LIVE: US Election Results - Joe Biden elected US President; Kamala Harris becomes vice-president

US Election Results 2020 Live Updates, Latest News: Joe Biden, the 77-year-old Democrat, who became the oldest man ever to be elected to the White House, will be the 46th president of the United States, after securing a major victory in Pennsylvania, the state where he was born put him over the 270 electoral votes needed to win. With Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes, Biden now has a total of 273 electoral votes. Here are all the LIVE UPDATES on the biggest electoral contest of the world:-

- Joe Biden elected US President; Kamala Harris becomes vice-president 

Joe Biden

Joe Biden, who triumphed over incumbent US President Donald Trump in a divisive, bitter and closely-fought presidential election, appealed to fellow Americans on Saturday that it is time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind and come together as a nation.

The 77-year-old Democrat, who became the oldest man ever to be elected to the White House, will be the 46th president of the United States, after securing a major victory in Pennsylvania, the state where he was born put him over the 270 electoral votes needed to win.

With Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes, Biden now has a total of 273 electoral votes.

"I am honoured and humbled by the trust the American people have placed in me and in Vice President-elect Harris," Biden said in his first statement after America's major news outlets declared him the winner of the November 3 elections, thus making him the President-elect. "In the face of unprecedented obstacles, a record number of Americans voted. Proving once again, that democracy beats deep in the heart of America," he said. "With the campaign over, it's time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation. It's time for America to unite. And to heal," Biden said. "We are the United States of America. And there's nothing we can't do, if we do it together," said the President-elect.

Before becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, Biden served as vice president under former President Barack Obama. He is also Delaware's longest-serving senator.

Kamala Harris

Senator Kamala Harris, 56, who is of Indian origin, has become the first ever woman vice president-elect of the United States. She would also be the country's first Indian-origin, first Black and first African American vice president of the country.

Biden and Harris would be sworn in as the President and Vice President of the country on January 20. (Source: PTI)

- Biden campaign threatens to escort 'trespassers' from White House

An increasingly confident Joe Biden campaign sent out a stern message on Friday, without naming US President Donald Trump, saying the "United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House."

Biden is leading Trump 253-214 in the electoral vote count. He is on the cusp of victory if he carries Pennsylvania. Biden is now ahead by more than 9,000 votes there.

"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," Biden campaign spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement.

The Biden campaign's remarks came on a day when Donald Trump has rage tweeted since 2 am, claiming (wrongly) that he has won the election based on "legal" votes, and that "these late ballots past Election Day are illegal".

Trump is fuming and showing it on Twitter and elsewhere. His public posture remains combative although White House insiders have been saying, in conversations with reporters, that they feel deflated, especially now that Pennsylvania is slipping away to Biden.

The President's top economic adviser Larry Kudlow told CNBC that Trump seems ready to fight, a remark he repeated later in the day to White House pool reporters.

The President does not technically have to concede if he loses an election, it is more of a tradition. At this time though, Trump's mood is to contest the election results in key battlegrounds by flinging lawsuits and seeing what sticks.

Meanwhile, key Republicans have begun breaking away from Trump's stand, saying they see no evidence to support Trump's baseless claim that Democrats are trying to "steal" the elections. (Source: IANS)

- Kamala Harris likely to speak first, Biden second at Delaware

Kamala Harris, the first Indian and Black American candidate on a US presidential ticket, is pencilled in to speak ahead of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden at a location that's increasingly taking on the look of a victory podium set up at the Biden campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware.

Biden is on the cusp of winning the presidency on Friday as he opened or extended leads over Trump in critical battlegrounds of Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Arizona. A Pennsylvania win alone will push him over the top of the 270-electoral vote target.

As per campaign chatter, Harris speaking first is the Biden camp's nod to the vice presidential candidate's historic run. At this time, it is not clear if Harris and Biden will take the stage even if Pennsylvania results are not yet declared by that time.

At this time, the mood in the campaign is said to be one of "joy" and "relief" after an "emotional roller coaster" of a long and bruising election campaign season amid an ongoing pandemic.

Champagne bottles are being popped but the public posture remains muted yet confident.

A campaign staffer told NBC that the final call on the election result (in Biden's favour) is "only an eventuality" and "imminent". (Source: IANS)

-  'You could be President', Kamala Harris tells 4-year-old

 Democratic Vice President nominee Kamala Harris video, where she is seen telling her great niece that "You could be President", has gone viral.

In a video posted by her niece, Meena Harris, the Democratic senator told Meena's 4-year-old daughter, Amara Ajagu, "You could be president, but not right now. You have to be over the age of 35."

The video shows Amara Ajagu sitting on Kamala Harris' lap as they engage in a conversation. The discussion between Harris and and her great niece is about being a President.

Later, Meena Harris posted on Twitter about the video. "For context my daughter wants to be both president and an astronaut," she wrote.

Meena Harris has recently written a book, Ambitious Girl which is a NYT bestseller. "I wrote another kids' book! A girl sees a strong woman onTV labelled as "too assertive" and "too ambitious," sending her on a journey of discovery about challenges faced by women & girls, and how we can reclaim words meant to knock us down. "Pre-order now," said a tweet on her handle. (Source: IANS)

-As Biden adds lead in Pennsylvania, Trump's party asks court to stop vote count

After Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden pulled ahead of President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, the state Republican Party asked the US Supreme Court to stop the counting of late-arriving postal ballots.

The party asked the court Friday afternoon to order the election authorities in the state to keep the ballots received after election day separately and not act on them, pending a ruling on the legality of the late-arriving ballots.

A state court had extended the deadline for receiving postal ballots till 5 p.m. on Friday.

Trump was leading in the state by nearly 200,000 on Wednesday but the tables had turned and Biden was ahead by about 13,000 on Friday afternoon with 98 per cent of the votes in when the Republicans mounted the challenge.

If Biden wins Pennsylvania, he will have more than the 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. (Source: IANS

- Sleepless Americans tank up on coffee and Pennsylvania

For the third straight day, Americans from coast to coast are still journeying on their caffeine-spiked red-eye roller coaster of a political blockbuster like no other. It's Friday, November 6, and we still don't have a winner for Trump versus Biden. American politics is turning on Pennsylvania and the numbers tumbling out of there overnight are overwhelmingly in favour of the Biden-Harris ticket.

If Joe Biden wins Pennsylvania, he wins the White House. For Donald Trump, the state is a must-win for any chance to stay in the game.

That trend is being powered by Philadelphia, the state's biggest city. Biden is winning big in Philadelphia. In this city alone, there are about 54,000 mail ballots that are still being counted at around 8 a.m. EST.

Much of the mail ballots are going for Biden at a rate of 91 per cent and this is being repeated in county after county, it's not an isolated pattern in Philly alone.

What that means is that whenever the next lot of results come in, it's going to be in the game changer category, unless it goes in a completely opposite direction from what we've been seeing here for the last 15 hours, nonstop.

Democratic voters went all in on using the mail vote, Republicans turned out on election day. That's what we're seeing in the numbers coming out on Friday. Pennsylvania had just two ways to vote: Mail or in person. There was no in-person early voting possible here. So, it figures that votes getting counted today are skewing blue and adding more to Biden's total rather than Trump's total.

We are awaiting around 160,000 votes more. Biden has plenty of room to catch up with Trump and potentially run away with the big prize. (Source: IANS)

 

- Biden storms ahead in Pennsylvania, poised for victory

After three full days of waiting patiently for the slow march of vote counting to work itself out, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden finally stormed into the lead in battlegrounds Pennsylvania and Georgia on Friday morning, closing in on the White House which continues to turn on a handful of incredibly tight contests.

The Biden campaign believes that it has crossed the Pennsylvania challenge and is "joyous", according to reporters on the ground in Delaware, the Biden headquarters.

Biden leads Trump by nearly 6,000 votes in Pennsylvania and over 1,000 in deep red Georgia.

Millions of votes are still to be counted but even before we have the final tally, Biden has already 73 million votes nationally, the most in American political history. About 130,000 votes remain to be counted in Pennsylvania.

Trump is fuming, he remains defiant and continues to allege "fraud" in Pennsylvania and other battlegrounds. His children have chimed into the overall White House meltdown, in terms that generally occupy the wide arc between what's "legal" and "illegal".

Biden leads Trump 253 to 214 in the electoral vote tally. A victory in Pennsylvania means it is game over for Trump, who ran a wild campaign in 2016 and has transformed the White House in the strangest of ways in the last four years.

Biden is a sharp contrast to Trump, both in the personal and political realm. The last three days have shown Americans glimpses of that very difference.

Biden spent every day since November 3 trying to ease tensions and delivering his messages with little outward show of anxiety.

"I ask everyone to stay calm. The process is working," Biden has said repeatedly. "It is the will of the voters. No one, not anyone else who chooses the President of the United States of America." (Source: IANS)

-Biden leads Trump by over 1,000 votes in deep red Georgia

 It was 28 years ago when a Democratic candidate won Republican stronghold Georgia. That was Bill Clinton in 1992.

By 6.15 a.m. on Friday, November 6, Joe Biden pulled ahead of Donald Trump by just over 1,000 votes in Georgia, which puts 16 electoral votes into the winner's column. At least 99 per cent of the votes are in.

If Biden does go on to win Georgia, his electoral vote count will be perched at 269, one short of the magic number 270 to win the White House.

Trump absolutely needs Georgia to claw back from his 214 electoral votes and get to 270. Biden's expanding lead here is the latest hurdle in Trump's very narrow path to reelection.

The signs of Republicans' loosening hold here have been a long time coming. In 2018, Democrat Stacey Abrams became the country's first African American woman gubernatorial nominee in the US. She lost narrowly. Abrams is credited with transforming the state's electorate.

It remains entirely possible that this state goes into recount mode. Based on state law, if the margin between Biden and Trump is under half a percentage point, a recount can be requested. If that happens, it delays the official declaration of a winner.

End of day on Friday is the deadline for overseas and military votes to land in Georgia. (Source: IANS)

-Biden closes in on presidency

Democratic leader Joe Biden appeared to be a step away from winning the US presidential election as the latest count of votes from a handful of battleground states indicated that the re-election chances of incumbent Republican President Donald Trump are getting slim by the hour.

By late Thursday night, Biden -- who bagged 253 seats as against Trump's 213 -- appeared to be nearing the magical figure of 270 out of the 538 electoral college votes.

In Georgia, which has 16 electoral college votes, Trump's lead has reduced to 1,902 votes. In Pennsylvania, having 20 electoral college votes, Trump's lead dropped down to 42,142 votes.

With 213 electoral college votes, Trump is far away from the magical figure of 270. (Source: PTI)

-Georgia? Yes, Biden pulls ahead of Trump in Republican stronghold

It was 28 years ago when a Democratic candidate won the Republican stronghold Georgia. That was Bill Clinton in 1992.

At 4.30 a.m., on Friday morning, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden pulled ahead of President Donald Trump with the slimmest of leads in Georgia, which puts 16 electoral votes into the winner's column. At least 99 per cent of the votes are in.

After the latest votes came in, Biden inched ahead by 917 votes. If he does go on to win Georgia, his electoral vote count will be perched at 269, one short of the magic number 270 to win the White House.

Trump absolutely needs Georgia to claw back from his 214 electoral votes and get to 270.

