Former Vice President Joe Biden took general election leads in both Georgia and Pennsylvania over President Donald Trump early Friday morning.
At press time, Biden’s leads sit at roughly 6,000 votes in Pennsylvania but fewer than 1,000 in Georgia, according to The Associated Press.
Decision Desk HQ went so far as calling Pennsylvania for Biden, a move not yet echoed by other news outlets.
Decision Desk HQ projects that @JoeBiden has won Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral college votes for a total of 273.
Joe Biden has been elected the 46th President of the United States of America.
Race called at 11-06 08:50 AM EST
All Results: https://t.co/BgcQsEyt3j
— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) November 6, 2020
GA Presidential Election Results
Biden (D): 49.39.% ( 2,449,580 votes)
Trump (R): 49.37% ( 2,448,484 votes)Biden Margin: (+ 1,096)
Estimated: > 99% votes inMore results here: https://t.co/xlHf7GZUxJ
— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) November 6, 2020
Biden is virtually assured election victory if he ends up winning the two states and their combined 36 electoral college votes.
The former vice president, speaking alongside Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris after a coronavirus briefing in Wilmington, Delaware on Thursday, reiterated that after “the count is finished, Senator Harris and I will be declared winners.” (RELATED: Trump Launches Last-Ditch Legal Effort In 4 States)
WILMINGTON, DELAWARE – NOVEMBER 05: Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden speaks as vice presidential nominee Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) listens at The Queen theater on November 05, 2020 in Wilmington, Delaware. Biden attended internal meetings with staff as votes are still being counted in his tight race against incumbent U.S. President Donald Trump. The final results remain too close to call in many critical battleground states. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
“In America, the vote is sacred. It’s how people of this nation express their will, and it is the will of the voters,” he stated. “No one, not anything else that chooses the president of the United States of America, so each ballot must be counted, and that’s what we’re going to see going through now, and that’s how it should be.”
Biden added that “Democracy is sometimes messy. It sometimes requires a little patience as well, but that patience has been rewarded now for more than 240 years with a system of governance that’s been the envy of the world.”
“I ask everyone to stay calm — all people to stay calm,” he closed. “The process is working. The count is being completed, and we’ll know very soon.”
WATCH:
The Trump campaign, however, took several legal steps toward staying in the race over the past two days, which include filing a recount motion in Wisconsin and separate lawsuits in Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania.
Three of the suits have since been resolved. The Georgia suit — which focused on Chatham County and looked to separate ballots received after the 7:00pm deadline on Election Day from the total — was dismissed Thursday after the witness cited by the Trump campaign admitted to not knowing if the ballots in question had in fact been received after the deadline, despite previously stating so.
A Pennsylvania judge granted Trump a win Thursday by ordering that campaign officials must be allowed to observe ballot counters from six feet away, as dictated by social distancing guidelines.
Fox News reported that a Michigan Appeals Court Judge Cynthia Stevens denied the campaign’s suit in the state on Thursday. Stevens argued that she could not grant the campaign’s request to grant campaign officials observation access as the counting process had already effectively finished.
This is a developing story and will be updated once new information becomes available.