Joe Biden wins battleground Michigan

WASHINGTON: Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has won Michigan with 16 of the battleground state's electoral votes, according to media reports. Both CNN and NBC News called the race for Biden on Wednesday evening, even as other key states such Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Nevada were yet to declare a winner, The Hill news website reported.

In the 2016 presidential election, then Republican candidate Donald Trump bagged Michigan with 47.50 per cent of the vote, while his challenger Hillary Clinton trailed very close at 47.27 per cent. Trump and Biden campaigned in Michigan ahead of Election Day.

While the President attended a rally on Monday, Biden made a joint appearance with former President Barack Obama on October 31.

Michigan is the second of three Rust Belt "blue wall" states that Biden has won after Trump had flipped them four years ago.

The other two are Pennsylvania, where counting was still underway of outstanding ballots, and Michigan. As of Wednesday night, Biden had 264 electoral college votes, six short of the 270 needed to become President, and Trump had only 214, according to media tally. The only way Trump can get re-elected is by capturing 54 of the remaining 60 votes.

Biden also created a record for the highest number of popular votes polled by a presidential candidate with 70.3 million ballots as of Wednesday afternoon, and still counting. Trump had polled 67.5 million votes.

Due to the incomplete results, there was a tie in the party standings in the Senate, with each side having 48 seats. In the House of Representatives, Democrats had 205 seats to Republicans' 190. (IANS)

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