Author: PolitCens

In the United States, Democrat Joe Biden is now being called the president-elect.That means Biden, a fixture on the Washington political scene for nearly a half century, is the country’s leader-in-waiting.President-elect is a descriptive term not an official office. As such, Biden has no power in the government, and he won’t until he is inaugurated at noon on January 20, 2021.But Biden is already considering key appointments to his administration, and he says that in the first days after taking office he will reverse several policies of the incumbent he defeated, Republican President Donald Trump.So, there is much for Biden to consider and prepare for in the next 2.5 months, but he does not yet have any authority in an official capacity.Trump remains president as his four-year term as the country’s 45th president winds down.  The U.S. election won’t be officially certified for weeks.First, election officials in each of the country’s 50 states and the District of Columbia must certify the official vote count for Biden and Trump. Numerous states are still counting ballots from Tuesday’s election and the weeks of early voting.The U.S. elects its presidents through an indirect form of democracy, in the 538-member Electoral College, where a majority of 270 votes are needed to claim the presidency. The most populous states hold the most sway in determining the outcome, not the national popular vote.In all but two states, the vote-count winner collects all of the state’s electors. In lightly populated Maine and Nebraska, the electors are determined by congressional district and the statewide outcome.   Both Biden and Trump have state-by-state lists of pledged electors who then cast their votes in the Electoral College in mid-December, depending on the outcome in the individual states. Congress then certifies the overall Electoral College result in early January, about two weeks before Inauguration Day.Trump has filed numerous lawsuits claiming irregularities in the voting and vote counting over the past several days. He says, without evidence so far, that those irregularities would reverse the presumed Biden victory and hand Trump a second four-year term.But all U.S. major television networks and leading newspapers have declared Biden the winner, even as Trump continued Sunday to claim that he was cheated out of reelection.So, with Biden ahead in the unofficial Electoral College count and believed to have more electors than the 270 majority he needs to claim the presidency, he is being called the president-elect.
 
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Vice President-elect Kamala Harris parlayed a career as a California prosecutor, attorney general and U.S. senator to the second most powerful job in the United States.Harris will be the first African American woman and first South Asian American to be vice president when she and President-elect Joe Biden take their oaths of office on January 20.She introduced herself at the Democratic convention as the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants and pledged to work to make America more inclusive after four years of the Trump administration, which she described as making the country more divided.Harris has said that she and Biden share a “vision of our nation as a beloved community – where all are welcome, no matter what we look like, where we come from, or who we love.”The Biden-Harris ticket was forged despite sharp differences between the two during the Democratic Party’s presidential primary election season in debating race relations, use of busing to integrate schools and Biden’s civil rights record as a U.S. senator from Delaware.In accepting her party’s vice presidential nomination after ending her own presidential campaign, Harris asked Americans to join her in fighting racism and xenophobia.“There is no vaccine for racism. We’ve got to do the work,” she said.FILE – Vice President Mike Pence takes notes as then-Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris answers a question during the vice presidential debate, Oct. 7, 2020, at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.Yet the ensuing presidential campaign was bruising at times for a woman of color who was seeking to make political history. President Donald Trump referred to Harris as a “monster” in an interview in early October, the morning after Harris and Republican Vice President Mike Pence squared off in a nationally televised debate.Harris refused to respond beyond dismissing the president’s comment as “childish,” but it was emblematic of racial and gender barriers that she has had to contend with throughout her political career, according to her allies and minority advocacy groups. Biden responded, calling Trump’s comments “despicable” and “so beneath the office of the presidency.”Since late summer, Harris has spent her time crisscrossing the U.S. to campaign for Biden.Debate stageHarris was not always on the same page as Biden. Before becoming his running mate, Harris was herself seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.One of the most dramatic moments of the nominating contest came on a debate stage in June 2019, when Harris directly challenged Biden, one of the party’s long-standing leaders, about his views on America’s often troubled race relations — and his prior work in the U.S. Senate with lawmakers with a segregationist past.FILE – Sen. Kamala Harris speaks as former Vice President Joe Biden listens during the second of two Democratic presidential primary debates hosted by CNN, July 31, 2019, in the Fox Theatre in Detroit, Mich.With measured precision, Harris told Biden, two decades her elder, “It was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country. And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing.””You know, there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools,” Harris continued, “and she was bused to school every day. And that little girl was me.”Biden was stunned by the attack and protested that he was only opposed to forced busing mandated by the federal government — although he often had worked as a senator himself in the 1970s and 1980s to oppose school busing to racially desegregate schools. He later apologized for his comments, though, about his working relationships with Southern lawmakers who had a checkered history on racial equality.History-making selectionNow, whatever animosity might have been generated more than a year ago on the debate stage has dissipated. After a lengthy search for a vice presidential running mate, Biden picked the 56-year-old Harris less than three months before the November 3 national election.Biden’s selection of Harris was history-making. Harris was the fourth woman to be on a major party national ticket, but the first African American woman and first Asian American.The three women previously on U.S. national political tickets – two vice presidential candidates and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016 – all lost. Harris is now poised to become the highest-ranking female U.S. official in the country’s 244-year history.FILE – Then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris takes questions after voting in Los Angeles, June 7, 2016.Political viewsHarris holds reliably left-of-center views on promoting access to health care in the U.S., banning assault weapons, granting a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, and ensuring workplace equality for women and gay people.But the progressive wing of the U.S. Democratic Party questioned her background as a tough prosecutor in San Francisco and later as California attorney general before winning a Senate seat in 2016.At one point during her career, she declared, “If you carry an illegal gun in the city of San Francisco and your case is brought to my office, you are going to spend time in jail. Period.” Another time, she said, “It is not progressive to be soft on crime.”To some, Harris has seemed to be a political contradiction, saying she would not seek the death penalty for capital punishment crimes in California yet defending the state’s death penalty when the statute was challenged.Even so, she brought a new political energy to Biden’s run for the presidency, his third over a three-decade span but the first in which he won the party’s nomination.Confronting powerAs a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Harris sparred with Trump administration officials and received media attention for her pointed questions of two of the president’s conservative Supreme Court nominees, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.FILE – Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, speak as protesters rally against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Sept. 28, 2018, at the Supreme Court in Washington.During October hearings for a third conservative Supreme Court nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, Harris was more restrained in her questioning at a time when she was both a senator and the vice presidential nominee.Harris voted against all three of the conservative nominees, as did most Democrats, although all were confirmed by the Senate to lifetime appointments to the country’s highest court.The California senator is also remembered for sharply questioning Attorney General William Barr in May 2019, asking him, “Has the president or anyone at the White House ever asked or suggested that you open an investigation of anyone? Yes or no, please, sir.” Barr had no immediate answer and she subsequently called for his resignation.’Nasty’ labelTrump called her questioning of Barr “nasty,” a descriptor he employed again after Biden announced his decision to select Harris as his running mate. Trump, who donated to Harris’s California campaign for state attorney general several years ago, also called her the “meanest” and “most horrible” and said she had been “disrespectful” to Biden in her 2019 debate stage attacks.Harris has worked on politically bipartisan pieces of legislation with Republicans. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a Trump supporter, said of Harris: “She’s hard-nosed. She’s smart. She’s tough.”Harris says she has limits when pursuing legislation grounded in ideology, telling The New York Times a year ago: “Policy has to be relevant. That’s my guiding principle: ‘Is it relevant?’ Not, ‘Is it a beautiful sonnet?’ “Harris and Biden got to know each other several years ago. Harris worked closely with Biden’s son, Beau Biden, on issues when the younger Biden and Harris both served as state attorneys general. Beau Biden died of brain cancer at age 46 in May 2015.
