Biden holds slight Electoral College lead as counting continues
Nov 4, 2020, 3:50 PM | Updated: 4:07 pm
President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. Credit: Getty Images via CNN
SALT LAKE CITY — With the nation’s nerves’ frayed on the day after the 2020 presidential election, and with seven states too close to call, Democratic challenger Joe Biden holds a slight lead over President Donald Trump in the Electoral College vote count of 264 to 214 on Wednesday afternoon.
The Associated Press called Michigan for the former vice president Wednesday. In the meantime, the presidency stills hangs in the balance as the counting continues with millions of votes still outstanding.
Biden stresses patience
With neither candidate securing the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House, Biden stressed patience and vowed that every vote would be counted.
Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, Alaska and Nevada remain uncalled, according to the Washington Post.
As Biden battles for the white working-class vote in Ohio and Pennsylvania, he told supporters Wednesday to ”keep faith.”
A slight Electoral College lead
After the Wisconsin once again went down to the wire in the presidential election, the Associated Press declared Biden the winner in the battleground state, capturing the state’s 10 electoral votes Wednesday afternoon. Mr. Biden holds a slight lead with 49.6% of the votes (1,630,396) in the state against Mr. Trump’s 48.9% and 1,609,879 votes.
A late burst of votes Tuesday from Milwaukee, Wisc., gave Biden a slight lead. He holds on to a slight lead of 20,510 votes in the state.
Other battleground states still up in the air
In Pennsylvania, Mr. Trump holds a lead of 52% (3,120,047 votes) to Biden’s 46.8% (2,805,415 votes). Hundreds of thousands of votes were still outstanding in Michigan, according to the Associated Press.
Trump deputy campaign manager Justin Clark said in a statement on Wednesday:
Bad things are happening in Pennsylvania. Democrats are scheming to disenfranchise and dilute Republican votes. President Trump and his team are fighting to put a stop to it. We are suing to stop Democrat election officials from hiding the ballot counting and processing from our Republican poll observers — observers whose only job is to make sure every valid ballot is counted, and counted once.
A war of words
President Trump falsely claimed victories in states as yet undecided — with millions of votes still not counted — while celebrating his wins in Florida and Texas, according to the Washington Post.
The Trump campaign is seeking to intervene in Pennsylvania elections, suing to overturn a Supreme Court decision permitting the key battleground state to continue counting mail-in ballots received after Tuesday until Friday, as long as they were postmarked by Nov. 3, according to Fox News.
The Trump campaign said in a statement already vowed it will request a recount with the Supreme Court.
“Given last night’s results, the vote in Pennsylvania may well determine the next President of the United States,” the motion from the re-election effort filed with the court said, according to Deadline.
Related content:
- How does the Electoral College work?
- What are battleground states and why do they matter?
- How do news organizations decide to ‘call’ a race?
- Vision 2020: What happens if the US election is contested?
