all eyes on pennsylvania right now as joe biden's lead there has grown through most of the day and it continues to. the commonwealth 20 decisive electoral votes draw closer and the president's campaign launches a new legal challenge hoping to regain the advantage. >> that is exactly, obviously, what they are doing, anderson. if trends continue as we look at the numbers, it would be enough to put biden over the top. >> we will have the latest on the count there. three other states where biden is leading but no way running

away from. georgia is tight and possibly looking to a recount. >> we have a big night tonight. more votes coming in. the question whether the former vice president will still address the nation if the race still has not been called yet. checking at the white house on the president's thinking on the state of the race from his side. >> yeah. it's a lot. that is on top of the history making potential. the first woman, the vice president and surrounding pandemic surrounding all of it it. new numbers in pennsylvania? >> yes. i'm excited to show you this because it underscores what we have been talking about and i think the most acute manner. that is the new numbers that came into pennsylvania came into wo south of pittsburgh in west moreland county. top line first. joe biden has added to his lead

shy of about 500, 600 votes. this is one of the his big counties in 2014. 63.6% to 35.1%. and, yet, and, yet, the vote that was counted that was just reported came in 61% for vice president biden. 37% for donald trump. >> somebody who believes there is shenanigans going on is saying how is that possible given that president trump has such a lead in that county? >> i want to show this to you. this will be a good way of demonstrating this. let's track back just through this county. this is a tool we have. our great team put together. go back in time and show people how this goes through. wednesday at midnight up look at the margin. 69% to 29%. only 54% reporting. watch how it plays out. starts to drop a little bit. stays. starts to drop a lot. the question is why does it start to drop a lot in a stro

stronghold county in 2016 made up his margin almost single-handedly? this has been the story through pennsylvania in the midwest. wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania, they count in person election day vote first that went heavily republican. even in president trump's stronghold they started counting mail-in ballots. because it's a stronghold doesn't mean democrats don't live here. they vote. even though they have been talking about strongholds like philadelphia moving into the collar counties it's not just those places where joe biden is picking up vote now. joe biden across the state is picking up vote because it's mail-in ballots. democrats voted by mail-in ballots. even in a stronghold for president trump and west moreland county a new batch of votes comes in and joe biden picks up vote and the story across the state. 14,281 votes ahead right now for joe biden, about 112,000 votes left outstanding, we are not

just talking about democratic strongholds where joe biden is running up big margins and he is. he winning those places sometimes 85, 86% of the vote that comes in. we are also talking about red counties, president trump strongholds and joe biden is pulling in 60% of what is being reported. president trump needs to pull in 53 and 54% of the outstanding vote to make it up. 14,000 votes you say not a lot. with this county and this margin comes in and joe biden is winning 60% of the batch comes in that underscores the issue that trump is dealing with and they have been counting mail-in ballots last and mail-in ballots have been leaning heavily democratic even in places west moreland county where trump that a 30% margin. >> we are in a situation 20,000 mail-in ballots left to go county. allegheny county, 35,000 still to be reported? >> yeah. the perspective is this is a

nearly 30-point margin. allegheny 35,000 ballots remaining in that county. allegheny kouk for tcounty beca democrats voted by mail in this state has been going 77% to joe biden. all of this make pretty clear right now why democrats feel comfortable where they are in the state and the trajectory of where these goats are going to go heading forward. that is the mail-in ballots as they count and we have to figure out provisional stand and segregated. bottom line the reason this was the batch we got it, it underscores not just democratic strongholds but all over because the vote is being counted and when counted and what is cast' what is counted is mail in and that is leaning democrats even if it's a conservative county. >> i think i saw the number tick up again. >> it ticked up again. >> they are reporting in small batches at this point? >> yeah.

i was here all morning, late night, all morning. we got little pieces of philadelphia as it came in. there is still 5% outstanding. kate was walking us through that. 20,000 you were saying? >> 20,000 provisional ballots and a million philly and some segregated ballots. >> they had also mail-in ballots coming in out of philadelphia. montgomery county democratic stronghold and 5% outstanding. so it's how each county is deciding to process and report and a good example of that haven't seen anything from west moreland and now report and 95% and joe biden 67% in a republican stronghold. >> let's go to wilmington, delaware, to arlette saenz. how confident is the biden campaign? they have more access to numbers obviously. they have been seeing the trend lines.

what is their plan for the next several hours. >> reporter: joe biden and his campaign are watching these numbers closely. biden has widened his lead in pennsylvania and georgia. for the time being, joe biden is slated to speak here and expected to speak here in wilmington, delaware, but the question is whether they might re-evaluate that if that race does not get called heading into the evening hours. joe biden has been spending his day at home with his family and his senior advisers watching these results coming in and getting updates from his campaign about where things stand but they have been keeping this close eye as they have seen some of these votes coming in in their favor in these hours stretching into the afternoon. they are closely watching the state of pennsylvania where a

win would not just be a strategic win but also a personal one for joe biden. that is the state where he was born, spending his childhood in scranton, pennsylvania. he invested a lot of his personal time in the closing days of this campaign trying to get the votes out there in his native state. right now, it's a game and a theme of patience for the biden campaign as they are waiting to see and hoping to see that one of these states will help them get to that magic 270 number. >> he is going to be having -- he is supposed to talk -- they want to have a talk in prime time this evening. is that going to happen regardless of whether pennsylvania has been called or not? >> reporter: they haven't given any indication of whether their plans have changed but here on-site, there has been quite a bit of activity over the course of the day as staff has been preparing for this expected remarks from not just the former

vice president but also his running mate kamala harris which would be the first time that we are hearing from her since election day. so you've seen staffers up there on that stage. you've seen them rearranging some of the jeeps and trucks that are centered right in front of the stage where these remarks are expected to happen. but for the time being we have not' gotten any indication whether they might be reconsidering whether he gives remarks later this evening. >> arlette, thanks very much. kaitl kaitlan, what are you hearing from the white house? >> it's interesting hearing you ask if they are still going to speak event if they haven't called pennsylvania yet for joe biden. we are hearing if they call pennsylvania for joe biden and he comes out and gives this acceptance speech tonight, the president is not prepared to concede this race. he has no plans to do so and told people that even if it becomes clear biden on this path to victory and the president is not there is no concession speech prepared right now. even the president has a

acknowledged in private conversations the math is not there for him but they are moving forward what they believe is a prolonged court battle. they put dave bossy in charge of that and they believe that will take several weeks. they feel they have here to figure out exactly what they are going to do. the president believes in that matter of time he is going to continue to sew doubt about the outcome of these results whatever they are if they are not in his favor as we have seen. it's interesting, anderson, the position that they are in right now where the president is, obviously, upset. he is frustrated and speaking with his advisers is they have never really prepared for this. obviously, i don't think a lot of incumbent presidents talk to their aides at length about potentially losing the election. but the president and his aides really never did that. it is, obviously, a delicate subject for him and the pattern we have seen with the president is when something is a delicate subject like russia, people just don't bring it up with him. that is exactly what happened here with losing. this is something that the president truly was not prepared for and it doesn't appear to have set in with him yet. it does appear to have set in

with some of his aides we are told a bit of a frenzied atmosphere in the west wing they are wondering where their job is going. that is something to watch. does everyone stay in the west wing while they are going through this court battle and contesting the outcome of these results, whatever they may be? >> you're hearing folks in the west wing of the white house, people who work in the white house are already thinking about where the exit door is? >> reporter: exactly. there are people in the president's inner circle, the hope hicks and those types are focused with dealing with the president and managing his anger, i'm told but a lot of other people are not particularly close with the president are trying to figure out what is their next job going to be? people believe the president was going to win. he has this ability where when he gets impeached, he somehow survives. he gets covid and he is out of the hospital a few days later. they thought he was going to win re-election. they are having to recalculate and decide what is their next

job going to be and what is it like going into the job market not from a normal white house where you got a lot of offers but coming from the trump white house where it's proven to be more difficult to land yourself in the private sector. >> kaitlan collins, appreciate it and we will continue to check in with you. let's go back to erin. >> pennsylvania, pennsylvania waiting for these votes to trickle in. brian todd is in pittsburgh, allegheny county. we saw the tick in terms of vote county go up in favor of joe biden for the statewide margin. where you are 35,000 votes outstanding. it is a big chunk of change. where are we in terms of finding out how those go? >> reporter: erin, we could be maybe about an hour away from getting some of the first results of that count that you're talking about, those 35,000 plus mail-in votes some of them postmarked before election day and some on election day and they are arriving and they didn't start counting them until after

election day. what is really cool about this, erin, in some of these places you do get great access. we have great access here. this is the elections warehouse in pittsburgh. look at these people. they are inches behind me. these are people doing the most critical work. they are called the return board. they are counting ballots right now. right now the ballots that we are told they are counting are from military members and overseas people who have registered to vote in this county. earlier they went through damaged ballots and went through about 3,000 damaged ballots out of the 35,000 outstanding. we are told that they have about 3500 military and overseas ballots they are going through and in an hour's time we hope to get the first results and they are counting 29,000 other ballots. ballots that had wrong information put on them, they are being kind of segregated. they had wrong information put on them when they were mailed out and that was corrected and remailed to people and people mailed them back. because of that issue by court

order they have to be counted at 5:00 today. quickly, we will show you great access here and makes it so much fun. this lady in the red is an observer. they are observers a couple of feet behind them and transparent process here. here is more transparency. our photo journalist jay mcmichaels will show you cameras are everywhere. you see the monitors up? there those are from cameras mounted all over there room. between the cameras looking at every position and these monitors here, you're getting not only great access but real transparency here. we hope to see some results very soon. >> all right. thank you very much, brian todd. we all hope for those results because though will matter as we watch this margin move. i want to go to sara murray live in philadelphia. what is the very latest you understand as to where they are for more votes coming out? >> reporter: well, look. there is just under 96% of the mail-in vote counted across

pennsylvania so we are getting into these smaller numbers but, still, decent pots of votes. brian todd said you have a chunk in allegheny county they are turning to. in philadelphia we know they had about 40,000 votes left as of this afternoon and they kind of warned us here in philly that it would take time to go through these. some of these are similar to what brian was talking about over in allegheny county, votes need to be roux vufeviewed and issues with them and hand count and provision ballots and overseas ballots to go through. we saw chunks of vote coming through the last couple of days but last batches take a little bit longer. things that need to be reviewed, things that need to be hand-counted. that kind of thing. i think why we are not seeing these numbers move through quite as quickly as we got used to seeing the last few days. we got a press release from the secretary of state pointing out what we know. the vast majority of these

mail-in ballots have been counted and counties are turning to count their provisional ballots. the secretary of state office has not released a number for ballots statewide or segregated ballots or ballots that came in after 8:00 p.m. on election day to 5:00 p.m. today. we know they are talking to the counties as we are at cnn trying to figure out those counts but so far they have not' released statewide numbers for those. >> sara, thank you very much. waiting, waiting. originally numbers we are not sure of and waiting as the votes are tabulated and comes in and what changes to that margin in pennsylvania crucial margin. david gergen joins me now. you have been in these moments. you have worked with so many presidents. the reporting you just heard from kaitlan collins from white house acknowledging he recognizes the imagine won't work in trump's favor but maintaining a prolonged court battle will sow enough doubt.