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Young voters, including many of color, turned out in record numbers this election and overwhelmingly supported the Democratic ticket, helping to push projected election winners Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to secure the highest offices in the U.S.“This victory belongs to young people,” said Rachel Fleischer, executive director of the Washington-based youth advocacy group Young Invincibles, in a statement released Saturday. “Young voters … came out in force and continue to actively shape the future of our country. Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump attend a ‘Stop the Steal’ protest outside the Wisconsin State Capitol, following the announcement that U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has won the 2020 election, in Madison, Wisconsin.Jackie Juergensen, a junior at University of Maryland who also voted for Trump, said, “A big issue that was important to me this election was voting pro-life. Trump is one of the most pro-life presidents we’ve had in recent history.” The youth vote was particularly strong among young people of color. An analysis from CIRCLE showed major impact by youth of color in key battleground states, such as Georgia, Arizona and Pennsylvania.   In North Carolina and Georgia, for example, 90% or more of Black youths voted for Biden, while more than half of white youths supported Trump, CIRCLE reported.
“Let me be extremely clear: It was Black youth in places like Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia that made the difference in the youth vote in this election they deserve massive credit …” tweeted David Hogg, a youth activist who was at Marjory Stoneham Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018 during a mass shooting.“We have a lot more work to do but I just wanted to say I am so thankful to all of the gun violence survivors the parents that have gone through unimaginable trauma and pain and have had to push for this for decades we have to hold Joe Biden accountable but this is a big win,” Hogg tweeted from a celebratory crowd in Washington. We have a lot more work to do but I just wanted to say I am so thankful to all of the gun violence survivors the parents that have gone through unimaginable trauma and pain and have had to push for this for decades we have to hold Joe Biden accountable but this is a big win. pic.twitter.com/1dGA9VhDvP— David Hogg Vote 🗳 (@davidhogg111) November 7, 2020Cameron Emamdjomeh, a student at Louisiana State University who said he voted for Biden, said in an interview, “I voted because I feel it is important for our voices to be heard and to participate in the election. One way the election could impact me is the way that COVID is taken care of. I am so tired of this pandemic.” Voutsinas-Klose said he was “extremely happy” about the projected Biden victory. “However, I’m disheartened by some Democratic losses down-ballot and the likelihood that [Kentucky Senator] Mitch McConnell keeps the Senate. “The fact that this election was as close as it was is a testament to the deep problems facing this country,” he said. “We have a lot more work to do to save our planet, recover from coronavirus and help the poor.”
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U.S. President Donald Trump was on a golf outing at his private country club in northern Virginia when U.S. media organizations projected his reelection defeat.After traveling via motorcade from the White House, Trump walked onto his golf course as the release of the latest vote tabulations from Pennsylvania prompted news outlets – including Trump’s favored Fox News – to declare that former Vice President Joe Biden would become the 46th president of the United States.That spared the president from hearing the cheers and honking of horns near the White House when the Biden victory was announced on television and radio across the country.Supporters of President-elect Joe Biden wave signs at the entrance to Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., Nov. 7, 2020. Trump was at the facility.When the motorcade arrived in Sterling, Virginia, the presidential procession was greeted by a cluster of both Trump and Biden supporters who stood next to each other peacefully.One sign read: “Good riddance.” A woman gave the presidential limousine a thumbs-down gesture.Biden ‘has not been certified’While Trump was on the golf course, his campaign released a defiant statement in his name.
After four hours at the golf club, the president returned to the White House with his motorcade—with lights flashing and sirens blaring—driving past Biden supporters celebrating on the sidewalks of downtown Washington, D.C.“We all know why Joe Biden is rushing to falsely pose as the winner, and why his media allies are trying so hard to help him: they don’t want the truth to be exposed. The simple fact is this election is far from over,” the statement began.“Joe Biden has not been certified as the winner of any states, let alone any of the highly contested states headed for mandatory recounts, or states where our campaign has valid and legitimate legal challenges that could determine the ultimate victor.”A supporter of President Donald Trump argues with a President-elect Joe Biden supporter at the entrance to Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va., Nov. 7, 2020. Trump was at the facility.On Monday, the statement continued, Trump’s campaign “will start prosecuting our case in court to ensure election laws are fully upheld and the rightful winner is seated.”The statement concluded that Trump “will not rest until the American People have the honest vote count they deserve and that Democracy demands.”In a Saturday tweet, the president stated his case more bluntly: “I WON THIS ELECTION BY A LOT.”Fell shortThe president, in reality, fell short of the number of electoral votes needed for reelection, with the results from Pennsylvania pushing the challenger over the 270-count threshold needed for victory, according to projections by all major U.S. news outlets.These included Fox News, Trump’s most ardent supporter among the national TV and cable networks.In the popular vote, with ballots still being tabulated, the national total Saturday afternoon showed Trump trailing Biden by more than 4 million votes.President Donald Trump returns to the White House after playing a round of golf, Nov. 7, 2020, in Washington.Some of Trump’s Saturday morning claims on Twitter were masked by the social media platform cautioning: “Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process.” Others had a blue exclamation mark at the bottom of the tweets with a clickable link to “Learn about US election 2020 security efforts.”The president has not spoken publicly since Thursday evening, when he made similar unsubstantiated charges about the voting process, prompting the three major U.S. broadcast networks to cut away from his appearance for instant fact-checking.Customary practiceA lack of concession by Trump would not prevent Biden from assuming the presidency on January 20, 2021. It is customary in the transfer of power for the outgoing president, departing because of electoral defeat or having served the maximum two terms, to stand alongside the incoming chief executive at the inauguration.“Donald Trump does not get to decide the winner of elections,” Symone Sanders, a Biden campaign senior adviser, told reporters in Wilmington, Delaware, Saturday afternoon. “The people decide, voters in the country decide, as we have long said, and voters have made their choice very clear.”
