The US election count extended into its third day as the final states tally their ballots, with Democratic candidate Joe Biden creeping closer to victory.
Several states are yet to finish counting their ballots, including some of the most competitive battlegrounds. Biden has more paths to the 270-vote threshold for victory in the Electoral College than the incumbent, President Donald Trump.
Refresh the page for the latest updates.
What you need to know
- Biden has 253 electoral votes locked in, while incumbent President Donald Trump has 214.
- The states Biden's won: Vermont (3), Virginia (13), Delaware (3), Rhode Island (4), New Jersey (14), Massachusetts (11), Nebraska CD2 (1), Maryland (10), Illinois (20), Connecticut (7), New Mexico (5), New York (29), District of Columbia (3), Colorado (9), California (55), Oregon (7), Washington state (12), Hawaii (4), New Hampshire (4), Minnesota (10), Maine (3), Wisconsin (10), Michigan (16).
- The states Trump's won: South Carolina (9), Kentucky (8), West Virginia (5), Oklahoma (7), Tennessee (11), Mississippi (6), Alabama (9), Arkansas (6), Indiana (11), Wyoming (3), South Dakota (3), North Dakota (3), Louisiana (8), Nebraska (4), Kansas (6), Missouri (10), Idaho (4), Utah (6), Maine CD2 (1), Florida (29), Ohio (18), Montana (3), Iowa (6), Texas (38).
- States still up-for-grabs: Nevada (6), Arizona (11), Georgia (16), North Carolina (15), Pennsylvania (20), Alaska (3).
- Lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign in Michigan and Georgia have been dismissed, while another has been filed in Nevada, where Biden holds a slim lead.
- Mail-in votes, counted last in most states, are heavily favouring Biden, with the Democrats saying they're confident of victory even in states where they're currently behind.
- Trump has spoken publicly for the first time since election day, making a range of unsubstantiated claims about fraud, claiming he will win "easily", even if it means going to the Supreme Court.
These live updates have now finished
11:30pm - That's it for Newshub's live updates on the US election for Friday.
There are still six states remaining to declare a winner: Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia.
For updates on whether Biden or Trump is winning the states throughout the night, keep up to date with the New York Times here.
11:10pm - Here's what Glenn Thrush from the New York Times had to say about Biden taking the lead in the closely contested battleground of Georgia.
"If Mr. Biden were to win Georgia and then win Nevada or Arizona — both states in which he is leading — or Pennsylvania, where the continued counting of ballots is methodically erasing Mr. Trump’s advantage, he would become the president-elect. Flipping Georgia, a state last won by a Democrat in 1992, and where Mr. Trump won by more than 200,000 votes four years ago, would represent a significant political shift this year, but the state has shown signs of trending blue: When Mr. Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016 he did so by only five percentage points, a far slimmer margin than Republicans had enjoyed in previous presidential elections."
11pm - Here's what we know on the latest change of leader in Georgia:
- Biden - 2,449,371 (49.4 percent)
- Trump - 2,448,454 (49.4 percent)
- Remaining votes to be counted- 5509
- Difference between candidates - 917
10:32pm - Biden has taken the lead in battleground state Georgia where there are 16 electorate votes up for grabs, according to CNN and the New York Times. He now leads by 917 votes.
Trump has been ahead in Georgia since the first election results came in, holding a strong lead of 103,760 only two days ago.
The state has remained reliably Republican since 1992 and in 2016 the state went to Trump but 5 percentage points over Clinton.
But on Thursday the gap narrowed, as the mail-in ballots were counted, which heavily favoured the Democratic nominee.
If he wins the state when all the votes are in - it will increase his electoral votes to 269, only one less than the 270 needed to win the Presidency.
10:30pm - It's currently mid-morning in the United Kingdom as residents find out what's happened overnight in the US. Here's what UK media outlets are saying about the US election.
- "US Election 2020: Trump alleges 'shenanigans' as Biden urges calm" - BBC
- "PRESIDENT DEFIANT: Donald Trump delivers statement from the White House with US election still too close to call" - The Sun
- "Boris Johnson urged to denounce Trump's claims of US election fraud" - The Guardian UK
- "No 10 on tenterhooks for US election result" - The Independent
- "Joe Biden's British cousin puts his faith in Democrat presidential candidate" - Express UK
10:15pm - Trump and Biden can still both win the Presidency, although Biden has more clear paths to victory as he has already won 253 electoral votes. Trump only has 214 electoral votes currently but could still reach the majority of electoral votes - 270.
Here's what they each need to win:
- Biden - The Democratic candidate needs to win TWO of Arizona (11), North Carolina (15), Nevada (6) and Georgia (16) or win Pennsylvania (20) to get the majority of electoral votes
- Trump- The Republican candidate needs to win THREE of Arizona (11), North Carolina (15), Nevada (6) and Georgia (16) AND win Pennsylvania (20) to win
9:45pm - Trump is now leading in Georgia by only 463 votes. Another 306 ballots have been tallied and recorded in the state with Biden taking the majority and boosting his chances of winning the state and it's 16 electoral votes. There are just 7352 ballots still to be counted.
9:20pm - Here's how the candidates are currently faring with the popular vote:
- Biden - 73,736,051 (50.5 percent)
- Trump - 73,736,051 (47.7 percent)
9:03pm - According to CNN, Clayton County in Georgia has just 3500 of the area's 30,000 mail-in and provisional ballots left to count.
The director of the county's board of elections, Shauna Dozier, said the workers won't take a break until every ballot is counted, which should be within hours.
