The United States has been in suspense since last night in an electoral battle that seems to be coming to a very disputed end. And while votes are still being counted in key states, re-election candidate Donald Trump claimed to have won the election while his rival, Joe Biden, called the President’s statement “outrageous.
“Frankly, we did win this election.” Trump called the election “a fraud on the American public”. He said from the White House he wanted to stop the vote.
When everything pointed to Biden taking Arizona from the Republicans, a first setback for the President, he announced that he was appealing the Supreme Court, apparently to ask it to stop the counting of votes sent by mail.
Biden’s campaign rejected Trump’s statements as outrageous and unprecedented, and the Democrat’s legal team said it was “ready to act” if the president tries to stop the recount. While the U.S. remains in suspense.
The voting offices are now closed, although they will continue to count votes sent by mail until Tuesday the 3rd, as allowed by law and as has happened countless times in past elections.
Trump also accused Biden of trying to steal the vote, in a tweet that was immediately labeled misleading by Twitter.
You can read: Twitter and Facebook flagged Donald Trump´s posts on election
Earlier, from Wilmington, Delaware, Biden declared that he was on the road to victory, and asked for patience.
“Keep the faith, we´re gonna win this,” former Vice President Barack Obama promised supporters gathered in his cars. “This is not over until every vote is counted,” Biden added to his supporters in an America in suspense by the election results.
238 to 213
According to media projections, Trump got Florida and Iowa, where he won in 2016; Ohio, where every candidate since 1964 has won the White House; and Texas, a Republican stronghold since 1976.
As happened four years ago with Hillary Clinton, Biden can win the popular vote and lose the White House if he does not get the necessary 270 electoral votes, out of a total of 538 that constitute the Electoral College according to the system of indirect universal suffrage.
So far, Biden has accumulated 238 electoral votes with Arizona, compared to 213 for Trump.
Everything points to the fact that the outcome will depend on the Midwest states.
FiveThirtyEight twitted that key hinge states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan have votes that won’t be counted until this Wednesday at the earliest. The post said also that there are also delays in Georgia.
With a record number of more than 100 million Americans voting early, the final results could take many hours or even days.
As expected, both candidates secured states in which they already counted on winning: Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee, among others, went to Trump, while Biden won Arizona, Illinois, Virginia, New York, Maine, Colorado, Delaware and Washington.
Trump, 74, the first president to seek re-election after being exonerated in an impeachment, is confident of defeating Biden, 77, who is running for president for the third time.
Biden did not want to anticipate anything, but noted the overwhelming participation of African Americans, particularly youth and women as auspicious.
By: AFP
Translated by: José Espinoza
Noticias Newswire
