Trump tests the limits of democracy by claiming conspiracy

President Donald Trump on Thursday questioned the entire electoral process, claiming it was directed against him from start to finish in an extraordinary White House statement that was shut down by television networks.

He claimed he was the victim of a "big media, big money, and technology" conspiracy over "historical electoral influence".

He claimed that if all "legal votes" were counted he would win the presidential election, accusing the Democrats of "corrupt" stealing the contest in a suddenly announced White House address as his Pennsylvania and Georgia voting results continued to slide.

On the podium in the briefing room, he spoke for 17 minutes, reading mostly from a script, and listing his complaints about Joe Biden's campaign, "repression polls" and "fraud".

He left without asking a question when a White House reporter shouted, "Are you a sore loser?"

On CNN CNN, former Senator Rick Santorum immediately slammed him and said, "Ballot counting is not a scam."

Trump's rant against his list of enemies was quickly shut down by television station after television.

As they turned away, MSNBC host Brian Williams said, "We're starting again in the unusual position of not only interrupting the President of the United States, but also correcting the President of the United States."

On the podium of the briefing room – where the only advisor to him was White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnanany – Trump looked dejected as he listed his enemies and demanded a victory no one had given him.

“If you count the legal votes, I win easily. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal our vote, ”he said during a press conference.

Trump, whose campaign has sparked lawsuits in multiple battlefield states, found that the polls got the vote wrong, as the "wrong polls" did in 2016.

And there was no "blue wave," he added, referring to the Democrats' failure to win the Senate and increase their majority in the House.

This wasn't just an attack on Democrats – it was an encrypted attack on top Republican figures who refused to support his fraud allegations. His son Don Jr. used to scold Republicans in a similar way.

& # 39; We won with historical numbers. And the pollsters knowingly got it wrong, they knowingly got it wrong. We had polls that were so ridiculous and everyone knew it at the time. There wasn't a blue wave they predicted, ”Trump said.

Trump's lead in Pennsylvania is slipping, and Biden is sneaking up on him in Georgia, while Biden stays ahead in Nevada and Arizona. It only takes Biden Pennsylvania to win, bringing him to 273 votes on the electoral college or Nevada and Arizona to 270 votes. In contrast, Trump would have to secure North Carolina, Arizona, and Pennsylvania to secure 271.

Trump had not been seen in more than 36 hours after appearing in the East Room of the White House at 2:30 am Wednesday morning to cheering fans in MAGA hats to claim he had "won".

But he spoke after Biden asked Americans to be patient and calm while they waited for the final ballots to be counted in the presidential race – amid growing concerns over the long wait for results and concerns about public order.

& # 39; Democracy is sometimes chaotic. Sometimes it takes a little patience, ”said the former Vice President from the stage of the Wilmington Queen Theater late on Thursday afternoon.

“So I ask everyone to stay calm, everyone to stay calm. The process works. The count is complete and we will know very soon. & # 39;

In the same brief statement, the Democratic nominee assured supporters that he and his runner-up, Senator Kamala Harris, would come out on top.

"We are still very comfortable, the Senator and I, we continue to feel very good about the state of affairs," said Biden. "We have no doubt that Sen. Harris and I will be declared winners when the count is complete."

Trump spent the first minutes of his press conference reading monotonously from a prepared speech about the election. His Democratic rival Joe Biden is close to winning the 270 votes required for the presidency.

“We added 4 million voters to our party, the largest turnout in the history of the Republican Party. Democrats seem to have become the party of big donors, big media, big technology, and Republicans have become the party of American workers, and that's exactly what happened, ”Trump said.

He accused the media of giving Biden strong polling ratings to keep his voters at home.

“As everyone can see now, the media poll was an election nuisance in the truest sense of the word. Through strong special interests, these really bogus polls, I have to call them bogus polls, government polls were designed to keep our constituents at home, create the illusion of momentum for Mr Biden, and diminish Republicans' ability to raise funds . Those were so-called suppression surveys, everyone knows that now. And it was never used to the extent that it was used in this last election, ”he said.

He accused the Democrats of tinkering with elections in states with outstanding results.

“There are only a few states left that still have to be decided in the race for president. The electoral machinery in these states is in any case run by Democrats, ”he said.

Arizona and Georgia – two critical states that still count ballots – have Republican governors.

He pointed to his campaign lawsuits alleging electoral fraud, but providing no evidence to support the allegations.

“There is enormous litigation and in this case they are trying to steal an election. They are trying to manipulate a choice and we cannot let that happen, ”he said.

President Donald Trump has responded to Biden's tips in Arizona and Nevada and his successes in Pennsylvania and Georgia on Twitter, often all in capital cities. Several tweets have been flagged as misinformation by Twitter.

Biden didn't mention Trump's name on Thursday.

