this is bbc news, live from washington and london. as the us presidential election reaches a climax, joe biden builds momentum in key battleground states. the margins are narrow, but the trend of the ballot count favours the democrat. a recount is announced in georgia — wherejoe biden hasjust taken the lead with a razor—thin margin. the final tally in georgia at this point has huge duplications for the entire country. —— implications. joe biden has also overtaken donald trump in the crucial vote count in pennsylvania — a prize that would hand him the white house. philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, helps givejoe biden the lead

in pennsylvania, a state that, if he holds, but give him the presidency. joe biden says the process is working properly and is confident he has enough to win. however, donald trump one again makes accusations of electoral fraud but offers trump one again makes accusations of electoralfraud but offers no evidence. his campaign team says the election is not over. and asjoe biden edges ahead in pennsylvania, the electoral arithmetic is looking increasingly bleak for donald trump. hello and welcome to viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm babita sharma in london with jane o'brien in washington. election officials in georgia have announced a recount, due to the razor—thin margin there which seesjoe biden in the lead — just.

the democratic contender has also pulled ahead in pennsylvania. the state is of critical importance to both candidates, as it's worth 20 electoral college votes. joe biden needsjust 17 more to reach the magic number of 270. so which states have yet to declare and what potential routes remain for each candidate to win? my colleague reeta chakrabarti in london has the numbers. what are the paths for the presidency for biden? bell give us a final check right where we are? this is the state of play at the moment. as you are probably familiar with now, it is the grace states that still have to deliver a result. we are waiting on nevada, arizona, where there is a very, very close race going on, we know georgia will have a recount, and pennsylvania. all eyes are on pennsylvania. all eyes are on pennsylvania at the moment because,

as you heard, ifjoe biden take that state, he's got the presidency. now la st we state, he's got the presidency. now last we heard was that joe biden leads by 8867 votes, but there are still a fair few thousand votes to be counted there. so we will be watching that very closely. i want to show you a potential path to the white house forjoe biden. ifi to show you a potential path to the white house forjoe biden. if i use the blue pen there, let us assume that the democrats's optimism over pennsylvania is in fact well placed. you can see that takes joe pennsylvania is in fact well placed. you can see that takesjoe biden over the magic line. he you can see that takesjoe biden overthe magic line. he needs 270 electoral college votes, and with pennsylvania, he's got 273. now let's say after the recount he succeeds in flipping georgia, which would be a tremendous result for the democrats, as they haven't had georgia since 1992, and he retains nevada and also flips arizona, a tight race as i told you, that gets him up to 306 votes. if he achieves that, he will have got to the same

figure is donald trump did back in 2016. i want to show you one more thing, which is the national popular vote. here we are, these are the raw numbers of people who voted. now this does not decide the presidential election, but it is really interesting to look at. look at these figures, joe biden has got 73,000,930 thousand votes, 11 million more than hillary clinton got in 2016. but the figures are really interesting for trump, as well. he is 4 million votes behind, but he's on 69,798,000. that's 8 million more votes than he got in 2016, meaning that he's built on his base, he's built on his support. so anybody who might be wanting to look at the selection and say that this isa at the selection and say that this is a repudiation of the trump project on these figures, it is hard to put it that way. thanks very much

indeed. i still can't get over those enormous turnout figures. it has been an historic turn out in so many ways. recount is happening in georgia, let's hear what the officials had to say. of officially 5 million votes cast, we will have a margin ofa 5 million votes cast, we will have a margin of a few thousand. the focus for our office and for the county election opus shows for now remains on making sure that every legal vote is counted and recorded accurately. as we close in on a final count, we can begin to look toward our next steps. with a margin that small, there will be a recount. 0ur correspondent, larry madowo, is in atlanta, georgia. larry, i can only imagine the frustration there, having got this fair, now it's a recount. how big a

delay will this cause? so the timelines here, the recount only happens after the election has been satisfied, after 20 november. will be no who the president is by the end of november? he says he's hopeful, so it'sjust a couple more days. what's happening here is the lead thatjoe days. what's happening here is the lead that joe biden days. what's happening here is the lead thatjoe biden has over donald trump is just over 1000 lead thatjoe biden has over donald trump isjust over 1000 votes, and they have about 4000 or so absentee postal ballots to count, and about 8000 military ballots. that's not much, so that's why this recount is happening. under georgia law, if the difference between the winner and the other candidate is between .5%, and he can ask for a recount, but the state is saying that because it's a razor thin, they'll go ahead and do the recount. so not long now.

