Nevada’s 6 electoral votes may determine Trump-Biden race

Las Vegas Review-Journal

4 years ago

The media documents as mail-in ballots are counted at Clark County Election Center on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020, in Las Vegas. The presidential race has not been called as the nation waits for Nevada’s six electoral votes to be decided. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenschmidttt

Clark County Election Center employees wheel in mail-in ballots to be counted the day after Election Day on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020, in Las Vegas. The presidential race has not been called as the nation waits for Nevada’s six electoral votes to be decided. (Ellen Schmidt/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @ellenschmidttt

Clark County election workers conduct certification of the counting system at the Election Center on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020, in North Las Vegas. (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @bizutesfaye

CARSON CITY — Former Vice President Joe Biden stood six electoral votes from winning the presidency on Wednesday, after news outlets declared him the winner in Wisconsin and Michigan.

Nevada — which just happens to have six Electoral College votes — could deliver him the presidency.

With Wisconsin called for Biden at midday Wednesday and Michigan following a few hours later, the Democrat stood at 264 electoral votes to President Donald Trump’s 214. The Associated Press and several media outlets called Michigan for Biden.

With more than 1 million ballots outstanding the day after the election, Pennsylvania, where Biden is trailing but still favored, won’t finish its count for days.

That leads to Nevada, whose six votes could clinch victory for Biden. The Silver State also will be tabulating ballots for days, but its outcome could be known before Pennsylvania and other states that are still counting, Arizona and Georgia.

When the tabulating stopped early Wednesday morning, Biden led Trump in Nevada by 7,600 votes out of nearly 1.2 million tabulated, or 49.3 percent to 48.7 percent. The state has tens of thousands of votes still to count from mail-ins and provisional ballots, the majority of which are likely to skew to Democrats and Biden.

Given the numbers and the likely trends, it’s possible that media outlets could call Nevada for Biden when it next releases updated returns. The next statewide update will come Thursday at 9 a.m. That means Nevada could send Biden to victory, though officially ballots postmarked by Election Day will continue to be counted if they are received by Nov. 10.

There is another scenario: Georgia, like Michigan, has 16 electoral votes. Trump’s lead there by Thursday had dwindled to 18,500 votes with some 61,000 outstanding, mostly from the heavily Democratic metro Atlanta area. Biden’s margins in the outstanding counties have been strong enough for the lead potentially to change. Elections officials there say they hope to complete their count by midday.

Some states called by The Associated Press have not been called across the board. Here’s where the last states stood as of Thursday morning:

■ Alaska: Trump up by 51,000 votes, 30 percentage points, 56 percent counted. Not called.

■ Arizona: Biden up by 68,000 votes, 2.4 percentage points, 86 percent counted. Called by The Associated Press and Fox News but not by other major news outlets.

■ Georgia: Trump up by 18,000 votes, 0.4 percentage point, 96 percent counted. Not called.

■ Nevada: Biden up by 7,600 votes, 0.6 percentage point, 86 percent counted. Not called.

■ North Carolina: Trump up by 77,000 votes, 1.4 percentage points, 95 percent counted. Not called.

■ Pennsylvania: Trump up by 136,000 votes, 2.1 percentage points, 91 percent counted. Not called.

This story has been updated to reflect vote counts as of Thursday morning.

Contact Capital Bureau reporter Bill Dentzer at bdentzer@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DentzerNews on Twitter. Contact Capital Bureau Chief Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ColtonLochhead on Twitter.