Elections

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Donald Trump’s campaign has filed a slew of last-ditch lawsuits this week in what seems to be a clear effort to try to drag out vote counting and create a cloud of uncertainty over an election he is on the verge of losing. But legal experts have noted that the lawsuits appear to be long shots and even if successful, they would not change the outcome of the race.
The Trump campaign is taking legal action in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Nevada – all battleground states Trump has either lost (such as the state of Michigan) or faces a tough fight to win. In each case, his campaign has loudly trumpeted the filings of suits with allegations that include counting late-arriving ballots, campaign observers not having adequate access to poll counting, and invalid votes being tabulated.
So far, the legal battle is not going well. The Trump campaign lost two suits on Thursday in Michigan and Georgia.
“They all seem to have no merit whatsoever,” said Joshua Douglas, a law professor at the University of Kentucky who focuses on elections. “I think the goal is to sow discord and distrust and undermine the people and the integrity of the election. I think giving them additional air time just plays into that theory.”
Trump has repeatedly called for halting the vote counting process as Joe Biden continues to close in on Trump’s vote totals in Pennsylvania and Georgia. The totals are shifting because Democrats overwhelmingly voted by mail. Counting those votes can take longer than processing in-person votes because election officials have to verify information on ballot envelopes and then physically remove them from their envelopes before they are counted. In Pennsylvania, officials were prohibited by state law from starting to count ballots until election day, leading to a lengthy count.
On Thursday, Trump’s campaign also announced a suit in Nevada over alleged irregular votes, but it offered no concrete evidence for its claims. The campaign also lost in two of the suits it filed. In Georgia, a judge dismissed a case in Chatham county in which the campaign alleged 53 ballots that missed the deadline to be counted were mingled with valid ballots (the campaign did not have evidence the small group of ballots actually arrived late and election officials testified the ballots arrived on time).
In Michigan, a judge dismissed a suit from the campaign that alleged poll observers were not being given “meaningful access” to ballot counting and that campaign observers should be given recorded video footage of drop boxes. The judge said there was not a legal basis requiring officials to turn over surveillance footage and that the state had already issued an order requiring observer access, according to the Detroit Free Press. The judge also said officials had already completed counting, so the request was moot.
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“It could be reflex. On most people, if you hit their patellar tendon with a small rubber mallet, you get a knee jerk. With Trump, it’s possible that if you hit his patellar tendon with a small rubber mallet, you get a lawsuit,” said Justin Levitt, a law professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
“It could be a misguided sense that this sort of litigation will cast enough doubt on the election process that it somehow ends up in a declaration by the courts that undoes the will of the people (in the event that the count doesn’t go his way),” he added. “I think there are a lot of missing steps between filing a lawsuit and that final declaration.”
Bob Bauer, a top election attorney for Joe Biden’s campaign, told reporters Trump’s suits were part of an effort to “create an opportunity for them to message falsely about what’s taking place in the electoral process”.
Republicans on Thursday also withdrew a case challenging how certain mail-in ballots were handled in a suburban Philadelphia county. The case appeared focused on just 98 votes, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, and Republicans appeared poised to lose.
Losses aside, the Trump campaign did secure an order in Philadelphia allowing observers to get closer to workers counting ballots. The decision led to a dramatic appearance by two top Trump campaign surrogates, Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general, and Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s former campaign manager.
Standing in front of Trump supporters waving campaign flags and holding signs that said “voting ends on election day”, the two held up a printed copy of the order and announced they were going inside for access. Counting in the convention center briefly stopped while election officials figured out how to accommodate the order, then resumed, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Despite lack of evidence, the messaging has hit home with some Trump supporters, who have been showing up to demonstrations at election centers across the country. One of the supporters standing outside the convention center was Elio Forcina, who traveled to Philadelphia from New York City and said he didn’t trust the local elections officials to conduct an accurate count. (There’s no evidence of fraud and officials have not reported irregularities.)
“There’s no way of actually counting whether or not the mail-in votes are correct,” he said, even though officials have numerous procedures in place to verify ballots.
Philadelphia officials appealed the observer decision to the state supreme court and the Trump campaign later filed a separate suit in federal court alleging they were still being denied access and asking a judge to enforce the order. But in court, a lawyer for the campaign admitted that observers had been granted access, prompting the judge to reportedly ask: “I’m sorry, then what’s your problem?”
Douglas noted that even if the Trump campaign won its effort to increase observer access to the count, there still was not evidence of fraud or wrongdoing.
“That’s great to have people observing the process. If it took a court order to have that kind of transparency, OK,” said Douglas. “That doesn’t mean there’s something nefarious going on that we should be concerned about.” More