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Joe Biden’s transition team didn’t wait for a verdict in the presidential race before getting to work. Well before Saturday’s victory for Biden, longtime aide Ted Kaufman had been leading efforts to ensure the former vice president can begin building out a government in anticipation of a victory.  Kaufman is a former senator from Delaware who was appointed to fill the seat vacated when Biden was elected vice president. He also worked on Barack Obama’s transition team in 2008, and helped write legislation formalizing the presidential transition process.  Biden first asked Kaufman to start work on a just-in-case transition in April, shortly after the former vice president locked up the presidential nomination at the conclusion of a once-crowded Democratic primary.  The transition can be a frenzied process even under normal circumstances.  It was at least somewhat reminiscent of the 2000 presidential race and that year’s postelection legal fight over the recount in Florida. After more than a month, the dispute between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore was decided by the Supreme Court — truncating the transition period to just 39 days before the January 2001 inauguration.  Clay Johnson, who headed Bush’s transition team, said Biden’s advisers couldn’t “wait to be sure that the president-elect really is the president-elect.” Johnson said that in June of 1999 — about 17 months before Election Day 2000 — Bush approached him about heading the possible transition, having seen his father go through the process 11 years earlier. Prior to Election Day, Bush had already settled on Andy Card to serve as chief of staff for both the transition and at the White House.  Johnson thought they were ahead of schedule. But then came the recount.  After an initial 10 days or so, Bush’s running mate, Dick Cheney, told Johnson to begin raising money and making staffing decisions, declaring that the race “is going to be resolved one way or the other.” The Bush team was unable to conduct FBI background checks on potential Cabinet members and other appointees with no official winner declared. Instead, it used a former White House general counsel from the Reagan administration to conduct interviews designed to screen for potential problems that might have turned up in background checks.  “You have to assume you are it and not be presumptuous but they better be working hard as if they are it,” Johnson said of Biden’s team. “And they should have started doing that last Tuesday night.” Biden’s campaign has refused to comment on the transition process. His closest advisers say the top priority will be announcing a White House chief of staff, then assembling the pieces needed to tackle the coronavirus.  A president gets 4,000 appointees, and more than 1,200 of them must be confirmed by the Senate. That could be a challenge for Biden since the Senate may well remain controlled by the Republicans. The transition process formally starts once the General Service Administration determines the winner based on all available facts. That’s vague enough guidance that Trump could pressure the agency’s director to stall.  It’s also unclear if the president would meet personally with Biden. Obama met with Trump less than a week after the election, but there was no dispute about him having topped Hillary Clinton in the Electoral College.  Whenever the process starts, Biden will have to cope with the coronavirus, which has killed more than 230,000 Americans. Biden has promised to use his transition period to meet with the governors of every state and ask them to impose a nationwide mask-wearing mandate. He says he plans to go around any holdouts to secure such rules from county and local officials.  Another key decision will be how Biden deploys his running mate, California Sen. Kamala Harris. His campaign has indicated that Biden will establish a White House-level coronavirus task force like Trump did, but it’s not clear if he will tap Harris to run it. Vice President Mike Pence heads the current panel.  Biden has been huddling in his Wilmington home with top advisers and family. Harris has stuck close too, occupying a Delaware hotel with her family since election night and joining Biden as he gave remarks in recent days. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, a former Biden presidential primary rival, said he expects Harris to be “a real partner” to Biden and hopes to see her “managing major issues of importance.” 
 
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Kamala Harris is making history as the first woman of color elected vice president of the United States, shattering barriers that have kept men — almost all of them white — entrenched at the highest levels of American politics for more than two centuries.The 56-year-old California senator is also the first person of Black and South Asian descent elected to the vice presidency. She represents the multiculturalism that defines America but is largely absent from Washington’s power centers. Her Black identity has allowed her to speak in personal terms in a year of reckoning over police brutality and systemic racism.Kamala Harris made history Saturday as the first Black woman elected as vice president of the United States, shattering barriers that have kept men — almost all of them white — entrenched at the highest levels of American politics for more than two centuries.The 56-year-old California senator, also the first person of South Asian descent elected to the vice presidency, represents the multiculturalism that defines America but is largely absent from Washington’s power centers. Her Black identity has allowed her to speak in personal terms in a year of reckoning over police brutality and systemic racism. As the highest-ranking woman ever elected in American government, her victory gives hope to women who were devastated by Hillary Clinton’s defeat four years ago.Harris has been a rising star in Democratic politics for much of the last two decades, serving as San Francisco’s district attorney and California’s attorney general before becoming a U.S. senator. After Harris ended her own 2020 Democratic presidential campaign, Joe Biden tapped her as his running mate. They will be sworn in as president and vice president on Jan. 20.Biden’s running mate selection carried added significance because he will be the oldest president ever inaugurated, at 78, and hasn’t committed to seeking a second term in 2024.Harris often framed her candidacy as part of the legacy — often undervalued — of pioneering Black women who came before her, including educator Mary McLeod Bethune, civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer and Rep. Shirley Chisholm, the first Black candidate to seek a major party’s presidential nomination, in 1972. “We’re not often taught their stories,” Harris said in August as she accepted her party’s vice presidential nomination. “But as Americans, we all stand on their shoulders.”That history was on Sara Twyman’s mind recently as she watched Harris campaign in Las Vegas and wore a sweatshirt featuring the senator’s name alongside Chisholm.”It’s high time that a woman gets to the highest levels of our government,” said Twyman, who is 35 and Black.Despite the excitement surrounding Harris, she and Biden face steep challenges, including deepening racial tensions in the U.S. in the wake of a pandemic that has taken a disproportionate toll on people of color and a series of police killings of Black Americans. Harris’ past work as a prosecutor has prompted skepticism among progressives and young voters who are looking to her to back sweeping institutional change over incremental reforms in policing, drug policy and more.Jessica Byrd, who leads the Movement for Black Lives’ Electoral Justice Project and The Frontline, a multiracial coalition effort to galvanize voters, said she plans to engage in the rigorous organizing work needed to push Harris and Biden toward more progressive policies.”I deeply believe in the power of Black women’s leadership, even when all of our politics don’t align,” Byrd said. “I want us to be committed to the idea that representation is exciting and it’s worthy of celebration and also that we have millions of Black women who deserve a fair shot.”Harris is the second Black woman elected to the Senate. Her colleague, Sen. Cory Booker, who is also Black, said her very presence makes the institution “more accessible to more people” and suggested she would accomplish the same with the vice presidency.Harris was born in 1964 to two parents active in the civil rights movement. Shyamala Gopalan, from India, and Donald Harris, from Jamaica, met at the University of California, Berkeley, then a hotbed of 1960s activism. They divorced when Harris and her sister were girls, and Harris was raised by her late mother, whom she considers the most important influence in her life. Kamala is Sanskrit for “lotus flower,” and Harris gave nods to her Indian heritage throughout the campaign, including with a callout to her “chitthis,” a Tamil word for a maternal aunt, in her first speech as Biden’s running mate. When Georgia Sen. David Perdue mocked her name in an October rally, the hashtag #MyNameIs took off on Twitter, with South Asians sharing the meanings behind their names. The mocking of her name by Republicans, including Trump, was just one of the attacks Harris faced. Trump and his allies sought to brand her as radical and a socialist despite her more centrist record, an effort aimed at making people uncomfortable about the prospect of a Black woman in leadership. She was the target of online disinformation laced with racism and sexism about her qualifications to serve as president.Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal of Washington said Harris’ power comes not just from her life experience but also from the people she already represents. California is the nation’s most populous and one of its most diverse states; nearly 40% of people are Latino and 15% are Asian. In Congress, Harris and Jayapal have teamed up on bills to ensure legal representation for Muslims targeted by Trump’s 2017 travel ban and to extend rights to domestic workers.”That’s the kind of policy that also happens when you have voices like ours at the table,” said Jayapal, who in 2016 was the first South Asian woman elected to the U.S. House. Harris won election to the Senate that same year. Harris’ mother raised her daughters with the understanding the world would see them as Black women, Harris has said, and that is how she describes herself today. She attended Howard University, one of the nation’s historically Black colleges and universities, and pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha, the nation’s first sorority created by and for Black women. She campaigned regularly at HBCUs and tried to address the concerns of young Black men and women eager for strong efforts to dismantle systemic racism. Her victory could usher more Black women and people of color into politics.San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who considers Harris a mentor, views Harris’ success through the lens of her own identity as the granddaughter of a sharecropper. “African Americans are not far removed from slavery and the horrors of racism in this country, and we’re still feeling the impacts of that with how we’re treated and what’s happening around this racial uprising,” she said. Harris’ candidacy “instills a lot of pride and a lot of hope and a lot of excitement in what is possible.”Harris is married to a Jewish man, Doug Emhoff, whose children from a previous marriage call her “Momala.” The excitement about her candidacy extends to women across races. Friends Sarah Lane and Kelli Hodge, each with three daughters, brought all six girls to a Harris rally in Phoenix in the race’s closing days. “This car is full of little girls who dream big. Go Kamala!” read a sign taped on the car’s trunk. Lane, a 41-year-old attorney who is of Hispanic and Asian heritage, volunteered for Biden and Harris, her first time ever working for a political campaign. Asked why she brought her daughters, ages 6, 9 and 11, to see Harris, she answered, “I want my girls to see what women can do.”
 
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Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden stopped short of declaring victory as he spoke from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, Friday night but projected confidence as votes continue to be tallied in key battleground states. VOA’s Penny Dixon voices this update from White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara.
Producer: Kim Weeks
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Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s lead over U.S. President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania climbed from 5,000 votes early Friday to about 29,000 votes by late night, and that margin is expected to grow as remaining ballots are counted. Taking this pivotal state would propel Biden over the required threshold of 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidential election.Biden is also ahead in Georgia by more than 4,000 votes and maintains clear leads in Arizona and Nevada, although these races have not yet been called for either candidate.Addressing supporters Friday, amid speculation he would be projected the winner in Pennsylvania, Biden stopped short of claiming victory.“We don’t have a final declaration of victory yet, but the numbers tell us a clear and convincing story, we’re going to win this race,” said Biden.If Biden does take Pennsylvania, his Electoral College lead would increase to 273 votes over Trump’s current 214 vote total.In this U.S. system of indirect democracy, the popular vote is used to determine official electors in each state, who are allocated based on state population.A Biden win in Pennsylvania would also block Trump’s path to victory.Trump is leading in the two remaining unresolved races in North Carolina and Alaska. Without winning Pennsylvania, Trump could not overtake Biden’s lead even if he sweeps all the other states that have yet to be called.Biden surpassed Trump by 4 million votes in the national election. Biden won over 74 million votes to Trump’s 69 million, with more than 150 million votes cast overall, the most ever in a U.S. election.Legal disputesTrump on Twitter Friday warned Biden not to claim early victory.“Joe Biden should not wrongfully claim the office of the President. I could make that claim also. Legal proceedings are just now beginning!” he said in a Tweet on Friday.Trump made his claim of victory in a speech election night.The Trump campaign is disputing the vote count in several states, saying in a statement Friday, “this election is not over.” The campaign says the president will ultimately win as a result of expected recounts in close state races and its legal challenges based on unsubstantiated allegations of vote fraud and irregularities.Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Friday there will be a recount in that state because Biden’s lead there is less than 0.5% of the vote. Georgia officials said about 9,000 military and overseas ballots were still outstanding and could be accepted if they arrive on Friday and were postmarked on Tuesday or earlier.The Trump campaign also called for a vote recount in Wisconsin, where Biden is winning by more than 20,000 votes.Trump, without evidence, accused Democrats on Thursday of engineering massive fraud and irregularities to prevent him from winning reelection as president.“This is a case where they are trying to steal an election, they’re trying to rig an election, and we can’t let that happen,” he said during a White House news conference.Trump accused state officials of barring his campaign from observing the vote count, called mail-in voting a “corrupt system” that lacks “any verification measures,” and said he expects contested election litigation to end up in the Supreme Court. He also spoke without offering evidence of a “corrupt voting apparatus” in states led by Democratic governors.No evidenceTrump’s unsubstantiated claims drew quick rebukes from some of the president’s fellow Republicans.Sen. Mitt Romney, a former Republican presidential nominee who has been a Trump critic, said Friday on Twitter that Trump “is wrong to say that the election was rigged, corrupt and stolen.” He added that “doing so damages the cause of freedom” and “recklessly inflames destructive and dangerous passions.”Benjamin Hovland, who serves on the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, told VOA there has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the country, which he said would be very difficult to pull off, and require, “a vast conspiracy of people willing to commit thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of felonies.”Lawyers representing Trump and Republicans also filed lawsuits alleging vote counting irregularities and demanding that the counting of mail-in ballots be halted in Pennsylvania, where an early Trump lead evaporated as more mail-in ballots were counted.Democrats had urged supporters to vote by mail to prevent the spread of the coronavirus while Trump called on his voters to show up in person on election day.Democrats confidentEarlier Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, said Biden’s election victory was “imminent,” but called for patience as votes are tallied.“The right to vote is a sacred right in our country. And having that vote counted as cast, it is the fundamental foundation of our democracy,” Pelosi said during a news briefing Friday.Biden also said Friday he is already anticipating assuming the presidency, and his team is prioritizing plans to contain the surging coronavirus pandemic in the country.“On day one we are going to put our plan to control this virus into action,” Biden said.
