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US election 2020: live results as Donald Trump and Joe Biden battle for key states

Joe Biden is on the verge of becoming the 46th US President after storming to the lead in a pair of key states.

Tom Crystal, Anne Barrowclough and Cameron Stewart
41 min read
1:55AMNovember 07, 2020.
Updated 7:20AMNovember 07, 2020
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Donald Trump and Joe Biden are waiting on the final key states. Picture: AFP.
Donald Trump and Joe Biden are waiting on the final key states. Picture: AFP.

Our live coverage of the 2020 US Election on Friday, November 6 is now closed. You can follow Saturday’s live coverage here.

Biden on the verge of victory

Democrat Joe Biden has taken the lead in key battleground state Pennsylvania, where a victory for the former vice president would push him past the threshold of electoral votes needed to win the White House, US media said Thursday, AFP reports.

More ballots are yet to be counted, but shortly before 9am local time, CNN and The New York Times reported that Biden had moved ahead of incumbent President Donald Trump by more than 5500 votes.

Biden currently has at least 253 electoral votes. The magic number is 270.

If he wins Pennsylvania -- a state won by Trump in 2016 -- and its 20 electoral votes, he would pass that threshold.

Biden is also currently in the lead in key states Georgia and Nevada.

US media is reporting the Trump camp as saying: “This election is not over.”

— AFP

Below — How the day unfolded:

Staff Reporters 1.30am: Biden hits the front in Pennsylvania

Joe Biden’s comeback win is closer to complete after an update from counting in Pennsylvania flipped a deficit of more than 18,000 votes to a lead of almost 6000.

Mr Biden now leads Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona. While Mr Trump has narrowed the gap in Arizona, Mr Biden is expected to pull away in Georgia and Pannsylvania as the remaining ballots are counted.

The President had a lead of more than 600,000 votes in Pennsylvania on election night but the state’s pre-poll votes, believed to be in excess of 2 million in total, have heavily favoured the challenger.

Staff Reporters 10.30pm: Biden extends his lead in Georgia

As results drip in from Georgia, Joe Biden has added to his advantage in the key state to 1096 votes. Mr Biden now has 2,449,580 votes; Mr Trump is on 2,448,484.

Staff Reporters 9.40pm: Secret Service get ready for Biden announcement

The Secret Service will send extra agents to protect Joe Biden on Saturday in preparation for a possible victory speech for the presidential election, a report said.

A Secret Service agent stands watch as Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaks at a campaign rally. Picture: AFP
A Secret Service agent stands watch as Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaks at a campaign rally. Picture: AFP

The reinforcements will be assigned to Wilmington, Delaware, where the Biden campaign is headquartered as votes continue to be counted in key battleground states, sources told The Washington Post.

The agents were dispatched once learning the former vice-president planned to remain at the centre on Saturday.

Though Mr Biden is getting added security, the Secret Service has yet to staff him with the level of protection given to presidents-elect, the report said on Friday.

Staff Reporters 9.05pm: How the vote stands now in Georgia

Joe Biden has 2,449,371 votes in the key state, Donald Trump is on 2,448,454. In one update from Clayton County the presidential hopeful went from a deficit of 463 to a lead of 917. With thousands of pre-poll ballots yet to be counted, he’ll be looking to stretch that advantage.

Staff Reporters 8.45pm: Mail-in votes set to deliver for the Democrats

A swathe of pre-poll votes in Georgia eroded what had been a healthy lead for President Trump on election night.

Victory in Georgia would give Mr Biden 16 electoral college votes and flip the Republican-held state. It would also hand Mr Biden the presidency if he was able close out Arizona (11 electoral college votes). The Democratic Party leader also leads in Nevada (six electoral college votes) and is rapidly closing the gap in Pennsylvania (20 votes).

In Georgia, a recount can be requested by the losing candidate if the race is within 0.5 per cent or less of the total vote.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is now closing in on victory in the US election. Picture: AFP
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is now closing in on victory in the US election. Picture: AFP

Staff Reporters 8.30pm: Biden takes the lead in Georgia

The latest votes in from Clayton County have delivered 1602 votes for Joe Biden and 222 for Donald Trump, giving the Democratic Party leader an advantage of 917 votes.

If this holds, it would deliver him the presidency under current voting projections.

The latest update came through at 4.30am Friday local time.

Staff Reporters 8.10pm: President continues to vent on Twitter

President Trump Has again taken to Twitter to complain about the election, again claiming he has won the election. He’s also unhappy about the Senate race.

Staff Reporters 7.45pm: Trump’s lead in Georgia less than 500 votes

Another update from the Peach State, where Donald Trump’s lead has been cut to 463 votes. The President has 2,448,232 to Joe Biden’s 2,447,769. Another several thousand votes are expected to land in the next few hours.

Gerard Henderson 7.15pm: ABC dishes out usual anti-Trump bile

It was four against one a 7.30 report overlooked that the Democrats never accepted the legitimacy of a Trump presidency. Read more here

Staff Reporters 6.45pm: Trump’s lead in Georgia now below 1000

Clayton County has dumped results from another 2000 ballots, and the result is that the President’s lead there is down to 665.

Mr Trump has 2,448,183 votes to Mr Biden’s 2,447,518. Officials in Clayton County say they will continue to count through the early morning — It’s 2.45am there right now.

Staff Reporters 6.30pm: More than 150,000 votes to count in key state

The latest update from Pennsylvania is that 163,501 mail-in votes remain to be counted. As it stands, Mr Trump leads by 18,229 over his Democratic Party rival.

Philadelphia has counted 300,000 pre-poll ballots so far and has less than 60,000 left.

There are also provisional ballots to be confirmed, plus damaged ballots that are also awaiting determination by election officials.

Staff Reporters 5.55pm: Georgia race tightens even further

Results are trickling in from Clayton County, which encompasses the metropolitan area of Atlanta. President Trump now leads by 1267 votes.

We are expecting further updates from the Peach State, but the local time is 1.55am Friday morning and some counts have pulled up stumps for now.

Staff Reporters 5.35pm: Trump’s lead dips below 20,000 in Pennsylvania

Philadelphia has issued another update on its mail-in votes. Of these, 726 went to Mr Trump and 5073 to his challenger. The President now leads by 18,229 in Pennsylvania with 61 counties still to be finalised. Estimates of the number of votes yet to be counted have ranged from 130,000 to as many as 170,000.

Staff Reporters 5.05pm: County’s votes swinging Biden’s way by 80pc

Bethany Hallam, a member of the Allegheny County Council in Pennsylvania, says there are 50,000 votes yet to be counted in her precinct alone.

A trooper watches over ballots at the Allegheny County elections warehouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Picture: AFP
A trooper watches over ballots at the Allegheny County elections warehouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Picture: AFP

Current trends of the mail-in votes from that area — about 300,000 have been counted so far — have been in favour of Joe Biden by about 80 per cent, Ms Hallam said.

The remaining ballots are expected to be tallied by 5pm Friday local time (9am Saturday AEDT).

