Counting in 5 states: the tense uncertainty in the US

Challenging, Bill Stepien, the campaign manager for the re-election of Donald trump, professed his optimism at noon yesterday. “He is alive and well,” he declared, recalling that many had prematurely ruled out the Republican candidate at various times since the 2016 presidential primaries. This, while the president, who on the very night of the elections had already proclaimed himself the winner, launched himself with everything against his rival, Democrat Joe Biden, who saw his vote increase for the vote by mail count. “Stop the fraud!”, “Any vote that comes in after Election Day will not be counted!”, “We will win! America First! ”Were some of the messages that he uploaded to his Twitter account, the same ones that the social network objected to as being“ misleading ”.

And it is that Trump’s task to extend his tenure in the White House for another four years seemed to get more uphill every hour. At the beginning of the day, the President adds 214 electoral votes, compared to Biden’s 253, according to the estimate of The New York Times newspaper. In other words, the Democrat was only 17 votes away from reaching the “magic figure” of 270 votes needed in the Electoral College to be elected.

But the unfinished vote count in five states conspired for Americans – and the rest of the world – to add another day of uncertainty about the results after Tuesday’s elections in that country.

All eyes are focused on Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania. On Wednesday everyone took for granted that the race for the White House would be defined yesterday with the final scrutiny of Nevada. This, because the day before some media had attributed Arizona to Biden, a state that by distributing 11 electoral votes, left the Democrat on the edge of the election by adding 264 votes. Thus, the six votes that Nevada distributes would have been enough to give victory to Biden.

But yesterday everything changed. Local press noted that conservative Fox News and The Associated Press had proclaimed Biden the winner in Arizona based on “incomplete results.” Thus, the agency France Presse placed that state that traditionally votes Republican as “uncertain”, while The New York Times and CNN kept it in the category of “in dispute.”

And that was precisely what happened yesterday in Arizona. With the 90% scrutinized, Biden appeared at the top with 50.1% of the vote, compared to 48.5% for Trump. While local officials have said the count could end today, the Trump campaign sent a team to Arizona to ensure hundreds of thousands of votes are counted by mail, Bloomberg reported. All in all, Biden’s campaign manager, Jennifer O’Malley DillonHe said he believed that “they will win the state by thousands of votes.”

In case of acquiring Arizona, Biden would only need Nevada. According to the latest Times update, with 89% polled, the Democrat has increased his lead over Trump in that state, where he now has 11,438 more votes than the Republican. Trump currently has 48.5% of the vote compared to 49.4% for Biden. Yesterday, the county authorities of Clark, in Nevada, reported that they were preparing to count a few 51,000 votes, although the data will be updated today.

Given the impossibility of knowing the results in Nevada, the attention yesterday focused on Georgia, which distributes 16 electoral votes. In this state that traditionally votes Republican, the 99% of the votes. Trump was in the lead since Tuesday, but his margin narrowed so much that at midnight both candidates scored 49.4% of the votesaccording to NBC News, which only increased the uncertainty about the final count in that state.

Yesterday, the courts dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Trump campaign precisely in Georgia. The case concerned 53 absentee votes in Chatham County. It was dismissed by a judge after election officials in the county of bed sheet declare that all these ballots had been received on time. The same judicial setback had the Trump team yesterday in Michigan and Philadelphia.

In Pennsylvania, with 20 electoral votes, Trump started with a comfortable advantage that has been reduced with the passing of the hours. Yesterday the President overtook his rival with 49.5% compared to 49.2%, 95% scrutinized. There were still more than 366,000 votesAll issued by mail, a modality preferred by Democratic voters, which according to US media may reverse the results in Biden’s home state.

Although a Supreme Court ruling allowed Pennsylvania authorities to extend the count until today, Kathy Boockvar, secretary of state in charge of the elections, among other tasks, indicated yesterday that the results “definitely could” be known sooner. However, several Pennsylvania counties are choosing to separate, but not count, postmarked Election Day mail ballots that remain through today.

In North Carolina, a traditionally republican state, 95% of the votes have been counted and 15 voters are at stake. For the moment, Trump has the advantage with 50% against Biden’s 48.6%, with a margin of 76,737 votes. But here the votes by correspondence sent no later than the day of the election – Tuesday, November 3 – are accepted if they arrive in the following nine days, that is, until November 12. Therefore, this state would be one of the last to deliver its results, not counting for an imminent definition of the fair between Biden and Trump for the White House seat.

In addition to these five states, the results of Alaska, a state that distributes three electoral votes. With 56% counted, Trump has 62.9% of the votes there, compared to 33% for Biden, with a difference of 51,382 votes.

In his third run for President, Biden was confident of his victory with his running mate, Kamala Harris, and insisted that voters be patient and that the result will be known “very soon.”

“We continue to feel very good about where things are. We have no doubt that when the count is over, Senator Harris and I will be the winners. “ said former vice president of Barack Obama, from his fiefdom in Wilmington, Delaware, without taking questions from journalists.

Trump, for his part, spent the day in the White House, taking phone calls and redoubling efforts to cast doubt on the outcome of the contest, according to The Associated Press. The President held a press conference on the night in which he stated without presenting evidence that the election was “fixed” and that they were stealing his victory. “There are many lawsuits. I predicted that. It is a corrupt system, “he said. The main strategist of the Trump campaign, Jason Miller, assured that the President “will win again”, estimating that today “it will be clear.”