But he made a comment that was clearly aimed at Trump and his campaign team's legal efforts to stop the vote count and rhetorical efforts to question the legitimacy of the elections.

In America voting is sacred. This is how the people of this nation express their will. And it is the will of the voters, no one, nothing else, who elects the President of the United States of America, ”Biden said. "So every ballot has to be counted."

The previous Thursday, Biden was with the Queen to attend a COVID-19 and business briefing. He also performed at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Delaware, on Wednesday, where he again told Americans to wait – but he would win.

The Delaware appearance was clearly intended to cast Biden as president and to paint a contrast to Trump.

The call for calm also spoke of increasing public order concerns.

Address to America: Joe Biden appeared with his running mate Kamala Harris at his side to plead for calm and patience with the number of votes

Public statement: "We continue to feel very good, the Senator and I, we continue to feel very good about the state of affairs," said Biden. "We have no doubt that Sen. Harris and I will be declared winners when the count is complete."

In Michigan, Arizona, and Nevada, Trump supporters, some of whom are armed, have descended on the census of places.

And arrests were made in New York on Wednesday after a protest against Biden, where every vote was counted, sparked violence.

The president had launched an angry tweet calling for the count to stop early Thursday morning. Then he said his campaign would be sued in every state where Joe Biden had already been declared a winner.

The election result now depends on five states: Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Nevada, Arizona and Georgia had expected to end their counts Thursday, but then expectations changed.

The extraordinary focus on counting in individual states is unprecedented.

The paper-thin borders in every state mean that now every ballot counts towards the result. In a normal year, state results would have been quickly pulled up by television stations and the Associated Press, and the count continued quietly in the background.

No calls were made this time, however, as an unprecedented number of postal voting slips fueled record turnouts. Instead, it is official censuses that regularly take days or even weeks to be carried out, certified and declared that have become the focus of public attention.

In every state:

• Nevada: 63,000 ballots remain to be counted, but late postal ballots still arrive and will be valid through Tuesday, November 10th. The result may not be known until Thursday, November 12th, when all preliminary ballot papers are decided afterwards through a validation process. & # 39; Biden is ahead with 11,500 votes.
• Pennsylvania: The count stopped and restarted in Philadelphia when Trump's campaign sued for not being able to see the count and won their case first. And in Pittsburgh, 35,000 votes can only be legally counted on Friday. But the foreign minister hinted that a result could come Thursday and suggested
• Arizona: The SeAccording to the Cretary of State, the count of 450,000 outstanding votes will not be completed until Friday, prolonging the excruciating wait for an election result after a night of chaos in which Biden's leadership has shrunk significantly and the state may come back into play for Trump. Biden is ahead in Arizona, but only with around 67,000 votes after his majority fell overnight. Of the 450,000 votes remaining, 300,000 are in Maricopa County, where Biden is two points ahead and where he is expected to win.
• Georgia: The state has reached the last 50,000 ballots but has yet to say when this will be completed. And Friday is the deadline
• North Carolina: There is no indication of when the result will be final.

The Associated Press awarded Biden 264 votes – including in Arizona, a state that not all news organizations have phoned and that argued in the Trump campaign that if all the votes are counted, they can win.

Nevada's six votes would get Biden to exactly 270 in the AP count – and give him the presidency.

Nevada released another tranche of votes Thursday, increasing Biden's lead to 12,000.

Georgia also released additional vote counts, which caused Trump's lead to drop to about 13,500 votes. The state has about 50,000 postal ballots left to count – along with preliminary ballot papers, military votes, and votes from Americans living abroad.

Trump faces a much higher hurdle to 270 with 214 votes. He would have to win all four remaining battlefield states: Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Nevada.

The Trump campaign expressed confidence that the president will receive a second term in the White House.

"By the end of tomorrow – Friday – it will be clear that President Trump and Vice President Pence will have another term in the White House," said the campaign's senior advisor, Jason Miller, at a press conference on Thursday morning.

The Biden campaign was similarly confident.

"Our data shows that Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States," said Dillon.

As the count dragged on, Trump expressed confidence he will win the election but said his campaign will be suing in the battlefield states where Joe Biden won. This is a sign that his team is not confident that the voting numbers will be in his favor.

& # 39; All of the states recently claimed by Biden are being challenged by us for election fraud and election fraud. Lots of evidence – just check out the media. WE WILL WIN! America First !, '' Trump wrote on Twitter Thursday morning.

In addition, Trump has called for the nation to stop counting votes in the presidential election.

It also launched a flurry of litigation.

In Nevada, which could give Biden the presidency, should he win his six votes, he claimed that non-residents would be allowed to vote.

The Trump campaign had a legal victory Thursday in Pennsylvania when a judge ruled ballot observer watched officials count ballots within six feet. Representatives from both campaigns were in the room to watch the counts, but at a greater distance due to the coronavirus. A district judge approved the Trump campaign, but the Democrats appealed to the state Supreme Court.

