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CNN Election Night In The U.S. Live Results; Close Election May Come Down To AZ, PA, MI, WI; Down To The Wire In Key Battleground States; Biden At 205, Trump At 114 Electoral Votes. Aired 11p-12a ET
Aired November 03, 2020 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[23:00:00]
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Yes. They are nervous on both sides. Voting is about ended four states out west. That includes the biggest prize of all. We are talking about California, it has 55 of the 78 electoral votes at stake this hour.
We have some projections right now. CNN projects that Joe Biden will win the state of California, that's the biggest prize of the Electoral College, 55 electoral votes. Biden will win California, beats Trump in California. CNN also projects that Biden will win the Washington state, 12 electoral votes, he beats Trump in Washington State.
CNN also projects Biden will win in the state of Oregon, seven electoral votes there, Biden wins in Oregon, right now. One projection for Donald Trump right now, CNN projects that Donald Trump will win the state of Wyoming. That's three electoral votes. In Idaho, too early to call for electoral votes in Idaho. We cannot make a projection there.
Let's take a look at the Electoral College map, see where it stands right now. Right now, Biden has a wide lead. He has 192 Electoral College votes, Trump has 108, 192 to 108. Let's have a key race alert in some of the battleground states where things stand.
Let's start in Pennsylvania, 41 percent of the estimated vote is now in, Trump has seemingly a pretty comfortable 444,000 vote lead over Biden, 56.8 percent to 41.5 percent. In Michigan right now, 39 percent of the estimated vote is in, Trump has a significant lead there right now as well, 239,000 vote. But it is relatively early, 39 percent of the estimated vote is in the early vote, excuse Democratic is not yet in.
In Wisconsin, 42 percent of the vote is in, look at how close it is Trump has a 24,000-25,000 vote lead over Biden 50 percent to 48.3 percent, 10 electoral votes in Wisconsin. In Arizona, 75 percent of the vote is in, Biden has a significant lead in Arizona 208,000 vote lead over Trump, 53.7 percent to 45 percent, 11 electoral votes at stake over there.
Let's go back to John King. All right so right now, Biden has a significant 192 to 108 lead in the all-important Electoral College ballot. JOHN KING, CNN HOST: And the West Coast which again, when I started
doing this many years ago, this is competitive territory, not anymore. Washington, Oregon, California locks with the Democrats in the presidential politics and that's great -- those are great building blocks, right.
They're not competitive anymore, the only reason for public, in fact California now is to raise money, 192 to 108. So, now the question is you need to go to 270, this is the hard part. I hate to say it this way but it's easy for Democrats to get to 192. It's just easy given you know, Illinois, you know New York, you know, California, you know Washington and Oregon are going to be on your side.
So the question is, working off this map. Let's work, since you're now at 192, you try to get there, how do you get there working off this map? Well that's a Clinton state, right? Trump campaign is trying to flip it, but let's for the sake of arguing, assume that states Democratic, but watch and will count as we go.
That was a Trumps state, Joe Biden is leading right now there. If it holds that way, out here, look at this. Colorado, New Mexico, the West Coast will be good to the Democrats in the Southwest if this happens. So, that will get you to 209. So then you come this way, you're looking at the map, right? Where are the Clinton states? That was a Clinton states, right. So you think that's going to happen for you. And you keep looking at the map here, Virginia which is really interesting right now it is still red, you just assume and we'll see if it changes.
If it is what kind of a night, it's that kind of the night. But you assume that one is going to come back in the fold and we're just waiting for Democratic votes to come in. having a problem (inaudible) all of the sudden, that gets you there, then you come up to Maine, and you assume if you are the Biden campaign, you're going to win the whole thing.
We need to see, in Maine does it by Congressional district, the one of them that President Trump carried four years ago. The Democrats believe they're going to carrying that state, they believe a few other things about tonight, so we'll see what happens as we go through. But that's for the sake of argument. Give to him.
So then you're up to 236, right? Maybe they get one in Nebraska, let's just leave that off the table right now. Let's just wait and see how you play. So, you're at 236, right. Here's 246, that's 262, so you're looking at this map and where do I get it? Right? Where do I get? Well, that's the easiest one and we still don't -- I didn't get Rhode Island on this map.
So let me come in here, here we go, you get Rhode Island that will get you 286 but that's with Pennsylvania. That's with Pennsylvania you're bring Pennsylvania back off the map. You had 266, this is where you get close, here, right. This is where you get close here, we are going to keep going out onto the west, now we do that.
That should get you to 270, so could it be in a race against Donald Trump, would it be something if Barack Obama's birth state is the one that puts you over the top. That would be interesting if you go that way there. But so you have Hawaii, you have Nevada you going to watch. So, this is interesting, so you don't need Pennsylvania, if you're Joe Biden now, but now you are in this different mood in Biden headquarters. You came into the night thinking you had all these great opportunities, maybe some of these will come back.
But if they don't, if they don't you're thinking OK, we better win that Congressional district, we absolutely better win that one. And then we're going to fight it out up in here.
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And again if you get Pennsylvania, then stop the conversation, but we might be a couple of days on this one. If you don't get Pennsylvania, you're you know, scratching claw mode now as opposed to earlier in the night when you thought you might have had a buffet of opportunities.
BLITZER: Let's take a closer look at Arizona, and Pennsylvania.
