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The vote counting continued for a second night in the remaining states on the battlefield, where large turnout and a mountain of mail-in ballots sent by voters trying to avoid exposure to the coronavirus made the job even more difficult.
FILE: Joe Biden. Image: AFP
WASHINGTON – The knife-edged US presidential race tipped toward Democrat Joe Biden early Thursday, with victories in Michigan and Wisconsin bringing him closer to the majority, but President Donald Trump claimed he was being duped and went to court to try to stop the vote counting.
The vote counting continued for a second night in the remaining states on the battlefield, where large turnout and a mountain of mail-in ballots sent by voters trying to avoid exposure to the coronavirus made the job even more difficult.
Both men still had a path to winning the White House by reaching the threshold of the magical 270 majority of the electoral votes awarded to any candidate who wins the popular vote in a given state.
But the momentum carried over to Biden, who delivered a televised speech from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, to say that “when the count is up, we think we’ll be the winners.”
By changing the battlefields of northern Michigan and Wisconsin, and also by winning in Arizona, previously in favor of Trump, Biden reached 264 electoral votes against 214 so far for Trump.
To get to 270, he hoped to add up the six electoral votes from Nevada, where he had a small and dwindling lead, or, better yet, the biggest jackpots from Georgia or Pennsylvania.
In stark contrast to Trump’s unprecedented rhetoric about being duped, Biden sought to project calm, reaching a nation torn by four years of polarizing leadership and traumatized by the COVID-19 pandemic, with new infections daily Wednesday close to reaching. 100,000 for the first time. time.
“We have to stop treating our opponents as enemies,” said Biden, 77. “What unites us as Americans is much stronger than anything that can separate us.”
TRUMP CLAIMS THAT HE IS DECEIVED
However, the 74-year-old Trump unilaterally claimed victory and made it clear that he would not accept the reported results, issuing unprecedented complaints, unsupported by any evidence, of fraud.
“The damage has already been done to the integrity of our system, and to the presidential election itself,” he tweeted, claiming without proof or explanation that “secretly thrown ballots” had been added in Michigan.
* Trump alleges ‘surprise ballot dumps’ in states where he led
The Trump campaign announced lawsuits in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia and demanded a recount in Wisconsin.
In Michigan, the campaign filed a lawsuit to stop the tabulation of votes, saying its “observers” were not allowed to look closely.
The tension also moved to the streets, although so far there has not been the kind of unrest some feared just before the elections, prompting businesses in several major city centers to cover up windows.
In Detroit, a mostly black Democratic stronghold, a crowd of mostly white Trump supporters chanted “Stop the count!” and attempted to break into an electoral office before being blocked by security.
American news networks showed an aggressive pro-Trump crowd also gathering in front of a vote counting office in major Arizona’s Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix.
The burly law enforcement officers formed a protective line on the doors of the facility. Some of the protesters were openly carrying firearms, which is legal in the state, as people chanted “Count the votes!”
Just before midnight local time, Maricopa authorities released new vote totals, and Trump slashed Biden’s vote advantage in Arizona from 79,000 to less than 69,000, a gap of 2.4 percent with 86 percent down. the enclosures informing.
Georgia’s largest Fulton County, which includes parts of Atlanta, processed the ballots overnight.
Over a 90-minute period, Biden cut Trump’s lead there from 29,000 votes to 23,000, with 95% of districts reporting.
The tight nature of Georgia’s run (Biden is behind Trump by half a percent) increases the possibility of a recount.
BE PATIENT’
The elections in the United States, generally touted as an example for the most recent democracies around the world, brought statements of international concern, with German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer warning of a “very explosive situation.”
An observation mission by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which monitors voting in the West and the former Soviet Union, found no evidence of voter fraud and said Trump’s “baseless accusations” eroded confidence in democracy. .
Unless Biden racks up a winning score earlier, the entire contest could end up being decided by the winner from Pennsylvania, where Trump’s large initial lead quickly diminished.
The state is an important target for Trump’s campaign attorneys, who have already challenged his rule about allowing mailed ballots received after Election Day to be counted in the United States Supreme Court.
* Trump says he will go to the Supreme Court to dispute the election count
Tom Wolf, the state’s Democratic governor, insisted that everyone be “patient” and promised that all votes would be “fully counted.”
The tight race for the White House and the recriminations evoked memories of the 2000 election between Republican George W Bush and Democrat Al Gore.
That contest, which depended on a handful of votes in Florida, eventually ended in the Supreme Court, which stopped a recount while Bush led the way.
The U.S. Elections Project estimated total turnout in 2020 at a record 160 million, including more than 101.1 million early voters.
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