Biden is just around the corner from the White House

Democratic candidate in the US presidential election, Joe Biden, managed to increase his lead over his Republican rival, President Donald Trump, in the crucial states of Georgia and Pennsylvania on Friday, and is close to winning the White House race, three days after the polls closed.

The Edison Research Center said Biden won 253 votes in the electoral college that determines the winner, compared to 214 for Trump.

A victory in Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral college votes would give Biden more than the 270 votes required to settle the election.

Biden, 77, will become the next president of the United States as well if he wins two of the three states: Georgia, Nevada and Arizona, and the vote counting process is still underway in all of those states, but he is slightly ahead of them on Friday.

As Biden neared victory, a source familiar with the matter said he was expected to deliver a speech to the nation on Friday evening.

The remarks could be a victory speech, and an aide to Biden said he could be declared the winner within hours.

In both Pennsylvania and Georgia, Biden took a lead over Trump, bolstered by mail-in votes cast from urban centers considered Democratic strongholds such as Philadelphia and Atlanta.

Hundreds of Democrats gathered outside a vote-counting site in Philadelphia, wearing yellow T-shirts that read "Count every vote."

In Detroit, a crowd of Trump supporters, some carrying a gun, protested outside a vote-counting site, waving flags and chanting "Fight it out."

With his chances for a second presidential term fading, Trump stepped up his unsupported attacks on the results and appeared in the White House Thursday evening to say that the elections were "robbed" of him.

A gloomy feeling loomed over the atmosphere at the White House on Friday, as the president watched television and spoke to his advisers on the phone.

One adviser said the race was clearly tilted against Trump, but he was not yet ready to admit defeat.

Trump's campaign has started a series of lawsuits in crucial states, but legal experts say it is likely that efforts failed to change the election outcome.

Matt Morgan, the general counsel of the Trump campaign, said in a statement Friday that the voting operations in Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania had all been marred by irregularities, and that Trump would eventually win in Arizona.

"These elections are not over yet ... Biden is relying on those states for his empty claim to win the White House ... but once the election process ends, the president will win a second term," he said.

He added that the campaign will seek a recount in Georgia as it will in Wisconsin, in which Biden won by more than 20,000 votes.

The Edison Research Center said the recount had not previously resulted in a change of result with this difference.

Officials in Georgia said Friday that they expect a recount of votes, as it is permissible for any candidate to request this if the final margin does not exceed 0.5%, and this is the case at the present time.

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