5 states hold fate of election

The US presidential election hinged on thin margins in five states Thursday, as former Democratic vice-president Joe Biden closed in on a victory in the Electoral College while President Donald Trump said that a count of "legally cast ballots'' would show him winning the election.

"If you count the legal votes I easily win," Trump told reporters in a nationally televised broadcast Thursday night, providing no evidence for his claim. "If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us. It's amazing how those mail-in ballots are so one-sided."

On Thursday, vote-counting continued in Arizona, which has 11 Electoral College votes, Nevada (6), Pennsylvania (20), Georgia (16) and North Carolina (15), and Trump's campaign filed several lawsuits contesting the counting.

The Associated Press called Arizona for Biden, giving him a total of 264 electoral votes. A win in any of the remaining states would give him the 270 votes needed to win the White House. Fox News also called Arizona for Biden.

Other media organizations, including major TV networks and newspapers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post, haven't called Arizona, and they put Biden's Electoral College count at 253.

In Arizona, Biden's lead narrowed to about 46,000 votes Thursday, according to the Times. Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs said there were fewer than 450,000 ballots left to count and there would be a "much more clear picture" Friday.

In Pennsylvania, Trump's lead has dwindled since Wednesday, from more than 10 percentage points to less than two points on Thursday, with around 42,000 votes separating the candidates, according to the Times.

Pennsylvania's secretary of state said Thursday that the "overwhelming majority" of the state's 550,000 remaining votes would be tallied and that a winner "definitely could" be announced by the end of the day.

In Nevada on Thursday, Biden widened his slim lead of just under 1 percentage point over Trump to about 12,000 when he received about 8,000 votes as more ballots were counted, election officials announced.

The registrar in Clark County said the county would release the next batch of votes around noon on Friday. Remaining votes include mail and provisional ballots.

Biden has a lead of 8 percentage points in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas and is Nevada's most populous county. In 2016, Hillary Clinton carried the county by 10.7 percentage points.

In Georgia, Trump's lead slipped to about 2,000 votes Thursday, according to the Times. The state has approximately 19,000 ballots left to count; 8,900 requested overseas and military ballots have until Friday to arrive.

In North Carolina, election officials said they will review about 41,000 provisional ballots from voters whose eligibility may be questioned, along with around 110,000 outstanding absentee ballots. They expect to finalize their count by Nov 12. Biden is about 77,000 votes behind Trump.

Earlier Thursday, Trump escalated his protests against the continuing counting of votes, saying on Twitter, "STOP THE FRAUD." He issued a written statement through his campaign Thursday afternoon in which he warned that there could be fraudulent vote-counting.

Biden's campaign manager on Thursday urged patience as ballot-counting was nearing completion.

"The story of today is going to be a very positive story for the vice-president but also one where folks are going to need to stay patient and stay calm," Jennifer O'Malley Dillon said during a press briefing. "The counting is happening. It's going to take time."

Republicans have largely been silent about Trump's comments alleging voter fraud.

Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio, congratulated Trump on winning the Midwestern state and also called for the vote-counting process to be allowed to proceed, saying: "We should respect that process and ensure that all ballots cast in accordance with state laws are counted. It's that simple."

The GOP had a minor legal victory in Pennsylvania on Thursday when a state appellate court acceded to the Trump campaign's request to require Philadelphia election officials to grant Republican election observers better access to areas where workers are counting ballots at the main Philadelphia canvassing area, the downtown convention center — from 20 feet to 6 feet.

In Georgia, a Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit on Thursday filed by the Trump campaign that accused elections officials in Chatham County of mishandling absentee ballots.