Joe Biden is on the cusp of victory. He is six electoral college votes away from winning the presidency, and has taken the lead in three crucial states — Georgia, Pennsylvania and Nevada — any one of which would give him the key to the White House. Biden has 264 votes; he needs 270 to win the presidency.
The election is slipping away from Republican President Donald Trump, who has won only 214 votes so far, according to a projection by The Associated Press (AP). Trump is leading in North Carolina, a state that could give him 15 electoral votes, but needs to hold on to the three other states as well to win.
The delay in the counting process is a consequence of the unprecedented number of people who voted early through mail-in-ballots due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Biden had appealed to his supporters to vote early, while Trump had urged Americans to show up on Election Day. The contradicting requests is the reason why most of the votes being counted now are in favour of the Democrats.
However, in the case of Georgia, a recount is being held due to the razor-thin margin of votes between the two candidates. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said, “With a margin that small, there will be a recount.” Biden had edged past Trump with a slender lead of around 4,000 votes, a remarkable development for the former vice president who, until Wednesday night, was trailing his Republican rival by more than 50,000 votes.
The high stakes election was held on November 3 against the backdrop of an unprecedented pandemic that has killed more than 2,30,000 Americans and wiped away millions of jobs. Both candidates spent months pressing dramatically different visions for the nations’ future, and voters responded in huge numbers with more than 100 million people casting votes ahead of Election Day. (Indian Express)
