Follow our coverage for the latest updates after NBC News projected Joe Biden will be the next president of the United States:
President-Elect Biden Addresses America, the World
This evening, the kid from Scranton took center stage. Joe Biden, a former city council member, U.S. Senator and vice president, addressed the people of the United States as president-elect.
"Folks, the people of this nation have spoken they've delivered us a clear victory, a convincing victory. A victory for We The People. We've won with the most votes ever cast for a presidential ticket in the history of the nation," Biden said.
Referencing the political and cultural division in America, Biden again said he would be a president for all Americans, whether or not they voted for him.
"For all you who voted for President Trump, I understand the disappointment. I’ve lost a couple elections myself. But now let’s give each other a chance," Biden said. "We have to stop treating our opponents as our enemies. They are not our enemies. They are Americans."
Click here to read the full story.
— Saturday, Nov. 7, 9:01 p.m. ET
Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris Greets Supporters, Addresses Nation
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris began her victory speech Saturday night by quoting late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, an icon of the Civil Rights movement.
"'Democracy is not a state. It is an act.' -- and what he meant was that America's democracy is not guaranteed. It is only as strong as our willingness to fight for it," Harris said.
Harris thanked the poll workers and election officials throughout the country to assure all votes are counted.
"Our nation owes you a debt of gratitude," Harris said. "You have protected the integrity of our democracy."
Harris also thanked everyone who not only voted for a Biden/Harris ticket, but who pushed back during Trump's administration.
"For four years, you marched and organized for equality and justice. For our lives and our planet. And then you voted," Harris said.
Saturday, Nov. 7, 8:35 p.m. ET
Meet the New 'Furst' Dogs of the White House
Saturday, Nov. 7, 4:57 p.m. ET
Trump Returns to White House After Golf Round, Isn't Conceding
President Donald Trump is not conceding to President-elect Joe Biden, promising unspecified legal challenges seeking to overturn the outcome of the race for the White House.
Trump returned to the White House and a very different Washington, D.C., after losing his reelection bid. He was at his Virginia golf course when the presidential race was called for Biden on Saturday.
Trump’s motorcade returned from his golf club in Virginia via roads largely cleared of other cars and people Saturday afternoon.
But as he approached the White House, he was welcomed home with boos and raised middle fingers. Chants of “Loser, loser, loser” and profanities were also heard as his motorcade drove by.
He is the first president to lose reelection since George H.W. Bush in 1992.
Trump said in a statement that "our campaign will start prosecuting our case in court to ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated.”
Saturday, Nov. 7, 4:45 p.m. ET
Pro-Trump Rallies Held Outside State Capitols
Tensions remain high among supporters of President Donald Trump, who believe unsubstantiated claims that fraud has denied him a second term.
Shortly after Biden was projected to win the presidential race, some 75 Trump protesters gathered Saturday morning outside the election tabulation center in downtown Phoenix. That crowd swelled to more than 1,000 within hours.
Pro-Trump activists were also gathering in state capitals on Saturday to rally in support the “Stop the Steal” campaign, a movement based on the false assertion that the election was overrun with fraud and "stolen" from Trump.
Outside the state capitol building in the longheld Republican stronghold of Georgia, chants of “lock him up” rang out among estimated 1,000 Trump supporters. Others there chanted “This isn’t over! This isn’t over!” and “Fake news!” The streets outside the capitol were awash with American flags and Trump flags.
In Lansing, Michigan, a group of about 50 Trump supporters and a smaller group of marchers carrying Black Lives Matter flags converged on the Michigan State Capitol where they pushed, shoved and shouted at one another in a tense standoff. But within moments of the race being called, a few from both sides broke into prayers and at least one pair hugged. Still, tensions flared up again when more Trump supporters arrived on the scene and BLM members retreated through the growing crowd.
Saturday, Nov. 7, 3:42 p.m. ET
Ukraine President Congratulates Biden
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who found himself at the center of President Donald Trump’s impeachment, is congratulating Trump’s replacement, President-elect Joe Biden.
In a Saturday tweet, Zelenskiy said “Ukraine is optimistic about the future of the strategic partnership with the United States.” He added that the two countries “have always collaborated on security, trade, investment, democracy, fight against corruption. Our friendship becomes only stronger!”
A 2019 call from Trump to Zelenskiy, in which he asked the new Ukrainian leader to investigate Biden and the Democratic National Committee, sparked an intelligence community whistleblower complaint that resulted in Trump’s impeachment last year.
Trump was eventually acquitted by the Republican-led Senate.
Saturday, Nov. 7, 2:52 p.m. ET
Romney, Jeb Bush Congratulate President-Elect Biden, But Congressional GOP Leaders Silent
Sen. Mitt Romney and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush congratulated President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, tweeted Saturday that he and his wife know Biden and Harris “as people of good will and admirable character.” The Utah Republican says, “We pray that God may bless them in the days and years ahead.”
Congressional Republican leaders have been notably silent on President-elect Biden’s victory, but several GOP allies of the president are disputing the outcome.
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri tweeted Saturday: “The media do not get to determine who the president is. The people do.” He added, “When all lawful votes have been counted, recounts finished, and allegations of fraud addressed, we will know who the winner is.”
Other rank-and-file Republican lawmakers took a similar approach, insisting on waiting for some other verification of the results.
“Voters decide who wins the election, not the media,” tweeted Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma. “I fully support President Trump as he continues to fight for every legal vote to be counted.”
Trump has so far refused to concede and is promising legal challenges. He is the first president to lose reelection since George H.W. Bush in 1992.
Saturday, Nov. 7, 2:50 p.m. ET
Biden Win Sparks Street Celebrations From Coast-to-Coast
As soon as the news buzzed on their phones, Americans gathered spontaneously on street corners and front lawns — honking their horns, banging pots and pans, starting impromptu dance parties — as an agonizingly vitriolic election and exhausting four-day wait for results came to an end Saturday morning.
Neighbors ran out of their homes in Manhattan and assembled into an unplanned street party, whooping, dancing and high-fiving strangers. In Washington, D.C., people streamed into Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House, waving sings and singing, “Na Na Na Na Hey Hey-ey Goodbye.”
Celebrations also erupted in Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta and Miami.
Saturday, Nov. 7, 2:07 p.m. ET
Biden Projected Winner of Nevada
Joe Biden has won Nevada, NBC News projects, continuing a 16-year trend of Democrats picking up the Western battleground state.
His victory four days after Election Day gives him Nevada’s six Electoral College votes and denies President Donald Trump a state he hoped to pick up this year after a narrow loss in 2016.
NBC News called the race in Nevada shortly after Biden had defeated Trump on Saturday to become the 46th president, crossing the threshold of the 270 Electoral College votes he needed with a win in Pennsylvania.
Throughout the week, the country had focused on Nevada as it tabulated results and Biden closed in on 270 votes.
Saturday, Nov. 7, 2:07 p.m. ET
Giuliani Vows Lawsuits Challenging Votes in Pennsylvania
Saturday, Nov. 7, 1:38 p.m. ET
‘Congratulations, Mr. President-Elect!': Political Leaders, Celebrities React to Biden's Win
Celebrities, activists, politicians and foreign leaders took to social media on Saturday morning to congratulate Democrat Joe Biden on beating Donald Trump to become the 46th president of the United States.
Former Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton thanked "everyone who helped make this happen."
Stacey Abrams, Georgia's 2018 Democratic gubernatorial candidate who led efforts to increase voter participation in her home state and curb voter suppression, congratulated "Mr. President-Elect!" in a tweet, adding that "together, we will restore the soul of this nation. Biden is leading the race in Georgia and many have pointed to Abrams' efforts for helping put the state in play for Democrats.
Actress Kerry Washington, thanked "everyone who used your vote and your voice to make history."
See more social reactions here.
Saturday, Nov. 7, 1:27 p.m. ET
'We Did It, Joe': Harris Shares Video Congratulating Biden on White House Victory
Kamala Harris made history Saturday as the first Black and South Asian woman elected vice president of the United States. The 56-year-old California senator shared a video on Twitter of her phone call with president-elect Joe Biden, congratulating him on their victory over President Donald Trump.
In another tweet Saturday, shortly after Biden clinched the presidency by winning Pennsylvania, Harris said she and Biden have a lot of work to do.
She said, “This election is about so much more than Joe Biden or me. It’s about the soul of America and our willingness to fight for it. We have a lot of work ahead of us.”
Saturday, Nov. 7, 12:55 p.m. ET
President-Elect Biden: It's Time for US to Heal
President-elect Joe Biden says it’s time for America to “unite” and to “heal.”
Biden said in a statement Saturday, “With the campaign over, it’s time to put the anger and the harsh rhetoric behind us and come together as a nation.”
“We are the United States of America,” he wrote. “And there’s nothing we can’t do, if we do it together.”
Saturday, Nov. 7, 12:05 p.m. ET
Cheers Erupt Outside White House Upon News of Biden's Win
Within seconds of the race being called for President-elect Joe Biden, cheers erupted outside the White House from a group gathered at the Black Lives Matter plaza, a two-block-long section of 16th Street NW in Downtown Washington, D.C.
Saturday, Nov. 7, 11:45 a.m. ET
Joe Biden Defeats Trump to Win White House
Democrat Joe Biden has defeated President Donald Trump to become the 46th president of the United States, according to NBC News' projection.
Biden vanquished his Republican foe after a campaign as bitter and divisive as Trump’s own presidential term. Victories in “blue wall” northern industrial states propelled Biden to the White House, where he’ll confront America’s deep health, economic and social ills.
A win in Pennsylvania sealed his victory after more than three tension-filled days of counting votes. Record numbers of Americans voted early and by mail, many out of concern about going to polling places during the coronavirus pandemic.
Saturday, Nov. 7, 11:33 a.m. ET
Trump at Virginia Club as Vote Counts Continue
States are still counting votes in the presidential election, Democrat Joe Biden is on the verge of victory and President Donald Trump is at his Virginia golf club for the first time since the end of September.
Trump left the White House on Saturday morning and had on golf shoes, a windbreaker and a white hat.
The White House isn't immediately responding to questions about the president's possible golfing partners.
There were a few people with Biden flag banners outside the club entrance when Trump arrived.
Trump also has spent the morning tweeting about his unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud and illegal voting. Twitter hid four of the president’s tweets behind a warning label that they may contain disputed or misleading statements about the election.
Saturday, Nov. 7, 11:18 a.m. ET
Biden Transition Team at Work Amid Limbo
Joe Biden's transition team isn’t waiting for a verdict in the presidential race before getting to work.
As election officials continue to count ballots in several undecided states, longtime Biden aide Ted Kaufman is leading efforts to ensure the former vice president can begin building out a government in anticipation of a victory.
In the meantime, an odd political limbo has taken hold. The Biden team is moving forward but can’t tackle all that needs to be accomplished, and President Donald Trump continues to claim without evidence that the election is being stolen from him.
Saturday, Nov. 7, 10:26 a.m. ET
State of the Race at the Start of the Weekend
As ballot-counting enters its fifth game, Joe Biden has leads in four key states. Here's the status of all six remaining states just before 9 a.m. Saturday:
PENNSYLVANIA: Joe Biden leads Pennsylvania by 28,833 votes. Tens of thousands of mail-in votes remain to be counted, plus about 100,000 provisional ballots.
