Biden’s team steps up transition plans, mapping out a White House
Here's how the events are unfolding following the election day.
It won't be long now: Top Pennsylvania official
"Don't buy any green bananas," Pennsylvania's lieutenant governor John Fetterman (a Democrat) has advised Donald Trump's campaign team.
He's suggesting that a decisive result could come very soon in the battleground state that would give Joe Biden the presidency if the votes break in his favour, reports BBC.
We've all been waiting many hours now for more results from the state. They are still counting in Allegheny County, which includes the city of Pittsburgh, and in Philadelphia. Both areas lean heavily Democratic.
Right now, Biden has a lead of 28,833 votes, having caught Donald Trump's lead of nearly 600,000 on Wednesday morning as more ballots were counted.
That's a 0.4% lead for the Democrat. More results are being expected to come soon, which could push Biden over 0.5% - a margin of victory beyond which no mandatory recount is triggered.
Omar Sabir, the Philadelphia City Commissioner, and also a Democrat, said "Be patient. This isn’t a microwave meal... There could be a war somewhere depending on the outcome of these results."
Things are moving so slowly in Pennsylvania because the state didn't start processing its postal ballots until election day. Ten times as many of these ballots were cast than usual - hence the delays.
Biden believes today is the day, but he's focused on Covid-19 pandemic
Democrat candidate Joe Biden and his aides believe today is the day they move forward and accept victory.
However, the former vice president is looking beyond the drama of election vote-counting and towards a transition.
Biden is taking a more patient stance than many Democrats surrounding him. He knows that these next days are critical to his remarkably difficult challenge of trying to unify the country, CNN reports quoting a close ally to the democrat candidate.
Biden rejected advice from some advisers and supporters to deliver his big victory speech last night - instead choosing to deliver another brief set of remarks.
Aides say the coronavirus crisis is occupying the majority of his time, and to look for announcements on that front to be among his first.
They say has no plans of announcing Cabinet nominations for a few weeks, but to look for a far earlier announcement on the Biden version of a Covid-19 taskforce.
Republicans to hold 'big press conference' in Philadelphia
President Donald Trump has announced that the republican camp will soon hold a “big press conference’ in Philadelphia. He made the announcement through a tweeter post.
Trump, in an earlier tweet, also disclosed that lawyers will speak in the press conference due to take place at 11:30 (local time), reports BBC.
The first tweet was removed from tweeter for containing disputed content.
Trump announced the press conference after writing a series of tweets making unsubstantiated allegations of illegality in the voting process in states like Pennsylvania.
All four tweets were labelled as disputed and potentially misleading by Twitter.
However, more results are expected to come soon from Pennsylvania. The state alone is all Joe Biden needs to win the White House. The Democrat is currently leading there by 28,833 votes.
Biden camp mapping out a White House
With Joseph R. Biden Jr leading in crucial battleground states, his advisers and allies have reportedly geared up their transition planning for the White House.
Some, especially those overseeing the coronavirus response, have already began to discuss hiring in critical roles, with the first senior officials in a potential Biden White House possibly named as early as next week, reports The New York Times.
Democrat candidate Biden is now on brink of victory with 264 electoral votes in bag. While the incumbent has so far got 214 electoral votes, far behind from the front runner.
In Wilmington and Washington, Biden’s advisers and allies are ramping up their conversations about who might fill critical posts, both in the West Wing and across the agencies, guided heavily by Biden’s plan to assemble what would be the most diverse cabinet in history.
The behind-the-scenes activity underscored that even as Biden publicly offered a disciplined message about counting every vote and refrained from claiming victory, he was already mapping out a quick start in office as the nation faces a worsening pandemic and a damaged economy.
Biden, who ran from Day 1 on a message of bringing the country together, is said to be interested in making a bipartisan gesture as he plans a prospective government after a divisive election whose results President Trump has tried to undermine.
He is looking to fill out his possible White House staff first, with cabinet posts not expected to be announced until around Thanksgiving, according to more than a half-dozen people familiar with the planning process who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the transition.
Biden’s team quietly began raising money for his transition operation in May and has raised at least $7 million to pay for its efforts. The Biden camp has prepared for multiple scenarios in case Donald Trump refused to concede and his administration would not participate in a transition.
As coronavirus infections hit new highs, Biden’s aides are planning for the first critical transition decisions to focus on health care and addressing the pandemic, the central theme of his campaign in the final months.
They have assembled an internal group of roughly two dozen health policy and technology experts to look at the development and delivery of a vaccine, improving health data and securing supply chains, among other issues.