Biden's expanding lead here is the latest hurdle in Trump's very narrow path to re-election.

The signs of Republicans' loosening hold here have been a long time coming. In 2018, Democrat Stacey Abrams became the country's first African-American woman to lead the state of Georgia.

It remains entirely possible that this state goes into recount mode.

Based on state law, if the margin between Biden and Trump is under half a percentage point, a recount can be requested. (Source: IANS)

- Swedish environment activist Greta Thunberg mocks Trump in his own words

Amid ongoing tensions over the results of the US presidential election, Swedish environment activist Greta Thunberg has mocked US President Donald Trump in his own words in the ultimate social media revenge.

In response to Trump's "stop the count" tweet, the 17-year-old said on the micro-blogging platform on Thursday: "So ridiculous. Donald must work on his anger management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill, Donald, Chill."

Thunberg's tweet was the exact copy of the one that Trump posted in December 2019 criticizing the Time magazine's decision to name her "Person of the Year".

"So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!," the President had tweeted on December 12, 2019.

Within hours of posting, the teenage activist's tweet has garnered over 1 million likes and nearly 300,000 retweets.

The development comes as President Trump has made controversial broad allegations of voter fraud in Tuesday's election.

"If you count the legal votes, I easily win," the President told reporters at the White House earlier on Thursday, implying that some of the postal ballots, the counting of which he was trying to stop was illegal.

"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, but a lot of votes came in late.

"This is a case where they're trying to steal an election, trying to rig an election," he asserted.

Trump's allegations about election fraud brought immediate condemnation from the media, almost all of which labelled it "false", and politicians in Republican and Democratic parties.

The main TV networks, ABC, CBS and NBC, stopped broadcasting his speech midway.

Meanwhile, his Democratic rival Joe Biden said: "Each ballot must be counted and that's what is going on now. And that's how it should be. Democracy is sometimes messy, so sometimes it requires a little patience."

While the New York Times and CBS gave Biden 253 electoral college votes, the Associated Press and Fox News gave him 264 votes and Trump 214, both projections put the presidency in Biden's reach. (Source: IANS)

- US Fed keeps interest rates near zero amid poll uncertainty

The US Federal Reserve has kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at the record-low level of near zero while making no change to its pace of asset purchases amid election uncertainty and coronavirus resurgence concerns.

"Economic activity and employment have continued to recover but remain well below their levels at the beginning of the year," the Fed said in a statement on Thursday after concluding a two-day policy meeting, adding the path of the US economy will depend significantly on the course of the coronavirus, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The ongoing public health crisis will continue to weigh on economic activity, employment, and inflation in the near term, and poses considerable risks to the economic outlook over the medium term," the Fed said.

While pledging to use its full range of tools to support the US economy "in this challenging time", the central bank decided to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 0-0.25 per cent and continue its asset purchase program at the current pace of $120 billion per month.

"The recent rise in new Covid-19 cases, both here in the US and abroad, is particularly concerning. All of us have a role to play in our nation's response to the pandemic," Powell said, adding a full economic recovery is unlikely until people are confident that it's safe to re-engage in a broad range of activities.

Powell also noted that more fiscal and monetary policy support is needed to bring the US economy back on track to its pre-pandemic levels.

"It will take a while to get back to the levels of economic activity and employment that prevailed at the beginning of this year. And it may take continued support from both monetary and fiscal policy to achieve that," he said.

The Fed meeting came as the US added record-breaking 100,000 plus new Covid-19 cases in a single day on Wednesday, while people nationwide are waiting for the outcome of the presidential election.

"The economy continues to expand, albeit at a slower pace than in the third quarter.

However, the economic outlook is clouded by uncertainties related to the pandemic as well as the yet to be determined presidential election," Jay H. Bryson, chief economist at Wells Fargo Securities, wrote Thursday in an analysis.

"Given this backdrop, the committee apparently concluded that it would be appropriate to maintain a steady course at today's meeting and continue to watch incoming data and developments before making any policy adjustments," Bryson wrote, referring to the Fed's policymaking committee.

While there was no policy change, the Fed, facing the possibility of a divided government in Washington, "remains the only game in town" when it comes to providing sustained accommodation to an impaired economy, said Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at accounting and consulting firm RSM US LLP.

Brusuelas believed the upcoming minutes of the Fed meeting will "almost certainly include discussion around increasing the pace and intensity of asset purchases this year or next."

"In our estimation, the probability of a $2 trillion stimulus is rapidly fading, and the central bank, like other central banks around the world, will again consider further unorthodox monetary policies should the pandemic intensify beyond what is currently thought," Brusuelas said.

Powell said at the press conference that the Fed's holdings of securities are rising at a substantial rate of $120 billion per month, including $80 billion in US treasuries and $40 billion in agency mortgage-backed securities.

"Looking ahead, we will continue to monitor developments and assess how our ongoing asset purchases can best support our maximum employment and price stability objectives, as well as market functioning and financial stability," Powell told reporters. (Source: IANS)

- Official admits to shocking inefficiency in US election

An official overseeing elections in the US state of Georgia has pointed out shocking inefficiencies in the presidential election like a memory card on an election machine failing, ballots that didn't get uploaded to the system and the postal ballots printed on papers that could not be scanned for counting.

One of the polling place scanners in Taylor County had "a corrupt memory card", Gabriel Sterling, the Georgia state voting system manager, said on Thursday.

He said they rescanned the paper versions of the ballots that were kept as backups.

In another county, Laurens, "they are trying to figure out exactly where the batches" are for 797 ballots, he said.

"They thought they had uploaded them and they looked and realised they had not," Sterling said.

Taylor County had printed the postal ballots on a different size of paper from the one used to scan them for counting, he said.

"They're going through the process of duplicating each of those ballots on the ballot marking devices," which will have to be verified against the original to get the count done, he said.

Sterling pointed out that under Georgia law, "it's counties who run elections and there are 159 counties in the state",

They are of different sizes and have different levels of staffing, he said.

Election laws and process in the US differ by states.

Sterling said that in Georgia, "the law calls for all absentee (postal) ballots to be accepted by 7 p.m. on election day" and when they have problems the voters have to be notified that they have three days to "cure" or fix them.

Trump's campaign is fighting the counting of postal ballots that come in after the close of voting on election day in some states.

Unlike countries like India, the US does not have a national body to run the elections, which are conducted by the states and there is a further level of complexity when the states devolve the responsibility to local government entities.

The Federal Election Commission concentrates on the election financing, strictly enforcing the laws on political contributions in cash and in kind, rather than dealing with the nitty-gritty of conducting elections.

The problems in the holding of US elections have come to the fore this time with President Donald pointing some of the flaws.

However, the Democrats have defended the system and the media, which complains about elections in other countries play down the faults of the US system to the point of almost denying their prevalence. (Source: IANS)

- EXPLAINED: First, they called Arizona for Biden. Now it's on knife edge

First, the Associated Press (AP) and Fox News declared Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden the winner of Arizona. Now, its on razor's edge. In this almost ‘knowable but not yet ‘callable US election, an anxious country is watching wild swings in this battleground and the four other biggies where results are yet to be finalised.

In Arizona, less than 300,000 votes remain to be counted. Biden's lead has shrunk from 9 per cent (when AP called it), to 4.2 per cent and now trending sharply lower. Just about 42,000 votes now separate Biden and President Donald Trump. Arizona delivers 11 electoral votes to the winner.

The final rush of votes favour Trump. He needs to keep winning at around 59 per cent to win the state. At least 94 per cent of the vote is in here. A huge chunk of votes will come in by 9 a.m. EST on Friday - those numbers will be crucial.

So, let's dial it back a bit. How did we get here, from AP and Fox calling the race for Biden to "too close to call" according to NBC at this hour. And why does it matter?

It matters because Trump needs Arizona, he needs Pennsylvania and he needs some combination of the other states to pull off a sensational comeback.

Arizona is essential but not sufficient for Trump, so too Pennsylvania.

The AP decided to call Arizona's 11 electoral votes for Biden after it "concluded President Trump could not catch up" based on the remaining ballots, AP Executive Editor Sally Buzbee told IANS.

In an emailed response, Buzbee said: "The Associated Press continues to watch and analyze vote count results from Arizona as they come in. The AP declared Joe Biden the winner in Arizona at 2:50 a.m. EST Wednesday after an analysis of ballots cast statewide concluded President Donald Trump could not catch up based on the ballots left to be counted. We will follow the facts in all cases."

The Trump campaign is raging over the Arizona call, because a loss there makes it especially hard for Trump to claw back, given how the map looks two days out from election day. This is a state where Republican voters traditionally use mail in ballots and Trump feels confident the late count will be good for him.

The networks which did not call Arizona said they held back because more than 450,000 votes still had to be counted as of Thursday morning.

Based on the AP calculation, Biden is at 264 while Trump trails with 214 electoral votes. The winning number is 270. AP's Buzbee did not say if they were rethinking the decision.

Fox News has also called Arizona for Biden. Based on the AP and Fox calculations, Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris are just six electoral votes away from victory. The Fox team continues to stand by its decision to put Arizona in Biden's column.

Minus Arizona, five other states - Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada and Alaska - have still to report results.

Pennsylvania is counting votes all night. If Biden wins, it's game over for Trump. If Trump wins Penn State's 20 electoral votes, he'll still need to get lucky in almost all of the other remaining states to strike 270.

The Biden and Harris team has already unveiled its "transition" website. Biden has urged "patience" and exuded optimism even as the vote count in key battlegrounds continues its slow march towards conclusion. The Biden team planned to make an announcement tonight and even had a stage on the ready but decided against it around the time the Arizona race got tighter.

The Arizona state of play has brought back memories of that landmark 2000 battle for Florida.

It was called for Al Gore, and then for George W. Bush, and then went to the Supreme Court which ruled 5-4 for Bush. (Source: IANS)

- All eyes on Pennsylvania: What's going on there?

Two days after America voted, all eyes are on Pennsylvania again, which delivers 20 electoral votes to the winner. If Biden wins this, then we can say he has won the election. If Trump wins the state and wins nearly every other state thats still left to be called, then we have a sensational comeback on our hands.

Biden leads Trump 253-214.

Biden is projecting confidence, the campaign even has a stage ready in Wilmington, Delaware and microphones are being tested -- sending out strong visual cues for a big announcement tonight.

Trump, meanwhile, is angry and showing it, in tweets and in claims of victory, live streamed from the White House press briefing room.

Right now, loads of mail in ballots are getting counted in Penn State and Trump's lead here is shrinking at an alarming rate. Biden is winning the final batch of mail in ballots at a rate of anywhere from 50 to 70 per cent and melting away the distance between himself and Trump.

In the hours between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. EST, Trump's lead has shrunk from around 90,000 votes to just over 50,000 votes and there are still more than 300,000 votes to be counted.

The late counting is favouring Biden heavily. These are all ballots that were not processed until Election Day, based on state law.

Trump spent months claiming that voting by mail would lead to widespread voter fraud. He spent the entire day on Thursday railing against "illegal" mail-in ballots.

Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016 by less than a percentage point. The Democrats are hoping to flip it and recreate their "blue wall" in the upper MidWest. They have already won Michigan and Wisconsin.

