the us presidential election hangs in the balance with no clear winner yet. both sides are talking about victory in very different ways. joe biden urges patience while donald trump claims he has won and says he is going to the supreme court. speaking to his supporters at the white house, president trump had said he had secured a win even though millions of votes have yet to be counted and he claimed only fraud could rob him of trying. we will be going to the us supreme court. we wa nt going to the us supreme court. we want all voting to stop. we don't wa nt want all voting to stop. we don't want them to find any ballots at four o'clock in the morning. 0k? his

arrival, the democratic candidate joe biden, told his supporters to keep the faith and said he is still on course for victory with predictions the democrats could win at arizona, a once reliable conservative seat. we will have to be patient until the hard work of counting the votes is finished and it ain't over until every vote is counted, every ballot is counted. the counting continues with the president outperforming pollsters' predictions. it is a tight race to the white house with results in key battle ground states still to come. it may take hours or even days for the final result to be known. at the touch screen and keeping track of the votes is reeta chakrabarti. with the votes is reeta chakrabarti. with the presidential race absolutely neck and neck i will be plotting what each man has to do and which states they have to carry in order to win. a closely contested and

highly divisive presidential race is farfrom highly divisive presidential race is far from over. stay with us for the bbc us election 2020. hello, iam laura hello, i am laura trevelyan in washington, where a nation waits to find out who has really won. washington, where a nation waits to find out who has really woni washington, where a nation waits to find out who has really won. i am matthew riley waller in london. we will bring you the results and explain what happens next. will bring you the results and explain what happens nextm will bring you the results and explain what happens next. it is 4am here in washington with donald trump and joe biden predicting victory in the us presidential election. it has proved to be an extremely close race with the result still to come in from a number of pivotal states. president trump has confounded expectations by performing more strongly than predicted by the pollsters, taking florida, texas and ohio. joe biden still has a path to

the white house if he can secure arizona and rust belt states such as michigan and wisconsin. the final result could take days to be decided. in the past few hours, joe biden urged patience and said every vote needed to be counted and told supporters he was on course to win. thenin supporters he was on course to win. then in an unprecedented movejust over an hour ago donald trump insisted he had won the election already, despite the fact many results has still to be declared. he claimed electoral fraud without providing any evidence and vowed to go to the supreme court before the count is completed. let's have a look at the latest electoral college figures. joe biden has 220 and donald trump 213, with victory secured at 270. the crucial congressional races, this is the picture in the senate, the democrats, 44 and the republicans 47. the democrats, 44 and the republicans a7. the winning margin democrats, aa and the republicans a7. the winning margin is 50, but only if that party wins control of the white house. there are still a

number of races to be decided. the democrats have held onto the house of representatives. although again many races are still to be run. we will bring you the results as they come in and help you make sense of what has happened so far. first, the sport from our correspondence —— this report. this election remains a nailbiter and the results in key swing states are not yet known, but when president trump spoke at the white house in the early hours he claimed the race would be his and then said this. this is a fraud on then said this. this is a fraud on the american public. this is an embarrassment to our country. we we re embarrassment to our country. we were getting ready to win this election. frankly, we did win this election. frankly, we did win this election. the president said he would take his fight to the supreme court. there is no evidence to support his claim of fraud and millions of ballots are still being

counted as they should. it was joe biden who made the first appearance of the night, telling supporters to hold their nerve. your patience is commendable. we knew this was going to go on, but who knew we were going to go on, but who knew we were going to go on, but who knew we were going to go into maybe tomorrow morning and maybe even longer. but, look, we feel good about where we are. we really do. i am here to tell you we believe we are on track to win this election. until then america believe we are on track to win this election. untilthen america had watched the night and filled with little drama, the two candidates clocking up states they were expected to win. but early results also pointed to a much tighter election than the polls had suggested. democrats had dreamt of blocking president trump was matt parr to the white house by winning florida, but his vote there stayed strong. president trump has won florida. this election seems to be coming down to the battle ground midwest states donald trump one last

time and with millions of postal ballots still to come, it is bound to become a contracted and long slog. let me take you to the latest lines coming in from thejoe biden can. they are saying if donald trump goes to the court to prevent proper tabulated votes, they will have legal team is standing to resist that effort and they had talked about the effort to stop counting as outrageous. those are the latest lines from the joe outrageous. those are the latest lines from thejoe biden campaign, saying their are ready. let's go to oui’ saying their are ready. let's go to our washington correspondent. basically we have entered the nightmarish scenario, have we? we have. there were expectations by some democrats that joe have. there were expectations by some democrats thatjoe biden might be able to deliver an early knockout punch by winning a state like florida or north carolina. those have not materialised. when you say nightmare scenario it is this grey area that we are inhabiting right

now, where we are waiting for stays in the midwest, michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania, to count absentee ballots. donald trump has a lead in those states right now. the question is, are those absentee ballots, early voting ballots paving joe biden to allow him to pull ahead? you are in a scenario where donald trump is declaring victory and joe biden is saying he is on a path to winning. if both sides end up on the short end of the stick they will feel aggrieved and cheated out of a victory. anthony, the president is threatening to go to court, but on what basis? that is a good question. he says he wants to return to the supreme court, but that is not the way it works. he cannotjust supreme court, but that is not the way it works. he cannot just talk to the supreme court and have them step in and issue a decision. we can expect from the republican lawyers are more challenges to initial ballot counting in places like pennsylvania. they are already

filing legal challenges there and they will work their way up and eventually possibly make it to the supreme court. but this is not a situation where donald trump can immediately say, supreme court, stepped in and help me out. he simplifies it a lot when he tries to explain it that way. you talk about him simplifying it. in many senses he deliberately misunderstood the way counting and voting and declaring work, because he went through a number of those key states, underlining how much he thought he was ahead and therefore it was not possible to really continue voting and counting. yes, he talked about no more voting, but i think what you meant was no more counting the ballots. if that is the case, if he means he wants to stop counting the ballots, that would run in the face of what happens in every single american election, which is the ballot counting process takes time. in california it takes weeks to count all the ballots. in an

election now where there was a huge amount of mail balloting conducted, because people are concerned about going in person to places because of the coronavirus, now you have multiple states where this takes time. impulse pennsylvania there are more than a million mail ballots that have to be counted over the next couple of days. in wisconsin they are talking about announcing they are talking about announcing the result of a ballot counting. in milwaukee it could be announced later today. the same with michigan, in detroit there are significant mail ballots that have to be tabulated and counted. because of the situation we are in right now because democrats are encouraging their voters to cast their ballots by mail, while donald trump and the republicans are saying it was important that their voters go in person and vote on the day, you have these very big differences in the

partisan make—up of the mail balloting versus the in—person balloting. because it is taking longer to count mail ballots, these will predominantly be joe biden votes and it will be interesting to see how many there are and if there are enough to erase the deficit you see in michigan, pennsylvania and wisconsin. anthony, tell us, when you look at the state so far and how the votes are stacking up, what does it tell you about the political divide in america? it is telling us that this is still very sharply divided nation. if democrats were hoping for some sort of a national repudiation of donald trump to show that election four years ago was some kind of a fluke and the nation had decidedly turned against him and his brand of conservative, populist politics, that does not materialised. not only in a presidential race that is very narrow and close and could go either way, but also in congressional

races. in senate races the democrats thought they might be able to pick up thought they might be able to pick up and build a durable senate majority and it is not going their way. even if you look at the house of representative races, democrats we re of representative races, democrats were optimistic they would be able to pick up seats in the house of representatives. but if you look down the line all of these marginal constituencies, all of these congressional districts where democrats were hoping they would win, hoping for a democrats were hoping they would win, hoping fora narrow democrats were hoping they would win, hoping for a narrow win, they are losing. it looks like the republicans will pick up seats in the house of representatives, even if democrats keep control. anthony, thank you very much. take us through the map so far. anthony was talking about how divided the nation is and you can see this starkly on the touch—screen. an absolutely nail—biting situation. joe biden on 220 and donald trump on 213. if you

arejust 220 and donald trump on 213. if you are just joining 220 and donald trump on 213. if you arejustjoining us 220 and donald trump on 213. if you are justjoining us today, 220 and donald trump on 213. if you arejustjoining us today, you can see the electoral map as it stands, pretty much as you would expect with big suedes of red in the safe states for republicans and blue in the safe states for the democrats. overnight donald trump secured an important win in florida, also in ohio and texas. a massive state with 38 electoral college votes. but it has come down as anticipated to the race ina pew come down as anticipated to the race in a pew swing states, places like arizona, where they are still counting. in georgia it is now bitingly close. north carolina, and then those rust belt states that donald trump took the last time around. iwant donald trump took the last time around. i want to show you in more detail the situation in a couple of the states which are too early to project. one of the northeast says is michigan and the other is in the south, georgia. they have got quite some way through the counting. in

georgia at 91% of the votes have been counted and that is really interesting. it is a 2.5% swing to the democratic party. the democrats need a 2.6% swing to take georgia. so now bitingly close. here in michiganjoe so now bitingly close. here in michigan joe biden will so now bitingly close. here in michiganjoe biden will be happy to see these figures, although it is only three quarters of the vote counted, it is a 1.3% swing to the democrats. this was the closest result in 2016 for donald trump. donald trump took it by a whisker from hillary clinton. the democrats at this time around need a 0.1% swing. on that showing joe biden may feel confident. just tell swing. on that showing joe biden may feel confident. just tell us how does each man went from this point? what is their path to victory? we

can plot a path to victory depending on which states they win. let me bring in my various pens. let us assumejoe bring in my various pens. let us assume joe biden takes bring in my various pens. let us assumejoe biden takes away because hawaii tends to be safe for the democrats. let's assume he retains nevada, hillary clinton won that last time. that brings him to 230. they are still counting in arizona but the democrats have expressed optimism. that takes him to 2a1. main in the north—east, if we assume he wins the state of maine, and also one of the congressional district seats. that takes him up to 2aa. if he takes michigan and wisconsin, that takes him to the magic 270, which is what he needs to win. joe biden, if he wins those states, can get into the white house without

taking pennsylvania. it is a different story for donald trump. i will use my red pen here. let's assume he keeps alaska. let's assume he takes arizona. georgia, as i said, very close in georgia. let's assume he takes that. he keeps north carolina, but he is still 258, so he is still short by 12 electoral votes, which suggests donald trump has to keep pennsylvania in order to stay in the white house. thank you, we can go to washington where ron christie, who worked for george w bush, is waiting to talk to us george w bush, is waiting to talk to us and from california we are joined by hillary clinton's political director from by hillary clinton's political directorfrom 2016. i by hillary clinton's political director from 2016. i was listening an hourorso ago

director from 2016. i was listening an hour or so ago before the president spoke and you were advising and hoping he would choose cautious words and it was extraordinary press conference from the white house. good morning, it really was. you had the opportunity for the president to come out and say, we are a country divided and people divided but let's have all of the ballots counted, let's make sure we can have an election we feel confident and safe in the result. instead it looked like a political rally from the east room in the white house and the most unfortunate set of words used by the president was he thought there were people who work disenfranchised, said it looked like people were trying to steal the election and he was going to the supreme court, exactly the wrong words to be used in the situation where calm and restraint would have been the better course of action. amanda, how are you feeling about the night so far and which states are you watching most closely in the

next couple of hours?|j are you watching most closely in the next couple of hours? i will of course be watching arizona, nevada, making sure that biden actually comes out of those in good order. but then it is the three, wisconsin, pennsylvania and michigan and it has always been those three and can the blue wall hold ? always been those three and can the blue wall hold? we will go into the evening, you look at the counties, there are quite a few areas that are very democratic heavy and the campaign did a lot of work by mail and those are the ones we will be watching all through the night to make sure every vote is counted. this was the strategy of the biden team from the beginning, to make sure a vote by mail was in and make sure a vote by mail was in and make sure the blue wall held. stay with us. sure the blue wall held. stay with us. we can head to the white house, a cbs news correspondentjoins us from the. we were talking about the words of the president chose and he was absolutely clear he thought he

had already won this and, as one christie said, talking about the election being stolen. —— ron christie. that's right and a lot of people will say the president prematurely declared victory tonight and even some of his allies said this was a bad political decision. we have already heard from the biden campaign who said they completely disagreed with what the president said until this point, even putting out a statement saying that if the president makes good on his threat to go to court to try to prevent the proper tabulation of votes, they have a team of lawyers standing by ready to argue this point altogether. the president also said there is the potential fraud certain states and that he won certain states and that he won certain states that still have millions of votes to be tabulated, taking into consideration states like arizona and nevada. there is still a lot of wiggle room to see ifjoe biden can win some of those states point out

that blue wall is up for grabs here. ifjoe biden that blue wall is up for grabs here. if joe biden manages that blue wall is up for grabs here. ifjoe biden manages to hold onto that to a certain extent. we could see the electoral votes coming down to what happens in pennsylvania but the president has already said he is ready to go to court no matter what happens. and what is the mood there amongst team trump? do they feel they have confounded expectations? yes, they are competent. until this point based on polling we have seen —— confident. it had the president down significantly in several states throughout the country and has not been the case. obviously there were rumblings that joe biden could been the case. obviously there were rumblings thatjoe biden could make a huge dent in the south—east, states like north carolina and georgia and those remain to be seen in terms of how they go but taking into consideration a state like florida where the democratic team spent a lot of time in the last few

days and weeks, that was a state that overwhelmingly went to the president and you could say the same about texas where we thought we could see some sort of a blue wave of support, definitely down the ballot in terms of the senate races but the president has said all the way that he feels as though he has under polled in a lot of these national polls and it appears at least that he is doing well. another state, ohio, he won that in 2016 and he appears to have won it again this year. a lot of the states that polled initially to show that joe biden had a significant lead, it's turning out that donald trump is the one who is the projected winner. thank you very much. we can bring back ron and amanda. in terms of what we heard from the president, in terms of strategy and tactics from

the democrats, what can they actually do to stop him? they have got to basically count every single vote, stay on plan and that is what they will do. you will not stop the president from making claims about winning before all the votes are counted, stop any press comfort as he feels like doing between now and then but what you have to do is have a plan, continue to communicate what you are doing and make sure your legal team is ready to go and push for every single photo to be counted. that is the point of the legal challenge, to stop that so how do you prevent it? the very thing you are saying should go ahead is what the legal challenge is all about. there are already lawyers at the scene making sure to try to put as much as they can and they have woi'i as much as they can and they have won court cases coming into this and right before all this happened, in fa ct right before all this happened, in fact this morning they had a legal team write them and they will continue to do that. you have got to battle it out in court and people are ready to do that. these next

couple of days and few hours are going to be chaotic but you simply have to stand by every single vote matters and pushing it through the different court cases and the biden campaign has been winning the last several days in many of these states about this exact piece which is when you start counting votes and you will have to go state by state. ron, when you hear the president says he will go to the supreme court, he wa nts will go to the supreme court, he wants the voting to stop, what would the basis for any legal challenge actually be? do you think he has one? the morning, no, i don't agree does. in order for the supreme court to step in and you have to have a case in controversy. 0f to step in and you have to have a case in controversy. of the president does not have undergoing litigation at this point. if he did and if he lost at the district court, the circuit court here in the usjudicial system, he court, the circuit court here in the us judicial system, he could court, the circuit court here in the usjudicial system, he could file something called a writ with the supreme court, so if you got four of the nine justices to say, we are willing to hear your case, mr

president, come to the supreme court and let's hear the arguments, but without this case in controversy, it does not get him to that point and i think he wasjust fuming, candidly, rather than stating a legal basis in fa ct rather than stating a legal basis in fact where he could go before the highest court in the land. we are seeing both sides lawyer up so is this going to be like florida in 2000? no, the difference is that we have several states that the president thinks he might have taken away from him. in florida it was just one point at the different from a due process argument was that some counties were counting and others weren't and they were using different standards so i think the similarities between florida and what might happen this year are entirely different. thank you to both of you. we can return to what we we re both of you. we can return to what we were listening to in the white house because donald trump gave that press c0 nfe re nce house because donald trump gave that press conference in the last hour or

so, talking about how he thought he had already won the election despite millions of ballots being left to be counted and the final result called but we can hear what he had to say. this is a fraud on the american public. this is an embarrassment to oui’ public. this is an embarrassment to our country. we were getting ready to win this election. frankly, we did win this election. cheering so our goal now is to ensure the integrity for the good of this nation, this is a very big moment, this is a major fraud on our nation. we want the law to be used in a proper manner. so we will be going to the us supreme court, we want all voting to stop. we don't want them to find any ballots at four o'clock

in the morning and add them to the list, 0k? it's a very sad, very sad moment, to meet this is a very sad moment, to meet this is a very sad moment and we will win this and as faras i'm moment and we will win this and as far as i'm concerned we already have won it. ijust want to thank you. earlier the democratic candidatejoe biden gave a speech to supporters in delaware as results continue to come m, delaware as results continue to come in, telling them the election was not over until every ballot was counted and insisted he thinks they are on track to win. good evening. your patient is commendable. we knew this was going to go on but who knew we we re this was going to go on but who knew we were going to go into maybe tomorrow morning or longer —— your patience. we feel good about where we are. we really do. i am patience. we feel good about where we are. we really do. lam here patience. we feel good about where we are. we really do. i am here to tell you tonight we believe we are on track to win this election. we

knew because of the unprecedented early vote and the mail—in vote that it was going to take a while, we are going to have to be patient until the hard work of tallying votes is finished and it ain't over until every vote is counted, every ballot is counted. but we are feeling good, we are feeling good about where we are. we believe, one of the networks suggested we have won arizona but we are confident about arizona and that's a turnaround and we also called it fort minnesota and we are still in the game in georgia although that is not what we expected. and we are feeling real good about wisconsin and michigan. and by the way, it's going to take

time to count the votes, we are going to win pennsylvania. talking to the votes in philadelphia, they are really encouraged by the turnout and what they see. we can know the results as early as tomorrow morning but it may take a little longer. as i have said all along, it is not my place or donald trump's place to declare who has won this election, thatis declare who has won this election, that is the decision of the american people but i am optimistic about this outcome. i want to thank every one of you who came out and voted in this election and by the way, chris coons and the democrats, congratulations here in delaware. john, the governor, the whole team, you've done a greatjob. i am grateful to the poll workers, the volunteers and ca nvassers,

grateful to the poll workers, the volunteers and canvassers, everybody who participated in this democratic process and i am grateful to all my supporters here in delaware and across the nation. thank you, thank you, thank you and you heard me say it before, every time i walked out my ramp's house, he would yell, joey, keep the faith and keep the faith, were going to win this! thank you, thank you, thank you. that was joe biden. we can talk to seth weathers who was donald trump as state director in georgia in the last campaign in 2016, and from obama communications analyst joined us obama communications analyst joined us from washington. thank you for being here. cess, a couple of quotes from the leading republican election lawyer, ben ginsberg, nearly a0 yea rs lawyer, ben ginsberg, nearly a0 years expense public proof of systemic fraud has been the lock next month of the republican party. people have spent a lot of time looking for a datum of the loch ness