President Trump holds a narrow lead in the key state, but it is dwindling with every update and is now slightly more than 22,0000.

Staff Reporters 4.35pm: Latest update trims Pennsylvania margin

A new batch of ballots have been counted in Pennsylvania, putting Donald Trump on 3,285,445; Joe Biden has 3,262,869. That puts the President’s lead at 22,576 — down from 26,319 at the previous update. There are still more than 150,000 votes to be counted.

Anne Barrowclough 4.20pm: New Georgia count set to turn state blue

Georgia’s Clayton County is set to release another block of ballots, which is expected to turn the state blue.

Trump supporters in Atlanta Georgia. Picture: AFP/
Trump supporters in Atlanta Georgia. Picture: AFP/

Clayton officials had planned to release 4000 vote results by midnight ET (4pm (AEDT) but appear to be still counting. Mr Biden enjoys 85 per cent support in this county and with just 1775 votes between the rivals, it is very likely Clayton would swing the state his way.

However more counties are yet to release their results; most have stopped for the night.

Mr Trump needs Georgia to keep hold of the presidency.

Pennsylvania has also counting stopped for the night, with Mr Trump’s lead down to 22,576.

Richard Ferguson 3.50pm: Albanese: PM should reach out to Trump

Anthony Albanese has called on Scott Morrison to personally reach out to Donald Trump and tell him to respect the counting of votes in key election battleground states.

Anthony Albanese. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper
Anthony Albanese. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

The Prime Minister has previously said he will not talk to Mr Trump or Joe Biden until the race is called, and that he has great confidence in the US’s election processes.

But the Opposition Leader said Mr Morrison should now intervene personally following Mr Trump’s declaration that he would win the election if only “legal votes” were counted.

“Scott Morrison has a close relationship with President Trump,” Mr Albanese said in Sydney.

“He should be contacting President Trump and conveying Australia’s strong view that democratic processes must be respected.

“It is absolutely in Australia’s national interest that the United States remains a stable and a credible democracy.”

Staff writers 3.40pm: Twitter suspends Bannon over Fauci beheading call

Donald Trump’s former top aide Steve Bannon has had his podcast permanently suspended from Twitter and an episode removed from YouTube after he said US infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci should have his head put on a pike outside the White House.

Steve Bannon has had his podcast permanently suspended from Twitter. Picture: AFP.
Steve Bannon has had his podcast permanently suspended from Twitter. Picture: AFP.

The ultra-conservative Bannon founder of rightwing publication Breitbart, also said FBI director Christopher Wray should be beheaded.

A spokeswoman for Bannon said he was speaking metaphorically by referencing the bloody politics of Tudor-era England and did not mean the two respected officials should have their heads removed.

She also said Bannon has “never called for violence of any kind.”

Karl Rove 3.30pm: Biden had no election coat-tails

In this wild year of challenge and disruption, nobody should have expected a simple and easy finish to the US presidential contest.

Despite press declarations that President Donald Trump (who led in none of the 80 national polls conducted since Labour Day, on September 6) didn’t have a chance, he barnstormed the country, displaying the energy of a man half his age. Clearly enjoying himself, the President left it all out on the field. As this article went to press, Trump had fought his way into contention.

Democrat says Trump's fight is "just getting started"

The President scored surprising victories in places where many had written him off, like Florida, Iowa and Ohio. Now that Michigan has been called for Joe Biden, up 1.2 points with 3 per cent to go, the race comes down to six states. With Biden leading by 0.6 percentage point, or less than 21,000 votes, Wisconsin is going to a recount. Recounts rarely see even close to one-point swings, though we’ve never seen an election like this. With Trump up by 1.4 points, or more than 68,000 votes, Georgia is working the 6 per cent of the vote still outstanding (mostly in Atlanta).

The President also leads Biden in North Carolina by 1.4 points, or more than 76,000 votes, with 5 per cent of the vote yet to be counted. Biden is ahead in Nevada by 0.6 and Arizona by 3.4 points, both with 14 per cent of the vote still out.

Mr. Trump is ahead in Pennsylvania, with just 49.6 per cent of the compared against Biden’s 49. 2 per cent The president’s 26,000-vote margin in the Keystone State is far less than the 265,000 margin Mr Trump enjoyed yesterday. And five per cent of the vote remains to be counted, with mail-ins having tended to boost the Democrats.

Gerard Baker 3.15pm: Trump’s populist legacy will live on

While the headline presidential vote numbers inevitably consume most attention in the wake of a US election, the deeper meaning and context of the popular choice can often be found in state and local-level details.

Democrat says Trump's fight is "just getting started"

As Joe Biden edges closer to victory over Donald Trump, if you want clues to what’s happened in America in the past few extraordinary years, and to what the future of politics may look like, remember names like Zapata County, Texas, Proposition 16 in California and proposed Constitutional Amendment 2 in Florida.

Zapata County sits on the Mexico border and its population is about 85 per cent Hispanic. It’s long been part of the reason Democrats have held high hopes about turning the historically red state of Texas Democratic blue. As the Lone Star State becomes less white and more diverse, it has seemed inevitable that it would eventually shift into the Democratic column. Zapata has voted Democrat for the past 30 years and Hillary Clinton won it with almost two thirds of the vote in 2016.

On Tuesday, a majority of its voters, like the rest of Texas, went for Trump. Somewhere in the shadow of the half-built border wall, the voters didn’t get the message that the Republican president is a bigot who wants a whites-only United States.

Instead, it seems, they liked the Republican message of economic opportunity for all, traditional values and, above all, freedom from the strictures of the progressive finger-wagging cultural elites. The endlessly repeated message that if your skin is brown then you must vote Democrat didn’t resonate.

READ the full story

Anne Barrowclough 3.10pm: Republicans split on Trump claims

Republican politicians are split on Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud, with some supporting him and others criticising the president.

View highlights only

Trump loyalist Lindsay Graham told the Wall St Journal: “Mainstream media polling is designed to suppress Republican votes. But I’m here tonight to stand with President Trump, he’s stood with me.”

Mr. Graham said he planned to donate $500,000 to the president’s legal fund and encouraged the president’s supporters to do the same.

Ted Cruz told Fox News: “What we are seeing tonight, what we have been seeing in the last few days is outrageous. “It is partisan. It is political. And it is lawless.”

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the fact that House GOP incumbents defeated Democratic challengers this week indicated that Mr Trump had to be winning.

“What’s very interesting here and shows more of the fraud: Not one Republican incumbent lost,” Mr McCarthy told Fox News. “How would President Trump lose in an atmosphere like that?”

Others were more measured and even critical.

Mitt Romney tweeted from Utah: “Counting every vote is at the heart of democracy. Have faith in democracy, in our Constitution, and in the American people.”

Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said in a statement: “All votes that comply with Pennsylvania law must be counted, regardless of how long the process takes.” Senator Toomey said he was concerned that the Pennsylvania vote counting “lacks transparency,” but stressed: “All parties involved must accept the outcome of the election regardless of whether they won or lost.”

