The scenario many had feared has come true: November 3 has come and gone and we don’t know whether President Donald Trump or Democratic candidate Joe Biden has won the White House.
Here’s the current state of play and a preview of what to expect.
What results remain?
As it stands, Biden has won 238 electoral votes and Trump a maximum of 213, based on the states they’ve so far won.
Barack Obama’s vice president was boosted by the addition of Arizona in the early hours of Wednesday morning — as the two men try to eke their way to the magic number of 270 out of a total of 538.
That leaves the battlegrounds Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin still up in the air — as well as the easier to predict states of Alaska (Republican) and Nevada (Democratic).
When will we find out?
Officials in many of the states have indicated how long it will take to count the ballots, with the situation complicated this year by the Covid-19 pandemic that has led to record mail-in voting.
Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin, have all indicated a final picture could emerge Wednesday, Pennsylvania has said it could take up to November 6, while in North Carolina mail ballots postmarked election day are accepted until November 12.
But in reality things remain uncertain. In an open letter to voters, Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney asked citizens of Pennsylvania’s biggest city to exercise “patience.”
What can happen next?
While Biden has voiced confidence in his chances, President Trump has gone a step further, already claiming victory and saying he’ll go to the Supreme Court to get his way.
The Republican said in a White House speech that “we want all voting to stop,” apparently meaning that he wants to stop the counting of mail-in ballots which can be legally accepted by state election boards after Tuesday’s election.
Democrats are widely thought to have cast more mail-in ballots than Trump’s supporters and Republicans have already signalled they’ll pursue an aggressive strategy in Pennsylvania to have the votes that arrived after the election thrown out.
Tom Wolf, the state’s Democratic governor shot back Wednesday, tweeting that there were a million votes left to count. “I promised Pennsylvanians that we would count every vote and that’s what we’re going to do,” he said.
The state’s top court ordered a three day extension which the US Supreme Court refused to block, but said it could revisit the issue after the election — and the ascension of new conservative judge Amy Coney Barrett could prove decisive in that decision.
The spectre of civil unrest has worried many voters but failed to materialize on Election Day itself.
Pennsylvania attorney general says voters can be confident in the counting process, but urges patience
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro urged voters to be patient as the state counts all its ballots, saying that the state will get a “clearer picture” by the end of the day, but cautioned all results will be known “by the end of the week.”
“Here’s the reality: It’s going to take as long as it takes to get an accurate count,” Shapiro said in an interview with CNN’s John Berman. “It’s what the law requires. … we’re going to get a lot more data today; I think you will have a clearer picture of where things are going toward the end of the day, but obviously ballots can be received and counted all the way up until Friday. So I expect that we’ll know by the end of the week.”
Shapiro said that volunteers and clerks from Pennsylvania communities have been awake around the clock to tabulate votes.
“We said all along that we were going to secure and protect and count the vote. We accomplished the first two — the vote was secured and protected — and now we’re going through this laborious process of counting,” he said.
Shapiro said he expects numbers to fluctuate, but voters can have “confidence” in the counting process.
“These votes are going to be tabulated, they’re going to be counted, and at the end of the day, the will of the people of Pennsylvania is going to be respected,” Shapiro said.
It’s almost 10 a.m. ET. Here’s where House, Senate and presidential races stand.
The presidency
It’s the morning after Election Day, and CNN has not yet projected who will win the presidency. Votes are still being counted in Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Maine, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
At this hour, both candidates still have pathways to get to 270 electoral votes – the number of votes needed to win the presidency.
Based on the races called so far, this is where the race to 270 stands right now:
The Senate
In the Senate, Republicans have dramatically narrowed the path for Democrats to take back the majority, preventing upsets in red states such as South Carolina, Iowa and Montana. But with much of the vote still being counted, Democrats could still win four of these remaining races — and the White House — to take the Senate majority.
Here’s a look at the states where Senate seats are still up for grabs:
- Alaska: GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan faces Democrat Al Gross.
- Arizona: GOP Sen. Martha McSally is up against Democrat Mark Kelly.
- Georgia: GOP Sen. David Perdue faces Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff.
- Georgia special election: This race will go into a runoff between Republican incumbent Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Raphael Warnock. The special election had featured a divisive, intra-party matchup between Loeffler and GOP Rep. Doug Collins.