monster. john bolton said donald trump is laying the groundwork to commit fraud, there is no basis not to count the votes in every state, it has been done at every election. john bolton is right, isn't he? what the hell are we talking about? the votes are being counted. president trump has won the election, it's going to be called, it's not even a debatable situation. i'm listening to these people talking about supreme to these people talking about supreme court, this that at the other, trump is winning these states by huge margins. why does he want the counting to stop then? what he was referring to is places like pennsylvania where they want to allow ballots to come in a week from the, evena allow ballots to come in a week from the, even a nine days away from the election, allegedly ballots to come in and count. it is like anything else, is like asking to put coins on the scoreboard of a game last night i put it on next week if they haven't hit a ball on an empty park, it is insanity. that doesn't count,

it's not how elections work. in those states we have nearly four weeks of early voting that can take place. we have mail—in balloting, absentee balloting, if you cannot vote in four weeks, that is on you, not on us. president trump has won the election tonight and it's going to be indisputable. for all this bizarre world where they are coming up bizarre world where they are coming up with these scenarios were at this and that will be challenged, what the hell are they going to challenge? millions of votes are still to be counted. you can see in philadelphia, this is the tactics of authoritarians and dictators to stop counting and declare yourself a winner. what are you talking about? authoritarians. .. to have winner. what are you talking about? authoritarians... to have clear and simple elections? i think an authority is the kind that would say authority is the kind that would say a week from now if i don't win i wa nt a week from now if i don't win i want to add a new bucket of ballots that we have "found" a week after the election. that is what you would

see from authoritarians. we have had over a month for people to cast ballots and for their vote to count. joe biden did not win the pollsters are either frauds, liars or inept. and honestly come in most cases, a combination of all that. that is who should be taking the brunt of this evening and tomorrow morning. the pollsters and the media that have totally... they betrayed the american people with a false narrative. and the reality is... let's just bring you into a reactor that. what you make of these accusations? donald trump has won when the votes are being counted? they have encountered in philadelphia. this isjust an embarrassing thing to even have a talk about at this point. the whole function of our democracy is to make sure that every vote counts, we have a president acting in a dictatorial fashion when it comes to basically claiming... the votes have not been

tabulated. we literally have millions of votes that have not been counted. this is a president who announced long before any vote was counted, days ago, that he was going to claim a victory on election night. and he did exactly what he announced he was going to do, irrespective to the fact those votes have not been counted. it has not been called by the associated press to come by the majority of the media, i to come by the majority of the media, lam to come by the majority of the media, i am speaking, to come by the majority of the media, lam speaking, sir. those ballots have not been counted. we knew going into the race it was going to be very tight and that there were going to be states that would be a bit longer because they received a higher volume absentee ballots but absentee ballots are still votes. in a democracy, you count every single vote. what happens to the at any ballots not being counted? absentee ballots

are not being counted. no one is shouting down the voting process. we have a president who is talking right now because he no he is losing. based on what you are seeing, do you thinkjoe biden ‘s support is holding up in upper midwest? i absolutely do. i know a lot of joe biden midwest? i absolutely do. i know a lot ofjoe biden voters cast their votes early, so, yes, these bows need to be counted and that is why joe biden in his speech tonight came out and told democrats and told americans to work and to trust the process. he told them this count could come a day from now or two days from now. this is the process in america. there is nothing shady or questionable about it. this is how democracy works, counting every vote. there are no votes that are not being counted. i don't know what world you live in, but the reality is president trump... can ijust

stop you there. americans are confused, you are divided, can you not both agree to wait until the states have counted the votes that legally they have the right to count? i am not debating the ability to legally count ballots. right now president trump is winning and to give an example, the state of pennsylvania, by almost 700,000 votes. there are well over a million still to count. she does not like the fats. you don't like the fats. if every single ballot that was outstanding was counted was in favour of joe outstanding was counted was in favour ofjoe biden, outstanding was counted was in favour of joe biden, guess outstanding was counted was in favour ofjoe biden, guess what? joe biden still loses. with 1 million votes still to be counted? you cannot possibly say that the president is ahead at this point?m is not quite 1 million votes.

president trump is up by 700,000 at this point and if you counted all of those votes, nearly every single one of them goes to joe biden, those votes, nearly every single one of them goes tojoe biden, he still would not win. i work in politics, i assume she does as well and we know how this works and those votes will be counted and tabulated and president trump will win. this is a bunch of nonsense, she is trying to create drama because she wants her people to go out and riot and loot. would you like to respond? this is literally the problem is that a lot of americans see with the right right now. it is an entire corn. the fa ct right now. it is an entire corn. the fact i stayed up until 4:35am for this is really embarrassing. fact i stayed up until 4:35am for this is really embarrassingm fact i stayed up until 4:35am for this is really embarrassing. it is rough to take facts at this early in the morning, iwould rough to take facts at this early in the morning, i would agree. isn't the morning, i would agree. isn't the problem that the president has said he will go to the supreme court. why has he said he will go to

the supreme court? is that not the problem? he is referring to go to the supreme court if they attempt to add ballots after election day is over. we have election day and we have got nearly a month of time where people can cast ballots early and they can do mailing ballots. if someone wants to show up nine days from now with a ballot and say i did not vote, that is how the system does not work. you had a month before, go vote in the normal voting period. that is what he is talking about. so he has redefined his terms. you are not trying to extend the voting period, democrats? nobody is extending the voting period, this is extending the voting period, this isa is extending the voting period, this is a conspiracy theory, this is donald trump tried to get into the heads of the uneducated voters who do not understand the process. he is on twitter saying things that are not true and it is embarrassing. let

me ask a question because we have seen me ask a question because we have seen played out in the last five minutes broadly where this political argument will be going in the next few days. what do democrats do to counter what we have just heard from seth? democrats like fact checking, they remind people of what a democracy is, they remind people of how many times we have few days to find out an election result, it is not the first time. actually, it is rare to have the results on election night unless there is a complete blow out. in this election we have had more early voting and mailing ballots than we have ever seen. we tell them the truth and that is not what they are hearing from the right. thank you both so much for joining us with what is a very good illustration of the political divide in america right now. it is for 30 7am in the morning. it is a snapshot of what we are likely to see for the

next few hours and for a few days. we are pausing for a moment and we will have plenty more coverage, but let's catch up with the latest news. thank you... donald trump has claimed an unsubstantiated victory in the us presidential election, but with millions of legitimate ballots still left to be counted the final result could take days or even weeks to be decided. with the winner needing 270 electoral college votes, here are the latest figures. joe biden currently has 22a and donald trump 213. mr trump has performed better than many polls predicted, he is projected to hold the crucial state of florida as well as texas and ohio and is ahead in other key states including georgia and north carolina. california has gone, as expected, tojoe biden. mr biden also appears to be on course to take arizona, previously held by mr trump. speaking to supporters at the white house, the president accused his opponents of trying to steal the election and vowed

to go to the supreme court before the count is complete, calling the results a ‘fraud' on the american public without providing any evidence. we want the law to be used in a proper manner. so we'll be going to the us supreme court. we want all voting to stop, we don't want them to find any ballots at four o'clock in the morning and add them to the list, ok? it's a very sad... it's a very sad moment. to me this is a very sad moment and we will win this and as far as i'm concerned we already have. so i just want to thank you. cheering. earlier, mr trump's challenger, joe biden, said he was on track for victory and encouraged supporters to "keep the faith". it may be days before all early and postal votes are counted

in the so—called rustbelt states that will decide the result, including wisconsin, michigan and pennysylvania. in the past half an hour, mr biden's team have described mr trump's talk of going to the supreme court to halt counting as outrageous and unprecedented, saying their legal team is poised to respond. addressing his supporters, joe biden said it was clear that a result could take a while. we knew this was going to go long, but who knew we were going to go into tomorrow morning, maybe even longer? look, we feel good about where we are, we really do. i'm here to tell you tonight we believe we are on track to win this election. we knew because of the unprecedented early vote, the mailing vote, it was going to take a while. we are going to have to be patient until the hard work of tallying

the votes is finished and it ain't over until every vote is counted, every ballot is counted. in the race for control of the us congress, the democrats say they've maintained their majority in the house of representatives, while both parties are battling to win the senate. with votes counted so far, it is looking like the republicans will retain control of the senate. going into the election, republicans held 53 of the 100 seats in the upper house. the democrats had a7. so far, the democrats have picked up one seat from the republicans in colorado. in kentucky, the republican leader, mitch mcconnell, has been re—elected for a seventh term in office. in his victory speech, he said kentuckians had decided that challenging times needed proven leadership. away from the us election, british mps vote later today on a new four—week covid lockdown in england. the measures will come into effect at midnight with ministers saying that they are the only way to stop hospitals being overwhelmed. the government is expected to win the vote despite some conservative

mps threatening to vote against their party. there is of course much more bbc news online and on your mobile. you can find the latest details and analysis by our correspondents. you can also use our live results map to see all the votes in every us state as they come in. that's on our website: bbc.co.uk slash us2020 — or the bbc news app. back to you, matthew. thanks very much, welcome back to our special coverage on the bbc, i am matthew amroliwala in london. and iam laura am matthew amroliwala in london. and i am laura trevelyan in washington, where americans are just beginning to wa ke where americans are just beginning to wake up to great uncertainty. let's go to hawaii where we have a

projection and our projection there is thatjoe biden has won hawaii with his four electoral college votes. that is no surprise, matthew. hawaii is deep blue. it is where president barack obama was born. but evenin president barack obama was born. but even in hawaii, a tiny bit of a swing to the republicans. so com pletely swing to the republicans. so completely fascinating. it is another four electoral college votes forjoe biden. you can seejoe biden has got 22a in the electoral college now, donald trump 213. they are really slugging it out here, a long night with a number of states still in play. yes, it is really interesting even at this stage. with so interesting even at this stage. with so many pointers there is still so much we do know, but so much we don't know in terms of the amount of states still to declare, whether votes will be eligible, whether

there will be electoral challenges in the court, whether the candidates themselves will accept the results, whether parts of the electorate will accept the result. so much to find out more about over the next couple of hours. let's go back to the electoral college position as it stands and the numbers on the screen and show you where we are. in terms of those states already called, let's go to the numbers. 22a forjoe biden and 213 for donald trump. it is pretty tight and it is all boiling down to the midwest states, three orfour of them, boiling down to the midwest states, three or four of them, that will decide this election. wisconsin, pennsylvania, so much talked about, and michigan as well. we heard donald trump talking about those days and joe biden talking about those states in those news conferences, and that is where so much of the focus is. that is the

current position. let's bring in reeta to take us through where we are so reeta to take us through where we are so far. i want to bring you some of the really eye—catching results of the really eye—catching results of the really eye—catching results of the night. just after midnight donald trump found out the republicans had retained ohio and of all those rust belt state in the north—east thought to be the most republican, it will still have been a state in place and the democrats thought it was in play for them but trump held onto it the republicans. not much later, a big hold fort donald trump, florida. this is the swing state and democrats had strong hopes of flipping florida this time round but it was not to be and it could well be when we look at the democrat demographics, the cuban vote in florida might have swung it for donald trump but that is a really

important hold for the republicans, 29 electoral college votes, very important. a tiny swing in both ohio and florida towards donald trump but essentially he was consolidating his 2016 position and one more about those two states, they are bellwether states and they have for decades voted in the candidate who then ultimately ends up in the white house. taking the time on further, 1:15am eastern time, texas stays red and it will have been a huge sigh of relief in republican headquarters over that. 38 electoral college vote in texas, second only to california in terms of its value with electoral couege in terms of its value with electoral college votes. texas was always thought to be a republican state, a long shot for the democrats and they thought they might have been in with a chance but not to be. there was one place that clipped at 120 say

open —— 1:27am one place that clipped at 120 say open ——1:27am nebraska, it allots its electoral college vote slightly differently, three divided up between three congressional states and nebraska was clipped to the democrats. only one electoral couege democrats. only one electoral college vote but in such a tight race, might well count. it is for a0 7am here on the east coast, americans are looking up, hoping to have a result and don't have a result yet. can you tell us why not in summary? because they are still counting. it is actually a very simple reason. they are still counting. this is the state of play at the moment and you can see the state in grey are yet to be projected. we know they are quite close in georgia and have counted over 90% of the vote but in some of

those crucial states, the ones that could decide the election, pennsylvania and michigan, they only started counting the early votes, the postal votes and in person votes, once the polls had closed. we know there have been a record—breaking number of early votes in this election and it is going to take time and i must say, it is what everybody was predicting, that we may well be waiting on these crucial states if that was not a blow out result one way or the other. there has not been and we are in that scenario of having to wait. thank you very much. we can add to that because more detail is coming m, that because more detail is coming in, let me put on wisconsin because we had seen in the early voting donald trump leading but it flipping and for the first timejoe biden edging into the lead. it is too early to project but ten vital

electoral college votes are up for grabs in wisconsin, one of those three rust belt states where there is so much attention on them. that is so much attention on them. that is 60% of one of the districts posting a little while ago but as you can see, 96% counted. we might get the full result in the not—too—distant get the full result in the not—too—dista nt future. get the full result in the not—too—distant future. it was a lwa ys not—too—distant future. it was always thought it would be around 6am american time. we are edging towards that prediction coming true with a declaration coming i think relatively shortly in wisconsin. with a declaration coming i think relatively shortly in wisconsinm is fascinating because we are waiting for the votes to come in from milwaukee and wisconsin which should be very strong forjoe biden, 7796 should be very strong forjoe biden, 77% counted, 69% for biden but a nailbiter. we can talk now to sir christopher meyer who was british ambassador to the us for six years and director of the americas programme for the policy institute

chatham house and if you were still in the british embassy here in washington, would you be tearing your hair out at this point wondering what to write in a secure diplomatic cable to the foreign secretary? i probably would not be sending a cable in mid—battle, i would be waiting a few more hours to get a few more results. but if i'd beenin get a few more results. but if i'd been in washington in the year 2000 when we last had a contested election, and indeed i was, what i would make it a contrast between 20 years ago and now because when we had the saga hanging chad in florida because the contest was about who had won florida, i would say that was a reasonably controlled and disciplined contest, even though it took months to sort out the florida vote by the supreme court. what i would say now that the potential for mayhem, particularly legal mayhem,

challenging outcomes in different states, is vastly greater. although we cannot expect definitive results until the end of the week, we can possibly come depending on which way donald trump is going tojump, and the portents are not good at the moment, he could be tying up the process in endless legal battles in a variety of states in a much more uncontrolled way, and if that happens, it will not be days before we get the final result, it could be weeks it might even be months and that would be very bad for the united states and not good for the world. i will pick up on some of those points and ramifications in a moment but let me bring in lesley, talking to one expert on the legal system, the electoral system in the us, they said earlier that so much of our electoral system is built upon norms that are not often challenged. they have been extraordinarily challenged in the

last few hours from the us president but where do you think we are? first of all, remember there are plenty of people who have been watching this very carefully and they know this electoral map inside out and have been warning us for a long time that we may well be exactly where we are right now with the election hinging potentially on those three upper midwest battle ground states. what is different of course is that vice president biden has also won arizona and an e2, he has taken one of the electoral college votes there. the very clear message for a very long time has been the last thing we should do is predict the outcome of the election until we see those mail—in ballots which are expected to be delayed especially in pennsylvania that was not allowed to even begin counting them until the morning of election day which was yesterday in the us. and they are expected to be heavily democratic.

fa ct expected to be heavily democratic. fact that the president of the united states is calling for ford demonstrates he himself is nervous about the outcome, he knows the electoral map also and he knows it is far from decided —— calling for fraud. it is a very profound difference for the world whether it is another four years of donald trump orajoe is another four years of donald trump or a joe biden is another four years of donald trump or ajoe biden presidency? is another four years of donald trump or a joe biden presidency?” think it is a profoundly different world depending on who is going to be president of the united states because i think the weight one has to look at the last four years is, as donald trump actually and reviling —— unravelling the rules best system of international relations which the us put in place after the second world war. donald trump has seem to have shown no interest, to have no knowledge of what it was the united states had built up driven a coach and horses through this system in its first

four years. if he becomes president of the united states again, he has another four years and not the discipline of having to fight another presidential contest at the end of it. i think it would be a kind of donald trump unchained, unbound who would be president of the united states and he would have almost limitless capacity to do further damage to the rules —based syste m further damage to the rules —based system of international relations in those four years. and if that were to happen it would be very damaging to happen it would be very damaging to the interests of america's allies and partners, notably the united kingdom, notably the european union and other states around the world, particularly in asia. lesley, a final thought because in the last few minutes of the slovenian prime minister has welcomed and said donald trump has won this election so donald trump has won this election so it is interesting watching from capitals around the world and we heard from the uk foreign secretary

earlier but how do you think foreign governments should act in these perhaps uncertain days? should they call it or hesitate and wait on the sidelines? i think we all know the answer to that. the united states is extraordinarily complicated and one begin to expect those who have not really studied the country who are not from the country and who have not from the country and who have not worked in the country to understand the complexity. we all struggle with it. nobody should try to call the election of another country. the only people that can call the election are those at the state level who are officially given that authority. the most important thing now is to wait and hold tight. we all know the election is incredibly important for europe and the uk and the number one issue that is probably most at stake is america's commitment to climate and the environment and to science. it

hinges... america that left the paris accords officially today but that this is extraordinaire and we know the stakes are very high but it is so important not to call this election can wait and watch and be very careful with the information thatis very careful with the information that is given out on the networks, it's so important. thank you very much forjoining us to both of you. amy pope was a us deputy homeland security adviser under president obama and denise baron is a polling expert at the london school of economics. amy, this is pretty much the nightmare scenario for a democrat at this moment? donald trump is threatening to go to court at five in the morning as americans are waking up and there is no clear winner. it was entirely predictable. for months people have forecast that race would really come down to those three states in the midwest, pennsylvania, michigan and wisconsin and that is where we are. the real

difficulty here is that many of those states did not start counting their overseas and mail—in ballots until the election polls had closed and so that means we are just waiting. contrast that, coupled with the fact that the president has said that he is going to contest the election and particularly if it is very close, is going to use it as an opportune to get his supporters to call into question the outcome. it isa call into question the outcome. it is a nightmare scenario but has had been well predicted and in some ways we are just watching it play out.l quick follow—up in terms of the nervousness there is in the united states, a lot of people were pointing come expecting to hear from the president at some stage and hoping that the words he chose calmed things and allowed people to sit and wait until the results were called. given everything that has happened in the run—up to this in

terms of your nervousness now about the potential, anyway come of this being rather chaotic on the streets? i think that is a deliberate choice on his part, to create tension, to fuel the anxiety. he has always operated in a place of disruption. he doesn't stick closely to facts, as we know, this is his style. he wants people to talk about him, he doesn't want the election to be over, effectively. he is looking for ways to keep the conversation on going despite the outcome. it is not to say there is a clear biden victory, the votes are yet to be counted but a traditional president we would expect to say, let's ride it out, that is the way our democracy works, this is going according to plan and of course we don't see this president doing that. denise, president trump has confounded the pollsters and has

found those shy trump voters and turn them out? i'm not quite sure about the shy trump effect, there has been conflicting evidence on that but what i will say is that it is looking like a real pattern in the polls and the election results, states like ohio, the trump vote was massively underestimated. the polls had expected trump to win with about one percentage point and it's looking like he will win with about eight. but if you look at a state like colorado, you see more accurate polling. they expected biden by about 13 percentage point and it's going to be about ia so there is clearly something happening there. there were major efforts made between 2016 and this year to get a more accurate view of different types of photos so for instance, many polling firms started to use education in their waiting. —— types of photos. previously some polling firms did and some didn't —— types

of voters. a number of other pollsters introduced geographic elements to it and population size but also urban, rural, suburban is another factor to make sure they are getting the right voters but clearly they have missed something. and a final thought, the hope from democrats clearly was to win florida and to very quickly shut down a route for donald trump to the white house but they didn't do that put plan b had always been the midwestern states. i was listening to one senior democratic pollster earlier who was saying that actually, this is panning out one of the ways they saw to the white house and he described it as a slow motion blue wave. do think that is possibly what we're seeing? it's absolutely possible, yes. when you look at pennsylvania in particular, that is the big one with 20 electoral votes and the polls estimated biden to win by about five percentage points and

if the polls are off in the same direction and the same magnitude as they were in somewhere like florida, we could see biden squeak it out but when you look at michigan and wisconsin, the polls had biden up by about eight percentage points in both state and again, if it is consistent, we can still see them heating —— see him eating it out. thank you so much for being here with us. thank you forjoining us. the us presidential election hangs in the balance with no clear winner yet. both sides are talking about victory in very different ways. joe biden urges patience, while donald trump claims he has one and is going to the supreme court. speaking to his supporters, president trump had said he had secured a win, even though millions of votes had yet to be counted, and claimed only fraud

could rob him of trying, although he has provided no evidence. so we'll be going to the us supreme court. we want all voting to stop, we don't want them to find any ballots at four o'clock in the morning and add them to the list, ok? joe biden told his supporters to keep the faith. we are going to have to be patient until the hard work of tallying the votes is finished, and it ain't over until every vote is counted, every ballot is counted. donald trump won the sunshine state of florida with some surprising gains among latinos voters. the sitting president has outperformed pollsters' prediction so far.