If Biden wins finally, he is expected to initially focus on filling top posts at the White House, including chief of staff, the most powerful single staff position. Ron Klain, his former chief of staff as vice president, who served as the White House Ebola response coordinator under Obama, is seen to have the inside track for that job, though others are still reportedly under serious consideration.
"Problem child ballots" slowing down vote count in Philadelphia
Workers in Philadelphia said that the “problem child ballots” are slowing down their vote counting process.
The group of ballots that they're dealing with in Philadelphia, they require extra attention. They require more review, CNN reports.
There are about 20,000 of these ballots to wade through. Overnight, around 60 workers were prepping these ballots for review. That includes “grouping those 'problem child ballots' into buckets to address a specific issue at hand.
The review process should have begun already per the schedule and while there are also some 18,000 provisional ballots to be counted, workers are entirely focused on getting through these “problem child ballots.”
While some updates can be expected today, it is unclear how many of these ballots the workers will be able to get through and when.
Trump continues Twitter line of attack
President Donald Trump has continued to push his unsubstantiated claims that there is some sort of fraud going on in Pennsylvania’s vote count.
Courts have ruled that Pennsylvania can count ballots that arrive after election day, as long as they are postmarked on, or prior to, the day itself.
The president’s team did win a legal case to allow closer inspection of Pennsylvania counts. He hasn’t provided any evidence for his tweeted claim that “BAD THINGS” are happening during the vote tally, reports BBC.
The morning barrage is just the latest “fraud” claim by the president. As the BBC’s Reality Check team has reported, actual instances of voter fraud in the US are few and far between.
About half an hour after he posted the messages, Twitter put a warning label on them: “Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process.”
No evidence of voter fraud: EC official
Ellen Weintraulb, a Federal Election Commission official, has spurned the allegation of ‘voter fraud’ in Tuesday’s presidential election.
“There really has been no evidence of fraud. None of the complaints have attached any evidence of fraud,” she said in a conversation with CNN on Saturday
Weintraulb also said “State and local officials and poll workers throughout the country really stepped up. And there have been very few complaints about how this election was run.”
“Very few substantiated complaints, let me put it that way. There is no evidence of any kind of voter fraud. There is no evidence of illegal votes being cast. In fact, and you don't have to take my word for it, because people throughout the country, nonpartisan election experts, have come out and handled this election and how it was run,” CNN quoted him as saying.
Pennsylvania: Democrats urge SC to allow belated ballots to be counted
Lawyers for the Democratic Party of Pennsylvania told the Supreme Court late Friday that they objected to any order blocking the eventual tally of ballots received after the election.
The legal filing came in response to Republicans in the state, who are asking the court to order the counties to take "no action" on the ballots in question, while a legal dispute plays out, reports CNN.
Earlier Friday, Justice Alito, acting alone, preserved the status quo by ordering the counties to follow current guidance that directs the counties to segregate the ballots – if they are counted they should not be added to current tallies. He referred the matter to the full court for its consideration.
Lawyers for Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar are expected to respond by 2 p.m. on Saturday.
These legal filings come as the court considers whether to take up an appeal to a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision from before the election. That decision allowed ballots received 3 days after the election, even without a valid post mark, to be counted. The justices have not yet decided whether to take up the dispute.
Critics of the President and other Republicans say he is continuing legal challenges to suggest that the courts could impact election results, even though the numbers, so far, suggest otherwise.
Pennsylvania result in hours
Allegheny County in Pennsylvania has about 20,000 ballots left to count, County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said today, adding that those results will start coming in batches starting later this morning or early afternoon.
“They'll begin this process a little after 9:00 am and they’ll upload a certain batch, I don't know, maybe a few thousand at a time, every few hours,” he said explaining that it will be similar to how it was done Friday, reports CNN.
On processing the 20,000 ballots, he said:
“[It's] painstaking because they have to be done by hand so they can match them up to make sure that those votes did not already get counted,” he explained.
Mail-in ballots in the county have been running about 80-20, with 80% for Joe Biden and 20% for President Trump, he said.
There are also an estimated 17,000 provisional ballots to count that will be counted by early next week, Fitzgerald added.
US polls that took months to reach a result
Although four days have elapsed since the US presidential election was held on Tuesday, it is yet to be declared who is going to lead the country in the next four years.
Such a delay may normally look unusual, but it is not unprecedented in the history of the United States. The US already witnessed some elections that had taken much more time to reach a result.
In the presidential election of 2020, the authorities took a total of 35 days to declare a result.
