Joe Biden, the US Democratic presidential challenger, has edged closer to the White House after dramatically overtaking Donald Trump’s vote tally in Georgia for the first time and further closing the gap in Pennsylvania.By Friday morning in the US, Biden had moved to a 917-vote advantage in Georgia with thousands of ballots still left to be counted – many in counties where the former vice-president was in the lead.
The Georgia secretary of state reported late on Thursday there were about 10,000 ballots still to be counted in the state, a must-win for Trump in order to keep any chances of re-election alive in the race for the 270 electoral college votes that will determine the presidency.
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Biden’s narrow lead late in the Georgia count came as he urged calm on Thursday night, after an inflammatory and falsehood-filled Trump address from the White House where the president once again claimed he had won.
The latest voting figures were disclosed as an increasingly frantic Trump and his campaign continued to undermine confidence in the election, threatening a rash of litigation amid unfounded claims of election rigging.
With Georgia slipping away from his grasp, Trump’s path to a victory in the electoral college appeared to be closing as election workers in undeclared states including Pennsylvania, Nevada and Arizona continued to count ballots.“This is a case when they are trying to steal an election, they are trying to rig an election,” Trump said from the podium of the White House briefing room.
