Joe Biden has declared
it was “clear” he had won the US presidential election as Donald Trump launched legal challenges with the result still in the balance.
On Wednesday night, Mr Biden was projected to have won Michigan and Wisconsin, putting him within touching distance of the White House.
The key states of Nevada and Georgia could be declaring in the next few hours – which means the next president of the United States could be known very shortly.
However, Mr Trump and his campaign have already claimed victory and are seeking to halt vote counts in battleground states through the courts, suggesting a turbulent few days to come.
Follow the latest updates below.
01:46am What's taking so long in Nevada?
As with many states in the US, voting has been severely disrupted by the coronavirus epidemic.
Joe Biden currently leads there by less than one percentage point. But the vote count has been delayed, meaning we are still hours away from knowing how the Silver State has voted.
In Nevada, counties are counting hundreds of thousands of postal votes in an unprecedented wave of remote voting.
Election officials in the state have already counted all in-person early votes, in-person Election Day votes and mail ballots up to November 2. Still to count are mail ballots received on Election Day and ballots received in the next week.
I hope you brought snacks.
Read more: Nevada 2020 election results: why is the vote count so delayed?
01:39am 'All votes counted in Michigan'
Michigan's secretary of state has said that all votes have now been counted in a state that has been called for Joe Biden.
Michigan - one of the Democrat's target states in the American Midwest - was surprisingly won by Donald Trump in 2016.
Mr Trump has launched a lawsuit against the state, claiming voting has been rigged. Jocelyn Benson, the state's secretary, has called the claim "frivolous".
Dana Nessel, the state's attorney general, insisted both parties and the public had been given access to the tallying "using a robust system of checks and balances to ensure that all ballots are counted fairly and accurately".
01:20am Aussie bookmaker pays out on Biden
Washington does not know the result yet, but a bookmaker in Australia is already paying out on Joe Biden winning the election, Annelies Gartner reports from Perth.
Sportsbet has confirmed it will pay out on a Democrat win, despite the votes not yet being fully counted.
"We’re paying out early on Joe Biden to be elected President of the United States of America," the bookmaker said, insisting they would still payout on Donald Trump if he wins on official result.
The bookmaker said in a statement that it had paid 23 million Australian dollars and over 100,000 bets to punters who backed Mr Biden.
"After CNN projected the state of Michigan would go to the Democrats and holding the ascendancy in Nevada and Arizona, the online bookmaker has deemed the lead unassailable," Sportsbet said.
"We've seen enough, so why make the punters wait?"
01:06am Watch: Trump supporters file suit in Michigan to stop counting
At two convention centres in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Detroit, Michigan armies of volunteers are ploughing on as the world watches with bated breath, Nick Allen and Josie Ensor report.
Mr Trump's campaign has filed a legal challenge to stop the count in Michigan, asserting it had not been allowed to observe ballots being opened.
In Detroit, Michigan emotions boiled over as Republican and Democrat observers poured in to the TCF Center to view the final votes being tallied. Election officials had agreed that 134 observers, known as "election challengers", from each party would be allowed in, but soon reached capacity.
They blocked about 30 people, mostly Republicans, from entering the hall.
Watch Trump supporters trying to get into the hall in the video below:
01:02am Fundraising to fight the election
Fundraising for the coming legal battle over the election results is now in full swing on both sides, reports Laurence Dodds.
On Wednesday Joe Biden's campaign began emailing and texting supporters asking for new money, just as his opponent had done about 12 hours earlier.
Campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon accused Mr Trump of a "naked effort to take away the democratic rights of American citizens" and promised donors that the new "Biden Fight Fund" would be "the biggest and most comprehensive legal effort ever assembled".
It means that both campaigns are now claiming victory and urging their supporters to "defend the election". Only one of them, however, appears to have the numbers on its side.
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12:47am Meanwhile, on planet earth
America's coronavirus crisis may not have been the key issue at the polls that Democrats hoped it would be, but as political turmoil engulfed Washington yesterday the US is a bout to pass a new, grim milestone: 100,000 new cases in the past 24 hours.
The pandemic is spreading quickly across the Midwest while Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska and North Dakota saw leaps of more than 45 per cent in their seven-day average of new cases.
12:41am Beto takes a beating
As Texas Democrats watched in horror as the election results came in last night, former presidential contender Beto O'Rourke tucked himself in for an early night, Margi Murphy reports.