There are several reasons presidents cry. Anyone who has ever had one and been up half the night with it – or all the night with it, night after night – can tell you this. Sometimes presidents cry because they’re tired, sometimes they cry because they need their nappy changed, sometimes they cry because they don’t want you to leave them, sometimes they cry because they have a gnawing pain in their tummy, and sometimes they cry because they’re just being impossible that day and you should probably go to bed and leave them to it but somehow you just can’t.To anyone going through it currently: this phase will pass. Of course, a crying president demands incredible amounts of attention, and while you’re in the thick of it, consumed by this, it may feel like it will never stop, or at least you won’t make it out. There are many moments in the small hours where you stare at this crying thing and think wryly: wow, what happened to my life? I think I vaguely remember when it wasn’t like this.The television news – I like to think of it as the president monitor, lighting up each time he needs attention – has been on what feels like pretty much constantly in our house since 2016, the year that Trump won (and the UK began its own extended period of toddler meltdown). A child’s formative years are so precious, and I’m sure our children will benefit enormously from all the times I’ve said “Shhhh, I’m watching the president,” or occasionally even been forced to momentarily stop watching the president to deliver a behavioural verdict. “I know why you’re acting up – it’s to get my attention away from the president acting up. Well, it won’t work.”Everyone has their parenting gurus – as a realist, I follow the Philip Larkin model. And it is typical of the parenting in our house that we, hugely belatedly, started thinking not that we should switch the president monitor off – don’t be ridiculous! – but more along the lines of: should we … maybe say something?Anyway, after a while we did. We said stuff to them like “We should probably mention that this isn’t normal – at least, it didn’t used to be. I mean, I know it’s pretty much all the news you’ve ever known in your short and possibly already terminally disillusioned lives. But seriously, in the not-all-that-olden times, you could go DAYS without particularly thinking about politics. Longer!” Eventually we wondered if saying “This isn’t normal” was even accurate. All our children are under 10. Technically, it was kind of normal.Even in this golden age of TV it was the biggest show on air, and frequently inspired us to seek out other family content. Really, it was impossible not to watch the president’s rosebud anus mouth puckering up and screaming at some rally, and not ask one another: “I wonder if the children would enjoy Rosemary’s Baby? Go on one of those parenting websites and see whether it honestly merits its 18 certificate. Come on – it was made in the late 60s – these days even the news is scarier! Which reminds me: can you just put on the news? He’s about to have one of his moments in the Rose Garden, and we should watch the full horror show as a family.”As time wore even further on, we would remark mildly to the children: “Sorry about [expansively vague gesture] all THIS. As with all the worst stuff in the world, I’m afraid adults did this. Will it get fixed? Hopefully! If adults don’t fix it pretty quick, they’ll fairly soon be moving on to the phase where they bend down and pat your head and say: ‘Hey guys, we need your generation to grow up and fix all this!’ That is really the worst, and you SHOULD in fact be outraged that people like that somehow have the power to say to you ‘Go to bed’ or ‘Right, I’m taking away the iPad.’”But now, this. After four years, we have FINALLY moved on to much, much safer cautionary tale territory – because now the president is really just crying. For parents of small children, and also for anyone who has ever seen a small child behave badly in the supermarket or the street, the thing we are watching on TV now is extremely, totally, instantly recognisable even to the very young. The big orange guy is angry because it is not his turn any more. He is being a Bad Loser. Look at him! Someone should stop him. Yes, I agree with you he needs a punishment for this behaviour. Yes, no iPad would be a start.I remember the huge excitement of being got out of bed as a child for major news events on the basis that, “This is history.” Yet watching Trump have his meltdown on Thursday night, I didn’t exactly feel inspired to get the children out of bed for it. They could watch the giant baby in the morning. We are finally, just about, near the point where it isn’t history. It is just histrionics.• Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnist More

