New Delhi: US Election 2020 Results Live Updates: With his re-election chances fading as more votes are counted in a handful of battleground states, US President Donald Trump launched an extraordinary assault on the country's democratic process from the White House on Thursday, falsely claiming the election was being "stolen" from him.
Offering no evidence, Trump lambasted election workers and alleged fraud in the states where results from a dwindling set of uncounted votes are pushing Democrat Joe Biden nearer to victory. "This is a case where they're trying to steal an election," Trump said.
Joe Biden, the former vice president, was chipping away at the Republican incumbent's leads in Pennsylvania and Georgia even as he maintained narrow advantages in Nevada and Arizona, moving closer to securing the 270 votes in the state-by-state Electoral College that determines the winner.
In three of the four states, the margins between the two men had tightened, as results from counting centers trickled in and anxious Americans waited for clarity after an exhausting and deeply vitriolic election.
In Pennsylvania, Trump's lead had shrunk from 319,000 on Wednesday afternoon to 74,000 a day later, while his margin in Georgia fell from 68,000 to fewer than 4,000. Those numbers were expected to continue to move in Biden's favor, with many of the outstanding ballots from areas that typically vote Democratic, including the cities of Philadelphia and Atlanta.
Biden, meanwhile, saw his lead in Arizona contract from 93,000 to 65,000; he was ahead in Nevada by only 11,000 votes.
Most major television networks gave Biden a 253 to 214 lead in Electoral College votes, which are largely determined by state population, after he captured the crucial battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday.
More than 100 million Americans cast their ballots in advance of Tuesday's Election Day, according to the US Elections Project watchdog, a record figure largely attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, reported news agency AFP.
Here are the Live Updates on 2020 US Election Results:
Nov 05, 2020 04:58 (IST)
US Judge pushes Postal Service to ensure all remaining election ballots delivered
A judge on Wednesday said he wants to ensure all remaining ballots for the closely contested U.S. election are delivered, demanding that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy answer questions about why the postal service failed to complete a court-ordered sweep for undelivered ballots.
"The pressing issues are where are the ballots and how do we get them delivered so they can be counted," US District Judge Emmet Sullivan said in concluding a hearing that included testimony from US Postal Service (USPS) official Kevin Bray who answered questions about ballot deliveries.
Many states are accepting ballots for up to a week after Election Day Tuesday as long as they were postmarked by then. Ballots are still being counted by election officials in battleground states in the contest between Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
The postal service is carrying out sweeps and using priority mail networks through Saturday to deliver any remaining ballots. It said on Wednesday that it had completed sweeps late on Tuesday ordered by the judge and turned up just 13 ballots, all of them in Pennsylvania.
Nov 05, 2020 04:26 (IST)
Angry poll watchers barred in Detroit
Emotions were running high in Detroit, where poll watchers were barred from the counting room on Wednesday afternoon.
Republican President Donald Trump narrowly won Michigan in 2016 but late on Wednesday, US media houses declared Democratic challenger Joe Biden won the state. Trump has made clear he will fight to challenge the results there.
"We know that tens of thousands of ballots are still outstanding and need to be tabulated" in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Flint, Kalamazoo and other cities, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said in a Wednesday morning news conference.
She said the outstanding vote count was just over 100,000, with most being absentee ballots.
Nov 05, 2020 04:19 (IST)
"Campaigned as Democrat but will govern as American president": Joe Biden
US Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Wednesday (local time) expressed confidence over his imminent victory in the 2020 presidential polls, adding that he may have campaigned as a Democrat but he will govern as an American president.
"Let me be clear, I may have campaigned as a Democrat but I will govern as an American president. The presidency itself is not a partisan institution; it's the one office in this nation that represents everyone. It demands the duty and care of all and that''s what I will do," Biden said.
"After a long night of counting, it's clear that we're winning enough states to reach 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. I'm not here to declare that we won but I'm here to report when counting is finished, we believe we'll be winners," he added.
Nov 05, 2020 04:05 (IST)
Biden foresees victory in US election; Trump pursues suits, recount
Democrat Joe Biden said on Wednesday he was headed toward a victory over President Donald Trump in the US election after claiming the pivotal Midwestern states of Wisconsin and Michigan, while the Republican incumbent opened a multi-pronged attack on vote counts by pursuing lawsuits and a recount.
Wisconsin and Michigan were giving Biden, the former vice president who has spent five decades in public life, a critical boost in the race to the 270 electoral votes in the state-by-state Electoral College needed to win the White House. Trump won both states in his 2016 election victory. Losing them would narrow his path to securing another four years in office.
"And now after a long night of counting, it's clear that we're winning enough states to reach (the) 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency," Biden, appearing with his running mate Kamala Harris, said in his home state of Delaware. "I'm not here to declare that we've won. But I am here to report that when the count is finished we believe will be the winners."
