This live coverage has ended. Continue reading election news from Thursday, November 5, 2020.
The United States remained in electoral purgatory on Wednesday afternoon as officials scrambled to count the millions of votes still outstanding after Tuesday's presidential election.
Democratic nominee Joe Biden sustained an overall Electoral College lead after being projected as the winner in key Midwestern battlegrounds Wisconsin and Michigan. President Donald Trump vowed to take legal action in both states, as well as in Pennsylvania, where over 1 million ballots remained uncounted.
Stories we're following:
—Nov. 5 highlights: Presidential candidates compete for battleground states
—Amid shrinking odds of victory, Trump campaign plans legal battle
—Republicans break with Trump, say take time to count all the votes
—See which counties in the remaining battleground states have the most votes left to count
Protests grow outside Maricopa Election Center
A protest outside of the Maricopa County Election Center grew larger and louder late Wednesday, ahead of an expected release of new vote results in the close Arizona presidential and senate races.
Approximately 300 people were gathered outside the center, carrying flags and signs and chanting that the vote had been stolen from Trump.
Some vote center workers and members of the media were escorted to their vehicles for their safety, officials said.
Less than 100K ballots left to be counted in Georgia
Georgia's secretary of state said there are still 98,829 ballots left to be counted statewide.
How Joe Biden reclaimed Michigan for the Democrats
DETROIT — A record surge of voters — along with softening support for President Donald Trump among some voter groups — has returned Michigan to its former status as a blue state, giving Joe Biden a projected victory that is crucial in the presidential race.
Trump won Michigan four years ago — the first Republican presidential candidate to have done so since 1988 — by 10,704 votes. The margin was so narrow that Trump would have needed to expand his base this year to counteract Democrats who were energized to turn out their supporters in cities like Detroit.
Instead, the NBC News Exit Poll of early and Election Day voters found that Trump lost ground with seniors and white college graduates — two groups that supported him four years ago but backed Biden this year.
Currently in Arizona, outside an election center where votes are being counted
