Biden Takes Narrow Lead in Pennsylvania on Friday Morning

(L) President Donald Trump gestures after speaking during election night in the East Room of the White House in Washington, early on Nov. 4, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images) Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaks during election night at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Del., early on Nov. 4, 2020. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

Democratic challenger Joe Biden moved ahead of President Donald Trump in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Friday morning, according to data.

Biden leads the president by about 5,500 votes as of Friday, which is 0.1 percent. The state has 20 Electoral College votes and was seen as crucial for either candidate to win the presidency.

As of Friday, votes were still being tallied, and Biden has not been declared the winner by any news agency or organization. Republicans wrote on Twitter that some of the outstanding ballots would be tabulated in favor of Trump.

Trump had an early lead in Pennsylvania when vote-counting began on Tuesday night. The counting stopped several hours later before it picked up again on Wednesday, with Biden cutting into Trump’s lead ever since.

Biden also retains leads in Arizona and Nevada, which have 11 and 6 Electoral College votes, respectively. On Friday, he pulled ahead of Trump in Georgia by an extremely thin margin. Trump, meanwhile, holds an advantage in North Carolina and Alaska.

Trump’s legal team has filed lawsuits in several battleground states, including Pennsylvania. On Thursday evening, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania sided with Trump’s case against Kathy Boockvar, the state’s secretary of state and top elections official.

People gather outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, Pa., to call for all votes to be counted, on Nov. 6, 2020. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

In their lawsuit filed on Wednesday, Trump and the Republican National Committee (RNC) claimed Boockvar broke the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) when she improperly lengthened the deadline for absentee and mail-in voters to provide any missing proof of identification from Nov. 9 to Nov. 12.

“While HAVA requires that states ensure certain first-time voters provide identification in order to vote, Secretary Boockvar—three days ago—re-wrote Pennsylvania Election Code to abuse her unilateral executive fiat and move the deadline for absentee and mail-in voters to provide missing proof of identification well past the deadline,” said Trump 2020 deputy campaign manager Justin Clark in announcing the court order (pdf).

Boockvar, in response, told news outlets on Thursday night that ballots would be counted, saying county officials “take this so seriously.”

“They are such professionals,” Boockvar said about county election officials. “So, you know, I can just say really no matter how you chose to vote this year and so many Pennsylvanians have, and it looks like it’s really going to be great turnout when we finalize the numbers that every method is incredibly safe and secure.”

Trump on Thursday night, in a news conference at the White House, said that if officials “count the legal votes,” then he will win the presidency. “If you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us. If you count the votes that came in late, we’re looking at them very strongly,” he said, saying that he held leads in a number of battleground states on Tuesday night before apparent mail-in ballots were counted.

Biden also made a public appearance late Thursday, calling for calm and expressing confidence about him winning the presidency.

“We have no doubt that when the count is finished, Senator [Kamala] Harris and I will be declared the winners,” Biden said. “So, I ask everyone to stay calm, all people stay calm. The process is working. The count is being completed and we’ll know very soon.”