John Barrasso, a Wyoming Senator, said: “As vote totals continue to update, Americans deserve confidence in a fair and transparent election. The president is right to ensure all legally cast votes be observed and counted.” s

“I urge patience as all legally cast votes are tallied,” said Senator Todd Young, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Will Hurd, a Texas congressman, was critical of the president, tweeting: “A sitting president undermining our political process andquestioning the legality of the voices of countless Americans without evidence is not only dangerous and wrong, it undermines the very foundation this nation was built upon.”

Anne Barrowclough 2.50pm: Trump’s Pennsylvania lead slashed

Donald Trump’s lead in Pennsylvania has now crashed to just 26,319, with roughly 185,000 outstanding ballots. Joe Biden is now on a trajectory to take the state; with five per cent of the vote outstanding, Mr Trump is on 49.6 per cent and Mr Biden on 49.2 per cent.

Fun fact: If Mr Biden wins Pennsylvania, Nevada and Georgia but loses North Carolina, he would win 306 electoral votes – the exact number Donald Trump won in 2016.

Caroline Overington 2.33pm: ‘President Trump tips over the Monopoly board’

CNN anchor Anderson Cooper has this morning described Donald Trump as somebody who resembles “an obese turtle” on his back, kicking his legs around, because he hasn’t won.

It’s quite the image, and we should, of course, refrain from personal attacks.

It’s enough to say that Trump’s performance at his press conference today was disgraceful.

Read more from Caroline Overington here.

Anne Barrowclough 1.40pm: Biden, Trump tie in Georgia

Joe Biden and Donald Trump are now at a virtual tie in Georgia, with the rivals both on 49.4 per cent, with just 1775 votes between them.

Of the roughly 1,300 votes released around 1.15pm (AEDT), 1,154 were for Mr Biden while 165 were for Mr Trump, giving Biden 86 per cent of the votes in that tranche.

Clayton County, a Democratic stronghold included in the Atlanta metropolitan area, still has 5,726 uncounted ballots which officials say will be released by midnight.

If Biden continues to win votes at 86% or above, Clayton County alone could put Trump’s path to the presidency in serious peril, according to CNN’s John King.

Anne Barrowclough 1.15pm: Georgia outlines election security measures

Georgia’s Secretary of State has issued a press release outlining the state’s election security measures, after Donald Trump questioned the integrity of the voting system here and in Philadelphia.

Gabriel Sterling, the Voting Systems Manager for the Georgia Secretary of State's Office speaks to the media. Picture: AFP.
Gabriel Sterling, the Voting Systems Manager for the Georgia Secretary of State's Office speaks to the media. Picture: AFP.

After Mr Trump’s insubstantiated claims of corruption Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, outlined actions the state took to “secure the vote and increase public confidence in the electoral process:”

These include:

▪ Absentee drop boxes were locked at 7pm Tuesday evening, preventing illegal voting or potential fraud.

▪ Surveillance cameras monitored drop boxes at all times.

▪ State monitor is in the room with Fulton County for all counts and the public is welcome to observe any county as an added layer of transparency.

▪ A pre-certification audit will provide additional confidence that the votes were accurately counted.

“We’re well aware that with a close presidential election and the possibility of runoffs in some elections that the eyes of the state and the nation are upon Georgia at this time,” Mr Raffensperger said. “We’re as anxious as anyone to see the final results and to start work on certification and planning for our runoff elections. As the work goes on, I want to assure Georgia voters that every legal vote was cast and accurately counted.”

Anne Barrowclough 1.05pm: Biden leads narrows in Arizona

Joe Biden’s lead in Arizona is shrinking as more votes come in from Maricopa County, which leans Republican.

Mr Biden is now 46,257 votes ahead of Mr Trump – 50.1 per cent to 48.5 per cent for Mr Trump.

The president has narrowed the gap with every count that comes in for this state. It is the opposite of what is happening in Georgia and Philadelphia, where late counted ballots are leaning toward Mr Biden.

Kimberley Strassel 1.00pm: Biggest losers of 2020

The jury is still out on who’ll occupy the Oval Office, but America’s verdict on liberal norm-busting is resounding. This election’s clearest losers were Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the public faces of the unhinged left.

The Democratic Party is split, and if Joe Biden prevails, it will be because he claims (accurately or not) to represent its moderate wing. He spent his campaign hiding from his party’s progressive agenda, and toward the end even disavowed parts of it. Mr. Biden’s greatest selling point was always his promise of a return to normalcy.

This was a hit on his own party. If Washington has been a circus these past four years, it is in substantial part due to congressional Democrats. Americans elect lawmakers to pass budgets, confirm judges, develop considered legislation. The Pelosi-Schumer era has been day after painful day of faux scandals, gotcha hearings, breathtaking accusations, progressive-fantasy bills and promises to dismantle longstanding institutions. It’s theatre, not governance.

The press would normally check such behaviour. Instead, Democrats and their media allies allowed their disdain for Donald Trump to lull them into believing they’d benefit. The liberal FiveThirtyEight election-analysis outfit in July mused on Twitter: “Could Democrats pick up 13 seats in the Senate?”—an estimate that now looks to be off by a mere 12. The accompanying video envisioned Democrats presiding over a “filibuster-proof majority.”

READ the full story

Anne Barrowclough 12.45pm: Lawyers refute Trump fraud claims

Former District Attorneys, all of whom served under Republican presidents, have released a statement decrying Donald Trump’s claims of election fraud.

In the statement, published in The New York Times, the 19 attorneys called Mr Trump’s claims “premature, baseless and reckless.”

“We hereby call upon the president to patiently and respectfully allow the lawful vote-counting process to continue, in accordance with applicable federal and state laws, and to avoid any further comments or other actions which can serve only to undermine our democracy,” their statement reads.

They also refuted Mr Trump’s claim that it was wrong to count votes after Election Day. . “Whether it takes days, or even weeks, for that process to conclude, it must be allowed to take place in a way that is open, fair and lawful, and without any improper political interference,” they said.

Anne Barrowclough 12.20pm: Former Republican Senator slams ‘incendiary’ Trump

Joe Biden is just a few thousand votes from taking Georgia, with Donald Trump’s lead slashed to just 3,500. Mr Trump’s lead in Pennsylvania has also fallen to 43,000 as workers continue counting ballots.

Mr Trump has accused the Democrats of “rigging” the election because mail-in ballots are giving Mr Biden the votes but it is worth noting that the governor of Georgia is Republican.

“The voting apparatus of those states are run in all cases by Democrats,” Mr. Trump said from the White House briefing room.

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

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is a Republican.

In Arizona, where Mr Trump is gaining on Mr Biden, the Secretary of State, Katie Hobbs, is a Democrat.

Mr Trump’s claims were slammed by a former Republican senator who said they were “at times incendiary.”

Rick Santorum, a Republican from Pennsylvania, said Mr Trump’s claims of electoral faud had no basis in fact.