"We are going to stay here until every single absentee ballot is counted," she told CNN. "We are going to continue forward ... whatever it takes to get that done, we're going to do it. We're committed."
8:55pm - The previous count had a gap of 1267 between the candidates in Georgia, but the latest 816 votes to come in have been primarily in favour of Biden. There are now just 7658 votes left to be counted in the state, and they are expected to come in throughout Friday night.
8:48pm - The gap between Biden and Trump in Georgia has significantly reduced and there are now only 665 votes seperating the candidates.
8:30pm - Some new photos have just come in from protests Pennsylvania State Capitol on Thursday night (US time) in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
8:20pm - Backers of President Donald Trump ramped up demonstrations on Thursday night (US time) against an election they believe was rigged or being stolen, in some cases bringing guns or clashing with counter-protesters as they rallied in battleground states.
In Arizona, one of five US battleground states where votes were still being counted in the too-close-to-call race between Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden, Trump supporters massed outside the Maricopa County Elections Department in Phoenix.
Some briefly chased a man who held up a sign depicting the president as a Nazi pig behind a stage where right-wing talk-radio host Alex Jones was speaking.
Police intervened and broke up the altercation after the man and his small group of counter-demonstrators were surrounded by Trump activists, according to a Reuters witness. There were no reports of injuries.
"They are trying to steal the election but America knows what happened and it's fighting back," Jones told the throng of some 300 people. "1776 is the answer to 1984," he said, an apparent reference to the US Declaration of Independence and the dystopian George Orwell novel.
In Milwaukee, some 50 Trump supporters gathered in front of a city building where votes were being counted, blasting country music, waving flags and carrying signs reading "Recount" and "Rigged".
Roughly a dozen counter-protesters arrived after an hour, shouting "Black lives matter" and "say their names," referring to the victims of police brutality. Others threw eggs at the Trump supporters from a passing car.
- Reuters
7:51pm - Georgia has released new results and the gap between Trump and Biden is down to 1267. There are just 8474 ballots yet to be counted in the state, leaving the candidates neck and neck.
7:40pm - It's currently past 1am in Pennsylvania but new votes are continuing to come in. The margin between the candidates continues to narrow with Trump now only leading the state by 18,229 votes. Of the 5878 new ballots, 87 percent had voted for Biden, according to the New York Times. There are now 275,348 ballots yet to be counted in the state.
7:30pm - The Secret Service is sending officers to Wilmington, Delaware (Joe Biden's hometown) for extra protection if he wins the US election, the Washington Post reports.
Here's what they said:
The Secret Service summoned a squad of agents to add to the protective bubble around Biden after his campaign alerted the Secret Service the Democratic nominee would continue utilising a Wilmington convention center at least another day and could make a major speech as early as Friday, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the security protocols.
Secret Service spokeswoman Catherine Milhoan declined to comment, stressing that the agency does not publicly discuss security planning for the president or candidates it protects.
7:15pm - The US Postal Service (USPS) said about 1700 ballots had been identified in Pennsylvania at processing facilities during two sweeps on Thursday and were being delivered to election officials.
In a court filing early Friday, USPS said 1076 ballots, had been found at the USPS Philadelphia Processing and Distribution Center. About 300 were found at the Pittsburgh processing center, 266 at a Lehigh Valley facility and others found at other Pennsylvania processing centers.
Ballots must be received by Friday evening in Pennsylvania in order to be counted. The vote for the US President remains extremely close and Pennsylvania is one of the states that remains undecided.
- Reuters
6:55pm - New voting data has just come in from Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania. Here's what's changed:
- Arizona - 5713 new votes have been added to the state's tally and they have given Biden a small boost. His lead has now increased by around 500 votes to 47,052. However over the course of the last day, Trump has been significantly narrowing the gap in the state and could be set to overtake Biden. There are still 309,034 ballots to be counted in the state according to the New York Times.
- Georgia - Just a small increase of 144 votes have been added to Georgia's total. However Biden's still closing the gap on Trump with 1709 votes between the candidates. There are just 9015 left to be counted in the state, but CNN reports no additional vote count updates will be provided in Georgia until Friday morning (US time).
- Pennsylvania - Biden is continuing to decrease the gap in Pennsylvania with just 22,576 votes separating the candidates, the new tally shows. The extra 5549 votes have been in Biden's favour, although Trump has been ahead in the state since the first votes came in. There are 281,226 ballots yet to be counted in the state.
6:30pm - Vote counting across the states has slowed as it becomes night in the US. Here is the last time each remaining state reported new votes:
Nevada (6) - No votes have been counted in the last 11 hours
Arizona (11) - No votes have been recorded in the last two hours
Alaska (3) - No votes have been counted in the last day
Georgia (16) - No votes have been recorded in the last hour
North Carolina (15) - No votes have been counted in the last 11 hours
Pennsylvania (20) - Votes are still coming in - the last votes came in 20 minutes ago
6:22pm - Philadelphia police are investigating an alleged attack at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia where votes are being counted.
Action News was tipped off that a group was driving up from Virginia to launch an attack, and reported it to police.
6:15pm - In an interview with MSNBC on Friday, Mary Trump, the president's niece, called him "desperate" as the votes come in across the country, mostly in favour of his opponent Biden.
"The damage he just did is incalculable," she told the news outlet after Trump claimed fraud and victory in his latest election speech.
"The public statements are an indication of how bad things are privately."
She said Republicans are trying to reign him in, but won't criticise his actions.
"Donald has never been in this place before where there's nobody to bail him out," she said. "He's flailing."
