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US election: Wisconsin, Arizona confirm Biden win

Wisconsin and Arizona have confirmed Joe Biden's electoral victory over Donald Trump amid ongoing allegation­s of fraud from Trump's campaign. Both states have said the election was conducted fairly.

- wmr/rt (AP, AFP, Reuters)

The US states of Arizona and Wisconsin finalized vote counting in the 2020 presidenti­al election on Monday, officially confirming President-elect Joe Biden as the winner of both states.

Biden won the southweste­rn state of Arizona by a razor-thin margin of just over 10,000 votes. He became the first Democrat since Bill Clinton in 1996, and only the second Democrat in 70 years, to take the usually reliable Republican stronghold.

In the upper-Midwest state of Wisconsin, election officials confirmed Biden's victory following a recount in two counties, which ended up adding to Biden's 20,600-vote margin of victory.

Incumbent US President Donald Trump has refused to concede the election to Biden, making baseless claims of election fraud that have not succeeded in US state and federal courts.

Read more: Trump says he will leave office if Electoral College votes for Biden

Wisconsin recount falls flat

The Wisconsin Elections Commission has allowed the Trump campaign five days to file a lawsuit attempting to overturn the results by disqualify­ing around 238,000 ballots. Trump's legal team has claimed, without evidence, the ballots were subject to fraud.

Trump paid $3 million (€2.5 million) for recounts in Wisconsin's Dane and Milwaukee counties, the two largest Democratic counties in the state.

"There's no basis at all for any assertion that there was widespread fraud that would have affected the results,'' Wisconsin's Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul said in a statement Monday.

The election commission will now send confirmati­on that Biden won Wisconsin's 10 electoral votes to the governor, who will sign off on the victory and send notice to the US Congress.

Read more: US election: What happens next with Joe Biden's transition to the White House?

Arizona vote 'fair and transparen­t'

In Arizona, Trump accused election officials of "total election corruption" as his lawyers met with several Republican lawmakers to argue without evidence that the election was fraudulent.

In announcing Biden's victory, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs said the election was "conducted with transparen­cy, accuracy and fairness ... despite numerous unfounded claims to the contrary."

In US presidenti­al elections, states often take until long after election day to officially certify vote counts. The Trump campaign's allegation­s of voter fraud have drawn a close spotlight on the count in the 2020 election.

President- elect Biden has proceeded with thetransit­ion process, despite Trump's refusal to concede and attempt to overturn the election results.

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