joe biden currently has 224 electoral votes to president trump's 213. the goal is 270. >> we leave you with a live look at the white house. who will be the victorious one? we'll wait and see. good morning. no decision 2020. the presidential race still up for grabs with millions of votes being counted in crucial battleground state. joe bideexpressing confidence but urging patience. >> we feel good about where we are. we really do. >> the president falsely claiming victory and threatening a fight all of the way to the supreme court. >> this is a major fraud on our nation. as far as i'm concerned we will

take it to the supreme court. >> reporter: this morning still counting votes and the potential path for victory for both candidates as we wait to see what happens next, today, wednesday, november 4th, 2020. >> announcer: from nbc news, this is a special edition of "today" with savannah guthrie and hoda kotb, live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. >> hi, everyone. good morning. welcome to this special edition of "today." we are glad you're with us on wednesday morning. we really never left. we've been on the air all night. lots of news to cover. >> we still don't know who the president is going to be and filled with uncertainty and a lot of questions. >> we will try to guide you through the best we know one step at a time and we will get it started. this is where it stands at this

hour on the electoral map. you will see 224 electoral votes for joe biden and 213 for the president. the goal is 270 and that is what it takes to win the presidency. >> keep your eye on the states in gray which are too close to call or too early to call, and including the battlegrounds of pennsylvania which may not be called for days. and also, michigan, wisconsin, georgia, nevada and arizona. these are tight, tight races. >> there's also the ones in the battle for congress to consider. and nbc news projects that democrats have maintained the grip on the house, and over there in the senate, the republicans are clinging to

their majority, but several races are still undecided. >> yes, the congressional races did not shake out as some expect and even some had better nights than they expected. we will break it down and nbc's chuck todd has the map and let's get it started with chuck alexander, peter alexander at the white house. good morning. >> yes, speaking to aides at the white house, they feel confident in the map and they feel that the president will win this thing, and the president did something that he said he would not do, and he falsely and prematurely declared winner and the win over the presidency has not been determined and the states are still counting votes as we speak, and the president did defy expectations and the president overperforming the performance as a candidate in 2016 and holding battlegrounds that the democrats hoped to flip

blue. >> reporter: hundreds of supporters falsely claiming victory. >> frankly, we did win this election. >> reporter: with millions of legitimate votes to be counted, the baseless claim by the president that some are trying to steal the election. >> millions and millions voting for us and a very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people, and we won't stand for it it. this is a fraud on the american public. this is an embarrassment to our country. >> reporter: repeating the earlier claim on twitter that we are up big and they are trying to steal the election and we will never let them do it. the votes cannot be cast after the polls have closed. twitter flagging that as misleading. and votes can be cast after the polls close and it is legal for them to be counted after the polls closed.

the president claiming that the early leads in some of the battleground states are insurmountable despite the legitimate ballots still outstanding. >> with 64% of the vote in, it is going to be almost impossible to catch. >> reporter: president trump is overperforming candidate trump in 2016 and holding on the swing states like iowa and florida which the democrats hoped to flip. >> we won states that we expected to win and by a lot. >> reporter: and it is part of the get the vote out strategy and winning new voters and many of them from rural counties and among the president's biggest gains is latinos and cubans in south florida, and the evidence of the attacks the against the socialists supporting joe biden.

and the attacks were jarring and that is in the words of the republican allies and the president said that he would take his case to supreme court but it is unclear how he would do that and what the legal basis would be and notably mike pence struck a different tone speaking immediately after the president saying that he wanted the votes to be counted but not declaring victory simply saying that he believes they are on the path to victory. hoda? >> yes. it is anyone's race at this point. and now, kristen is on the biden camp in delaware. good morning, kristen. >> good morning to both of you. the biden camp is feeling increasingly confident and they like what they are seeing in wisconsin, nevada and georgia and at the same time they are blasting president trump for those comments overnight for prematurely claiming victory and the campaign manager calling it outrageous and dangerous. >> reporter: with the results in

several states too close to call. joe biden saying that once all of the votes are counted, he is going to come out on top. >> i am here to tell you tonight that we are on track to win this election. >> reporter: biden addressing a drive-in crowd in the early hours saying that he is focused on rebuilding the blue wall which fell in 2016, wisconsin, michigan and the crucial battleground of pennsylvania where both of the campaigns have spent significant time and money and where ballots are still being counted. >> it is going to take time to count the votes. we are going to win pennsylvania. and i'm going to talk to the folks in philly and allegheny and scranton and they are encouraged by what they see. >> reporter: and the president is failing to flip two states on the wish list, reliably texas and florida, and that is despite

multiple visits to the sunshine state by biden and former president barack obama. and also, a huge bloc of latinos and in miami-dade county and he was emboldened even though they sent trump to the white house and it was too close to call, and he also watched a state too close to call, georgia, who has not voted for a democrat since 1992. >> we are still in the game in georgia, and that is not what we expected. >> reporter: and biden trying to set the tone by addressing the country before president trump and saying that it is not over until the final vote is counted. >> as i said all along, it is not my place or president trump's place to declare who won the election, that is the decision of the american people, but am optimistic about this outcome.

>> we expect to hear from joe biden later today and sources familiar with the comments say that you can expect him to be more bullish. as for the president's comments that he is planning potential legal action, biden campaign officials say they are ready and they have a team of lawyers ready to take action if needed. hoda and savannah. >> kristen welker in delaware for us. thank you. and it is a tight one, and delegates still being counted, and chuck todd and kasie hunt there with us, and we have more results from michigan and what are you telling us? >> well, we are happy about that and to get new numbers anywhere these days. well, as we told you we would see slowly these number coming in from michigan and for the first time and did not do it yesterday, but first time, joe biden leads in michigan and for the first time, and we have a lot of vote to come in, and a lot of this is the vote that the secretary of state told us last week was going to take perhaps

two or three days. we will see. we think that we are going to be getting michigan vote all day long, and this is the assumption that a lot of the democrats are making, and some republicans, that as it comes in, it is probably meaning that biden starts to build a little bit of the lead here, but on the senate side of things, gary peters the democratic incumbent is still trailing john james, and they have both been moving, and he is still trailing, and i don't, i mean, i will just show you instead of doing that, as you can see, 35,000 is the advantage for james. the question is as more of this vote is coming in this lead has been shrinking, too. this is a little bit more precarious. you know, it -- i think that i'd still rather be peters than james, but it is going to be super, super tight. >> go to wisconsin. >> wow, we both wanted wisconsin. >> okay. >> we are in sync there. good, good. and no updates since the last

time that we checked in with this a couple of hours ago, and we are still waiting for new vote out of here, and we think that we will get, you know, we don't think that there is that much vote left and in fact, right around 100,000 left, so this is going to take a lot for the president to overcome, and let me remind you where we on our, what the percentages are on recount situations, right. so it is half a percentage point in georgia and in wisconsin it is 1%. so i want to go back to wisconsin here a minute and show you. >> it is in recounter toir terr >> right. so it is one of the states that we will likely see all of the vote, and maybe we will call an apparent winner, but because of the recount and all of that stuff, you may see a check mark and all of that, but we are going to be saying that this could be end up litigated or recounted.

>> over to pennsylvania. >> okay. you got it. back over here, and pennsylvania, again, we have got nothing new, well, it is looking like something came n because it is the lead that is rshrunk bel 600,000. >> and trump said, i have a huge margin, and looking at the numbers and i see it, too, and why do you expect this number for joe biden to grow? the early vote, and how much early vote is outstanding? >> well, right now, philadelphia county. >> 56%, wow. >> that is the democratic stronghold. >> philadelphia county, and believe it or not, that is where philadelphia is, and it is one of those where the name actually tells you where it is, and not all counties do that in fairness. and so this is a place where, and heck, i will show you how much in previous years what kind of gap you will get out of philadelphia county over 400,000

for hillary clinton and nearly 500,000 in 2012. right now, it is that, right. so we expect that share to double just out of philadelphia county. so you will make up 200,000 votes, and you saw that it is almost half of the deficit out of one county. >> chuck, what happened in scranton where biden is from? >> okay. let me see if ki get over there in lackawanna county. almost all-in. okay. this is where we thought. >> i wanted to do the big picture here and flip through the big map there, and we are waiting on the calls in georgia where it is too close, and north carolina, where it is too close, and arizona where it is too close, but we do have biden leading a little bit, and nevada we are still waiting on, and let me bring in kasie hunt in here as we are looking at the map, and you are looking at the congressional races, too, and

the big picture is that the republicans in the trump operation had a better night than even they were expecting. >> that is absolutely right. they were expecting to likely lose control of the senate or at least be hanging on to it by the skin of their teeth, an instead, we are looking at them likely retaining a senate majority, though we have a ways to go before the count is final. what i would say at this hour, savannah, and we have all been up many hours covering this, but the difference of 7:00 a.m., and 10:00 a.m. here on the east coast is that the biden team starts to be feeling more confident about where they stand here as these final votes are starting to come in. now, we will see if that holds or new votes that make it a little bit shakier, but they are feeling stronger in their standing right now than they did just a few hours ago and we had less information about the vote. i know that chuck can show you the different paths that are still available to the biden team.