6pm - On Friday, New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was again asked about Trump's comments on "illegal votes".
"I was asked about this yesterday," Ardern told reporters.
"Of course, very mindful… no one in New Zealand would expect any other leader in any other country to be seen to be interfering or commentating on anyone else’s electoral process or democracy.
"But, what I did say and what I absolutely stand by is of course as a country and as a people we have faith in the American institutions, we have faith in their democracy, and of course their democracy is still underway. They are still counting votes.
"Here in New Zealand of course it's three weeks later and we've only just had our final count. So, we're well used to it taking a bit of time to work through those final outcomes."
5:50pm - Trump's lead in Pennsylvania continues to diminish. Just eight hours ago, the current President had a lead of 108,367 votes, now he only leads by 24,484.
- Trump - 3,283,032 (49.5 percent)
- Biden - 3,258,548 (49.2 percent)
5:40pm- As the election votes come in, the United States recorded a new record of daily COVID-19 cases.
According to John Hopkins University data, there were 121,054 new cases in the US on Thursday, CNN reported.
The top five COVID-19 case days in the US so far:
November 5: 121,054
November 4: 102,831
October 30: 99,321
November 3: 91,530
October 31: 89,126
5:25pm - At least nine popular YouTube channels were promoting on Thursday debunked accusations about voting fraud in the US presidential race, conspiratorial content that could jeopardise advertising and memberships revenue they get from the video service.
Reuters found the channels, ranging from ones with 1000 followers to more than 629,000, endorsing claims that fact-checking units of the Associated Press, Reuters and other organisations have deemed false or inaccurate.
YouTube, owned by Alphabet Inc's Google, has rules that forbid channels using its revenue-generation tools from making "claims that are demonstrably false and could significantly undermine participation or trust in an electoral or democratic process".
Google did not immediately respond when asked if it would suspend ads and membership sales on the channels, a penalty commonly known as "demonetisation."
One of the channels seen by Reuters, JohnTalks, shared two videos on Thursday about alleged voter fraud in Michigan - a key battleground state in the election that Biden has won - generating more than 90,000 views in eight hours.
Among the claims cited was that wagons, suitcases and coolers were used to smuggle ballots into a counting center. At least three news outlets investigated the claim and determined the items carried food for election workers and camera equipment for a local TV station.
JohnTalks did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
The liberal online watchdog group Media Matters for America said in a report on Thursday that it found videos making dubious claims post-election have garnered more than 1 million views collectively.
- Reuters
5:10pm - Protests have broken out around the United States as the results of the 2020 election trickle in on Thursday night (US time).
Black Lives Matter and LGBT supporters are marching in Manhattan, New York.
In Detroit, Michigan Trump supporters gathered outside the TCF election centre and at least one person has been pepper-sprayed by police.
Trump supporters are also protesting outside the Clark County Election Department in North Las Vegas, Nevada, and at the Maricopa County Elections Department office in Phoenix, Arizona.
Here are some scenes from the night:
4:55pm - Biden is catching up to Trump in Pennsylvania.
Trump currently holds the lead on 49.6 percent to Biden's 49.2 percent but the gap is closing as the new ballots being counted are overwhelmingly leaning Biden's way.
Two hours ago there was a gap of 50,671 votes between the candidates but this is now closed to a difference of just 26,319 votes.
4:45pm - Here's how the candidates are doing in the remaining states:
- Nevada (6) - Biden ahead on 49.4 percent to Trump's 48.5 percent with 89 percent of the votes counted. Vote difference - 11,438, Votes remaining - 146,757.
- Arizona (11) - Biden ahead on 50.1 percent to Trump's 48.5 percent with 90 percent of the votes counted. Vote difference - 46,257, Votes remaining - 315,927.
- Alaska (3) - Trump ahead on 62.9 percent to Biden's 33.0 percent with 56 percent of the votes counted. Vote difference - 51,382, Votes remaining - 193,975.
- Georgia (16) - Tie on 49.4 percent with 98 percent of the votes counted. Vote difference - 1775, Votes remaining - 10,534.
- North Carolina (15) - Trump ahead on 50.0 percent to Biden's 48.6 percent with 95 percent of the votes counted. Vote difference - 76,737, Votes remaining - 190,621.
- Pennsylvania (20) - Trump ahead on 49.6 percent to Biden's 49.1 percent with 94 percent of the votes counted. Vote difference - 36,572, Votes remaining - 305,803.
4:33pm - Political commentators have reacted to Donald Trump's speech on Friday in shock and disgust.
The incumbent President prematurely declared victory, saying he would easily win if the election was counted off "legal votes", but said the Democrats are trying to "steal the election" with "illegal votes".
CNN's Chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper said it was a "sad night" for the US.
"It's not true, it's ugly, it's frankly pathetic," he said.
"He did not win, he has not won - the President falsely depicting the counting of votes as a fraud and an embarrassment - that is not what's going on."
4:20pm - There are still 35,000 ballots unaccounted for in Pennsylvania, Allegheny County executive Rich Fitzgerald told CNN on Friday.
"They are all mail-in," he said.
"Those are the ballots that weren't able to be processed. One of the 28,000 of those is a batch that was mailed to the wrong address, and then we're re-mailed, and because of a court order, by a federal court, we are not allowed to begin processing and counting those ballots until 5pm on Friday."
4:10pm - The gap again narrows between the candidates in Georgia. Over 300 new votes just got counted, bringing Trump's lead is down to 1797.
4pm - New votes have just come in from Pennsylvania where Trump's lead is dwindling. An hour ago there were 48,854 votes separating the candidates, now there are now only 42,142.