For Trump to win a second term, he needs Arizona which has already been called by Associated Press and Fox News for Biden. Trump has criticised the Arizona decision, where the gap has been shrinking steadily. Trump needs to win the remaining vote at a steady clip of 59 per cent to win the state. Biden's lead has gone from 9 percentage points to 4.2 and now further down. Biden's count was higher by 46,257 votes at 9 p.m. EST Thursday. It was double this number 24 hours ago.

Could this be a replay of that night in 2000 when Florida was called for Al Gore, and then for George W. Bush, and then went to the Supreme Court for resolution? This is where things stand at 9 pm EST on Thursday. (Source: IANS)

- From 90K to 26K in 6 hrs, Trump lead in Penn state melting away

 In a span of barely six hours, US President Donald Trump's lead against his Democratic rival Joe Biden has suddenly eroded in battleground Pennsylvania, with barely 26,000 votes separating the two candidates at 11 p.m. EST on Thursday night (9.40 a.m. IST Friday morning).

Trump led Biden by 90,000 votes about six hours ago. If Biden wins Pennsylvania, he wins the presidency.

Biden currently leads Trump 253-214 in the electoral vote count.

The former Vice President is winning the mail-in votes being counted now by at least 60 percent. Biden's pace is currently good enough to do better than merely play catch up.

Philadelphia is able to return about 13,000 ballots an hour. Biden is winning the lion's share of the votes being counted today.

Biden is projecting confidence, the campaign even had a stage ready in Wilmington, Delaware and microphones got tested - in preparation for a big announcement.

The late counting is favouring Biden heavily. These are all ballots that were not processed until Election Day, based on state law.

Trump won Pennsylvania in 2016 by less than a percentage point.

The Democrats are hoping to flip it and recreate their "blue wall" in the upper MidWest. They have already won Michigan and Wisconsin. (Source: IANS)

- Trump alleges voter fraud; Biden says he's confident of win

 As the US moves closer to determining a winner in the presidential race, President Donald Trump has made controversial broad allegations of voter fraud, while his Democratic rival Joe Biden has expressed confidence that he and his running mate Kamala Harris will win.

The duelling statements came on Thursday with the media giving Biden a wide lead in the electoral votes needed to win and Trump trying to tie up the counting in courts but so far without succeeding in stopping the count.

In the polarising atmosphere, protests were held across the country by supporters of both leaders and in New York City the anti-Trump protest turned violent for the second night with attacks on police and several arrests.

"If you count the legal votes, I easily win," the President told reporters at the White House on Thursday, implying that some of the postal ballots, the counting of which he was trying to stop was illegal. "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, but a lot of votes came in late. "This is a case where they're trying to steal an election a" trying to rig an election," he asserted.

Biden, in contrast, said: "Each ballot must be counted and that's what is going on now. And that's how it should be. Democracy is sometimes messy, so sometimes it requires a little patience." 

Trump's allegations about election fraud brought immediate condemnation from the media, almost all of which labelled it "false", and politicians in Republican and Democratic parties.

The main TV networks, ABC, CBS and NBC, stopped broadcasting his speech midway. (Source: IANS)

- Facebook to announce US election winner once major media outlets confirm

Facebook on Friday said it will update the notifications running across the top of its main app and Instagram with the projected winner of the election once it has been projected by a majority of media outlets, The social network also will label presidential candidates' posts with a link to its voting information centre.

"While several states continue to count votes, we wanted to share a reminder of the steps we'll take to provide reliable information across our products once there is a projected presidential winner," Facebook said in a tweet. Once a majority of independent decision desks at major media outlets project a winner, "we'll update the notifications running across the top of Facebook and Instagram with the projected winner of the election". Facebook announced several measures to reduce the spread of misinformation on its platforms before the November 3 election. It also labeled a couple of tweets on "election theft" and mail-in ballots as misleading by US President Donald Trump. "We will also start applying labels with the projected winner on all presidential candidates' posts with a link to our Voting Information Center to see more about the election results," the company said. (Source: IANS)

- US courts have dismissed Trump campaign's lawsuits in Michigan and Georgia related to electoral malpractice

In Michigan, the campaign had sought to stop counting of absentee ballots, while in Georgia it had alleged that even improper ballots were being counted.

Michigan Court of Claims Judge Cynthia Stephens Thursday rejected the lawsuit, arguing that the Michigan Secretary of State is not involved with the local counting process. A formal order would be issued on Friday.

Multiple news networks have declared Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden winner in Michigan.

The relief that is being requested in substantial part is completely unavailable through the secretary of state, Stephens said during the oral hearing.

-Biden inches nearer to victory; Trump launches lawsuits and rages about ''fraud''

 Democrat Joe Biden crept nearer to victory over Donald Trump on Thursday in an exceedingly close U.S. election that hinged on razor-thin margins in a handful of states, while the Republican president escalated his legal efforts to influence vote counting and made fresh unsubstantiated claims of voting fraud.

Biden, the former U.S. vice president, was chipping away at Trump`s leads in Pennsylvania and Georgia while retaining slim margins in Nevada and Arizona.

Ballot tabulation dragged on in those battleground states two days after polls closed, while protesters from both sides staged demonstrations in major cities over the vote counting.

After an acrimonious campaign waged during the coronavirus pandemic, the election appeared to be moving toward a nail-biting conclusion in the coming hours and perhaps days.

There is still a narrow path for Trump to win if he holds on in Georgia, where he leads by 12,800 votes, and Pennsylvania, where he is ahead by 108,600 votes, and overtakes Biden in Arizona, where he trails by 68,100 votes, or Nevada, where he is 11,400 votes behind.

But many of the outstanding votes in Georgia and Pennsylvania were clustered in places expected to lean Democratic, such as the Atlanta and Philadelphia areas.

Trump, who attacked the integrity of the U.S. voting system during the campaign, again on Thursday alleged voting fraud without providing evidence and accused Democrats of aiming to "steal" the election.

His campaign has filed several lawsuits in battleground states and called for a recount in Wisconsin, though some legal experts said the court challenges were a long shot unlikely to affect the election outcome.

Meanwhile, in brief remarks from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, on Thursday afternoon, Biden again urged patience and called for every vote to be counted.

"We have no doubt that when the count is finished, Senator Harris and I will be declared the winners," said Biden, referring to his running mate, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris. "So I ask everyone to stay cool, all people to stay calm. The process is working, the count is being completed. And we`ll know very soon."

At stake is whether to give Trump and his "America First" policies four more years in office after a tumultuous first term or turn to Biden, a figure on the national stage for a half century who promises to deliver steadiness at home and repair alliances overseas.

One of the most unusual presidential races in modern U.S. history was held amid the pandemic, which has killed more than 234,000 Americans and left millions more out of work. Concern about the virus caused a surge in voting by mail, with the laborious counting contributing to the delayed results.

To capture the White House, a candidate must amass at least 270 votes in the state-by-state Electoral College. Such electoral votes are based largely on a state`s population.

Most major television networks gave Biden a 253 to 214 lead in electoral college votes on Thursday.

-Global shares jump as Biden edges toward victory, dollar slips

The dollar slipped and global stock markets surged on Thursday as investors bet Republicans would be able to halt major policy changes under a Joe Biden presidency, while the Bank of England became the latest central bank to announce more stimulus.

With both Georgia U.S. Senate seats headed for possible runoff elections in January, the state could determine whether Republicans retain a majority in the Senate.

Biden drew closer to defeating Republican President Donald Trump as counting continued from Tuesday`s elections, even as the Trump campaign said it expected to launch more legal actions and would emerge victorious.

Investors leapt on the prospect of gridlock in Congress and the notion Silicon Valley will be spared greater oversight if the Democrats in fact are unable to control the Senate.

Tech shares in Europe jumped 2.5% <.SX8P>, extending a rally of just over 8% this week, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite index, S&P 500 and Dow industrials each rose about 2%.

European stocks hit two-week highs on strong earnings results and after the BofE increased its already huge bond-buying stimulus by 150 billion pounds ($195 billion), or about 50 billion pounds more than expected.

The Federal Reserve kept its loose monetary policy intact and pledged again to do whatever it can in coming months to sustain a U.S. economic recovery threatened by the spreading coronavirus pandemic.

"All indications in the market seem to really be putting this whole event in the rearview mirror, which is a little surprising to me considering how tight some of this stuff is," said Patrick Leary, chief market strategist and senior trader at Incapital in Minneapolis.

Equities have surged as the size of a fiscal stimulus deal reached in a divided Congress to support the economy is likely to be much smaller than anticipated under a Biden-led blue wave. (Source: Reuters)

-264 or 253? Biden vs Trump math just got a whole lot wilder

 It gets wilder by the minute. Now that two news outlets Fox and The Associated Press are holding firm to their 264 electoral vote count for Joe Biden and the rest of the US news media live in a parallel bubble that has called 253 for Biden, what happens if another six electoral votes land for Biden? At AP and Fox News, that would take Biden to 270, the winning number in electoral college math. For the non-AP, no-Fox universe, Biden will still be short of 270 and Trump will still be in the game. The president believes he still has a real path to 270, although he needs to get lucky in nearly every single state that's left to be called. So, will AP and Fox News call the election at that time while the rest don't? IANS has reached out to AP and awaiting a reply. That possibility of a result and non-result existing at the same moment is so very 2020! If that happens, does one camp go out and declare victory based on those two calls?

At this time, these are very real question marks over a still undecided election. They are not the only ones though. Trump's campaign, citing counting irregularities, is rushing in with legal cases in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia. The Arizona call is central to the wild possibilities that still exist. That's where the discrepancy of 264 and 253 emerges.

AP and Fox called Arizona for Joe Biden at a time when 450,000 votes remain to be counted. The Donald Trump campaign has jumped right in, protesting the early call. The state has a long political history of voting Republican. When AP called the state, Biden led by 9 percentage points, his lead has now shrunk to 4.2 percentage points.

"The AP called the race in Arizona for Biden at 2:50 am EST Wednesday after an analysis of ballots cast statewide concluded Trump could not catch up in the ballots left to be counted." The Trump campaign thinks it has a real chance in the state and is tearing into the early calls. Fox News has stuck to its Arizona call, even during televised phone-ins with Trump campaign officials. The broadcaster's "decision desk" made that call. Arizona will update at 9 p.m. Thursday.

Just for context, the US does not have a national election commission which announces the winner. Organisations with resources at scale on the ground coordinate with state officials to plot the dots. (Source: IANS)

- Outcome of US presidential election on knife-edge; counting still on in key battleground states

Weary Americans will have to wait for some more time to know the clear winner of the closely-fought election between Republican President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden, as the final outcome hinged on a few states on Thursday where a flood of mail-in ballots triggered by the coronavirus pandemic were still being counted.

The results in six states Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Arizona, Alaska and Nevada ? are yet to be declared as officials counted millions of votes, some that were cast on Tuesday and many more during weeks of early voting amidst the surging pandemic.

In the US election, voters decide state-level contests rather than a single, national one. Each US state gets a certain number of Electoral College votes partly based on the size of the population, with a total of 538 up for grabs.

To reach the magic figure of 270 to claim victory, Trump, 74, must win all four remaining battleground states: Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Nevada.

-In cities across U.S., dueling protests sprout up as vote counting drags on

A second day of sometimes dueling demonstrations over the integrity of the U.S. presidential election started early on Thursday in Philadelphia and other cities as ballot counting dragged on in a handful of states that will decide the outcome.

