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Trump Chief of Staff Meadows Diagnosed With COVID-19

President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows has been diagnosed with the coronavirus as the nation sets daily records for confirmed cases for the pandemic.Two senior administration officials confirmed Friday that Meadows had tested positive for the virus, which has killed more than 236,000 Americans so far this year.Meadows traveled with Trump in the run-up to Election Day and last appeared in public early Wednesday morning without a mask as Trump falsely declared victory in the vote count. He had been one of the close aides around Trump when the president came down with the virus more than a month ago but was tested daily and maintained his regular work schedule.
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Biden Confident of Impending Election Victory as Pennsylvania Lead Tops 20,000 Votes

Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s lead over U.S. President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania climbed from 5,000 votes early Friday to about 29,000 votes by late night, and that margin is expected to grow as remaining ballots are counted. Taking this pivotal state would propel Biden over the required threshold of 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidential election.Biden is also ahead in Georgia by more than 4,000 votes and maintains clear leads in Arizona and Nevada, although these races have not yet been called for either candidate.Addressing supporters Friday, amid speculation he would be projected the winner in Pennsylvania, Biden stopped short of claiming victory.“We don’t have a final declaration of victory yet, but the numbers tell us a clear and convincing story, we’re going to win this race,” said Biden.If Biden does take Pennsylvania, his Electoral College lead would increase to 273 votes over Trump’s current 214 vote total.In this U.S. system of indirect democracy, the popular vote is used to determine official electors in each state, who are allocated based on state population.A Biden win in Pennsylvania would also block Trump’s path to victory.Trump is leading in the two remaining unresolved races in North Carolina and Alaska. Without winning Pennsylvania, Trump could not overtake Biden’s lead even if he sweeps all the other states that have yet to be called.Biden surpassed Trump by 4 million votes in the national election. Biden won over 74 million votes to Trump’s 69 million, with more than 150 million votes cast overall, the most ever in a U.S. election.Legal disputesTrump on Twitter Friday warned Biden not to claim early victory.“Joe Biden should not wrongfully claim the office of the President. I could make that claim also. Legal proceedings are just now beginning!” he said in a Tweet on Friday.Trump made his claim of victory in a speech election night.The Trump campaign is disputing the vote count in several states, saying in a statement Friday, “this election is not over.” The campaign says the president will ultimately win as a result of expected recounts in close state races and its legal challenges based on unsubstantiated allegations of vote fraud and irregularities.Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Friday there will be a recount in that state because Biden’s lead there is less than 0.5% of the vote. Georgia officials said about 9,000 military and overseas ballots were still outstanding and could be accepted if they arrive on Friday and were postmarked on Tuesday or earlier.The Trump campaign also called for a vote recount in Wisconsin, where Biden is winning by more than 20,000 votes.Trump, without evidence, accused Democrats on Thursday of engineering massive fraud and irregularities to prevent him from winning reelection as president.“This is a case where they are trying to steal an election, they’re trying to rig an election, and we can’t let that happen,” he said during a White House news conference.Trump accused state officials of barring his campaign from observing the vote count, called mail-in voting a “corrupt system” that lacks “any verification measures,” and said he expects contested election litigation to end up in the Supreme Court. He also spoke without offering evidence of a “corrupt voting apparatus” in states led by Democratic governors.No evidenceTrump’s unsubstantiated claims drew quick rebukes from some of the president’s fellow Republicans.Sen. Mitt Romney, a former Republican presidential nominee who has been a Trump critic, said Friday on Twitter that Trump “is wrong to say that the election was rigged, corrupt and stolen.” He added that “doing so damages the cause of freedom” and “recklessly inflames destructive and dangerous passions.”Benjamin Hovland, who serves on the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, told VOA there has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the country, which he said would be very difficult to pull off, and require, “a vast conspiracy of people willing to commit thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of felonies.”Lawyers representing Trump and Republicans also filed lawsuits alleging vote counting irregularities and demanding that the counting of mail-in ballots be halted in Pennsylvania, where an early Trump lead evaporated as more mail-in ballots were counted.Democrats had urged supporters to vote by mail to prevent the spread of the coronavirus while Trump called on his voters to show up in person on election day.Democrats confidentEarlier Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, said Biden’s election victory was “imminent,” but called for patience as votes are tallied.“The right to vote is a sacred right in our country. And having that vote counted as cast, it is the fundamental foundation of our democracy,” Pelosi said during a news briefing Friday.Biden also said Friday he is already anticipating assuming the presidency, and his team is prioritizing plans to contain the surging coronavirus pandemic in the country.“On day one we are going to put our plan to control this virus into action,” Biden said.
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Bannon Lawyer Quits Fraud Case After Inflammatory Remarks

A lawyer for President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, quit defending him in a federal fraud case a day after Bannon made inflammatory comments about Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray. In a letter dated Friday, defense attorney William Burck told a federal court judge in New York City that he was withdrawing from the case. He did not give a reason why. Reached by email, Burck declined to discuss the decision. The lawyer quit after Bannon suggested on an online broadcast that Fauci and Wray should be beheaded for being disloyal to the president. The remarks prompted Twitter to permanently suspend Bannon’s account. FILE – President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon speaks with reporters in New York, Aug. 20, 2020.”I’d put the heads on pikes” as a warning to federal bureaucrats, Bannon said on video. “You either get with the program or you are gone.”  Bannon, 66, is facing charges he ripped off Trump supporters as an organizer of a group called “We Build The Wall” that portrayed itself as eager to help the president build a barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border. He has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors have accused Bannon and co-defendants of misappropriating money from the group, which raised $25 million from thousands of donors who thought their cash would be used to build the wall. Prosecutors declined comment Friday. There was no new lawyer for Bannon named in the court record. 
 
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Pressure on Police as Presidential Vote Counting Nears an End

