on the places – cities, mainly – where large absentee votes have yet to be counted.

Biden leads the electoral college vote tally 264-214 after he was declared the winner in Michigan and Wisconsin on Wednesday and Trump gained one vote in Maine. Adding Alaska for Trump – which had not been called but where the result is not in doubt – gives the president 217.

From there, four states remained to be called: Nevada, North Carolina, Georgia, and Pennsylvania.

Trump’s paths

For Trump to find the 53 electoral votes he needs, he would need to win Pennsylvania, plus all three other states.

But a huge Democratic vote share remained to be tallied in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, meaning Trump could have difficulty hanging on to a narrow lead gained elsewhere in the state.

Biden’s paths

Biden has more paths to find his remaining six electoral votes. One path lies through Pennsylvania, which would net 20 votes.

Without Pennsylvania, Biden could win by winning Nevada, where he held a clear but narrow lead. A Biden victory in either of the two reddest states in the mix – Georgia or North Carolina – would almost certainly foretell wins elsewhere and a Biden victory.

Read more:

From Chris McGreal in Atlanta, Georgia:

Downtown Atlanta businesses have boarded up in fear of trouble when Georgia finally completes the count of presidential votes that has narrowed the president’s lead to just 1,775 votes. But when that will come remains highly uncertain amid counting problems in at least one county and the arrival of overseas and military ballots until 5pm on Friday.

Software issues in Gwinnett county have caused problems with the counting of about 4,400 absentee ballots and required additional adjudication of thousands more that delayed the process. County officials say they have worked through a lot of the ballots but they decline to discuss when it might be complete. However they are retaining staff until Sunday just in case.

Another county, Clayton, was expected to deliver the result of about 5,700 votes at around midnight. Clayton leans very strongly to Biden and could push him into the lead in Georgia. But there is no guarantee that he will keep it, particularly if more overseas and military ballots arrive on Friday after about 8,000 were delivered Thursday.

Groups of Trump supporters rallied outside the count inside Atlanta’s State Farm Arena on Thursday to back the president’s demand for a halt to the count or to “protect the vote”.

“I’ve been seeing and hearing a lot of things that are not being broadcast,” Kimberly Aikland told Georgia Public Radio. “I think this election is in jeopardy of being tampered with.”

But there was no trouble.

Updated

As in Arizona, pro-Trump protesters gathered outside State Farm arena in Atlanta while officials counted ballots.

Protesters stand outside of State Farm arena where election officials are counting ballots inside.
Protesters stand outside of State Farm arena where election officials are counting ballots inside. Photograph: Derek White/REX/Shutterstock

People carried signs that said “Four more years” and demanding a “fair” election.

Tom Haas, 50, told the AP, “There’s obvious voter fraud, and it’s coming out of the larger Democratic-run cities. Atlanta is one of them.”

Updated

Pennsylvania race grows tighter

Donald Trump’s lead has shrunk to just over 26,000 votes in Pennsylvania.

As batches of mail-in ballots are being processed, Joe Biden has been winning between 60% and 90 (or more) percent of the votes. Democrats in the state were more likely to vote by mail, while Republicans tended to favor in-person voting. That’s why Trump initially appeared to have a huge lead in Pennsylvania – in-person votes were counted first.

Officials only began processing mail-in or absentee ballots on election day, and have been working to count all of those votes as fast as possible since then.

Updated

Chris Christie is the first major Trump ally to (mildly) chastise the president for falsely claiming that the election is being stolen from him.

“Show us the evidence,” he said on ABC News. “We heard nothing today about evidence.”

The president has illegitimately claimed victory while calling for officials to stop counting votes.

“If you’re gonna say those things from behind the podium at the White House, it’s his right to do it, it’s his right to pursue legal action,” said the former New Jersey governor. “I want to know what backs up what he said so that I can analyze it. And let me tell you, if he’s right, I’ll be outraged and I’m sure you would be too.”

Meanwhile, top Republicans including Mitch McConnell, the Senate leader, have remained silent on the president’s undemocratic remarks. Others, including the Republican senators Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, have echoed the president’s lies and cast doubt over the legitimacy of the electoral races that Trump appears to be losing.

In Maricopa county, where Joe Biden’s lead over Donald Trump has been shrinking as election officials have continued to count ballots, a large group of rightwing, pro-Trump protesters has crowded outside a major elections center.

The far-right radio host Alex Jones, has joined protesters, some of whom were armed and some of whom identified as members of the white supremacist “boogaloo” movement. The protesters, who are clamoring for a Trump win, are actually slowing down election workers as they count ballots that seem to be favoring the president.