that is the mindset president of the united states. joe biden is primed to make a teach tonight. he may be declared the victor and he may not. what does he do at this moment? >> first of all, erin, it's important to remember the tradition that the loser is the one who calls the winner and has a private phone calls and goes before the public to make a gracious concession speech and promise to do everything he can to help the next president of the united states. of course, we have, stead, a very childish and irresponsible response from our current incumbent. under these circumstances, i think it would be helpful if the president were to go on a double track. he has every right to go file lawsuits. >> yes. >> and make his complaints but he is also president for the next 11 weeks. during that period of time, if there is going to be a transfer of power as there is, i think

now and i think it may be peaceful, it's extremely important for joe biden to have the time to form his own government and, by the way, tap into those funds that are made available to the new president and his transition team. in order to get ready to take over on january 20th, those are the wheels that ought to be in motion tonight even as they go on with lawsuits, and there other. under the circumstances i think joe biden has to come out and set his own tone for the country. if donald trump is not being gracious, joe biden must be extra gracious and he must be -- >> should he tonight go ahead' give that speech? i'm sorry, i didn't mean to -- they announced they were going to give this address and we don't have a lot of detail whether that plan would change if we don't yet note a victor tonight. should joe biden speak regardless to the nation? >> it's a hard question. i think now that he's pretty far down that track, he should go ahead and speak. we knew in the morning when he said he was giving a speech we

knew they would have uncertainties and probably wouldn't end with a full declaration of a victor. so, yeah, i think he ought to go ahead with it and shoonuld be fe to ten-minute speech, short, but gracious saying what we do and don't know and how he is going to try to help pull us through and this may be a difficult time for everybody but he promises to do everything he can to create a good and respectful -- he wants to be respectful of his opponents and begin segment a tone for the transition. he doesn't have to do everything. a lot we don't know. we don't know how he is handling the pandemic. does he take some responsibility for the pandemic for the stimulus bill or does he stand back from it all? that is the hard question. i do think tone is what is really important and for americans to feel reassured that there an adult in a room who is now going to be our president. >> what role do senior republicans play when it comes

from we heard from the president last night he talked about corruption and being stone from him? you do hear republicans, people likes of chris christie saying those words were unacceptable and others. does that need to be louder and more coordinated? >> yes, yes to both questions. it has to be done behind the scenes very quietly to get to the president. lindsey graham has to get off television and start trying to help negotiate this peacefully. go ahead with the lawsuits. but also keep your other eye on how are we going to govern the country when this is over? for more importantly for the sake of the country, they have to be important to bringing us back together. when nixon was forced out, it was both parties went to him and encouraged him to leave and he realized he had to go.

republicans, they don't have to do this all publicly but they do need to do it to deliver the word. we don't want to spend the next four years with donald trump being a sort of a petulant and he doesn't want to get off the public stage. >> thank you, david gergen. next on the republican-led lawsuit that was announced late today over the mail-in ballots in pennsylvania where joe biden holds a growing lead at this moment. a top republican lawyer will join us on the merits, if any, of that case. juggled life for it. took charge for it. so care for it. look after it. invest with the expertise of j.p. morgan, either with an advisor or online, through chase. after all, it's yours. chase. make more of what's yours.

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joe biden's lead growing in pennsylvania, republicans are trying to go to court to stem the tide the story broke a short time ago. a new public legal challenge jim sciutto joins us with that. what are you learning? >> right off the top. pennsylvania law they are not late arriving because the law allows them to five three days after election day as it stands now. lawyers for pennsylvania republicans are asking the supreme court to order the state to, quote, log, segregate and otherwise not take any action on ballots received three days after the election. these are ballots which the pennsylvania supreme court said could be counted as long as they are -- they arrive three days after election day even if the postmark is ledgeable. here is the new gop claim. quoting here. given the results of the november 3rd, 2020 election, the vote in pennsylvania may well

determine the next president of the united states and it is currently unclear whether all 67 county boards of elections are segregating late arriving ballots. that phrase late arriving. it's not by law. to be clear, the pennsylvania secretary of state has directed these ballots to be segregated. pennsylvania lieutenant governor was on our air a short time ago made clear that state officials did this preemptively, complying what he called a legal maneuver by the state gop. the idea being let's set them aside so if there is legal trouble for those, they won't affect other mail-in ballots. state officials also say that the total number of ballots that arrived in pennsylvania after election day within that three-day window is too small actually to affect the outcome. in the new filing, republicans argue say the secretary of state issued two different sets of guidance. first that the ballots at issue be segregated but a second one that allows them to be counted. i should remind everyone that prior to the election,

republicans twice challenges this pennsylvania supreme court decision which allowed ballots to arrive after election day and went to the supreme court but the court let the state court decision stand for now while the case continues. the trump campaign is trying to intervene in the case but the court has not yet ruled on that request. two big headlines there. state law as it stands there allows them to come up to three days after election day as long as they were postmarked before. the challenge isn't new but you never know. a conservative justice or two in the supreme court court decision to seem to leave the door open to challenge the late arriving ballots as the republicans claim them to be but the other caveat democrats in the state say it's too small number of votes to affect the outcome so where it stands right now. >> it's confusing, though. the state is saying they segregated -- they preemptively, without a court ruling, segregated those ballots that would be arriving legally but

after election day, a three-day window that ballots can arriving that they segregated them. the republicans are saying maybe in some counties they got an instruction they could count those. does that mean the vote counts we are getting having some of those segregated ballots in it in some of these cuts or do we know? >> that is the claim. state official say they set them aside and shrink wrapped them for the purpose to prevent any legal challenges to adultrate the other hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots that came in before the election day. that is what state officials are saying and said it on this air. republicans are claiming otherwise and like with all of these things it will work its way through the courts. >> as it should. jim sciutto, appreciate it. joining me now, is ben ginsburg. thank you for being with us. what do you make of -- first of

all, the president's overall posture, his rhetoric, his claims of fraud which he really has offered no evidence for and these lawsuits that his allies are pursuing right now? >> in terms of his overall posture, anderson, i think he is running into a problem making these claims about the election because there were such lack of credibility claims made before the election. in other words, he said our elections were rigged and fraudulent. there was no proof for that. he had the republican national committee and various republican parties go out and file a series of suits none of which tried to make it easier for people to vote. so now in the post-election period they are a bit hoisted on their own for the positions taken beforehands. the president's overall position is consistent now with what it was before the election. >> just to be clear for our viewers. you have spent a very remarkable and illustrious career focusing

on elections, focusing on ballots, focusing on in polling stations. i imagine you've been to more polling stations than most americans would ever even want to get near. so you're a republican. you're coming at this from a lifetime, a career's worth of experience. when you hear this challenge now in pennsylvania about segregated ballots, i'm not sure -- it seems to me like a difference in argument one is the republicans are saying, well, some of these segregated ballots were actually counted and it seems like the state is saying, well, no, they were segregated? do we know what the reality is? >> i don't think we know the reality in each of the counties. but the essential point throughout this lawsuit is, number one, it is a valid legal question about whether votes

received after the election should be counted and secondarily whether it was a task for the legislature or state supreme court. those are valid legal issues. but for this election, it's not valid to throw out those votes and not count them simply because the voters all relied on the three-day after the election deadline. courts have always frowned on disenfranchising votes because things a election administrator said in their roles. >> those republicans who say, look, laws are laws and even if, you know, it's unfortunate, those laws should be abade to the detriment somebody cast a vote even if it's cast in good faith, you say what? >> well, i say for something like this, the broad-based rule where the state law and the supreme court did not interfere with this law, said the ballots could be received up to three

days after the election if postmarked on election day that you actually have to let those votes count. individual recount situations like we are about to see in a number of states, you will get into the issue of whether the law should be strictly interpreted in the marking of ballots or whether the intent of the voter, if clear, but not precisely done, should prevail but that is a different issue from what is being said about these late arriving -- about the ballots that come in after election day. >> when you have a client like president of the united states who is clearly upset right now and wants to see action on as many fronts as possible, as an important, i'm wondering what that experience is like and at a certain point, does the fact that the number of these segregated ballots even if they were all thrown out by the courts and ruled invalid would

not affect the actual outcome of the election? does that -- should that be taken into account or should the court take that into account? >> the court undoubtedly will take that into account, especially the supreme court. i don't think the u.s. supreme court would jump in to consider the validity of these particular ballots for this election under any circumstances if there aren't enough to change the outcome. >> ben ginsburg, i appreciate your time. thanks. >> thanks. up next an update on the race of georgia. secretary of state saying this afternoon, a recount is likely. we will talk about that with atlanta's mayor coming up.

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we are watching the votes being counted. a lot of moving numbers in these critical battleground states. a big one we are focused on right now is georgia. phil mattingly it at the magical wall. >> it's tight. i don't think that is going to change any time soon. as it currently stands, joe biden 1,563 votes ahead. 99% reporting. military votes to be counted and under 10,000. i think the biggest watch we

have been waiting for. gwinnett county has about 4,500 votes outstanding that they need to count, process, then release. you look at the margin in gwinnett county. it's a democratic county. it will likely break. democratic based on what we have seep and trends we have seen may break at a bigger margin than this. i think the reality in the state right now it's going to a recount. we heard the election officials talking about it earlier in the day. i think the one wildcard we don't have a full picture on yet is provisional and military battle. about 18,000 off the top of my head. >> we heard from an official in georgia earlier saying 8,410 votes that could have been postmarked and returned today. >> they were waiting for to add on. >> yes. but not saying -- that is like the upper limit. it could be anywhere up to 8410 votes that could have been postmarked. >> on top of the 18,000 they have brought in and overseas and military ballots and made clear

of the 8,000 left of that pool it won't be 8,000 or zero but in the middle. give awe sense of the universe that we are working with right now and how little vote is outstanding, provisional and military ballots don't have the ability in and of itself to shift a race and these could. these could. we wil where it goes and how it ends pup i think the biggest thing is gwinnett county when it comes in and how it goes. if it goes to biden at this margin right here or if it goes bigger and if it goes bigger because it's vote bay i mail over the course of several states the last couple of days has gone fairly heavily to joe biden so see if he can pat hd h lead. >> phil, thanks very much. erin, it is fascinating. i'm very curious to see, depending if and when pennsylvania is called, whether or not joe biden will speak if the commonwealth of pennsylvania has not been called for him.

>> that is the crucial thing. he said te he said he was going to speech and now it's hard not to do that and what sort of speech do you give? thank you, anderson. let's go to mayor of atlanta, mayor bottoms, what do you think about where we are in georgia? obviously, it is an incredibly narrow, narrow margin right now for joe biden. 1,585 votes officials in your state were laying out. look. more than 8,000 overseas military ballots left to be counted. still votes left to be counted. when all is said and done do you believe georgia will be a biden state? >> i absolutely believe it. this is our year. i've known for a while that georgia was trending blue and every opportunity i've had, i've said it to joe biden. i even said it during my conversation with him during the vet for vp that i believe this was our year and now the world sees it. i know it's going to be a thin

margin but we are used to close elections and my race for mayor was 132-vote difference out of almost 100,000 votes and i've been saying that to people all week. we need it to show up because it was going to be close and this is what we are seeing. >> i want to ask you about a recount. when you look at the rules as i understand them, there is no automatic recount in the state of georgia. a candidate can request one, though, after certification if the margin is one half of 1% or less. obviously, currently, it is. but, you know, we have got more votes to come in. how confident are you that a recount could be avoided and, to be clear, the trump campaign has already said they want a recount, right? they are going to push one. do you think it can be avoided or not? >> also my understanding that senator kelly loeffler is going to help with that recount given the position she is.

