US election live results: They're stealing this election, alleges Donald Trump

Washington, United States - The two contenders split the first US states to be projected in the White House race.

President Donald Trump falsely claimed victory over Democratic rival Joe Biden on Wednesday with millions of votes still uncounted in a White House race that will not be decided until tallying is completed over the coming hours or days.

By early Wednesday, the race was down to a handful of states, and both Trump, 74 and Biden, 77, had possible paths to reach the needed 270 Electoral College votes to win the White House.

Shortly after Biden said he was confident of winning the contest once the votes are counted, Trump appeared at the White House to declare victory and said his lawyers would be taking his case to the US Supreme Court, without specifying what they would claim.

Polls have closed and voting has stopped across the country, but election laws in US states require all votes to be counted, and many states routinely take days to finish counting ballots. More votes stood to be counted this year than in the past as people voted early by mail and in person because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Latest on Senate races in the 2020 election (UAE Time)

2:30pm

US election betting odds point to 50-50 chance

Betting market odds on the US presidential election have begun to tighten once again after clearly flipping overnight in favour of Republican President Donald Trump over Democratic candidate Joe Biden, according to data from three aggregators.

British-based Smarkets exchange is giving Trump and Biden an almost an equal chance of winning as of 1000 GMT, with Trump sitting at a 51 per cent chance. The odds on Trump had risen to as much as 80 per cent overnight. Odds for a Biden win have fallen to 49 per cent from 61 per cent on Tuesday.

The shift came after Biden overtook Trump in the battleground state of Wisconsin with an estimated 89 per cent of the vote tallied so far. Trump has 49 per cent and Biden has 49.3 per cent of vote, according to Edison Research.

1:30pm

Trump bid to stop vote counting ‘outrageous’

Joe Biden’s White House campaign slammed President Donald Trump’s threat to try to stop the election vote count as “outrageous” on Wednesday, saying its legal team was ready to prevent such an “unprecedented” act.

“The president’s statement tonight about trying to shut down the counting of duly cast ballots was outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect,” Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement as the election remained undecided.

“We have legal teams standing by ready to deploy to resist... and they will prevail,” Dillon said, after Trump branded slow ballot tabulations in battleground states a “fraud” and threatened to go to the Supreme Court to dispute the counting of votes.

1:26pm

German minister warns of ‘very explosive situation’ in US

German Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer on Wednesday warned the United States was facing a “very explosive situation” and a possible systemic crisis after President Donald Trump prematurely declared election victory.

Following Trump’s remarks that he will go to the Supreme Court to stop ballots from being tallied, Kramp-Karrenbauer told public broadcaster ZDF “this election has not been decided... votes are still being counted”. She said Trump could create “a constitutional crisis in the USA”.

1:15pm

Biden campaign willing to fight Trump in court

Democrat Joe Biden’s campaign says it will fight any efforts by President Donald Trump’s campaign to go to the US Supreme Court to prevent ballots from being tabulated.

In a statement sent before 4am on Wednesday, Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon called Trump’s statement that he will “be going to the US Supreme Court” and that he wants “all voting to stop” “outrageous, unprecedented and incorrect.”

O’Malley Dillon says the Biden campaign has “legal teams standing by ready to deploy to resist that effort.” And she says, “They will prevail.”

The Associated Press has not declared a winner in the presidential race. There are still hundreds of thousands of votes left to be counted, and the outcome hinges on a handful of uncalled battleground states.

12:33pm

Winning is easy, losing is never easy: Trump

'Winning is easy, losing is never easy,' President Donald Trump said, asserting that he was not thinking of an election night speech yet

12:28pm

Biden at 238 electoral votes, Trump at 213

President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden are battling it out for the White House, with polls closed across the United States — and the American people waiting for results in key battlegrounds still up for grabs.

As it stands, there are seven states still left uncalled, including major prizes such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — meaning both Trump and Biden still have a path to victory.

US media outlets have projected wins for the Republican incumbent in 23 states including big prizes Florida and Texas, as well as Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Ohio — all states he won in 2016.

Biden has captured 20 states including his home state Delaware and big prizes California and New York, as well as the US capital. The former vice president has flipped one state won by Trump in 2016 — Arizona, in the southwest.

Nebraska split its electoral votes between the two — four for Trump and one for Biden. Maine was won by Biden, but so far, he has only three of the four electoral votes on offer, with the last still to be decided. So far, that gives Biden 238 electoral votes and Trump 213. The magic number of electoral votes is 270.

