By BRIAN SLODYSKO
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Associated Press is not calling the presidential race yet because neither candidate has secured the 270 electoral college votes needed to claim victory.
Republican President Donald Trump spoke at the White House early today and claimed victories in several states that were still too early to call, saying, “Frankly, we did win this election” over Democrat Joe Biden. His assertion of victory does not match the results and information currently available to the AP. Trump said he would take the election to the Supreme Court, but it was unclear on what legal grounds.
Trump or Biden would need 270 electoral votes to win. Several key states are too early to call, including Pennsylvania, Georgia and Michigan.
Here is an alphabetical state-by-state look at how and why The Associated Press has called U.S. states in the 2020 presidential election. More states will be added as they are called.
Why AP called Arizona for Biden
The Associated Press has declared Democrat Joe Biden the winner in Arizona, flipping a longtime GOP state that President Donald Trump won in 2016.
The AP called the race at 2:50 a.m. today, after an analysis of ballots cast statewide concluded there were not enough outstanding to allow Trump to catch up.
With 80 percent of the expected vote counted, Biden was ahead by 5 percentage points, with a roughly 130,000-vote lead over Trump with about 2.6 million ballots counted. The remaining ballots left to be counted, including mail-in votes in Maricopa County, where Biden performed strongly, were not enough for Trump to catch up to the former vice president.
Arizona has a long political history of voting Republican. It’s the home state of Barry Goldwater, a five-term, conservative senator who was the Republican nominee for president in 1964. John McCain, the party’s 2008 presidential nominee, represented the state in Congress from 1983 until his 2018 death.
But changing demographics, including a fast-growing Latino population and a boom of new residents — some fleeing the skyrocketing cost of living in neighboring California — have made the state friendlier to Democrats.
Many of the gains have been driven by the shifting politics of Maricopa County, which is home to Phoenix and its suburbs. That’s where Biden sealed his victory. Maricopa County accounts for 60 percent of the state’s vote, and Biden ran up huge margins there.
In 2016, Trump carried the county by 4 percentage points, which helped propel him to a win. But two years later, Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema flipped the seat from Republican control by winning the county by 5 points.
When the AP called the race for Biden, he was leading there by 9 percentage points.
Biden flipping Arizona is a sign of Democrats’ ascendant influence in the state.
In 2018, Sinema became the first Democrat in three decades to win a U.S. Senate seat in Arizona. Democrats also won three statewide offices and five of nine congressional seats and made gains in the state legislature that year.
In 2016, voters ousted Republican Joe Arpaio, Maricopa County’s hardline sheriff, who built a national profile on his harsh treatment of immigrants.
Why Georgia is too close to call
The Associated Press has not declared a winner in Georgia’s presidential contest because the race between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden is too early to call, with outstanding ballots left to be counted in counties where Biden has performed well.
Trump and Biden are locked in a tight contest to secure the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. Early today, Trump prematurely claimed he carried Georgia — and several other states that were too early to call.
“It’s … clear that we have won Georgia. We’re up by 2.5 percent, or 117,000 [votes] with only 7 percent[of the vote] left” to count, Trump said during an early morning appearance at the White House. He also said he planned to contest the U.S. presidential election before the Supreme Court. It was unclear exactly what legal action he might pursue.
The race is too early to call because an estimated 4 percent of the vote still remains to be counted. That includes mailed ballots from two counties Biden is winning: metro Atlanta’s DeKalb County, as well as Chatham County, which is home to Savannah.
Several counties in the Atlanta area also stopped counting votes after running into technical difficulties.
Why AP hasn’t called Michigan
There are over 1 million ballots left to be counted in Michigan, many coming from the Democratic stronghold of Detroit. That makes the race between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden too early for the Associated Press to call.
Michigan is among a handful of battleground states where Trump prematurely claimed early today he was “winning” the contest with Biden. The two men are locked in a tight race for the 270 electors needed to win the presidency.
