Biden has a lead of 4.1 million votes in the count nationwide, reflecting a 1.3 percent swing toward his party from 2016 in the votes counted so far. But more than 6 million ballots may remain to be counted, many of them in California and New York, where they are likely to increase Biden’s margin.
The shift toward the Democrat in the presidential race was small but consistent across the country. Only eight states and the District of Columbia voted less Democratic than they did four years ago, based on current counts.
The number of total votes increased 7 percent from 2016, with 9 million more votes counted so far. But Biden has 12.1 percent more votes than Hillary Clinton received when she beat Trump in the popular vote by 2.9 million ballots. Trump has 10.7 percent more than he got in 2016, in part because fewer votes went to third-party candidates this year.
The greatest Democratic presidential shifts have been in Wyoming, Colorado, Maine, Delaware and Nebraska — states that received almost no attention from the campaigns. Some of the states now showing shifts toward Trump, including Illinois and New York, may turn more Democratic as mail ballots are counted.