not long now, possibly end of november. if we have to wait that long to find out the result in georgia, how relevant is georgia still? it is critical for the democrats because if joe still? it is critical for the democrats because ifjoe biden wins georgia, he's got a very clear path to 270. if trump loses georgia, it is devastating, and it makes it almost impossible for him to find any other way to get to 270. also he'll be the first republican to lose the state of georgia since 1992, when bill clinton won the state. and it isjust an extraordinary development for republicans who were very confident about this. that's why they are mounting what they call a legal challenge. they've already claimed one small loss yesterday in chatham cou nty one small loss yesterday in chatham county when they claimed there were some late addition ballots that were added, and the judge threw that out. the republican national committee said this morning that there are other ways they will challenge this,

and donald trump claims that there we re and donald trump claims that there were a and donald trump claims that there we re a lot and donald trump claims that there were a lot of illegal ballots, but the republican secretary of state we nt the republican secretary of state went out of his way to say they've not seen any wide irregularities or widespread voter fraud. so, very shaky ground here. larry, you've also got two very crucial senate seats, try saying that with a mouthful, in georgia. how significant are they? georgia has essentially become the centre of the american political universe. we are seeing all these things happen. in the two senate seats that were up for grabs this election, both were held by republicans and both appear to be heading towards a runoff. david perdue had a very close race, and that will run over. the law in georgia is that if no candidate gets at least 50% of the vote, if it is below 50%, it goes to a runoff. so david perdue's position is shaky,

and so is kelly loeffler. they might have rafael warnock and john also. ifjoe biden wins the presidency, that means the vice presidency can cast the tie—break, and the democrats will have control the senate. who knew? larry, thank you so senate. who knew? larry, thank you so much forjoining us. it is quite extraordinary, i know you've done a few elections in your time but you've never few elections in your time but you've never seen few elections in your time but you've never seen anything like this before? you make me sound very old, i'm not sure i like that. but this is unprecedented. and wise, that's better. it is unprecedented, here we are, just look at the perfect storm. we are in the middle of a pandemic, the economy is swooning, we've had new ways of voting, many of these states haven't had early ballots before, early voting or mail—in ballots. so everybody is trying to feel their way, which is why some of

these races are taking so long to count, and why they are so tight, particularly in places like georgia and pennsylvania, which we are watching secular and as we know the us electoral system is no stranger to recounts. reuters news agency says that in the battleground state of pennsylvania, biden's lead has grown to over 9000 votes, there saying around 9746. the bbc‘s michelle fleuryjoins us from philadelphia, pennsylvania. i'm not sure if you just heard what isaid i'm not sure if you just heard what i said there and if you're hearing anything similar about biden's lead growing? we knew that this was going to happen, and here's why. in the building behind me they've been counting mail—in ballots for the la st counting mail—in ballots for the last one to four hours. that was always going to contribute significantly towards joe biden because postal votes were seen as

trending in favour of the democrats. that seems to be boring out dust morning out. 87% of those votes that have been counted have gone in favour of joe have been counted have gone in favour ofjoe biden. have been counted have gone in favour of joe biden. that have been counted have gone in favour ofjoe biden. that was higher than people had expected. that matters because when we were going and talking about this before election day, we always knew the rural parts of the state would go for donald trump, and it would be the urban areas and the suburbs around places like pittsburgh and philadelphia thatjoe around places like pittsburgh and philadelphia that joe biden around places like pittsburgh and philadelphia thatjoe biden needed to increase turnout if he was going to increase turnout if he was going to flip the state. her member four years ago, donald trump carried the state over hillary clinton by 44,000 votes. that wasjust state over hillary clinton by 44,000 votes. that was just 0.7%. state over hillary clinton by 44,000 votes. that wasjust 0.7%. enough of a margin of victory to avoid a recount. so that 9000 putsjoe biden in the lead, and the assumption is that as votes continue to be counted, that lead will increase. the question is, by how much? and

