Adding fears in an already chaotic environment, misinformation regarding in-mail voting that led to false claims that ballots have been tampered with is on the rise. According to data published by the New York Times, the highest volume of misinformation regarding in-mail voting has been floating in the battleground states. Of the 1.1 million total voting-by-mail falsehoods that Zignal tallied, Pennsylvania topped the list with 227,907 of them. This comes after Trump’s repeated attacks on the credibility of the system.
The issue of voter fraud was brought up on the last day of campaigning as US President Donald Trump sought to know the results on time. “The Election should end on November 3rd., not weeks later!” he tweeted on Friday.
With Trump threatening legal battles over the declaration of results, several Democratic and Republican lawyers have already gone to court over these issues in the run-up to Tuesday's election. Both sides say they're ready, with thousands of lawyers on standby to march into court to make sure ballots get counted, or excluded.
In the national polls, Trump continues to trail Biden with a 42 per cent chance, according to the latest Reuters poll. Similarly, a poll by The New York Times showed Biden holding a clear advantage over 4 important swing states -- Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida and Arizona. Biden's electoral position appears to put him in a stronger position than any presidential candidate since 2008.
Meanwhile, Indian-American supporters of both President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden on Sunday intensified their campaigns, particularly in battleground states, asking the community members to get out and vote and support their respective leaders.
Earlier in the day, Americans were seen voting in large numbers in one of the most divisive bitter elections in decades in which incumbent Republican Donald Trump is challenged by Democrat Joe Biden. Some 239 million people are eligible to vote this year. The mail-in ballots could take days or weeks to be counted in some states, meaning a winner might not be declared in the hours after polls close on Tuesday local time.
Read | As US votes, a village in India prays for Kamala Harris
Read | A guide to tracking the results of the US Election 2020
The BSE Sensex has jumped over 500 points in early trade to cross the 41,000 mark, while the broader Nifty rises over 140 points to cross 12,000 mark. Markets are rallying as Joe Biden inches closer to victory in the US presidential elections.
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The Trump campaign said it filed lawsuits on 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.
'Our lawyers have asked for “meaningful access”, but what good does that do? The damage has already been done to the integrity of our system, and to the Presidential Election itself. This is what should be discussed!' Trump tweeted.
Indian American emergency room physician Dr Hiral Tipirneni has maintained a narrow lead over her Republican incumbent in an Arizona Congressional race, which as of Wednesday night was too close to call.
If elected, Mumbai-born Tipirneni would be the second Indian American woman to be elected to the House of Representatives. Pramila Jayapal, the first, was re-elected for her third consecutive term on Tuesday.
Tipirneni would also be the second Indian American doctor after Dr Ami Bera to be elected to the House. Bera has been re-elected for the fifth consecutive term from California.
By Wednesday evening, Tipirneni (52) had a lead of less than 2,000 votes against Republican incumbent David Schweikert, who is facing an ethics investigation in the House.
If elected, the Indian American will become the second Democrat ever to represent the sixth Congressional District of Arizona.
Waiting for the results, Tipirneni told her supporters on Tuesday night that she is on the trajectory that she hopes will lead her to victory. "We are thrilled. Thank you for all of the support, but we will wait until every last ballot is counted. We want to make sure that everybody's voice is heard," she said.
Americans sorted themselves into two distinct camps of voters in Tuesday's presidential election, exposing the clear and entrenched partisan divisions that separate voters of different genders, classes and races.
Despite a once-in-a-century pandemic and a weakened economy, some 76% of U.S. voters said they knew all along who they would support and they constituted the bulk of the supporters for both President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of the voters nationwide.
Trump weighed heavily on voters' minds as they made their choice-- two-thirds said their decision was driven by their opinion of the untraditional president, either for or against.
The candidates' supporters fell into familiar coalitions, with only a few groups showing significant numbers of swing voters. Biden amassed a sizable and diverse coalition of young, women, college-educated, urban and Black voters. Some 38% of his support came from voters of color.
Indian origin candidates Rikin Mehta and Sara Gideon have lost their Senate race from New Jersey and Maine respectively, according to projections made by the American media on Tuesday night.
