here is mark strassmann. >> some breaking news out of georgia, it is a ruby red state. >> republicansnew georgia would be a dog fight, president trump campaigned here two days before almost five million gorge begans voted. >> thank you georgia, go out and vote. >> keith faulk, an unemployed auto body technician voted trump. for decades white male voters like him turned georgia in a republican stronghold. >> i just never would have thought it would have been this close. >> georgia added one million voters since donald trump won this state four years ago. they're often younger, better educated, more diverse. exit polls show biden won 87% of georgia's black voters and 57% of hispanics. he won 56% of all college grads. and more than half of younger voters ages 18 to 434. -- 44, latasha brown a biden supporter profiled-- cofounded the group black voters matter. >> when i see i see potential and the possibility of what is happening. >> you are saying politically a new south is rising. >> i'm saying politically a new south is rising. we are building a more reflective democracy. >> biden coul

>> brennan: mark strassmann in na in marietta.ny salvanto is here in studio to talk about what you should be watching for on tuesday. anthony, i it is good to see you in person. i know you've been working around the clock and running the numbers for this weekend. in these final days, what is the trend that is emerging? >> there is one thing everybody needs to know going into tuesday, and that is that joe biden has a lead in preference among the people who have already cast their ballots. and that is record numbers of people who have done so. but the president has a large preference lead among people who say that they are going to turn out on election day. and so that sets up the entral question of this election, which is: can the president get an election day surge of his voters to make up that difference? and i can tell you by the numbernumbers that he can. and let me also explain why that is, and it is the continuing impact of the coronavirus pandemic on voters. people all throughout the summer and fall have told us they're conc

mark strassmann is keeping a close eye on launchpad 39-av. rocket, a public-private partnership with spacex. this crew trained for months inside their new capsule called "crew dragon." think of it as a flying ipad packed with gee whiz touchscreen technology. how challenging was the whole covid thing? >> it's been very challenging. we're not talking about just keeping us safe, but it's keeping our families safe. >> reporter: they'll stay in space for six months. victori glover is the only space rookie. what is it you're most looking forward to? >> every single bit of the mission. it will be the first time i have been able to do that thing in space. glover is 44, a former navy pilot, and the father of four girls. in another milestone, he'll become the first black astronaut to stay for an extended time aboard the space station. why do you think it took 20 years? >> i don't have any idea why it may have taken this long, but those-- those kinds of things can be challenging. >> reporter: does that mean something to you? >> it will once i get there.

here's cbs' mark strassmann. >> lean your head back just a tad.re you go. >> reporter: lisa wright wanted a covid test. ile tet this mobile testing lab, the 70-year-old retired nurse would have to drive an hour to get one. >> i want to know whether, you know, i have it or not. >> reporter: set your mind at ease. >> yes. >> reporter: roughly 13,000 people live in sumter county, the poorest pocket of alabama. they learn to do without. but marcus campbell, a county commissioner here, drew the line at covid testing. >> we were a testing desert, and people would always ask when they heard about testing going no in other areas, "why not in sumter county?" >> reporter: according to research by johns hopkins, communities of color often have ngss access to covid testing. in alabama, majority-black counties tend to have fewer tests available than majority- white counties. there are similar trends in oregon, delaware, new mexico, and south dakota, in predominantly hispanic and indigenous american counties. >> i lost two cousins and it was heartbreaking to me

mark strassmann is at the kennedy space center. , i know weather is delaying the launch but not the way people may think. explain this one to us. >> reporter: hey, jamie. there were worries about the winds at the launchpad behind me, but the main concern was with the rocket landing. remember, one of the keys to the success of spacex is reusability. after launch, the company wants to land the rocket nose-up on a drone ship out in the atlantic, recover it, so they can use it again for the next crew flight scheduled for march. but rough weather offshore kept that ship from getting into place on time and that delayed the launch until tomorrow. otherwise, the falcon 9 rocket is ready. the crew dragon spaceship is ready, all four astronauts are ready-- three americans and one from japan. they will ride on the ship's first full flight. three are space flight veterans all but first-time flyer victor glover. the 44-year-old former navy test piolt he is a dad with four girls. he's set to become the first black astronaut to stay for an extende

