Foreign

US Election: Joe Biden takes the lead in Pennsylvania, on brink of victory

Published

4 years ago

November 6, 2020

Joe Biden has taken a lead in his native Pennsylvania by 5,587 votes, where he has climbed back after trailing by more than 600,000 votes in the crucial swing state.

The Democratic candidate’s vote percentage in the Keystone State rallied more than two days after polls closed Tuesday evening, shooting up because of mail-in ballots that have heavily favored the former veep..

If Biden keeps his lead in the state, he’ll secure his presidential election with a total electoral vote count of at least 273 – three more than the magic number.

And if he wins Pennsylvania, he’ll have successfully flipped the so-call “blue wall” states — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — that the president carried in his upset victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016.

On Thursday, the US Postal Service said about 1,700 ballots had been identified in Pennsylvania at processing facilities and were in the process of being delivered to election officials.

By 6 a.m. Friday, Trump’s lead in Pennsylvania stood at 18,229 votes and was steadily shrinking before Biden gained the upper hand, according to The Hill.

More mailed-in ballots are still expected to be counted, many of them from the heavily Democratic city of Philadelphia and its suburbs, as well as in Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, according to the outlet.

Biden also took a narrow lead of about 1,000 votes over Trump in the battleground state of Georgia early Friday, putting the White House within his reach as votes continue to be counted.

He also retains leads in Nevada and Arizona, where ballot counting also continues.