“Their being there actually is causing delay and disruption and preventing employees from doing their jobs,” Katie Hobbs, the Arizona secretary of state, told CNN.

In Georgia – the Senate races are tight as well

Democratic hopes of wrenching control of the Senate from Republicans received an unexpected boost as it seems likely that two key races in the southern state of Georgia may be headed to runoff races.

One of the races is definitely headed to a second round in January, while a second Georgia contest and races in North Carolina and Alaska remain undecided, leaving the chamber now deadlocked 48-48. An outcome may now not be known until the new year.

Republicans look likely to win in North Carolina and Alaska, but Democrats would undoubtedly focus huge amounts of energy and money on trying to win the Georgia runoffs. If both races did go to runoffs – and Democrats were to win them – it would leave the Senate split 50-50, with the vice-president serving as a tie-breaker.

If Joe Biden is in the White House, that would mean a vice-president Kamala Harris would be the deciding vote in the Senate. If Donald Trump wins a second term, then it would be Mike Pence, the current vice-president.

“We’re waiting – whether I’m going to be the majority leader or not,” Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, said Wednesday.

Counting continues in Georgia, where Republican David Perdue was trying to hold off Democrat Jon Ossoff in a multi-candidate race that could also go to a runoff if neither candidate clears the 50% threshold to win.

There already is a 5 January runoff in the state’s other Senate race. Republican senator Kelly Loeffler will face Democrat Raphael Warnock, a Black pastor at the church where the Rev Martin Luther King preached. Loeffler and Warnock were the top vote-getters in the race, but neither candidate was able to get a majority of the vote needed to win the seat outright.

In North Carolina, the Republican senator Thom Tillis hoped to prevail over Democrat Cal Cunningham, whose sexting affair with a public relations specialist has clouded the race. Republicans were confident they would keep Alaska, where Republican senator Dan Sullivan was faced a challenge by Democratic newcomer Al Gross, a doctor.

Winning the Senate is vital as America’s complex governmental system of checks and balances gives the upper chamber of congress immense power in limiting a president’s ability to get their legislative agenda passed as well as having influence on key administration and judicial appointment.

Read more:

Updated

On Fox News, the Republican senators Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz have been spreading the president’s false narrative that the election is being stolen from him.

Cruz, a Republican of Texas, baselessly alleged – as the president has done – that election officials are “finding” votes. In fact, they are counting votes. “Whenever they shut the doors and turn out the light they always find more Democratic votes,” Cruz said.

Cruz and Fox News’ Sean Hannity wrongly claimed that Republican observers were not allowed to watch the counting. The Trump campaign’s own lawyer admitted in a federal court that Republican observers were given access, as my colleague Sam Levine pointed out earlier today:

Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator of South Carolina, told Hannity, “I trust Arizona, I don’t trust Philadelphia.” While Trump is closing the gap in Arizona, he’s losing ground in Pennsylvania as officials in both states continue to count ballots.

Update on Steve Bannon, the former Trump adviser who called for violence against US officials:

A spokesperson for YouTube told the Guardian the video was removed for “violating our policy against inciting violence”, and that the account received a “strike”. (After three strikes, it would be terminated.)

Bannon is also banned from uploading new content for at least a week. Alex Joseph, the YouTube spokesperson, added, “We will continue to be vigilant as we enforce our policies in the post-election period.” Twitter permanently suspended his account.

Read more on Bannon:

Updated

Oliver Laughland reports from Florida:

I was in Miami, at an impromptu rally organized by the Republican National Hispanic Assembly of Florida, when Donald Trump delivered his White House remarks.

The rally was one of four “Stop the Biden Steal” events being held simultaneously in the state (a reference to baseless claims of voter fraud perpetuated by the president), and there were about 150 Trump supporters lined up in a car park by a roadside restaurant. Organizers placed a large speaker on the back of a truck, nestled by a yellow sign that read: “Stop Fraud”. Attendees listened, almost silently, as Trump espoused baseless claims in an attempt to undermine the outcome of the election.

“Four more years!” They chanted after Trump finished.

Shortly after the speech, Enrique Tarrio, the chair of the Proud Boys and the state director of Latinos for Trump, addressed the crowd, pushing more baseless conspiracies about the election. The Proud Boys are a far right organization with links to white supremacy.

“I want to ask you guys to stay in these streets,” he told the crowd after informing them he was traveling to Michigan on Friday, a state that has been a hotbed of militia activity in recent months. He then led the crowd in a chant of “Whose streets? Our streets!” – a common refrain of street protests around the world.

In a short interview with the Guardian afterwards, he labelled this reporter “fake news” and continued to push baseless allegations of election fraud.

