Georgia voters cast their ballots in pivotal Senate runoff elections – live

Donald Trump is seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit claiming he defrauded his niece out of an inheritance worth tens of millions of dollars, accusing her of embracing “conspiracy theories” in her quest to consume him with lawsuits after he leaves the White House.

The president’s lawyers said Mary Trump gave up her claims in a 2001 settlement with family members over the estate of his father Fred Trump Sr, who died in 1999, Reuters reports.

They also said Mary Trump waited too long to accuse Donald Trump, his sister Maryanne Trump Barry and his late brother Robert Trump of trying to “squeeze” her out of her inheritance, relying instead on a 2018 New York Times report on tax matters involving the family.

“Plaintiff makes outlandish and incredulous accusations in her complaint, which is laden with conspiracy theories more befitting a Hollywood screenplay than a pleading in a legal action,” the lawyers, who also represent Robert Trump’s estate, said in a filing yesterday in a New York state court in Manhattan.

They said the lawsuit’s “true purpose” was “to weaken the president’s political influence during his post-presidency by preoccupying him with the defense of innumerable lawsuits.”

Mary Trump, 55, a psychologist, made some of her allegations in her best-selling tell-all: “Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.”

The president’s sister, a retired federal judge, also wants the lawsuit dismissed.

Roberta Kaplan, a lawyer for Mary Trump, said that while her client “is surely no fan of Donald Trump or his administration’s policies, intra-family fraud is what this case is about.”

Trump faces several other legal actions. These include a criminal probe by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, a civil probe by New York Attorney General Letitia James into whether he inflated asset values to obtain loans and tax benefits, and a defamation lawsuit by the writer E. Jean Carroll, whose allegation of rape he has denied.

As voting continues in Georgia, it’s been a lively morning in US political news and there will be no shortage of developments for the rest of the day – and overnight – so please stay tuned to our blog, which is staying live around the clock for the Georgia runoffs and into the official certification of the presidential election result on Capitol Hill tomorrow (where the chances of chaos and lengthy delays are building by the hour).

Here are the main news headlines so far today:

• The main prosecutor in Kenosha, Wisconsin, will announce later this afternoon whether there will be criminal charges against the white police officer who shot Jacob Blake in the back in August, paralyzing him and sparking days of protests.
• Democratic candidate for one of the US Senate seats up for grabs in Georgia today, John Ossoff, called himself a “John Lewis Democrat” when he went to vote today in the runoff election.
• There was a flurry this morning as senior Republican Senator Chuck Grassley indicated that he, not vice president Mike Pence as expected, would preside over the certification process in Congress tomorrow of the Electoral College vote, cementing Joe Biden’s victory. And that Pence might not even show. These two points were quickly contradicted by Pence’s office. As you were.
• In-person voting is happening in the Georgia runoffs today, with polls open from 7am to 7pm. Voting is brisk and my colleagues David Smith, Kenya Evelyn and Sam Levine are in Georgia reporting from the ground.

Kenosha county district attorney Michael Graveley will announce this afternoon the prosecutor’s office decision on whether any of the Kenosha police officers involved in the August 23, 2020, shooting of local man Jacob Blake will face criminal charges.

Blake was shot in the back during an encounter with police and ended up in hospital paralyzed from the waist down, as fierce protests erupted in the streets and his family and supporters demanded justice.

The polls close at 7pm Eastern Time in Georgia today but no-one is expecting a swift result in either race, unfortunately.

The Guardian US team will be live-blogging this evening and overnight to bring you the news and it would be great to think there will be a result on Tuesday, but the chances are it’s more likely to be Wednesday or even Thursday (or longer…?).

My colleague Tom McCarthy has this handy explainer, which also notes that anyone in line to vote at 7pm when the polls officially close will be allowed to cast their ballot.

By state law, ballot counting cannot start until polls close at 7pm. Military and overseas ballots arriving as late as Friday could be counted.

That means results could take days, election officials say. The November election in Georgia was extremely close, with Biden’s victory in the state not projected by television networks until 10 days post-election.

Analysts warn that another dynamic of the November election, the so-called “red mirage”, could repeat itself this week, with Republicans appearing in the lead on the strength of election day returns, only to lose ground as mail-in and absentee ballots are counted.

If the results comes within 0.5% of one’s opponent, the candidate has the right to a recount on request.

In the November election, where no-one got above 50% of the vote, with the rules then triggering a runoff, Republican David Perdue was ahead of his Democratic challenger John Ossoff by 49.7% to 47.9%. In the other race, Democrat Raphael Warnock overtook Republican incumbent Kelly Loeffler with 32.9% vs 25.9%.

After that flurry in a thimble involving Pence and Grassley, we’re back in Georgia.

My Guardian colleague David Smith was there when Democratic candidate John Ossoff, who is hoping to flip a senate seat away from Republican David Perdue in the runoffs today, voted a little earlier in Atlanta.

Ossoff once interned for the late civil rights and congressional icon John Lewis.

Immediate confusion on Capitol Hill. CNN’s Kaitlan Collins now reporting that Mike Pence’s office is indicating he will preside over proceedings in Congress tomorrow to certify the Electoral College vote confirming Joe Biden’s victory in November’s presidential election.

Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley will preside over certification of the Electoral College vote in the US Congress tomorrow that will officially confirm Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in November’s election – not Mike Pence.