“No Republican elected official will stand behind that statement,” Mr Santorum told CNN.

“We don’t know that right now, and for the President to go out there and claim that without any evidence of that is dangerous,” he said.

Mr Santorum also called out Mr Trump over his attacks on mail-in voting.

“I sat there I listened to him talking about the votes being taken away from him, and then he shifted to Arizona and said hey, ‘I win this thing if they count the votes.’ Well, how can you say we have to wait and count the votes in Arizona and I can win this thing, but if you count the votes in Philadelphia you’re stealing them? The reality is, in Pennsylvania Democrats voted by mail and Republicans voted — in person and it’s because you asked them to do so.”

Anne Barrowclough 11.55am: Trump lawyer refutes observer ban claim

Despite Donald Trump’s claims in his televised address that observers were being kept from watching ballot canvassing, one of his campaign lawyers admitted to a federal judge

that observers for the campaign were allowed to watch in Philadelphia.

Mr Trump’s team and supporters had claimed the observers were being unfairly deprived.

Judge Paul Diamond asked Philadelphia city officials to confirm Democrats and Republicans were being treated fairly to watch the ballot-counting and were allowed to watch the ballot counting in the city from six feet away.

When Mr Diamond pressed the Trump campaign lawyer if there were observers in the room from the campaign, the lawyer, Jerome Marcus, said, “There’s a non-zero number of people in the room,” CNN reports.

Mr Diamond said he believed the case appeared to have no reason to be in federal court, and joked that the lawyer “shouldn’t quit his day job” before dismissing the Trump campaign request.

Cameron Stewart 11.00am: Trump: I’ll go to court over rigged election

Donald Trump says widespread corruption in the counting of votes is stealing the election from him and must be stopped by the nation’s courts.

In an extraordinary press conference at the White House, the president accused a “corrupt Democratic machine” of systematically rigging vote counting to ensure a Joe Biden victory but didn’t offer any evidence to substantiate his claim.

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

‘I easily win’ if you count ‘legal votes’: Donald Trump

“They are trying to steal an election, they are trying to rig an election and we can’t let that happen.

“We will not allow the corruption to steal such an important election – we can’t allow anyone to silence our voters.”

Mr Trump cited a litany of allegations about Republican election observers being kept away from the count and mysterious ballot boxes appearing in the dead of night full of Biden votes. He claimed mail-in votes were being counted without postmarks or names attached to them.

His comments came as he faces a likely election loss as mail-in votes in four undecided states heavily favour Mr Biden, eroding the lead the president held on Election night.

His lead in Georgia has been slashed to just 3,500 votes while in Philadelphia it has fallen to 64,000 votes.

Democrat voters are known to prefer mail-in voting, partly because of Covid safety fears, while Republican voters preferred to vote in person this year. This is why states suc as Pennsylvania anad Georgia that are still counting mail-in ballots are leaning toward Mr Biden after first showing a majority of support for Mr Trump. But Mr Trump refused to acknowledge this fact in his tirade.

Instead, he said those workers counting votes in Democrat cities like Philadelphia and Detroit were “engineering the outcome of a presidential race.”

He said mail-in voting was a corrupt practice that was initiated by Democrats so they could manipulate the outcome.

“Mail-in voting has really destroyed our system, it is a corrupt system...they wait to find out how many votes they need and they find them, he said.

“Democrat officials never believed they would win this election honestly that’s why they did mail-in ballots.

“We are hearing stories that are horror stories, and we can’t let that happen to the United States.”

Mr Trump complained of how his Election Night leads in Georgia and Pennsylvania all but vanished as mail-in votes came in.

The president said he would try to save the integrity of the election through the courts.

“There is a lot of litigation, there is a tremendous amount of litigation because of how unfair this process was,’ he said.

“It’s going to end up perhaps in the highest court in the land...because we can’t have an election stolen like this.’

Mr Trump said that when the courts examined the problems, he would end up winning the election fairly.

“We think we will win the election very easily,” he said.

Anderson Cooper slams Trump: ‘Like an obese turtle on his back’ (CNN)

Staff writers 10.12am: A victory party awaiting a victor

An outdoor stage lined with American flags awaits, campaign aides mill about a nearby hotel lobby and the candidate is making phone calls to prepare for a new administration.

This is what a postponed campaign victory party looks like at the end of the most unusual presidential election in modern history.

‘No doubt’ we will be ‘declared the winners’: Joe Biden

Former Vice President Joe Biden has been spending time at home, a short drive from his campaign outpost at the Chase Center, monitoring election results and making phone calls to political allies, aides said.

Mr. Biden stands six electoral votes shy of the 270 needed to capture the White House, according to the Associated Press, and has expressed few doubts that he will eventually be declared the victor despite legal challenges sought by President Trump’s team.

With the outcome is in limbo, Delaware is serving as Mr. Biden’s post-campaign backdrop, months after he overcame poor performances in Iowa and New Hampshire to claim the Democratic nomination.

Anticipating victory, Mr. Biden’s campaign has been planning an outdoor drive-in rally outside the Chase Center once he is declared the winner, according to aides.

Joe Biden gives an address in Wilmington, Delaware, as Kamala Harris listens. Picture; AFP.
Joe Biden gives an address in Wilmington, Delaware, as Kamala Harris listens. Picture; AFP.

The socially-distanced event would serve as a capstone for Mr. Biden, who launched his first presidential campaign at a nearby train station in 1987 and then ascended to the vice presidency in 2009 after an unsuccessful second presidential bid.

Since the election, he has sought to project stability as vote counts continue.

Mr. Biden traveled Thursday to a local theatre for a briefing on the coronavirus and the economy alongside his running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris, and urged calm.

“Democracy is sometimes messy. It sometimes requires a little patience as well,” Mr. Biden said.

If Mr. Biden is victorious, the Chase Centre is likely to serve as a local hub for his transition. A blue banner draped along the center, bearing the Biden-Harris logo, refers to it as the “Election Headquarters.”

The stage where Mr. Biden addressed supporters Tuesday night remains in place in the parking lot and security fencing encloses the area.

Top aides have been spotted at a hotel connected to the center and the voices of CNN anchors echo throughout the lobby from a flat-screen television broadcasting updates on the vote counting.

Mr. Biden’s sister and longtime adviser, Valerie Biden Owens, walked through the hotel Thursday on her birthday, stopping to glance at the latest updates from Pennsylvania.

Thursday, she remarked, could be a significant day.

The Wall St Journal

Anne Barrowclough 9.55am: Trump to speak to nation

Donald Trump is to go before the television cameras for the first time since his controversial appearance on election day when he tried to claim victory. Mr Trump will speak to reporters in the briefing room at the White House.

US media is reporting that Mr Turmp was advised not to speak publicly, but he was concerned that his rival was taking all the oxygen; and that Mr Biden was appearing as president elect already.

Mr Trump will appear at 6.30pm ET (10.30am AEDT).

It comes as one of Mr Trump’s advisers told CNN the mood in the White House was bleak.

