Agencies :
The Democratic candidate is ahead in the chaotic presidential election as a desperate Donald Trump files lawsuits in several battleground states on his narrowing path to re-election.
Two days after election day, neither candidate has amassed the votes needed to win the White House, but Biden’s victories mean he is one battleground state away from becoming president-elect.
Latest projections in the race for 270 electoral college votes give Biden 264 votes with Donald Trump on 214 votes. All eyes are on counts in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Georgia.
In Pennsylvania, Joe Biden’s birth place, Trump is in the lead but with postal votes being counted the tiny gap is narrowing.
In Georgia, Trump is on 49.6 per cent and Biden is on 49.1 per cent with the gap closing too as the count went on.
Trump wanted the voting to stop in Pennsylvania and sent his son and lawyers to the state alleging mass fraud and corruption. But officials ignored the noise from the Trump team and carried on counting.
Al Shmidt, the electoral commissioner for the state, said: “Counting votes cast on or before election day is not cheating it is democracy.”
A win in Pennsylvania would secure Biden the 20 electoral votes he needs for overall victory.
Trump spent much of Wednesday in the White House with advisers and fuming at media coverage showing his rival picking up battleground states.
He used his Twitter feed to falsely claim victory in several key states and amplify conspiracy theories about Democratic gains as absentee and early votes were tabulated.
Meanwhile, protests have sprung up in some cities amid rising tensions over the knife-edge counts in battleground states.
In Portland, Oregon, the National Guard were activated after an anti-Trump protest calling for every vote to be counted turned violent. Witnesses said some people broke away from the main group and broke shop windows in the city centre. Police called the incidents a riot.
In Minneapolis, police made arrests after about 200 demonstrators blocked a main road. US media said the group had been protesting against Donald Trump and his call to stop the counting of votes.
Similar protests were also reported in New York, Philadelphia and Chicago.
In Detroit, pro-Trump supporters gathered outside a vote-counting centre, banging on windows and shouting: “Stop the count.” A small anti-count protest was also reported in Phoenix, Arizona.
Trump supporters have also protested at vote centres – in Arizona demanding that the count stop.
President Donald Trump’s campaign filed lawsuits Wednesday in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia, laying the groundwork for contesting battleground states as he slipped behind Democrat Joe Biden in the hunt for the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House.
The new filings, joining existing Republican legal challenges in Pennsylvania and Nevada, demand better access for campaign observers to locations where ballots are being processed and counted, and raise absentee ballot concerns, the campaign said.
Democrat candidate Joe Biden has won the most votes than any other presidential candidate in US history, surpassing former President Obama’s 2008 record.
Meanwhile, Biden had more than 72 million votes – with votes still being counted across the country, more than anyone who has ever run for the president, according to the National Public Radio (NPR).
This count includes 300,000 more votes than what Obama got in 2008, which was the previous record. Trump had about 68.5 million votes and could also potentially surpass Obama’s record – as well as Biden’s.
Biden, in a tight electoral vote fight against Incumbent President Donald Trump, is 3.4 million votes ahead of the Republican leader in the popular vote. His lead is growing as counting picks pace in key battleground states.
This year’s election has also seen high enthusiasm and turnout from voters on both sides with record participation in several states in the United States.
