Joe Biden One State Away From Victory

Democrat Joe Biden is now one state away from victory in the U.S. presidential race as election officials tallied votes in the handful of states that will determine the outcome.

Biden, a former vice president, and his supporters are now awaiting results from the state of Nevada before claiming victory.

Reports from Reuters indicate that incumbent President Donald Trump alleging fraud, has filed lawsuits and called for recounts in a race yet to be decided two days after polls closed.

The presidential race was coming down to close contests in five states. Biden, 77, held narrow leads in Nevada and Arizona while Trump, 74, was watching his slim advantage fade in must-win states Pennsylvania and Georgia as mail-in and absentee votes were being counted. Trump clung to a narrow lead in North Carolina as well, another must-win for him.

Trump had to win the states where he was still ahead and either Arizona or Nevada to triumph and avoid becoming the first incumbent U.S. president to lose a re-election bid since fellow Republican George H.W. Bush in 1992.

Edison Research gave Biden a 243 to 213 lead over Trump in Electoral College votes, which are largely based on a state’s population.

Other networks said Biden had won Wisconsin, which would give him another 10 votes.

But with Arizona, a handful networks have already placed in Biden’s column, he would needs only six more electoral college votes to win.

The magic number for the winning candidate is 270 votes.

Biden predicted victory on Wednesday and launched a website to begin the transition to a Democratic-controlled White House.

Trump’s campaign fought to keep his chances alive with a call for a Wisconsin recount as well as lawsuits in Michigan and Pennsylvania to stop vote counting. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson called his team’s lawsuit “frivolous.”

His campaign filed a lawsuit in Georgia to require that Chatham County, which includes the city of Savannah, separate and secure late-arriving ballots to ensure they are not counted.

It also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow Trump to join a pending lawsuit filed by Pennsylvania Republicans over whether the battleground state should be permitted to accept late-arriving ballots.

The maneuvers amounted to a broad effort to contest the results of a still undecided election a day after millions of Americans went to the polls during the coronavirus pandemic that has upended daily life.

“They are finding Biden votes all over the place – in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. So bad for our Country!” Trump posted on Twitter.