El 4 de noviembre, Estados Unidos despertó con la noticia de que a una considerable porción de los latinos les agrada el presidente Donald Trump lo suficiente como para ayudarlo a asegurar la victoria en Florida. Además, una encuesta de salida de CNN indicó que Trump obtuvo más votos de latinos en varios otros estados clave en comparación con las cifras obtenidas en las elecciones de 2016.Muchas personas se sorprendieron, pero no debería haber sido así. En 1984, el 37 por ciento de los latinos votaron por el republicano Ronald Reagan; el 40 por ciento votó por George W. Bush, también republicano, en 2004. Sería fácil minimizar esto con los argumentos de que son votantes que se odian a sí mismos o que son racistas. Esa es, sin embargo, una forma simplista de ver a este grupo demográfico tan diverso y complejo.La razón por la que el “voto latino” desconcierta es porque no existe, así como tampoco existen los “temas latinos”. Si queremos entender cómo votan los latinos, debemos comenzar por retirar la palabra “latino” por completo, y tal vez también la de “hispano”, un término usado por primera vez por el gobierno de Estados Unidos en el censo de 1970 basado exclusivamente en el idioma nativo de los colonizadores europeos que conquistaron el continente americano. Estas etiquetas han servido solo para reducirnos a una caricatura bidimensional: la de pobres inmigrantes morenos que siempre votan por los demócratas.Los latinos, como todos los estadounidenses, están motivados por los temas que les afectan directamente. Dichos temas pueden variar a partir de factores como nuestra religión, donde nos criamos, si somos la primera generación o nuestros ancestros vivieron en Norteamérica mucho antes de que Estados Unidos existiera. Muchos demócratas actúan como si a los latinos solo les importara la política migratoria. De hecho, una encuesta reciente realizada por UnidosUS, una organización de apoyo y defensa, y Latino Decisions, una firma de encuestas e investigación, reveló que los latinos muestran más preocupación por el empleo y la economía.Periodistas y comentaristas que han pasado algún tiempo en Latinoamérica o han entrevistado a algunos hispanohablantes (y por ello ahora se consideran expertos) han sugerido que el machismo, así como un deseo de estar más cerca de lo blanco, es lo que motivó a estos votantes a apoyar al hombre que prometió construir un muro para evitar el ingreso de las caravanas de personas morenas que hablan español. Eso puede ser cierto, pero está lejos de ser la historia completa.Yo soy una cubanaestadounidense de Miami y no estoy sorprendida de que alrededor del 52 por ciento de los cubanoestadounidenses de Florida hayan votado por Trump. Nadie que haya prestado atención podría estar sorprendido. En las semanas previas a la elección, los cubanos en Miami compusieron una canción de salsa en apoyo a Trump y organizaron caravanas pro-Trump que formaban filas de cientos de autos.Puede sonar ridículo, pero algunos de estos electores temen de manera genuina al socialismo y él supo aprovechar ese miedo. “Nunca seremos un país socialista”, prometió. Entendió que, para los cubanos y venezolanos, esa palabra es un recuerdo de los gobiernos disfuncionales que dejaron atrás.No les importó tanto que las sanciones que Trump impuso a Venezuela no tuvieran ningún efecto para derrocar al dictador opresivo ni que retroceder en partes del deshielo de las relaciones con Cuba iniciado por el expresidente Barack Obama solo haya dificultado las cosas para familias como la mía en la isla. Les importó que Trump cumplió sus promesas.Cumplió su promesa también en los tribunales. Los tres jueces conservadores que nominó es muy probable que fueran importantes para los latinos evangélicos del centro de Florida, a quienes les preocupan profundamente temas como el aborto. A cambio, muchos de esos votantes, al igual que otros, decidieron ignorar la moral cuestionable de Trump o sus tendencias autocráticas.Aunque muchos cubanoestadounidenses se benefician de la Ley de Atención Médica Asequible, muchos también son propietarios de pequeños negocios o trabajan en ellos. Celebraron la eliminación del gobierno de Trump del requerimiento de Obamacare de que la mayoría de los estadounidenses tengan seguro de gastos médicos o paguen una multa. Michael Binder, un encuestador de la Universidad del Norte de Florida, destacó que a los dueños de negocios les gustó el mensaje de Trump de que la pandemia de coronavirus estaba “a punto de terminar”.Proteger tus intereses es individualismo estadounidense clásico.Finalmente, tal vez parte del atractivo de un líder como Trump es que se siente como una figura familiar. Estaba analizando los resultados con Ariana Diaz, una amiga venezolana que vive en Estados Unidos, el día después de la elección. “Venimos de un lugar donde no ha habido una democracia que funcione en por lo menos veinte años”, dijo. Se preguntó si tal vez esa es la razón por la cual los votantes venezolanos eran más susceptibles a su mensaje. No son los únicos. Muchas personas que vivieron gobiernos brutalmente impuestos en Centroamérica durante la década de los ochenta votan por los republicanos y consideran a Reagan un héroe.Los votantes mexicoestadounidenses en el condado de Zapata, en Texas, también ayudaron a Trump a conservar el estado. Sin embargo, por supuesto que muchos de los llamados latinos votaron por Biden. En Wisconsin y Nuevo México, le ayudaron a ganar. Con el conteo de los votos todavía inconcluso, los activistas y las organizaciones políticas comunitarias latinas también podrían ayudarle a ganar Nevada y Arizona.No obstante, Biden invirtió poco tiempo y recursos para ganarse a los electores latinos. Esto tampoco es nuevo. La mayoría de las campañas buscan nuestro voto solo cada dos o cuatro años. Asumen que todos hablamos español, somos idénticos y votamos por el mismo partido. Solo un candidato al Senado, Ben Ray Luján, un demócrata que ganó su contienda para el Senado de Estados Unidos por Nuevo México, tuvo un coordinador de campaña o consultores latinos, de acuerdo con el consultor político Chuck Rocha.Esto no se trata solo de cómo los políticos seducen a algunos votantes mientras dan por sentados a otros; también se trata de cómo los medios informativos ven y reportan a estos grupos. En un evento social hace algunos años, una colega periodista me presentó ante un amigo como alguien que había ascendido de conserje a periodista autodidacta y candidata a una maestría. Sin embargo, nunca fui conserje. Es como si a ella le hubiera impactado que alguien como yo pudiera hacer otra cosa que no fuera limpiar.El lenguaje que la sociedad usa no solo moldea la narrativa nacional, sino que también nos asigna una identidad independiente de quienes somos. “Audre Lorde dijo que las herramientas del amo nunca desarmarán la casa del amo”, me dijo Nathalie Nieves, la presidenta de la división de Nueva York de la Asociación Nacional de Periodistas Hispanos. “Una de esas herramientas incluye el idioma y la forma en que los medios continúan refiriéndose a nosotros como latinos o hispanos”.Tengo que confesar que me enteré de que era latina apenas hace unos años. Todavía no sé qué significa eso. Durante mi infancia y adolescencia me consideraba cubana o tal vez caribeña. Tiempo después, me convertí en ciudadana y, por ende, en cubanaestadounidense. En la actualidad, me considero estadounidense.No me queda muy bien la etiqueta de “latina” que otros desean ponerme. Aunque mi cultura puede ser un prisma a través del cual veo al mundo, no garantiza que me identificaré con los otros cubanoestadounidenses ni que votaré de manera similar a ellos, ni qué decir respecto a otros latinos. Trump entendió eso. Tengo la esperanza de que los demócratas también lo entiendan ahora.Isvett Verde (@isvettverde) es editora de la sección de Opinión de The New York Times. More