Vice president Mike Pence had been assumed to be the one overseeing proceedings tomorrow in his role, under the US Constitution, as president of the US Senate.

Pence was put under huge pressure by Donald Trump last night urging him to engineer an overturning of the election results – even though the role of the person presiding over Congress tomorrow is simply to publicly count the electoral college votes, which went for Biden, not to determine unilaterally the outcome of the election.

And now it appears that Pence won’t be in the hot seat and might not even be present. There’s a massive showdown expected when some super-loyalist maverick Republicans object to and are expected to vote against confirming the Electoral College result, futile as that will be.

No explanations have been given yet and we await details.

A record three million people took advantage of early voting in the Georgia runoffs, casting their ballots before the official election day today.

These are unheard of numbers for a runoff. And many are hitting the polls in person today.

My Guardian voting rights reporter colleague, Sam Levine, is in Atlanta this morning and has sent this report:

At Antioch Baptist Church, a polling station in Atlanta’s English avenue neighborhood, a steady stream of voters tricked in on a chilly Tuesday morning.

Most voters – all wearing masks – were in and out of the site in less than 5 minutes – a welcome relief in a state that saw hours long lines to vote last year.

Gabi Strode, 27, who moved to Georgia two years ago, said it was exciting to vote in a competitive election that will determine which party controls the US senate.

“To be able to be part of this specific election is memorable because I feel like my vote actually counted this time,” she said. “It’s surreal, kind of.”

Stephanie Aluko, 30, who works as an academic adviser, said it was “kind of cool” for Georgians to see how much their vote matters.

“It made people in Georgia see how important it actually is to vote,” she said. “If the whole world is looking at you and paying attention to you, suddenly, maybe your vote matters.”

(Note, this post has just been updated to correct the spelling of a name.)

Bracing for possible violence, the nation’s capital has mobilized the National Guard ahead of planned protests today and tomorrow by Donald Trump’s supporters in connection with the congressional vote due tomorrow afternoon to affirm Joe Biden’s election victory.

Trump’s supporters are planning to rally, seeking to bolster the president’s unproven claims of widespread voter fraud. “There are people intent on coming to our city armed,” DC acting police chief Robert Contee said yesterday, The Associated Press reports.

A pro-Trump rally in December ended in violence as hundreds of Trump supporters, wearing the signature black and yellow of the extremist right-wing Proud Boys faction, sought out confrontations with a collective of local activists attempting to bar them from Black Lives Matter Plaza, an area near the White House.

(Here’s the late civil rights icon John Lewis in Black Lives Matter Plaza in DC):

Downtown DC businesses have been boarding up their windows again, which they did before the November election, Mayor Muriel Bowser has requested a limited National Guard deployment to help bolster the Metropolitan Police Department.

Bowser has asked that local area residents stay away, and avoid confrontations with anyone who is “looking for a fight.”

But, she warned: “We will not allow people to incite violence, intimidate our residents or cause destruction in our city.”

The additional forces will be used for traffic control and other assistance but they will not be armed or wearing body armor.

Congress is meeting tomorrow to certify the Electoral College results, and Trump has refused to concede defeat while whipping up support for protests.

This shouldn’t be news. But after secretary of state Mike Pompeo talked after the election about a “smooth transition” tiny pause, smirk “to a second Trump administration”, we now see an effective acknowledgement of a changing of the guard in Washington, DC.

Questioned at an event about his legacy in the Trump administration, Pompeo gave a fulsome and plain answer that was all about leaving office.

“I think we’re leaving the world safer than when we came in,” Pompeo said.

He added: “I hope that the policies that we put in place will have the capacity to continue and whoever the next secretary of state is will continue down this path…”

Etc.

Here’s the key tweet from CBS.

Joe Biden’s incoming secretary of state has been named, of course, and is the experienced Anthony Blinken.

Good morning, US live blog readers. It’s G-Day! The Georgia runoffs that will determine two US Senate seats and the balance of power in the senate overall after November’s close elections. There will be lots of action in US politics today so please stay with us as we bring you live developments.

And, importantly, we are running this blog non-stop for the next 24 hours to reflect the vital news from Georgia. Do stay tuned for our bloggers as we hand the baton over to each other around the clock.

Here’s what we’re watching this morning.

• Georgians began lining up in the dark this morning outside polling stations in Atlanta before they opened at 7am eastern time across the state for in-person voting.
• Record numbers of people voted early but many will want to cast their ballots on the day – the polling stations are open from 7am to 7pm ET.
• Four candidates are fighting over two seats, with Republicans Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue hoping to retain power against Democratic challengers Raphael Warnock and John Ossoff.
• The US Senate in Washington was so closely fought in the November election that the outcome of the Georgia runoffs today (after Loeffler and Perdue failed to get above 50% of the vote in November to win re-election on the spot) will determine whether the GOP or the Democrats have control over the senate in the incoming Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration.
• In Washington, DC, mayor Muriel Bowser has requested National Guard troops to back up local police tomorrow for expected pro-Donald Trump protests coinciding with the vote in Congress to certify the Electoral College vote and formally declare Joe Biden the winner of November’s presidential election.
• In rallies in Georgia yesterday, Biden said: “Georgia, the whole nation is looking to you”, while Donald Trump tried to strong-arm his vice president, Mike Pence, to overturn the election result in Congress tomorrow – a power the vice-president does not possess whether he wanted to or not.