The Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden and the President of the United States, Donald Trump. (AP)
Live News Updates of 2020 US Election Results: Democratic candidate Joe Biden said Wednesday that he was optimistic about a victory in the US presidential election and thanked his supporters for their patience. “Your patience is commendable. We knew this would last a long time, but who knew it would last until tomorrow morning, or even longer. We feel good about where we are, we really do … We are on our way to winning this election, ”Biden said, speaking in Delaware.
Shortly after the speech, US President Donald Trump, who was seeking re-election, accused Biden’s campaign of “trying to steal the election” and said he, too, would make a statement shortly. His post on Twitter was flagged by the company, which said it could be questioned or misleading.
Both Trump and Biden have achieved expected benefits in smaller states, and all eyes are on key states on the battlefield. Trump is expected to win Florida, Texas, Iowa and Ohio. Biden, on the other hand, is likely to win Arizona. A melee fight is underway in North Carolina and Georgia. Results have yet to be reported in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. As of 12 p.m. IST, Biden had 224 electoral votes to Trump’s 213, according to The Associated Press (AP). A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.
So far, Trump is expected to win Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia, Wyoming, Indiana, South Carolina and Utah. Meanwhile, Biden has taken over Democratic-leaning states such as California, Colorado, Columbia, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.
The United States is heading into a historic election with turnout indicating the highest turnout in a century. According to the US Election Project, in at least six states – Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, Oregon, Texas, and Washington state – turnout has been higher than we saw in the 2016 polls.
The latest count of early voting in the US shows that nearly 102 million Americans cast their votes before Election Day, a staggering 73rd of the total turnout in the 2016 presidential election. Whether in person, by mail, or in absentia, it has increased during the Covid-19 pandemic as voters have sought the safety and convenience it offers. The biggest gains have been seen in Kentucky, where nearly 13 times more voters cast their ballots earlier than in 2016.
Earlier in the day, Americans were seen voting in large numbers in one of the most divisive bitter elections in decades in which Democrat Joe Biden challenges Republican Donald Trump. Some 239 million people can vote this year. Mail-in ballots can take days or weeks to count in some states, meaning a winner may not be declared in the hours after polls close on Tuesday local time. (Don’t Miss: A Guide to Tracking 2020 U.S. Election Results)
Live updates of the 2020 U.S. election results: President Donald Trump, left, and former Vice President Joe Biden during the first presidential debate at Case Western University and the Cleveland Clinic, in Cleveland, Ohio. (AP Photo / Patrick Semansky, file)
Live Updates of 2020 US Election Results:
Adding to fears in an already chaotic environment, misinformation about voting by mail is increasing, leading to false claims that ballots have been tampered with. According to data published by the New York Times, the largest volume of misinformation about voting by mail has been floating around the battlefield states. Of the 1.1 million vote-by-mail falsehoods that Zignal counted, Pennsylvania topped the list with 227,907 of them. This comes after Trump’s repeated attacks on the credibility of the system.
The issue of electoral fraud was raised on the last day of the campaign when the president of the United States, Donald Trump, sought to know the results in time. “The election should end on November 3, not weeks later!” tweeted on Friday.
With Trump threatening legal battles over the declaration of results, several Democratic and Republican lawyers have already gone to court on these issues in the run-up to Tuesday’s election. Both parties say they are ready, with thousands of attorneys waiting to march to court to make sure the ballots are counted or excluded.
In national polls, Trump is still behind Biden with a 42 percent chance, according to the latest Reuters poll. Similarly, a poll by The New York Times showed that Biden has a clear advantage over 4 major changing states: Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida and Arizona. Biden’s electoral position appears to place him in a stronger position than any presidential candidate since 2008.
Meanwhile, Indian-American supporters of President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden on Sunday stepped up their campaigns, particularly in battle states, calling on community members to come out and vote and support their respective leaders.
Read | As America votes, Indian village prays for Kamala Harris
Read | A Guide to Tracking the 2020 U.S. Election Results
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