The majority of the incoming votes are leaning heavily in Biden's favour.
3:35pm - Trump and Biden are now neck and neck in Georgia - both on 49.4 percent. However Trump has a minor lead by just under 2000 votes.
- Trump - 2,447,223
- Biden - 2,445,321
3:30pm - 75,314 new votes have come in from Arizona, with the majority showing support for Trump. Biden now only holds the lead by 46,257 votes with 315,927 still to be counted.
- Biden - 50.1 percent
- Trump - 48.5 percent
3:28pm - It may seem like the votes are only trickling in slowly, but CNN reports that in Pennsylvania, over 512,000 have been counted on Wednesday (US time).
3:20pm - There are now only 2497 votes separating Biden and Trump in Georgia. Trump is just hanging onto the lead at 49.4 percent to Biden's 49.3 percent. If Biden can hold the current trend of winning over 65 percent of the new votes coming in, it's likely he will take the lead.
There are only 11,936 votes left to be counted in the state.
3pm - New votes are in from Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona.
Alaska, North Carolina and Nevada haven't recorded any new votes in the past seven hours.
Here's how many votes now separate the candidates in the states with new votes:
- Pennsylvania - Trump ahead by 53,221 votes (his lead has decreased from a 114,341 difference eight hours ago)
- Georgia - Trump ahead by 3486 votes (his lead has decreased from a 13,539 difference eight hours ago)
- Arizona - Biden ahead by 56,833 votes (his lead has decreased from a 68,575 difference seven hours ago)
2:40pm - Trump's lead in the battleground state of Pennsylvania is again narrowing. New votes have come in pushing Biden to 49.0 percent, with Trump remaining steady on 49.8 percent.
Only six hours ago, Trump had a lead of over 100,000 votes, but now he just leads by 58,286.
2:35pm - Twitter has banned Trump's former top campaign advisor Steve Bannon on Friday after he called for violence against two federal officials.
NBC reports Youtube has also removed one of his videos after Bannon said in a podcast that he wanted to behead FBI Director Christopher Wray and top infectious diseases expert Dr Anthony Fauci.
Bannon said he would "put the heads on pikes" as a "warning to federal bureaucrats".
In a statement, Twitter said the "@WarRoomPandemic account has been permanently suspended".
2:25pm - To put the final battles in perspective, here's how many votes are still to be counted in the remaining states and how many each candidate currently has:
Nevada (6):
- Trump - 604,251 (49.4 percent)
- Biden - 592,813 (48.5 percent)
- Remaining - 146,757
Arizona (11) :
- Trump - 1,496,142 (50.3 percent)
- Biden - 1,438,298 (48.3 percent)
- Remaining - 378,029
Alaska (3):
- Trump - 108,231 (62.9 percent)
- Biden - 56,849 (33 percent)
- Remaining - 193,975
Georgia (16):
- Trump - 2,446,850 (49.4 percent)
- Biden - 2,443,364 (49.3 percent)
- Remaining - 22,856
North Carolina (15):
- Trump - 2,732,120 (50 percent)
- Biden - 2,655,383 (48.6 percent)
- Remaining - 190,621
Pennsylvania (20):
- Trump - 3,267,050 (49.8 percent)
- Biden - 3,206,299 (48.9 percent)
- Remaining - 370,911
2:10pm - Mitt Romney, a former Republican presidential nominee and current Utah Senator, has told his followers to remain patient as the votes are counted.
"Counting every vote is at the heart of democracy. That process is often long and, for those running, frustrating," he tweeted on Friday.
"The votes will be counted. If there are irregularities alleged, they will be investigated and ultimately resolved in the courts.
"Have faith in democracy, in our Constitution, and in the American people."
2:05pm - As more votes are counted around the United States, here's how the candidates are doing in each of the states yet to declare a winner:
- Nevada (6) - Biden ahead on 49.4 percent to Trump's 48.5 percent with 89 percent of the votes counted
- Arizona (11) - Biden ahead on 50.2 percent to Trump's 48.3 percent with 87 percent of the votes counted
- Alaska (3) - Trump ahead on 62.9 percent to Biden's 33.0 percent with 56 percent of the votes counted
- Georgia (16) - Trump ahead on 49.4 percent to Biden's 49.3 percent with 98 percent of the votes counted
- North Carolina (15) - Trump ahead on 50.0 percent to Biden's 48.6 percent with 95 percent of the votes counted
- Pennsylvania (20) - Trump ahead on 49.8 percent to Biden's 48.9 percent with 94 percent of the votes counted
1:57pm - At the same time, 7456 new votes just came in for Arizona where Trump is dominating the incoming votes.
The incumbent Republican President won 76.1 percent of the new votes, with Biden only gaining 23.9 percent.
However, the former Vice President is still ahead in the state on 50.3 percent to Trump's 483 percent.
There are 57,000 votes currently separating the candidates.
1:50pm - New votes have just come in from Georgia where the candidates are neck and neck for the state's 16 electoral votes.
Just over 2000 votes came in at 1:45pm with the majority in favour of Democratic candidate Biden. Here's the breakdown of the new votes:
- Trump - 47.4 percent
- Biden - 52.6 percent
If Biden continues the trend with a high percentage of the incoming votes, he is on track to win the state.
Here's how many votes and the percentage of each candidate overall in the state:
- Trump - 49.4 percent (2,446,850)
- Biden - 49.3 percent (2,443,364)
1:23pm - Trump's lead in Pennsylvania just got a whole lot smaller - cut by more than 9000 in the latest batch of votes reported - 87.5 percent of which went to Biden.
