US Elections 2020: Joe Biden inches towards victory; needs to win Nevada, Arizona
Nov 05, 2020
Washington [US], November 05 : Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is edging towards a victory over incumbent President Donald Trump in the fierce battle of US Presidential elections with 253 projected Electoral College votes.
Biden needs 17 more votes to win the race as counting is underways in key states including Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Arizona, according to New York Times projections.
US President Donald Trump, despite winning the big states of Florida, North Carolina, currently has only 214 votes, according to a tally by New York Times.
In a last-ditch effort, Trump campaign has filed a lawsuit in Pennsylvania, challenging the state Supreme Court's decision to allow officials to count ballots received as late as three days after Election Day if they were postmarked November 3 or before.
Addressing his supporters on Wednesday, Biden said he "believes" he will win. He flipped Arizona and Wisconsin while taking California, Washington, New York and Illinois.
With narrow wins in Wisconsin and Michigan called on Wednesday afternoon, Biden has flipped two of the three northern industrial states that handed Trump the White House in 2016.
Nevada, which has only 6 electoral votes, has also become important as Biden needs 17 more votes. Vice President Joseph R Biden leads President Trump in the state, but by less than one percentage point.
With millions of votes yet to be counted across several key states, Biden is holding narrow leads in Arizona and Nevada. If he can hold those states, the former vice president could win the election even without Pennsylvania.
On Wednesday, Trump claimed victory prematurely and continued to falsely claim ballots counted after Election Day signal malfeasance. He takes Florida, Ohio, Iowa, Missouri and Texas.
Trump's chances of winning a second term depended on his ability to hang on to his leads in states like Georgia and in Pennsylvania -- where Biden has been narrowing the gap as vote counting progresses -- and on overtaking Biden in one of the states where he is currently ahead.
Pennsylvania's secretary of state said there were more than 1.4 million mail-in ballots still to be counted, and those votes are expected to heavily favour Biden.
Trump held leads in North Carolina and Georgia, and his campaign expressed hopes that his early Pennsylvania lead could withstand an influx of mail-in ballots for Biden.