“Math isn’t on our side,” the adviser said. “We need an act of God to alter the course.”

Anne Barrowclough 9.40am: Pennsylvania Secretary of State defends mail-in system

The Pennsylvania Secretary of State has defended the state’s system of allowing mail-in ballots after the day of the election, and refused to say when the state would announce the election winner.

Kathy Boockvar told reporters: “The strength of the integrity of this vote is unparalleled. The county officials take this so seriously.”

Ms Boockvar confirmed that votes that had come in between the evening of November 3 and November 6 had been segregated from earlier mail in votes to ensure their security.

No matter how you chose to vote this year, every (ballot) is incredibly safe and secure,” she said.

Ms Boockvar said the “vast majority” of votes had been counted. There are still 326,000 outstanding in the state, where Mr Trump leads Mr Biden by 90,000.

“But it’s very close,” she said. “That means it’s going to take longer to see who the winner is.”

Anne Barrowclough 9.25am: Trump campaign files new Pennsylvania lawsuit

The Trump campaign has filed a new lawsuit against Philadelphia elections officials for allegedly violating their due process rights by blocking the observation of ballots in the city.

The case appears to be mirroring the case in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court from earlier today. That earlier case was brought by Republicans challenging a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision that allowed ballots to be counted up to three days after the election even if they don’t have a legible postmark.

This is a new claim in federal court alleging violations of constitutional instead of state law.

Anne Barrowclough 9.15am: Trump’s Georgia lead falls to 9525

Just in the last hour, Donald Trump’s lead in Georgia has falled from 12,565 to 9,525. With the majority of mail-in ballots sent by Democrats, and Republicans having preferred in person voting, it was always expected that the early counts would favour Mr Trump with later counts swinging toward Mr Biden.

Meanwhile in Pennsylvania, an updated count has brought Mr Trump’s lead down to about 98,000 votes, or 1.5 percentage points.

Georgia and Pennsylvania are make or break states for Mr Trump who cannot win the election without them. Joe Biden need win only one state to become 46th president.

Agencies 9.00am: Trump gains on Biden in Arizona

Donald Trump is gaining on Joe Biden in Arizona

Mr Biden is ahead of Mr Trump by more than 68,000 votes with about 88 per cent of the state’s expected total vote counted, according to the AP.

Katie Hobbs, Arizona’s Democratic secretary of state, told Good Morning America that there were 450,000 ballots left to count in Arizona, just under 300,000 of them from Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and is the state’s most populous county.

Mr Biden needs to win 41 to 43 per cent of the outstanding votes to keep his lead, while Mr Trump needs 55 to 58 per cent to take back the state.

Ms. Hobbs said it was unlikely that the state would be done counting before Friday local time (Saturday AEDT).

Because the presidential election is so close, the stakes in Arizona, with an electoral college count of 11, are high for both candidates. Mr Trump would need to take Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Nevada to win without Arizona.

As more votes were counted, Mr. Biden’s lead over Mr. Trump shrunk from 3.4 percentage points yesterday to 2.4 percentage points.

Arizona has a history of taking days to count close races. The 2018 Arizona Senate race wasn’t called for six days.

AP called the state for Mr Biden on Wednesday. In an article explaining its decision, the wire service, which is widely seen as a definitive source of election results, said its analysis of ballots cast statewide “concluded there were not enough outstanding to allow Trump to catch up.”

Fox News had declared the state for Mr Biden before AP and The Wall St Journal and The Australian followed AP.

Other news outlets have not yet called the race. Trump campaign officials, who complained in public and in private about the Fox News and AP decisions, said they believe the president will win the state and its 11 electoral votes.

“We think it’s completely irresponsible for anyone to call this state for Joe Biden,” Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller said.

The Biden campaign, meanwhile, says it remains confident that Mr. Biden will win Arizona, though aides acknowledged the former vice president’s lead could continue to narrow.

Arnon Mishkin, director of the Fox News Decision Desk, said on the cable network on Wednesday night: “We strongly believe our call will stand.” Sally Buzbee, AP’s executive editor, said the news agency “continues to watch and analyze vote count results from Arizona as they come in,” adding, “We will follow the facts in all cases.”

Agencies 8.35am: ‘We got smoked. No sugar coating it’

The 2020 election, though still undecided, has already shown that a conservative, populist movement driven by rural voters wasn’t a fluke of 2016 but a potentially durable bloc. Donald Trump, despite presiding over a rapidly diversifying country, used his base to be competitive in most battleground states and to help Republicans outperform in the race for Congress.

The evidence can be seen in decisive victories for Mr Trump in Ohio, Iowa, Florida and Texas — all states he retained from his 2016 victory — and unexpectedly strong GOP support in states such as Iowa and Maine, where Republican Senate incumbents fended off Democratic challengers.

Trump supporters gather to protest the election results at the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix. Picture: AFP.
Trump supporters gather to protest the election results at the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix. Picture: AFP.

Democrats, despite some success, including in Arizona, were unable to win or hold some key seats in GOP-leaning areas around the country, even as small donors across the country handed over tens of millions of dollars in efforts to diminish Republican political power.

The outcome of the presidential election and control of the Senate hang in the balance, with millions of votes still to be counted.

Even if Joe Biden prevails against Mr Trump, the margin of his victory is likely to be narrower than polls suggested and Democratic officials hoped. In some key states, the president was able to turn out white, rural areas in higher numbers than in 2016. Republican strategists say Democrats lost ground with these households not just on policy but also culturally, citing what GOP voters consider culture wars over political speech and social issues.

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Cameron Stewart 8.30am: Biden urges patience, calm

Joe Biden has called on Americans to keep calm and be patient while the vote count continues, saying “the process is working.”

Speaking in Wilmington, Delaware, the former vice president said he still felt good about where things stand and he was confident that he would win the election.

“In America the vote is sacred – it is how people in this nation express their will’ he said. “Each ballot must be counted and that’s what we are going to see, and that’s how it should be. Democracy is sometimes messy and it sometimes requires a little patience as well,’ he said.

“We continue to feel very good about where things stand – we have no doubt that when the count is finished Senator Harris and I will be declared the winners.”

“So I ask everyone to stay calm, the process is working, the count is being completed and we will know very soon,” he said.

Mr Biden was speaking as votes continue to be tallied in the key undeclared states of Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina.

Anne Barrowclough 8.10am: Democrat releases hate video – against himself

Raphael Warnock, a Georgian Democrat pastor who is running for the US Senate, has pre-empted attack ads he is expecting from Republicans by releasing his own hate video against himself.

In the video Mr Warnock, who presides over the Martin Luth King Jr’s Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta is seen eating pizza with aknife and fork and hating puppies.

“Raphael Warnock eats pizza with a fork and knife,” says a voice-over in the 30 second video posted on Mr Warnock’s twitter page. “Raphael Warnock once stepped on a crack in the sidewalk. Raphael Warnock even hates puppies,” it continues

Anne Barrowclough 7.50am: Biden win in Pennsylvania ‘inevitable’

A Democratic senator in Pennsylvania has predicted Joe Biden will win the state with a 100,000 margin.

