Biden narrows margins, victory within grasp - but not just yet

Democrat candidate Joe Biden on Thursday solidified his position, leading the race in Arizona and Nevada while closing the gap in Georgia and swing state Pennsylvania, but the ultimate outcome is still uncertain. President Donald Trump accuses the Democrats of 'fraud' and 'theft' and went to court to try and stop vote counting.

In a nail biting cliff hanger, former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump are facing off. JIM WATSON, SAUL LOEB / AFP

Tallying of votes continued through a second night in the remaining battleground states where huge turnout and a mountain of mail-in ballots sent by voters trying to avoid exposure to the coronavirus made the job all the harder.

Both candidates still had the possibility of reaching the crucial number of 270 electoral votes representing a majority of states, thereby winning the White House.

But momentum shifted to Biden, who made a televised speech from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, to say that "when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners."

Donald Trump does not decide the outcome of this election and nor do I. The American people decide. That’s why we’ve launched the Biden Fight Fund — to ensure every vote is counted.

Chip in to help fund our election protection efforts across the country: https://t.co/ps6VhGy0m5

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 5, 2020

Wins in Michigan, Wisconsin and Arizona

By flipping the northern battlegrounds of Michigan and Wisconsin, and also winning formerly pro-Trump Arizona, Biden reached 253 electoral votes against 217 so far for Trump.

If candidates win the states in which they are now leading, Biden would win, adding 17 electors of Arizona (11) and Nevada (6) to reach the magic number of 270.

Trumps advantage in Georgia gets smaller by the hour

Votes are still being counted in Atlanta-area counties as Americans watch from around the nation to see whether Georgia will give Democrat Joe Biden the electoral votes he needs to become president. 

"The reality is it's about 60,000 votes that are out right now and we're working with the counties to make sure that they have properly put their stuff into their system," said Gabriel Sterling, Georgia Statewide Voting System Implementation Manager.

"Sometimes they're going to forget to press the upload button. So we recently this morning done an extra email and follow up phone calls through our liaisons and the elections office to make sure they have uploaded everything."

Legal dispute launched

In stark contrast to Trump's unprecedented rhetoric about being cheated, Biden sought to project calm, reaching out to a nation torn by four years of polarising leadership and traumatised by the Covid-19 pandemic, with new daily infections Wednesday close to hitting 100,000 for the first time.

"We have to stop treating our opponents as enemies," Biden said. "What brings us together as Americans is so much stronger than anything that can tear us apart."

However, Trump claimed victory unilaterally and made clear he would not accept the reported results, issuing unprecedented complaints -- unsupported by any evidence -- of fraud.

Detroit Absentee Ballot Counting Chaos, Blocked Windows and Observers https://t.co/KzIwhbQrDt via @BreitbartNews

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 5, 2020

"The damage has already been done to the integrity of our system, and to the Presidential Election itself," he tweeted, alleging without proof or explanation that "secretly dumped ballots" had been added in Michigan.

Trump's campaign announced lawsuits in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia and demanded a recount in Wisconsin.

In Michigan, the campaign filed a suit to halt vote tabulation, saying its "observers" were not allowed to watch at close distances.

Split vote?

Currently, Biden performs strongly in Republican-held states Georgia and Pennsylvania. In Georgia, he managed to reduce the distance to Trump to only 15,000 votes, while some 61,000 votes still have to be counted.

In case Biden, against all expectations, will lose Arizona and Nevada, but wins in Georgia, while Trump wins the remaining states, both contenders will end up with 269 votes - a draw.

In that case, . In this case, according to the 12th Amendment of the US Constitution, the House of Representatives will choose the president from the candidates: “the person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President.”

In the current House of Representatives, Democrates have a majority with 232 seats, the Republicans have 187 seats.