. i'm confident that joe biden has taken georgia and it gives people the confidence they need and the integrity of this election i think we should have a recount, but it's going to be a close one but we are blue. >> senator kamala harris already has made history as the first black and asian one to be on the vice presidential ticket. if these numbers hold, if they do, nationally, you know, she will be the next vice president if they hold in georgia, she could very well be. it's a crucial part of the puzzle here. can you take a moment to reflect to 0 that and what that means to you? >> this is an historical election. senator harris join the ticket and for us to be a part of changing the history of this country, i think really speaks to the legacy of john lewis and joseph lowery and great giants we lost this year in our state. it's a great year. this really is the most

important lex of my lifetime and so many others and to have kamala harris be a part of this historic moment makes it even more special. >> mayor keisha lance bottoms, thank you so much. i appreciate your time. as we have more counting and the situation unfolds in the state of georgia. she mentioned senator loeffler in georgia. we have attention on the white house and rightfully so but i don't want to lose sight of the crucial senate races. the senate is holding in the balance and means everything to what the next president will be able to do legitimately. >> let's look at the balance of power and what democrats need to do to shift it. you can see there are 51 seats that they would need in the senate at this point in time. so there is one narrow path way to get there and that would be if joe biden were president,

they actually only need 50 because kamala harris could be the tiebreaking vote in a senate that is divided 50/50. thousa a a lot of it is running through georgia to get to that. and race between david perdue and jon ossoff. this appears to be heading for a runoff january 5th. accompanied on that runoff is going to be that special election that you mentioned between reverend rafael warnock and kelly loeffler. democrats hanging their hope on that. other outstanding races. one is in north carolina where tom tillis, the republican incumbent is ahead at this point in time, leading his democratic challenger cal cunningham. we are also keeping our eye on

alaska and maine but, right now, those races appearing to favor republicans which wouldn't change the balance of power. so this is a narrow pathway for democrats. like you said this is essential for whoever the president will be in order to have control of the senate if it is joe biden, you can see it's a very tough pathway to having a senate in his favor and it's going to be take sometime before he will find out if that is something that falls in his favor. january 5th, all eyes on georgia. >> right. as if they weren't already. wow. okay. thank you. let's go back to our political team. karen, when we look at this, obviously, it is amazing how tight the battle for control is. this is not what democrats expected to be looking at. let's just be honest. right? they thought they had a lot more things in their favor. other than that, you simply have not seen a blue wave, right? mark kelly in arizona, that came out as expected. other than that, this has not gone the way democrats thought.

>> that's true. although i think there is reason for democrats to continue to be optimistic as we go to this runoff in georgia. and certain if joe biden and kamala harris win the white house, we will have the benefit of having a democratic vice president to break any ties that may occur. i think for democrats, i think there is a lot of really good news about this election that i think because of our anxiety, frankly, around what is happening in the presidential and as things are sorting themselves out, maybe it's harder to see. but you're right, it didn't turn out the way folks had hoped. personally, i didn't believe in the big lblue wave but my cynicism from 2016 kicking in. we are a fairly divided country and that will be one of the greatest challenges that our next president and both congress

will have to deal with. they will have to decide how will they lead in this moment? again, i think a question of country over party. we can't continue along this pathway we have been on with the divisiveness. i hope that is the pressure we put on all of the elected members of congress. >> mike, one thing we did see in more than one case but i give you the example of susan collins in the senate. you had people go and split their ticket, right? they voted for susan collins and voted for that republican and go ahead and vote for joe biden. that was not something people expected to see but you are seeing it. what is the significance? >> the significance is we are going to have a divided government if joe biden wins. to quote what karen is talking about the big blue wave was talked about in the media and on the left this was an ultimate repudiate of did the polls saying joe biden would win significantly and make some kind

of statement and give him a mandate. in reality it didn't happen. it looks like republicans will keep the senate or come down to one state for that. when we started the cycle off republicans down 19 seats in the house and look like down only six or seven by the time this is done so we have gained seats in the house and the country is very evenly divided. we are still counting vote days after the election to determine who the president is. this was not a repudiation of republicans or trumpism. this was a close election and that proves that a lot of the democrats wrong for what they thought was going to happen. >> i totally hear your point. david chalain, when the numbers come in you could come in a situation all outstanding states go for joe biden and 5 million split on the popular vote and more voted for donald trump and joe biden than any presidential candidate in history. how are you supposed to see that, david? >> no doubt we are a divided country. i think that is crystal clear.

donald trump, the energy he brings -- his ability to bring his voters out as he did on tuesday is what definitely helped republicans apparently save control of the senate if it does, indeed, happen that way even though he may not have saved his own job. i do think, though, listen. these votes have to be counted. it's hard to do sort of takes on what things meanwhile votes are still being counted and we don't know how it settles. we saw that in 2018 with the house races as we waited for california to come in. but it could end up that joe biden has flipped five trump states. not just rebuilding that blue wall but also expanding into arizona and georgia. when donald trump won in 2016, he had flipped six obama states to get to 306 electoral votes and that was a substantial victory how it was perceived and moved forward with a mandate. so i don't know yet that this will be judged at the end of the

day when we see how all of the votes are tallied if, indeed, joe biden at 306 electoral votes and flipped five trump states in various regions of the country. that will be seen i think as a substantial victory. >> it's razor thin and worth reminding people you may end up with, we don't know, but your margins in some of these states will be greater than in joe biden than narrowly fought states for donald trump. incredibly divided no way to say that's not true but, yet, more in favor of biden than trump was able to succeed with in 2016? >> that's right. if we flash back to 2016, you know, it was an upset surprising victory but it certainly was seen as a mandate. it was seen as sort of massive upheaval in terms of where the country was and what sort of

values the country was valuing and what would be represented in this administration. biden might end up in the same place. he certainly has more votes than hillary clinton did. more votes than donald trump did too. so, you know, if you're a democrat, if you're in this administration, if biden ends up winning, you should claim the mandate because that certainly what donald trump would have done if he gets re-elected and certainly what he did in 2016 as well. so the idea that there is a divided country, well, that wasn't really what the republicans were saying in 2016. >> one quick point. if biden wins and republicans keep the senate -- >> go ahead, karen. then mike jump in. >> i was going to say it's great spin while the votes are still coming in to try to suggest that joe biden doesn't have a mandate. because as i said i believe the country is divided, that does not mean that joe biden won't have a very clear mandate and, frankly, i think that also means that the members of congress and the senate and house also have a

mandate. so i don't want -- i have to push back on you, mike, this idea it's not going to be a mandate for joe biden as david said also. if we flip those five states is meaningful and the sheer volume in terms of the turnout is meaningful in terms of the direction that this country is choosing to go into. >> mike, certainly this is the case you'd be making if the shoe were on the other foot? >> loochk. if republicans hold the senate and joe biden wins he would be the first not to have a solidify congress in his first term. we haven't been competitive in pennsylvania since 1988 in a presidential election. we lost it every single time. if trump winds up not winning it this time, it will be by a razor-thin margin because we are still counting the votes. so the point is the country is incredibly polarized. democrats were looking at this thing we called a blue wave that they were going to sweep into office and wouldn't this make a

great statement we pushed back and repudiated trump was? millions of voters said no to that and a lot of it was based on issues they were turned off on the left wing of the democratic party, things like nationalized health care and those type of issues and democrats have to reconcile with a president and midterms coming up if biden wins and they are going to have a real problem inside their party dealing with those issues that really pushed a lot of voters away from them in this electionand wegained seats in the house because of it. >> they are soul searching to be done for both parties, that is clear. thank you all very much. next, we are going to have update on the crucial battle grounds. a little bit of changing and tweaking as these votes are coming in when our special coverage continues. but we didn't stop there. we made a cloud flexible enough to adapt to any size business. no matter what it does, or how it changes. and we kept going. so you only pay for what you use.

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election night in america continuous. joe biden on the cusp of becoming president elect. biden but he is on that cusp a while now. >> it sure has. his lead in expecting. where we are expecting new numbers from allegheny county is growing but margins from three other states are close to incredibly tight and especially georgia. >> in this hour the live updates on the key states and the latest from both campaigns as the race gets closer to the finish line. up first. where we stand big with the big picture. phil mattingly joins us for that. where are we? >> waiting for votes. you may be familiar with this. we have done it a few times the last couple of days. joe biden at 253 electoral votes

and needs either one state, pennsylvania to come through for him or some combination of nevada, arizona. that would get him to 270. also have georgia as well where it is razor thin right now. i think everybody is paying attention to pennsylvania and that is because we think, we think is possible at this hour we will get a decent chunk of vote. what we have been waiting for is a lot of different counties outstanding. most of them in democratic strongholds and southeastern part of the state waiting for their absentee and vote -- not come in. the votes were cast. counted, and actually released, that count is what we are looking for. the big thing outstanding right now we think may come is allegheny county and we expect i think 35,000 is what we have been waiting for. >> yeah. 35,000. >> the expectation here based on everything we have seen the trend lines over the course of the last 12 to 15 hours in the state of pennsylvania is this margin, pay attention to this. allegheny county, home of

pittsburgh, joe biden 58.7% and 39. % for donald trump. when we have seen mail-in ballots tabulated from philadelphia or across. >> i want to show we are putting up on the screen new numbers out of georgia. vice president biden lead has now grown to 4,263. the margin had been, a short time ago, 1,585. >> that is a big jump. >> it is. >> i don't know offhand and wait for our team to put it together. i think one thing we have been waiting for overall the course the last couple of hours is waiting for gwinnett county to come in. >> right. >> i don't know if that is the case and i'm not sure if that is what it is right now but gwinnett county was the big outstanding vote in terms of absentee that had not been tabulated and released yet. so that would be kind of the answer i would assume. don't hold me to that right now. >> but gone up about 2,500

votes. >> interesting point here. we just confirmed it is gwinnett so the big outstanding vote we were waiting for in gwinnett and talking the last couple of hours when gwinnett comes in a good chance joe biden will pad his lead. loose this margin 58.4 to 40.2% and mail-in and leaning more democratic based on the trend lines biden jumped up nearly 3,800 votes. what does that mean going forward? i'll say something simple and not complicated. 4,253 is more than 1,5:00. rare georgia has a significant vote differential. >> that would be a catastrophic failure if they suddenly discovered 4,000 votes were wrong. you're trying to figure out what the landscape is for the military votes that are still to

be tabulated. we have provisionals that will still be tabulated. if you're the biden campaign who i would note has felt good what was outstanding and what they expected to examine come in, everything you're seeing that adds to your vote total as you go in to maybe some uncertainty how the military ballots will break. may traditionally break republican but we will see when they come in and count them and how the provisionals will break. you're a hot larry going in 4,000 vote lead than 1,500 lead. not a lot more vote left outstanding with gwinnett just coming in. gwinnett was the big outstanding vote and they broke biden like we expected. >> the other open question is exactly how many ballots from overseas might there be? because the way they said it was that there could be as many as 8,410, the official said votes that could have been postmarked and received by today. >> yeah. so the universe is today is the deadline. so they didn't have, when the

secretary of state was giving his briefing or the election officials were giving their briefing is the entirety of the universe of what was coming in. i think what they said is they had a total that had been -- that could come in of 18,000. they believe they had 10,000 had already come in and they were waiting for 8,000 outstanding could come in by the deadline today and made clear won't be the entire 8,000 8,410 and not zero and looking between 10,000 and 18,000. >> do you know if they counted the 10,000? >> i don't believe they have but don't coat me on that. bigger issue is the number one out of that group but you assume between 10 and 18,000 less than 18,000 but also however are they going to break? because when the biggest batch of, if i have it correctly here the biggest batch from fulton county which is democratic county but military votes kind

of go more republicans. bring it altogether the reality is joe biden in a state has not done to a democrat since 1992 they are almost done counting these votes is up 4, -- over 4,000 vote. >> receiving the votes from military, you would think sometime tomorrow perhaps depending on speed and how tired they are, they may be able to get those results? >> i am absolutely not guessing when anything is counted or completed. >> fair enough. all of that, of course, hanging over all of that there is likely to be a recount in this state? >> i don't think any questions about that. officials in both campaigns would tell you that and i think the election officials in georgia would tell you that. >> i want to go to arizona. bill weir is standing by in phoenix. what are you seeing there? >> reporter: as the great tom petty once sang, "the waiting is

the hardest part." the theme song of the week. the machinery of democracy continues to grind. i think we agree true trump speed these days. joe biden now less than 40,000 vote advantage in arizona. we have seen that lead slowly chip away as the numbers came in from maricopa and pinall county. about 142,000 votes left to county in the biggest most populous county in arizona 220,000 votes for the entire state left to do. so they tell us that they can do about 70,000 or 80,000 tallies per announcement. tonight, at 7:00 local time, 9:00 eastern, we will get the latest numbers and see if those margins, president trump's numbers have been coming in higher than joe biden. a lot having to do with the absentee order that was mailed in. democrats sent theirs in much earlier in a state where automatic absentee has been a

