The campaign team of Vice President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris warned on Monday that the final results of today’s US presidential election may not be known for “days,” cautioning Republican Donald Trump’s camp against any attempt to “sow doubt and chaos” regarding the integrity of the process.
Polling stations will open across the United States in a few hours, though over 75 million Americans have already voted by mail or at early voting centres, particularly in seven key battleground states that will determine whether the Vice President or the former President will occupy the Oval Office from 20 January.
“Ballots will continue to be counted for several days after the election. This is obviously not a sign of fraud; it’s the way the process works,” explained Harris-Walsh campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon.
“We believe this race will be incredibly close, meaning we may not know the results (…) for several days,” she added.
In each of the seven swing states (Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin), Ms O’Malley Dillon predicted that final results would be clear “by the end of the night” on Tuesday into Wednesday, and by 8 or 9 November for Nevada and Pennsylvania, with the latter being the most critical state in this presidential election.
The Republican candidate’s team continues to claim that Democrats are already engaging in “fraud” and “cheating” in key states, while the Democratic team suggests that Trump will contest a potential Harris victory and declare his own.
“We cannot and will not let Trump malign our elections or our institutions with his repeated attempts to sow chaos and doubt,” warned Dana Remus, a Harris campaign adviser.
“Despite all the noise Republicans are making” and the potential for “allegations of fraud,” it’s actually “easier and safer to vote in every key state following election reforms we advanced after 2020,” she added.
Donald Trump has never conceded his defeat in the November 2020 election and is still facing criminal trials for his efforts to overturn the results of that vote held four years ago.
Source: ANA-MPA-AFP [translated]
