Biden takes the lead over Trump in Pennsylvania as ballot count continues

As ballots continue to be counted in the crucial battleground state of Pennsylvania on Friday morning, former Vice President and Penn Presidential Professor of Practice Joe Biden overcame President and 1968 Wharton graduate Donald Trump in the swing state.

As of 9 a.m. on Friday morning, Biden led Trump by over 5,000 votes with 95% of Pennsylvania's vote reported. Scores of Philadelphia absentee and mail-in ballots allowed Biden to overtake Trump in Pennsylvania as the vote was being completed. 

The previous day saw Trump's Pennsylvania lead shrink by more than 150,000 votes in the space of 24 hours.

National vote counts are still being finalized, but Biden leads the popular vote with nearly 74 million votes cast for him in the election — surpassing former President Barack Obama's record for the most votes ever cast for a presidential candidate. Nearly 700 ballots were cast on Penn's three on-campus polling sites on Election Day, with 83% in favor of the Biden.

The close presidential race grew tighter for the Trump campaign on Wednesday after Biden won Michigan and Wisconsin, two battleground states in the upper Midwest that Trump won four years ago. 

Trump had falsely claimed victory over Biden during a White House appearance made just after 2 a.m. on Wednesday, as votes cast on and before Election Day were still being counted. On Thursday evening, in his first public address since Election Day, Trump again repeated a slew of false claims that legally cast mail-in ballots would "steal" the election from him. 

Biden, in the meantime, urged patience and projected confidence to his supporters.

Despite some technical glitches and extended polling location hours, the 2020 election was unhampered by major issues or interference, POLITICO reported. An unprecedented surge of mail-in ballots caused by the COVID-19 pandemic delayed counting, but despite Trump's claims, there is no evidence of mass fraud. 

In last-ditch efforts to secure a second term in office, the Trump campaign demanded a recount in Wisconsin and filed lawsuits in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Nevada. 

Many major U.S. cities were alive with dueling protests on Wednesday and Thursday and bracing for results as polls closed and votes were being counted. In Philadelphia, protesters on both sides of the political spectrum chanted outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center, where election workers were counting votes. Unexpectedly, however, a dance party broke out in the city's streets on Thursday evening as the hopeful crowd assumed a pro-Biden stance.