{"id":38711,"date":"2020-11-06T13:54:39","date_gmt":"2020-11-06T13:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/?p=38711"},"modified":"2020-11-06T13:54:39","modified_gmt":"2020-11-06T13:54:39","slug":"us-election-who-is-ahead-why-is-it-taking-so-long","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/us-election-who-is-ahead-why-is-it-taking-so-long\/","title":{"rendered":"US Election: Who is ahead, why is it taking so long?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The 2020 US presidential election between President Donald Trump and former vice-president Joe Biden continues to rage on as the race boils down to just six states yet to be called for either candidate.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Trump has incorrectly declared to have already won the election and has, without evidence, claimed that there is wide-spread fraud at key ballot counting centres. The President has also demanded that states stop the counting, or continue counting, depending on if he is ahead.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The race has come down to the wire in a number of states, with a winner yet to be projected by any major news organisations. But a winner might not be too far away.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here\u2019s everything you need to know:<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_38715\" style=\"width: 1930px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-38715\" class=\"wp-image-38715 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2020\/11\/US-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2020\/11\/US-1.png 1920w, https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2020\/11\/US-1-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2020\/11\/US-1-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2020\/11\/US-1-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2020\/11\/US-1-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2020\/11\/US-1-777x437.png 777w, https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2020\/11\/US-1-260x146.png 260w, https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2020\/11\/US-1-120x67.png 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-38715\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Reported by CNN, SkyNews, NBC. Created by Sam Tabahriti<\/p><\/div>\n<p><b>What has happened so far and was this all expected?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Trump and Biden have gone head-to-head in what is seen as the most crucial and important presidential election in a generation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This view has been reflected at the polls. In some of the vital states to win, there has been a record number of voters and some forecasting the highest turnout in over a century.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 2016, 230,931,921 people were eligible to vote whereas this year, 239,247,182 were eligible.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whereas the likely winner may be Biden, the \u2018path to victory\u2019 is yet to be determined as the race tightens.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">However, the battle has been focused on key states such as Pennsylvania and Georgia where it could tilt the balance for one of the parties.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As votes started to climb for Biden, Trump promptly launched legal action to halt vote counting as he said that the Democrats are \u201cstealing\u201d the votes and there should be no counting after election day.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_38714\" style=\"width: 5295px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-38714\" class=\"wp-image-38714 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2020\/11\/MapChart_Map-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"5285\" height=\"3762\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2020\/11\/MapChart_Map-1.png 5285w, https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2020\/11\/MapChart_Map-1-300x214.png 300w, https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2020\/11\/MapChart_Map-1-1024x729.png 1024w, https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2020\/11\/MapChart_Map-1-768x547.png 768w, https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2020\/11\/MapChart_Map-1-1536x1093.png 1536w, https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/64\/2020\/11\/MapChart_Map-1-2048x1458.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 5285px) 100vw, 5285px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-38714\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Created by Sam Tabahriti via mapchart.net. FoxNews, AP reports it differently with Arizona won by Biden.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Greta Thunberg, the worldwide known activist for climate change reacted to one of Trump\u2019s tweets:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">So ridiculous. Donald must work on his Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Donald, Chill! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/4RNVBqRYBA\">https:\/\/t.co\/4RNVBqRYBA<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GretaThunberg\/status\/1324439705522524162?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 5, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Donald Trump\u2019s reaction to the election on Twitter has sparked anger across the world but has mostly been seen as false claims and Twitter has put a warning on his tweets.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">All of the recent Biden claimed States will be legally challenged by us for Voter Fraud and State Election Fraud. Plenty of proof &#8211; just check out the Media. WE WILL WIN! America First!<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/realDonaldTrump\/status\/1324386685858287616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 5, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><b>Why is it taking so long?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The US Presidential election is decided by a handful of key battleground states and this year\u2019s election is no different. Each state counts votes in different ways: Some states first count ballots cast before election day, then election day votes, then mail ballots. Others switch up that order.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Trump raced to early leads in many battleground states as they counted in-person votes first, but mail-in ballots counted later on have favoured Biden, causing Trump\u2019s leads in many of those states to thin, if not disappear.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The battleground states yet to be called for either candidate (Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania) are so tight that the remaining votes could still give either candidate victory in that state.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Thank you for your patience while bipartisan county election officials make sure your vote is accurately and securely counted.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/TrustedInfo2020?