12:26pm

Protesters gather near White House, no wide unrest seen

More than 1,000 people protesting President Donald Trump converged on Black Lives Matter Plaza on Tuesday night, just a block from the White House, while hundreds more marched through parts of downtown Washington, sometimes blocking traffic and setting off fireworks.

12:16pm

Facebook labels posts by US presidential candidates with vote count warning

Facebook Inc said on Wednesday it had added labels to social media posts by both US presidential candidates explaining that election vote counts were still ongoing.

"Once President Trump began making premature claims of victory, we started running notifications on Facebook and Instagram that votes are still being counted and a winner is not projected," Facebook said in a statement.

11:59am

Biden wins Arizona, flipping state for Dem

Democrat Joe Biden has won Arizona and its 11 electoral votes, flipping a critical battleground state that Donald Trump won four years ago and that could help determine which candidate wins the presidency.

The victory by Biden was a huge blow to Trump’s chances for reelection. Arizona has backed a Democratic presidential candidate only once in the last 72 years.

Biden’s campaign had focused on Arizona as part of its expanded battleground map through the Sun Belt, citing demographic changes, new residents and realignment away from Republicans among key suburban voters.

Arizona is among the more than half a dozen states that will help determine which candidate gets the 270 electoral votes to capture the White House.

Biden’s massive advantage in campaign cash allowed him to put Trump on defense across the country and work to build an unstoppable lead in the Electoral College.

11:48am

Trump says will go to Supreme Court to dispute election count

President Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed he had won the US election, despite the final results not yet being given, and said he would go the Supreme Court to dispute the counting of votes.

“We did win this election,” Trump said in an extraordinary speech from the ceremonial East Room of the White House. “This is a fraud on the American public.”

The Republican, who according to initial results is in a neck-and-neck race with Democrat Joe Biden, said he would go to court and “we want all voting to stop.”

He appeared to mean stopping the counting of mail-in ballots which can be legally accepted by state election boards after Tuesday’s election, provided they were sent in time.

11:25am

With results from key states unclear, Trump declares victory

Despite incomplete results from several battleground states that could determine the outcome of the US presidential race, President Donald Trump early on Wednesday proclaimed victory over Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

“Frankly, we did win,” Trump told supporters at the White House.

But election results from some battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia, were still not clear and projections from major networks and Edison Research showed Trump still short of the 270 electoral votes need to win re-election.

11:14am

Biden wins 1 of 4 Maine electoral votes

Democrat Joe Biden has won at least one of Maine’s four electoral votes in his bid to unseat President Donald Trump.

Biden won the state’s 1st Congressional District, good for one electoral vote.

Maine’s statewide vote, which is worth two electoral votes, and the state’s 2nd Congressional District haven’t yet been called.

Maine split its electoral votes four years ago, awarding three to Democrat Hillary Clinton and one to Trump. Trump won the 2nd Congressional District, the more rural and conservative of Maine’s congressional districts.

It marked the first time in state history that Maine divided its electoral votes.

Maine is one of only two states that divides its electoral votes. The other is Nebraska.

10:56am

Democrat Tina Smith reelected in Minnesota

Democratic Sen. Tina Smith of Minnesota has won reelection, defeating her Republican challenger, former US Rep. Jason Lewis.

This is the second time in two years Smith has had to defend her seat. She was Gov. Mark Dayton’s lieutenant governor when he appointed her to the seat in 2017 after Democratic Sen. Al Franken resigned. Smith then won a special election in 2018 to complete Franken’s term.

Lewis is a one-term former congressman best known from his days as a talk radio host. He tied himself closely to President Donald Trump, stressing their common opposition to coronavirus restrictions, support for law and order and the need to put Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court.

10: 40am

Mississippi voters back new flag without Confederate emblem

Voters in Mississippi approved on Tuesday a new state flag that will feature the magnolia flower, months after the southern state retired its old banner bearing a Confederate battle emblem.

Mississippi’s flag was the last in the US to include a symbol of the Confederacy, a collection of southern states where slavery was legal and which seceded from the union in 1860.

Many African Americans believe the flag carries racist connotations, while white southerners argue it is a symbol of Southern heritage.

US media reported that Mississippi voters had backed the flag’s new design, which also will carry the words “In God We Trust.”

The old flag was retired over the summer, as the US exploded with the biggest protests in decades against racism and police brutality.