The Biden campaign accused the Trump team of using the court system to delay the inevitable.

"What we are seeing with these lawsuits is that they are unfounded and nothing more than an attempt to distract and delay the inevitable – Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States," said campaign manager Jennifer O'Malley Dillon said Reporters Thursday morning.

“STOP THE COUNT!” Tweeted the president on Thursday as state officials continued their way through the legal votes. Trump has spent the past few days at the White House talking to advisers about the race.

If civil servants stop counting now and the elections are brought up to date, as the president seems to be demanding, Biden would win. The president needs to close voting gaps in Arizona and Nevada to win the election – in other words, he needs officials there to keep counting the ballots.

Trump later added this tweet: "EVERY VOTE THAT COMES AFTER ELECTION DAY WILL NOT BE COUNTED!"

The president was likely referring to Pennsylvania, where officials count all postal ballot counts received through Friday as long as they are marked with election day. Trump is currently a leader in the state, but Biden is slowing down as the mail-in votes are counted. More Democrats than Republicans used the mail-in voting option.

However, he did not state the law as it exists. The state was in the process of counting ballots that were not received after election day. And the change to allow voting papers three days later was upheld by the Supreme Court in a ruling that the US Supreme Court upheld. The Trump camp could try to re-question the ballots later the day after the election.

Twitter warned several tweets from the president.

And the Trump campaign released a statement from the president to clarify his tweets: “IF YOU COUNT THE LEGAL VOTES, I WILL JUST WIN THE VOTE! IF YOU COUNT THE ILLEGAL AND LATE VOTES, YOU MAY STEAL THE VOTE FROM US! & # 39;

Complicating the situation in Pittsburgh is the approximately 30,000 outstanding ballot papers that resulted in a salesperson sending the wrong ballots to voters and having to reissue new ballots with the correct races.

Poll workers now have to check those ballots to make sure people don't vote twice. If you submitted the wrong ballot, you did not participate in races for which you are not eligible.

They cannot be legally counted until Friday when Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh sits, swears on a special panel to review those ballots as required by law.

Biden closed the gap with Trump in Pennsylvania as ballots are counted.

And in Chatham County, Georgia, where Savannah is located, a judge ruled against the Trump campaign's legal challenge to some postal ballot papers. The judge said officials had taken the right precautions to ensure that legal ballot papers were counted. Trump's lead in Georgia fell to less than 20,000 votes as more votes were released.

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The chaos hit the polling center in a major Arizona county Wednesday night after a large group of Trump supporters gathered outside to protest. Some carried guns to continue the vote

Trump campaign advisor Corey Lewandowski speaks outside the Philadelphia Convention Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania amid lawsuits from the state's campaign

NEVADA: Supporters of President Trump protest against the vote in Nevada in Clark County

MICHIGAN: Supporters of President Donald Trump chant slogans as they gather outside the room where postal ballot papers are counted for the 2020 general election

A video from outside the counting center showed the angry crowd shouting that the vote would be suppressed

As President Trump brings unfounded charges of election fraud, pro-Trump protesters have appeared at polling centers in Nevada, Arizona and Detroit demanding that all votes be counted.

The results of the election remain unclear, but Biden is only inches away from victory as the postal ballot papers are counted.

Trump has falsely claimed that these votes are ineligible because they are counted after the election. Votes were legally cast before election day, but mail-in ballots take longer to count as they need to be checked against the electoral roll to confirm that it is a legal vote from a registered voter – just like if someone did Whoever votes in person must confirm their identity with an election officer prior to receiving a vote.

In Arizona, armed pro-Trump protesters climbed into a counting center in Maricopa County overnight after Biden's lead was reduced from 200,000 votes to just 68,000 when votes continued to be counted.

They faced police and security in front of the counting center and sang that every vote should be counted with the result on the balance sheet. At least one person got in and forced the center to close with detained staff.

Why It Takes So Long To Count Votes: Slowly counting mail-ins, fixing ballot slips one by one, running out of ink, and printer errors has taken the process for days while America and the world wait

As Americans wait for five key states to finally crown a winner in the presidential election, one question is on everyone's lips: what will take so long?

Election officials in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina have asked for patience as they continue to cut piles of hundreds of thousands of uncounted ballot papers.

The main reason behind the sluggish count is a record number of mail-in ballots that take significantly longer to process than personal ballots because they have to be checked and scanned through a multi-step system where it has gone wrong.

Voting centers in the US have reported problems with ink shortages, ballot papers printed on wrong paper, and faulty machines, compounding an already arduous process.

The states that have not been called by Thursday are facing another challenge: unprecedented pressure to make sure the results are right when the margin is razor-thin.

President Donald Trump on Thursday pledged to litigate in every battlefield state won by rival Joe Biden as he continued to make feverish demands not to count in states that have not yet been called.

