US elections: Donald Trump v Joe Biden – the race to be president

Joe Biden has surpassed Donald Trump in a key state on the battlefield in a move that puts him on the cusp of securing the presidency.

The Democrat has taken the lead in Pennsylvania, where a victory for the former vice president would push him beyond the threshold of electoral votes necessary to win the White House.

CNN, The New York Times and NBC News placed him at the top in the state, which has 20 votes in the electoral college and could secure him the presidency if confirmed to win all.

It comes after Biden also flipped the state of Georgia in his favor, where he leads by around 1,000 votes. That also hasn’t been called yet. Democrats have not won in Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992. Several counties in Georgia are expected to give more votes to Biden in the closest race of the election so far.

This is where we find the key races.

Pennsylvania (20 electoral votes up for grabs) – Biden leads just under 10,000 votes with 98 percent of the vote counted.

Georgia (16 electoral votes up for grabs) – Biden currently leads by 1,096 votes with more than 98 percent of the votes counted.

Arizona (11 electoral votes up for grabs) – Biden has won 47,052 votes with more than 88 percent of the votes counted.

Nevada (6 electoral votes up for grabs) – Biden is currently up at 22,209 with 89 percent of the votes counted.

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The contest is still too early for The Associated Press to call. Thousands of ballots remain to be counted, many in counties where the former vice president was at the helm.

There is a chance that the race will come to a recount. Under Georgia law, if the margin between Biden and Trump is less than half a percentage point difference, a recount may be requested.

As his path to reelection appears to be shrinking, President Trump yesterday filed unsubstantiated allegations of election fraud to falsely argue that his rival was trying to seize power. It was an extraordinary effort on the part of a sitting US president to cast doubt on the democratic process.

“This is a case where they’re trying to steal an election, they’re trying to rig an election,” Trump said from the podium in the White House meeting room.

The president’s remarks deepened the sense of anxiety in the United States as Americans enter their third full day after the election without knowing who will serve as president for the next four years. His remarks also prompted a reprimand from some Republicans, particularly those seeking to steer the party in a different direction in a post-Trump era.

Neither candidate has reached the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House. But Biden overshadowed Trump in Wisconsin and Michigan, two crucial states on the Midwest battlefield, surpassed the president in Georgia and was ever closer to doing the same in Pennsylvania, where votes were still being counted.

It was unclear when a national winner would be determined after a long and bitter campaign dominated by the coronavirus and its effects on Americans and the national economy. The United States set another record for daily confirmed cases yesterday, as several states recorded all-time highs. The pandemic has killed more than 233,000 people in the United States.

Biden spent yesterday trying to ease tensions and project a more traditional image of presidential leadership. After participating in an information session on the coronavirus, he declared that “every ballot must be counted.”

“I ask everyone to stay calm. The process is working,” Biden said. “It is the will of the voters. Nobody, nobody else, elects the president of the United States of America.”

Biden’s victories in the upper Midwest put him in a strong position, but Trump showed no signs of giving up. He went back to Twitter and insisted that “the United States Supreme Court should decide!”

It could take several more days for the vote count to conclude and a clear winner to emerge. With millions of ballots yet to be tabulated, Biden had already received more than 73 million votes, the most in history.

Trump’s erroneous assertions about the integrity of the election challenged Republicans now faced with a decision to break with a president who, although his grip on his office tightened, garnered sky-high approval ratings from rank-and-file members of the Republican Party. .

Maryland Republican Governor Larry Hogan, a potential 2024 presidential hopeful who has often criticized Trump, said unequivocally: “There is no defense for the president’s comments tonight that undermine our Democratic process. The United States is counting the numbers. votes, and we must respect the results while I have always done it before. “

But others who are 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, who tweeted his support for Trump’s claims and wrote that “if the last 24 hours They have made something clear, is that we need new electoral integrity laws NOW. “

The Trump campaign engaged in a number of legal activities to try to improve the chances of the Republican president, requesting a recount in Wisconsin and filing lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia.

Judges in Georgia and Michigan quickly dismissed Trump’s campaign lawsuits there.

Mail ballots from across the state were overwhelmingly breaking in Biden’s direction. The final vote total may be unclear for days because the use of mail-in ballots, which require more time to process, has increased as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Trump campaign said it was confident the president would eventually win a victory in Arizona, where votes were also being counted, including in Maricopa County, the most populous area in the state. The AP declared Biden the winner in Arizona and said it was monitoring the vote count as it progressed.

“The Associated Press continues to monitor and analyze the results of Arizona’s vote counting as they come in,” said Sally Buzbee, AP’s executive editor. “We will follow the facts in all cases.”

The Trump campaign presented legal challenges in several states, although it faced great difficulties. He would have to win multiple trials in multiple states to stop the vote counting, since more than one state was undeclared.

Some of the Trump team’s demands only call for better access for campaign watchers to the places where ballots are processed and counted. A Georgia judge dismissed the campaign suit there less than 12 hours after it was filed. And a Michigan judge dismissed a lawsuit by Trump over whether enough Republican contenders had access to absentee ballot handling.

Biden’s attorney, Bob Bauer, said the lawsuits were legally “without merit.” Its sole purpose, he said, “is to create an opportunity for them to send false messages about what is happening in the electoral process.”

– AP