Born to an Indian father and an Armenian mother, Gideon, the current speaker to the Maine House of Representatives, lost to Republican heavyweight Senator Susan Collins.
Collins received 4,09,974 votes as against the 3,39,364 bagged by Gideon. This was the fifth consecutive victory for Collins. In her remarks, she publicly thanked Gideon for 'a very gracious call', conceding the race.
Gideon's father immigrated from India and worked as a paediatrician in Rhode Island, where Gideon, the youngest of four children, grew up. She moved to Maine after meeting her husband Ben, a personal injury trial lawyer with the lawfirm, Berman & Simons.
Republican Rick Mehta lost the election to Democratic incumbent Cory Booker. Booker received 60.4 per cent of the votes counted as against Mehta's 38 per cent.
Kamala Harris from California is the first Indian-origin Senator to be elected to the US Senate.
Hours after bagging the swing state of Wisconsin, Joe Biden wins Michigan. The state is part of the traditional Democratic “blue wall” that President Trump flipped in 2016.
Ahead of the election, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube promised to clamp down on election misinformation, including unsubstantiated charges of fraud and premature declarations of victory by candidates. And they mostly did just that — though not without a few hiccups.
But overall their measures still didn’t really address the problems exposed by the 2020 U.S. presidential contest, critics of the social platforms contend.
“We’re seeing exactly what we expected, which is not enough, especially in the case of Facebook,” said Shannon McGregor, an assistant professor of journalism and media at the University of North Carolina. READ MORE
Scattered protests took place from Washington, D.C., to Washington state as votes were counted, but there were no signs of widespread unrest or violence linked to the US election. The outcome of the hard-fought contest for the presidency remained undecided Wednesday, stirring worries that prolonged uncertainty could yet spark conflict.
But demonstrations overnight and on Wednesday in cities including Seattle, Philadelphia, Washington and New York remained largely peaceful.
In Washington, 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 downtown, sometimes blocking traffic and setting off fireworks.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has expressed confidence he will win once counting of votes is finished.
"After a long night of counting, it's clear that we're winning enough states to reach 270 electoral votes needed to win presidency. I'm not here to declare that we won but I'm here to report when counting is finished, we believe we'll be winners," he said.
The Trump campaign said it filed a lawsuit Wednesday in Michigan state court demanding access to locations where ballots are being counted in one of the undecided states that could determine whether President Donald Trump gets another four years in the White House.
The campaign said it is calling for a temporary halt in the counting until it is given “meaningful access” in numerous locations and allowed to review ballots that already have been opened and processed. Trump is running slightly behind Democratic nominee Joe Biden in Michigan.
The campaign also said it would ask for a recount in Wisconsin, a state The Associated Press called for Biden on Wednesday afternoon. Campaign manager Bill Stepien cited “irregularities in several Wisconsin counties.”
The ‘swing states’ have historically voted for different parties in presidential elections. Electoral data reveals that between 2000 and 2016, 38 states voted for the same political party in five presidential elections. It is the remaining 12 that have changed loyalties.
The term ‘swing state’ first appeared in the New York Times in 1936 when the incumbent Democrat president Franklin Roosevelt won against Republican Alf Landon. “Each believes he has won by swing through the most doubtful states,” said the caption of the cartoon representing the election. READ MORE
The Associated Press has called Wisconsin and its 10 electoral college votes for Joe Biden. It is the second state to be flipped from Republican to Democrat, following the call of Arizona for the Democratic nominee early this morning.
Democrat Joe Biden has won at least three of Maine's four electoral votes in his bid to unseat President Donald Trump.
Biden won the statewide tally and the 1st Congressional District, good for three electoral votes. Trump, meanwhile, hoped to claim one electoral vote in a win in the 2nd Congressional District. The 2nd Congressional District hasn't yet been called.
Maine split its electoral votes four years ago, awarding three to Democrat Hillary Clinton and one to Trump, who won 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. In the race to the 270 electoral votes needed to win, Biden has 238 while Trump has 213. (AP)
As of Wednesday morning, eight states that will decide the next president remained uncalled, as did a handful of Senate races that will determine who controls the chamber.
