WASHINGTON — The latest on the presidential campaign:
10:17 p.m.
Former Vice President Joe Biden says he is already preparing to assume the presidency even though he has not been declared the winner in his race against President Donald Trump.
“I want people to know we’re not waiting to get the work done,” he said late Friday in remarks to the nation.
[Video not showing up above? Click here to watch » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVLdi57690Y]
Biden said he and his running mate, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California, have held briefings on the coronavirus and the economy this week as the U.S. reports record daily cases.
He noted that nearly 240,000 people have died from the pandemic, and he said he wants those families to know they aren’t alone.
He also addressed the millions of Americans who remain out of work and are struggling to pay rent or buy food.
“We don’t have any more time to waste on partisan warfare,” he said.
Biden noted he has already won the most votes in history for any presidential candidate.
He said a record number of Americans “chose change over more of the same.”
He told the nation that the political parties may be opponents, but they are not enemies.
“Let’s put the anger and the demonization behind us,” he said.
8:03 p.m.: Biden, Harris expected to address nation from Delaware
Former Vice President Joe Biden and his running mate, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California, were expected to give a speech during prime time on Friday from Wilmington, Del.
A live feed has been set up from a stage that has been set up since Election Night outside the city’s convention center. The stage has been secured for days by security personnel using high fencing and car barriers.
7 p.m.: Alito orders late Pa. mail-in ballots kept separate from others
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has ordered county elections officials in Pennsylvania to keep the mail-in ballots that arrived after Election Day separate from ballots that arrived before Election Day.
The state’s top elections official already had ordered those ballots be kept apart.
The order came Friday night in response to a plea from the state Republican Party as Democrat Joe Biden inched ahead of President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania in the presidential race.
Alito, acting on his own, said he was motivated in part by the Republicans’ assertion that they can’t be sure elections officials are complying with guidance issued by Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, a Democrat.
The justice handles emergency appeals from Pennsylvania. He ordered a response from the state by Saturday afternoon and said he has referred the matter to the full court for further action.
The order is related to an ongoing Republican appeal to the Supreme Court to try to prevent ballots received in the mail after Election Day from being counted. The state’s top court granted a three-day extension, and the Supreme Court refused to block it.
6:15 p.m. Biden lead over Trump grows in Nevada, Georgia
Democrat Joe Biden’s leads over President Donald Trump in Georgia and Nevada have grown slightly.
As of early Friday evening, the former vice president was ahead by 4,235 votes in Georgia, and by 22,657 votes in Nevada. Either state would provide Biden with enough electoral votes to win the presidency.
The Democrat first surpassed Trump in the state vote count in Georgia on Friday morning as votes continue to be counted. The contest is still too early for The Associated Press to call.
Trump’s lead dwindled after Election Day when state officials began processing mail-in ballots, a form of voting that has skewed heavily in Biden’s favor. Trump has said that voting by mail would lead to widespread voter fraud.
If there is less than a 0.50 percentage point difference between Biden’s and Trump’s vote totals, state law dictates that a recount must be held. Biden, as of Friday evening, held a lead of about 0.08 of a percentage point.
A Democratic presidential candidate hasn’t won Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992.
The results in Nevada were mail-in ballots from Democrat-heavy Clark County, which includes Las Vegas and three-quarters of Nevada’s population. The bulk of Nevada is largely unoccupied federal land.
Biden had 632,558 votes in Nevada on Friday, and Trump had 609,901. Vote counting in the state — and several other battlegrounds — is continuing.
The fresh batch of results was among 63,000 mail ballots that Clark County Registrar Joe Gloria said Friday morning that his workers were starting to process. He expected the bulk would be processed by Sunday.
Gloria has said an additional 60,000 provisional ballots will be processed later.
4:25 p.m.: Harris set to speak before Biden in TV address
Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris is expected to deliver remarks Friday alongside Joe Biden.
Biden has scheduled a prime-time address on the presidential contest as votes continue to be counted in several battleground states. Biden is on the cusp of victory as he opened narrow leads over President Donald Trump in Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Harris has appeared alongside Biden during his remarks in recent days but has not made any public comments herself on the state of the race. A campaign official confirmed she will speak Friday night before Biden does.
The California senator has been at a hotel in Wilmington, Delaware, with her family since Tuesday night.
The Associated Press has not yet declared a winner in Nevada, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Alaska.
2:30 p.m.
Top Republican officials in Georgia say they are confident the secretary of state will ensure that ballots are properly counted.
The statement Friday from GOP Gov. Brian Kemp and others came a day after President Donald Trump alleged without any details or evidence that election officials are trying to “steal the election" from him.
Trump said Thursday that the “election apparatus in Georgia is run by Democrats,” even though the top election official is a Republican whom he endorsed.
Democrat Joe Biden was leading Trump in Georgia by about 1,500 votes midday Friday. The Associated Press has not called the race for either candidate yet.
1:50 p.m.
Pennsylvania Republicans are turning to the U.S. Supreme Court to ask for an order that mail ballots arriving after Election Day in the battleground state be segregated. The state’s top elections official already had ordered those ballots be kept apart.