- Maine: GOP Sen. Susan Collins faces a challenge from Democrat Sara Gideon.
- Michigan: Democratic Sen. Gary Peters faces Republican challenger John James.
- North Carolina: GOP Sen. Thom Tillis is running against Democrat Cal Cunningham.
The House
Republicans had a better night than expected holding on to some of their House seats. At least two incumbent Democrats were ousted by GOP challengers, and more could come as many races are yet to be called.
On the Democratic side, all four congresswomen of “the Squad” — Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts — won reelection. Since taking office in January 2019, the lawmakers, all women of color, have electrified the progressive base thanks to their social media savvy but have also attracted controversy, most notably over their criticism of the US relationship with Israel.
Here’s a look at where the balance of power in congress currently sits:
Top Biden adviser: “We’re going to win today”
As vote counting continues in key battleground states, a Biden official tells CNN they believe things are “moving to a conclusion – and moving to a conclusion in our favor.”
The official also offered these broad outlooks on some of the key outstanding battleground states:
- They are confident they will win Wisconsin
- In Michigan, they feel particularly good about their vote-by-mail numbers
- They are also confident about winning Pennsylvania
- In Georgia, they are keeping a close eye on Fulton County.
One top adviser to Biden expressed confidence they would emerge victorious today.
“We feel good,” the senior adviser said. “We’re going to win today.”
But while the Biden campaign urges patience as votes continue to be counted, some have expressed disappointment the campaign was unable to deliver a swift and resounding verdict against President Trump in the hours after polls closed.
“Disappointed there isn’t a complete repudiation of Trump,” one source close to the campaign said. “But I think we will still win.”
Democrats wake up to a new reality as Biden surges to Michigan lead
If you went to sleep last night at a decent hour, you woke up this morning to a very different presidential race.
Democratic nominee Joe Biden jumped out ahead of President Trump in Michigan at around 9 a.m. ET, as the counting continues there and in Wisconsin. Biden, as big loads of absentee ballots were tabulated, took a lead in the Badger State at a little before 5 a.m. ET.
Still, the state of the race remains uncertain. Trump gave a speech overnight – when his situation looked much rosier than this morning — in which he made an awkward claim to having won the election. He had not. And, as the counting continues apace, he is further away from victory now than he was then.
Going forward, Democrats are confident that they’ll continue to gain ground in the Upper Midwest.
The reason: Absentee ballots are breaking overwhelmingly for Biden, who would need around 75% of what remains to be counted in Pennsylvania to overcome Trump’s current lead.
Biden and his team will also have their eyes on Georgia. There aren’t many outstanding votes, but they’re all in Atlanta and its suburbs – areas where Biden has shown strength and could be expected to help him to further narrow the race for Georgia.
Pennsylvania “is definitely in play,” senior state official says
With a lot of the nation’s attention on Pennsylvania, a senior state official said while President Trump has a sizable lead, the outcome is far from certain.
“Pennsylvania is definitely in play,” a senior official in Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration told CNN. “We hope to push counties, this morning, to work, non-stop, until every last ballot is tabulated, beginning this morning.”
Where things stand: According to publicly available information from various countries, as of this morning there were 1.4 million absentee ballots still to be counted. The margin of difference between Trump and Joe Biden currently stands at just over 618,000 with 75% of the state’s votes counted.
A majority of mail-in ballots — 65%— sent in in Pennsylvania were from registered Democrats, although that doesn’t mean all would have voted for Biden.
Philadelphia and state officials are scheduled to brief the press within the hour on the progress of the counting.
Where the vote stands in key counties in Georgia and Michigan
Votes are still being tabulated in key states. Here’s a closer look at the numbers in closely watched counties in those states.
“The simple fact is there are still votes to be counted … votes cast legally still to be counted in states where the margins are thin,” according to CNN’s Jim Sciutto.
In Georgia, 8% of the vote remains to be counted.
Fulton County, Georgia
- home to Atlanta
- 80% of the vote counted so far
- Absentee and mail-in vote counting resumed at 8:30 a.m. ET
DeKalb County, Georgia
- 80% of vote counted so far
- Absentee and mail-in vote counting resumes at 11 a.m. ET
In Michigan, 14% of the overall vote still needs to be counted. The Michigan secretary of state told CNN that “hundreds of thousands” of votes still need to be counted in the state as a whole.