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#TrustedInfo2020<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/votesPA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#votesPA<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/9FnjocguXF\">pic.twitter.com\/9FnjocguXF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; PA Department of State (@PAStateDept) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PAStateDept\/status\/1324667976751218688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 6, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><b>So why are some states still counting?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Florida, the third-largest state by population, ballots cast prior to election day were processed before polls closed on Tuesday night in order to count the votes quicker. But in some key battleground states like Pennsylvania, early ballots are not counted until after election day.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">All of the states remaining are battleground states with razor-thin margins. They could be decided by just a few thousand votes, so almost every vote must be counted until a clear winner can be projected.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Who is likely to win?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In short: Biden.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many of the votes left to count in the remaining states are mail-in ballots, which are overwhelmingly proving to be Democrat votes, with Biden-supporters more likely to have avoided in-person voting due to the coronavirus pandemic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">At the time of writing, Biden holds narrow leads in Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and Pennsylvania, while Trump is ahead in North Carolina. But the ballots left to count are mail-in ballots, so it\u2019s really a question of whether Trump can hold onto his leads in that, as well as claw back the states in which he is behind, with uncounted ballots clearly trending toward Biden.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you watch the news, you will hear a lot about \u201cpaths to victory.\u201d It\u2019s shorthand to describe which states Biden and Trump need to win to be victorious, and the former US vice-president has more ways of winning \u2014 if Biden wins Pennsylvania the race is over, but he can still win if he doesn\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Biden will win the election if he wins any two Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and Pennsylvania, all of which he looks increasingly likely to win.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Should Biden won all four of those states, he would achieve a\u00a0306-232 electoral college win, a very similar margin to Trump&#8217;s victory over Hilary Clinton in 2016.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">No one is going to take our democracy away from us. Not now, not ever.<\/p>\n<p>America has come too far, fought too many battles, and endured too much to let that happen.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JoeBiden\/status\/1324511817658441728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">November 6, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><b>When will a winner be announced?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was expected that election night could become election week, but a winner could be projected by Friday. Pennsylvania would be a knockout blow for Trump, where Biden has taken a narrow lead after 95% of its votes have been counted. Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar has said that she expects an \u201coverwhelming majority of ballots\u201d in the state to be counted by Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Nevada, the count must be finished by Nov. 12, and local officials have said that results from more than 51,000 mail-in ballots will be counted by Friday.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Georgia, where Biden narrowly overtook Trump on Friday morning with 99% of votes counted, is still to count over 9,000 military votes which do not arrive until Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Either campaign can demand a recount in states where the race is particularly tight, but each state has their own rules around how close the race must be to do so.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>What have Trump and Biden said?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">President Donald Trump addressed the nation on Thursday evening. Making unsubstantiated claims, here\u2019s what he said: <\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"President Trump full speech on Election results: November 5, 2020\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/m8aEo4U5ZnQ?start=2&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Biden made a short statement a few hours prior to Trump&#8217;s, mentioning the pandemic while addressing the nation about the election: <\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Joe Biden delivers remarks as ballot counting continues | USA TODAY\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/G0PxGBUGVZA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><b>Trump\u2019s claims &#8211; true or false?<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">CNN reports the president made the &#8220;most dishonest speech of his presidency&#8221; on Thursday night as he claimed Democrats are &#8220;trying to steal an election&#8221; &#8212; there has been no evidence of this so far; election officials are simply and legally counting the legitimate votes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Trump has also repeatedly claimed victory of the election and in the states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia. Yet again, he claimed victory before all the votes are counted. Moreover, he actually lost Wisconsin and Michigan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Georgia and Pennsylvania are still counting their mail-in ballots but as aforementioned, they are prominently for the Democrats.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Trump has always been known to make false and\/or unsupported claims, but during this election, he has proven to be relentless.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">He has said that the country&#8217;s electoral system was &#8220;corrupt&#8221; when it comes to mail-in ballots, calling them &#8220;illegal votes.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Mail-n in ballots cast before or on election are being legally counted, even if they have arrived after Tuesday, contrary to Trump&#8217;s claims.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Words: Connor O&#8217;Halloran, Sam Tabahriti | Subbing: Arwa Nadeem<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 2020 US presidential election between President Donald Trump and former vice-president Joe Biden continues to rage on as the race boils down to just six states yet to be called for either candidate. Trump&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":38780,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}