sitting president has outperformed pollsters' prediction so fanm sitting president has outperformed pollsters' prediction so far. it is a tight race to the white house with the results are still being counted in key battle ground states, including georgia and pennsylvania. it may take hours, even days, for those final results to be known. at the touch screen keeping track of the touch screen keeping track of the results as they stack up is reeta chakra barti. the results as they stack up is reeta chakrabarti. with a wafer thin margin between the two candidate i will be showing you exactly what each man needs to do to win. closely contested and highly divided presidential race is far from closely contested and highly divided presidential race is farfrom over. stay with us for the bbc us election 2020. iam laura i am laura trevelyan in washington, where we are waiting on states like wisconsin to give us a steer and how this will all play out. we will have

full coverage throughout this coming hour and beyond. i am matthew amroliwala here in london. hour and beyond. i am matthew amroliwala here in londonm hour and beyond. i am matthew amroliwala here in london. it is sam here in washington after a long night, with both donald trump and joe biden predicting victory in the us presidential election. it has proved to be an extremely close race with results still to come in from a number of pivotal states. president trump has confounded expectations by performing more strongly than was predicted by the pollsters, taking florida, texas and ohio. joe biden still has a path to the white house if he can control ohio at the rust belt states. the final results could ta ke belt states. the final results could take days to actually decide, but donald trump has claimed an unsubstantiated victory with millions of legitimate balance left to count and he has accused his opponents of committing fraud on the american public without providing any evidence. joe biden's campaign tea m any evidence. joe biden's campaign team has described donald trump was much talk of going to the supreme

court outrageous and incorrect and are poised to challenge it and have legal teams on standby. joe biden says he is still on course for victory. let's have a look at the latest electoral college figures. joe biden currently has 22a donald trump 213 in that college, with victory secured at 270. we will bring you the results as they come in and help you make sense of what has happened so far. first, this report from ben wright. this election remains a nailbiter and the results in key swing states are not yet known. but when president trump spoke at the white house in the early hours he claimed the race would be his and then said theirs. this is a fraud on the american public. this is an embarrassment to our country. we were getting ready to win this election. frankly, we

did win this election. the president said he would take his fight to the supreme court. there is no evidence to support his claim of fraud and millions of ballots are still being counted as they should. it was joe biden who made the first appearance of the night, telling supporters to hold their nerve. your patience is commendable. we knew this was going to go long, but who knew we were going to go into maybe tomorrow morning, it may but look, we feel good about where we are. we really do. i good about where we are. we really do. lam good about where we are. we really do. i am here to tell you tonight that we believe we are on track to win this election. until then america had watched the night and fold with little drama, the two candidates clocking up states they we re candidates clocking up states they were expected to win. but early results also pointed to a much tighter election than the polls had suggested. democrats had dreams of

winning florida, but donald trump was back vote there stayed strong. president trump has won florida. with millions of postal ballots still to count, this could now become a lengthy and contested slob that keeps this divided nation on edge. joining us now is martin luther king the third, the elder son of the famous civil rights campaigner. welcome to the bbc news special. i was reading a piece in the washington post only a couple of days ago which are described donald trump was much handling of race as the biggest issue in this election. do you think that assessment is right? as you watch the results pan out, what are your thoughts?” right? as you watch the results pan out, what are your thoughts? i think there are a couple of issues that are big issues. the handling of the pandemic is certainly a big issue. but racial injustice is also a big issue. it clearly shows more than

anything else what this election is showing, that the united states is unfortunately very divided. and, doctor king, you are there in georgia, a key state. if we look at the vote by ethnicity, and we look at black men, who donald trump seems to be doing a little better with than we might have thought, does that surprise you? it more disappoints me, not surprises me, only because i have heard a number of people say that his support has been growing and the conservative republican blacks have done a good job of reaching out and bringing other blacks into the party. it is still perplexing, though. there has got to be something else because it makes no sense for the reckless behaviour that he exhibits over and overagain and fora

behaviour that he exhibits over and over again and for a larger number of african—americans to support him, particularly african—american men, it isjust perplexing.” particularly african—american men, it isjust perplexing. i was talking three orfour months it isjust perplexing. i was talking three or four months ago at the height of the black lives matter protest to rodney king was my daughter and she said she feared actually having a son because she did not think he would get to the age of 18. as we speak, where do you think america is when it comes to race? i think we are in a period of transition and according to what happens in this election, it is going to dictate whether we make progress in a positive way in a relatively significant and quick way, or whether there is progress over the long haul. progress will occur regardless. it isjust going to be much lower i think if president trump is re—elected.“

to be much lower i think if president trump is re-elected. if i could ask you how are you feeling about the state of georgia where it doesn't look like there was a huge black turnout and it is hanging in the balance right now? well, i think we have known, that is not a total surprise because there have been a numberof surprise because there have been a number of new persons who have come to the state who have been registered. there has always been some level of knowledge that this was going to be a very close race. the last race two years ago was very close as well. as we have moved a little further it is possible that with the two senate seats, with the only state in the united states that had two senators running, so as a result it is possible that with a run off and if voters come back out in large numbers, that both of those

seats could become democratic if the one in the balance is holding on right now, if he is not able to get 50 plus 1%. those races are important because you have to fight for the white house and the senate and if one party was to have both, thatis and if one party was to have both, that is an enormous opportunity for change. you talked about your hope a little while ago, but in terms of getting the vote out, hillary clinton was always accused of taking the black vote for granted, do you think this time democrats have learned that lesson from 2016? well, i certainly believe so, but i also believe that the messaging as it relates to the black men who have defected, those numbers we do not totally know, but we know through

black men donald trump was able to make some headway. clearly there has got to be another message, or an additional message, that has developed to regain the support of african—american men. i think overwhelmingly it will show african—american women certainly voted forjoe african—american women certainly voted for joe biden african—american women certainly voted forjoe biden and kamala harris. a final thought because i was listening to somebody on the original arch to washington in the 19605 original arch to washington in the 1960s and he was interviewed by a black reporter in the uk and he said he feared that his son would be being interviewed by the black reporter's son generation from now. if that is true, that is depressing. is the fear that the genie of racism is out of the bottle and it would be very ha rd to is out of the bottle and it would be very hard to get it back in? well, we are going to always have concerns about race until it is finally put

to bed. my father talked about eradicating from this nation the triple evils of poverty, racism and violence. and 52 years after his death we are still grappling with racism. but i think the corporate community is coming together in a way that has never happened. i think that the younger people are coming together like never before. i don't think people are going to go away on theissue think people are going to go away on the issue of race until we get to a society where equality exists for all humankind. i think that drum is going to continue to beat until we get there. we have to leave it, martin luther king. thank you so much forjoining us. let's go now to reeta chakra barti and much forjoining us. let's go now to reeta chakrabarti and her trusty touch screen. she has got more details about wisconsin, which could be the next state to become clear, pa rt be the next state to become clear, part of that blue firewall that

hillary clinton lost and joe biden wa nts to hillary clinton lost and joe biden wants to regain. absolutely. we have had 97% of the votes counted in wisconsin and look at that, absolutely neck and neck as if wisconsin is a microcosm of what is going on nationally. 0.3% between the two man. this is a state that has been blue for many elections. donald trump flipped it last time, but the last time it was republican was 198a. joe biden very much looking to regain this state for the democrats. it is a state of about 3.3 million. we know that has been the votes cast and there are about 100,000 still to count. we are hearing from the new york times that in one of the areas, in green bay, one of the counting machines has run out of ink. although we are down to the last few votes to be counted we may still be waiting a little while.

tell us more about the vital states in the midwest. everything seems now to hinge on them. absolutely, it does. i thought it would be interesting to look at the swing in three of these midwestern states. the swing is based on votes that have actually been counted. in all of them you can see a swing towards the democrats, although of varying amounts. in wisconsin, as we were discussing, a move towards the democrats of 1%. when donald chan won it last time round it was by less tha n won it last time round it was by less than 1%. the democratic party looking at that would have reasons for optimism. similarly with michigan, which donald trump one last time round by a wafer thin majority, again 1.2% swing would be enough to bring it back into democratic hands, but they have still got quite a few votes to count, still a fifth of the votes to be counted there, and we are not

expecting michigan to report any time soon. ohio has already been projected for donald trump and he will be happy with that result. just interesting that there has been a tiny swing even in that state to the democrats. joining us now is a professor of law at marquette university in wisconsin. 80 state and professor, if you could tell us why it is taking so long to count the votes —— a key state. it's taken so long because in order to accommodate for covid, there has been a great demand for absentee balloting. people have been dropping off their ballots through the mail or drop boxes that under wisconsin law, those ballots cannot be counted until the election

voting period ends. county clerks all over the state have been basically spending all night counting ballots because they could not count them beforehand. and of course, as we speak, counting is going on, i can see counting in philadelphia and it was interesting just a couple of hours ago i was listening to a republican legal strategist and election strategist talking about legal challenges. we know about the number of days where folks would be counted and the postmarks and all that and perhaps you can explain that —— the votes. they also raised the issue of illegal electioneering in polling booths, barring observers, it all looks like there will be multiple layers of legal challenge. certainly, it depends on the state. in pennsylvania, the supreme court ruled they could extend the deadline

for receiving absentee ballots for three days. in wisconsin, that ruling was actually from a trial court, actually ended by the us supreme court. depending on the state there might be several days where ballots that are postmarked by election day can still be received and counted. 0f election day can still be received and counted. of other challenges about observers and other ongoing... of this strikes me as instances where the election might be close and there are allegations of impropriety or fraud, certainly we heard president trump speaking earlier tonight talking about fraud ina generalway earlier tonight talking about fraud in a general way but with no facts to support it. but the talk about it might end up setting up these kinds of lawsuits in order to challenge a close election, especially if the republicans come up short in the

vote count that, as we said, is still ongoing. 0f vote count that, as we said, is still ongoing. of course, all this talk cannot even start until the votes are actually counted. professor ellis, the president has so professor ellis, the president has so clearly signposted he would go to the supreme court and talked about the supreme court and talked about the fact he has appointed three justices to that supreme court. does that not prejudice any legal case that not prejudice any legal case that might be in front of the court, the fact is so clearly undermining judicial independence?” the fact is so clearly undermining judicial independence? i would think that... first of all, the supreme courtjustices in that... first of all, the supreme court justices in essence that... first of all, the supreme courtjustices in essence get to decide themselves whether or not they are prejudiced and can hear the case but in terms of legitimacy of such a decision, given that bias and given the talk about voter fraud that the president is making, i think these concerns about bias are legitimate. i think certainly, and

asi legitimate. i think certainly, and as i have explored in my own academic work, this kind of talk about fraud without basis serves to distort elections and imperil their legitimacy and reliability. i am deeply concerned about this sort of talk. which is why it is being seen asa talk. which is why it is being seen as a major test of the democratic process in the united states. you said there was no evidence of systemic electoral fraud. that was also the assessment of the fbi director christopher wray who said the agency had not seen historically any kind of coordinated national fraud effort in a major election whether by mail or otherwise. that was the fbi director. interestingly, the pew research centre said in their latest study, one in four americans were fearful and had major concerns about mail—in fraud and

that suggest maybe that months of the president saying this is a potential likelihood has had an effect? i think so. potential likelihood has had an effect? ithink so. my potential likelihood has had an effect? i think so. my own scholarly view on this is that that kind of idea repeated again and again and again since then, and certainly this isa again since then, and certainly this is a president whose followers basically accept as true many of the words that he says, without searching any further. 0f words that he says, without searching any further. of course you have the evidence of the fbi director as you mentioned, have the evidence of the fbi directoras you mentioned, numerous studies over literally the past decades that have shown that all sorts of accusations of generalised fraud, whether by individual voters or systemic conspiracies, are simply that, talk about conspiracies without proof. the fact of the

matter is that election administrators across this country work very hard to make sure elections are fair and accessible. and there is no evidence to support otherwise. it is the issue that is going to be argued overfor the next few days. professor, thank you for joining us. we can talk now to our washington correspondent, anthony circo, expert in all things! anthony, talk to us about wisconsin, which is super close but has ten crucial electoral votes, hillary clinton lost it, donald trump got it, how is it looking and how critical is it? when we spoke about wisconsin at last and i said donald trump had a lead, like he did in some other battle ground states like michigan and pennsylvania but there we re michigan and pennsylvania but there were still votes forjoe biden to get, particularly in the big city in

wisconsin, bill walkie. those milwaukee folks have come in and they were enough to erase the 100,000 plus margin donald trump had —— milwaukee conduct they have put joe biden in the lead. there are still some areas around green bay which are yet to be counted but rebate was an area hillary clinton won narrowly in 2016 so ifjoe biden can post better than clinton margins in wisconsin, it is looking good for him in that state. this is what we we re him in that state. this is what we were talking about, will those margins donald trump has in states like miss constance, which can, pennsylvania, georgia, holed up with his absentee early voting ballots that seem to be trending overwhelmingly democrat? the first domino fell in wisconsin, all eyes will be on michigan where it is the same, you have deployed, lane county, a lot are ballots to be counted and the chances are they will be overwhelmingly forjoe biden —— detroit. ithink will be overwhelmingly forjoe biden —— detroit. i think it is looking

goodin —— detroit. i think it is looking good in that particular state for joe biden at the moment. to pick up on michigan, back in 2016, the president promised jobs, the car industry but looking at the figures, i think 5000 car workerjobs have gone, down 12% and there is a real poverty in that state and it is a real changed state. in 2008, it flipped, it was the state that changed. it was and michigan was on a razor's edge in 2016, trump winning it butjust barely at the same with wisconsin and pennsylvania so same with wisconsin and pennsylvania so it would not take much change to flip these states from trump to his opponent. i think donald trump had an opportunity over the past four years to try to nail down support in those midwestern states, talking a lot about trade deals and helping industry but as you mentioned, the numbers don't necessarily bear out

the rosy picture that he was painting about the economy in these states. i think there was a lot of resentment from some voters in those midwestern states about what the result of those trade battles work and of course with the coronavirus pandemic, you look at the map of some of the hardest hit states, wisconsin is one that is having a severe crisis with that right now. i think there may have been some dissatisfaction with his handling of that that may have helped joe biden but again, these are very narrow margins. it could have gone either way and it could still go either way. wisconsin and michigan and pennsylvania and georgia and actually nevada is tightening up as well so don't sleep out west, donald trump making a comeback in nevada. and i was struck by senatorjosh hawley of missouri, a republican, who tweeted in the middle of the night, ourfuture who tweeted in the middle of the night, our future is who tweeted in the middle of the night, ourfuture is as who tweeted in the middle of the night, our future is as a working class party. have we seen that

realignment going on tonight?” think when you look at someone like josh hawley, who clearly has higher political ambitions, starting to try to claim that mantle of economic populism, conservative economic populism, conservative economic populism from donald trump, who either in the coming weeks or in four years will exit the political scene, i think the people who are ambitious in the republican party come young up and comers, the view that as the future of their party and they are making the point to try to stake out this economic populism to stake out this economic populism to win over the working class photos that have been the backbone of donald trump's electoral success in 2016 -- donald trump's electoral success in 2016 —— working class votes and also in this election in beating productions of what had been a more comfortable victory for joe productions of what had been a more comfortable victory forjoe biden but clearly donald trump has enthusiastic support that shows up in the polls and i think republican politicians are taking notice of

that. it is going to be a real battle to get that demographic change to go through the republican party. a former senator in arizona was talking about exactly that only a couple of days ago and speculating and saying that if we lose arizona it will be because of donald trump has lost the suburbs and that is how it looks. it does, it looks like that damaged donald trump in arizona which is a state that has been trending democratic. two years ago it elected a democratic senator and tonight it elected another democratic senator. you look at arizona, it looks like it will be carried by biden, it will be close but trending that way and has been called that way by several us media outlets. two democratic senators is a big switch from what used to be the state of mary goldwater, a very conservative state and part of it has to do with suburbs moving away from trump but in some states like florida you can see that being

balanced by gains with hispanic and other minority voters and incredible turnout from white working class voters. there is definitely a shift going on in american electoral politics. the parties are moving in different directions, occupying different directions, occupying different spaces than we have seen in the past three or four decades. how that shakes out and who ends up on top, i guess we have to wait and see in future elections but at least as of right now, the margins are razor—thin i will let you get back to tracking the data, thank you for now. we can take a look at how the financial markets have reacted to the uncertainty around the election results. in early trading saw the ftse drop by more than 1% before recovering but we can get more from dharshini david. yes, fascinating because like the rest of us, the traders around the world have been