also the question is when do you will have some kind of a result? when you're talking about razor thin margins and you have all these legal allegations or baseless claims being thrown around, i think everyone just wants to be cautious. so if you think back to the top election official in pennsylvania yesterday, she said the majority of the votes had been counted, but it was still too close to call. i think they'll wa nt too close to call. i think they'll want to know beyond reasonable doubt which way this race is going before they publicly call it. so that means lots more tense hours. at the moment we have trump supporters pressed against the building, and right behind me you have biden supporters urging for every vote to be counted. there is increasingly here a bit of a party atmosphere, but again we are still waiting to find out whether or not joe

still waiting to find out whether or notjoe biden still waiting to find out whether or not joe biden has still waiting to find out whether or notjoe biden has carried a state which would effectively hand him the keys to the white house, given its 20 electoral votes. michelle, thank you so much. michelle fleury they are in philadelphia. bring you a piece of news coming from our system that we understand joe biden is leading by around 22,209 votes in nevada. that's the latest we are getting from there. we will be speaking to our colleagues in nevada ina speaking to our colleagues in nevada in a short time. james clayton is there for the bbc and we will be speaking to him in a few moments time. but to update you in the last hour, we've heard from nancy pelosi, the speaker of the house of representatives. have a listen to what she had to say. i wish we weren't wearing masks so could can see how exciting it is to come before you today withjoe biden having the tremendous mandate that he has. pretty soon, the hyphen will be gone from vice president to president—elect —

joe biden. it's a happy day for our country because joe biden is a unifier, because he is determined to bring people together, because he respects all points of view. and as he has said, "i ran as a democrats and i will govern as president for all of the people whether they voted for me or not." so i am so over officially pleased with the outcome that is imminent and also personally delighted because of the quality and calibre of leadership that joe biden will provide. this morning, it's clear that the biden—harris ticket will win the white house. that was nancy pelosi reacting to what looks to be a growing lead for joe biden in those battleground states.

and republican senator for south carolina, lindsey graham, has reacted to his party's legal challenges. he says he believes there are voting irregularities and donald trump deserves a chance to have his case heard. the president should fight hard. because what i believe is that when stacy abrams challenged the georgia results, the liberal media in this country praised her for standing up for democracy. but when a republican challenge is a contest, we are accused of undercutting democracy. and here's my statement — democracy depends upon fair elections. president trump's team is going to have the chance to make a case regarding voting irregularities. they deserve to make that case, and i will stand with president trump. ifa i will stand with president trump. if a democrat were doing this, it would be cheered on. we are going to let the media intimidate us into

exploring whether or not these contests were fairly had. senator lindsey graham there, giving his reaction to the legal challenges being instigated by the trump campaign. some live pictures from outside the white house now. clearly as this election drags on, as these cou nts as this election drags on, as these counts continue to move agonisingly slowly, tensions are rising. we can see there just outside the white house, growing crowds of anti—trump protesters will stop there's obviously an impatience among a lot of americans who voted forjoe biden, who have opposed donald trump to get a clear resolution to this election. we are inching our way to that. let's go to washington and speak to gary 0'donoghue who is outside the white house. what is the mood there? of course we are inside, so we are protected by

these barriers from what's going on outside. i don't think they will be hearing very much of that here in the west wing. clearly i think they are pondering what to do once pennsylvania is projected forjoe biden, if that finally happens... sorry. i'm sorry, gary... that gary has been tweeting, talking about pennsylvania, saying they've behaved ina pennsylvania, saying they've behaved in a horrible, lawless way. and of course the campaign has said that this isn't over at the moment. gary, what more do we know about the legal challenges coming from the white house? at this point with the

results so close to being declared, at least certainly we believe so in pennsylvania, what chance do they have of actually making a difference to the outcome of this race? they'll certainly try, won't they? particularly in pennsylvania, they're focused on this idea of accepting the ballots as they come in after polling day, even though the legislature there passed laws that say they could except ballots postmarked by election day up until 5pm this afternoon here in pennsylvania. that's one of the things they'll challenge. of course they're going to try to challenge these recounts, we are expecting one in georgia, that is perfectly legal in their right. but recounts don't change a lot of votes half the time. it can give you a number like wisconsin last time where hillary clinton lost by 20,000, in the