The once dazzling gem of the Democrats, who briefly ran for the party's presidential nomination last year, excused himself because he hasn't slept for "more than five hours straight in months".
Downcast, Mr O'Rourke told supporters on Wednesday evening: "I walked upstairs early, got in bed and passed out for nine hours. I think my body and my mind knew that it was over... and it was time to acknowledge there was no more that could be done for this election".
Mr O'Rourke's home state took a devastating hit last night as voters chose Donald Trump and Republican incumbents at nearly every place on the ballot, despite record turnout from a variety of voting groups and a last-minute appearance from Kamala Harris.
He is most well known for narrowly losing a Senate bid to Ted Cruz in 2018, inspiring dreams for a blue Texas come 2020.
If anything, 2020 has confirmed that Texas is the worst place to be a Democrat. Another failure to flip it will make it even harder to get precious funding and volunteer's time. It was a hard enough sell just to get the 10,000 volunteers and $2m for the campaign - even when there was hope in the air.
Read more: Trump wins Texas in crucial hold
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12:37am Anyone in Georgia?
Rick Barron, the Fulton County director of elections has said his Georgia county are bringing in “more bodies” to help the counting efforts.
If you're near the area and you've got one of those rubber thimbles you put your finger in for counting paper please put your hand up.
12:33am What's the score?
Here's where we are right now.
Donald Trump has won: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wyoming.
Joe Biden has won: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
Still counting:
- Pennsylvania (probably Biden, 20 electoral college votes to play for)
- Georgia (Trump narrow lead, 16 votes)
- Nevada (Biden narrow lead, 6 votes)
- North Carolina (Trump narrow lead, 15 votes)
- Alaska (put your house on Trump, 3 votes)
Here is the breakdown by state so far:
Read more: In full: US election results and maps
12:28am Trump campaign suing in Georgia
Donald Trump's campaign has filed lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia, laying the groundwork for contesting battleground states as he slipped behind Joe Biden.
The new filings, joining existing Republican legal challenges in Pennsylvania and Nevada, demand better access for campaign observers to locations where ballots are being processed and counted, and absentee ballot concerns, the campaign said.
AP called Michigan for Mr Biden on Wednesday. Nevada, Pennsylvania and Georgia are undecided.
The Trump campaign is also seeking to intervene in a Pennsylvania case at the Supreme Court that deals with whether ballots received up to three days after the election can be counted.
Mr Trump believes, without proof, that the US election is being stolen by the Democrats.
12:18am Georgia results 'after midnight'
Well, this is a setback for those of you pulling all-nighters - you might need to get some more coffee on. (I'm on cup 16 of 47.)
Officials in Fulton County, in Georgia - which is one of the crucial counties in what is a vital swing state - will not have a clear result until midnight local time (3am UK). Donald Trump has a narrow lead in Georgia but Joe Biden is closing on him as thousands of ballots are counted.
Here's why a Biden win in Georgia would be remarkable:
12:02am Here we go again
Good morning, everyone.
After one of the most chaotic and bizarre days in American political history, we still don't know who is going to be the next president of the United States.
But we have a pretty good idea: predicted results in Wisconsin and Michigan have pushed the balance in Joe Biden's favour. The Democrat addressed the nation, telling them every vote must be counted and that he believed his side were the winners.
He also vowed to face down legal threats from Donald Trump, who is claiming without evidence that the results are a fraud and the election has been "stolen". The president wants to challenge the vote in the Supreme Court and could seek a recount in key states.
Here are the top stories from the American maelstrom:
- Joe Biden has declared it was “clear” he had won the US presidential election as Donald Trump launched legal challenges with the result still in the balance, meaning it could be days before a winner is officially announced
- Mr Trump took to Twitter, claiming the vote has been stolen from the Republicans and vowing to go to the Supreme Court
- Mr Biden picked up the key states of Michigan and Wisconsin on Tuesday night, according to projections
- Ballots are still being counted in Pennsylvania, another swing state that Mr Trump has already claimed without proof that he has won
- Wall Street soared on Monday night as Mr Biden edged ahead
Here's how the election map looks right now:
Read more:
- The path to the White House - how Biden or Trump can secure victory
- How one of the most uncertain and confusing US elections unfolded
- 'Steal the election': What happens next and can Trump stop Biden in Supreme
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