Supporters of Joe Biden have rallied around the slogan to "count every vote," believing a complete tally would show the Democratic former vice president had beaten Republican President Donald Trump. Ardent Trump backers have countered with cries to "protect the vote" in support of his campaign`s efforts to have some categories of ballots, including some votes submitted by mail, discarded.

Both factions appeared outside a vote-counting center in Philadelphia on Thursday morning, where election staff steadily worked through a mountain of still-uncounted mail-in ballots that will determine whether Biden or Trump will take Pennsylvania`s crucial 20 Electoral College votes. (Source: Reuters)

-Has Biden won Arizona or is it still in play? Tension spirals

Two news media organisations have called Arizona for Joe Biden, the rest of them haven't and the Donald Trump campaign has jumped right in, protesting the early call there when 450,000 votes remain to be counted. The state has a long political history of voting Republican.

In the Associated Press and Fox News view, Arizona is a flip for Biden and he leads Trump 264-214. Five states that remain to be called take on a heightened urgency for the Trump campaign's narrow path to the White House. Trump is at 214 now compared with Biden's 253 (minus Arizona) in the race to 270 electoral votes. Arizona delivers 11.

Just for context here, the US does not have a national election commission which announces the winner. Organisations with resources at scale on the ground coordinate with state officials to plot the dots.

"What is happening here? Why is Arizona blue? Biden picking up Arizona changes the math!" are the series of exclamations with which Fox News broke the first truly surprising news of the election.

For its part, AP reported that "the remaining ballots left to be counted, including mail-in votes in Maricopa County, where Biden performed strongly, were not enough for Trump to catch up to the former vice president".

The AP cited the "shifting politics" of Maricopa County where Biden "sealed his victory" with "huge margins".

"The remaining ballots left to be counted, including mail-in votes in Maricopa County, where Biden performed strongly, were not enough for Trump to catch up to the former Vice President."

The Trump campaign and Trump supporters aren't buying that. In 2016, Trump carried the county by 4 percentage points and his campaign remains hopeful that the final burst of vote counting could change the game.

"Fox News Sucks!" Trump supporters chanted outside a vote-counting centre in Phoenix, Arizona.

Inside the White House, Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner worked the phones and called Fox's owner to complain about the Arizona call, according to reporting by The New York Times.

Fox News has stuck to its Arizona call, even during televised phone-ins with Trump campaign officials. The broadcaster's "decision desk" made that call.

The all important Maricopa county will report results from a big chunk of ongoing vote counting by 7 p.m. EST Thursday. (Source: IANS)

-Defiant Trump and battleground Arizona: Why this matters now

A defiant Donald Trump campaign continues to insist that it has a strong shot at re-election although trailing 214-253 against Democratic rival Joe Biden.

From where he's at currently (214), Trump needs 56 more to get to 270. He's not going to get there without Pennsylvania. And the Arizona count has roiled the last mile of the 2020 election.

The AP has called the presidential race in Arizona for Biden. Fox News did too and the Trump campaign is questioning how that happened with nearly half a million votes still left to be counted.

The electoral vote count break up in the still to be called races looks like this: Arizona (11), Nevada (6), Georgia (16), Pennsylvania (20), North Carolina (15). That's 68 more electoral votes.

Arizona state officials said Thursday there are about 450,000 ballots still to be counted.

Biden holds an advantage of about 69,000 votes. Trump needs to win about 60 per cent of the remaining votes to catch up.

The vast majority of the ballots yet to be counted are from Maricopa County, the most populous area of the state and home to Phoenix and its suburbs.

More than 60 per cent of Arizona's population lives here. (Source: IANS)

-Biden and Harris on the brink of history, Trump son-in-law hunts for lawyers

Seventeen electoral votes stand between Joe Biden/Kamala Harris and the White House. Or six electoral votes, depending on which version of the numbers you're following. Either way, the Biden-Harris ticket believes it is on the brink of defeating Donald Trump and smashing through the 270 barrier to win the White House.

As the Trump White House absorbs the grim maths, The New York Times is reporting that Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner spent Wednesday hunting for a "James Baker-like" figure -- the attorney who oversaw former President George W. Bush's successful 2000 presidential election recount in Florida, to lead Trump's "stop the count" lawsuit strategy.

At 10 a.m. EST on Thursday, Trump's favourite network Fox News and The Associated Press have their numbers posted as 264-214 in Biden's favour.

The AP called the race at 2.50 a.m. EST Wednesday, "after an analysis of ballots cast statewide concluded there were not enough outstanding to allow Trump to catch up".

If we consider Arizona too close to call, then it's 253-214 for Biden.

Updates on the latest vote count will be flowing thick and fast from state officials in Georgia, Nevada, Arizona and Pennsylvania all day Thursday.

Statewide, 89 per cent of the votes have been counted in Pennsylvania. In Arizona, 86 per cent are in and Biden leads by a little over 68,000 votes. Trump is closing in as new votes get counted.

The popular vote for Biden is constantly ticking up, the Democratic "blue wall" of Michigan and Wisconsin that fell four years ago is back on the Biden column.

In parallel, the post-election autopsy is already underway in the Biden camp. Headlining their concern is the slippage among the Hispanic community in all important Florida.

Equally, the excitement of being within striking distance of ousting Trump is palpable.

"Trump is going to get beat! Biden will be the next President," James Carville, famed Democratic strategist, declared on news telly, after Fox and AP called Arizona for Biden. (Source: IANS)

- Trump's voter fraud claims 'baseless allegations': OSCE

 A team of international observers has described US President Donald Trump's claims of voter fraud as "baseless allegations", asserting that such remarks harm public trust in democratic institutions.

The observers from the Organization for Security and co-operation in Europe (OSCE), of which the United States is a member, said in a preliminary report on Wednesday that the November 3 general elections were competitive and well managed despite legal uncertainties and logistical challenges.

The report said uncertainty caused by late legal challenges and evidence-deficient claim about election fraud created confusion and concern among election officials and voters. (Source: Reuters)

-Which states could tip U.S. election and when will they report results?

The outcome of the U.S. presidential election hung in the balance on Thursday as five swing states continued to count their ballots.

To capture the White House, a candidate must amass at least 270 votes in the Electoral College. Edison Research gave Democratic challenger Biden a 243 against 213 lead over Republican President Donald Trump in Electoral College votes. Other networks said Biden had won Wisconsin, which would give him another 10 votes.

Results in Pennsylvania (20 electoral votes), Georgia (16), North Carolina (15), Arizona (11) and Nevada (6) remained uncertain as of Thursday morning, according to Edison Research.

ARIZONA

Biden led by 2.4 percentage points as of Thursday morning, or more than 68,000 votes, with about 14% of the vote left to be counted.

More results from densely populated Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, were not expected until 7 p.m. local time (9 p.m. EST, 0200 Friday GMT), the county elections department said.

There were at least 275,000 in the county left to be counted, the elections department said. Biden was leading by 4 percentage points in the votes counted so far, indicating Biden was in a strong position to maintain his lead.

GEORGIA

Trump held onto to a lead of 0.4 percentage points, or 18,540 votes, with 4% percent of the vote left to be counted.

Results could be expected by noon EST (1700 GMT), Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told WSB-TV.

NEVADA

Biden led Trump by 7,647 votes, or 0.6 percentage points, with about 14% of the vote left to be counted.
An update was expected around 9 a.m. PST (noon EST, 1700 GMT), Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske said.

All properly received ballots will be counted for up to nine days after the election, but the exact number left to be counted was unknown, Cegavske said.

The outstanding votes are mail-in ballots and those cast by voters who registered to vote at polling place on Election Day, she said.

NORTH CAROLINA

Trump led by more than 76,000 votes, or 1.4 points, with about 5% of the vote uncounted.
State officials have said a full result would not be known until next week. The state allows mail-in ballots postmarked by Tuesday to be counted if they are received by Nov. 12.

PENNSYLVANIA

Trump led by 2.1 percentage points, or more than 135,000 votes, with 11% of the vote outstanding.
A final count may not be available until at least Friday as Pennsylvania can accept mailed-in ballots up to three days after the election if they were postmarked by Tuesday.

More than 763,000 mail-in votes had yet to be counted as of the last report from the state website on Wednesday night, giving Biden a chance to catch Trump if enough of them were from Democratically friendly areas such as Philadelphia, where Biden was winning around 80% of the vote.

Philadelphia County reported more than 252,000 ballots were cast by mail but did say how many remained to be counted.(Source: Reuters(

-Trump moves Michigan court to stop vote count

US President Donald Trump has filed a complaint petition in the Court of Claims in Michigan State in the United State seeking a mandate from the court to Secretary Jocelyn Benson to order all counting and processing of absentee votes cease immediately.

The complaint filed by President Trump reviewed by IANS seeks immediate declaratory and injunctive relief.

The prayer of relief moved by Michigan citizens has asked the Court to order a "speedy hearing" of this action and "advance it on the calendar".

"Mandate that Secretary Benson order all counting and processing of absentee votes cease immediately until an election inspector for each party is present at each absent voter counting board and until video is made available to challengers of each ballot box," the prayer said.

"Mandate that Secretary Benson order the immediate segregation of all ballots that are not being inspected and monitored as is required under law", it said.

The counts for the complaint are that Michigan absent voter counting boards, under the authority of Secretary Benson, are not complying with the statute. These boards are being conducted without inspectors from each party being present, the complaint said.

The complaint says that Secretary Benson and Oakland County violated Michigan voters' rights under the Michigan Constitution "purity of elections clause".

Michigan statutes protect the purity of elections by allowing ballot challengers and election inspectors to monitor absentee ballots at counting boards.

The complaint also says that Secretary Benson violated the Equal Protection Clause of Michigan's Constitution.

"Plaintiff seeks declaratory and injunctive relief requiring Secretary Benson to direct the election authorities comply with Michigan law mandating election inspectors from each party and allowing challengers access to video of ballot boxes before counting of relevant votes takes place", it said.

Donald J Trump and Eric Ostergren, a registered voter of Roscommon County, Michigan are the plaintiffs. (Source: IANS)

- The Trump White House has gone awfully quiet. Here's why...

With just five states left to be called in the US presidential elections, there's an uneasy kind of quiet at the White House. Sometime around 5.30 pm on November 4, the Trump White House confirmed a lid, which means we wouldn't be hearing from Trump that evening. Coming from the Trump White House, an official lid is uncommon, at best. The pattern extends to social feeds. The White House official handle hasn't tweeted since a fluttering flag video on November 3, while Trump hasn't posted for more than 11 hours.

The Trump campaign reportedly got chills after two news media outlets called Arizona for Biden, putting the Democrat well past the 250-mark with Trump still trying to snap out of the 214-mark. The White House lid came soon after.

Both sides know that Arizona going blue means Biden may not need Pennsylvania to get to 270 electoral votes. Arizona in the Biden column takes the party's total to 264. Without it, the number is 253. If it's 264, Biden needs just 6 more to seal the deal. A Nevada win will do it for the Democrats. If it's 253, an Arizona and a Georgia or a Nevada will seal the deal, all running close right now. Arizona updated its total at around 3 am EST and Biden is ahead by 68,000 votes statewide. The Trump campaign said the Arizona calls are premature and should be pulled. The Arizona-for-Biden scenario puts a giant pin in the Pennsylvania balloon. The Trump campaign is now confronting the real possibility that Penn State's 20 electoral votes may not matter at all.