The ongoing movement for racial justice in the US also prompted the removal of statues of Confederate figures, either formally removed by local governments or forcibly toppled by protesters.

10: 24am

Biden, Trump both predict victory

President Donald Trump early Wednesday said he expected a “big win” and accused Democrats of trying to steal the election after rival Joe Biden also predicted victory.

“We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election,” Trump wrote on Twitter moments after Biden told supporters he expected to win.

“We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed,” said Trump, who promised to speak more later.

Twitter, which has vowed to act against false information, quickly flagged Trump’s tweet accusing theft.

The president has long charged, with no evidence, that mail-in ballots are a way to cheat in the election.

Mail-in ballots, sent due to health concerns during the Covid-19 health crisis, are expected to favor Biden and in some states were being counted later.

Trump appeared to be responding to Biden, who moments earlier told his supporters to be patient.

“We believe we are on track to win this election,” Biden said to honks of approval in his home state of Delaware.

“It ain’t over till every vote is counted,” he said.

“It’s not my place or Donald Trump’s place to say who won this election.”

Biden said he was confident at winning Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — all states carried by Trump in 2016.

9:56am

Trump predicts ‘big WIN,’ says Democrats trying to ‘steal’ vote

President Donald Trump early Wednesday said he expected a “big win” and accused Democrats of trying to “steal” the election after rival Joe Biden predicted victory.

“We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election,” Trump wrote on Twitter moments after Biden told supporters he expected to win.

9:40am

Donald Trump wins Iowa and Montana

President Donald Trump has won Iowa and Montana. The Republican nominee on Wednesday was awarded six electoral votes from Iowa and three electoral votes from Montana. Trump won Iowa by more than 9 percentage points four years ago against Democrat Hillary Clinton, but his support eroded significantly over his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and the overall direction of the country.

Trump rallied in Iowa in the final stretch of the campaign, going so far as to announce he would be awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Iowa wrestling legend Dan Gable. In an appeal to the state’s farmers, he told them he was responsible for $28 billion in aid designed to help offset damage stemming from his trade war with China.

9:40am

Biden wins Minnesota, turning back Trump push

Democrat Joe Biden has carried Minnesota, turning back a strong push by President Donald Trump and holding on to a state narrowly won by Democrat Hillary Clinton four years ago. Biden was awarded the state’s 10 electoral votes on Tuesday.

Biden made up for his campaign getting a late start in Minnesota compared with Trump, who held several campaign rallies in the state this election cycle. The former vice president took advantage of anti-Trump sentiment and organizing efforts by the state’s Democrats, who stressed Covid-19 and health care issues.

Trump came within 1.5 percentage points of carrying Minnesota in 2016 and made winning the state this time a personal priority. Republicans invested time and money in building a field organization to boost GOP turnout, focusing on conservative rural Minnesota and suburban areas that were once mostly Republican but have become swing territory. The last Republican presidential candidate to capture the state was Richard Nixon in 1972.

9:30am

Biden at 213 electoral votes, Trump at 138: US media

President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden are battling it out for the White House, with polls gradually closing across the United States Tuesday — and then a long night of waiting for results ahead.

The first results are trickling in, with US media projecting wins for the Republican incumbent so far in 19 states including Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Ohio and Tennessee — all states he won in 2016.

Biden has captured 17 states including his home state Delaware and big prizes California and New York, as well as the US capital. As with Trump, so far, all states claimed by Biden were won by Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016.

So far, that gives Biden 213 electoral votes and Trump a maximum of 138, because Nebraska splits its electoral votes based on congressional district (see note below).

The magic number is 270. Observers expect the hotly contested race for the White House to come down to a handful of key battleground states that have yet to be called.

The following is a list of the states won by each candidate and the corresponding number of electoral votes, based on the projections of US media including CNN, Fox News, MSNBC/NBC News, ABC, CBS and The New York Times.

9:00am

Democrat Shalala loses Florida seat to Salazar

Democrat Shalala loses Florida seat to SalazarRepublican Maria Elvira Salazar has defeated Democrat Donna Shalala for a House seat in Florida.

Salazar, a Spanish-language television newscaster, won in her second try for the office after Shalala prevailed in 2018.

The district covers much of the central Miami area and has generally been considered Democratic. Salazar sharply criticised Shalala for failing to timely report several stock sales as required.

