Approaching The Victory Of Biden Dancing Supporters, Trump Supporters Swinging Arms
JAKARTA - Supporters of Joe Biden dance on the streets of Philadelphia, as the vote count continues to increase. This suggests that the former vice president from the Democratic Party can immediately be declared the winner of the US presidential election.
Meanwhile in Detroit, several hundred supporters of President Donald Trump appeared armed, chanting prematurely, "We won!" outside the counting center. Even though Trump's victory looks increasingly unlikely.
Philadelphia appears to be enjoying its turn in the center of the nation's attention, even if it gains only by the relatively slow tally of votes as the largest city in the tightly-fought state of Pennsylvania. It is one of a handful of key states where the outcome of the US presidential election is too early to conclude.
Sean Truppo, a 37-year-old social studies teacher, said he set off fireworks after being awakened by news that Biden had overtaken Trump on state counts before placing his 4-year-old daughter in a stroller to join the crowd outside the Philadelphia Convention Center.
"My daughter was born during the Trump administration and I want her to see the end of Trump," he said.
Biden has a 253 Electoral College lead, while Trump has 214 Electoral College, according to Edison Research.
Winning Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes would put the former vice president in the top 270 he needed to secure the presidency.
The nation has spent more than two days waiting for polling officials to collect millions of votes in just a few tightly-fought states.
Many Americans have passed that time seeing slow news developments, or doing homework to distract themselves from lingering uncertainty.
Some, however, have taken to the streets, with Biden supporters cheering voters for "counting every vote," sometimes dancing whenever someone plays Beyoncé or Missy Elliott's song on loudspeakers.
Some Trump supporters, taking cues from the president himself, insist there must be something wrong with whatever count suggests Biden won.
Trump supporters carry rifles and handguns as they demonstrate outside counting centers in Detroit and Phoenix, Arizona.
Dressed in uniforms in the form of red "Make America Great Again" baseball caps, several people knelt in prayer.
Gary Smith, 69, a nurse, came from Casco, Michigan, to attend a demonstration outside the Detroit counting center.
"There are a lot of false votes that have been counted," Smith said, echoing the baseless claims in Trump's White House statement late Thursday. Smith said he hopes that most ballots that come in the mail will be considered illegal. "We will continue with lawsuits, protests, who knows, maybe civil disobedience," he said.
Studies have found invalid ballots to be increasingly rare in the highly decentralized state-controlled system used in US elections, which involve Democratic and Republican election officials and vote count observers from both parties.
In Arizona, another tightly contested state, Trump and Biden supporters briefly clashed outside the Maricopa County Electoral Department in Phoenix overnight.
A growing crowd of several hundred Trump supporters returned to the counting center in Phoenix from around Maricopa County on Friday morning, where some 142,000 ballots are yet to be counted.