Trump wins Florida

US President Donald Trump speaks during a Make America Great Again rally at Ocala International Airport in Ocala, Florida on October 16, 2020. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP)

US President Donald Trump speaks during a Make America Great Again rally at Ocala International Airport in Ocala, Florida on October 16, 2020. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP)

Biden leads in electoral votes
Nail-bitter election comes down to Arizona, Georgia Michigan, wisconsin, Pennsylvania

With near 100 percent votes counted in the battleground state of Florida, President Donald Trump is set to win the state as he did in 2016. There are 29 electoral votes at stake in Florida. Minimum of 270 votes is required to win the Presidency of the United States at the Electoral College in December. Trump had carried the sunshine state in 2016 and went ahead to win the general elections. In 1992, Florida as a critical swing state, also decided the election in favour of George W Bush of the Republican Party.

Potentially in Trump’s kitty at the moment are key states of Iowa, Pennsylvania Georgia, Michigan and Texas.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden has taken Arizona and Virginia, two critical states for the Democrats’ desperate race to the magic 270 electoral college votes. Arizona has 11 electoral votes while Virginia has 13.

So far, Biden is assured of 220 college votes while Trump trails at 213 votes.

President Trump in the early hours of Wednesday (6 am) tweeted: We are all big, but they are trying to steal it. Votes cannot be cast after polls are closed.”
“We’re going to win the election.

But Biden in an address to a crowd in Dalaware said “we knew this was going to go long,” and expressed hopes for victory. “We’re going to win the election. we’ve to be patient,” said Biden.

Legally cast votes, being legally counted after the polls close on Election Day, as per state law, cannot be defined as “stealing” an election,” a source close to Biden Campaign told The Guardian in response to Trump’s controversial tweet.

“I believe the Biden campaign feels optimistic about its chances in Michigan and possibly in Wisconsin. Also, I think his (Biden’s) comments were intended to settle the public and remind the incumbent that all the votes need to be counted prior to declaring a winner,” the source said.

The hope in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, all battleground states for this year’s election, lies in the highly populated and diverse urban areas, which still have low percentages of their votes counted. “These states could see the same sort of Trump to Biden movement that was seen earlier tonight in Virginia, or, they could not.”

79 percent of Arizona votes have been returned with Biden leading by as much as 163,000 votes.

Iowa, looking good for Trump, has six electoral votes; Georgia, 16; and Texas, 38 electoral votes.

With 66 percent of votes counted in Pennsylvania, Trump is currently maintaining his lead.

The nail-biter election is now coming down to Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

The five states will now determine who becomes President of the United States at the Electoral College in early December. Although his lead are being thinned out to some 180,000 in Georgia, Trump currently maintains a lead; the same for Michigan and Pennsylvania.

As Biden hopes to narrow the gap in Michigan it comes down to whether he would be able to increase voter turnout in Democrats-leaning urban centers within Midwestern states, which Trump flipped in 2016.