Shalala previously served as President Bill Clinton’s secretary of Health and Human Services. Shalala also is a former president of the University of Miami and chancellor at the University of Wisconsin.

8:30am

Hundreds gather in Black Lives Matter Plaza

Several hundred people have gathered in Black Lives Matter Plaza, just one block from the White House, holding signs and chanting about democracy. It was a generally festive atmosphere Tuesday night as election results came in, with a few scuffles along the edges.

There were fears of widespread unrest connected to the election, and authorities around the country were on alert in their communities.

8:25am

In Pictures: At schools and stadiums, Americans chose between President Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden in what many are calling the most consequential presidential election in a lifetime.

8:15am

Trump wins in Idaho, Utah

President Donald Trump has won the state of Utah and Idaho.The Republican nominee on Tuesday was awarded its six electoral votes.

Utah hasn’t supported a Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. Trump won Utah in 2016, but independent candidate Evan McMullin had a strong showing in the state owing to widespread distaste of both Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton. McMullin captured more than 20 per cent of the vote.

8:10am

Biden at 209 electoral votes, Trump at 116

President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden are battling it out for the White House, with polls gradually closing across the United States Tuesday — and then a long night of waiting for results ahead.

The first results are trickling in, with US media projecting wins for the Republican incumbent so far in 17 states including Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee — all states he won in 2016.

Biden has captured 16 states including his home state Delaware and big prizes California and New York, as well as the US capital. As with Trump, so far, all states claimed by Biden were won by Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016.

So far, that gives Biden 209 electoral votes and Trump a maximum of 116, because Nebraska splits its electoral votes based on congressional district (see note below).

The magic number is 270. Observers expect the hotly contested race for the White House to come down to a handful of key battleground states that have yet to be called.

The following is a list of the states won by each candidate and the corresponding number of electoral votes, based on the projections of US media including CNN, Fox News, MSNBC/NBC News, ABC, CBS and The New York Times.

8:05am

Biden wins New Hampshire, holding it for Dems

Democrat Joe Biden has won New Hampshire and its four electoral votes, holding on to a state that President Donald Trump only narrowly lost in 2016.

The state was considered a 2020 battleground despite not going for a Republican presidential candidate since George W. Bush in 2000.

Four years ago, Democrat Hillary Clinton won the small state over Trump by roughly 2,700 votes. That’s less than 1% of the 732,000 ballots cast, and it was the second-closest margin of victory in the country.

Biden didn’t fare as well in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation Democratic primary in February. He finished a dismal fifth, behind Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren. But his candidacy took off after a commanding win later that month in the South Carolina primary, leading to the exits of several of his competitors.

7:56 am

Democrats retain control of House of Representatives

Democrats retained their control of the House of Representatives on Tuesday as expected, US networks reported, slightly expanding their majority in the 435-seat chamber.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was expected to increase her party’s majority by at least four or five seats in the election, Fox News and NBC News reported.

Such a result would be a boost to Pelosi who has made clear she will seek to roll back several of President Donald Trump’s first-term orders or actions if he loses reelection.

7:55 am

Democrat Ross wins open House seat in NC

Democrat Deborah Ross has won an open House seat in North Carolina. She’s the second Democrat to win an open House seat after a court order required North Carolina to redraw its congressional map ahead of the 2020 election.

Ross was helped by new boundaries in the Raleigh-area district.

The seat is currently held by Republican Rep. George Holding, who announced his retirement last year.

Ross, a lawyer, is a former member of the North Carolina House, where she served as majority whip and in other leadership roles.

Ross most recently ran for elected office in 2016, when she failed to unseat Republican Sen. Richard Burr.

7:50 am

Photos: Viewers in Washington, Miami and NewYork watch as results come in at the end of a tense US presidential elections campaign.

7:43 am

Donald Trump wins Missouri

President Donald Trump has won the state of Missouri. The Republican nominee was awarded its 10 electoral votes. In 2016, Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in the state by 18 percentage points.

7:31 am

Biden at 131 electoral votes, Trump at 95

President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden are battling it out for the White House, with polls gradually closing across the United States Tuesday — and then a long night of waiting for results ahead.

The first results are trickling in, with US media projecting wins for the Republican incumbent so far in 14 states including Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Tennessee and West Virginia — all states he won in 2016.

Biden has captured 12 states including his home state Delaware and big prize New York, plus the US capital Washington. As with Trump, so far, all states claimed by Biden were won by Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016.

