US Elections 2020: Where things stand for Donald Trump, Joe Biden in remaining key states

The neck-to-neck fight between President Donald Trump and Democrat challenger Joe Biden is drawing to a close. The fate of the candidates now depend on a few states including Arizona, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Nevada. These states have varying rules on counting votes that has currently held up the declaration of a victor. Meanwhile two key swing states Wisconsin and Michigan have gone to Biden. But Trump is not the one to give up easily. He has sought a recount in Wisconsin and has taken legal recourse in Michigan.

Barring these states, Biden is leading with 264 electoral votes out of the 270 required for victory, while Trump is trailing with 214, according to the Associated Press.

As the US Elections 2020 nears its end, here is a look at how the candidates are faring in these key states:

MICHIGAN

Likely to win: Joe Biden

Biden won Michigan with 50.6 per cent votes over Trump's 47.9 per cent. Michigan secretary of state website showed that 5.5 million votes were counted. Trump is seeking legal recourse to stop the counting. A state judge on Thursday ruled against the Trump campaign's effort to halt counting of absentee ballots. The judge said unless an election inspector from each party was present to observe, the recounting will not occur.

If Biden's lead is certified then he would have successfully flipped a key state that led to Trump's victory in 2016.

ARIZONA

Likely to win: Joe Biden

Biden led by almost 56,000 votes as on Thursday evening. If Biden maintains the lead of 48-50 per cent then Arizona would be beyond a scope of recounting. According to Secretary of State Katie Hobbs Republicans do not have a legal pathway to challenge the votes being counted now. All eyes are on Maricopa County that accounts for 300,000 of the 450,000 outstanding votes. Reports are likely to pour in on Friday evening.

WISCONSIN

Likely to win: Joe Biden

Election commission administrator Meagan Wolfe said that ballot counting was complete. The lead would be certified on December 1. Unofficial counts show Biden leading with 20,808 votes. Trump campaign plans to exercise its right to demand a recount as the unofficial margin of 0.7 percentage point is within the 1 per cent that allows a recount. If Trump campaign calls for an official recount then the process might take several days to wrap up.

NORTH CAROLINA

Likely to win: Donald Trump

Trump was leading by about 77,000 votes on Thursday evening. Even though a number of absentee ballots were to be counted, Biden is unlikely to win this state. However, provisional ballots could be an area of tension. Counties would tally results from outstanding absentee and provisional ballots after audits and procedural checks on November 12 and 13. Even though the results might take a week to come, Trump looks more likely to win.

NEVADA

Likely to win: Unclear

Biden has a narrow lead of 11,000 votes but around 190,000 still remained to be counted as on Thursday afternoon. Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske believes that the result might not be imminent. Meanwhile, the Trump campaign has already announced a lawsuit to challenge the count in Clark County, results from which would be released on Friday and over the weekend. Nevertheless, Biden's prospects look promising.

PENNSYLVANIA

Likely to win: Unclear

Trump was leading with 63,700 votes as on Thursday evening. Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots are yet to be counted. Department of State data has shown that Biden is receiving around 77 per cent of the mail-in votes so far. On Thursday morning, a court ordered Philadelphia election officials to watch mail-in ballot counting from as near as six feet.

GEORGIA

Likely to win: Unclear

Trump was leading here too but by less than 3,500 votes as on Thursday evening. By 3pm on Thursday the state was yet to count 47,000 ballots. Trump campaign filed a lawsuit on Wednesday stating that Chatham County is improperly counting absentee ballots.

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