Trump and the Republicans have been waging a war on postal ballot papers for months, accusing them of leading to widespread electoral fraud.

Now that mail-in votes have been delayed, Republicans argue that the counting process is stacked against them too – even in states where their own party makes the rules.

Meanwhile, Biden and the Democrats have urged Americans to be patient, insisting that every vote be counted, especially as they expect the bulk of the postal ballots to go in their favor.

With the eyes of the nation looking down on them, election officials in the states that are still to be won are doing just that to ensure the results are bulletproof in preparation for Trump campaign legal action.

Two days after the election, hundreds of thousands of postal ballot papers in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and North Carolina go untold. Many wonder why it takes so long to get a result. Pictured: Fulton County election workers check ballots as they count the votes at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia on Thursday

The states are still counting from Thursday afternoon:

• Pennsylvania (Jan.
• Arizona (11)
• Nevada (6)
• Georgia (16)
• North Carolina (15)

Not knowing the winner of the presidential election two days after the elections are over is understandably worrying for Americans, who are used to seeing a result on the night of.

In fact, the counting process has always lasted for days or weeks and continued after the media projected the winner using partial counts.

Each state has its own certification period to take an official census, ranging from two days after the Delaware election to more than a month after the California election.

Why mail-in ballots take so long to count

Experts have been predicting for months that the counting of votes would take much longer than in previous years due to the unprecedented number of voters mailing ballots due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Postal ballot papers are much more time-consuming to process than personal ballot papers.

If you vote in person, the ballot usually goes straight to the machine, where it is processed and counted almost immediately.

There are a few more steps with postal ballot papers. The first step is processing, which in most states, has an election worker verifying the signature on the outside of the envelope against voter lists.

An agent then takes time to carefully open the envelope and flatten the ballot before it can be scanned into a system – a simple but tedious process in large numbers – and counted at that point.

Technische Probleme und Snafus in mehreren Gerichtsbarkeiten in den USA haben den Prozess diese Woche weiter verlangsamt.

Briefwahlzettel sind wesentlich zeitaufwändiger zu bearbeiten als persönliche Stimmzettel. Im Bild: Briefwahlzettel werden am 3. November im Philadelphia Convention Center in Pennsylvania von Wahlhelfern verarbeitet, abgeflacht und gescannt

In Georgia beispielsweise verursachte eine geplatzte Pfeife Verzögerungen bei der Auszählung von bis zu 60.000 Briefwahlzetteln in Fulton County, zu dem auch ein Teil von Atlanta gehört, und lehnt sich an Democrat.

In einem anderen Landkreis in Georgia befand sich auf einem Scanner eine beschädigte Speicherkarte, sodass 400 nachgezählt werden mussten. Beamte in einigen Bezirken verwenden zum ersten Mal seit 20 Jahren wieder Papierstimmen, weil sie Anfang dieses Jahres dafür gestimmt haben, dass die maschinelle Abstimmung nicht geheim genug war.

In Wisconsin verzögerten sich die Ergebnisse der Briefwahl in und um Green Bay, einer Hochburg der Demokraten, nachdem die Stimmenzählmaschinen keine Tinte mehr hatten und mehr als 60.000 Stimmzettel nachgedruckt werden mussten.

Während einige Staaten in den letzten zwei Monaten durch das Zählen der Mail-In-Stimmen weiterkommen konnten, durften Beamte auf drei Schlachtfeldern des Mittleren Westens – Michigan, Wisconsin und Pennsylvania – erst am oder am mit dem Zählen der Mail-In-Stimmen beginnen kurz vor dem Wahltag.

Von Republikanern geführte Gesetzgebungen in diesen drei Staaten hatten sich gegen Gesetzesänderungen ausgesprochen, um frühere Vorbereitungen wie in anderen Staaten zu ermöglichen.

Die Staaten können anhand der Anzahl der Anfragen vorhersagen, wie viele Briefwahlzettel sie erhalten werden. Dies gilt jedoch nicht für Personen, die ihre Meinung geändert und stattdessen persönlich abgestimmt haben oder ihre Stimmzettel nicht bis zum 3. November verschickt haben.

Wo der Zählprozess steht

Pennsylvania

Ab Donnerstagnachmittag hat Pennsylvania mit geschätzten 956.000 bei weitem die meisten Stimmzettel zu zählen.

Der Staat mit 20 Wahlstimmen nimmt auch bis Freitag, 17.00 Uhr, weiterhin Stimmzettel an, sofern diese bis zum Wahltag abgestempelt wurden.

Die Republikaner hatten diese späte Frist vor dem Wahltag angefochten, sie blieb jedoch bestehen, nachdem der Oberste Gerichtshof der USA sich geweigert hatte, den Fall aufzugreifen.