Joe Biden almost dropped out of the race to become the Democratic presidential nominee this year after several disappointing results in early voting states – until Black voters in South Carolina delivered him a resounding win.And while the race between Biden and Donald Trump remained too close to call on Thursday evening, it appears Black Americans once again stepped up to give the Democrat the backbone of his support, especially in key battleground states including Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.Record turnout among African American voters could be the difference between a Biden win and a Biden loss.“What we’re all re-learning, both the pundits in DC and uninspired Black voters, is the value of our net worth when we show up at the ballot box,” said Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist in South Carolina. “Even when we’re suppressed, depressed, or misinformed, we still show up.”Even when we’re suppressed, we still show upAccording to exit poll data, Black voters overwhelmingly backed the Democratic candidate by a margin of 87% to Donald Trump’s 12%. But Seawright had “been saying Black voters will decide the election since 2017”, last predicting South Carolina’s loyal Black moderates would propel Biden to victory in the state’s February Democratic primary.With ballots still being counted, mail-in or absentee ballots from Democratic-leaning counties, most with large Black populations, are likely to be the deciding factor in who becomes the next US president, amplifying the power of the Black electorate.Analysts pinpoint a surge in turnout among young people of all races, but especially Black Americans.Early voting data already showed young people turning out in record numbers, and with four in 10 eligible Black voters being millennials or from generation Z, the push in urban centers like Philadelphia, Atlanta and Detroit was critical for Biden.“Every major movement in this country has been fueled by young people and Black people on the frontlines defining what change looks like,” Seawright said. “This election is going to be defined as a movement election for the American experiment.”As racial justice protests ignited throughout the country this summer after the killing of George Floyd by police in Minnesota in May – then accelerated with the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August – Americans took sides divided mostly along racial lines. More

