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Pennsylvania still has hundreds of thousands of votes to be counted even though the secretary of state said the results could be returned Thursday as Joe Biden closes the gap and President Donald Trump loses a legal offer to stop the ballot counting in Philadelphia
Pennsylvania is among a handful of battlefield states in which Trump and Biden are narrowly contending as they seek the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.
Trump, who had a 675,000 vote lead early Wednesday morning, prematurely declared victory in the state, which has 20 votes in the electoral college.
‘We are winning Pennsylvania by a huge amount. We have uploaded 690,000 votes in Pennsylvania. These are not even close. It’s not like, “Oh, it’s close,” Trump said during an appearance at the White House.
But by Thursday night, Trump’s lead had slipped to about 26,319 votes as ballots from across the state continued to count. The late counted ballots were overwhelming in favor of Biden.
Pennsylvania still has hundreds of thousands of votes to be counted even though the secretary of state said the results could be returned Thursday as Joe Biden closes the gap and President Donald Trump loses a legal offer to stop the ballot counting in Philadelphia
There’s a chance that the race won’t be decided for days, and according to MSNBC, there are around 250,000 ballots left to count. If there is less than a half a percentage point difference between Biden and Trump’s total votes, state law dictates that a recount must be conducted.
Democrats had long viewed Pennsylvania as part of their “blue wall,” a trifecta that also includes Wisconsin and Michigan, which for years had served as a bulwark in presidential elections. In 2016, Trump each won by less than one percentage point.
Biden, who was born in Scranton, claims the status of a favorite son in the state and has long toyed with the idea that he was the “third senator” from Pennsylvania during his decades representing neighboring Delaware. He has also campaigned extensively in the state from his home in Delaware.
If Biden wins Pennsylvania, he wins the election. He currently has 264 votes, including Arizona, even though that came back slightly into play. Even without Arizona, if Pennsylvania won, it would take the White House.
Trump cannot win in Pennsylvania alone; With 214 electoral college votes, he would still have to choose Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona or Nevada, the other four states where a result has yet to be officially confirmed.
Earlier on Thursday, Kathy Boockvar told CNN’s Jake Tapper that the Pennsylvania results could be in for Thursday.
“ I think there are about 550,000, you know, more or less, ballots that are still in the process of being counted today. Some of them may have already been counted, but not yet loaded. But yes, they are coming. We’re getting 10,000 here, 20,000 here, the counties are working furiously. ‘
The results are now expected to be available for Pennsylvania on Friday.
Earlier Thursday, Kathy Boockvar (left) told CNN’s Jake Tapper that the Pennsylvania results could be available Thursday. “ I think there are about 550,000, you know, more or less, ballots that are still in the process of being counted today. Some of them may have already been counted, but not loaded yet. ‘ Now results are expected for Friday
Meanwhile, Trump had sued Pennsylvania to undermine any election results that are returned.
Voting was temporarily halted in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh on Thursday as a result of the legal dispute. A judge intervened and dismissed the federal motion.
In Nevada, there are only about 51,000 votes left to call before Friday and they say they need that long. Arizona also says they need until Friday to deliver a result on the remaining 450,000 votes.
The Trump campaign had a brief legal victory in Pennsylvania on Thursday when a judge ruled that ballot watchers can see officials count ballots within six feet. Representatives of both campaigns were in the room to see the counts but at a greater distance because of the coronavirus. A county judge agreed with Trump’s campaign, but the state Supreme Court rejected it.
The situation in Pittsburgh is complicated by some 30,000 pending ballots, where a supplier sent the wrong ballots to voters and had to re-cast new ballots with the correct elections.
Poll workers now have to examine these ballots to make sure people don’t vote twice or, if they sent the wrong ballot, they didn’t vote in elections for which they are not eligible.
They cannot be legally counted until Friday when Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, swears in a special board to examine these ballots, as required by law.
Trump’s team of attorneys have filed lawsuits on multiple fronts: to try to stop the flow of mail ballots allegedly in favor of Biden in the system and to try to force greater access for observers so they can presumably challenge more individual ballots. .
They scored an initial victory Thursday morning, which former Florida Secretary of State Pam Bondi, a Trump backer, brandished at a press conference.
The ruling, of the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, overturns a decision of the Commonwealth Court of Philadelphia. It allows Trump observers to ‘observe all aspects of the counting process, within 6 feet, while adhering to all COVID-19 protocols, including wearing masks and maintaining social distancing.’
Trump touted the ‘Great Legal Victory in Pennsylvania!’ On twitter. But then the Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck it down almost instantly when Democrats appealed.
The reason for the appeal was not concern about the observation itself, experts said, but because Democrats say Republicans accepted the rules on observation before they went into effect.
Admitting that the rules could be changed after they have been agreed would open the way for more rules to be changed, they argue.
That’s not the end of the road for the Trump campaign.
The big battle, with a greater potential to affect the count, could come in an effort to challenge an earlier Supreme Court decision allowing the state to count mail-in ballots that arrive three days after Election Day.
Conservative justices had indicated that he could get another hearing if these later counted ballots prove decisive.
