The US elections ... the count brings Biden closer to victory and Trump files lawsuits
Democratic candidate Joe Biden came close to winning the US presidential election on Thursday, while officials worked to count votes in a few states that would determine the outcome, and protesters took to the streets.
President Donald Trump claimed fraud, without providing evidence, and filed lawsuits in an unresolved election race.
The lead in the race narrowing in five states, with Biden slightly ahead in Nevada and Arizona, while Trump watches his previous lead diminish in crucial Pennsylvania and Georgia with the counting of mailed votes or other forms of absentee voting.
Trump kept a slight lead in North Carolina, another crucial state.
Trump must win in the states he is still ahead plus Arizona or Nevada to beat his opponent and avoid becoming the first US president to lose a second term since George Bush senior in 1992.
The Edison Research Center said that Biden was ahead of Trump in the electoral college vote, with 243 votes to 213 for Trump.
Other networks reported that Trump won Wisconsin, giving him 10 more votes.
And the winner must get 270 votes.
The count and the lawsuits set the stage for a state of uncertainty that may last for days and perhaps weeks before the electoral college on December 14 and before the new president is sworn in on January 20.
Raging rivalry
as tensions mount, about 200 Trump supporters, some armed with rifles and pistols, gathered in front of a polling station in Phoenix, Arizona, after rumors that were not based on evidence that votes for the Republican president were not counted.
In Detroit, officials prevented about 30 people, most of them Republicans, from entering the headquarters where the vote count was being counted, amid allegations that the count in Michigan is marred by fraud.
Anti-Trump protesters in other cities called for the vote counting to continue.
Police arrested 11 people and confiscated weapons in Portland, Oregon, after reports of riots, and arrests also took place in New York, Denver and Minneapolis.
More than 100 gatherings are due to take place across the country by Saturday.
As of Thursday morning, Biden was ahead of Trump by 3.6 million votes in the nationwide popular vote, but the differences were minimal in several states.
In Wisconsin, Biden led Trump by nearly 21,000 votes out of 3.3 million cast.
In Georgia, Trump led by 19,000 votes from nearly 5 million.
Biden, 77, predicted his victory on Wednesday and launched a website to begin the transition to a Democratic-led White House in January.
Trump, 74, has been seeking for some time to question the reliability of the vote if he loses.
Since the election on Tuesday, he has declared victory even though this hasn't happened yet, accusing Democrats of trying to steal the election without providing evidence, and pledging to sue some states.
Experts on the US election say fraud is rare.
Trump's campaign demanded a recount in Wisconsin, which he is entitled to given the very small difference there, and lawsuits have been filed in Michigan and Pennsylvania to stop the vote count.
Jocelyn Benson, Michigan's secretary of state in charge of elections in her state, called the lawsuit filed by Trump's team "worthless."
The Trump campaign has filed a lawsuit in Georgia to demand that Chatham County, which includes Savannah, separate late-arriving votes to ensure they are not counted.
The campaign also asked the Supreme Court to allow Trump to join a lawsuit filed by Republicans in Pennsylvania over whether this crucial state was entitled to accept late votes.
Trump's maneuvering looks more like an effort to challenge the election results before the count is completed.
"They find Biden's voices everywhere ... in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. Something very bad for our country," he wrote on Twitter.
As for Biden, he said that every vote should be counted. "No one will take our democracy from us, neither now nor at any time."
A potential crisis
if Biden wins, he will face a fierce battle to rule in light of the Republicans' control, which now appears almost certain in the Senate, which is likely to stall many of the bills on the legislative agenda that includes expanding health care and combating climate change.
This tension and disagreement comes after an election campaign overshadowed by violent brawls amid a pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 233,000 people in the United States and made millions lose their jobs.
The country has also gone through tumultuous months of protests against racism and police brutality.
The United States recorded a record of daily new cases of the emerging coronavirus on Wednesday, with at least 102,591 new infections being detected, according to a Reuters count.
Supporters of both candidates expressed feelings of anger, frustration and fear in light of the unclear date for the election result.
Trump won the 2016 election over Democrat Hillary Clinton after winning crucial states despite having led by nearly 3 million votes nationwide.
No Republican candidate has won the popular vote except once since the 1980s, despite Republicans winning three out of seven presidential elections during this period thanks to the electoral college system.
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