Simon Ateba covers the White House, the U.S. government, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other financial and international institutions for Today News Africa in Washington D.C. Simon can be reached on simonateba@todaynewsafrica.com
Democratic presidential candidate Joseph R. Biden is now set to win the battleground state of Georgia. Biden is also set to overtake Trump in the battleground state of Pennsylvania in the final stretch of the presidential election in the United States.
Biden overtook Trump in Georgia on Friday morning and is now leading by more than a thousand votes. There are still about 10,000 votes left to count and Biden is set to beat Trump by about 9000 votes.
The remaining ballots are said to be mail-in ballots and disproportionately favor Biden over Trump. Biden is winning them by almost 80 percent because most Democrats voted by mail to curb the spread of the coronavirus while the Republicans voted mostly in person.
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Republicans turned out on election day and their votes were counted first. It looked on election night that President Trump was winning. But when they began counting mail-in ballots, Trump began to lose his lead and is now set to lose.
In Georgia, with about 10,000 mail-in ballots left, and with Biden winning them by 80 percent, he would likely win about 8000 of them and beat President Trump by about 9000 votes.
President Trump discouraged his supporters from using mail-in ballots to vote. He repeatedly claimed, without any shred of evidence, that mail-in ballots were fraudulent.
Joe Biden encouraged his supporters to vote by mail to protect themselves and others against the novel coronavirus that has killed more than 230,000 Americans and infected more than 9 million others.
Joe Biden has many paths to the presidency. The Associated Press and Fox News have already called the state of Arizona for him with 11 electoral votes and he’s leading in Nevada with 6 electoral votes.
With 264 electoral votes already garnered, according to the Associated Press and Fox News, Biden only needs to maintain his lead in Nevada to amass the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency and beat Trump.
In Nevada, Joe Biden has over 11,000 votes lead over Donald Trump. The outstanding vote in Nevada is about 149,000 votes. Joe Biden needs between 44 to 46 percent of them to win Nevada
Trump needs 52 to 54 percent of the votes in Nevada to win. But he’s been running below that number while Joe Biden has been getting a bigger percentage that he needs.
Joe Biden can also win the presidency without winning Pennsylvania and without winning Georgia.
If, however, Biden wins Pennsylvania, as is anticipated, he will get additional 20 electoral votes that will take him over the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.
Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania speaking to CNN said he believes Joe Biden will win the state of Pennsylvania with about 100,000 votes.
Trump’s paths to the presidency are narrowing, and a Biden win in Pennsylvania or Georgia will make him a one term president.
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