While Donald Trump is still leading by 90,000 votes, Bob Casey told CNN he believes there are enough uncounted votes for Mr Biden to overtake the president.

“No question, I think, Joe Biden will win the state,” Mr Casey, who has served in the US Senate since 2007, said.

US election hinges on four key battleground states

Mr Casey said he thought a Biden win was “inevitable” because the outstanding votes were mail-in votes from Democrat leaning cities.

“The reason for that is most of the vote out, as you know, is in Philadelphia, Delaware County,” he said. “Even in the counties that President Trump will win big, there’ll be scattering of Joe Biden votes because they’re mail-ins and they obviously tend to favour the Democrats.”

There are approximately 369,364 mail-in ballots left to be counted in the state, according to the Pennsylvania’s secretary of state website. Philadelphia County estimates that they have 92,000 to 95,000 mail-in and absentee ballots left to count.

Staff writers 7.40am: Control of Senate hangs on Georgia

The fight for control of the US Senate now is centred on Georgia, where the state’s close election has pushed at least one, and possibly two, of its Senate races to January 5 runoffs.

The outcome of those two races could shift the balance of power in the Senate, as Democrat Jon Ossoff tries to unseat Republican Senator David Perdue, and Democrat Raphael Warnock faces off against Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler. Messrs. Ossoff and Warnock have been sharply critical of Mr Trump, while Mr Perdue and Ms Loeffler have closely allied themselves with the president.

Under Georgia law, if no candidate gets more than 50 per cent, the two top vote-getters, regardless of party, compete in a runoff to be held in this cycle on January 5, 2021.

The Warnock-Loeffler race already is headed for a runoff, as the Associated Press projected. In the other race, Mr Perdue’s share of the vote was just shy of 50 per cent, with about 60,000 votes still to be counted. Mr Ossoff was at 47.7 per cent.

Trump, Biden protests erupt over vote count in Pennsylvania

Gabriel Sterling, the voting-system manager with the Georgia secretary of state’s office, said that counting those ballots might continue into Thursday evening.

Coming into Election Day, Republicans had a 53-47 majority in the Senate. Based on results so far nationwide, Republicans will control 48 seats next year, and they lead in two other states — North Carolina and Alaska. Democrats so far have locked down 48 seats, leaving the two Georgia races as their best hopes to reach 50.

If Democratic candidate Joe Biden wins the White House, vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris would cast a tiebreaking vote when needed.

Democrats have picked up two Senate seats currently held by Republicans, with AP projecting wins for former Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper in Colorado and former astronaut Mark Kelly in Arizona. But Democrats lost one seat in Alabama to Republican Tommy Tuberville, a former football coach, leaving Democrats with a net gain of only one seat.

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Staff writers 7.30am: Trump attempt to stop Michigan count denied

A Michigan judge has denied a legal effort by the Trump campaign to halt the counting of absentee ballots in the state, in part on the grounds that the lawsuit was brought against the wrong defendant and was filed too late since all the state’s votes have been counted, the Wall St Journal reports.

During an hour-long court hearing Judge Cynthia Stephens in the Michigan Court of Claims also questioned the lack of specificity in the Trump campaign’s lawsuit. The lawsuit sought to stop the counting of ballots on the grounds that partisan challengers had been denied the right to take part in the review process.

Donald Trump bang on the glass and chant slogans outside the room where absentee ballots are being counted at TCF Center in Detroit, Michigan. Picture: AFP.
Donald Trump bang on the glass and chant slogans outside the room where absentee ballots are being counted at TCF Center in Detroit, Michigan. Picture: AFP.

Judge Stephens described as hearsay a related affidavit filed on Thursday by a GOP lawyer alleging poll-worker misconduct at a Detroit ballot-counting site.

A Michigan assistant attorney general said in the hearing that there was no relief to be granted because “there are no more counting boards that are functioning.” A lawyer for the Democratic National Committee said the lawsuit was filed improperly against the Secretary of State, who doesn’t oversee the absentee ballot-counting sites.

Attorney Thor Hearne, who filed the case on behalf of the Trump campaign and an observer who said he was excluded from ballot observation, said after the hearing that the decision left open the possibility that challengers might be able to observe the ballot-certification process now under way at the state level.

“All we want is to have challengers and observers there to oversee any irregularities,” Mr. Hearne said, adding he welcomed observers from the Biden camp as well.

At least one other lawsuit is still pending in state court over alleged misconduct and exclusion of GOP observers at Michigan ballot-counting locations. Other litigation related to the state’s electoral process were resolved or put on hold before the election.

Anne Barrowclough 7.20am: How Georgia’s vote count is going

Donald Trump’s lead in Georgia has slipped again to 12,835, with 47,000 votes still outstanding.

Taking this state county by county, it is now very possible for Joe Biden to take the usually Republican state from his rival.

How the counties with votes still outstanding are playing:

Chatham: 17,157 outstanding votes: Biden is leading with 58 per cent of the vote.

Fulton (the most populous state); 7000 votes outstanding, Biden leads with 72.5 per cent.

Cobb: 700 votes outstanading, Biden leads with 56 per cent.

Gwinnett: 4800 votes outstanding: Biden leads with 69 per cent of the vote

Clayton: 6026 outstanading; Biden leads with 84.8 per cent.

Anne Barrowclough 6.55am: Trump lead down in Pennsylvania, Biden down in Arizona

Joe Biden is eating into Donald Trump’s lead in Pennsylvania, where election officials say they could announce results by the end of the day (ET).

Mr Trump’s lead is now down to 108,000 with 88 per cent of the vote counted.

With Joe Biden in the White House, America 'will be a very different place'

With 20 electoral votes, a loss for Mr Trump will be fatal while it would get Mr Biden easily over the threshold to win the White House.

However Mr Biden’s lead in Arizona is slipping as vote-counting continues.

Mr. Biden is ahead of Mr. Trump by more than 68,000 votes with about 88 per cent of the state’s expected total vote counted, according to the AP.

Katie Hobbs, Arizona’s Democratic secretary of state, told Good Morning America that there were 450,000 ballots left to count in Arizona, just under 300,000 of them from the state’s most populous county, Maricopa, which includes the city of Phoenix. The secretary of state’s website says there are also 46,000 outstanding votes in Pima County, which includes the Democrat leading Tucson, where Mr. Biden has been leading by a wide margin.

Anne Barrowclough 6.35am: Trump claims victory in ‘legal’ votes

Donald Trump’s team is appealing to supporters to contribute to a “defence fund” to “stop the left-wing mob from stealing the election”.

Mr Trump has also released a statement through his campaign team, repeating his previous claims that he had won the election.

“If you count the legal votes I easily win the election,” he wrote in capital letters. “If you count the illegal and late votes, they can steal the election from us.”

