Trump and Biden
The US Election 2020 appears to be inching closer to an outcome, with Democrat Joe Biden appearing to be on track for winning enough states in the race to the White House. This, even as his challenger, incumbent President Donald Trump, threatens to undermine the victory by challenging its legality in court. Trump’s legal challenge comes after it becomes clear that it would be difficult for the Republican to withstand a late blue surge in states such as Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
At a press briefing at the White House on Thursday, Trump falsely claimed the election was being “stolen” from him, as he also lost legal challenges to stop counting.
Offering no evidence, he lambasted election workers and alleged fraud in the states where results from a dwindling set of uncounted votes are pushing Democrat Joe Biden nearer to victory.
“This is a case where they’re trying to steal an election,” Trump said.
He spoke for about 15 minutes in the White House briefing room before leaving without taking questions.
In Georgia and Michigan on Thursday, Trump’s campaign lost court rulings to challenge the counting of votes.
Undeterred by the setback, the campaign vowed to bring a new lawsuit challenging what it called voting irregularities in Nevada.
In the Georgia case, the campaign alleged 53 late-arriving ballots were mixed with on-time ballots. In Michigan, it had sought to stop votes from being counted and obtain greater access to the tabulation process.
State judges tossed out both the suits on Thursday.
Judge James Bass, a superior court judge in Georgia, said there was “no evidence” that the ballots in question were invalid.
In the Michigan case, Judge Cynthia Stephens said: “I have no basis to find that there is a substantial likelihood of success on the merits.”
Trump allies alleged that there had been voting irregularities in Nevada’s populous Clark County, which includes Las Vegas.
Biden, the former vice president, was steadily eating away the Republican incumbent’s leads in Pennsylvania and Georgia.
He also maintains narrow advantages in Nevada and Arizona, moving closer to securing the 270 votes in the state-by-state Electoral College that determines the winner.
In Pennsylvania, Trump’s lead had shrunk from 319,000 on Wednesday afternoon to less than 64,000 a day later.
His margin in Georgia fell from 68,000 to fewer than 3,500
Those numbers were expected to continue to move in Biden’s favour, with many of the outstanding ballots from areas that typically vote Democratic, including the cities of Philadelphia and Atlanta.
Biden, meanwhile, saw his lead in Arizona contract from 93,000 to 65,000; he was ahead in Nevada by only 11,000 votes.
Biden would become the next president by winning Pennsylvania, or by winning two out of the trio of Georgia, Nevada and Arizona.
There are approximately 14,097 ballots still outstanding across Georgia, CNN quoted from a statement by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in a report. President Trump’s lead over former Vice President Joe Biden has shrunk to 1,775 votes, the report said.
Agency Report