mark strassmann joins us tonight from atlanta. and, mark, the count goes on.us what still is remaining out there. >> reporter: well, the 4,000-vote lead, let's talk about that first of all. it feels like such a relative number right now in this state. 4,000 must seem mighty fragile, if you're a biden supporter, and it must seem like a high hill to climb if you're a trump supporter. the secretary of state, republican brad raffenberger said there is going to be a recount. he pointed to the closeness of the slate. there are a combination of ballot to be counted-- overseas, military, provisional, and absentee ballots. how long that will take is anybody's guess. what i can tell you, norah, the process here, as in many states, has taken long econsistently, than election officials have predicted. >> o'donnell: all right, mark strassmann there in atlanta for us. thank you. we should note that cbs news characterizes arizona at this hour as leaning toward joe biden. the trump campaign believes it is still has a chance to win there. more than 240,000 votes remain to be c

we get more now from cbs' mark strassmann. >> reporter: in gwinnett county, an atlanta suburb leaning democrat, election officials counted their 4r569 7,000 absentee ballots, a possibly critical moment in a razor-close race. >> with a margin that small, there will be a recount in georgia. >> reporter: in 36 hours here, president trump lost a lead of more than 100,000 votes. latasha brown is a biden supporter. she cofounded the group "black voters matter" do you feel good? >> i feel really confident that what we're going to see is we're going to have a new president and viecht united states. >> reporter: but in north georgia, trump supporter keith falk is suspicious about the president's lead that evaporated. >> it almost seemed like they were waiting to see how many votes trump had, and then they would count the rest to make sure biden had just enough to pull it out. >> reporter: today, the president tweeted, "where are the missing military ballots in georgia?" they're actually in the state about to be counted, up to 8400 of them. they could be the president's best, last hope here. i

major. >> garrett: mark strassmann with all the details. we all look forward to that launch.re is still much more news ahead tonight on the "cbs evening news." questions tonight on what caused a deadly blast at a connecticut hospital for veterans. and she is shattering what you might call the grass ceiling g baseball g baseball history. ♪ it's still warm. ♪ thanks, alice says hi. for some of us, our daily journey is a short one. save 50% when you pay per mile with allstate. pay less, when you drive less. you've never been in better hands. allstate. click or call for a quote today. allstate. it only takes a second for an everyday item to become dangerous. tide pods child-guard pack helps keep your laundry pacs in a safe place and your child safer. to close, twist until it clicks. tide pods child-guard packaging. than rheumatoid arthritis. when considering another treatment, ask about xeljanz... a pill for adults with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis when methotrexate has not helped enough. xeljanz can help relieve joint pain and swelling, stiffness, and helps stop furth

cbs' mark strassmann is in atla atlanta, where the vote count is also conditioning late at night. od evening, mark. >> reporter: good evening, norah. in this battleground state, the drumbeat for the president has now gone from worrisome to alarming. his lead more than 100,000 votes yesterday is now under 1800, and the bleeding can't be stopped. the issue is these absentee ballots, more than a dozen counties have been counting them all day long. and it seems as though every time the state's vote totals go up, the president's lead goes down. and think about this: depending hen different counties update their totals and send them to the state over the next couple of hours, the president could easily wake up in the morning to discover he now trails in georgia. shere are roughly 18,000 ballots still t still to be accounted for, all absentee ballots here, that we're talking about. and no question again, norah-- this has been a punishing day for the trump campaign in georgia. >> o'donnell: wow, mark strassmann. it's incredible to just see that race just essentially tied even, 49.-- >> it'

mark strassmann is there and mark, what an experience. >> got to tell you, jamie, that was really something to see. and it was especially spectacular against the night sky here in florida. look at with what we are just witnessed the falcon 9 reusable rocket blation sky ward with nine engines in, at full power generating 1.7 million pounds of thrust. this six month mission is under way, about 2 minutes and 45 seconds into flight the first stage separated and began returning to earth. eight minutes into liftoff the capsule and crew were in orbit and 40 seconds later the spirs stage landed nose up on a recovery ship off the coast of the carolinas. spacex will refuse this rocket again on its next crew flight in march. it has been a very busy day here, late afternoon today the four as tronauts suited up, three americans and one japanese, they walked out of their crew porters, headed to the launch pad and made their way up the launch tower. loading them it into the crew dragon capsule took about an hour. engineers at one point had to double check the seal of the hatch but that issue was resolved.