So far, that gives Biden 131 electoral votes and Trump 95.

The magic number is 270. Observers expect the hotly contested race for the White House to come down to a handful of key battleground states that have yet to be called.

7:30 am

Carlos Gimenez wins House seat over Rep. Mucarsel-Powell

Republican Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez has won a Florida seat in the US House, defeating a single-term Democrat.

Gimenez, a former firefighter, prevailed over Debbie Mucarsel-Powell in a district that stretches from the Miami suburbs to Key West. The seat has swung back and forth between Democrats and Republicans for several elections. Gimenez has made restoring the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic one of his top campaign issues. Mucarsel-Powell, who is originally from Ecuador, also stressed recovery from the pandemic as a major priority.

7:20 am

Cornyn retains seat for Republicans in Texas

Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas has defeated Democrat MJ Hegar in his hardest-fought reelection battle in almost two decades.

Cornyn held an edge in polls and fundraising for most of the race but was still forced into mounting an unusually aggressive defense as Democrats poured millions of dollars into Hegar’s race.

Hegar is a former Air Force helicopter pilot who narrowly lost a U.S. House race two years ago. She called Cornyn a “spineless bootlicker” beholden to Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Cornyn’s victory came in the face of uncommon headwinds for Republicans in Texas.

7:00 am

White House doctor wins House seat in Texas

President Donald Trump’s former White House physician is heading to Congress.

Republican Ronny Jackson has won a House seat in West Texas, where he moved after leaving the White House in 2018. The solidly Republican district is currently held by Mac Thornberry, one of six GOP congressmen in Texas retiring this year.

Jackson was a surprise pick by Trump to lead the Department of Veteran Affairs in 2018. But his nomination was derailed by allegations of drinking on the job and over-prescribing drugs, claims that he has strongly denied.

Jackson returned to the White House medical office, retired from the Navy in 2019 and launched his bid for Congress, winning Trump’s endorsement. Jackson defeated Democrat Gus Trujillo.

6:40 am

Biden at 126 electoral votes, Trump at 89

President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden are battling it out for the White House, with polls gradually closing across the United States Tuesday and a long night of waiting for results ahead.

The first results are trickling in, with US media projecting wins for the Republican incumbent so far in 13 states including Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Tennessee and West Virginia — all states he won in 2016.

Biden has captured 11 states including his home state Delaware and big prize New York, plus the US capital Washington. As with Trump, so far, all states claimed by Biden were won by Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016.

So far, that gives Biden 126 electoral votes and Trump 89. The magic number is 270. Observers expect the hotly contested race for the White House to come down to a handful of key battleground states.

6:30 am

Democrats pick up Senate seat in Colorado, control at stake

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.

6:20am

Trump wins 5 more states, Biden adds 2 states

President Donald Trump has won Louisiana, Nebraska, Nebraska’s 3rd Congressional District, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming, while Democrat Joe Biden has won New Mexico and New York.

Nebraska, one of two states that divides its electoral votes, has five total electoral votes up for grabs. Trump won the statewide vote, which is good for two electoral votes. He also won the 3rd Congressional District, which nets him a third vote.

Nebraska’s 1st and 2nd congressional districts haven’t yet been called.

Trump nets 20 electoral votes from his wins in Louisiana, Nebraska, Nebraska’s 3rd, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming, while Biden takes 34 electoral votes for winning New Mexico and New York.

5:52am

President Donald Trump has won the state of Indiana.

The Republican nominee on Tuesday was awarded its 11 electoral votes.

Indiana is the home state of Trump’s running mate, Vice President Mike Pence.

Trump won Indiana by 19 percentage points in 2016 over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

5:30am

President Donald Trump has won the state of Arkansas.

The Republican nominee on Tuesday was awarded its six electoral votes.

Arkansas is a reliably Republican state that hasn’t gone for a Democratic presidential candidate since Bill Clinton in 1996.

5:20am

A judge in Nevada has ordered 30 Las Vegas-area voting sites to remain open for an extra hour after President Donald Trump’s campaign and Nevada Republicans cited reports that some locations did not open on time.

Clark County District Court Judge Joe Hardy Jr. in Las Vegas heard immediate arguments in an Election Day lawsuit filed to extend voting times to 8 p.m. for 22 specified sites, which had been scheduled to close at 7 p.m.

Hardy added eight additional sites at the request of attorneys for Democrats.