“We’re winning Michigan by — I’ll tell you, I looked at the numbers,” Trump said during an appearance at the White House, where he promised to contest the election before the Supreme Court.
More than 5.26 million votes have been cast in Michigan and many of the ballots left to be counted were submitted by mail, a way of voting that favors Biden. Of those, a significant number were from Wayne County, home to heavily Democratic Detroit.
Trump also gave differing figures for his lead in the contest. At one point he said he was ahead by 300,000 votes, but he later said his lead was 107,000.
With 79 percent of the vote counted in the state, Trump is actually leading by 226,000 votes.
Why AP called New York for Biden
The AP declared Democrat Joe Biden the winner of New York as soon as polls closed in the state, even though election officials there had yet to release any results from Tuesday’s presidential contest.
The news agency did so after results from AP VoteCast and an analysis of early voting statistics confirmed expectations that the state’s longstanding political trends in favor of Democratic presidential candidates will hold.
VoteCast, the AP’s wide-ranging survey of the American electorate, captures voters’ choices and why they made them.
Ronald Reagan in 1984 was the last Republican to win the state. Trump, who was raised in Queens and built his personal brand as a brash New York City real estate developer, lost the state by more than 22 points in 2016.
Why AP hasn’t called North Carolina
The Associated Press has not declared a winner in North Carolina’s presidential contest because the race between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden is too early to call.
Trump, who is locked in a tight battle with Biden to secure the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency, prematurely claimed early today that he won the state.
“We’ve clearly won North Carolina, where we’re up 1.7 percent, 77,000 votes with only approximately 5 percent left. They can’t catch us,” he said during an appearance at the White House. Trump also said he planned to contest the U.S. presidential election before the Supreme Court. It was unclear, exactly, what legal action he might pursue.
Though Trump is correct that he held a 76,000-vote lead in the state early today, the race is too early to call and there are still about 200,000 mail-in ballots left to count.
As long as those ballots are postmarked by Nov. 3, state election officials have until Nov. 12 to count them. And when it comes to mail ballots, Biden was far outperforming Trump.
That means there’s a considerable number of ballots yet to be counted that could give Biden a lead.
Why AP hasn’t called Pennsylvania
The Associated Press has not declared a winner in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, because there are more than 1.5 million votes left to be counted in the contest between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.
Pennsylvania is among a handful of battleground states Trump and Biden are narrowly contesting as they seek the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.
Trump, who held a 675,000-vote lead early today, prematurely declared victory in the state.
“We’re winning Pennsylvania by a tremendous amount. We’re up 690,000 votes in Pennsylvania. These aren’t even close. It’s not like, ‘Oh, it’s close,’” Trump said during an appearance at the White House.
Yet, the vast majority of the votes left to be counted there were cast by mail, a form of voting that Biden has carried by a large margin. That’s likely because Trump has spent months claiming without proof that voting by mail would lead to widespread voter fraud.
Democrats had long considered Pennsylvania a part of their “blue wall” — a trifecta that also includes Wisconsin and Michigan — that for years had served as a bulwark in presidential elections. In 2016, Trump won each by less than a percentage point.
Biden, who was born in Scranton, claims favorite-son status in the state and has long played up the idea that he was Pennsylvania’s “third senator” during his decades representing neighboring Delaware. He’s also campaigned extensively in the state from his home in Delaware.
Why AP hasn’t called Wisconsin
The Associated Press has not declared a winner in Wisconsin’s presidential contest because the race between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden is too early to call.
Trump, who is locked in a tight battle with Biden to secure the 270 electoral votes needed to win, prematurely claimed early today that he was “winning” the state.
Biden is ahead of Trump by fewer than 8,000 votes out of nearly 3.2 million cast. Trump led earlier in the night, fueled by in-person voting results, but the 169,000 outstanding ballots from Milwaukee and ballots from other cities broke heavily for Biden. There were still a few thousand other votes waiting to be counted, primarily from the city of Green Bay.
Trump also said he planned to contest the election before the Supreme Court. It was unclear exactly what legal action he might pursue.