watching every move as results come in but you wouldn't know it if you look at the numbers. these are european markets as they are right now and it is a muted response overall. do they simply not care about what's going on in america? the answer is they do, deeply, because ultimately what investors ca re because ultimately what investors care about is what happens to the us economy, and not only is it aja be the biggest in the world but american consumer spending alone makes up 10% of global gdp —— arguably the biggest. put simply, if americans are not buying, the rest of the world is not selling so they ca re of the world is not selling so they care about the result but it's a bit like a swan at the moment. i don't think anybody has described the market like swans but for all the calm picture, if we look more closely at the ftse100, they have been having some close movements through the day. we opened with the markets falling quite sharply on the

back of president trump's words. the markets were pricing in almost 50% chance of joe biden markets were pricing in almost 50% chance ofjoe biden winning this election. they were pinning their hopes that if he won we would see a pretty hefty stimulus package for the us economy being passed pretty quickly, bolstering growth and pushing up inflation as well and that would be good news forjobs and profits not just in that would be good news forjobs and profits notjust in the us but around the world as well. instead, what they got from president trump was in some ways their worst nightmare, signs of notjust a tight battle but a protracted one as well. and perhaps a contested result which might mean that any stimulus package is delayed and could be hard to actually pass. for all we are seeing going on, the american markets, when they open later, could be a wild swings on what they called the futures, expectations as they try to read everything. that we might see a trump victory and those futures rose

quite sharply because what the markets want is a result either way. they think that biden would be better for growth but any clear decision could mean we see some kind of stimulus package. in the meantime, they don't have a lot to play with. what we are looking at is the market switching back as the re st of the market switching back as the rest of us have to do the ftse100 rising on the back of data coming out about the strength of the economy. this is all playing out against the backdrop of the global economic crisis and how we are coping with the virus and the fallout, renewed shutdown is not just here in the uk but in some parts of europe as well. for the moment, as far as traders are concerned, business as usual but expect some very tense hours and perhaps days or weeks ahead as like the rest of us, they wait avidly for this result and it is going to dictate not just this result and it is going to dictate notjust the this result and it is going to dictate not just the fate of the markets but perhaps also the fate of the global recovery. so much hanging

on it, thank you so much. and markets in us in about four hours' time. let's talk to a pressure at the london school of economics. also doctorjudy norman, a lecturer in politics and international relations at university college london. julie, we are on course for the biggest turnout in the us election in almost a century and we have known this even before today and see what has happened, this is probably the biggest fog in the road? happened, this is probably the biggest fog in the road7m certainly is and we did see this big turnout going into the election with over 100 million votes cast even before election day either through early voting or through mail—in voting. that really shows the passion that voters felt either for or against president trump and also just the feeling that has come at

this year around the pandemic and the economy, two crises that have affected almost all americans and have immobilised a lot of voters. just having the mail in the system has facilitated voting for a lot of vote rs has facilitated voting for a lot of voters who might not have voted in the past. but it is also the reason we are seeing the delays in the results we are seeing today. this is something that was pretty expected given the emphasis on mail—in ballots this year and the unprecedented number of people using that system in voting in general. peter, it is laura trevelyan here, does that show the dangers of relying on polling which says one candidate or the other has a big, national league, when it is all about the battle ground states. all along it was showing it was tighter in the battle ground states, but maybe people get misled by the fact thatjoe biden had a big lead nationally? that is always a problem

in the us case, especially when you see the kind of population growth that has occurred in california and texas over the last four years. you need to focus on the battle ground states. to pick up on something in the previous segment, the biggest story in the electoral map right now is arizona. if these projections hold up it is really significant for two reasons. first, it increases the path biden has joining two reasons. first, it increases the path biden hasjoining the threshold of 270 electoral votes. secondly, the more battle ground states that joe biden gets earlier, the less traction that the claims that donald trump made last night or early this morning in washington, dc about ballot fraud due to extended deadlines and boot camps, the harder it will be to get traction. stay

with us because we are back to both of you in a moment, but i want to bring in sir malcolm rifkind, the former foreign secretary under margaret thatcher. welcome to the programme. as you watch these results slowly unfold in the us, your thoughts as to the sort of america we could see with four more yea rs of america we could see with four more years of donald trump, or withjoe biden, is that a fundamentally factory reset moment? so far as we can tell it will make a huge difference depending which candidate is eventually chosen. the tragedy of donald trump's four years as president is he wilfully threw away america's leadership of the free world and at a time when china was emerging as such a major challenge to the united states and the wider world, we needed someone in charge of the white house who would provide an alternative focus of involvement. that was frittered away with this

ridiculous slogan of put america first when america was already first. a quick thought on the scenes in the white house and the words chosen by donald trump, how foreign capital should be doing that. what did you think? if we are talking about his suggestion of some fraud or whatever in the american system, this is typical donald trump rhetoric. i will not comment further on that, that is a matter for the american public to address, whether they respect a candidate who uses that kind of language in this particular moment, exacerbating what is already very deeply american society. optics, we still do not know what presidency it will be in the days ahead. if it wasjoe biden, sir kym darroch, the former ambassador to the us were saying a couple of days ago that he thought the echoes of donald trump would

last for a number of years when it comes to nato contributions amongst allies, when it comes to china and the trade deals americans would now expect to negotiate. do you share that assessment? yes, i do, but i would add this point that the problem with donald trump, and his policy on nato contributions is a sound policy, but he dressed it up with insulting language, with insulting his allies, by making snide comments and i generally pleasing no one other than vladimir putin in the kremlin, which was totally gratuitous and unnecessary. any president of the united states will seek to fight for american interests and some of the concerns expressed by donald trump were valid concerns. it is the way he does it thatis concerns. it is the way he does it that is so destructive to everything we stand for in the western world at a time when we are facing an unprecedented challenge from both china and russia. before i asked the next question, let me put up a tweet

that theresa may has put out saying, whoever is elected has a responsibility to help tackle our planet was not the greatest challenge. terry mayjust tweeting there. there are so many challenges ahead, and fundamental to that is a leadership from the us. that is right. and people should not continually suggest that somehow we may benefit because borisjohnson is sometimes seen may benefit because borisjohnson is sometimes seen as a may benefit because borisjohnson is sometimes seen as a chum of donald trump's. apart from both having a shock of white hair and being opportunistic by temperament they quite like each other in personal terms, but what borisjohnson has shown as foreign secretary and now as prime minister is that on most of the big policy issues he is on the same side as president macron and angela merkel and opposed to donald trump. britain doubled its

contribution to the world health organization as donald trump was trying to leave it. britain supports action on climate change which donald trump is against. i could give other examples, including the iran nuclear deal. the idea that borisjohnson and iran nuclear deal. the idea that boris johnson and donald trump would bea boris johnson and donald trump would be a marvellous alliance which would serve both our interests does not wash. johnson has already shown, and all credit to him, that he simply does not go along with donald trump policies when they are against britain's national interest. a final thought on joe biden britain's national interest. a final thought onjoe biden and the future of the us— uk trade deal. if it is joe biden, there is quite a narrow time frame by the time he appoints a negotiator, all of that to be put in place on what is a vital trade deal, given everything happening with brexit, for the uk. i would love to be enthusiastic about these trade negotiations, whoever is president of the united states or prime minister of the uk. i have been around long enough to know that

trade negotiations with the united states you don't get any favours, whether you are borisjohnson, theresa may margaret thatcher. that will be true equally with joe theresa may margaret thatcher. that will be true equally withjoe biden of donald trump. the americans will not give anything unless they get something in return. there will be something in return. there will be some opportunities for mutual progress, there usually is, but we will not get any specific deals because donald trump likes boris or vice versa. that is pie in the sky and always has been. thank you for your time. let's go to the key state of wisconsin in milwaukee, where they are close to declaring a result. what is the latest? laura, currently 7500 votes separate the two candidates. over the past week we have been talking about how narrow 2016 was. 23,000 votes meant donald trump was propelled to the white house by a state like

wisconsin, which was so crucial then and has again become crucial in this race. last time it was less than one percentage point. we are waiting to hear final results from an area called green bay, which is in the northern part of this state. that is really where donald trump created his base. when we talk about the donald trump story, the farmers, the labourers, the workers, the blue—collar, noncollege educated, white voter, that is the area we are talking about. in an area like wisconsin and dane county in madison it is not unexpected that this densely populated area would vote for the democrats, it has always been traditionally democratic in their vote. joe biden was able to ta ke their vote. joe biden was able to take those away. i am seeing some reports of the numbers coming in from milwaukee and places like dane cou nty from milwaukee and places like dane county are not as high as expected.

it is certainly higher than what hillary clinton was able to bring in. one of the problems with hillary clinton in wisconsin is people did not turn out to vote. there has been an increase in that, there is a better turnout than what there was in 2016, but will it be enough to getjoe biden in 2016, but will it be enough to get joe biden over the in 2016, but will it be enough to getjoe biden over the line in 2020? and how much data is there in terms of rural voters, voters from the cities and how that is breaking down? there have been certain counties to look at, matthew, throughout the course of this election day. if you want to understand wisconsin, let's break it up understand wisconsin, let's break it up into about three different sections. first of all it is the north and north—west you should be looking at, where that green bay area is, and that is what we are waiting for before we get final results. there is the urban, metropolitan areas like milwaukee and madison. then there are the suburbs on the outskirts of

milwaukee and they are made up of the w milwaukee and they are made up of thewow milwaukee and they are made up of the w 0 w counties. these are crucial because they are the republican base of wisconsin. that is where when we talk about the suburban mums, the college educated voters, country club types, the mitt romney voters, that is where they are. they are the areas we have been looking at. if you look at waukesha county, the results coming in, we have been hearing that the democrats have been hearing that the democrats have been hearing that the democrats have been able to bleed into some of the republican votes. from the very beginning of this campaign we have learned from both sides that there are certain bases that they know they cannot break. the republicans knew they could not win in a place like milwaukee, but what they were trying to do was capture the african—american vote in milwaukee. the democrats were going out to the suburban areas, the counties, and they were trying to campaign, to try

and speak to voters and see if they could find those shyjoe biden voters. we are also hearing about kenosha and the final numbers have not come out. you will remember president trump turned up in kenosha and presented himself as the law and order president after the african—american man jacob blake order president after the african—american manjacob blake was shot seven times. last time in 2016 donald trump was able to win kenosha by 255 votes. that is how close it was last time, so we will have to see how close it is this time. kenosha is a working class area, a lot of former industrial workers have moved there from places like chicago. there is a real split in kenosha, so it will be interesting to see whether that law and order message has been bought into by vote rs message has been bought into by voters there. at the moment it is 0.3% lead forjoe biden. is wisconsin one of those states where

there is an automatic recount that is if the result is about half a percent? what we are hearing at the moment is after what the president said last night about stopping the count, remember wisconsin was one of those states that began counting on the day of election. account has continued throughout the night, it did not stop at midnight, they were not counting before this night. we will have to see how it pans out. some activist took the way all up to the supreme court to try and extend that day of counting and what they wanted was any ballots that had been postmarked on november the 3rd or before and if they arrived after november the 3rd to still be accepted and that was thrown out. there was some concern here in

wisconsin by various different activist groups and the democrats, who said the conservative judge had ruled and given an opinion that was very similarto ruled and given an opinion that was very similar to what the president had said about votes. he said the reason he did not want to allow the votes to be accepted beyond november the 3rd was because it might create some kind of ambiguity. so it really means we will have to wait and see what happens here. it may go to the cause, there may be legal battles. there have been lawyers poised across the country for various different battles and wisconsin may be one of those places. we will be right back with you when we get a result. we can pick up with rito because wisconsin is critical in that path to victory. —— reeta. because wisconsin is critical in that path to victory. -- reeta. it will be very important. this is the state of play, the candidates very close together and in the last hour

or so we close together and in the last hour or so we have had hawaii projected for the democratic party, so no surprise there, thought to be a safe democratic state. we can plot a path to victory for the challenger, joe biden. we will be making some assumptions, not saying that joe biden has won these states but if he wins them, this is how he could get the keys to the white house. we heard from anthony a while ago that the race in nevada is tightening but this was a state that hillary clinton won last time. we can assume joe biden hangs on to nevada and let us also assume he hangs onto the congressional district one in maine and maine which would take him to 233, short by 37. we have seen the race in wisconsin is very tight indeed but there is a small swing to the democrats so if we give that to

joe biden, arizona is still counting the democrats were optimistic about arizona so we will make an assumption that arizona has flipped and goes blue. that leavesjoe biden at short bike 16 electoral college votes. again, it is an assumption that there was a swing to the democrats in michigan and that takes joe biden to the magic 270 electoral couege joe biden to the magic 270 electoral college vote which is what he needs to win. let me take the screen back to win. let me take the screen back to where we are at the moment and plot a route for donald trump. let us assume that alaska, a safe red state, is in fact red and we will assume, again for the purposes of this, that donald trump succeeds in holding on to arizona and hold onto

georgia and to north carolina. that still leaves him short by 12 electoral college votes and so pennsylvania is the state that will ta ke pennsylvania is the state that will take him over the line. looking at those two routes to potential victory, it does feel as though donald trump cannot do this without winning pennsylvania. that is why they call it the keystone state. but tell us about how many hundreds of millions of americans have voted. there are just, let's take a look at the national popular vote, you can see that those are the boats that have stacked up so far, joe biden in the lead just about by two percentage points and you can see these large figures underneath. if i round up about 68 million forjoe biden and 65.5 million for donald

trump but we know there are still millions of early ballots, postal and in person early ballots, still to be counted so turnout is looking extremely healthy. thank you so much for the update. we can talk now to larry sanders, brother of bernie sanders who ran againstjoe biden in the primaries. your headline thoughts on the results and how you see it panning out so far and have you managed to speak to your brother so far? i haven't spoken to him. at the time differences are great and he is still sleeping i hope! probably not! i can't really add to these exciting races, the count is going to be incredibly close. the point that i feel like making perhaps that is not being made too

much on media now is that there is a background as to why america is such an apparently broken society, perhaps that is too strong, but such a rich country with so much good going for it, why are there so many difficulties and such an odd politician like trump doing so well? winning once and perhaps even winning twice. i think the answer fits in with bernard's campaign which is that it is a very rich country but there are a lot of very poor people and very stressed people. we have had 40 or more years ofa people. we have had 40 or more years of a switch of income and wealth from the bulk of the population to the rich and so there are loads of people who find life very difficult. and i think the explanation as to why things can be so uneasy and peculiar has to be connected. how

you make exactly the connections, i'm not sure, but that is the background to the uneasiness that pervades america i think. and your brother had, has a very economic, populist message and donald trump in his own way has that as well so are you surprised that, given this backdrop of the pandemic and mass unemployment, democrats are not doing better than they are?” unemployment, democrats are not doing better than they are? i am surprised i was almost believing the polls but again, we have a background to this. trump has not done very much for anybody but he did do this big tax reduction and the vast majority of the money went to the very rich which is not a great economic thing because very rich people don't spend much of the extra money because they have enough already so if you want your economy to boom, you want the money to go to people who will spend it. he did

give some to the rich but some went to the rest of the people and what is really very sad, you think, what did obama do for this large and hard pressed crowd? did obama do for this large and hard pressed crowd ? very little. did obama do for this large and hard pressed crowd? very little. i think people are wrong, i think a biden administration would be much better and without some of the real horrors that trump is going to cause and of course the terrible pandemic that he is in no position to deal with. he does not have the character or the knowledge to deal with it. huge numbers of people are going to die so numbers of people are going to die so it's not that i think americans who are voting for trump are right, they are making a big mistake and a lot of people are going to pay very heavily for that mistake. but one of the background to back isjust how little the democrats have offered to the bulk of the population. it has

really been, it is the old cliche, two parties of the rich and it's not exactly true but it is true enough to be the backdrop to what we are seeing. on that point, throughout the campaign donald trump tried to paintjoe biden as a socialist, exactly what he did to your brother, so how progressive do you thinkjoe biden is? how progressive?” so how progressive do you thinkjoe biden is? how progressive? ithink biden is? how progressive? ithink biden is? how progressive? ithink biden is in himself and his history not very progressive. he is perhaps centre—right of the democratic party but he's a politician and a good enough politician and a good enough politician and a sensible man. he is not driven by his wins the way that trump is. —— his whims. he knows he

has a large, perhaps not dominant but large progressive opposition within the party and he has so far been unwilling to offer something to that. you never know what is going to happen with politicians' promises but i think there are reasons to hope, not so much to hope but to know that in addition to what pressure has already been put on biden, the people on bernard's side, the progressive movement, by all means notjust the progressive movement, by all means not just bernard the progressive movement, by all means notjust bernard at all, is ready and able to organise. if biden wins, it will be a very exciting political time and i think the progressive... all, what they want, this sounds like i'm being naive, but the idea of actually spreading the wealth, people are entitled to a level of income and decent benefits,

when you have a society capable of producing so much when probably for the first time in human history we have got to the point where our technology and knowledge is such that we don't need poverty, if such a good possibility. ifi couldjust ask you, we have heard that nevada has stopped counting until thursday. your brother worked very hard to organise in nevada and in the south—west generally with working—class voters so do think he can claim some credit for the showing byjoe biden? can claim some credit for the showing by joe biden? i'm sure he can. and biden doesn't seem to have followed can. and biden doesn't seem to have followe d u p can. and biden doesn't seem to have followed up enough. i think people we re followed up enough. i think people were saying to kill it with the latino vote —— particularly with the latino vote —— particularly with the latino vote. a lot of it was from latinos who voted for him around the country and he did well with them.

