WASHINGTON:
Democrat Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump in the state of Georgia, while Trump won North Carolina, Edison Research projected on Friday as it called the final two states in the US presidential race.
Edison Research said Biden had won 306 Electoral College votes to Trump’s 232. Biden had surpassed the 270 Electoral College votes needed to capture the presidency on Saturday.
Trump, a Republican, has claimed without evidence that he was cheated by widespread election fraud and has refused to concede. State election officials report no serious irregularities, and several of his legal challenges have failed in court.
To win a second term, Trump would need to overturn Biden’s lead in at least three states, but he has so far failed to produce evidence that he could do so in any of them. States face a Dec. 8 “safe harbor” deadline to certify their elections and choose electors for the Electoral College, which will officially select the new president on Dec 14.
In Michigan, where Biden won by 2.6 percentage points or more than 148,000 votes, two Republican state senators have asked the state’s top election officials to audit the results before certifying them.
They cited a “glitch” in vote-counting software, allegations that ballots were mishandled and impediments to poll-watchers.
“These claims deserve our full attention and diligent investigation to ensure fairness and transparency in our election process,” Lana Theis and Tom Barrett said in a letter to Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.
The state has said that the canvassing process, which is a county-by-county review of the vote count, is in itself an audit.
Biden’s legal advisers have dismissed the Trump lawsuits as political theater.
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