Chester County Caught Up On Count, Shows Biden With 17% Lead

CHESTER COUNTY, PA — Chester County is in the spotlight as the nation watches suburban Philadelphia's vote count, and non-stop ballot counting here shows former Vice President Joe Biden leading in Chester County's presidential race by 17 percentage points over President Donald Trump.

Biden had so far received 57.72 percent of the counted votes, 177,408 in all. Trump has received 41.14 percent of the Chester County vote, with 126, 446 votes.

Chester County's Elections Office reported Thursday morning it was caught up on the counting of all in-person, mail-in, and absentee ballots received by 8 p.m. on Election Day. Now, the county said it will sit on hold Thursday as ballots postmarked Nov. 3 continue to be delivered.

County election officials await ballots postmarked by 8 p.m. on Election Day but delivered by USPS to Chester County Voter Services by 5 p.m. Friday.

Following a 24-hour-a-day ballot-counting operation, Chester County is caught up today but said the Board of Elections will resume its counting on Friday, Nov. 6 at 9 a.m. after giving those ballots the delivery time allowed by a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision. In Pennsylvania, 2.7 million voters have voted by mail-in ballot.

The three-day extension for ballot delivery allows for counting of ballots postmarked on Election Day. Pennsylvania Republicans petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn that state-level decision and disallow the counting of mail-in ballots postmarked Nov. 3. The U.S. Supreme on Oct. 28 rejected that petition.

In Chester County, 118, 495 have voted by mail-in ballot so far. The county's voter turnout was nearly 74 percent. Of Chesco's 380,388 registered voters 280,430 cast ballots. The counting process for mail-in votes includes removal of those ballots from their double envelopes before the ballot can be tallied.

Chester County's tallied results are posted on www.chesco.org/elections. Military and overseas ballots are still able to be received and are not reflected in these totals.

Chester County's U.S. Congressional District 6 race was called by the Associated Press Wednesday in favor of Democratic incumbent Chrissy Houlahan (D-6th). Houlahan had 55.93 percent of the Chester County vote, while Republican challenger John Emmons garnered 44.07 percent.