thing in this state a long time. the question how many late arriving ballots that came in on friday, saturday, sunday, monday before election day, how many of those are president trump supporters? a lot of the folks in the parking lot out there think there is going to be a lot but we should know tonight, anderson, maybe before pennsylvania we will get some clarity out of this state that the a.p. and fox news has already called. but being super careful because it is so close. >> i want to be clear. when you say those late arriving ballots, late arriving in the process but legal? they are allowed to -- >> legal, of course. exactly. exactly. either they were dropped off in person on election day but when the ballots went out, you know, weeks ago, a lot of folks got them in the mail early on and which is the trend around the country a lot of those folks are democrats. >> so fascinating to see that, you know, just -- we have been watching this now, this drip, drip of them counting the ballots and we have seen joe

biden's lead drop gradually in the state of arizona. now you said it's less than 40,000 vote lead but 220,000 votes left still to count in the state. a lot to watch. we appreciate you being there for us, bill weir. let's go now to sara sidner. what are you hearing in las vegas? >> 63,000 ballots need to be counted and heard that earlier from the registrar. people have to cure their votes. people in this case, people have to show their i.d.s. i've talked to a couple of these folks and bring you back down here. one of these folks graciously agreed to talk to us and all of these people want to make sure their vote is counted and

they need to for some reason cure their vote. let me talk to this young lady here. my name is sara and i'm from cnn. what is your name? >>. . chris ttine portly. >> reporter: what are you doing here? >> correct identification. i have three identifications and passport and i.d. >> reporter: we don't want to show your address. you have to show two forms of identification and something that shows you live here? >> that is correct. >> reporter: did you just move? >> i did. i'm from texas. yes, i am. >> reporter: how did you find out you needed to show up here to make sure your vote is counted? >> they called. they called and had a well check at my home. yes, they did. >> reporter: what did they tell you? why you need to show up or say you need to come here? >> they wanted to know if my i.d. was correct and who my i.d. say that it was and it's me, christine portly.

>> reporter: christine, are you willing to tell us who you're voting for? >> joe biden. >> reporter: what do you think so far? right now he is up in this state by i think about 20,000 votes. what do you think about the process so far? there are folks who are questioning the process. what do you think about it? >> he is a god and true honest man and i believe in him and i'm backing him in the name of jesus. >> reporter: do you have any reason to doubt that your vote or anybody's vote won't be counted that should be counted? >> this is why we here to do to make sure the right thing is being done and they are doing the right thing. >> reporter: thank you very much. >> thank you for being here. >> reporter: you heard there she is here to show her i.d. i can tell you anyone who had gotten the same call that she did and was contacted, telling them that they needed to bring an idea to cure their vote they have to do that by 5:00 p.m. today, that the is deadline. folks have been standing in line for a while here. we did speak to one brand-new first-time voter and she told me she simply could not wait any more. she wants to keep her job.

she had to go to her job and in line a half an hour so she left and she left with quite sad because her vote won't be counted because she simply could not wait in line any more. this line is moving fairly slowly. >> i want to make sure people know if some states, this whole idea of curing a ballot, it's not in provisions for some states. this is legal in the state of nevada? this is a common practice? >> that's right. there are some counties that you have to show i.d. or if they think there is something wrong with the ballot, they want to try to make sure, for example, a signature is correct or they are confused about something they don't like, something that they see on the ballot then they will call you and say you need to cure this. the i.d. is important, obviously, here in this state. it's not in every state you have to show an i.d. when you go to vote but one of the voters down here voted in person and they still called him saying i need to go ahead and check your i.d. again and so he is standing in

line down a little bit further. all of the people that are in line here, by the way, anderson are saying they are going to try to stick it out as long as they can to make sure that their vote is counted. so far as i mentioned earlier, about 63,000 mail votes still need to be counted are in the hands of those who are counting ballots. we should hear what happened to those and who those went to obje ostensibly by the end of the weekend. >> i think so important you're there showing this and so interesting to see and the dedication of so many citizens coming out, republicans and democrats, who want to make sure their vote does count. it's also very important because just showing those i.d.s is interesting. we have heard lindsey graham earlier, i believe he was on fox, maybe it was last night, basically saying he doesn't trust in nevada, that he made the allegation that undocumented

immigrants were voting in the state of nevada. you're saying that people have to show an i.d.? >> reporter: absolutely. they are very strict. that's why all of these peop people -- look at this line. all of these people in this line have to show an i.d. and the law says by 5:00, that needs to be done. so they are here. they are willing to wait. they are willing to show their i.d. and that is part of the process here. it doesn't mean there could be something that slips through. but they are being extremely careful and we should also mention those who are counting the ballots who took a pledge to do their job and do it legally, we should also mention the hard work they have been doing over many days now but these folks are committed but they do have to show i.d. for sure and that is what they are here doing. >> i'm glad your there to show us. thanks very much. let's go back to erin. >> those images are so powerful. so people understand what this is giving us is this

unprecedented view into this country and how this system works and how, you know, dedicated people are, as voters, as people counting the ballots, to get this right. more now on the candidates here. we are coming into the evening hours, still awaiting a call which way the race goes. phil mattingly is reporting that joe biden's margin is growing in georgia. you look at the numbers in georgia we did see a significant increase. that went from a march of 1,585 to 4,463 favor joe biden. a big jump in georgia. i want to find out what president trump and vice president biden are going to be doing the next few hours. jim acosta is talking to his sources at the white house and arlette saenz is in wilmington with the biden campaign. jim, let me start with you. what are you hearing president trump is doing here the next few hours? >> reporter: we are waiting to see if the president is making some remarks. he may want to get ahead of joe biden before he makes those comments later on this evening. i can tell you right now the

president has been in the oval office huddling with advisers throughout the day and i'm being told that the scene behind the scenes is one of chaos, that the president and his advisers are scrambling to find a way to mount some sort of credible claim that there has been some viable, you know, allegation of voter fraud that they can put forward. at this point, i'm told by an adviser that is not happening. this adviser was telling me a short while ago that, quote, people are enabling the president behind the scenes and i asked this adviser who is doing this? and this adviser said the president's personal attorney rudy giuliani is one of several aides and relatives close to the president who are enabling him right now as he refuses to deal with the reality that the white house is slipping away from him. i will also tell you that this adviser is telling me that they believe that some believe inside the trump campaign that georgia is just gone.

and there is no credible path to the presidency without georgia. you can't put together the number of electoral votes the president needs without georgia and that is because pennsylvania. they see the votes going to joe biden in pennsylvania and in the words of this adviser i spoke with a short time ago, pennsylvania is, quote, the fat lady sippingi isinging for pres trump. that when pennsylvania is called trump will no longer be the president of the united states come january. i'm telling you they are having a devil of the time behind the scenes trying to convince the president he has to deal with the reality that this is slipping away from him and this adviser describes to me, it is a scene of chaos. >> it is. the votes dripping in and dripping in. georgia now a little bit tick for the president was able to narrow that. 4,234 from h4,467. our arlette saenz is in

wilmington with the biden campaign. you hear jim's reporting and president's mindset and chaos around him. what is joe biden thinking about tonight and what is his evening look like as we all sit here and watch these tallies change vote-by-vote? >> reporter: erin, joe biden and his campaign are as closely watching these results as they are hoping that one of these states will help put them to that magic number of 270 electoral votes. but really right now it's just a waiting game and a patience game. that is something the campaign has been stressing for several days now and something they have to keep adhering to. as the sun is setting here in wilmington, delaware, there is still some staff milling about here at the chase center preparing the site for potential remarks this evening. earlier in the day, the biden campaign said that the former vice president and his running mate kamala harris were expected

to deliver remarks in prime time. but as that prime time hour quickly approaches, the question is whether joe biden still will deliver remarks even if this race has not yet been called in his favor. biden has spent the day at home here in wilmington, delaware, with his family and advisers watching these results come in and the last time we heard and saw from joe biden was a little over 24 hours ago. a moment where he urged patience and calm as these votes continued to be counted. over the course of the day, the biden campaign has seen some signs of hope as they have seen their leads expand in some of these states like georgia and pennsylvania, right next door to here in delaware where he is. right now, they are still patiently waiting to see whether there will be a call in this race and whether it will be in his favor. >> arlette, thank you very much.

ahead, we are awaiting another new batch of results out of one county in pennsylvania. this is a crucial county. tens of thousands of ballots are outstanding. and, obviously, all eyes on pennsylvania. this is a crucial batch about to come. the state race that is changing by the moment as our special live coverage of this election continues.

we are waiting for word from western pennsylvania with what we we believe will an update on the counting there in crucial allegheny county, pittsburgh. we are joined by pennsylvania attorney general josh shapiro and good to talk to you again.

we are expecting to hear more from allegheny county and 35,000 ballots we understand outstanding. do you anticipate we will know more about the vote count in allegheny county soon? >> i think you'll know some more soon. look. the good folks in allegheny county are working around the clock. i think it's important to point out, erin, i know noise surrounding why they hadn't started counting or a delay. they are following the law in allegheny county and a court order which indicated they couldn't start processing and counting these ballots until today. i know they are working hard. they are moving as quickly as they can and they will get the results out soon. >> look. i have to ask you how soon? people are just -- we want to get them counted and counted correctly but is it hours and hours or do you think they will let es now how that went? >> look i think it will take sometime. i was just stopped by a teacher

here in montgomery county said if you ever get the chance to talk to john king, ask him what is going to happen. i know everybody is on edge and want to know. what i can tell you here in pennsylvania we are working carefully and diligently and following the law and it takes time and we want to have a accurate and legal count. >> when we talk about the law here. your pennsylvania house speaker republican brian cutler believes there is about 100,000 provisional ballots which could come from any number of situations including someone had a mail-in or decided to vote in person. there is all kinds of ways you can get those. he believes that number is up to 100,000. i know at cnn we have it lease at 69,000 so that is reasonable. is it reasonable to you? and he says there should be no results from pennsylvania until every one ever those ballots has been finalized in terms of its status. do you agree? >> okay. first off, there won't be results from pennsylvania until

those ballots are counted. >> okay. >> what you as a network choose to do in terms of declaring something is, obviously, up to you. in terms of the number, you indicated cnn is reporting 69,000, speaker cutler said 100,000. i don't know what the number is. the person who knows is the secretary of state. here is what i know historically about provisional ballots. again, historically. i have no knowledge about these ballots. historically, provisional ballots tend to track the overall vote because these are ballots that are sort of random throughout the state based on someone who arrived who had a need took out a provisional ballot and logic dictates they would tend to follow the vote of that region or that state. >> another group of ballots. the ballots which were postmarked by election day but received after, which by your law now can be counted, being challenged in court. and, therefore, segregated. headquarters for pennsylvania republicans are now asking the supreme court, attorney general, to order your state to, quote,

log and segregate and otherwise not take any action on those ballots. now, i was under the impression, we keep seeing the shrink wrap and everything that is what you were doing number one. is that the case you're doing that with all of those ballots and doubt any scenario under which they become significant to the outcome? >> great question. let's back up on these ballots. these are ballots that were legally cast by election day, put in the mail and received up until, you know, i guess about 28 minutes ago in pennsylvania. okay? so that the ballots that we are talking about. then the question is what does segregate mean? essentially the directive from the secretary of state said we are going to basically take these ballots and separate them, put them aside and then count them. and that was the directive that came from the secretary of state. on two separate occasions, republicans have asked the supreme court of the united states to essentially overturn a state supreme court ruling that

said those ballots should count. on two separate occasions, the united states supreme court refused to intervene in that case. now what has happened? i believe it's technical the trump campaign although an arm of the trump campaign has asked to intervene in the united states supreme court in order to be heard on this question. i believe that briefs are due in that case in about two weeks or so, give or take. that is the status. i know there was a lot of noise made by the trump campaign we are taking this to the supreme court. you're talking about, to answer the other part of your question, you're talking about, you know, roughly the secretary of state can give you the exact answer, you know, several thousand ballots. not tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands based on the estimates that were coming in from the various counties that received ballots on wednesday and thursday. i hadn't gotten an updated count today on friday but a relatively

