ELECTION UPDATES: Biden adds to lead over Trump in Georgia
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UPDATE 5:18 P.M.: Democrat Joe Biden is adding to his lead over President Donald Trump in Georgia.
As of early Friday evening, Biden had overtaken Trump by 4,235 votes in the battleground state, which Trump must win to have a shot at reelection.
The Democrat first surpassed Trump in the state vote count on Friday morning as votes continue to be counted.
The contest is still too early for The Associated Press to call.
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.
If there is less than a 0.5 percentage point difference between Biden’s and Trump’s vote totals, state law dictates that a recount must be held. Biden currently holds a lead of about 0.08 percentage points.
A Democratic presidential candidate hasn't won Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992.
Advocates race to find voters to correct flawed ballots
UPDATE 4:12 P.M.: Advocates for both presidential candidates are racing to find every person in Georgia who submitted a flawed ballot before time runs out to fix the paperwork.
The race could be decided by the narrowest of margins, and the deadline for correcting ballots is 5 p.m. Friday. Some of the problem ballots were from absentee voters with missing signatures. Some voters did not have an ID when they arrived at the polls. Others were not listed on the voter rolls and will need to explain why.
No one knows how many flawed ballots needed to be fixed. Each of the state’s 159 counties keeps its own tally.
Georgia officials give ballot count update
UPDATE 2:35 P.M.: Election officials in Georgia updated reporters on the ongoing vote count in their state. Watch playback of the news conference in the player below.
Trump gives statement on vote count; Biden widens lead in Nevada
UPDATE 1:15 P.M.: President Donald Trump released a statement about the ongoing vote count on his campaign website, saying Americans deserve a transparent election process.
“We believe the American people deserve to have full transparency into all vote counting and election certification, and that this is no longer about any single election. This is about the integrity of our entire election process. From the beginning we have said that all legal ballots must be counted and all illegal ballots should not be counted, yet we have met resistance to this basic principle by Democrats at every turn. We will pursue this process through every aspect of the law to guarantee that the American people have confidence in our government. I will never give up fighting for you and our nation.”
President Donald Trump
Ballot counts are continuing in several states that could deliver the presidency to Trump or his Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden.
Among them is Nevada, where Biden has increased his lead over Trump to 20,137 votes.
Results released Friday from Democrat-heavy Clark County, which includes Las Vegas and three-quarters of Nevada’s population, along with two rural counties, put Biden at 627,104 votes and Trump at 606,967.
Biden’s lead nearly doubled from Thursday, when he was leading Trump by about 11,000 votes.
The Associated Press has not called the presidential race. Votes are still being counted in several battleground states.
Clark County Registrar Joe Gloria says his county has an additional 63,000 mail ballots to be processed over the next few days and 60,000 provisional ballots to be processed later.
Gloria said Clark County would release more results Friday afternoon but he said he did not know exactly how many ballots could be included in that release.
The state has said it will provide an update later Friday on how many ballots are yet to be counted statewide. On Thursday, they reported that number at 190,150.
UPDATE 12:35 P.M.: A key Republican senator slammed President Donald Trump's unsubstantiated claim that Democrats are trying to "steal" the election, even as GOP leaders struck a more neutral tone and others urged the White House to fight.
Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the party's 2012 presidential nominee, said Trump was within his rights to request recounts and call for investigations where evidence of irregularities exists. But Trump "is wrong to say the election was rigged, corrupt and stolen," Romney said, adding that Trump's claim "damages the cause of freedom here and around the world."
Trump said Thursday that the ballot-counting process is unfair and corrupt. State and federal officials have not reported any instances of widespread voter fraud.
Biden plans prime-time televised address
UPDATE 11:47 A.M.: 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 backgrounds.
The Associated Press has not called the presidential race. Votes are still being counted in states including Pennsylvania and Georgia.
He 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.
GOP senator says no evidence to support Trump vote-fraud claims
UPDATE 9:45 A.M.: A key Republican senator says he sees no evidence to support President Donald Trump’s baseless claim that Democrats are trying to “steal” the election, The Associated Press reported.
Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania is calling the president’s words “very disturbing.” Toomey's state is a key battleground in the election and Democrat Joe Biden edged ahead of Trump Friday morning. Trump has complained for weeks about mail-in ballots. He escalated his unsupported allegation of fraud on Thursday, saying at the White House that the ballot-counting process is unfair and corrupt.
State and federal officials have not reported any instances of widespread voter fraud.
Biden takes 5,500 vote lead in Pennsylvania
UPDATE 8:03 A.M.: ABC News reports former vice president Joe Biden has taken a 5,587 vote lead in Pennsylvania as of Friday morning.
President Donald Trump had been leading in the state since election night.
On Friday, election officials have counted more than 6.5 million votes with about 135,000 still to be counted.
If Biden is declared the victor in the state he would win 20 electoral votes, pushing him over the needed 270.
Election officials said Biden has leads in Georgia, Nevada and Arizona. Trump still holds an edge in North Carolina and Alaska.
Joe Biden takes lead in Georgia
Democrat Joe Biden is now leading President Donald Trump in the battleground state of Georgia.
Friday morning, Biden overtook Trump in the state by 1,096 votes.
Georgia officials said there are still more votes expected in the state. The deadline to return any military or overseas ballots, verify provisional ballots and for voters to correct any signature errors on absentee ballots is at 5 p.m. Eastern time Friday.
There is also 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.
