In the early morning hours of Nov. 4, Trump said he won the election based on the votes counted so far and said he’d go to the Supreme Court to stop the counting of additional ballots.
Trump led in the raw vote count in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania as he spoke, but not all the votes have been counted in those states. Races also remain close in North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona.
The U.S. election system allows states more than a month to count legally cast ballots.
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President Donald Trump prematurely, and falsely, said early Wednesday that he won re-election for president, and called for the counting of ballots in the United States to cease.
“This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country,” Trump said in remarks from the East Room of the White House. “We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election.”
He said the campaign would go to the Supreme Court, without offering specifics about a theoretical case. “We want all voting to stop. We don’t want them to find any ballots at 4 o’clock in the morning and add them to the list, okay? It’s a very sad moment. … And we will win this. And as far as I’m concerned, we already have won it.”
Ballots are routinely counted after Election Day for a number of different reasons, in states controlled by both Republicans and Democrats. Despite Trump’s remarks, the counting of legal ballots continues across the country, not just in states that remain too close to call.
