The Democratic Party candidate for the White House, Joe Biden, on Friday surpassed the president of the United States, Donald Trump, in the vote count in the state of Pennsylvania, one of those still in contention since election night and without which the current president cannot revalidate his mandate.
After the update of the figures this Friday, Biden has 3,302,977 votes compared to the slightly more than 3,293,000 that Trump accumulates. The distance between the two in percentage terms is only one tenth, 9,746 votes, according to the CNN television network.
Specifically, Biden has won 49.4 percent of the vote so far, while Trump has 49.3 percent with 95 percent counted. The difference is evident in Philadelphia, a city in which Biden has more than 553,000 votes, while the current president has about 125,000.
If Biden prevails in Pennsylvania, he will be proclaimed president-elect of the United States without having to wait for what happens in other states. The Democratic candidate is currently attributed 253 electoral votes and needs to surpass the 270 barrier, which he would achieve if he adds the 20 delegates at stake in Pennsylvania.
Voting by mail has played against Trump in several states, as pre-election polls had already anticipated and which showed a clear preference by Democrats for this system. The president, however, has denounced a “fraud”, without providing evidence.
In the case of Pennsylvania, the US Postal Service has found another 1,700 ballots in the framework of a series of operations carried out in its facilities precisely in search of votes that were dated before November 4 and that had not reached their addressee , according to information from CBS.
Meanwhile, Jim Kenney, the mayor of the state’s largest city, Philadelphia, has pointed out that Trump’s allegations of fraud are “baseless.”
A Pennsylvania court ruled in favor of the president and ruled that his team will be able to observe the recount process in Philadelphia, following a Republican complaint that observers had not had access to it. The city’s electoral authorities rushed to go to the state Supreme Court to try to reverse the ruling.
According to Kenney, “what has been seen in Philadelphia is simply democracy” and, in his opinion, the city is “an example of how to manage an election day correctly.” Of the president, the mayor has said that he “needs to acknowledge that he has lost and congratulate the winner”.
There are still about 40,000 votes to be counted in the city, which can take several days, as reported by Philadelphia’s chief commissioner Lisa Deeley.
In addition to Pennsylvania, screenings are not yet closed in Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina, and Georgia. In the latter state, Biden has also advanced Trump on Friday.
BIDEN KEEPS ADDING VOTES IN GEORGIA
In Georgia, the former vice president has overtaken Trump as the vote count unfolded. The difference now between the two candidates is 1,579 votes with a ballot almost completed.
If this state turns blue, as all the projections point out, Trump could not renew his mandate. Fox News has already updated its map to indicate that Georgia appears to be leaning on the Democratic side in this election.
However, the margin remains very small and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has asserted that, with some “5 million votes cast, the margin of victory will be a few thousand.”
That is why the electoral authorities have already announced that a new count will be made to guarantee “that all the votes have been counted properly.”
“As the end approaches we are thinking about our next step. With such a small margin, there will be a recount in Georgia,” he said. Currently only 4,000 votes remain to be counted, many of them in Gwinnett County.
On this recount, the Trump campaign has said in a statement that it is “sure that votes that have been improperly presented will be found, which will lead the president to ultimately prevail.”
DEMOCRATS EXPAND THEIR ADVANTAGE IN NEVADA
In Nevada, where Biden also leads with 22,076 votes more than Trump, the Democratic nominee continues to increase his lead, projections to 91 percent.
Many of the votes that remain to be counted are in Clark County, where Las Vegas is located, generally with a Democratic majority. As such, Biden’s campaign hopes that as the recount progresses the state will turn blue.
It is in said state where the current tenant of the White House plans to file a lawsuit with the aim of stopping the count, as indicated by the ABC chain.
In a letter addressed to the Justice Department, two Republican candidates for the House of Representatives have indicated that “irregularities in Clark County are a plague in this election, including lax procedures for checking the authenticity of votes.”
LEADING IN ARIZONA
In the state of Arizona, where 11 electoral votes that Fox News already gave to Biden on Thursday are at stake, the Democrat has just under 44,000 more ballots than Trump, who has won only 53 percent. of the last votes counted.
Biden’s victory appears to be getting closer in this state as the current president needed to win at least 57 percent of the new votes counted in Maricopa County.
Also, Biden’s margin in Arizona’s most populous county is now 60,000 votes, although there are still ballots to be counted. The Maricopa County Elections Department has noted that there are still 163,000 votes pending.
In the rest of the state there are less than 100,000 ballots to be counted, so some media, such as the Associated Press, already give Arizona to Biden, that if he also took over Nevada he would not even need Pennsylvania to win.
Trump only leads in Alaska – where he has a big lead – and North Carolina – 1.4 percentage points higher than Biden.
