Trump, Biden bank on swing states to win

THE world currently awaits after United States concluded voting in a tightly contested election, millions of votes are still yet to be counted.

As of press time, the race is still too close to call and there’s a mounting possibility of a major legal fallout. Anxiety currently trails already released results as contesters, Democrat Joe Biden and Republican President Donald Trump fate hangs in the balance and both campaign teams maintain that they have done enough to secure the White House.

The contest for the presidency has come down to be decided by seven swing states (Wisconsin, Michigan, Alaska, Neveda, Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania) in the closely contested election where neither candidate has secured the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House. The margins were exceedingly tight across the country, with both candidates achieving wins in strategic part of the country.

According to Associated Press (AP), Trump picked up Florida, the largest of the swing states, while Biden flipped Arizona, a state that has reliably voted Republican in previous elections. Trump, won several significant states, like Texas, Iowa and Ohio, where Biden had earlier made a strong play in the final stages of the campaign. Biden, however, picked off states where Trump sought to compete, including New Hampshire, Minnesota and Florida, which was the biggest and most fiercely contested state on the map, with both campaigns battling over the 29 Electoral College votes that went to Trump.

Trump, campaign team calls foulplay, seeks recount in Wisconsin Meanwhile, things took an interesting turn when Trump made a preemptive declaration of victory at the White House and was condemned by some US political commentators and civil rights groups, who warned about the trampling of long-standing democratic norms. “We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election,” Trump said, before launching an extraordinary attack on the electoral process by a sitting president.

“This is a major fraud on our nation. We want the law to be used in a proper manner. So we’ll be going to the US Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop.” Trump, however, didn’t provided any evidence to back up his claim of fraud and did not explain how he would fight the results at the Supreme Court, which does not hear direct challenges.

Reacting, Biden campaign manager told reporters that the former vice president was on track to win election, while Trump’s campaign manager separately predicted that the outstanding votes would eventually produce a victory for the president.

“The president’s statement tonight about trying to shut down the counting of duly cast ballots was outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect,” Biden’s campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a statement.

Trump’s campaign will immediately request a recount of votes in the key battleground state of Wisconsin, even though the state’s presidential election results have yet to be finalized.

“There have been reports of irregularities in several Wisconsin counties which raise serious doubts about the validity of the results,” campaign manager Bill Stepien said in a statement, without providing details of any reports.

“The President is well within the threshold to request a recount and we will immediately do so.”

However, several election experts has noted that the likelihood of fraudlent activities in US poll is very rare. Also, apart from Trump’s early fiasco other little problems surfaced during the election, such as, some polling places opened late, robocalls provided false information to voters in Iowa and Michigan, and machines or software malfunctioned in some counties in the battleground states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Texas. Responding, the cybersecurity agency at the Department of Homeland Security said there were no outward signs by midday of any malicious activity.

It is worth noting that no incumbent US president has lost a re-election bid since George H.W. Bush in 1992. World leaders current reactions As counting of vote is still underway most world leaders and foreign ministers has remain quiet in a bid to avoid any electoral rancour.

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab in a statement said, “Let’s wait and see what the outcome is. There’s obviously a significant amount of uncertainty. It’s much closer than I think many had expected.”

While Raab and others urged caution, the Slovenian prime minister broke ranks, congratulating Trump and the Republican party via Twitter. However, showing his disapprovement, German Defence Minister condemned Trump’s assertion of claiming to have won the US presidential elections before announced.

Defence Minister Annegret KrampKarrenbauer said that the US was facing a “very explosive situation” as a result of Trump’s assertion. Democrats, Republicans struggle for Senate, House seat Meanwhile, White House, Democrats and Republicans are locked in a tight race for control of the US Senate. Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the upper chamber of Congress, meaning the Democrats are seeking a net gain of four seats, BBC said.

Five seats, including some tight battleground contests in Georgia and North Carolina, are yet to be decided. The Democrats are confident they have retained their majority in the lower chamber, the House of Representatives. With many votes still to be counted, the final result of both races may not be known for some time.

Also, the election would unveil the first black openly LGBTQ people ever elected to Congress and the first openly transgender state senator. Currently, of the 35 Senate seats up for grabs, 23 are Republican-held and 12 are Democrat. Senators serve six-year terms, and every two years a third of the seats are up for re-election. Democratic former governor John Hickenlooper won a key Colorado seat from the Republican incumbent Cory Gardner. Mr Hickenlooper, who stood for the Democratic nomination for president, was governor of Colorado for two terms from 2011 until last year. His rival was considered particularly vulnerable because of his allegiance to President Trump.

In Arizona, former astronaut Mark Kelly defeated Republican incumbent and former fighter pilot Martha McSally. Mr Kelly earlier said he was “confident that when the votes are counted, we’re going to be successful in this mission”. However, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Trump ally Lindsey Graham have both been re-elected in their seats of Kentucky and South Carolina respectively. And in Alabama, Republican candidate Tommy Tuberville took a seat from the Democratic incumbent Doug Jones.