Just after 2 a.m. PST, Georgia turned blue. The typically red state now has Joe Biden in the lead, in addition to Arizona, Pennsylvania and Nevada. Donald Trump continues to carry North Carolina.
Here's where we are:
— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) November 4, 2020
1. Local elections officials are taking the time necessary to make sure every eligible vote is counted.
2. Trump is losing and trying to crown himself the winner.
3. Voters choose the future. We fought for fairer elections and it’s working.
All eyes to the east
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that as of 8:15 a.m. EST, there are just over 8,000 outstanding ballots. Election officials are also waiting on 8,900 military and overseas absentee ballots, which will be accepted if postmarked by Election Day. Raffensperger says a recount is likely.
In Georgia, Trump or Biden can request a recount if the margin is less than 0.5 percent of the total votes cast, according to USA Today. As for Pennsylvania, an automatic recount would be triggered if the margin is 0.5 percent or less.
Too close to call
As the race tightens, Trump has continued his claims of voter fraud. Supporters, depending on the state, have called on election officials to both stop counting the votes and to continue counting the votes.
Republican Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania put worries at ease while on NBC’s “Today:” “The president’s allegations of large-scale fraud and theft of the election are just not substantiated. I’m not aware of any significant wrongdoing here.” Most votes in Pennsylvania are expected to be counted today, but counting could still take a few more days.
No outlet has yet projected a winner. CNN has Biden with 253 electoral votes and Trump with 213. To win, 270 are needed. The Associated Press reports 264 and 214, respectively, with the assumption that Biden will take Arizona. As of this morning, the state has 220,000 votes left to process, with 140,000 of those votes coming from Maricopa County, home to Phoenix and Arizona State University (CNN). The New York Times says Maricopa officials will put out its next report tonight at 9 p.m.
What we know
In a bit of good news, a record-breaking number of Native American have been elected to Congress. Out of the 18 indigenous women running for congressional seats this year, three were elected. Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) will continue representing New Mexico and Sharice Davids (Ho-Chunk) will continue representing Kansas. Republican Yvette Herrell (Cherokee) will join Haaland in representing New Mexico. In Kansas, newcomer Christina Haswood (Navajo) was affirmed to be the Kansas legislature’s youngest member at 26.