Wayne County, Michigan
- home to Detroit
- 64% of the vote counted
“In both those states, it’s urban areas that tend to favor Democrats. The question, of course: Is it enough to turn the results in those states, and ultimately given their position as battleground states in this election, to turn the election overall?” Sciutto said.
In Wisconsin, 3% of the vote remains to be counted, while in Pennsylvania, 25% remains. Pennsylvania allows mail-in votes to be received and counted up until Friday.
Here’s how each candidate can still get to 270 electoral votes
From CNN’s Aditi Sangal / On-air analysis from CNN’s Phil Mattingly
CNN has not projected a winner in nine states across the country — Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Maine, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
CNN’s Phil Mattingly mapped out a potential path for Biden:
If Trump wins Alaska, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Georgia, and if Biden holds on to his lead in Wisconsin, Nevada, Arizona and Maine, and overtakes Trump in Michigan, that’s Biden’s path, Mattingly said.
“If you were a Democrat and you went to bed last night assuming it was a 2016 redux and everything was over, it’s not,” he added. “There is a very clear pathway, with a lot of vote to count, but there is a pathway.”
Mattingly also mapped out a potential path for Trump:
If Trump wins Pennsylvania, hold his lead in Michigan and flips Nevada, because it’s currently a very close race, he will have the votes he needs.
“[He] doesn’t need to win Georgia, needs to dig into some Democratic territory, and needs to somehow manage to hold off Joe Biden in the state of Michigan, and hang on to a very sizable lead right now in Pennsylvania, and he’s over 270,” Mattingly said.
Georgia’s Fulton County has just begun counting remaining absentee ballots
From CNN’s Nick Valencia, Jason Morris and Lindsay Benson
Fulton County, Georgia, has just begun counting absentee ballots. They started at 8:30 a.m. ET Wednesday after stopping Tuesday night at 10:30 p.m ET.
An estimated 48,000 absentee ballots are still outstanding.
Fulton County is Georgia’s most populous county with more than a million inhabitants.
Roughly 79,000 absentee mail ballots are still uncounted in DeKalb County. They are scheduled to start counting at 11a.m. ET this morning.
Biden campaign confident it’s on the right track
It’s the morning after Election Day, and it’s still too early to project a winner in the presidential race.
Votes are still being counted in Alaska, Arizona, North Carolina, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Maine, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
As the sun comes up on a long night of tracking votes, a Biden campaign aide said the campaign is confident it’s on the right track based on the states they’ve won and what’s yet to be counted
According to a source close to the campaign, the campaign always thought this would be a close race, pointing to campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon’s tweet a few weeks ago warning of a tight race.
“We have the burden of relying on the vote that takes the longest to count,” the source said. Even so, this person and the campaign remain optimistic when all votes are counted, Biden will be declared the winner.
Biden is ahead in Wisconsin after trailing Trump throughout the night. Here’s what happened.
From CNN’s Aditi Sangal / On-air analysis by CNN’s Phil Mattingly
The counting of votes is still underway in Wisconsin. Throughout much of the night, President Trump was ahead by over 100,000 votes, but now, with 97% votes reported, Joe Biden is ahead by nearly 21,000 votes.
What happened? The answer lies in mail-in voting, according to CNN’s Phil Mattingly.
Milwaukee County, home to the city of Milwaukee, is a major urban center and the biggest county in Wisconsin. It’s also home to about 16% of the state’s population.
There was “a narrower margin” between the two candidates in the county for much of the night, Mattingly explained. “And then the absentee vote came in, and then early vote by mail came in… All of a sudden, the Trump lead started to narrow.”
The same happened in Brown County. President Trump still holds a lead in this Republican county, but Biden has received a boost via mail-in voting in Green Bay, which has a Democratic base.
The same was seen in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Mattingly points out.
“The big question is what’s outstanding? Where does Donald Trump go to get 20,000 votes? The answer is not a whole lot of options here. What’s outstanding is vote by mail, which is heavily Democratic,” he added.
Remember: This points right to the red or blue “mirage” that was expected in several states due to the unprecedented levels of mail-in ballots and early voting due to the coronavirus pandemic.
As a result, in some of the most competitive states, early results may look too rosy for former Vice President Biden, before falling back down to earth and becoming more representative of the true outcome. In other states, Trump could see early leads that slowly narrow as more ballots are counted.
