US election day 3: White House race narrows as Biden, Trump eye five states

Democrat Joe Biden has moved closer to victory in the US presidential race.

Election officials continued on Thursday to tally votes in the handful of states that will determine the outcome and protesters took to the streets.

President Donald Trump alleged fraud on Wednesday without providing evidence, filed lawsuits and called for recounts in a race yet to be decided more than two days after polls closed.

With tensions rising, about 200 of Trump’s supporters, some armed with rifles and handguns, gathered outside an election office in Phoenix, Arizona, following unsubstantiated rumours that votes were not being counted. Some 30 people, mostly Republicans, tried to forcefully enter a vote-counting facility in Detroit, Michigan.

Arrests were made in Oregon, New York, Denver and Minneapolis. Over 100 events are planned across the country between Wednesday and Saturday.

The presidential race has come down to close contests in five states.

Biden holds narrow leads in Nevada and Arizona while Trump had beeb watching his slim advantage fade in must-win states Pennsylvania and Georgia as mail-in and absentee votes are being counted. Trump clings to a narrow lead in North Carolina as well, another must-win for him.

Trump has to win the states where he is still ahead plus either Arizona or Nevada to triumph and avoid becoming the first incumbent US president to lose a re-election bid since fellow Republican George HW Bush in 1992.

READ MORE: Trump vs Biden: US awaits presidential election results

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Updates for November 6, 2020

0600 GMT

US Postal Service says 1,700 ballots found in Pennsylvania facilities

The US Postal Service (USPS) has said about 1,700 ballots had been identified in Pennsylvania at processing facilities during two sweeps on Thursday and were in the process of being delivered to election officials.

In a court filing early on Friday, USPS said about 1,070 ballots, had been found at the USPS Philadelphia Processing and Distribution Center. 

About 300 were found at the Pittsburgh processing centre, 266 at a Lehigh Valley facility and others found at other Pennsylvania processing centres.

Ballots must be received by Friday evening in Pennsylvania in order to be counted. The vote for the US president remains extremely close and Pennsylvania is one of the states that remains undecided.

LIVE updates for November 5, 2020

*All updates are in GMT

0034 GMT

Trump says would win unless Dems steal election

President Donald Trump claimed without evidence that Democrats were trying to "steal" the US election with illegal votes, saying he would "easily win" the race against Joe Biden without the alleged interference.

"If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us," said the president as his reelection hopes hung by a thread.

Trump said his team has launched a "tremendous amount of litigation" to counter what he called the "corruption" of Democrats.

0014 GMT 

Judge nixes Trump bid to stop vote count

A federal judge has denied a bid by Trump's campaign to stop the vote count in Philadelphia over observer access, urging the two sides to instead forge an agreement.

US District Judge Paul S Diamond suggested each party be allowed 60 observers inside a hall at a downtown convention centre where the final ballots are being tallied. As the hearing unfolded Thursday evening, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden were locked in a tight battle for the 20 electoral votes in Pennsylvania.

2133 GMT

Biden says he will win 

Biden has no doubt he will defeat incumbent Donald Trump and win the US presidency, and asked everyone to stay calm as votes were counted.

"We have no doubt that when the count is finished, Senator Harris and I will be declared the winners. So, I ask everyone to stay calm... The process is working," Biden told reporters, referring to his running mate Senator Kamala Harris. 

2103 GMT

Facebook removes pro-Trump election group

Facebook has shut down a pro-Trump group organising protests against vote-counting, saying it was being used to delegitimise the election process and included "worrying" calls for violence.

The group, called "Stop the Steal," was just days old but had topped 300,000 members by the time it was removed for violating Facebook policies.

"Stop the Steal" was calling for "boots on the ground" to protect what it called the "integrity" of the vote, according to the Washington Post, and encouraging donations to help send supporters to battlegrounds such as Georgia and Pennsylvania.

Some of the commentary warned of being "on the verge of civil war" and asked supporters how they would go about "overthrowing the government," the Post reported.

1943 GMT

Trump campaign loses lawsuit seeking to halt Michigan vote count

A judge has tossed a lawsuit brought by US President Donald Trump's campaign in hopes of halting vote-counting in Michigan.

Michigan Court of Claims Judge Cynthia Stephens made the ruling during a court hearing on Thursday. She said she planned to issue a written ruling on Friday.