>> and look, we should remind people, and say that the key question here is, is pennsylvania going to matter? if you are joe biden, right now, you don't want pennsylvania to matter. right now, he is leading in nevada and i went and assigned alaska to donald trump for this exercise, and we will see. and nevada, and arizona and biden is leading, right? so if you are looking here, and you are just adding wisconsin and michigan and the three electoral votes in maine that we do expect biden to get here, and you can see where that gets you to exactly 270, and it is a win without pennsylvania, north carolina or georgia. if you are the biden campaign, this is the black box right now. i am sorry, when i say that meaning that we don't know what kind of litigation shows up, and we don't know what kind of, just, once you start down that litigation road, you don't know where it is going to go. >> and this is biden's best case scenario -- >> to avoid pennsylvania.

>> and because it is so tight. >> and to have the recount in wisconsin even on this count. >> to be honest, i think that we will have a recount in north carolina and a recount in georgia and a recount in wisconsin. >> and what about trump's path? >> well, trump's path is simple. he needs georgia to stick, as you can see. and he needs north carolina, right. and then he needs pennsylvania, but here is the problem. he needs one other. he needs, you know, we have talked about nevada, and it is not going to happen, but nevada would have done it. and we are not calling arizona, because there is a remote possibility because if the vote out is somehow trump plus 20, he can get there and that would do it, but he need to find another state, and so, look, if you are them, and if you are the trump folks, and what i have a feeling if you are looking around here, i think that you are sudden start to think, well, let's try a recount there. >> and in pennsylvania, too, and this is part of why, and we have already known a little bit about

the litigation strategy of the trump campaign and why he mentioned the supreme court last night, but it is extremely complicated but it is how to count the count coming in after the ballots, but it is messy. >> and a lot to talk about, and so we have a two-hour show, and chuck and kasie hang tight. and we will look at the three undecided swing states and what we are hearing from the election officials in pennsylvania, does scrubbing grease feel like a workout? scrub less with dawn ultra. it's superior grease-cleaning formula gets to work faster, making easy work of tough messes. dawn is a go-to grease-cleaner throughout the kitchen, too. keep a bottle in the laundry room to pre-treat greasy stains and keep dawn in the garage to lift grease off car rims. it's even gentle enough to clean wildlife affected by oil. dawn's grease cleaning power takes care of tough grease wherever it shows up. scrub less, save more...with dawn.

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we are back this wednesday morning, the morning after the presidential election, a race that at this moment at 10:19 on the east coast still remains up in the air. we don't know who the winner is yet, and it may take days or longer. >> and the reason is that the votes are still being counted on

the battleground states. we have beaten the drum, and we have 190,000 folks who have voted by mail, and we have battlegrounds going from east to west, and we will start with stephanie gosk in pennsylvania, the center of the political universe this morning. hi, steph. >> yeah, it is. and trump was running through the scenario where it may not be, but it is probably going to b and we have a press conference coming up with the governor and the secretary of state which is going to be in part to calm nerves, because there is a lot of vote out there. it is not a surprise that there is, and you may remember that the governor actually ran a commercial in the days leading up to the election saying that this is where the state is going to be. why is it here? because of that unprecedented mail-in vote, and 2.5 million ballots have been received and 1.1 counted late last night, and that number is going to be changing quickly and that is less than half, and all of the votes centered almost entirely in places that could go for

biden significantly including here in philadelphia, and you have suburbs and the counties in montgomery and chester and then allegheny and that is where pittsburgh is, and they stopped counting last night, and they just resumed recounting, and so that the message today is from the governor and the secretary of state please be patient. guys, back to you. >> all right. stephanie, thank you. >> wisconsin is another swing state too close to call and razor thin margin between the candidates. cal perry is with us in milwaukee. hey, cal. >> hey, hoda, good morning to you. and this is probably very difficult for the democratic party to watch, but they told us this is likely what is going to happen, and they could be down at midnight in wisconsin and up at 3:00 in the morning, and that is what happened. we saw the early votes being dramatically walked across the parking lot, and when those votes came in for biden that put him over the top, 20,000 votes and the campaign says they are confident that they have won the

state, but we have not called it. another 100,000 votes to come in, and the difference is the urban and the rural divide. hillary clinton lost this state, and they lost the city of milwaukee and they felt they could pick up votes in the city, and they did, and they are hoping to replicate that in detroit and atlanta. guys? >> thank you, cal, so much. >> over to arizona. it is a fight for the 11 electoral votes there, and still going on is von hilliard in scottsdale for us, and that is one of the suburbs in maricopa county which may prove to be desigh zf and whcisive and what hearing? >> the lead for joe biden has dwindled down to 3.4 percentage points. and what tells me is that the trump campaign is hoping they can close that margin and overcome joe biden in this state. of course, it is a tall task the, but when you are looking at the ballots left to be counted, there are still several hundred

thousand ballots to be processed here in the state of arizona and those are ones that have come in the last several days and after the democrats came out with the large lead here among the return ballots early on in october in the last several days, it is the republicans that these ballots were trending towards. and so if we should note that joe biden does ultimately clinch the state of arizona and the 11 electoral votes, the base are the independent voters and particularly in the suburban areas and they are long leaning towards the republicans and the likes of senator john mccain, but what we are seeing from the data is that the voters in the area went to joe biden and that could be the group that clinches it for joe biden. >> and you mentioned john mccain and cindy mccain coming out to endorse joe biden late in the campaign and we will see if that is an effect. our man von hilliard out there.

>> and now, the coverage will resume in a moment, and you were up all night and what is wrong with me. we will go to al roker and the weather. >> hey, you are doing the yeoman-like work, and thank you so much. and let's take a look, and the big thing going on in the weather map and the pacific northwest, and storm after storm coming in here, and on the radar, we are picking it up and the cold front is moving inland and coastal oregon and washington state as this continues to move in tomorrow, and the rain is going to spread into idaho and montana and in the upper elevations, you will see the cold air start dropping and snow amounts from 1 to 3 inches but upwards to 4 or 5 in some localized spots. the rest of the country, we are looking at a beautiful day in the southwest desert with heat and record highs in the plains and turning milder in the northeast.

good morning, i'm meteorologist kari hall. we are starting out with some clouds but will see some sunshine today and temperatures will reach into the upper 70s for a lot of our inland valleys. along the coastline expect it to reach into the upper 60s, up to 77 today in santa rosa. palo alto will reach into the mid-70s and we'll have another nice day for tomorrow. >> and that is your latest weather. guys? >> thank you, al. and coming up more special election coverage ahead. >> that is right. we are awaiting more results from pennsylvania and all eyes are on that state. in a few moments we will join live a news conference from the pennsylvania governor and the secretary of state expected to update the vote counting efforts there. also, a little bit later, georgia's secretary of state is going to join us live. georgia is a nail-biter at this hour, and we are still awaiting votes.

so, we will check in with pennsylvania and georgia and the other states in gray that you will see on the map as we are very much awaiting the results of the election. we'll be back in a moment, but first, this is "today" on nbc. a very good morning to you. it is 7:26. i'm laura garcia. the count certainly continues not only nationally but here in the bay area as well. one of our top stories we're following on this day after the big election. >> reporter: i'm kris sanchez in santa clara county where election workers will process some of those provisional ballots at 8:00 this morning. we already know california went overwhelmingly for joe biden though there were surprises at the county level. in santa clara county joe biden won but donald trump did pick up about 10,000 votes over what he got in 2016. contra costa county joe biden

still won but together he and donald trump got about 40,000 votes fewer than the 2016 election. good morning, everyone. i'm scott mcgrew. president trump threatening to throw the election over to the supreme court, but there is no constitutional mechanism to do that. and it's not clear what his legal argument would be if he wanted to bring a case before the high court. it's certainly something we're watching but seems extremely unlikely to happen. let's get a look at the forecast right now with meteorologist kari hall. a nice, cool start to our morning. yeah, we're going to have a beautiful day once the clouds clear out looking at temperatures in the south bay reaching into the mid-70s. we'll see temperatures up to the upper 70s for the tri-valley, inland east bay, down to the south county as well. and reaching up to 80 degrees in clear lake today. then as we go through the forecast some major changes ahead, some upper 70s today and tomorrow but look at the drop-off in the temperatures on

friday into the weekend with more clouds moving in possibly some light showers as well. laura? all right, sounds good. thank you. thank you for joining us. i'll be back in half an hour with another local news update. come experience floor and decor's grand opening in san leandro! safely shop our wide aisles and be amazed with our even wider selection. discover the perfect floor at the perfect price in whatever way is perfect for you. floor and decor's newest location is now open. also open in milpitas and burlingame. [what's this?] oh, are we kicking karly out? we live with at&t.

