A poll watcher observes through a pair of binoculars as votes are counted at the Pennsylvania Convention Center on Election Day in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Credit: Reuters
An army of election workers at the Convention Center in downtown Philadelphia worked furiously through the night and into the day to process uncounted votes, as the world watched with bated breath.
The bleary-eyed volunteers sifted carefully through the hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots in the swing state of Pennsylvania that could either help deliver a victory to President Donald Trump, or one of its sons, Joe Biden.
Unfortunately for both candidates — and the rest of the world — the count is hampered by age-old state rules along with a last-minute legal stay and could take days.
"We’ve never had to count this large a number of mail-in ballots and have an in-person election,” cautioned Lisa Deeley, City Commissioner. “We thought we had timed it right, but truthfully we’ve never done this before.”
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden visits a neighbor's house after stopping at his childhood home on Election Day
Credit: Drew Angerer/Getty
A few poll workers paced nervously near the Convention Center on Wednesday morning. “It’s going to be an agonising wait,” one told The Telegraph. “Knowing it could be decided here really puts the pressure on.”
The Midwestern state overhauled its election laws last year, allowing no-excuse mail-in voting for the first time.
The outbreak of the coronavirus prompted unprecedented numbers to request absentee ballots — 2.4 million of the state’s some 13 million residents.
Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are the only two swing states where officials were forbidden from processing and counting the ballots before election day, which means final results could come as late as Friday.
Adding to the chaos, Pennsylvania Republicans have tried to block the counting of ballots that arrive after Tuesday, fearing they will likely favour Mr Biden.
Democrats were far more likely to vote early and by mail, while Republicans turned out in bigger numbers on the day.
Chester County, Pa., election worker Kristina Sladek opens mail-in and absentee ballots for the 2020 General Election in the United States at West Chester University
Credit: Matt Slocum/AP
The Supreme Court last week said ballots postmarked before 8pm on November 3 could be counted here as long as they were received by November 6. But three of its judges did not rule out the notion of reconsidering the question after the election. Mr Trump’s recent appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the court may further tip the balance of an appeal in his favour. She did not partake in the original ruling.
Even a small number of contested votes could matter if Pennsylvania, which holds 20 electoral votes, ends up determining the winner of the election and the gap between Mr Trump and Mr Biden is less than 1 per cent.
Mr Trump, who had anticipated a close electoral college tally, seized on the delay and criticised it as a "major fraud on our nation".
“We want the law to be used in a proper manner,” he tweeted on Tuesday night. “We’ll be going to the US Supreme Court. We want all voting to stop.”
He warned of unrest if officials continued counting in Pennsylvania and warned “bad things happen in Philadelphia. Bad things."
President Donald Trump Holds Rally In Montoursville, Pennsylvania
Credit: Getty
Democratic Governor Tom Wolf responded, saying: “Make no mistake: our democracy is being tested in this election. This is a stress test of the ideals upon which this country was founded. And the basic rule of one person, one vote, that still carries, and it has to carry here.”
Philadelphia, which last week saw protests over the police shooting of black man Walter Wallace, is bracing for possible violence. The city has already deployed the National Guard and shops and municipal buildings have been boarded up.
However, most residents The Telegraph spoke to dismissed the idea that Philadelphia was likely to erupt. “I don’t think people are going to shoot each other over this,” said Glenn Goldstein, 61. “We just have to stay calm and trust in our state’s officials and lawyers to make sure what happens is fair.”
While Mr Trump appeared to be leading with some three quarters of the votes counted, Democrats warned of a “red mirage”.
With some 1.4 million mail-in ballots to be counted, and 80 per cent of those processed so far backing Mr Biden, it was looking better for the Democrats than the Republicans on Wednesday.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and Lady Gaga greet college students at Schenley Park in Pittsburgh
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Mr Trump won the Keystone State in 2016 by less than one point – about 44,000 votes — turning the state red for the first time since 1988.
In winning Pennsylvania, and other states such as Michigan and Wisconsin that had not voted Republican in decades, Mr Trump broke through what the Democrats had dubbed their “blue wall” in the Midwest.
State polls had wildly underestimated Mr Trump’s support by more than five points, the largest such polling error so far this century. The most important reason, according to a postmortem from the American Association for Public Opinion Research, was that they undercounted non-college-educated voters, who turned out in droves for the president.
With turnout in the state at a record high, it will not be enough for Mr Trump to deliver the same number of votes in Pennsylvania as he did four years ago.
Early returns pointed to Mr Biden expanding Hillary Clinton’s margins in the suburban outskirts of Philadelphia and Mr Trump failing to put up the same kind of numbers he did in 2016 in central, western and northeastern Pennsylvania.
The presidential limousine is seen as President Donald Trump arrives to hold a campaign event in Newtown, Pennsylvania
Credit: Reuters
Both candidates had campaigned furiously in the must-win state right up until the last minute, with Mr Trump even visiting Scranton, Mr Biden’s birthplace, on the eve of the election.
Mr Trump has tried to eat into Mr Biden’s share of the state’s blue-collar workers, claiming his rival would end fracking, putting in jeopardy jobs in one of the country’s top oil-and-gas producing states.
Mr Biden favours prohibiting new fracking on federal lands and transitioning the country to renewables, which the Republicans have framed as disastrous for the economy.
“At every turn, Biden twisted the knife into the back of Pennsylvania workers,” Mr Trump told crowds in the Rust Belt state. “They keep saying it’s close [in Pennsylvania] but I don’t think it’s close.”
The former vice-president paid a visit to Scranton himself on Election Day, where he was greeted by hundreds of supporters who patted him on the back and chanted his name.
“We love you Joe,” they shouted outside his childhood home. "We got this."
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