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WASHINGTON (AP): Four days after the election, the U.S. presidential race was held on Saturday as the long and demanding job of counting votes brought Democrat Joe Biden closer and closer to a victory over President Donald Trump.
The delay in rendering a verdict can be attributed to high turnout, a large number of mail-in ballots, and tight margins among candidates. Biden had the upper hand in Pennsylvania, Nevada and Georgia, putting him in an increasingly strong position to capture the 270 Electoral College votes needed to take over the White House.
There was intense focus in Pennsylvania, where Biden led Trump by more than 28,000 votes, and Nevada, where Biden increased by about 22,000. The lengthy wait added to anxiety for a nation facing historic challenges, including the growing coronavirus pandemic and deep political polarization.
When Biden addressed the nation Friday night near his home in Wilmington, Delaware, he acknowledged that the slow pace of the count “can be overwhelming.” But he added: “Never forget that counts are not just numbers: they represent votes and voters.”
He expressed his confidence that victory would finally be his. “The numbers tell us a clear and compelling story: we are going to win this race,” said the former vice president.
Standing next to his running mate Kamala Harris, Biden was unable to deliver the acceptance speech at the time that his assistants were expecting. But it reached notes of unity, apparently intended to cool the temperature of a divided and heated nation.
“We have to remember that the purpose of our policy is not a total, relentless and endless war,” he said. “No, the purpose of our policy, our nation’s job, is not to fan the flames of conflict, but to solve problems, guarantee justice, give everyone a fair chance.”
Trump took to Twitter and remained out of sight as the results gradually expanded Biden’s lead in Pennsylvania. On Saturday, Trump repeated unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud and illegal voting.
The Trump campaign was mostly quiet. It was a dramatic difference from earlier in the week, when officials expressed confidence and held press conferences announcing litigation in key states. But his inner circle was once again touched by the coronavirus.
Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows contracted the virus, according to two senior White House officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss private matters. Several other members of the White House staff and Trump’s campaign team also tested positive.
Trump’s handling of the pandemic has been the defining theme of the campaign. The president, first lady Melania Trump, and several other people in Trump’s orbit fell ill and recovered.
Some states remained in play in the race: Georgia and North Carolina were still too early to call, along with Pennsylvania and Nevada. In all four states, the margins between Trump and Biden were too narrow and the number of ballots left to be counted was too great for The Associated Press to declare a winner.
The uncertainty left Americans across the country glued to their televisions and smartphones, seeking updates on a vote count that, for many, seemed to be progressing slowly.
The delays, and the reasons, varied from state to state. In Pennsylvania, officials were not allowed to begin processing mail-in ballots until Election Day under state law. In Nevada, there were a series of provisional ballots cast by voters who registered on Election Day, and officials had to verify their eligibility. Counts could be triggered in both Pennsylvania and Georgia.
Since his path to reelection seemed very narrow, Trump was testing how far he could go by using the trappings of presidential power to undermine confidence in the vote.
Trump claimed he won late on election night. He also tweeted that he had “such a huge lead in all of these states until late on election night, only to see it miraculously disappear as the days passed,” although it was well known that votes cast before Tuesday were still counted. legally. .
Pro-Trump protesters, some openly holding rifles and pistols, rallied in front of vote tabulation centers in some cities on Friday, responding to Trump’s unsubstantiated allegations that Democrats were trying to “rob” the White House. About 100 Trump supporters gathered for a third all day in front of the polling place in Phoenix, where hundreds of workers processed and counted the ballots.
Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, a potential presidential hopeful who has often criticized Trump, said there was “no defense” for Trump’s comments “that undermine our Democratic process.” The United States is counting the votes and we must respect the results as we have always done before. “
But others rumored to be considering a run of their own in the White House in four years lined up with the incumbent, including Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, who tweeted his support for Trump’s claims, writing that “If the latest 24 hours have made something clear, is that we need new electoral integrity laws NOW.
Election officials in both Republican and Democratic states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Nevada have said they saw no widespread voting irregularities or major cases of fraud or illegal activity.
Even the Trump administration itself has rejected claims of widespread voter fraud and illegal voting, not to mention that Trump was the one who made the accusations. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, which oversees US electoral security, also noted that local election offices have detection measures that “make it very difficult to commit fraud using counterfeit ballots.”
The Trump campaign has engaged in a flurry of legal activity in the battlefield states.
On Friday night, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito approved a request from the Republican Party directing county boards to abide by Pennsylvania state guidance to keep late ballots separate from those received before or on the day of the elections. However, Alito did not order election officials to stop counting the ballots, as Republicans had also sought.
But judges in Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania quickly rejected other legal action. Instead, a federal judge who was asked to stop the counting of votes in Philadelphia forced the two sides to reach an agreement without an order on the number of observers allowed. – AP
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