GEORGIA: Joe Biden leads by 7,248 votes, with most of the ballots counted. Some mail-in votes from overseas voters, including the military, may remain -- those had to be postmarked by Nov. 3 and received by Friday. State officials have said they expect a recount.
ARIZONA: Joe Biden leads by 29,861. At least 90,000 mail-in ballots remain to be counted, plus provisional ballots. Unlike other states, where mail-in ballots heavily favored Biden, these are expected to favor Trump -- but the question remains whether Trump will win enough of them to close the gap.
Nevada: Joe Biden leads by 22,687. Most remaining ballots are in Clark County, home of Las Vegas, which is typically a Democratic stronghold.
North Carolina: Donald Trump leads by 76,515. More than 100,000 votes remain to be counted, but none are expected to be counted until next week. For now, North Carolina is at a standstill.
Alaska: Donald Trump leads by 51,382, but Alaska has only counted in-person ballots, not mail-in ballots. Alaska will not begin counting mail-in ballots until Tueseday. For now, Alaska is at a standstill.
Saturday, Nov. 7, 8:55 a.m. ET
Biden: 'We're Going to Win This Race'
Former Vice President Joe Biden addressed the nation Friday night as vote counting continued in the 2020 presidential race.
As he spoke, Biden led President Donald Trump 253-214 in the race for 270 electoral votes, according to NBC News.
Biden appeared with his running mate, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, in Wilmington, Delaware.
"We don't have a final declaration of victory yet but the numbers tell us it's clear -- tell us a clear and convincing story: we're going to win this race," Biden said.
He says Americans have given him a "mandate for action."
"We’re going to win this race with a clear majority of Americans behind us," he said. "We’ve gotten more than 74 million votes. That’s more than any presidential ticket in the history of America. And our vote total is still growing."
Friday, Nov. 6, 10:55 p.m.
Perdue, Ossoff Head to Georgia US Senate Runoff
Republican U.S. Sen. David Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff will face off in a Jan. 5 runoff in Georgia for Perdue’s Senate seat.
Libertarian candidate Shane Hazel was able to get enough votes so that neither Perdue or Ossoff was able to clear the 50% threshold needed for an outright win.
Thousands of absentee ballots and in-person votes cast early needed to be counted after Election Night passed, forcing a long and tense wait before the race could be called.
The contest has already seen huge spending from outside groups on both sides and millions of dollars more are expected to pour into the state ahead of the runoff.
Friday, Nov. 6, 10:16 p.m.
Biden's Lead Grows in Battleground Pennsylvania
Democrat Joe Biden continued to build a lead over President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania on Friday, NBC Philadelphia reported.
By Friday evening, the Democrat held a lead of 27,130 votes out of more than 6.5 million ballots cast. There were still 89,000 ballots to be counted.
Pennsylvania is among a handful of battleground states that Trump and Biden are narrowly contesting as they seek the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.
Friday, Nov. 6, 10:02 p.m.
Alito Grants GOP Request on Some Pa. Mail Votes
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has ordered county elections officials in Pennsylvania to keep separate mail-in ballots that arrived after Election Day. The state’s top elections official already had ordered those ballots be kept apart.
The order came Friday night in response to a plea from the state Republican Party as Democrat Joe Biden inched ahead of President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania in the presidential race.
Alito, acting on his own, said he was motivated in part by the Republicans’ assertion that they can’t be sure elections officials are complying with guidance issued by Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, a Democrat.
The justice handles emergency appeals from Pennsylvania. He ordered a response from the state by Saturday afternoon and said he has referred the matter to the full court for further action.
The order is related to an ongoing Republican appeal to the Supreme Court to try to keep ballots received in the mail after Election Day from being counted. The state’s top court granted a three-day extension, and the Supreme Court refused to block it.
Friday, Nov. 6, 8:06 p.m.
Biden Transition Team at Work
Joe Biden's transition team isn't waiting for a verdict in the presidential race before getting to work.
As officials continue to count ballots in several undecided states, longtime Biden aide Ted Kaufman is leading efforts to ensure the former vice president can begin building out a government in anticipation of a victory.
Kaufman is a former senator from Delaware who was appointed to fill the seat vacated when Biden was elected vice president. He also worked on Barack Obama’s transition team in 2008, and helped write legislation formalizing the presidential transition process.
Biden first asked Kaufman to start work on a just-in-case transition in April, shortly after the former vice president locked up the presidential nomination at the conclusion of a once-crowded Democratic primary. Now, each day after the election that goes by without a declared winner is one day fewer to formally begin preparing to take over the White House.
The transition can be a frenzied process even under normal circumstances.
Friday, Nov. 6, 7:50 p.m.
GOP Seeks Court Order in Pa. as Count Continues
Pennsylvania Republicans are turning to the U.S. Supreme Court to ask for an order that mail ballots arriving after Election Day in the battleground state be segregated. The state’s top elections official already had ordered those ballots be kept apart.
The emergency request Friday came as Democrat Joe Biden inched ahead of President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania.
The plea is part of an ongoing Republican appeal to the Supreme Court to try to keep ballots received in the mail after Election Day from being counted. The state’s top court granted a three-day extension, and the Supreme Court refused to block it.
But Democratic Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar told local officials to keep the ballots separate because the high court hasn’t ultimately decided whether to step in.
Republicans presented no evidence that counties are not adhering to Boockvar’s orders, but said, “It is unclear whether all county boards are following them in the post-election chaos.”
Friday, Nov. 6, 5:33 p.m.
ADL Asks House Leaders to Keep QAnon-Backers Off Committees
The Anti-Defamation League is asking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to block committee assignments for new members who have supported the far-right QAnon conspiracy movement, NBC News reported.
The civil rights group's CEO and national director, Jonathan A. Greenblatt, sent the House leaders a letter urging them "to take note of any members of the 117th Congress who have endorsed, given credence to or intentionally promoted QAnon content, to remove them from the Democratic Caucus and Republican Conference, and to decline to assign them to Congressional committees."
While the letter, obtained by NBC news and dated last week, didn't name names, Rep.-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., has attracted national attention for having promoted QAnon content.
Friday, Nov. 6, 4:43 p.m.
Tip Led to Arrest of 2 in Philly
The arrest of two men with weapons Thursday night in Philadelphia was prompted by a tip to the FBI’s Norfolk field office, which prompted police to look for the vehicle used by the pair, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw says.
Officials say the unidentified men, who are white and ages 42 and 61, and from Chesapeake, Va., face a preliminary arraignment on charges of violating state gun laws and may face an election law violation, but nothing has been finalized.
District Attorney Larry Krasner says that the two are not known to be connected to any extremist groups and says, “we do not have indications that the story is bigger than these two individuals.”
Krasner says that there were some QAnon stickers on the car and he says a QAnon hat was visible inside the vehicle. As NBC News has previously reported, QAnon is a conspiracy theory that falsely claims the world is run by a secret cabal of child-eating Democrats and Hollywood celebrities who worship Satan, and that President Donald Trump is fighting a secret war to stop them.
Friday, Nov. 6, 3:27 p.m.
Trump Names Leader of Campaign Challenge Efforts
President Donald Trump’s campaign has tasked David Bossie, Trump’s deputy campaign manager in 2016, to lead its efforts to challenge election results in several states, from Arizona to Pennsylvania, NBC News reported, citing a person familiar with the decision.
A person familiar with the strategy says, as of Monday last week, Bossie was already involved in coordinating the legal efforts and in communication with lawyers involved.
Friday, Nov. 6, 3 p.m.
Trump Vows to 'Never Give Up Fighting'
President Donald Trump says he “will never give up fighting for you and our nation” as he is on the cusp of losing his bid for reelection.
Trump is spending Friday at the White House tweeting, watching results come in and continuing to cast unfounded doubt over the integrity of the election.
He says in a statement released by his campaign: “We believe the American people deserve to have full transparency into all vote counting and election certification.” And he adds that, "This is no longer about any single election. This is about the integrity of our entire election process.”
There is no evidence that any votes cast illegally are being counted or that the process is unfair and corrupt. Indeed, the ballot-counting process across the country largely has been running smoothly, if slowly, because of the increase in mail-in ballots because of the coronavirus pandemic.
But Trump is nonetheless threatening continued legal action, saying: “We will pursue this process through every aspect of the law to guarantee that the American people have confidence in our government.”
Trump’s Democratic rival, Joe Biden, has opened up narrow leads over Trump in the critical battlegrounds of Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Friday, Nov. 6, 1:57 p.m. ET
Philly Mayor Urges Trump to ‘Put His Big Boy Pants On’ as Biden's Lead Widens
Biden continued to widen the gulf between himself and President Trump in Pennsylvania as the counting of mail-in ballots pushed the former vice president into a narrow lead on Friday in a state that's critical for Trump's hopes to reach 270 electoral votes and repeat his 2016 Pennsylvania win.
It's not clear how long it will take for counties across Pennsylvania, including Philadelphia, to finish tallying their mail-in ballots. Results trickled in all night Thursday into Friday, but according to the Pennsylvania Secretary of State, more than 23,000 votes remain to be counted just in Philadelphia, NBC Philadelphia reports.
The Trump campaign has tried to stop the count in Philadelphia itself — alleging city officials were depriving their observers of meaningful access — but a federal judge refused to go along, instead urging the sides to forge an agreement. Speaking from the White House on Thursday night, Trump made unsupported allegations that Democrats in Pennsylvania and elsewhere were trying to steal the election.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney addressed Trump’s false claims of voter fraud during a news conference Friday.
“While some, including the president, continue to spew baseless claims of fraud – claims for which his team has not produced one iota of evidence – what we have seen here in Philadelphia is democracy, pure and simple,” Kenney said.
He also predicted Biden would win the state's 20 electoral votes based on the current rate of results from mail-in ballots that have skewed heavily in Biden’s favor.
“What the president needs to do is frankly put his big boy pants on, he needs to acknowledge the fact that he lost and he needs to congratulate the winner,” Kenney said. “Stop this, and let us move forward as a country.”
Friday, Nov. 6, 1:49 p.m. ET
Biden Plans Prime-Time Televised Address on Friday
Joe Biden’s campaign says he will give a speech during prime time Friday.
The Democratic presidential candidate’s campaign announced that he would be making an address but did not say where or what he plans to say.
Biden is on the cusp of winning the presidency as he opens up narrow leads over President Donald Trump in several critical battlegrounds.
NBC News has not called the presidential race. Votes are still being counted in states including Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona and Georgia.
Biden has urged the public to be patient as vote counting continues. He was spending Friday at home in Wilmington, Delaware.
A stage set up since election night for a victory party outside the city’s convention center remained intact and has been secured for days by security personnel using high fencing and car barriers.
Biden campaign staffers who arrived in Wilmington for a victory party earlier in the week have been told to hold onto their hotel rooms until early next week.
Friday, Nov. 6, 1:05 p.m. ET
Sen. Romney Says Trump's Claim of Stolen Election Inflames 'Destructive and Dangerous Passions'
Sen. Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, says President Donald Trump is “damaging the cause of freedom” and inflaming “destructive and dangerous passions” by claiming, without foundation, that the election was rigged and stolen from him.
Romney lost to President Barack Obama in 2012 but was gracious in defeat. He is Trump’s most vocal critic within the Republican Party and voted to convict him in Trump’s impeachment trial early this year.
