Hindu Daily Digest - Editor's Pick: The next U.S. President

(The Editor's Pick is a new newsletter from The Hindu that provides a snapshot of the most important stories from today's edition of our newspaper, along with a note from our top editors on why we chose to give prominence to these stories.)

U.S. President Donald Trump and his rival to the post Joe Biden have held frenzied campaigning ahead of the voting in the presidential election on November 3. The campaigning is focused especially in the States of Pennsylvania and Ohio. Another crucial development is that nearly 100 million people have already voted using the early voting system using postal ballots to avoid the voting queues amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The electoral college system of the U.S. presidential election operates in such a way that the winner of the most votes across the country need not be elected President. This is what happened in 2016, when Mr. Trump won over Hillary Clinton. Mr. Trump will be working for a repeat of that now, since he is trailing Mr. Biden in most polls of voters, which reflects the popular vote. This is why the focus is now on Pennsylvania and Ohio, which could become deciding factors under the electoral college system.

Mr. Trump has also tried to discredit the early voting system, saying there is a lot of fraud involved. The long processing time for the postal ballots also means that the final results of the election may not be available till days after November 3. Reports indicate that it is mostly Mr. Biden's Democrat supporters who have voted early by post, while Mr. Trump's Republican base is expected to turn up in person to vote on November 3. Hence, while Mr. Trump may be on top at the end of election day, Mr. Biden may emerge the final winner.

The pre-election polls indicate that an incumbent could lose the vote after 1992. But the quirks of the electoral college system mean the results are still up in the air. Also, the U.S. is not used to a victor not emerging on election day and reports suggest Mr. Trump may use this to claim victory even when the results are not final. These possibilities are what makes this story important.