President Donald Trump has held himself up as a champion of US troops without rival. Now, with his presidency on the line, he’s casting suspicion on a tool of participatory democracy — the mail-in ballot — that has allowed US military personnel to vote while serving far from home since the War of 1812.
The president has shouted from Twitter to “STOP THE COUNT” and levelled unsubstantiated charges that “surprise ballot dumps” after election night are helping rival Democrat Joe Biden to “steal” the election.
All the while, Trump insists that military voters’ mail-in ballots must be counted. He even suggested on Friday (US time) — without presenting evidence — that some troops’ mail-in ballots have gone “missing”.
– Why Pennsylvania hasn’t been called
The two states we’re watching closely right now are Georgia – and Pennsylvania.
A razor-thin margin and a huge number of outstanding votes are the major reasons that networks have deemed Pennsylvania too close to call.
Late on Friday night in the US (3.40pm Saturday AEDT) Democrat Joe Biden held a lead over Republican Donald Trump of more than 28,800 votes, out of more than 6.5 million ballots cast — an edge of about 0.43 per cent. State law dictates that a recount must be held if the margin between the two candidates is less than 0.5 per cent.
