US election: Biden launches transition website

VOTES are still being counted across the United States but Democrat Joe Biden has launched a transition website “so that the Biden-Harris Administration can hit the ground running on Day One”.

On the website, buildbackbetter.com, is the short statement, “The American people will determine who will serve as the next President of the United States.

“Votes are still being counted in several states around the country.

“The crises facing the country are severe — from a pandemic to an economic recession, climate change to racial injustice — and the transition team will continue preparing at full speed so that the Biden-Harris Administration can hit the ground running on Day One.”

Both Biden and his Republican opponent and incumbent President, Donald Trump, still had paths to winning the White House by hitting the magic majority threshold of 270 of the electoral votes awarded to whichever candidate wins the popular vote in a given state.

But momentum moved to Biden, who made a televised speech from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware to say that “when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners.”

By flipping the northern battlegrounds of Michigan and Wisconsin, and also winning formerly pro-Trump Arizona, Biden reached 264 electoral votes against 214 so far for Trump.

To reach 270, Biden hopes to add the six electoral votes from Nevada, where he had a small and shrinking lead, or, even better, the larger prizes of hard-fought Georgia or Pennsylvania.

However, Trump has so far accused his opponent of electoral fraud and threatened court action.