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President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows has been diagnosed with the coronavirus as the nation sets daily records for confirmed cases for the pandemic.Two senior administration officials confirmed Friday that Meadows had tested positive for the virus, which has killed more than 236,000 Americans so far this year.Meadows traveled with Trump in the run-up to Election Day and last appeared in public early Wednesday morning without a mask as Trump falsely declared victory in the vote count. He had been one of the close aides around Trump when the president came down with the virus more than a month ago but was tested daily and maintained his regular work schedule.
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Democratic candidate Joe Biden continues to build on the razor-thin leads he gained early Friday over Republican President Donald Trump in the states of Georgia and Pennsylvania, where vote counting continues. While those races are still too close call, Biden is strongly positioned to win the U.S. presidential election. The Trump campaign is disputing the results, saying in a statement Friday, “this election is not over.” The campaign says the president will ultimately win as a result of expected recounts in close state races and its legal challenges based on unsubstantiated allegations of vote fraud and irregularities. Biden currently leads in the popular vote and by a 253-214 margin in the crucial Electoral College, where 270 electoral votes are needed to claim the presidency for a four-year term.  In the U.S. system of indirect democracy, the popular vote winner in each state — with two exceptions, Maine and Nebraska — receives all of that state’s electoral votes, which are allocated on the basis of population.  Winning Georgia’s 16 electoral votes and Pennsylvania’s 20 votes would give Biden 299 votes, comfortably surpassing the threshold needed to become president. Biden also holds leads in the states of Arizona and Nevada, which, if confirmed, would increase his total to 316 electoral votes. Biden moved ahead of Trump in both Georgia and Pennsylvania on the strength of mail-in ballots that were cast in reliably Democratic areas such as the cities of Atlanta and Philadelphia. Those ballots were among the last to be counted. Since he overtook Trump in Pennsylvania early Friday, Biden’s lead in the popular vote in the state has grown to more than 13,500 votes, while in Georgia, he now has a 1,579-vote lead. Both margins are expected to increase as additional mail-in ballots are counted.  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, said Biden’s election victory was “imminent,” but called for patience as votes are tallied. “The right to vote is a sacred right in our country. And having that vote counted as cast, it is the fundamental foundation of our democracy,” Pelosi said during a news briefing Friday.   Legal challenges  Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Friday there will be a recount in that state because Biden’s lead there is less than 0.5% of the vote. Georgia officials said about 9,000 military and overseas ballots were still outstanding and could be accepted if they arrive on Friday and were postmarked on Tuesday or earlier. Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
Trump accused state officials of barring his campaign from observing the vote count, called mail-in voting a “corrupt system” that lacks “any verification measures,” and said he expects contested election litigation to end up in the Supreme Court. He also spoke without offering evidence of a “corrupt voting apparatus” in states led by Democratic governors. Trump’s unsubstantiated claims drew quick rebukes from some of the president’s fellow Republicans. Senator Mitt Romney, a former Republican presidential nominee who has been a Trump critic, said Friday on Twitter that Trump “is wrong to say that the election was rigged, corrupt and stolen.” He added that “doing so damages the cause of freedom” and “recklessly inflames destructive and dangerous passions.” Lawyers representing Trump and Republicans filed lawsuits alleging vote counting irregularities and demanding that the counting of mail-in ballots be halted in Pennsylvania, where an early Trump lead evaporated as more mail-in ballots were counted. Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 9 MB480p | 12 MB540p | 16 MB720p | 32 MB1080p | 63 MBOriginal | 76 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioThe vote count across the U.S. has been slowed by the vast number of mail-in ballots — about two-thirds of the more than 101 million ballots cast before Tuesday’s official Election Day — and which are taking longer to count. Many people who voted by mail said they wanted to avoid long lines at polling stations on Tuesday and coming face to face with others amid the country’s unchecked coronavirus pandemic.  Biden’s campaign urged voting by mail, and the result is that his vote count has swelled in numerous states as those ballots are tallied. Trump mostly urged Election Day in-person voting by Republicans, claiming without evidence that mail-in voting would lead to an election rigged against him. Those ballots were generally counted earlier. Counting continues   With most states already decided, Biden can secure victory by winning Pennsylvania or holding onto his lead in any two of the other states that are still considered too close to call: Arizona, Nevada and Georgia. To win reelection, Trump needs to hold onto Alaska and North Carolina — where he is comfortably ahead — and pick off at least three Biden-leaning states.   Biden leads the national popular vote 73.9 million to 69.8 million, with more than 150 million votes casts, the most ever in a U.S. election. 