KING: Let me do that and crossover again, we come back in here. Let's start in Arizona, will go west to east this time. And again, this one has held up pretty consistently but we've also been waiting for a little bit, sometimes you get votes in spurts, sometimes you have long pauses, we're at 75 percent right now. Let's say points, nine points if you round up right there.
That's a pretty healthy lead, most of it's coming from here, in terms of the vote count. You see just in Maricopa County, Joe Biden approaching 800,000 votes, 10 points, almost -- just shy of a 10-point race in Maricopa County, that's 60 percent of the vote in the state. Then you come down to Pima County, that's another 15 percent of it again. That's not even close.
And so every indication here as we still have votes to count, but every indication here is, that Arizona is going to flip to blue. And that makes you happy in the Biden campaign but then you come back this way a little bit, I just want to check in on Virginia again, just to see where up to 58 percent and this is getting closer, but still we're waiting. And here's your anomaly, Fairfax has been a 28 percent for a long time, I'll check in in with our decision team on our desk team in a little bit to see where that is.
Some of these other places, (inaudible) County, Joe Biden holding that there, come over to Fairfax County, were waiting. Northern Virginia, Arlington so it's Fairfax. Fairfax is the biggest vast of the Democratic votes were missing. We just want to check down here in Southeast Virginia.
You see Chesapeake area here, 60 percent of the vote in there, so we're missing some votes in Democratic area that could flip that, but if you're on the Biden campaign, you're getting a little bit nervous about that. Even though your data and your map tell you, you should be OK. But at this point -- you'd like it to change. And again, we're just waiting on these three and this is the patients. BLITZER: It will take some time, all three of those. We have a key
race alert right now. I want to go to Nebraska right now, the 2nd Congressional district there, 57 percent of the vote is in. Biden is ahead by some 16,000 votes, 53.4 percent to 44.8 percent for Trump. John, this is one electoral vote potentially in Nebraska. Biden can hold on.
KING: But let me come back over here, if Biden can hold on. So we are waiting, Nebraska and Maine, did their Congressional votes by, let me pull it up like this, Nebraska and Maine do their votes by congressional district, the Electoral College vote.
So, again especially now, if you are in the Biden campaign and your thinking, we might not get Florida, we might not get Georgia. We might not get North Carolina, looks like our dreams of Texas are not going to happen this year closer, but close doesn't count. It doesn't get you the electoral votes.
If you're at this point in the campaign where normally you think, well what's one? Guess what. One can matter. And so again in this scenario, and this is a scenario on the board here, so let me just take these away, if you can hold this, you are moving closer, right. You're moving closer. That's assuming Virginia flips back, that's assuming you hold Arizona and Nevada State.
So, this are just -- that would be a change, Donald Trump carried that and that would be a changed, Trump carried that. Now that's where you're looking to do. Trump had 306 last time, if you're Biden you have to subtract from that to get him down below 270, that's one and that's progress but these are the big ones. These are the big ones.
Again, when you're in the tight part of the campaign, if you think you're going to have that close of a race, and it sure looks like we are, then, you know, everyone counts. And so this includes the main one up here. So this sketch writ the math gets really interesting and again, again, if you can do this, you know, just forget about it. Because if you're doing this, you're most likely doing that and you're probably doing that.
We always knew, Joe Biden said, a lot of Democrats said you know, focus on the Sun Belt. Joe Biden said I'm going to start here and then maybe I'll expand. If he can do this, we're going to spend a lot of time and these ones might take some of it again. We maybe into tomorrow and beyond, at the moment, we don't know that though. At the moment, these are to be decided and that would push -- and again, if you come at this from a Republican perspective, I did Joe Biden's math to get him up.
Donald Trump's leading here, he's leading here, he's leading here, we expect them to win here, that's his, this one is interesting, we expect him to get this and these normally would be Trump states out here.
BLITZER: Alaska.
KING: And Alaska, so again, we're open to being surprised but if it plays out in a traditional map, that's where we're going to be. That's where we will be as we go to the West Coast, somewhere in that ballpark, it's not an exact science, but somewhere in that ballpark looking at Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and maybe Iowa in a one more Congressional district there. That's the way the map looks right now. We are going to have that tense. So we'll see, sometime again, we have some surprises so far, but we haven't have any flips.
We've had tension, we've had back and forth and we'll see how it goes, right now the only flip on the board is Arizona. Maybe that congressional district, we're going to count votes and again, it's fun for us, it's tense if you're in the campaign headquarters right now. It is really tense.
BLITZER: Both campaigns, they are very, very nervous right now.
KING: Absolutely.
BLITZER: But this election is basically different because there's so much early voting that occurred, but especially in those blue walls three states and that apparently that early vote excuse Democratic has not really been counted yet.
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KING: No. And so that's the issue, I will switch over, and I switch this back, we go through these hypotheticals, it not such alarming at home. We go through them, I like to switch it back at the end so if you do see it again, you understand where we are, not where we might be.
This is where we are in terms of votes and everything here, this is all real, it's just some of it is not contextual yet because we're waiting. We have pieces of votes, but we're missing pieces of votes and again, at this point in the night, I don't think a lot of people think Donald Trump will be leading in popular vote, but we have a long way to go.
But it's significant, 51 percent to 47 percent, he's 3 million votes ahead. He's 3 million votes ahead. We don't have any votes from California, the nation's most popular state so that's going to change. We know that without a doubt as the West Coast come in. We know that without a doubt.