White House insiders, although they must play along for now, are reportedly growing increasingly frustrated with Trump's scattershot strategy of suing to stay in the game. Trump has filed ballot-counting lawsuits in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia. Live visuals from all three states show that counting is continuing at a steady clip. State officials have already brushed aside the lawsuits, saying that it makes no difference to the process of counting.

The first signs of Republicans breaking with Trump are surfacing as it becomes increasingly clear that the Trump strategy now is going in precisely two opposite directions from the math: Filing lawsuits, and lobbing rhetorical bombshells. (Source: IANS)

- Biden wins more votes than any other presidential candidate in US history: Report

Democratic nominee Joe Biden has won more votes than any other presidential candidate in the US history, shattering a record set by former President Barack Obama, according to a media report.

As of November 4, Biden had got over 70.7 million votes, more than anyone who has ever run for president, the National Public Radio (NPR) reported.

This count includes 300,000 more votes than what Obama got in 2008, which was the previous record. Biden surpassed the popular vote record of 69,498,516 set by Obama in 2008.

Biden, in a tight electoral vote fight to the White House against incumbent President Donald Trump, is 2.7 million votes ahead of the Republican leader in the popular vote. His lead is growing as counting picks pace in key battleground states.

NPR said millions of votes are still being tabulated across the country, including in California, which has reported 64 per cent of the votes counted.

Trump was also nearing Obama's record with 67.32 million votes as of Wednesday. Given that over 100 million votes were received through early voting and mail-in ballots, NBC News reported that there were at least 23 million votes still to be tallied, giving Biden an opportunity to further increase his vote tally. (Source: PTI)

- Bettors stampede back to Biden as results stream in

Democratic candidate Joe Biden was holding on to his position as a clear favorite to win the U.S. presidential election in online betting markets on Wednesday afternoon, a reversal of fortune for President Donald Trump, who had been favored overnight.

The shift, according to data from three odds aggregators, came after Biden overtook Trump in the battleground state of Wisconsin early on Wednesday. Biden holds a narrow lead after officials completed their vote count.

Biden`s chances of winning stood at 80% late on Wednesday afternoon on British-based Smarkets exchange, while New Zealand-based predictions market PredictIt had Biden at 84%. Trump`s chances on Smarkets were at 21% from nearly 80% overnight.

- U.S. vote count edges Biden closer to win as Trump mounts legal challenges

Democrat Joe Biden moved closer to victory in the U.S. presidential race on Thursday as election officials tallied votes in the handful of states that will determine the outcome and protesters took to the streets.

President Donald Trump alleged fraud without providing evidence, filed lawsuits and called for recounts in a race yet to be decided more two days after polls closed.

With tensions rising, about 200 of Trump`s supporters, some armed with rifles and handguns, gathered outside an election office in Phoenix, Arizona, following unsubstantiated rumors that votes were not being counted.

In Detroit, officials blocked about 30 people, mostly Republicans, from entering a vote-counting facility amid unfounded claims that the vote count in Michigan was fraudulent.

Anti-Trump protesters in other cities demanded that vote counting continue. Police arrested 11 people and seized weapons in Portland, Oregon after reports of rioting, while arrests were also made in New York, Denver and Minneapolis. Over 100 events are planned across the country between Wednesday and Saturday. (Source: Reuters)

- US House sees largest group of openly LGBTQ candidates elected

The Democratic-led US House of Representatives witnessed the largest and most diverse group of openly LGBTQ candidates being elected and re-election to Congress in the recently concluded election.

In a statement on Wednesday, the the LGBTQ Victory Fund, a national organization that works to increase the number of openly LGBTQ elected officials in government, confirmed that nine candidates of the community have won, reports The Hill news website.

Of the nine, seven are in the House and two in the Senate, it added.

- Young American voters hold key to White House

Young electors in the US have been making their voices heard and although the votes are being counted, their choice could shape the outcome of the closely-fought 2020 presidential election and decide the presidency of the world's oldest democracy.

According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) at Tufts University, voters aged between 18 to 29 are voting in record numbers, including more than eight million young people who voted early or absentee in the 2020 elections.

"I think with the recent happenings, racial injustice and the pandemic, it's kind of driving people to be more passionate about the things that are happening in our world as well as just passionate about electing leaders that have the same ideas and values that they do," Texas Southern University junior Mariah Campbell said.

Young voters have been making their voices heard and mobilising, an extension of rising youth activism in response to concerns over issues such as racial inequality, climate change and gun violence, CIRCLE said.

According to an analysis from the CIRCLE, the preeminent, non-partisan research center on youth engagement at Tufts University's Jonathan M Tisch College of Civic Life, youth votes have been crucial in the 2020 elections. (Source: PTI)

- Factbox: U.S. presidential election moves to the courts

With the U.S. presidential election between Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden too close to call, Trump turned to the courts on Wednesday to try to invalidate votes in Pennsylvania and block Michigan officials from counting ballots.

Below is a list of the cases that will play out in the coming days and possibly weeks.

MICHIGAN BALLOT COUNTING FIGHT

Trump`s campaign said on Wednesday it had filed a lawsuit in Michigan to stop state officials from counting ballots.

The campaign said the case in the Michigan Court of Claims seeks to halt counting until it has an election inspector at each absentee voter counting board. The campaign also wanted to review ballots which were opened and counted before an inspector from its campaign was present.

Biden held a razor-thin margin in the state with 94% of the expected vote in, according to Edison Research.

PENNSYLVANIA COURT BATTLES

Republican officials on Tuesday sued election officials in Montgomery County, which borders Philadelphia, accusing them of illegally counting mail-in ballots early and giving voters who submitted defective ballots a chance to re-vote.

At a hearing on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Timothy Savage in Philadelphia appeared skeptical of their allegations and how the integrity of the election might be affected.

In a separate lawsuit, the Trump campaign asked a judge to halt ballot counting in Pennsylvania, claiming that Republicans had been unlawfully denied access to observe the process.

Meanwhile, Republicans in Pennsylvania have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision from the state`s highest court that allowed election officials to count mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day that arrived through Friday.

On Wednesday, Trump`s campaign filed a motion to intervene in the case.

U.S. Supreme Court justices said last week there was not enough time to decide the merits of the case before Election Day but indicated they might revisit it afterwards.

Justice Samuel Alito, joined by fellow conservatives Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, said in a written opinion that there is a "strong likelihood" the Pennsylvania court`s decision violated the U.S. Constitution.

Pennsylvania election officials said they will segregate properly postmarked ballots that arrived after Election Day.

With about 83% of the vote counted, Trump led Biden in Pennsylvania with 52% of the vote to 46%, according to Edison Research.

U.S. POSTAL SERVICE LITIGATION

A U.S. judge on Wednesday said Postmaster General Louis DeJoy must answer questions about why the U.S. Postal Service failed to complete a court-ordered sweep for undelivered ballots in about a dozen states before a Tuesday afternoon deadline.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan is overseeing a lawsuit by Vote Forward, the NAACP, and Latino community advocates who have been demanding the postal service deliver mail-in ballots in time to be counted in the election.

GEORGIA BALLOT FIGHT

The Trump campaign on Wednesday evening filed a lawsuit in state court in Chatham County, Georgia. Unlike the Pennsylvania and Michigan actions, that lawsuit it not asking a judge to halt ballot counting. Instead, the campaign said it received information that late-arriving ballots were improperly mingled with valid ballots, and asked a judge to enter an order making sure late-arriving ballots were separated so they would not be counted. (Source: Reuters)

- Trump campaign pushes for recount in battleground Wisconsin, 'immediately'

US President Donald Trump's campaign plans to "immediately" request a recount in the battleground state of Wisconsin, where the race remains on razor's edge. The state is high stakes for both the Trump and Joe Biden camps. It's one of the three states Trump flipped in 2016 with a less than one point margin. Taken together, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania could prove crucial in determining who wins the White House. 

In Wisconsin, if a race is within 1 percentage point, the candidate who is behind can ask for a recount.

Trump's campaign manager Bill Stepien said in a statement: "The President is well within the threshold to request a recount and we will immediately do so. (Source: IANS)

- In race to 270, Trump campaign turns on legal firehose

Facing projected losses in do or die battlegrounds, the Donald Trump campaign is going 360 degree legal.

Bring it on is the Biden camp mood. "We feel good about where we are," Biden said, reflecting the upbeat spirit after the long, wild slog of election night.

In Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Nevada, Trump team lawyers are storming right in. (Source: IANS)

- I will govern as an American president: Biden stakes claim to White House

Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden has staked his claim to the US presidency claiming that he has the electoral college votes for a victory, declaring, "We the people will not surrender."

At last count, Biden is at 264 and Trump at 214.

"I'm not here to declare that we've won, but I am here to report that when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners," he said on Wednesday in Delaware.

Biden's speech took on a certain decisiveness in tone as confidence grew with the Democratic party, with back to back wins in Wisconsin and Michigan. These wins are part of the Democratic effort to reclaim a key part of the "blue wall" that slipped away four years ago. It also narrows Donald Trump's path to reelection.

Biden's paths to the White House are expanding. Combining the latest wins with Nevada and Georgia would take him past the tape.

"I will govern as an American president," Biden said. "There will be no red states and blue states when we win. Just the United States of America."

Trump tweeted, "They are finding Biden votes all over the place -- in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. So bad for our Country!" (Source: IANS)

- US Election Results Live Updates: Latest News 

Joe Biden - 264

Donald Trump - 214 

(The next occupant to the White House needs to win 270 of the 538 electoral college votes) - Source: AP

- YouTube refuses to block video that claims Trump won election

Google-owned YouTube has refused to block a video that claims US President Donald Trump has won the election, saying the video does not violate its election misinformation policies.

The video, titled "Trump Won. MSM hopes you don't believe your eyes," was published by pro-Trump group called One American News Network (OANN) on Wednesday.

YouTube said the video violates its advertising guidelines but not its content policies, reports CNBC.

Seen by over 3 lakh people, the video continues to make unsubstantiated claims of "rampant voter fraud" against Republican ballots while urging viewers to "take action" against Democrats.

YouTube, however, said it has discontinued ads on the video.

"We do not allow ads to run on content that undermines confidence in elections with demonstrably false information," the company was quoted as saying.

"The election has not been called. Therefore, this is in scope of our demonstrably false policy and will be demonetized on YouTube".

In the video, an OANN anchor said Trump won another term, claiming that Trump would win a number of swing states if it weren't for voter fraud.

A panel appeared below the OANN video stating that election results "may not be final". (Source: IANS)

- TikTok removes Republicans' videos claiming election fraud

Chinese short-video making app has joined the ongoing social media war with US President Trump who is declaring premature victories, saying it has pulled down videos spreading election misinformation from two Republican-supporting accounts -- The Republican Hype House and The Republican Boys.

The videos by Republican Hype House and the Republican Boys were spreading false claims about "election fraud" as the vote counting was still underway.

"These videos have been removed for violating our policies on misleading information," TikTok said in a tweet on Thursday.

However, Taylor Lorenz, who is a reporter with the New York Times, tweeted: "TikTok removed the initial videos but the Republican Boys account is still active and they just posted another video spreading the same voter fraud conspiracies. The new video has already amassed thousands of views".

