Elections

This piece is published in partnership with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive their biggest stories as soon as they’re published
An unprecedented number of Americans have voted by mail this year to avoid Covid-19 risk. Joe Biden’s supporters said they were more likely to vote by mail while Donald Trump’s supporters said they were more likely to vote in person. With postal delays, rejected ballots and a dearth of funding, the process isn’t always smooth – ballots can be rejected for multiple reasons, and due to court challenges, election rules are changing even while voting is underway. Meanwhile, Trump and other Republican officials have spent the last months casting doubt on the mail-in voting process, paving the way for legal battles during the vote count.
Propublica badge
With data from University of Florida political science professor Michael McDonald, the Guardian and ProPublica are tracking votes in politically competitive states through the election to find out how many people are voting by mail, how their votes are counted, and what it means for the 2020 election. Our tracker will be updated as we obtain updated information, as well as other state data. We will also be investigating any aberrations and issues in the mail-in voting process as we find them, and telling the stories of the people and communities affected most.
Georgia
16 electoral votes
Democrats believe Joe Biden may be able to win a state long seen as a Republican bastion, which would be a coup for the campaign. More people have already returned their ballots than voted by mail in total in 2016. The state has thousands of outstanding ballots to count, and liberal cities like Atlanta are expected to skew more towards Biden. Voters must return their ballots to election offices by election day in order to have them counted.

Wisconsin
10 electoral votes
Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 by fewer than 23,000 votes, a year when voter turnout in key cities such as Milwaukee was also low. This year, voting rights groups are pushing the state to count ballots if they are postmarked by election day but arrive afterward. Currently, mail-in ballots must be received by 3 November at 8pm.

Pennsylvania
20 electoral votes
Home to some of the most intense legal battles of the election, the state where Joe Biden was born could be the deciding factor in 2020. Pennsylvania had been a Democratic stronghold for six presidential elections until Trump carried the state by 0.7% in 2016. It’s very possible that the election result in Pennsylvania will not be known for days. That’s because Philadelphia, the state’s biggest city, could take days to count its mail-in ballots, according to officials there. Ballots must be postmarked by election day and received by 6 November at 5pm to be counted.

Florida
29 electoral votes
Few states were more important on election night than Florida, where Trump has already been projected the winner. Voters must return their ballots to election offices by 7pm on election night to have them counted. Local election officials are required to contact voters if the signature on their ballot does not match the one on file.

North Carolina
15 electoral votes
A battleground state Donald Trump carried in 2016, North Carolina is in the spotlight for being still too close to call. The state has seen an unprecedented surge in mail-in voting, not typically used widely in the state. Ballots must be postmarked by election day and received no later than 12 November at 5pm.

Michigan
16 electoral votes
Michigan is one of the midwestern states that offer a clear path of victory for Joe Biden. The state has seen a massive change in voting procedures since 2016, including a constitutional amendment that gives everyone in the state the right to vote by mail without an excuse. Ballots must be postmarked by election day and received that day by 8pm.

Ohio
18 electoral votes
Trump won the swing state easily in 2016, and was declared the projected winner on Tuesday night. Mail-in ballots must be postmarked by 2 November, or in person on election day, and received by 13 November at 7.30pm.

Iowa
Six electoral votes
Donald Trump won Iowa on election night, while Democrats failed to oust the first-term GOP senator Joni Ernst. Anyone in Iowa is eligible to vote by mail and must return their ballot to election officials by the close of the polls on election day to have it counted.

Minnesota
10 electoral votes
Trump claimed he could win Minnesota this year, though he lost the reliable blue state in 2016 by 1.5%, because of rural voters who favor the president. But after police killed the unarmed Black man George Floyd in the state earlier this year, it also launched the biggest protest movement and civil unrest in decades – a factor that could play into voter turnout. Ballots must be postmarked by 3 November, and received by 10 November. More

