Former Vice President Joe Biden has been projected the winner of the 2020 Presidential race after Pennsylvania and Nevada was called for him.
With 99 percent reporting in Pennsylvania, Biden has 49.7 percent (3,345,906) and President Donald Trump has 49.2 percent (3,311,448).
With 88 percent reporting in Nevada, Biden has 49.9 percent of the vote (642,604) and Trump has 47.9 percent (616,905).
The Electoral College standing:
- Former Vice President Joe Biden – 290
- President Donald Trump – 214
The national popular vote (which is meaningless on the outcome):
- Biden – 50.6 percent (74,859,772)
- Trump – 47.7 percent (70,599,912)
Biden is expected to address the nation at 7:00 pm (CST) on Saturday. Trump has said he will not concede and plans to file court challenges on Monday. So while Biden is projected the winner we still will not have a final resolution until the court challenges are decided.
Battleground States:
- AZ: Biden +0.7 (+20,573) – 90 percent reporting (called for Biden)
- GA: Biden +0.2 (+7,248) – 99 percent reporting
- MI: Biden +2.7 (+146,123) – 99 percent reporting (called for Biden)
- NC: Trump +1.4 (+75,397) – 99 percent reporting
- NV: Biden +2.0 (+25,699) – 88 percent reporting (called for Biden)
- PA: Biden +0.5 (+15,044) – 98 percent reporting (called for Biden)
- WI: Biden +0.7 (+20,540) – 99 percent reporting (called for Biden)
With the current trajectory. We are looking at a 307 to 231 Electoral College win for Biden.
My two cents: If the Trump campaign and state Republican parties have evidence of election fraud or challenges to certain ballots, they should certainly pursue that. I think any instance of election fraud needs to be investigated. That’s part of the process. It could help down-ballot races even if it does not change the outcome at the top of the ticket.
I’m concerned with the software glitch experienced in Michigan, there were 6000 votes given to Biden in one Michigan county and when a manual hand count was completed it flipped back to Trump. There are 47 counties in Michigan that used this software. The Michigan Secretary of State’s office said a county user error was to blame. While that may be true, there should be a manual count in those other counties to make certain that was the case. It is too important.
However, based on these margins, I have serious doubts even if there are proven instances of voter fraud (and I’m sure that there will be) that it will change the results when you have margins of tens of thousands of votes separating Biden from Trump in all of these states. I don’t think anyone is competent enough to pull that off without being caught. If I’m wrong, I’ll be happy to eat crow and stand corrected, but I think he has a high hurdle to clear.
When recounts happen, they generally don’t change that many votes (that Michigan county is an exception). Now, if you have a razor-thin margin, that could be huge. With margins like these, it’s not likely to overcome the deficit. Former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker on CBS talked about recounts in his state just changing a couple of hundred votes. In a state legislative race, that’s huge. It is not that significant in a statewide race unless you’re only down by like 300 votes or so.
He also said that there could be a change when they canvass. He noted several wards in Milwaukee that the vote represented 200 percent of their registered voters voting. Still, he also said that Wisconsin has same-day voter registration, so it’s possible that did happen. He noted there could also be recording errors.
So waiting for some of these states to complete their canvass is also important.
But I think Trump supporters should be ready to accept that Biden will be the 46th President of the United States.