Die Richter haben jedoch erklärt, dass sie den Fall möglicherweise später noch einmal überdenken werden – was bedeutet, dass alle nach dem Wahltag eingegangenen Stimmzettel weggeworfen werden könnten, was die Sache noch komplizierter macht.

Außenministerin Kathy Boockvar sagte am Donnerstag, dass die Wahlhelfer die "überwältigende Mehrheit" der nicht gezählten Stimmzettel abrechnen könnten, um am Ende des Tages einen klaren Sieger zu haben.

Boockvar hat die Bezirke gebeten, alle Stimmzettel, die zwischen dem 3. November um 20 Uhr und dem 6. November um 17 Uhr eintreffen, zu trennen, um sich auf eine rechtliche Anfechtung durch die Trump-Kampagne vorzubereiten.

Boockvar sagte CNN jedoch, dass sie glaubt, dass die Wahlzahlen nach dem Wahltag nur einen geringen Einfluss auf das Ergebnis haben werden.

"Es ist keine große Zahl", sagte sie. "Also, ich denke, egal was passiert, ich denke nicht, dass es einen enormen Einfluss auf dieses Rennen haben wird."

Die Mehrheit der ausstehenden Stimmzettel in Pennsylvania stammt aus Philadelphia und Pittsburgh, die eher demokratisch sind.

Die Zählung wurde gestoppt und in Philadelphia wieder aufgenommen, als Trumps Kampagne verklagte, dass sie die Zählung nicht sehen dürften. Sie gewannen zuerst ihren Fall und verloren dann im Berufungsverfahren am Donnerstag. Und in Pittsburgh können 35.000 Stimmen erst am Freitag legal gezählt werden.

Am Donnerstagnachmittag hat Pennsylvania mit geschätzten 956.000 bei weitem die meisten Stimmzettel zu zählen. Im Bild: Die städtischen Arbeiter von Monroe County zählen am Donnerstag in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, die Stimmzettel

Arizona

Arizona sollte am Donnerstagmorgen ein Ergebnis bekannt geben, bevor Außenministerin Katie Hobbs weitere Verzögerungen ankündigte.

Hobbs said there are about 450,000 ballots waiting to be counted across the state, with the majority – 300,000 – coming from Maricopa County, where pro-Trump protesters stormed an election office on Wednesday night.

Maricopa County added 62,000 votes to its tally on Thursday morning, putting Biden ahead by 68,400 votes, or less than three points.

Like Maricopa County, the other counties with outstanding votes – Pima, Cococino and Santa Cruz – are considered Democratic areas.

The AP and other outlets declared Biden the winner in Arizona on Tuesday night but the vote count is still being closely monitored.

Meanwhile the Trump campaign has said it is confident about winning the state.

Speaking on Thursday morning, Hobbs did not offer an estimate for how long it will be before an outcome is reached, but experts anticipate it could arrive by Friday.

Arizona did not accept any mail-in ballots that arrived after Election Day.

There are about 450,000 ballots waiting to be counted across the state of Arizona, with the majority – 300,000 – coming from Maricopa County, where pro-Trump protesters stormed an election office on Wednesday night (pictured)

Georgia

Georgia currently has nearly 48,000 mail-in ballots waiting to be counted, according to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

The majority of the uncounted ballots – 17,000 – are in Chatham County, which includes Savannah.

Georgia's Voting System Implementation Manager Gabriel Sterling said on Thursday that the state is still working to determine how many provisional ballots have yet to be counted. He said he hoped they would have a number by the end of the day.

'Fast is great, and we appreciate fast,' Sterling said. 'We more appreciate accuracy.'

Asked why everything is taking so long, Sterling said there was nothing suspicious or strange about the process, but that elections were never normally so close so it doesn't always have to come down to an official count.

Trump and the Georgia Republican Party have filed a lawsuit against election officials in Chatham County on Wednesday, asking a judge to order all late ballots be secured and accounted for.

It was filed after a Republican observer claims to have witnessed mail-in ballots which arrived after the 7pm deadline added to a pile of lawful votes to be counted.

Sean Pumphry, a registered GOP poll-watcher, said he saw 53 unprocessed ballots added to processed ones.

But Chatham County Judge James Bass dismissed Trump's lawsuit on Thursday morning after county officials provided evidence to prove all ballots were legitimate and late ballots were not being accepted.

Nevada

Nevada officials have estimated that around 100,000  have yet to be counted, although that number is shaky because the state mailed ballots to all active registered voters.

The state, which has seen nearly half of its 1.2 million total votes come in by mail, will accept ballots through November 10.

Updated results released on Thursday afternoon showed Biden's lead has grown to nearly 12,000 votes, with 76 percent of expected votes counted.

The majority of the outstanding votes are in Clark County, which is home to Las Vegas and more than 70 percent of the state's voters.

Clark County officials have said they hope to conclude counting by the end of the weekend.

