Democrats still have hope despite polling calamity

Democrat’s chances of winning the White House rest on Rust Belt states that may not declare for days

Democrats were still hoping they could emerge victorious from the 2020 presidential race, even as Donald Trump threatened to go court to shut down counting.

In an appearance at the White House at around 2am, the president accused without evidence, the Democrats of attempting electoral “fraud”.

He said he intended to go to the Supreme Court to halt any further counting of ballots and claimed that he and the Republican Party had enjoyed a historic victory.

“Frankly, we did win this election,” Mr Trump said after claiming he was winning several battleground states where votes were still being tallied. “This is a fraud on the American public.”

US media pointed out that Mr Trump’s claims had no basis and that election laws in all US states required all votes to be counted. More votes still stood to be counted this year than in the past as people voted early by mail and in person in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Trump won the battlegrounds of Florida, Ohio and Texas, dashing Joe Biden's hopes for a decisive early victory, but the former vice president said he was on track to winning the White House by taking three key Rust Belt states.

Mr Biden, 77, was eyeing the so-called "blue wall" states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that Mr Trump, 74, bagged four years ago on the way to the White House in 2016

"We feel good about where we are," Mr Biden said in his home state of Delaware, shouting over a din of supporters in cars honking their horns in approval. "We believe we're on track to win this election.”

As Mr Biden bagged the state of Arizona, the first flip from 2016, journalsits Jonathan Chait tweeted that four key states remained outstanding, and that Democrats could be optimistic.

"To sum up, four big states are in play: Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin,” he tweeted.

“Biden needs to win any two and he's president. Georgia is a toss-up, the other three probably lean Biden.”

It appeared that three of those states – Pennsylvsanias, Michigan and Wisconsin – might not be known for days.

“We knew, because of the unprecedented early vote and the mail-in vote, it was gonna take a while,” Mr Biden said.

“We're going to have to be patient until ... the hard work of tallying votes is finished, and it ain't over until every vote is counted, everybody ballot is counted.”

As the clock passed 3am eastern time, the New York Times gave Mr Trump a tally of 213 to 227 for Mr Biden. A candidate needs 270 to win the electoral college.

Additional reporting by agencies