US elections 2020: Donald Trump threatened to challenge the legal results further. (File)
Washington:
U.S. Democrat Joe Biden moved closer to victory over Donald Trump on Thursday in an extremely close U.S. election that rested on razor-thin margins in a handful of states, as the Republican president stepped up legal efforts in the hope of slowing down his opponent.
Biden, the former US vice president, continued to cut Trump’s tracks in Pennsylvania and Georgia while keeping margins low in Nevada and Arizona.
The counting of the ballots continued in these battlefield states two days after polling stations closed, with protesters on both sides staging street protests in major cities over the counting of the votes.
Trump, who during the long and spiteful campaign attacked the integrity of the American electoral system, again alleged electoral fraud without providing any evidence and accused the Democrats of wanting to “steal” the election. His campaign has filed several lawsuits and called for a recount in Wisconsin. His latest move was a lawsuit announced Thursday alleging election fraud in Nevada.
The vote count was the tense final chapter in a dramatic campaign focused on whether Americans should give Trump four more years in power after a tumultuous first term or look to Biden, a figure on the national stage. for half a century which has promised to guarantee stability instead. that turmoil.
Trump tapped into discontent and pursued “America First” populism while Biden vowed to reverse many of Trump’s actions at home and to mend alliances abroad.
Some legal experts have labeled Trump’s challenges by far as likely to affect the final outcome of the election, one of the most unusual presidential races in modern U.S. history due to the coronavirus pandemic. Concern over the virus caused a huge increase in the number of people voting by mail, delaying the results.
Biden led in Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona, and moved closer to Trump in Georgia and Pennsylvania.
“Be patient, my friends,” Biden wrote on Twitter. “The votes are counted and we feel good where we are at.”
Multiple Trump prosecutions and a request for a recount are expected to be successful and in some cases find tens of thousands of invalid ballots to reverse the result if Biden wins.
“What we are seeing in these lawsuits is that they are without merit, and nothing more than an attempt to distract and delay what is now inevitable: Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States.” , said Jen O’Malley, campaign manager for Biden. Dillon told reporters.
Trump’s campaign predicted victory, with campaign manager Bill Stepien saying “Donald Trump is alive and well” in the election.
Some of the standout votes in Georgia and Pennsylvania were clustered in places believed to be democratic, such as the Atlanta and Philadelphia areas.
In Georgia, officials have expressed hope they will have an outcome by the end of Thursday. Trump’s eroded lead stood at around 13,500, with around 2% of the ballots remaining counting. Trump’s lead was around 114,000 votes in Pennsylvania, with about 8% of the ballots remaining to be counted.
Trump must win the states where he still leads, including North Carolina, as well as Arizona or Nevada to triumph and avoid becoming the first sitting U.S. president to lose a reelection bid from his compatriot Republican George HW Bush in 1992. Biden led in Nevada by about 11,400 votes and in Arizona by about 68,400 votes.
The president blasted Twitter and in a campaign statement in which he said: “If you count the legal votes, I easily win the election! If you count the illegal and late votes, they can steal the elections from us!”
Trump wrote on Twitter: “STOP THE COUNT!” and “STOP FRAUD!” although he has no authority over the counting of the ballots. He added that “all states recently claimed by Biden will be legally challenged by us.
Despite Trump’s claims, US election experts said voter fraud was very rare.
To capture the White House, a candidate must amass at least 270 state-by-state Electoral College votes. These electoral votes are largely based on the population of a state.
Edison Research gave Biden a 243-to-214 lead in constituency votes Thursday after calling a district in Maine, which divides its votes in the constituency, for Trump. All major media have said Biden won Wisconsin which would give him 10 more votes.
Trump, who often enjoyed legal battles during his long and eventful business career, was in the White House working the phones and monitoring developments on television, two Trump advisers said. He spoke to state governors as well as close friends and advisers and dispatched some of those closest advisers to the field to fight for him.
Biden largely stayed at his home in Delaware and consulted with assistants, including legal counsel Bob Bauer.
POLITICAL POLARIZATION
The extremely close elections highlighted political polarization in the United States and deep divisions along racial, socio-economic, religious and generational lines as well as between urban and rural areas.
After a summer of protests against racism and police brutality, some of which have led to violence and looting, authorities are concerned about mass protests around the elections, but protests so far have been peaceful.
Protesters gathered in cities including Philadelphia, Washington, Phoenix and Detroit, for the second day in a row Thursday.
Supporters for both candidates appeared outside a counting center in Philadelphia on Thursday. A group of Trump supporters held up Trump-Pence flags and placards saying “Voting stops on Election Day” and “Sorry polls are closed.” Across the street were Biden supporters, dancing to music behind a barricade. Similar rallies were scheduled for later today in Harrisburg, the capital of Pennsylvania.
The count and court challenges pave the way for uncertainty before December 8, the deadline for resolving electoral disputes. The president is sworn in on January 20, 2021.
The Trump campaign has said his trial in Nevada alleges a series of voting irregularities in populated Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, such as the voting of people who left the state or who had died. Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt and other campaign figures who announced the lawsuit gave no evidence to support their claims and declined to answer reporters’ questions.
“My response is that we are not aware of any incorrect ballots being processed,” Clark County Clerk Joe Gloria told reporters, adding that Trump’s campaign had not presented him with any evidence to the contrary.
In Pennsylvania, the Trump campaign and other Republicans have already filed various legal challenges. A Pennsylvania appeals court on Thursday ordered that Trump campaign officials be allowed to take a closer look at the processing of ballots in Philadelphia.
Wednesday’s campaign also filed lawsuits in Michigan and Georgia. A judge on Thursday dismissed the lawsuit against Georgia.
Biden had garnered about 3.6 million more votes than Trump nationwide. Trump defeated Democrat Clinton in 2016 after winning crucial states on the battlefield and securing Electoral College victory, even though she won an estimated 3 million more votes nationwide.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
