Popular vote Popular vote 72,211,950 68,727,256 JOE BIDEN DONALD TRUMP Electoral college votes 214 264 Electoral college votes Counting down to the wire in these 4 states Results from these battleground states will decide who will be the next President of the United States. As of now, Joe Biden has an upper hand villupuram l friday l november 06, 2020 l `7.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Nevada Biden win just a state away The race to 270 electoral college votes to claim the White House appeared within reach of Democrat Joe Biden on Thursday as he needed to bag just one of the four battleground states where the outcome is yet to be called. Biden already has 264 in the bag, in contrast to President Donald Trump’s 214. Trump needs to claim all four battleground states of Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia and Nevada to race from behind and touch 270. But his lead was narrowing in Georgia with more postal ballots getting counted. In Pennsylvania, more than seven lakh mail-in ballots are yet to be tabulated. And Biden is leading in Nevada. In another swing state of Arizona, whose result has already been called in Biden’s favour, Trump narrowed the gap to 3.4%as more votes were counted. With his hold on the Oval Office slipping, a nervous Trump tweeted: “Stop the count!” He was referring to the absentee ballots, most of which are perceived to be Democrat leaning. His campaign team launched a spate of legal challenges in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia and sought recount in Wisconsin. In Pennsylvania, a judge ordered that poll watchers must be allowed within six feet of counting of votes, which Trump hailed as a victory . As for Biden, there was a spring in his step. “I will govern as an American president. “There will be no red states and blue states when we win. Just the United States of America,” he said. Biden has received over 72 million votes, the most in US history At . last count, Trump was trailing Biden by over 4 million popular votes. The overall voter turnout in the presidential election was projected to be the highest in 120 years at 66.9%. Biden got booster shots from “blue wall” battlegrounds of Wisconsin and Michigan, which Trump had flipped in 2016. However, two days after election day there was still no clarity , on when the final winner would be determined. Amid all the tension, Trump loyalists staged protests in Detroit and Phoenix, while antiTrump protesters elsewhere demanded full count of the ballots. House, Senate races: P9  North Carolina ■ Electoral votes: 20 ■ Vote counted: 87% Donald Trump 3,225,536 (50.4%) Joe Biden 3,100,662 (48.4%) Electoral votes: 15 Vote counted: 94% Donald Trump 2,732,084 (50.1%) Joe Biden 2,655,383 (48.7%) ■ Georgia Electoral votes: 16 Vote counted: 99% Donald Trump 2,434,354 (49.5%) Joe Biden 2,419,589 (49.2%) ■ ■ As of 10.00 pm Thursday ALASKA Electoral votes: 3 ■ Vote counted: 50% Donald Trump 118,602 (62.1%) Joe Biden 63,992 (33.5%) ■ Demonstrators attend a rally to support all votes being counted one day after Election Day, in Washington | AP Nitish plays emotional card saying it’s No permission for BJP’s his last poll, RJD reads his defeat in it Vel Yatra, TN tells court ban soon on online gambling in TN: EPS The State government is taking steps to ban online gambling in Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said on Thursday. “Such games are ruining the lives of youth by wasting their time and money and forcing them to end lives,” he noted R a j esh K umar T hakur @ Patna slip of tongue or the emotional card, either way this is a make-orbreak election for Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who rather unexpectedly declared on Thursday that this would be his last poll. Turning 70 in a few months, age is not really on his side, even by the norm in politics where no one really retires. But aware that he will be close to 75 when elections are next held in the state, it is crucial that Nitish wins in the face of a stiff challenge from the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s 31-year-old Tejashwi Yadav. Campaigning in Purnea district on the last day of electioneering, Nitish made an emotional appeal to the people, asking them to vote for his party’s sitting MLA as this was his last election. “Day after tomorrow is voting day and this is my last election. All is well that ends well. Will you vote for my party candidate?” he asked dramatically, setting tongues wagging in Bihar and beyond. Most political parties downplayed the remarks, including Nitish’s own, the Janata Dal (United). Senior party spokesperson Ajay Alok rubbished the interpretation that Kumar was retiring from politics. “Nitish Kumar will head the state as the CM with the people’s mandate,” he said. Its ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party, also dismissed any such speculation. “He has not announced that he is quitting politics. The people will not allow him to go out because Bihar needs him,” BJP leader Prem Ranjan Patel said. The RJD took a dig at the CM, saying Nitish had played the emotional card as he had sensed that he was losing.  continued on: p7 ■ ■ Electoral votes: 6 ■ Vote counted: 75% Joe Biden 588,252 (49.3%) Donald Trump 580,605 (48.7%) The fight for a second term gets tougher for Trump as absentee ballots are eating into his leads in battleground states, sending his team into a nervous frenzy to file lawsuits and seek recount E xpress N ews S ervice Pennsylvania ■ CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ WARANGAL ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI ■ ‘Voter fraud claims baseless’ US President Donald Trump’s claims of voter fraud are baseless, according to international observers. Observers from the Organization for Security and co-operation in Europe, of which the US is a member, said the November 3 general elections were competitive Over dozen Indian Americans win More than a dozen Indian Americans, including five women, have won state-level elections. This is in addition to the four Indian Americans elected to the US House of Representatives. At least three other races, including one for the US House of Representatives, are yet undecided | P10 Raj, Odisha CMs urged to lift ban on crackers H A R I S H M U R A L I & T M U R U G A N A N D H A M @ Chennai EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE AMID intense preparations by the BJP to take out a Vetrivel Yatra in Tamil Nadu ahead of the Assembly elections, the State government on Thursday made it clear that it had rejected a request from the party seeking permission for the month-long procession. The Madras High Court was informed of the government’s decision by advocate general Vijay Narayanan, which, he said, was taken in view of the pandemic situation. Soon after, BJP national general secretary CT Ravi rushed to Chennai and went into a huddle with the party’s State president L Murugan and senior leaders. Later, the party announced it would go ahead with its yatra. “If prevented, we will stage demonstrations across the State,” BJP sources told Express. Murugan and party seniors will leave for Tiruttani on Friday morning. Earlier, a plea had been moved in the court by P Senthil Kumar of Chennai and journalist N Balamurugan, stating that the event could create communal unrest as P4 it ends on December 6 – Babri demolition day  . Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has written to his Rajasthan and Odisha counterparts seeking to lift the ban on sale and bursting of firecrackers. Noting that the State produces mainly green crackers, Palaniswami, in his letter, has highlighted that over eight lakh direct and indirect workers will be hit P4 due to the ban. @ Chennai