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welcome back, guys. 10:30 on the east coast and 7:30 out west. there is white house this morning and the day after the election and right now the question remains, who is going to be calling it home for the next four years and the answer is truly anyone's guess and it is lying in the hands of the voters and the electoral vote is a race to 270 and stands at 234 to 230 and joe biden is leading at the moment, but nine states in gray, and they are the battlegrounds and either too close to call or too early to call and waiting for more votes to be called and that is

battlegrounds of michigan, north carolina, georgia, nevada and arizona and wisconsin and minnesota. >> and every time the totals change, we lean in. what do you have, chuck? >> well, not a ton of updates, because rundown getting into nevada here, and we think that tomorrow, they are counting the votes today, and that is a more likely tomorrow where we will feel better, and arizona where i did get an update from somebody who said that this evening we will have a clear picture and get enough votes throughout, but looking at this the dinner hour west coast, okay. your mom's dinner hour, savannah, if you want to know. and georgia, we are hoping to have the georgia secretary of state, and so i'd hope to get some clarity on when these are coming. our models show that the remaining vote, and this is going to be super tight, and we have to count all of the votes and see where we stand.

north carolina, and there are ballots that the state will receive for another week. so, we are not, and this is not going to be called, and if the margin right now, it is 70,000-plus, and if the margin is down to 10,000, it is the law of north carolina. >> and they can be counted up to when they can be received up to eight to ten days as long as it has the postmark. so we don't know how many ballots that is. and pennsylvania, we should get the update from the governor soon. and maine is trickling in soon, and i do want to do a senate update there. and we know that the three to go to biden and one to trump, and i do want to do the senate race, because susan collins has stopped losing ground and started to picking up, and this is not been, and it had been moving in one direction here, and this is the instant runoff voting, and i won't get into it, but let me tell you this, this

number if it is 48 or 49, and suzanne collins is in great to winning the runoff, the more of the 48, the more and i have used the phrase before and i apologize, but the more that the rank vote system becomes a rank system, and the more it comes out on top, but the raw vote number, and maine has woken up, and we have added vote, but as john lipinski says more people would get up in maine and get on with the count. >> and so it is sort of "the wizard of oz" here, and he has not slept here, and counting the numbers there. >> and we have all napped, but not john. >> and i would like to talk about the maine race that chuck had up there, and the republicans are astonished that susan collins are doing so well, and some are saying that we should not be surprised, because she is a unique example of

someone who has tried to carve out some independence from trump while staying with her party on the issues of the supreme court nomination, and she has been hammered by in the national press for trying to do this. and you know, most people completely wrote her off, but if she is hanging on to the seat, it is a critical component for republicans to control the senate, and as this map is evolving and chuck showed us how close it is in georgia, and if we get two senate runoffs in georgia, the senate could be on the line, but if collins holds on in maine, it is much harder for the democrats to get control, and you would have to win both of those seats. >> so you would have to wait a few more days or a week for that, and if georgia is going to hinge to who takes control of the senate. >> and let me paint you a picture, if joe biden wins and

he is going to look at a cabinet, is it a democratic senate or republican senate, and who is going to get the votes and we are getting ahead of ourselves, and the senate control on the line, and how much money do you think is going to be spent in georgia when it means that much? with these runoffs and we have never had that much when we had the majority on the line. >> and we have tom costello with us keeping an eye on the vote count, and what do you have, tom? >> well, it is important as we are talking about how is it going to be taking days to count all of this, and this is the way it is supposed to work. if you are waking up on the west coast and what the heck, they don't have a result yet? no. this is the way it has gone for the better part of 200 years. seldom does a network officially, and a network may project that somebody wins a race, but it is not official and final vote, because that has to be certified by each individual state, and walking through the time line for various battleground states that we have already, and going with

pennsylvania to begin with, and the governor says that they have a million mail-in ballots to count, and they are a waiting data and they have paused the counting and this is important, absentee ballots postmarked by election day can arrive by friday and be counted. the secretary of state and the governor insist they will be counted despite threats of lawsuits from president trump. in georgia, some key counties paused voting overnight, and that is including the atlanta area, and some of the counties around atlanta, and the vote is now coming in. we had some delays because of the problem with the software on a voting tabulation machine, and also a water main break in the arena where they were counting votes, and so it could take some time. mail ballots must have arrived by yesterday. by yesterday. so that is different from pennsylvania.

so the mailed eed in ballots m have arrived by yesterday. in arizona, they have had to have correct signatures by yesterday. and so the votes had to have arrived by yesterday in arizona, so they can't take new votes in, no new mailed votes in. they had to have arrived by yesterday. and nevada, postmarked by election day and counted up until the 12th we believe from the secretary of state's office, and nevada says no final count from them, and they don't anticipate an update until tomorrow, and they are specifically waiting for data from the democratic-leaning clark county home to las vegas, and michigan that we have been watching that tightly, and 3.5 million absentee ballots cast in michigan and it is about casting those ballots now to get an

accurate read on where the state stands. every state is different, and that is what we have said and that is the way it is supposed to work. >> tom costello, thank you. >> and now, we turn to our analyst claire mccaskill, and rich as well, and now it seems that they are building leads in the blue wall so-called, michigan, and wisconsin, and we will leave pennsylvania to the side, and is that the feeling that you are getting? >> yes. i believe they are focused like a laser on nevada, and finishing up which they are feeling confident about, and arizona finishing up which they feel confident about which is the first flip of the presidential race, and then the two states michigan and wisconsin. you know, pennsylvania and georgia are gravy. that would be the whipped cream and the cherry on top if those came in after final counts for the vice president.

but, there is a clear path to victory here, and they feel very confident, and i should point out that everybody is lawyered up at this point. lawyers flying all over the country at this point, and they are firmly ensconced in all of these places. >> yes, and let's be ensconced ourselves, because i want to join live this press conference of the secretary of state in wisconsin, kathy bookvar giving an update. >> and in this process of enabling this great democracy in pennsylvania and across the nation, the work they have done and continue to do is just tremendous. and you know, i still, and we have been talking, and the department of state folks were you know, at our operations center, i don't know, 4:00, 4:30 in the morning and went to take a shower, and we are back within a couple of hours of that. and so we have been working around the clock, as are many of the counties, and we have been

talking about yesterday, again, and how incredibly smooth. it is one of the smoothest least issues elections, presidential elections that i have seen in any time that i could possibly remember. i have been around elections for a long time as a voting rights lawyer and poll worker, and this is incredibly smooth, and that a huge credit to all of the election workers both at the state level and at the local level as well as our state partners like pima and office of homeland security, department of office of homeland security and making sure that all of the things that people were worried about whether it was voter intimidation or issues at the polls really could not have gone more smoothly in the middle of a global pandemic with all of the voting reform changes that we saw from act 77 and act 12. so that is huge kudos to everybody involved. also, we are exactly where we said that we would be.