Key events

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9.39pm EST21:39
Georgia is a virtual tie

9.18pm EST21:18
Trump lead in Georgia and Pennsylvania shrinks

9.09pm EST21:09
Biden’s lead in Arizona shrinks further as Maricopa county releases more results

8.32pm EST20:32
Steve Bannon suspended from Twitter, faces YouTube removal after urging violence against US officials

8.20pm EST20:20
Federal judge denies Trump motion to stop counting votes in Philadelphia

8.01pm EST20:01
When will we know the US election result?

7.58pm EST19:58
Welcome to the Guardian’s live election coverage

Live feed

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9.59pm EST21:59

On Fox News, the Republican senators Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz have been spreading the president’s false narrative that the election is being stolen from him.
Cruz, a Republican of Texas, baselessly alleged – as the president has done – that election officials are “finding” votes. In fact, they are counting votes. “Whenever they shut the doors and turn out the light they always find more Democratic votes,” Cruz said.
Cruz and Fox News’ Sean Hannity wrongly claimed that Republican observers were not allowed to watch the counting. The Trump campaign’s own lawyer admitted in a federal court that Republican observers were given access, as my colleague Sam Levine pointed out earlier today:

Sam Levine
(@srl)
The issue with observers in Philadelphia is over how close observers can get, not whether they are allowed into facility. Trump attorney just conceded in federal court the campaign has access. https://t.co/MaHCRybtRW

November 5, 2020

Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator of South Carolina, told Hannity, “I trust Arizona, I don’t trust Philadelphia.” While Trump is closing the gap in Arizona, he’s losing ground in Pennsylvania as officials in both states continue to count ballots.

9.58pm EST21:58

Sam Levin

Update on Steve Bannon, the former Trump adviser who called for violence against US officials:
A spokesperson for YouTube told the Guardian the video was removed for “violating our policy against inciting violence”, and that the account received a “strike”. (After three strikes, it would be terminated.)
Bannon is also banned from uploading new content for at least a week. Alex Joseph, the YouTube spokesperson, added, “We will continue to be vigilant as we enforce our policies in the post-election period.” Twitter permanently suspended his account.
Read more on Bannon:

