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UPDATE: 1:24 a.m. EST/10:24 p.m. PST
We’re wrapping up our live coverage for tonight — thank you to all our readers who followed the results with us on this tumultuous night. The election is still too close to call, with Trump overperforming expectations but large numbers of mail-in ballots still left to be counted in key swing states, particularly Pennsylvania. The country appears to be headed for a protracted legal and political battle that could usher in a profound crisis.
UPDATE: 1:10 a.m. EST/10:10 p.m. PST
Both Trump and Biden have now spoken on the results so far
Speaking in Wilmington, Delaware, Joe Biden told supporters to “keep the faith”, in what appears to be an attempt to manage the expectations of his supporters as Trump leads in several key states. Despite trailing substantially, Biden claimed he would win Pennsylvania. Large numbers of mail-in ballots are yet to be counted.
Trump on the other hand is calling the entire election into question, tweeting, “We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed!”
UPDATE: 1:04 a.m. EST/10:04 p.m. PST
With many states far from finished counting, so far Gloria La Riva has received 50,750 votes in the 15 states plus Washington, DC where the PSL candidate appeared on the ballot!
Arkansas: 1,242
California: 23,032
Colorado: 726
District of Columbia: 511
Florida: 6,678
Illinois: 6,029
Louisiana: 915
Minnesota: 1,046
New Jersey: 2,493
New Mexico: 1,381
Rhode Island: 438
Tennessee: 2,286
Utah: 627
Vermont: 167
Washington: 3,179
UPDATE: 12:47 a.m. EST/9:47 p.m. PST
With few votes left to count, Trump is leading in the following key states: Florida, North Carolina, Iowa, Texas, Georgia, and Ohio. Trump leads with over 53 percent of recorded votes in Iowa, Ohio, and Georgia; 52.2 percent in Texas; and roughly 51 percent in Florida and North Carolina. These leads point to the possibility of another upset Trump victory.
UPDATE: 12:43 a.m. EST/9:43 p.m. PST
Voters in Mississippi voted to replace their racist state flag that incorporated a version of the Confederate battle flag in a landslide 68 percent vote in a referendum. The new flag, “The New Magnolia,” is anchored by a magnolia blossom in the center. This vote is widely considered a reflection of the shift in consciousness brought about by this summer’s uprising against racism.
UPDATE: 12:31 a.m. EST/9:31 p.m. PST
Louisiana passed a ballot measure that will add language to the Louisiana Declaration of Rights stating nothing in the state’s constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion: “To protect human life, a right to abortion and the funding of abortion shall not be found in the Louisiana Constitution.”
With 97 percent of precincts reporting, 64.6 percent of votes are in favor.
There are already only three abortion clinics in Louisiana. This law does not make abortion illegal in the state, but will now make it even more difficult for poor and working people, people of color, young and LGBTQ people who face barriers to getting a safe and affordable abortion. It’s now possible that this decision could be challenged and brought to the Supreme Court, which may set the stage for a court battle that could lead to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. It could then be possible for Louisiana to fully ban abortion, even in cases of rape and incest.
UPDATE: 12:06 a.m. EST/9:06 p.m. PST
Arizona passes Prop 207 to legalize recreational marijuana use in the state with a 60 percent vote of approval. This proposition would impose a 16 percent tax on sales and revenue would be directed towards funding community college, public health, roads, and more.
UPDATE: 11:51 p.m. EST/8:51 p.m. PST
PSL presidential candidate Gloria La Riva on Breakthrough News’ live election coverage on the need to build the movement no matter who wins tonight: “We have to fight more than ever. Let’s assume that Democrats win the house, the senate, and the presidency, then we will demand housing, we won’t let anyone be evicted, we demand the cancellation of rents and to make the banks pay”
Watch BreakThrough live here:
UPDATE: 11:46 p.m. EST/8:46 p.m. PST
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania has stopped counting mail in votes for the night, which could tip tonight’s preliminary results towards Trump in this critical swing state. As of reporting, Trump leads 56.0 to 42.6. Counting of mail-in votes will resume at 9:00 a.m. Wednesday.
UPDATE: 11:42 p.m. EST/8:42 p.m. PST
PSL presidential candidate Gloria La Riva on Breakthrough News’ live election coverage: “We are ready to defend our rights and to say whatever the outcome of the elections, that we have to fight more than ever.”
