THE US presidential election remained inconclusive as the Star went to press today, with several key states still counting postal ballots.

At the time of going to press, President Donald Trump had secured 213 electoral-college votes, a small margin behind Democratic opponent Joe Biden on 238 — each short of the winning threshold of 270.

However, inconclusive results professed Mr Trump’s lead in battleground states of North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania.

Meanwhile Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin and Michigan were believed to have favoured Mr Biden.

The coronavirus pandemic and the need to make voting safer had prompted a surge in postal votes — millions of which were yet to be counted in these pivotal states.

This morning Mr Trump appeared to declare victory, made unfounded allegations of electoral fraud and threatened to call on the Supreme Court to stop the count.

“This is a fraud on the American public,” Mr Trump said.

“This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election.”

Meanwhile the Democrats’ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was re-elected on the night as US Congresswomen for New York’s 14th district, said that Mr Trump’s “premature claims of victory are illegitimate, dangerous and authoritarian.

“Count the votes. Respect the results,” she wrote on Twitter today.

Despite Ms Ocasio-Cortez’s Republican rival John Cummings spending over $10 million (£7.6) on consultants, advertisements and more than 700,000 letters in the district, she won by a landslide — beating him by over 30 per cent.

Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts — who together with Ms Ocasio-Cortez are often referred to as “the squad” — were also re-elected.

Other left-wing Democrats were successful on Tuesday night. Trans-woman and LGBT activist Sarah McBride was elected in Delaware and will become the country’s first trans state senator.

Black Lives Matter and working-class activist Cori Bush was elected as the first black woman to serve in the US House of Representatives for Missouri.

Bernie Sanders, who had vied to be the Democrats’ presidential candidate, celebrated the wins of progressive Democratic leaders during a virtual rally last night.

In a live speech, Mr Sanders said: “We are a virtual movement that is truly on the move and we are growing every day.”