Updated
at 10.02pm EST

9.57pm EST21:57

Oliver Laughland reports from Florida:
I was in Miami, at an impromptu rally organized by the Republican National Hispanic Assembly of Florida when Donald Trump delivered his White House remarks.
The rally was one of four “Stop the Biden Steel” events being held simultaneously in the state (a reference to baseless claims of voter fraud perpetuated by the president), and counted about 150 Trump supporters lined up in a car park by a roadside restaurant. Organizers placed a large speaker on the back of a truck, nestled by a yellow sign that read: “Stop Fraud”. Attendees listened, almost silently, as Trump espoused baseless claims in an attempt to undermine the outcome of the election.
“Four more years!” They chanted after Trump finished.
Shortly after the speech, Enrique Tarrio, chairman of the Proud Boys and state director of Latinos for Trump, addressed the crowd, pushing more baseless conspiracies about the election. The Proud Boys are a far right organization with links to white supremacy.
“I want to ask you guys to stay in these streets,” he told the crowd after informing them he was traveling to Michigan on Friday, a state that has been a hotbed of militia activity in recent months. He then led the crowd in a chant of “Whose streets? Our streets!” – a common refrain of street protests around the world.
In a short interview with the Guardian afterwards, he labelled this reporter “fake news” and continued to push baseless allegations of election fraud.

9.49pm EST21:49

There are about 250,000 ballots left to count in Pennsylvania.
Biden is trailing by just under 49,000 votes. He’s been winning the mail-in ballot counts by huge margins, and could very well take the state.
Pennsylvania backed Trump in the 2016 presidential election, but voted for the Democratic candidate in 2012, 2008, 2004 and 2000. Trump needs the state’s 20 electoral votes to win.

Updated
at 9.57pm EST

9.39pm EST21:39

Georgia is a virtual tie

Trump is ahead by just 1,902 votes. The two candidates are tied at 49.4% each. More

Joe Biden urged calm across the US on Thursday night as he held on to a lead against Donald Trump that brought the Democratic challenger tantalisingly close to the presidency – even as votes were still being counted in a handful of critical states.
Facing possible defeat after one term, Trump from the White House appeared to dig in for a long fight, falsely claiming: “If you count the legal votes, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us.
“If you count the votes that came in late, we’re looking at them very strongly, a lot of votes came in late,” he said, in a tone that seemed calculated to inflame divisions. There was no evidence that illegal or late votes were being counted, nor that the election was being stolen.
Trump went on to rail against “historic election interference from big media, big money and big tech … The pollsters got it knowingly wrong.”
Biden and his running mate, the California senator Kamala Harris, on the other hand had emerged in Biden’s home state of Delaware, telling the country that “each ballot must be counted.
“In America, the vote is sacred,” Biden said. “Democracy is sometimes messy. It sometimes requires a little patience, as well. But that patience has been rewarded now for 240 years with a system of governance that’s been the envy of the world.”
Biden noted he and Harris “continue to feel very good” about the ultimate result of the race. “We have no doubt that when the count is finished, Senator Harris and I will be declared the winners,” Biden said.
As the country remained on edge, awaiting the declaration of a victory almost 48 hours after the polls had closed and as sporadic protests have broken out in places such as Arizona, Michigan, Portland and New York, Biden said: “I ask everyone to stay calm.”
While many high-profile Republicans have not commented on Trump’s latest falsehoods, several GOP lawmakers denounced his baseless allegations about fraud, with Paul Mitchell, a Michigan congressman, saying that every vote would be counted, adding that “anything less harms the integrity of our elections and is dangerous for our democracy”. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois GOP congressman, tweeted: “STOP Spreading debunked misinformation… This is getting insane.”
Three major TV networks also cut away from the president’s live remarks due to the avalanche of lies, with news anchors saying it was “dangerous” to air his “absolutely untrue” statements.
The White House was set to be decided by razor-thin margins in five battleground states. Trump was still holding on to leads in Pennsylvania and Georgia but Biden was rapidly narrowing the gap in the two states as a backlog of postal ballots was counted. A win in Pennsylvania alone, with its 20 votes in the electoral college, would be enough to make Biden president. More