Tag: U.S. Elections

President Donald Trump has vowed to challenge the counting of the 2020 U.S. presidential votes at the Supreme Court.

TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports President Trump made this known on Wednesday while results were still being counted.

He claimed he had won the election after earlier alleging the election was rigged.

“We did win this election. For the good of this nation, this is a very big moment. This is a major fraud on our nation.

“We want the law to be used in a proper manner. So, we will be going to the US Supreme Court,” Trump said.

Trump said this in a speech from the ceremonial East Room of the White House.

He appeared to mean stopping the counting of mail-in ballots.

Mail-in can be legally accepted by state election boards after Tuesday’s election, provided they were sent in time.

The Republican, who according to initial results is in a neck-and-neck race with Democrat Joe Biden, said he would go to court and “we want all voting to stop.”

 

Details later…

New York and other cities across the United States on Tuesday remained apprehensive over potential violence in spite of relative calm as voting got underway in the country’s presidential election.

As of Tuesday afternoon, many businesses in New York were still fortifying their storefronts with plywood ahead of announcement of results.

Similar scenes played out in other places like Chicago, Atlanta, Denver, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

“I am not taking chances, my friend”, a jewelry shop owner, who identified himself as Navid, told NAN in Manhattan, New York.

“I agree with you that there is calm right now, but nobody can tell what happens when the results start coming,” he said.

Tuesday has been described as the most divisive U.S. presidential polls in decades, and it came after a long and bitter campaign.

There are reports of clashes between supporters of the two major candidates, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, in New York and elsewhere.

Trump has repeatedly refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power should he lose the election.

The president is insisting that the winner must be declared on Tuesday night, before many votes will be counted.

These have left many Americans worried that he would not concede if he loses.

Mr Basil Njoku, a Nigerian-American, described the happenings as unbecoming of America, “a country that has been touted to be the bastion of democracy”.

Njoku said: “I have been in this country for more than 20 years, and I can tell you that what is happening is un-American.

“The whole world looks up to the U.S. as a perfect example of how to get it right.

“Election deals with human emotions and often times, America handles it with sportsmanship on Election Day you know the loser will concede and the winner will try to bring everybody together and build the country.

“But what we are seeing in the media about potential conflicts, and the clash between supporters of the rivals here in Manhattan. It is un-American.”

Mk Pathak, 75, said he had never witnessed a U.S. presidential election with “extreme divergence in the two major candidates” like this one.

Pathak, an entrepreneur and philanthropist of Indian descent, said Biden and Trump are fighting over nothing, as the issues remained the same.

“Before now in America during a Republican government, there was a democratic cabinet member, and vise versa, it was like that.

“This time it appears these two are poles apart, but whoever wins in the end will be interested in opening the economy while controlling the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.

A cross-section of Nigerian-Americans and other immigrant voters mentioned immigration, healthcare and stability as top on their minds in Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election.

They spoke as voting got underway in a presidential race pitting President Donald Trump against former Vice President Joe Biden.

The Trump administration has cut the inflow of foreigners using visa restrictions through executive orders.

In February, he added Nigeria to the list of countries on migrant visa restrictions, citing national security concerns.

If re-elected, he plans to limit asylum grants, outlaw ‘sanctuary cities’, expand travel ban with tougher screening for visa applicants, and impose new limits on work visas.

Biden, on the other hand, seeks to expand opportunities for legal immigration, including family and work-based visas as well as access to humanitarian visa programmes, among others.

Mr Olayinka Dan-Salami, Chairman of the Organisation of the Advancement of Nigerians (OAN), said the choice was obvious for him: Biden.

“A president who doesn’t like immigrants, who just want to send everybody back home is not a president we should be voting for.

“Trump is waging an immigration war against Nigerians that is borne of out of jealousy of the accomplishments of Nigerians in this country,” Dan-Salami told NAN.

He also criticised Trump for downplaying the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed no fewer than 230,000 lives in the U.S.

A Pakistani immigrant, Mr Nasir Raza, said although he liked Trump’s performance on the economy, he voted for Biden’s liberal stance on immigration.

Mr Basil Njoku, a leader of the Nigerian community in New York, decried Trump’s “poor handling” of the COVID-19 pandemic, which he said would make the election difficult for him.

Njoku, who disclosed that he lost seven members of his community to the virus, wondered why the president politicises wearing of masks.

“Something as simple as wearing a mask is being politicised (by Trump). What is the big deal in wearing a mask?

“If I wear the mask, I protect you; you protect me. It’s a question of civility; it is something that is honourable to do.

“But when it is politicised, and the people see it as a human rights issue, but they forget that other people’s rights start where theirs begin,” Nkoju said.

Mr Ugo Nwaokoro, former Deputy Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, said he voted for the candidate that would properly handle the pandemic and foster good relationship between U.S. and Africa.

“I cannot tell you whom I voted for, but I can categorically tell you I did not vote for Trump”, Nwaokoro, a Democrat, said.

Mr George Onuorah, a community development advocate and philanthropist, said political and economic stability and immigration were the key issues for him.

”Being an immigrant from Africa, I am also looking to see that those of us here who have relatives that are willing to come to this country legally are not denied the opportunity to do so,” he said.

Onuorah said he was also looking forward to a stronger diplomatic and economic ties between Nigeria and the United States under whoever wins the election.

A Trump supporter, Maria Estavez, 60, defended the president’s immigration policy and his handling of the pandemic.

“No sane President would allow illegal aliens into his country to perpetrate crime, that is what Trump stands for,” Estevez said.

She also argued that Trump did what any other president would do to control the virus.

Another supporter, a Nigerian, who asked not to be named for fear of political victimisation, endorsed Trump’s tough stance on law and order.

First polling stations opened in the U.S. state of Vermont, kicking off the in-person voting in U.S. elections where incumbent President Donald Trump is in a tight race with his Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

In addition, all 435 seats of the House of Representative are up for grabs and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate.

The U.S. Elections Project estimates that nearly 98 million Americans have voted early, a number that represents more than 71 per cent of all votes cast in 2016.

More than 63 million Americans are estimated to have cast their ballot by mail.

On Monday, many of the final polls rolled in and showed the close race between Trump and Biden has further tightened nationally and in battleground states such as Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia and Wisconsin.