PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) -- Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden continues to lead President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania -- a state the Republican must win to have a shot at re-election.
Biden has a 12,325 vote lead on the president in the state. And while the Democrat is pushing closer to the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the White House, the race is too close to call -- and the votes are still being counted. In Philadelphia, that process continues at the Pennsylvania Convention Center as protestors gather outside.
Votes tabulated in Philadelphia and other counties where the count continues more than erased the 18,000-vote the president had statewide on Thursday. Biden now enjoys a 12,390-vote lead over the incumbent.
Mayor Jim Kenney, speaking alongside city commissioners and the city council president at the convention center, where Philadelphia's mail-in ballot count continues, said he believes Biden has won the election.
Referring to the Trump campaign's lawsuits in states where vote-counting continues -- notably, states where Biden is in the lead -- Kenney said the president needs to "put his big-boy pants on," acknowledge that he has lost the election, and congratulate the winner.
City Commissioner Lisa Deeley, who is leading the Board of Elections operation, said more than 690,000 votes have been counted in Philadelphia. Of that, about 338,000 are mail-in ballots, and 353,000 were votes cast in person.
She said this is by far the largest largest number of mail in ballots in the city's history.
And there’s still more to come. Deeley said there were at least 40,000 yet to be processed, and it may take several days to complete. She said among them were a number of ballots that required review, some that were provisional, and some from members of the military and citizens overseas. And she reminded voters that election results will not be certified until 20 days after Election Day.
Mail-in ballots that are post-marked by Election Day and received by 5 p.m. Friday, which are lawful in Pennsylvania, are being set aside because of a lawsuit from the Trump campaign questioning their validity. Deeley said she did not yet know how many of those ballots had been segregated, but she said the count is going as quickly as possible without sacrificing accuracy.
By law in Pennsylvania, if there's less than a .5% difference between totals for the two men, a recount will be held. Right now, there is a .1% difference between the two candidates, and an eventual recount is likely.
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