[ad_1]
Biden’s comments on the state of the race Friday night were the third in as many days since Election Day. . Campaign advisers also indicated that they were ready to start appointing top officials in an early administration in a matter of days, if the race is called in their favor.
In an inclusive tone, Biden urged the country to put aside partisan warfare and “unite as a nation to heal.” Noting the slowness of the vote count – “it can be overwhelming,” he said – he tried to reassure eager Americans who were waiting for the winner of an election that has dragged on for three days.
“We have to remain calm, patient and let the process work while we count all the votes,” he said. “Democracy works, your vote will be counted, I don’t care how much people try to stop it, I won’t let them stop it.”
In Georgia, Biden took the lead overnight Thursday, thanks to a vote count from Clayton County, a Democratic-leaning area near Atlanta. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, said the state remained “too close to call” and predicted it was heading for a recount, given that Biden’s lead was just 4,000 votes out of five million cast.
If Biden ends up winning Georgia, it would be a breakthrough for the Democratic Party in the Republican-dominated Deep South: Democrats rarely win major state races outside of Florida, North Carolina and Virginia. No Democratic presidential candidate has beaten Georgia since 1992, when Bill Clinton won there by a narrow margin.
Biden had a roughly 30,000 vote lead in Arizona after a new stretch of ballots from Maricopa County, the state’s center of population, helped Trump close the gap with about 7,000 votes Friday night.
Katie Hobbs, the Arizona secretary of state, told CNN that 173,000 ballots remained to be counted statewide, including 92,000 in Maricopa County.
