by Dan McCaleb
President Donald Trump won the key battleground states of Ohio, Florida and Texas and he holds leads in all the others but Arizona as former Vice President Joe Biden’s path to victory narrowed.
Trump so far has been declared the winner in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.
Biden won California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusets, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washigton and Wyoming.
Nebraska is one of two states – Maine also – that splits its electoral college votes by Congressional districts.
Biden held a 223-212 electoral vote advantage over Trump at 1:15 a.m. eastern, according to The Associated Press. Either candidate needs to secure at least 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.
The battleground states of Arizona (11 electoral college votes, Georgia (16), Michigan (16), North Carolina (15), Pennsylvania (20) and Wisconsin (10) will determine the outcome.
Trump was building leads in Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania as the counts continued into the early morning hours Wednesday.
Despite his diminishing chances in the uncalled swing states, Biden told supporters early Wednesday that he was confident he would still win.
“We feel good about where we are,” Biden said. “We believe we’re on track to win this election.”
If it’s remains a close race in some key swing states, it’s possible – maybe even likely – that a winner won’t be known for days as more than 99 million Americans voted early or by mail before Tuesday’s polls even opened. States have different rules for counting and processing mail-in votes. Some wait until after all polls close in the state. Some states also will accept mail-in ballots for days after Nov. 3.
In the key swing state of Pennsylvania, for example, some counties don’t expect to start counting mail-in ballots until Wednesday or later. During Pennsylvania’s June primary, roughly half of counties were still counting ballots a full week after Election Day.
And in states where the final, unofficial results are particularly close, both Trump and Biden have attorneys on standby to legally challenge any potential discrepancies. That could drag out the presidential outcome.
In 2016, Trump won the electoral vote and the presidency despite losing the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by nearly 3 million votes. By winning the key swing states of Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin, Trump claimed 304 electoral votes to Clinton’s 227.
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Dan McCaleb is the executive editor of The Center Square. He welcomes your comments. Contact Dan at [email protected].