Election officials across the United States are increasingly calling on police and federal law enforcement to help keep the peace as the number of ballots left to be tallied winds down.From Philadelphia to Phoenix, lines of uniformed police officers are becoming commonplace, separating partiers and protesters from workers counting ballots inside government buildings and other venues.So far, the gatherings, while loud, have been peaceful. But officials warn that tensions are simmering as the nation gets closer to declaring a winner.“It’s just troubling for my employees. I have employees who are nervous leaving the building, and rightfully so,” Joe Gloria, the registrar of voters in Clark County, Nevada, told reporters Friday, voicing concern for a second day in a row.“We have a relatively large force of law enforcement plus our county security that’s here in place,” he said, praising the response as excellent.“They’re monitoring social media for any threatening type of messages,” Gloria said, adding, “We’re doing everything we can to protect our employees.”But not all has gone smoothly.Supporters of Republican President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, briefly clashed during competing demonstrations Thursday night into Friday morning outside the Maricopa County Department of Elections in Phoenix, Arizona.Hours earlier, election officials announced the establishment of a free-speech zone – putting up fencing and bringing in police to protect election workers from “the threat of intimidation” because some protesters were carrying handguns or rifles.The eyes of the nation are on Maricopa County and it is imperative that we balance the protection and well-being of our election workers and volunteers with the constitutional right of protesters who may wish to demonstrate outside the Elections Department. Read more: Police say two suspects in a plot to attack the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia traveled from Virginia in a silver Hummer (Esha Sarai/VOA)Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said the men were first spotted late Thursday evening, after Philadelphia police got a tip from the FBI that they were making the 450-kilometer trip while “in possession of weapons and ammunition.”Outlaw said police approached the men after noticing one was wearing a handgun in a holster on his hip while the other appeared to have a gun concealed under his jacket.The men were identified Friday as Joshua Macias, 42, and Antonio Lamotta, 61, both of Chesapeake, Virginia, according to the Philadelphia Attorney General’s Office.Neither Lamotta nor Macias had the necessary permits to carry guns in Philadelphia and were subsequently arrested on weapons charges.Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner says the investigation into an apparent plot to attack the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia is active. (Esha Sarai/VOA)”At this time, we do not have indications that the story is bigger than these two individuals,” he said, though he called the investigation “very active.”But the arrests, and the involvement of the FBI and Department of Homeland Security in the investigation, did little to deter supporters of both presidential candidates from holding competing rallies outside the Philadelphia Convention Center later Friday.”They tried to intimidate us, so we threw a party,” Mike, a Philadelphia resident celebrating with Biden supporters, told VOA.Trump supporters, many from other states, also gathered nearby, demanding observers be allowed to monitor workers tallying the vote.”I came here to show my support for President Trump,” said Olivia Ingrassia, who traveled to Philadelphia with her mother from Long Island, N.Y. “We’re not going to stand for this. This is fraud, and I stand with the president. He’s going to fight through this.”Federal and state officials have been Mike, a Biden supporter, came out to support the ‘count every vote’ movement in Philadelphia on Nov. 6, 2020. (Esha Sarai/VOA)Before the election, law enforcement officials, including officials at the FBI, also expressed concern that disinformation from domestic sources or from U.S. adversaries could help spark violence, though they insisted they were ready.“Our preparations for [the 2020 election] take into account the current climate of the country,” an FBI official told VOA at the time.Reuters contributed to this report.
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Biden’s Election Lead Grows as Trump Disputes Results

Democratic candidate Joe Biden continues to build on the razor-thin leads he gained early Friday over Republican President Donald Trump in the states of Georgia and Pennsylvania, where vote counting continues. While those races are still too close call, Biden is strongly positioned to win the U.S. presidential election. The Trump campaign is disputing the results, saying in a statement Friday, “this election is not over.” The campaign says the president will ultimately win as a result of expected recounts in close state races and its legal challenges based on unsubstantiated allegations of vote fraud and irregularities. Biden currently leads in the popular vote and by a 253-214 margin in the crucial Electoral College, where 270 electoral votes are needed to claim the presidency for a four-year term.  In the U.S. system of indirect democracy, the popular vote winner in each state — with two exceptions, Maine and Nebraska — receives all of that state’s electoral votes, which are allocated on the basis of population.  Winning Georgia’s 16 electoral votes and Pennsylvania’s 20 votes would give Biden 299 votes, comfortably surpassing the threshold needed to become president. Biden also holds leads in the states of Arizona and Nevada, which, if confirmed, would increase his total to 316 electoral votes. Biden moved ahead of Trump in both Georgia and Pennsylvania on the strength of mail-in ballots that were cast in reliably Democratic areas such as the cities of Atlanta and Philadelphia. Those ballots were among the last to be counted. Since he overtook Trump in Pennsylvania early Friday, Biden’s lead in the popular vote in the state has grown to more than 13,500 votes, while in Georgia, he now has a 1,579-vote lead. Both margins are expected to increase as additional mail-in ballots are counted.  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, said Biden’s election victory was “imminent,” but called for patience as votes are tallied. “The right to vote is a sacred right in our country. And having that vote counted as cast, it is the fundamental foundation of our democracy,” Pelosi said during a news briefing Friday.   Legal challenges  Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Friday there will be a recount in that state because Biden’s lead there is less than 0.5% of the vote. Georgia officials said about 9,000 military and overseas ballots were still outstanding and could be accepted if they arrive on Friday and were postmarked on Tuesday or earlier. Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
Trump accused state officials of barring his campaign from observing the vote count, called mail-in voting a “corrupt system” that lacks “any verification measures,” and said he expects contested election litigation to end up in the Supreme Court. He also spoke without offering evidence of a “corrupt voting apparatus” in states led by Democratic governors. Trump’s unsubstantiated claims drew quick rebukes from some of the president’s fellow Republicans. Senator Mitt Romney, a former Republican presidential nominee who has been a Trump critic, said Friday on Twitter that Trump “is wrong to say that the election was rigged, corrupt and stolen.” He added that “doing so damages the cause of freedom” and “recklessly inflames destructive and dangerous passions.” Lawyers representing Trump and Republicans filed lawsuits alleging vote counting irregularities and demanding that the counting of mail-in ballots be halted in Pennsylvania, where an early Trump lead evaporated as more mail-in ballots were counted. Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 9 MB480p | 12 MB540p | 16 MB720p | 32 MB1080p | 63 MBOriginal | 76 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioThe vote count across the U.S. has been slowed by the vast number of mail-in ballots — about two-thirds of the more than 101 million ballots cast before Tuesday’s official Election Day — and which are taking longer to count. Many people who voted by mail said they wanted to avoid long lines at polling stations on Tuesday and coming face to face with others amid the country’s unchecked coronavirus pandemic.  Biden’s campaign urged voting by mail, and the result is that his vote count has swelled in numerous states as those ballots are tallied. Trump mostly urged Election Day in-person voting by Republicans, claiming without evidence that mail-in voting would lead to an election rigged against him. Those ballots were generally counted earlier. Counting continues   With most states already decided, Biden can secure victory by winning Pennsylvania or holding onto his lead in any two of the other states that are still considered too close to call: Arizona, Nevada and Georgia. To win reelection, Trump needs to hold onto Alaska and North Carolina — where he is comfortably ahead — and pick off at least three Biden-leaning states.   Biden leads the national popular vote 73.9 million to 69.8 million, with more than 150 million votes casts, the most ever in a U.S. election. 
 
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Trump Backers, Biden Supporters Duel as Vote Count Continues

Supporters of President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden faced off in largely peaceful demonstrations Thursday and early Friday in battleground states, where votes in the U.S. presidential election were still being counted.Both sides were energized by Trump’s aggressive challenge to the vote-counting process, which has shown Biden slowly building an Electoral College lead over Trump.In the closely contested state of Arizona, backers of the two candidates scuffled briefly Thursday outside the Maricopa County Elections Department in the city of Phoenix. The fracas occurred after several heavily armed right-wing groups gathered at the site while election workers were counting ballots inside.Protesters repeatedly accused Maricopa County election chief Adrian Fontes of failing to count some ballots and thus denying Trump much-needed votes, although there was no evidence of improper vote counting.President Donald Trump supporters gather with some signs claiming a stolen election outside the Philadelphia Convention Center as they await general election tabulation results, Nov. 6, 2020, in Philadelphia.In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the scene was less confrontational, as demonstrators from both sides were separated by barriers under a heavy police presence. City police said they arrested a man and seized a weapon Thursday night as part of an investigation into suspected plans to attack the city’s convention center where votes were being tallied.With the future of the U.S. presidency still in doubt, tense encounters also unfolded in swing-state cities such as Atlanta, Georgia; Detroit, Michigan; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.Demonstrators were in the streets of New York, Washington, Los Angeles and Chicago, some of them continuing protests over police brutality and racial injustice in the wake of the death of George Floyd while in Minneapolis police custody six months ago.A Biden supporter who would only give his first name, Douglas, right, debates with Trump supporters demonstrating against the election results outside the central counting board at the TCF Center in Detroit, Nov. 6, 2020.Several hundred protesters upset over Trump’s efforts to limit vote counting marched onto Interstate 94 on Thursday in Minneapolis, creating massive traffic jams.The dueling demonstrations across the country continued into Thursday night after Trump claimed at the White House without offering evidence that Democrats were trying to “steal” the election.Local election officials throughout the U.S. continued to count ballots days after the November 3 election because an unprecedented number of people voted by mail because of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. Those ballots, which have tended to favor Biden, take longer to verify and count. 
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Biden Takes Lead in Pennsylvania, Georgia

Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden has gained razor thin leads over President Donald Trump in Georgia and Pennsylvania, as vote counting continues Friday.The Trump campaign continues to dispute the results, however, saying in a statement Friday the “this election is not over,” and claiming the president will ultimately win after expected recounts in close state races. The Trump campaign has also filed legal challenges over unsubstantiated allegations of vote fraud and irregularities. Biden currently leads in the popular vote as well as the Electoral College count, 253-214, with a majority of 270 needed to claim the presidency for a four-year term.  
 
