Has Joe Biden won the election?
Networks are split over which states are safe to call
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Your support makes all the difference.The major news organisations expected to call the result of the US election broadly agree that Joe Biden seems to be closing in on victory - but they are far from unanimous in what they have called so far.
A handful of online outlets, among them Decision Desk HQ and outlets that draw on its data such as Business Insider, called the election for Mr Biden on Friday morning. However, most major outlets have held back even as the president extends his lead in crucial states.
The Independent is following the calls made by the Associated Press, which has held back on some states called by other outlets early on. The agency currently puts Joe Biden on 264 electoral votes, leaving the key swing states of Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania uncalled. (Also uncalled is Alaska, a safe Republican state with just three electoral votes.)
While Mr Biden has overtaken Mr Trump in Pennsylvania, the service is holding off calling it for him because the margin is still very narrow and a great many votes remain to be counted.
At the other end of the spectrum is Fox News. Normally extremely loyal to the president in its coverage, the network called Arizona for the president early on election night, and its call remains in place now.
Read more: US election results and updates
In fact, by Thursday night Fox News’s total electoral vote count for Mr Biden was the highest of any network, at 264 – meaning that any remaining state the network called would put Mr Biden over the top. Most networks called various states between then and the following morning that brought most of their totals to 253.
At that number, Mr Biden would need 17 votes to win – and the only state that could provide those on its own is Pennsylvania. If the result there remains within 0.5 points, an automatic recount is triggered, making it a big risk to tot up an electoral vote win that rests on the state’s numbers.
As far as the other networks and agencies are concerned, the other outstanding states might not close the gap for Mr Biden just yet. Georgia, which offers 16 electoral votes, is now going to a recount, while North Carolina may not finalise its results for as long as a week.
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