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With polls closed and votes still being tabulated in several key states, the race for president of the United States — despite what Donald Trump said — remains undecided.
The face-off between Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden dominated the news channels and conversation Tuesday late into the night — and the months leading up to it — but with record-breaking mail-in and early votes, it wasn’t possible to count all the ballots in time to declare a winner on Election Day.
At press time, Trump had 213 electoral votes and Biden had 220, according to CNN. The New York Times, as of the publication of this post, had Biden ahead 227-213. A candidate needs 270 electoral college votes to win.
“We feel good about where we are,” Biden said during a short speech that began after midnight on the east coast. “I’m here to tell you tonight we believe we’re on track to win this election. We knew, because of the unprecedented early vote and the mail-in vote, that it’s going to take awhile. We’re going to have to be patient until the hard work of tallying the votes is finished. And it ain’t over until every vote is counted, every ballot is counted.”
Tune in as I speak to the nation live from Wilmington, Delaware. https://t.co/ye8knRucoz
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 4, 2020
Trump, despite vowing that he would not prematurely declare victory until the totals for all states were known, took a much different tone during his speech in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
“This is a fraud on the American public,” Trump said, after claiming victory in states that have yet to be decided. “This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election.”
Despite Trump’s claims, votes in several swing states — including Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin — will continue to be counted until a proper winner can be declared.
