Biden on the cusp of historic victory as Trump goes legal

Joe Biden called for calm and patience, saying he has "no doubt" that he and his running mate Kamala Harris will be declared winners. File Picture: Carolyn Kaster

Democratic candidate Joe Biden stands on the brink of winning the US presidency, needing to clinch just one more battleground state to defeat the incumbent, Donald Trump.

The Republican president escalated his legal efforts to influence vote counting and made fresh unsubstantiated claims of voting fraud.

In a televised address late on Thursday, Mr Biden called for calm and patience, saying he has "no doubt" that he and his running mate Kamala Harris will be declared winners.

"Democracy is sometimes messy, so sometimes it requires a little patience," said Mr Biden. "But that patience has been rewarded now for more than 240 years with a system of governance that has been the envy of the world.

"We continue to feel very good about where things stand. We have no doubt that when the count is finished, Senator Harris and I will be the winners. So, I ask everyone to stay calm...The process is working. The count is being completed. And we’ll know very soon."

Neither candidate has yet amassed the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House.

However, Mr Biden's victories in the Great Lakes states have him at 264, meaning he is one battleground state away from becoming president-elect.

Mr Trump, with 214 electoral votes, faced a much higher hurdle.

To reach 270, he needed to claim all four remaining battlegrounds: Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, and Nevada.

Mr Trump, sensing defeat, engaged in a flurry of legal activity to try to improve the his chances and cast doubt on the election results, requesting a recount in Wisconsin and filing lawsuits in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia.

Mr Trump remained in the White House residence, huddling with advisers and fuming at media coverage showing his Democratic rival picking up battlegrounds.

Mr Trump used his Twitter feed to falsely claim victory in several key states and amplify unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about Democratic gains as absentee and early votes were tabulated.

Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said the president would formally request a Wisconsin recount, citing "irregularities" in several counties.

And the campaign said it was filing suits in Michigan and Pennsylvania to halt ballot counting on grounds that it was not given proper access to observe.

Still more legal action was launched in Georgia.

At the same time, hundreds of thousands of votes were still to be counted in Pennsylvania, and Mr Trump's campaign said it was moving to intervene in existing Supreme Court litigation over counting mail-in ballots there.

The campaign also argued that outstanding votes still could flip the outcome in Arizona, which went for Mr Biden, showcasing an inconsistency in its arguments over prolonged tabulation.

In other closely watched races, Mr Trump picked up Florida, the largest of the swing states, and held onto Texas and Ohio while Mr Biden kept New Hampshire and Minnesota.

Beyond the presidency, Democrats had hoped the election would allow the party to reclaim the Senate and boost its majority in the House.

However, while the voting scrambled seats in the House and Senate, it ultimately left Congress much like it began — deeply divided.

Mr Trump tweeted "Stop The Count" on Thursday morning with the race to the winning line of 270 electoral votes still to be decided.

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