Donald Trump’s team is becoming resigned to the fact that he will probably lose the election, CNN reports. However a Trump adviser told the network officials believed they could retake Arizona, where Mr Biden’s lead is narrowing.

“We get AZ,” the adviser said.

He admitted there was no room; with Mr Trump’s lead in Geoergia sliced to a wafer thin margin, Arizona is a must win for the president.

Agencies 6.25am: Protests continue in key states

While Donald Trump was demanding that vote-counting be halted in Georgia and Pennsylvania, where he is leading by a tight margin, his supporters were insisting that it continue in Arizona and Nevada, where he is trailing Joe Biden.

In Detroit, a Democratic stronghold that is majority black, a crowd of mostly white Trump supporters chanted “Stop the count!” and tried to barge into an election office before being blocked by security.

Donald Trump supporters outside the TCF Center in downtown Detroit, Michigan. Picture: AFP.
Donald Trump supporters outside the TCF Center in downtown Detroit, Michigan. Picture: AFP.

An aggressive pro-Trump crowd gathered outside a vote counting office in the Arizona county of Maricopa, which includes Phoenix.

The protesters, some of whom were openly carrying firearms, which is legal in the state, chanted “Count the votes!” as law enforcement officers formed a protective line at the facility’s doors.

There were anti-Trump protests overnight in Portland, Oregon, resulting in at least 10 arrests, and businesses in several other major cities have boarded up windows as a precaution.

In stark contrast to Trump’s unprecedented rhetoric about being cheated, Biden has sought to project calm, reaching out to a nation torn by four years of polarizing leadership and traumatized by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We have to stop treating our opponents as enemies,” Biden said Wednesday. “What brings us together as Americans is so much stronger than anything that can tear us apart.” The head of an international observer mission to the US elections called Trump’s demands that vote-counting be halted a “gross abuse of office” on Thursday

Staff writers 5.50am: 50,400 ballots to be counted in Georgia

About 50,400 ballots remained to be counted in Georgia as of this morning, the state’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has said.

Many of the outstanding ballots in Georgia were from Democratic-leaning counties, and the margin of President Trump’s lead over Joe Biden has narrowed to just 13,500, down from 18,000 votes at 3am this morning (AEDT). In Democrat leaning Fulton County, the state’s largest county which takes in parts of Atlanta City, Mr Biden is leading Mr Trump by 235, 278 votes.

If Biden takes Georgia it’s ‘all over for Trump’

Georgia election officials have said that ballot counting could continue into Thursday evening local time (Friday afternoon AEDT).

The remaining votes will also play a key role in determining control of the Senate. Democrats need to win two more seats to get to 50, which would give them control if Mr. Biden wins the presidency.

One of Georgia’s two Senate races is already headed for a runoff, as the Associated Press projected Tuesday. In the other race, Republican Sen. David Perdue’s share of the vote was just shy of 50%, with Democratic opponent Jon Ossoff at 47.7%. Under Georgia law, if no Senate candidate gets more than 50%, the two top vote-getters, regardless of party, compete in a runoff to be held in this cycle on January 5, 2021.

Agencies 5.35am: Where the key states stand now

Here is a look at the situation in the key states that are still up for grabs, and paths to victory for each candidate:

Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt speaks to the news media during a press conference by members of Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. Picture: AFP.
Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt speaks to the news media during a press conference by members of Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. Picture: AFP.

Nevada

Nevada, which has six electoral college votes, could put Joe Biden precisely at the number needed to win, if he keeps Arizona. With more than 87 percent of the vote counted, Biden is leading by about 12,000 votes, according to CNN.

North Carolina

In North Carolina, (15 votes) Donald Trump has a comfortable lead of about 77,000 votes with 95 percent of the ballots, about 5.38 million, tabulated. But the state may not complette its count until next week.

Georgia

In Georgia this morning, Mr Biden had tightened the gap with Mr Trump to just over 13,500 votes with about 98 percent counted.

He needs to win 63 per cent of the final vote to win the state but the final votes are mainly in Democratic-leaning areas.

Gabriel Sterling, who works for Georgia’s secretary of state, told reporters early Thursday that about 60,000 votes remained uncounted.

“Fast is great, and we appreciate fast. We more appreciate accuracy,” he said. Georgia has not chosen a Democrat for president since Bill Clinton in 1992.

Donald Trump supporters protest outside the Philadelphia Convention center as votes continue to be counted. Picture: AFP.
Donald Trump supporters protest outside the Philadelphia Convention center as votes continue to be counted. Picture: AFP.

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania is the biggest prize remaining, with 20 electoral votes. As in Georgia, Mr Trump is currently leading – by 114,000 votes with 92 per cent of the vote counted – but, as in Georgia, the majority of votes left to be counted are in Democratic-leaning areas like greater Philadelphia.

Arizona

This state is one wild card that could upset these calculations. Fox News and the Associated Press have already called the race in Biden’s favor, as has The Wall St Journal and The Australian. However other networks including CNN and NBC have said the race is still too close to call.

Arizona’s Secretary of State Katie Hobbs told ABC News that she did not expect a final count on Thursday — but also that she doesn’t expect a recount.

“It’s not looking like today, probably closer to tomorrow that we’ll be closer to getting through all those ballots,” Ms Hobbs said.

This morning, Mr Biden had a lead of about 69,000 votes with more than 88 percent of the ballots counted.

Troy Bramston 5.30am: Let’s hope democracy prevails

The US election will be a tipping point for democracy.

The next few days will test whether the vision of the revolutionary generation of American patriots will prevail or be extinguished.

Donald Trump’s refusal to accept­ election results, filing lawsuits to stop votes being counted, alleging ballot fraud, encouraging protesters to intimidate election officials and falsely claiming victor­y are not just the threats of flailing candidate.

They are a last-ditch attempt to thwart the will of the people.

Joe Biden is on the cusp of claiming the presidency in a remarkab­le election victory.

Biden has achieved more votes than any other presidential candid­ate in American history.

The former vice-president’s margin over Trump is about four million votes, and could be as large as five or seven million. This is an extraordinary result.

The rustbelt states of Michigan and Wisconsin have voted for Biden by larger margins than Trump won them four years ago. Biden could also win Pennsyl­vania, where he has reduced Trump’s margin. He has picked up the sunbelt state of Arizona, will likely hold Nevada and could win in Georgia. This would represen­t a rewriting of the electoral map for Democrats.

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Cameron Stewart 5.10am: Climate pact tops Biden agenda

Joe Biden will recommit the US to the Paris Agreement as one of his first acts in the White House, the former vice-president declared as his campaign moved closer to victory by claiming several key swing states.

Joe Biden vows to recommit US to Paris Agreement if he wins presidency

But Donald Trump has initiated legal challenges in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin as his path back to the presidency diminished after a late surge in votes for Mr Biden early on Thursday, Australian time.

Mr Biden, responding to the formal withdrawal of the US from the Paris Agreement climate pact, said he would recommit to the deal as one of his first acts in office.