TikTok maintained that it has removed the videos in question for violating its policies against misleading information.

Both Twitter and Facebook were busy flagging Trump posts claiming 'big wins' and 'voting fraud' amid the uncertainty around who will be the next US president.

The Chinese short-video making app recently got another reprieve from the ban imposed by the Trump administration in the US.

A federal judge in Pennsylvania blocked the government from moving ahead with restrictions that would have effectively shut down the app from November 12.

The ruling came from a lawsuit filed by three TikTok creators who were concerned that the ban would prevent them from earning a living. (Source: IANS)

- Biden predicts a win, promises to unite as Trump goes to court

Democrat Joe Biden on Wednesday predicted victory over President Donald Trump after winning two critical U.S. states, while the Republican incumbent alleged fraud, filed lawsuits and demanded recounts in a race yet to be decided a day after polls closed.

While stopping short of declaring victory, Biden launched a website for a transition to a Democratic-controlled White House. His team called it buildbackbetter.com and declared "the Biden-Harris Administration can hit the ground running on Day One."

As Trump spent part of the day airing grievances over Twitter, Biden pledged to govern as a unifier if triumphant.

"What brings us together as Americans is so much stronger than anything that can tear us apart," Biden, appearing with his running mate Kamala Harris, said in his home state of Delaware on Wednesday.

- No comment on US Election at this point: UN Spokesman

A spokesperson for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said that he has no comments as of now on the 2020 US Presidential Election and the process is being watched closely. "No, not at this point. I mean, we're all watching, obviously, closely. The process is still is playing itself out. We do not have a comment at this point,? Spokesman for the Secretary-General Stphane Dujarric said on Wednesday. He was responding to a question on if he has a comment yet on the US election and whether President Donald Trump's assertion that he won the election is helpful or dangerous.

As the 2020 US Presidential race inches to a nail-biting finish, Trump called the election "a fraud on the American public" and said, "Frankly, we did win this election. He also said he planned to take the battle to the Supreme Court to stop the counting of votes.

- Biden in striking distance of electoral votes to win; Trump goes to court

 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, edging closer to electoral votes needed to win, has declared that he was ready to "govern as an American President", while incumbent President Donald Trump has gone to the courts in a bid to stop his rival.

To contrast his style from Trump's, Biden declared victory on Wednesday but with a caveat to seem he wasn't. "I'm not here to declare that we've won, but I am here to report that when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners," he said.

As of Wednesday night, Biden had 264 electoral college votes, six short of the 270 needed to become President, and Trump had only 214, according to media tally.

The only way Trump can get re-elected is by capturing 54 of the remaining 60 votes. (Source: IANS)

- Biden wins battleground Michigan

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has won Michigan with 16 of the battleground state's electoral votes, according to media reports. Both CNN and NBC News called the race for Biden on Wednesday evening, even as other key states such Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Nevada were yet to declare a winner, The Hill news website reported.

In the 2016 presidential election, then Republican candidate Donald Trump bagged Michigan with 47.50 per cent of the vote, while his challenger Hillary Clinton trailed very close at 47.27 per cent.

Trump and Biden campaigned in Michigan ahead of Election Day. (Source: IANS) 

- Timeline: Which U.S. states are still counting votes and when will they be done?

The outcome of the U.S. presidential election hung in the balance on Wednesday as several states continued to count their ballots, including some of the most competitive battlegrounds where the tally could take days to complete.

Democratic nominee Joe Biden has a slight edge over Republican President Donald Trump with 227 to 213 electoral votes. That leaves 98 electoral votes to be allocated, and possible paths to victory for both candidates. The winner needs to secure 270 votes.

Here is the state of play in nine states. The vote counts are supplied by Edison Research.

Alaska

Trump has a wide lead and is broadly expected to carry the state. Still, just 56% of the expected vote has been counted, with Trump ahead by 62.9% to 33%.

Arizona

Biden has a significant lead, and the Associated Press and Fox News have already called the state for the Democrat. With 86% of the expected vote counted, Biden leads with 50.7% against 47.9% for Trump, according to Edison Research.

Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs told ABC News that Maricopa County, which includes heavily populated Phoenix, had about 400,000 outstanding ballots to be counted and would release more results later on Wednesday.

Georgia

Trump is holding onto a narrow lead, but several of the large counties around Atlanta that lean Democratic have substantial numbers of ballots still to count. With 95% of the expected vote counted, Trump is ahead with 49.7% versus 49% for Biden.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said he hoped to have a result by the end of Wednesday.
Under Georgia law, if the margin between the candidates is less than or equal to 0.5 percentage point, a candidate may request a recount within two business days following the certification of results.

Trump`s campaign filed a lawsuit to require that Chatham County, which includes Savannah, separate and secure late-arriving ballots to ensure they are not counted. The campaign said it had received information that late-arriving ballots in the county were improperly mingled with valid ballots.

Maine

Maine is one of two states that divide their Electoral College votes between the winner of the statewide popular vote and the winner in each of its congressional districts.

Edison Research has allocated Biden two votes for the statewide outcome, which he leads by 53.8% to 43.2% with 87% of the state`s expected votes counted. It also called the state`s 1st Congressional District for Biden, giving him a third electoral vote from the state.

Trump has a lead of 51.4% to 45.1% in the state`s 2nd Congressional District. The Associated Press projected Trump the winner of the state`s fourth vote on Wednesday, with only 53.7% of the expected vote in.

Michigan

Biden has a growing margin, with CNN and NBC projecting Biden the winner there just before 4.30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT) on Wednesday. Biden leads Trump by 50.3% to 48.1% with 99% of the state`s expected votes counted.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said on Wednesday night that all valid ballots in the state had been counted, and that a lawsuit by Trump seeking to halt counting of votes there was "frivolous."

Nevada

Long seen as a solid Biden-leaning state, Nevada now appears in play. Edison Research data shows 86% of the expected vote is in and Biden`s lead is just 49.3% to 48.7% for Trump.

State officials expect the remaining votes - largely mail-in ballots - to be counted by 9 a.m. PST (1700 GMT) on Thursday. Clark County, the state`s largest and home to Las Vegas, has tallied 84% of expected votes so far and Biden is ahead there 52.9% versus 45.4% for Trump.

North Carolina

The margin between Trump and Biden is less than 2 percentage points as the president clings to a lead of 50.1% to 48.7% for the Democrat, with 95% of the expected vote counted.

The state allows mail-in ballots postmarked by Tuesday to be counted if they are received by Nov. 12. On Wednesday morning, the Biden campaign said it expected a final result to take several days, and state officials said later on Wednesday that a full result would not be known until next week.

Pennsylvania

Of the battleground states, Pennsylvania has the furthest to go in counting votes, and Trump so far maintains a lead. With 88% of the expected vote counted, Trump is up 50.8% to 47.9% for Biden.

Officials there can accept mailed-in ballots up to three days after the election if they are postmarked by Tuesday. About 1 million votes remain to be counted, Governor Tom Wolf, a Democrat, said on Wednesday.

If the margin of victory is within half of 1%, state law requires a recount.

The Trump campaign said on Wednesday it was suing to temporarily halt vote counting in Pennsylvania and also asked to intervene in a U.S. Supreme Court case over mail-in ballots in the state, which could determine the winner of the election.

Wisconsin

The Trump campaign said on Wednesday it would request a recount of votes in Wisconsin, where the margin between the candidates is less than 1 percentage point.

Biden is up 49.4% to 48.8% for Trump with 99% of the expected vote tallied, according to Edison Research. Edison said that it would not call a race in Wisconsin or any state where the margin is narrow enough to allow a candidate to demand a recount under state law. Some media outlets, including NBC and the Associated Press, projected Biden the winner.

Note: Vote counts supplied by Edison Research, which provides exit polls and voting data to the National Election Pool media consortium. Reuters has not independently tabulated the ballots. (Source: Reuters)

- U.S. Supreme Court may not have final say in presidential election, despite Trump threat

While President Donald Trump wants the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on a presidential race that is still too close to call, it may not be the final arbiter in this election, legal experts said. They said it was doubtful that courts would entertain a bid by Trump to stop the counting of ballots that were received before or on Election Day, or that any dispute a court might handle would change the trajectory of the race in closely fought states such as Michigan and Pennsylvania.

With ballots still being counted in many states in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Trump made an appearance at the White House and falsely declared victory against Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

Trump railed against voting by mail during the election campaign, saying without providing evidence that it led to fraud, which is rare in U.S. elections. Sticking to that theme, Trump said: "This is a major fraud on our nation. We want the law to be used in a proper manner. So we`ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop." Trump did not provide any evidence to back up his claim of fraud or detail what litigation he would pursue at the Supreme Court. Later in the day, his campaign filed to intervene in a case already pending at the Supreme Court seeking to block late-arriving mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania.

The Trump campaign and other Republicans have also filed various complaints in other states, including an attempt to stop votes being counted in Michigan.

As of Wednesday evening, the election still hung in the balance. A handful of closely contested states could decide the outcome in the coming hours or days, as a large number of mail-in ballots cast amid the coronavirus pandemic appears to have drawn out the process.

However, legal experts said that while there could be objections to particular ballots or voting and counting procedures, it was unclear if such disputes would determine the final outcome. (Source: Reuters)

- Trump campaign files lawsuit demanding access to Michigan ballots

The Trump Campaign on Wednesday filed a lawsuit to halt counting until meaningful access is granted to them in Michigan where ballots are being counted as the presidential race between US President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden is poised for a photo-finish.

The Trump campaign also sought recounting of votes in Wisconsin, which was won by Biden.

- Biden leads Trump in battleground Wisconsin; U.S. election still undecided

Democrat Joe Biden held a narrow lead in Wisconsin on Wednesday after officials completed their vote count in the pivotal state, a major boost in his quest to win the U.S. presidency from Donald Trump despite the Republican incumbent`s false claim of victory and unsubstantiated allegations of electoral fraud.

Biden also led in another critical Midwestern battleground state - Michigan - as he and Trump raced to get to the 270 electoral votes in the state-by-state Electoral College needed to win the White House. Trump won Wisconsin and Michigan in his 2016 election victory.

Wisconsin officials finished their tally at around midday after an all-night effort, showing Biden with a lead of just over 20,000 votes, or 0.6%, according to Edison Research. The Trump campaign immediately said it would seek a recount, which is permitted under state law when the margin is below 1%.

A Biden victory in Wisconsin would significantly narrow Trump`s path to a second four-year term, though the outcome remained in doubt with Michigan and other closely contested states including Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina still counting votes.

Trump led in the two Southern states, Georgia and North Carolina, as well as in Pennsylvania, where more than 1 million ballots were yet to be processed. But if Trump loses Wisconsin, he would have to win all three as well as either Arizona or Nevada, where Biden was leading in the latest vote counts.

At the moment, not including Wisconsin, Biden leads Trump 227 to 213 in Electoral College votes, which are largely based on a state`s population.

- U.S. Supreme Court may not have final say in presidential election, despite Trump threat

While President Donald Trump has promised to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on a presidential race that is still too close to call, the nation`s top judicial body may not be the final arbiter in this election, legal experts said.

Election law experts said it is doubtful that courts would entertain a bid by Trump to stop the counting of ballots that were received before or on Election Day, or that any dispute a court might handle would change the trajectory of the race in closely fought states like Michigan and Pennsylvania.