The emergency request Friday came as Democrat Joe Biden inched ahead of President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania.
The plea is part of an ongoing Republican appeal to the Supreme Court to try to keep ballots received in the mail after Election Day from being counted. The state’s top court granted a three-day extension, and the Supreme Court refused to block it.
But Democratic Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar told local officials to keep the ballots separate because the high court hasn’t ultimately decided whether to step in.
Republicans presented no evidence that counties are not adhering to Boockvar’s orders, but said, “It is unclear whether all county boards are following them in the post-election chaos.”
The Associated Press has not declared a winner in the state.
1:30 p.m.
A statewide appellate court judge in Pennsylvania has dismissed a request from Republicans to stop the state or counties from counting provisional ballots that were cast by voters whose mail-in ballots were disqualified by a technicality.
Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s state elections bureau last month gave guidance to counties that a voter could use a provisional ballot if they “did not successfully vote” with the mail-in or absentee ballot they were issued, or if their ballot was rejected and they believe they are eligible to vote.
The Democratic National Committee, which had sought to oppose the case in court, said Republicans wanted to “throw out lawfully cast provisional ballots.”
Wolf’s top elections official, Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, a Democrat, has insisted that the practice is legal and not prohibited by law.
Regardless, she said there aren’t “overwhelming” numbers of voters who cast a provisional ballot after their mail-in ballot was disqualified, but she has not given an exact figure.
1:00 p.m.
Democrat Joe Biden has increased his lead over President Donald Trump in Nevada to 20,137 votes.
Results released Friday from Democrat-heavy Clark County, which includes Las Vegas and three-quarters of Nevada’s population, along with two rural counties, put Biden at 627,104 votes and Trump at 606,967.
Biden’s lead nearly doubled from Thursday, when he was leading Trump by about 11,000 votes.
The Associated Press has not called the presidential race. Votes are still being counted in several battleground states.
Clark County Registrar Joe Gloria says his county has an additional 63,000 mail ballots to be processed over the next few days and 60,000 provisional ballots to be processed later.
Gloria said Clark County would release more results Friday afternoon but he said he did not know exactly how many ballots could be included in that release.
The state has said it will provide an update later Friday on how many ballots are yet to be counted statewide. On Thursday, they reported that number at 190,150.
12:50 p.m.
President Donald Trump says he “will never give up fighting for you and our nation” as he is on the cusp of losing his bid for reelection.
Trump is spending Friday at the White House tweeting, watching results come in and continuing to cast unfounded doubt over the integrity of the election.
He says in a statement released by his campaign: “We believe the American people deserve to have full transparency into all vote counting and election certification.” And he adds that, "This is no longer about any single election. This is about the integrity of our entire election process.”
There is no evidence that any votes cast illegally are being counted or that the process is unfair and corrupt. Indeed, the ballot-counting process across the country largely has been running smoothly, if slowly, because of the increase in mail-in ballots because of the coronavirus pandemic.
But Trump is nonetheless threatening continued legal action, saying: “We will pursue this process through every aspect of the law to guarantee that the American people have confidence in our government.”
Trump’s Democratic rival, Joe Biden, has opened up narrow leads over Trump in the critical battlegrounds of Georgia and Pennsylvania.
11:40 a.m.
Joe Biden’s campaign says he will give a speech during prime time Friday.
The Democratic presidential candidate’s campaign announced that he would be making an address but did not say where or what he plans to say.
Biden is on the cusp of winning the presidency as he opens up narrow leads over President Donald Trump in several critical backgrounds.
The Associated Press has not called the presidential race. Votes are still being counted in states including Pennsylvania and Georgia.
He has urged the public to be patient as vote counting continues. He was spending Friday at home in Wilmington, Del.
A stage set up since election night for a victory party outside the city’s convention center remained intact and has been secured for days by security personnel using high fencing and car barriers.
Biden campaign staffers who arrived in Wilmington for a victory party earlier in the week have been told to hold onto their hotel rooms until early next week.
10:50 a.m.
Democrat Joe Biden is leading President Donald Trump in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.
By Friday morning, Biden overtook Trump in the number of ballots counted in the state, which Trump must win to have a shot at reelection. Biden leads by more than 9,000 votes. The contest is still too early for The Associated Press to call. Votes in the state are still being counted.
Trump’s lead dwindled after Election Day when state officials began processing mail-in ballots, a form of voting that has skewed heavily in Biden’s favor. Trump spent months claiming — without proof — that voting by mail would lead to widespread voter fraud.
If there is less than a half percentage point difference between Biden’s and Trump’s vote totals, state law dictates that a recount must be held.
[Video not showing up above? Click here to watch » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLrjhEuYM6o]
7:50 a.m.
Democrat Joe Biden is now leading President Donald Trump in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.
By Friday morning, Biden overtook Trump in the number of ballots counted in the state, which Trump must win to have a shot at reelection. Biden now holds a nearly 6,000-vote advantage.
The contest is still too early for The Associated Press to call. Votes in the state are still being counted.