But we also know, you know, Pennsylvania is not a small state either, (inaudible) for Pennsylvania, and we have not much in so far, 1.6 to 1.2, just to go back in time. And remember, 2.9 2.9. We have a long way to go and turnout is higher this time, right. So, this is just shy of 6, it's just shy of 6 million and were not there, we're just not there.
And so, if you're looking at the map at as a Republican, you're grateful that it's red but it's really early on. We have a long way to go. And again, I'm going to be a broken record here but we're looking at Northampton County here, maybe 40 percent of the vote, a little shy of that. You come down here the Bucks County, key suburb, just outside of Philadelphia this is the more conservative of the suburbs in the Colorado Philadelphia, 12 percent of the vote maybe, you come down in Montgomery County, again big suburban area, absolutely critical to the Democrats.
So, you see that Trump lead right now which you know we haven't counted most of the votes in Montgomery County. We haven't counted most of the votes in Chester County, we haven't counted most of the votes in Delaware County, and the biggest basket of them all, Philadelphia city and then Philadelphia County, around it, the suburbs around it, it's going to be overwhelmingly Democratic and we haven't counted hardly any of it.
BLITZER: Only a 22 percent of the voting are in a Philadelphia County is in.
KING: It's like you are looking at a football game and just saying you know, OK, first quarter ended. That's not the way it works.
BLITZER: I want to check in with Pamela Brown, she's getting some new information on what's going on in Pennsylvania.
PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, you're talking about a Philadelphia right there and it's slow going, going through the influx of mail-in ballots, they've gone right through around 76,000 mail-in ballots and they have a lot more to go.
In total, they have around 350,000 to get to. That's according to the city commissioner there. It's the same story over an Allegany County that of course is another big county there that has Pittsburgh, the home of Pittsburgh, they also have 350,000 mail-in ballots to get through and then the Philadelphia suburbs alone you have more than .5 million mail-in ballots to get to.
So, I think, you know, as we're looking at this, as we're looking at the number of slowly coming in there in Pennsylvania, it is keeping us on the edge of our seats especially in Philadelphia that the Democratic stronghold John King, where we had 350,000 mail in ballots that go in through right now. Though like I said, they've only got through 76, 000, that is behind schedule with what they thought.
They thought by around 8:00 pm Eastern Time, they would have 100,000 counted, so they're behind schedule a little bit there and I'm told by officials that are going to be working through the night trying to quickly tabulate the influx of mail-in ballots that they got there in Pennsylvania.
Remember, they just started this morning opening up those ballots, they are way behind compared to other states, they did not get a head start and Pennsylvania is a state that does not have a history of counting absentee ballots.
In Allegany County, again where Pittsburgh is, you have 350,000 ballots that they're having to get through there and I'm told by officials again in Allegany County they're going to be working through the night to try and get those everything tabulates, but one person I spoke to said look, this is going to keep us in suspense because they just have to work through it to the night and we may not have a better idea in terms of the total tabulation for these mail-in ballots for bit, John.
KING: We get on the phone from Iowa several years ago, and we have to do it -- we may have to do it like that. Look this is, this is where it gets interesting in a sense that the question is where everybody wouldn't they have to do?
This is where it gets interesting in the sense that the question is where everybody have patients, and by everybody, I mean, the American people, the people living in (inaudible) Pennsylvania and the candidates for presidents because you know, you know this, patients from the American people. Because you know, you know this. Look, so they have all these mail-in ballots, this is Allegany County. I'll get rid of the numbers here just to remind you.
So, look, Joe Biden is leading right now with 98,000 votes, the president is 23,000 votes. It's just not, I mean, it's real in the sense that these are real votes but is just not contextual in the sense that we know it's a higher turnout election than four years ago. And Hillary Clinton won this County with 367,000 votes.
So, when you see right now Joe Biden leading at 98,000 votes, we are in the early chapter of a very big book because it's such a big state. And so that's the key point. The challenge is, the challenge is, do we get more in the next hour, is it how long does this take? Whether we start to get what we hear for the Secretary of State about this.
This is going to go into tomorrow. We already know that we are six be Take one do we start to get, will we hear from the secretary state about this going into tomorrow? We already know that there were six or eight counties that said, they wouldn't even start counting the mail- in ballots until tomorrow.
The Secretary of State was leaning on them to get them to try to start today, if they weren't overwhelmed on Election Day? And remember, Pam just mention, Philadelphia, we don't have to -- this is not conjecture because we have the words of the president of the United States who has spent the last couple of days saying it he believes it's cheating, and there's fraud in Philadelphia.
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The question is, many of his advisers have been urging him to stay off Twitter, stop talking about this, let this play out, but does the president lose patience as this night goes on.
BLITZER: We're told that in Pennsylvania John, more than 1 million mail-in ballots, Pamela Brown is telling us, more than a million have not yet been counted.
KING: Right. So more than a million, so you come back in, you come back out and you see 1.7, to 1.3, 370,000 vote lead, 373,000 vote lead but you know more than 1 million, again more than 1 million, have not been counted. So, this is real but it's just now.
