Joe Biden, the US Democratic presidential challenger, has edged closer to the White House after dramatically overtaking Donald Trump’s vote tally in Georgia for the first time and further closing the gap in Pennsylvania.
By Friday morning in the US, Biden had moved to a 917-vote advantage in Georgia with thousands of ballots still left to be counted – many in counties where the former vice-president was in the lead.
Q&A How will the Guardian report US election results?
Show
Hide
Though most people will probably be watching the results of the race for the White House, more than 7,000 elections took place across the US on 3 November.
In the age of disinformation, it is more important than ever that media outlets report election results as clearly and transparently as possible.
The Guardian will be using data collected and analysed by the Associated Press (AP) as the source for when we will call election results for the presidency, Senate, House races and others. AP has a team of thousands of specialists and correspondents across America, who have trusted relationships with local officials. This will guide their data-led assessment of when it’s time to call a race.
There are a number of other highly reputable election «decision desks» in US media. They may call races earlier than AP. While the Guardian will report this is happening, we will rely on AP’s data to make our own final call.
Should any candidate declare victory prematurely, we will report this claim, but make clear that it is not valid. The only measure of victory is a complete count of all outstanding ballots.
Was this helpful?
Thank you for your feedback.
The Georgia secretary of state reported late on Thursday there were about 10,000 ballots still to be counted in the state, a must-win for Trump in order to keep any chances of re-election alive in the race for the 270 electoral college votes that will determine the presidency.
Biden’s narrow lead late in the Georgia count came as he urged calm on Thursday night, after an inflammatory and falsehood filled Trump address from the White House where the president once again claimed he had won.
The latest voting figures were disclosed as an increasingly frantic Trump and his campaign continued to undermine confidence in the election, threatening a rash of litigation amid unfounded claims of election rigging.
With Georgia slipping away from his grasp, Trump’s path to a victory in the electoral college appeared to be closing as election workers in undeclared states including Pennsylvania, Nevada and Arizona continued to count ballots.
“This is a case when they are trying to steal an election, they are trying to rig an election,” Trump said from the podium of the White House briefing room.
Play Video
2:24
Trump repeats baseless election fraud claims as Biden calls for calm – video report
“If you count the legal votes, I easily win, Trump wrongly clamed. “If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.
When will we know the US election result – and why the delay?
Read more
“If you count the votes that came in late, we’re looking at them very strongly, a lot of votes came in late,” he said.
Several TV networks cut away during his remarks, with anchors saying they needed to correct his statements.
There remains no evidence that illegal or late votes were being counted, or that the election is being stolen.
Officials in Pennsylvania said they expect counting – where Biden has been steadily eroding Trump’s early lead – to be completed on Friday.
Biden has been steadily chipping away at the Republican incumbent’s lead in the state.
The Democrat’s deficit had shrunk to just over 18,000 by early on Friday, and was expected to continue falling with many of the ballots still to be counted from Democratic areas with Biden expected by some to overtake Trump there later on Friday
Biden also maintains slim advantages in Arizona and Nevada. In Arizona, his lead narrowed to about 47,000 early on Friday and in Nevada he was ahead by about 11,500 votes.
Trump had seen his lead steadily shrink in Georgia, a southern state that has not voted for a Democratic presidential nominee since Bill Clinton took the White House in 1992, as officials worked through tens of thousands of uncounted votes, many from Democratic strongholds such as Atlanta.
For his part Biden urged calm even as it was revealed that the US Secret Service was sending extra officers to Delaware to join his security detail.
“I ask everyone to stay calm. The process is working,” Biden said.
“It is the will of the voters. No one, not anyone else who chooses the president of the United States of America.”
While Biden’s victories in the upper-midwest put him in a strong position, Trump showed no sign of giving up. He was back on Twitter at about 2.30am on Friday, insisting the “US Supreme Court should decide!”
While many high-profile Republicans have not commented on Trump’s latest comments, several GOP lawmakers denounced his baseless allegations about fraud, with Paul Mitchell, a Michigan congressman, saying that every vote would be counted, adding that “anything less harms the integrity of our elections and is dangerous for our democracy”.
Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois GOP congressman, tweeted: “STOP Spreading debunked misinformation… This is getting insane.”
Свежие комментарии