United States President Donald Trump’s campaign on Friday said that the election was not yet over even as Democrat nominee Joe Biden edged closer to victory, taking a lead in the key battleground states of Pennsylvania and Georgia.
In Pennsylvania, Biden moved ahead of Trump by 9,746 votes, whereas in Georgia, he had opened up a 1,560-vote lead, according to CNN. Biden is also leading in Nevada and Arizona. Currently, the former vice president has a 253 to 213 lead in the state-by-state Electoral College vote that determines the winner. He needs to reach 270 votes to be declared the next US president.
Matt Morgan, Trump’s 2020 election campaign general counsel, said that Biden’s projection as winner was based on the result of the four states that are not final. “Georgia is headed for a recount, where we are confident we will find ballot improperly harvested, and where president Trump will ultimately prevail,” the statement said.
Georgia does not have automatic recounting but a candidate can request a recount in Georgia if the margin of winning is less than 0.5%. Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, has said that a recount is likely as Trump’s campaign have already sought it even though counting is not yet completely over. If that happens, Georgia’s results won’t be known for weeks. The state has 16 electoral college votes.
Morgan also alleged that there were irregularities in Pennsylvania, where legal observers did not get “meaningful access” to locations of vote counting. Morgan said that they had filed a lawsuit in the state but were “deprived of valuable time and transparency” entitled under the state law.
Morgan alleged that there were thousands of voters who improperly cast mail ballots in Nevada, where the former vice president has a lead of 20,542 votes, according to CNN. On Arizona, he claimed that Trump was winning the state and news reports on Fox News and the Associated Press wrongly called it for Biden. In the state, Biden has a lead of 43,500, according to BBC.
“Biden is relying on the states for his phony claim on the White House, but once the election is final, President Trump will be re-elected,” Morgan asserted.
The US president has repeatedly claimed that Democrats were trying to “steal” the election from him. On Friday, he again said the election result so far was part of a broad conspiracy to deprive him of a second term by Democrats. The president, however, has failed to produce any evidence in support of his claims.
The president also expressed his outrage in all-caps declarations on Twitter. “STOP THE COUNT!” he proclaimed. However, the president has no authority over election counting. “ANY VOTE THAT CAME IN AFTER ELECTION DAY WILL NOT BE COUNTED!” he later wrote. “STOP THE FRAUD,” said another. All his tweets were flagged by Twitter as potentially misleading.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!