The presidential race count wore into the night with no result in sight after a massive surge in early voting across the country turned an already turbulent election into a nail-biter with key battleground states hanging in the balance.
Several major swing states remained uncalled after midnight, particularly in the Rust Belt. But several states Democratic nominee Joe Biden made plays for, including Florida and Ohio, went to Republican President Trump as Tuesday turned to Wednesday.
Biden expressed confidence the results would ultimately go in his favor as he addressed supporters at a drive-in rally in Delaware shortly after 12:30 a.m. Wednesday.
“We feel good about where we are, we really do,” Biden said. “We believe we’re on track to win this election.”
The former vice president said he feels “good” about Wisconsin and Michigan and said “we’re going to win Pennsylvania,” all of which remained undecided early Wednesday morning. He urged his supporters to be “patient” and “keep the faith.”
“We could know the results as early as (Wednesday) morning, but it might take a little longer,” Biden said. “It’s not my place or Donald Trump’s place to declare who’s won this election. That’s the decision of the American people. But I am optimistic about this outcome.”
As Biden ended his short speech, Trump tweeted that he, too, would be making a statement and said, “We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed!”
Trump’s tweet was flagged by Twitter for containing content that is “disputed and might be misleading.” Votes are still being counted, but they are not being cast after polls closed.
We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Polls are closed!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 4, 2020
Biden won a small swing state before midnight, locking up New Hampshire’s four electoral votes as the Associated Press called the race in the Granite State around 11 p.m.
The AP called Ohio and Iowa at 12:21 a.m. for Trump, followed by Florida at 12:30 a.m. and Texas at 1:05 a.m.
Other calls came in as expected earlier in the night — including Massachusetts, New York and California going more quickly for Biden, and Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia for Trump.
The protracted count follows a massive surge in voting in Massachusetts and across the nation as Americans pushed through the pandemic to make their voices heard.
Nearly 73% of the total votes cast in the 2016 president contest came in before Election Day, according to the U.S. Elections Project, accounting for more than 101 million votes, including 65 million sent by mail. Of those votes, 2,352,945 were cast in Massachusetts, per the vote-monitoring organization. More than 9 million people voted early in Florida and Texas, plus 12 million in California.
The expansion of early and mail-in voting contributed to early turnouts that broke records across the country. But it ultimately made the count trickier to track, as states handled tallying early votes in different ways, with some counting them first while others started with ballots cast on Election Day, or a mixture of both.
Both campaigns sounded positive notes throughout Election Day as they made their final efforts to turn out their voters.
“We believe this to be a tight race. We believe every vote’s going to matter,” Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said on a call with reporters Tuesday evening. “It’s going to come down to turnout. We think we’re better positioned in that type of campaign.”
Stepien said the Democrats “cannibalized their vote” by moving “those who traditionally vote on Election Day to vote early” while Republicans headed to the polls on Tuesday.
Biden capped off a day of last-minute campaigning in his hometown of Scranton, Pa., and in Philadelphia with a couple of local stops in Wilmington, Del.
Biden wasn’t making any predictions about the outcome of the election as the final hours of voting ticked down, saying he’s “superstitious” but remained “hopeful.”
“The things that are happening bode well for the base that has been supporting me,” he said. “But we’ll see.”
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November 04, 2020 at 11:48AM
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Trump-Biden presidential race goes down to the wire in key battleground states - Boston Herald
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