Here’s where things stand, when you can expect final results and how to follow along as this extraordinary election unfolds.
What are we waiting for?
In the presidential race, we did not yet know who won Alaska (3 electoral votes), Arizona (11), Georgia (16), Michigan (16), Nevada (6), North Carolina (15), Pennsylvania (20), Wisconsin (10) or Maine’s 2nd Congressional District (1).
Joe Biden has 227 confirmed electoral votes and would need 43 more to win. President Donald Trump has 213 confirmed electoral votes and would need 57 more to win.
Six Senate races were uncalled in five states: Alaska, Georgia, Maine, Michigan and North Carolina. READ MORE
The US gambling industry won big at the polls on Tuesday, with three states authorising legal sports betting and three others either approving or expanding casino gambling. Maryland, South Dakota and Louisiana approved sports betting. That sets up a situation in which by the end of next year more than half the country could have legal sports betting, less than three years after a US Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for all 50 states to adopt it if they chose.
Virginia approved casino gambling in four locations, Nebraska authorized adding casino games at its horse racing tracks, and Colorado expanded the number and type of casino games it can offer, along with eliminating some wagering limits. “It appears that Americans are becoming increasingly comfortable with legalized gambling,” said David Schwartz, a gambling historian with the University of Nevada Las Vegas.
“The addition of casinos in Virginia and racetrack casinos in Nebraska indicates that casino-style gambling is on the upswing as well. We have reached a point where voters seem satisfied that legalizing gambling will offer positive returns for their state.” The American Gaming Association, the casino industry''s main trade group, hailed the expansion votes.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is discounting President Donald Trumps early claim that hed already won the election saying its going to take a while for states to conduct their vote counts.
The Kentucky Republican and Trump ally said Wednesday that claiming youve won the election is different from finishing the counting.
McConnell also says he is untroubled by Trumps vows to contest the vote count in key states telling reporters in Louisville that you should not be shocked that both sides are going to have lawyers there.
He added that the courts will decide disputes. That's the way we do it in this country. (AP)
There are still seven states left undecided in the presidential race. Here’s where they stand Wednesday morning.
Wisconsin: Joe Biden leads by about 20,000 votes or by seven-tenths of a percentage point (which is almost exactly the margin of President Donald Trump’s victory here in 2016). That might not seem like a daunting deficit, but there’s just not much reason for hope for Trump. Only a scattering of precincts remain across the state. This race might still be considered too close to call as long as there are still outstanding votes, but you can pencil this one into the Biden column if you’re gaming out what’s likely to happen from here.
Nevada: Biden has only a narrow lead, but here again it’s hard to see where Trump is supposed to make up ground. All of the Election Day vote has been counted, and now only Democratic-leaning late mail and provisional ballots remain. Nevada election officials said no more results would be released until noon Eastern time Thursday. CLICK HERE to read about other five states.
Trump leading in swing state of Pennsylvania against Biden by over 4,70,000 votes
The Associated Press hasn't yet called the batleground state of Wisconsin, but Trump's rival Joe Biden remains ahead by about 20,000 votes.
The Associated Press has not declared a winner in Georgias presidential contest because the race between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden is too early to call with outstanding ballots left to be counted in counties where Biden has performed well.
Trump and Biden are locked in a tight contest to secure the 270 electoral votes .needed to win the presidency Early Wednesday Trump prematurely claimed he carried Georgia - and several other states that were too early to call.
It's clear that we have won Georgia Were up by 25 or 117000 votes with only 7 of the vote left to count Trump said during an early morning appearance at the White House. He also said he planned to contest the US presidential election before the Supreme Court It was unclear exactly what legal action he might pursue. The race is too early to call because an estimated 4 of the vote still remains to be counted.
That includes mailed ballots from two counties Biden is winning metro Atlantas DeKalb County as well as Chatham County which is home to Savannah.
The race for the White House appears to be headed towards an uncharted territory with the Trump and Biden campaigns gearing up for a protracted legal battle in the US Supreme Court as the election results in some of the key battleground states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan still being counted.
All eyes are now on states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, North Carolina and Georgia. Counting of mail-in-ballots, which was voted in record numbers this time, might take time.
