Democrat Joe Biden crept nearer to victory over Donald Trump on Thursday in an exceedingly close US election that hinged on razor-thin margins in a handful of states, while the Republican President escalated his legal efforts hoping to slow down his opponent.
Biden, the former vice-president, was continuing to cut into Trump’s leads in Pennsylvania and Georgia while retaining slim margins in Nevada and Arizona.
Ballot counting dragged on in those battleground states two days after polls closed, with protesters from both sides staging street demonstrations in major cities over the vote counting.
Supporters of Biden have rallied around the slogan to “count every vote”, believing a complete tally would show the former vice-president had beaten President Trump. Ardent Trump backers have countered with cries to “protect the vote” in support of his campaign’s efforts to have some categories of ballots, including some votes submitted by mail, discarded.
Trump, who during the long and rancorous campaign attacked the integrity of the US voting system, again alleged voting fraud without providing evidence and accused Democrats of aiming to “steal” the election. His campaign has filed several lawsuits and called for a recount in Wisconsin. His latest move was a lawsuit announced on Thursday alleging voting fraud in Nevada.
The vote counting was the latest tense chapter in a dramatic campaign focused on whether Americans should give Trump four more years in office after a tumultuous first term or turn to Biden, a figure on the national stage for a half century who promised to deliver steadiness rather than turmoil.
Some legal experts called Trump’s challenges a long shot unlikely to affect the eventual outcome of the election, one of the most unusual presidential races in modern US history because of the coronavirus pandemic. Concern about the virus caused a huge jump in people voting by mail, delaying the results.
Biden was leading in Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona and closing in on Trump in Georgia and Pennsylvania.
“Be patient, folks,” Biden wrote on Twitter. “Votes are being counted, and we feel good about where we are.”
Multiple Trump lawsuits and a recount request would have to succeed and find in some cases tens of thousands of invalid ballots to reverse the result if Biden does prevail.
“What we are seeing on these legal suits are that they are meritless, and nothing more than an attempt to distract and delay what is now inevitable: Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States,” Biden’s campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon told reporters.
Trump’s campaign predicted victory, with campaign manager Bill Stepien saying, “Donald Trump is alive and well” in the election.
Some of the outstanding votes in Georgia and Pennsylvania were clustered in places expected to lean Democratic — like the Atlanta and Philadelphia areas.
In Georgia, officials expressed hope that they would have a result by the end of Thursday. Trump’s eroding lead stood at 13,500, with about 2 per cent of the ballots remaining to be tallied. Trump’s lead was about 114,000 votes in Pennsylvania, with about 8 per cent of the ballots left to be counted.
Trump has to win the states where he is still ahead, including North Carolina, plus either Arizona or Nevada to triumph and avoid becoming the first incumbent US President to lose a re-election bid since fellow Republican George H.W. Bush in 1992. Biden led in Nevada by about 11,400 votes and in Arizona by about 68,400 votes.
The President lashed out on Twitter and in a campaign statement in which he said: “If you count the legal votes, I easily win the election! If you count the illegal and late votes, they can steal the election from us!”
Trump wrote on Twitter: “STOP THE COUNT!” and “STOP THE FRAUD!” although he has no authority over ballot counting. He added that “all of the recent Biden claimed States will be legally challenged by us”.
Despite Trump’s allegations, US election experts have said fraud in balloting is rare.
