Can Trump still win the US election? Arizona, Nevada and Georgia updates

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As of Friday morning, Democrat Joe Biden was just one battleground away from securing enough electoral college votes to achieve what he has called “a victory for the American people”.  

Pushing past President Donald Trump in key swing states Pennsylvania and Georgia, the former vice president appeared to inch closer to making a return to the White House in 2021, this time as president.

Mr Trump’s campaign team, however, has asserted that this election race "isn’t over” and indeed, leading newsrooms around the world have said it is still too close to call.

In a statement on Friday the Trump campaign insisted that the president will “never give up fighting for you and our nation” and that his campaign team ”will pursue this process through every aspect of the law to guarantee that the American people have confidence in our government."

Following victories in Wisconsin and Michigan, Mr Biden had 264 electoral college votes to Donald Trump’s 214 and only needs to secure one of Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina or his home state Pennsylvania to reach the necessary 270 to claim the country's top position.  

But despite Mr Biden's lead, it is still possible for the incumbent president to win the election.

The Republican’s clearest path to victory would rely on him winning Pennsylvania and the three other states up for grabs.  

If he manages to do that then he will win the electoral college. However if Mr Trump loses Pennsylvania, then the race is over. 

Follow live: Biden says ‘no doubt’ he has won presidency

Mr Trump’s path to re-election had already narrowed on Wednesday after Michigan was called for Mr Biden with 49.9 per cent to 48.6 per cent of the vote going in favour of the former vice president. As of Friday morning, it was 50.6 per cent to 47.9 percent with 99 per cent of precincts reporting.

By Friday morning, Mr Biden had also overtaken Mr Trump in Georgia with a 917-vote lead. Still, with thousands of ballots still yet to be counted, the race is too early to call, but by Friday evening that lead had grown to 4,395.

It should be noted Pennsylvania could not begin counting mail-in ballots until the state's polls closed on election day, and its state Supreme Court allows ballots to be counted up to three days after election day.   

Read more: When will we know the US election result?

Mr Trump has long sought to undermine the credibility of the voting process if he lost. Since Tuesday's election day, he has falsely declared victory, accused Democrats of trying to steal the election without evidence, and vowed to fight states in court. US election experts say that fraud is rare.  

The Trump campaign fought to keep his chances alive by demanding a recount in Wisconsin shortly after Mr Biden’s victory was announced. He would be entitled to the recount given the slim margin there, but the state flipping back to the president remains unlikely.

Mr Trump and his team also launched lawsuits in Michigan and Pennsylvania to stop vote counting, in addition to vowing to launch a lawsuit in Nevada on Thursday.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who is in charge of elections, called the lawsuit "frivolous." 

A second route would put the state of Arizona back into play for the president, which is not an impossible scenario. 

As of Friday, Mr Biden had 49.7 per cent of the vote with 1,604,067 ballots cast in his favour, compared with Mr Trump’s 48.8 per cent at 1,574,206 votes.

If Mr Trump did manage to flip the call on Arizona, he would need to pick up either a combination of Georgia, Nevada, and North Carolina, or Pennsylvania and North Carolina. 

The Associated Press and Fox News have already projected that Mr Biden will take Arizona, but other news organisations have said it is too soon to make a call.

Democrats have remained confident they will hold the state of Arizona as the final absentee ballots are tabulated.

Late stage come-from-behind victories for Mr Trump are unlikely - but not impossible - as the majority of votes still being counted were mail-in ballots. Incoming results have turned slightly in Mr Trump’s favour, but it is not thought to be by enough to secure the state when the count finishes

Republican opposition to mail-in voting and Democratic messaging ahead of the election urging supporters to vote early suggests that mail-in ballots will skew heavily towards Mr Biden.  

Further, districts that are still counting votes and which anticipate vote counting well into Friday tend to be cities or other dense population centres, which tend to be Democratic strongholds.

Additional reporting by agencies