we said it would take some time to count the mail ballots, and we are approaching 50% of the mail ballots counted which is great. as you know, you can go to our election night returns website and the supplemental dashboard to get the greater details on that. but there are still millions of ballots to be counted. so the counties are working incredibly hard. you will see a lot of updates in the next coup koucouple of hour throughout the day. there are some counties that made additions in the wee hours of the day, and so if you checked early on this morning and you may want to check again, because there are more ballots accounted for on the dashboard. again, it is a process. we've got somewhere -- and i don't know what the totals will end up at -- but between 2.5 and 3 million ballots, and as i have

said many times, we had 260,000 ballots cast by mail in 2016. so we will be at 10 times the number of mailed ballots and the counties are approaching 50% done. so i urge everybody to remain patient as governor wolf said, and we are going to accurately count every single ballot. the vote count as i have said many times isn never done on th day of election night. the counties are doing this accurately and then accurately as quickly as they possibly can. again, i will just remind everyone, military and overseas ballots are not due until a week after election day, and so next tuesday is the deadline for the military and the overseas voters to cast their ballots and we want to make sure that not only every civilian and absentee voter is counted, but every

active military man and woman's vote is counted. so thank you, and we are happy to take questions. >> i am sure that you want to talk to kathy. any questions? dennis? >> can you tell us where you stand right now and know of the legal challenges from the trump administration and how you are preparing to deal with those? >> so, i think that you know, what has been publicly reported is at that point, and i can't talk about active litigation unfortunately, you know, but as things are filed, those will be publicly accessible. >> will you have attorneys who can handle those from the inside or bring in people from outside? >> well, with all of the litigation flying this year, we have mix of in-house, and outside council and the attorkc

attorney general and a great mix. i will give a shout out to legal team and the department of state who have been amazing and so tim and cat and team, and thank you, and we have a tremendous counsel team that is tremendous, and so as the governor said, we will make sure that every vote is counted and every eligible voter has a right to have their vote counted. >> how many counties are handling the votes that are coming in thursday and friday and on, and how is that being handled? >> you can go online to see the guidance, and last night we gave technical guidance to the counties that we lay it out there. and -- i am not sure if you were here yesterday, but we laid it

out, and everything is segregated and each county has been given detailed guidances, and it is walking them through how to lay out how to count those segregated ballots. >> and can you tell us if that is a county by county decision and can we expect the numbers to be reflected or something later in the process? >> well, yeah, so basically -- so we are listening in on the secretary of state of pennsylvania and what she is saying is to have patience, and they have actually tabulated half of the mail-in ballots at this point, and they are mailing with an enormous influx of the ballots and 10 times of what they had in 2016 and that is well expected. we did know it would take some time to count the early mail-in vote, and first time in the century that we are voting in a pandemic, and pennsylvania, if it is coming down to

pennsylvania, this is the litigation capital of the world, and what are you hearing from the folks and the people that you know from the trump side of things? >> well, they don't think that it is done by any means, but it is looking like in the blue wall states for the trump camp, it is live or die by the blue wall squeaker states as they did last time, and it is not done yet, but it is conceivable to see biden to get to 290 or 300 votes, but to make a broader point of the contours, it is conceivable that the republicans will hold the senate, and we don't know that yet, but joe biden will come in, and he will come in as the weakest newly elected president in memory. he will have zero chance for legislation. all of the court packing and all

of that is off, and totally impossible and he will be able to make rhetorical statements and other than that, he is legislatively neutered and no mandate at the outset. >> it is going to be divided government nfor sure, and not te landslide that the democrats are fantasizing abouter to t noer that democrats would prefer. so why suddenly the mail-in votes are suddenly down, and rich, i rely on you as a straight shooter and i know that you are conservative, but to clarify the point, there is nothing nefarious going on that the democrats had a strategy of banking the mail-in votes and where the president's strategy successful i might add is to have day-of votes. >> correct. i will say that everyone should

go to florida, adopt the rules of florida for counting these votes in the processes of florida. because florida had them incredibly quickly, and even if trump were not out there throwing the hand grenades at the process the way he has been for a long time, it is inevitable that the longer the vote counts are drawn out, it is political dynamics that they are more contentious, and it is driving the suspicions of the process so it would be better if everyone next time around would do the proficiencies of florida. >> and what a difference a decade makes, rich. so stay with us, and next when will we have answers from the battleground of georgia? that secretary of state will join us for a live interview

welcome back.

10:50 on the east coast and we will get back to the election coverage in a second, but first, a quick check of the weather from our pal al. >> good morning. heavy rain in the pacific northwest and nice and beautiful in the northwest and turning milder in the mid-atlantic good morning. i'm meteorologist kari hall. a live look outside in san jose. we are starting out with some clouds and cool temperatures. once this clears out we're in for a nice day with sunshine and temperatures reaching into the mid-70s. we will see those 70s in the forecast over the next couple of days as we reach into the 70s for today and tomorrow. we'll see some upper 60s nearin. that is your latest weather. guys? >> okay. back to the election coverage

and another check of the electoral map. check out the nine states in gray still at this hour undecided. the presidential race is hanging in the balance. they are counting the ballots as we speak. >> that is right. and one of of the states that is a squeaker, a state that joe biden had high hopes late in the game flipping in the election is georgia, and we will see, and that secretary of the state is with us now. mr. secretary, good morning, on a busy morning. i guess that the big question is -- hoda? >> we want to know when we get your votes and we want to know who has won your state? >> well, 2% left to go, and we had great success yesterday. 4.7 million voters who vote, and a record breaker for us, and beat the 4.1 in 2016 and the average wait time of two minutes of a statewide average. we have 2% left to go, and you can see where we are right now with the results that have been repo reported. i don't believe it is going to change the outcomes, but that is

for the people who make predictions. and what we will do is -- >> ooh. anybody who has done a facetime with the kids you know that sound. >> that sound is bye-bye. >> and we were just getting to the good part there, because the secretary of the state said that they have 2% left to count, chuck, but he did not believe it is going to change the outcome, and then he deferred to the prognosticators which i believe is you. >> that is you. >> and look, that is the models, and where the counties are, and they are heavily democratic counties, and it is going to slin shrink, and perhaps an arbiter of an election result and i would not want to say, yes, and when we count the vote, it is going to change the result, so his job is to be the umpire. >> and ask mr. secretary, can you hear me now? >> well, you are a busy guy, and all of the friends wanting to know the same thing that we want to know, when is georgia going

to report, and you said something interesting that 2% left to count, and you did not believe it is going to changing the outcome, and is that based upon your analysis of where the votes are outstanding or guessing it, because of the fact that it is only 2%? >> oh, we don't guess. what we do is to reportment a r. and we see where the candidates are in the congressional, and senatorial, and see where the votes are, and even if the candidates got 100%, it would not be enough to move it one way or another. and it is what it is, and we will wait for what it s and the counties are working diligently to get it done today. >> can i ask you, sir. there is a report from the what appears to be from the united states postal service data to show a failure to deliver mail ballots from the voters around the country on election day including georgia in the atlanta area, and do you know anything about that? >> well, we have no control over the postal service, and that is

why we went ahead and we implemented the ballot drop boxes and we told everyone that you should not rely on the postal service when you are close to the end of the election, and that why we had the ballot drop boxes available for everybody to drop the ballots off until 7:00 p.m. last night, and so they have been well received by the voters. >> fair enough, and it is a question for the postal service, but let me ask you on your side of the things, did you notice any suspicious drop off in the number of absentee ballots returned, and is there any reason for you to believe that there could be thousands of ballots that did not get returned by the postal service? >> no, there is nothing that we have any knowledge of right now. i know that our county election directors in the large metropolitan areas reached out to the local postal officer to make sure that we are going to have regular service, and we had worked through all of the questions and we understood the importance of making sure that

all of the mailed absentee ballots got to the local county offices. and ten seconds, are we going to get it today or not? >> yes, you will get it by the end of today. good morning. it is 7:56. i'm laura garcia. a quick look at some of the california's key ballot measures. >> reporter: i'm cierra johnson in san francisco. there were several hot ballot issues statewide. we're going to jump right in starting with prop 16. a simple majority was needed to reinstate affirmative action and based on the number of votes counted that has not happened. this ballot issue would have allowed public universities and state and local governments to consider race in admissions and in government. >> reporter: i'm bob redell in oakland. proposition 15 appears to have 71% of the votes reported so

far. prop 15 is losing with 52% of voters saying no. prop 15 would have potentially raised property taxes on businesses here in the state. 60% of voters have said no to proposition 21. that has been called by our election desk. all right. let's take a look at our high temperatures for today. we'll see some upper 70s around the bay area like santa rosa reaching 77. 73 will be the high in oakland and for the south bay expect a high of 76 degrees. as we go through the forecast we have a couple days left of some nice weather. highs in the 70s and sunshine. this weekend we'll get a visit from winter. a lot of clouds, some off and on light showers. really good to see the rain in the forecast, though. we do so desperately need it and we're going to see more of that weather into sunday but then rebound a little bit into early next week for san francisco expect temperatures in the upper 60s for today.

laura? all right, thanks so much, kari. another local news update in about half an hour. hope to see you then.