Biden has moved ahead of Trump in both Georgia and Pennsylvania on the strength of mail-in ballots that were cast in reliably Democratic areas such as the cities of Atlanta and Philadelphia.In Pennsylvania, Biden overtook Trump by 5,587 votes Friday morning, and in Georgia, he now has a 1,097-vote lead. Both margins were expected to increase as additional ballots continue to be counted.  
 Biden would be the first Democrat to win Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992.In the U.S. Electoral College system, the popular vote winner in each state — with two exceptions, Maine and Nebraska — receives all of that state’s electoral votes, which are allocated on the basis of population. Meanwhile President Trump, without evidence, Thursday accused Democrats of engineering massive fraud and irregularities to prevent him from winning reelection as president.  “This is a case where they are trying to steal an election, they’re trying to rig an election, and we can’t let that happen,” said Trump during a news conference.   In contrast, Biden earlier in the day urged patience while states tabulate the record number of votes, more than 150 million, cast in this year’s election.  “Each ballot must be counted. And that’s what we’re going to see going through now. And that’s how it should be. Democracy sometimes is messy,” Biden said during a briefing.  Counting under wayIf Biden holds his vote leads in Arizona, with its 11 electors, and Nevada with six, he will reach the 270 Electoral College majority and become the country’s 46th president at his inauguration in January, no matter the outcome in Georgia and Pennsylvania.   Trump needs to hold all the states he has been leading in and pick up either Nevada or Arizona, in each of which Biden is currently leading.  The Biden campaign had urged supporters to vote by mail to stay safe during the coronavirus pandemic, while Trump has, without evidence, denounced mail-in voting as fraudulent and a scam.  Trump cited the disproportionate number of late votes being won by Biden as possible vote interference by what he called the corrupt voting apparatus of states with Democratic governors.  “We were winning in all the key locations by a lot, actually, and then our numbers started miraculously getting whittled away in secret,” Trump said on Thursday. Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 7 MB480p | 10 MB540p | 13 MB720p | 31 MB1080p | 55 MBOriginal | 145 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioTwenty electoral votes are at stake in Pennsylvania. Trump has more comfortable leads in two other states that have not yet been called: Alaska and North Carolina. Biden leads the national popular vote 73.5 million to 69.5 million, but it is the Electoral College that will determine the winner after a contentious, months-long campaign.   On Twitter, Trump demanded that the vote count be stopped. But if the vote count were frozen in its late Thursday morning state, Trump would lose, becoming the third U.S. president in the last four decades to lose reelection after a single term.LawsuitsTrump on Thursday also cited irregularities, such as state officials barring his campaign from observing the vote count, called mail-in voting a “corrupt system” that lacks “any verification measures,” and said he expects contested election litigation to end up in the Supreme Court.Lawyers representing Trump and Republicans filed lawsuits alleging vote counting irregularities and demanding that the counting of mail-in ballots be halted in Pennsylvania, where Trump’s lead was dwindling as more mail-in ballots were countedSorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 9 MB480p | 12 MB540p | 16 MB720p | 32 MB1080p | 63 MBOriginal | 76 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioThe vote count across the U.S. has been slowed by the vast number of mail-in ballots — about two-thirds of the more than 101 million ballots cast before Tuesday’s official Election Day — and which are taking longer to count. Many people who voted by mail said they wanted to avoid long lines at polling stations on Tuesday and coming face to face with others amid the country’s unchecked coronavirus pandemic.   Biden’s campaign urged voting by mail, and the result is that his vote count has swelled in numerous states as those ballots are tallied. Trump mostly urged Election Day in-person voting by Republicans, claiming without evidence that mail-in voting would lead to an election rigged against him. Those ballots were generally counted earlier. Trump’s lawyers also called for a recount in the Midwestern state of Wisconsin, where Biden was projected the winner of the state’s 10 electors on Wednesday. They contended that there were irregularities at some voting stations.  Trump claimed victory in the early hours of Wednesday, but Biden has stopped short of saying he has won. “I’m not here to declare that we’ve won,” Biden said Wednesday. “But I am here to report that when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners.” 
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As Americans Await Winner, Biden Overtakes Trump in Several Key Battleground States

