The New York Times has called Michigan for Joe Biden, but President Donald Trump tweeted shortly thereafter that he has “claimed” the state, as well as some others, “for Electoral Vote purposes.”
Michigan, which gives 16 electoral votes, was called for Biden late Wednesday afternoon, with the former Vice President nabbing 49.8 percent of the vote, totaling 2,684,200 votes. Trump received 2,617,060 votes, 48.6 percent of the votes cast. Michigan was reporting that 97 percent of the expected votes had been counted when The New York Times called the state for Biden.
Trump responded to the news on Twitter.
“We have claimed, for Electoral Vote purposes, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (which won’t allow legal observers) the State of Georgia, and the State of North Carolina, each one of which has a BIG Trump lead,” he wrote.
It is not clear under what legal precedence he was laying claim to these states. He also asserted, without evidence, that ballots had been tossed out, which could impact the final tally.
“Additionally, we hereby claim the State of Michigan if, in fact, there was a large number of secretly dumped ballots as has been widely reported!” he added .
Twitter added a note to the initial post, saying that “Official sources may not have called the race when this was Tweeted.”
The second portion of his message was hidden behind a warning that it may be misleading.
“Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process,” the label read.
Other than Michigan, none of the states mentioned in his message have been declared one way or the other.
Of the people who voted in Michigan, 43 percent of men went for Biden, while 57 percent of women did the same. A majority of white people — 55 percent — cast their ballots for Trump, while 89 percent of Black voters supported Biden, and 59 percent of Hispanic/Latino voters did the same.
Younger and older voters skewed Biden, while those in the 30-44 age range went for Trump.
Earlier in the day, the incumbent suggested that fraudulent ballot counting was taking place in several states, as The Inquisitr reported.
Trump is likely to take Alaska, which means that he needs Pennsylvania and three of the other swing states currently up for grabs to win. Currently, Biden leads in Nevada, while Trump leads in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia. He’ll need all of them in order to win the election.