Election live updates: Trump will dispute expected outcome in Wisconsin; battleground vote counts continue
The latest from the 2020 election:
Trump will dispute outcome in Wisconsin
President Donald Trump’s campaign manager Bill Stepien says the president plans to “immediately” request a recount in the battleground state of Wisconsin, where the race remains close.
In Wisconsin, if a race is within 1 percentage point, the trailing candidate can force a recount. Stepien says in a statement Wednesday: “The President is well within the threshold to request a recount and we will immediately do so.”
The fate of the United States presidency is hanging in the balance, with Trump and his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, battling for three familiar battleground states — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — that could prove crucial in determining who wins the White House.
In the race to the 270 electoral votes needed to win, Biden has 238 while Trump has 213.
McConnell says it’ll take while to count votes
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is discounting President Donald Trump’s early claim that he’d already won the election, saying it’s going to take a while for states to conduct their vote counts.
The Kentucky Republican and Trump ally said Wednesday that “claiming you’ve won the election is different from finishing the counting.”
McConnell also says he is untroubled by Trump’s vows to contest the vote count in key states, telling reporters in Louisville that “you should not be shocked that both sides are going to have lawyers there.”
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Presidency hinges on tight races in battleground states
The fate of the United States presidency hung in the balance Wednesday as President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden battled for three familiar battleground states — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — that could prove crucial in determining who wins the White House.
It was unclear when or how quickly a winner could be determined. The latest vote counts in Michigan and Wisconsin gave Biden a small lead in those states, but it was still too early to call the races. A recount seemed likely in Wisconsin, where an apparent losing candidate can request one if the margin is less than 1%.
Hundreds of thousands of votes were still to be counted in Pennsylvania.
Neither candidate cleared the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House, and the margins were tight in several other battleground states. Top advisers for both Biden and Trump on Wednesday morning expressed confidence that they respectively had the likelier path to victory in the outstanding states. Read the full story here:
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Trump seeks to stop voting, but only counting remains
President Donald Trump says he’ll take the presidential election to the Supreme Court, but it’s unclear what he means in a country in which vote tabulations routinely continue beyond Election Day, and states largely set the rules for when the count has to end.
“We’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court — we want all voting to stop,” Trump said early Wednesday.
But the voting is over. It’s only counting that is taking place across the nation. No state will count absentee votes that are postmarked after Election Day.
Democratic challenger Joe Biden’s campaign called Trump’s statement “outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect.” Read the full story here:
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The Senate
Hopes fading for Senate control, Democrats had a disappointing election night as Republicans swatted down an onslaught of challengers and fought to retain their fragile majority. Several races remained undecided into Wednesday and at least one headed to a runoff in January. Read more:
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The House
Democrats drove Wednesday toward extending their control of the House for two more years but with a potentially shrunken majority as they lost at least six incumbents and failed to oust any Republican lawmakers in initial returns. Read more:
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