Watch BreakThrough live here:
UPDATE: 11:32 p.m. EST/8:32 p.m. PST
Two updates on some closely-watched referendums tonight: Colorado appears to have voted to reject Prop 115, which would have banned abortion starting at 22 weeks, and New Jersey voters chose to legalize the possession, sale and recreational use of marijuana for people aged 21 and over. This makes New Jersey the 12th state in the country to legalize recreational marijuana use, a reform long advocated by opponents of mass incarceration
UPDATE: 10:52 p.m. EST/7:52 p.m. PST
Journalist Rania Khalek, producer and host at SoapBox and co-host of the podcast Unauthorized Disclosure, told BreakThrough News: “I think that in America of all places younger generations haven’t been subjected as older generations have to Cold War anti-communism fear mongering so there isn’t that inherent hatred of socialism”
Watch BreakThrough live here:
UPDATE: 10:24 p.m. EST/7:24 p.m. PST
Professor Jodi Dean, author of the book “Comrade” on BreakThrough News’ election night special:
“People don’t trust the Democrats, the people want someone who speaks to people’s needs, who speaks to people’s lives, but in fact what we’ve seen the Democrats do is trash a movement that meant a lot to a lot of people.”
Watch BreakThrough live here:
UPDATE: 10:19 p.m. EST/7:19 p.m. PST
One of the biggest prizes of this presidential election is Ohio. With 72 percent of the expected votes now counted, Trump is leading by roughly 4 percentage points. But only 50 to 70 percent of votes have been counted in the major cities, traditionally Democratic Party strongholds, and the districts with the majority of uncounted votes were won by Clinton in 2016. This could indicate that there may be space for Biden to close the gap.
UPDATE: 10:14 p.m. EST/7:14 p.m. PST
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a QAnon conspiracy theorist who has espoused racist, anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim views, wins a house seat in Georgia. In online videos posted over the summer, Greene complains of an “Islamic invasion” of U.S. government offices, said Black and Latino men are held back by “gangs and dealing drugs” and promotes anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. Greene was running unopposed.
UPDATE: 10:11 p.m. EST/7:11 p.m. PST
Polls have just closed in Nevada. In addition to being a presidential battleground, Nevada’s Question 2 ballot measure would remove language from the state constitution that bans same-sex marriage. The clause added in 2002 defines marriage as only between a man and woman. This might seem like merely a symbolic change since the 2015 Supreme Court ruling, but this ballot question could protect same-sex couples in Nevada in the future if a right-wing majority Supreme Court overturned the 2015 decision. The PSL demands full equality for the LGBTQ community.
UPDATE: 10:03 p.m. EST/7:03 p.m. PST
Among the 11 states and Washington DC where polls have closed, Gloria La Riva has now received 15,709 votes! States that have reported where the PSL has ballot access are Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Vermont. This is a reflection of the exploding interest in revolutionary socialism across the country.
UPDATE: 9:47 p.m. EST/6:47 p.m. PST
In a blatant act of voter intimidation in Georgia, a representative from the Secretary of State showed up at a precinct in a predominantly African-American district. State House Representative Bee Nguyen reports that the rep, wearing a gun on his hip, forced poll workers to remove all food and water from the location.
UPDATE: 9:27 p.m. EST/6:27 p.m. PST
Swing-states of Pennsylvania and North Carolina both show Biden in the lead, another blow for Trump?
- North Carolina: With 79 percent of estimated votes reported, Biden is leading Trump 50.5 to 48.4
- Pennsylvania: With 19 percent of estimated votes reported, Biden is leading Trump 62.5 to 36.4. While the percent reporting is low, a county-by-county breakdown shows that these results are spread out relatively evenly across the state
UPDATE: 9:07 p.m. EST/6:07 p.m. PST
BreakThrough News is live now with special election night coverage!
UPDATE: 8:56 p.m. EST/5:56 p.m. PST
With 64 percent of the vote reported, Biden is ahead of Trump 50 to 48.6 percent in Texas. This represents a lead of 104,000 votes. Texas has historically been one of the most reliably Republican states in the country — this is a bad sign for Trump.
UPDATE: 8:36 p.m. EST/5:36 p.m. PST
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has won re-election. His challenger, Amy McGrath, is expected to lose by a wide margin based on preliminary reporting. This comes after a bitterly fought primary that ended with progressive favorite Charles Booker being beaten by establishment candidate McGrath. Despite spending tens of millions of dollars more on the election and enjoying major institutional backing, McGrath was only able to eek out a modest victory over Booker who had a considerable grass roots base. Once again, the Democrats demonstrate that they would rather lose to a Republican than win with a progressive candidate, even against reviled politicians like McConnell.
UPDATE: 8:25 p.m. EST/5:25 p.m. PST
Trump has pulled ahead in Florida, leading Biden by over 170,000 votes with 89% of ballots counted. If he’s able to keep this up and score a victory in this key swing state early in the night, he will deal a serious blow to Democratic hopes for a decisive Biden landslide.
