Biden campaign says if Trump got his wish and votes weren’t counted, he would lose the election
Stopping the count now leaves Joe Biden with 270 electoral college votes
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Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's campaign manager pointed out Wednesday that a vote count stoppage - as Donald Trump has called for - would result in a victory for the former vice president.
During a livestream discussion on Wednesday afternoon, Jen O'Malley Dillon claimed that if Mr Trump had his way, it would result in Mr Biden winning the presidency.
"If Donald Trump got his wish and we stopped counting ballots right now, Vice President Joe Biden would be the next President of the United States," she said.
The 2020 US election is not over; states are still counting mail-in ballots, and it will likely be days until final official totals are announced.
Mr Trump falsely claimed that he won the election during the overnight hours of Tuesday night. He claimed that he would go to the US Supreme Court and demand that "all voting" stop. It is likely Mr Trump meant the counting of votes, specifically mail-in votes that are expected to favour his rival, Mr Biden.
Mr Trump cannot simply force a case into the Supreme Court.
The president's desire to halt vote counting appeared to be situational. He expressed frustration that Fox News announced Arizona would go to Mr Biden before all the votes were counted, but appears ready to discount millions of votes in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin in hopes he can maintain a lead in those states.
If officials stopped counting votes on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Biden would be the victor with 270 electoral votes. He is currently ahead in Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Despite his displeasure with late-arriving ballots, he could benefit from them; Mr Biden holds only a narrow lead in Wisconsin, Michigan and Nevada.
Mr Trump's campaign has already demanded a recount in Wisconsin and is attempting to halt ballot counting in Michigan on the grounds that the campaign has not been granted access to watch the collection occur.
The president has no issue with vote counting in Arizona - which unofficial results suggest Mr Biden won hours ago - and his team claims Mr Trump is still going to win the state.
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