mark strassmann is in atlanta for us. mark, good morning to you. we've been following the vote counting there all evening. what do you know? >> good morning. with more than 90% of the vote counted here, president trump is leading slightly, but the race is still considered too close to call. democrats had such high hopes of turning georgia blue in 2020, but that is something that is simply not happened. not happened here in georgia since bill clinton carried this state nearly three decades ago. it could be a few days before -- actually, 91% of the expected vote is in. president trump leading biden by a narrow 2.5%. 16 electoral votes are up for grabs here. it could be a couple of days before all the mail votes are counted here in georgia. the demographics have been changing in this state in recent years. suburbs have become younger, more diverse, less conservative. early exit polling indicates biden is overwhelmingly capturing the black vote here but trump is overwhelmingly taking the white vote, around 70%. also leading here, the president with vot

cbs' mark strassmann is in atlanta. good evening, mark. >> reporter: good evening, norah. this just in: chatham county, the savannah area, has just finished counting all of its absentee ballot. president trump's lead here in georgia is down to 3600 votes and dropping fast. the state still has 40,000 ballots still left to count. and joe biden needs to win 64% of them, that's two out of three, roughly, to pull ahead. >> you're anti-american. >> reporter: trump supporters and opponents jeered each other outside atlanta's state farm arena. inside, election workers processed up to 3,000 absentee ballot an hour. they started with around 145,000 of them in heavily democratic fulton county. by midafternoon, county officials said there were 1,000 left. in in warehouse, those election officials are trying to evaluate ballots that have issues. with each one, they're trying to decide whether the voter's intent is clear enough to count in this election. here's why georgia's this close: biden overwhelmingly won the state's black vote. he lost to trump here overall with white voters, 70%

we begin with mark strassmann in atlanta. >> reporter: from sea to shining sea...our americans have aesult but not reconciliation. instant reaction coast to coast to the president-elect. [yelling] ♪ hey, hey, good-bye >> reporter: and already the winner is repudiated by roughly half the country, just like his predecessor. >> we haven't raised a white flag by no stretch of the imagination. >> reporter: in pennsylvania, the keystone battleground state, trump supporters claim, with zero proof, 600,000 votes have been stolen. >> some places may be amateurs at voter fraud. philadelphia is a professional place for voter fraud. >> reporter: in the next few days, expect the trump legal team to file a series of long-shot lawsuits. they filed a new one on saturday in arizona. those suits will allege widespread vote-stealing irregularities, to faulty signatures to tallies from dead people. critics, including some republicans, charge it is all political theater. >> i think the president's cmments that say there is national conspiracy around this aren't supportede supportey any facts. >> reporter:

cbs' mark strassmann is in selanta. mark, if you look at the does joe biden have a chance of catching president trump in georgia? >> reporter: he does have a chance, norah. that's because most of these uncounted ballots are from metro atlanta. these are from urban and suburban voters often friendly to democrats. behind me, that is state farm arena, and inside there is where joe biden needs to make a very big comeback. inside, fulton county election officials right now are counting comeback. inside, fulton county election ballots. fulton, which includes much of atlanta, has the most registered voters in all georgia. it's also dominated by democrats. biden should win most of these uncounted ballots, a mix of absentee and early votes. at noon today, georgia had a quarter million uncounted ots and a state elee election official told me mr. biden would need to win 64% of those votes to win georgia. ayom its first day of early voting, georgia smashed records, nearly five million votes cast in all. the state's changing demograp

we begin this morning with cbs news national correspondent mark strassmann in atlanta. >> reporter: it'super spread of defines and denial. roughly 50 million thanksgiving travelers expected to ignore the c.d.c.'s plea to stay home. the week ahead could become covid america's most dangerous yet as new cases and hospitalizations already smash daily records. >> i get it, but it is thanksgiving. and people want to be with their families. >> reporter: tell that to the governor in washington state. >> we have to understand that the house is on fire right now. >> reporter: and in minnesota. >> each day i'm going to stand in front of you and tell you we've hit another record number of deathsment. >> reporter: by one measure, covid is now america's third leading killer. it threatens. hours before kickoff, saturday's clemson/florida state game was postponed. a clemson player tested positive. red means counties battling a covid crisis. >> to change the color of the map, we need to do much more right now to make that happen. >> reporter: starting this weekend, roughly 90% of californians have a curf