The winner, George W Bush, was decided by the Supreme Court - the only time this has happened, reports BBC.
On Election Day, 7 November, Democrat Al Gore won the popular vote, but things were closer in the Electoral College. Everything hinged on how Florida doled out its 25 electoral votes.
The race was close enough to trigger a recount. Gore's team asked for four counties to do that by hand, prompting an appeal by the Bush camp.
Weeks later, on 12 December, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of Bush along party lines 5-4, sending him to the White House.
And at the risk of scaring you all, Bush-Gore wasn't even the longest wait.
The 1876 election took just shy of four months to finalise - currently the US record.
That election was held on 7 November and the result wasn't decided until 2 March 1877, only a few days before inauguration.
Republican Rutherford Hayes was declared the winner by one electoral college vote over Democrat Samuel Tilden, after a bi-partisan committee was brought in to sort it out.
Biden's lead increasing in Georgia
It's looking increasingly good for Joe Biden in the battleground state of Georgia. He continues to lead the vote count - and his lead is increasing.
Overnight Biden was ahead by more than 4,000 votes with 99% of the ballots counted.
Now the Democratic challenger is 7,248 votes ahead, according to BBC data.
Georgia (with 16 electoral college votes) is traditionally a Republican state, and has not been won by a Democrat in a presidential race since 1992.
McConnell: 'Of course' there will be a peaceful transfer
Top Republican Mitch McConnell has said there will definitely be a peaceful transfer of power if Joe Biden wins the presidential election, BBC reports.
"Of course," McConnell responded to questions from reporters in Kentucky, where he sits as a senator.
"We've had a peaceful transfer of power going back to 1792, every four years, we've moved on to a new administration."
McConnell's comments follow mixed messages from Donald Trump, however. The president initially refused to commit to such a handover earlier this year, then last month said he would support a smooth transition.
"Peaceful transfer ... I absolutely want that, but ideally, I don't want a transfer because I want to win," Trump said at the time.
Flight restrictions extended over Biden's home
Temporary flight restrictions have been extended over Joe Biden's house in Wilmington, Delaware.
There has been a one-mile radius Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) around the Biden home since he became Democratic nominee, at the request of the Secret Service, BBC reports.
But on 4 November that radius was expanded to three miles, and on Friday the order was extended until at least 11 November.
Violators face up to 12 months in federal prison or fines up to $100,000 (£76,000), in addition to having their pilot's licence suspended or revoked.
The flight restrictions probably shouldn't be seen as predicting any outcomes, as it's normal to take precautions around high-profile political figures.
However, the security detail for a president-elect would certainly be bigger in size and scope - so if Biden does acquire that status we can expect his cover to increase.
Biden leading 4 out of 5 key states
'STOP THE COUNT!' memes take off
Donald Trump's Twitter call to 'STOP THE COUNT!' has prompted an array of memes and sarcasm on social media.
This Mexican cartoonist showed Trump saying the phrase in Spanish while out for the count in a boxing ring.
And one grad student in Louisiana called for the same logic to be applied to America's gigantic student debt.
Bernie Sanders: Struggle 'has just begun'
Former presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has recorded a message to hail Joe Biden's "apparent victory" in the race to the White House.
In video posted to Twitter, Sanders said the election was about whether "we end pathological lying in the White House" or "retain democracy and the rule of law in our country - and thank God, it appears that we have done that".
"Tonight, as we celebrate Joe Biden’s apparent election victory, we understand that our struggle is not over," he said. "It has just begun."
According to the BBC's tally, Biden has reached 253 of the 270 electoral college votes needed to win. While no final result has been announced, he also appears to be ahead in the remaining swing states.
Two charged with carrying guns near Philadelphia election site
Prosecutors have charged two men who were carrying weapons near the Pennsylvania Convention Center, where ballots from the election are still being counted.
The two men were arrested on Thursday after the FBI received a tip-off about an armed group travelling to the city from Virginia. They were not authorised to carry the weapons in Pennsylvania.
According to ABC news, their vehicle displayed a sticker for the QAnon conscpiracy theory.
As we've already reported, police in the city were forced to evacuate an area near the convention centre on Friday after receiving a bomb threat. However, a search revealed no explosives.
Supporters of both Donald Trump and Joe Biden have been holding protests in the city as the ballot count continues. Pennsylvania, with its 20 electoral votes, is a key battleground state that looks set to determine the course of the election.
Paths to victory
The path to 270 looks increasingly difficult for Trump, though Democratic challenger Joe Biden appears set to clinch it, Al Jazeera reports.
