Democratic candidate Joe Biden is inching towards a victory in the US presidential election. With 264 projected electoral college votes, Biden needs just six more to win the race to the White House. The Associated Press (AP) has called the race for Michigan and Wisconsin in favour of Biden and he also holds an edge in Arizona and Nevada, which will give him six more votes to cross the finish line, but the results are unlikely to come until the weekend.
US President Donald Trump, who is leading the states of Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia, currently has 214 electoral votes, according to AP’s projected tally. However, what isn’t good news for the Trump campaign is that Biden is narrowing the gap in Georgia and Pennsylvania.
In an early morning press conference Wednesday, Trump accused the Biden campaign of election fraud and vowed to move the US Supreme Court over the results. Despite drawing criticism, Trump’s campaign went ahead to confirm it would formally request a Wisconsin recount, citing “irregularities in several Wisconsin counties.” It also filed lawsuits in Pennsylvania and Michigan before the projections were made, laying the groundwork for contesting the outcome in these key battleground states.
The high stakes election was held against the backdrop of a 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.
But the margins were exceedingly tight with the candidates trading wins in battleground states across the country. Millions of votes are yet to be tallied given the overwhelming number of people who voted early through mail-in-ballots due to the pandemic. Mail-in-ballots favour Biden, who spent months repeatedly telling his supporters to vote in advance, while Trump encouraged voters to vote on Election Day. ( Indian Express )