With vote-counting still underway in many states in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Trump made an appearance at the White House and declared victory against Democratic challenger Joe Biden. (Source: Reuters)

- U.S. election night draws estimated 22.8 million TV viewers, below early figures for 2016

An estimated 22.8 million people watched U.S. election returns on television on Tuesday night, according to preliminary ratings cited by Hollywood outlets The Wrap and the Hollywood Reporter, suggesting viewership may be down from election night in 2016. They cited early Nielsen data across six networks - Walt Disney Co`s ABC, Fox, Comcast Corp`s NBC, CBS and Spanish-language channels Univision and Telemundo.

The Wrap said the preliminary figures showed a shortfall of several million viewers across the six networks compared to early data reported on election night in 2016. However the data did not include cable television and it was unclear what time frame was measured for the programming, which stretched into the early hours of Wednesday as the outcome of the presidential election between Republican incumbent Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden remained in the balance.
Numbers are expected to rise when final Nielsen data across multiple networks is released later on Wednesday.

According to final data in 2016, 71.4 million people watched across 13 U.S. networks when Trump scored a surprise victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton. The election night record was set in 2008, when 71.5 million tuned in on television. The biggest annual event on U.S. television, the Super Bowl football championship, draws roughly 100 million viewers. The TV ratings do not include viewership via online platforms, which have jumped in popularity as traditional TV watching has declined. (Source: Reuters)

- Race to White House enters uncharted territory; Biden and Trump gear up for legal battle 

The race for the White House appears to be headed towards an uncharted territory with the Trump and Biden campaigns gearing up for a protracted legal battle in the US Supreme Court as the election results in some of the key battleground states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan still being counted.

All eyes are now on states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, North Carolina and Georgia. Counting of mail-in-ballots, which was voted in record numbers this time, might take time. (Source: PTI)

- Biden vs Trump - Who will win?

In one of the most divisive and bitter presidential elections in American history saw tight races in many key battleground states with Biden winning 224 electoral college votes and Trump closely behind with 213. The winner of the 2020 presidential election should have at least 270 electoral college votes out of the 538-member electoral college.

Fox News, considered to be the favourite news network of the president, gave him only 213 electoral college votes while crediting 238 votes to Biden. It also gave 50 per cent of the popular vote to the Democratic challenger and 48.4 per cent to Trump.

- US presidential race too close to call, Trump claims 'fraud' in electoral process

The race for the White House between Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden was poised for a photo-finish, even as the incumbent Republican president on Wednesday claimed "fraud" in the counting of votes and said he would approach the Supreme Court to stop it.

With millions of votes still being counted and several swing states yet to declare results, both Trump and Biden say they are on course for victory in the 2020 presidential election, one of the most divisive and bitter in American history.

Tuesday's election saw tight races in many key battleground states with Biden winning 224 electoral college votes and Trump closely behind with 213. The winner of the 2020 presidential election should have at least 270 electoral college votes out of the 538-member electoral college.

Fox News, considered to be the favourite news network of the president, gave him only 213 electrocal college votes while crediting 238 votes to Biden. It also gave 50 per cent of the popular vote to the Democratic challenger and 48.4 per cent to Trump.

No major US media has projected a clear winner in the election.

- US poll forecasting industry blew itself up. Again

The US election poll forecasting industry has blown itself up again and America woke up to the smouldering embers, finding precious little adjacency in the extreme mathiness from 24 hours ago and the US electoral map.

Four years after most pollsters got the Hillary Clinton vs Donald Trump election all mixed up, they seem to have done it all over again. With some exceptions.

Trafalgar - the pollster who correctly called crucial races in 2016 - got Florida right this time. Susquehanna and FOX/Insider Advantage also called Florida for Trump in the final sprint.

- After US election, no new blue dawn but fog of uncertainty

The United States did not wake up to a new blue dawn on Wednesday and instead a fog of uncertainty engulfed it after an uneventful election day, with no clear winners and races too close to call and millions of votes still to be counted.

The sweep that Democrats had hoped for failed to materialise and the day started with 238 electoral votes for Democratic candidate Joe Biden and 213 for President Donald Trump, with another 87 to be determined, many from swing states crucial to a victory.

A win needs 278 electoral college votes.

-Closer than predicted US Presidential contest leaves markets uncertain

Currency and equity markets remained volatile as the US Presidential race was closer than predicted, leaving the result in doubt for days.

Gaurang Somaiya, Forex and Bullion Analyst, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said: "After opening lower, the rupee traded in a narrow range against the US dollar, but the volatility within the range remained high. Market participants are cautious as early results suggest that the US Presidential election proved far closer than polls had predicted potentially leaving the outcome in doubt for days or weeks.

"Volatility for the dollar is expected to remain high also as focus will be on the FOMC policy statement that will be released later this week. For the next couple of sessions, we expect the rupee to trade with a negative bias and quote in the range of 74.40 and 75.20." (Source: IANS)

-Global stocks turn positive in knife-edge U.S. election race

Share markets and the dollar whipsawed while bonds gained on Wednesday as results from the U.S. presidential election proved far closer than polls had predicted, potentially leaving the outcome in doubt for days or even weeks. 

Democratic contender Joe Biden took to the air to declare he was optimistic about winning and called for all votes to be counted, no matter how long it took.

President Donald Trump responded in trademark combative style, saying he had won, that "they" were trying to steal the election, and that he would go the U.S. Supreme Court to fight for victory.

Investors had initially wagered that a possible Democratic sweep by Biden could ease political risk and provide a boost to fiscal stimulus.

But the mood quickly changed as Trump snatched Florida and Ohio and ran much closer in other battleground states than polls predicted. (Source: Reuters)

- Who is winning the U.S. presidential election?

Republican Donald Trump faced Democratic challenger Joe Biden on Tuesday in the U.S. presidential election. There are 538 Electoral College votes allotted to the 50 states and the District of Columbia. It takes 270 votes to win.

The following table shows the projected winner of each state as forecast by media outlets and data provider Edison Research, as well as the Electoral College tally based on each group`s projections.
As of 7:45 a.m. ET (1130 GMT):

Electoral College tally

ABC CBS NBC FOX CNN EDISON AP
Trump 211 211 213 213 213 213 213
Biden 224 223 224 238 224 224 238
Alabama (9) T T T T T T T
Alaska (3)
Arizona (11) B B
Arkansas (6) T T T T T T T
California (55) B B B B B B B
Colorado (9) B B B B B B B
Connecticut (7) B B B B B B B
Delaware (3) B B B B B B B
District of Columbia (3) B B B B B B B
Florida (29) T T T T T T T
Georgia (16)
Hawaii (4) B B B B B B B
Idaho (4) T T T T T T T
Illinois (20) B B B B B B B
Indiana (11) T T T T T T T
Iowa (6) T T T T T T T
Kansas (6) T T T T T T T
Kentucky (8) T T T T T T T
Louisiana (8) T T T T T T T
Maine (popular vote) (2) B B
Maine 1st district (1) B B B
Maine 2nd district (1)
Maryland (10) B B B B B B B
Massachusetts (11) B B B B B B B
Michigan (16)
Minnesota (10) B B B B B B B
Mississippi (6) T T T T T T T
Missouri (10) T T T T T T T
Montana (3) T T T T T T T
Nebraska (popular vote) (2) T T T T T T T
Nebraska 1st district (1) T T T T T
Nebraska 2nd district (1) B B B B B
Nebraska 3rd district (1) T T T T T
Nevada (6)
New Hampshire (4) B B B B B B B
New Jersey (14) B B B B B B B
New Mexico (5) B B B B B B B
New York (29) B B B B B B B
North Carolina (15)
North Dakota (3) T T T T T T T
Ohio (18) T T T T T T T
Oklahoma (7) T T T T T T T
Oregon (7) B B B B B B B
Pennsylvania (20)
Rhode Island (4) B B B B B B B
South Carolina (9) T T T T T T T
South Dakota (3) T T T T T T T
Tennessee (11) T T T T T T T
Texas (38) T T T T T T T
Utah (6) T T T T T T T
Vermont (3) B B B B B B B
Virginia (13) B B B B B B B
Washington (12) B B B B B B B
West Virginia (5) T T T T T T T
Wisconsin (10)
Wyoming (3) T T T T T T T 

Edison Research provides exit polling and vote count data to the National Election Pool, a consortium consisting of ABC News, CBS News, CNN and NBC News. The networks use the data to inform their projections.Reuters has an agreement with NEP/Edison to distribute exit polling and vote count data to clients. Reuters has not independently tabulated the results.The Associated Press has a separate polling and vote count operation and makes its own projections. Fox News relies on data from the AP to inform its projections.

- US Election Results Live Updates: Latest News 

Joe Biden - 225

Donald Trump - 213 

(The next occupant to the White House needs to win 270 of the 538 electoral college votes)

- Biden back as favourite to win election - Online betting sites

Democratic candidate Joe Biden was back as favourite to win the U.S. presidential election in online betting markets, a reversal of fortune for President Donald Trump who was favourite overnight, according to data from three aggregators. The shift came after Biden overtook Trump in the battleground state of Wisconsin with an estimated 89% of the vote tallied so far. Trump has 49% and Biden has 49.3% of vote, according to Edison Research.

British-based Smarkets exchange is giving Biden a 58% chance, while New Zealand-based predictions market PredictIt had Biden at 63%. Trump`s chances on Smarkets were sitting at 41% - a massive drop from 80% overnight. Odds for a Biden win at one point had fallen to less than a third overnight on Tuesday, data from aggregators showed.

The flip in betting markets overnight was mainly "driven by Trump seemingly holding the key swing state of Florida as a result of a very strong showing for him in the Miami-Dade county with a large Cuban population," said Patrick Flynn, political analyst at Smarkets. Trump earlier falsely claimed victory over Biden with millions of votes still uncounted in a White House race that will not be decided until a handful of states complete vote-counting over the next hours or days.

Bettors on British betting exchange Betfair meanwhile were also giving Biden about 60% chance to win, denting the prospect of a second term for Trump in the White House. The 2020 election is shaping up to be the biggest betting event of all time, betting companies say, with one player on Monday placing a record-breaking one million-pound bet on a victory for Democratic challenger Joe Biden. (Source: Reuters)

- US Election Results Counting Live Updates: Latest News on Trump vs Biden knife-edge electoral battle! 

The presidential election is headed to a nail-biter, with Biden having won 225 electoral college votes and Trump following with 213. The winner should have at least 270 electoral college votes out of the 538.

- Who is winning the U.S. presidential election?

Republican Donald Trump faced Democratic challenger Joe Biden on Tuesday in the U.S. presidential election. There are 538 Electoral College votes allotted to the 50 states and the District of Columbia. It takes 270 votes to win. The following table shows the projected winner of each state as forecast by media outlets and data provider Edison Research, as well as the Electoral College tally based on each group`s projections.