The Utah Republican offered his assessment Friday on Twitter, saying that Trump is well within his rights to challenge the results through the legal remedies available to him. But Romney says Trump is “wrong to say that the election was rigged, corrupt, and stolen from him — doing so damages the cause of freedom here and around the world.”
Democrat Joe Biden is on the cusp of winning the presidency as he opens up narrow leads over Trump in several critical backgrounds.
NBC News has not called the presidential race. Votes are still being counted in states including Pennsylvania and Georgia.
Friday, Nov. 6, 1:25 p.m. ET
Georgia Presidential Race Headed to Recount, Secretary of State Says
Georgia's top elections official says there will be a recount in the state's presidential election because the margin between Democrat Joe Biden and President Donald Trump is so small.
The Democrat now leads with about 1,500 votes after five million ballots were cast in the state. NBC News has not declared a winner.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said there are several thousand absentee and provisional ballots still to be counted, and thousands of other ballots sent to the military and citizens living overseas can be received until the end of business Friday. Voters alerted to problems with the ballots they cast must fix them Friday to be counted.
There are still “an unknowable amount of ballots" that could be counted, said Gabriel Sterling, who has overseen the implementation of Georgia’s new electronic voting system. He said counties have been working diligently to finish tabulating their results, and he emphasized his confidence in the legitimacy of the process. Any evidence-backed complaint will be investigated, he added.
“When you have a narrow margin, little, small things can make a difference. So everything’s going to have to be investigated to protect the integrity of the vote,” he said.
Under Georgia law, if the margin between Biden and Trump is under half a percentage point of difference, a recount can be requested. Sterling has said that if a recount is done, the outcome will stay essentially the same.
Friday, Nov. 6, 12:05 p.m. ET
Mark Kelly Projected Winner in Arizona Senate Race
NBC News projects Democrat Mark Kelly is the winner of the Arizona senate seat once held by John McCain.
The former astronaut defeated Republican Martha McSally, who was appointed to the seat after McCain’s death in 2018. Kelly's victory leaves the chamber now deadlocked 48-48. Control of the Senate, however, may not be known until the new year because Georgia's two Senate races appears poised for twin runoffs on Jan. 5.
Kelly rode Arizona’s changing electorate to flip a Republican Senate seat in a state long dominated by the GOP. Kelly flew combat missions for the Navy during Operation Desert Storm before becoming a test pilot and later an astronaut.
He's married to former Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who survived a gunshot wound to the head during a constituent event in Tucson in 2011. Kelly could be sworn in as early as Nov. 30.
Friday, Nov. 6, 11:25 a.m. ET
GOP Sen. Toomey: No Evidence to Support Trump Vote-Fraud Claims
Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said Friday he saw no evidence to support President Donald Trump’s baseless claim that Democrats are trying to “steal” the election, calling the president's comments unsubstantiated,
"I saw the President’s speech last night and it was very hard to watch," Toomey, whose state is a key battleground in the presidential election, told TODAY. "The president's allegations of large-scale fraud and theft of the election are just not substantiated. I am not aware of any significant wrong doing here."
Toomey said he thinks Trump “still has a very narrow path” to victory in his state as the vote count continues there. He noted that Trump would need garner a larger percentage of the remaining votes from Allegheny County, the second-largest county in the state that encompasses Pittsburgh, where there are about 30,000 ballots remaining.
"If these are mostly mail-in ballots that are being counted last, we know it is likely that they are disproportionately Democratic because Democrats voted early, and Republicans tended to vote on election day," he said. "At this point we just do not know. That is why we go through the process to find out."
Friday, Nov. 6, 10:42 a.m. ET
Joe Biden Takes Lead in Pennsylvania
Democrat Joe Biden is now leading President Donald Trump in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. If Biden wins Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes, he will pass the 270 threshold to win the presidency.
As of Friday morning, Biden has 3,295,304 votes to Trump’s 3,289,717. Biden now holds a nearly 6,000-vote advantage with more than 100,000 outstanding ballots in the state.
Trump’s lead dwindled after Election Day when state officials began processing mail-in ballots, a form of voting that has skewed heavily in Biden’s favor after Trump spent months claiming — without proof — that voting by mail would lead to widespread voter fraud. Biden has been winning about 75% of those votes.
If there is less than a half percentage point difference between Biden’s and Trump’s vote totals, state law dictates that a recount must be held.
Pennsylvania is still too close to call, according to NBC News.
Friday, Nov. 6, 8:55 a.m. ET
State of the Race: Joe Biden Makes Gains in Key States
With a surge of mail-in absentee ballots, Biden caught and then passed Trump in Georgia, a must-win state for Trump that has long been a Republican stronghold.
The latest results came overnight Friday from Clayton County, part of which is in Georgia’s 5th Congressional District, long held by Democrat Rep. John Lewis, the civil rights leader who died in July.
Biden currently holds a narrow 900 vote-lead over Trump with thousands of ballots remaining to be counted.
The majority of outstanding ballots in the state are mostly from population-dense counties in the Atlanta metro region that lean Democratic. But there are also thousands of provisional, military and overseas ballots to be tallied, as long as they are post marked Nov. 3 and received at county election offices by Friday, Nov. 6. Those ballots cast by uniformed troops and their families could help Trump regain Georgia because the military tends to vote Republican.
As of Thursday morning, there were 8,899 absentee ballots from military and overseas voters outstanding, according to the secretary of state's office, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
Meanwhile, results continue to trickle in from Arizona, and Maricopa County officials said they expected more votes to come in Friday morning. As of Thursday night, Biden led by 46,257 votes in the state.
He has also expanded his lead in Nevada in new results from mostly Democratic counties, with his margin more than doubling since earlier Thursday.
Friday, Nov. 6, 8:50 a.m. ET
Biden Takes Slight Lead in Close Georgia Contest
In the contest for 16 electoral votes that's still too close to call, Joe Biden has taken the lead over Donald Trump in Georgia.
In the latest count, Biden leads with at least 1,000 votes over Trump with 99% reporting as of 4:30 a.m. ET on Friday, according to NBC News.
If Biden wins Georgia, he would jump from his current 253 electoral votes to 269.
Thousands of ballots are still left to be counted — many in counties where the former vice president was in the lead.
There is a potential that the race could go to a recount. Under Georgia law, if the margin between Biden and Trump is under half a percentage point of difference, a recount can be requested.
Friday, Nov. 6, 4:30 a.m. ET
Trump Camp Files New Federal Lawsuit Over Vegas-Area Voting
The Donald Trump campaign filed a new federal lawsuit late Thursday in Nevada, alleging that ineligible votes were cast in the Las Vegas area, the biggest Democratic stronghold in an otherwise predominantly GOP state.
A complaint filed after-hours in U.S. District Court resurrected an effort the campaign abandoned just hours earlier in Nevada state court — a court order to stop the Clark County Registrar of Voters from using an optical scanning machine to process ballots and validate voter signatures.
The federal filing cites experiences of a woman who said Thursday she was turned away from voting in person because a mailed ballot had been cast with her signature and a political strategist TV commentator who said he was denied an opportunity to observe ballot counting late on election night.
Trump Nevada campaign co-chairman Adam Laxalt said the new filing “highlights ongoing voter fraud and voter disenfranchisement in Clark County.”
State Attorney General Aaron Ford called it “a Hail Mary” and “another opportunity to undermine the confidence in this election” while ballots are still being counted.
Ford noted a federal judge dismissed in September an effort to block the state law that let mailed ballots go out to each of Nevada's more than 1.7 million active registered voters.
Thursday, Nov. 5, 11:35 p.m. ET
Networks Cut Away From Trump's White House Address
ABC, CBS and NBC all cut away from President Donald Trump on Thursday as he spoke from the White House to make an unfounded accusation that the presidential election was being stolen from him.
Trump had tried to commandeer the nation's airwaves at a time when the evening newscasts are shown on the East Coast, after a day when the slow drip of vote counting revealed his leads in Pennsylvania and Georgia dwindling.
MSNBC's Brian Williams also interrupted the president. Fox News Channel and CNN aired the president's full address, after which CNN's Anderson Cooper said Trump was “like an obese turtle on his back, flailing in the hot sun realizing his time was over.”
Thursday, Nov. 5, 10:31 p.m. ET
What's Happening With Poll Watchers?
The campaign of President Donald Trump says Republican poll watchers are being improperly denied access to observe the counting of ballots. Not so, say election officials in key battleground states, who said rules are being followed and they are committed to transparency.
What is a poll watcher? Someone who monitors voting or ballot counting.
Tasked this year with monitoring a record number of mail ballots, partisan poll watchers are designated by a political party or campaign to report any concerns they may have. With a few reports of overly aggressive poll watchers, election officials said they were carefully balancing access with the need to minimize disruptions.
Poll watchers have been a central element of legal battles that have erupted in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Nevada. While counting was largely finished in Michigan, the work continued Thursday in Pennsylvania and Nevada, where a narrow margin separated Trump and his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden.
Monitoring polling places and election offices is allowed in most states, but rules vary and there are certain limits to avoid any harassment or intimidation. Monitors are not allowed to interfere with the conduct of the election and are typically required to register in advance with the local election office.
Thursday, Nov. 5, 10:23 p.m. ET
Some Republicans Push Back Against Trump's False Election Claims
Republican lawmakers and officials are pushing back after President Donald Trump Thursday night delivered a series of false claims about the presidential election, though many did not mention him by name, NBC News reported.
Shortly after Trump at a news conference made baseless claims about massive voter fraud in Pennsylvania, Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said in a statement Thursday that once the state's final election count is "reached and certified, all parties involved must accept the outcome of the election regardless of whether they won or lost."
Thursday, Nov. 5, 9:33 p.m. ET
Tight Races in Georgia, Pennsylvania
NBC News rates the presidential races in Georgia and Pennsylvania as too close to call, but as votes continue to be counted the difference between the candidates in both states is shrinking.
Meanwhile, in North Carolina, Trump leads by a bit over a percentage point with 95 percent of the vote in. In Arizona, Biden leads by two percentage points with 87 percent of the vote in. And in Nevada, Biden leads by just under a percentage point with 89 percent of the vote tallied.
Thursday, June 5, 9 p.m. ET
Trump Suit in Philly Ends With Agreement in Court
A federal judge in Philadelphia on Thursday determined that vote observers for President Trump and former Vice President Biden are entitled to 60 observers each inside the room where votes are being counted in that city, settling for now, a challenge brought by the Trump campaign, NBC News reported.
The decision by Judge Paul Diamond will have no impact on the votes already counted or to be counted and has not resulted in the delay of votes being counted.
Thursday, Nov. 5, 8:26 p.m. ET
Judge Orders Further Sweeps of Postal Service Facilities for Undelivered Ballots
A federal judge ordered the Postal Service on Thursday to continue its sweep of mail facilities to check for undelivered ballots in states that have extended vote delivery deadlines, such as North Carolina and Pennsylvania, NBC News reports.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan of Washington, D.C., ordered the sweeps to continue until the end of the day Friday to ensure that all the mailed ballots are counted. The order, the result of a lawsuit brought by voter advocacy groups, is intended to mitigate concerns that a number of ballots in the Postal Service's care potentially were not delivered.
Thursday, Nov. 5, 7:50 p.m. ET
What About Alaska?
All eyes are turning to battleground states, but there is another state that still doesn't have a winner in the 2020 presidential race.
As of late Thursday, Alaska's three electoral votes were unclaimed.