Again, if it's a baseball game, we're in the 2nd or the 3rd inning at best. Right? If it's a football game we're in early quarter. Pick you sport, we're early in the game. You always want to go the lead. You'd rather be leaving them behind but it's just -- it's not contextual. I keep wanting to say it is not real, it is real. These are real votes, they are actual votes. So if I say that, I don't mean it that way, I mean, these are real but we just don't have the full picture.
Again, I just want to show you these counties. Look, think about the places where we are close to the finish line. In every one of those states we are showing you turnout is higher now than it was four years ago. Turn out s higher now than it was four years ago. Well, look at this 25,000 votes, 167,000 votes to win the County four years ago, and it was higher turnout now, so you have 25,000 votes. We are nowhere near done. We're just getting started.
Move over here to Montgomery County, four years ago, this is Joe Biden right now, 110. Four years ago 256,000 to win the county. And we know turnout is up now. So, 260,000 then, 110,000 now, we have a long way to go. We are I the early count here in Montgomery County.
Chester County, again Joe Biden with 58,000 votes in 56 percent. Well, Hillary Clinton won this last time with nearly 100,000. Right? 80,000 plus more votes. We are in the early count in Chester County. We move down here, that goes into Delaware, let me come back into Pennsylvania, and come into Philadelphia 584,000 votes for Secretary Clinton in Philadelphia four years ago, this is one of the places they felt they did a good job on the turnout, 585,000 say -- Joe Biden has 209,000 votes in Philadelphia right now.
So what we have is a beginning, but we are so early in this race right now. So early in this race that when you pull this out, and you see it red, and you see what looks like a 12-point lead for the president of the United States, in the votes counted so far, the president of the United States has a 12-point lead.
But there are more than 1 million, even more than that, I would conjecture just mail-in ballots more than a million, other ballots to be counted. The people cast their votes today. We have a long way to go in Pennsylvania, Wolf, and a few others.
BLITZER: We will be patient. We will watch Pennsylvania closely. We have another projection right now.
CNN projects that President Trump will win the state of Mississippi, beats Biden in Mississippi with six electoral votes in Mississippi. Let's take a look at the Electoral College map right now, so with that, Biden still has 192 Electoral College votes, Trump now has 114 Electoral College votes. 270 is the number you need. That is the key race alert.
Right now, in Minnesota let's start 46 percent of the vote is in almost half, Biden has a 264,000 vote lead over Trump, 57.3 percent to 40 percent in Minnesota, 10 electoral votes there. In Iowa right now, 59 percent of the estimated votes is in, very close, Biden's lead is almost 40,000 over Trump, 50.9 percent to 47.3 percent, six electoral votes in Iowa right now.
Let's go back to John King as we are watching this. So, the count continues, 192, we're watching this race between Trump and Biden, 192 to 114.
KING: 192 to 114 and again, right now, there is nothing on this map that tells us the flip, nothing on this map that would be a wow. And yet we do know. Let's go back, I just want to go back to the Trump map which takes us where we are in the sense that we have nothing yet that we flip.
But we do believe, we do believe that at least Joe Biden is leading there. That's a potential. Right, so you keep looking at this map that will get Donald Trump from his 2016 map down to 295, so then you go from there, I think we're in a world right now, Wolf. Where I'm just going to take these away. Right? Because we are in such an early state in all of them, we just take these away, and so if nothing else changed, right?
If the president holds Florida, we haven't called that yet, it's close but he's ahead. The president holds North Carolina, same deal, we haven't called it yet. The president is ahead. The president holds Ohio, while Iowa, we can pull out here and look at the map, I just like to take a peak, Iowa is still blue.
I just want to go over and take a look at it here, 59 percent. We'll see. We'll see what happened here, that would be interesting. If that one switched, but at the moment will just leave it here until we know otherwise we'll leave it here.
So here's where you get. Again, we have the Congressional districts here and the Congressional district here, that could change the map a little bit but if you take these off the board, and if Joe Biden can't win Ohio, we haven't called it yet, we have to wait. We are waiting on both and everything alike. We are just looking for flips, so what happens?
[23:20:09]
If we're waiting on these states because they're having normal delays plus additional delays counting their votes, we could get to a point in a few hours, where we start to fill in some of the ones that are left. We're somewhere in this ballpark, and we're fighting it out over these states.
BLITZER: Yes. It's going to be amazing to watch, everybody's got to be patient though, and let everyone count the votes as they should. That's what's critically important.
KING: It is critical and so we're going to get to a point, I'm going to shift maps again. We're going to get to a point again. So we're looking at 11-20, we knew this was going to take time, the Secretary of State in all three of these states have told us, chief election official here, in fact they've stayed here and here. They've told us, this is going to take time, please be patient because of the difference between mail-in voting, in person early, and then the Election Day surge.
The priority on Election Day is to deal with the people in the line to deal with this coronavirus safety concerns for example, to deal with ballot integrity and ballot security when you have moving parts. Then you have to count all those mail-in votes, and so you see red, again if you're Republican and you're looking at this map, this is a hand stand map, but we're just not there yet.
Again, did these are real leads, but we're just nowhere near done, and I'm going to keep going through them just to see if the numbers changed at all, Delaware County 16 percent, Philadelphia County up to 333 percent, where at 22 percent more, and you see the map is starting to go up there but still 33 percent, and you see 209,000.
You know, so you've got at least 300,000 plus, if it's a higher turnout election. Maybe 400,000 more votes to win. So we are going to have to watch if this one plays out here. And again you come to the counties around it, in Bucks County, that's 2016.