>> it is #:00 on today and watching and waiting. this morning, millions of votes still being counted and several crucial states too close to call. overnight, the president falsely claiming victory. >> we were getting ready to win this e ek shun and frankly, we did win this election. >> joe biden ready for a fight. >> i am here to tell you tonight, that we believe that we are on track to win this lek shun. >> we'll have the latest on where everything stands as the results are still coming in today, wednesday, november 4th, 2020. hi, everybody.

good morning and welcome back to "today" and it is wednesday morning and the beat goes on. 11:00 a.m. on the east coast and 8:00 a.m. on the west and a lot to be decided in the presidential race. >> i'll say. the president itself, and let's reset things. in the all-important race to 270 electoral votes and nbc news has joe biden with 224 and the president stands at 213. >> and nine states and we will list them for you, pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin, north carolina, georgia, nevada, maine and alaska, and at this hour, too close to call or too early to call. >> still at stake in this election, control of congress, and so far, the republicans are clinging to the majority in the senate with several races still outstanding and nbc news is projecting that the democrats will hold the house. >> a lot to analyze with the correspondents, and we will start with chuck todd. okay. you can ease on down the road here. >> and i will start with pennsylvania, because we have a

trickle. >> oh. >> a trickle, and it will tell us, and sorry about that. that didn't mean to be there. okay. so we have trickle in what is just a trickle. we have a lot to go, but the lead is down to 540, and again, we are waiting for the southeastern pennsylvania, and you are talking to the various people, and savannah, and you and i have the different sources saying basically the same thing, but you'd rather be trump than biden, but it is going to be awfully tight in pennsylvania. so if you are joe biden right now, you really don't want pennsylvania to be to be all, end all, and if you are donald trump, you are wondering what can i pair up with pennsylvania here, because he may need one more, and that is what i would argue of the three blue wall states, this is the one that is the one right now where you'd rather be trump than biden in the other two, that you would rather be biden than trump.

so we have not seen a lot new, and this is 9,000 that debbie dingell says that the votes are coming in faster than that, and they have built a little lead. it is a smattering in detroit, and a smattering in flint. and it is a significant chunk in grand rapids. on paper, that is biden leaning. it is going to be just slightly tighter in that senate race. and i will show you that here for the republicans ahead. >> and for people just tuning in, and they are wondering with the late votes, and these are the absentee votes, and what votes are these? what are we waiting for overall? >> well, as i am doing a little refresher here, we have been tracking the type of the way that people voted. so you had people who went to the polls yesterday. that is the yellow. then you had the people who did the mail-in ballots or the voting early, and that is the orange. we expect that this is going to be a lot more here, and of this number that is left, most of it is mail vote, and that is going to be of course democratic-leaning this year.

so that is why there is this pessimism on the republican side, because they think that they know what is left, and it is looking good for biden, but again, back to the same thing in pennsylvania in this case, you would rather be biden than trump with what is remaining, and this is wisconsin, and the 20,000 vote lead that he has had, and anything 1% or under, you will see the recount. at some point, we should get the rest of the vote in here, and again, i would just watch this, and that is what going to be the watch here, and that is the spread greater than 1%. >> mail-in or day of vote? >> we believe it is absentee or mail-in, and we have not seen because they have been putting it together, and so we have not been able to break it down as well as we have been able to do with other the states. and quickly, a little bit of the arizona presidential popped in, and he has a 93,000 vote lead which is fairly significant with what is left, but it is one of the cases with what is left,

trump would have to win it by 20 points and it is not impossible, but it is a huge, huge climb. >> the leftover vote he would have to have a margin of 20% to make up the gap there. >> so it is not impossible, and look, they are saying that we could see the very thing happen, and despite what the secretary of state in georgia said we don't expect to move the numbers, that is not true, because all of the remaining ballots lean democratic and is there enough of it to overcome 100,000, and the models indicate there might be. >> and if you are going down to the last few days and you have demanding lawsuits and the lottery of lawsuits, you would want to wait and watch. peter alexander. >> the president in the last hour is trying to frame it in the president's favor saying that they trust the data and the

math, and arguing if they count all of the legally cast votes, trump wins. to be clear, there is no evidence of fraudulently or illegally cast votes, but that language is previewing the legal fight we see ahead. one example that the trump campaign is talking about challenging votes in pennsylvania received by friday and postmarked by lek shun dele but received by friday and challenging what was upheld by the supreme court, and they want those thrown out. and the president is trying to cast doubt on the normal counting process and saying that the early leads in his words are magically disappearing and saying that surprise dumps are being counted, and twitter slapped a warning on that saying that it is disputed and possibly misleading. last night president trump falsely and prematurely declared victory as you have noted and the winner of the presidency has

not been determined, and take a listen. >> millions and millions of people voted for us tonight. and a very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people. and we won't stand for it. we won't stand for it. this is a fraud on the american public. this is an embarrassment for our country. we were getting ready to win this election. frankly, we did win this election. >> even republicans have fiercely criticized the president's comments calling them irresponsible among other things. even the vice president mike pence had a different tone speaking after the president saying that he wanted all of the votes to be counted and not declaring victory like the president did there, but he says that he thinks that they are on a path to victory. back to you both. >> thank you, peter.

joe biden has urged the supporters to be patient while insisting that he is on track to the white house, and kristen welker is in delaware where we did hear from joe biden overnight. >> good morning to both of you. i can tell you that inside of the biden campaign, they are feeling increasingly confident as well. they wrapped up a phone call with the reporters and they say that the states making them feel emboldened is watching michigan and nevada and pennsylvania and they do believe that there is a path without pennsylvania. now, overnight, the biden campaign manager slamming president trump for the comments prematurely claiming victory, and calling that claim outrageous and dangerous. that is coming after biden addressed a crowd of supporters where i am standing right now. biden urging the patience and saying that the vote going on, but that he is confident and take a listen to what he had to say. >> we knew that this was going to go long, but who knew that we

were going to go into maybe tomorrow morning and maybe longer. but, look, we feel good about where we are. we really do. i'm here to tell you tonight that we believe that we are on track to win this election. >> reporter: now we expect to hear from the former vice president later on theday, and i am told to expect him to be more bullish than speaking overnight, because of the returns that are coming in particularly in the midwest, and that critical part of the country that democrats were not able to hold in 2016. now, as for the legal challenges that we have been talking about throughout the morning, and the biden campaign says, look, they have a team of lawyers ready to be dispatched when and if that might be necessary. savannah and hoda. >> kristen welker in delaware. thanks. and tom costello is working the counting of the votes, and

you are working into the postal delays that we are hearing about. >> this is very concerning, but bear with me, because i need to explain it. you may recall that the postal service said that 300,000 ballots had arrived but needed to be scanned. so the postal service ordered them to scan for missing ballots and the postal service refused to comply with the justice order, and yesterday we received an order for on time delivery and so we may have seen that ballots may not have been delivered. they say that in atlanta yesterday, it had the on-time delivery score of just 82%. keep in mind that before, rather last june they were running 95% nationally, and 82% in atlanta, and we are still waiting for the votes in georgia. 61% in another battleground

rate, delivery rate 61% in central pa, 61%, and in pittsburgh, 71%, and in detroit, michigan, another battleground state, and 72% in greensboro, north carolina, and 76%. and in lakeland, wisconsin. now, how does this affect ballots that may be out? guess what. those battleground states, arizona, wisconsin, michigan and georgia had rules and have rules that you have to have your ballots in, and they have to have arrived by mail yesterday. those states do not offer a grace period, so now that the postal service data this morning suggests that the on time delivery rates were so bad yesterday that you are theoretically could have tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of ballots that still have not been delivered. the federal judge has ordered a noon hearing to discuss this and get to the bottom of it, and the question is whether he is going to be happy with the postal service and declining to do the

sweep that he ordered and the postal service said yesterday it is already doing a sweep as part of the normal operations. guys? >> and what is the remedy if anything if the judge doesn't like it. and you put up the postal service delivery rates in the 60s and the 70s and as i understand it, tom, the average rate for the postal service in good times is 90% plus. so this is dramatically -- >> 95%. yeah, that is right. and in fact, back in june, 95%. now, that is before president trump's new postmaster general came in and instituted reforms and others call it cuts, and others said that he is allegedly trying to slow the mail into the election, and now we have seen the mail service decline dramatically into june, and the postal service has blamed the pandemic for it, and keep in mind that the pandemic has been going on since march, and 95% rate since june, and so the numbers are concerning in the key battleground states and if