While Alaska has been a reliably red state, and President Donald Trump had about a 30 percentage point lead over Joe Biden (with about 56 percent of the vote counted), the race was considered too early to call by NBC News.
Why?
Absentee ballots — as well as those in-person early votes cast after last Thursday — won’t start to be counted by the Division of Elections until Nov. 10, according to Alaska Public Media. The division faces a deadline of Nov. 18 to count absentee ballots.
That leaves too much of the vote untallied to declare a winner.
“The division believes the legal requirement of one person, one vote takes priority over counting ballots quicker,” said state Division of Elections Director Gail Fenumiai, Alaska Public Media reported.
Alaska became a state in 1959 and has only swung for a Democrat once: Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Trump won the state by 28 percentage points in 2016.
Thursday, Nov. 5, 7:07 p.m. ET
County Voting, By Battleground
Track the vote count in this graphic from NBC News.
Trump Cites State Victories, Vows to Fight
President Donald Trump addressed the nation Thursday evening from the White House. As he spoke, Democrat Joe Biden had 253 electoral votes, to Trump's 214, according to NBC News projections. Both candidates were seeking to reach 270 - and secure four years in the White House.
Trump pointed to his wins in Florida, Ohio and elsewhere.
"There was no 'Blue Wave' that they predicted," he said. "They thought there was gonna be a big 'Blue Wave' -- that was false."
Trump ranted about pre-election polls and cited unfounded conspiracy theories about mail-in votes.
Thursday, Nov. 5, 6:56 p.m. ET
Trump Campaign Files Federal Lawsuit Seeking to Stop Count in Philadelphia
The Trump campaign is asking a federal judge to stop the vote count in Philadelphia, NBC News reported.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday afternoon, the campaign says the Philadelphia County Board of Elections is not yet obeying a state appeals court order to let observers get closer to the counting tables.
Thursday, Nov. 5, 4:59 p.m. ET
Biden Expresses Confidence as Count Continues
Democrat Joe Biden addressed the nation Thursday from Wilmington, Delaware, where he has been awaiting the results of the presidential race.
"It is the will of the voters… that chooses the President of the United States of America," he said.
Appearing with his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, he said: "We have no doubt that when the count is finished, Sen. Harris and I will be declared the winners."
Thursday, Nov. 5, 4:26 p.m. ET
Nevada Count Could Go Into Weekend
As the nation awaits results from Nevada, Clark County Registrar Joe Gloria says it could take until Saturday or Sunday before the state’s largest county finishes tallying mail-in ballots that have been returned.
Gloria said Thursday at a press conference: “Our goal here in Clark County is not to count fast. We want to make sure that we’re being accurate.”
Gloria says Clark County has at least 63,262 ballots left to count, including 34,743 returned in drop boxes on Election Day and 4,208 returned via the U.S. Postal Service. But as mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day continue to trickle in, Gloria said he had no way of knowing the total number of outstanding ballots.
He says, “That’s a number that I can’t give you. I can’t predict to you what’s going to come through the U.S. mail.”
Gloria says the fact that Nevada’s six electoral votes could push Democrat Joe Biden beyond the 270 electoral vote threshold needed to win the presidency reaffirmed the need to not rush the count.
He said the last day to count ballots is Nov. 12.
Thursday, Nov. 5, 3:10 p.m. ET
Michigan Judge Dismisses Trump Campaign Lawsuit
A Michigan judge has dismissed a lawsuit by President Donald Trump's campaign in a dispute over whether Republican challengers had access to the handling of absentee ballots.
Judge Cynthia Stephens noted that the lawsuit was filed late Wednesday afternoon, just hours before the last ballots were counted. She also said the defendant, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, was the wrong person to sue because she doesn’t control the logistics of local ballot counting, even if she is the state’s chief election officer.
The lawsuit claimed Benson, a Democrat, was allowing absentee ballots to be counted without teams of bipartisan observers as well as challengers. She was accused of undermining the “constitutional right of all Michigan voters ... to participate in fair and lawful elections.”
Benson, through state attorneys, denied the allegations. Much of the dispute centered on the TCF Center in Detroit where pro-Trump protesters gathered while absentee ballots were being counted.
Stephens said the Trump campaign failed to offer solid evidence that any laws were being violated.
Thursday, Nov. 5, 1:47 p.m. ET
Georgia Judge Dismisses Trump Campaign Lawsuit as Biden Closes In
A judge in Georgia has dismissed a lawsuit by the state Republican Party and President Donald Trump's campaign that asked him to ensure a coastal county was following state laws on processing absentee ballots.
Chatham County Superior Court Judge James Bass did not provide an explanation for his decision Thursday at the close of a roughly one-hour hearing. The county includes the heavily Democratic city of Savannah.
The suit had raised concerns about 53 absentee ballots that poll observers said were not part of an original batch of ballots. County elections officials testified that all 53 ballots had been received on time.
Meanwhile, Biden pulled within about 15,000 votes of Trump Thursday morning as election workers counting ballots in Atlanta-area counties. The state has about 60,000 ballots remaining to be tallied in counties that tend to vote blue, giving Democrats a reason for optimism.
Gabriel Sterling, the chief operating officer of the Georgia secretary of state’s office, told reporters at a Thursday morning press conference that he thinks his state will finish counting ballots by the end of the day.
Thursday, Nov. 5, 12:22 p.m. ET
Philadelphia Temporarily Halts Mail-In Ballot Counting After Trump Court Victory
Trump scored a legal victory in Pennsylvania on Thursday as a state appellate court ordered a Philadelphia judge to ensure that party and candidate observers can get up close to election workers processing mail-in ballots in the city.
The decision came after the Trump campaign complained Tuesday that its observer could not get close enough to election workers to see the writing on the mail-in ballot envelopes, to ensure that the envelope contains a signature and an eligible voter’s name and address.
Democrats have gone to Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court to try to reverse the Commonwealth Court's ruling, requesting that Trump campaign observers watch the count from outside. This temporarily halted the count of mail-in ballots in Philadelphia to address the legal ping-pong. The vote count resumed less than an hour later.
The Trump campaign and the Republican Party have mounted several legal challenges to aspects of the vote count. The Biden campaign said the lawsuits don’t have any merit and are designed to spread misinformation, disrupt vote counting and confuse the public.
Thursday, Nov. 5, 11:55 a.m. ET
Senate Control Still Unclear: Here's Where Things Stand
Republicans held a 53-47 majority in the chamber heading into the election. Democrats, depending on the outcome of the presidential race, needed a net gain of three to four seats in order to retake control.
As of Thursday morning, there were still five uncalled U.S. Senate races, though Democratic hopes of flipping control now seemed to be out of reach.
Here are the races that NBC News has not yet called:
Arizona: Democrat Mark Kelly appears poised to flip a red seat blue against Republican Sen. Martha McSally in Arizona’s special election. Kelly, the former astronaut and husband of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, claimed victory in a series of tweets posted Wednesday night, though McSally has not yet conceded and NBC News still has the race as too early to call.
Kelly, like his wife, is a gun control advocate and he appealed to the state’s moderates. Giffords was shot in the head in an assassination attempt in 2011 and she and her husband later created a gun control advocacy group named after her.
McSally, the first woman to fly an American warplane in combat, was appointed to Sen. John McCain’s seat after McCain’s death and earlier lost to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema in the race for former Sen. Jeff Flake’s seat. She stayed closely allied to President Donald Trump.
Georgia: GOP Sen. David Perdue, the former business executive Trump calls his favorite senator, tried to stave off Democrat Jon Ossoff, another candidate who has benefited from the “green wave” of campaign donations.
Georgia’s other U.S. Senate race between GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler and challenger Democrat Raphael Warnock is headed to a Jan. 5 runoff after no candidate reached the 50% threshold to win.
North Carolina: North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who struggled against Democrat Cal Cunningham despite the married challenger’s sexting scandal with a public relations strategist, has declared victory in the race, though NBC News still has it at too close to call.
Alaska: And the Alaska contest between incumbent GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan, who so far shows a sizable lead over Democratic challenger Al Gross, is still too early to call.
Thursday, Nov. 5, 11:27 a.m. ET
Updated Vote Count in Philadelphia Narrows Gap Between Biden and Trump
Former Vice President Joe Biden continues to narrow his deficit with President Donald Trump as anther round of results were reported Thursday morning.
Trump’s lead over Biden was just over 164,000 votes with 91% of the expected vote counted.
Most of the outstanding ballots are mail-in from populous counties like Allegheny, Delaware and Philadelphia, which favor Biden, according to NBC national political correspondent Steve Kornacki.
Thursday, Nov. 5, 11:00 a.m. ET
Recount Watch: What You Need to Know
As battleground states finish counting ballots, the Trump campaign has turned to its legal team to try to influence the outcome, filing lawsuits in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia. Once the votes are all counted, it looks like Trump will turn to another tool to try to win some states: The recount.
The Trump campaign has already said it will request a recount in Wisconsin. Biden leads Trump by more than 20,000 votes in Wisconsin, and NBC News has declared Biden the apparent winner there — meaning that NBC News projects Biden won the race, but the results are close enough that a recount is likely.
That 20,000-vote gap gives Biden a 0.6 percent lead. In Wisconsin, a candidate can request a recount if the gap is less than 1 percent.
Here’s a look at recount rules across key battleground states:
Thursday, Nov. 5, 10:05 a.m. ET
Biden Gains in Georgia as Trump Narrows Gap in Arizona
Biden is within striking distance of President Trump in Georgia after Fulton County, where Atlanta is located, released the tallies of more ballots Wednesday night and early Thursday morning. As of Thursday morning, Trump leads Biden by less than 20,000 votes with about 4% left to be counted, mostly in DeKalb and Gwinnett, both heavily Democratic areas.
Fulton County elections chief Rick Barron said officials will release more vote totals around 11 a.m. ET Thursday.
A victory in Georgia and its 16 electoral votes would give Biden 269 electoral votes, one vote away from being president-elect.
Meanwhile, Trump made up ground in Arizona. Biden maintained a lead over the Republican incumbent, but his margin shrunk in a new batch of results posted overnight out of Maricopa County.
As of Thursday morning, Biden's lead over Trump in Arizona narrowed to 68,000 votes from more than 90,000 earlier Wednesday. With about 489,000 votes left to be tallied, Trump needs to win nearly 60% of the remaining votes in order to claim victory in the state. The problem from the president is where those remaining ballots are coming from: Pima, Apache, Coconino and Santa Cruz counties, areas that are very blue.
Thursday, Nov. 5, 8:30 a.m. ET
Trump Backers Converge on Vote Centers
Dozens of angry supporters of President Donald Trump converged on vote-counting centers in Detroit and Phoenix as the returns went against him Wednesday in the two key states, while thousands of anti-Trump protesters demanding a complete tally of the ballots in the still-undecided election took to the streets in cities across the U.S.
“Stop the count!” the Trump supporters chanted in Detroit. "Stop the Steal," they chanted in Phoenix.
The protests came as the president insisted without evidence that there were major problems with the voting and the ballot counting, especially with mail-in votes, and as Republicans filed suit in various states over the election.
The Phoenix protesters filled much of the parking lot at the Maricopa County election center, where sheriff's deputies were guarding both the outside of the building and the counting inside.
Wearing Trump gear, members of the crowd chanted, “Fox News sucks,” in anger over the network declaring Joe Biden the winner in Arizona. NBC News has not called Arizona yet.