This won’t be a sign of fraud or irregularities. Rather, it’s just a reflection of how states count votes. Some states process early ballots first, and will report those early in the night, while others save them for last.
It’s almost 8:30 a.m. ET, and CNN has not yet projected a winner in the presidential race
It’s the morning after Election Day and ballots are still being counted in some states.
As of early Wednesday morning, it was still too close to call in Alaska, Arizona, North Carolina, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Maine, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Based on the races called so far, this is where the race to 270 stands right now:
Biden holds the lead in the Electoral College at this stage in the count, with 224 electoral college votes. Donald Trump has 213 electoral college votes.
Both candidates still have pathways to get to 270 electoral votes – the number of votes needed to win the presidency.
Democrats are a whisper away from turning Georgia blue
From CNN’s Gregory Krieg
For the second time in two years, Democrats are a whisper away from turning Georgia blue.
In 2018, Republican Brian Kemp narrowly defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams to become governor. Now, the presidential race remains too close to call hours after the polls closed. The outstanding votes almost entirely come from parts of Biden-friendly Atlanta and its suburbs.
With more than 90% of the estimated vote in, Trump leads the former vice president by a little more than 118,000 votes. But with Fulton, DeKalb and Gwinnett Counties, among others, still yet to complete their counts, the race remains in the balance – contrary to Trump’s claim early Wednesday morning that he’s already won it.
No Democratic presidential nominee has won in Georgia since 1992, when Bill Clinton defeated incumbent George H.W. Bush. Barack Obama came close. Hillary Clinton, in 2016, got closer. Abrams, in the gubernatorial campaign, came within 1.4 percentage points of victory in a race marred by evidence of voter suppression.
Democrats’ slow and steady climb has been fueled by a rapidly diversifying electorate and suburbs that are, at once, growing and becoming increasingly hostile to Republican candidates. The state GOP has compounded the issue, refusing so far to expand Medicaid under Obamacare while Gov. Brian Kemp, in 2019, signed a so-called “heartbeat bill,” one of the country’s most restrictive abortion laws.
Sensing opportunity, vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris, who was joined by Abrams, and Obama both visited the state in the final push ahead of Election Day. Sensing a tight race, Trump also visited over the weekend.
Biden’s fate could be decided over the next day, as the final votes are tabulated. But the political world will keep its eyes on Georgia for weeks to come. Both Senate races – one a special election – could be headed to runoffs early next year.
No matter who wins the presidency, those races have the potential to decide the balance of power in the US Senate for the next two years.
Michigan is still counting “hundreds of thousands” of absentee ballots, secretary of state says
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said “hundreds of thousands” of absentee ballots remain to be tabulated in the state.
“We’re on track to have a much more complete picture, if not the vast majority of jurisdictions, reporting out by the end of today,” she told CNN’s Don Lemon.
Absentee ballots are still being counted in cities like Detroit, Flint and Grand Rapids, she added.
“The bottom line is, votes are still being counted. Two-thirds of our voters voted absentee. And for that many ballots to still be outstanding, you know, I really call on every candidate on the ballot right now, as the vast majority have, to respect the process, respect the security of our process, and ensure and join with us in ensuring that every vote will count and that that will determine the outcome of any election in Michigan,” Benson said.
“Trump’s hold on Trump country looks utterly unshakable,” CNN analyst says
Votes are still being counted in key states across the US, and while Democrats seem to have “really run up the score in a lot of big metros,” CNN analyst Ron Brownstein said “Trump’s hold on Trump country looks utterly unshakable.”
“Even with a nominee, Joe Biden, whose calling card was supposed to be his ability to cut into those working class Whites, those mid-sized industrial cities and those rural communities. There may be a little gain here and there, but by and large, not only did trump dominate nose those places, but Republicans won back a number of the House seats that Democrats had taken in those places in 2018,” Brownstein said Wednesday.
Democrats consolidating major metros but haven’t expanded their margin in the suburbs, Brownstein noted.
“It’s just the reality that we are living in a time where we have this trench between two very different coalitions that want very different things and very different visions of what America is,” he added.
There’s no rule that a winner has to be declared on election night
From CNN’s Zachary B. Wolf
It’s the day after Election Day, and CNN has not yet projected a winner in the presidential race.
