Trump warns of vote count delays

WASHINGTON

: US President Donald Trump has claimed that voters will have to wait for weeks after the November 3 election day to know who wins the hotly contested race to

the White House

.


Campaigning in the

battleground state

of Pennsylvania, the President told supporters at a rally in Newtown on Saturday that they "are going to be waiting for weeks" for the election result to come, claiming that "very bad things" could happen while states are counting ballots after Tuesday's election, reports Xinhua news agency.

Trump's comment came as the Supreme Court ruled on Friday that Pennsylvania election officials can accept absentee ballots arriving three days after election day,

handing Democrats

a victory in a legal fight.

In the 2016 presidential election, Trump won in the state by garnering 48.18 per cent of the ballots.

"This is a horrible thing that the US Supreme Court has done to our country," said Trump, who has long insisted on the eveidence-less theory that universal mail-in ballots lead to voter fraud.

Newtown was the first of the four campaign stops during his day in Pennsylvania -- where poll suggests his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, has enjoyed a consistent lead.

Biden was leading Trump by 51 per cent to 46 per cent, a Hill/Harris battleground poll revealed last week.

With just two days left for Tuesday's showdown for the White House, Biden was in the lead against Trump by eight points also nationally, according to a Fox News poll released on Friday.

The poll revealed that 52 per cent of likely voters backed the former Vice President, while Trump had the backing of 44 per cent, The Hill news website reported.

Also a poll released by The New York Times and Siena College released last week has placed the former Vice President eight points ahead of the President.