How Joe Biden Defeated Donald Trump to win US Presidential Election

Democrat Joe Biden has won the 2020 United States of America Presidential election after surpassing the 270 electoral College votes required to claim victory.

Although vote-counting is still ongoing, international media including CNN and BBC have reported Biden as the winner of the election.

Biden has secured a total of 273 electoral college votes after winning Pennsylvania, while incumbent Republican candidate, Donald Trump’s votes is at 214.

How US voting system works

US laws stipulate that each state picks electors, who then converge a few weeks after the election to decide the winner.

One elector represents one electoral vote, and the number of electoral votes per state is determined by the population of the state. Bigger states like Texas with 38 and California with 55 have more electors while smaller states like Delaware with 3 and Idaho with 4 have fewer electors. There are 538 electoral votes in total and for any candidate to win the election, the person needs 270 electoral college votes.

Biden’s victory

The 20 electoral college votes secured by Biden in Pennsylvania helped him cross the finish line as he is also leading in the vote-count in Georgia, Arizona and Nevada. He is projected to win the three states, which will bring his total electoral college votes to 306.

When officially announced as the winner, Biden will become the 46th President-elect of the United States while his Deputy, Kamala Harris will make history as the first woman, and first black woman to be elected as the Vice President of the US.

However, President Trump has described the ongoing election as a “fraud” and vowed to challenge the outcome in court. He had said the Supreme Court would decide the winner of the election.