Three days after America voted, former Vice President Joe Biden appeared to be on the doorstep of the presidency. As of Friday morning, neither candidate had secured the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House, but Biden has pulled ahead of President Donald Trump in several key states as election workers continue to count votes in the tightly contested presidential race. Here's what we know about the state of the race:
There are six states — Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Arizona and Alaska — that NBC News rates as either too close or too early to call and are still in play.
Former Vice President Joe Biden holds a 253 to 214 lead in Electoral College votes.
Biden leads in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Pennsylvania while President Donald Trump leads in Alaska and North Carolina.
Biden leads the popular vote by more than four million votes, and that lead will likely widen as more votes come in.
Ultimately, the election could be decided in the courts. Trump’s campaign engaged in a flurry of legal activity to try to improve the Republican president's chances and cast doubt on the election results.
Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania said Friday he saw no evidence to support President Donald Trump’s baseless claim that Democrats are trying to “steal” the election, calling the president's comments unsubstantiated, "I saw the President’s speech last night and it was very hard to watch," Toomey, whose state is a key battleground in the presidential election, told TODAY. "The president's allegations of large-scale fraud and theft of the election are just not substantiated. I am not aware of any significant wrong doing here."
Democrat Joe Biden is now leading President Donald Trump in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. If Biden wins Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes, he will pass the 270 threshold to win the presidency.
As of Friday morning, Biden has 3,295,304 votes to Trump’s 3,289,717. Biden now holds a nearly 6,000-vote advantage with more than 100,000 outstanding ballots in the state.
Trump’s lead dwindled after Election Day when state officials began processing mail-in ballots, a form of voting that has skewed heavily in Biden’s favor after Trump spent months claiming — without proof — that voting by mail would lead to widespread voter fraud. Biden has been winning about 75% of those votes.
If there is less than a half percentage point difference between Biden’s and Trump’s vote totals, state law dictates that a recount must be held.
Pennsylvania is still too close to call, according to NBC News.
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