The United States held national elections on Tuesday, 3 November, but results have been slow to trickle in as a result of a number of factors, mostly related to the coronavirus crisis. As a result, no winner has yet been declared in the U.S. presidential contest between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Similarly, control of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives has not yet been decided, though Republicans have won a handful of toss-up races across the country. Some media outlets were predicting Democrats will retain control of the House but none had yet made a prediction on who would control the Senate, where Republicans currently have a three-seat advantage. Ballot counting is set to continue throughout the day on Wednesday, 4 November, and some results will not be available until later in the week.
Several results that came in on Tuesday evening favored Trump, including his capture of the electoral votes of Florida, Iowa, and Ohio – three of several states Biden had hoped to turn to Democrats after they tilted in favor of Trump four years ago, when he won an upset that defied most national polling. But crucial battleground states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, and Michigan remained too close to call as of Wednesday morning. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said results from her state will be available by Friday at the latest.
"No matter how long it takes, no matter what candidates say, we're going to work methodically and meticulously to count every single valid ballot and that, and only that, will determine who wins every race on the ballot in the state of Michigan," Benson said.
Similarly, while Republicans and Democrats have thus far exchanged a few Senate seats across the country, with Democrats winning Republican-held seats in Colorado and Arizona and Republicans picking up a Democratic-held seat in Alabama, enough races remained undecided that either party still had a chance at the majority.
In an election-night address, Trump declared himself the winner and said he would bring a case to the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the counting of millions of ballots in states that have not yet declared a victor, according to Axios, which said the president’s claims of both victory and widespread voter fraud were false and premature.
"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," Trump said. "We want the law to be used in a proper manner. So we will be going to the U.S. Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop. We don't want them to find any ballots at 4 o'clock in the morning and add them to the list."
Trump’s statements prefaced a likely legal battle that could draw out the presidential contest for weeks or months, given the closeness of the vote in several states critical in deciding the national outcome.
“The president’s statement tonight about trying to shut down the counting of duly cast ballots was outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect," Biden Campaign Manager Jen O'Malley Dillon told Axios. "If the president makes good on his threat to go to court to try to prevent the proper tabulation of votes, we have legal teams standing by ready to deploy to resist that effort. And they will prevail.”
The seafood industry has much at stake in this year's election, with Trump issuing an executive order promoting U.S. seafood production, but also instigating several trade wars that have harmed some sectors of the seafood economy.
Photo courtesy of Rob Crandall/Shutterstock