Democrat Joe Biden’s campaign has a relatively easy and straightforward path forward. With Arizona included, Biden sits at 264 Electoral College votes. If Arizona holds, he can win any of the not-yet called battleground states, including Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania or Nevada.
Trump currently sits at 214 electoral votes. Of Arizona, North Carolina, Nevada and Georgia, Trump needs to win at least three of those states. Trump is expected to be declared the winner in Alaska with three electoral votes, but that would not alter his path above.
Victory is close but counts continue
Vote counting continues slowly but the trend shows Democratic candidate Joe Biden doing better than incumbent President Donald Trump. There are just 17 electoral college votes separating Biden from the 270 needed to win the White House.
Biden is ahead of Trump in the remaining battleground states, which are key to victory:
- Pennsylvania, where Biden is currently leading by 28,883 ballots, has the largest number of electoral college votes of any of the remaining states and winning there alone would push Biden above 270
- It's a similar gap in Arizona, where Biden is ahead of Trump by 29,861 votes
- The Democratic candidate is also in the lead in Nevada, with 22,657 votes
- While Biden is also in front in Georgia, the margin is razor thin - with just over 4,395 votes separating the two candidates. Officials there have said there will be a recount
President Donald Trump didn't appear in public on Friday but he warned Biden on Twitter not to claim victory, saying that legal proceedings were "just now beginning".
White House chief of staff tests positive for coronavirus
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has tested positive for coronavirus, US media are reporting.
The news comes a month after President Donald Trump was taken to hospital with Covid-19 - before recovering within days.
Meadows traveled with the President on Sunday and Monday. He was also at the White House election night party on Tuesday and in close contact with members of the President’s family.
White House officials are now alarmed given Meadows has been around other staffers while potentially contagious, one aide says. The White House had invited people to watch the results roll in that night.
More than 236,000 people have died with coronavirus in the US since the pandemic began and 9.7 million Americans have been infected.
Biden: 'We're going to win this race'
Speaking now, Joe Biden says he will win this race "with a clear majority, with the nation behind us".
He stops short of a final declaration of victory, BBC reports.
"We've gotten over 74 million votes, that's more than any presidential ticket has ever gotten in the history of the Untied States of America."
"We don't have a final declaration of victory yet, but the numbers tell us it's clear," Biden said from Wilmington, Delaware.
"We are going to win this race. Just look at what has happened since yesterday. Twenty four hours we were behind in Georgia, now we're ahead, and we are going to win that state. Twenty four hours ago we were behind in Pennsylvania, and we are going to win Pennsylvania. And now we are ahead, but we are winning in Arizona, we're winning in Nevada, and in fact our lead just doubled in Nevada. We're on track for over 300 electoral votes, electoral college votes. And look at the national numbers. We're going to win this race with a clear majority, with the nation behind us."
There are 124,500 outstanding ballots still to be counted in Nevada
There are an estimated 124,500 outstanding ballots in Nevada, according to the secretary of state's office, CNN reports.
This number includes 58,000 mail ballots and 66,500 voter registration ballots to be counted — 90% of the ballots to be counted are in Clark County.
This figure does not include provisional ballots or signature cures outstanding.
There are six electoral votes at play in the state. Joe Biden and President Trump each need 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. Biden currently has 253 electoral votes and Trump has 213 electoral votes.
How Georgia could leave US Senate control unclear until January
The state of Georgia is playing an unusual power-broker role in the knife-edge balance-of-power struggle playing out between Democrats and Republicans over the US Senate following Tuesday’s elections.
Georgia’s two Senate seats, unusually, were both up for election this year, and both races are headed for run-off elections on January 5 after no candidate in either race managed to win a majority of the votes, Reuters reported.
As election results stand as of Friday, the Democrats and the Republicans will each hold 48 seats in the 100-member Senate. Two other races in addition to Georgia are still outstanding, but both are widely expected to be won by Republicans.
With the Georgia runoff set for January 5, that will leave the question of which party will control the Senate unanswered until after the rest of the new Congress is sworn in on January 3.
Biden leading Arizona by 29,861 votes
With Mariopa County releasing the totals of about 73,000 ballots, Biden is leading Arizona by 29,861 votes, with 49.6% of the vote compared to Trump's 48.7%, ABC News reports.
About 171,000 ballots are outstanding statewide.
Arizona has 11 electoral votes.
Biden ahead in Pennsylvania by 27,130 votes
Biden is leading Pennsylvania by 27,130 votes, ABC News reports.
Biden has 3,334,451 votes, or 49.6%, compared to Trump's 3,307,321 votes, or 49.2%.
