Biden Takes Vote Lead In Pennsylvania

Former Vice President Joe Biden has taken a lead in Pennsylvania, putting him on track to win the presidency as mail ballots remaining to be counted in the state are expected to break hard for Democrats.

The Associated Press and NPR have not yet called the race and President Donald Trump has not conceded.

If the margins hold and the courts don’t intervene based on Trump legal challenges, it would be a historic win for the Pennsylvania-born Democrat who’s decades-long career in public service has been rooted in Delaware.

The lead change comes three days after Election Day, when officials in all 67 counties were legally allowed to begin counting millions of mail ballots. In-person voting alone had given Trump an expected advantage, as mail ballots were overwhelmingly requested and returned by Democrats.

The vote update in Pennsylvania follows a series of vital Biden wins in Wisconsin and Michigan — a trio of once-solid Democrat states known as the “blue wall,” all of which flipped for Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016. Biden and running mate U.S. Senator Kamala Harris also currently lead in Georgia, Nevada and Arizona; the AP has only called Arizona for Biden so far.

If those states remain in his tally, Biden would gather 306 electoral college votes, the same number Trump won in 2016.

After 8 a.m. Friday morning, Biden officially overtook president Trump at the Pennsylvania polls with more than 3,285,000 votes, a lead that will likely grow as the results come back from more Democratic-leaning mail ballots.

Over the last three days, the Trump campaign has filed a barrage of lawsuits in key states, including Pennsylvania. They run the gamut from demands to watch ballot counting more closely, to calls to disqualify certain votes. While many of the disputes have been resolved by the courts, others remain ongoing, and attorneys expect the deluge of litigation to grow.