Pennsylvania and Michigan expect to announce complete results by Friday, according to state election officials. In Wisconsin, where Biden held a slim lead at the time of writing, officials expect a result early this morning. Georgia, Nevada, and North Carolina also remain extremely close.
This uncertainty has not stopped U.S. President Donald Trump from suggesting that he has won. Speaking to a crowd of supporters and staff at the White House in the early hours of this morning, Trump claimed he had won in a number of states that have yet to be called, including Pennsylvania and Michigan, citing the large current margins he holds over former Vice President Joe Biden while more than 1 million votes remain to be counted in each state.
Trump also said that he would enlist the help of the Supreme Court in blocking vote counts in states where he is currently leading—while in the same speech criticizing Fox News and other networks for calling Arizona, where he trails, for Biden. Vice President Mike Pence struck a more measured tone, saying that he and Trump were merely “on the path to victory.”
No matter how things go, it’s clear there has been no mass repudiation of Trump or the Republican Party, despite what several polls suggested in advance of the vote. Red states on the whole have stayed red, with Trump holding onto electoral college prizes like Florida and Texas, while Senate seats that Democrats had hoped to flip—such as Lindsey Graham’s in South Carolina—remain in Republican hands.
Follow along with FP. Foreign Policy is continuing its live blog throughout the day and into the night as votes get counted and more states are called. We’ll be providing round-the-clock updates from our correspondents as well as analysis from around the world, and you can find it all here.
A “record” turnout. With around 65 percent of eligible voters casting ballots, Tuesday’s turnout is likely to be the highest in a U.S. election since 1908. FP’s James Palmer and Audrey Wilson explain why that’s not much to shout about, compared with other developed democracies around the world.
Polling stations have been closed across the United States for hours but the world is no closer to learning who will be sworn in as president of the United States on January 20, 2021.