small number. why? voters in pennsylvania heard elected officials, heard leaders and heard candidates say, look, if you're approaching election day and you had the ballot in your hand, go drop it off at a drop box and make sure that your ballot is counted. it seems like the vast, vast majority of voters who were in that position instead of putting their ballot in the mail ended up dropping it off to the drop box so their ballot could be counted. >> you send out 3.1 million ballots and only a few thousand in this scenario, vast majority would certainly be an accurate characterization. >> the secretary of state will speak to the total number of ballots. you asked me a general question about the numbers so i wanted to give you a general answer. >> right. no, no, i understand that. i understand that. we are trying to get those numbers. we have about 4,000 but we will see how it pans out. they could come up to 29 or 30 minutes ago. thank you, attorney general shapiro. anderson is here with the latest on philadelphia and pennsylvania

and the legal challenges and where we really stand. >> a great interview, erin. i'm told a press conference in allegheny county that is going to be -- it was moved to 6:30 p.m. so we will monitor that as well. let's look at pennsylvania here. he was saying he wasn't sure about the total number of segregated ballots. the number we had i think 3,000. kate bolduan said a thousand segregated ballots in philadelphia where she was. >> i think for the legal battles that have been playing out on this specific issue, this doesn't seem to be an issue that would have too big of an effect. i think the bigger issue which the attorney general is talking about was provisional ballots and i think people have been trying to figure out the universe of provisional ballots that are outstanding. 69,000 we have and attorney general said -- to be clear, we are waiting for more votes to

come in. the provisionals will track the universe of voters depending where they are, younger votes who move around a lot might go provisional and might lean democrats. what i'm saying would that shake um the race? the attorney general says it would more or less track with how voting has been throughout the course of things but -- >> provisional ballots, i know it's often people who they don't have an i.d. or something they i.d. checked? >> a polling place, they moved or address is wrong. >> does that also include mail-in ballots? there is a problem with the signature or a question about it? would that be considered a provisional ballot. >> good question. >> if it's mail-in ballots that might include a higher percentage of democratic voters. if it's voting on the day, it might be a higher percentage of republican voters. >> i think there a theory out there it would lean more republican. we don't know. we don't know the universe of it

and i think provisional traditionally track where the state is voting so we will see how it plays out i think the bigger question right now as we look at joe biden with the 14,536 vote lead is we know there are counties that are traditional democratic strongholds still need to report their vote by mail from philadelphia on out into the collar counties. allegheny county as well. one, when do they report? two, does president trump any way, shape or form eat into the margins that joe biden has. we don't know because all that is outstanding currently as we wait for the count and reporting. >> joe biden lead is 14,536 right now. a press conference in allegheny county. the reporting we had from brian todd some 35,000 votes there -- in fact, brian todd has an

update in allegheny county. brian? >> reporter: anderson, there has been another kind of frustrating delay here in allegheny county. we were promised we might get results by about 5:30 eastern time. the first results that would have been posted since 8:00 p.m. hour last night. we are not getting them now for probably another hour. it takes them a while to process these votes. about 3,200 votes they have processed were damaged so those take time. what we are going to get in an hour's time we are told now roughly 3,200 votes their damaged they had to go through and count. in addition we get about 3800 votes from members of military and overseas voters and only at that time will they start the count for the 29,000 segregated ballots. that count was supposed to start at about 5:00. so this is -- the headline here is it is a slower grind than we even were experiencing before

and frustrating to people here who want the results and frustrating to us who are covering this but they are saying they have to do this right and got to go through these in a painstaking way. they have been here all day today and yesterday and earlier in the week. they say they are working through the night. we don't know what that means as far as how late they are going to stay whether it's in the overnight hours but they promise us that that will be the case. what they did say is the 29,000 segregated ballots could take a couple of days to count. that is a pretty big chunk of the vote here in allegheny county still outstanding. question is when are those going to come in and will they boost joe biden's margins even more? we expect they probably will but we don't know to what extent. again, slow frustrating grind of this vote and vote count is continuing here in allegheny county. kind of cavernous around here now but we are told they will be at this most of the night.

>> let me clarify here. you say some ballots had been damaged, have a crease in them, whatever, a tear, something like that? they have been counted? i think you said it was, what? 3700? >> about 3,200, maybe a little more. those are ballots that were damaged. correct. >> it was more than 3,800 military ballots and overseas ballots that have been received had been counted as well, that is correct? >> correct. between the two of them, you've got 7,000, close to 7,000 votes that we should get results from in about an hour, but when you think of 35,000 plus outstanding votes in allegheny county, it's a relative small percentage. look. it's a chunk of it and we are waiting for it. it's going to make tell the broader story of how joe biden and donald trump fare in this county. >> you said 29,000 segregated

ballots have yet to be counted and that may take some time. are those the same? because we had just been under the impression that like in philadelphia, there is an estimated 1,000 segregated ballots. why are there so many segregated ballots in allegheny county? >> these were ballots that had been mailed to voters weeks ago that had wrong information on them. there there were mistakes printed on them. they caught that by court order, they were ordered to remail the ballots that had the correct information and so voters were encouraged to fill in those ballots and send them back. >> this is a different -- got it. this is a different -- phil, correct me if i'm wrong, this is a different batch segregated ballots of -- >> of the supreme court the legal battle happened a couple times over. yes. this is a different batch.

>> he is calling them segregated ballots but balts thlots sent o from allegheny county had a mistake on them? >> what brian is reporting. what they had sent had mistakes or a mistake on them and they recognized it and had to send out new ballots and now they are waiting and they will be counting those so that is something because of how the process worked they could not start counting those until i believe after 5:00 or 5:30 p.m. today. brian might know the better answer to that. they are not a part of the legal -- the other segregated -- >> we got. . brian, that is 35,000 votes which have been cast -- 29,000 of them have not been counted. the others have been counted. we are waiting for those results to be released and we believe that will be at 6:30? i appreciate the update, brian todd. >> that's right. yes. you're looking close to, what, 7,000 votes we think roughly

that will come in about 6:30 p.m. eastern time and only then will they start to count the 29,000 other ballots that were segregated where they had those mistakes on the ballots. the counting of those may take a couple of days. it's a grind and we are getting little increments of votes and small results starting in about an hour. >> 36,000 vote total from that. brian todd, appreciate it and we will continue to check back in with you. let's try to get to more discussion on what this means. you're getting a fifth of the votes from allegheny county, we believe, the next hour but 29,000 more to count. these ones are segregated but i want to be clear they are segregated that fall in the category of mailed by election day but received after, that is a different group of votes than we are talking about and i know the terminology can be confusing but i think they laid that out for you had. ben ginsburg is with us a long time election lawyer who represented george w. bush in

the 2000 lawsuit and nina, let me start with you. 35,000 votes we believe we are getting about 7,000 over the next hour. that leaves 29,000 to review according to brian todd's reporting. therapy set aside by a court order and they can't count them until 6:30 tonight. we are told this could take a few days. is this normal? >> this is all normal. i know that we are in the middle of an election. i know things are very polarized and contentious but i can't emphasize enough the process is unfolding. even if we get to the point there are recounts that is normal. the idea they can't start counting until later this evening and that count might take more time is still a part of the process and still normal. nothing abnormal about this. >> ben, let me ask you about the provisional vote situation. we had this range we sort of

counted there could be up to 69,000 of them. republican speaker of the house in pennsylvania says up to 100. there is a large number of them. certainly vis-a-vis the margin we have by any situation a large number of provision app ballots that can come from a lot of different scenarios you got a mail-in ballot but cast in person and you aren't able to surrender the mail ballot when you do that and you have to cast a provisional. one of many situations under which you would file one. you heard the attorney general of pennsylvania tell me that he believes those provisional ballots will track what we see in the vote we have in the state thus far. tlrv therefore, not alter the result and count every single one of them and could take sometime. from your experience do you believe that the case? the provisionals will split much infant same way that the popular vote in pennsylvania. >> that generally is what happens but it's usually through

the provisional votes with cast by new people to the system so some lack of familiarity problem with the votes. now the answer to the question is going to depend on the demographic changes in allegheny county, i think, and who the new voters are. but it is generally true that those provisionals will track the overall results of the county. >> you're looking, to emphasize the point here a number of provisionals greatly exceeds the current margin of victory in the state and that margin is changing and continue to change because ballots are coming in. but what i'm getting at, obviously, is this a process that ends up taking longer because of those provisional ballots? >> absolutely. it could. provisional ballots voters get an opportunity to come in with whatever documentation they need in order for their vote to count. and so that could extend the process and it also could extend the time in which it takes to get a firm understanding of who

has won the state of pennsylvania. yes, it could draw it out but there are still deadlines here. pennsylvania has a certification deadline and we will know. the amount of provisional ballots and also in light of the margin between the candidates could extend this process out. >> it could extend it out. ben, we have a process extending out. you have the trump campaign eyeing recounts in wisconsin, eyeing a recount in georgia which state officials have seemed to indicate they think is very likely. yet you have an electoral college scheduled to meet by law on december 14th. can all of this be adjudicated by then? >> well, they certainly can be if the states follow the processes well. but it's a challenge because, remember, that recount laws in individual states are run mostly for local and legislative races and occasionally you get statewide. what we found in florida in 2000

the florida election laws have never been stress tested for a high scrutiny statewide presidential recount. so states do face particular challenges and that will really be true in georgia that will be dealing with the two runoff elections at the same time. >> all eyes will be on georgia. as they are now. but pennsylvania as well and, of course, nevada and arizona. thank you both very much. ahead, a new big batch of military votes added to the mix in georgia. so we are going to tell you what we see, explain what it means for joe biden's current narrow lead in that state when our special live coverage continues. juggled life for it. took charge for it. so care for it. look after it. invest with the expertise of j.p. morgan, either with an advisor or online, through chase. after all, it's yours.

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absentee military ballots, they tend to skew republican. the question is does that premise still hold true giving changing demographics? we are looking at the state of georgia in particular. brianna keilar is looking into that. the absentee for demographics?

what do we know about these votes? >> georgia so far according to the secretary of state's office in georgia had received and counted 18,008 overseas ballots. that is going to be military members. that is going to be their family members like their spouses. that is going to be other americans who are overseas. georgia said they had 8,410 outstanding. those are ones requested, absentee ballots sent out to people who requested them. they haven't been received back. the question is, so we're still awaiting the count. what did they get in? as of 20 minutes ago we don't know that right now. but is this going to make a difference? a couple points. #8,410 ballots, they aren't going to get all of those back. some of those are ballots and this is very usual that have been requested but ultimately were never cast. then there is the other question about, well, how do active duty military members and their families align politically? and one of the things we keep hearing from advocates is don't

assume they will vote monolithically. there is recent polling data from "military times" that suggests there has been support fo since 2016 and there is actually a trend toward joe biden when it comes to what active duty military members, how they're going to be casting, how they have cast their ballots i should say. you have to keep in mind these are folks who have been in the mix post 9/11. they are bearing the brunt of war. they are the ones who had to deploy over and over. they are younger. they are reflecting some of the younger social awareness in the country as well. they can't be seen as reliably republican. they were more so in 2000. >> really appreciate it. thanks very much. erin, back to you. >> here is the big question. what does all of this mean? scott jennings, when you look at this, an interesting point right? people may make an assumption

about a group of ballots and how they'll go. one thing we've learned is you cannot always make these assumptions. nonetheless, that chunk of ballots, and we don't know how many were actually sent in which is really important, 8,400. it could be 2,000. it could be 8,000. we have no idea. but, i mean, that is greater than our margin here. so this is every vote is so crucial in georgia and everywhere. but certainly, scott, these votes matter. >> yeah. no doubt. they should all be counted by the way and both campaigns should want them counted. the "military times" poll broke 42/52 trump to biden so pro trump. a close margin. not everybody who lives overseas is in the military. you have diplomatic people, people not part of the government at all and they probably split out differently. i think we ought to count every single one of these. these military folks are overseas, defending america. they deserve to have their votes counted. i'm glad those ballots are coming in. >> and this is the case with