Biden needs just 58 percent of the remaining 372,000 votes to take out the state and win the presidency.
Another White House journo has chimed in on Trump's speech, this time the New York Times' Maggie Haberman.
"Two Trump aides told me people were generally relieved Trump hadn't been around reporters since early Wednesday morning's speech because they feared this kind of tirade. Nonetheless, here we are."
1:20pm - CNN's Anderson Cooper has described Trump's performance as like "an obese turtle on his back flailing in the hot sun, realising his time is over".
Meanwhile, Trump's deputy Vice President Mike Pence has chimed in, saying he stands with his boss.
"We must count every LEGAL vote," he tweeted.
1:10pm - Despite Trump's bullishness, his chances of victory are continuing to slide, as states slip out of his grasp.
The margin in Georgia has been dramatically cut to just 3635 as mail-in ballots are counted. With about 25,000 yet to be counted, at the rate Biden is gaining, he will take out the state which is crucial to Trump's chances of victory.
There are just 73,609 votes seperating the two in Pennsylvania also, with 385,000 votes left to count. Biden too here is gaining fast, on track to overtake the incumbent.
12:48am - US President Donald Trump has claimed he will "easily win" the election if only the "legal votes" are counted.
"A lot of votes came in late. I have already decisively won," he claimed, in his first public appearance since falsely claiming victory on the night of the election.
He said "big media" and "big tech" had been against him, yet he "won" anyway.
Mail-in votes that arrive after election day are typically counted, as long as they were posted on or before election day. Many have favoured Biden, with Democrats apparently more likely to post their vote and avoid queues amid the pandemic, than Republicans.
Trump has not yet won, with most pundits picking Biden to take out the election.
He went on to say "fake polls" were used to discourage his supporters from voting.
"There are now only a few states left to be decided... the voting apparatus in those states are run by Democrats," he claimed, saying his vote is being "whittled away in secret". There is no evidence of this.
He called mail-in voting a "corrupt system", though no widespread evidence of voter fraud through the mail has ever been found, and that the Democrats were stealing the election, also without evidence.
"The president is lying right now. Over and over and over," tweeted CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta.
"This is like the 'Downfall' scene on Xanax," tweeted former George W Bush speechwriter David Frum, referring to the famously parodied movie scene where Hitler realises the war is lost.
Some US networks, including MSNBC, cut away from the speech early when the President began making false and unverified claims.
"Here we are again in the unusual position of not only interrupting the President of the United States but correcting the President of the United States," the anchor said.
"I've read or watched all of Trump's speeches since 2016. This is the most dishonest speech he has ever given," tweeted CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale.
CNN also pointed out if the Democrats wanted to "steal" the election, it's strange they haven't also stolen the Senate, which remains under Republican control.
Despite the days of counting, Trump said he would still win "easily".
"There is going to be a lot of litigation... it's going to end up at perhaps the highest court in the land."
12:25pm - Trump might have broken the law by using the White House as a base of operations on election day.
The US Office of Special Counsel has opened an investigation, Reuters reports.
It's alleged he might have broken The Hatch Act, which - according to the office - "limits certain political activities of federal employees".
12:20pm - An NBC political analyst has hit back at people think he's been alarmist for sounding warnings over Trump's authoritarian nature.
"Election officials are saying they fear for their lives. The president's son is calling for 'total war.' The president's former top adviser is calling for the beheading of the FBI chief," tweeted Mehdi Hasan, who has called Trump an 'autocrat' in the past.
"But yeah, those of us who talk of authoritarianism & fascism, we're the alarmists, right?"
More on what Hasan is talking about, with links, can be found below.
12:05pm - Trump's lead in Pennsylvania is fast diminishing - the latest batch of votes counted cutting it from 90,000 to 78,000, with nearly 400,000 to go.
12pm - Donald Trump will speak publicly for the first time since claiming victory two days ago, at 12:30pm (NZ time).
11:53am - Donald Trump Jr has called on his dad to "go to total war" to "expose all of the fraud, cheating" in the election, of which no one has provided any proof.
"The best thing for America’s future is for @realDonaldTrump to go to total war over this election to expose all of the fraud, cheating, dead/no longer in state voters, that has been going on for far too long," he tweeted.
"It's time to clean up this mess & stop looking like a banana republic!"
Twitter added a label to the tweet, saying "some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process". The social media site has done the same to several tweets by his dad.
11:42am - A Trump campaign legal adviser has said she expects the Supreme Court to "step in and do something" to award the election to Trump, claiming - without evidence - there is vote-tampering happening, saying counters wearing Biden-Harris masks are filling out voting forms before counting them.
"We're waiting for the United States Supreme Court - of which the President has nominated three justices - to step in and do something. And hopefully Amy Coney Barrett will come through and pick it up," Harmeet Dhillon told Fox News.
11:32am - Former Trump campaign strategist Steve Bannon has called for Trump to fire the United States' top infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci, if he's re-elected.
And not just fire him - but to put his head on a pike "as a warning to federal bureaucrats. You either get with the program or you're gone."
Trump has repeatedly attacked Fauci, who has urged the President to listen to science when it comes to the pandemic and stop making false claims.
11:30am - The Trump campaign has filed yet another lawsuit, this one against Philadelphia elections officials "for allegedly violating their due process rights by blocking the observation of ballots in the city", CNN reports.
It reportedly doesn't say how they allegedly blocked observations.
11:15am - Joe Biden is out on the street in Wilmington, Delaware. He waved to supporters as he walked to his car.