Many Americans woke up bleary-eyed Wednesday morning after a late night of watching presidential returns as key places in battleground states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Georgia, continue to count votes.The message from experts and election officials to Americans have been to stay patient as the votes are counted because there’s nothing unusual about the ongoing count. Election officials and experts have said for months that counting was likely to extend past election night because of a surge in mail-in ballots that take longer to tally.Donald Trump falsely claimed early Wednesday morning that he won the election and pledged to go to take legal action to stop counting, including going to the US supreme court, even though there were still a significant number of ballots to be counted.Vote totals are expected to swing back and forth on Wednesday in key states as different places report their counts. The president suggested Wednesday the swings were evidence of nefarious activity, but that’s not true. The swings reflect the fact that different parts of a state that have different political leanings are reporting their results at different times.Democratic-friendly areas such as Detroit, Milwaukee and Philadelphia have been slower to report their results than other jurisdictions in their respective states because of the higher volume of ballots. Republicans who control the state legislatures in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania also refused to move up the deadline to count absentee ballots, contributing to the delayed counts Wednesday.To win the presidency, Joe Biden needs to win at least the states of Wisconsin and Michigan, key battlegrounds that Trump won in 2016. In Michigan, Biden holds a narrow lead, but officials in some of the state’s largest places, including Detroit, are still counting ballots. It’s difficult to know when the state will have final results, but Jocelyn Benson, the Michigan secretary of state, said Wednesday there should be a more “complete picture” in the state by the end of the day.As counting continued, the United States Postal Service (USPS) released new data Wednesday morning showing poor on-time delivery rates for ballots across the country. In the Detroit postal district, about 79% of ballots were delivered within the agency’s window for on-time delivery, and in the area that covers most of Wisconsin, 76% were delivered on time. In the Philadelphia district just 66.3% were on time. Michigan and Wisconsin both require voters to return their ballots by the close of polls on election day in order to have them counted.But USPS said in a legal filing the numbers are “unreliable” and do “not reflect accurate service performance” because they don’t reflect mail taken out of normal process to be delivered faster closer to election day.A federal judge in Washington DC is also set to hold a hearing Wednesday after USPS failed to comply with an order to perform a last-minute sweep of election facilities after the agency said there were 300,000 ballots that did not have an outgoing scan. The agency has cautioned these ballots may not contain that scan because they were expedited.Democrats had urged voters to avoid the mail and return their ballots in person, and that message appears to have successfully gotten that message out in Milwaukee.In recent weeks, a sorting facility in the overwhelmingly Democratic city was processing about 3,000 absentee ballots daily, but only sent through 44 ballots on Tuesday, said Ron Kania, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers branch 2. The deadline for ballots to count in Wisconsin was 8pm on election day.“We trickled down to practically zero the last couple days,” Kania said. His facility conducted regular sweeps for ballots throughout election day and expedited any that they found.“As far as I know, everything we received went out,” he added.If Biden does carry Wisconsin and Michigan, he only needs to carry Nevada to win the presidency. Biden holds a narrow lead in the state, but the secretary of state’s office said Tuesday no more vote totals would be reported until Thursday morning. Trump’s campaign foreshadowed legal action in the state Wednesday morning, saying it was confident the president would carry the state if all “legal ballots” were counted.In Pennsylvania, vote totals at 1pm showed Trump leading by about 469,000 votes. But the state still needs to count “millions of ballots”, Kathy Boockvar, the state’s top election official, said Wednesday. In Philadelphia, a Democratic stronghold, the city’s top election official said officials had counted 141,000 out of 351,000 mail-in votes Wednesday morning.In Pennsylvania, there’s also an additional complication. Because of a state supreme court ruling, the state is legally required to count ballots that arrive by Friday. It’s unclear how many ballots will arrive between now and Friday.There are also about 200,000 votes that still need to be counted in Georgia, the state’s top election official said Wednesday. The state, long seen as a Republican bastion, is considerably closer this year. Trump led as of Wednesday morning by 109,000 votes and there are at least 107,000 outstanding votes in Democratic-leaning counties, the Journal-Constitution reported.Tom Perkins contributed to this report More

A deeply polarised US electorate has given the country its first transgender state senator and its first black gay congressman – but also its first lawmaker to have openly supported the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory.
All four members of the progressive “Squad” of Democratic congresswomen of colour – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib – have been comfortably re-elected, and Sarah McBride’s victory in Delaware has made her the highest-ranking trans official in the US.
“I hope tonight shows an LGBTQ kid that our democracy is big enough for them, too,” McBride, 30, who easily defeated the Republican Steve Washington to represent Delaware’s first state senate district, tweeted after the election was called.
McBride, a former spokesperson for the LGBTQ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign, was a trainee in the White House during the Obama administration and became the first trans person to speak at a major political convention when she addressed Democrats in Philadelphia in 2016.
“For Sarah to shatter a lavender ceiling in such a polarising year is a powerful reminder that voters are increasingly rejecting the politics of bigotry in favour of candidates who stand for fairness and equality,” said Annise Parker of the LGBTQ Victory Fund, which trains and supports out candidates.
In Vermont, Taylor Small, 26, has become the state’s first openly transgender legislator after winning 41% of the vote to make it to the House of Representatives, making her the fifth “out” trans state legislator in the US. More

