USA, still without president and facing an institutional crisis



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The counting clock has slowed from 01:00 local time on Wednesday (06:00 GMT), when a handful of key states remained to be known, seven territories on which the future of a country alerted by the threat of protests hangs. and addressed by the supporters of one or the other candidate.

The United States has never been more divided in the face of an election, and the destruction of the economic and social fabric caused by the pandemic has exacerbated the differences and fueled the polarization, fueled by Trump himself and amplified by social media.

Also Read: Although the tally continues, Trump proclaimed himself the winner and denounced election fraud without evidence.

From a handful of states

All eyes are now on the pivotal states of Pennsylvania, with 20 delegates at Electoral College; Michigan, with 16; Wisconsin, with 10; North Carolina, with 15; Georgia, with 16; and Nevada, with 6; to which are added the 3 delegates in play from Alaska and 1 from Maine.

The Electoral College is a body composed of 538 delegates distributed according to the population of each of the states. The winning candidate in each of these states, even if with only one vote, takes all his delegates; and the candidate who reaches 270 wins the election.

So far, Biden leads Trump from 238 delegates to 213, according to projections from major US media, leaving all options open.

If you look at the map of the country in broad strokes, Biden has won the entire west coast, as well as much of the country’s Atlantic coast, as well as the key state of Arizona, apart from Colorado, New Mexico. , Illinois and Minnesota.

The map begins to turn red, the color of Republicans, in areas of the central and southern United States, such as Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, and South Dakota, among others; But above all, the pivotal states of Ohio, Texas and Florida have given Trump wings.

So, for the time being, it appears the president is holding onto Biden’s onslaught, which most polls took for granted, which led to some sort of feeling last night of what he had already experienced in 2016, when polls ventured. the victory of the then Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, who ended up losing.

Read also: Biden’s campaign accuses Trump of attempting to “invalidate” votes in the United States.

Did Trump come to stay?

These inconclusive results are an indicator that Trump is no longer the exotic, populist phenomenon he might have appeared four years ago and that he has a broad base that could hold him in office for a new term.

It remains to be seen how the atmosphere on the streets will evolve in the next few hours.

From the White House and with the recount still underway, Trump has already denounced an election “fraud” this Wednesday without providing evidence and threatened to appeal to the Supreme Court to stop the counting of the votes. A Supreme Court, among other things, whose Conservative majority the president managed to strengthen ahead of the elections with the help of the Republican-controlled Senate, with the appointment of Judge Amy Coney Barrett.

“We will go to the Supreme Court. We want the whole voting process to stop,” announced Trump, who at the same time assured that he had won the election.

Sensations already experienced

Already during the election campaign, the president raised the specter of possible mail-order electoral fraud, fundamental in these elections due to the pandemic.

The last time the Supreme Court had to resolve a presidential election was in 2000, due to recounting problems in Florida, and Republican George W. Bush eventually won once Democrat Al Gore had to throw the sponge afterwards. to be denied further inspection.

Trump’s tone contrasted with that of Biden, who asked his followers in Wilmington, Delaware, to “keep the faith” and wait patiently for results.

And after Trump spoke, there was silence on election night. The protests that had filled the streets near the White House hours earlier had already melted and there have been no incidents in other parts of the country.

It remains to be seen what follows silence with the arrival of the day: For now there are already protests of the “ShutdownDC” campaign (closure of the District of Columbia) in the US capital.

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