Updated

There are about 250,000 ballots left to count in Pennsylvania.

Biden is trailing by just under 49,000 votes. He’s been winning the mail-in ballot counts by huge margins, and could very well take the state.

Pennsylvania backed 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.

Updated

Georgia is a virtual tie

Trump is ahead by just 1,902 votes. The two candidates are tied at 49.4% each.

A protester in Atlanta holds a sign asking officials to “count every vote”.
A protester in Atlanta holds a sign asking officials to “count every vote”. Photograph: Derek White/REX/Shutterstock

There are about 16,000 votes left to be counted in Georgia.

Biden, who is trailing by just about 2,500 votes, has been winning huge shares of the mail-in ballots that officials are continuing to count. His chances of overtaking the president in the red state are looking increasingly possible.

Georgia has remained reliably Republican since 1992 – when it backed southern son and Democrat Bill Clinton. In 2016, Trump beat his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton by five points.

Trump lead in Georgia and Pennsylvania shrinks

Joe Biden is trailing the president by just under 2,500 votes in Georgia, 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.

Biden has a good chance of winning both states, with uncounted ballots from liberal-leaning counties yet to be tabulated. Biden is now six electoral votes away from being declared the victor. Donald Trump’s path to victory is narrower – but still possible.

Updated

Biden's lead in Arizona shrinks further as Maricopa county releases more results

Joe Biden has maintained a lead in Arizona, but Donald Trump trails by just over 46,000 votes.

Maricopa has long been a Republican stronghold – but demographic changes and progressive, Latino-led activism has been changing the region’s politics. The AP, Fox News, and other news organizations declared Biden the victor in Arizona on election night – but as officials count late-arriving ballots, the Democratic contender’s lead has been shrinking.

Trump won this latest batch of about 73,000 ballots by about 14 points. He’ll need to maintain or surpass that sort of lead in order to overtake Biden. More results are expected from Maricopa early tomorrow.

Read more about the political dynamics in Maricopa here:

More results from Arizona are coming in, leaving Donald Trump trailing behind Joe Biden by just 56,833 votes.

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

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

Here’s more about Maricopa, and why it could decide Trump’s fate:

Updated

Many Republicans have avoided commenting on the president’s false claims to victory and undemocratic assertion that votes should not be counted – through a few have urged that every vote be counted.

Mitt Romney, a senator of Utah, said, “counting every vote is at the heart of democracy”, without directly repudiating the president.

Paul Mitchell, a Republican congressman of Michigan, said, “Every legal vote should and will be counted – as they always are.”

“Anything less harms the integrity of our elections and is dangerous for our democracy,” he said. His addition of the adjective “legal” before “vote” here echoes what Trump has said in a manner that carries the false implication that the ballots being counted in states he is losing are not legal.

Several high-ranking Republicans, including the Senate leader, Mitch McConnell, have yet to comment.

Updated

Steve Bannon suspended from Twitter, faces YouTube removal after urging violence against US officials

Steve Bannon, Trump’s former top adviser, has been suspended from Twitter and had a YouTube removed after he called for the beheading of Anthony Fauci and Christopher Wray.

Bannon urged violence against the nation’s leading coronavirus expert and the FBI director on his “war room” show where he asserted that the president would win re-election and that he should fire the two officials in his second term, Media Matters reported. Bannon then said: “I’d put the heads on pikes, right, I’d put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats. You either get with the program or you’re gone – time to stop playing games.”

YouTube took down the episode today, though the channel remains up. A spokesperson told TechCrunch that it removed the video for “violating our policy against inciting violence”. The company did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s inquiry about its decision to keep the channel running. Bannon’s Twitter account was also taken down, and the company told the tech news site that it was “permanently suspended” for violating rules against glorifying violence.

Social media corporations have faced intense pressure to remove harmful content and misinformation surrounding the election. Facebook took down a pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” group earlier today due to “calls for violence”:

Read more:

It’s happened before, but the decision by three TV networks to cut away from Trump’s speech has come as a surprise to many, given the president was addressing the nation on the evening the election may be called.

But Trump’s lies about the election result proved too much. Here was how the moment played out on MSNBC, with host Brian Williams saying, “It was not rooted in reality – and at this point, where our country is, it’s dangerous”:

Over on CNBC, Trump’s remarks cut to Shep Smith who said: “What the president of the United States is saying, in large part, is absolutely untrue.”

The move by the major networks has been mostly received praise from everyone aside from Trump supporters, it would seem:

Updated

Federal judge denies Trump motion to stop counting votes in Philadelphia

A federal judge has denied the Trump campaign’s motion to stop ballot counting in Philadelphia. This is the third campaign legal challenge to the vote count that has been dismissed.

