North Carolina, a crucial state for President Donald Trump’s path to victory, won’t update its total vote count until Nov. 12 “with very few exceptions,” the North Carolina State Board of Elections said, NBC News reported.
Officials said in a public meeting that the count will largely stay the same for the next eight days because most county election boards will not start checking absentee and provisional ballots until they hold previously scheduled meetings.
The county officials cannot legally move those meetings sooner even if they wanted to, NBC reported.
—Kevin Breuninger
Trump campaign seeks to get involved in Supreme Court fight over Pennsylvania ballots
President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign asked the Supreme Court to let it join the fight at the court over Pennsylvania’s absentee ballot deadlines.
Jay Sekulow, an attorney for the president, wrote in a filing submitted to the justices that Trump has a “direct, concrete stake in the outcome” of the case that was distinct from the interests of the state lawmakers and Republican Party of Pennsylvania that initiated the suit.
In the case, Republicans are suing over the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s extension of the deadline for elections officials to receive absentee ballots in order for them to be counted. The state court extended the deadline to Nov. 6 from the previous deadline of Tuesday.
The Supreme Court rejected the Republican challenge in a 4-4 split on Oct. 19. On Oct. 28, the justices refused to decide a second GOP challenge before Election Day but left open the possibility of a ruling favoring Republicans after Nov. 3.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed onto the bench too late to weigh in on either decision but her presence on the court is thought to favor the Republican challenge moving forward.
The case at the Supreme Court is just one of the many legal battles that the Trump campaign is pursuing in the wake of Tuesday’s election.
Early Wednesday morning Trump threatened that “we’ll be going to the U.S. Supreme Court” and that “we want all voting to stop,” though voting had already concluded. Later in the day, his campaign announced new suits in Michigan and Pennsylvania aimed at stopping the counting of ballots.
Trump has claimed for weeks that he might not accept defeat and would challenge a loss in court regardless of the circumstances.
—Tucker Higgins
Protests erupt outside Michigan vote counting center
Protests erupted outside a vote counting center in Michigan on Wednesday after Joe Biden took the lead there.
The protesters appeared to be calling for those inside the TCF Center in Detroit to stop counting the votes, according to an NBC News correspondent. NBC News projected Biden the winner over Donald Trump in Michigan.
Trump’s campaign has said they are filing lawsuits in that state and Pennsylvania. With Biden’s apparent victory in Michigan, he crept closer to capturing the necessary 270 electoral votes needed to claim the presidency.
—Brian Schwartz
Democratic nominee Joe Biden will win Michigan over President Donald Trump, NBC News projected.
Michigan has 16 electoral votes. Biden’s projected win flips a state that Trump won over Hillary Clinton in 2016.
—Kevin Breuninger
‘We are not enemies’ — Biden says he expects to win, calls for healing after brutal election
Democratic nominee Joe Biden said he expects to defeat President Donald Trump when all the votes are counted and delivered a call for healing and unity in the wake of the brutal election.
“We are not enemies,” Biden said in a speech delivered from Wilmington, Delaware, on Wednesday afternoon.
“We’ve faced hard times before. So once this election is finalized and behind us, it will be time for us to do what we’ve always done as Americans: to put the harsh rhetoric of the campaign behind us, to lower the temperature, to see each other again, to listen to one another, to hear each other again,” Biden said.
“To unite, to heal, to come together as a nation. I know this won’t be easy. I’m not naive, neither of us are,” Biden said. “But I know this as well: To make progress, we have to stop treating our opponents as enemies. We are not enemies.”
“We are campaigning as Democrats, but I will govern as an American president,” he said.
Biden is currently projected to have 253 electoral votes in his column, while Trump has 214, according to NBC News’ analysis of the race. Key swing states have yet to be called by NBC.
But Biden said that his team sees the finish line in sight.
“After a long night of counting, it’s clear that we’re winning enough states to reach 270 electoral votes,” the former vice president said.
“I’m not here to declare that we’ve won. But I am here to report, when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners,” he said.
—Kevin Breuninger
Trump campaign suing in Pennsylvania to halt ballot counting, after announcing legal action in Michigan
The Trump campaign said it would take legal action to temporarily halt ballots from being counted in Pennsylvania, where President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden appear to be in a tight race.
Trump deputy campaign manager Justin Clark in a statement announced two legal actions in the Keystone State, one to “stop Democrat election officials from hiding the ballot counting and processing” from GOP observers, and one to “temporarily halt counting until there is meaningful transparency.”
The announcement comes hours after the Trump campaign said it had filed a similar lawsuit to halt the ballot count in Michigan.
A person at the Michigan Court of Claims clerk’s office told CNBC in a phone call that the court has not yet received the Trump campaign’s lawsuit.
Michigan and Pennsylvania are both key swing states rich in electoral votes that could open or close pathways to victory for either Trump or Biden.
NBC News has not yet made a call on the projected winner of either state — but Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien nevertheless declared victory in Pennsylvania during a call with reporters Wednesday afternoon.
—Kevin Breuninger
McConnell says economic stimulus deal is ‘job one’ when Senate returns
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said at a press conference Wednesday that passing more economic stimulus will be the chamber’s top priority when it reconvenes.
The Kentucky Republican won his reelection bid on Tuesday and will serve a seventh Senate term. In remarks following his victory, McConnell said that inking another stimulus deal is a chief issue before the end of 2020 and could include more support for state and local governments.
More fiscal support for state and local municipalities has for months been a key demand from Democrats and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
“As I’ve said repeatedly in the last few months, we need another rescue package,” McConnell said. “Hopefully, the partisan passions that prevented us from doing another rescue package will subside with the election. And I think we need to do it and I think we need to do it before the end of the year.”
“I think that’s job one when we get back,” McConnell said.
—Thomas Franck
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