from what i have seen come biden has not done as well as was expected and it may be that his weakness on pressing the economic issues, which latinos are very, i don't know the right word, but they are lodged at the bottom of the economic pile but new immigrants are very hard—working and assertive. and i think that if biden had paid more attention to that it might have been more hopeful. but i think in general, bernard had a huge impact. and this is not the end. the important thing to say is that even a trump victory will be dreadful, a biden victory will be dreadful, a biden victory will be dreadful, a biden victory will be uncertain as to the outcome but the basic fact remains that it isa

but the basic fact remains that it is a political struggle taking place and for the first time in a very long time, the people on the left are organising themselves, they are aware of the possibilities that technology has given to us to make for a better society and i am hopeful, well, nobody knows how it will turn out but it is not all one way. larry sanders, thank you so much forjoining us and we hope you get to speak to your brother later on. thank you. we can return to the director of the us centre for the london school of economics and a lecturer in politics and international relations at university college london. professor, as we sit talking, where do you think we are? i'll be closer toa trump do you think we are? i'll be closer to a trump presidency or a biden presidency? i think we are headed towards a contested outcome. i think trump made that clear in the speech

earlier in the white house. i think we can expect that they will contest votes in pennsylvania, ballots in pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin. this is why i go back to saying earlier, wrapping up the vote early in arizona, associated press has projected this and so has fox news in the united states, that is significant because it increases the paths to victory for biden. but in any event, i think that is where we are headed and if you look also at what is happening, i know everybody is focused on the presidential contest but now it looks like the path the democrats thought they had to taking control of the senate has really narrowed. and so we could, evenif really narrowed. and so we could, even if biden ends up with a victory here, end up with divided government

going forward with all that means for setting priorities in the united states and also internationally. i think it really would force a biden presidency to set international priorities, prioritising some countries and others i think would bea countries and others i think would be a little further back in the queue. how would the contested election look to the rest of the world with the american president saying a fraud has been put before the american people? this is somewhat in line with the rhetoric we heard from him before the election as well, so it's not super surprising to hear that from donald trump on election day either but that was quite alarming language, it's not common, and it was criticise not only by democrats but also by other republicans as well. but i think

watching inside as well as outside, most americans still believe in the robustness of the american institutions, the electoral system, and that is something that all americans want to see succeed so i think it will prevail in that, and it's something everyone in the us has an interest for and the rest of the world observing as well, that evenin the world observing as well, that even ina the world observing as well, that even in a very polarised and contentious election like this, the us electoral system comes through in the end but it will be a long process this time, it looks like. julie norman, thank you,. no clear winner yet in the us presidential election where 85% of the popular vote has been counted but we are still waiting on crucial results. both sides are predicting victory. joe biden urges patience but donald trump claims he is one already and is going to the supreme court. —— he has won. president trump claims he has won. president trump claims he has secured a win even though

millions of votes are yet to be counted and insisted only fraud would rob him of triumph, although there is no evidence of that. we will be going to the us supreme court. we want all voting to stop. we don't want them to find any ballots at aam, ok? joe biden's campaign team has described the claims as outrageous and incorrect and say they are poised to contest any legal challenge and told his supporters to keep the faith and said he was still on course for victory. we are going to have to be patient. until the hard work of counting the votes has finished, and it ain't over until every vote is counted, every ballot is counted. donald trump has retained the sunshine state of florida with gains amongst latino voters and also has key states including texas. results

are still being counted in key battle ground states including georgia and pennsylvania and it may ta ke georgia and pennsylvania and it may take hours or even days for the final results to be known. and in the battle ground state of wisconsin we are waiting to find out who won the state. this nail—biting election has come down to a handful of swing states and i will be bringing you the analysis and the results as they come in. the race to the white house is farfrom come in. the race to the white house is far from over. this is bbc us election 2020.

in washington, we are waiting on states like arizona and wisconsin to give us a steer on how this will all play out. stay with us for all of the latest results. it's 6am here in washington with both donald trump and joe biden saying they are on course for a victory in the us presidential election. it's proved to be an extremely close race with results still to come from a number of pivotal state and voter turnout has been very high and mr trump has performed better than many poll suggested taking florida, texas and ohio. mr biden still has a path to the white house if he can secure arizona and northern industrial states like michigan and pennsylvania. donald trump said in an attempt to frustrate is when will be taken to the supreme court but they has presented no evidence of fraud. joe biden said the election is not open to every vote has been tallied. so far, 85% of the popular vote has been counted and mystified's campaign team said mr

biden ‘s —— mr trump said it was unprecedented and had lawyers standard by to contest a legal challenge. let's have a look at the latest electoral college figures. joe biden currently has 22a votes, a6 short of victory donald trump has 213, 57 short of victory. with 270 electoral votes needed to take the white house. we will bring you more of the results as they come in and help you make sense of what we have seen so help you make sense of what we have seen so far stop first though, this report from ben wright. this election remains a nailbiter and the resulting key swing states are not yet known, but when president trump spoke at the white housein president trump spoke at the white house in the early hours, he claimed race would be his and then said this. this is a fraud. fraud on the american public. this is an embarrassment to our country. we we re embarrassment to our country. we were getting ready to win this

election. frankly, we did win this election. frankly, we did win this election. the president said he would take its fight to the supreme court. there is no evidence to support donald trump's claim of fraud and millions of ballots are still being counted. it wasjoe biden who made the first appearance of the night, telling supporters to hold their nerve. your patience is commendable. we knew this was going to go on, but who knew we would go into maybe tomorrow morning or maybe even longer? but, look, we feel good about where we are. we really do. i'm here to tell you tonight that we believe we are on track to win this election. until then, believe we are on track to win this election. untilthen, america had watched the night on fold with little drama. the two candidates clocking up state they were expected to win, but early results also pointed to a much tighter election than the poll suggested. democrats had dreams of blocking president

trump's path to the white house by winning florida, but his vote there stayed strong. president trump has won florida. with millions of postal ballot still to count, it could become a lengthy uncontested slog that keeps this divided nation on edge. that is the big picture. let's try to break it down and discuss over those key states currently in place —— in play. we could get a projection from wisconsin pretty soon projection from wisconsin pretty soon and let's show you the picture there, because this is a critical state and we've seen 97% counted there, so a small lead forjoe biden, still too early to project, but we are nearing the result being declared in wisconsin. another state we are watching very closely indeed is nevada. they have announced that counting is suspended until thursday morning. let's turn to neighbouring

arizona which has been called by some us networks forjoe biden and we make it too close to call in the press co nfe re nce we make it too close to call in the press conference from donald trump he too was pushing back that arizona had gone tojoe biden, but 11 electoral college votes up for grabs there, so that also a pretty critical state. north carolina is very tight indeed with most of the results in, and as you can see there, president trump defending that state has 50.1% of the vote and joe biden a8.7% of the vote, with 96% of the vote counted so another incredibly tight battle ground state. another of those crucial rust belt states, michigan, worth 16 electoral college votes, this is the latest, 81% counted so some way to go and donald trump in the lead thereby about a%, but still to early

to call and thereby about a%, but still to early to calland in thereby about a%, but still to early to call and in so many of the state there are of course thousands of votes, and all of the early voting we saw in the last few days to be inputted into the system, so some way to go in michigan. and pennsylvania could be the deciding state, known as the keystone state because of its role in the founding of america and some time to get a result from then and at the moment 76% of the vote counted in the present leads by 55% and joe biden has aa, restoring that blue firewall in the midwest which is whatjoe biden needs to do to win. let's get out and about and go to milwaukee and they are close to declaring the result and our washington correspondentjoins us. we see that it's pretty close in wisconsin and it's pretty close in wisconsin and it's absolutely critical. absolutely

you will remember the 2016 election and wisconsin was one of the crucial states and with just under 23,000 vote donald trump was propelled to the white house and this time round it's even more narrow. 7500 votes currently separate the two candidates and we still have a few votes to be counted and donald trump la st votes to be counted and donald trump last night said in his statement that voting needed to stop, and we couldn'tjust come that voting needed to stop, and we couldn't just come up with that voting needed to stop, and we couldn'tjust come up with more votes at aam, but that's exactly what is happening here in wisconsin. we always knew that with such a high percentage and such a high volume of mail in and early voting that a state like wisconsin which began counting on the day of the election, starting at 7am and said they would go through the night to count all of those 1.9 million votes, we knew that this would take all night, so we are still waiting to hear about what is happening and waiting particularly for an area called

green bay which is in the north—west of the state, and that is really where donald trump's base is, where his story began, the white working class voters. there's a lot of labours there, rural wisconsin, a lot of farmers, and unlike hillary clinton joe lot of farmers, and unlike hillary clintonjoe biden lot of farmers, and unlike hillary clinton joe biden has lot of farmers, and unlike hillary clintonjoe biden has been able to tap into those voters as well so while i was driving across rural wisconsin in that part of the state, you would see lawn sign after lawn sign that had donald trump and mike pence, and you would see a lot of biden supporters which was not the case in 2016 so we have to wait and see what happens in a place like green bay, whether some of the farmers and workers and labourers will switch from donald trump, which is whom many of them voted for in 2016, butjoe is whom many of them voted for in 2016, but joe biden is whom many of them voted for in 2016, butjoe biden will be able to bring them back to the democratic party and don't forget that a lot of

these blue—collar workers are traditionally democratic voters became the in 1984 to be able to flip the state and many of who 2012, barack obama was able to the question is now, is he able to win the state again in 2020. let's bring in anthony,, and what do you make of what is going on out west where a very tight race in nevada, they've stopped counting and arizona still not called. it is very interesting to see what is going on in nevada, which was a state that look like joe biden was building up as a somewhat comfortable lead in that donald trump has eaten into that with election day voting results and once again we are seeing a split between mail—in ballots and those who voted

in polling places on election day and even in a reliably democratic county, like clark county where las vegas is in nevada, you saw donald trump making up ground there and they have suspended this until thursday and what they are waiting to count his mail imbalance that will come in that time between today and thursday because you can count them after election day in nevada and also provision ballots and a few more balance, mail—in ballots from clark county, so these are numbers that should probably help joe clark county, so these are numbers that should probably helpjoe biden because they are mail—in ballots and he's been doing well there. but it's going to be very, very close. joe biden has had a big early lead on the back of early returns counted and donald trump has cut into the margins in arizona somewhat and they are waiting to count some mail—in ballots which we think would help

joe biden but there is no guarantee no way they could make that time in arizona, so i think you would rather be joe biden in both nevada and arizona but with all this attention we are paying too much going on wisconsin and pennsylvania, we can't forget about the other states because they could end up being important if things change there. anthony, the president wants to take it to the supreme court and it has to start in the lower court, so potentially how long are we talking about for any legal challenges? well, the legal challenges would have to be filed and contested and the results of the tabulations will ta ke the results of the tabulations will take a little time to be processed for the lower courts to hear and i think you will see an expedited appeal process if these cases are filed and just like you saw in 2000 in florida it took several weeks for the court cases to work through the florida styles and then that is where the us supreme court stepped

in so where the us supreme court stepped insoi where the us supreme court stepped in so i don't think you will see an instantaneous supreme court weighing in before any of the lower courts start to have their decisions and review the matters, but you could see it happen in a matter of days or weeks depending on how quickly all of that moves along but it starts with contesting the tabulation of votes and may be challenging whether the counting of absentee ballots have come in after election day coming forward because the supreme court have already looked at it once and said at least in pennsylvania, we will revisit this after november three so they could decide to revisit at that point. thanks to both of you. and we can take you now to some pictures of some snuffles that have broken out in seattle in washington state where protesters from the blm movements have clashed with police. seattle has been

somewhere where there have been protests pretty much continuously since the death of george floyd in may, and as you can see, tension is running very high. and the city saw two marches there and that has resulted in some unrest, but otherwise it was a peaceful night across the us with people just waking up now at 6:15am on the east coast to the news that there is not yet an outcome let's bring it the republican strategist amanda mackie in tampa in florida, and thank you for being with us, so florida went for being with us, so florida went for donald trump after so much energy by the democrats. where are you? you energy by the democrats. where are you ? you were energy by the democrats. where are you? you were listening presumably to the present in the white house and you heard him say that we want to stop counting and we will win this and in fact we already have, which is unprecedented before the

state calls it. how comfortable are you with that? yes, you want to make sure there isn't electioneering and i think what we were waiting was florida's result, and after 90% of the results when they already call virginia very early and there were still 200,000 votes left to be counted but they called virginia, and they didn't do that for florida, so we and they didn't do that for florida, so we need to be patient here with the unprecedented amount of mail imbalance, we need to see what happens with all of those mail imbalance. nobody wants the election to be stolen or see mayhem in the country, and that is what the courts are therefore but pennsylvania is a perfect example and they say that they have until friday and unless there is a challenge mounted, they have until friday to allow all the boats coming and be counted and they will segregate those boat so i think

the bottom line is more time needed and we need to be a bit more patient —— segregate and we need to be a bit more patient — — segregate those and we need to be a bit more patient —— segregate those votes. and we need to be a bit more patient -- segregate those votes. when the president says it's a fraud on the american public, the fact that counting is going on beyond election day, as well as stirring up unrest potentially, isn't he also stepping on his own line because republican votes are out there as well that need to be counted, especially in nevada where they have paused counting. sure. nevada say they won't start counting until thursday and the elections on tuesday and in 2000 when it went to the supreme court, we did not know the election result and i do think we need to be patient and we also need to make sure there isn't any politicking happen at this date level and this is highly partisan and it shouldn't be but there's always that fear, so i think we just need to be recognising that we need to be

patient, especially this year when there's so many votes that came in and we had a record number of voters and we had a record number of voters and a record number of mail—in ballots, so there are states like michigan and pennsylvania that are asking for a bit more patience and everybody wants to know the results and make sure there is no politicking happen on that night. the problem is the president himself has not been patient and is on the problem for donald trump and the republicans that it doesn't matter if you keep saying something, like, there is fraud, it doesn't make it true, and the same is true of coronavirus, talking about it going round the corner. you can repeat something that it doesn't make it true. there are instances, you can find instances of things happening that should not be happening but i don't think it's widely known as a thing. i would just say this. president trump did extremely well in the state of florida and has been

showing a state like florida it was ha rd showing a state like florida it was hard to get which had in losing in every poll, as was the republican party, they were there in the tight senate races where the democrats had five or ten points. but why is he saying things that are not true? but i think voter fraud does happen. the fbi director doesn't think so. it's not may be as widespread and it shouldn't be raising panic, but it does happen. 0.0003, that was the brennan study, the biggest study donein brennan study, the biggest study done in terms of electoral fraud. that is the figure they concluded. well, i think... that is the figure they concluded. well, ithink... there that is the figure they concluded. well, i think... there are that is the figure they concluded. well, ithink... there are poll workers and election date lawyers like myself that work in different

precincts to make sure voter fraud doesn't happen and that shows the integrity of your voting count and that's very important and it's what we all want, the integrity of every american voted to be counted and that's why both parties send poll workers and have lawyers on the ground going to count the number of votes. for example, iwould look ground going to count the number of votes. for example, i would look at how many votes had come in at 9am, how many votes had come in at 9am, how many votes came in at 12pm if that 7pm it was exponentially more, there could be issues with voter fraud. but that is how the integrity of the process has been working and we just want to make sure it is available to all americans, that their vote is counted. amanda, to what do you attribute that really stunning win for the president in miami county? was that cuban americans? venezuelan americans? i think it was both and i think it was nicaraguan americans. i was born in

iran and my family escaped an oppressive regime and a lot of these people in florida who voted for president trump, maybe not traditional republican voters, who crossed over in droves, rejecting joe biden and kemal harris's notions of socialism or anything that reminds them of the countries they escaped from and i think that's very powerful and no amount of advertising and no amount of reaching out to these people when thatis reaching out to these people when that is the platform and where the party has moved to on the democrat side are you going to be able to convince people that defunding the police is a good idea. 0r pushing towards socialist programmes is a good idea. ithink towards socialist programmes is a good idea. i think that is where president trump is able to excel, but i think he would do well in the battle ground states like pennsylvania where joe biden has been called the third senator from

pennsylvania because of his his wife being there but also from another in lying state and began the fracking issue are significant and it should not be discounted how important and crucial that was for pennsylvania and we will wait to see the results and we will wait to see the results and we will wait to see the results and we still don't know, but even the fact that it's even this close that they cannot call the race there it shows that it has had a huge impact, joe biden flip—flopping on that issue. amanda, thanks for joining us. let's bring rita back m, joining us. let's bring rita back in, because talking about that pausing counting in nevada, you have more on that. yes, indeed. let's ta ke more on that. yes, indeed. let's take a close, focus look at nevada which is proving to be a very close contest. you will see here that it's too early to project and we won't get a projection because we learned earlier that they have stopped counting in nevada and will only

start again at 9am pacific time on thursday, the viewers watching in london, that is 5pm gmt, so we have quite a wait for nevada. when the polls close, things look quite rosy forjoe biden, but as you can see there is very, very little in it between the two candidates. one of the clues to that is in the percentage of votes counted with 15% of the vote counted and if i can show you the proportion of absentee ballots, postal votes and early votes, that was a full three quarters of votes being absentee and we know from the nevada authorities that there are about 210,000 postal ballot still to be counted and they are all ballots that have been sent in or received after november the 2nd, and remember, the postal vote is postmarked for the day of the

election then they are eligible and will be counted so it's those votes we are waiting for and experience has told us that by and large, the postal vote is more heavily democratic because the democrats we re democratic because the democrats were encouraging voters to vote by post, so that is the state of play nevada but we have got a long time to wait before we actually get a projection. rita, thank you very much. caroline dewitt is president of rock the vote, an organisation which encourages young people to vote, and do you feel you have achieved your aim at this election? we are talking about record turnout. yes, we are still early, that's the reality that we are waiting for a lot of numbers to come in but we've seen young lot of numbers to come in but we've seen young people, from what we can tell so far, that they not only showed up and surpass the rates they did in 2016, not only in total

numbers but in their share of the electorate which is proving not only that they show up and follow the general trend of turnout, but it increased. they were very enthused this year and we will continue to see the numbers coming. we were talking to bernie sanders's brother early and during the whole nomination progress —— process, the fear amongst democrats was that because it was not bernie sanders that a lot of young people would not turn out the joe that a lot of young people would not turn out thejoe biden, so for the democrats, did enough young people turn out? is there any indication in the party? we are seeing that while young people are less likely to identify with either political party we tend to see that they are progressive on issues and particularly this year starting with the blm protests in response to the murder of george floyd starting in june, we really did start to see young people be galvanised and carry

that energy into the election and this is very much mirroring what we saw in 2018 when we saw the response to the gun violence and the need for reform in our country, so young people are very galvanised and this isa very people are very galvanised and this is a very active new generation and they have overcome unique barriers and challenges to voting this year and challenges to voting this year and we know every voter's first time in america, their first time voting ina pandemic, in america, their first time voting in a pandemic, but for young voters they face unique challenges in terms of notjust as they face unique challenges in terms of not just as new voters and going through this for the first time but the reality is that they are also wondering where they are supposed to be registering because they didn't know if they were going to be on campus or at college and if they we re campus or at college and if they were going to be giving an absentee ballot at a different answer —— address. so you need to increase the

turnout and that is very impressive for this generation. if we look at the exit poll information it suggests that the under 30s swung by over 7% tojoe biden. do you think thatis over 7% tojoe biden. do you think that is to do with the young who a lwa ys that is to do with the young who always tell us in opinion polls that they are concerned about climate change, about the future of our planet. what do you think the galvanising issues? yeah, young people are not single issue voters, they are actually very sophisticated when it comes to the issues and they understand that they are issues dependent on one another and you can't talk about health without talking about women's access to reproductive health and you can't talk about economic justice reproductive health and you can't talk about economicjustice work without talking about access to higher education and there are a numberof higher education and there are a number of issues that young people watching have not been dealt with for generations and decades that are really at a tipping point, those things like racial injustice,

climate change, and coronavirus has massively impacted young people both in their education but also entering the workforce in addition to the health care access. so young people are very health care access. so young people are very awake and right now and are looking for candidates and voting for candidates who have bold visions and to address these issues very urgently and head—on. and to address these issues very urgently and head-on. and yet we know that it is pretty tight, this election, despite some of those predictions we had in the run—up to it. does that suggest that there are other sectors of the demographics that donald trump has managed to solidify, given what you are saying about young people? and are you seeing any sort of pattern in different parts of the us for young people? overall most of the states we have been able to see for young people

are trending for biden. but again, right now these are counters. we have so much more in the selection story to tell. we need to make sure that every voter is counted. and that every voter is counted. and that includes recognising that, as was earlier mentioned by guests on your show, the reality is we have several states that were not allowed not only to count their ballots until yesterday, but start processing them. that means verifying the signature is, opening the envelopes, getting them ready for tabulation, looking at the witness signatures. the reality is we have a lot more to do in this election. most voters don't know that the processing and counting process takes weeks. right now we just need to be very patient and ensure that every vote is counted. carolyn, we will leave it there. thank you so much forjoining us on

the programme. let mejust show thank you so much forjoining us on the programme. let me just show you the programme. let me just show you the live pictures. early morning in washington. the live picture from the white house. only a couple of hours ago we heard from the president inside without extraordinary news conference where said millions of people had voted for him, but a sad group is trying to disenfranchise millions of trump voters and he wouldn't stand for that. he wanted the counting to stop, saying he was going to the supreme court. open we will win this," he said, "in fact, supreme court. open we will win this," he said, "infact, we supreme court. open we will win this," he said, "in fact, we already have.". it is safe to say that we can expect a fusillade of tweets today. now the latest news with joanna a fusillade of tweets today. now the latest news withjoanna gosling. thank you. donald trump has claimed an unsubstantiated victory in the us presidential election, but with millions of legitimate ballots still left to be counted, the final result could take days

or even weeks to be decided. with the winner needing 270 electoral college votes, here are the latest figures. joe biden currently has 22a and donald trump 213. mr trump has performed better than many polls predicted. he is projected to hold the crucial state of florida as well as texas and ohio, and is ahead in other key states including georgia and north carolina. california has gone, as expected, tojoe biden. mr biden also appears to be on course to take arizona, previously held by mr trump. speaking to supporters at the white house, the president accused his opponents of trying to steal the election and vowed to go to the supreme court before the count is complete calling the results a fraud on the american public without providing any evidence. we want the law to be used in a proper manner.