 
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President Donald Trump promised litigation if voting results do not show that he has won the presidential election.  QUESTION: How many lawsuits have been filed by President Donald Trump’s campaign?  ANSWER: The Trump campaign has filed at least six lawsuits in battleground states since Election Day. Activists from both parties have also filed lawsuits.  Q: Has the Biden campaign filed any lawsuits yet? A: The Biden campaign has a legal team assembled but has not initiated litigation. Q: Has there been any action taken on lawsuits yet? A: In Georgia, a state judge dismissed a lawsuit over a claim that 53 mail-in ballots were not received on time. In Pennsylvania, a judge approved the campaign’s request for more oversight of the vote-counting process but did not stop the counting, as the campaign requested. A similar request was denied by a judge in Michigan. Q: What lawsuits are still pending? A: The Trump campaign is suing Pennsylvania’s top election official for improperly extending the deadline for voters to fix errors on their mail-in ballots. They are also suing Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, for notifying voters that their ballots were mailed with errors.  Q: Is the Supreme Court involved in any cases? A: Before Election Day, the United States Supreme Court twice rejected claims that Pennsylvania wrongly decided to extend the deadline to receive ballots postmarked by Election Day. After the second rejection, the court noted it may hear a case after the vote count. Pennsylvania is counting but separating ballots that arrived after Election Day. Q: Should we expect more lawsuits? A: Probably. Steven Mulroy, law professor and election law expert at the University of Memphis, says, “If there’s any grounds for challenging the validity of a state certified total for Biden, [the Trump campaign] will do it.” He says lawsuits will likely focus on technical defects on mail ballots and the status of late-arriving ballots. Q: Is there a threshold to meet for a lawsuit to be successful? A: There must be enough votes in question to tip the balance of the election. Mulroy calls it a “litigation-proof margin of victory,” explaining: “If the number of votes by which Biden wins exceeds the number of votes which could potentially have been affected by the legal challenge, then it won’t really matter.” Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report.
 
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Democratic Party candidate Joe Biden has gained razor thin leads over President Donald Trump in Georgia and Pennsylvania, as vote counting continues Friday.The Trump campaign continues to dispute the results, however, saying in a statement Friday the “this election is not over,” and claiming the president will ultimately win after expected recounts in close state races. The Trump campaign has also filed legal challenges over unsubstantiated allegations of vote fraud and irregularities. Biden currently leads in the popular vote as well as the Electoral College count, 253-214, with a majority of 270 needed to claim the presidency for a four-year term.  
 
Biden has moved ahead of Trump in both Georgia and Pennsylvania on the strength of mail-in ballots that were cast in reliably Democratic areas such as the cities of Atlanta and Philadelphia.In Pennsylvania, Biden overtook Trump by 5,587 votes Friday morning, and in Georgia, he now has a 1,097-vote lead. Both margins were expected to increase as additional ballots continue to be counted.  
 Biden would be the first Democrat to win Georgia since Bill Clinton in 1992.In the U.S. Electoral College system, the popular vote winner in each state — with two exceptions, Maine and Nebraska — receives all of that state’s electoral votes, which are allocated on the basis of population. Meanwhile President Trump, without evidence, Thursday accused Democrats of engineering massive fraud and irregularities to prevent him from winning reelection as president.  “This is a case where they are trying to steal an election, they’re trying to rig an election, and we can’t let that happen,” said Trump during a news conference.   In contrast, Biden earlier in the day urged patience while states tabulate the record number of votes, more than 150 million, cast in this year’s election.  “Each ballot must be counted. And that’s what we’re going to see going through now. And that’s how it should be. Democracy sometimes is messy,” Biden said during a briefing.  Counting under wayIf Biden holds his vote leads in Arizona, with its 11 electors, and Nevada with six, he will reach the 270 Electoral College majority and become the country’s 46th president at his inauguration in January, no matter the outcome in Georgia and Pennsylvania.   Trump needs to hold all the states he has been leading in and pick up either Nevada or Arizona, in each of which Biden is currently leading.  The Biden campaign had urged supporters to vote by mail to stay safe during the coronavirus pandemic, while Trump has, without evidence, denounced mail-in voting as fraudulent and a scam.  Trump cited the disproportionate number of late votes being won by Biden as possible vote interference by what he called the corrupt voting apparatus of states with Democratic governors.  “We were winning in all the key locations by a lot, actually, and then our numbers started miraculously getting whittled away in secret,” Trump said on Thursday. Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 7 MB480p | 10 MB540p | 13 MB720p | 31 MB1080p | 55 MBOriginal | 145 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioTwenty electoral votes are at stake in Pennsylvania. Trump has more comfortable leads in two other states that have not yet been called: Alaska and North Carolina. Biden leads the national popular vote 73.5 million to 69.5 million, but it is the Electoral College that will determine the winner after a contentious, months-long campaign.   On Twitter, Trump demanded that the vote count be stopped. But if the vote count were frozen in its late Thursday morning state, Trump would lose, becoming the third U.S. president in the last four decades to lose reelection after a single term.LawsuitsTrump on Thursday also cited irregularities, such as state officials barring his campaign from observing the vote count, called mail-in voting a “corrupt system” that lacks “any verification measures,” and said he expects contested election litigation to end up in the Supreme Court.Lawyers representing Trump and Republicans filed lawsuits alleging vote counting irregularities and demanding that the counting of mail-in ballots be halted in Pennsylvania, where Trump’s lead was dwindling as more mail-in ballots were countedSorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 9 MB480p | 12 MB540p | 16 MB720p | 32 MB1080p | 63 MBOriginal | 76 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioThe vote count across the U.S. has been slowed by the vast number of mail-in ballots — about two-thirds of the more than 101 million ballots cast before Tuesday’s official Election Day — and which are taking longer to count. Many people who voted by mail said they wanted to avoid long lines at polling stations on Tuesday and coming face to face with others amid the country’s unchecked coronavirus pandemic.   Biden’s campaign urged voting by mail, and the result is that his vote count has swelled in numerous states as those ballots are tallied. Trump mostly urged Election Day in-person voting by Republicans, claiming without evidence that mail-in voting would lead to an election rigged against him. Those ballots were generally counted earlier. Trump’s lawyers also called for a recount in the Midwestern state of Wisconsin, where Biden was projected the winner of the state’s 10 electors on Wednesday. They contended that there were irregularities at some voting stations.  Trump claimed victory in the early hours of Wednesday, but Biden has stopped short of saying he has won. “I’m not here to declare that we’ve won,” Biden said Wednesday. “But I am here to report that when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners.” 