Key events

Show

10.18am EST10:18
Democrats: ‘Results indicate we are on a clear path to victory this afternoon’

9.16am EST09:16
AP running vote tally shows Biden holds a narrow lead in Michigan for first time

8.08am EST08:08
Former Trump adviser John Bolton calls president’s election comments ‘a disgrace’

7.54am EST07:54
Paths to victory remain for both Biden and Trump – but Biden has more

Live feed

Show

10.18am EST10:18

Democrats: ‘Results indicate we are on a clear path to victory this afternoon’

In a live address Joe Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon has said Joe Biden is on course to become the next president of the US. She said:

We believe we are in a clear path to victory by this afternoon, we expect that the vice president will have leads in states that put him over 270 electoral votes today. The vice president will garner more votes than any presidential candidate in history, and we’re still counting. He has won over 50% of the popular vote. We are on track to win in Michigan by more than Donald Trump did in 2016. To win in Wisconsin by more than Trump did in 2016. To win in Pennsylvania by more than Trump did in 2016. And we flipped one of his states, Arizona.

10.14am EST10:14

The Democratic party are about to broadcast what they are calling a ‘Election protection briefing’. Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon and former Counsel to president Barack Obama Bob Bauer will be talking shortly.

Joe Biden
(@JoeBiden)
We won’t rest until everyone’s vote is counted. Tune in as my campaign manager @jomalleydillon and campaign adviser Bob Bauer give an update on where the race stands. https://t.co/Rwz4iR25B3

November 4, 2020

10.11am EST10:11

Here’s the state of play – excuse the pun – in the states that have not yet been declared for one candidate or the other. We are expecting results from at least Wisconsin and Michigan later today. The others may take a little longer. More

To the Editor:Re “Key States Up for Grabs as Trump-Biden Battle Extends Late Into Night” (front page, Nov. 4):A blue wave. A landslide victory for Joe Biden. As Election Day came to a close, I quickly came to terms with the reality that neither was going to happen. Perhaps the most devastating reality was that so many Americans really love President Trump. So many of my fellow citizens found his lies, his braggadocio, his handling of the virus, his attack on those who dared to contradict him, his abusiveness totally acceptable, even admirable.Are my values, my morals, my ideals, my respect for my fellow man no longer in vogue? Is my hope for a greener tomorrow out of date? Do Black lives really matter? Does the Constitution still uphold freedom and justice?Every presidential election leaves one side questioning its tactics. But this election leaves one side questioning just what America is, what it stands for and what its hopes for tomorrow really are.Doris FenigBoca Raton, Fla.To the Editor:In his election night speech, President Trump effectively declared war on American democracy. He baselessly proclaimed victory and falsely asserted that the election was being stolen from him through fraud. He demanded that the counting of votes continue in Arizona, where he trailed, but then said “we want all voting to stop” in the undecided states where he narrowly led at the time, and vowed to go to the Supreme Court to bring that about.In essence, Mr. Trump was demanding that the normal counting of legally and timely cast ballots be selectively halted in states where they could tip the presidential election in favor of Joe Biden.While it is doubtful that he can actually disenfranchise voters as he wishes, his very suggestion and unprincipled rhetoric underscore his lack of respect for the Constitution and for the institutional integrity of our democratic system of government.Stephen A. SilverSan FranciscoTo the Editor:Polls showing Joe Biden with a sizable lead have again incorrectly predicted the presidential election. The American people still don’t want high taxes or job-killing government restrictions. Nor do they want open borders or sanctuary cities. Americans support law enforcement and the military and don’t want a socialist government that will lead to bankruptcy and the loss of our freedoms.They don’t want political bias in the media or censorship, and they don’t want to be lectured about social injustice by professional athletes or movie actors. Americans do not want to give up their right to bear arms. We are tired of identity politics and a counterculture movement that strives to destroy our nation. We reject the politicization of everything from pandemics to the rioting and looting in our cities.This populist movement that Donald Trump started four years ago cannot be stopped by a corrupt establishment, and no amount of spin by those who control the information in our nation can stop it. The left will delay the inevitable by dragging out the final outcome for as long as they can, but this revolution goes on for four more years.Charles Michael SiteroOrmond Beach, Fla.To the Editor:I was surprised but not shocked by Donald Trump’s victory four years ago. Working Americans had been on the losing side of the growing income gap in this country for too long and many were understandably willing to take a chance on the outsider who promised to upend the established order.But I am shocked by the way the 2020 election seems to be turning out. After four years of President Trump’s chaotic rule, I expected him to be clearly rejected by the majority of the voters in favor of the somnolent but stable Democratic alternative.I was wrong. Whatever the final results, one thing is clear from this election: “Red” and “blue” represent more than colors on a political map of the United States. We live in two different countries.John E. StaffordRye, N.Y. More