the ballots are literally sitting in post offices right now. >> and chuck, what is striking you about those, because you are looking at the places, and you are seeing the political battlegrounds. >> and there is people who are going to be seeing nothing but political mischief, and we know nothing but mr. le joi wy who i big trump donor, and congressional democrats want to investigate this, but i want to take a bigger step back on this, and this is something that we were talking about internally, that we are going to at some point more than a million americans are going to have thought that they voted and their vote doesn't count, and they won't even know it. okay. when all is said and done, because the ballots are going to be tossed out, because maybe the signature or somebody decides their signature doesn't match. and literally, and there is going to be, and it depends upon the state you live about how much your, how much leeway you get to cast your vote, and some

give you a lot of leeway, and you are the leeway, and is that equal protection under the law. i am not a lawyer and i only try to play one on tv, but i am sorry, that is why is some basically, if i lived in another state you got more leeway to vote, and more, and look at north carolina, you can get your vote in, and it can be postmarked and it account show up a week later, and we said, is it nevada the other one that we were talking about? >> yes, and tom knows it by heart at this point. >> and the point is that -- >> some give a week and some no time at all. >> and i defer to you on this, is that a violation -- >> and you are going to defer to me after i have been up all night? >> well, the court would look at it and say, that this is something that has been assigned to the state lawmakers and the constitutional making of that is going to supersede it. and isn't that a good lawyerly answer.

>> and that a good grade on that. >> and tom? are you there, tom? >> yes, i am here. can you see and hear me? the postal service has clarified in the past, the precise language is not delivery rates, but rather the processing rates. so processing, and i suspect that is a nuance that only they can appreciate, but a processing is score of 82% as we said in atlanta, and 61% in central p.a. as opposed to delivery and the bot dom line tom line is that w looking for balance. >> and now we have to investigate the postal office. you have the assignment next, tom. thank you. and coverage 2020 rolls on does scrubbing grease feel like a workout? scrub less with dawn ultra. it's superior grease-cleaning formula gets to work faster, making easy work of tough messes. dawn is a go-to grease-cleaner throughout the kitchen, too. keep a bottle in the laundry room to pre-treat greasy stains and keep dawn in the garage to lift grease off car rims.

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welcome back at the top of the hour, and chuck was telling us about the state of wisconsin and how it could likely be headed for the possible recount and that is how tight the margin

is at this hour. >> too close to call at this hour. we will get the latest from the director of the state's elections commission. cal perry is with us from the state of milwaukee. hey, cal. >> it was dramatic overnight when the votes came in from milwaukee, but they expected it. they said it is possible to be stopping at midnight and up at 3:30. the urban divide so key. when you look at how hillary clinton lost, it was by less than 3,300 and the democrats knew they had to target milwaukee and so they have made up the gap, and now they are hoping that the sign in milwaukee is going to translate to the states that we are talking about this morning, specifically michigan and georgia. >> thank you, cal. >> let's bring in megan wolf, the wisconsin commission's director with us on the phone.

and we are waiting with bated breath of when the wisconsin's numbers are coming in. when do you expect? >> well, good morning. the votes have come in from elections offices, and so how it works in wisconsin and other states is that the unofficial votes are reported by other individual offices and so now we are in the process of looking at the local canvas and that is what we are working on now. >> and so the outstanding votes, director wolfe, are you breaking down the mail-in vote, and the day-of vote, or more simply, have you counted all of the day-of vote that you have gotten and now you are doing the mail-in votes? >> yes, so all of the ballots have indeed been counted and the ballots are back from the local precincts and every ballot that arrived by 8:00 p.m. yesterday was counted at the central count

facility or at the polling place yesterday. >> because our numbers are showing that we have 3% outstanding. and what are your numbers showing? >> so, you know, we are not seeing the counties that have not posted their results on their website. >> okay. >> i want to bring chuck todd into this. >> well, we are making this, and we have always said that this is estimated vote, and that is what we are waiting on, and so i think that she'll understand what we are saying that we make these judgments based on the communicating with the local and the state officials, and as stuff comes in, we do make minor adjustments. >> so director wolfe is saying that all of the vote is in. >> john lipinski, if you are listening. that is a conversation that the folks want to have with the state of wisconsin, and that is something that the poll room does, and it is interesting update, and something that john lipinski earlier today said that i think that there is, and vi lowered our expected vote a

little bit, because i am not seeing it, but it is our understanding that there should be more out there. >> and can you put the wisconsin numbers out there, and are you in a position to give us the numbers that we have, and we have numbers that i am showing biden at 1,633,307. >> well, thank you for the question, and there is never an official aggregate, and our staff does certify the results, and so there is not an official aggregate, and like one of the commenters said that the predictions are based on the best estimates of the unofficial totals. >> but does that number match with the estimate that you have been reporting out? >> i am not sure exactly what number you are pointing to in terms the of what we have been reporting out to, because there

is no statewide aggregate, because it is coming from the counties. >> so we are doing the math behind the scenes county by county. and thank you, commissioner, for all of your hard work, and it is a lot for all of the election officials, and the mail-in, and the pandemic, and so much hard work. >> and we have 21 past the hour, and al, time for another check of the weather. how's it looking? >> well, it is quiet, but we have storms come in over the pacific northwest, but the rest of the map as you can see it is clear. the afternoon temperatures are nice and toasty over the gulf coast, and cooler into the mid-atlantic northeast, and the sky temperatures are milder in the mid-atlantic states, and lots of sunshine through the gulf. the record highs through the central plains, and the desert heat continues down the southwest and the heavy rain in. i'm meteorologist kari hall. a live look outside in san francisco. beautiful start to our wednesday

morning. a lot of clear blue skies after early morning fog near the coast. we'll see more sunshine today. highs reaching into the up are 60s. for san jose, expect a high of 76 degrees and upper 70s for parts of the north bay, santa rosa reaching 77 and 79 in liver mo livermore. a big cool down in time for the weekend. and that's your latest weather. guys? >> thank you, mr. roker. >> and so rich and claire mccaskill are standing by, and you are at bat here with the vote coming in, and wisconsin, we were just talking about it, and it is tight, and that might be the end of the vote right there, and we are going to try to make some calls and is that too close for comfort for you, and it seems like it is in recounter toir recount territory?

>> it is almost in the same margin that trump won. and trump complained about the mail-in ballots and he is going to lose places like utah. utah is all mail-in ballots, and he is happy to count them -- so it is not whether the mail-in ballots are bad, but he is having a problem of when they are counted. so these counting processes are observed by both parties, and they have watchers in there to see what is happening, and the lawyers are present in every single one of the states now, and so this count is going to be secure. i have a question though that somebody needs to answer for me, and why is maine still gray? i don't -- >> well, there is too much -- >> well, on the map -- >> to be honest with you, claire, on the both nebraska and maine with the individual congressional district, and as you are monitoring that, there is just more hesitance while you are trying to figure out what is happening in that second

congressional district, but it is a very slow count, and we'd like to get a little bit more. but you are correct -- >> what are you thinking about maine, claire? >> well, three of the four are going, and it is hard to imagine how donald trump catches him at this point, but we have these in maine, but he is going to probably win the second congressional district and it has to do with the split, but claire is right, 3 of the 4 are likely to be in the biden column at some point today, but we are just, i mean, john lipinski is like, come on, maine, step it up. >> and if you think that 30,000 votes is too close in wisconsin, then 70,000 votes in maine is a tsunami, because that is a huge margin. >> yes, a landslide, claire. >> and for joe biden up in maine, that is a big margin. >> yes, landslide joe. >> i noticed that it went gray and i wanted to clarify that there was not some trembling

underneath the surface in the data that i missed. >> thank you. and i wanted to look at how other parts of the world are reacting to the uncertainty in the race. >> and first a look at the local weather and that is right after a very good morning to you. 8:26. tracking results from that state's key votes including proposition 22 voters approving by a wide margin allowing ride share and app delivery drivers to remain contractors and not employees with full benefits. with more than 72% of the votes count counted, ahead by 16 percentage points. affirmative action measure prop 16 going down in defeat and would have re-introduced minority hiring in government agencies and public universities. right now losing by more than 10 percentage points. we are posting all the latest

election results for you on our home page. members of a different sort. temperatures. check those now with meteorologist kari hall. >> and we are seeing upper 70s right now for the inland areas and we're going to see the highs continue for tomorrow. notice on friday how much cooler it's going to be. a new storm system coming in will bring in more clouds and spotty off and on showers from friday through sunday. and we're going to see that also continue into early next week. all right. that feeling of fall in the air. thanks so much for joining us for this local news update. another one coming up in about half an hour. give you my world ♪

