The race for the White House has narrowed to five battleground states where election officials are working overtime to tally the votes amid growing civil unrest and unsubstantiated accusations of fraud from President Trump’s campaign.
Tension over the outcome is spilling into the streets, with Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden separated by only razor-thin margins in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.
The Trump campaign is flooding the battleground states with legal challenges, as Biden’s vote count surges 48 hours after Election Day due to many Democrats having voted by mail.
Trump is clinging to leads in Pennsylvania and Georgia — two states he must win to have a shot at a second term — but Biden has been gaining fast as mail ballots are counted.
In Arizona and Nevada, the reverse is true, as Trump has been eating into Biden’s narrow margins.
Trump appears to be on solid footing in North Carolina, another must-win state for him.
Still, Biden is the favorite to win the White House, as the late votes in Pennsylvania and Georgia break his way and doubts remain about whether Trump can claw his way back on top in Arizona or Nevada.
Election officials in those states have been briefing the public throughout the day to explain why the count is taking so long and provide transparency into some of the issues they’ve faced in vote counting.
The Trump campaign has dispatched its own surrogates to vote-counting hot spots to draw attention to what it describes as irregularities and to announce new legal challenges across the battleground states.
The president was not seen in public Thursday, but he drew headlines and backlash for his remarks on Twitter.
“Stop the count,” Trump tweeted at one point, apparently referring to legal vote counting in Georgia and Pennsylvania, where Biden is surging into the finish.
Election watchers noted that if the count was stopped at that moment, Biden would finish with the 270 electoral votes he needs to win due to his leads in Arizona and Nevada.
Biden gave a statement late in the day from near his home in Delaware to express confidence about his standing in the race and to insist that “each ballot must be counted.”
“We continue to feel very good about where things stand,” Biden said. “We have no doubt that when the vote is counted, Sen. [Kamala] Harris [D-Calif.] and I will be declared the winners. So I ask everyone to stay calm, the process is working, the count is being completed and we’ll know very soon.”
The Trump campaign is seeking court orders and threatening further legal action in most of the contested states, seeking to get its poll watchers in closer proximity to the vote count; alleging that small numbers of disqualified ballots are being counted; and trying to reverse court rulings allowing ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 to be counted as long as they were received by Election Day.
Biden campaign lawyer Bob Bauer dismissed the lawsuits as an effort by a losing campaign to kick up uncertainty around the results.
“They’re doomed to fail, it’s background noise about fraud and irregularities and the like and it’s all for the purpose to confuse the public about what’s taking place,” Bauer said.
The nation is on edge and worries about unrest are growing as anti-Trump protesters hit the streets in New York and Minnesota. In Minneapolis, the police arrested more than 600 people.
Trump supporters are gathering in big numbers outside of election centers in Phoenix and Las Vegas, alleging malfeasance and jeering at poll workers.
Election officials have said they’re worried about the safety of their staff and trying to finish the vote counts quickly but it’s unclear when the final results will be announced in the key states.
In Pennsylvania, Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said the “overwhelming majority” of ballots will have been counted by Thursday night, potentially giving a clearer picture of which presidential candidate will triumph in the most important swing state left on the board.
Trump’s lead in Pennsylvania is down to about 100,000.
Most of the outstanding 350,000 votes will come from the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia regions, where Biden is expected to do well.
But the count will spill into Friday in Alleghany County, which encompasses Pittsburgh, where more than 35,000 votes can’t be counted until tomorrow due to a court order and some technicalities.
The Trump campaign will also likely challenge a state Supreme Court ruling that allowed ballots postmarked on Nov. 3 to be received and counted as long as they come in by Friday.
In Georgia, Trump’s lead is down to fewer than 13,000 votes. Those margins are expected to tighten further as the final 47,000 votes are counted. A recount seems likely in the Peach State no matter who wins.
Arizona election officials are expected to update the public Thursday night. Biden leads by about 70,000 but it’s unclear when the state will be done counting the remaining 400,000 votes.
Biden’s lead is even smaller in Nevada, where he is up by about 11,000 votes. Election officials say that vote count will drag into the weekend and mail ballots will still be counted as long as they’re received by Nov. 12.