Meanwhile, from New York City to Seattle, thousands of demonstrators turned out to demand that every vote be tallied.
Thursday, Nov. 5, 2:50 a.m. ET
2nd Night of Demonstrations Outside White House
Hundreds of people were demonstrating near the White House again Wednesday night as they waited to find out the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The mood appeared celebratory as many danced and hung out on Black Lives Matter Plaza, NBC Washington reported.
One woman held a sign that read, "Trump is over." Another person waved a Trump 2020 flag.
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 10:09 p.m. ET
Georgia in the Spotlight
As the vote counting continued Wednesday, people across the nation watched to see whether Georgia would finally become the swing state that Democrats have long hoped for.
NBC News has not declared a winner in Georgia’s presidential contest between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
But with many of the votes left to tally in counties that tend to vote blue, Democrats had reason for optimism.
The state’s top election official said late Wednesday just under 100,000 votes remained to be tallied.
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 10 p.m. ET
After Judge's Order, Postal Service Sweep Finds 13 Ballots
U.S. Postal Service inspectors found just 13 ballots — all in Pennsylvania — during an Election Day sweep of mail processing centers ordered by a federal judge.
The ballots were found in two separate mail processing facilities and were expedited for delivery to local election offices, according to court records filed Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in Washington, D.C., had given the Postal Service until Tuesday afternoon to search 27 facilities in several battleground areas for outstanding ballots and immediately deliver any ballots discovered to election offices.
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 8:17 p.m.
International Election Monitors Say No Evidence of Fraud in US Election
International election monitors said Wednesday there is no evidence that the U.S. election was marked by systematic fraud and that allegations from President Donald Trump and others are “baseless,” NBC News reported.
“We feel that these allegations of systemic wrongdoing during these elections have no solid ground,” Urszula Gacek, head observer mission for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, told reporters in Washington.
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 7:50 p.m.
Trump Campaign Sues in 3rd State, Georgia
President Donald Trump's campaign and the Georgia Republican Party have filed a lawsuit against the Chatham County Board of Elections.
The lawsuit essentially asks a judge to ensure the state laws are being followed on absentee ballots. Campaign officials said they were considering peppering a dozen other counties around the state with similar claims around absentee ballots.
An earlier version misstated the details of the lawsuit
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 7:14 p.m. ET
Republican Allies Break With Trump, Say Take Time to Count All the Votes
Some Republicans are not falling in line behind President Donald Trump's attempts to falsely declare victory and seek to halt some vote-counting in the presidential race, with several GOP leaders expressing rare public rebukes of the president., NBC News reported.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., a Trump ally who usually avoids criticizing the president in public, told reporters Wednesday that "claiming you've won the election is different from finishing the counting."
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 6:05 p.m.
In Blue and Red States, Milestone Wins for LGBTQ Candidates
Across the nation, LGBTQ candidates achieved milestone victories in Tuesday’s election, including the first transgender person elected to a state Senate, and the first openly gay Black men to win seats in Congress.
The landmark wins came not in only blue but also red states such as Tennessee, where Republican Eddie Mannis, who is gay, and Democrat Torrey Harris, who identifies as bisexual, won seats in the state House to become the first openly LGBTQ members of that legislature.
According to the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which recruits and supports LGBTQ candidates, that leaves only Alaska, Louisiana and Mississippi as states that have never elected an LGBTQ legislator.
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 5:45 p.m.
Biden Takes Michigan
Democrat Joe Biden has won Michigan, according to a projection by NBC News.
Biden, determined not to take the state for granted while leading in polls, visited three times in October — including once in the final week — speaking at small events with social distancing due to the coronavirus pandemic. Running mate Kamala Harris campaigned in Detroit on Tuesday afternoon.
Trump campaigned in the state six times since September, including four days in the final week, holding big rallies. He closed his campaign in Grand Rapids on the eve of the election, as he did four years ago.
Biden Says Every Vote Must Be Counted
Democrat Joe Biden addressed the nation Wednesday afternoon as the candidates and their campaigns awaited results in critical states.
It is now up to counting the people's votes, he said, and every vote must be counted.
"It is their will that determines who will be the President of the United States," he said.
"I'm not here to declare that we've won," said Biden, who appeared with running mate U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris. "But… we believe we'll be the winners."
After the election, he said, it will be time "to unite."
"To make progress, we have to stop treating our opponents as enemies," he said. "We are not enemies."
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 4:17 p.m.
Trump Sues in Pa., Mich.
The Trump campaign said it filed lawsuits Wednesday in Pennsylvania and Michigan, laying the groundwork for contesting the outcome in undecided battleground states that could determine whether President Donald Trump gets another four years in the White House.
Suits in both states are demanding better access for campaign observers to locations where ballots are being processed and counted, the campaign said. The campaign also is seeking to intervene in a Pennsylvania case at the Supreme Court that deals with whether ballots received up to three days after the election can be counted, deputy campaign manager Justin Clark said.
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 3:44 p.m.
Trump Wins 1 Electoral College Vote in Maine
Live Election Results
Source: AP
Trump wins one Electoral College vote in Maine's 2nd Congressional District, NBC News projects.
The district — which encompasses nearly all of the state outside the Portland and Augusta metro areas — is receiving outsize attention due to the higher-than-usual possibility the race could end in a 269-269 electoral vote tie.
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 3:42 p.m.
Judge Furious Postal Service Didn't Sweep Facilities for Ballots as Ordered
A federal judge blasted the Postal Service on Wednesday because it did not follow his court order to perform a sweep of mail-sorting facilities Tuesday afternoon for any undelivered ballots, NBC News reported.
“It just leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth for the clock to run out, game’s over and then we find out that there was not compliance with a very important court order,” U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said during a hearing Wednesday.
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 3:12 p.m.
Biden Is Apparent Winner in Wisconsin
Biden is the apparent winner of the battleground state of Wisconsin, turning the state blue and picking up its 10 electoral college votes, according to a projection by NBC News.
Trump, who is locked in a tight battle with Biden to secure the 270 electoral votes needed to win, prematurely claimed early Wednesday that he was “winning” the state.
Trump led earlier in the night, fueled by in-person voting results, but a surge in outstanding ballots from Milwaukee, Green Bay and Kenosha broke heavily for Biden and expanded his lead to more than 20,000 votes.
Election officials in the state said all outstanding ballots had been counted, save for a few hundred in one township and an expected small number of provisionals
Trump's campaign manager said he would "immediately" request a recount due to "reports of irregularities" in several counties. It is unclear what voting irregularities he was referring to.
Biden outperformed Hillary Clinton’s totals from 2016 in urban areas while Trump did better in small towns and rural areas than he did four years ago. Trump carried Wisconsin by fewer than 23,000 votes in 2016.
It was not the first time absentee ballots from Milwaukee would be a difference maker in a high-profile race. Absentee ballots in Milwaukee delivered the 2018 race for governor to Democrat Tony Evers over Walker late in the night that year.
The definition of an Apparent Winner is that NBC News has projected that a candidate has won the race, but the results are close enough that the outcome may depend on a potential recount and/or confirmation that the results that have been reported are accurate.
-- Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2:28 p.m.
Trump Campaign Files Suit in Michigan to 'Halt Counting' of Votes
“As votes in Michigan continue to be counted, the presidential race in the state remains extremely tight as we always knew it would be. President Trump’s campaign has not been provided with meaningful access to numerous counting locations to observe the opening of ballots and the counting process, as guaranteed by Michigan law. We have filed suit today in the Michigan Court of Claims to halt counting until meaningful access has been granted. We also demand to review those ballots which were opened and counted while we did not have meaningful access. President Trump is committed to ensuring that all legal votes are counted in Michigan and everywhere else.”
~ Bill Stepien, Trump 2020 campaign manager
-- Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2:25 p.m.
Collins Claims Victory in Maine Senate Race After Gideon Concedes
Maine’s U.S. Sen. Susan Collins claimed victory Wednesday afternoon over the Democratic speaker of the Maine House of Representatives, Sara Gideon, in a hard fought race for a fifth term in the U.S. Senate. NBC News has not projected a winner, calling the race too close to call.
The seat was one Democrats had hoped to turn blue to take control of the Senate.
In a speech outside her campaign bus Wednesday afternoon, Collins thanked Gideon for her call conceding her loss and said she saw her win as an affirmation of the work she was doing in Washington D.C.
“To the people of Maine, thank you, thank you," Collins said. "I will serve you with all my heart, I will work hard for you each and every day and we will come together to work on the problems and challenges that are facing our state and our country."
Collins, the only Republican senator who did not endorse President Donald Trump, bested predictions that she had lost favor with moderates and would fall to Gideon.
“The other side thought they could come to Maine and just run negative ads, dump loads and loads, millions and millions of dollars of money, and just buy the Senate seat,” Collins said after polls closed on Tuesday. “Is that the Maine way? No, it certainly is not.”
Collins angered Democrats with her vote to confirm U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh after calling the allegations against him, “sincere, painful and compelling.” She voted against impeaching the president and said afterward that she thought Trump had learned “a pretty big lesson.” She was mocked for her expressions of concern, dismay and disappointment.
She presented herself as an experienced, bipartisan candidate who is in line to head the powerful Appropriations Committee if Republicans retain control of the U.S Senate.
Gideon criticized Collins’ vote for Kavanaugh and for Trump’s $1.5 trillion tax cut.
-- Wednesday, Nov. 4, 1:53 p.m.
Trump Signals Wisconsin Recount Request as Biden Holds Lead
President Donald Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien said the president plans to “immediately” request a recount in the battleground state of Wisconsin, where the race remains close with Democrat Joe Biden holding a lead of around 20,000 votes.
The Wisconsin Election Commission said there are only two small Wisconsin towns with a total of around 600 votes that have not reported results to their counties.
In Wisconsin, if a race is within 1% point, the trailing candidate can request a recount.
“Despite ridiculous public polling used as a voter suppression tactic, Wisconsin has been a razor thin race as we always knew that it would be," Stepien said. "There have been reports of irregularities in several Wisconsin counties which raise serious doubts about the validity of the results. The President is well within the threshold to request a recount and we will immediately do so.”
It is unclear what voting irregularities he was referring to.
The fate of the United States presidency is hanging in the balance, with Trump and his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, battling for three familiar battleground states — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — that could prove crucial in determining who wins the White House.
-- Wednesday, Nov. 4, 1:11 p.m.
Biden Wins Maine’s Popular Vote, Takes at Least 3 Electoral Votes
Biden surged to a statewide victory in Maine Wednesday afternoon, winning at least three of the state’s four electoral votes in his bid to unseat President Donald Trump, NBC News reports.
Biden collected a majority of first-place votes in the 1st Congressional District and in the statewide tally, good for three electoral votes. It was too early to call the winner of the 2nd Congressional District's electoral vote.
Four years ago, Maine split its electoral votes, when Trump also was awarded one vote to Hillary Clinton’s three after he won the rural, conservative district. The 2016 election marked the first time in state history that Maine divided its electoral votes.
-- Wednesday, Nov. 4, 12:08 p.m.
Georgia's Secretary of State Says Votes Will Be Counted 'By End of the Day'
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Wednesday he expects to wrap up vote counting in the Peach State "by the end of the day."
Raffensperger said there are about 200,000 ballots left to be counted, primarily from two counties Biden is winning: metro Atlanta’s DeKalb County, as well as Chatham County, which is home to Savannah. As of 11:30 a.m. ET, Trump leads in the state by about 101,000 votes.
