By late Wednesday morning, Mr. Biden’s prospects had brightened a bit amid signs that he held narrow leads in several states that could propel him to the critical threshold of 270 electoral votes. Mr. Trump’s path to winning a second term appeared narrower, and depended on his ability to carry more of the undecided states, including several battleground Great Lakes states that he won in 2016 where Mr. Biden was showing signs of strength.
With millions of votes yet to be counted across seven key states — there is a reason that news organizations and other usually impatient actors were waiting to declare victors — Mr. Biden was clinging to narrow leads in Arizona, Nevada, Michigan and Wisconsin.
If he is able to hold all those states, the former vice president could win the election even without Pennsylvania, which has long been viewed as a must-have battleground state.