Let me come back here to 2020, still at 12 percent, again, you know, it's frustrating to people who want to know. Especially when you get to this point where if you're Republican, you think the president going to hold Florida, hold North Carolina and hold Ohio, we're not sure about that yet.
But if you're looking at the numbers right now, that's what you think. If you're Republican, you won't get too much of an argument from many Democrats until they see more evidence, until they see something change, they are not going to argue with you.
So, if you're Republican and you're looking at that you're thinking OK here we go again, and if we're defining the odds here, some people felt we are going to lose Florida, it doesn't look (inaudible), some people thought we are going to lose North Carolina, it doesn't look like we will. The Republican start to think OK, well then we're going to do it here again too.
But we just don't know that. We just don't know that. And because of the early count. I just want to come back right here again, Pam mentioned Allegany County, waiting a lot of votes. We are at 17 percent so just focus, focus, you can look at that or you can look up here. Again, Joe Biden has 98,000 votes in Allegany County right now. Hillary Clinton carried it four years ago with 367,000. This is higher turnout election.
The winner of this county is going to be north of that number, right? Most likely north of that number at least equal to that number and were not even close and so we just have to be patient and wait it out. That's Pennsylvania, I'll just pull it back and come back in, move over to Michigan. We will just do the same experiment, right.
We look at in Macomb County, let's start in a place where the president is leading right now that will be impressive, if the president can keep that lead in Macomb County he'll be in pretty strong shape in Michigan. 143,000 right now, we go back in time, 224,000. This is a higher turnout election. We expect everywhere, at least
close to 2016. We don't expect any places really especially in important battleground place to below 2016, felt 224,000, four years ago, 143,000 votes now, what does that tell? It tells you we have to wait. We have to keep counting.
Way more votes down here, Wayne County, Joe Biden is ahead right now with 147,000 votes, you go back in time, Hillary Clinton won it, again look at the difference. 147,000 votes, almost 520,000 votes. What does that tell you? It just tells you they have a lot of votes to count.
In Wayne County, in Macomb County, in Kent County, in other places in Michigan and we're just going to have to be patient and the same story, Wolf. We can go through it if you want over in Milwaukee. In Wisconsin, excuse me, you just bring out Milwaukee, Hillary Clinton gets 288,000 votes, right now we're at 122,000 for Joe Biden. We are in, you know, pick your sports, we're in the early innings.
BLITZER: So, basically, it looks like those three states are going to decide who's going to be the next president of the United States.
KING: Unless we get a dramatic shift, yes. I mean, we sort of knew that coming in, the Democrats did believe, and the poll said, they had an opportunity. Opportunity is not winning. You have an opportunity to win, states you have to execute. I think one of the things we're seeing so far and you have to tip your hat to the president, the president worked hard in the final days of the campaign.
The president stage rallies all around the country, and it seems that his these rallies actually generated a high Election Day turnout which is what they absolutely needed. Is it high enough? We are not there yet. But you do know that some of these states have moved in the president's direction again we are went up to 94 percent in Florida, can you overcome 381,000 when you are this far up? Not unlikely. Not impossible.
We are waiting to see it again, because of the differences of this year and the different mix of votes are people working extra hard and so all these elections officials. Florida, they were quick right? (Inaudible) count was very quick in Florida, we're going to get to the finish line, just a pop in and look at a place. You are at 95 percent, right. In a place that's voting Democratic. If you're Joe Biden, working to get more votes?
[23:25:05]
Again, the disappointment in the Democratic Party tonight is right here. Not only at the presidential level but at the House level as well. Some pain in Miami-Dade County it looks like, we are not at the finish line yet, but you see 53 percent right there, you see 63 percent right there. That tells you all you need to know about that.
So, you just come back out on the map, and again one more, real quick North Carolina, 74,000 votes at 95 percent. 50 to 49. It's very close but again, a state the president barnstormed at the end of the campaign, looks like he generated a lot of Election Day turnout. Isn't it enough? We are not quite there yet. But if you're looking at the map right now, again, we will get to the finish line soon enough.
Some places maybe not soon enough for the people watching at home, you have tip your hat to the president for moving the needle ins some of this states, see if it is enough again for the finish line. And yes, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, the three most spoken words in presidential politics in the last four years and again tonight.
BLITZER: We will be patient. Let's get to Dana Bash. She's got an update on the balance of power in the U.S. Senate, what are you learning, Dana?
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: We have some projections to make Wolf, and that starts with Alabama, CNN's can project that Republicans pick up a seat there, Tommy Tuberville will go on to be the very -- the first term in the Senate there beating Doug Jones, a Democrat. And in South Carolina this is one of the most watched races in the country, Senator Lindsey Graham, CNN can project is going on to win reelection defeating an incredibly well-funded Democratic challenger.
And in Georgia this is one of two races were watching tonight, this is a special election, CNN can project that this will go to a runoff in the state of Georgia, a candidate needs 50 percent in order to win outright. That has not happened so Democrats (inaudible) and Kelly Loeffler who is the incumbent -- appointed Republican will go on to that runoff in January.
Now, let's look at some of more tight races we're watching in the battlegrounds for the balance of power. Arizona, the Democratic challenger Mark Kelly is ahead by more than 200,000 votes at 55.1 percent, the incumbent Republican Martha McSally is at 44.9 percent. 75 percent of the estimated vote is in Arizona.
