Vote counting continues in several close states that hold the key to victory for Donald Trump or Joe Biden.
- Americans continue to watch and wait to see who will be declared the winner of Tuesday’s presidential election.
- Currently, Biden is projected to have won 264 electoral votes, Trump 214 and 270 are needed to win.
- Alaska, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania are still counting ballots and winners have not been projected in those states.
- Arizona has been projected for Biden, but officials say mail-in ballots are still being counted.
Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the US elections. This is Creede Newton taking over from Jihan Abdalla.
Georgia to conduct an audit before certifying election winner
Election officials from the US state of Georgia have announced that starting on Friday, they would conduct an audit of the election result beofre certifying the winner of the presidential election.
According to The Hill, the audit will be conducted under a new state law, and has been designed to find any problems and errors in the counting machine.
US President Donald Trump holds a very slim lead of less than 2,000 votes against his challenger, Joseph Biden in the latest count.
Trump’s Senate allies warn GOP may reject vote results
Two Senate allies of Donald Trump on Thursday warned that Republicans may reject the legitimacy of vote results if they turn against the embattled president.
As a few Republicans distanced themselves from Trump’s unsubstantiated allegations of fraud in Tuesday’s election, Senators Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz enthusiastically backed him in back-to-back appearances on Fox News.
“I’ll tell you the president is angry and I’m angry and the voters ought to be angry,” Cruz told the network’s host Sean Hannity, whose evening show is a favourite of Trump.
Asked by Hannity if the Pennsylvania legislature could refuse to recognize the results and instead give the state’s electoral votes to Trump, Graham replied, “I think everything should be on the table.”
Philadelphia elections are crooked as a snake. Why are they shutting people out? Because they don’t want people to see what they’re doing,” said Graham without offering any proof of his allegations.
Trump, Biden neck-and-neck in Pennsylvania
With 94 percent of the votes counted in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, Edison Research is reporting that US President Donald Trump remains slightly ahead with 49.6 percent of the votes.
Meanwhile, Democratic challenger, former vice president Joseph Biden has 49.1 percent of the votes.
Pennsylvania is the hometown of Biden, but voted for Trump during the 2016 elections. The state represents 20 electoral votes.
Trump’s lead in US state of Georgia down to 1,902
President Donald Trump’s lead in Georgia is now down to 1,902 as the southern US state continues to count the last few thousand outstanding votes.
According to reports, there are still over 16,000 ballots that remain to be counted.
GOP House members denounce Trump’s unproven claim of electoral fraud
Members of President Donald Trump’s own party have denounced him following his statement claiming that he has been cheated in the recently-concluded US presidential race.
In a statement on social media, Republican Representative Will Hurd of Texas said that what is Trump doing “is not only dangerous and wrong, it undermines the very foundation this nation was built upon.”
Meanwhile, Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois said that the president should “STOP spreading debunked misinformation.”
Trump’s edge in state of Georgia shrinks further
With 99 percent of the total votes counted, US President Donald Trump’s edge in the US state of Georgia has shrunk further to 2,497 votes.
According to the latest count, Trump received 2,447,015 votes, representing 49.4 percent of the total votes.
Meanwhile, Trump’s challenger, former vice president Joseph Biden received 2,444,518, which is also about 49.4 percent of the total votes.
Georgia is a reliably Republican state with 16 electoral votes. Biden only needs six more electoral votes to clinch the presidency.
Trump repeats unproven fraud claims in first speech since election night
US President Donald Trump has reiterated unproven claims that widespread voter fraud has marred the United States presidential election, which remains too close to call as ballot counting continues in several key states.
In a Thursday evening address at the White House, the US president struck a typically defiant tone, accusing pollsters as well as the Democratic Party of engaging in fraud – an unproven claim he has repeated throughout the week on Twitter, which has labelled information in his tweets as “disputed” or potentially “misleading”.