As of 5:38 a.m. ET (1038 GMT):

Electoral College tally
ABC CBS NBC FOX CNN EDISON AP
Trump 209 211 213 213 213 213 213
Biden 224 219 224 238 224 224 238
Alabama (9) T T T T T T T
Alaska (3)
Arizona (11) B B
Arkansas (6) T T T T T T T
California (55) B B B B B B B
Colorado (9) B B B B B B B
Connecticut (7) B B B B B B B
Delaware (3) B B B B B B B
District of Columbia (3) B B B B B B B
Florida (29) T T T T T T T
Georgia (16)
Hawaii (4) B B B B B B
Idaho (4) T T T T T T T
Illinois (20) B B B B B B B
Indiana (11) T T T T T T T
Iowa (6) T T T T T T T
Kansas (6) T T T T T T T
Kentucky (8) T T T T T T T
Louisiana (8) T T T T T T T
Maine (popular vote) (2) B B
Maine 1st district (1) B B B
Maine 2nd district (1)
Maryland (10) B B B B B B B
Massachusetts (11) B B B B B B B
Michigan (16)
Minnesota (10) B B B B B B B
Mississippi (6) T T T T T T T
Missouri (10) T T T T T T T
Montana (3) T T T T T T T
Nebraska (popular vote) (2) T T T T T T
Nebraska 1st district (1) T T T T T
Nebraska 2nd district (1) B B B B B
Nebraska 3rd district (1) T T T T T
Nevada (6)
New Hampshire (4) B B B B B B B
New Jersey (14) B B B B B B B
New Mexico (5) B B B B B B B
New York (29) B B B B B B B
North Carolina (15)
North Dakota (3) T T T T T T T
Ohio (18) T T T T T T T
Oklahoma (7) T T T T T T T
Oregon (7) B B B B B B B
Pennsylvania (20)
Rhode Island (4) B B B B B B B
South Carolina (9) T T T T T T T
South Dakota (3) T T T T T T T
Tennessee (11) T T T T T T T
Texas (38) T T T T T T T
Utah (6) T T T T T T T
Vermont (3) B B B B B B B
Virginia (13) B B B B B B B
Washington (12) B B B B B B B
West Virginia (5) T T T T T T T
Wisconsin (10)
Wyoming (3) T T T T T T T

Edison Research provides exit polling and vote count data to the National Election Pool, a consortium consisting of ABC News, CBS News, CNN and NBC News. The networks use the data to inform their projections.Reuters has an agreement with NEP/Edison to distribute exit polling and vote count data to clients. Reuters has not independently tabulated the results. The Associated Press has a separate polling and vote count operation and makes its own projections. Fox News relies on data from the AP to inform its projections.  (Source: Reuters)

- US Election Results Live Updates: Latest News 

Joe Biden - 225

Donald Trump - 213 

(The next occupant to the White House needs to win 270 of the 538 electoral college votes)

- PM of Melania's homeland congratulates Trump on victory

Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa congratulated Donald Trump on what he described in a tweet as a clear victory in the U.S. presidential election, becoming the first European Union leader to do so.

"It’s pretty clear that American people have elected @realDonaldTrump @Mike_Pence for #4moreyears," said the leader of the tiny Alpine country, which is homeland of first lady Melania Trump. 

"More delays and facts denying from #MSM, bigger the final triumph for #POTUS," tweeted Jansa, a rightist politician who had supported Trump ahead of the U.S. vote. "Congratulations @GOP for strong results across the #US." (Source: Reuters)

- US Election Results Live Updates: Latest News 

Joe Biden - 220

Donald Trump - 213 

(The next occupant to the White House needs to win 270 of the 538 electoral college votes)

-Winning is easy, losing is never easy: Trump

As American voters all across the US cast their ballots to elect the country's new President, incumbent President Donald Trump acknowledged that it would be tough for him to face a potential defeat against his Democratic rival Joe Biden. He made the remarks while visiting a re-election campaign office in Arlington, Virginia, on election day on Tuesday, The Hill news website reported. "I'm not thinking about concession speech or acceptance speech yet. Hopefully we'll be only doing one of those two.

"Winning is easy. Losing is never easy. Not for me it's not," he told reporters at the campaign office. "Depending on the extent of victory," Trump also predicted that it could be clear which candidate has won the election by the end of Tuesday night."We should be entitled to know who won on November 3," he added, reviving his long-standing grievance about votes being counted beyond Election Day despite it being a standard practice. (Source: IANS)

-Alleging fraud, Trump says he'll go to SC to stop 'voting'

US President Donald Trump claimed victory on Wednesday morning in the 2020 presidential election while the counting of the votes was still incomplete and said that he will be going to the Supreme Court to stop "voting" alleging there was fraud. "This is a fraud on the American public, this is an embarrassment to our country," he told supporters at the White House on Wednesday delivering a muddled message.

"We'll be going to the US Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop. We don't want them to find any balance at four o'clock in the morning and add them to the list." Trump probably was referring to the ongoing process of counting votes, rather than "voting" because polling ended on Tuesday night.

-One-third of US voters cite economy as most critical issue: Poll

Roughly one-third of the registered American voters have cited the economy as the most critical issue as ballots were cast in the US presidential election, according to the preliminary results of a nationwide CNN exit poll. (Source: IANS)

- Trump says he will score a ''big win,'' accuses Democrats of trying to steal election

Republican President Donald Trump, in a tweet early on Wednesday, predicted he will win a second four-year term and accused Democrats of attempting to "steal" the election from him, without citing any evidence.

"We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it," Trump tweeted, adding, "A big win" for re-election. His tweets came immediately after a statement from Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, who said he was optimistic about his prospects of winning. (Source: Reuters)

- 300 lawsuits, 1000s of lawyers: Biden, Trump camps brace for post election legal assault 

Based on Donald Trump's argument that "you have to have numbers" on the double because "the whole world is waiting," both Republicans and Democrats have put in place thousands of lawyers to wade into courtrooms if the US election battle does go down to the wire in battleground states and winds up in the courts like it did in 2000. Back in 2000, the George Bush versus Al Gore contest was decided by the Supreme Court, which voted 5-4 and handed Bush the victory. 

Voters in this year's election who spoke with IANS have already factored in a legal content that may drag the results out by days or even weeks. Much of the legal challenge this year is being headlined by Pennsylvania, widely considered a must-win for Trump. Twenty electoral votes are at stake here. There is intense pressure on Trump to defend victories in a trinity of key battlegrounds - Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania - that led to his stunning 2016 victory. Approximately 300 cases that have already been filed in states across the country are headlined by procedural issues ranging from signature matches, drop boxes and secrecy envelopes. (Source: IANS)

-Gold retreats as dollar gains on tight White House race

Gold fell 1% on a stronger dollar on Wednesday after the latest voting tallies from the U.S. presidential election showed a tight race, with President Donald Trump winning in Florida and leading in a few other battleground states. Spot gold fell 0.9% to $1,890.99 per ounce by 0750 GMT. U.S. gold futures dropped 1% to $1,891.30 per ounce. (Source: Reuters)

- Facebook, Twitter flag Donald Trump posts that alleged election theft

The tensions between US President Donald Trump and social media platforms continued to simmer as Twitter mounted restrictions on one of his controversial tweets while Facebook put labels to the president's posts that alleged election theft, while the vote counting was underway. "We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election," the message from Trump read, on both social media platforms. "We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed!"

Twitter immediately flagged this tweet, saying "some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process". Justifying its action, Twitter referred to a tweet from the company's @safety account. "We placed a warning on a Tweet from @realDonaldTrump for making a potentially misleading claim about an election. This action is in line with our Civic Integrity Policy."

When Trump posted the same message to Facebook, the social networking giant added a label to the post instead of restricting its spread on the platform. The label to Trump's post noted that counting of votes are yet to be concluded and directed users to the platform's election information center. (Source: IANS)

- Trump's strength with Florida Latinos boosts his re-election hopes

A wave of support from Hispanic voters gave President Donald Trump a narrow victory in Florida on Tuesday night, boosting his chances of re-election. 

Trump, who won the state in 2016, outperformed his 2016 margins with Florida`s Hispanic voters, who made up 19% of all the state`s voters. A lot of the swing came in Miami-Dade, the county that contains Florida’s largest Cuban and Venezuelan communities, many of whom are strongly anti-left wing.

Trump and his allies have frequently painted opponent Joe Biden, a moderate Democrat, as either a socialist himself, or in hock to the "radical left." Some Miami voters told Reuters this struck home.Trump also ate into Latinos` support for Democrats in Texas, results showed. It was still unclear how this will affect the overall race for the presidency, which may not be called for days. (Source: Reuters)

-US presidential election headed into uncertain phase; Trump, Biden fight out in battleground states 

The closely-fought US presidential election appeared to be headed into an uncertain phase with Republican incumbent Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden fighting it out in the key battleground states.

When reports last came in, Biden had earned 220 electoral college votes, with Trump following closely with 213 votes.

As per Fox News, Biden has 238 of the 538 electoral college seats, while Trump has 213. On the other hand, CNN has projected 220 electoral college votes to Biden and 213 to Trump.

The New York Times reported that Biden has earned 224 electoral college votes and Trump 213. The winner needs at least 270 electoral college votes. (Source: PTI)

- US Election Results Live Updates: Latest News 

Joe Biden - 220

Donald Trump - 213 

(The next occupant to the White House needs to win 270 of the 538 electoral college votes)

- Donald Trump falsely claims victory, after rival Joe Biden voices confidence

President Donald Trump on Wednesday falsely claimed that he had won the U.S. election with millions of votes still uncounted after his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, said he was confident of winning a contest that will not be resolved until a handful of states complete vote-counting over the next hours or days. "Frankly, we did win this election," Trump said after claiming he was winning several battleground states where votes were still being tallied. "This is a fraud on the American public," Trump said without providing any evidence to support the claim. Election laws in all U.S. states require all votes to be counted. More votes still stood to be counted this year than in the past as people voted early by mail and in person in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.( Source Reuters)

-Wall Street executives fret as U.S. presidential election is too close to call

Wall Street and financial industry executives urged caution overnight as no clear winner emerged in the hours after polls closed in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, threatening a drawn-out count that keeps markets and businesses hanging. (Source: Reuters)

- Donald Trump claims a 'major fraud' being perpetrated on the nation; will fight election in Supreme Court. 

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed that a "major fraud" is being perpetrated on the American people and said he will fight election in the Supreme Court, as the counting of votes were in progress in the battleground states. "Frankly we did win this election," Trump claimed. (Source: PTI)

- Joe Biden says he's on track to 'win this election'

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Wednesday asserted that he's on track to "win this election" as all eyes are on the outcome in Midwestern battleground states. "Keep the faith guys. We are going to win this (election)," 77-year-old Biden told a crowd in his hometown of Delaware.  When last reports came in Biden had received 237 electoral college votes as against 213 of incumbent President Donald Trump of the Republican Party.

"We knew this was gonna go long. But who knew we were gonna go into tomorrow morning maybe even longer. But look we feel good about where we are. We really do. I'm here to tell you tonight we believe we're on track to win this election," Biden said in a speech in the wee hours of Wednesday. (Source: PTI)

-Global stocks sweat out knife-edge U.S. election, safe-haven bonds get bid

Share markets were whipsawed, while bonds and the dollar rose on Wednesday as results from the U.S. presidential election proved far closer than polls had predicted, potentially leaving the outcome in doubt for days to come. 

Democratic contender Joe Biden took to the air to declare he was still optimistic about winning and called for all votes to be counted, no matter how long it took.

President Donald Trump responded saying that he had won, that "they" were trying to steal the election, without providing evidence, and that he would go the U.S. Supreme Court to fight for the win if needed. (Source: Reuters)