LIVE: US entitled to know the winner on election day, says Donald Trump

The 2020 US elections, including presidential and congressional races, comes amid the surging Covid-19 pandemic in the country. Stay tuned for Latest LIVE news

2:49 AM

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1:51 AM

Doing 'very well' in Florida, Arizona, Texas; going to have great 4 years: Trump

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday expressed confidence ahead of the results of the US Presidential polls, saying that he is hearing that Republicans are performing well in key states like Florida and Arizona and they are going to have "great four years".

 

Speaking at the RNC headquarters in Virginia, Trump said, "I hear we're doing very well in Florida, very well in Arizona, incredibly well in Texas, we're doing very well all over here. I think we're going to have a great night and more importantly, we're going to have a great four years."

 

On the question of whether he has prepared any acceptance speech, the US President replied, "Not thinking about concession speech or acceptance speech yet. Hopefully, we'll be doing only one of those two. Winning is easy, losing is never easy - not for me, it's not. When you see rallies, there's tremendous love going on in this country, tremendous unity."

 

Over his campaign trail, he added, "We have done rallies and there was love at those rallies. There has never been anything like we had. I think it was the combination of rallies and the second debate...I think we took off."

1:20 AM

US election results: what to expect

US election day is finally here, and 100 million people have already voted by mail or in person. 

Millions more were to vote in person on Tuesday, and the winner -- Republican President Donald Trump or Democratic challenger Joe Biden -- won't be known until the evening at the earliest.

But the battle to achieve a majority 270 electoral votes, earned by winning the popular vote in individual states, has been so close that knowing the winner could spill over into Wednesday or even longer, and result in legal battles over the vote count.

 

When are the first vote tallies reported?

 

Numbers start to come in after in-person voting closes at 6:00 pm Eastern Time (EST) (2300 GMT) in parts of two states, and then build as more states stop allowing votes in the hours after.

 

Most close by 9:00 pm EST, opening the way for a gusher of vote tallies over the following hours, with some districts and states reporting faster than others.

 

Several, including California, the largest, only close at 11:00 pm EST, and Hawaii and Alaska, small voter-wise, vote until midnight and 1:00 am EST, respectively.

 

States to watch

 

Given that opinion polls already indicate clearly which way 38 of the 50 states will go, the focus is on 12 key states. 

 

The first ones to watch are the eastern states of Georgia, where polls close at 7:00 pm; Florida, where, depending on the district, polls shut at 7:00 pm or 8:00 pm; North Carolina where polls close at 7:30 pm; and the western state of Arizona at 8:00 pm EST.

 

Based on projections for the "decided" states, it is possible that if Biden captures Florida and two of the above others, he could be judged the overall winner of more than 270 electoral college votes early in the night.

1:15 AM

Oil rises 2% but traders brace for wild ride

Oil prices rose over 2 per cent on Tuesday, advancing with other financial markets on US Election Day although traders were bracing for volatility depending on the voting results and as surging coronavirus cases around the world fed worries about fuel demand.

 

Brent futures rose 84 cents, or 2.2 per cent, to $39.81 a barrel by 1:58 p.m. EST (1858 GMT), while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 89 cents, or 2.4 per cent, to $37.70.

12:57 AM

'Vote and get home': Anxious voters say on Election Day

She carefully planned a five-hour drive to the polling place in her Tennessee hometown to vote on Election Day. She considered the traffic, the weather, the surging coronavirus pandemic and something she never imagined having to contemplate the possibility of civil unrest in the aftermath of an American election.

 

The last four years have delivered so many shocks that anything seemed possible to Lacey Stannard, the wife of a soldier. She had tried to get an absentee ballot sent to her home on a military base on the other side of the state. But the clerk in her hometown refused. A part of her thought it was crazy to drive 10 hours roundtrip to cast a Democratic vote in deep-red Tennessee, but a larger part thought it was worth it to register her displeasure.

 

Americans voting on Election Day are exhausted from constant crises, uneasy because of volatile political divisions and anxious about what will happen next. Like those who cast ballots early, their agony is not in deciding between President Donald Trump or his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden. Most made that choice long ago.

12:56 AM

Bill & Hillary Clinton cast votes for Biden-Harris

12:52 AM

US postal service ordered to check for delayed ballots in key battleground states

A judge ordered the US Postal Service to sweep some mail processing facilities on Tuesday afternoon for delayed ballots and immediately dispatch them for delivery in election battlegrounds such Pennsylvania and Florida among other places.

 

Affected by the order are central Pennsylvania, northern New England, greater South Carolina, south Florida, Colorado, Arizona, Alabama and Wyoming as well as the cities of Atlanta, Houston, Philadelphia, Detroit and Lakeland, Florida.

 

US District Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered postal officials to complete the inspections by 3 p.m. EST (2000 GMT) and certify by 4:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT) that no ballots were left behind.

 

The ruling came in response to a lawsuit brought by groups such as Vote Forward, a voting rights organization, and Latino community groups.

12:51 AM

How liberal Americans are coping with Election Day anxiety

Rachel Richardson, a lifelong Democrat, is spending Election Day hiking trails along the Pacific Coast with her two daughters and a fellow mom with her kids in tow.

 

The 41-year-old Berkeley, California, native who already voted for Joe Biden said she decided to plan a three-day camping trip to stay away from minute-by-minute election news and keep anxiety over the potential reelection of President Donald Trump and the pandemic at bay.

 

“I think it’s now time for me to get a good night’s sleep, a few nights in the fresh, clean air with no WiFi signal anywhere in sight,” she told Reuters. “Away from the noise of people’s responses.”

 

Richardson and husband David Roderick spent the past months educating their children about the election and government along with about two dozen families from one of the most liberal US cities while supporting candidates in key senate races.

12:48 AM

Appeals court declines to ban Houston drive-thru voting

A panel of federal appeals court judges has rejected an eleventh hour Republican effort to bar Election Day drive-thru voting in Houston.

 

The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals denied the request in a one-sentence ruling issued late Monday. The court hadn't been asked to invalidate votes already cast at drive-thru sites in the area.

 

The request stemmed from a lawsuit brought by conservative Texas activists, who have railed against expanded voting access in Harris County, where a record 1.4 million early votes have already been cast. The county is the nation's third-most populous and a crucial battleground in Texas, where President Donald Trump and Republicans are bracing for the closest election in America's largest red state in decades on Tuesday.

12:38 AM

Anxious Americans show up for an election like no other

Whether she knew it or not, Claire D'Angelo spoke for millions of Americans as she stood in the cold after voting early Tuesday morning, a black mask covering her face.

"To say that I'm nervous or anxious about it is an understatement," said the 45-year-old restaurant worker who voted for Joe Biden in the city of Easton in Pennsylvania, an important swing state in the election.

"I just hope people come out today and speak their voice for what they want for their children and their future."

 

Across the country, Americans formed lines at polling stations to make their voice heard in an election unlike any before in the United States.

 

Polls opened with the country shaken from the coronavirus pandemic, waves of protests over police killings of minorities and President Donald Trump's efforts to sow doubt over the counting of votes.

12:30 AM

Kamala Harris on chances of winning

12:29 AM

We're going to have a great night and more importantly we're going to have a great 4 years: US President Trump

12:06 AM

12:05 AM

12:02 AM

US 'entitled to know' winner on election day, says president Trump