Three days on, America is still waiting for the results of the US presidential election, as is the rest of the world. The fight between Republican President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden is so close the media is holding back on making projections until the last votes are tallied.
The outcome of the election depends on the four key battleground states of Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Trump is marginally ahead in three of the four states — except Nevada — but a win in any one of these states will propel Biden across the finish line.
At present, Biden has won 264 electoral college votes against Trump’s 214. He has garnered 50.5 per cent of the vote (7,34,86,646) while Trump has won 47.9 per cent (6,96,22,185), according to a tally by The Associated Press (AP.) The AP had earlier called Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and New Hampshire for Biden, and Florida, Iowa, Ohio and Texas for Trump.
Breaking his silence after two days, Trump Thursday renewed his claims that Democrats were trying to “steal” the election, and said he would win if “legal votes” were counted. Unleashing harsh criticism of pre-election polling that showed him trailing Biden, Trump claimed without evidence that the ballot-counting process was unfair and corrupt.
“If you count the legal vote, I easily win. If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us,” Trump said, adding the election might end “at the highest court of land”.
The high stakes election was held on November 3 against the backdrop of an unprecedented pandemic that has killed more than 2,30,000 Americans and wiped away millions of jobs. Both candidates spent months pressing dramatically different visions for the nations’ future, and voters responded in huge numbers with more than 100 million people casting votes ahead of Election Day.( Indian Express )