Campaign officials for Trump have said they filed the Michigan lawsuit to stop the counting there and gain greater access to the tabulation process.

1647 GMT

Biden campaign manager says full results may take time in Arizona

Democrat Joe Biden's campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon said it may take time to see full voting results in Arizona and that the margin in the state may tighten.

1642 GMT

Ballot counting in Philadelphia temporarily halted - MSNBC

The counting of mail-in ballots in Philadelphia has been temporarily halted as Democrats asked the state's top court to reverse a lower court ruling on ballot count observers, MSNBC reported.

Some 35,410 ballots will now be counted tomorrow in the key battleground that could decide the election.

1632 GMT

Trump says campaign will legally challenge 'Biden-claimed states'

President Donald Trump threatened more legal challenges over results from the presidential election in a handful of states, claiming without any evidence that voter fraud has been committed in places where Democrat Joe Biden appears to have won.

"All of the recent Biden claimed States will be legally challenged by us for Voter Fraud and State Election Fraud," Trump wrote in a tweet, without listing specific states or examples of alleged fraud. 

1550 GMT

Trump pulls ahead in Georgia

Ballots are still being counted in the battleground of Georgia where Donald Trump now has a lead of 18,000 votes.

1547 GMT

Twitter flags Trump's misleading tweet

Twitter Inc flagged a post by President Donald Trump on Thursday that said votes received after Election Day in the United States would not be counted.

The company has applied labels to multiple tweets sent by Trump in recent days, warning users that information is disputed and might be misleading, as he fights Democratic rival Joe Biden to keep his place in the White House.

Trump's latest tweet to receive the label on Thursday said: "ANY VOTE THAT CAME IN AFTER ELECTION DAY WILL NOT BE COUNTED!"

1540 GMT

Trump campaign says additional legal action expected in Pennsylvania, Nevada

Trump's campaign is planning additional legal action in Pennsylvania on transparency on votes already counted.

Campaign adviser Jason Miller says he expects more law suits to ensure "visibility on previous ballots counted in the state."

He also suggested the campaign will make additional legal moves related to Nevada on Thursday.

By end of Friday, Trump will be president for four more years, Miller said.

1515 GMT

Gold hits 3-week peak as dollar wilts on Biden victory bets

Gold bounced to a more than three-week peak as increasing bets of a Joe Biden victory in the close US election boosted hopes for larger stimulus and dented the dollar, ahead of a Federal Reserve policy statement.

Spot gold rose 1.4 percent at $1,930.66 per ounce by 9:49 am EST (1449 GMT), after hitting its highest since October 12 at $1,932.51. US gold futures gained 1.9 percent to $1,932.80.

1214 GMT

OSCE accuses Trump of 'gross abuse of office'

The head of an international observer mission to the US elections accused Trump of a "gross abuse of office" after the president alleged he was being cheated and demanded that vote counting be halted.

"The most disturbing thing was that with presidential fanfare of the White House, that is, with all the insignia of power, the American commander-in-chief called for an end to the count because of his purported victory," Michael Link told the German daily Stuttgarter Zeitung.

"That was a gross abuse of office," he said, adding that Trump's "claims of manipulation are baseless."

0943 GMT

World markets rally as markets shrug off election limbo

US futures and world shares surged as investors awaited the outcome of the US presidential election.

European markets opened higher after a day of gains in Asia, while the fate of the US presidency remained undecided as neither President Donald Trump or Democratic challenger Joe Biden had secured the 270 electoral college votes needed to win.

0851 GMT

Biden leads with 243, Trump has 213 

Edison Research gave Biden a 243 to 213 lead over Trump in electoral college votes, which are largely based on a state’s population. Others put it at 253 to 214 for Biden.

To win, a candidate needs 270 votes.

0814 GMT

Trump backers converge on vote centres in Michigan, Arizona

Dozens of angry supporters of Trump converged on vote-counting centres in Detroit and Phoenix as the returns went against him on Wednesday in the two key states, while thousands of anti-Trump protesters demanding a complete tally of the ballots in the still-undecided election took to the streets in cities across the US.

“Stop the count!” the Trump supporters chanted in Detroit. “Stop the steal!” they said in Phoenix.

The protests came as the president insisted without evidence that there were major problems with the voting and the ballot counting, especially with mail-in votes, and as Republicans filed suit in various states over the election.

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