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The 2020 race for the White House is coming to a throbbing close with President Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Joe Biden still with a chance of winning while the remaining votes are counted.
Analysts say former Vice President Joe Biden, with 264 Electoral College votes, has the upper hand because thousands of postal ballots, favoring Democrats, have yet to be counted in key battlefield states like Pennsylvania.
President Trump, with 214 Electoral College votes, leads in Biden’s home state of Pennsylvania, which has 20 significant electoral votes, but that lead is expected to narrow as local officials become familiar with a sea of ballots cast by mail in large part due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Heading into Election Day, Biden was predicted to win by an overwhelming majority in the popular vote. Most pollsters gave the former vice president an advantage of about 8 points nationally. But how are things on Wednesday night after Election Day?
Currently, Biden has 50.3 percent of all votes counted so far nationwide compared to 48.1 percent for President Trump, with more than 87 percent of the votes counted. Expect those numbers to change as the vote count progresses.
In 2016, then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. He got 65,853,625 votes compared to 62,985,106 for Trump. However, Clinton lost the Electoral College vote (232-306 in favor of Trump).
Biden also made history Wednesday by obtaining the most votes cast in a US presidential election, a record previously held by his former colleague and boss, President Barack Obama.
The Democratic candidate has garnered at least 71,286,728 votes in 2020, as of Wednesday night. This tally surpasses Obama’s record of 69,498,516 in 2008. That number is expected to rise for Biden as final votes are tabulated.
The United States remains nervous as it waits to find out who will enter the White House in January next year. Polls began closing in some states around 7 p.m. local time Tuesday night after one of the most unusual election campaigns in living memory.
The election, like everything else, has been overshadowed by the pandemic, which has so far claimed some 230,000 lives in the United States. Both candidates offered drastically different views of the country.
Biden took the precaution against the pandemic as Trump pedaled the economic momentum, telling Americans “not to be afraid” of a resurgent virus that continues to sweep across the country.
It remains to be seen which leader the Americans have chosen to lead them through the crisis. But a clearer picture will emerge in the next few hours and days.
