Trump gets Georgia, his second swing state

After North Carolina, the second important swing state, Georgia, also goes to Donald Trump. With the 16 electoral votes, the Republican continues to expand his lead.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has secured Georgia, the second important so-called swing state. As data from Reuters/Edison Research shows, with the 16 additional voters he now has a total of 246, Kamala Harris has 194. 270 voters are needed for a victory.

North Carolina had previously gone to Trump with 16 voters. He also won the states where his victory was already considered certain: such as Florida, Iowa and South Carolina.

As expected, Harris also prevailed in a number of states, including New York, Massachusetts and Illinois.

Georgia in the southeastern United States was one of the most hotly contested states in the election campaign. After six victories for the Republicans, four years ago Joe Biden was able to secure the 16 voters in the southern state for the Democrats for the first time. However, only with a very narrow lead of less than 12,000 votes.

Result from Pennsylvania eagerly awaited

Counting is still ongoing in the other swing states Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada. Pennsylvania in particular, with 19 electoral votes, is considered potentially decisive in the election. Both Harris and Trump were particularly active there in the home stretch of the election campaign.

Trump built his campaign on Americans’ dissatisfaction with high inflation in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and also fueled fears of an alleged increase in crimes by criminal immigrants. Harris described Trump as a threat to democracy and focused on women’s rights amid abortion bans in several Republican-dominated states.

Many who planned to vote for Trump said that economic development was more important to them than the candidates’ personalities.

Bomb threats and Fraud allegations

Because of the strong polarization in the presidential election campaign, the election took place amid massive security precautions. Election workers were equipped with alarm buttons, armed security forces were posted on roofs and the National Guard was activated in several states.

Due to bomb threats, several polling stations in Georgia had to be temporarily evacuated. According to local police authorities, at least ten polling stations in Fulton and DeKalb counties near the metropolis of Atlanta were evacuated and searched.

There have also been bomb threats against polling stations in other states, including Arizona and Pennsylvania. Many of these threats appeared to “come from Russian email domains,” said FBI spokeswoman Savannah Syms. None of those threats have proven to be credible, she added. But the public should “remain vigilant.”

As he did four years ago, Trump once again claimed that there was “massive fraud” – specifically, he spoke of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania and Detroit in Michigan. Security forces are on the way. In Philadelphia, prosecutor Larry Krasner quickly dismissed the claims as completely unfounded, and the Detroit mayor’s office was also unable to confirm them.

US Senate goes to the Republicans

In addition to the next presidency, all 435 seats in the House of Representatives and around a third of the 100 seats in the Senate were also up for vote. It is now clear that the Democrats have lost their razor-thin majority of 51 to 49 seats in the Senate.