so we'll be going to the us supreme court. we want all voting to stop, we don't want them to find any ballots at four o'clock in the morning and add them to the list, ok? it's a very sad... it's a very sad moment. to me this is a very sad moment and we will win this and as far as i'm concerned we already have. so i just want to thank you. cheering. joe biden's campaign team has described the claims as "outrageous" and "incorrect" and say they have legal teams on standby. mr trump's challenger said he was on track for victory and encouraged supporters to "keep the faith". it may be days before all early and postal votes are counted in the so—called rustbelt states that will decide the result, including michigan and pennysylvania. addressing supporters from his campaign headquarters in delaware, joe biden said it was clear that a result could take a while.

we knew this was going to go long, but who knew we were going to go into tomorrow morning, maybe even longer? look, we feel good about where we are, we really do. i'm here to tell you tonight we believe we are on track to win this election. we knew because of the unprecedented early vote, the mailing vote, it was going to take a while. we are going to have to be patient until the hard work of tallying the votes is finished and it ain't over until every vote is counted, every ballot is counted. in the race for control of the us congress, the democrats say they've maintained their majority in the house of representatives, while both parties are battling to win the senate. with votes counted so far, it is looking like the republicans will retain control of the senate. going into the election, republicans held 53 of the 100 seats in the upper house.

the democrats had a7. so far, the democrats have picked up one seat from the republicans in colorado. in kentucky, the republican leader mitch mcconnell has been re—elected for a seventh term in office. in his victory speech, he said kentuckians had decided that challenging times needed proven leadership. away from the us election, british mps vote later today on a new four—week covid lockdown in england. the measures will come into effect at midnight with ministers saying that they are the only way to stop hospitals being overwhelmed. the government is expected to win the vote despite some conservative mps threatening to vote against their party. there is of course much more bbc news online and on your mobile. you can find the latest details and analysis by our correspondents. you can also use our live results map to see all the votes in every us state as they come in. that's on our website: bbc.co.uk/us2020, or the bbc news app.

i'll be back with more in an hour. welcome back to bbc‘s election coverage. let me take you to pennsylvania and show you the pictures. this is philadelphia, where the counting has been going on through those late hours. of course, we heard from the president a while ago talking about the various states from georgia to north carolina, and then concentrating on pennsylvania, talking about the tremendous amount of votes he already had, saying he was 600,000 up. like those other states, trying to give the impression in the white house briefing that he had a face and there shouldn't be a concentration on all those early ballots that still have to be counted. that is

going to be the issue, ultimately, when those legal challenges are made. the president is saying we are heading to the supreme court. that's right, matthew. you can certainly expect that republicans will be lawyering up and in states across the country, including nevada, where they have stopped the counting for a day, you can expect republicans will go to court to contest what is going on, and democrats will try to contest what republicans are doing. all this against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic here in the united states. cases rising in a majority of states. for more than that we arejoined majority of states. for more than that we are joined by the dean of brown university school of public health. thank you for being with us. it seems the country divided almost 50-50 it seems the country divided almost 50—50 on whether or not they cared more about tackling the pandemic, is jill biden wanted to, or reopening the economy, as president trump said we should? -- joe biden. good

morning. thank you for having me on. we are all reeling from this election. it's complicated. many people thought that with 230,000 americans died, that's what the referendum would be on. but people have multiple different motivations for voting. the pandemic does not slow down because of this election. we still have to focus on that while we sort out our democracy. is the truth though, whichever way the skills, whether it is donald trump orjoe biden, because donald trump is there at least untiljanuary, we are sent on this course, the strategy with covid, for at least the next two months?” strategy with covid, for at least the next two months? i think that's correct. we are not likely to see any change out of the federal government until january. whether any change out of the federal government untiljanuary. whether it is beyond that or not will be decided in the next few days. that isa decided in the next few days. that is a tough situation. right now infections are rising pretty much in every state. hospitalisations are rising. and no federal help coming.

this is now going to be about states stepping up and trying to do more. and of course just a month ago the president himself was fighting coronavirus. does it look to you as if his supporters have been reassured by the fact that he got better pretty quickly when he was given this huge cocktail of drugs, and that therefore he is right when he says not to take corona too seriously? yeah, whether he is right or not, clearly has worked in terms ofa or not, clearly has worked in terms of a large number of supporters believe it is not a serious disease. they look to him. of course what they don't realise is the cocktail of drugs he got as largely not available to most of us. and obviously the treatment he got at walter reed is not available to most people. and therefore i think he has managed, for at least some proportion of people, to turn this into something where he can reassure them not to worry if they were to

get infected. thousand americans are still dying every day, so people should be worried. do you think the closing message of, we are around the corner on covid—19, despite the figures you have just quoted, do you think that stroke home? it appears to. i'm surprised by this. in some ways he has been saying this since february. that this was about to go away. i did not believe that would resonate given that it keeps not going away. but obviously enough people feel like they are ready to move on from this pandemic, that for them the message did resonate. more than 230,000 americans have died and evenif than 230,000 americans have died and even if not quite so many are dying now as were at the height of the pandemic in the spring, how is the us comparing to the rest of the world ?

us comparing to the rest of the world? this pandemic has been full of surprises. one of them for me has been how badly europe is doing right now. i often pointed to western europe as a model that basically had been able to bring the virus levels down, take on the virus seriously. of course what's happening now in the uk and france and other places, even germany, reminds us that the complacency that has set in in the united states is not a completely american phenomenon. it makes it harder for americans to get motivated to do something else when many other countries are not doing it. we saw all of that early voting stretching out for days. we have also had a spike in terms of record numbers in so many of the different states. in that sense did that come too late to be factored into the cycle in terms of how people voted, do you think? i do. i think what's interesting about this is that people who were supporters of the

president are probably less fearful of the virus because of his words, that the virus is not a big deal and not a problem. i suspect some of mr biden's supporters probably felt the fear of even voting, which many of us tried to articulate was safe to do. so despite the surge, i think many biden supporters did not end up vote —— many biden supporters did not end up vote — — voting many biden supporters did not end up vote —— voting because of fear of being infected during the process itself. thank you for your time. let's go now to reeta chakrabarti, who has the trusty touch—screen. can you ta ke the trusty touch—screen. can you take us through the results so far as we know them? yes indeed. let's look at some of the key moments of the night. i am taking you back in time. in fact, the night. i am taking you back in time. infact, i the night. i am taking you back in time. in fact, i am going to take you to just one minute after midnight. here is a swathe of safe red states and to save blue states. at the state to concentrate on here is ohio. it isjust

at the state to concentrate on here is ohio. it is just after at the state to concentrate on here is ohio. it isjust after midnight. ohio was a retain state for donald trump. a very important state because it is one of those rust belt states that he took in 2016, demolishing that blue wall as it was known. very important for mr trump to have held on to ohio. let's fast forwarded by about half an hour and possibly even more important, florida, which was a holder for donald trump. florida a really swing state, something the democrats had thrown a lot of resources and energy at, and they had strong hopes of flipping florida but it was not to be. donald trump got the 29 electoral college votes in florida. interesting too ohio and florida both bellwether states in that for decades they have tended to vote or in line with whoever won the presidency. so a real psychological boost for mr trump. let's fast forwarded a little bit more. another

monster. texas. stays red. traditionally a republican stronghold, it had always been a long shot for the democrats but they did, they were having hopes there. it was not to be. at 1:50am eastern time the 31 votes in texas went to donald trump. let's move it forward a little bit more and at 1:35am you can see minnesota is a hold for the democratic party. hillary clinton did hang onto that last time round. butjoe biden has actually extended the lead of the democrats in minnesota. there was a swing towards the democrats there. and a swing that we have seen replicated to some extent in those rust belt states in wisconsin, michigan and pennsylvania. those were some of the key moments of the night. ijust wa nt to ta ke key moments of the night. ijust want to take you back to exactly where we are now. we are onjoe

biden's 22a, donald trump on 213. anybody expecting a quick result, we know that is not going to be the case. in nevada, where the race is very tight, they have stopped counting and they will not start counting and they will not start counting the votes again until 9am on thursday morning pacific time. if you are watching in the uk, that means 5pm on thursday. that is not to say that nevada will be the decisive or the crucial state, but it just decisive or the crucial state, but itjust means that pieces of the jigsaw are going to take time to assemble. it is extraordinary there are almost different rules for each of the 50 states. why haven't we had more results so far comedy think? some of it is going to be a question of timing. as we heard, nevada hasjust stopped counting until tomorrow. some of it we knew that it was going to ta ke some of it we knew that it was going to take time. so pennsylvania and

michigan, for example, did not start counting their early votes, their postal votes and their early in—person votes, until paul's had closed. and because there has been such a huge turnout of people voting early, 100 million americans voting early, 100 million americans voting early, those votes were always going to ta ke early, those votes were always going to take time to count. with pennsylvania, for example, there are some guesses that we may not get that final result in until friday. so although it does call for patients, to a certain extent if there was no clear decisive winner, this was all was going to be the case. before we move on, let me just what onto the screen a tweet from the former british senior conservative member of parliament, who took on, of course, borisjohnson for the

leadership. jeremy hunt saying, "dear american friends, the reputation of democracy is at stake in the world is watching. please proceed carefully." careful words chosen there by the senior conservative here in the uk. let's get more reaction to what has been happening here in the united states with professor liam kennedy, director of the clinton institute for american studies at university couege for american studies at university college dublin, and scott lucas, professor of american studies at the university of birmingham. scott, if we could start with you, what does this result say about the different approaches of the campaigns thatjoe biden ran this really causes campaign because of coronavirus, president trump just went right in there and ran a traditional barnstorming campaign? what i think it's even a bit more than that. i think it'sjoe it's even a bit more than that. i think it's joe biden it's even a bit more than that. i think it'sjoe biden you put coronavirus at the centre of this campaign, as wellas coronavirus at the centre of this campaign, as well as racial and social issues. as well as dealing

with immigration. he called for competence, he called for responsibility on this. and it was donald trump you really did not want to deal with the issues but wanted to deal with the issues but wanted to go with spectacle, as he had done in 2016. so when he dealt with coronavirus it was not with the reality, it was more this fantasy of, i've defeated it, so can you. we've turned a corner, a vaccine is almost there. when it came for the call for competence, the call for unity, trump would put out, let's be careful, misinformation on a whole series of issues and insult biden. but at the end of the day we saw that repeat that we see so often. people prefer to go for the seriousness of the issues and a change of leadership in going for biden. then you have a significant numberof biden. then you have a significant number of people who went with trump, to keep the result in doubt. evenif trump, to keep the result in doubt. even if you have the projection of

over half a million americans dead by february, they wanted to believe what trump said, that it might be true. and in a sense it was almost at his personality, as well as getting out to vote on election day, that could sweep the pandemic as well asjoe biden. that could sweep the pandemic as well as joe biden. for the last four yea rs we have well as joe biden. for the last four years we have had a divided america and this election absolutely undermining yet again how divided that country is. professor kennedy, a lot of constitutional experts, legal experts, election experts, hoping to avoid a messy disputed election. that is exactly where we are, isn't it? yes, this is messy, this is disputed. i do think it's quite shameful that the president of the united states stood up last night basically to say the selection should not continue. it was a blatant authoritarian power grab that should be called out as such. a few republicans have suggested it was a mistake but none of them have really called it out in that way. it

has to be said that i think many of the serious analysts of this election pretty much predicted where we stand today. a lot of uncertainty, a lot of surprise, but really it's not that surprising. trump took seats, states that we probably would have expected him to take. he states that are outstanding are the ones we always knew would be an issue. joe biden has a number of votes to win. a lot of the chatter this morning is a must along the lines of, trump is almost there. i don't think he is. i think this is an election that biden can still win. however, even if he wins it, your supposition is correct. the united states is seriously divided. that division began before donald trump. but donald trump has doubled down, to use an american phrase, to make those divisions much deeper, much more severe and the damage, i think, could be irreparable. and professor lucas, if we pick up on

the point about polarisation, donald trump has doubled down on the working class areas, rural areas, he has built support there. meanwhile the suburbs have just fled tojoe biden. presumably both sides will view a contested election through a different lens? we have a trap that is set for us. this is set in terms of rural versus suburban. if you look at it there are rural areas that continue to support democrats. and suburban areas that support republicans. if you want to drill down here, so far only one state has flipped. that is the state which was arizona, with a change in population, which has gone from republican to democrat. but of the four states outstanding, georgia, michigan, wisconsin and pennsylvania, it is possible that three of those states could flip from republican to democrat. that would mean that joe from republican to democrat. that would mean thatjoe biden from republican to democrat. that would mean that joe biden would from republican to democrat. that would mean thatjoe biden would be your next president. in other words,

trying to talk about these polarisation, it is there, but you also see a shifting america where there are changes in voting patterns and they will be. and i think the question is, will the system be able to stand to accommodate that change? i want to echo what professor kennedyjust said. i want to echo what professor kennedy just said. this i want to echo what professor kennedyjust said. this is a constitutional crisis. this has not been done before. not by a president, who says, i am been done before. not by a president, who says, lam not been done before. not by a president, who says, i am not meant to work within the system if the syste m to work within the system if the system doesn't deliver what i want, lam going system doesn't deliver what i want, i am going to break it. this is the question that goes beyond what we are talking about, beyond trump versus biden, democrat versus republican. will there be people who stand up, senators, representatives, party establishments, who say, no? when you have to choose, the american system is greater than any single individual. professor kennedy and professor lucas, thank you for joining us. and we are going to go now to brooklyn in new york city.

her mother passed away through covid a few months ago. we are so sorry for that. can i ask for your reaction to the election result as it is now, which was fought against the backdrop of a pandemic that is claimed more than 230,000 american lives, including your mother's? yes, thank you for your condolences. i am just, i thank you for your condolences. i am just, lam heartbroken. i thank you for your condolences. i am just, lam heartbroken. lam heartbroken. i think what we really needed was a moral victory. we didn't get that. i am hoping for a political victory, but i reallyjust wanted to believe that america knew that trump had really failed us and that trump had really failed us and that we needed new leadership. 230,000 lives, they were not numbers, they were people. and the american people, and just disappointed in the vaults right now. but i have faith, i do have

faith. i spoke to you a couple of months ago, and at that time you we re months ago, and at that time you were angry that donald trump had not taken covid—19 were angry that donald trump had not ta ken covid—19 seriously. were angry that donald trump had not taken covid—19 seriously. we saw him in recent weeks on the campaign trail bemoaning that ollie was hearing was covid, covid, covid, saying we were around the corner. when you heard those things, what are you thinking? i was in so much pain, i have to be honest. i have been so down recently, and those comments and those tweets just continue to say that my mum was just a number. and my mum was anything but a number. she was my daughter's grandmother. she was my mum. she was there for so many people. she was somebody who was saving lives. and just to dismiss it like that, you know, his constant downplaying of the virus is a real threat to the american people. we are in danger, because of his messaging, because of his downplaying, and i am so worried about how many more deaths we are

going to see by the end of the year, by february, as long as he is in leadership we are in trouble. and for the president to be talking like that, it hurts. i keep going back to it. i that, it hurts. i keep going back to it. lam that, it hurts. i keep going back to it. i am just heartbroken.” that, it hurts. i keep going back to it. iamjust heartbroken. i really am. when you see that people are still supporting the president, when he was really rather cavalier about his own coronavirus and got outstanding treatment at walter reed, how does that compare with the treatment that your mother got? it's a huge contrast to the treatment my mother got. in fact, my mother didn't even get treatment. she tried to treat yourself at home because as a health care worker she was a respiratory therapist. she knew what was like as the hospitals where she worked. she knew they were overwhelmed. she knew they did not have enough ppe. she knew doctors and the nurses were struggling and trying to help everybody that they could, but they didn't have the

preparation. instead she chose to stay at home and move her body from side to side. as a respiratory therapist she knew how to empty her lungs and create space. when family members urged herto lungs and create space. when family members urged her to go to the hospital, she said, you don't understand, it's worse there. when my brother wanted to call an ambulance, she said, no, no, it's too expensive, we can't afford that. that is a huge contrast to what donald trump did. he walked out onto his front lawn, into his helicopter and got the best treatment in the world. my mum did not even make it to the hospital to get treatment. i don't understand. i want to believe that america sees this, that they see the failure that he has done to us. they see the misinformation, they see the lies. i want to believe that. i do have faith and i do have hope. but i think at first glance,

seeing the numbers last night, we have a real problem in america. i'm sad about it. and some of those states where there have been real spikes in coronavirus have continued to support the president. we were talking to a doctor or a short time ago and! talking to a doctor or a short time ago and i asked him if there was a concern that they would be no change in strategy now before january, and given the projection, given the numbers, how worrying is that? it's very worrying. i do feel like our president and our leadership are going to continue to drive us into the ground. i don't imagine there would be any kind of change in strategy. why? he is really doubling down on his belief that the virus is going to go away. that it's going to disappear. and this vaccine that he promises, it should have been here already. he isjust going to keep on feeding the american people lies and

more lies. because of that more people will die. we have to leave it there. thank you so we have to leave it there. thank you so much for taking time to speak to us on the bbc. thank you so much. we are so sorry for your loss. well, we arejoined by we are so sorry for your loss. well, we are joined by a professor of law at stetson university in florida. thank you so much forjoining us. 20 yea rs thank you so much forjoining us. 20 years after america was gripped, and the world was gripped, by the sight of the election going to the supreme court in florida, could we be in line for something similar this time, with the president threatening to go to court? it is too early to say. i think what president trump said overnight was premature. you need 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. neither candidate has that at this point. and i'm not sure