Officials in Pennsylvania said on Wednesday that they expect all votes to be counted by Friday. The Biden campaign believes that they have a definitive edge on this, while the Trump campaign fears that there could be electoral malpractice during the counting of votes.
"We want the law to be used in a proper manner so we'll be going to the US Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop. We don't want them to find any ballots at 4:00 in the morning," President Donald Trump said to his supporters at the White House in the wee hours of Wednesday. (AP)
Donald Trump Jr, son of US President Donald Trump, drew flak and criticism on Wednesday for posting an inaccurate world map drenched in the red colour of the Republican Party and one which showed the whole of India as blue, the colour of the Democratic Party, with the exception of Kashmir and north-east states.
"Okay, finally got around to making my electoral map prediction," Trump Jr said in a Twitter post along with the world map on Tuesday as the US began voting in the 2020 presidential election, implying that the entire world is voting for and supporting his father and the Republican Party.
The map showed all the countries, including water bodies and Antarctica, coloured red, with the exception of the state of California, India, Mexico, Liberia, Cuba and China coloured blue - the hue of the Democratic party. However, while India was coloured blue, Jammu and Kashmir and the North-East states were coloured red. The Indian borders were also inaccurate in the map. Trump Jr drew flak on social media for the tweet and for showing Kashmir and the North-east states in a colour different from the rest of India.
"So much for the friendship with Trump Senior. Junior has placed India firmly with @JoeBiden & @KamalaHarris though interestingly Jr. believes J&K & the NorthEast go against the rest of India & will vote Trump. Someone needs to take his colouring pencils away," former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah tweeted.
A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Wednesday weighed arguments by Republicans seeking to stop a suburban Philadelphia county from counting mail-in and absentee ballots that voters had been permitted to correct.
US District Judge Timothy Savage in Philadelphia appeared skeptical of arguments by the plaintiffs' lawyer, which lawyers for Montgomery County election officials and the Democratic National Committee said could disenfranchise voters.
A decision could have implications for the national presidential race between Republican incumbent Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden.
Results in several states are unclear, and Pennsylvania is a battleground as mail-in ballots are tabulated. Trump appeared at the White House early Wednesday to falsely claim victory in the presidential race and make unsubstantiated allegations of electoral fraud. (Reuters)
Joe Biden started election night with many paths to 270 electoral votes, but by Wednesday morning President Donald Trump had won Florida, Ohio and Texas and was within striking distance of winning North Carolina.
But while the number of winning scenarios for Biden diminished Tuesday, it was the former vice president, and not the president, who was on offense early Wednesday in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, the once-reliable “blue wall” states, thanks to his big pre-election effort to encourage mail-in balloting and early voting. Read more
At 9 pm IST, Republican Donald Trump is leading from Alaska, AP reports. After 45% of vote counting, Trump has 62.9% electoral vote count as opposed to Biden who is at 33%.
(Source: AP)
The US and the world watches with bated breath as a tough Presidential battle plays out between Republican incumbent Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden on Election Day. As the ballots are still being counted across the US, primarily the mail-in votes, it may take a day or even a week to determine who occupies the Oval office next.
The front pages of the US dailies reflected the nation’s tension, highlighting the importance of the swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Nevada, and Pennsylvania, which hold the key to the White House now. Here's how the US dailies carried the Election night headlines.
As the counting of votes continued, US President Donald Trump again targeted the counting of mail-in votes. "Last night I was leading, often solidly, in many key States, in almost all instances Democrat run & controlled. Then, one by one, they started to magically disappear as surprise ballot dumps were counted. VERY STRANGE, and the “pollsters” got it completely & historically wrong!" he tweeted. "How come every time they count Mail-In ballot dumps they are so devastating in their percentage and power of destruction?" he added.
Trump kept several states, including Texas, Iowa and Ohio, where Biden had made a strong play in the final stages of the campaign. But Biden also picked off states where Trump sought to compete including New Hampshire and Minnesota. But Florida was the biggest fiercely contested battleground on the map with both campaigns battling over the 29 Electoral College votes that went to Trump.