The former Trump US national security adviser John Bolton has said the president’s premature claim of victory in the election is ‘a disgrace’.
Early on Wednesday, Trump said he would take the election to the supreme court to stop votes being counted. He falsely claimed victory, as the election remained too close to call with millions of votes yet to be counted
US election 2020: Joe Biden has narrow lead over Trump in Wisconsin as result awaited – live updates
US braces for long wait for election results as Trump falsely declares victory More

#notifications-inline { font-family: nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif; margin: 40px auto; scroll-margin-top: 80px; width: 600px; border-top: 1px solid #e2e2e2; border-bottom: 1px solid #e2e2e2; padding: 30px 0 20px; max-width: calc(100% – 40px); } .Hybrid #notifications-inline { max-width: calc(100% – 40px); } #notifications-inline h2 { font-size: 1.125rem; font-weight: 700; flex-shrink: 0; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } @media screen and (min-width: 768px) { #notifications-inline […] More

Ahora que los votos se han emitido y esperamos a ver cuáles van a contar y cuáles se van a ignorar, ¿podemos, por favor, tomarnos un momento para reconocer el desastre tan enorme que ha sido esto?No me refiero a las cosas grandes, a los giros absurdos en esta interminable y desagradable elección presidencial de 2020 empañada por la pandemia y quizás apocalíptica. No, me refiero al acto más pequeño y singular de esta saga: la forma en que votamos, el proceso de registrar tu preferencia democrática, que es el deber primordial del ciudadano en una democracia. ¿Podemos tomarnos un momento para reconocer cuán terriblemente ineficaz, inaccesible, injusto y retrógrada sigue siendo este proceso en Estados Unidos?Cuando concluya el conteo, unos 160 millones de estadounidenses habrán votado este año, una participación de aproximadamente el 67 por ciento de los posibles votantes. Eso sería un récord para nuestra época y, puesto que sucedió mientras el coronavirus arrasaba, emitir esos votos y contarlos debería considerarse un logro del sistema electoral de Estados Unidos.Pero eso no es un estándar muy alto, y el problema más grande en la manera en que Estados Unidos realiza sus elecciones es que hemos sido demasiado tolerantes, durante demasiado tiempo, con el mantenimiento de estándares demasiado bajos.Pese a la alta participación, la lección más clara de las elecciones de este año es que no podemos seguir así. Desde la fila interminable hasta los tejemanejes legales antes de las elecciones y los esfuerzos constantes del presidente por menoscabar el proceso, este año, todo voto emitido fue un acto de fe: ¿va a llegar a tiempo? ¿Va a llegar? ¿Van a intentar suprimirlo porque votaste desde el auto? ¿Lo van a descartar porque no te quedó muy bien tu firma? ¿Se les va a pedir a los jueces que modifiquen la fecha límite para los votos emitidos por correo después del inicio de las elecciones? ¿Lograrás encontrar el único buzón en tu enorme condado? Y, de cualquier manera, ¿alguien realmente va a confiar en los resultados?Toda esta incertidumbre es indigna de la “democracia más vieja” del mundo. Las elecciones estadounidenses son deficientes y, puesto que la legitimidad de todo el sistema político recae en nuestros votos, sus deficiencias enturbian todos los demás elementos de nuestra democracia.Cómo arreglar la manera en que votamos no es un misterio. Los expertos han recomendado varias medidas específicas que podrían ampliar considerablemente el derecho al voto, como medidas a nivel federal para facilitar el registro, expandir la votación anticipada y asegurarnos de que tengamos los recursos adecuados en las casillas a fin de evitar largas filas.Pero la dificultad es política. Desde hace décadas, limitar quién puede votar ha sido una estrategia clave del Partido Republicano, aunque por lo general las personas de derecha no se enorgullecen mucho de esto. Este año, como tantas veces ha sucedido con Donald Trump, el subtexto se volvió texto. En las semanas previas al día de las elecciones, Trump prácticamente se jactó del papel que la intimidación de los electores y la supresión de votos jugarían en su campaña.