Demands to stop the vote count, accusations of fraud and claims that the opposition is trying to "steal" the election - needless to say that President Trump's reelection bid is not going as well as he might have hoped. As per the poll watchers, Joe Biden has already secured 264 electoral votes, far closer to the 270 vote victory mark than his opponent. Trump for his part has secured 214 votes and is leading in North Carolina. In the other states that have not been called by The Associated Press, namely Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania, Biden holds slim leads.
While Biden has refrained from declaring himself the victor just yet, he appears confident that the party will win the race to the White House. And indeed, the fact that he requires a mere six electoral college votes to reach the magical number of 270, to be declared elected as the next US president gives Biden good cause to be confident. In contrast, President Trump has taken to both press conferences and Twitter stating that he had won, and that the democrats were attempting to steal the mandate. As per AP, at present Trump has secured 47.7% of the votes, while Biden has garnered 50.6%.
But can President Trump truly retake the White House for a second term in office? While Biden has secured a lead in several of the remaining states, it must be noted that these elections have not yet been called in his favour.
Alaska for example, has not been called because only around 50% of the votes have been counted and as per an AP report, the state will not release absentee numbers until November 10. The primarily Republican leaning state is not expected to influence Biden's numbers.
Georgia, where President Trump had initially been leading now has Biden at an advantage. However, this is an extremely thin margin, and as such the numbers could very easily turn in Trump's favour. Votes are still being counted across the state. The difference between the two candidates at present is less than 5,000 votes.
A similar situation exists in Nevada where Biden is leading by around 23,000 votes. However, while 87% of the votes have been counted, tens of thousands of votes remain. If enough of these fall in favour of President Trump, it could secure him six electoral votes.
Up to 116,000 mail ballots and about 41,000 provisional ballots remain uncounted in North Carolina. As long as these ballots were postmarked by November 3 they are still eligible for inclusion. State election officials have until November 12 to count them. Thus, while President Trump continues to hold onto his lead in the state, this could potentially be overtaken.
According to the Pennsylvania secretary of state’s website earlier in the day, there were about 89,000 more mail ballots to count. With there being less than 30,000 votes between the rival candidates, this could skew the race strongly in one of their favour. Winning Pennsylvania would also provide the Presidential candidate with 20 electoral votes.
Thus, while Biden has an advantage over Trump at present, it could waver. At the same time, a large number of mail ballots are expected to be in Biden's favour. As such, President Trump's chances have been considerably diminished.
Will legal action make a difference?
Trump has vowed to take legal action for what he believes is foul play in the counting of ballots. While it is unclear whether he will be able to move the Supreme Court and get a result in his favour, calls for recounting may prove equally pointless. As per reports, that there have been around 30 state-wide recounts over the last 20 years. While some of them did bring the losing candidate to victory, the margins in these cases were mere hundreds. While the margin between Trump and Biden's tally is undeniably small in some states, it is unlikely that there would be thousands of incorrect ballots that once recounted would give the President the win he desires.
Trump's wish to halt counting may also work against him now that Biden has overtaken his lead in most of the swing states.
