Democratic candidate for president Joe Biden, left, speaks to a crowd of supporters during a drive-in rally at the Florida State Fairgrounds on Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020 in Tampa. President Donald Trump, right, speaks at a re-election rally outside Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on Thursday, October 29, 2020. Credit: Luis Santana and Ivy Ceballo/Times via TNS
Update: This article was last updated Friday at 12:19 p.m. with the latest vote counts.
On the third day after the election, the race for president has still yet to be called.
The Associated Press has yet to call five states — Nevada, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Alaska. With the exception of Alaska, former Vice President Joe Biden, who sits with 264 electoral votes, needs one of the remaining four states to reach the electoral vote threshold of 270. President Donald Trump, who sits with 214 electoral votes, needs all four.
Each state has reported challenges in reporting votes, and the Trump campaign filed lawsuits in Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania Wednesday, arguing that the counting process needs to pause because they claim absentee ballots received by boards of elections after polls closed are illegally being counted. In Georgia and Pennsylvania, ballots postmarked by Election Day have until Nov. 6 to arrive.
Early Wednesday morning, Trump falsely told supporters that he won the election although votes were still being tallied and multiple states had not yet been called.
Thursday evening, Trump reiterated these false claims, adding that he is being “cheated out of the election” among other unsubstantiated claims.
Trump’s lawsuits in Michigan and Georgia were dismissed Thursday after judges found no basis for fraud or illegally cast ballots. His campaign’s additional lawsuit in Pennsylvania won an appellate ruling, granting a legal observer closer access to vote processing after claiming he could not see officials’ activity.
Here’s what you need to know:
Nevada — 6 electoral votes
Biden leads Trump in Nevada 49.8 percent to 48.1 percent with 86 percent reported. Trump trails Biden by about 21,000 votes in the state.
In Nevada, ballots must be postmarked by Nov. 3 and received by the Boards of Elections by Nov. 10, according to the Nevada Secretary of State website.
Pennsylvania — 20 electoral votes
Biden surpassed Trump in Pennsylvania’s vote count Friday morning and now leads 49.5 percent to 49.3 percent with 98 percent reporting. The vote difference in the state is about 10,000.
A majority of ballots yet to be counted are absentee, which the state was not allowed to start counting till Election Day. A majority of those absentee ballots are expected to go to Biden, according to the AP.
The Supreme Court ruled Oct. 28 Pennsylvania mailed absentee ballots must be received by boards of elections by Nov. 6 and must be postmarked on or before Election Day.
North Carolina — 15 electoral votes
Trump leads Biden in North Carolina 50.1 percent to 48.7 percent. Biden trails Trump by about 77,000 votes in the state.
Voters in North Carolina must postmark absentee ballots by Election Day and must be received Nov. 12 by 5 p.m. or returned in person by 5 p.m. on Election Day, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
Georgia — 16 electoral votes
Biden overtook Trump in Georgia’s vote count early Friday and now leads by less than 2,000 votes with 99 percent of precincts reporting. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Friday the state will conduct a recount.
The AP says the state is too early to call. One percent of the vote is yet to be counted, including a significant number of ballots in counties projected to favor Biden. In Georgia, all mail-in ballots must be received by Election Day for voters residing in the United States or postmarked by Election Day and received no later than Nov. 6 for military or overseas voters, according to Georgia.gov.
