As expected, the first results on Tuesday, November 3, discouraged many and put some in a celebratory position, even though four key battleground states will begin counting absentee ballots the day after.

The early results handed a victory in Florida and Ohio to President Donald Trump, who appears to be repeating the 2016 scenario. Similarly, the president has been re-elected by voters in Iowa.
For his part, former Vice President Joe Biden repeated his party's victory in Minnesota but surprised the country by winning Arizona. Similarly, the Democratic candidate won Nevada and New Hampshire.

Although these figures seem to give Trump a virtual lead, no one can know who the real winner will be until all the early votes have been counted, totaling more than 64 million mail ballots, according to the New York Times.
In all, and in part because of the Coronavirus pandemic, about 100 million people voted early in the U.S. elections this year.

While some key states like North Carolina have been processing votes for weeks, others will take much longer, especially Pennsylvania.

Along with Michigan and Wisconsin, these three states have had to endure Republican obstructionism that has done everything possible to allow an early vote count or earlier preparations as in other states.

In Pennsylvania, for example, officials could not begin processing hundreds of thousands of early ballots until Tuesday, CNN reported, and counties made their own decisions about how to proceed.

In Philadelphia, particularly, about 75,000 mail ballots had been counted, out of 350,000 that were returned by the end of Tuesday.

Considering that the state has received more than 2.5 million mail-in and absentee ballots, no early Tuesday result can give an objective perspective on what will happen after Wednesday.

Both candidates have shown confidence in their predictions, and both have assured that they will fight the legal battle if necessary, but President Trump has been playing along through his personal Twitter account, threatening election fraud and rushing to declare victory.

However, in a country whose banner is freedom and democracy, nothing is written in stone until every last vote is counted.