There’s no rule that a winner has to be declared on election night. In fact, it’s happened in recent memory.
Here is a breakdown of when CNN projected the last five presidential elections:
- 2016: 2:47 a.m. ET — CNN projected Donald Trump would win after Hillary Clinton called Donald Trump to concede.
- 2012: 11:18 p.m. ET — CNN projected Barack Obama would win shortly after polls closed on the West Coast. 11:18 p.m.
- 2008: 11:00 p.m. ET — CNN projected Barack Obama would win as polls on the West Coast closed.
- 2004: No projection — It was close and came down to Ohio. John Kerry conceded the next day after Bush had a 100,000-vote lead in decisive Ohio. A concession on such a small margin is hard to imagine today with all the absentee and provisional ballots cast in 2020.
- 2000: No projection. We didn’t know George W. Bush would be the President until December, after a Supreme Court showdown. It was wild.
So, while Trump has repeatedly said we should know the winner on Election Night, that’s just not factually true. In fact, under federal law, states have until Dec. 8 to count ballots and settle disputes. Some states have earlier deadlines.
Official in Michigan’s Wayne County can’t predict when vote counting will finish
From CNN’s Aditi Sangal
Votes are still being counted in Michigan’s Wayne County, which is also home to the city of Detroit.
County clerk Cathy M. Garrett declined to give a specific time frame on when we can expect it to be completed.
“Because of how large our county is, I don’t want to be boxed in with that. But just know that we’re not in a competition. It’s just very important that we are accurate, and we will be here until the job is done,” Garrett said Wednesday.
The county has 43 municipalities, she added.
Here’s how the vote counting process works in Philadelphia
Philadelphia started with 350,000 mail-in votes on the morning of Election Day and the final count is expected to be up to 400,000, Philadelphia City commissioner Al Schmidt told CNN.
“At 8 p.m. last night, when the polls closed, we reported our first 75,000 [votes.] And about an hour ago, we reported another 65,000 of those,” he said Wednesday, adding that there are “hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots yet to count.”
He explained how the counting process works in Philadelphia:
“As soon as the polls closed at 8 p.m., and then until the early morning, we were reporting our results from in-person voting at polling places. Some states have mail-in voting, some have in-person voting. In Pennsylvania’s case, we have both. So we’re really running two sort of election systems at the same time. So we reported a batch of mail-in ballots, then we pivoted to all of the in-person results from the polling places, and now we’re back to mail-in ballots again.”
“There was never a break in this process,” he added, saying the workers are going to “continue day and night until we get every one of those votes counted.”
He also noted that Pennsylvania allows votes to be received and counted up until Friday, if the ballot was mailed before or on Election Day.
“If everything keeps up, we’ll have the total results in the next couple of days,” he said.
But with the number of votes yet to be counted, he urged viewers to have patience saying it will take some time.
“Everyone needs to recalibrate their expectations.”
Chris Christie says Trump “undercut his own credibility” when he prematurely declared victory
Former New Jersey governor and top Trump ally Chris Christie voiced disagreement overnight with President Trump’s election night remarks prematurely declaring victory and attacking legitimate vote counting efforts. Christie said Trump “undercut his own credibility.”
“There’s just no basis to make that argument tonight. There just isn’t. All these votes have to be counted that are in now,” Christie said during a panel on ABC News moments after Trump’s remarks, noting that the vote count in Pennsylvania will continue for days and “that argument’s for later.”
He continued, “I disagree with what he did tonight. And I think Sarah is right that, you know, there comes a point where you have to let the process play itself out before you judge it to have been flawed. And I think by prematurely doing this, if there is a flaw in it later, he has undercut his own credibility in calling attention to that flaw.”
Christie, who said he was speaking from his experience as a former US attorney, argued that Trump had made a “bad strategic decision” and a “bad political decision.”
“And it’s not the kind of decision you would expect someone to make tonight who holds the position he holds,” he added.
Here’s why we’re seeing a narrowing of the vote in Michigan right now
On-air analysis from CNN’s Phil Mattingly/ Written by CNN’s Adrienne Vogt
The tightening of the vote between President Trump and Joe Biden in Michigan comes down to Wayne County, where Detroit and the surrounding suburbs are located, CNN’s Phil Mattingly explained.