every single state as we start looking at numbers many people are not even familiar with when you're talking about segregated ballots and provisional ballots and overseas and all of the other different acronyms used for that. there is still a lot left to count. >> absolutely. as we've all been saying we have to make sure that every single vote is counted. think of the people who waited in line to cast their ballots. you know, we saw our colleague out in nevada for people who had returned to make, for the curing of their ballots. so we want to make sure every vote is counted but there does become a point at which when we get into a certain margin and we have an understanding of how many ballots are left out there to count and where those ballots come from, and where the margins look like, that we'll get a better picture, i mean an increased picture i should say of where we are. no question. look, we're all, for a lot of americans they're learning in real time about some of the acronyms that you mentioned and

the good news is this is our democracy working. >> you know, one thing i also want to make a point about, you know, there are some, lindsey graham referring to people here illegally voting in nevada. they have to use i.d. there. i saw a powerful thing. people showing up with their i.d. to cure their ballot waiting hours to prove that i am who i say i am. and this is who i voted for. this system there are so many layers of checks and balances that i think should give people a lot of calm and confidence. it is amazing what we're seeing across this country. ballot cams in allegheny county. people lining up with driver's licenses in las vegas. this is incredible. some people have argued over the years we should have a federalized system. i think that would be a terrible

idea. our defused system with officials all over the country doing the work and public service they were elected or appointed to do keeps any one person even a president from wielding too much significant power in the election system. the defusion of power in our elections protects every ballot. it protects all of us. it protects the integrity of democracy. it is working the way it's supposed to work. we'll count all the ballots. all the claims will be adjudicated. we'll have an outcome and everyone should celebrate that and accept the results regardless of who you voted for. >> thanks very much. our special coverage continues after this break. [ sigh ] people ask ... what sort of a person should become a celebrity accountant? and, i tell them, "nobody should." hey, buddy. what's the damage? [ on the phone ] i bought it! the waterfall? nope! my new volkswagen. a volkswagen?! i think we're having a breakthrough here.

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i opted in. i opted in. you can, too. opt in and save big today. we're standing by for new vote totals that may decide the presidential race. i'm wolf blitzer in the cnn election center. the nation and the world are waiting to find out if former vice president joe biden locks in a victory over president trump tonight. it could come down to the vote count in pennsylvania where biden's lead has been widening. we expect to learn the results of thousands of ballots in the pittsburgh area this hour. we are also expecting new results out of georgia where biden's advantage grew a short while ago in a close race that

may go to a recount. we're watching pennsylvania and georgia, arizona, and nevada all too early to call. all important as this election winds down. biden looking for a win or wins that would push him over the 270 electoral votes needed for victory. he is very close at 253 while trump is behind with 213 and seeing his options fade away. now a key race alert. let's start in pennsylvania with 20 electoral votes. biden's lead now 14,541. 49.5% over trump's 49.3%. 96% of the estimated vote is in. pennsylvania critical right now. georgia with 16 electoral votes. biden's lead has just increased to 4,185, 49.4% to 49.3%. 99% of the estimated vote is in.

could be a recount in georgia. in arizona right now 11 electoral votes, biden's lead remains up there at 39,400. it is a bit lower than it was a while ago. 49.9% to 48.6%. in nevada 92% of the vote is in. 6 electoral votes. biden maintains his lead of 20,137. 49.7% to 48.1%. let's go over to john king and discuss what's going on. i also want to bring in our cnn political director. he and his team, they're trying to determine at what point cnn will be able to make a prediction who is going to win this presidential contest. david, tell us what you're learning and how your team is working. take us behind the scenes. >> well, the first thing you should understand, wolf, is that it's not us -- you, me, john king in the studio talking about projections here. that's not how it works. as you noted there is a team of

dedicated, statistical analysts, data scientists on a different floor of this building and all they do is every single time vote comes in from one of these states they plug it into their models and their formulas and they're trying to ascertain a very high level of competence that whoever is number two in the contest, and by the way, in all four of these states that person is donald trump right now, does not have a real possibility with all the vote remaining out there to overtake the number one person in these contests. right now that's joe biden across these four states. so it is that calculating that is going on in a room with statisticians. i'm just presenting what they do for you all here so that everyone can understand sort of what's happening. because i think the question we're all getting is, you know, john and wolf, you guys are talking all the time at the wall and you're saying, what is --

this march joe biden is on and a lot of people are like why can't it be projected? it is because of the math and getting to the highest level of confidence before any projection is made. >> about as major a decision a news organization can make when we project who will be the next president of the united states. >> it is something you need to be. you don't just want to be. you need to be. you need to get, to david's point, we have excellent people, the people who don't work on television who work just as hard as those who don't work on television. you see some people saying the tv networks are holding on to this. we're not. we love you. we want you to stay. we hope you come back after we call this but we're doing this because it is critical. this is the presidency of the united states. the world is watching this decision. when you call into these states and you tell the people of pennsylvania how many ballots are left? how many are provisional? when do you have them done? we are getting sometimes conflicting information from them. that's not because we're getting anything wrong. they are overwhelmed too.

we have an incredibly high turnout election but we have provisional ballots, does the person have the right address? were they supposed to vote at that polling place? are they trying to vote twice? normally not the case. people are trying to vote in this pandemic. it is unprecedented in the middle of a pandemic. three different ways to vote in most states. early, in-person, election day show up. vote by mail. it is confusing. >> when you're talking about provisional ballots i think it is really important. normally we don't pay a ton of attention to them but because of what you're saying it's the pandemic election. so many people are voting by mail. millions and millions of americans voted by mail and they had never voted that way before. and so one of the things that happened is some folks didn't get their ballot in the mail in time. and so they went to drop it off on election day. that could then be treated as a provisional ballot at that

point. what we're seeing is even provisional ballots are not the same as they've been in past elections. so we have to learn sort of about each of the universes of outstanding votes, understand what is the potential breakdown of those votes where they're coming from geographically, the method of voting, all of that. that is all new this cycle that feeds into these calculations. >> and the provisional ballot could be a number of things. in this case most people, let's imagine you live out here. you live in pittsburgh, pennsylvania. you ask the state of pennsylvania to mail you a ballot because you want to vote by mail because you were concerned about covid or for whatever reason. maybe it came late. actually in this county, the county made some mistakes and sent people the wrong ballot, for whatever reason you didn't drop it in the mail and it was a week ago. then you're hearing on the news don't drop it in the mail because it won't get there. there are the postal delays. you make a choice. fill it out and go to a drop box or say forget about it. i'll leave it at home and show up on election day.

well, the records show that you have a mail-in ballot that you asked for. so they might say, sir, we thought you were supposed to vote by mail. here is a provisional ballot and then we'll check to make sure your ballot didn't come in the mail so you're not trying to vote twice. very few people try to vote twice. we are not suggesting there is nefarious activity it is just in these counties they have to be careful. should i count this? let me check first to make sure this person hasn't already voted. takes time. >> we'll get thousands of votes this hour we're told in pennsylvania. what is the state of play in pennsylvania right now? >> the state of play in pennsylvania right now, out of allegheny county and statewide joe biden has a 14,541 vote lead. the lead has been growing steadily in small bunches as votes have come in. the math tells you joe biden is on a path. however, you see a 14,000 vote lead with 3.3 million for him and 3.3 million for him. 14,000. it is sizable in some states. not so sizable in the commonwealth of pennsylvania which is so big.

so we just want to wait and see a little bit more. the troj has been clear. there is zero evidence that lead is going to shrink. however, ballots are out there. the reason our team takes it so seriously and we do is if i come over here and do this and tell you that is certain, not just a hypothetical, just going through the scenario, that makes joe biden the president-elect of the united states. that one state. you could do it in another way even if we don't have pennsylvania just yet. we decide we have, well, we're waiting on pennsylvania, but we're pretty sure about arizona and nevada. that would make joe biden the president-elect of the united states. the stakes here are enormous. now, again, all of the math we do see and all of the data we see and all of the calls to states tell us we've seen what has played out over the last 24 now 36 hours. things have shifted in biden's favor although in the president's defense and the state of arizona for example the lead has come down a little bit. joe biden is still in the lead but the president has made up a little bit of ground there. you see a little movement there, a little movement there.

we'll be cautious because the imperative is to get it right. >> david, what is still out there in pennsylvania? tell us what you're seeing, what you're hearing from our folks on the ground. >> well, this is a perfect example of what we're talking about as they are trying to make projections. there is not one consistent number, either, right? we have reporters all across the commonwealth of pennsylvania. we think maybe there is a universe of 180,000, 185,000 outstanding ballots perhaps in pennsylvania. we're also checking in with campaigns in addition to our reporters on the ground, with state officials. not everybody has the exact same number because it is not an exact science. and so these are estimates. that, also, adds to the taking the type to do the right calculations. since it is not an exact science if you don't know exactly how many ballots you need to make some estimate. when you are dealing with estimates and like john just said with the stakes so high you want to make sure then when the

estimates lead up to a projection that you are as near certain as you can possibly be that that is not a projection you would have to pull back. that's where we are right now. what we've learned about the outstanding ballots in pennsylvania is the vast majority of them are mail ballots. there is a potential universe of an additional hundred thousand provisional ballots i'm treating separately at the moment here. just talking about the universe that is some, mostly mail ballots. we know a lot of them are from democratic areas. this is what we've been explaining for the last several days. as the mail ballots get counted, we see joe biden so over performing what his current tally is statewide because that is how joe biden's voters voted. and a lot of what is out there is from democratic areas. so those two factors combined suggest this trajectory is going to continue and joe biden is going to add to his lead. as he does, wolf, we will get to

a confidence level of that near certainty it can't be reversed. >> let us know when we get to that confidence level. john, we're talking about pennsylvania right now and about to get this hour a whole bunch of votes from the pittsburgh area, allegheny county. we're told they will release 7,000 ballots approximately 3200 damaged ballots, 3800 overseas, and military ballots. then in the southeast that's pittsburgh in the philadelphia area we'll get a whole bunch of results as well. >> so think about what you just said. let's break it down into groups. we've been talking about allegheny county, the ballpark 40,000 ballots to be counted out there. both campaigns are actively trying to work it here too. let's be honest about it. the biden campaign says the math is going our way. you should feel more comfortable. the trump campaign says oh, no we're going to mount a comeback. we need to listen. they are advocating for their candidate. one thing you hear from the trump people is when the military overseas ballots come in we think they'll go our way.

we don't know that. members of the military are as diverse as the electorate here in the united states. who knows how they will see? let's see and get a sample size right? they'll count some military ballots. let's look and see what happens. you mentioned the damaged ballots. you use your pen or pencil, you didn't quite fill out the circle or when it was in the mail it got wrinkled and they can't put it in the scanner. any number of reasons. nothing wrong with it. it just happened. think about the mail you get in your house over a week. some is roughed up. we'll get these ballots about 10% of the statewide population in pennsylvania. you see joe biden winning nearly 60% of the vote here. as daufd just noted and this is something our data team looks at. consistently joe biden comes in above this number when we see just the mail-in ballots counted because this number are all the ballots. you see the president of the united states is losing in pennsylvania right now but is getting more votes than he did four years ago. this was a high turnout election across the country but including the commonwealth of pennsylvania.

you see all that red. a lot of these are small, rural counties but the president is very popular. as we watch the votes here this is one of the places where he runs okay. joe biden is running better. here is something else to factor in. it's about the same. you're looking for things to change the dynamic. is this consistent with last time? so we watch these votes. we'll get them. if joe biden's percentage in the mail-in ballots is above that, 70% or more, we know this is the western part of the state. those are democrats. very different kind of democrat here. these are the suburbs and city of philadelphia. we've seen that happen here. if you get a pattern you start to feel a little more comfortable. one of the other factors, remember the president carried this state four years ago, so it's close. it is not outside of the realm of possibility, we know he has strong support in pennsylvania. we want to be more careful. it is much easier to make this decision when you're talking about a state like this.

