Joseph R. Biden Jr. returned to his Pennsylvania birthplace, Scranton, on the morning of Election Day, addressing supporters outside a carpenters’ union hall and visiting his childhood home.“It’s good to be home,” the former vice president said at a canvass kickoff, wearing a mask and speaking through a bullhorn with Biden-Harris stickers on it. “Scranton is where I learned, like you did, all my basic values.”As he chatted with supporters, he used a track and field analogy about finishing the race: “You got to run through the tape, man. You got to go all the way through the tape.”Mr. Biden also paid a visit to his childhood home, where he signed a message on the living room wall: “From this house to the White House with the grace of God.”“I watch you all the time,” Anne Kearns, who lives in the house now, told him. “I’m so proud of you.”Mr. Biden had started the day attending a Catholic church near his home in Delaware, with his wife, Jill, and two of their grandchildren, then visiting the cemetery where several members of his family are buried, including his son Beau, his first wife, Neilia, and their daughter, Naomi, according to a pool report.The Bidens then left for Pennsylvania, where Mr. Biden has focused the last days of his campaign. After visiting Scranton, he flew to Philadelphia to campaign. He plans to return to Delaware, which he represented in the U.S. Senate for decades, to address the nation tonight. Mr. Biden, his team has made clear, plans to speak regardless of the status of the race and how President Trump responds to the developments unfolding.Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, Mr. Biden’s campaign manager, said on Tuesday that Mr. Biden, who has led Mr. Trump in the polls in several battleground states in the homestretch of the campaign, had many pathways to the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the election. She made the case that he could win even if he lost both Pennsylvania and Florida, another electoral vote-rich state where his campaign has spent significant time, though it is clear that losing Pennsylvania in particular would be a major risk and disappointment for the campaign.“We feel like we have a very good understanding of when the vote’s coming in, how it’s coming in and also our expectations of what we hope to see,” she saidShe was joined at the briefing by Bob Bauer, a former White House counsel who is helping to lead the Biden campaign’s election protection efforts. Mr. Bauer said that “by and large, voting is proceeding smoothly.” Tuesday is the third straight day that Mr. Biden, who lived in Scranton until he was 10, has campaigned in Pennsylvania. Beyond Scranton’s personal significance to Mr. Biden, northeastern Pennsylvania is a critical area in a state that Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump are battling over. Mr. Trump excelled in traditionally Democratic areas in northeastern Pennsylvania in the 2016 election, when he won the state by less than one percentage point.
