Biden Takes Lead In Race For President, Where Things Stand In NC

NORTH CAROLINA — Friday afternoon, pivotal vote totals trickled in around the country, changing the trajectory of the race for president almost hour-by-hour. Democrat Joe Biden took a lead in the unofficial Pennsylvania ballot vote count and, if it holds, he could become the president-elect by the end of the day. The former vice president also leads President Donald Trump in Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.

Ballots are still being tabulated in the historic 2020 presidential election, where about 102 million voters cast their ballots by mail due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. As his path to re-election becomes more difficult, a defiant Trump made baseless claims in a White House news conference Thursday evening that the legally cast ballots are fraudulent and that he will continue a flurry of lawsuits to stop the count.

SEE ALSO: Biden Leads In Pennsylvania; Trump Again Falsely Claims Fraud

As it stands, Biden has 264 electoral votes, compared with 214 for Trump, according to projections by The Associated Press. He expanded his lead Wednesday when he picked up Michigan and Wisconsin's combined 26 electoral votes. Any of four states — Pennsylvania with 20 electoral votes, Georgia with 16, North Carolina with 15 or Nevada with six — would give him the 270 electoral votes needed to become president-elect.

While all voting wrapped up in North Carolina Tuesday, the results won't be known until the end of next week due to the counting of absentee and accepted provisional ballots — a normal procedure that occurs after every major election held in the state.

With more than 2.7 million votes, Trump leads the race in North Carolina with a 76,701-vote lead over Biden, according to a Nov. 4 tally. However, more votes will need to be tallied before he may lay claim to the state's 15 electoral votes.

As of Friday, about 31,900 eligible absentee ballots had been received throughout the state and at least 99,000 absentee ballots that had been requested had not yet been received by election officials. Provided the ballots are postmarked Nov. 3, any of those ballots returned to election officials will be counted toward vote totals through Nov. 12.

"The number of these ballots ultimately returned will be less than 99,000 because some voters cast their ballots in person on Election Day and others likely did not vote at all," the North Carolina State Board of Elections said.

The state will also process 40,766 provisional ballots — the ballots cast when a voter's name does not appear on the poll book or there are other questions regarding the voter's eligibility. During the 2016 election, for example, about 61,000 provisional ballots were cast in North Carolina, of which about 27,000 were counted.

Each of North Carolina's 100 election boards will ratify their final tallies of accepted absentee and provisional ballots later next week, with the final totals released Nov. 13 when all county boards complete canvassing. The election results will then go forward for statewide certification on Nov. 24.

"Our county boards of elections are working extremely hard to count all ballots, conduct required audits and complete all other post-election tasks," NCSBE Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell said Friday. "This is the process we always go through and that we must go through under state law."

While the final results of the long awaited election still remains unknown, one thing is for certain — North Carolina voters turned out en masse to cast ballots. As of election day, bout 5.49 million of North Carolina's nearly 7.36 million eligible voters had cast ballots in the General Election, representing a statewide voter turnout of 74.6 percent.

By comparison, about 69 percent of North Carolina voters participated in the 2016 General Election.

Payton Potter, Patch Staff, contributed

SEE ALSO

• Mecklenburg County Sees High 2020 Voter Turnout: Here's How Much
• NC's Final Election Results Won't Be Known Until Nov. 12
• 'Unprecedented' Surge In Gun Permits Reported In Mecklenburg
• NC Election: How Many Mecklenburg Provisional Ballots Were Cast