FiveThirtyEight has issued its final presidential forecast. There hasn’t been a lot of change over the past 24 or 48 hours, as most of the late polling either came in close to our previous polling averages, or came from — frankly — fairly random pollsters that don’t get a lot of weight in our forecast.
Nearly 100 million Americans had already cast their ballots when voting got underway Tuesday.
After a campaign marked by rancor and fear, Americans on Tuesday decide between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden, selecting a leader to steer a nation battered by a surging pandemic that has killed more than 231,000 people, cost millions their jobs and reshaped daily life.
Biden is the favorite. But Trump’s path to victory has not been entirely ruled out.
In many states, the president must amp up the rural turnout to offset Democratic big-city margins.
The race for 270 electoral votes starts tonight. Fast-counting swing states in the Southeast will begin to report their results early. Battlegrounds in the upper Midwest and industrial Great Lakes, as well as states out West, will come online later. And counting votes could take some states several more days.
It's up to the voters now. An anxious and divided nation, gripped in the most serious health and economic crises of modern times, finishes voting Tuesday in what both sides describe as the most crucial presidential election in their lifetimes.
Millions of Americans have already voted, but each state has different rules on when it’s allowed to actually start counting those ballots. That is going to produce results coming in at very different times — perhaps days or even weeks after Election Day.
In this installment of the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast, the crew recaps the final presidential debate and considers what the rest of the 2020 campaign will look like.
The final debate showed candidates far apart on issues like health care, climate change and criminal justice. Trump tried to focus on alleged corruption, but the pandemic remains 2020's central issue.
President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden made their final arguments to voters on Thursday night at their second and final presidential debate, squaring off in Nashville, Tennessee, less than two weeks before the election.
Moderator Kristen Welker — with the help of an offstage mute button — helped give Americans the substantive, crackling debate over leadership that had been missing so far during the 2020 presidential campaign. The NBC News White House correspondent worked hard Thursday to keep control of the second and final encounter between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden, steering but not stifling exchanges.
The final debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, held on Thursday evening, was the first one of the entire campaign that actually felt like a debate. The first debate was a chaotic disaster due to Trump’s constant interruptions; the second one didn’t happen because Trump refused to agree to debate virtually while he had Covid-19 (the candidates held dueling town halls instead). This time around, better moderation and the handy use of a mute button allowed both candidates to express their thoughts — leading to a mix of actual substantive policy exchanges and less-than-coherent mudslinging about families and personal finance.
With less than two weeks until voting concludes, President Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will face off for the final time in a debate on Thursday, likely marking Trump's last chance to reach a massive audience as he trails Biden in polls nationally and in key states.
On Monday night, the Commission on Presidential Debates unanimously approved a new rule for Thursday night's final debate that will make it virtually impossible for Donald Trump to be, well, Donald Trump.
Only one opportunity now remains for the two candidates to directly debate each other before Election Day.
President Trump is already attacking Thursday's presidential debate moderator, NBC News' Kristen Welker, who has served as the company's White House correspondent since 2011.
Last month’s debate was marred by frequent interruptions by the president.
Trump’s campaign has repeatedly opposed the idea of granting the moderator the power to shut off a candidate’s microphone — an idea that has been floated in the aftermath of the first debate, during which Trump repeatedly interrupted and jeered at Biden.
The Commission on Presidential debates announced on Friday the six topics for the second and final debate between President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden set to take place next week.