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Democratic candidate Joe Biden has moved closer to claiming victory in the U.S. presidential election as updated vote counts erode President Donald Trump’s leads in Georgia and Pennsylvania.Biden currently leads in the popular vote as well as the Electoral College count, 253-214, with a majority of 270 needed to claim the presidency for a four-year term.Vote counting is still under way in four states that will decide the election: Arizona and Nevada, where Biden is ahead; Pennsylvania, where Trump’s early lead has, as of early Friday, decreased to 18,000 votes, and Georgia, where Biden has pulled ahead by 917 votes.In the U.S. Electoral College system, the popular vote winner in each state — with two exceptions, Maine and Nebraska — receives all of that state’s electoral votes, which are allocated on the basis of population.Meanwhile Trump, without evidence, Thursday accused Democrats of engineering massive fraud and irregularities to prevent him from winning reelection as president.“This is a case where they are trying to steal an election, they’re trying to rig an election, and we can’t let that happen,” said Trump during a news conference.In contrast, Biden earlier in the day urged patience while states tabulate the record number of votes, more than 150 million, cast in this year’s election.“Each ballot must be counted. And that’s what we’re going to see going through now. And that’s how it should be. Democracy sometimes is messy,” Biden said during a briefing.Counting under wayIf Biden holds his vote leads in Arizona, with its 11 electors, and Nevada with six, he will reach the 270 Electoral College majority and become the country’s 46th president at his inauguration in January, no matter the outcome in Georgia and Pennsylvania.Trump needs to hold all the states he has been leading in and pick up either Nevada or Arizona, in each of which Biden is currently leading.In Pennsylvania and Georgia, Trump’s lead shrank as the vote count continued. Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said Thursday the remaining votes being counted are almost entirely mail-in ballots. So far those have significantly favored Biden.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 7 MB480p | 10 MB540p | 13 MB720p | 31 MB1080p | 55 MBOriginal | 145 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioThe Biden campaign had urged supporters to vote by mail to stay safe during the coronavirus pandemic, while Trump has, without evidence, denounced mail-in voting as fraudulent and a scam.Trump cited the disproportionate number of late votes being won by Biden as possible vote interference by what he called the corrupt voting apparatus of states with Democratic governors.“We were winning in all the key locations by a lot, actually, and then our numbers started miraculously getting whittled away in secret,” Trump said on Thursday.Twenty electoral votes are at stake in Pennsylvania. Trump has more comfortable leads in two other states that have not yet been called: Alaska and North Carolina.As of early Friday, Biden was leading by around 11,500 votes in Nevada, which has six electors, and by about 47,000 in Arizona, which has 11 electors. Many more votes are still to be counted in both states.Biden leads the national popular vote 73.5 million to 69.5 million, but it is the Electoral College that will determine the winner after a contentious, months-long campaign.On Twitter, Trump demanded that the vote count be stopped. But if the vote count were frozen in its late Thursday morning state, Trump would lose, becoming the third U.S. president in the last four decades to lose reelection after a single term.LawsuitsTrump on Thursday also cited irregularities, such as state officials barring his campaign from observing the vote count, called mail-in voting a “corrupt system” that lacks “any verification measures,” and said he expects contested election litigation to end up in the Supreme Court.Lawyers representing Trump and Republicans filed lawsuits alleging vote counting irregularities and demanding that the counting of mail-in ballots be halted in Pennsylvania, where Trump’s lead was dwindling as more mail-in ballots were counted.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 9 MB480p | 12 MB540p | 16 MB720p | 32 MB1080p | 63 MBOriginal | 76 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioThe vote count across the U.S. has been slowed by the vast number of mail-in ballots — about two-thirds of the more than 101 million ballots cast before Tuesday’s official Election Day — and which are taking longer to count. Many people who voted by mail said they wanted to avoid long lines at polling stations on Tuesday and coming face to face with others amid the country’s unchecked coronavirus pandemic.Biden’s campaign urged voting by mail, and the result is that his vote count has swelled in numerous states as those ballots are tallied. Trump mostly urged Election Day in-person voting by Republicans, claiming without evidence that mail-in voting would lead to an election rigged against him. Those ballots were generally counted earlier.Trump’s lawyers also called for a recount in the Midwestern state of Wisconsin, where Biden was projected the winner of the state’s 10 electors on Wednesday. They contended that there were irregularities at some voting stations.Trump claimed victory in the early hours of Wednesday, but Biden has stopped short of saying he has won.“I’m not here to declare that we’ve won,” Biden said Wednesday. “But I am here to report that when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners.”
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Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Jews and members of other faiths have come together in New York City for a post-election gathering featuring prayer, singing and expressions of solidarity.  The New York gathering took place as vote counting from Tuesday’s presidential election took place in several key states, as VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports.
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President Donald Trump’s campaign is intensifying legal actions to challenge the integrity of the ballot-counting process in several battleground states, as Democratic nominee Joe Biden inches closer to securing 270 electoral votes to win the White House. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the latest.