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welcome back, guys. look at those american flags blowing out there in the wind. it is 11:30 outside of rockefeller plaza, and it is a sun splashed morning in a lot of places. the world is waiting to see who is the next president of the united states. >> i like the sun splashing, and it is waxing poetic, and boy it is in action as we are rolling into wednesday and still counting the votes. take a moment and reset where the race sets right now, and looking for 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. this is where it stands right

now, 224-213 in joe biden's favor at the moment. but we have nine states that nbc is calling either too close to call or too early to call meaning that there is much more vote to be counted. that includes the battlegrounds of pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin, north carolina, georgia, nevada and arizona. >> we are waiting for the numbers to come n and t in, ande trickling in. chuck todd is at the board. >> we are going to be calling maine today and we feel good it is going to happen. we want to look at the data and clean it up. and don't worry, claire mccaskill, and john lipinski is doing the homework. and so, we will be close, and it is headed in the direction that it is leaning. and you would like to see a 3/1 split there which is what we have been estimating the whole time. and pennsylvania, it is just not, and we will be getting the vote in all day, and we are a long ways away, and this is razor tight.

if this is the fight for 270, we are revisiting 2000. okay. pure and simple. michigan is looking better and better for biden, and i will show you where we are now. what is coming in, that we are waiting for more out of wayne county and numbers coming in, and that is going to increase it, and the question is the senate race. this is going to be probably, super, super tight. the models think that peters is going to be up by a literally a nose hair. it is going to be that kind of tight. but, we'll see, but again, michigan, you know, you'd rather be biden than trump right now. wisconsin, so, we are basically what our team is doing right now is triple-checking all of the data. we think that it is possible that we have got everything that's in. we want to make sure that there is not an error, and when you are dealing with 20,000, and

less than 1%, and that is just basically looking at the data, and it would not be our error, and double-checking, and we find this all of the time, and hey, county x, you have reported something twice. it happens all of the time, and we have caught fairfax county accidentally doing that, and they sort of, and you know, with the absentee ballots and same-day and it can happen, because everybody is a human being, and if this holds, i think that we know that this is going to be heading to the recount, and it is less than the 1%. by the way, the recount procedures, and this could get county to county and it is not really -- this could get just messy. >> and especially with how nasty wisconsin has been for the last several elections, and so pa partisan and divided. >> it is the most organized and divided. and like florida, everything comes down to the one percent race. and like, that, they are going

to try to get down to the -- >> you think nfd evada will calt tomorrow? >> i doubt we call it tomorrow. but we will see. on paper, the mail-in ballots that are being counted we think that it is going to be leaning biden and he should hang on it to, but nothing is for certain. i told you before, arizona, and we expect tonight, and i bet that just freaked a whole bunch of people out, trump is winning arizona, but as you can see here, biden has a nearly 100,000 vote lead here, but we expect dinner time-out west, but when we are in primetime tonight doing election part ii in america, we think that we will get an arizona call on that front, and georgia is waiting for the atlanta vote. it sounds like we will get it throughout the day, and so this is something else that we will find out how close does it get.

i told you that the models say 0.01 of 1%. and so think of it not out of the realm of possibility because of where this vote is. and then north carolina, we just have ballots that are going to be ballots that are going to be coming in for more than a week. sot y so, you will see it here, a margin of 10,000 could trigger a recount, and look, we will have, this could be something that we just wait for the vote to trickle in, and if the margins are shrinking, then we will keep waiting, and if they don't, then this is -- well, you would rather be trump than biden in north carolina. so there we are. what that would mean, and let me take us through the what-if map. if we get the calls that we think that we will get, and sort of, give alaska to the president. we are going to assume that those lean this way, and

wisconsin, and recount land and michigan, and you can see here that it would head us with the three in maine here. thank you for that with the three to maine and that would get him to 270, but we would be looking at certainly at a recount situation there. so we don't know what the georgia situation is. but the joe biden wouldn't need georgia and he would add to the padding there, and you have heard from all of the biden people, they don't want to worry about that. >> and so if we are waiting and everybody is saying, i get that and recounts, but any idea, and next week before you would know something for real if that is the scenario? >> no, think they if this is what we are staring at, we would know this before the end of the day tomorrow. or by dinner time tomorrow. if this is -- this is the very plausible map that we are

staring at tomorrow afternoon, which then would mean that we start the litigation phases and recounts here, and then probably, it would still be the fight in pennsylvania, because you don't know if you need it type of thing, and while you deal with that, and then georgia could end up in the recount and north carolina, and so we are looking at four, and i did not bring up nevada. or four realistic recounts. >> so if you loved florida in 2000, you will be loving 2020 with four recounts. >> yes, 2020 is doing everything more than what we have ever done. >> this is going to balance everything on the knife's edge especially with the control of congress up for grabs. >> and nobody can be breathing a sigh of relief in delaware or at the white house. and that brings in jeremy who

was a young lawyer on al gore's team in that recount battle 26 years ago, and so with the flashbacks for you, jeremy, and what should people keep in mind as this recount procedure or procedures unfolds? >> well, a couple of things, savannah, it is important to note that in florida in 2000, all of the votes had come in, and all of the votes had been counted, and so that the dispute, the litigation was over how the counts should be reviewed, and how the ballots should be recounted. here, we have not gotten the votes in yet, and so when trump stands up in the white house and says that we are going to the court or supreme court, that is premature, and hyperaggressive and meant to shape the information environment, but there is no basis standing here today for anybody to be in court. now, once we have all of the votes in, then as you pointed out with chuck and kasie, in a couple of states an automatic

recount, because the differential is so small, and those are going to be a reprocessing of the ballots through the machine, and i think that we will probably get the same result, 10,000 ballots is a hard number to overcome. remember, in florida, the difference was 537, and gore at the end of the day, only moved that number a couple of hundred, and maybe a couple of thousand at most, and so 10,000 is very hard to overcome. >> i was going to ask that, and this is 20,000 that we were staring at, and i had the wisconsin attorney who is monitoring this on the democratic side, and he says that it is very hard for them to disqualify 20,000 ballots. so we are going to be seeing a margin of 10,000 trigger a recount in north carolina, and maybe that margin that we just said of 20,000 in wisconsin, and what is a realistic margin if you are trailing in a recount on average that you can, that is overcomable, and when does it become, okay, that meets one half of one percent, but that is

a lot of vote. >> yeah, i think -- look, if biden is up in those states by more than 2,000 or 3,000, it is comfortable for straight up recount. now, there a second phase that trump could come in and try to contest the election in that state and make any number of claims and try to begin to claim that there was fraud and that the mail-in ballots were fraudulently signed and that is a little bit more challenging, because there is no established law on those issues, but i think that he would try to lose fast and then get up to the supreme court and maybe, maybe trump would have a way to throw out some ballots, but again, it is uphill, and there is no basis for that, and it would be frivolous knowing what we know today, and the biden team has a aggressive counter strategy they would deploy as well. so if i were advising the campaigns, i'd much rather be advising biden if he gets to the 270, and he can claim that he

won, and everything that trump tries is almost a hail mary. >> all right. jeremy bash, who actually, there is an hb, o and bshghbo movie " and jeremy bash is played by brad pitt. so you can go to relive it if you want. >> and there is a great podcast about it as well. >> that is true, and there is a great podcast about it produced by kasie hunt's husband. >> "circle of life." and >> we did it for this moment, but we didn't think that it would be so prescient as it is. >> i learned so much hanging out

we are back.

there it is the all-important electoral map, and the votes are being counted and the potential legal challenges are being contemplated over the results in the presidential race, and we are awaiting the votes until the end. >> and by the way, we are not waiting for this, and all around the world, the people are watching closely and monitoring the election results. today, the senior international correspondent keir simmons has that part of the story. hey, keir. >> hey, hoda, this has the world stunned to show you a little bit of what i mean. take a look at the front pages here in britain today. on a knife edge. another one, battle for america's soul. this is making headlines around the world. even without a result. and the question many around the world are asking, and it is a big question, what will american leadership look like in the years to come. >> and it is the election that the whole world is watching. >> reporter: millions around the world overnight. >> neck and neck.