Clark County has 125 voting centers in and around Las Vegas. The judge ordered that anyone in line at the 30 sites at 8 p.m. will be allowed to cast a ballot.

5am

President Donald Trump has won Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Tennessee, while Democrat Joe Biden has won Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island.

The results were not a surprise. Biden is very strong in the states that went for him, just as Trump is strong in the states he won.

Trump takes 33 electoral votes for winning those four states, while Biden adds 69 electoral votes to his total for winning seven states.

4:56 am

President Donald Trump has won the state of South Carolina.

The Republican nominee on Tuesday was awarded its nine electoral votes.

Trump handily won the state in 2016 over Democrat Hillary Clinton. South Carolina hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter in 1976.

Joe Biden’s victory in the South Carolina primary in February started a wave of wins that helped cement his status as Democrats’ presidential nominee. South Carolina Republicans didn’t hold a primary, an early sign of their support for Trump’s reelection.

———

4:36 am

Democrat Joe Biden has won the state of Virginia.

He was awarded its 13 electoral votes on Tuesday.

Democrat Hillary Clinton won Virginia over Republican Donald Trump in 2016, helped in part by her choice of running mate: Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine.

Virginia has grown increasingly liberal over the last four years, and as a result of the 2019 elections, Democrats now control every branch of government in the state.

4:10am

President Donald Trump has coasted to victory in West Virginia, taking its five electoral votes.

The Republican nominee defeated Democrat Joe Biden on Tuesday in a reliably conservative state.

The last Democrat to win a presidential race in West Virginia was Bill Clinton in 1996.

Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in West Virginia four years ago by 42 percentage points, one of his highest margins of victory in the nation. Many in the state credit him for his conservative populism and promises to help the declining coal industry, even as few expected he could bring back jobs in a dying field.

4:10am

The Trump campaign and Nevada Republicans are asking a state court judge to extend voting by one hour at 22 Las Vegas-area locations, citing reports that those sites did not open on time Tuesday morning.

An Election Day lawsuit filed in Clark County District Court was getting an immediate hearing before Judge Joe Hardy.

Polls are scheduled to close at 7 p.m. Pacific time, but election officials keep sites open until the last person in line at that time can vote.

Clark County has 1,150 precincts bunched into 125 voting centers in and around Las Vegas.

The lawsuit filed against Clark County Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria points to a Twitter message posted by the Nevada Secretary of State elections division at 7:22 a.m. referring to several polling locations having technical problems that delayed opening.

The message urged people in line to be patient, saying the sites would open soon.

The Trump campaign and Nevada GOP have been involved in several legal fights in Nevada, including an appeal on Tuesday to the Nevada Supreme Court, seeking to stop the mail-in ballot count in Democratic-leaning Las Vegas.

4am

President Donald Trump has won Kentucky, and Democrat Joe Biden has carried Vermont.

They are the first two states called in the 2020 presidential election.

Kentucky is reliably conservative, while Vermont is considered one of the most liberal states.

Trump wins eight electoral votes from Kentucky, while Biden takes three for winning Vermont.

3:30am

President Donald Trump called into talk radio shows in the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin just hours before polls closed.

Trump projected confidence Tuesday that he will win key states like North Carolina and Florida and said he’s expecting a “great” evening.

He was set to call into conservative host Mark Levin’s show minutes after the first two interviews, but Levin abruptly said Trump would not be appearing. Levin said he was told the president couldn’t come on the show but gave no further details.

Trump told Wisconsin host Vicki McKenna that he is expecting a strong night based on lines of people waiting to vote. Trump has sown doubts about mail voting, without evidence, and is expecting most of his supporters to turn out on Election Day.

At the same time, his campaign was hosting a call with reporters in which they projected confidence but predicted a tight race that would come down to turnout.

3am

In North Carolina, an armed man loitering at a polling site on Election Day has been arrested and charged with trespassing.

Thirty-six-year-old Justin Dunn was legally carrying a firearm but loitered at the Charlotte site after voting Tuesday morning, which prompted a precinct official to call police over fears of voter intimidation. A precinct official accompanied by a police officer asked him to leave the site and banned him from the location.

Police say Dunn left the precinct but returned about two hours later. He was taken into custody and charged with second-degree trespassing.

Publicly listed numbers for Dunn were disconnected when a reporter tried to reach him Tuesday.

2: 55am

More than 13,000 votes in one South Carolina county will have to wait a while to be counted because of a printing error.

