Washington
The American presidency remains up in the air as analysts and pundits struggle to predict a clear winner for the 2020 US Election. Chances are still 50-50 for both Joe Biden and incumbent US President Donald Trump, with many key states still too close to call for either candidate due to the tight race between the two candidates.
Some have predicted that the final result of the election may take “days”, leading to fears that the resultant uncertainty may stoke civil unrest as an incredibly charged election campaign reaches its conclusion.
US President Donald Trump — who made a surprisingly strong showing in the polls, negating critics who had predicted an easy defeat — has already claimed election fraud and declared an illegal victory. He has made clear that he believes his mandate his being snatched and the “real result” has already been delivered.
Meanwhile, Democratic rival Joe Biden has made clear that he has a team of lawyers at the ready in case any illegal disruption of the vote counting process is initiated by his rival. “We won’t rest until everyone’s vote is counted,” he wrote on Twitter.
Biden’s campaign said the former US vice president was on track to win the election, with expected victories in the battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
Campaign manager Jennifer O’Malley Dillon said she expected Biden will have more than 270 electoral votes later on Wednesday. She told reporters she believed Biden has already won Wisconsin and was expected to win Nevada.
Tensions in Portland ran high Wednesday with several protesters putting US flags on fire after Donald Trump claimed an early victory and made unfounded allegations of election fraud. The liberal enclave in the state of Oregon had braced for possible armed clashes after months of divisive rallies involving left-wing activists, right-wing militias and federal officers deployed by the Trump administration.
As President Donald Trump claimed he won the US election early Wednesday, despite key states still counting ballots, activists gathered outside the Portland federal courthouse — the epicenter of the summer’s fraught anti-racism protests.
As the counting of votes advances, the world’s attention is beginning to focus on four fundamental states that will define who will win the race. All eyes have fallen on Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.
These three states add up to a total of 62 electoral votes, of which 16 correspond to Georgia, 10 to Wisconsin, 16 to Michigan and 20 to Pennsylvania, which is also the home state of Democratic candidate Joe Biden. Final results in these states, where millions of mailed votes have been received, are estimated to take several days to be known.
Biden leads Trump with 248 electoral college votes, Trump notches 213.
Shortly after Biden said he was confident of winning the contest once the votes are counted, Trump appeared at the White House in the early hours to declare victory and said his lawyers would be taking his case to the US Supreme Court, without specifying what they would claim. “We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election,” Trump said, in an extraordinary attack on the electoral process by a sitting president.