recount changed 131 votes. there's been a lot of criticism from the trump campaign that republicans are not supporting the president as strongly as he would like. what are we hearing from inside the republican party? why is there the silence? i think they're waiting to see what happens, they have no idea where this election will go, if the president will concede or battle on, or if you will change the result somehow. so a lot of people are keeping their powder dry, there have been1— keeping their powder dry, there have been 1— does make people suggesting that his statement last time wasn't entirely a good idea —— 1—2. that his statement last time wasn't entirely a good idea ——1—2.we've heard from some in the legislature in particular, congress, but most people are keeping their heads down because they don't know which direction the republican party is going to go, if donald trump loses,

will he step out of politics? will the republicans get a chance to reform themselves, to look back and make some changes? sol reform themselves, to look back and make some changes? so i think there isa make some changes? so i think there is a reticence and reluctance, if you like, among republicans to try and pin their colours too firmly to the man, because everything could we change in republican politics if trump loses. gary, thank you very much forjoining us. joe biden's headquarters are at the convention centre in wilmington, delaware. barbara plett usher is in delaware. i don't know how much you've heard about this, that apparently secret service agents have arrived there to provide more protection forjoe biden. what did you make of that news? there is a stirring of activity here because we've been here for the last couple days and most of the time it has been pretty

quiet. but we are seeing activity around the stage, we are seeing an increase in security dogs that are used for sweeping, we've seen them walking across the parking lot. we've actually seen a handful of biden supporters as well, as i was coming in standing in the parking lot outside the security cordon with biden — harris signs, waiting to start celebrating, they told me, they were very excited. there's a certain amount of activity here and a great deal of attention, as you would expect by the biden campaign on those numbers coming in from pennsylvania. they've been very excited since mr biden gained on mr trump since he took the lead, because this of course would put them over the top if the state is called for them. and it looks as if they're preparing to make some kind ofa they're preparing to make some kind of a statement if that does happen in the next couple of hours. you and

it will a key moment, whateverjoe biden says will perhaps be a real statement of a win? yes, the plan of the biden campaign is when and if the biden campaign is when and if the networks call enough states to put them over the top, then he will address the nation as the country's next president. it will be a statement to the american people, it will not be a statement to the democratic party. and i think you can imagine what he will say, because he's been very consistent with his messaging, even since the primaries he's talked about himself as somebody who can unite the nation, he's talked about as somebody who can heal the partisan divisions, somebody who wants to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and get the economy going with big, bold measures. i expect we will probably hear that kind of thing from him if he does get a chance to say so. of course with the selection

has shown is how deeply divided the country is. so if he's going to win, he will have a real challenge ahead of him. he will not be a decisive repudiation of mr trump and his stance. so he will have a lot cut out for him, if you make that speech. but the campaign is focused on the next few hours, this is what they have been working on for the many years. pennsylvania has always told us they believed they would get pennsylvania, but the numbers have only started to show that in the la st only started to show that in the last couple of hours. so they are gearing up to be ready when and if those numbers go high enough to make a call secular our viewers can see on the screen there what we've just heard, which is a person familiar with the biden campaign plan has said that they expectjoe biden to address the nation tonight, that's the one line we are getting from

reuters, very much in line with what you've said. that's as official as it can be with somebody familiar with the biden campaign, he will be addressing the nation, and in hours to come the picture it may become clearer. but barbara, as you and i have been talking over the last few days, it has been composed confidence from the biden camp, day in and day out, they have just remained calm and confident. they've really worked at projecting that image, a strong counter image from what we've seen from donald trump. and i think that was deliberate, but also because so much depended on the mail in votes, and those mail—in votes were being counted after election day in the crucial battleground states. they wanted to come out and accept the narrative for how they saw things playing out, because they were not in the lead initially, but they continually said, "we have a very strong grasp of the data." they know how many

people have voted and what to expect, and they're keeping an open monitor. they've also talked about transparency, the votes must be counted. but they've constantly said that they are confident that when all the votes are counted, joe biden will be the president. and mr biden has made two statements, one on election night and one last night, brief ones, but he's also taken a very calm and measured tone, reassuring people that the voting syste m reassuring people that the voting system is working and calling for unity and for calm. barbara, thank you so much for that. we've just heard that we will be hearing from joe biden as he addresses the nation, something to listen out for in the coming hours. we are still tallying those electoral college votes, we a re tallying those electoral college votes, we are looking for that magic number of 270, and a reminder to our viewers that biden is at 253 and