“It shows the effect of major urban centers that are Democratic strongholds where there’s major vote outstanding,” Mattingly said.
Wayne County — the largest county in the state — is about 18% of the voting population.
“Those votes are by mail for the most part. We believe that is the composition of them. We know they’re coming in a Democratic county. Democrats have been voting heavily by mail,” Mattingly said. “What I’m trying to lay out for you is this: Donald Trump was ahead by 212,000 votes about 30 minutes ago. Right now, he’s ahead by 64,000 votes.”
Some Pennsylvania counties are counting mail-in ballots last
It’s the morning after Election Day, and Pennsylvania is one of nine states across the country where CNN has not projected a winner.
Pennsylvania’s counties have starkly different plans for when they will begin processing their mail-in ballots, with Democratic strongholds moving to get them counted as quickly as possible while other areas plan to tally in-person Election Day votes first.
Unlike most states, Pennsylvania law does not allow officials to start processing early ballots until 7 a.m. on Election Day.
While Philadelphia and other areas started work on their mail-in votes at 7 a.m. sharp yesterday, swing counties like Erie and red ones like Cumberland were waiting until after the polls close or even until this morning to begin.
It’s just after 6 a.m. ET. Here’s where the race to 270 stands.
The election is far from over with millions of votes outstanding in key states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan — ballots that were cast before Election Day that have yet to be counted.
Based on CNN’s current projections, Joe Biden has 224 electoral votes while President Trump has 213 electoral votes.
Reminder: Each candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.
Catch up: Here are some of the issues states voted on
Voters have been deciding more than just who will sit in the White House. States have weighed several different issues this election, such as whether to legalize marijuana, limit access to abortion, reform voting and more.
Here are some of the top ballot measures states voted on:
Arizona, New Jersey, South Dakota vote to legalize recreational marijuana
Voters have approved ballot measures to legalize recreational marijuana in Arizona and New Jersey, and both recreational and medical use in in South Dakota, CNN projects.
South Dakota will be the first state ever to approve medical and recreational marijuana measures at the same time.
Results have not yet been determined for Montana’s ballot questions on recreational marijuana and Mississippi’s medical marijuana measure.
The initiatives would only be the first step in the process, said John Hudak, deputy director at the Brookings Institution, where he specializes in state and federal marijuana policy.
After voters approve the measures, he said, the state legislatures normally would need to set up regulatory structures within each state. Currently, 11 states have legalized full, adult marijuana use.
Louisiana voters approve amendment limiting abortion protections
Louisiana voters approved Proposed Amendment No. 1 by 62% to 38%, according to CNN projections. Should Roe be overturned, the amendment would prevent the state courts from declaring abortion restrictions unconstitutional at the state level.
The state isn’t the first to amend its constitution this way — Alabama and West Virginia did so in 2018, as did Tennessee in 2014.
The Louisiana ballot measure marked another attempt by the state to restrict abortion. The US Supreme Court struck down in June a Louisiana restriction barring doctors from performing the procedure unless they had admitting privileges at a nearby hospital, and a decision from a federal appellate court prevented the state’s “heartbeat” abortion ban, passed last year, from going into effect.
Colorado voters reject a ban on abortion beginning at 22 weeks of pregnancy
In Colorado, voters rejected Proposition 115 by a 59% to 41% vote, according to CNN projections. It would have banned abortion beginning at 22 weeks of pregnancy. The measure included exceptions to save the life of the pregnant woman but not for instances of rape or incest. Doctors who continue to perform abortions at 22 weeks would have faced a fine up to $5,000.
The results maintain Colorado as one of seven states that do not bar some abortions past a specific point in pregnancy, according to data from the abortion-rights research group the Guttmacher Institute. Data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s office shows that women from more than 30 states have traveled to Colorado to access abortions.
These are the 9 states that have not been called yet
It’s the morning after Election Day, and CNN has not projected a winner in nine states across the country.
Right now, Joe Biden has 224 electoral votes, and President Trump has 213. Remember: It takes 270 votes to win the presidential election.
These are the nine states that have not yet been called, whose electoral votes are still up for grabs:
- Alaska
- Arizona
- Georgia
- Michigan
- Maine
- Nevada
- North Carolina
- Pennsylvania
- Wisconsin
In Nevada, “the big question right now is composition,” CNN’s Phil Mattingly says
With Joe Biden and President Trump in a tight race in Nevada, “the big question right now is composition,” according to CNN’s Phil Mattingly.