The Trump administration announced an exit from the accord dealing with emissions reductions three years ago, a move that only came into force on Wednesday.

The US is the first party to withdraw from the agreement.

Mr Trump had previously ­labelled the Paris Agreement as “job killing” and said it “(punished) the American people while enriching foreign polluters”.

“Today, the Trump Administration officially left the Paris ­Climate Agreement. And in exactly 77 days, a Biden Administration will rejoin it,” Mr Biden tweeted.

If elected, he will take the presidential oath on January 20.

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Anne Barrowclough 4.55am: ‘Stay patient, stay calm’

Joe Biden’s campaign has warned supporters to “stay patient and stay calm” as he closes in on the White House.

While Mr Trump declared that he had won “on legal votes” – meaning in-personn votes – Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon told reporters: that “the story of today is going to be a very positive story” for their campaign.

“We are absolutely confident that Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States,” she said.

However she warned that as the counting continues, “we need to allow it to get done and get done well.”

“We expect some bounce in the data throughout the day,” she said. “It’s possible that we might see some of the more rural and in-person votes coming in at that noon window with other, more favorable-for-us-votes coming in later in the day. So don’t be surprised if we bounce.”

Ms O’Malley Dillon also pointed to vote counts in Pennsylvania, where Mr Trump was leading by 1.8 per cent, saying the majority of the outstanding ballots would back Mr. Biden.

“We will win by a sizable number of votes in Pennsylvania but we need to make sure that we continue the count there,” she said.

Agencies 4.50am: Georgia judge dismisses Trump lawsuit

A judge in Georgia has dismissed a lawsuit by the state Republican Party and Donald Trump’s campaign that asked him to ensure a coastal county was following state laws on processing absentee ballots.

A Fulton County employee moves voting machine transporters to be stored at the Fulton County Election Preparation Center. Picture: Getty Images.
A Fulton County employee moves voting machine transporters to be stored at the Fulton County Election Preparation Center. Picture: Getty Images.

Chatham County Superior Court Judge James Bass did not provide an explanation for his decision Thursday at the close of a roughly one-hour hearing. The county includes the heavily Democratic city of Savannah.

The suit had raised concerns about 53 absentee ballots that poll observers said were not part of an original batch of ballots. County elections officials testified that all 53 ballots had been received on time.

Staff writers 4.40am: Legal win for Trump in Philadelphia

In a win for one of the Trump campaign’s recent legal challenges, a Pennsylvania appeals court has ruled that poll observers must be allowed to closely observe the vote-counting process, the Wall St Journal reports.

Donald Trump is leading by 13,000 with 88 per cent of the vote counted. The Trump campaign on Wednesday appealed a decision in a poll-watching matter heard in Philadelphia’s election court. An apparent Republican poll observer who was watching election proceedings complained of not being able to view the writing on the outside of ballots, according to court documents.

“We are suing to stop Democrat election officials from hiding the ballot counting and processing from our Republican poll observers — observers whose only job is to make sure every valid ballot is counted, and counted once,” the Trump campaign said in a statement Wednesday.

The lower-court judge ruled Tuesday that because poll observers are directed to observe but not audit ballots, election officials had followed the observation requirements.

Anne Barrowclough 4.20am: Trump lead in Georgia down to 13,500

Donald Trump’s lead in Georgia has collapsed to just 13,500. But with more than 61,000 ballots still to be counted we may not get results until later this afternoon (AEDT) Gabriel Sterling, voting-system-implementation manager at the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, has told the Wall St Journal.

Mr Biden will have to get 63 per cent of the remaining ballot to win.

Members of an adjudication review panel look over scanned absentee ballots at the Fulton County Election Preparation Center. Picture: Getty Images.
Members of an adjudication review panel look over scanned absentee ballots at the Fulton County Election Preparation Center. Picture: Getty Images.

But many of the remaining ballots are in Dmocratic-leaning counties n this battleground state.

“This is going to be an extremely close margin,” Mr. Sterling said.

Mr Trump needs this state to win the presidency back. One adviser told CNN the state was the difference between “the White House and the outhouse”.

The election here is on course to be the closest presidential contest here since 1992 when Bill Clinton defeated George HW Bush by about 13,000 votes. That was the last time a Democratic presidential candidate carried the state.

“We’re going to make sure every legal, lawful ballot is counted,” said Mr. Sterling, speaking for Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

Staff writers 4.00am: Biden increases lead in Nevada

Nevada, where Joe Biden is leading is about to release results.

Joe Biden’s lead has increased vote to 12,000 votes. But there are outstanding ballots left to be counted in the coming days. Under state law, they can still be accepted so long as they were postmarked by Election Day, on Nov. 3.

Joe Biden arrives to address supporters during election night. Picture: AFP.
Joe Biden arrives to address supporters during election night. Picture: AFP.

Mr. Trump narrowly lost Nevada in 2016 as the state has trended toward the Democrats in the past decade. The last Republican presidential contender to win the state was George W. Bush in 2004.

Graham Richardson 3.45am: Not much will change in country for old men

s counting continues and Joe Biden’s lead extends, America’s allies are breathing a collective sigh of relief. Trump’s campaign team has already prepared documents to challenge the results in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, but it is hard to see the court overturning the verdict of the people.

Choosing a cabinet will be a real test for Biden. Will he find places for Bernie Sanders? Picture: AFP.
Choosing a cabinet will be a real test for Biden. Will he find places for Bernie Sanders? Picture: AFP.

How can you be a good loser when you can’t even be a good winner? Trump is looking more like the little kid loser who sulks off with his bat and ball. Americans may have to wait weeks before a confirmed winner emerges.

Elections are never won in a courtroom, they are won on the streets and in the homes of voters and eventually at the ballot box.

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Paul Kelly 3.30am: Judge Biden by actions, not words

Providing his momentum prevails, Joe Biden has offered a glimpse of his inauguration speech — “no blue states and red states”, just American states under a non-partisan presidency.

It is a grand uplifting ideal.

Joe Biden and wife Jill in Wilmington, Delaware. Picture: AFP.
Joe Biden and wife Jill in Wilmington, Delaware. Picture: AFP.

But it falls upon a sea of rancour, disputed claims and Donald Trump’s renewed leadership of the voiceless red legions against the elites.

Any Biden victory will be highly qualified. The Democrats are unlikely to win the Senate, the predicted blue surge never materialised, the capacity of Biden as a healing agent remains in serious question and Trump is creating a default story that this election was “stolen”, thereby seeking to de-legitimise any Biden victory.

Biden’s tone the day after the vote was pitch-perfect. This was a different Biden: he was moving into the aura of the presidency, invoking classic American ideals: it is time “to unite, to heal, to come together as a nation”.

Biden comes to bury Trump’s carnage with hope. He pledges to unite where Trump divided.

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Not much will change in this country for old men
Graham Richardson
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Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/us-election-2020-live-results-as-donald-trump-and-joe-biden-battle-for-key-states/news-story/31d015c7fde6c2c68f5ca8e8cf9bc806