The president’s chances of winning reelection appear to be shrinking as states continue to count ballots. His increasingly desperate campaign has launched a series of lawsuits that are unlikely to have any bearing on the election results, but have served as a means to sow doubt in the legitimacy of the whole elections system.

Read more, from the Guardian’s Amanda Holpuch:

After Donald Trump falsely declared victory at his White House press conference, claiming, “If you count the legal votes, I easily win” – Joe Biden responded: “No one is going to take our democracy from us.”

Several news outlets cut away from Trump and the Associated Press – which the Guardian relies on to project election results – swiftly clarified that it “has not declared a winner in the presidential race, with several states still too early to call”.

Speaking at the Queen Theater in Wilmington, Delaware, earlier today, the Democratic nominee urged calm. “In America, the vote is sacred. Each ballot must be counted.” he said. In the meantime, “I ask everyone to stay calm.”

Watch Biden’s remarks here:

We have a few more results coming in from Arizona:

Biden’s lead has continued to slightly shrink after Cochise county released new results. Biden got 40% of about 6,000 ballots processed in that county. The president trails his Democratic challenger by 57,986 votes.

About 13% of ballots remain to be processed in Arizona.

When will we know the US election result?

Jon Henley explains:

What usually happens?

US presidential elections are not won by the national popular vote. The winner in each state collects its electoral college votes – and needs a total of 270 to take the White House.

In most elections the result is clear – although not officially confirmed – by the end of the night. Major American media outlets “call” each state for one of the candidates. While not based on the final vote count, that projection is almost invariably accurate.

This means an accurate tally of electoral college votes can be made and a winner declared. In 2016, that happened at 2.30am in Washington when Trump reached the required 270.

Why is that not happening this time?

Mainly because of the Covid-19 pandemic, large numbers of voters – about 68% of the total, compared with 34% in 2016 – cast their ballots early, including by post.

Counting postal votes is slower because voter and witness signatures and addresses must be checked, and ballots smoothed out before being fed into counting machines. Some states start that verification process long before election day, meaning the count itself can get under way as soon as polls close. Others, however, do not allow that.

Which states are we talking about?

Five states have yet to be called: Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Alaska. Several news organizations, including the Associated Press and Fox News’ decision desk, have called Arizona for Joe Biden. The Trump campaign is arguing, however, that call was made too early. Its next update is not due until 9pm ET on Thursday.

Alaska will end up in the Republican column with near certainty.

Pennsylvania officials say they expect most votes will be counted by Friday.

The Democratic challenger is narrowly ahead in Nevada, with only Democratic-leaning late postal ballots left to tally. Officials have said no more results will be released in Nevada until midday ET on Thursday.

In North Carolina, while Trump is the clear favourite, the state accepts postal ballots until 12 November – although that is expected to make little difference.

What else is complicating matters?

Roughly half of all states will accept postal votes that arrive after election day as long as they carry a postmark of no later than 3 November, so postal delays may mean some ballots are not processed until days later: Pennsylvania has said results will not be considered complete until the deadline of Friday.

There has also reportedly been an increase in the number of provisional ballots cast by people who asked for a postal vote but then decided to go to the polling station in person instead. These need careful checking to make sure no one has voted twice.

Read more:

Welcome to the Guardian's live election coverage

Hello and welcome. My name is Maanvi Singh, and I’ll be bringing you updates throughout the night as we await more election results. You can also find me on Twitter @maanvissingh.

Moments ago, I covered Donald Trump’s first televised press conference since he delivered remarks post-election day. He falsely claimed victory in an address full of anti-democratic lies. I’ll be covering reactions to the president’s comments, and updating you on the electoral math in the coming hours. Stay tuned.

Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday evening.
Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday evening. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

Here’s a recap of the day:

  • The US presidential race remains too close to call. We’re following along closely as elections officials continue to count ballots in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and North Carolina. Joe Biden currently holds a popular vote lead and is 6 electoral college votes away from victory.
  • Trump spewed a series of lies during an evening press conference at the White House. After the president falsely declared victory, several TV news networks cut away.
  • In Georgia and Pennsylvania, Trump’s lead is slipping as more ballots are counted. In Georgia, Biden is trailing by fewer than 9,500 votes. In Pennsylvania, secretary of state Kathy Boockvar said counting would continue into the evening.
  • Biden has urged calm. “We have no doubt that when the count is finished, Senator Harris and I will be declared the winners,” he said earlier today. “I ask everyone to stay calm.”

And you can catch up on all of today’s news here:

Updated

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