Pennsylvania result may not come until FRIDAY as Trump leads Biden by 12 per cent

Pennsylvania is being watched closely as the fate of the presidency could come down to the state.

But Governor Tom Wolf said ‘we may not know the results today’, tweeting there are more than a million ballots still to be counted amid claims it could take until Friday.

Edison Research published by The New York Times has estimated 74 per cent of votes have been counted – with the figure at 5,323,770.

It shows Donald Trump and the Republicans on 55.7 per cent, or 2,964,853 votes, and Joe Biden and the Democrats on 43 per cent, or 2,286,865.

In states such as Pennsylvania that do not count mail-in ballots until Election Day, initial results favour Trump because they were slower to count mailed ballots.

There is a pending Republican appeal at the Supreme Court over whether Pennsylvania can count votes that arrive in the mail from Wednesday to Friday.

Winning Pennsylvania and one other larger state would give Mr Biden the 32 votes needed to pass the 270 threshold.

Wins in Georgia, Alaska, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan, which all voted for him in 2016, would give Mr Trump an additional 70 votes, taking him to 283 votes.

A win in these states and Wisconsin but a loss in Pennsylvania would lead to a narrow victory for Mr Trump, with 273 votes.

Democrats hope women, black people and Latinos have backed Biden over the President at the polls despite voting for Trump in 2016.

The rural areas are expected to back the incumbent – potentially by a lesser number than last time – but city voters are understood to want a change in leader.

Biden will hope for a large turn out by black and Latino people in built up areas such as Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Meanwhile the president is relying on the backing of mostly white people from more rural districts.