Pennsylvania has 20 electoral votes.
Supreme Court justice orders Pennsylvania late ballots kept separate
Ballots received after 20:00 local time on election night must be kept and counted separately in the pivotal state of Pennsylvania, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has ruled, reports BBC.
Republicans in Pennsylvania have launched a legal challenge calling for late-arriving votes not to be counted, but that has not been accepted.
Instead, the order merely upholds what is already suppose to be happening in the state, as ordered by state officials - to segregate ballots postmarked by 3 November, but received later.
Meanwhile, the counting continues in Pennsylvania. Trump's initial lead there has disappeared as more and more postal ballot are being counted. Biden now leads by almost 22,000 votes in the state - but the race is still too close to project a winner.
What's happening in the key state of Pennsylvania?
All eyes are on Pennsylvania - the state with the largest number of electoral votes of any state yet to announce results.
Joe Biden is ahead, and if he wins in Pennsylvania, he will secure the 270 electoral votes needed to reach the White House.
According to BBC, Biden is leading against President Trump - by almost 20,000 popular votes. Biden needs a larger margin to avoid a recount in Pennsylvania.
And with more than 100,000 postal ballots and a large number of provisional ballots still to be counted, that's more than possible, as the majority of these types of votes so far have gone in the Democrat's favour.
Biden maintains lead in Nevada
As we wait for more results from Nevada, here's a reminder of where things stand:
With 91% of ballots in the state counted, Joe Biden is currently ahead of Donald Trump by 22,657 votes.
While many rural areas are leaning towards Trump, Biden is winning in the most populous counties.
Earlier, Biden received 2,520 additional votes from Clark County - which includes the city of Las Vegas.
The state has six electoral college votes. Biden has already secured 253 and needs another 17 to clinch the presidency.
Trump warns Biden not to declare himself winner
As we mentioned earlier (see our entry at 17:44 GMT), Joe Biden may speak to the nation in a prime-time address later on Friday. Sources suggested that was dependent on the race being called in his favour by that time.
The incumbent, Donald Trump, has now taken to Twitter to warn his challenger not to declare victory. "I could make that claim, also," Trump wrote.
In fact, Trump has now twice said he has won the election, even though all votes have not been counted yet, and those that have put Biden in the lead and on course to become the next US president.
Trump's team have launched several legal challenges - seeking even to stop the vote-count.
Trump ex-aide 'to head legal battle'
As Team Trump prepares to launch a slew of legal challenges to election results, they are expected to name David Bossie, the president's 2016 deputy campaign manager, to lead the fight, NBC and the New York Times report.
Bossie is a seasoned hand at political fighting. Since 2000, he has been president of the lobby group Citizens United. Under his watch, that conservative group secured a landmark Supreme Court ruling granting corporations the same free-speech rights as individuals - and saying these rights could be exercised through political donations.
It had been reported that the president's close circle of advisers were looking for someone to lead their legal challenge. The team were said to want someone like James Baker, a lawyer and senior Republican figure who led the George W Bush team in the 2000 Florida recount.
Bossie is not a lawyer - he dropped out of university to get a head start in politics - but he has all the characteristics the Trump camp seems to appreciate: outspokenness, pugnaciousness and a flare for messaging.
He briefly fell out with the Trump camp last year over a funding scandal - but, if reports prove correct - would seem to be back in the fold.
Biden to speak Friday night
Joe Biden is planning to address the nation tonight in Delaware about his growing lead — even if news outlets have yet to project him the winner, according to people familiar with his plans, CBS News reported.
Aides spent Friday making preliminary plans for him to speak on Friday night on the presumption that he would be over the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the White House. But now, one aide familiar with Biden's remarks tonight says the former vice president will speak out "not to declare victory but to give the kind of update he's done previously — with even more enthusiasm. Last time he was before the press he trailed in Georgia, he trailed in Pennsylvania, he had a single digit lead in Nevada. But now, with Biden holding the advantage in those states, Biden plans to tout more progress."
The people familiar with Biden's plans requested anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
Biden leading by more than 4,000 votes in Georgia
More results have come in from Georgia, with Biden now ahead by more than 4,200 votes, BBC reported.
The new figures came after more than 7,000 votes were received from Gwinnett County, near Atlanta.
That doesn't leave us much closer to a final result in Georgia, however - thousands of military postal votes could still be counted, as long as they have a postmark of 3 November and arrive by the end of Friday.
And officials have already said they will hold a recount as the race is so tight in the state, which has 16 electoral votes.