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Washington – (BBC):
The outcome of the US presidential election has reached a critical moment, with the gap between Donald Trump and his rival, Joe Biden, narrowing in the swing states.
No candidate can credibly claim to have won so far.
Biden’s campaign said the race “is moving toward a result in our favor.”
But Trump, the Republican candidate, claimed he won and vowed to sue the Supreme Court, without providing evidence of fraud.
Several major states are expected to finish counting by the end of Wednesday, but the election result may not be decided for a few days.
Biden’s campaign has said it hopes to win because several states that support it will be counted on Wednesday or Thursday, but the Trump campaign has said it is confident the math is in its favor.
With more than 100 million people casting their votes in early voting before Election Day, and tens of millions adding their votes on Tuesday, the United States is on track to achieve the largest voter turnout in a century.
What are the results so far?
Trump challenged opinion polls before the election to perform better than expected, but Biden is far ahead in several major states.
In American elections, voters cast their votes at the state level, not at the state level.
A candidate must obtain at least 270 votes in the so-called electoral college, to become president.
And each US state gets a certain number of votes based on its population, while a total of 538 votes are available.
Vote numbers are very converging in the crucial states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, states that pushed Trump to the White House four years ago.
Biden currently leads in Wisconsin and Michigan, and Trump’s leadership in Pennsylvania is likely to be reversed with a vote-by-mail.
Despite this, Republicans in Wisconsin said they would immediately request a recount in the state, citing “reports of wrongdoing in multiple counties.” In Michigan and Pennsylvania, the Trump campaign has filed lawsuits to stop the vote counting.
Biden could also seize Arizona, once a conservative state, and lead Nevada, although the count is not expected to resume until Thursday.
The president is also expected to retain the essential state of Florida and another conservative state, Texas, where Biden’s campaign dreamed of a surprise victory.
The rivalry in Georgia and North Carolina is also fierce, although they are currently leaning toward Trump.
The BBC expects Trump to retain Ohio and Missouri, known as the two leading states because they often speculate on the ultimate winner.
The BBC also predicted that Trump would win Nebraska, even though Biden had a vote there in the electoral college, which could prove decisive.
But as the two candidates compete for electoral college votes, Biden is clearly ahead in the national vote, 50%, 2.5 million more votes than Trump.
Hillary Clinton won nearly 3 million more votes than Trump in 2016, but lost the election anyway.
Control of Congress, the bicameral legislature, is also at risk. In addition to the White House, Republicans are vying for a majority in the Senate.
The House of Representatives is expected to remain in the hands of Democrats.
What do the two candidates say?
In a speech Wednesday afternoon, Biden said it was clear his campaign was winning enough states to win the election.
“I am here to report. We believe that we will be the winners,” he said.
Meanwhile, Trump claimed in a tweet on Twitter that there were “surprise electoral cards,” causing his leadership to disappear in several states, without providing any evidence.
Twitter described the tweet as controversial and misleading.
At the election night meeting at the White House, the president said there was “massive fraud” and “we are going to the US Supreme Court,” again with no evidence.
“We want all voting to cease,” the president said, apparently wanting to avoid the mail-in ballot count, which could be legally accepted by some state electoral boards after Tuesday’s elections.
His opponent’s campaign condemned the president’s statement, describing it as “appalling, unprecedented and false”, calling it “a blatant effort to wrest the democratic rights of American citizens.”
Biden’s campaign attorney, Bob Bauer, said that any appeal to the Supreme Court would result in “one of the most embarrassing defeats a president suffered before the highest court in the nation.”
When will we get the result?
Before Election Day, officials had warned of having to wait days or even weeks for the results of the presidential elections due to the increase in the number of postal ballots.
Different states have different rules for how and when to count postal ballots, which means there are significant gaps between them in terms of reporting results. In some states, it will take weeks to get full results.
Teams of electoral and statistical experts analyze a combination of information, such as data from exit polls (interviews at polling centers and phone calls to major voters) and actual votes counted.
And the results are sometimes projected in a state that always votes for one party, once the voting is over, according to exit polls. However, in a close race, the data will depend heavily on the actual number.
