Will Trump or Biden win? US cliffhanger as election hangs on handful of states

Democrats described Trump’s victory claim as 'outrageous, unprecedented and incorrect’

Donald Trump dropped a bombshell into the American presidential election race today by alleging a “fraud on the American public” and vowing to go to the Supreme Court to prevent thousands of votes from being counted.

In a bombastic early-hours speech, Trump declared victory over Joe Biden despite being behind in the popular vote and the electoral college, with millions of votes still to be tallied in key battleground states.

And he accused his Democrat opponents of plotting to cheat their way to power, suggesting they planned to “find” postal ballots “at 4 o’clock in the morning and add them to the list”.

Democrats described his claims as “outrageous, unprecedented and incorrect” and said that the Republican candidate was trying to steal the election by disallowing legitimate votes. Mr Biden earlier told his supporters that the election was “not over until every ballot is counted” and insisted: “We are on track to win.”

But the nail-biting finish was a huge morale blow to the challenger, after millions of shy Trump voters flocked to the polls to deny Biden the knockout victory he had hoped for, which would have been seen as a repudiation of the Trump era.

Voter turnout was set to be the highest in more than a century. In key developments after a night of political drama:  

  • With six battleground states left to count, the outcome was still open with both Trump and Biden capable of winning. However, Biden was ahead on 224 electoral votes compared with 213 for Trump.
  • In the popular vote, which is not decisive in US elections, Mr Biden was ahead by 68 million votes to 66 million.
  • Mr Biden was projected to win Arizona, which would move him closer to the White House. It was one of a handful of key states left and so close that Fox News predicted he would win the state, then retracted the prediction, then confirmed it.
  • Close battles in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania could open up paths to power for either candidate, with results also awaited in North Carolina and Georgia.
  • Trump confounded the pollsters by performing better than they expected in both his core states and some of those that Biden hoped to flip, doing well in Florida, which was fiercely contested four years ago.
  • Stock markets dipped briefly after Mr Trump’s speech threatening court action, but quickly steadied.

 

The night unfolded with Mr Biden a former vice president, coming out first to say he was “optimistic” shortly after midnight in Delaware. “We feel good about where we are,” he told supporters in his home state.

At that point, the results in the vital rust belt states — Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — were still hanging in the balance.  

Then Mr Trump strode into the East Room of the White House — unmasked, like wife, Melania, members of his family and supporters in the audience — and claimed, without offering any proof, that his election night triumph was being stolen from him by a “very sad group of people.”

“This is a fraud on the American public,” he claimed. “This is an embarrassment for our country.”

Heralding a comeback that would confound critics and pollsters, Mr Trump said plans for a celebration party were only being delayed by fraudulent attempts to snatch away his “victory.”

Earlier, he had tweeted about a “big win” and wrote: “We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed! We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election,” he claimed.

At issue are postal votes that were marked as being put in the mail before the polls closed but may be counted for days afterwards. They will be crucial if some states come down to a few hundred votes.  “We want all voting to stop,” said Trump. “We don’t want them finding any ballots at four in the morning and adding them to the list.”

Republicans said that without court action, the counting could be prolonged for a week, opening up an increased risk of fraud. The president’s remarks were the culmination of a months-long campaign questioning the integrity of the vote. He has been especially damning about the validity of postal votes — of which there were a record number of more than 100 million — and decisions by some states to allow the count to continue for several days after November 3. So far, there has been no evidence of any voter fraud involving either party.

Mr Biden tweeted: “It’s not my place or Donald Trump’s place to declare the winner of this election. It’s the voters’ place.”

US Elections 2020 - In pictures

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His campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon attacked Mr Trump’s bid to shut down the vote count. “It was outrageous because it is a naked effort to take away the democratic rights of American citizens,” she said.

“It was unprecedented because never before in our history has a president of the United States sought to strip Americans of their voice in a national election. Having encouraged Republican efforts in multiple states to prevent the legal counting of these ballots before Election Day, now Donald Trump is saying these ballots can’t be counted after Election Day either. And it was incorrect because it will not happen. The counting will not stop.” Analysts said that even without legal wrangling the final tally may not be known until tomorrow or Friday. With legal challenges it could take weeks or even months.

Hopes of a Democrat “blue wave” landslide were dashed as polling stations closed and Mr Trump won key states such as Florida and Ohio.

States are not legally required to report final results on election night. In 2016, it took two weeks for Michigan to confirm Mr Trump as the winner.

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