Washoe County, the state's second largest county, had about 9,000 mail-in ballots waiting to be counted as of midday Thursday.

The Trump campaign mounted a legal battle in Nevada on Thursday, claiming that 'tens of thousands' of people who voted in the state are no longer residents there.

North Carolina

Like Pennsylvania and Nevada, North Carolina extended its deadline to accept ballots postmarked on Election Day until November 12.

Election officials in the state, which saw a record 4.5 million absentee ballots cast ahead of Election Day, have said new results will likely not be released until next week, when the final ballots arrive.

There are currently about 116,000 outstanding requested absentee ballots, officials said, however it's unclear how many of those will actually be returned.

'With very few exceptions, North Carolina's numbers are not going to move until November 12 or 13,' State Board of Elections Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell said Wednesday.

Trump holds a one point lead in the state, with 94 percent of the expected vote in, according to the AP.

Georgia's election result hangs on its last 47,227 votes

Georgia's Voting System Implementation Manager, Gabriel Sterling

Georgia still won't call its election because there are still 47,227 votes left to be counted, officials said on Thursday, and the race there is still too tight to make a prediction on.

Biden could win the election with Georgia on Thursday, landing another 16 electoral college points, if he holds on to his lead in Arizona. The result in Arizona is not expected until Friday because there are still 450,000 votes left to count.

Trump's lead in Georgia shrank from 18,000 to 9,000 from Wednesday to Thursday night.

Officials in both Arizona and Nevada – where only 51,000 need to be counted – say they need at least another day to get through them and get through them accurately, despite the fact that they've rattled through many, many more votes in the last few days alone.

In Georgia, nearly 5million votes have been counted but the result hangs in the last 47,227.

Why it is taking so long to reach a conclusion is a question that millions of frustrated Americans are asking and it's being heard around the world. There is no simple answer for it.

In one Georgia county, there was a corrupt memory card on one scanner which meant 400 had to be recounted. Officials in some counties are also using paper ballots for the first time in 20 years because they voted earlier this year that machine voting was not secretive enough. They are then scanning all of the paper votes which is an 'arduous' process, it was said on Thursday.

In some states, it's because the race is simply tighter than it was in the last election so is difficult for news and TV networks – who ordinarily call elections – to make a decisive projection. Another reason is that there are more mail-in ballots this year than in elections gone by because of COVID-19. They are taking longer to pour in and different states had different rules on when those could start being counted.

In any event, Trump is already contesting the results in several states. He says there has been voter fraud in Nevada, with people sending in ballots under dead residents' names, and from non-residents.

In Georgia, he says they weren't able to verify that the count was being done properly.

In Wisconsin, he is also demanding a recount, and in Michigan and Pennsylvania, he wants the counting to be halted.

Trump has not been seen in person since 2.30am on Wednesday, when he prematurely claimed election vctory and said the entire process had been a 'fraud on the American people.'

In almost every state that Biden has won, Trump's lead has been strong at first then shrank as more ballots- specifically mail-in ballots – have been tallied up.

He thinks it is suspicious.

Speaking on Thursday, Georgia's Voting System Implementation Manager, Gabriel Sterling, said there was nothing suspicious or strange about the process, but that elections were never normally so close so it doesn't always have to come down to an official count.

'We can't know how long the process will take. We hope to have clarity but "done" is a very relative term at this point.

'As we've been stating for weeks and months, it's going to take time.  The effort here is to make sure everybody's legal vote is counted properly.

'The issue we have in Georgia is it's a close vote. There's other states that have more votes to count than we do but it's a wide margin so nobody cares,' Sterling said.

He said he did anticipate giving a result by the end of the day.

In Georgia, Superior Court judge James Bass said there was 'no evidence' to the Trump suit's claims that a 53 ballots arrived late and got mixed with other ballots. In Michigan, Judge Cynthia Stephens ruled against the Trump campaign's push to stop the count in order to gain additional access for its observers. 'I have no basis to find that there is a substantial likelihood of success on the merits,' she said.

'All of the recent Biden claimed States will be legally challenged by us for Voter Fraud and State Election Fraud,' Trump tweeted Thursday amid the nationwide blitz of court challenges. 'Plenty of proof – just check out the Media. WE WILL WIN! America First!'

Trump's team scored a win in a Pennsylvania court, but not on an issue that appears likely to sway a race with thousands of ballots being processed.

'The Trump campaign called it a 'major victory,' but state officials appealed, saying it 'jeopardizes both the safety of the City Defendants’ canvass, plus the privacy of voters.'

Even if the Trump legal efforts don't ultimately prevail, they are already succeeding in slowing down the voting process, and Trump's allies are using them to claim Trump has seized an 'overwhelming victory' among 'verifiable' ballots.