exactly what he thinks he can litigate. we will see if a swing state like pennsylvania is extraordinarily close that may open the door to more litigation in this election. and in terms of how long you anticipate all of that are taking, what is your best guess? well, our electorals have to vote in december, in mid—december, so there isn't a lot of time, but i would urge all of us to be patient, because over the coming weeks and days votes are being counted. we are going to leave it there because we are coming to the top of

the hour. thank you for being here on the bbc, no special programme taking us through the results as we continue to analyse what we have seen continue to analyse what we have seen from the two candidates. we have heard from joe biden, we have heard from donald trump in the past hour, as those results continue to come in. different parts of the us for young people? no clear winner in the us presidential election where 85% of the popular vote has been counted but we are still waiting on crucial results. both sides are predicting victory. joe biden has urged patience and donald trump claims he has won already and says he is going to the supreme court. president trump claims he had secured a win even though millions of votes are yet to be counted and insisted only fraud could rob him of triumph although there is no evidence of that. we will be going to the us supreme court. we want all the voting to stop. we don't want them

to find any ballots at four o'clock in the morning, 0k? to find any ballots at four o'clock in the morning, ok? joe biden's campaign team has described mr trump's claims is outrageous and correct and say they are poised to contest correct and say they are poised to co ntest a ny correct and say they are poised to contest any legal challenge and told supporters to keep the faith and said he was still on course for victory. we are going to have to be patient until the hard work of tallying votes is finished and it ain't over until every vote is counted, every ballot is counted. celebrations in the state of texas which the republican party retained last night and also wins for donald trump in the key win —— states of florida and ohio but the largely conservative state of arizona is projected to go to the democrats. it's a tight race to the white house and the result still being counted in those key battle ground states including michigan and pennsylvania. it could take days for those final results to be no before we find out

who will be living in the white house come january. live from the battle ground state of wisconsin where we are waiting to find out who won the state. and on the touch—screen we are keeping track of all of the votes and states as they stack up. with the election hanging in the balance with just nine votes between the two candidates, i will between the two candidates, i will be plotting what each man has to do to win. the race to the white house is far from over. this is bbc us election 2020. in washington we are waiting on states like arizona, michigan and wisconsin to give us a steer on how

this will play out. the bbc's ongoing election coverage continues. it's 7am in washington where the nation is starting to wake up to the uncertainty of the presidential election with both donald trump and joe biden saying they are on course for victory. it's proved to be an extremely close race with votes to come from a number of pivotal states. voter turnout has been very high and mrtrump states. voter turnout has been very high and mr trump has performed better than many poll suggested, taking florida, texas and ohio, mr biden still has a path to the white house if he can secure arizona and northern industrial state such as michigan, pennsylvania and wisconsin. donald trump said attempt to frustrate its whim would be taken to frustrate its whim would be taken to the supreme court although he presented no evidence of fraud. joe biden said it was not over until every vote had been tallied and so far 85% of the popular vote has been counted. mr biden's campaign team said mrtrump's

counted. mr biden's campaign team said mr trump's attempts to stop counted votes was outrageous and unprecedented and they said they had lawyers standing by to contest any legal challenge. let's have a look at the very latest electoral college figures. biden currently has 22a, a6 votes short of victory and trump as 213, 57 short of victory with 270 electoral college votes needed to ta ke electoral college votes needed to take the white house. that is the tally so far and we will bring you the more of the results as they come out and make sense of what is happening so far, but let's have this report from ben white. this election remains a nailbiter and the resulting key swing states are not yet known, but when president trump spoke at the white house in the early hours, he claimed race would be his and then said this.

this is a fraud. a fraud on the american public. this is an embarrassment to our country. we were getting ready to win this election. frankly, we did win this election. the president said he would take its fight to the supreme court. there is no evidence to support donald trump's claim of fraud and millions of ballots are still being counted. it wasjoe biden who made the first appearance of the night, telling supporters to hold their nerve. your patience is commendable. we knew this was going to go on, but who knew we would go into maybe tomorrow morning or maybe even longer? but, look, we feel good about where we are. we really do. i'm here to tell you tonight that we believe tonight that we believe we are on track to win this election. until then, america had watched the night on fold with little drama. the two candidates clocking up state they were expected to win, but early results also pointed to a much tighter election than the poll suggested. democrats had dreams of blocking president trump's path to the white house by

winning florida, but his vote there stayed strong. president trump has won florida. with millions of postal ballot still to count, it could become a lengthy uncontested slog that keeps this divided nation on edge. let's go to milwaukee, wisconsin where they are close to declaring a result. what is the latest? well, laura, you can properly see the sun rising just behind me and it isjust after six o'clock in the morning and as you say, wisconsin along with the rest of the country are waiting for this nail—biting result which, if you remember, in 2016, it was wisconsin that helped propel donald trump to the white house were just under 23,000 votes and at the moment, as things stand, the number of votes separating the two

candidates is 7500, tighter than it was in 2016. the areas we can look out at the moment are milwaukee and dade county, and we always knew that these areas, these are urban, metropolitan areas would be democratic strongholds, so biden is coming out and voters supporting him in milwaukee and madison, but it is an area up in the north that we are looking at called green bay, and thatis looking at called green bay, and that is made up of a lot of the workers, the labourers. these people we re workers, the labourers. these people were traditionally voters of the democratic party and donald trump managed to flip them in 2016 and that really became part of his story, the story of white working—class voters who became his base and the whole idea of him coming in so many times over the past week and in the past week i've been to at least two rallies and

donald trump has made at least four trips and as we know in an election campaign the most important thing to a precedent is time and he spent a lot of that time here in the midwest, especially in wisconsin, so it's all very tight and we are waiting to hear what the results may be. in green bay we earlier heard that there was a problem with some of the ink in the printers in one of the counting areas, some officials had to go and get more ink so they could count those absentee ballots. let's just could count those absentee ballots. let'sjust remember could count those absentee ballots. let's just remember the strategy that the two parties have adopted. the democrats were concerned about the coronavirus and encouraging voters to vote either by mailing or earlier and the republicans and donald trump were saying to voters, come out on election day, make this a red wave. so really, they are looking at two different strategies and 1.9 million votes were cast here by mailing or early ballot in

wisconsin, so as promised, they started counting at seven in the morning and said they would go through the night and they are still counting. this is clearly going to be for the long term, but if the democrats flip wisconsin and michigan, is there any route for donald trump back to the white house? well, it's still possible. i was just listening to some commentators who are saying that when we looked at the polling numbers from a few days ago, they we re numbers from a few days ago, they were saying there was a very narrow path for donald trump and the path was greater forjoe biden, path for donald trump and the path was greaterforjoe biden, but frankly, at this stage, we still don't know and we didn't know anything yesterday and when we look at those polls it gives us a sense we don't know a lot, because here we are, on the day after election and it is still such a nailbiter. we

we re it is still such a nailbiter. we were told thatjoe biden would have wisconsin by at least 11 percentage points and that has now changed and we are looking at how close this is under earlier laura asked me about a recount and whether that was possible here in wisconsin. it doesn't happen automatically but it can be requested by the person who loses if the margin is less than 1%, so we may see loses if the margin is less than 1%, so we may see that happening here in wisconsin and there are still parts for donald trump get to the white house but we have to wait and see how these legal battles will unfold in the coming days. thank you so much. as we've been discussing there are several key states in play and we could get a projection from wisconsin soon. this is the picture here and it is very, very tight as we we re here and it is very, very tight as we were just saying, look at that, just 7500 votes with more to come.

interesting because the president of the last couple of days pushing back on some of those polls that gavejoe biden a big lead and they see just how tight it is with 98% counted for ten electoral college votes up for grabs. let's take you to nevada and they have announced that counting is suspended until thursday morning and a few eyebrows going up there. they won't be back quickly but that is the state of play with six college seats up for grabs. neighbouring arizona has been called by some us networks forjoe biden. we make it too close to call. and north carolina is very tight with most results in, 15 electoral college votes up for grabs. and another crucial state, votes up for grabs. and another crucialstate, michigan, votes up for grabs. and another crucial state, michigan, worth 16 electoral college votes, this is the latest in that state. finally, pennsylvania could be the deciding

state and we've heard both candidates talking a lot about that and that is the state of play there. you are watching a bbc news special on the us election. let's head straight to the white house, because there's been a couple of hours since we've heard from the president and he is there and our correspondent is with us, and skyler, that was an extraordinary news conference. are we likely to see the president again. there was even a suggestion he might continue campaigning in the next few days if we did not have a result. he certainly wants to have some energy there, guys, and what we've seen from the president over the last few hours is significant because of the rhetoric that he has used and he did say that he will ta ke used and he did say that he will take these election results to the court, even though it is unjustified

but we did hear him use the word fraud and a lot of his allies have said that that was a bad political decision. thejoe said that that was a bad political decision. the joe biden said that that was a bad political decision. thejoe biden campaign has responded and say they have a team of lawyers ready to go should this get to the court, so they say it was a naked effort to take away the democratic rights of american citizens, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out, but as far as the us supreme court goes, they cannot count ballots until then and it will be interesting is to see how trump's legal team sway they should get to that point and people in pennsylvania, the officials there, say they hope it does not get to that and they have planned for this and they knew it would take at least a few days in order to calculate the ballots here until election day, so many counties or some counties in the states say they are going to start today and they hope to have some sort of result by friday and that remains to be seen.

how is the white house feeling about the fact that the president did make gains when pollsters were suggesting he would not? this is something the trump campaign has been confident about the entire time. the president and his allies have said time and time again, at least according to some of the poles we were seeing, nationally, so to speak, he felt as though he was a candidate who under cold in a lot of ways and spoke about the silent majority that would come out to support him and also sort of new that he would see this red wave of republican support, on election day, and i think what you saw until this point was a sort of partisan participation in terms of mail—in ballots and a lot of people sending in their in support ofjoe biden, whereas

i thinkjoe i think joe biden i thinkjoe biden will win michigan because of the women's ternet. he will win by several points. a lot of the absentee ballot votes have not been counted. we are not going to have them until at least the end of the day and it may be well into tomorrow. carlos, you were listening tomorrow. carlos, you were listening to that. what is the basic problem

with simply counting all the votes? well, the president did earlier this morning what we expected him to do. he pre—emptively declared victory. he pre—emptively declared victory. he threatened to act, to stop counting of votes throughout the country, despite the fact there are some very country, despite the fact there are some very close country, despite the fact there are some very close races, as many country, despite the fact there are some very close races, as many of our friends throughout the world now here in the united states we have for free different —— 50 different electoral systems. we need all of that to play out in order to declare a winner. so you think it is premature what he did? that's right. whether the winner is donald trump orjoe biden, whether the winner is donald trump or joe biden, they whether the winner is donald trump orjoe biden, they will both benefit from a thorough and transparent process. that is what every public leader in the united states and media outlets here should be calling. debbie dingle, when the president says this is a fraud on the american public, how ugly do you think this could get?”

the american public, how ugly do you think this could get? i think carlos was eloquent in how he stated what we need to do. and i think at this point in time all of us, the house members and these senate members, need to call for calm, for peace, for counting every vote, and making sure that every american's vote is counted in —— and matters. a lot of us, cardus and i are in total agreement with this, going to try to keep people calm, wait to see what the results are and, as an elected official who tries to bring people together, respect each other, bring stability back, i am going to try to make sure that we don't see this descend into ugliness and that we work together to make sure we know what every vote was and that each is counted and everybody is treated

with decency, integrity and respect. the former national security adviser was talking a couple of days ago and saying it was a fraud but a fraud perpetrated by the president on the american people and there was no evidence of any electoral fraud and all of the votes needed to be counted and it was interesting what you said in my previous question becausejohn you said in my previous question because john bolton you said in my previous question becausejohn bolton also made the point that the party must not become enablers of the president and more members of the republican party need to speak out and say something basic in election, and that is count the votes. the burden is on the republicans, especially congressional republicans to reassure the country and to tell their constituents and everyone else that every vote must be counted before a winner is declared and i'm

sure the president is anxious, like so sure the president is anxious, like so many americans are anxious, but we have a process in this country and we have institutions in those institutions are more important than who wins the election and for the president it's really never been that way, he is highly competitive and will always say and act in the way that will lead to the outcome that he prefers and even though he is the most powerful person in this country right now, we have to follow our rules, do what is right and if he wins, he will be the beneficiary of that transparent and thorough process , of that transparent and thorough process, just like if former vice president biden wins, he will be the beneficiary and the result should be what matters and as debbie said, eve ryo ne what matters and as debbie said, everyone took the time and made the effort to cast a ballot in this country under extraordinary circumstances and their time and voices should be honoured. carlos

referred to the extraordinary circumstances. given how close it is in all of the battle ground states, do you have any regrets aboutjoe biden's very cautious campaign because of coronavirus? no, i don't. coronavirus doesn't care if you are a republican or democrat or if you are ina a republican or democrat or if you are in a blue state or red state, andl are in a blue state or red state, and i think i'm just trying to keep as many people as safe as possible, so as many people as safe as possible, so coronavirus is a challenge to all of us and many of my congressional friends in the republican party have the same kind of challenges that we do in the democratic party and i'm not going to start counter acting the race until it has been called. i said it was closer in michigan last week, democrats got upset at me saying that but right now i want to keep as many people as possible from getting coronavirus and i don't want any more people to die and i want

our democracy to thrive. we have some really tough, challenging days ahead of us and one of the things that worries me more than anything is how divided this country as and election night is showing some of that and i want to work with carlos on both sides of the aisle, so we can really work on some common problems that we know everybody has, to try and get common ground. when we have strong disagreements on what policy issues should be, we should listen to each other and disagree civilly. i think this country needs. thank you both so much forjoining the bbc after eight to montrose night in american politics. —— a tumultuous night. the latest from wisconsin, and we were staying for a night that we were edging closer and you see in the middle of the screen how close we are, because 99% of the

votes have now been counted with the ten electoral college votes and stilljoe biden is a little way in front, it's tight, butjoe biden front, it's tight, butjoe biden front with 99% of the votes now counted and ten electoral college votes there are up for grabs, and one of those key states and their path to the white house which is a good point to bring in rita once again, and please take us through the paths for the two candidates. this is the state of play as it stands. joe biden on 22a electoral couege stands. joe biden on 22a electoral college votes, donald trump on 213. they'll bitingly close. the states you can see in grey are the ones still to be decided and it is the case that we might be waiting for some time. we know for example that nevada has suspended counting until

tomorrow afternoon at 5pm uk time, so we tomorrow afternoon at 5pm uk time, so we won't know what has happened there and we know in the north—eastern states like michigan and pennsylvania are taking their time to count the early ballots, the postal votes, so it might be some time before we know what is happening there. let's take a close look at pennsylvania, too early to project, as you can see, and donald trump with a healthy lead overjoe biden but take a look at this. still a quarter of all of the votes to be counted, about 1.7 million votes and they include the votes from big cities like philadelphia and pittsburgh which are going to be democratic leaning, so expect that gap between the two candidates to shrink quite significantly over time how does each person gained the keys to the white house? well, let's plot a route for the challenger, joe biden and i will use my blue pen and

assume that he retains nevada, which was democratic last time round and let us also assume that he gets three electoral college votes from maine. the democrats are optimistic about arizona which would give them 11 electoral college votes and there are swings towards the democrats, small swings, but swings nonetheless in wisconsin and also in michigan, and if that were to happen, that getsjoe biden to the magic 270 which is what he needs to get to the white house. let me take you back to the state of play and do the same thing for donald trump. this time using the red pen. conversely, for this scenario, let's assume that donald trump does succeed in keeping arizona and that he also retains georgia and north carolina for the republicans and you can see it takes into 255 votes, short by 15 of

winning, and if we then see if he wins pennsylvania, that takes him over the magic lying to 275, but he does need to win pennsylvania —— the magic line. it's been said many times during the campaign that pennsylvania is probably key to the election and it does look as though it probably is. thanks very much. it is 730 in the morning on the east coast of america, 730 in philadelphia in the key state of pennsylvania and there they are, counting votes and we still don't have a result. they had a huge numberof have a result. they had a huge number of absentee ballots there and under pennsylvania law they could not even start to certify them until yesterday, so it will be a while until we get the results there but the 20 electoral votes in the couege the 20 electoral votes in the college really are sought by donald trump who is defending the state,

and joe biden, so trump who is defending the state, andjoe biden, so we trump who is defending the state, and joe biden, so we are really on tenterhooks this morning with pennsylvania just another one of those states awaiting, but pretty soon we those states awaiting, but pretty soon we think we could get a result in wisconsin. it looks like we are almost at that point from wisconsin, and those scenes of pennsylvania will also be absolutely critical. you heard what the president was saying at the white house, saying how far ahead he was and he is obviously trying, and has been saying for months now that he wanted the election to stop on election night. that is what he has repeated there in the white house. we've heard all of the reaction with sources saying that that is unprecedented, but that is the state of play. that is how the president of play. that is how the president of the united states views this as the counting goes on. joining us now to discuss all of this is matt bennett, former white house assistant under bill clinton and also a co—founder of the democratic

think tank, third way. it was bill clinton who built the blue wall in the midwest, but you thinkjoe biden will get it back? i do. given where we are, discussing at length, i think biden will win all three of those formally blue wall states because the democrats had one that every year from 1992 until 2012, including years where we lost the overall election like in 2004 and 2000, so those are generally democratic state and joe biden has been performing very well there and i think been performing very well there and ithink in been performing very well there and i think in the end he will win all three. and if that transpires to be the case, i was listening to the editor of the new yorker a couple of days ago, he was saying that 2016 saw america sitting on the volcano of anger and that is what donald trump had tapped into. if it was to bea trump had tapped into. if it was to be ajoe trump had tapped into. if it was to be a joe biden victory, he was saying that he is an ordinary

politician and he would need to be an extraordinary politician to actually bridge the gap and the divide that currently is in the us. do you think that is fair? i do. i think ofjoe biden wins, and i think the likelihood is will face a congress that is deeply divided and also face a country that is unbelievably divided. i have to confess as a democrat that i was shocked and horrified by what happened yesterday. i expected there to bea happened yesterday. i expected there to be a much stronger response to donald trump, particularly his response to the coronavirus and i was wrong, and i thinkjoe biden is going to need all of the skills he developed in 50 years in politics to manage this incredibly difficult situation. we have to leave it there, because news is developing as we speak. thank you very much for joining us. let's talk to yelled egg hakim. we

have just seen a tweet from a democrat there in wisconsin. he is saying biden has won more votes than any democratic candidate in wisconsin history. is that a formal result? it's not a formal result. as you say, he hasjust tweeted. biden is up in wisconsin by roughly 20,600 votes. that number could wobble a bit. but there is no realistic path for trump to pull ahead. that is ben winkler, the chair of the democratic party here in wisconsin. i spoke to him a few days ago and he told me they were incredibly confident, they knew that wisconsin would always be tight, but they said they had made adjustments over the past four years. and frankly, that they had been campaigning here in wisconsin since 2017, and had been scarred by