Now let's go on to Iowa, big Democratic challenger ahead there as well Theresa Greenfield it's very, very tight. 599 votes only, she's at 48.6 percent the incumbent Republican Joni Ernst at 48.5 percent. And in Montana, the Democratic challenger is ahead there very early, Steve Bullock, the former or the Governor I should say is ahead by about 12,000 votes.
So let's look at what this all means right now. Three Democrats are leading in the Republican Senate seat, Democrats are back to needing four seats to pick up in order to flip the Senate and Democrats have 42 seats. Republicans have 42 seats and will have 16 seats remain to be called tonight. Wolf.
BLITZER: So important that's happening in the senate. All right, thanks very much, Dana. Let's get to key race alert right now. Let's see where things stand, let's start off in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. 46 percent of the vote is in, Trump has a 436,000-vote lead over Biden, 56 percent to 42.6 percent in Wisconsin. More than half of the vote is in, 53 percent. Trump has an 81,000-vote lead over Biden, relatively close 51.3 percent to 47 percent.
In Michigan right now, 44 percent of the vote is in, Trump still has a lead of about 274,000 votes over, Biden 54.5 percent to 43.6 percent. Let's go back to Jake. Jake these three states, potentially could hold the key, of who's going to be the next president.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: That's right we're all looking at the blue wall, it was a blue wall until 2016 when Donald Trump smashed it. Now, of course, Joe Biden is hoping to rebuild it. So, let's go check in with our correspondents who are in those three states, let's start with Miguel Marquez who is in Detroit Michigan, where we are told the turnout is higher than it has ever been. Miguel, what can you tell us about the votes that are outstanding, we are waiting to hear how Michigan voted this election season.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We know a couple of things, we know that the vote in Detroit, the biggest sort of Democratic stronghold, they are expecting between 53 and 55 percent of voters that turnout in this election, that doesn't sound like a very high turnout but when you consider that Donald Trump won Michigan by 10,704 votes back in 2016, that could be a critical difference.
Also across the entire state, they are expecting a record turnout across the entire state. It is not clear how that will affect the vote count for either candidate. We also know that they are still counting, this is a receding board where the Detroit Lions play Ford Field where they're going to receive votes all day long, those absentee ballots. They are still being counted as well.
The city of Detroit getting it through a huge tranche of those. We should be seeing some of those votes coming in very soon as well.
So, votes being counted in Michigan in the hours ahead, we expect to see much more votes come in. And rather than taking three days for the vote to be finalized here early as unofficial result, they believe that in the next 24 hours or so, we will have an unofficial result of who will win Michigan.
TAPPER: All right Miguel Marquez, in Michigan, thank you so much. Let us turn a little bit east to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania where we find Sara Murray. Sara there are millions of votes that were cast early in Pennsylvania.
With the vote right now in Pennsylvania, it has Donald Trump 1.8 million, Joe Biden 1.4 million, but they're still more than half the ballots waiting to be counted. What can you tell us?
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, Jake, look. There is a lot of outstanding vote here in the Keystone State and this is not going to be a process that moves particularly fast. That's what election officials have been warning us about.
We know there are a lot of these big counties, Philadelphia County, Bucks County, Chester County, they are going to be counting all night long. And these are not places that have really experienced any issues. They are not having any problems. It just takes a while.
And the Secretary of State just wrapped up a press conference here. She said, essentially, we need to stay patient. You also and need to be prepared for these vote totals to kind of come overnight in fits and starts, right. They've been reporting day of totals than they've been going through, opening more ballots, removing those from the inner envelope, putting then into the scanner and then uploading bunches at a time. So, just as you pointed out, this is going to come in in fits and starts throughout the night.
We may know by tomorrow morning a little bit something more. It may take a while. You know, the Secretary of State was saying these counties are working as fast as they can and as hard as they can. We know, like I said, a lot of these places are working overnight.
It is just going to take a while and it is the first time that Pennsylvania has had mail-in ballots to this capacity. And remember, they couldn't start opening them until 7:00 a.m. this morning.
TAPPER: All right Sara Murray in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Let's go to Bill Weir, one of Wisconsin's favorite sons who is in Madison. Bill tell us about turnout in Wisconsin. We're waiting to hear who the Badger State picked to be their president.
BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it looks like it's going to be a record turnout like most of the rest of the country, Jake, but it is still very early. In fact, some of the election officials in Milwaukee say they won't have their final numbers in until 5:00 a.m.
And that of course will be -- expected to be a huge blue boost for president or Vice President Biden when those numbers come in. Just looking at the wild (ph) counties around Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Washington County.
A little bit better than they were 4 years ago for the Democrats. Trump is still leading in those. He won Fond du Lac County, a little bit better than he did 4 years ago.
But I've been texting with the head of the Milwaukee Democrats who said he thinks there feels like stronger than expected in the Milwaukee suburbs for them, even though Trump is winning those right now. Possibly softer turnout in Milwaukee they think, blowout in Madison.
Likely red mirage, blue shift kind of night. They think they're shaving those margins around Milwaukee that they aren't as wide as they were for Hillary Clinton. But as right behind, we're waiting as all of the wards here in Madison expect to deliver all their ballots here to the election supervisor here. So, it's going to be a long night in America's dairy land, Jake.