“My team has sent reminders to counties to get all, let me repeat, all of our results counted today. Every legal vote will count,” Raffensperger said at a Wednesday morning news conference.
But he later acknowledged that counties may not be able to complete the process by the end of the day, even though his office is “pushing really hard” for that.
“If we don’t get it there but we get the numbers so small that then there’s no question of who actually the winner is, I think that will be helpful,” he said.
Raffensperger also said that ballots that usually aren’t counted until after Election Day, such as those sent by military people and other citizens living overseas, will eventually be incorporated into the final totals.
Georgia is among the states that remain a toss-up.
-- Wednesday, Nov. 4, 12:05 p.m.
Collins Holds Slight Edge Over Gideon in Maine Senate Race
Votes are still being tallied Wednesday morning in the close U.S. Senate race in Maine between Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins and the state’s Democratic House Speaker Sara Gideon.
The Senate race was the most costly in Maine’s history with Gideon raising nearly $70 million, more than double Collins’ $27 million. Polls showed a tight contest, with Collins holding a 51% to 42% advantage over Gideon. Collins must stay above 50% in order to avoid triggering a run-off under Maine’s ranked-choice voting.
The voting system lets people rank all candidates on the ballot. If no one wins a majority of first-round votes, then there are additional tabulations in which last-place finishers are eliminated and their second-place choices reallocated to the remaining field to assure a majority winner.
-- Wednesday, Nov. 4, 11:13 a.m.
Biden Takes Lead in Michigan as Largest Counties Are Still Tallying Votes
Democratic nominee Joe Biden has pulled ahead of President Donald Trump in the crucial swing state of Michigan, according to NBC News’ latest tally of votes.
This puts Biden in the driver's seat: If all counting stopped now, he would have the 270 electoral votes needed to win.
As of 10:30 a.m. ET, Biden was leading Trump by over 9,000 votes. Hundreds of thousands of votes were still left to be counted in some of the largest counties, including Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Kent, all Democratic strongholds.
More than 3.2 million votes were cast by absentee ballot in Michigan. Those were the votes that were still largely to be counted. That's because the in-person votes are counted first, and only once all the Election Day votes have been tallied do they begin to count the mail-in votes.
In a year when in-person votes heavily favor the Republican, and mail-in votes favor the Democrat, it was possible Biden could widen his lead and score Michigan's 16 Electoral College votes.
The clerk in Wayne County, which includes Detroit, told CNN that only 55% of the unofficial votes had been counted as of around 6 a.m. ET Wednesday morning. Officials would not be rushed, she said.
“We’re not in a competition,” the clerk, Cathy M. Garrett, told CNN’s Chris Cuomo. “It’s just very important that we are accurate, and we will be here until the job is done.”
The counting is taking time because of the size of Wayne County, she said. It is the largest within the state, with 43 municipalities, and of its 1,115 precincts, only 617 had been counted.
"We’re on track to have a much more complete picture, if not the vast majority of jurisdictions reporting out by the end of today," Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson told CNN.
-- Wednesday, Nov. 4, 9:15 a.m.
Gov. Wolf Says All Pa. Votes Will Be Counted
President Donald Trump and Republicans are suggesting that the lead in Pennsylvania is insurmountable and that the state should be called for Trump. But nearly 1.8 million ballots, most of them mail-in ballots, have not been counted.
In a speech early Wednesday, Trump said those ballots should not be counted and that he would fight for that outcome at the high court, claiming without evidence that election officials were engaging in electoral fraud to prevent his victory.
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf tweeted early Wednesday that his state would finish counting all ballots regardless of Trump's protests, calling the president's unsubstantiated claims about fraud "a partisan attack."
“The bottom line here is that all legal eligible voters are going to be counted in Pennsylvania,” Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Wednesday morning on NBC. “And if need be, we’ll go to court to ensure that that is the case."
The Keystone State was predicted to be pivotal in the race for the White House, and its 20 electoral votes is considered to be critical for Trump to win reelection.
-- Wednesday, Nov. 4, 8:46 a.m.
Nevada Says No More Election Results Until Thursday as Biden Holds Slight Lead Over Trump
Early results showed Joe Biden with a slim lead over President Donald Trump in Nevada, but it was too early to declare a winner in the race Wednesday with a large number of ballots yet to be counted.
The Nevada Secretary of State's Office said a new batch of results would be released Thursday after 9 a.m. Mail-in ballots received on Election Day had not yet been counted, along with any mail ballots postmarked no later than Nov. 3 that arrive over the next week and any provisional ballots.
The number of outstanding mail ballots is difficult to estimate, the elections office said, because Nevada opted to automatically mail ballots to all active registered voters this year and it's hard to predict how many will choose to return them.
No Republican presidential candidate has carried Nevada since 2004 but the state has remained a battleground.
-- Wednesday, Nov. 4, 6:26 a.m.
Biden Takes Hawaii, Pulls Ahead in Wisconsin
Biden will win Hawaii, NBC News projects, a reliably Democratic state. The former vice president will receive four electoral votes from Hawaii.
He is also leading in the battleground state of Wisconsin, after results from absentee ballots cast in Milwaukee County trickled in early on Wednesday morning. Results from absentee ballots from Green Bay and Kenosha, both Democratic strongholds, have yet to be released.
As it stands, Biden currently holds a 224 to 213 lead in the Electoral College over Trump. It takes 270 electoral votes to win.
-- Wednesday, Nov. 4, 5:05 a.m.
Trump Speaks to Supporters at White House
President Donald Trump spoke to the nation from the White House early Wednesday.
"The results tonight have been phenomenal," he said, pointing out his wins in Florida, Ohio and Texas.
As he spoke, Trump was trailing in both the electoral vote and the popular vote, according to NBC News, which had yet to project a winner in 10 states.
"We will win this," he said.
-- Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2:25 a.m.
Biden Garners Rare Nebraska Electoral Vote
Democrat Joe Biden won Tuesday in Nebraska’s Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District, a victory that allows him to peel off one of the conservative state’s five Electoral College votes.
Nebraska is one of two states — Maine is the other — that permits its electoral votes to be split. The statewide winner earns two votes, but the other three votes are decided by the winner of the congressional districts. Because President Donald Trump won the statewide vote and in Nebraska’s two other districts, he will receive four Electoral College votes. By beating Trump in the Omaha district, Biden will earn one vote.
-- Wednesday, Nov. 4, 1:49 a.m.
Biden Takes Minnesota
Democrat Joe Biden is the winner of Minnesota, according to a projection by NBC News.
President Donald Trump was hoping to buck history by becoming the first Republican to carry the state since Richard Nixon in 1972.
A record number of Minnesotans voted early to avoid potential long lines on Election Day and the threat of the coronavirus.
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 1:38 a.m.
Biden Takes Rhode Island
Democrat Joe Biden has won Rhode Island, according to a projection by NBC News.
Democrats U.S. Sen. Jack Reed and U.S. Rep. David Cicilline cruised to reelection Tuesday, but many other closely watched races in the state remained undecided as vote counting stretched passed midnight in an election that set a new state record for voter turnout.
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 1:15 a.m.
Trump Takes Texas
President Donald Trump has won Texas and its 38 electoral votes.
Historic turnout and suburban revolt around Texas’ booming big cities gave Republicans a rare sweat in America’s biggest red state, but Trump bested Democrat Joe Biden in the state.
Trump won Texas by 9 points in 2016 and all but took a win here for granted. He didn’t swing through Texas for campaign rallies or swamp television airwaves, and his conservative allies on the ground scoffed at Biden’s chances as a far reach.
As expected, Trump also won Montana.
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 1:09 a.m.
Trump Takes Iowa
President Donald Trump and Sen. Joni Ernst held off challenges Tuesday in Iowa, which had been considered a swing state after voters chose Barack Obama twice but swung to favor Trump four years ago.
The Republican president and Democrat Joe Biden held events in Iowa in the days leading up to Tuesday’s election indicating what had appeared to be a tight race to carry the state in the presidential race.
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 12:56 a.m.
Biden Confident He Will Win
Democrat Joe Biden spoke to the nation early Wednesday from his home state of Delaware.
"We believe we're on track to win this election," Biden said. "...We’re going to have to be patient until the hard work of tallying votes is finished, and it ain’t over until every vote is counted, every ballot is counted."
He closed with: "Keep the faith guys, we're going to win this!"
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 12:50 a.m.
Trump Takes Florida
President Donald Trump was the projected winner of Florida, NBC News reported.
Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden campaigned heavily in Florida, each hoping to win the battleground state's 29 electoral votes.
Trump used Florida as the backdrop to resuscitate his languishing campaign after becoming infected with the coronavirus in October. He concentrated particularly in Republican strongholds in the rural reaches of his adopted home state.
Trump Takes Idaho; Biden Takes Virginia
President Donald Trump has won Idaho, and Democrat Joe Biden has won Virginia, according to NBC News projections.
Wednesday, Nov. 4. 12:07 a.m.
Election Day Ends Without WH Winner
The presidential election will not be decided on Election Day.
As Nov. 3 turned into Nov. 4 on the East Coast, elections officials continued to count ballots in battleground states, and the race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden remained deadlocked.
In fact, officials said it could be quite some time — maybe a day, maybe a few days — before decisive results were available in the key midwestern states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania that could determine the next president.
In both Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, officials couldn’t begin processing the millions of early votes until Election Day.
In Michigan, officials were able to start processing those ballots on Monday - not enough time to have meaningful results available by Tuesday night. In the days leading up to the election, Trump has insisted that there should be a final total by election night — suggesting he’d send in lawyers to prevent counting beyond Nov. 3. But officials in those three states said they will count all the votes, even it takes until the end of the week.
Wednesday, Nov. 4, 12:05 a.m.
Trump Takes Ohio
President Donald Trump is the projected winner of Ohio, NBC News reported Tuesday.
No one has been elected president without carrying Ohio since 1960, and no Republican has ever been elected without Ohio.
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 11:59 p.m.
Candidates Await Results
At the White House on Tuesday night, more than 100 family members, friends, donors and staff were set to watch returns from the East Room.
Trump was watching votes come in upstairs in the residence with a few close aides. Most top campaign officials were monitoring returns from a “war room” set up in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
Biden spent the day last-minute campaigning in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he was born, and in Philadelphia with a couple of local stops in Wilmington, Delaware, where he was spending Election Night.
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 11:35 p.m.
Trump, Biden Divvy Up More States
A flurry of projections from NBC News:
President Donald Trump wins Wyoming and Mississippi.
Democrat Joe Biden wins California, Oregon and Washington State.
Tuesday, Nov. 3., 11:03 p.m.
Graham Holds on to US Senate Seat
Republican Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has secured a fourth term in the U.S. Senate.
The incumbent defeated Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison, an associate chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
Harrison’s massive fundraising broke records in the race, allowing the challenger to dominate airwaves and mount a significant ground effort. Some polling in the campaign’s closing weeks showed a head-to-head race.
Keep an Eye on Nebraska
Could the entire presidential election come down to a single congressional district? Yes, it is actually possible.
As results continue to pour in, President Donald Trump is leading in a handful of battleground states, including Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and Ohio. But Biden is leading in another key battleground state: Arizona.
If those results hold, the focus shifts to the midwest: Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Or maybe Nebraska’s second congressional district.
