Biden: The election ‘ain’t over until every vote is counted’
The Democratic nominee said that despite President Donald Trump’s winning several key battleground states, “we believe we’re on track to win this election.”
Former Vice President Joe Biden early on Wednesday urged his supporters to remain patient as votes continue to trickle in in a nail-biter race, but he asserted that the presidential election “ain’t over until every vote is counted, every ballot is counted.”
Speaking to supporters in his hometown of Wilmington, Del., just before 1 a.m., Biden asserted that despite President Donald Trump’s winning several key battleground states, “we believe we’re on track to win this election.”
“We knew because of the unprecedented early vote and the mail-in vote it was going to take a while. We’re going to have to be patient until the hard work of tallying votes is finished,” Biden said in his brief remarks, referencing millions of votes that have yet to be counted in states that could make or break the race for the White House.
Officials in states like Pennsylvania have said that an influx of absentee and mail-in ballots will continue to be counted over the coming days, delaying the final results of the election that could come down to a handful of states across the Rust Belt and Sun Belt.
The former vice president contended that his campaign felt confident in the outstanding results, noting that at least one cable network had called traditionally red Arizona in his favor and that his camp was encouraged by its standing in Michigan and Wisconsin — states that Trump flipped by razor-thin margins in 2016, sending him to the White House.
“We’re going to win Pennsylvania,” Biden predicted, saying he’d heard as much from people across the state.
Election officials have long warned that the flood of ballots cast by mail because of the coronavirus pandemic could take days or even weeks to count, and pundits have cautioned that initial returns from in-person voting could appear to skew results in Trump’s favor before swinging back to Biden when mail-in votes are tallied.
“Look, we could know the results as early as tomorrow morning, but it may take a little longer,” Biden said. But he stressed that he was not trying to claim victory prematurely, something Trump reportedly planned. “As I’ve said all along, it’s not my place or Donald Trump’s place to declare who’s won this election. That’s the decision of the American people. But I’m optimistic about this outcome.”
His comments appeared to be prescient, as Trump tweeted moments later that he, too, would be making remarks and asserted, without evidence, that Democrats “are trying to STEAL the Election.”