Dorchester County Election Commissioner Todd Billman said at a news conference Tuesday that the mail-in ballots did not have the proper bars printed at the top so the scanner used to count the votes won’t register them. He says the error does not affect anyone’s vote.

The votes will have to be counted by hand and will not be counted Tuesday. Billman says Dorchester County’s full results will be finished by the Friday deadline to certify returns.

The county went for Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016.

The Senate race between Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and his Democratic challenger, Jaime Harrison, as well as the U.S. House race between Rep. Joe Cunningham and Republican challenger Nancy Mace, will be affected by the unscanned ballots.

———

3:25am

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott says he voted for Joe Biden for president, making him the first Republican governor in the nation to acknowledge voting for the Democratic presidential candidate.

The Republican governor told reporters Tuesday after casting his ballot in his hometown of Berlin, Vermont, that he had never voted for a Democrat in his life.

“As many of you knew, I didn’t support President Trump. I wasn’t going to vote for him,” Scott said. “But then I came to the conclusion that it wasn’t enough for me to just not vote. I had to vote against.”

He says he “put country over party, which again wasn’t an easy thing to do in some respects.”

A couple of other current Republican governors have said they aren’t voting for Trump, but they said they weren’t voting for Biden, either. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker says he left his ballot blank for president. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan says he voted for President Ronald Reagan, who died 16 years ago.

2am

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden isn’t making any predictions about the outcome of the election as the final hours of voting tick down.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday outside a Delaware community center, Biden said he’s “superstitious” about offering predictions for election night but remains “hopeful.” He says he’s heard from aides that there’s “overwhelming turnout” among young people, women and older Black adults in places like Georgia and Florida.

He says, “The things that are happening bode well for the base that has been supporting me — but we’ll see.” Still, he admitted, “It’s just so uncertain” because of how many states are in play.

Biden also wouldn’t commit to commenting on any results on election night, even if President Donald Trump weighs in on the vote. “If there’s something to talk about tonight, I’ll talk about it,” Biden said. “If not, I’ll wait till the votes are counted the next day.”

Biden capped off a day of last-minute campaigning in his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and in Philadelphia with a couple of local stops in Wilmington, Delaware. He spoke to the CEO of a community center for teens and visited a pool where he worked as a teenager, closing out a day that began before the sun rose.

1:45 am.

The cybersecurity agency at the Department of Homeland Security says the U.S. election so far has featured the usual technical glitches and routine issues but no apparent signs of any malicious cyber activity — at least not yet.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency also says it’s too early to declare victory as polls near closing time around the nation Tuesday and with days of vote counting and certification ahead.

A senior agency official says, “It has been quiet and we take some confidence in that but we are not out of the woods yet.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity to brief reporters about ongoing nationwide election monitoring efforts ahead of the release of any kind of official evaluation.

The official warned that local and state election systems could experience problems as results are reported, but the most likely cause would be from high demand put on the system as people overwhelm websites to check results.

1:30am

Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris is heading to Wilmington, Delaware, after spending the afternoon campaigning in battleground Michigan.

She reminded voters at a Detroit church on Tuesday how slim Donald Trump’s margin of victory was in the state in 2016. She urged them to try to get two other people to vote as well.

She also urged people to remember why they are voting if they are stuck in long lines.

Earlier Tuesday, she campaigned alongside Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, who is up for reelection, Sen. Debbie Stabenow and Rep. Brenda Lawrence in Southfield. Peters is in a competitive race against Republican John James.

She will join Joe Biden in Delaware on Tuesday night.

1:25 am

A spokesperson for the Iowa secretary of state says hand sanitizer on voters’ hands caused a ballot scanner to jam at a polling place in Des Moines.

Spokesperson Kevin Hall says some voters’ hands were moist when they handled the ballots and the buildup of sanitizer eventually caused the scanner to stop working.

The machine was fixed in about an hour.

To prevent another breakdown, poll workers moved the sanitizing station farther back in the line so voters’ hands would be dry when they first touched the ballots.

It was a problem unique to the coronavirus era. Iowa is considered one of the tossup states in Tuesday’s election between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.

11:30pm

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has ordered U.S. Postal Service inspectors to sweep more than two dozen mail processing facilities for lingering mail-in ballots and for those ballots to be sent out immediately.

The order, which includes centers in central Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Detroit, Atlanta, south Florida and parts of Wisconsin, comes after national delivery delays leading up to the election and concerns the agency wouldn’t be able to deliver ballots on time.