Nebraska is one of two states to split up its electoral votes, awarding several based on congressional districts. And if Biden ends up taking Michigan and Wisconsin, and Trump ends up taking Pennsylvania, Biden would be left with 269 electoral voters — one shy of the 270 needed to win.
He could get that in Nebraska’s second - as results continue to come in, Trump and Biden are neck-and-neck. That’s right: A congressional district of just over 650,000 people, anchored by Omaha, Nebraska, could decide this race.
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 10:59 p.m.
Biden Takes Illinois
Former Vice President Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump in Illinois and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin won reelection on Tuesday, continuing a pattern of Democratic dominance in the state.
More than 3.5 million people in Illinois cast their ballots ahead of Election Day.
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 10:45 p.m.
Trump Picks Up Missouri
President Donald Trump is projected to win Missouri, according to NBC News.
In addition, Republican Mike Parson has won the Missouri governor’s race, defeating Democratic state Auditor Nicole Galloway for the chance to serve a full term in the role he inherited when his predecessor resigned under a cloud of scandal two years ago.
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 10:42 p.m.
Trump, Biden Continue to Grab States
Several new projections from NBC News: Donald Trump takes Louisiana, Utah and Kansas; Democrat Joe Biden takes New Hampshire.
Tuesday, Nov. 3., 10:30 p.m.
Dems Retain House Control
Democrats retained control of the U.S. House on Tuesday.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said earlier in the day she was “absolutely certain” that Democrats would “solidly hold” onto their House majority.
On an Election Day conference call with reporters, the California Democrat said “this election is about nothing less than taking back the soul of America, whether our nation will follow the voices of fear or whether we will choose hope.”
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 10:27 p.m.
GOP's Tuberville Flips US Senate Seat in Alabama
Former college football coach Tommy Tuberville has recaptured a U.S. Senate seat for Republicans by defeating Sen. Doug Jones in Alabama on Tuesday.
Jones had widely been considered the Senate’s most endangered Democrat. Republicans had made recapturing the once reliably conservative seat a priority in 2020.
Tuberville has never held public office and last coached four years ago. He aligned himself closely with President Donald Trump and declared in the primary campaign that “God sent us Donald Trump.”
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 10:23 p.m.
Biden Takes New Mexico
Democrat Joe Biden is the projected winner of New Mexico, according to NBC News.
Biden’s statewide election victory on Tuesday without a campaign visit to New Mexico extends a string of victories for Democratic presidential candidates in the heavily Latino and Native American state.
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 10:18 p.m.
Democrats Pick Up Senate Seat in Colorado
Republicans suffered a first setback in the battle for Senate control Tuesday as Democrats picked up a seat in Colorado, but other races were still too early to call across an expansive political map.
GOP Sen. Cory Gardner was defeated by Democrat John Hickenlooper, a former governor, as the state shifted leftward during the Trump era.
Republicans sought to retain their majority against a surge of Democrats challenging President Donald Trump's allies. Both parties saw paths to victory, and the outcome might not be known on election night.
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 10:08 p.m.
Ga. Republican Who Supports QAnon Wins US House Seat
Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, who expressed racist views and support for QAnon conspiracy theories in a series of online videos, has won a U.S. House seat representing northwest Georgia.
Her candidacy was bolstered by President Donald Trump, who has called her a “future Republican Star.”
Greene was heavily favored in the conservative district even before Democratic challenger Kevin Van Ausdal suddenly dropped out in September, saying he was moving out of state.
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 9:37 p.m.
Trump Takes South Carolina
President Donald Trump is the projected winner of South Carolina, according to NBC News.
Also in South Carolina, voters are choosing between Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Democratic challenger Jaime Harrison.
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 9:34 p.m.
Trump Takes North Dakota, Alabama
President Donald Trump is the projected winner of North Dakota and Alabama, according to NBC News.
Trump was expected to roll in the reliably red North Dakota, where he crushed Hillary Clinton four years ago.
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 9:24 p.m.
Trump Takes SD; Biden Wins Colo.
President Donald Trump is the projected winner of South Dakota, according to NBC News, while Democrat Joe Biden picked up Colorado.
Trump put South Dakota’s three electoral votes in his column on Tuesday, just as every Republican before him has done since 1968. With the state seen as safe for the GOP, neither Trump nor Joe Biden invested much time or energy in the sharply conservative state.
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 9:20 p.m.
Biden Takes New York State
At 9 p.m. ET, polls closed in 14 states with a total of 156 electoral votes on the line.
Democrat Joe Biden was the projected winner of New York State, according to NBC News.
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 9:05 p.m.
GOP Stays Strong in Arkansas
President Donald Trump is the projected winner of Arkansas, NBC News reported.
Republican Sen. Tom Cotton won reelection, defeating Libertarian nominee Ricky Dale Harrington, a former prison chaplain who had never run for office before.
The only Democrat running against Cotton dropped out hours after the filing deadline last year.
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 8:52 p.m.
West Virginia to Trump; Biden Wins Conn.
President Donald Trump is the projected winner of West Virginia, while Democrat Joe Biden has taken Connecticut, according to NBC News.
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 8:24 p.m.
Trump Takes Tennessee
President Donald Trump is the projected winner of Tennessee, NBC News reported.
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 8:14 p.m.
McConnell Wins in Kentucky
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell defeated Democrat Amy McGrath, a retired Marine combat pilot, to cap a bruising, mega-spending campaign in Kentucky.
McConnell touted his leadership post and close ties to Trump as a political asset for Kentucky as he sought a seventh term. McGrath ran as a political outsider and supports term limits for senators. She described McConnell’s decades-long Senate career as a symptom of what ails American politics.
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 8:13 p.m.
Trump, Biden Pick Up Wins
Polls in 17 states with a combined total of 172 electoral votes closed at 8 p.m. ET, with President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden each picking up states, according to NBC News.
Trump is the projected winner of Oklahoma, with Biden taking his home state of Delaware as well as New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland and the District of Columbia.
Among the 8 p.m. grouping are two battlegrounds: New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. While New Hampshire was a reliably Republican state through the 1980s, presidential elections there have been closer more recently.
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 8:06 p.m.
Trump Takes Kentucky
President Donald Trump is the projected winner of Kentucky, NBC News reported.
Tuesday, Nov. 3. 7:59 p.m.
Polls Close in 3 States
Polls closed in North Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Ohio has a pattern of predicting the presidential winner, NBC News reported; the state has voted for the eventual winner of every presidential contest since 1944 with just one exception: Picking Richard Nixon over John F. Kennedy in 1960.
Tuesday, Nov. 3 7:30 p.m.
Trump Takes Indiana, Biden Wins Vermont
President Donald Trump was the projected winner of Indiana, as expected, as polls closed in six states on Tuesday, according to NBC News. Democrat Joe Biden, meanwhile, was the projected winner of Vermont.
Polls closed in Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia and in much of the state of Florida at 7 p.m. ET.
Georgia is a key state to watch in this grouping, with 16 electoral votes, according to NBC News, which has it rated it as a toss up.
Earlier, the first polls of the evening closed Tuesday at 6 p.m. ET in parts of Indiana and Kentucky.
In Kentucky, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the chief congressional ally of President Donald Trump, seeks a seventh term in a race against Democrat Amy McGrath.
Indiana, the home state of Vice President Mike Pence, appeared securely in Trump’s column as Democrat Joe Biden’s campaign paid little attention to the state that has gone for Republican candidates in 12 of the last 13 presidential elections.
-Tuesday, Nov. 3, 7:08 p.m.
FBI Investigating Robocalls, Texts Warning Voters to 'Stay Home' on Election Day
Federal and state officials are investigating the source of a spate of robocalls and text messages warning voters to "stay home" on Election Day, a senior cybersecurity official told reporters on Tuesday.
"Robocalls of this nature happen every election," said the official with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, noting that calls are voter intimidation tactic and the "FBI is investigating."
In North Carolina, Hashim Warren said he received a recorded call telling him, “Time to stay home. Stay safe and stay home.” He provided a recording of the call to NBC News.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said her office received reports from residents in Flint who said they received robocalls telling them to vote tomorrow because lines were too long. Voters cannot vote tomorrow; votes must be cast before polls close today to be counted.
Similar robocalls were reported in Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska. In all three states, officials urged voters to ignore the false claims and head to the polls.
"Our polling places across the state are open," tweeted Nebraska Secretary of State Rober Evnen. "Our voters and our poll workers will be kept safe.
New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Tuesday her office is investigating allegations of voters receiving robocalls encouraging them to stay home.
“Attempts to hinder voters from exercising their right to cast their ballots are disheartening, disturbing, and wrong," James said in a statement. What’s more is that it is illegal, and it will not be tolerated.
The FBI issued a statement saying they are aware of reports of robocalls "and have no further comment. As a reminder, the FBI encourages the American public to verify any election and voting information they may receive through their local election officials.”
-- Tuesday, Nov. 3, 4:29 p.m.
Trump Campaign Asks Pennsylvania Counties for Sensitive Election Security Information
The Trump campaign asked election officials in three Pennsylvania counties for information on where ballots would be stored and details how they would be transported there, NBC News reports.
The Pennsylvania secretary of state advised officials not to disclose any election security information and has reached out to the FBI.
Cumberland, Mercer and Montour counties are all delaying counting mail-in ballots until Wednesday morning.
-- Tuesday, Nov. 3, 3:58 p.m.
North Carolina Extends Voting Hours at 4 Sites, Delaying Election Results
The North Carolina State Board of Elections voted Tuesday to keep four polling places open longer because they opened late, which is expected to delay statewide reporting of results.
The longest extension was 45 minutes for a site in Sampson County. That means the state can’t publicly report any statewide results until 8:15 p.m.
The state’s more than 2,600 polling places are otherwise scheduled to close at 7:30 p.m. But state elections officials said in a news release last week that if hours are extended at any polls, they wouldn’t publicly post any results until all polls are closed.
Board Chair Damon Circosta confirmed at the meeting Tuesday that the extended hours would delay public release of results.
The polling places that opened late include one site in Cabarrus County, one in Guilford County and two in Sampson County. The delays were at least partly due to issues with printers or other electronic equipment. The extensions, which only apply to the individual precincts and not other sites in those counties, range from 17 minutes to 45 minutes and match the extra time it took to get them open.
Board Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell said at a news conference in the morning before the vote was held that it’s not unusual to extend polling place hours on Election Day.
-- Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2:59 p.m.
Judge Orders USPS to Sweep Processing Facilities for Unsent Ballots
A federal judge in Washington D.C. ordered the U.S. Postal Service to send inspectors to several processing facilities in key battleground states to look for any ballots that have been held up and deliver them immediately.
U.S. Judge Emmet Sullivan told U.S. Postal Service inspectors to search facilities in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Texas between 12:30 p.m. EST and 3 p.m. EST. Sullivan set a 4:30 p.m. ET deadline for “a status update" on the sweeps.
-- Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2:40 p.m.
Trump Visits RNC Offices, Says He's Not Thinking About a Victory or Concession Speech
President Donald Trump stopped by the Republican National Committee’s annex in Arlington, Virginia, on Tuesday to thank staffers working to get him reelected.
Trump said he’s not yet considering either a victory or a concession speech, but predicted “some tremendous results.”
“I think we’re going to have a great night, but it’s politics and it’s elections and you never know,” Trump said.
He said his campaign was doing well in states like Florida, Arizona and Texas. He noted the importance of winning Pennsylvania.
