Jim Sandoe, a Vietnam War veteran and a Pennsylvania Democrat, voted for Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee, weeks ago. On Election Day, he was admitted to a hospital for surgery.
Daniele Delehanty, a retired flight attendant and Pennsylvania Republican, voted for President Donald Trump on Nov. 3 because voting on Election Day just “seemed right.”
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Delehanty’s vote on Election Day with millions of people gave Trump a massive early lead when the state began counting, collecting Election Day ballots first. Trump’s lead over Biden in Pennsylvania stood at 11 percentage points Wednesday at noon, with about half of the 2.5 million mail-in / absentee votes counted in the state. It had dropped to 2.5 points around 10 a.m. Thursday as a state, with the Democrat splitting them 80-20 with the president.
The first votes have fueled Biden’s surge in states that had gone public for Trump in the first hours of the count. Georgia, a solidly Republican state that had not voted for a Democrat in a presidential election since 1992, was a close fight Thursday morning as the state counted (its 1.3 million) absentee votes it had received from the 1.8 million requested. Biden had cut Trump’s 2.5 percentage point lead at 2 a.m. Wednesday (ET) to 0.2 percentage point.
Also read: Joe Biden approaches the victory of the White House, Donald Trump resorts to the courts
A record number of 101 million Americans cast their votes early – the total turnout of more than 160 million is also a record – in this election, with 35.9 million in person at early voting centers and 65.2 million by mail. .
Arizona is the other state on the battlefield that is still on the table, with the count going. It has been a historically Republican state and Trump won here in 2016. But Biden took an early lead there as, unlike Pennsylvania, Arizona began counting its 2.6 million absentee ballots before the polls closed (according to law state, could start two weeks early) and the first numbers were huge for Biden, so much so that the former vice president was called by the Associated Press and Fox News around 2:50 a.m. Wednesday. Biden was leading Trump by 9 percentage points at the time, which fell to around 2.8 points Thursday as the president stacked his voting figures on Election Day.
Fox retracted his screening for Arizona shortly, but the AP has not.
The Trump campaign has complained and is calling for votes to be counted in full, unlike other states where it has called for the counting to stop, such as Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Also read: Donald Trump sues in 3 states, laying the groundwork to challenge the result
Meena Bose, professor of political science at Hofstra University, said: “Early voting is certainly an important part of the 2020 US presidential election, but Election Day voting for President Trump has been key to his victory in several states. (And early voting in states like Florida helped Trump, too.)
“The absentee / mail ballot count currently in progress (and the receipt of post-election ballots in North Carolina and PA, which the Trump campaign is challenging in court), seems likely to strengthen Biden’s margin. Both early voting and absentee / mail voting have clearly contributed to a historic high turnout overall; how much they influence the outcome of the presidential race is still in process. “
The president’s campaign has also called for a recount in Wisconsin, which allows it if the margin is less than 1%; Trump is least behind Biden in the state. A recount appeal must be filed within three business days of the announcement of the certified result.
Multiple lawsuits and recounts from Trump’s campaign could delay the outcome for more days even after the count is completed, which will likely last until at least Friday night, when the court’s deadline for Pennsylvania to count the ballots expires. by mail. postmark on or before November 3.
Critics see the lawsuits as yet another demonstration that President Trump is “litigious,” dating back to his days as a businessman and / or an attempt by his campaign to prevent states in which he does not announce the outcome until resolution. from Pennsylvania, the state award with 20 electoral votes awarded to him by the 2016 election and the presidency.
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