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Washington (AFP)
The Democratic presidential candidate is getting closer and closer to entering the White House after scoring two major victories in two major states against outgoing Republican President Donald Trump, who is waging a true legal war against him.
By winning the states of Wisconsin and Michigan, which Trump had won in previous elections, and the state of Arizona, Joe Biden has the support of 264 high-level voters.
If you win Nevada (six of the top voters), Georgia (16) or Pennsylvania (20), you will reach 270, allowing you to become the 46th president of the United States.
In Pennsylvania, Donald Trump still had more than 160,000 votes ahead of him as of Wednesday. But that difference is shrinking rapidly as mail-in ballots are counted. The majority of those who voted by mail in the state elected Joe Biden.
For the first time since 2000, the day after the vote, Americans did not know the name of their next president, who would be sworn in on January 20, 2021.
“I came to tell you that when the vote count is over, we believe we will win,” Biden said in a short speech at his home in Wilmington, Delaware.
When the result is known, he added, it will be time to “leave behind the aggressive rhetoric launched during the campaign,” presenting himself as the unification of a deeply divided country. “To move forward, we must stop treating our opponents as enemies,” he added.
In Phoenix, Arizona, dozens of Trump supporters demonstrated in a tense atmosphere Wednesday night in front of the city’s counting office.
– ‘Unfounded accusations’ –
And Donald Trump’s campaign team announced the first lawsuit in Wisconsin, where Joe Biden won by less than one percent, according to near-complete results, according to various US media.
Republicans want to demand a recount and have asked a local judge to reconsider the votes that have already been counted. They also filed a request to suspend vote counting in the main state of Pennsylvania, as the result remains unconfirmed.
“We are taking legal action to suspend the counting of votes, pending greater transparency,” said Trump campaign manager Bill Stephen.
The president himself threatened Tuesday night to appeal to the Supreme Court without clearly stating the reasons.
An ongoing disinformation campaign undermines the complex US electoral system. Trump’s aides began spreading rumors on social media and radio about fraud and crime.
On Wednesday, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe criticized “the unfounded accusations by the US president” about the elections.
“Our democracy faces a great test in this election,” Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf said, asking for patience.
– Share records –
And at the end of a long and exceptionally severe campaign affected by the Covid-19 epidemic, the results reveal that Trump did not face the electoral rejection that opinion polls predicted, showing that even if he is defeated, his electoral base remains. largely loyal to him.
The billionaire denounced a great failure at the “historical” level of pollsters.
He wrote in a tweet on “Twitter” Wednesday morning: “Last night I was a good leader in many major states,” adding: “After that, (this difference) started to magically disappear one by one, with the appearance and classification of sudden votes “.
There is no evidence of unexpected votes, rather there are ballots that were sent by mail and the authorities are slowly sorting them, and most of them are in the interest of the Democrats, which explains the narrowing of the gap, which was recorded first in interest of the president, whose voters preferred to vote in person on Tuesday.
Biden, former Vice President Barack Obama, wrote in a tweet: “We will not rest until all ballots have been counted.”
Never before has this number of American voters participated in an election. 160 million voters cast their votes, and turnout was estimated at 66.9 percent, compared to 59.2 percent in the 2016 election, according to the U.S. Election Product Center.
The influx of postal ballots exceeded the capacities of the counting centers due to the demand for this type of voting in an environment of health crisis.
It will take several days to open mail envelopes and check ballots in some cities, especially Philadelphia, the Democratic stronghold.
Ed Foley, an election law specialist at Ohio State University, told AFP on Wednesday that if the judiciary intervenes, as it did in 2000, “the process can take weeks.”
– 77 days –
But even Republicans were surprised by the president’s threat to go to court.
Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger tweeted: “Stop. Ballots will be counted and you win or lose. America will accept it. Patience is a virtue.”
Whatever the outcome, the next president will have to work with Congress.
Unsurprisingly, Democrats retained control of the House of Representatives, but the chances of the Senate moving to the Democratic side diminished with the re-election of many Republicans.
And as if to confirm his confidence in the final result, Joe Biden confirmed in a tweet that the United States will rejoin the Paris climate agreement, which he officially abandoned on Wednesday on the first day of his presidency, that is, “exactly 77 days later. “.
© 2020 AFP
