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98.4 million citizens have already voted. A result could take days to arrive if there is a close result in states where mail-in votes are not counted until today. That could cause confusion.
In the spirit of the coronavirus pandemic, the United States presidential elections were held. After months of bitter election battle between Republican President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden, polling stations in most states have already closed. Long lines have formed there, especially in the eastern United States.
First lady Melania Trump attended a polling station in Palm Beach in the troubled state of Florida in the morning local time, as television recordings showed. Accompanying journalists reported that Trump was the only person who did not wear a mask despite the corona pandemic.
President Donald Trump cast his vote in early Florida in late October. On Tuesday he commented on vague speculation that he could be declared the winner early on before all the mail-in votes were counted: “I think we will win. But only if there is a win. There is no reason to play,” he said. Trump on Tuesday morning on the television show “Fox and Friends.” The president was on the phone.
“Winning is easy. Losing is never easy. Not for me,” Trump said later that day in Arlington, near Washington. The numbers you see for the states of Texas, Arizona or Florida are very good.
Meanwhile, in recent hours, Biden has been looking for votes again in the highly competitive state of Pennsylvania. He also visited the home in his hometown of Scranton, where he spent the early years of his life. There he left a greeting on the wall: “From this house to the White House with the grace of God. Joe Biden November 3, 2020.” Biden moved his family at the age of ten from Scranton to Wilmington, Delaware, where he still lives today and attended church and his son’s grave on Tuesday morning.
It’s a vote the likes of which has never been seen in American history. An attendance record is already emerging. Nearly 100 million Americans, or just under three-quarters of all voters who voted in 2016, have already voted. Not least to protect themselves from a virus infection in the queues in front of the polling stations, they took the opportunity to cast their vote in advance or send it by mail.
An incident occurred in the city of Charlotte, North Carolina. A man armed with a firearm was arrested in front of a polling station. The man continued to “loiter” in front of the polling station after casting his vote, local police wrote on Twitter. There was a call that the man could have intimidated other voters. He was then asked to leave the premises, but returned two hours later. Police arrested him for breaking and entering.
According to photos on social media and media reports, the man was wearing a cap that read “Trump 2020.” In the run-up to the election, there were concerns that Trump supporters might intimidate other voters. However, no major incidents were known on election night.
The Black Live Matters movement is also a problem
Not only the corona pandemic (to date, more than 231,000 people who have tested positive have died in the US) and the accompanying economic crisis, in which millions of Americans lost their jobs, are causing conflict. Nationwide protests against racism and police violence, triggered by the killing of black George Floyd in a Minneapolis police raid in May and intensified by other similar incidents, have deeply shocked the country. Apart from various demonstrations, in recent months, riots and clashes have repeatedly occurred between supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement and right-wing armed self-defense groups.
A deep rift runs through the country between supporters of Trump and Biden. The 77-year-old challenger accuses Trump of failing to fight the crown pandemic. Polls show that Americans trust Biden to better manage the crisis. Trump responds that the virus will soon disappear and the economy will recover quickly. He also promises that there will be a vaccine soon. It is recommended as a guarantor of prosperity, law and order.
Biden leads national polls, but a multi-state melee race looms. The result is, therefore, open, because in presidential elections it is not the majority of the total votes cast at the national level that decides the winner, but the electoral college. This is made up of the so-called voters that each state contributes based on its population. Typically, the entire electorate of a state is assigned to the candidate who does the best in that state. 270 are needed to win.
So it may happen that the chosen candidate did not get the most votes at the national level, but the largest electorate. The last time this happened was in 2016, when Trump defeated Hillary Clinton, despite winning three million fewer votes than his rival.
In Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, patience is required
At the end of the election campaign, the two candidates focused entirely on the so-called swing states, in which voters mainly bet on Republicans and then again on Democrats. It was a tough race. Hours after the election deadline in most swing states, there was still no preliminary decision on Tuesday night (local time). Biden and Trump received their respective strongholds. While Trump faced victory in Florida, Biden led in Arizona. Ohio, where the Democrat expected good opportunities, received Trump on Wednesday morning (CET).
On election night, attention was also focused on Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, three traditional Democratic strongholds that Trump narrowly conquered in 2016 and that secured his victory over Clinton. If Biden gets these three states back and wins in all the states that also voted for Clinton at the same time, that should be enough to get him into the White House. No trends were noticed Wednesday morning. Although the incumbent clearly led in part, these results were based primarily on Tuesday’s polls. According to polls, Biden’s supporters had predominantly used vote-by-mail.
Florida is still Republican
In Florida, where a victory is mandatory for Trump because of 29 voters, the president led Trump with 51.3 to 47.8 percent of the votes, after more than 90 percent of the votes were counted. Conservative broadcaster Fox News declared the headline the winner in his home state early on. The state allows the flood of mail-in votes to be counted before Election Day.
It is different in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. There, the count does not begin until the day of the elections. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that the results are not available for days. Trump won all three states four years ago. However, observers indicated that by counting votes by mail, Biden could still catch up.
Trump doesn’t want to wait that long. For weeks he has been questioning the American electoral system. Above all, voting by mail is a thorn in your side. Without providing proof, you see possible voter fraud. According to polls, supporters of Democrats in particular use mail-in voting, while Republicans prefer to vote the traditional way on Election Day. Trump has signaled that his lawyers are already in position. He left open questions about whether he would support a peaceful shift of power.
According to the White House, the president of the United States, Trump, does not have an election campaign date after the last five daily appearances. The program includes a morning visit to the Republican Party office. So Trump wants to return to the White House, where there will be an election ceremony with about 400 guests that night.
(APA / Reuters)