trump is at 214. we get the sense that we are inching closer and closer to a resolution to this presidential race that has been a nailbiter. hello there, are quite whether story continues, but it can also bring with it fog. 0thers started with sunshine, a beautiful morning in parts of aberdeen sure, but it won't be as warm today as it was yesterday. you can see from the satellite picture just how much sunshine we've got across the country, so it is a reasonable day. to the far north of scotland, a spot of drizzle here or there, but a fine and settled jerry for many. a bit of a breeze down to the southwest, but temperatures fairly widespread into the low teens. so we're looking at highs of

10-13 c. as teens. so we're looking at highs of 10—13 c. as we go through the overnight period, again with light winds across the country we are likely to see some fog forming, particularly close to the scottish border, down to the vale of york, and once again across central southern parts of wales. this may be slow to clear first thing. low single figures into the far north, a chilly start here but elsewhere we will see milder air starting to push and down to the southwest. as we go through saturday, some of that fog will lift away, but it may well lift to low cloud, and if that happens you could see temperatures... risk ofa you could see temperatures... risk of a few showers across the southwest, more sunshine along the south coast as temperatures start to improve here. we are looking at 9-13 c. improve here. we are looking at 9—13 c. moving out to saturday, it's likely to see a change. weather fronts trying to push and from the west, but it will drive in mild air with it. nothing too significant in

the way of rain, mostly affecting central and southern areas for a time as it moves its way steadily up northern ireland and into parts of scotland. so a lot more in the way of cloud for the second half of the weekend, there will be outbreaks of rain particularly further west, but milder with it, values of 61 fahrenheit. more of the same to come as we move into monday with a series of fronts trying to push in from the southwest. again we aren't expecting much in the way of significant rainfall, but it will bring with it more of the west — east divide. topics of rain on monday, a bit quieter as we go into tuesday. —— outbreaks of rain.

this is bbc news live from washington and london, as the us presidential election reaches a climax, joe biden builds momentum in key battleground states. the margins are narrow but the trend of the ballot count, favours the democrats. a recount is announced in georgia — wherejoe biden has just taken the lead with a razor—thin margin. the final tally in georgia has huge implications for the entire country. joe biden has also overtaken donald trump in the crucial vote count in pennsylvania, a prize that would hand him the white house. i'm yalda hakim live in philadelphia watching that count — right now — joe biden now leads

donald trump by 6,700 votes. as for the candidates themselves, biden calls for calm and patience — he says the process is working properly and is confident he's done enough to win. each ballot must be counted. we have no doubt that when the count is finished, senator harris and i will be declared the winners. donald trump — once again makes accusations of electoral fraud but offers no evidence. his campaign hasjust put out a statement saying "the election is not over". if you count the legal votes, i easily win. if you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us. meanwhile. . . his supporters stage protests as millions of dollars are raised to mount legal challenges in a number of states.

hello and welcome. i'm jane 0'brien in washington and rebecca jones is in london. joe biden has pushed ahead of donald trump in two crucial states, which could hand him the us presidency. mr biden is now in the lead in pennsylvania — where victory would push him over the threshold required to win the white house. the state is of critical importance to both candidates as it's worth 20 electoral college votes. joe biden is also ahead in georgia as well as the counts in arizona and nevada. a short time ago, georgia announced a recount, 0verall, joe biden needsjust17 more electoral college votes in order to reach the magic number of 270, donald trump needs 56. so a lot to take in there, but which states have yet to formally declare

and what potential routes remain for each candidate to win? my colleague reeta chakrabarti in london has the numbers. this is the electoral college map as it stands. as you can see, it is the states engravers have still not got any result and we know that there are some very close race is going on. in georgia, there is going to be a recount because it is so close. it is also very close in arizona but the most focus at the moment is over here in the northeastern pennsylvania where, as you'll be able to see now, the candidates are neck and neck. you can barely see anything between them there but i can tell you that joe anything between them there but i can tell you thatjoe biden has a lead of 9746 votes and there are still 7000 votes still to be counted there. the democrats are optimistic about pennsylvania and it's a very,

