The winner of the U.S. presidential election remained in doubt Wednesday, with the outcome hinging on a handful of states where a flood of mail-in ballots sparked by the coronavirus pandemic remained to be counted.
President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden both won states they were expected to win in their bid for a majority in the Electoral College that determines who wins the White House in the country’s indirect form of democracy.
But the outcome of contests in several states — Georgia and Pennsylvania in the nation’s East and Arizona and Nevada in the West — was unsettled as officials counted millions of votes, some that were cast on Tuesday and many more during weeks of early voting.
Trump led in Georgia and Pennsylvania and Biden in Arizona and Nevada, but with the eventual results uncertain.
After trailing in the early vote-counting in two Midwestern states, Wisconsin with 10 electoral votes and Michigan with 16, Biden won Wisconsin and was ahead in Michigan.
But Bill Stepien, Trump’s campaign manager, said, “There have been reports of irregularities in several Wisconsin counties which raise serious doubts about the validity of the results. The president is well within the threshold to request a recount and we will immediately do so.”
In addition, the Trump campaign asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in the ballot counting in Pennsylvania.
Late Wednesday afternoon, as his electoral fortunes improved, Biden told reporters he would not declare victory, but said, “When the count is finished, we believe we will be the winner. I feel very good.”
He added, “Now, every vote must be counted” in the remaining states where the outcome remains uncertain.