Election night has come and gone with no clear winner in the race for the White House.
As of press time, former Vice President Joe Biden holds the lead in the Electoral College, but neither Biden nor Donald Trump have the 270 electoral votes needed to become president.
Nothing is fixed or fraudulent, there’s just a need to count the lawfully cast votes and no reason to disenfranchise anyone who participated legally and in good faith.
The result of the entire election could hinge on whether Biden can restore the Democratic “blue wall” in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania—a scenario that could stretch into the coming days as large numbers of mail-in votes are counted.
Several states allow mail-in votes to be accepted after Election Day, as long as they were postmarked by Nov. 3. That includes Pennsylvania, where ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 can be accepted if they arrive up to three days after the election.
Trump suggested those ballots shouldn’t be counted. But Biden, briefly appearing in front of supporters in Delaware, urged patience, saying the election “ain’t over until every vote is counted, every ballot is counted.”
“It’s not my place or Donald Trump’s place to declare who’s won this election,” Biden said. “That’s the decision of the American people.”
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf tweeted that his state had over 1 million ballots to be counted and that he “promised Pennsylvanians that we would count every vote and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Throughout the campaign, Trump cast doubt about the integrity of the election and repeatedly suggested that mail-in ballots should not be counted.
As CNN’s Charlie Dent said, “Nothing is fixed or fraudulent, there’s just a need to count the lawfully cast votes and no reason to disenfranchise anyone who participated legally and in good faith.”
This is no time for Donald Trump to declare victory or suggest the American democratic process is rigged and unfair. Trump won Pennsylvania by 44,000 votes in 2016, and he may win the Commonwealth yet again.
No one knows what the outcome will be—let the process play out and the chips fall where they may.