After leaving a crowd of fervent supporters out in the cold for hours, former Vice President Joe Biden finally stepped up to the podium at around 2300ET, to deliver what sounded more like a routine press corp update than a victory speech.
“It’s as slow as it goes,” Mr. Biden said, describing watching the numbers dribble in on television. “As slow as it goes it can be numbing.”
As the NYT reminds us, it has now been four days since Election Day. As long as that might seem, it’s nowhere near the 36 days it took in 2000 before the Supreme Court ended the counting and effectively declared George W. Bush the winner over Al Gore.
At this point, four states will determine the outcome of the presidency, and unfortunately for the president, despite a showing that surpassed even the most optimistic expectations of pollsters like Nate Silver, Biden has crept ahead in Pennsylvania and Nebraska, and even Georgia and Arizona.
This is how big the Philly suburbs were for Biden: He is +283,061 votes in Bucks, Delaware, Chester, Montgomery Counties That’s +94,708 (and counting) vs Clinton. A 50% increase over her margin.
At last check, Joe Biden was leading with 264 electoral votes, while Trump was trailing with 214.
Source: Bloomberg
Source: Fox
President Trump and his team will hold a press conference to 11:30. Already, Twitter is censoring all of Trump’s tweets this morning as the president rages about skulduggery on the other side, including tens of thousands of illegal late votes.
According to Trump, tens of thousands of votes were illegally received by the other side after polls closed on Tuesday.
Big press conference today in Philadelphia at Four Seasons Total Landscaping — 11:30am!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2020
People were screaming STOP THE COUNT & WE DEMAND TRANSPARENCY (As Legal Observers were refused admittance to count rooms)! https://t.co/CW1tivI45c
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2020
Tens of thousands of votes were illegally received after 8 P.M. on Tuesday, Election Day, totally and easily changing the results in Pennsylvania and certain other razor thin states. As a separate matter, hundreds of thousands of Votes were illegally not allowed to be OBSERVED…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2020
….This would ALSO change the Election result in numerous States, including Pennsylvania, which everyone thought was easily won on Election Night, only to see a massive lead disappear, without anyone being allowed to OBSERVE, for long intervals of time, what the happened…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2020
….Bad things took place during those hours where LEGAL TRANSPARENCY was viciously & crudely not allowed. Tractors blocked doors & windows were covered with thick cardboard so that observers could not see into the count rooms. BAD THINGS HAPPENED INSIDE. BIG CHANGES TOOK PLACE!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2020
Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said Saturday morning on CNN that there were about 20,000 mail-in ballots left to count there and that the county planned to release updated vote tallies around midday.
Biden maintained his lead as elections officials in four key states plowed through ballots Friday, but enough ballots remained outstanding that it was too soon to definitively call a win in any of the states.
Biden’s lead in Arizona, which has shrunk somewhat as ballots were counted, was 29,861 as of early Saturday.
A new law that sent ballots to all registered voters because of the coronavirus pandemic has contributed to the slow pace of election results in Nevada, a spokeswoman for the secretary of state said Friday.
Biden maintained his lead as elections officials in four key states plowed through ballots Friday, but enough ballots remained outstanding that it was too soon to definitively call a win in any of the states.
The tightest lead for Biden is in Georgia, where he was separated from Trump by just 4,020 votes early Saturday, close enough that the race will likely be headed for a recount.
In Pennsylvania, his erstwhile home state, Biden’s lead was at 28,877 early Saturday, bolstered by results from Philadelphia that came in during the day. He also led in Nevada, where he was ahead of Trump by 22,657 votes early Saturday.
In Arizona, Biden’s lead has shrunk somewhat as ballots were counted overnight dropped it to 29,861 as of early Saturday.
Trump made no public remarks but made vague accusations regarding military ballots and other voting procedures on Twitter.
“Joe Biden should not wrongfully claim the office of the president,” Trump tweeted, pointing out the irony in all the social media companies warnings. “I could make that claim also.”
On another note, in Georgia, Sen. David Perdue, Republican of Georgia, has failed to secure enough votes to prevent his race going to a runoff, meaning Democrats will get another chance in January to flip the Senate back to their control, as two GOP senators will now face runoffs in January, which could flip up to 2 GOP seats back to the Dems, swinging the balance of power back into Democratic control across the board. Sen. Perdue still has a razor-thin margin over Jon Ossoff, his Democratic challenger. A rematch will be required if neither candidate takes a majority of votes. The second election will be held on Jan 5. A special runoff between the Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock and GOP Sen Kelly Loeffler will take place on the same day, leaving Georgia the center of the American political universe.