very important state. let me show you why. i'm going to use my blue pen to show you what happens ifjoe biden does flip pennsylvania for the democrats. they go, it gets under 273 electoral college votes, which is what he needs in order to secure the presidency. it gets over the line. that was michael's wishing for the purposes of this but after the recount, georgia, where he is slightly ahead, just just flip recount, georgia, where he is slightly ahead, justjust flip blue. my‘s machine that he retains nevada and he also manages to flip of a zone where things are tight, well, that gets him up to 306 electoral couege that gets him up to 306 electoral college votes and if this does happen, if this is the final scenario, it would be a coincidence indeed because that is the figure that donald trump secured four years ago when he became president. thank you very much indeed. the bbc‘s yalda hakim joins us from philadelphia, pennsylvania.

yalda, 9000 votes, that is the margin thatjoe biden is now ahead by. when are they likely to declare it? well, we are still waiting, jane, to find out more. as you say, it has been a nail—biting day. 0ver find out more. as you say, it has been a nail—biting day. over the last couple of hours we have reported thatjoe biden initially beat donald trump and was in the lead by 5500 votes and then that went up to 6800 and as rita was saying that is now over 9000. we're just waiting for the election officials to come out and give a press c0 nfe re nce . officials to come out and give a press conference. that is happening now behind me. it is due to begin imminently so the press have arrived, there are people outside, pro trump protesters outside this convention centre, obviously calling for some kind of a recount of for the voting to stop, but the voting has continued. there's less than 20,000 votes to be counted here in philadelphia and this is a

democratic stronghold. 0verall, there's 430,000 votes to be counted in pennsylvania so it's been a nail—biting day, as they said. let's just remind our viewers where we we re just remind our viewers where we were the beginning of this week. on wednesday, there was a lead of 690,000 going in donald trump's way here pennsylvania. by thursday afternoon, that had narrowed to 80,000. this morning, it was 18,000 that separated the two men and now we're seeing thatjoe biden is ahead by almost 10,000 votes so we are watching things very closely here and we're expecting some more news on the next few minutes from city officials here. yalda, a lot of people asking on twitter, why is pennsylvania taking so long? well, pennsylvania is taking so long because such a huge volume of votes came in,jane. 2.6 because such a huge volume of votes came in, jane. 2.6 million people sentin came in, jane. 2.6 million people sent in mailing or absentee ballots. 3 million had registered but 2.6

we re 3 million had registered but 2.6 were actually returned and the officials here had requested that if they could start the count earlier because, really, pennsylvania is not used to this volume of votes, and so that's a request was rejected by republican—led legislators here, so they couldn't actually begin until november the 3rd. some counties didn't even begin until november the 4th and so with a huge volume of votes a nd 4th and so with a huge volume of votes and with, you know, it's a very manual process that we are learning here, about 100 people from both sides of the aisle are counting these votes, these officials, and what they do is they are opening the ballots, they are stating warning them out, they put them through the machine and then if the machine doesn't accept it because it is not flat enough they will have to manually fill it out so really, it is labour intensive and incredibly manual and it has been going on around the clock since november the 3rd in eight hour shifts so that's

is one of the reasons why it is taking so long. thank you much. the eyes of the world pennsylvania. so all eyes on pennsylvania. and the eyes of a lot of world leaders are trained towards what is happening over there in the united states with you jane, of course — and the uk's prime minister borisjohnson is among them. but in an interview he's just given, he didn't give us much further insight into what he thought about developments in the race for the white house. if i were a voter in america i don't think i'd want anybody in another government commenting on my election, our election in our country, and i think while the votes are being counted we should wait and see. and i have every confidence in the checks and balances of the american constitution. donald trump had been a big ally of yours. he backed you to be pm, he backed you over brexit, standing by you during probation. if he does go, would you miss him? look, i, let's be clear, the prime minister of

the united kingdom is always going to work very, very closely with whoever is the prime minister, the president of the united states, and that's going to be the case whatever the outcome of this election and, sam, ijust i repeat my point. i don't think at this stage you'd expect any form of an international leader to comment on the democratic processes of a very friendly country. that's just not what we do. borisjohnson there commenting — or not commenting — after being asked about the us presidential election. let's speak a little more on the situation now with inge kjemtrup. chair of democrats abroad uk. how confident are you now that joe biden has done enough to win? well, it is looking very good for joe biden to be the next president