UPDATE: 8:19 p.m. EST/5:19 p.m. PST
Just this year, over 60 million filed for unemployment. 40 million may face eviction. The police’s racist reign of terror continues, and the Coronavirus pandemic continues to spiral out of control. We need to organize beyond this election for a political and economic system that’s based on meeting human needs and not profit.
Join us, and join the struggle for socialism!
UPDATE: 7:56 p.m. EST/4:56 p.m. PST
According to the Associated Press, Biden holds a lead of only about 6,000 votes over Trump in Florida, with about 81 percent of votes reported. Since a disproportionate amount of the vote that’s already been tabulated has come in from areas near major urban centers like Orlando, Miami, Jacksonville, and Tampa, there’s still plenty of room for Trump to retake the lead. These are the same areas that Clinton won despite losing Florida overall in the 2016 election. This race in particular we will be keeping a close eye on throughout the night.
UPDATE: 7:50 p.m. EST/4:50 p.m. PST
The Washington Post is reporting that USPS is ignoring a federal judge’s order to sweep mail processing facilities for any and all unprocessed absentee ballots in 12 postal districts after more than 300,000 ballots couldn’t be traced. This refusal will impact 15 states and is a direct attack on voting rights by Trump’s appointed postmaster general (and Trump mega-donor), Louis DeJoy.
UPDATE: 7:35 p.m. EST/4:35 p.m. PST
The right to choose on the ballot: Abortion restrictions threaten Louisiana and Colorado. These ballot measures come at a time when many fear a reversal of Roe v. Wade by the new right wing super-majority in the Supreme Court. The PSL demands free abortion on demand as part of a universal health care system.
- Colorado: Prop. 115 would ban abortion after 22 weeks with almost no exceptions.
- Louisiana: Amendment 1 would add to the state Declaration of Rights: “To protect human life, nothing in this constitution shall be construed to secure or protect a right to abortion or require the funding of abortion.” This means no exceptions for rape, incest, or health of the mother.
UPDATE: 7:27 p.m. EST/4:27 p.m. PST
Biden said as president he’d veto any Medicare-for-all bill and Trump calls supporters of the idea socialist radicals. But a Fox News exit poll just found 72% of voters are in favor of changing to a “government-run health care plan” — a formulation that was obviously chosen to produce an artificially low level of approval.
The 2020 PSL 10-point program calls for the essentials of life, like health care, to be made into constitutional rights and for them to be provided free to all regardless of documentation or employment status.
UPDATE: 7:16 p.m. EST/4:16 p.m. PST
Despite serious voter suppression efforts and unprecedented complications due to the pandemic, we’ve seen some indicators of very high turnout:
- Over 1 million ballots were cast in Utah before election day, approximately 67 percent of registered voters. This will put the state on pace to have historic turnout by the time polls close.
- According to the United States Election Project, votes from 2020 have already exceeded 2016 votes in Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, Oregon, Texas and Washington.
- Kentucky, Florida, California and Indiana are also reporting record voter turnout
UPDATE: 6:59 p.m. EST/3:59 p.m. PST
Democrats and Republicans have their differences, but they agree on repressing anti-racist protestors. Organizers in Denver are facing 48 years in prison for their leadership in the struggle for justice for Elijah McClain – and those charges are from the Democratic DA Dave Young. Support the struggle to Drop the Charges!
UPDATE: 6:46 p.m. EST/3:46 p.m. PST
DC Police have begun aggressively pushing out crowds gathered in a concert in front of the White House at Black Lives Matter Plaza and are even threatening to tow the city’s Live GoGo music caravan.
UPDATE: 6:35 p.m. EST/3:35 p.m. PST
This election season is likely the most expensive ever for California’s ballot measures, with funding Proposition 22 leading the way. Prop 22 would deal a major blow to “gig economy” workers by classifying them as independent contractors instead of employees. Funding in favor of Prop 22 has exceeded $224 million and is bankrolled primarily by five companies: Uber, Lyft, Doordash, Instacart and Postmates. Labor unions, who have led the campaign against Prop 22, have raised $16 million so far. While the grassroots effort to defeat Prop 22 may still succeed, it has been fighting at a major disadvantage — democracy under capitalism is democracy for the rich.
UPDATE: 6:23 p.m. EST/3:23 p.m. PST
Exit polls from Morning Consult show Biden voters and Joe Biden do not agree on what is “Very Important”
- 83 percent say universal healthcare coverage is “very important”, and 76 percent want lower health care costs. Biden has made clear for years now that he refuses to support Medicare for all.
- “Reducing racial inequality in the justice system” is very important to 74 percent. Biden has attacked Trump for not giving the police enough funding.