Democratic candidate Joe Biden has moved closer to claiming victory in the U.S. presidential election as updated vote counts erode President Donald Trump’s leads in Georgia and Pennsylvania.Biden currently leads in the popular vote as well as the Electoral College count, 253-214, with a majority of 270 needed to claim the presidency for a four-year term.Vote counting is still under way in four states that will decide the election: Arizona and Nevada, where Biden is ahead; Pennsylvania, where Trump’s early lead has, as of early Friday, decreased to 18,000 votes, and Georgia, where Biden has pulled ahead by 917 votes.In the U.S. Electoral College system, the popular vote winner in each state — with two exceptions, Maine and Nebraska — receives all of that state’s electoral votes, which are allocated on the basis of population.Meanwhile Trump, without evidence, Thursday accused Democrats of engineering massive fraud and irregularities to prevent him from winning reelection as president.“This is a case where they are trying to steal an election, they’re trying to rig an election, and we can’t let that happen,” said Trump during a news conference.In contrast, Biden earlier in the day urged patience while states tabulate the record number of votes, more than 150 million, cast in this year’s election.“Each ballot must be counted. And that’s what we’re going to see going through now. And that’s how it should be. Democracy sometimes is messy,” Biden said during a briefing.Counting under wayIf Biden holds his vote leads in Arizona, with its 11 electors, and Nevada with six, he will reach the 270 Electoral College majority and become the country’s 46th president at his inauguration in January, no matter the outcome in Georgia and Pennsylvania.Trump needs to hold all the states he has been leading in and pick up either Nevada or Arizona, in each of which Biden is currently leading.In Pennsylvania and Georgia, Trump’s lead shrank as the vote count continued. Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said Thursday the remaining votes being counted are almost entirely mail-in ballots. So far those have significantly favored Biden.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 7 MB480p | 10 MB540p | 13 MB720p | 31 MB1080p | 55 MBOriginal | 145 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioThe Biden campaign had urged supporters to vote by mail to stay safe during the coronavirus pandemic, while Trump has, without evidence, denounced mail-in voting as fraudulent and a scam.Trump cited the disproportionate number of late votes being won by Biden as possible vote interference by what he called the corrupt voting apparatus of states with Democratic governors.“We were winning in all the key locations by a lot, actually, and then our numbers started miraculously getting whittled away in secret,” Trump said on Thursday.Twenty electoral votes are at stake in Pennsylvania. Trump has more comfortable leads in two other states that have not yet been called: Alaska and North Carolina.As of early Friday, Biden was leading by around 11,500 votes in Nevada, which has six electors, and by about 47,000 in Arizona, which has 11 electors. Many more votes are still to be counted in both states.Biden leads the national popular vote 73.5 million to 69.5 million, but it is the Electoral College that will determine the winner after a contentious, months-long campaign.On Twitter, Trump demanded that the vote count be stopped. But if the vote count were frozen in its late Thursday morning state, Trump would lose, becoming the third U.S. president in the last four decades to lose reelection after a single term.LawsuitsTrump on Thursday also cited irregularities, such as state officials barring his campaign from observing the vote count, called mail-in voting a “corrupt system” that lacks “any verification measures,” and said he expects contested election litigation to end up in the Supreme Court.Lawyers representing Trump and Republicans filed lawsuits alleging vote counting irregularities and demanding that the counting of mail-in ballots be halted in Pennsylvania, where Trump’s lead was dwindling as more mail-in ballots were counted.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 9 MB480p | 12 MB540p | 16 MB720p | 32 MB1080p | 63 MBOriginal | 76 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioThe vote count across the U.S. has been slowed by the vast number of mail-in ballots — about two-thirds of the more than 101 million ballots cast before Tuesday’s official Election Day — and which are taking longer to count. Many people who voted by mail said they wanted to avoid long lines at polling stations on Tuesday and coming face to face with others amid the country’s unchecked coronavirus pandemic.Biden’s campaign urged voting by mail, and the result is that his vote count has swelled in numerous states as those ballots are tallied. Trump mostly urged Election Day in-person voting by Republicans, claiming without evidence that mail-in voting would lead to an election rigged against him. Those ballots were generally counted earlier.Trump’s lawyers also called for a recount in the Midwestern state of Wisconsin, where Biden was projected the winner of the state’s 10 electors on Wednesday. They contended that there were irregularities at some voting stations.Trump claimed victory in the early hours of Wednesday, but Biden has stopped short of saying he has won.“I’m not here to declare that we’ve won,” Biden said Wednesday. “But I am here to report that when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners.”
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Vote Count Continues as Trump Files Suits in Battleground States

President Donald Trump’s campaign is intensifying legal actions to challenge the integrity of the ballot-counting process in several battleground states, as Democratic nominee Joe Biden inches closer to securing 270 electoral votes to win the White House. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the latest.
Producer: Barry Unger
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Faith Groups Gather for Post-Vote Prayer, Song & Solidarity

Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Jews and members of other faiths have come together in New York City for a post-election gathering featuring prayer, singing and expressions of solidarity.  The New York gathering took place as vote counting from Tuesday’s presidential election took place in several key states, as VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports.
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Fears Rise for Safety of Election Workers in Battleground States

Tensions over the still undecided U.S. presidential election are prompting some state and local officials to increase security for those charged with counting the remaining votes. Supporters of Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden have increasingly focused their attention on states like Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania, where slim margins have made calling the race nearly impossible. And the tensions have grown as allegations of irregularities in the vote-counting process have sparked protests outside buildings where the tally is going on. “I am concerned for the safety of my staff,” said Joe Gloria, registrar of voters in Clark County, Nevada, on November 5, after about 75 people, some wearing Trump T-shirts, chanted “Stop the Steal” and FILE – Supporters of President Donald Trump protest the Nevada vote in front of the Clark County Election Department in Las Vegas, Nov. 4, 2020.There were no reports of violence, but following scares at other locations across the country, Gloria said his office was not taking any chances. “We’re putting measures into place to make sure that we have the security that’s necessary,” he said. “We have law enforcement who are protecting us.” In the neighboring state of Arizona, election officials in Maricopa County announced Thursday they would be setting up a “free speech zone” for protesters with the help of the local sheriff’s office. “It is imperative that we balance the protection and well-being of our election workers and volunteers with the constitutional right of protesters,” the Maricopa County Elections Department said in a statement, adding the changes would allow staff to count votes and leave the building “without the threat of intimidation.” The eyes of the nation are on Maricopa County and it is imperative that we balance the protection and well-being of our election workers and volunteers with the constitutional right of protesters who may wish to demonstrate outside the Elections Department. Read more: Zoned areas for protesters divide the parking lot of the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office, in Phoenix, Nov. 5, 2020.Confrontations between protesters and election officials were also reported November 4 in Detroit, Michigan, when FILE – Election challengers yell as they look through the windows of the central counting board as police were helping to keep additional challengers from entering due to overcrowding, in Detroit, Nov. 4, 2020.Overnight protests November 4 in Portland, Oregon, also turned violent, with police making 10 arrests and seizing multiple firearms as well as ammunition. Back in Michigan, the state’s attorney general complained November 5 on Twitter about harassing phone calls and threats to her staff. NEW: #Michigan Atty General @dananessel asks public to stop making threats to her staff”Please stop making harassing & threatening calls to my staff…Asking them to shove sharpies in uncomfortable places is never appropriate”https://t.co/okewSrH7lR— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) November 5, 2020″The safety and security of election officials and election workers is paramount,” a spokesperson for the National Association of State Election Directors told VOA in a statement November 5. “Election officials have contingency plans in place,” the spokesperson added. Federal and state officials have been bracing for potential violence for months, anticipating frayed nerves due to a close election combined with the likelihood that results would be delayed because of the high number of mail-in ballots. US States Brace for Possible Violence on Election Day State security and election officials working to get ahead of a combination of factors threatening to spark chaos around the Nov. 3 vote “Election result delays and recounts could result in protests and attempts to occupy election offices,” the New Jersey Department of Homeland Security and Preparedness warned in a threat assessment issued in late September. Law enforcement officials, including officials at the FBI, also expressed concern before the election that U.S. adversaries, such as Russia, Iran and China, could use the days after the November 3 vote to spark “upheaval and discord,” which could lead to violence. “Our preparations for [the 2020 election] take into account the current climate of the country,” an FBI official told VOA at the time. 
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US Presidential Election Remains Undecided

