Vice President-elect Kamala Harris has said that Americans have made a clear choice in favour of Joe Biden, who won decisively against incumbent President Donald Trump with more votes than ever cast in the country’s history.
President-elect Biden received more than 76.4 million votes and so far, has 279 of the 538 electoral college votes, according to The New York Times.
Outgoing President Trump received 71.7 million votes and 214 electoral college votes. Counting of votes for 45 electoral college votes are still going on. To win the race for the White House, a candidate needs at least 270 electoral college votes.
Trump, 74, has refused to concede the election, while the mainstream US media has declared 77-year-old Democratic presidential candidate Biden as the winner, who is now the President-elect.
In the US electoral system, traditionally it is the major media networks which declare the winner while certified election results are declared weeks later. This is unlike in India, where the Election Commission is the only authority to declare the winner of an election.
“We just held an election, and our country made a clear choice: each vote for Joe Biden was a statement that health care should be a right — not a privilege. And we won that election decisively, with more votes than have ever been cast in American history,” Harris said in a tweet on Tuesday night.
“It amounts to 75 million voices and counting. Calling on the Supreme Court to see this case for what it is, a blatant attempt to overturn the will of the people and the president elect and I cannot let that happen,” Harris said while making a joint appearance with Biden in Wilmington, Delaware.
As Biden’s vice president, Harris, 56, will make history in myriad ways, becoming the first woman – and the first woman of colour – to occupy the office.
The Trump campaign and his Republican Party have filed multiple lawsuits in several states including Pennsylvania, which has 20 electoral college votes, Georgia (16), Michigan (16), Nevada (six), demanding to recount votes in Wisconsin which has 10 electoral college votes. The lawsuits range from local courts up to the United States Supreme Court.
The Trump campaign and the Republican Party have levelled accusations of serious voter fraud and electoral malpractices. However, there has been no evidence of voter irregularities or widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election — billed as one of the most divisive and bitter in recent American history.
Harris said that each and every vote for Biden was a vote to protect and expand the Affordable Care Act and not to tear it away in the midst of a global pandemic. Harris said that healthcare was very much on the ballot during the closely-contested election.
“Our country had a clear choice in this election. Each and every vote for Joe Biden was a statement that healthcare in America should be a right and not a privilege,” she said.
The Trump administration wants to strike down the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, that covers more than 23 million people. The case is being heard in the Supreme Court.
The US is the worst-affected country from the coronavirus pandemic with over 10 million cases and 239,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.