At 8:30 pm IST, Republican Donald Trump is leading from battleground state Pennsylvania, AP reports. After 64% of vote counting, Trump has 54.5% electoral vote count as opposed to Biden who is at 44.4%.
US stock futures and markets around the world are ticking higher in early Wednesday trading but only after spinning through an election night dominated by surprises and sharp swings.
After rallying early this week amid hopes that Election Days arrival could clear the uncertainty thats been weighing on markets. Treasury yields and US stock futures swung up down and back again overnight as early results showed a race thats still too close to call between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.
Its unclear when a winner can emerge Investors see cause for optimism if either candidate wins but much is at stake pending the results including prospects for a big stimulus effort for the economy from Washington, potential tax rate increases and the level of regulation on businesses. (AP)
A villager carries a bucket of water and walks past a hoarding featuring U.S. democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris at a crossing in Thulasendrapuram village, south of Chennai, Tamil Nadu state, India, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020. The villagers on Tuesday held special prayers for Harris' success in the elections at the temple in this lush green village, the hometown of Harris' maternal grandfather who migrated from here decades ago. The hoarding in Tamil reads, "From Thulasendrapuram to America, we wish the American vice presidential candidate hailing from Thulasendrapuram village Kamala Harris victory in the elections- From the villagers of Thulasendrapuram." (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)
Democrat Joe Biden takes a narrow lead in three swing states - Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada - as the battle for the American presidency goes down the wire. In Michigan, Biden has 49.3% electoral votes as opposed to Donald Trump's 49.1%. In Nevada, Biden is ahead on 49.2% votes as opposed to Trump's 48.6%. In Wisconsin, Biden is ahead on 49.6$ votes as against Trump's 48.9%.
As per the update by AP till 6 pm, Joe Biden has 238 electoral votes with a vote count of 6,90,36,555 votes whereas Donald Trump has 213 electoral votes with a vote count of 6,67,53,430 votes.
Their hopes fading for Senate control, Democrats had a disappointing election night as Republicans swatted down an onslaught of challengers and fought to retain their majority. Several races remained undecided and at least one headed to a runoff in January. It was a jarring outcome for Democrats who had devised an expanded political map eager to provide a backstop against Trump and his party's grip on the Senate. The voters' choices will force a rethinking of Democratic Party strategy messaging and approach from the Trump era.
Meanwhile, Democrats are driving toward extending their control of the House for two more years but with a potentially shrunken majority. They have lost six incumbents and failed to oust any Republican lawmakers in initial returns. The only gains for Democrats have been two North Carolina seats vacated by GOP incumbents after a court-ordered remapping. Though Democrats seem likely to retain House control, the results have been disappointing for the party which had hoped to make modest gains of perhaps 15 seats. (AP)
The AP declared Joe Biden the winner of Minnesota at 11:55 p.m. EST Tuesday, after an analysis of ballots statewide concluded there were not enough outstanding ones to allow President Trump to catch up.
With 85% of the expected vote counted, Biden led Trump by roughly 4 percentage points — or about 190,000 votes out of about 2.3 million ballots cast. The remaining votes in Republican-leaning areas are not enough for Trump to overtake Biden’s lead.
Minnesota has been solidly Democratic for the past half-century, but has turned into a presidential battleground.
Trump targeted the state after narrowly losing to Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016 by 1.6 percentage points. Republicans, however, suffered a blow in the 2018 midterm elections. Minnesota Democrats flipped two suburban congressional districts, took back control of the state House by winning suburban Trump-voting areas and came within one seat of winning control of the state Senate.
The last time Minnesota voted for a Republican presidential candidates was Richard Nixon in 1972.
Voters in the US presidential election faced a public health crisis and a wounded economy but neither candidate emerged as the clear choice to handle both of those issues according to AP VoteCast.
More voters - both nationwide and in key battlegrounds - said former Vice President Joe Biden would be better able to handle the coronavirus pandemic the top concern for about 4 in 10 voters. But President Donald Trump edged out Biden on the question of who would be better to rebuild an economy besieged by nearly 11 million job losses and small businesses staring down a bleak winter. About 3 in 10 voters nationally ranked the economy as the most pressing issue. (AP)