even ohio had us in pause on election night because joe biden opened a big lead but once the president started roaring back, once they started counting election day, okay. he won the state by comfortably last time. he is roaring back. we know where these votes are coming from. it lines up. when it all lines up you can make a call even before you're done. in this case because they count the votes in a different way and because it is closer, caution is just smart. we'll get to the end. it might take a little longer than we thought. we know it is taking longer than many of you would like but we'll get there. >> we just got a whole bunch of votes from arizona. >> you bet. >> let's go to arizona right now. about 4700 or 4800 votes or so just came in. yuma county in arizona right now. look at this. biden got -- >> my apologies. go. >> biden got 2361.

trump got 2337 votes. about 50/50. >> right. >> in yuma county. >> so again, here is yuma county. let me bring up just the county. let's look first at the statewide vote. a joe biden lead of about 39,000. a little more than 39,000. if you go back to late wednesday night into thursday it was twice that. right? so you're seeing a trend toward the president. joe biden protecting that lead but the president, it is now cut in half in the last 24 to 30 hours. so now you're saying okay. slow down, right? a little back and forth going on in arizona. let's watch votes. that doesn't help much, right? except it does help a little bit if you think of it this way. this is a conservative county, yuma county. overall joe biden is getting 46. the president is getting 52. if you did that you're pretty close, 50/50. at least it is consistent as you are doing your modeling about can we make a projection. in this county, 52/46 that is a pretty even split joe biden is

probably a little above 46. it's about what you're getting there. you're taking votes off the board, too. that is also important. how many votes are out there? the more you take off the board the more comfortable you can be with the statistical analysis. when you know, you come back to statewide, that joe biden is still ahead in arizona. his team thinks he is going to win it but the president has cut that lead in half from late wednesday night early thursday morning. and now he is pulling -- they're pulling about even as the votes come in. you think let's just wait. let's get some more. as we do that, let me roll this off the screen for you here. we do know every vote counts. this is your biggest pocket of vote, maricopa county will give you 60%. again, it is blue right now but remember four years ago this is again if you're on the decision desk and saying should we call this, the president carried this county four years ago. it is pretty evenly divided. it is trending toward the democrats without a doubt. that is why you go from red in 2016 to blue in 2020 but not by a ton. 51 to 48. if you round up. so you want to see everyone

votes in phoenix. we show you the county. phoenix and all these suburbs. as move more west and get out here guess what? it is more conservative, more rural. republicans come in. we get these votes and figure out where did they come from? what is the split? is joe biden under performing or over performing? you take your time. we know everybody wants to know. we want to know but we want to be right. we will be right. >> it is interesting the secretary of state of arizona katy hobbs told us there is still an estimated 250,000 to 270,000 uncounted outstanding ballots in arizona. that is about 6% statewide. so 94% estimated reporting. 6% of the vote remains outstanding which is a significant number in a tight race like this in arizona. and we expect a lot of those votes about 9:00. you mentioned that many votes with a lead that size, you know, you would be in haste if you tried to rush it now. you might get it right.

you might get it right. run it through models. not criticizing everybody who has done it another way. there are others who have decided they can call this but that lead has been cut in half in the last 30 hours. we're talking about the presidency of the united states. even if it was a race for governor, it is important to the people who live here and now it's important to the people who live in the entire country. >> hold on. this is allegheny county. let's listen in. >> we are approximately two-thirds of the way done with the military and starting to transition into counting the 29,000 ballots people received the wrong ones. the first section of that will be the people that returned both the incorrect ballot and the correct ballot. we've married the two together and we are going to set aside the original ballot and count the orange one. part of that is people that only sent back the second corrected ballot. we'll start opening and counting those. i can't estimate how long this process is going to take. it is the same process we've been doing.

you have to open the outer envelope, extract the secrecy envelope, then open the secrecy envelope and extract the ballot and scan them. but as of now, i believe we're going to generate some reports and issue new results between 6:30 and 7:00 so that is the point we are now. that would be including the damaged and the first two-thirds of the military. that's all i have. [ inaudible question ] >> between 2800 and 3,000 i believe. [ inaudible question ] >> i'm sorry can you repeat? >> what is the exact role in these 29,000 how they are evaluated? >> the return board? >> sorry. return board. >> so what we did is we sorted these ballots alphabetically and married the two. if jane doe returned two we put them together so we could decide which should be counted. we're going to segregate and not count the wrong ballot and make sure we count her corrected

ballot. >> how time consuming is this process compared to earlier this week? >> so some of these folks were working on alphabetizing and marrying these ballots since 9:00 this morning. we are just now getting to the point of deciding which is counted and which is not. >> how long do you expect this to take? >> i'll keep you posted. i don't know. i don't want to guess. [ inaudible question ] >> if somebody would have voted in person, the poll book at the polling location have been updated that they returned a mail-in ballot and those voters would have been given a provisional and those have not been counted yet. that prohibits people from voting twice. >> what about the ones that came in the last three days? >> they are currently segregated. >> all right. we'll continue to watch that but we're getting new numbers from nevada right now. take a look at this. biden maintains his lead,

22,647. 49.8% to 48%. that lead has gone up for biden in nevada. he has expanded his lead right now once again 22,657. 93% of the estimated vote is in in clark county, nevada. let's go out to clark county, nevada the biggest county out there. >> your statewide total joe biden plus. just like maricopa in arizona, in clark county even bigger. 72% or 73% of the vote will come out of here. you're looking for trends. is joe biden building or shrinking his lead? here is what just came in. 5,454 to 2,934. joe biden gets 62%. all right. david was talking earlier about one of the things you're doing behind the scenes is you are saying is this moving in a

direction? is it close enough to call it? it is a narrow lead. 62% in this batch of votes is above, almost 10 points or 8 points above what joe biden is doing in the county overall so a good report for joe biden in that sense. then you pop out to the statewide numbers and he is at 50% if you round up there. he is getting 62% in this batch of votes. this is just one batch of counted votes. you watch the next one. are you consistently seeing this coming from the same area? that helps you advance the ball if you will but this is good news for the former vice president because you see, a, it grows your lead. if you're winning you want to add points to the board. we get more votes off the board which helps you get closer to a decision. we also saw earlier today if you were with us the voting officials, election officials in clark county were saying they're going to take their time and they still have some ballots they're going to count. some scenarios they say it could take through the weekend. they'll take their time. do we see a consistent pattern of reports to get you close enough to say, okay. this train has left the station

and has no other destination. that's what you're looking for. >> 22,657-vote lead for biden over trump in nevada. it is an impressive lead but there is still 7% of the vote outstanding. that's a lot of votes that potentially could change that lead. >> it is a lot of votes. we have seen time to time, you know, small batches where the president has come in ahead. this became hotly contested. you think about nevada. it was a clinton state. again, when you're looking at how you can put together a decision i was talking earlier about ohio. ohio was a state the president won four years ago. it is usually a red state in presidential politics. that gives you more of a comfort zone in making a projection. here is nevada, clark county, a clinton state but narrowly. let's go back in time. this is 48-46 when you round up. this was a very competitive state four years ago which means if you are making the decisions about can we call this state, just have to remember the history. you also have to remember this is one of the states especially here in clark county, the trump

campaign late in the campaign was looking at the map saying we might lose wisconsin. we might lose michigan. where can we make that up? nevada was one of the places they targeted with a pretty strong economic message here. some was distortions of what joe biden says but the president was out here saying joe biden is going to lock you down. imagine the economic impact, las vegas, reno, tourism and travel industry. it is especially personal here. that was one of the questions. can the president perform better than he might have here because of that argument and that is why we have some caution as we count these votes. that last batch we just showed you shows the former vice president joe biden with 62% of those votes in clark county. that shows you at least for now he is building. that is what you want to watch as he gets more votes. if he building or shrinking? sometimes you get a rollercoaster. you're looking for consistency. there is a train on the tracks. is it going, can it only get to one destination or is it possible still? that is what you're asking. >> till a lot of votes

outstanding still in clark county. 88% in. 12% outstanding. that is 70%, 75% of the vote in the state of nevada. >> so those tens of thousands of votes, if you've got one batch that came in overwhelmingly for one candidate we have not seen that. that is one of the things you're thinking about. consistency as i said. the last batch was 62% for joe biden. when we get a roughly equal number of votes in a batch later today if it is 62% or ballpark again for joe biden you can start to draw conclusions. >> we are about to get more votes in from pittsburgh, allegheny county in pennsylvania, a key state right now. also more votes coming in from arizona. we have a lot going on right now. we'll be right back.

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we got a key race alert in pennsylvania. 20 electoral votes. biden's lead has gone up a bit. he is ahead of trump by 14,923. almost 15,000 votes. 49.5%, 49.3%. 96% of the estimated vote in pennsylvania is in right now. 4% outstanding. votes just came in. we got the numbers, john, from mercer county in pennsylvania. >> so in a state where again 3.3 million, the former vice president's lead just went up by 300 and change. you see all those votes and you think that is not a lot. it matters. every vote matters. this is even more significant because of where they came from. mercer county. 63% if you want to round up. 36% for the former vice president. you hear new votes for mercer county your instinct would be the president will get more votes but the mail-in votes are going disproportionately democratic. that is one of the things we look at when we decide whether you can project a winner.

the president of the united states in the new ballot count here, mail-in ballots. they're taking their time to count. 645. the former vice president, democratic nominee joe biden gets 1,027. he gets 60% of this batch of votes as they're counted. again, if you're trying to figure out which way are we headed, 60% in a county where he is only getting 36%. mail-in ballots are traditionally cast more by democrats. this is ruby red. this is trump country in western pennsylvania. # 62%. 63% if you want to round it up. 60% four years ago. this is where donald trump stunned pennsylvania democrats by not only winning these counties but turning people out, getting people out of the woodwork to support him. 31,000 votes and change four years ago. look at that. more voters. this is not a low turnout election. this is not people changing minds. this is more voters coming out. joe biden is losing this county convincingly but the democrats who live there made the choice in these covid times to vote by mail so we are seeing this

consistently across the state. if you move over to the blue counties especially philadelphia and the suburbs this number is up around 80%. even in these conservative counties, trump country in pennsylvania, joe biden is winning in the mail-in ballots because democrats decided that is how they wanted to vote. >> why are biden voters doing so much better with the mail-in ballots as opposed to trump voters even in republican trump counties? >> democrats live here too just like republicans live in the blue areas and democrats had a decided strategy. make a plan. vote early. covid security issues. most democrats, many democrats and most in this state decided it was safer or they just decided they're more comfortable. it was easier and more convenient. a combination of those things. access to early balloting. pennsylvania had never done anything like this before. essentially wide open, early balloting. pennsylvania didn't even have much early voting. you have a chance to do something new. you can do it early. you can stay safe. it is more convenient for you. we see participation is up because of it.

that will be one of the elections, once we're done with this, that will be one of the conversations when we're past covid. should you keep these provisions in place? hey look. more people are voting. this is solid republican county so as you're trying to figure out is joe biden on an irrereversible course to a pennsylvania victory? you starting to get votes from places the president will win in the end but this is all that's left to count are the bail-in ballots. a few provisional ballots, a few extras. the overwhelming bulk of the votes still being counted are mail-in ballots. we know and we are seeing the proof every time we get these results. they are overwhelmly cast by democrats even democrats who live, could be republicans who decided to get a mail-in vote for joe biden. these democrats mostly live in these communities. i want to show the significance here. if you remember the democratic convention after that joe biden did a train trip. he started in cleveland and came down and right into this part. through ohio. that is youngstown, ohio. he came down and went right into this part of pennsylvania. he decided maybe i'm not going to win over trump voters.