TAPPER: All right, Bill Weir. Thank you so much. We'll check in with you in a little bit. And let's talk about this. I do feel like we've been saying for a long time that A, this -- anything could happen, this is a very competitive race.
And B, that it's really going to come down to these three states, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. And see that we are not going to probably know who won those states because of all the early vote, the night of election night. And all of that is happening and yet it still feels like people out there didn't hear us when we were telling them that in the previous weeks.
BASH: Well, I think people hear what they want to hear or need to hear at any given moment, understandably given how tense the country is. I'll add one state to what you just said, which is Arizona, which also could be a tipping state -
TAPPER: Yes.
BASH: -- depending on how it goes given what we're seeing so far. The thing to keep in mind is and some of our reporters mention this, is that what we are seeing now is not including the early vote and the early vote is the one that Democrats feel the most confident about because they encouraged their voters to go and vote early.
And, so that is missing piece of these both totals that we just haven't seen yet, which is a really, really key piece because it could change the dynamic abruptly.
[23:35:01]
And this is -- and I'm talking about early vote in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, those three blue wall states.
ABBY PHILIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: We just can't draw any conclusions right now about what's going on up there. And even Arizona is still unknown, but even if we did know Arizona, we would still need to wait on those states to count all of their votes to really get a clear sense of what is going on.
So, yes, we are asking for patience but I also think that it's important for people to recognize that this is kind of the opposite of what we were seeing earlier in the night, when we were getting a lot of mail votes from states like Florida and it was looking okay for Biden.
Now, we're getting a lot of Election Day votes from those states and those are going to benefit Trump. We just have to wait and see. We can't even say really what is happening in some of these counties because the percentage of the vote is so low, you can't draw any real conclusions.
BASH: And just to underscore what we're all saying, is the early votes in Michigan, Wisconsin and especially Pennsylvania are the votes that we expected to be counted less. Particularly in Pennsylvania because that's the law for some reason in Pennsylvania. And so --
TAPPER: Well, they tried - the Democrats tried to change it -
BASH: They did.
TAPPER: -- and the Republicans in the legislature wouldn't let them for whatever reason. That's the facts.
BASH: I think we know the reason.
TAPPER: Well, whatever it is, that's the reason they're counting now. It takes a long time. Again, people -- I don't know if this feels like 2016 when Donald Trump pulled this huge upset and surprised everybody or it feels like 2018 where Democrats actually had a really good night it just took longer than a night.
BASH: Jake, I want to go back to something that you said at the beginning of the night and you keep saying, which is it feels like 2020 because, meaning, it's not unlike any other year because going into tonight in most of these battleground states, the candidates were within the margin of error.
TAPPER: Right.
PHILLIP: Yes.
BASH: That by definition means it is a close race in all of these states and that's what we are seeing play out right now.
PHILLIP: Yes.
TAPPER: And it's a divided country. It's a divided country, it's a close election.
PHILLIP: One thing that we can say based on how close the race is in some of these places that Donald Trump was really at risk of losing, is that the Republicans really delivered in the sense that they were able to keep those races close and in their direction as we speak right now.
We're looking at a map in which a lot of states are red because they are trending red and they need to stay that way. And for President Trump, that is a really important thing because we would have been having a completely different conversation tonight if we were talking about actually expanding the map in a serious way early on in the night.
TAPPER: Yes. Wolf, back to you.
BLITZER: All right guys, thank you. Let's get a key race alert right now. Let's start off in the second congressional district of Nebraska, one electoral vote is at stake, 57 percent of the estimated vote is in, Biden has a 16,000 vote lead over Trump, 53.4 percent to 44.8 percent.
In Arizona, a lot more of the vote is in, 75 percent of the estimated vote is in. Biden has an impressive 203,000 vote lead over Trump, 53.5 percent to 45.1 percent.
In Minnesota right now, 61 percent of the vote estimated is in. Biden has a 220,000 vote lead over Trump there as well, 54.3 percent to 43.6 percent. There is more states. Let's continue the key race alert right now.
In Ohio right now, 88 percent of the estimated vote is in. Trump has an impressive 434,000 vote lead over Biden in Ohio, 53.2 percent to 45.3 percent. In North Carolina right now, 95 percent of the vote is in. Relatively close, only a 75,000 vote Trump lead over Biden, 50 percent for Trump to 48.7 percent for Biden.
In Iowa right, now 70 percent of the vote is in, very close, only a 31,000 vote lead for Trump over Biden, 50.3 percent to 47.8 percent. Let's go back to John King at the magic wall. So, closing some of these states with still a lot of outstanding votes to be counted.
KING: Yes, and we're going wait we're going to wait late into the night for some of them, we're told. And again, some grace still to the local election officials because they have to deal with his wild and different 2020.
Mail-in voting, in-person early voting, Election Day Voting. However, in some of these states as you go through them, number one, again Pennsylvania we're still waiting, 50 percent estimate. We're going to be waiting on that one for a while.
Michigan, we pull it out, Trump lead right now, but again, it's just not contextual in the sense that you come down here, Wayne County, 147,000 votes right now. This is Detroit in the suburbs around it. Hillary Clinton was at 520,000, 519,000 4 years ago.
So, just a reminder to our viewers that these states are counting more slowly because of the complexities of the 2020 election and it's going to take time. It may well take into the morning.