>> reporter: watching america's democracy tested. >> america decides. >> it is chaotic. >> reporter: a nerve-racking election says the israeli tv. >> i was not surprised and as a matter of fact, i was awake all night. >> reporter: a long night watched through the day in asia and australia. >> i think it affects us all. >> the politics like for me is a sporting match. >> reporter: and overseas glued to coverage like these democrats in thailand. >> it is the future of the country and we need to pay attention. >> if trump wins, it is definitely going to have a huge impact on the world. >> reporter: in europe, the candidate candidates' competing claims came in the early morning. >> it ain't over until every vote is counted. >> reporter: a german chancellor fears that it is going to impact the alliances. >> i am afraid that we will be looking at continued

polarization in american politics. that for us in europe is not exactly good news. >> reporter: britain, america's closest ally expressing faith in the american system. >> we express support in the american system. >> reporter: and america's friends are holding their breath. >> i always thought that it would be closer than people thought. >> i am depressed. i think it is going to be close and drawn out like the 2000 election again >> reporter: and america's foes quick to criticize. in china, the #american election has been viewed 3.4 billion times. america without hope says one chinese state media journalist. and in russia, the kremlin warning of chaos in america, and the middle east, a region perhaps more than any other looks to america for leadership. >> we are hoping to have a good solution from the united states. >> i have never seen nesamerica

that divided to be honest. >> and where does america go now. >> reporter: and america needs to be given time to understand who it voted for and thinking of the list of international issues that lie ahead should american troops be withdrawn from afghanistan and america's longest war, and the iran situation and the environment and the climate change and then that issues with china, and a lot of decisions to be made once this decision of who is president gets made, guys. >> all right. we may be waiting for a few more days for the decision, keir. thank you. and times for uncertainty and big moments in the country and one thing that we need is perspective and for that we go to american historian michael beschloss, and of course, history provides that. what are your thoughts as we navigate this moment together? >> well, people are saying that the election is dragging on and it is unresolved and donald trump was saying last night that

it is not over by midnight and so there must have been fraud or something wrong here. but most of american history, savannah, as you know, going back to the beginning, and does anyone think that in the 19th century that elections were resolved by midnight especially before the telegraph and then later radio? 1876, there was a deadlock over louisiana and south carolina and florida that it dragged on for about 3 1/2 months before there was a final decision. and then of course, you know, everyone is talking about this morning 2000 which lasted about five weeks before there was a decision from the supreme court in bush v. gore. so looking at american history and we have a great system and it resolves itself, and let our democracy and let the system unfold. >> that makes us feel so good. as we look around, american cities are boarded up, and boarded up in midtown manhattan, and people are wondering what is

going to happen after, and is there any guide from history what will happen next? >> well, there were a number of predictions yesterday and in the last few days, as you well know, hoda, violence or people would be beset by gangs if they were going to the polls or all sorts of interference that maybe there was, but we have not seen many reports of yet, and this is a very divided country, and it always will be. we have people coming from all sorts of places with all sorts of hopes from their family. it is a big diverse country, and that is the way it is supposed to be, but we want it to be divided and people to argue over the policy, but at the same time the founders said, be civil, negotiate and compromise and above all demand of whoever is the next president that he make a huge effort to unify the country which is one of the biggest jobs a president always has. >> and michael, you know, if we went by the popular vote, we would not be here right now, and we would have gone home, and

called the election sometime after midnight last night. and it would be over with the popular vote. and look, this is now what three times out of the last six that we have sort of potentially a popular vote/electoral college split. the electoral college to me is always the hardest thing to explain to a foreigner about our democracy. >> that funny, because i wanted to ask why do we have the electoral college, michael? >> well, you are right. just as i was extolling the compromise, that is what came out of the constitutional convention in the city of philadelphia that we will be hearing about later on today, and it led to this thing which is basically was intended to buffer the presidency from big changes in american public opinion. the way that the founders felt, they didn't want a majority of the americans voting a president into office or out of office. they wanted the state legislators and they wanted the elites to do that, and interestingly, a lot of support

has remained for the electoral college, and at least in the past, more than one occasion, joe biden was asked as a senator whether he supported abolition of the electoral college, and he said that he was inclined against it, and i am not sure how he feels this morning. >> well, it is interesting that i just got a text from someone who said can i go to curl up behind michael beschloss' fire. a lot of americans are seeking reassurance that this is how democracy works and that we are of course united. i am sure that you can think of time in our history where we have seemed more divided and the civil war and the late '60s have come to mind and yet we have overcome. do you a word of encourage in that vein? >> well, we got through the great depression, and world war ii and managed to get through a

time when people said that dictators and fascism is the wave of the future, and never bet against the united states. we go through the crises, and it is tough, but in the end, why is it that we always surmount them? and oddly enough, even after a divided period, there is always a swing back of the pendulum and we unify. i bet that is going to happen again. >> don't bet against the united states. >> and maybe we will have the roaring '20s and justice for all. >> and another era of good feeling. >> thank you so much, michael. what do you say we swing over to al roker and a check of the weather. >> you see michael has the fire and we have chuck todd who brings the fire. >> and you know who else? lester holt. he is ready to go right here. >> nothing has changed. >> it is nothing has changed and all the same. all good. let's look at what has been happening as far as the weekend outlook. and sunny and mild and thinking of the weekend and nice and warm

through the plains and a pacific storm moving through there, and we are looking at continuing through the mountain snows and the springfield through the mid-atlantic states and sunday, sunday, another nice day in the northeast, and mid-atlantic states, and heavy snow moving through the western states, and sunshine through the gulf, and we will be watching eta or theta good morning. i'm meteorologist kari hall. we look at high temperatures for today. expect mostly upper 70s a lot of sunshine and a beautiful day ahead for the bay area. we are going to continue to see upper 70s in the forecast tomorrow. notice what happens friday. a big cool down, clouds, off and on light showers continuing throughout the weekend. it's going to feel very much like winter for the weekend as well as early next week.

and that is your latest weather. guys? nice job. nice job. >> when you say that lester is coming, that means that we are due for a nap. but chuck, a final word before we return for more results tonight in primetime, and nbc nightly news. >> and we will get arizona, wisconsin, michigan and maine and we think that there is going to be some action that is more than just looking at the gray states. people are tired of looking at the gray. georgia, we hope to at least get some clarity when a vote count comes in. pennsylvania is just going to be, and that is just going to be a trickle and ongoing sort of slog, if you will. and then nevada, we wait on until tomorrow. so that's, you know, i think that the next 6 to 8 hours should move things along a little bit. >> and can i ask you a question

about wisconsin if we do in fact go to the recount and it seems clear that the history is unlikely to change the result? how do we handle that as a bshgs krshc -- as nbc to call it an apparent -- >> that when we use the word apparent and so, look, we did not call for it in 2 1/2 days in 2012 and for other people, it was apparent winner for barack obama, but it was too close to the automatic count provision, so any time we are close to the recount provision or within it, we won't call it. it is, you know, we can tell you all of the votes that we know of that are there, but it is likely that they are the winner. >> but it is apparent winner subject to the recount. >> and that could safe us drama in pennsylvania. >> but look, pennsylvania is more dramatic if, if trump starts to move up, and take the lead in either nevada, wisconsin or michigan.

>> and all right. on that cliffhanger, we will wrap it up for this hour. lester holt is going to pick up the coverage of decision 2020 and a lot more to get to at the top of the hour. and we will see you tonight, primetime, nbc. good morning. 8:56. i'm marcus washington. one of the bap closely watched measure. looking like measure rr passed authorizing a sales tax increase to help keep cal tratrain in. 100% of the vote in narrowly passed in all three counties. state measures, voters now are proving prop 22 by a wide margin allowing ride share and app delivery drivers remaining contractors not employees with full benefits with more than 70%

votes counted ahead by 16 percentage points. happening now, getting reaction from ride share drivers on prop 22's decision and have a live report during our midday newscast and also keeping a close eye on the too close to call race for the white house. midday, latest from washington and scott mcgrew looking deeper into the potential legal battle already being hinted by president trump. follow all the state and local races to see what we're posting with election results on our website. we're always on an nbcbayarea.com and here in 30 minutes with another local news update, because we are the station to watch. get those election results. see you back here in 30 minutes.

twits and turns of decision 2020. fresh, live analysis as the presidential race develops overnight. >> and the coronavirus latest infection rate and france tightens restrictions tomorrow morning 4:30 to 7:00. give you my world ♪

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