The U.S. presidential election remained unsettled Thursday, with Democratic challenger Joe Biden nearing an Electoral College majority and President Donald Trump demanding that the vote count be stopped while Republicans are filing lawsuits alleging vote tabulation irregularities.Biden leads in the Electoral College count 253-214, with a majority of 270 needed to claim the presidency for a new four-year term. But vote counting is still underway in four states that will decide the election — Georgia and Pennsylvania in the eastern part of the country and the adjoining Western states of Arizona and Nevada.  Where things standTrump is ahead in Georgia and Pennsylvania and Biden is leading in the other two, with both of their leads indecisive. In the U.S. Electoral College system, the popular vote winner in each state — with two exceptions, Maine and Nebraska — receives all of that state’s electoral votes, which are allocated on the basis of population. If Biden can hold his vote leads in Arizona, with its 11 electors, and Nevada with six, he will reach the 270 Electoral College majority and would become the country’s 46th president at his inauguration in January, no matter the outcome in Georgia and Pennsylvania.Trump needs to hold all the states he is leading in and pick up either Nevada or Arizona, where Biden currently holds the lead.The vote count is close in all four states. In Georgia, with 16 electoral votes at stake, Trump holds a 15,000-vote lead with more than 50,000 ballots yet to be counted.In Pennsylvania, Trump leads by 116,000 votes, but a bigger total remains to be counted. Twenty electoral votes are at stake.Biden now leads by 12,000 votes in Nevada, which has six electors, and by 68,000 in Arizona, which has 11 electors. Many more votes are yet to be counted in both states.Who Declares Winner in US Presidential Election?Founding Fathers created a 4-month process of formally certifying the victor Trump still has a path to victory if he can take back the states where Biden is leading and also capture Georgia and Pennsylvania. The president is also leading in two other states that have not yet been called — Alaska and North Carolina
Biden leads the national popular vote 71.8 million to 68.1 million, but it is the Electoral College that will determine the winner after a contentious, months-long campaign.On Twitter, Trump demanded that the vote count be stopped, but if the vote count were frozen in its late Thursday morning state, Trump would lose, becoming the third U.S. president in the last four decades to lose re-election after a single term.Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, personal attorney to U.S. President Donald Trump, speaks near Eric Trump and his wife Lara Trump during a news conference at Atlantic Aviation PHL private air terminal in Philadelphia, Penn, Nov. 4, 2020.Lawsuits
Lawyers representing Trump and Republicans filed lawsuits alleging vote counting irregularities and demanding that the counting of mail-in ballots be halted in Pennsylvania, where Trump’s lead was dwindling as more mail-in ballots were counted.The vote count across the U.S. has been slowed by the vast number of mail-in ballots — more than 101 million – which were cast before Tuesday’s official Election Day and which are taking longer to count. Many people who voted by mail said they wanted to avoid long lines at polling stations on Tuesday and coming face to face with others amid the country’s unchecked coronavirus pandemic.Biden’s campaign urged voting by mail and the result is that his vote count has swelled in numerous states in the post-election day ballot counting. Trump mostly urged Election Day in-person voting by Republicans, claiming without evidence that mail-in voting would lead to an election rigged against him.Trump lawyers also called for a recount in the Midwestern state of Wisconsin, where Biden was projected as winner of the state’s 10 electors on Wednesday. They contended there were irregularities at some voting stations.This combination of pictures shows Democratic presidential nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden on Oct. 23, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware, On the right is U.S. President Donald Trump in Gastonia, North Carolina, Oct. 21, 2020.Trump, Biden react to results so far
Trump claimed victory in the early hours of Wednesday, but Biden has stopped short of saying he has won.    “I’m not here to declare that we’ve won,” Biden said Wednesday. “But I am here to report that when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners.”  
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No Matter Who Wins US Vote, Paris Wants a Reset

As people wait to see who will be confirmed the winner of the U.S. presidential election, politicians and analysts in France discuss the ongoing process and outcome of the vote, but especially its future impact on the relationship between the two countries.The U.S. election is all over the news in France and, since Tuesday, the French media have been covering the vote extensively.  
 
The uncertainty around the outcome is widely commented on, especially since final results were still pending more than 24 hours after polling stations closed.
 
Jean-Claude Beaujour, a lawyer and vice president of France-Ameriques, an association which promotes friendship between France and the United States, says people in France have a hard time understanding that in the United States, each of the 50 states has different legislation to organize the vote. In addition, he said, the U.S. is seen as the country of Google, the Silicon Valley, with a technological edge and that it is hard to believe that the country does not have a better and faster way of processing the election results to know who won.After four years of a tumultuous relationship between U.S. President Donald Trump and France’s Emmanuel Macron, officials in Paris say that regardless of who is sworn in as the next U.S. president, a fresh start is needed for both countries.French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian says it is up to the American people to decide who will be president and that France will work with whoever is elected and the new administration in Washington. He stressed that Europe has been reaffirming its sovereignty over the past four years and that there will be no going back to the previous situation. Therefore, he added, a new transatlantic relationship must be built based on a new partnership.As of Thursday, President Emmanuel Macron had not commented on any possible outcome of the U.S. vote. 
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No Systemic Problems With US Election Day Proceedings, Foreign Observers Say

Despite the pandemic, the lawsuits and the acrimonious political rhetoric, foreign election observers had good news. They did not find systemic irregularity or wrongdoing by either major party.
Ursula Gacek, who headed a foreign team of observers that arrived in the U.S. in late September to study the conditions leading up to election day,  noted there were isolated cases of irregular behavior – what she called “small incidents – personal, human incidents,” a couple of which were described in detail in footnotes to the report. “But nothing,” she said, “that would impact and really fundamentally shake the confidence in the system.”The outcome of the November 3 U.S. presidential election was still up for grabs Wednesday, when the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe election-monitoring team held its day-after news conference in Washington, D.C.  
 
Michael Georg Link, head of the short-term observer mission from the group’s parliamentary assembly, praised the U.S. government, which invited the observer missions, for having “the strength to show that nobody is perfect.”
 
He added, “Every democracy . . . profits on exchanges of best practice that can help further improve and refine its electoral system where needed.”
 
The United States was obligated to invite the OSCE to observe its elections. Despite the Eurocentric name, both the United States and Canada, and a handful of Central Asian nations, are participating states in the OSCE, which was formed during the Cold War. OSCE membership comes with the obligation to invite election monitors from the other OSCE states as a means of holding all members to the same standards of transparency.  
 
While Link’s team was in the United States to observe Election Day itself, Gacek’s  team arrived in the U.S. in late September and a number of them will stay on for the next 10 days or so – longer if the vote count is protracted.
A report issued Wednesday by both groups noted that an expansion of early voting and mail-in voting meant to make voting safer during the coronavirus pandemic led to more than 400 lawsuits filed in 44 different states, some of which continued even as the voting took place. That, Gacek said, had the effect of “changing the rules of the game whilst the game was already on.”  Election monitors observe as absentee ballots are processed at the central counting board as vote counting in the general election continues, in Detroit, Michigan, Nov. 4, 2020.Beyond the pandemic’s complications, this year’s campaign rhetoric was seen as problematic, particularly from President Donald Trump. Of particular concern, the report said, was “the incumbent president’s use of discriminatory and pejorative statements against individuals on the grounds of their gender and origin.”  
 
It also singled out Trump’s refusals to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, should he lose the election. And it said his expressions of mistrust in voting by mail might serve to weaken public confidence in state institutions.
 
In his comments to the media Wednesday, Link said pointedly: “Nobody – no politician, no elected official, nobody should limit the people’s right to vote. … Baseless allegations of systematic deficiencies, notably by the incumbent president, including on election night, harm public trust in democratic institutions.”
 
When asked more than once if this year’s elections offer evidence that American democracy is backsliding, both Link and Gacek demurred.  
 
“We don’t even do a thumbs-up or thumbs-down,” Link said. “What this question implies is a political conclusion. … We don’t draw political conclusions.”
 
Gacek said the observers don’t even compare one election to another in the same country. The only time previous reports come into play is when they look at whether previous recommendations have been implemented. “That’s the only thing we carry forward,” she said. “But no ranking, no comparative analysis.”Voters stand in line outside a polling station on Election Day, in Mesa, Arizona, Nov. 3, 2020.
In the 18 years that OSCE teams have been coming to observe U.S. elections – starting with midterms in 2002 – Those recommendations include making campaign finance more transparent and restoring voting rights to convicted felons who have completed their prison sentences.
Few of those recommendations, however, seem to have been heeded by election officials – a critique noted in this year’s reporting.  
 