of the united states and i am pretty excited about that. you showed a loss of the numbers that we are looking out as well and there are some close bases to be sure but i must say it is looking good overall and i'm kind of excited about that. i knew it was going to take a long time and we all knew was going to ta ke time and we all knew was going to take a long while to get out because of the mail—in ballots because overseas vote rs we re of the mail—in ballots because overseas voters were very of the mail—in ballots because overseas voters were very familiar with this because that is how we have to cast our ballots, we have to send them on, so it is really kind of thrilling, to me, to see the role that absentee ballots had played, and it is overseas voters, it is also military citizens, and that is what is great, but our voices are being heard, the power of voters he is being heard, and also the fact that so many people voted early, whether they voted by absentee ballot or whether they voted by coming in lines and, you know, voting early in the polling places. all in all, i think i have also been really impressed at how calm and

well handled the election officials have been throughout this whole process and, as your correspondent said, it's been quite a job to do all the counting, to open the envelopes. it's amazing. thank you for that. going to pose there if you don't mind because i'm going to bring you some live pictures now from philadelphia where we are getting an update from city officials. ... there getting an update from city officials. there are hundreds of others, including many city employees, who helped on election day and by stuffing this ballot counting operation for all the world to see. they all too numerous to name but please know that you have my thanks and the thanks of the people of the city and most of all i think the people of philadelphia. earlier this week, the commission andi earlier this week, the commission and i sent out an open letter to voters, urging patients and calm on election day and in the days that followed. you have shown it in spades. we ask that you stay calm and stay above the fray. you did

exactly that. what we have seen on the streets outside this convention ce ntre the streets outside this convention centre was not anger or contention but music, dancing, and celebration. as we predicted, the voters are residents of philadelphia ensured that our city shined as an example of how to run an election correctly so in the days ahead, please remember, this is not about a victory for a single candidate of a single political party. this is truly a victory for our democracy. that may sound cliche but today is oh so true. the votes will continue to be counted until every ballot, mail—in ballots, absentee ballot on a provisional ballot is counted so well some including the president continue to spew baseless claims of fraud, claims for which his team has not produced one iota of evidence, what we have seen here in philadelphia is democracy p and simple. 0urfounding fad philadelphia is democracy p and simple. 0ur founding fad those who could see the system just a 15 minute walk down the street i know would be proud. that might our founding fathers. 250 years after

the constitutional convention we stand at this convention centre and proclaim the system still works, the people have spoken, and god willing we will have a peaceful transition to power in january. we will have a peaceful transition to power injanuary. i we will have a peaceful transition to power in january. i would we will have a peaceful transition to power injanuary. i would like we will have a peaceful transition to power in january. i would like to ta ke to power in january. i would like to take a moment now to introduce the chair of the philadelphia state commissioners. thank you, mr meier. first of all, i want to thank all of you and the public for your continued patience. 0ur you and the public for your continued patience. our goal has been to produce accurate results as quickly as possible and we have continued to work toward that end. we have counted a total of 690,000, 360 votes. of that,... —— we have counted a total of 690,000, 360 votes. of that,... -- 690,360 votes. this is by far the largest numberof mail—in votes. this is by far the largest number of mail—in ballot in the city's history. i'm very proud of the work our staff did. they have

been working around the clock since tuesday and before. here's what you can expect in the coming days. at some point, this afternoon, we will report another update of mail—in ballot results. i expect it to be 2000 to 3000. after that, the remaining ballots generally fall into one of three categories. those that require a review, provisionals, us military overseas ballots. i would estimate their's approximately 40,000 remaining to be counted. we can also tell you that it may take several days to complete the passing of that and, as you know, election results are not officially certified until 20 days after the election. thank you again, thank you to the citizens of philadelphia, and now i

would like to invite commissioner to the podium. good afternoon. i would like to thank the county board of election staff, i would like to thank the taxpaying citizens of philadelphia and across america. i think it is safe to say that democracy has one. democracy is beautiful, we saw the statue of 0ctavius right on city hall, where he died so that americans can have access to the democratic process. and as we stand here today in 2020, people still have access to democracy. and it's a beautiful thing but we still want everyone to exert patients, ignore a lot of the noise that's going on, allow us to complete the counting process. and

again, i would like to thank everyone but i