US President Donald Trump denounced what he said are attempts to deprive him of his victory at the presidential elections, after a messy ending of the election day. Trump is solidly in the lead in a number of key battleground states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan and was able to defend some of the Republican states that the Democrats were challenging such as Georgia and North Carolina, while losing only in Arizona. Still, due to the patchwork of local jurisdictions counting the votes and the large postal ballot, the counting of votes has stopped in some areas that are key to completing the process on the eve of the election day.

This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election, frankly we did win this election, Trump said.
He was responding to earlier statement from his challenger Joe Biden, who insisted that the Democrats are “on track to win the election” but also demanded that Trump does not declare himself winner on election day. With that Biden announced that he will not concede a loss on election eve.

Some states, such as Pennsylvania, are also allowing postal votes that are not dated and that arrive in the coming days to be considered as valid. This, to Trump, is an attempt to “find any ballots at 4 in the morning”. “We are up big, but they are trying to steal the election”, Trump said.

Meanwhile, thousands of Democratic supporters were gathered in front of the White House, carrying signs of the Black Lives Matter movement which held often violent rallies through American cities for months. Shops are boarded and a large wall was erected in front of the White House, fearing a repeat of the riots and the attempt to storm the building in June, following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Like Hillary Clinton in 2016, Biden was the huge favorite in the polls. But results in many early voting swing states, especially Florida, revealed the polls to be completely off the mark, as Trump easily carried the state with surprisingly strong showing among Latino voters. The Republicans also had a better than predicted night in the Senate races, losing a seat in Colorado and are down in Arizona, but gaining a seat in Alabama and are likely to hold on to a narrow majority. The Democrats are predicted to keep control of the House of Representatives.