And in that light, all the uncertainty about the validity and logistics of this year’s election might have been worth it – if only because they have drawn unprecedented media attention to the goal the observation teams are trying to accomplish.  
 
“The recommendations are key,” Gacek said when asked about the effect of the media attention. “Some of the recommendations we have made in the past are quite longstanding.”
“So, from that respect,” she continued, “the bigger the interest in our work … it’s only to the good of the most important people in this whole process – the people that we’re always rooting for. And that’s the American voter.”
 
Meanwhile, the vote count continues – and the observer teams’ work is not yet over. Members of the teams will spend the next few weeks studying their data – including a legal expert who will examine those 400 lawsuits – and arrive at this year’s recommendations.
 
Gacek says the teams will take as long as necessary before releasing the final report. One thing is certain: there will be some recommendations.
 
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No Winner Yet, But Biden’s Lead Grows in US Presidential Election

U.S. news organizations on Wednesday projected former Vice President Joe Biden as the winner in the battleground states of Michigan and Wisconsin, putting him almost within reach of victory in the U.S. presidential election.“I’m not here to declare that we’ve won. But I am here to report that when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners,” Biden said Wednesday afternoon.Biden could reach the 270 Electoral College vote threshold needed to win the election if in addition to Michigan and Wisconsin, he holds on to his leads in Arizona and Nevada. All but Nevada went for Donald Trump in the 2016 election.In the U.S. Electoral College system, the popular vote winner in each state — with two exceptions, Maine and Nebraska — receives all of that state’s electoral votes, which are allocated on the basis of population.States do not declare a winner before all votes are counted, but news organizations project winners when they conclude there are not enough uncounted votes remaining to change the outcome.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 9 MB480p | 12 MB540p | 16 MB720p | 31 MB1080p | 62 MBOriginal | 76 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioBiden also led in the national popular vote with 70.4 million voters as of Wednesday, compared to 67.1 million votes cast for Trump, according to Edison Research and The Associated Press. With the heavy early voting, the total 2020 count, by some estimates, could reach a U.S. record of 150 million or more.Trump pathTrump, however, still has a path to victory if he can take back any one of the states where Biden is leading. The president is leading in other states that have not yet been called: Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina and Alaska. By sweeping these, but not flipping a Biden-leaning state, Trump would end up with 268 Electoral College votes, just short of the total needed to win.In Pennsylvania, more than 1 million mail-in ballots are currently being counted. The Biden campaign said it has been winning 78% of the votes-by-mail in Pennsylvania. The results in that state are not expected until Thursday or Friday.The Biden campaign had urged supporters to vote by mail to stay safe during the coronavirus pandemic, while Trump has, without evidence, denounced mail-in voting as fraudulent and a scam.The Trump campaign said Wednesday it will request a vote recount in Wisconsin, where Biden leads by about 20,000 votes, and has filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the count in Michigan, where Biden is ahead by over 35,000 votes. The president’s surrogates in Pennsylvania, where Trump led at one point by about 389,000 votes, are also mounting legal challenges to stop the counting of mail-in ballots.The Trump campaign also filed a lawsuit in Georgia on Wednesday asking a judge to order state election officials to follow the law in storing and counting absentee ballots, according to The Associated Press.Early Tuesday morning, Trump claimed victory in the election, despite the fact the vote count was ongoing, and made unsubstantiated allegations of electoral fraud.“We’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop. We don’t want them to find any ballots at 4 o’clock in the morning and add them to the list,” Trump said during an early morning briefing Wednesday.Hans von Spakovsky, a former member of the Federal Election Commission and now with the conservative Heritage Foundation, said he expects legal disputes to contest “the counting of ballots, the rejection of absentee ballots, the extension of time for absentee ballots.”In Pennsylvania, he said, Trump’s team will likely challenge the legality of a state Supreme Court ruling that mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day can be counted if the Post Office delivers them in the days that follow.Partisan divideWhoever wins the presidency could face a divided Congress.Democrats have failed, so far, in their efforts to win control of the Senate, where Republicans currently hold a 53-47 majority.Democrats picked up seats in Colorado and Arizona, but lost a Democratic seat in Alabama, and failed to unseat what were expected to be vulnerable Republican Senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine.Three Senate races remain close, but the outcomes in some states, such as Georgia, which will hold a run-off election in January to choose a senator, will likely not be known for some time.Democrats will retain control of the House of Representatives but did not expand their majority as projected by polls prior to the election.If Trump wins a second term, it is unlikely there “will be much chance of bipartisanship,” as the president has had a contentious relationship with congressional Democrats, said John Aldrich, a professor of politics at Duke University.Biden may be able to reach across the aisle, as he has emphasized in his campaign the need to heal the deep partisan divide in the nation, Aldrich said.“To make progress, we have to stop treating our opponents as enemies. We are not enemies,” Biden said on Wednesday.
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Another Night of Uncertainty as Americans Wait for Election Result

A day after voting ended, Americans continued to wait for the final vote tally in the presidential election. All eyes are now on a few battleground states where partial results are close and which may determine victory between Democratic nominee Vice President Joe Biden and incumbent Republican President Donald Trump. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the latest.
Producer: Barry Unger
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Pennsylvania: The Key, and Relatively New, Swing State 

Pennsylvania is proving to be a key state in the U.S. presidential contest — and one of the last to finish counting votes between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden. Esha Sarai reports from Philadelphia.
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Protests in Several US Cities as Presidential Vote Remains Undecided

Protesters turned out in multiple U.S. cities Wednesday to call for a complete count of presidential election votes, while smaller pro-Trump groups rallied outside vote-counting centers in Michigan and Arizona.Police in New York arrested dozens of people Wednesday night after what had been peaceful demonstrations. Officials say a small group of people “attempted to hijack” the protest by setting trash fires and clashing with officers.Protesters also marched in Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Houston, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis and San Diego. In addition to calling for the votes to be counted, the demonstrators also highlighted racial inequality, the subject of numerous protests throughout the United States this year.In the northwest state of Oregon, Gov. Kate Brown activated the National Guard as police in Portland declared protests there a riot and made arrests. In Oregon, a riot is defined as six or more people engaging in “tumultuous and violent conduct” that creates “a grave risk of causing public alarm.” The city has been the site of near-nightly protests against racial injustice, and police making riot declarations is not uncommon.Supporters of President Donald Trump went to a vote-counting site in Detroit, Michigan, to demand a halt to the count. Those at a later rally in Phoenix, Arizona, chanted, “Stop the steal.”The various demonstrations came as the result of Tuesday’s election remained unclear, and the president made unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud while Republicans filed multiple election lawsuits.Oregon State Police arrest a protester in Portland, Ore., Nov. 4, 2020, following Tuesday’s election.
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Social Media Firms Limit Speech About US Election