- 60 percent want to raise taxes on the wealthy amidst massive income inequality while Biden pledges to his wealthiest donors that “nothing would fundamentally change.”
- Addressing climate change is very important to 74 percent. Biden has repeatedly campaigned that he will not ban fracking and does not support the Green New Deal.
- 66 percent want Biden to defend abortion rights. Biden initially supported the anti-choice Hyde amendment.
UPDATE: 6:10 p.m. EST/3:10 p.m. PST
PSL organizers have petitioned on the street and in the courts to achieve ballot access for our presidential and vice presidential candidates Gloria La Riva and Sunil Freeman in 15 states! We jumped through many bureaucratic hoops to certify the La Riva campaign as an official write-in option in 14 additional states. Now we prepare to carry the demands of workers and poor people into the streets, no matter who ends up sitting in the White House.
UPDATE: 6:00 p.m. EST/3:00 p.m. PST
According to the latest exit polls conducted by Morning Consult, 60 percent of early voters are “very confident” that their vote will be accurately counted. Meaning that for 40 percent of the electorate — roughly 60 million people — there are at least some concerns that their vote will be discarded or improperly recorded. Not exactly a ringing expression of confidence in the “world’s greatest democracy.”
UPDATE: 5:25 p.m. EST/2:25 p.m. PST
In addition to our coverage of the presidential race, we’ll be keeping an eye on down ballot races and referendums. Millions of people poured into the streets this year to protest racism, especially racist police violence and the prison system. Here are some of the ballot measures across the country related to mass incarceration and policing:
- Prop. 17 in California would allow people with felony convictions to cast ballots while on parole.
- Prop. 20 in California would roll back past progressive reforms that reduced the amount of people incarcerated in state prisons and funding for victim services. Unsurprisingly, this ballot initiative is being supported by police and big business.
- Oregon could be the first state to decriminalize all drugs. Measure 110 would replace arrests with a non-criminal $100 citation which would be used to fund treatment services.
- Arizona, New Jersey, South Dakota and Montana may legalize recreational marijuana. Mississippi, South Dakota, and Nebraska may legalize medical marijuana. Oregon will vote on legalizing and regulating psilocybin for medical use, while Washington D.C. might vote to decriminalize it. Advocates of the changes hope the reforms would curb the devastating effects of the so-called “War on Drugs”
- Question 805 in Oklahoma would prohibit past non-violent felony convictions from influencing enhanced sentencing
- Portland, Maine will be voting on banning facial recognition
- Portland, Oregon; Columbus, Ohio; Philadelphia; San Diego; San Francisco: all voting on civilian oversight committees
- Pittsburgh will vote on whether the city will expand the power of the Citizen Police Review Board to allow independent investigations of the police.
- San Francisco will also be deciding whether or not to end an outdated and arbitrary mandate for 1,971 officers to be the minimum size of the police department.
UPDATE: 4:55 p.m. EST/1:55 p.m. PST
We’re live! Welcome to Liberation News’ election night coverage, where we’ll be bringing you all the biggest developments of the evening from a socialist perspective. Here are some highlights from earlier in the day
- Voter suppression: Robocalls have been reported in Flint, Michigan falsely telling voters that they should wait until tomorrow to vote because lines at the polls are too long today. And in Iowa, the FBI has been called in to investigate robocalls reportedly telling voters, “Stay home, stay safe and don’t vote”
- Tensions rise in Pennsylvania: Last night, Trump tweeted that a Supreme Court decision to count all mail-in ballots postmarked by election day would “induce violence in the streets.” Lancaster County Commissioner Ray D’Agostino suggested in a social media post that late-arriving ballots not be counted until the U.S. Supreme Court weighs in, prompting a rebuke today from the Pennsylvania Secretary of State. Meanwhile, Republican lawyers are suing in Philadelphia and nearby Montgomery County to limit election officials’ efforts to contact voters to correct mistakes in their mail-in ballots
- Bracing for turmoil: Large barricades have been erected around the White House and Attorney General Barr has mobilized police from the Bureau of Prisons and the U.S. Marshall service in preparation to repress protests. BoP personnel were also involved in the violent crackdown on anti-racism protesters in D.C. earlier this year. National Guard troops have been mobilized throughout the country, including 1,000 that are on standby in Massachusetts.
- PSL presidential candidate Gloria La Riva told Liberation News after voting: “Today is the culmination of thousands of hours of effort by our campaign volunteers and PSL members who worked tirelessly achieving ballot status for the La Riva/Freeman campaign in 15 states. This allowed our campaign to bring the message of socialism and expose the U.S. electoral system as a sham that only affirms capitalism’s right to exploit.”
