News Desk :
Former vice president Joe Biden appeared to be on a clear path to being elected the 46th president of the United States, after updated vote counts on Friday put him ahead in several key states and seemed to all but close off President Trump’s already dwindling chances of remaining in office.
Biden maintained his lead as elections officials in four key states plowed through ballots Friday, but enough ballots remained outstanding that it was too soon to definitively call a win in any of the states.
With 264 electors, Biden remained just short of the 270 majority a candidate must have to win an election.
His lead was tightest in Georgia, where he was separated from Trump by just 4,020 votes early Saturday, close enough that the race will likely be headed for a recount.
In Pennsylvania, his erstwhile home state, Biden’s lead was at 28,877 early Saturday, bolstered by results from Philadelphia that came in during the day. He also led in Nevada, where he was ahead of Trump by 22,657 votes early Saturday.
Biden’s lead in Arizona, which has shrunk somewhat as ballots were counted, was 29,861 as of early Saturday.
The former vice president spoke to the nation Friday night, predicting an official victory soon and saying he’s already begun work on dealing with the coronavirus, the economy and racial injustice.
Joe Biden said he is on course to win a “clear majority” in the US presidential election and take most of the remaining battleground states to push him above 300 Electoral College votes.
He admitted the process of calling a result “moves very slow” but urged for an end to “partisan warfare”, urging Americans to “remain calm, patient and let the process work out”. Trump made no public remarks but made vague accusations regarding military ballots and other voting procedures on Twitter.
“Joe Biden should not wrongfully claim the office of the president,” Trump tweeted. “I could make that claim also.”
Trump, who is ahead in North Carolina and Alaska, said, “I had such a big lead in all of these states late into election night, only to see the leads miraculously disappear as the days went by,” he tweeted.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden supporters danced in Philadelphia’s streets on Friday, while armed backers of President Donald Trump in Phoenix shouted, “Stop the steal” as a third day of post-election ballot-counting brought the Democratic former vice president closer to winning the White House, reports Reuters.
In Detroit, several hundred supporters of the Republican president, some carrying guns, raised premature chants of “We won!” outside a vote-counting centre for Michigan’s largest city, despite news organizations having called the state for Biden.
But Philadelphia took centre stage as the most populous and ballot-rich city in Pennsylvania – a must-win electoral prize for Trump even as Biden surpassed the president on Friday in the state’s vote count.
With 20 electoral votes up for grabs, Pennsylvania was the most consequential of a handful of states where the outcome of Tuesday’s election was still too close to call, and many Philadelphians delighted in parading past news cameras playing violins and trombones or dressed in election-themed costumes.
Sean Truppo, 37, a social studies teacher, said he lit fireworks upon awaking to the news that Biden had overtaken Trump in the state’s count before putting his 4-year-old daughter in a stroller to join the crowds outside the Philadelphia Convention Center.
“My daughter was born under Trump and I wanted her to witness the end of Trump,” he said.
Some Trump supporters, taking a cue from the president, insisted something must be wrong with any count showing Biden winning, and brought rifles and handguns with them to rallies outside tabulation centres in Detroit and Phoenix. Wearing “Make America Great Again” red baseball caps and other pro-Trump garb, some fell to their knees in public prayer.
“It’s hard to believe that we all went to bed Tuesday night and Trump was so far ahead and now he’s behind,” George Vosca, 72, a retired Illinois government employee, said after driving an hour to join a pro-Trump rally outside the Wisconsin state capitol building in Madison.
His wife, Marcia Vosca, also voted for Trump even as she acknowledged his flaws. “The thing is, he’s really a jerk,” Vosca, 64, said of Trump, her husband nodding emphatically in agreement. “But we can all relate to being a jerk.”