The Postal Service’s ability to handle the surge of mail-in ballots became a concern after its new leader, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a major GOP donor, implemented a series of policy changes that delayed mail nationwide this summer. Delivery times have since rebounded but have consistently remained below the agency’s internal goals of having more than 95% of first-class mail delivered within five days, with service in some battleground areas severely lagging, according to postal data.

11:25pm

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.

11:05pm

Long lines were reported across the country, which is not unusual, and there were sporadic reports of polling places opening late. There have also been voting equipment issues in counties in Georgia, Ohio and Texas.

But overall, things seemed to be going smoothly in most places, with enthusiastic voters waiting patiently to cast their ballots. Experts expected total votes to exceed the 139 million cast in 2016. About 101 million people voted ahead of Election Day, heeding warnings about the coronavirus pandemic.

11:00pm

Sen. Kamala Harris is in battleground Michigan to get out the vote on Election Day.

She touched down in Detroit, a majority Black city, about six hours before polls were to close. As Joe Biden’s running mate, Harris has focused heavily on motivating Black voters to turn out. She told reporters she’s in Michigan so Detroit voters know “that they are seen and heard by Joe and me.”

Trump won Michigan in 2016.

Asked how confident she was, Harris said, “Listen, the day ain’t over.”

“I’m just here to remind people to vote because the election is still happening right now. It’s not over,” she said.

Polls in Michigan close at 8pm.

10:45 pm

The latest tally of early voting in the U.S. shows that almost 102 million Americans cast their votes before Election Day, an eye-popping total that represents 73% of the total turnout of the 2016 presidential election.

The Associated Press tally reveals that the early vote in several states, including hotly-contested Texas and Arizona, has already exceeded the total vote of four years ago.

Early voting — whether in-person or by mail-in or absentee ballot — has swelled during the Covid-19 pandemic as voters have sought the safety and convenience it offers. The greatest gains have been witnessed in Kentucky, where almost 13 times as many voters cast their ballots early as in 2016.

Americans await election results

The winner - who may not be determined for days - will lead a nation strained by a pandemic that has killed more than 231,000 people and left millions more jobless, racial tensions and political polarization that has only worsened during a vitriolic campaign.

A third of US voters listed the economy as the issue that mattered most to them when deciding their choice for president while two out of 10 cited Covid-19, according to an Edison Research exit poll on Tuesday.

In the national exit poll, four out of 10 voters said they thought the effort to contain the virus was going “very badly.” In the battleground states of Florida and North Carolina, battleground states that could decide the election, five of 10 voters said the national response to the pandemic was going “somewhat or very badly.”

The poll found that nine out of 10 voters had already decided on their choice before October, and nine out of 10 voters said they were confident their state would accurately count votes.

The poll found signs Trump was losing support among his core base of supporters in Georgia and Virginia.

Edison’s exit polls showed Trump winning seven in 10 white men in Georgia, down from eight in 10 against Hillary Clinton in 2016. And while Trump was winning with six in 10 voters who were at least 65 years old in Georgia, that was down from a seven in 10 four years ago.

In Virginia, Trump is winning six in 10 whites without college degrees in Virginia, down from seven in 10 in 2016. Trump is also winning six in 10 white men in Virginia, down from seven in 10 in 2016.

Biden, the Democratic former vice president, has put Trump’s handling of the pandemic at the center of his campaign and has held a consistent lead in national opinion polls over the Republican president.

Biden, 77, appeared to have multiple paths to victory in the state-by-state Electoral College that determines the winner; at least 270 electoral votes, determined in part by a state’s population, are needed to win.

Opinion polls show Trump, 74, is close enough in several election battleground states that he could repeat the type of upset he pulled off in 2016, when he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton despite losing the national popular vote by about 3 million ballots.

Ahead of Election Day, just over 100 million voters cast early ballots either by mail or in person, according to the US Elections Project at the University of Florida, driven by concerns about crowded polling places during the pandemic as well as extraordinary enthusiasm.

The total has broken records and prompted some experts to predict the highest voting rates since 1908 and that the vote total could reach 160 million, topping the 138 million cast in 2016.

In anticipation of possible protests, some buildings and stores were boarded up in cities including Washington, Los Angeles and New York. Federal authorities erected a new fence around the White House perimeter.

• US Elections 2020
• USA