Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania Expected to Flip Biden’s Way –

By Glynn Wilson –

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The American people are waiting on pins and needles and in many cases with strong drink to find out who won the presidential election of 2020, as most states have reported results that show Joe Biden leading Donald Trump with 253 electoral votes to 217, just 17 shy of the 270 Biden needs to send Trump packing from the White House.

New results are expected to roll in on Thursday from mail-in vote counts in urban and suburban areas in and around Phoenix, Arizona and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which should favor the Democrat by a margin of 60-75 percent. If Biden takes Arizona’s 11 votes and Pennsylvania’s 20, it’s over, and we could know that by Thursday or Friday.

The Associated Press and Fox News already called Arizona for Biden, but the New York Times, CNN and other news outlets are not confirming that yet.

That would make Biden the winner with 284 electoral votes to Trump’s 217.

Biden told supporters Wednesday that he’s confident about winning the election, but stopped short of declaring victory like Trump did at 2 a.m. Wednesday.

“I’m optimistic about this outcome,” a smiling Biden said in Wilmington, Delaware. “We’re confident about Arizona. We’re still in the game in Georgia, although that’s not one we expected.”

Biden also said he’s confident “we’re going to win Pennsylvania.”

“We knew because of the unprecedented mail-in vote and the early vote that it was going to take a while,” Biden said. “We have to be patient, and it’s not over until every vote is counted.”

Georgia

Georgia’s votes are in for the most part and the race there is still too close to call. The Biden campaign had hoped the absentee ballots being counted in the Atlanta area would flip that state blue for the first time in years. But with 96 percent of the precincts reporting, Trump still leads in Georgia with 49.6 percent to 49.2, just 4 tenths of a point or by 18,586 votes.

Trump is still leading 50 percent to 48 percent with 91 percent reporting in Pennsylvania, where mail ballots are still being counted around the clock in Philadelphia and other urban and suburban areas that are expected to favor Biden by 60-75 percent. Absentee ballots can still be counted in Pennsylvania up to Friday.

Arizona

A large block of votes from Arizona should be coming in by noon on Thursday and could put Biden up to 264 electoral votes, just six shy of the 270 he needs. If Nevada finished counting its votes on Thursday or Friday and declares its six votes for Biden, it’s over. Biden wins even without Pennsylvania, Georgia or North Carolina.

Of course Trump has deployed his lawyers and has demanded a recount in Wisconsin, where Biden is winning those 10 electoral votes with 98 percent of precincts reporting, 49.4 percent to 48.8 percent for Trump. As it stands now, Biden is leading by 20,510 votes.

Trump lawyers are being deployed in other states as well, but so far every attempt to slow or stop vote counting have been rebuffed by state and local election officials and judges on courts in states from Pennsylvania to Texas.

Trump has won Texas 52-46 even though party activists and election experts say that large state with 38 electoral votes is becoming more and more competitive for Democrats.

Blue Wall

Biden won back Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, the blue wall long controlled by Democrats which Trump flipped in 2016, mainly by depressing votes in urban areas and boosting working class voters without a college education in rural farm country.

While some farmers have turned against Trump due to the devastating consequences for agricultural interests by his ill-conceived trade wars with China and other countries, many “God fearing” white Christians are sticking with Trump for conservative reasons based on social wedge issues like guns and abortion. Many farmers also benefitted from one-time federal government subsidy payments approved by the Trump administration, even as Trump goes after their votes by trying to scare people about “socialism.”

Many out of work conservatives have also benefited from federal government unemployment benefits approved in a bipartisan Congress back in the spring in a relief bill approved by the Senate and signed by the president to shore up the economy during the height of the coronavirus pandemic national emergency.

Without a little socialism, these farmers and workers would be out of a job and in many cases homeless, but they still cling to their capitalist ideology.

One way or another, we are soon going to know the outcome of this election, and it does not look good for Trump. Biden is already assembling a transition team. Trump’s time might better be spent packing his bags and getting ready to move to Mar-a-Lago in Florida. They don’t want him back in New York, where he faces state and federal charges for tax evasion and fraud.

Check the interactive map on the New York Times front page for more results.