“Winning is easy. Losing is never easy,” he said. “Not for me it's not.”
Trump said his message to America was that "everybody should come together," and success will bring unity. He listed what he believes are his accomplishments with the coronavirus and the economy.
More than 100 staffers, almost all wearing masks, lined up against the back wall of the operations center to hear from their candidate. Some masks were emblazoned with “Trump” and “MAGA” for Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan.
-- Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2:21 p.m.
Biden Confident in Pennsylvania
A huge early vote and long lines at polling places suggest a large turnout, and Joe Biden believes that's a good sign for him — especially in Pennsylvania, a crucial battleground state.
“I’m confident that people who didn’t vote last time are showing up to vote, and I feel good about Pennsylvania,” Biden told NBC Philadelphia. “The American people are showing up in droves. They’re ready for change, they want to make their voices heard. They’re showing up in the middle of a pandemic, high unemployment, and they want to make their voices heard.
Biden took one last chance to make his case why American voters should vote for him.
“There’s so much at stake,” he said. “This is an enormous opportunity to change the direction of the country. Everything is on the line, from health care to jobs to dealing with the pandemic, and the American people know that.”
Read more at NBC Philadelphia.
-- Tuesday, Nov. 3, 1:39 p.m.
U.S. Postal Service Slow to Deliver Ballots
The U.S. Postal Service delivered fewer ballots on time for the fifth consecutive day on Monday, and reported a processing score that fell to a new low of 89.59%, NBC News' White House correspondent Geoff Bennett reports.
And in a filing in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Sunday, the U.S. Postal Service said that only 62% of central Pennsylvania’s ballots and 64% of Atlanta’s ballots moved on time on Saturday. Also failing to meet on-time deliveries 90% of the time: Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina and Wisconsin, the rest of Pennsylvania and parts of Florida and Texas.
On-time delivery rates were at 95% before the pandemic and policy changes instituted by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a major donor to President Donald Trump.
The delays risk disenfranchising voters. Twenty-eight states will not accept ballots that arrive after Election Day even if they are postmarked on time.
In October, the U.S. Postal Service agreed to reverse changes that were slowing mail delivery across the country, according to The Associated Press.
Montana Gov. Steve Bullock had file a lawsuit arguing that the changes were endangering people’s ability to vote by mail during the coronavirus pandemic.
The U.S. Postal Service under DeJoy had reduced retail hours, removed collection boxes and mail sorting machines, closed mail processing facilities, restriction late or extra trips for timely mail delivery. DeJoy had agreed to suspend some of the changes after a national outcry.
A federal judge in Yakima, Washington Stanley Bastian, had called the changes “a politically motivated attack on the efficiency of the Postal Service” when many people were expected to vote by mail because of the pandemic. He had issued a preliminary injunction in a separate case brought by 14 states against the Trump administration and the U.S. Postal Service.
In August, Trump admitted that he wanted funding that Democrats hoped to pass blocked so that the U.S. Postal Service would not have money to handle all of the expected mail-in ballots.
“If we don’t make a deal, that means they don’t get the money,” Trump told host Maria Bartiromo of Fox Business Network.
— Tuesday, Nov. 3, 1:15 p.m. ET
Voters Face Long Lines, Equipment Issues, Misinformation at Some Polling Sites
Isolated incidents of technical glitches and delayed openings spawned long lines at some polling sites around the country, but no major reports of widespread problems for what is expected to be a historic turnout, NBC News reports.
There were also reports of misinformation in an effort to suppress voting.
In Michigan, Attorney General Dana Nessel, tweeted that her office had received reports of multiple robocalls going to Flint residents that, because of long lines, they should vote on Wednesday.
In the swing state of North Carolina, several polling places were reporting technical issues when polls opened at 6:30 a.m., including a site in the capital city of Raleigh. Voters in Franklin County, Ohio, and Spalding County, Georgia, were instructed to use paper ballots after technical glitches with machines. The issues in Spalding County were resolved later in the morning.
In Pennsylvania, some sites opened late and had long lines, particularly in Philadelphia.
Several polling locations in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, were experiencing technical difficulties Tuesday morning and had not yet opened as of 10 a.m. local time (1 p.m. ET) according to a tweet from the Nevada secretary of state's office.
“If you are waiting in line, please be patient,” the tweet said. “The sites will open soon.”
Read the full story on NBCNews.com
— Tuesday, Nov. 3, 12:59 p.m. ET
Don’t Forget the Ballot Initiatives
All eyes are on the presidential race as the campaigns wrap up and voters head to the polls one last day, but decisions also are being made across the country on abortion, criminal justice and other important matters.
In Colorado and Louisiana, voters are deciding measures that could continue a national trend of whittling away at abortion rights. Colorado’s ballot measure would ban abortions after 22 weeks of pregnancy while Louisiana residents are being asked whether the state’s constitution allows a right to an abortion.
The questions come as anti-abortion rights activists hope that with the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barnett to the U.S. Supreme, the court’s signature decision, Roe v. Wade, will be weakened or overturned.
California is considering ending cash bail and substituting a risk assessment to decide who should stay in jail while awaiting trial. At the same time, voters could tighten eligibility for early release on parole for people convicted of some serious offenses.
Arizona, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota will decide whether to legalize recreational marijuana. Eleven states already allow it and another 33 have legalized it for medical purposes though federal law continues to ban its use.
Mississippi is considering legalizing the use of marijuana for medical reasons.
— Tuesday, Nov. 3, 11:29 a.m. ET
Melania Trump Casts Her Vote in Palm Beach, Florida
First lady Melania Trump has cast her vote, stopping in at a voting center in Palm Beach, Florida, close to President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
Asked why she didn’t vote with the Republican president last week, the first lady told reporters on Tuesday: “It’s Election Day so I wanted to come here to vote today for the election.”
The first lady waved and smiled to reporters. She was the only person not wearing a mask when she entered the Morton and Barbara Mandel Recreation Center to vote, presumably for her husband. It’s unclear if she wore a face covering inside the voting center.
— Tuesday, Nov. 3, 11:02 a.m. ET
Feds Monitoring Election Security Say No Major Problems Seen
Federal authorities are monitoring voting and any threats to the election across the country at an operations center just outside Washington, D.C., run by the cyber-security component of the Department of Homeland Security. Officials there said there were no major problems detected early Tuesday but urged the public to be wary and patient.
U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director Christopher Krebs said from the center there was "some early indication of system disruption,” but he did not elaborate. He said he has "confidence that the vote is secure, the count is secure and the results will be secure.”
Krebs said officials have seen attempts by foreign actors "to interfere in the 2020 election,” but officials “have addressed those threats quickly" and "comprehensively.”
Chad Wolf, the acting director of the Department of Homeland Security, also said Tuesday the agency hasn't seen any "indications that a foreign actor has succeeded in compromising or affecting the votes cast in this election."
Krebs warned all Americans "to treat all sensational and unverified claims with skepticism and remember technology sometimes fails.”
— Tuesday, Nov. 3, 9:50 a.m. ET
Trump Tells 'Fox & Friends' He'll Claim Victory Only 'When There's Victory'
In a final pitch to supporters headed to the polls on Tuesday, President Donald Trump expressed confidence in his chances of winning reelection but insisted he won't play games in declaring victory prematurely.
In a phone interview with "Fox & Friends," Trump said he believes he has a "very solid chance of winning," pointing to his large rally crowds sizes as the "ultimate poll" that translates to a lot of votes for his reelection.
Asked by co-host Steve Doocy about reports alleging Trump would declare a premature victory if early vote numbers on election night look favorable to him, the president refuted the claim, saying he'd only declare himself the winner "when there is victory."
"When there is victory. If there is victory, I think we will have victory," Trump said. "You know, there is no reason to play games. And I think we will have victory. You know, I look at it as being a very, you know, a very solid chance at winning."
Trump said he planned to spend they day making a "big series of calls" to people who have been loyal to him and will go to his campaign headquarters in suburban Virginia to thank the staff.
— Tuesday, Nov. 3, 8:45 a.m. ET
Biden Begins Election Day With Visit to Church and Grave of Late Son Beau
— Tuesday, Nov. 3, 7:58 a.m. ET
Trump Takes Millsfield, Biden Sweeps Dixville Notch After NH Towns Cast First Election Day Votes
Two tiny New Hampshire communities that vote for president just after the stroke of midnight on Election Day have cast their ballots, with one of them marking 60 years since the tradition began.
The results in Dixville Notch, near the Canadian border, were a sweep for former Vice President Joe Biden who won the town's five votes. In Millsfield, 12 miles to the south, President Donald Trump won 16 votes to Biden's five.
Normally, there would be a big food spread and a lot of media crammed into a small space to watch the voting, Tom Tillotson, town moderator in Dixville Notch, said last week. But that's no longer possible because of the coronavirus pandemic. It's also hard to observe the 60th anniversary of the tradition, which started in November 1960.
“Sixty years — and unfortunately, we can't celebrate it," he said.
— Tuesday, Nov. 3, 6:44 a.m. ET
The 2020 Electoral Campaign Finale
In the final day of a campaign unlike any other, President Donald Trump charged across the nation Monday, delivering without evidence his incendiary allegation that the election is rigged, while Democratic challenger Joe Biden pushed into states once seen as safely Republican, looking to secure his path to the White House.
America stood at a crossroads. Never before in modern history have voters faced a choice between candidates offering such opposite visions as the nation confronts a once-in-a-century pandemic, the starkest economic contraction since the Great Depression and a citizenry divided on cultural and racial issues.
The two men also broke sharply Monday on the voting process itself while campaigning in the most fiercely contested battleground, Pennsylvania.
The president threatened legal action to stop counting beyond Election Day. If Pennsylvania ballot-counting takes several days, as is allowed, Trump charged that “cheating can happen like you have never seen. ”
Biden, in Pittsburgh, pushed a voting rights message to a mostly Black audience, declaring that Trump believes “only wealthy folks should vote" and describing COVID-19 as a “mass casualty event for Black Americans.”
Both campaigns insist they have a pathway to victory, though Biden’s options for winning the required 270 Electoral College votes are more plentiful. Trump is banking on a surge of enthusiasm from his most loyal supporters in addition to potential legal maneuvers.
— Tuesday, Nov. 3, 6:22 a.m. ET
More Election News:
Fact Check: Closing Arguments
After months of campaigning, Trump and Democratic Biden made their final pitches to voters at campaign rallies in key swing states and on TV airwaves.
Click here to read the latest from FactCheck.org on claims the candidates made in rallies on Nov. 1 and 2, and in a few of the TV ads they are airing in the waning hours before Election Day.
— Tuesday, Nov. 3, 6:10 a.m. ET
On Election Eve, the United States Is Just Unbelievably Stressed Out
The White House has been fortified, the National Guard called out and gun sales are surging.
On the eve of a momentous election, a deeply divided nation is on the edge as it plunges deeper into a pandemic and unemployment rages while the country holds its breath in anticipation of what some fear could be a potential breakdown in law and order or democracy depending on what happens Tuesday.
Downtown Washington felt like a city preparing for a siege Monday as the normally bustling streets of the capital were turned into a plywood ghost town of boarded-up storefronts and windswept sidewalks.
"We do not advise parking or driving downtown," D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said at a press conference last week.
Read the full story at NBCNews.com.
— Tuesday, Nov. 3, 6 a.m. ET