“Los estamos viendo, Filadelfia”, advirtió Trump en Pensilvania la semana pasada, con lo que sugirió que algo indecoroso estaba sucediendo con la votación en una ciudad bastante contraria a su candidatura. “Los estamos viendo desde el nivel más alto”.Si los demócratas ganan la presidencia y el Senado, revertir la apuesta de los republicanos por inhabilitar a los votantes debería ser una de sus máximas prioridades. Una razón de por qué votar sigue siendo algo tan oneroso es que rara vez pensamos en ello cuando no estamos en fechas cercanas al día de las elecciones. Entre más lejos estamos del día de las elecciones, menos urgencia sentimos de arreglar el sistema. Pero nada funciona en una democracia si la votación no funciona. Así que, por favor, arreglemos primero la votación.Ninguno de los problemas que vimos este año eran nuevos; inaccesibilidad, confusión, trabas burocráticas e intimidación pura han sido desde hace tiempo sellos distintivos de las elecciones estadounidenses. Aunque los políticos hablan soñadoramente de la importancia de votar, Estados Unidos presenta grandes atrasos, en comparación con otras democracias, en varias mediciones de éxito electoral; por ejemplo, en muchos países un nivel de participación de alrededor de dos tercios no sería considerada como particularmente extraordinaria.Las votaciones en este país también son sumamente desiguales. En comparación con la participación de las personas blancas, la participación de las de color suele ser menor. Es difícil argumentar que esto no es por diseño, que no es el resultado de décadas de una privación de los derechos electorales deliberada y de la perpetuación, aún en la actualidad, de los esfuerzos de supresión de votantes dirigidos a las personas de color.Sin embargo, la mejor manera de valorar las deficiencias en la forma en que votamos no es mirando a otros países. Más bien, hay que comparar el acto de votar con otros servicios modernos. Si lo analizamos a la luz de transacciones mucho menos importantes de la vida estadounidense —ordenar un café de preparación complicada de una cadena nacional o encontrar el mejor restaurante de sushi en una ciudad desconocida—, el sencillo acto de emitir el voto es risiblemente anticuado.A lo largo y ancho del país, registrarse para votar es un laberinto. En la mayoría de los estados, si no recordaste registrarte antes del día de la elección, para ese día ya es demasiado tarde. Y tal vez incluso ignores que no estás registrado. Entre cada periodo electoral, se ha vuelto común que los estados “purguen” las listas de electores de personas consideradas como inelegibles, un proceso del que muchos votantes solo se enteran cuando se presentan en los centros de votación y se les niega el derecho a votar.El sistema también está fragmentado y recibe menos financiamiento del necesario, además de que se ve menoscabado por incentivos mal alineados. En muchos países, las elecciones son organizadas por agencias no partidistas que fijan reglas para la nación entera. En Estados Unidos, las elecciones por lo regular son llevadas a cabo por funcionarios electos —secretarios de estado republicanos o demócratas, por ejemplo—, y las reglas sobre quién puede votar y cómo lo hacen difiere de estado a estado.Debido a que los estados y el gobierno federal no otorgan suficiente fnanciamiento al sistema electoral, este a menudo solo es capaz de satisfacer la demanda ordinaria. En las últimas semanas, los estadounidenses de muchas ciudades han tenido que esperar durante horas para tener la oportunidad de votar, lo cual es a la vez inspirador y una señal terrible del estado de nuestra democracia.Como Amanda Mull destacó recientemente en The Atlantic, en 2020 el acto de votar fue elevado al lugar más sacrosanto de la sociedad estadounidense y las marcas comerciales lo convirtieron en mercadotecnia para hacer sentir bien al consumidor. Este año se sintió como si casi todas las marcas en Estados Unidos se hubieran emocionado al máximo con el proceso democrático. Vendedores minoristas, diseñadores de moda y cadenas de restaurantes no podían dejar de decirnos: “¡Vota!”.No obstante, la adopción del voto como una manera de proyectar virtud corporativa solo subraya lo poco que el gobierno ha hecho para promover este acto democrático supuestamente preciado. “Mientras los líderes de Estados Unidos se nieguen a realizar cambios en todo el sistema que ayuden a que más personas voten, las corporaciones que tienen algo que vender aprovecharán ese vacío”, escribió Mull.Ella tiene razón y es terrible. Votar no debería ser así de difícil ni tan incierto. Sabemos qué se necesita hacer para mejorar el proceso. Y no deberíamos esperar hasta la próxima elección para hacerlo.Farhad Manjoo es columnista de Opinión del Times desde 2018. Anteriormente escribía la columna State of the Art. Es autor de True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society. @fmanjoo • Facebook More