With the result of the U.S. presidential race still uncertain Wednesday, Twitter and Facebook took new steps to flag potentially misleading election-related comments by prominent Republicans and Democrats alike.By Wednesday midday, Twitter had limited the ability of President Donald Trump to share four tweets by attaching labels directing readers to information about the election and security.One of his tweets appeared to accuse election officials of tampering with the vote count. The president tweeted that “they are working hard to make up 500,000 vote advantage in Pennsylvania disappear — ASAP. Likewise, Michigan and others!”They are working hard to make up 500,000 vote advantage in Pennsylvania disappear — ASAP. Likewise, Michigan and others!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 4, 2020Twitter shielded the tweet with a label stating that “some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process.” Once a viewer clicked on “View,” however, the president’s tweet was visible.For its part, Facebook said it would show notifications on its site and on Instagram that votes are still being counted and a winner hasn’t been projected. The message will be applied to both candidates, the company said.New eraThe moves by the internet giants signal a new willingness to moderate their sites and step into the maelstrom of facts and theories, even when prominent people are speaking.Twitter also slapped warnings on Democratic leaders’ tweets. One posted Wednesday morning by Neera Tanden, president of the liberal Center for American Progress think tank, claimed that Biden had reached the threshold to win the election, which was false.Biden is winning Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and NE2. That is 270— Neera -Vote Now- Tanden (@neeratanden) November 4, 2020“Some votes may still need to be counted,” Twitter added to Tanden’s tweet.Some lawmakers angeredWhatever happens in the U.S. elections, the steps taken by the internet firms are getting noticed.“We are going to STOP THE STEAL,” tweeted Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican congresswoman-elect from Georgia.But that was blocked by Twitter with a warning that some votes still need to be counted.We are going to STOP THE STEAL!Join the fight: https://t.co/EUXB2i8mn5#STOPTHESTEALhttps://t.co/MLBG5Wq84j— Marjorie Taylor Greene For Congress?? (@mtgreenee) November 4, 2020Taylor Greene then tweeted, “IT’S OFFICIAL! The Silicon Valley Cartel is CENSORING ME. They can’t stop us.”IT’S OFFICIAL!The Silicon Valley Cartel is CENSORING ME.They can’t stop us.Please RT this and sign your petition.We will not let Democrats STEAL THIS ELECTION! https://t.co/8MPPRS2bmVpic.twitter.com/oHZs3VUwft— Marjorie Taylor Greene For Congress?? (@mtgreenee) November 4, 2020Notable tweetsAlex Stamos is the former Facebook chief security officer and part of Election Integrity Partnership, a group of research groups focused on the election and misinformation.In a press briefing Wednesday morning, Stamos said the group is tracking multiple disinformation campaigns online around the election count. As they pop up, the group is flagging them to the internet firms, which are labeling them, and that is helping to slow down their spread.Stamos expressed concern, though, about the media and internet companies’ focus on the president’s speech.Limiting candidates’ speech raises the stakes that internet firms could be interfering with the democratic process, he said.“It’s the place where we have to be the most careful about setting precedents about incredibly powerful information intermediaries and what they can do in a democracy like the United States,” Stamos said.For him, internet companies should be focused on the disinformation campaigns and the efforts to inject misinformation into the public sphere.Whatever happens, social media firms are in new territory and many are watching the steps they are taking around the U.S. election.
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US Officials: No Foreign Meddling Detected in Presidential Election

U.S. election security officials say no matter who emerges as the winner of the country’s presidential election, it will be American voters, not foreign adversaries, who determined the outcome.“We have no evidence any foreign adversary was capable of preventing Americans from voting or changing vote tallies,” Christopher Krebs, chief of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), said in a statement late Wednesday.The statement follows similar assurances from election and security officials after polls closed late Tuesday, when U.S. Cyber Command’s General Paul Nakasone said he was “confident the actions we’ve taken against adversaries over the past several weeks and months have ensured they’re not going to interfere.”The CISA statement also comes at a key moment, as election officials in a handful of states tally the last votes in what has become a tight race between U.S. President Donald Trump and his challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden.Already, the Trump campaign has sought to challenge some of the results, filing a lawsuit in the state of Michigan over complaints about access to counting locations, while calling for a recount in the state of Wisconsin.Social media have also been rife with rumors and allegations of domestic fraud, including some allegations circulated by accounts belonging to members of Trump’s family or other high-profile supporters.Based on actual math and not gamesmanship like the democrats are attempting. https://t.co/AnjVB3IosA— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) November 4, 2020AZ Republicans I am being sent examples of legal ballots invalidated by the Secy of State. Make sure your returned legal ballot is in the tally!— Matt Schlapp (@mschlapp) November 4, 2020CISA and the FBI on Wednesday declined to comment on the allegations, but organizations representing state election officials said they were “diligently counting every eligible ballot cast.””Over the course of the election, more than 100 million ballots were safely and securely cast, both in-person and by mail,” according to a joint statement by the National Association of State Election Directors and the National Association of Secretaries of State.“These results are unofficial, and numbers will continue to change until they have been reviewed and certified,” the statement said, adding, “This is standard for each election.”In the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s nationwide vote, U.S. intelligence officials publicly acknowledged both Iran and Russia had sought to meddle in the election by hacking into systems connected to voter registration databases.They said that while the Iranians infiltrated one state’s database and used that information as part of a disinformation campaign, the attacks were shut down and did not have any impact on the election.Still, Cyber Command’s Nakasone tweeted Wednesday that with votes still being counted, his teams remained active, “countering foreign adversaries that seek to interfere.”As votes continue to be counted, @US_CYBERCOM & @NSAGov teams continue standing the watch – countering foreign adversaries that seek to interfere in our electoral processes.— General Paul M. Nakasone (@CYBERCOM_DIRNSA) November 4, 2020Other government agencies charged with helping secure the election spent Wednesday shifting their focus from protecting U.S. election infrastructure to pushing back against disinformation campaigns designed to undermine confidence in the election itself.”You could potentially see [website] defacements, manipulating counts on certain websites or even on media,” a senior CISA official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, warned late Tuesday as the final polling sites were closing. “You could see disinformation campaigns out there amplifying or pushing false results or outcomes.”Officials and experts said some of those campaigns appeared to get underway as the polls began to close Tuesday, pointing to posts on social media by Russian-backed media outlets.By late Wednesday, CISA used Twitter to urge Americans to beware.“We’re seeing reports of fake media accounts calling a state,” CISA’s Krebs said, pointing to a series of tweets pretending to come from The Associated Press, saying Biden had won Michigan, though at the time, no such call had been made.Some experts warned that U.S. adversaries are likely biding their time, content to take advantage of the existing American disinformation ecosystem.???RUMOR CONTROL??? We’re seeing reports of fake media accounts calling a state – don’t fall for it! We predicted this would happen, check out the https://t.co/rqt4ZrZIzg entry! #Protect2020pic.twitter.com/AqafRxEHx1— Chris Krebs #Protect2020 (@CISAKrebs) November 4, 2020“The foreign actors only have to amplify the things certain domestic actors are saying,” said Nina Jankowicz, a disinformation fellow at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.“There’s a lot more to be gained in the post-Election Day period, in terms of inspiring greater distrust in the democratic system for the long term,” she said.
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US Voters Weigh In on a Variety of Ballot Initiatives

Americans voted on a variety of ballot initiatives during the 2020 elections, in addition to president and members of Congress.  
 
According to CBS News, at least 120 initiatives were on the ballot in 32 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.
 
Ballot initiatives offer voters a chance to directly change state laws or a state constitution.  
 
The highest profile initiative was in California, where Proposition 22 determined if app-based companies like Uber, Lyft and others could continue classifying workers as independent contractors instead of company employees. Fifty-eight percent voted in favor of the proposition.  
 
Here are some of the other higher profile initiatives voted on Tuesday.
 
• Fifty-two percent of Puerto Ricans voted in favor of a non-binding statehood initiative. The results have yet to be certified. Currently, Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens but do not have voting representation in Congress.
 
