Biden short 6 electoral votes to reach White House after Michigan, Wisconsin wins

 

Trump campaign requests a recount as president

 cries foul.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden won the battleground prizes of Michigan and Wisconsin on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press, reclaiming a key part of the “blue wall” that slipped away from Democrats four years ago and dramatically narrowing US President Donald Trump’s pathway to reelection.

A full day after Election Day, neither candidate had cleared the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House. But Biden’s victories in the Great Lakes states left him at 264, meaning he was one battleground state away from crossing the threshold and becoming president-elect.

By flipping yet another critical battleground state that Trump won four years ago, Biden placed himself in a comfortable lead, with only 6 electoral votes shy of the presidency.

Meanwhile, the incumbent president, Trump, vowed to ask the Supreme Court to weigh in on the inconclusive election.

Trump's campaign also filed lawsuits in Pennsylvania — which is yet undecided — and Michigan, laying the groundwork for contesting the outcome in the battleground states that could determine whether he gets another four years in the White House. The campaign also announced it had requested a recount in Wisconsin, which went to Biden with less than a percentage point.

Michigan is a critical battleground state that helped deliver Trump the presidency four years ago, along with Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

Earlier, the AP had called Wisconsin for Biden, good for 10 electoral votes, after election officials in the state said all outstanding ballots had been counted, save for a few hundred in one township and an expected small number of provisional ballots.

It was still unclear when or how quickly a winner could be determined. Hundreds of thousands of votes were outstanding in Pennsylvania, while Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Alaska also remain to be called.

However, the intense jockeying for the states was overshadowed by Trump’s extraordinary early-morning declaration from the White House calling for outstanding ballots not to be counted.

By late Wednesday, neither candidate had the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win. Electoral College votes are assigned to each state, in part based on their population. Trump made premature claims of victories in several key states and said he would take the election to the Supreme Court to stop the counting. It was unclear exactly what legal action he might try to pursue.

Several states allow mailed-in votes to be accepted after Election Day, as long as they were postmarked by Tuesday. That includes Pennsylvania, where ballots postmarked by Nov 3 can be accepted if they arrive up to three days after the election.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf tweeted that his state had over 1 million ballots to be counted and that he “promised Pennsylvanians that we would count every vote and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Trump suggested those ballots shouldn’t be counted. But Biden, briefly appearing in front of supporters in Delaware, urged patience, saying the election “ain’t over until every vote is counted, every ballot is counted".

“It’s not my place or Donald Trump’s place to declare who’s won this election,” Biden said. “That’s the decision of the American people.”

Arizona

Democrat Joe Biden won Arizona and its 11 electoral votes, serving a huge blow to Trump’s chances for reelection. Arizona has backed a Democratic presidential candidate only once in the last 72 years.

Biden’s campaign had focused on Arizona as part of its expanded battleground map through the Sun Belt, citing demographic changes, new residents and realignment away from Republicans among key suburban voters.

Arizona is among the more than half a dozen states that will help determine which candidate gets the 270 electoral votes to capture the White House.

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