11:05am - Trump's lead has also just been hit hard in Georgia. A batch of 6305 votes has been received, with Biden receiving 75.8 percent of it compared to Trump's 24.2 percent.
Trump's lead is now 9525 votes with 43,645 votes remaining. On current trends, it is possible for Biden to take Georgia.
11:02am - CNN's Jim Acosta reports that the White House has not yet called 'lid'. That means that it is still possible the President or his staff could hold a standup.
11am - Votes are coming in far quicker today than they were on Thursday.
In the last few minutes, PA had a massive batch of 13,957 votes come in. Those favoured Biden 68.4 percent to Trump's 31.6 percent. Trump now has a 90,542 vote lead, with 431,735 votes to be returned.
To put it into perspective for you, in the last hour, Trump's lead here has decreased by about 7000 votes.
10:50am - We have just had a batch of 6636 votes come in in Pennsylvania. It favoured Biden 61.7 percent to Trump 38.3 percent.
Trump is still leading overall, but if these mostly mail-in votes continue to side with Biden, it's very possible the former vice-President will take the lead and win the state. If he does that, he becomes the 46th President of the United States.
There are about 445,000 votes remaining there with Trump leading by 95,670.
10:40am - The lawyer who oversaw George W Bush's efforts to stop recounts in Florida in 2000, which secured his client the presidency, says the Trump campaign needs to quit its attempts to stop counts happening.
"Our whole argument was that the votes have been counted and they’ve been counted and they've been counted and it’s time to end the process," he told the New York Times.
The difference now is that the Trump campaign appears to be trying to stop the initial counting of votes, not recounts.
"I think it's pretty hard to be against counting the votes," Baker said. "We never said don’t count the votes. That’s a very hard decision to defend in a democracy."
10:28am - Joe Biden has made a brief statement on the election counting process.
"Each ballot must be counted, and that's what we're going to see... and that's how it should be, he said from Wilmington, Delaware.
"Democracy is sometimes messy. It sometimes requires a little patience as well, but that patience has been rewarded now for 240 years with a system of governance that's been the envy of the world."
Biden said he and running mate Kamala Harris were feeling good about the way things are progressing.
"We have no doubt when the count is finished, Senator Harris and I will be declared the winners. So I ask everyone to stay calm... the process is working. The count is being completed and we'll know very soon."
10:25am - Republican Party officials in Arizona have defiantly claimed their candidate will win and lashed out at the media, in a press conference marred by technical problems.
"Arizona's 11 Electoral College votes are going to be in Donald Trump's column when this is done... Trump is going to overtake Joe Biden," said David Bossie.
He said news outlets, such as Fox News, which have called Arizona for Biden had done the Trump campaign a "disservice".
"What we're going to do is prove them wrong.... Arizona is Trump country."
The mic cut out constantly throughout the press conference, which Bossie blamed on the mainstream media. He then went on to falsely claim news outlets which mistakenly call states for one candidate or another can impact the election.
News outlets' calls have no impact on the vote whatsoever.
10:15am - The Republican Party in Arizona is holding a press conference. Watch it below.
9:55am - Another popular Facebook group aimed at disrupting the vote-counting process has been removed.
"In line with the exceptional measures that we are taking during this period of heightened tension, we have removed the Group 'Stop the Steal', which was creating real-world events," Facebook told the Guardian.
"The group was organized around the delegitimisation of the election process, and we saw worrying calls for violence from some members of the group."
It had racked up more than 350,000 members in a single day.
Several of the page's admins have been linked to other Republican and pro-Trump outfits.
9:45am - A Georgia voting official has defended the state's tardy counting of votes, saying COVID-19 precautions and the state's position as potential kingmaker is slowing things down.
There are about 47,000 ballots left to count, and the state could go either way.
"The issue we have in Georgia is... it's a close vote," said Gabriel Sterling. "There's other states that have more votes to count than we do, but it's a wide margin, so nobody cares."
It's also the first time in 20 years the state has used paper ballots instead of machines, he said, part of their efforts to keep voters safe.
Trump currently leads the state, but Biden is gaining ground fast enough to take the lead by the time counting is over.
Sterling said it could be Sunday before they're done.
9:40am - Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has mocked Trump, paraphrasing a famous tweet he made about her.
"So ridiculous. Donald must work on his Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Donald, Chill!" she wrote, in response to an all-caps tweet from the US President calling for vote-counting to be stopped.
9:30am - "Whatever happens, the United States is the Divided States."
That's AM Show host Duncan Garner's assessment of the race.
"In many ways, it's a dreadful result. The losers will have gotten so close and how they play out that disappointment remains one of the biggest concerns in the coming days and weeks."
9:25am - Facebook has taken down a page encouraging people to protest outside Pennsylvania venues where votes are being counted.
Stand Up Michigan, originally an anti-lockdown page, was spreading false information about the election results, the Guardian reports.
"We removed the page and the group sharing the post based on the potential risk for offline harm and will stay in contact with the local authorities who are supporting the situation in Detroit," a spokesperson told the paper.
Biden is ahead in Michigan by about 150,000 votes, with 99 percent counted.
9:15am - The Trump campaign says it will be holding a news conference in Phoenix at 10am. Newshub will carry it live then - come back here to watch it.
Phoenix is in Arizona, one of the states key to the election result.
9:10am - Biden is on track to overtake Trump in Pennsylvania.
A site tracking the vote count, using data sourced from the New York Times' servers, shows Biden is winning enough of the remaining ballots to ultimately end up ahead.
