Democratic candidate Joe Biden has taken the lead in Pennsylvania over President Donald Trump, according to latest counts.
In the latest update, Biden got 27,396 votes, while Trump got 3,760 votes. Of the 31,412 votes that were just tallied, 87% of that vote came in for Biden. He has now taken the lead in Pennsylvania by 5,587 votes, CNN reports.
The state – one of the battleground states in the US election, has 95% of the votes counted as of 8:17pm on Friday, Bangladesh time.
Overall in the state, Biden has 3,295,304 votes, 49.4% of the total — while Trump has 3,289,717 votes, or 49.3%.
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This is a crucial development, a “dramatic and potentially decisive” one, CNN’s John King said.
“The President cannot win reelection without Pennsylvania and without Georgia. Overnight, Georgia flipped blue. Seconds ago, Pennsylvania flipped to the blue. We cannot understate this moment. It's not over, still counting votes, but Joe Biden (is) now in the lead in Pennsylvania, in the lead in Georgia, in the lead in Nevada, in the lead in Arizona,” King said.
Here is why this matters: Trump cannot find a route to 270 electoral votes without Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes, so his chances of securing re-election will hinge on developments in the states.
Right now, Biden has 253 electoral votes. If he wins Pennsylvania, he is over the 270 electoral vote threshold.
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Five more states — Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina – are still yet to be projected. Trump has leads in Alaska and North Carolina, while Biden has leads in Arizona, Georgia and Nevada.
After Biden took the lead in Pennsylvania, Guy Cecil, the chairman of the Priorities USA super pac, the biggest Democratic super pac, said: “The American people have spoken clearly. Voters across the country stood up, made their voices heard and chose Joe Biden to lead us toward a better future.”
The biggest Democratic super PAC is declaring victory for Biden pic.twitter.com/vUHwTOXIf2
— Daniel Strauss (@DanielStrauss4) November 6, 2020