. >>> we begin this morning with cbs news national correspondent mark strassmann in atlanta. >> reportercovid's community spread had a busy thanksgiving. the virus had a chance to catch up with lots of family in jammed airports and in stores with black friday deep discounts, red tags, red flags. at current rate, roughly 114 more americans test positive every minute. 65 more americans die from covid every ho hour. and america could start to see 3,000 covid deaths a day, more than that died on september 11th. and covid has blitz the nfl from coast to coast. tougher new restrictions in california's clara county, leave the 49ers without a place to play or practice for the next three weeks. the denver broncos need to find a quarterback. and 18 baltimore ravens tested positive this week. in the overwhelmed midwest, the epidemic is showing signs of peaking, not in south dakota, where at least 30% of residents have been infected. 43% of people tested here this week tested positive. but for many, mask mandates remain even less popular than the virus. >> this is cowboy country. you tell somebody t

mark strassmann is in atlanta where the polls are open. ng. >> reporter: good morning. it is close here. georgia's 16 electoral college votes are up for grabs. georgia as a state is changing, it's growing younger and more diverse, especially in the suburbs and democrats genuinely believe they have a chance today to turn this red state blue. joe biden is counting on support from seniors, suburban women and black voters, he needs them all to turn out for them here. before polls opened the state smashed record with nearly 4 million early votes. a more than 550% increase in absentee mail-in ballots compared to 2016, where president trump won the state by five percentage points. yesterday former president obama was in atlanta for biden. he leads among voters who have already cast their ballots here. georgia republicans are counting on a heavy turnout of their voters today. democrats also have a chance here of flipping to highly competitive two republican seats and that could change control of the senate itself. polls here are open until 7:00 and

. >> mark strassmann joins us from atlanta with more on this story. , mark, say the emotions are high and the stakes are high. good morning to you. >> good morning to you, gayle. one of the many ways that president trump has falsely impugned the integrity of the ongoing vote tabulation is to say that in all these battleground states where he is losing ground, where he is losing a lead that he built up initially is that they are all democratic-run states and that they -- and that's the reason he's now losing his lead. that is certainly not the case in georgia. this is a republican governor, brian kemp, and the secretary of state you just heard from is also a republican. he is calling on his own for a recount. georgia law says that if the margin of victory is less than one half of one percent, in this case, it would be about 25,000 votes, there can be a recount. right now, former vice president biden is ahead of president trump by about 1,000 votes here. there are still 4,000 absentee ballots to be counted. and this is important, too. there are also roug

mark strassmann is there. how is it looking? >> reporter: good morning, anthony. take a look.on legendary launch pad 39-a, home to apollo liftoffs, to space shuttle launches, and now the spacex era. for the company, all the test flights are over. this is the first regular operational flight to carry people into space. take a look now. that's the falcon 9 rocket behind me on top is the crew dragon capsule. with this flight, spacex could solidify its place in the new commercial era of space. commander michael hopkins and his crew arrived in florida by chartered jet. they plan to depart tomorrow by rocket ship. >> we're starting this new era where we're going to rotate crews to the international space station from american soils with our commercial partners like spacex, and so we're very excited to be a part of that. >> ignition. liftoff, as the falcon 9 and crew dragon, go nasa. go spacex. godspeed. >> reporter: their mission follows this summer's successful demonstration flight of crew dragon. spacex's new ship. america no longer needs the russians to get to the space station.

strassmann, a cbs reporter. he is in atlanta. mark, iwant strassmann, a cbs reporter. g, have you been watching the results during the course of the evening around georgia and kind of scratching your head, wondering what was going on? it looked like it might be possible for the biden campaign, then it looked firmly in the trump column and now it is drifting back towards the middle again. how have you made sense of what you have been seeing during the evening? lots of twists and turns. we talked several hours ago and this car park was full of hundreds of people watching the returns come in. those people have gone home. they made the right call because there wasn't going to be a winner announced tonight. it looks as though they won't be a winner announced until the morning of the very earliest. fulton county, atla nta, very earliest. fulton county, atlanta, the most populous county in georgia, with the most number of registered voters, the poll workers very laboriously have been working here processing and tabulating votes since six o'clock this morning. at some point the

let's check in with steeb mark strassmann who is in atlanta tonight. ah, the vote counting is not going to end tonight. in fact, georgia looks like one of those states that's not going to have full results until tomorrow and here's why. this is fulton county, which includes a chunk of atlanta, the most populous county in georgia, about 800,000 registered voters, about 11% of the overall vote-- percentage of voters here in georgia. here's what's happened. the county board of elections sent home all of its tabulators for the night. they said all those employees have been working hard and very laboriously going through all the ballots since 6:00 this morning. they have sent them home. it's not going to happen tonight. in fact, they have only tabulated 49% of the vote here in fulton county. and, again, fulton county, is the most consequential county of all in the state of georgia in terms of raw numbers. so this is just not going to happen here in georgia tonight. we're not going to have a definitive answer who won the state, even though as you mentioned th