Democratic presidential challenger Joe Biden yesterday edged toward the magic number of 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House.
As it stands, there are five states still left uncalled, including major prizes such as Pennsylvania, and key small state Nevada – meaning both Trump and Biden still have a path to victory.
CNN said that the vote counting processes are still continuing in 6 states, including 5 critical states, which are Alaska, Pennsylvania, Arizona, North Carolina, Georgia and Nevada, pointing out that the counting processes in Pennsylvania, which has 20 seats in the electoral college reached 89%, while in the state of Georgia (16 votes) almost 96% of the votes have been counted.
Nebraska split its electoral votes between the two candidates – four for Trump and one for Biden. Maine was won by Biden, but he seized only three of the four electoral votes on offer, with the last allocated to Trump.
So far, that gives Biden 264 electoral votes (or 253 without Arizona) and Trump 214.
If Biden holds on in Arizona, and wins Nevada, he would reach 270.
Biden, the former US vice president, was continuing to cut into Trump’s leads in Pennsylvania and Georgia while retaining slim margins in Nevada and Arizona.
Ballot counting dragged on in those battleground states two days after polls closed, with protesters from both sides staging street demonstrations in major cities over the vote counting.
Trump, who during the long and rancorous campaign attacked the integrity of the US voting system, again alleged voting fraud without providing evidence and accused Democrats of aiming to “steal” the election.
His campaign has filed several lawsuits and called for a recount in Wisconsin.
His latest move was a lawsuit alleging voting fraud in Nevada.
Some legal experts called Trump’s challenges a long shot unlikely to affect the eventual outcome of the election, one of the most unusual presidential races in modern US history due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Concern about the virus caused a huge jump in people voting by mail, delaying the results.
Biden was leading in Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona and closing in on Trump in Georgia and Pennsylvania.