5 years ago Biden pulls ahead in Georgia and Pennsylvania as counting continues By Emily Knapp President Donald Trump’s lead in Pennsylvania and Georgia continued to shrink as mail ballots were counted in the battleground states. Overnight, Joe Biden surpassed Trump in Georgia and is now ahead there by around 1,100 votes. This morning, Biden also took the lead in Pennsylvania, where he’s now up around 5,600 votes. The Associated Press currently has Biden with 264 electoral votes, which means a win in Pennsylvania or Georgia would put him over the 270-elector threshold needed to clinch the election.
5 years ago 4 Senate races will determine balance of power By Emily Knapp Democrats have flipped two Republican Senate seats this cycle, while Republicans flipped one seat held by a Democrat. The current balance of power stands at 48-48, with four races outstanding, two of which are in Georgia. A special election there has already gone to a runoff, which will be held Jan. 5 between incumbent Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Raphael Warnock. The other race, pitting incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue against Democrat Jon Ossoff, also has the potential to go to a runoff in January, which means balance of power in the Senate might not be determined until after the next Congress convenes on Jan. 3. Also outstanding is the Senate race in Alaska where Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan is expected to win easily. With roughly 50 percent of the expected vote counted, Sullivan has a 30-point lead on his Democratic challenger, Al Gross. And finally, the North Carolina Senate race between Republican incumbent Sen. Thom Tillis and Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham is still too close to call, with 93 percent of the expected vote counted. Democrats need to win 50 seats in the Senate to have majority control if Joe Biden wins the presidency, which would give Vice President Kamala Harris the tie-breaker vote in the upper chamber, and 51 seats if President Donald Trump wins a second term.
5 years ago As Trump fights election results, Republicans call for counting to continue By Emily Knapp Some Republicans are distancing themselves from President Donald Trump’s attempts to claim election victory and cast doubt on the validity of ballot counting in key battleground states. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters that “claiming you’ve won the election is different from finishing the counting” after Trump claimed victory during his remarks early Wednesday morning when millions of votes had yet to be counted and many races had yet to be called. After the Associated Press and other news outlets declared on Wednesday that Democratic nominee Joe Biden won Wisconsin’s 10 electoral votes, Trump’s campaign said in a statement, “The president is well within the threshold to request a recount and we will immediately do so.” Republican and former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker appeared to cast doubt on the chances of Trump overtaking Biden’s lead of approximately 20,500 votes. “20,000 is a high hurdle,” Walker said in a tweet Wednesday. As the president continues to assert, without evidence, that Democrats are trying to steal the presidential election by engaging in voter fraud, other Republicans have tried to deflate his rhetoric. “Taking days to count legally cast votes is NOT fraud,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said in a tweet Wednesday.
5 years ago Michigan judge dismisses Trump lawsuit By Emily Knapp A Michigan judge has dismissed a lawsuit by President Donald Trump’s campaign seeking to halt the counting of ballots in Michigan, a state the Associated Press called for Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Judge Cynthia Stephens said the ballot counting had been largely completed and that Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson was the wrong person to sue because she does not control the logistics of local ballot counting. The complaint, filed Wednesday afternoon, accused the Michigan secretary of state of allowing absentee ballots to be counted without teams of bipartisan observers and challengers. Much of the dispute centered on the TCF Center in Detroit where pro-Trump protesters gathered while absentee ballots were being counted. The Michigan decision comes after a judge in Georgia also dismissed a legal challenge by the Trump campaign, which has other lawsuits in Nevada and Pennsylvania.
5 years ago Judge dismisses Trump campaign lawsuit in Georgia By Emily Knapp A judge in Georgia has dismissed a lawsuit by the state Republican Party and President Donald Trump’s campaign that alleged one county continued to count absentee ballots after the state deadline. Chatham County Superior Court Judge James Bass did not provide an explanation for his decision Thursday at the close of a roughly one-hour hearing. The county includes the heavily Democratic city of Savannah. The court battle concerned roughly 53 absentee ballots that county elections officials testified had been received on time. The lawsuit, filed on Wednesday, was the Trump campaign’s third filed legal challenge in battleground states where he is in a close race with former Vice President Joe Biden.
5 years ago 450,000 ballots still to be counted in Arizona By Emily Knapp From the Associated Press: Arizona state officials say there are 450,000 ballots still to be counted in the Western battleground. The AP says it is monitoring that vote count as it comes in. The AP has called the presidential race in Arizona for Democrat Joe Biden. AP executive editor Sally Buzbee says: “The Associated Press continues to watch and analyze vote count results from Arizona. We will follow the facts in all cases.” Biden holds a 2.35 percentage point lead over Trump in Arizona, an advantage of about 68,000 votes. The vast majority of the ballots yet to be counted are from Maricopa County, the most populous area of the state. Correction: The original AP report stated there were 375,000 ballots to be counted. It was then updated to indicate there are 450,000 ballots still to be counted.
5 years ago Michigan Sen. Gary Peters defeats challenger John James By Emily Knapp Democratic incumbent Sen. Gary Peters has won reelection in Michigan, defeating Republican challenger John James, the Associated Press reports. Though the race leaned in favor of Democrats, according to the Cook Political Report, early vote counts, mostly from in-person voting on Election Day, showed John James in the lead. Ultimately, Peters edged out his competitor to secure victory. Peters’ win puts the Senate totals for Democrats and Republicans at 48 seats each.
5 years ago Voters who lost loved ones to COVID-19 favored Biden By Emily Knapp Wisconsin voters who said they had lost a family member or friend to the coronavirus pandemic were twice as likely to support former Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. Sixty-eight percent said they backed Biden compared to 32 percent who were for Trump, according to preliminary data from the Associated Press’ VoteCast survey Wednesday. Nationwide, 62 percent of Americans who had lost a loved one to the pandemic said they voted for Biden, according to VoteCast data. In recent months, Wisconsin has become a national hotspot for the virus.
5 years ago Biden wins Michigan By Emily Knapp The Associated Press has called Michigan for Joe Biden, bringing the Democratic presidential candidate’s Electoral College total to 264. He needs six more electoral votes to reach the 270 needed to win the presidency. Michigan hadn’t voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1988 when Donald Trump won there in 2016. The state is one of three in the Rust Belt — including Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — that were critical to Trump’s victory four years ago. Wisconsin was called earlier this afternoon for Biden.
5 years ago Biden: ‘The people rule, power can’t be taken or asserted.’ As states continued to tally ballots, former Vice President Joe Biden said in a news conference that while he was not yet declaring victory, he was confident he would win the presidency when all votes were counted. “Here the people rule. Power can’t be taken or asserted,” he said. “To make progress we have to stop treating our opponents as enemies.” The remarks came after a big win for Biden in Wisconsin, which has 10 electoral votes, and as Trump’s campaign filed lawsuits in multiple states.