Published 18:19 IST, November 4th 2020
US election: Biden says legal teams 'ready to deploy' if Trump tries to halt vote count
Trump, declaring a premature victory, warned about accepting ballots at the polling stations after the voting stopped, and accused Biden of 'stealing' election.
Responding to the US President Donald Trump’s threats to go to Supreme court if the ballot counting doesn’t halt, Joe Biden’s campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon hit back calling the threats as “outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect”. Meanwhile, Biden warned in a statement made by his campaign manager that the democrats have “legal teams on stand by ready to deploy to resist that effort,” referring to Trump contesting the validity of the voting process, sources of Sputnik news agency reported.
Trump had earlier threatened that any counting of ballots or voting after the polling booths closed down will have him to go US Supreme Court to ensure the “integrity” of election procedures. Trump, declaring a premature victory, also warned about accepting any ballots at the polling stations after the voting stopped. Meanwhile calling Trump’s threats as "naked effort to take away the democratic rights of American citizens,” O’Malley Dillon said that if the US President makes “good on his threat” to go to court to try to prevent the proper tabulation of votes, the legal teams will take over. Meanwhile, Trump accused Democrats of election fraud on Twitter, saying, the Blue party is “trying to steal the Election”. “We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed.”
Republicans were ready for 'big celebration'
While Trump threatens to stop the counting of the mail-in ballot, according to the US law the tabulation of ballots is still legally accepted by state election boards, much like the manner the citizens waiting in the queues are still allowed to cast vote despite polling station’s time to close. However, US President Trump declared a victory at 2:20 a.m. (0720 GMT), saying, that the Republicans have had a swinging victory, claims inclusive of Republican inclined battleground state of Arizona won by Democrat Rep. Kelly. “We were getting ready for a big celebration. We were winning everything and all of a sudden it was just called off,” Trump said in an online statement. “This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election,” he asserted, referring to the Arizona defeat and Biden’s lead in the state of Wisconsin.
Updated 18:18 IST, November 4th 2020