US election results: Biden edges ahead in Wisconsin as vote count continues

In Wisconsin, Democratic nominee Joe Biden took a small lead around 4:30 am New York time, as several metropolitan areas submitted their absentee ballot counts.

As expected, the Democrat took a large haul from Milwaukee, the state’s biggest city -- crucial to potentially overcoming Trump’s strength in smaller towns and rural areas. An influx of nearly 170,000 absentee votes from the city of Milwaukee erased the solid lead from in-person voting that Trump had maintained since the polls closed at 8 pm.

The president, who carried Wisconsin by 0.8 percentage points in 2016, trailed Biden in by 0.3 percentage points in the latest figures with some precincts still outstanding.

Ballot-counting continues in key battleground states, including Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, as the presidency and control of the US Senate remain up for grabs on the morning after the US. election.

Shortly before 3 am. New York time, the Associated Press said Biden had won Arizona, marking the Democratic nominee’s first victory in a state Trump won in 2016. He also picked up what could be a crucial single elector in Nebraska’s Second Congressional District. But with his own victories in Texas and Florida, Trump had a viable path to victory as well – setting up high stakes in what could become a drawn out resolution in the remaining states.

Due to laws barring the processing of mail-in ballots before Election Day, election officials in Michigan and Pennsylvania have said it may take until Friday to count all the ballots. Officials in Georgia and Wisconsin said they expect their larger cities to be done counting by Wednesday. North Carolina officials said they would too, but the presidential race there remains extremely close and mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day will be counted if they arrive by Nov. 12.

Meanwhile, Biden's White House campaign slammed President Donald Trump's threat to try to stop the election vote count as "outrageous", saying its legal team was ready to prevent such an "unprecedented" act.

"The president's statement tonight about trying to shut down the counting of duly cast ballots was outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect," Biden campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon said in a statement as the election remained undecided.

"Never before in our history has a president of the United States sought to strip Americans of their voice in a national election."

The comments came shortly after Trump delivered an extraordinary speech from the White House, in which he claimed that "we did win this election" despite neither candidate reaching the electoral vote threshold for victory.

Democrats easily maintained their majority in the House of Representatives, but control of the Senate is still undetermined as several races remain close, including in Michigan and North Carolina, while one race in Georgia is headed for a runoff in January. Of the Senate races called so far, Democrats Mark Kelly in Arizona and John Hickenlooper in Colorado beat Republican incumbents, while Alabama Republican Tommy Tuberville beat a Democratic incumbent.