US election 2020: Joe Biden edges Donald Trump, secures electoral votes to become next president
- Democrat Joe Biden is reported to have secured 290 electoral votes compared with 214 for Republican President Donald Trump, with 270 needed for victory
- Former vice-president Biden also secured 51 per cent of the popular vote compared to 48 for Trump and will be confirmed as the 46th US president in January
After a cliffhanger election that has transfixed people around the world, the Democratic candidate Joe Biden has exceeded the 270 electoral votes needed to become the next US president, setting the stage for a likely tumultuous transition as incumbent Donald Trump insists he was the victor.
Biden has a total of 290 electoral votes, compared with 214 for President Donald Trump, AP reported, after calling the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada. And while the final Electoral College results will not be formally certified until January, Biden also secured 50.5 per cent of the popular vote, or 74.48 million, compared with 47.8 per cent, or 70.33 million, for Trump.
Fox News’s count matches AP, while CNN and The New York Times put Biden’s electoral votes at 279 as they have not yet called Arizona for the president-elect.
Biden’s running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, who is of Indian and Jamaican descent, will become the first woman vice-president in US history.
Partisan challenges, record levels of voting and a massive spike in mail-in ballots have fuelled the delay, all during a week that saw daily new US Covid-19 infections top 100,000, an all-time high. Particular attention focused on the swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada and Georgia, prompting people from Houston to Hong Kong to Helsinki to learn the names of obscure US voting districts and details of labyrinthine voting procedures.
The streets of New York, Washington, Philadelphia and other cities erupted with cheers and honking vehicles after the calls for Biden by AP, CNN and other news outlets, and while many will breathe a sigh of relief as an outcome is announced, the election process could be far from over.