Nevada delays election result until Friday

Nevada has inexplicably delayed its election results, stating that it will need at least until tomorrow to count the remaining votes as the country and the world wait in excruciating ways to find out who will be the next president.

It's unclear how many votes remain to be counted across the state, but in Clark County, where Las Vegas accounts for 800,000 of the 1.1 million votes already counted, officials say there are 51,000 they won't be able to count be able to return a result by tomorrow.

They claim it's because the process just takes so long, despite having somehow counted 15 times as many votes since the polls ended on Tuesday.

Biden is the leader in Nevada, but only with 11,545 votes, which is around 1 percent. If he claims the state today, he will Earn another 6 electoral college points and get 270 when you factor in the 11 from Arizona.

Arizona was called out to him by Fox and the AP on Wednesday morning, but with 450,000 votes still pending, it remains in the game for Trump. If Biden loses Arizona, he will have 259 votes for the electoral college. It would take him 11 more, from either Georgia (16), North Carolina (15), or Pennsylvania (20) to win.

Ric Grenell, Donald Trump adviser and former acting director of the National Intelligence Service, speaks during a press conference outside the Clark County Electoral Department on Thursday. They say they have "evidence" that tens of thousands of votes were fraudulently cast in Nevada

It's unclear when North Carolina will announce, but it is expected to go like 2016 after Trump. The race in Nevada was close. Biden led most of the morning there with only around 7,000 votes.

Trump's team weeps fraud. They say they have "evidence" that "tens of thousands of votes" were fraudulently cast there.

"We are confident that President Trump will win the state of Nevada if all legal votes are counted – and only legal votes are counted," Ric Grenell, former director of National Intelligence, told Fox News Thursday morning.

& # 39; The reality is that transparency is not political. Ballot papers are not automatically legal votes until they are reviewed. We can't check.

“In the state of Nevada you can stay for 30 days. If you've been out of the state for 30 days, it's illegal to vote.

& # 39; We're filing this federal lawsuit to protect legal voters.

“In this country it is unacceptable for illegal votes to be counted. This is exactly what is happening in the state of Nevada, ”Grenell claimed at a press conference.

Nevada law states that an individual must be in the state at least 30 days prior to voting in order to be eligible to vote.

That does not necessarily mean that they must have been physically in the state 30 days before the election.

Trump's people also claim that many of the votes in Nevada came from people who no longer live there or were cast on the names of the deceased.

Arizona Secretary of State prolongs results until Friday saying 450,000 STILL need to be counted

Katie Hobbs, Arizona's Secretary of State, said Arizona's won't be final until tomorrow night

Arizona's Secretary of State says counting of the 450,000 outstanding votes there will not be completed until Friday, stretching out the agonizing wait for an overall election result after a night of chaos which saw Biden's lead shrink considerably and put the state back in play for Trump.

Biden is ahead in Arizona but only by about 67,000 votes after his majority shrank overnight.

Of the 450,000 remaining votes there, 300,000 are in Maricopa County where Biden holds a two point lead, and where he is expected to win.

Biden is ahead in Arizona but only by about 67,000 votes after his majority shrank overnight.

At midnight EST, they are expected to announce the results of 140,000 of those votes. Then, they will announce the remaining 160,000 or so tomorrow, the Secretary of State said.

The AP and and Fox News both called Arizona early on Wednesday morning, claiming there was no possible way for Trump to claw it back from him – a move which is now being called into question.

Arizona holds 11 crucial electoral college votes which, when giving them to Biden now, poises him for the White House with 264 of the 270 that he needs. He would only need to win Nevada, Georgia, or North Carolina to claim victory if his Arizona lead holds.

Nevada holds 6 electoral college votes and will be announced at noon EST. Georgia holds 16 and will be announced later. Trump is ahead in Georgia by only 18,000 votes and there are still some 60,000 votes left to count. The count is expected to be completed there today.

If Biden loses Arizona to Trump, Trump goes from 214 electoral college votes to 225. He would then only need 42 additional electoral college votes from  Georgia (16), North Carolina (15) and Pennsylvania (20) – all states in which he is leading – to claim victory, assuming he wins Alaska's three electoral college votes which he is all but guaranteed to.

The delay prolongs an already excruciating wait to find out who will be the next President for frustrated Americans and people all over the world who are now asking why it is taking so long to reach a conclusion.

So far there has not been a simple answer. In some states, it's because the margin is incredibly tight. In other cases, mail-in ballots have not yet arrived and can still be counted for days. Official censuses are usually never returned on election day or even immediately afterwards. Instead, the choice is always made by a television or news network based on an analysis of possible outcomes.

But nobody names it this year because the race in the remaining swing states was so close.

As the excruciating wait dragged on on Thursday morning, Katie Hobbs, Arizona's Secretary of State, said the process would simply take as long as it takes.

