The United States this week has become the center of most major headlines thanks to the Presidential elections. Americans took to the voting booths on Tuesday. But three days later we still have no conclusive result as to who will be the next president. Nevertheless, it seems that Joe Biden has a much stronger position at the moment than Donald Trump.
First of all, it is important to note that this year, just as predicted, there was a record increase in the mail-in vote. Absentee ballots have always been a part of US elections, but due to the coronavirus pandemic and people’s attempt at proper social distancing, millions upon millions of Americans opted to vote by mail.
The massive number of absentee ballots is what is slowing down the count in several states. Some regions have legislation in place that prevents them from counting mail-in votes before election day, and also force them to consider the in-person vote first. Most of the in-person vote (though not all) has been for Trump, since he has encouraged his supporters to use this method, wrongfully claiming that mail-ins are illegal.
The majority of states have already reported their results and declared who wins in the respective area. Based on the official results, Biden currently leads Trump 253 to 213 electoral votes.
Nevertheless, things are boiling down to the so-called swing states, areas inhabited by a mix of Republican and Democrat-leaning Americans. Joe Biden already managed to secure wins in Wisconsin and Michigan, states that voted for Trump in 2016. As of this morning, Joe Biden also flipped Georgia, a state that nobody expected would turn Democrat until two days ago.
Georgia still has some 8,000 votes to report and Biden’s lead is by less than 1,000, so anything is possible. But most of the uncounted votes are mail-in ballots, which have consistently been predominantly for Biden.
Pennsylvania is another crucial area at the moment. Trump still leads in that state, but his lead (which he accumulated on Election day due to in-person Republican voting) has been shrinking. Trump’s advantage started at around 700,000 votes ahead of Biden on Tuesday and as of this morning has dropped to just 18,000, with at least 300,000 votes left to be counted.
The states of Nevada and Arizona will take longer to update their results, though Biden is leading in both. But if Biden gets Pennsylvania today, even before the other states report, he will win the election.
Trump needs both Pennsylvania and Georgia, because if he loses either one of these states, even if he wins everything else, he will not have 270 electoral votes, the minimum required to win the election.
The protracted procedure of counting the votes, together with Donald Trump’s repeated threats to issue legal challenges in several states to contest the results, is currently keeping the demand for safe havens high.