While populous Clark County — where Las Vegas is located — is currently reporting more than three-quarters of the vote, it’s unknown right now if the remaining vote to be counted is via mail-in ballots or in-person voting.
“What kind of vote is coming in is just as important as where that vote is coming in,” Mattingly said.
Joe Biden has an edge in Washoe County, where Reno is located, which is traditionally a tossup county, Mattingly explained. Hillary Clinton won the county, but narrowly, back in 2016.
Meanwhile, Trump takes a big lead in the rural counties of the state. “Donald Trump wins the rurals, and he blows them out of the water,” Mattingly said.
US stock futures jittery on fears of a contested election
US stock futures swung wildly early Wednesday as the prospects of a quick, decisive result to the election faded and President Trump made baseless claims about the vote, leaving investors on edge.
Dow (INDU) futures plunged more than 400 points, or 1.5%, after Trump prematurely claimed victory and said he would go to court to prevent legitimate votes from being counted.
Stocks later pared back losses but remain jumpy in premarket trading. Dow futures were down just 0.1% at 3:30 a.m. ET, while S&P 500 futures rose 0.6%. The Nasdaq Composite, an outlier throughout the night, surged 2.5%.
Uncertainty is the enemy of markets. Investors had hoped that early results would point to a clear winner sooner rather than later, avoiding the nightmare scenario of a contested election.
All of the votes from Milwaukee County are now in and counted, says elections director
All of the ballots from Milwaukee County have now been counted, Milwaukee County elections director Julietta Henry reported early this morning, just minutes after the lead in the state had flipped from President Trump to Joe Biden.
The only exception are provisional ballots, which are due on Friday.
“In Milwaukee county, we are now at 100% ballots cast,” she told CNN’s Chris Cuomo, early this morning.
She said there have been no reports of irregularities in the county.
“There weren’t any irregularities in Milwaukee County,” she said. “We were anticipating finishing up tonight between 3:00 A.M. and 6:00 A.M. And I think we’re right on target, with the 4:00 completion time.”
Biden has taken the lead in Wisconsin
Joe Biden has taken a lead in Wisconsin right now, CNN’s Phil Mattingly says.
“Joe Biden has started to turn Wisconsin blue — for the moment,” Mattingly said.
He emphasized that the situation was fluid and subject to change. Before new information came in, “Trump was up by 109,000 votes,” Mattingly reported.
In 2016, President Trump won Wisconsin by 22,000 votes, CNN’s Chris Cuomo said.
This is where the balance of power in Congress currently stands
Longtime GOP Sens. Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham kept their seats and members of “The Squad” won reelection on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Alabama Sen. Doug Jones lost his reelection bid, allowing Republicans to pick up a seat.
Based on CNN’s current projections, this is how the balance of power in Congress is shaping up:
Vote counting is still underway in key states. Here’s what you need to know.
From CNN’s Maeve Reston and Stephen Collinson
Votes are still being counted in several key states across the US, and no winner has been determined in the presidential election.
If you’re just reading in, here’s what you need to know about the race:
- All eyes on the Midwest: The election is far from over with millions of votes outstanding in key states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan — ballots that were cast before Election Day that have yet to be counted. Pennsylvania has counted 39% of the mail-in ballots it has received, according to the state.
- Counting underway in Arizona and Georgia: Joe Biden appears to have made significant gains in Arizona, a state which Trump won in 2016. Georgia appeared at a standstill as officials in Fulton County, which includes Atlanta and its populous suburbs, said they would resume counting at resume at 8 a.m. ET.
- President Trump attempted to claim victory: Donald Trump called for a halt to legitimate vote counting that is underway around the country and sought to mislead his loyal supporters by conflating the legitimate counting of ballots with voting as he falsely claimed Democrats were trying to “steal the election.”
- Biden holds the lead: The Democratic nominee holds the lead in the Electoral College at this stage in the night, 224 to 213. Remember: 270 electoral votes are needed to become president. Speaking to reporters, the former vice president urged them to “Keep the faith, guys. We’re going to win this.”
To see more live election coverage from overnight, go here.
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