the results of the 2016 election and what happened with hillary clinton, we re what happened with hillary clinton, were one of the problems she faced was a voter turnout. in 2016 or donald trump beat hillary clinton by just under 23,000 votes. once we know the official result, and the official result is released, because this is based on 99.9% of votes being counted, once we now officially, it will be even narrower than what happened in 2016. 20,600 votes is what ben wicklow is now saying. fascinating that an area like green bay is what it came down to. green bay is where a lot of the labour is, the workers. it is a rural part of the state and as you remember, that is what donald trump's base was, the white working class. i have been going to his rallies here in wisconsin in recent days and he has really been trying to talk to his base and expand that

base. but if what we are seeing at the moment is correct, it looks like those votes have now slightly turned towards joe those votes have now slightly turned towardsjoe biden those votes have now slightly turned towards joe biden and those votes have now slightly turned towardsjoe biden and he is in the lead here in wisconsin. but as i say, we are still waiting for an official result to be released. we are and the gap is small but it is a significant gap. we have the rules around recounts. just recap what the actual position is, because that perhaps may come into play? actual position is, because that perhaps may come into play7m actual position is, because that perhaps may come into play? it may. and so there is no official recount here in the state of wisconsin. there is no automatic recount, rather. however, if the loser, if it's a rather. however, if the loser, if it'sa margin rather. however, if the loser, if it's a margin of less than 1%, 1% or less, the loser can request a recount. we may see that coming into play the next few days. we knew these sorts of things would happen across the country. certainly here

in wisconsin when we knew it would be so tight, that lawyers were ready and poised. we may see that here in the coming in wisconsin. yalda hakim, thank you very much. joining us now is the president of the not—for—profit organisation. you spent several years co—chairing a commission into citizenship and democracy in america. after this tumultuous night, when the president has said that it is a fraud on the american public and that he is going to go to court, what is your reaction to where we are in the us this morning? well, very troubled to say that i think democracy is in peril. on the other hand i think we've also seen a great outpouring of american citizens participating in our democracy. so we have this paradox of both the threat to democracy and the energy behind democracy. it will be up to the next

president, whoever it turns out to be, to really heal this nation, to undertake a series of reforms to strengthen our democracy, and to nurture a civic empathy to overcome the civic antipathy that currently exists. throughout the last four yea rs exists. throughout the last four years at different stages people have suggested checks and balances in the american system have not been working perhaps as they should. you, in that answer straightaway said that the democratic process is imperilled. what do you mean? well, i think that what's happened is over the course of several decades we have undermined the institutions of democracy through policy changes that were designed to exclude some groups, marginalised groups in american society, from participating, effectively. we have seen participating, effectively. we have seen efforts in the states to suppress the vote. we have an

ongoing racialjustice crisis in this country. and so people have lost faith in the democratic system. democracy is not just a lost faith in the democratic system. democracy is notjust a set lost faith in the democratic system. democracy is not just a set of institutions or processes, it really is, asjohn dewey said, is civic faith. it works to the extent that you believe in it. americans have lost that faith. this is the hard work. you can reform the institutions and create more effective voting systems etc rather easily if you have the political will. at nurturing this culture of civic empathy is much harder work. and that's the work i think lies ahead. stephen, do you think we can have confidence in the independence of the american judiciary, which is about to be tested after president trump has spent four years gleefully appointing conservative justices? well, we are going to find out. i

think it's something that makes many americans, including myself, very nervous. we have seen americans, including myself, very nervous. we have seen the effort to politicise the courts. we have seen the effort to utilise these social media environment to spread misinformation and rumour, to discourage people from participating, from even feeling they have a voice in our democracy. so the independence of these different branches of government has been undermined and the checks and balances that were part of the genius of the american founding have been eroded. a quick final thought. you talked about political will. the difficulty is you have had the president of the united states in recent months undermining the actual integrity of us democracy. so you can see the obvious collision there, can't you ? can see the obvious collision there, can't you? yes, absolutely. it will not be easy to overcome, even if former vice president biden ends up

being the victor in this election, it is going to be a very tough period of years to reinvent american democracy, to make it effective and inclusive and fair and just. and to stand up to the challenges of the zist stand up to the challenges of the 21st century, like a pandemic, climate change or other things that will continue to test us as a nation. thank you very much for joining us. thank you. let's look at how the financial markets have reacted to the uncertainty around the election result. in early trading saw the ftse drop by more than 1% before recovering. let's get more from dharshini david. what is going on? hi, there. yes, millions around the world, just like us, gripped by the twists and turns of this. watching closely what happens in wisconsin and pennsylvania. look at the european markets. fairly calm and quiet session. that is the ftse100.

other european markets. you might wonder if the traders are watching an entirely different channel. not a bit of it. they care deeply because what happens in the american elections will dictate the fate of the american economy, and that dictates the fate of the global economy. however you look at it, american consumer spending makes up more than a tenth of global gdp. what they're buying matters for all the sellers around the globe. and frankly, the traders out there that ona frankly, the traders out there that on a better than 50% chance of a biting wind. they thought that was the best chance of getting a government support package through to boost the economy, boost growth and maybe boost growth around the globe. that is why, when you look at what happened to the american market yesterday, that is how they were looking ahead of this because they we re looking ahead of this because they were pinning their hopes, their expectations, on that. look at what happened over the course of the night. look at what hat has happened with the ftse 100. i night. look at what hat has happened with the ftse100. i can't show you

that right now. but here we go. that is what happened after trump spoke, just before the european markets reopened. we saw a drop. why is that? because it became increasingly clear it was not just a tight contest, is likely to be a fairly protracted one, but also that the result was likely to be contested. the markets were then thinking that perhaps reduces the chance of getting a stimulus package through quickly, and certainly a package that might be as generous as the one they would ideally be looking for. that could dampen down growth and also perhaps have implications for things like inflation as well. and on top of that, that could also mean, of course, less government borrowing. the yields, the interest the government have to offer investors to take their debt, falling quite sharply. if you look at the ftse100, back to that, the european market taking back up over the course of the session. that is

largely because unlike the rest of us, they thought, hang on, this is going to take some time. let's turn our attention to other factors, domestic data, because of course there is the biggest economic shock we have ever there is the biggest economic shock we have ever seen there is the biggest economic shock we have ever seen in our lifetime is going on in the background. we have been digesting all of the data and there is plenty of that around this week. a couple of hours until the american markets reopen. and how are they going to open? at the moment of they going to open? at the moment of the expectations of stock indices, all over the place. they are changing minute by minute. one positive stands out. the nasdaq. that is a tech heavy index. those kind of companies have been pretty resilient in the course of this virus epidemic. they are expected to well regarded is what happens. lots of knives out there. buckle up for a while day ahead when the us markets open. let's get the thoughts of doctors clodagh harrington at de

montford university, and doctored thomas gift at university college london. dr, you first of all, can you see any clear, clean way through this? not quite at the moment, no. i think this is probably the situation that most people would have been dreading. a clear victory in either direction would at least have been decisive and everyone would sort of know where they were and begin to start regrouping and moving forward. the way we are now, with so much up in the air, it's a question of many hours and very likely days before there is a meaningful outcome. and there is a meaningful outcome. and there is a meaningful outcome. and there is obviously the huge concerns about people jumping the gun, not least the president, in calling things too early. i think this has been an absolute lesson in patience and nail—biting, ithink, for many people. dr thomas gift, when you

look at the realignment of american politics, where you now have a rising star, a senator saying that our future is as the working class party, that is republicans, and the suburbs fleeing to joe party, that is republicans, and the suburbs fleeing tojoe biden, what do you make of this split? you are absolutely right that this constitutes a significant realignment in american politics. so i think what we can call trumpism is really to appeal to these working—class voters. it's very much a populist message when that resonates by essentially countering the benefits of free trade, taking a sceptical stance towards globalisation, promising the return of factoryjobs, globalisation, promising the return of factory jobs, manufacturing jobs and so on. so the republican party really has gone after these voters and they have been quite effective. if we saw one thing from last night is that donald trump's base is much largerand is that donald trump's base is much

larger and more mobilised. is that donald trump's base is much largerand more mobilised. certainly if nothing else he outperformed expectations significantly. clodagh harrington, let me bring you back in. iwant harrington, let me bring you back in. i want to put on the screen what the uk foreign secretary has said in the uk foreign secretary has said in the last little while, because he said, "we need to be patient and wait and see who wins. importantly processes given sufficient time to reach a conclusion." he then goes on to side out... what should foreign capital, foreign governments be doing, given that it hasn't been called, apart from donald trump itself, in the white house? i think they should be waiting patiently and withholding any meaningful comments and staying away from twitter for the time

being, because this is, you know, america is a wonderful, robust, sta ble america is a wonderful, robust, stable democracy that has taken, you know a lot of challenges on the chin along the way. and come out always, you know, a better and stronger country for it. they say is, in my opinion, one of those moments. but certainly with the president speaking in the way that he has in re ce nt speaking in the way that he has in recent hours, and tweeting on the way that he has, it's difficult for others to maintain, i think, patience and caution when it's not being demonstrated by, you know, some participants. but i would say, yes, a watch and wait strategy is the only way to go. is that now the challenge forjoe biden, to stay calm and insist all the votes are counted? i think that has been his approach so far and it will continue to be so. depending on what tactics donald trump tends to employ, that

could evoke a response or a counter response from joe biden. at this point he just has to let the electoral process play through. the united states election system is strong, its rule base, it is largely governed at the state and local level, with proper oversight. and so lam level, with proper oversight. and so i am confident that these ballots, which deserve to be looked at, will be looked at. and so from biden because 's perspective, i think his best strategy is to kind of take a wait and see approach on how this gets resolved without going through the adjudication process in the courts. thank you both so much for joining us. let's talk to patrick murray, the director of the monmouth university holding institute. you have been watching the results as they have been unfolding in the united states. so many pollsters scarred from 2016. looks like a little more scarring? yes, i think

there were a lot of expectations not met. it is notjust the public pollsters. the pollsters hired by the campaigns had the same picture. it raises some question, notjust about pulling itself but also how we are conducting our elections. having said that, there are still a lot of votes yet to be counted. that's why when we are looking at some of the key states, like wisconsin and michigan, pennsylvania in particular, george as well, there are a lot of democratic votes yet to be counted, also a lot of the heavily democratic states that are big like california and new york, which means that joe big like california and new york, which means thatjoe biden is going to build on his overall lead here, particularly in the popular vote. the polls will be closer to that. but the expectation that, particularly in north carolina and florida and these southern states, that the election would have been a least a little bit closer, joe biden would have been ahead by a little bit in some of the states, was not met. we still might end up with a

joe biden victory. but i think the key is we did tell people to prepare for this, that it was going to be a long count because of the postal balloting system that we have state— by—state, it's so balloting system that we have state—by—state, it's so different that it will take a while to count these results. but we may still get close to something like the electoral college result we thought we we re electoral college result we thought we were going to have. patrick, the trump campaign has been telling me forfour trump campaign has been telling me for four years that there are people out there who didn't vote for donald trump in 2016 but were going to turn out next time he was on the ballot. is that what happened and whilst that undetected by pollsters? right, it happened on both sides. there we re it happened on both sides. there were new voters looking out for biden and trump. it doesn't appear to be what we missed. we are not exactly sure what we miss. there are some odd voting patterns. for example, if you look at the state of florida, the poles were pretty right on the money, except around miami

where there was a different dynamic play. that is where the pollsters missed. there are things that have to do with donald trump. we had a midterm election two years ago in which we took our lessons from 2016, plied them and did a pretty good job. but it seems whenever donald trump's name is on the ballot, all bets are off as far as polling is concerned. i was listening to one democrat pollster was saying that actually, possibly what we are seeing is a slow motion blue wave. so you have that view. you also have the president trying to short the whole process. the two things are really problematic together, aren't they? right. and that's why. we know there are a lot of votes to be counted. we know it is mostly for joe biden. in some cases it doesn't matter, such as california, where he has already won. but he is going to build on his margin because of that. there are places like pennsylvania where the president doesn't want the vote counted because it will probably flip the lead from him to

joe biden. patrick, something similar happened in 2018 whereby halfway through the night democrats we re halfway through the night democrats were freaking out, my gosh, we are not going to take the house, i'm getting all of the tight races, they pretty much prevailed. is it really just the fact we are counting the votes so differently this time? and if it was a more regular election we could have had a result by now, which perhaps would have been vaguely in line with the poles?m could be. i remember sitting and watching the numbers coming in and working for one of the networks over here on their decision does, and looking at the florida numbers and everybody thinking the democrats are not going to do well, and suddenly later in the night, the democrats to do well. now it doesn't look like that way because we are looking at the congressional races for the senate and house of representatives, where the democrats seem to be underperforming. however, could be a surprise when maybe these networks

called these races to early. it is because of how unusual this post election is this year. in terms of the figures you have seen, in any of the figures you have seen, in any of the states, in any of the key demographics, has there been anything that is simply surprised you? well, the one thing we saw going into this was that joe biden had an unusual lead among senior voters, pensioners over here, aged 65 and older, which usually vote republican. but the opinion polls showed joe biden had a lead among this group. we thought we were going to have an idea: the election. i saw some on my own polling. a swing towards trump on this group in the la st towards trump on this group in the last week and a half to two weeks. and sure enough our exit polls from the election are suggesting thatjoe biden, while he did better than many

democrats have done with senior voters, he did not win them out right, which is what our expectation was. that was a big surprise. patrick murray, thank you very much. thank you. my pleasure. we are going to go over to reeta chakrabarti, who has more news on wisconsin and pennsylvania. yes indeed. we always knew the rust belt states in the north—east were going to be key in this election and how. let's take a closer focused look at two of them, wisconsin and pennsylvania. still to get a result in either of them, although much further down the line in wisconsin, the vast majority of votes having been counted, there are just over 30,000 votes still to be counted. different story and pennsylvania. about a quarter of the votes still to be counted. 1.7 million. most of them in the two big cities of pittsburgh and philadelphia. really interesting to look at the swings in

both of these states of 0.9 in wisconsin and 1.3 and pennsylvania. that is from the republicans to the democrats. now what's so fascinating is that in order to win both these states, joe biden needed a 0.a% swing. so on these figures the democrats could be feeling pretty confident. last time donald trump won these estates on a real sliver ofa won these estates on a real sliver of a vote. other interesting things to note. pennsylvania is a state thatjoe biden is a strong link to, he was born there, he was raised there for the first part of his childhood, and pennsylvania, although it has been trending in a sense demographically away from the democrats, there is a higher proportion of white voters, fewer black or latino voters than in the us average, it does look as if, at the moment on these figures, it looks as if the democrats have got the edge.

reeta chakra barti, thank the edge. reeta chakrabarti, thank you for that. already there is talk about potential legal challenges from both parties. let's talk to a lawyer and legal expert. we heard what the president had to say. i was listening to republican election experts talking about the amount of days they could keep counting these ballots, also talking about illegal electioneering in the polling booths, also talking about powering election observers. there could be multiple grounds in terms of some of these legal actions, couldn't there? yeah, we have seen this leading up to the election, hundreds of challenges across the country. basically it boils down to republicans challenging greater access to the polls, challenging the legitimacy of particular ballots, people on the democratic side wanting to open the voting in the

pandemic. and kim, do you expect this will go to the supreme court as the president says? what would even be his rationale? he says, we want to stop the voting. no, i don't think so, laura. there are so many hurdles that have to be overcome. including finding a plaintive. an injury thatjustifies including finding a plaintive. an injury that justifies going to court. there has to be, in one of these swing states, is slim enough margin to basically show that if you could do a recount or challenge a ballot, it could make an impact and actually help that injury, for example. it would have to be expedited to the court by the 8th of december, which is the date for states to change the way they can actually count electoral votes, and of course amy coney barrett, the new justice, she could recuse herself, which i think she should come from an ethical point of view for the good of the country. there are a lot of needles that need to be threaded.

the good news is this election so far has functioned and we will probably have the old—fashioned way, we will have a president as long as we will have a president as long as we wait to count the ballots. there is no law anywhere in the country that says you arbitrarily stop counting ballot —— validly cast ballots. that is made up by the president. like some of these other pieces of misinformation it is not going to work to keep him in office. exactly going to work to keep him in office. exa ctly o n going to work to keep him in office. exactly on that point, because the president effectively said he wants the counting to stop now. we heard from joe biden saying every ballot should be counted. is there any sort of way that somehow the counting can suddenly stop? the courts intervene and stop the voting? no, i did a piece yesterday in the atlantic on this. i called it the cinderella rule. there is no stroke of midnight that all of a sudden you stop counting ballots. there is a rule in some states where, if the ballot was post—part by the third, you can

count those ballots afterwards. other states it has to be literally received by the election officials. in those states where you can't count any ballots that were postmarkbut received after the third, that is where they might be some trick in terms of 0k, third, that is where they might be some trick in terms of ok, when did the election officials actually received a ballot? but there are good auditing mechanisms in each state, so i don't think that is going to tip the balance. i think they know how to do that. the president can't all of a sudden say, it's illegal, regardless of state law, to count ballots post part prior to the third. kim, you are an author on the book in the constitution. as a constitutional scholar and an american, is the system working as it should? you know, laura, i've been in so worried about this. there are many things that need to change in our system. we need to say same —— see same—day

registration, we need to see automatic registration when people turn 16 etc. we need more funding for these dates. we need to see reforms to the electoral college. the american people came out in d roves the american people came out in droves ina the american people came out in droves in a pandemic. they didn't listen to the false information. and our people on the front lines in the election, officials as well as poll workers, the front lines of democracy are doing theirjobs. as much as this is an anxiety ridden moment, as a constitutional scholar lam moment, as a constitutional scholar i am relieved to see, we didn't see violence yesterday, we didn't see long lines, we didn't see randomly closed polling stations, we didn't see any sort of system completely go down through hacking. i think that is something to feel positive about in this moment for american democracy is so fragile. kim, we have to leave it there we have only got about 30 seconds left in our programme. thank you so much. that is about eight from this section of the results programme. thanks from laura in washington, who has taken us through the last few hours. it

has been an extraordinary couple of hours. thanks to reeta chakrabarti in the studio with me. we will leave you with some of the key moments so far of you with some of the key moments so farof us you with some of the key moments so far of us 2020. have a look at this. this is a fraud on the american public. this is an embarrassment to our country. we were getting ready to win this election. frankly, we did win this election. leave the area. we are going to have to be patient until the hard work of tallying votes is finished. and it ain't over

until every vote is counted, every ballot is counted.

no winner yet in the us presidential election. both sides are predicting a victory with the result in key states on a knife edge. joe biden has told supporters he's still on track to win the white house. donald trump has claimed victory even though millions of votes are still being counted. this is an embarrassment to our country. we were getting ready to win this election. frankly, we did win this election. we are going to have to be patient until the hard work of tallying the votes has finished. and it ain't over until every vote is counted, every ballot is counted. president trump says he's ready to launch a supreme court challenge