November 5, 2020 4:17 am
The delay in knowing the U.S. election winner is jarring to a planet weaned on American speediness. World leaders generally refrained from commenting about the possibilities either way. But the particularly fractious contest between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden has sparked concerns overseas America’s sharp divisions will endure long after the winner is declared. Gloating was heard in some countries that have been on the receiving end of U.S. criticism about how they run their own elections. But others see the slow vote-counting as a living example of how democracy works.
November 5, 2020 4:16 am
In what has come to be known as #Sharpiegate, social media posts circulated Wednesday claiming election officials in Arizona’s Maricopa County provided voters with Sharpie pens that canceled out votes, specifically those for President Donald Trump. The false claim came as Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden was named the winner in the battleground state. Arizona election officials disputed the posts, saying using a Sharpie would not invalidate a ballot. In fact, officials said that voting centers used Sharpies so that the ink would not smudge when ballots were counted.
November 5, 2020 4:15 am
Dozens of angry supporters of President Donald Trump converged on vote-counting centers in Detroit and Phoenix as returns went against the president Wednesday in the two key states, while thousands of anti-Trump protesters demanding a complete count of the ballots in the still-undecided election took to the streets in cities across the U.S. The protests came as the president repeatedly insisted without evidence that there were major problems with the voting and the ballot counting, and as Republicans filed suit in multiple states, preparing to contest election results. Protests – sometimes about the election, sometimes about racial inequality – took place in at least a half-dozen cities, including Los Angeles, Seattle, Houston, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis and San Diego.
November 5, 2020 4:14 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Election officials in key battlegrounds are pressing forward with vote counting, two days after Election Day. Democrat Joe Biden is urging patience, while President Donald Trump is pursuing legal options, insisting the processing of ballots should be stopped. Biden appears to be pushing closer to winning the presidency, while Trump’s path to reelection has become very narrow though still possible. Trump needs victories in all four of the remaining battlegrounds: Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Nevada. Biden has won the fiercely contested prizes of Michigan and Wisconsin, part of the “blue wall” that slipped away from Democrats four years ago.
November 5, 2020 4:14 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Joe Biden stands on the brink of winning the presidency, needing to clinch just one more battleground state to defeat President Donald Trump. Biden already has won the fiercely contested prizes of Michigan and Wisconsin, part of the “blue wall” that slipped away from Democrats four years ago. Two days after Election Day, neither candidate has amassed the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House. But Biden’s victories in the Great Lakes states have him at 264, meaning he is one battleground state away from becoming president-elect.
November 5, 2020 2:44 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Judges in Georgia and Michigan have quickly dismissed Trump campaign lawsuits, undercutting a campaign legal strategy aimed at attacking the integrity of the voting process in states where the result could mean President Donald Trump’s defeat. The rulings came Thursday as Democrat Joe Biden inched closer to the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House. In Pennsylvania, meanwhile, the Trump campaign won an appellate ruling to get party and campaign observers closer to election workers who are processing mail-in ballots in Philadelphia. But the order did not affect the counting of ballots that is proceeding in Pennsylvania. Biden campaign attorney Bob Bauer called the Republican legal challenges meritless.
November 4, 2020 4:33 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Republicans have suffered their first setback in the battle for Senate control, losing a seat in Colorado. But but key GOP incumbents are holding on elsewhere including While House ally Lindsey Graham, who survived in a high-profile contest in South Carolina. Other races are still too early to call. GOP Sen. Cory Gardner was defeated by Democrat John Hickenlooper, a former governor. Other Republican incumbents so far are holding their own. Both parties see paths to victory, and the outcome might not be known on election night.
November 4, 2020 4:31 am
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) – Hurricane Eta continues spinning across northern Nicaragua after lashing the country’s Caribbean coast for much of Tuesday, isolating already remote communities and setting off deadly landslides in at least two countries. The storm has weakened, but is moving so slowly and dumping so much rain that much of Central America is on high alert. At least three people in Nicaragua and Honduras have been killed in landslides. Eta came ashore Tuesday afternoon south of the Nicaraguan city of Bilwi as a powerful Category 4 hurricane after stalling just off the coast for hours.
November 4, 2020 4:30 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Democrat Mark Kelly has won the Arizona Senate seat once held by John McCain. The former astronaut defeated Republican Sen. Martha McSally, who was appointed to the seat after McCain’s death in 2018. áIt’s the second election night contest in which a Democrat beat a GOP incumbent. The other was in Colorado. The Arizona race was a a special election to finish McCain’s term, so Kelly could be sworn in as early as Nov. 30, when the results are officially certified. Kelly flew combat missions for the Navy during Operation Desert Storm before becoming a test pilot and later an astronaut. He flew four missions to the International Space Station.
November 4, 2020 4:28 am
(AP) – News organizations are strongly rebuking President Donald Trump for declaring on live television that it was a “major fraud” that he hadn’t been declared the election’s winner. Trump made the statement from the White House after 2:20 p.m. NBC broke into his remarks to say that Trump was making false statements, and others criticized his remarks. The Associated Press said it was simply too early to declare a winner in several states. It was an explosive moment in a night where media outlets had been preaching patience in waiting out results that could take days.
