AP PHOTOS: The wait continues for a result in US election
People urging that all votes be counted demonstrate outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center where votes are being counted, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2020, in Philadelphia, following Tuesday's election.[AP Photo/Matt Slocum]
The anxiety and the tension are building.
Three days after the U.S. election, Americans are still waiting for results of the presidential vote.
Many experts had predicted that an increase in mail-in ballots amid the coronavirus pandemic would mean that counting would take longer. The delay, in and of itself, is not an indication that anything is wrong with the vote, though President Donald Trump has alleged fraud, without citing evidence.
But the wait is still agonizing.
Neither Trump nor Democratic challenger Joe Biden has reached the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House. But Biden eclipsed Trump in Wisconsin and Michigan, two crucial Midwestern battleground states, and overtook the president in the counts in Pennsylvania and Georgia, though the races there are too early to call and ballots are still being tallied.
As they wait, some Americans have taken to the streets to protest, while many have been glued to TV screens or are frantically refreshing blue-and-red-tinted maps as they watch the vote count inch up.