Trump’s lead dwindled after Election Day when state officials began processing mail-in ballots, a form of voting that has skewed heavily in Biden’s favor after Trump spent months claiming — without proof — that voting by mail would lead to widespread voter fraud.
If there is less than a half percentage point difference between Biden’s and Trump’s vote totals, state law dictates that a recount must be held.
Georgia officials held a news conference Friday morning providing an update on the state's efforts to count its votes. Watch video here.
[Video not showing up above? Click here to watch » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59xc1YmLYW4]
EARLIER:
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is testing how far he can go in using the trappings of presidential power to undermine confidence in this week's election against Joe Biden, as the Democrat gained ground in tight contests in key battleground states — and then inched ahead in Georgia.
With his pathway to reelection appearing to shrink, Trump on Thursday advanced unsupported accusations of voter fraud to falsely argue that his rival was trying to seize power. It amounted to an extraordinary effort by a sitting American president to sow doubt about the democratic process.
"This is a case when they are trying to steal an election, they are trying to rig an election," Trump said from the podium of the White House briefing room.
The Republican president's remarks deepened a sense of anxiety in the U.S. as Americans enter their third full day after the election without knowing who would serve as president for the next four years. His statements also prompted a rebuke from some fellow Republicans, particularly those looking to steer the party in a different direction in a post-Trump era.
Neither candidate has reached the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House. But Biden eclipsed Trump in Wisconsin and Michigan, two crucial Midwestern battleground states, overtook the president in Georgia early Friday and was inching closer to doing the same in Pennsylvania, where votes were still be counted.
It was unclear when a national winner would be determined after a long, bitter campaign dominated by the coronavirus and its effects on Americans and the national economy. The U.S. on Wednesday set another record for daily confirmed cases as several states posted all-time highs. The pandemic has killed more than 233,000 people in the United States.
[Video not showing up above? Click here to watch » https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrH89lI4sg0]
Biden spent Thursday trying to ease tensions and project a more traditional image of presidential leadership. After participating in a coronavirus briefing, he declared that "each ballot must be counted."
"I ask everyone to stay calm. The process is working," Biden said. "It is the will of the voters. No one, not anyone else who chooses the president of the United States of America."
Biden's victories in the upper Midwest put him in a strong position, but Trump showed no sign of giving up. He was back on Twitter around 2:30 a.m. Friday, insisting the "U.S. Supreme Court should decide!"
It could take several more days for the vote count to conclude and a clear winner to emerge. With millions of ballots yet to be tabulated, Biden already had received more than 73 million votes, the most in history.
Trump's erroneous claims about the integrity of the election challenged Republicans now faced with the choice of whether to break with a president who, though his grip on his office grew tenuous, commanded sky-high approval ratings from rank-and-file members of the GOP.
Maryland GOP Gov. Larry Hogan, a potential 2024 presidential hopeful who has often criticized Trump, said unequivocally: "There is no defense for the President's comments tonight undermining our Democratic process. America is counting the votes, and we must respect the results as we always have before."
But others who are rumored to be considering a White House run of their own in four years aligned themselves with the incumbent, including Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who tweeted support for Trump's claims, writing that "If last 24 hours have made anything clear, it's that we need new election integrity laws NOW."
Trump's campaign engaged in a flurry of legal activity to try to improve the Republican president's chances, saying it would seek a recount in Wisconsin and filing lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia.
Judges in Georgia and Michigan quickly dismissed Trump campaign lawsuits there on Thursday, when Trump still held a small edge in Georgia — though Biden was gaining on him as votes continued to be counted. The same was true in Pennsylvania, where Trump's lead had slipped to about 18,000 votes — and the race is destined to get tighter.
One reason is that elections officials were not allowed to process mail-in ballots until Election Day under state law. It's a form of voting that has skewed heavily in Biden's favor after Trump spent months claiming without proof that voting by mail would lead to widespread voter fraud.
Mail ballots from across the state were overwhelmingly breaking in Biden's direction. A final vote total may not be clear for days because the use of mail-in ballots, which take more time to process, has surged as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Trump campaign said it was confident the president would ultimately pull out a victory in Arizona, where votes were also still being counted, including in Maricopa County, the state's most populous area. The AP has declared Biden the winner in Arizona and said Thursday that it was monitoring the vote count as it proceeded.
"The Associated Press continues to watch and analyze vote count results from Arizona as they come in," said Sally Buzbee, AP's executive editor. "We will follow the facts in all cases."
Trump's campaign was lodging legal challenges in several states, though he faced long odds. He would have to win multiple suits in multiple states in order to stop vote counts, since more than one state was undeclared.
Some of the Trump team's lawsuits only demand better access for campaign observers to locations where ballots are being processed and counted. A judge in Georgia dismissed the campaign's suit there less than 12 hours after it was filed. And a Michigan judge dismissed a Trump lawsuit over whether enough GOP challengers had access to handling of absentee ballots
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Biden attorney Bob Bauer said the suits were legally "meritless." Their only purpose, he said "is to create an opportunity for them to message falsely about what's taking place in the electoral process."