Biden takes lead in key states in tight White House race

SOURCE – (AFP) — US President Donald Trump fired off allegations of election fraud on Wednesday, setting the stage for a potential legal battle, as Democrat Joe Biden took a slim lead in key states that could decide the bitterly contested White House race.

Americans woke up on Wednesday not knowing who the next US president would be as votes were still being counted in six battleground states that could swing the election.

As Trump vented his frustration on Twitter over the slow vote count, the Biden camp expressed confidence it was on track to win enough of the remaining close state races.

Campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said a victory by the former vice president was a “foregone conclusion”.

Fuelling fears of a constitutional crisis, Trump prematurely declared victory overnight and threatened to demand the intervention of the Supreme Court to stop vote-counting.

“We did win this election,” the 74-year-old president said even before the final vote tallies were complete. “This is a fraud on the American public.”

Trump, in a tweet Twitter labelled as potentially “misleading,” continued to allege without evidence on Wednesday that there had been instances of fraud.

“Last night I was leading, often solidly, in many key States, in almost all instances Democrat run & controlled,” Trump tweeted. “Then, one by one, they started to magically disappear as surprise ballot dumps were counted.”

There have been no reports of any irregularities and the leads in numerous states have been shifting back-and-forth between the candidates as votes have been counted.

Vote-counting has been slow in several states this year because of the coronavirus-related surge in the use of mail-in ballots.

Trump has spent months denouncing mail-in ballots, making unsubstantiated claims that they are liable to fraud.

The outcome of the White House race appears to hinge on the results from six states where a winner has not yet been declared — Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

As of 11:00 am (1600 GMT), Biden had slim leads in Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin while Trump was ahead in Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

But state election officials cautioned that with tens of thousands of ballots outstanding in some states — millions in others — the leaderboard could shift.