Who is president hangs on votes still being counted

Two days after the election, who will be president still is unknown, hanging on votes still being counted in five states.

In Montana, 96.23 percent of the votes are counted and Republicans took a clean sweep in the statewide and federal elections, including U.S. Greg Gianforte, R-Mont., defeating Democratic Lt. Gov. Mike Cooney 54 percent to 42 percent with the votes counted.

Republican State Auditor Matt Rosendale defeated former state Rep. Kathleen Williams, D-Bozeman, 56 percent to 44 percent so far, to take Gianforte's seat in the U.S. House, and Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., easily held off a challenge from Democratic Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, who is terming out of that office, Daines won with 55 percent of the vote so far to Bullock's 42 percent.

Republican Big Sky businessman Troy Downing beat state Rep. Shane Morigeua, D-Missoula, in the race to take Rosendale's spot as auditor, 55 percent to 39 percent as of this morning, and Republican Deputy Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen defeated state Sen. Bryce Bennet, D-Missoula, 60 percent to 40 percent, to take the place of Secretary of State Corey Stapleton.

Stapleton did not run for re-election for that office and lost in the U.S. House primary to Rosendale.

And former Republican Montana Speaker of the House and current Roosevelt County Attorney Austin Knudsen defeated Governor's Chief Legal Counsel Raph Graybill, a Democrat, in the race for Montana attorney general, 58 percent to 42 percent with the votes counted this morning.

And Montana again went with Republican President Donald Trump, although not quite, at this point, by the 20 points with which Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016. Trump this morning had 57 percent of the votes counted to Democratic Vice President Joe Biden's 41 percent.

But the Montana votes have not, as yet, given Trump the victory.

The Associated Press online election update reported this morning at 10 a.m. that Biden has 264 of the 270 votes needed to become president, while Trump has 214.

Votes in many states still are being counted, although some, like Florida, have been called with strong majorities already in. With 99 percent of the votes counted in Florida, Trump has a nealry 400,000 vote lead, 5,685,404 to Biden's 5,283,4040

The same is true in other states with a few votes to be counted, such as Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, which have been called for for Biden.

The Associated Press has called Arizona, with 11 electoral votes, for Biden although only 88 percent of the votes are counted. Biden leads Trump with 50.5 percent of the votes to Trump's 48.1 percent.

But five states still in play could give either candidate the victory.

Pennsylvania, often called a bellweather that shows which candidate will win the general election, still has Trump ahead, but Biden is cutting into his lead there. AP reports that with 88 percent of the votes counted, Trump leads with 3,228,960 votes to Biden's 3,113,889, a 115,071 vote lead with more than 850,000 votes still to count.

Pennsylvania has 20 electoral votes.

With 76 percent of the votes counted, Biden has a slight edge in Nevada, 603,807 to Trump's 592,020. Nevada has 6 electoral votes, enough to give Biden the 270 needed.

And Trump still has slight leads in Georgia and North Carolina, although Biden has been eating into those leads as well.

With 99 percent of the votes counted, Georgia, with 16 electoral votes, has Trump with a 13,539 vote lead, 2,436,006 to 2,422,467.

And North Carolina, with 94 percent of the votes counted and 15 electoral votes, has Trump ahead 2,732,084 to Biden's 2,655,383, a 76,791-vote lead.

Trump has threatened legal action on election results in some states and his campaign already has filed lawsuits to halt ballot counting in several states and is contesting ballots elsewhere.