Trump is presently ahead, Biden needing 60.9 percent of the remaining ballots to win. He's currently averaging 70.3 percent.
Just over 10 percent of the votes are yet to be counted, with a result expected later today. If Biden wins the state, he'll be President regardless of what happens elsewhere.
8:50am - Joe Biden has made a rare tweet (at least, rare compared to his opponent).
"Let me be clear: I campaigned as a proud Democrat, but I will govern as an American president," he wrote, not making any wild claims about voter fraud and laying off the caps-lock key. He also added a picture, appearing with his running mate Kamala Harris.
8:45am - Fox News is sticking by its call to declare Arizona for Biden, a call which infuriated the Trump campaign.
"I did check in with our decision desk earlier today & they're not wavering," Fox News Anchor Chris Wallace said.
"They say that our call on Arizona is right, which puts him at 264. And if Biden wins any of the 3 states... he goes over the top."
Those three states are Nevada, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Trump reportedly was so angered by Fox News' call, he personally called owner Rupert Murdoch to berate him and demand a retraction.
Election forecast site FiveThirtyEight says Biden needs 60 percent of the outstanding ballots in Pennsylvania to win the state - not a tough ask, as they're mostly mail-in ballots, which have favoured Biden.
8:40am - Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who recently made headlines for appearing in Sacha Baron Cohen's recent Borat movie with his hands down his pants, has claimed electoral "FRAUD and ABUSE" by Democrats is happening "nationwide".
"This is happening nationwide, not just here in Philadelphia, PA! We must fight to protect our right to fair and free elections," he said. There is no evidence yet to prove this.
8:30am - Undeterred by losses in Michigan and Georgia, the Trump campaign has filed yet another lawsuit - this one in an attempt to stop the vote-counting in Nevada, where Biden is ahead by 0.9 percent.
This particular suit aims to stop the counting of "illegal votes", Fox News reports.
"We are confident that when all legal votes are tallied - and only legal votes are tallied - President Trump will win the state of Nevada," a spokesperson said.
They claim tens of thousands of votes have been counted despite coming from people who don't live in the state, and some votes have been made in the names of dead people.
Nevada officials say they won't be releasing any more figures today, meaning if we're going to get a result today, it will likely have to come from Pennsylvania. A Biden win there would seal the election, whilst a Trump victory would keep the result in limbo.
8:20am - Trump's former chief of staff Mick Mulvaney also expects his old boss to run again in 2024, should he lose this time.
"I would absolutely expect the President to stay involved in politics and would absolutely put him on the shortlist of people who are likely to run in 2024," he said, the Guardian reports.
8:10 - A Trump adviser has confided in CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta there has been talk of a run in 2024.
"Trump and aides have had discussions about mounting a comeback run in 2024 should he lose reelection to Biden, an adviser tells me. No word whether he would do it. But the subject has come up, I'm told," Acosta tweeted.
That would imply the campaign has given up on winning in 2020 - since 1951, the constitution has forbidden US Presidents from serving more than two terms. That, or Trump plans to ignore the constitution and run for a third term anyway.
Trump would be 78 in 2024 - a year older than Biden is now.
8:07am - Not only has Joe Biden set a new record for most votes ever received in a US presidential election, he's on track to beat Trump by more votes than Hillary Clinton did in 2016.
Clinton's margin was 2.87 million - racking up big totals in blue states like California, but missing out on the presidency after losing by small margins in the midwest.
Biden's margin over Trump at present is almost 3.8 million.
7:55am - A second lawsuit filed by the Trump campaign has been dismissed, CNN reports. They were trying to get vote-counting in Michigan halted, saying they wanted to review the counting themselves.
A Michigan state court judge called the campaign's claims of fraud "hearsay", saying they had no evidence and the count was largely already already over.
"The ship has really sailed on the relief that they're requesting in this case," added a lawyer acting for the state, while the judge reportedly sounded exasperated with the lawsuit.
7:45am - In news that will please everyone running out of fingernails to bite, Pennsylvania's Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar has told CNN she expects the "overwhelming majority" of remaining votes to be counted today, rather than by Friday (US time), as previously expected.
7:40am - The editor of a Nevada news outlet says he can't see a path to victory for Donald Trump.
"Biden is up by 11.4K right now in NV," tweeted Jon Ralston, founder of the Nevada Independent news site.
"Dems are going to win these mail ballots coming in from Election Day and yesterday - 63K. And they should win them decisively. That leaves 60K provisionals, which have been evenly split. I see no path left for Trump here."
If Biden wins Nevada, Trump's prospects for victory would indeed be slim.
7:32am - Trump's campaign has been dealt a minor blow.
A Georgia state court has dismissed a lawsuit the Republicans filed to prevent the "unlawful counting of ballots received after the election" in Savannah, CNN reports. Even if it had been successful, it's unlikely to have changed the outcome of the state - reportedly only affecting about 56 votes.
But in an election this close, who knows?
7:30am - Biden supporters are being urged not to start popping the champagne just yet.
"Biden has not yet sealed the deal," veteran broadcaster and head of Feature Story News Simon Marks told The AM Show on Friday.
"It may be the results from the battlegrounds - Nevada, Georgia, Pennsylvania - allow him to go on and claim victory, but even if he does that and Trump agrees to leave office, the President won the support of 68.4 million Americans and he's telling them all this process is illegitimate, and if Biden becomes President he wont have any legitimacy to occupy in the Oval Office."
Newshub's own Patrick Gower is confident Biden's got it - but is also playing the waiting game.
