I think Biden will be leading all night on Election Night

I don't think Trump's plan to declare himself the winner on election night before all the ballots are counted is going to work. Of the contested states, many start counting mail in ballots days or even weeks before the election. Democrats should open big leads in the early vote states because Trump is scaring Republicans off from voting early.

Here is a link on early voting and vote counting rules:

[link:https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/vopp-table-16-when-absentee-mail-ballot-processing-and-counting-can-begin.aspx|


- Colorado, Arizona, Florida, and North Carolina start counting 2 or more weeks prior to election day.
- Ohio mail in ballots may be counted at any time.
- Texas starts counting at the end of the early voting period for jurisdictions, which I believe is the Friday before the election. This is for cities only. Towns don't count until election day.
- Nevada, Georgia, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania may start counting in the morning of election day.
- New York, New Hampshire and Minnesota can not count mail in ballots until after polls close on election day.
- California's rules seem to depend on the jurisdiction.

Everyone is focused on Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where Trump may try to stop the counting if it drags past midnight, but Trump's problem is mostly in the Sun Belt. Those are must win states for Trump, and I think Trump is going to open the night down big in Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, Texas and Ohio when those states report their early vote counts within an hour after the polls close.

If that happens, when would he run to court to stop the count? 10 pm EDT? That would lock in a Biden victory. If the election is really close, maybe Trump could stop the count sometime in the morning the following day, but the early votes that had been received early would already have been counted. The last arriving ballots typically only matter at the state house and local level.

Unless I am missing something, I am not worried about Trump stopping the vote counting on Election Night.