i'll try. i'll try to get democrats who maybe didn't turn out four years ago to come vote for me. as you see this here again the president will win this county and win it convincingly but joe biden is getting in the end here more votes than him at a time he needs more votes than him. >> in part trump has himself to blame in that the democrats voted in big numbers with mail-in ballots and the republicans didn't because the president kept saying don't do that. it is dangerous. they're illegal and that kind of stuff which isn't true of course and the democrats went and did the mail-in ballots. the republicans said we'll wait and vote in person. >> there were two 180 degrees apart. two starkly different strategies. the president said vote on election day. i don't trust mail-in balloting. i think it is rigged and fraud. there is no evidence it is any of those things. president did not suffer in terms of his vote in pennsylvania. look at that. 3.3 million now. he won four years ago with 2.9 million. the president turned out his

voters. this is not an issue of turn-off fell off because president trump miscalculated and said don't vote by mail. he did a bunch of rallies here and his people came up and most voted on election day. you increased your total from four years ago. normally a politician would be happy as can be. i won four years ago. i got even more votes this time. however, the story right now is that the democrats turned out even more voters from four years ago. so in essence both strategies worked if you will. he increased his turnout doing it his way, his vote count doing it his way. look what the democrats are doing. again, you're just watching to see if that continues to build. almost 15,000 votes. that is not a huge lead when you have 3.3 and 3.3 million votes cast but it is a steady progress. at 2k49 morning joe biden was 5,587 votes ahead. that is not giant but if you're joe biden it is heading in the right direction. >> and voter turnout whether by mail, early, absentee, the same

day, take a look at the national turnout right now. it's grown amazingly even though there is a coronavirus pandemic going on people wanted different ways to be able to vote, safe ways, especially older americans, people with underlying health conditions, on election day they didn't want to wait in long lines and take that risk. >> this will be and should be a conversation in all 50 states. each state has its own rules. states administer elections. this should be and will be a conversation in every state because you are absolutely right. if you go back a few months what were the questions? will we have as many votes? will people be afraid? rightly so. each state did it a little differently. mail-in balloting, in-person early voting. you saw the lines. a lot of people went to in-person early voting thinking there would be nobody there and had to wait hours in line. it is a good thing in a democracy when you have more participation. that is the goal. in this case joe biden is leading. look at that. that is more votes than any candidate for president in the united states has ever received and it is going to grow.

it is growing as i am standing here. 4.1 million vote advantage over donald trump. 74 million votes, could get to 75 million votes as we continue to count votes on the west coast and across the country. a lot of votes still on the west coast. the president's strategy was different. he may get -- on the cusp of getting 70 million votes. 69.998. 62. the president is getting more votes too. it is a good thing in a democracy when more people vote. in this case right now there is no question joe biden is going to have a big advantage in the popular vote. hillary clinton had a sizable advantage in the popular vote four years ago. the difference this time is when you look at this map, we pick presidents, that is an important statement for the democrats and joe biden. this is how you pick a president state by state and right now what we're waiting for tonight, it is friday. i know the election was tuesday. this is going to a recount. if it stays blue, if that one stays blue alone joe biden is the next president of the united states. we're still counting votes out

here. we're going to do serious business as the votes come in in the hours ahead tonight. jok joe biden right now, that would be a flip. that was a trump state. that would be as would that be. as you look at the map right now as we count the final votes advantage biden. all he has to do is win that, that, and that. you can do this way, those two. joe biden has many options to get to 270. he is at 253. we're getting closer. we'll see. >> pennsylvania one of the blue wall states. let's not forget he also won michigan and wisconsin which hill hill lo hillary clinton lost four years ago. >> forgive me i said this before the three most spoken words have been pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin because that is how donald trump became president. not since 1992. those three have been in democratic hands since 1992. donald trump is in the white house because he flipped them by a very small margin of votes in each of them. 10,000 here. 40,000 here. 70,000 votes between the three states.

flipped them. but red four years ago the legacy of the 2020 campaign will be blue, blue, and at the moment not quite to the finish line blue as well. >> if biden wins the presidency it will be in large part because he managed to win those three states. >> yes it will be. the question is that gets joe biden in the white house rebuilding the blue wall if you will. the question then is can he track, crack the trump coalition by taking away two states in the sun belt. as america changes demographically this is the challenge again. our immediate challenge is to figure out who wins the 2020 election and is the next president of the united states but in terms of american political future here and here, growing states, more diverse states, the sun belt states. that is the big demographic challenge for both parties. at the moment advantage biden. >> all eyes on pennsylvania right now. we're getting new information about what is also going on inside the white house tonight, president trump's new thinking on where the race stands. stick around. our special coverage continues

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let's look at a key race alert. biden's lead in pennsylvania increasing right now. more votes just coming in. take a look at this. biden has a 17,012 lead over donald trump. 17,012 votes ahead.

49.5% to 49.2%. 96% of the estimated vote in pennsylvania is now in. that means 4% still outstanding. 20 electoral votes in pennsylvania. let's go over to john king. i think where we started earlier today, 7:00 a.m. we were on the air. biden took the lead in pennsylvania but it was what, a thousand votes or something like that. it is now up to 17,000. >> when the sun rose it was around a thousand. at 9:00 a.m. 5500. now you you see it at 17,000. we're talking about the methodical building as the mail-in ballots come in. philadelphia county, you see they're up to 95% now. you also see joe biden is getting 80% of the vote. 81%. let's pull up the note board again and go through this map. we'll start in philadelphia. this latest batch of votes came in and it was 1,880 for the democratic nominee joe biden. 384 for the president of the united states. so again, you're looking at 82%. right?

# 82% tracks what you're doing. joe biden is stretching his lead and getting more votes. it matches what you're seeing so you aren't seeing any disruption in the force. this is progressing as you go. more important votes for joe biden out of philadelphia. that is one. let's move this up here and move this out. philadelphia, more votes for joe biden. just as important up here we'll move up to northampton county. this was a county that voted twice for barack obama then flipped and voted for donald trump. it is one of the places, pivot counties we call them. 200 across the country. a place that twice voted for obama/biden then decided to flip for donald trump. look at it. 50-49. still incredibly competitive. we get mail-in ballots in northampton. again, 744 to 282. again, in a place that is very competitive when it comes to these late mail-in ballots they're counting now. they counted the election day vote and donald trump pulls ahead. as they count the mail-in ballots joe biden again 71%.

he is getting 50%. the mail-in ballots are disproportionately democratic when you see the pattern that reinforces what is happening because the only thing left to count some provisionals but the bulk these mail-in ballots. once again in a place evenly matched you count the mail-in ballots, joe biden has a significant advantage. you look at that and you think again in a state where each candidate has more than 3.3 million votes you say that is not a lot. it's a gain, number one, and a continuation of the pattern which is important as you're looking at the, statistically, at what you can do. that is over here. first philadelphia. then to the north in northampton. now over here. we'll come over here to washington county. mail-in ballots. the president is getting 71%. you would think if donald trump is going to mount a comeback it is going to be as they count votes in places like this. yet again mail-in ballots being cast disproportionately by democrats. so you come in here and you look at this. this is washington county.

334 to 203. not as big as it is for joe biden but he is getting 61% in this batch of votes as they count them. 61% in a county where he is running below 40% and again i don't mean to be a broken record but it reinforces the pattern which is what you are trying to do when trying to figure out is this inevitable or do we have an inevitable build as we get these new votes. 60% in a county where you're getting countywide less than 40%. election day votes the president runs it up. the mail-in ballots cast disproportionately by democrats and you see more evidence right there. in big city philadelphia, northampton county, more to the north. conservative washington county, western pennsylvania you get more votes, you add them up. a lead that was 5500 votes at 9:00 a.m. is now 17,000 votes every time we get new votes you're watching this at home the numbers matter because they build the lead. the pattern, the direction, the consistency also matter as we

decide is joe biden going to win these 20 electoral votes and if he does he is the next president. >> he is ahead by 17,012 votes. almost every hour he goes ahead by at least a thousand votes or so in pennsylvania. it looks like it is going to continue for a while. >> as you see again, look what happened just right there. he just went down a little tiny bit. he lost some votes as we get more votes. that is what we're going to watch. we talked at the top of the hour about why we're being cautious. this is going to happen every now and then when the small counties report votes especially in the most republican places in the state so i talked about the consistency of it. when you get a pullback it is a very modest number. we know these are small republican counties. they don't have anywhere near the votes as they have down here or what we're waiting soon to get out in allegheny county but it makes you think let's just keep counting until we get on a consistent track. it was 17,000. it comes down a couple hundred votes. we keep counting. >> you can do that with your fingers now.

remember the old days we had chalk boards. i wonder if people still remember what those are. >> abacus. slide the little beads across on the abacus. >> we're getting new information about what is going on inside the white house tonight. and president trump's new thinking on where the race stands. our special coverage will continue.

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take a look at this. arizona, 11 electoral votes.

biden maintains his lead. it's 38,455. trump has 48.6%. biden maintains his lead in arizona. 11 electoral votes. let's bring in the arizona secretary of state who is joining us right now. secretary hobbs, thanks so much for joining us. how many outstanding ballots are in arizona. >> we're looking at 235,000 outstanding ballots. we're about two hours away from next update of the votes they have tabulated today. >> how many do you think we'll get in the next two hours? >> the updates have been between 60 and 70,000 votes. we're expecting the same amount this time somewhere in that amount which will bring them down to below 100,000. >> that's a significant number.

>> we don't know how many of those are -- >> go ahead, i'm sorry. >> i was going to say we're not sure how many of those are provisionals but of the regular ballots they anticipate being done this weekend. most of the rest of state and we'll be looking at provisionals which are a smaller portion of that entire amount. >> it's john king. thank you for your time. i know you're very busy. we appreciate the transparency in the process. you say this weekend. we had this conversation before. i know you understand the stakes. the american people are waiting to know who their prosecuesiden. we get the extraordinary times because of covid. when you siay this weekend, i know the counties have to do it on their own but what message vz you given to them to do it right but as quick lly as possible? >> exactly that. they are doing their jobs.

counties have five business days to resolve provisional ballots. any of those ballots that are provisional they won't be able to count until wednesday. i don't know how many of the maricopa ballots are provisional. it's a small number, i'm sure. there is that issue as well. >> about how many do you anticipate we'll see? >> pima county has 18,000. we don't know -- the rest of the state is pretty small numbers. i don't know, maricopa haven't told us how many are provisional yet. >> is that part of the 235,000 or on top of it? >> part of the 235. >> it is part of that. go ahead, john. >> i don't think this is the case in your state but the

president said a short time ago tweeting to the effect that he would be fine if people would just count the election ballots and stop counting. in your state he's narrowed the lead. i've used the term intellectual incon ssistency to say i don't like what's happening. just in terms of the count, i know this is a redundant question but with people stirring up questions about what's going on? why is it taking so long? why is it friday night and we're waiting to know how the american people voted on tuesday. can you explain in these rooms, how many eyes are on people as they count these ballots. do both kpcampaigns have people within proximity. if there's any question, they say can you show me that. can i make sure that ballot is correct? >> absolutely, 100%. both parties are allowed to have observers in the room. the other thing going on is that

adjudication boards. i know you had footage of the tabulation room on your site. you can see the board is working. they are checking the ballots that the tabulator couldn't read. the boards are one person from each party. there's an inspector that oversees them and there are so many eyes on the process to ensure the fairness of the process. >> the president is continuing to allege on twirtter, fraud. to be clear to our view r and all americans and the people watching us around the world, are you, as the secretary of state in arizona aware of any fraud or irregularities in your state? >> there are absolutely no irregularities happening in this process and anyone making claims to the contrary, absolutely just has no idea what they're talking

about. >> have you received any legal challenges at all from the president or his campaign or his supporters? >> to my knowledge, they did move to intervene in the baseless lawsuit over the sharpies. >> skrus remind our viewers because that was totally ridiculous. tell our viewers, it's got a lot of publicity. remind us what happened. >> maricopa county, the tabulators that they used, the manufacturer recommends sharpies as the ballot marking pens. that's what the poll workers gave the voters and somebody somewhere decided this was bad because in some counties you can't use sharpied because it ple bleeds through. we still count the votes but in this case it was not causing any problems. there were no ballots jekted