Producer: Barry Unger
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Tensions over the still undecided U.S. presidential election are prompting some state and local officials to increase security for those charged with counting the remaining votes. Supporters of Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden have increasingly focused their attention on states like Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania, where slim margins have made calling the race nearly impossible. And the tensions have grown as allegations of irregularities in the vote-counting process have sparked protests outside buildings where the tally is going on. “I am concerned for the safety of my staff,” said Joe Gloria, registrar of voters in Clark County, Nevada, on November 5, after about 75 people, some wearing Trump T-shirts, chanted “Stop the Steal” and FILE – Supporters of President Donald Trump protest the Nevada vote in front of the Clark County Election Department in Las Vegas, Nov. 4, 2020.There were no reports of violence, but following scares at other locations across the country, Gloria said his office was not taking any chances. “We’re putting measures into place to make sure that we have the security that’s necessary,” he said. “We have law enforcement who are protecting us.” In the neighboring state of Arizona, election officials in Maricopa County announced Thursday they would be setting up a “free speech zone” for protesters with the help of the local sheriff’s office. “It is imperative that we balance the protection and well-being of our election workers and volunteers with the constitutional right of protesters,” the Maricopa County Elections Department said in a statement, adding the changes would allow staff to count votes and leave the building “without the threat of intimidation.” The eyes of the nation are on Maricopa County and it is imperative that we balance the protection and well-being of our election workers and volunteers with the constitutional right of protesters who may wish to demonstrate outside the Elections Department. Read more: Zoned areas for protesters divide the parking lot of the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office, in Phoenix, Nov. 5, 2020.Confrontations between protesters and election officials were also reported November 4 in Detroit, Michigan, when FILE – Election challengers yell as they look through the windows of the central counting board as police were helping to keep additional challengers from entering due to overcrowding, in Detroit, Nov. 4, 2020.Overnight protests November 4 in Portland, Oregon, also turned violent, with police making 10 arrests and seizing multiple firearms as well as ammunition. Back in Michigan, the state’s attorney general complained November 5 on Twitter about harassing phone calls and threats to her staff. NEW: #Michigan Atty General @dananessel asks public to stop making threats to her staff”Please stop making harassing & threatening calls to my staff…Asking them to shove sharpies in uncomfortable places is never appropriate”https://t.co/okewSrH7lR— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) November 5, 2020″The safety and security of election officials and election workers is paramount,” a spokesperson for the National Association of State Election Directors told VOA in a statement November 5. “Election officials have contingency plans in place,” the spokesperson added. Federal and state officials have been bracing for potential violence for months, anticipating frayed nerves due to a close election combined with the likelihood that results would be delayed because of the high number of mail-in ballots. US States Brace for Possible Violence on Election Day State security and election officials working to get ahead of a combination of factors threatening to spark chaos around the Nov. 3 vote “Election result delays and recounts could result in protests and attempts to occupy election offices,” the New Jersey Department of Homeland Security and Preparedness warned in a threat assessment issued in late September. Law enforcement officials, including officials at the FBI, also expressed concern before the election that U.S. adversaries, such as Russia, Iran and China, could use the days after the November 3 vote to spark “upheaval and discord,” which could lead to violence. “Our preparations for [the 2020 election] take into account the current climate of the country,” an FBI official told VOA at the time. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump’s embattled reelection campaign continued its legal challenges to vote counting Thursday even as it suffered a pair of setbacks in two battleground states key to winning the election.In Nevada, a Democratic-leaning state where former Vice President Joe Biden maintained a slight advantage over Trump in the vote count, the Trump campaign and the state Republican Party announced a lawsuit claiming at least 10,000 nonresidents had illegally voted and that their votes were being counted.“It is unacceptable in this country to have illegal votes counted, and that is what’s happening in the state of Nevada,” Trump’s former acting intelligence chief, Richard Grenell, said at a news conference in Las Vegas.Joe Gloria, the registrar of voters for Clark County, Nevada, dismissed the allegation. “My response is that we’re not aware of any improper ballots that are being processed,” Gloria told reporters during a news conference.The Trump campaign announced on Wednesday that it was filing a lawsuit to temporarily halt vote counting in Pennsylvania — a state vital to the president’s prospects for reelection — until its observers are granted more access to watch vote counting.The suit in Nevada, the campaign’s fourth major legal action since Tuesday’s still-undecided presidential election, came as courts in Georgia and Michigan threw out two Trump lawsuits over ballot handling in those states.In Georgia, the Republicans had accused a local board of elections of allowing invalid mail-in ballots to be mixed in with ballots ready to be counted.  But a judge dismissed the suit after a local election official testified that the ballots in question “were timely received.”US President Donald Trump gestures after speaking during election night in the East Room of the White House in Washington on Nov. 3, 2020.In Michigan, a local judge dismissed a Trump campaign request to stop all vote counting until it was given “meaningful access” to ballot processing, such as surveillance videos of drop boxes. The judge’s decision came a day after Biden was declared by news organizations as the winner in the state.Despite the legal defeats in Georgia and Michigan, the Trump campaign scored a minor win in Pennsylvania where an appellate judge ordered that Republican observers be allowed to watch the vote count at a convention hall while keeping a safe distance of 2 meters away.Trump campaign advisers hailed the decision, pledging to press ahead in Pennsylvania as well as several other states the president needs to win a second term in office.”We are going to keep fighting for this election because that is what the American people deserve,” Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said during a press call.The Biden campaign dismissed the Trump lawsuits as frivolous and meritless.“They’re intended to give the Trump campaign the opportunity to argue that the vote count should stop. It is not going to stop,” said senior Biden campaign adviser Bob Bauer.U.S. presidential election results are rarely contested. But this has been the most litigated election ever, and Trump has said his “biggest risk” is one of losing in court.Disregarding Trump’s call for a halt to vote counting that is chipping away at his leads, election officials in the six undecided states – Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania – pushed forward with the vote count, and legal experts said it was highly doubtful that any court would stop the tabulation.“I do not assess that any of them will have the impact of actually stopping the count of votes in such a way as to affect the election in the next few days,” said Jordan Strauss, a former federal prosecutor and now a managing director with Kroll, a risk management consultancy. “There’s a lot of rumor and innuendo, but none of these secretaries of state in those four states have certified the vote yet.”Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 7 MB480p | 10 MB540p | 13 MB720p | 31 MB1080p | 55 MBOriginal | 145 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioOf all the undecided states, Pennsylvania is likely to emerge as a major focus of any postelection litigation. With 20 electoral votes, the state is a must win for Trump’s hopes for reelection.In the lead-up to the election, Republicans unsuccessfully tried to get the Supreme Court to forestall Pennsylvania’s plan to count mail-in ballots that arrive up to three days after Election Day, November 3.But several conservatives on the Supreme Court signaled an openness to reconsider the issue. The Trump campaign on Wednesday asked to join in the lawsuit.However, given the relatively small number of ballots that have arrived since Tuesday in Pennsylvania, the issue could become moot, according to experts.“Whatever number they receive is probably not going to be large enough to make a difference in the count even if they pulled all of those out,” said Sylvia Albert, director of voting and elections with Common Cause, a citizens lobby, noting that only about 500 such ballots have been received.Strauss agreed that there may not be enough late-arriving ballots to move the needle one way or the other.“You have to have a result. You have to have something that makes it worth challenging, if not legally, then practically,” Strauss said.Voting rights advocates monitoring Tuesday’s election and the ongoing vote count say they have not received any reports of systemic problems with the process. Despite the Trump campaign’s complaint about lack of access to the ballot count, challengers appointed by both teams continue to observe the process, they say.“From all the reporting I’m seeing and from all the video footage I’m seeing, counts are being taken as legally required,” Albert said.The vote count may be painstakingly slow in some places, but that’s something election officials had long warned of as millions of Americans turned to voting by mail this year as an alternative to standing in line at polling places amid the coronavirus pandemic, Albert said.“There’s nothing surprising about what’s happening right now,” Albert said. “[Election officials] are simply doing their job and counting the ballots, and that’s it.”
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