Where Things Stand in the 5 States We're Waiting On

Both candidates remain shy of 270 electoral college votes with five states yet to be called: Alaska, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. Wisconsin, which had been on that list for much of Wednesday, was called for Joe Biden in the afternoon. Michigan was called for Biden hours later. Here's where we're at in those states, per the AP and local media outlets:

• Alaska—Trump leads: The Anchorage Daily News reports the long wait has just begun in the state, where at least 122,233 absentee and early votes won't be tallied until the Nov. 10 to Nov. 18 period, per state law. That count will increase as ballots continue to arrive in the mail over the next few days. Per the paper, "If turnout finishes near what it was four years ago, the late-counted ballots may account for one in three of all votes cast this year." As of noon Wednesday, the AP reports 45% of the vote has been tallied, with Trump up 63% to 33%.

• Georgia—Trump leads: The AP describes this one as still too close to call, with roughly 80,000 ballots yet to be counted as of Wednesday evening, mainly in the Atlanta area, which leans Democratic. Biden is now within 23,000 votes of Trump, and election officials say they aim to complete the count Thursday, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
• Nevada—Biden leads: It was neck and neck in the state as of early Wednesday morning, with 67% of votes in and Biden up by less than 8,000 votes. Per the Las Vegas Review-Journal, all in-person votes have been tallied; late-arriving mail and provisional ballots have not. The secretary of state's office tweeted early Wednesday that the next update would come at 9am Thursday. The state indicated later Wednesday that more results could be released before then, but then revered to its original timeline, reports the New York Times.
• North Carolina—Trump leads: Trump is leading by 76,000 votes, but the AP reports there are still about 200,000 mail-in ballots left to count, and mail ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 don't have to be counted until Nov. 12. Per the Charlotte Observer, "The final margin will come down to uncounted absentee votes and provisional ballots," and as of Tuesday there were almost 137,000 absentee ballots outstanding, though some of those people could have voted in person or decided not to vote. Biden has taken two-thirds of the absentee vote already counted. Officials said Wednesday that they don't expect to change vote totals until next week, reports Reuters.
• Pennsylvania—Trump leads: Trump had a 266,000-vote lead late Wednesday, down from 500,000 earlier in the day, and there are roughly 1.1 million votes left to be counted. Most of those are mail ballots, which have favored Biden. Per the Philadelphia Inquirer, "Most of those remaining ballots come from Philadelphia, its four suburban collar counties ... and Allegheny County, home to Pittsburgh. ... Those votes will strongly skew toward Biden."

(More Election 2020 stories.)