• Sixty-one percent of Floridians voted in favor of raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026. The results have not yet been certified. The initiative would raise the wage to $10 per hour in 2021 and raise it by a dollar every year until it reaches $15 per hour. 
 
• Arizona, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota passed measures to legalize recreational marijuana for individuals 21 and older.
 
• Californians voted in favor of allowing people on parole to vote. They appear to have rejected a proposition that would have allowed 17-year-olds to vote in primaries or special elections, provided they will be 18 by Election Day. Voters appear to have rejected a proposition to abolish cash bail.
 
• Voters in Colorado appear to have approved a measure that will allot their presidential Electoral College votes to the winner of the national popular vote. Coloradoans rejected an initiative that would have banned abortion after 22 weeks unless the mother’s life was in jeopardy.
 
• Louisiana voters approved an initiative to add wording that explains there is no explicit right to an abortion under the state’s constitution.
 
• Oregon approved initiatives to decriminalize the possession of drugs such as cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. The state also approved legalizing psychedelic mushrooms. The District of Columbia also decriminalized psychedelic mushrooms. 
 
• Voters in Massachusetts rejected a measure to establish so-called rank-choice voting, in which voters rank the candidates instead of choosing just one. Results on a similar initiative in Alaska were yet to be counted.
 
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Americans Anxiously Await Election Results as Vote Counting Continues

The winner of the U.S. presidential election remained in doubt Wednesday, with the outcome hinging on a handful of states where a flood of mail-in ballots sparked by the coronavirus pandemic remained to be counted.  
   
President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden both won states they were expected to win in their bid for a majority in the Electoral College that determines who wins the White House in the country’s indirect form of democracy.
    
But the outcome of contests in several states – Georgia and Pennsylvania in the eastern part of the country, Michigan and Wisconsin in the Midwest and Arizona and Nevada in the West — was unsettled as officials counted millions of votes, some that were cast on Tuesday and many more during weeks of early voting.
 
By mid-morning Wednesday, Trump led in Georgia and Pennsylvania and Biden in the other four, but with the eventual results uncertain.*/

/–>/
With mail-in ballots from heavily Democratic communities now being tabulated, the Biden campaign said, “Joe Biden is on track to win this election.”  
 President Donald Trump speaks in the East Room of the White House, early Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)Even as vote-counting was ongoing in the early hours Wednesday, Trump appeared before supporters at the White House to claim victory. He said he would go to the Supreme Court to try to have what he called the “voting” stopped, although polls had closed hours earlier and state election officials were continuing to tally ballots.  
   
“This is a major fraud on our nation,” Trump contended, adding, “As far as I’m concerned, I already have” won.  
 
Also Wednesday, Biden campaign manager Jennifer O’Malley Dillon said on Twitter, “If Donald Trump got his wish and we stopped counting ballots right now, Joe Biden would be the next president of the United States.”
 
Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien countered, “If we count all legally cast ballots, we believe the president will win.” He said that any news outlets that declared that Biden had won Arizona are “just plain wrong,” and that Trump would eventually win the state by 30,000 votes.
 Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks to supporters, early Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Paul SancyaThe Biden campaign called the president’s vow to shut down the counting of ballots an “outrageous” effort to take away the democratic rights of American citizens who chose to cast their ballots before Election Day.
 
Earlier, Biden addressed supporters in his home city of Wilmington, Delaware, to thank them and express confidence he would prevail.  
   
“Keep the faith guys; we’re going to win this,” Biden told cheering supporters near his home as they honked car horns.    
    
But as vote counting continued in several key states where he trailed Trump, Biden warned, “We’re going to have to be patient.” Vote counting  
     
Trump called for ending the election even as he trailed Biden in the Electoral College vote count, 224-213, with a majority of 270 in the 538-member Electoral College needed to claim a new presidential term starting Jan. 20.   
 
The national winner is determined by the outcome in each of the 50 states and the national capital city of Washington, with each state winner collecting all the state’s electoral votes except in two lightly populated states where the winners in individual congressional districts come into play.  A worker checks with an election supervisor at the central counting board, in Detroit, Michigan, Nov. 4, 2020.Biden led the national popular vote Wednesday morning, 68.7 million to 66.1 million, but it is the Electoral College vote that is controlling, with the most populous states having the most electoral votes and the most sway in determining who will lead the country.
   
Trump had told confidants in recent days that he would declare victory on the night of Election Day if he felt he was “ahead.”  
   
“I think it’s a terrible thing when ballots can be collected after an election,” he told reporters on Sunday. “I think it’s a terrible thing when states are allowed to tabulate ballots for a long period of time after the election is over.”   
   
Trump’s running mate, Vice President Mike Pence, said Republicans were determined to “protect the vote” but did not echo Trump in saying they had already won.
 
“It’s going to be a fight to the end,” said La Trice Washington, a political scientist at Otterbein University in Ohio.    
   Latest developments    
• Democrats were on track, as expected, to retain their majority control of the House of Representatives. Republicans appeared to be clinging to their majority in the Senate, with incumbent Republican lawmakers turning back stiff challenges from Democrats in several states.    
• Republican Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate majority leader, won his seventh six-year term.    
 
• According to an Edison Research voter exit poll, Trump improved his standing with every race and gender except white men, compared with his showing in 2016 when he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.    
• The FBI said it was investigating reports of robocalls discouraging people from voting in some states. But there were no signs of large-scale conflict at polls as some had feared.    
 
•  Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told reporters Tuesday there was “no indication” that a “foreign actor” successfully interfered in the election.A Chester County election worker pushes mail-in and absentee ballots for the 2020 U.S. general election to be processed at West Chester University, in West Chester, Pennsylvania, Nov. 4, 2020.Large turnout    
    
Tens of millions of people stood in lines across the country throughout the day to cast their ballots on Election Day. More than 101 million other people voted early in recent weeks, partly to avoid coming face-to-face with others amid the coronavirus pandemic in the United States.   
    
The early vote in the waning weeks of the 2020 election amounted to more than two-thirds of the entire vote count in the 2016 election.
   
With the heavy early voting, the total 2020 count, by some estimates, could reach a U.S. record of 150 million or more. But with state-by-state laws controlling how soon the absentee votes could be counted — not until Tuesday night or later in some states —election experts predicted the outcome of the election might not be known for days, which is now a possibility.    
    
The presidential election unfolded after a rancorous and combative campaign, with both Trump and Biden lobbing taunts, claiming the other was unfit to lead the country and would take it to ruination.    
    
Last weekend, tensions mounted as thousands of Trump campaign supporters rallied and demonstrated throughout the country; in one case a caravan of vehicles with Trump flags in Texas surrounded a Biden campaign bus and, according to some accounts, tried to force it off a highway.   
    
Authorities and merchants in some cities, including New York, Detroit and Washington near the White House, boarded up storefronts to prevent potential damage and looting in the event election-related violence erupted; but; Election Day was peaceful.    
      
Some Democrats said they wanted to be among the first to vote against Trump, while many Republicans said they planned to vote in person on the official presidential Election Day — the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November — as has been the norm in U.S. elections every four years since the mid-1800s.    
    
Voters were choosing between two septuagenarians, both older than most the country’s 328 million citizens. Biden will be 78 by Inauguration Day on January 20, while Trump is 74. Whoever wins will be the oldest U.S. leader ever. 
   
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