"Donald Trump's popular vote has gone up 69 million - 69 million people have endorsed Trump, endorsed Trump in this country," he told The AM Show.
Some networks have already called close states like Arizona for Biden, leaving him just one state from victory - that could be Nevada.
'He is leading in Nevada by 12,000 votes so we're talking 12,000 votes in Nevada and that could get Joe Biden home."
7:20am - Trump's strategy of contesting the election in the courts has little chance of changing the outcome, experts are saying.
His campaign has launched legal action in battleground states Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia.
"The current legal maneuvering is mainly a way for the Trump campaign to try to extend the ball game in the long-shot hope that some serious anomaly will emerge," Robert Yablon, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School told Reuters. "As of now, we haven't seen any indication of systematic irregularities in the vote count."
"There is no consistent strategy," said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. Trump's campaign is "throwing theories at a wall to see if anything sticks for long enough to muck up the waters", she added.
Veteran broadcaster and head of Feature Story News, Simon Marks, told The AM Show on Friday much the same thing.
"The Trump team is throwing every single spanner in the works they can legally. They're making it very clear just in the last hour that if they had a kitchen sink they would fling that at these races in a bid to either slow the process of vote-counting down or get many of these postal votes thrown out all together."
Biden's legal team has rubbished the legal moves as "meritless", and vote-counting won't stop.
7:12am - Trump is leading Georgia by 13,540 votes according to CNN. The lead has shrunk down from 14,765 in the past hour.
Biden is sitting at 49.2 percent compared to Trump's 49.5 percent, with 98 percent of the vote counted - however there are still 50,401 ballots outstanding.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a statement that officials are focused on getting it right.
"Officials in numerous counties are continuing to count ballots, with strong security protocols in place to protect the integrity of our election.
We’re on pace to accomplish that responsibly, ensuring that the voice of every eligible voter is heard. It’s important to act quickly, but it’s more important to get it right."
6:45am - Pennsylvania's Allegany county has paused all ballot counting until Saturday over a legal challenge of 29,000 ballots.
A further 6000 ballots, too creased to be scanned, will need to be counted manually and will not be done until Saturday either.
Around 35,000 ballots still need to be counted in Allegany, meaning it's unlikely there will be a result from Pennsylvania on Friday.
Trump is currently leading the state with 50.3 percent compared to Biden's 48.5.
6:37am - According to CNN's anchor Jake Tapper, Biden's lead in Nevada has shrunk slightly from 12,042 to 11,458.
6:22am - As has become tradition recently, Trump's latest tweet about challenging all states won by Biden for voter fraud and state election fraud has been flagged as misleading by Twitter.
Trump's Twitter profile is peppered with blocks from the social media platform, flagging content he posts or retweets as being "disputed" or "misleading".
6:17am - Biden's lead has grown in Nevada after more votes came in from Clark county. The latest batch of ballots have boosted Biden by 12,000 votes - about 1 percent of the total count.
In Georgia and Pennsylvania, Trump's lead continues to shrink as more votes pour in.
6:11am - In Nevada, senior campaign officials continued to push the accusations of voter fraud, saying they believed dead people were being counted as voters, as were people who no longer live in the state.
Campaign adviser Ric Grenell walked away from reporters who asked for evidence of the illegitimate ballots.
Grenell refused to answer when asked his name, saying "you're here to take in information".
6am - A Georgia judge has dismissed Trump's lawsuit over absentee ballots. The president's campaign tried to argue officials were trying to count invalid ballots, reports The Guardian.
When asked for evidence of the claim, the campaign could not prove anything.
Trump's lead in Georgia has continued to shrink - he's now just 0.3 percent ahead of Biden.
5:51am - A judge has given Trump's re-election campaign a minor victory, allowing them to observe the counting of ballots in Pennsylvania - a battleground state.
Early on Friday morning (NZ time) Trump tweeted of his "big legal win" in the state.
Trump's campaign manager Bill Stepien said the ruling by a Pennsylvania judge would also allow them to review counting that has already occurred as well.
"The media and the insiders is in the city, they’ve been trying to count Donald Trump out for years,"Stepien told reporters on a call. "Donald Trump is alive and well."
5:48am - Trump has so far announced legal action to try and halt vote-counting in Pennsylvania, and Michigan while seeking a recount in Wisconsin and challenging the handling of ballots in Georgia.
The legal threats could draw out the lengthy election process even further.
Democrats appear unfazed by the threats with one of Biden's top campaign attorney's telling the Washington Post that "we're winning the election, we've won the election, and we're going to defend that election".
"We don't have to do anything but protect the rights of voters and to stand up for the democratic process," said Bob Bauer.
5:40am - Trump has begun his daily slew of tweets, saying he plans to legally challenge all states won by Biden.
The US President says there is "plenty of proof" in "the Media" for voter fraud and state election fraud. He finished the tweet with a desperate assertion that he will win the election, in his trademark capitals.
On Thursday, many of Trump's tweets were flagged by Twitter for being misleading or inaccurate.
5:38am - Protesters from each side of the political divide marched through the streets of several American cities overnight on Thursday following Trump's efforts to stop the vote counting in states where he was losing.
In Portland, hundreds gathered near the city's waterfront while a seperate group protesting the police and the need for racial justice smashed shop fronts and confronted National Guard troops.
In Phoenix Arizona, more than 100 pro-Trump protesters, some armed, gathered outside the recorders office where ballots were being counted, the New York Times reports.
In Detriot, more pro-Trump protesters gathered outside a ballot counting centre demanding the officials stop counting ballots after Trump filed a lawsuit to halt it.