'There are just under 300,000 votes left to count in Maricopa County which is two thirds of the voting population.  Statewide, just under 450,000 votes left to count so we're getting there, we have said from the beginning this take's time. We're going to focus on making sure every valid vote counts.

'I haven't gotten an estimate from Maricopa County about how long it's going to take them to get through the ballots. It's not looking like today – probably closer to tomorrow that we'll be looking at getting through those ballots,' she told Good Morning America.

At 5pm EST, she said the same number still had to be counted and that Maricopa County were only getting through 140,000 a day – that means it could take another two days.

Finally! Pennsylvania says it could have election result TODAY

Pennsylvania's Secretary of State has the state could return an election result on Thursday – a day earlier than expected – that could put an end to the agonizing wait for the next President.

Trump is still leading in Pennsylvania by 115,000, a two point lead, that has been gradually shrinking while Biden collects more votes from urban areas.  Pennsylvania holds 20 electoral college votes.

If Biden wins it, he wins the election. Currently, he has 264 votes – including Arizona despite that coming slightly back into play.

Even without Arizona, if he won Pennsylvania, he would take the White House.

Trump cannot win on Pennsylvania alone; with 214 electoral college votes, he'd still need to pick up either Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona or Nevada – the four other states where a result is yet to be officially confirmed.

'I think we definitely could. I think there’s about 550,000 some odd — you know, plus or minus — ballots that are still in the process of being counted today.

'Some of those may have already been counted but are not yet uploaded. But yeah, they’re coming in. We’re getting 10,000 here, 20,000 here, counties are furiously at work.

Pennsylvania 's Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar told CNN on Thursday afternoon that the state could report an election result tonight – a day early

'I think no matter what happens, I don’t think it’s going to be a tremendous impact on this race,' Kathy Boockvar told CNN's Jape Tapper on Thursday afternoon.

Trump is already suing in Pennsylvania to undermine whatever election result is returned.

Voting was temporarily halted in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh on Thursday as a result of the legal row.

A judge intervened and allowed it to continue; there are still 550,000 votes left to count there.

In Nevada, there are only around 51,000 left to call before tomorrow and they say they need that much time Arizona also says they need until tomorrow to deliver a result on their remaining 450,000 votes.

Pennsylvania said it would continue counting mail-in ballots until Friday so long as they were post-marked from November 3.

The Trump campaign had a brief legal victory in Pennsylvania on Thursday when a judge ruled ballot observers can watch officials count ballots within six feet. Representatives from both campaigns were in the room to watch the counts, but at a greater distance due to the coronavirus. A county judge agreed with the Trump campaign, but the state Supreme Court rejected it.

The situation in Pittsburgh is complicated by about 30,000 outstanding ballots, where a vendor sent the wrong ballots to voters and had to reissue new ballots with the correct races.

Poll workers now have to examine these ballots to make sure that people don't vote twice, or, if they sent in the wrong ballot, they didn't vote in races they aren't eligible for.

They cannot legally be counted until Friday when Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh sits, swears in a special board to examine these ballots, as required by law

Trump's team of lawyers have filed lawsuits on multiple fronts – to try to stem the flow of presumably pro-Biden mail ballots into the system, and to try to force greater access for observers so they presumably can challenge more individual ballots.

They scored an initial win Thursday morning, which former Florida Secretary of State Pam Bondi, a Trump backer, brandished at a press conference.

The ruling, by the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, reverses a decision by the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia. It lets Trumps observers 'be permitted to observe all aspects of the canvassing process, within 6 feet, while adhering to all COVID-19 protocols, including wearing masks and maintaining social distancing.'

Trump touted the 'Big legal win in Pennsylvania!' on Twitter. But then the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania almost instantly struck it down when Democrats appealed.

The reason of the appeal was not concern over the watching itself, experts said, but because Democrats say Republicans accepted the rules on watching before they went into effect.

Conceding that the rules could be changed after they had been agreed would open the way to more rules being changed, they argue.

That is not the end of the road for the Trump campaign.

The big battle, with a greater potential to affect the count, could come in an effort to challenge an earlier Supreme Court decision allowing the state to count mail-in ballots that come in three days after Election Day.

Conservative justices had indicated that it could get another hearing should these ballots that get counted later prove decisive.

But a decisive win by Biden with votes that came in before Election Day would undercut the need for the suit – and Biden was chipping away at Trump's lead with hundreds of thousands of ballots outstanding.

Pennsylvania Democrats, mindful of potential challenges and alarmed by reports the Republican-controlled legislature might seek to intervene, have been segregating mail-ballots that come in later to prevent the state's entire result from being thrown out.

Pennsylvania's Attorney General blasted the move on Thursday.

'That question is a question of state law,' he said, noting it was decided by the state supreme court. 'It was decided that those ballots and they will be counted,' he told CNN.

'We're following the law here in Pennsylvania here. We're counting these legal votes,' he said.