[23:40:00]
If that's the case, we'll keep counting and we'll stay up all night and watch it play out. Wisconsin, the same thing. So again, if you live through 2016 and you're a Republican and you're looking at that this map and you're saying that looks great, it does look great. It's just not complete, and it's nowhere near complete. Nowhere near complete.
So we just need to see, we need to keep counting votes. So then, the other anomaly on the map if you will, there are two things that look different compared to 2016. One of them is the commonwealth of Virginia, and I'm going to zoom in again at Fairfax County right here.
This has been this way for some time. This has been this way for some time, stuck at 28 percent for the largest county in the state. You would think, I know it's a difficult year, you would think the largest county in this commonwealth of Virginia could do a better job than that, 28 percent at this point in the night.
BLITZER: Hold on one moment, John.
KING: Sure.
BLITZER: Pamela Brown's got some reporting on what's going on in Virginia.
BROWN: Yes, exactly. We're finding out in Fairfax, Virginia, it had a slow going, finding out the results there. In fact, we're finding out that they will have their roughly 400,000 absentee ballots result in the next couple of hours, likely before 1:00 a.m. But so far, only around 28 percent is reported there in Fairfax County
in Virginia, and a very small portion of that is Democratic. So we have that going on there. And then you look over in Georgia. It is slow going, John. If you go over to Georgia in some of these counties there, you have Gwinnett County only 29 percent in, DeKalb, we have only 24 percent in.
And then Fulton has also been slow going. They were delayed because of a pipe that burst earlier. And so, they still have 48,000 absentee ballots to go through. They had 2 weeks to process these ballots, but it is slow going there in Georgia.
And we also know, of course, John, in Pennsylvania, more than 1 million outstanding absentee ballots for officials to go through in the Democratic areas there in Pennsylvania. I'm talking about Philadelphia. I'm talking about the suburbs of Philadelphia and Allegheny.
And that's not counting these 9 counties, the smaller counties that are waiting until tomorrow to start counting those absentee ballots. So, as this picture comes together of what's happening, we really are in suspense there in Pennsylvania.
KING: Again, you just look at the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, big state, 20 electoral votes, 2 million to 1.5 million, and you think that's a lot of votes. Just go back in time. To Pam's point about how many votes still need to be counted, you know, 2.9 -- 2.9, and we expect higher turnout this time.
As Pam mentioned the 9 counties, at least 6 of those, I think maybe all 9 but at least 6 or 7 won by Trump. They've just decided. They knew they were going to be overwhelmed today. They're not going to count those votes until tomorrow.
So you look at that there. I want to pop back to what Pam said in Georgia because, again, if you're in the Biden campaign right now and you're looking at this map and you're thinking all of the opportunities we thought we had might be slipping away, meaning states that we could flip like Florida, like North Carolina, like Georgia.
There are two senate races in Georgia as well, so I just want to go to the point Pam was making and just see what are we looking at, right? So let's come back out first, you look at statewide at 211,141 vote lead. So you come into the highest population center and you say, okay.
Well, they're missing a lot of ballots. They're not missing, but they haven't counted a lot of ballots here. So you're looking at Fulton County, 297,000 there. Let's just see where we are, 196,000 (ph). So Joe Biden is 100,000 votes behind where Hillary Clinton was there.
It is supposed to be a more high turnout election still maybe. Maybe there is more votes there. That's about 100,000 there. Pam mentioned Gwinnett County, come over here, you see 174,000 for Biden now. You go back, 176,000, so he's ahead of Hillary Clinton already there with still some votes to be counted. The question you're asking, this is the reason I'm going through this,
is it at all possible? When you look at Donald Trump's lead right now, when you go through these areas, and you move over here we have that - I'm here again, 81,000 votes, that's a lot of votes to be done here, 81,000 is where Joe Biden is.
Now, we go back in time, 251,000. So, you are looking at giant chunks of vote in those counties. You come back out, you see the president's lead is 211,000. When you have that many votes missing from DeKalb, Gwinnett, and Fulton, there's no reason at all for Democrats to give up. There is votes to be counted.
The question is, can you, you know, as those votes are counted, what's your margin? What is your margin? So, again, you keep it on the board. If you look at it right now, as a Democrat you're disappointed, but when you do the math and figure out what's out there, this is why patience is going to be so important.
And again, it's the very same (ph) situation how Pam mentioned more than 1 million votes here. You're just nowhere near, but this is 2016. You come up to 2020, they're just nowhere near the same numbers, right. You just saw the 2016 numbers. And so patience is what's required here.
And again, we heard the president repeatedly at the end of the campaign saying, we should be able to count the votes on election night, you know, that's it, I'm done. It's just not the way it works, which is why Sara Murray in the report saying the Secretary of State of Pennsylvania just came out, explained the process.
That's really the challenge now. For the election officials in these states, we have the slow count, we just got the Fairfax information, and Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin transparency is going to be key in the hours ahead because this is where in this age of social media and everything else, this is where things start to fly around. The important thing is stay with the sources you trust, be patient, we're going to count them. We have eyes on them. It's all fine.
[23:45:00]
BLITZER: No rush. We'll take it easy. We'll do it right. We have a key race alert, some of the contest we haven't paid that much attention to, but take a look at this. In Maine right now, 37 percent of the estimated vote is in.
Joe Biden has an 18,000-vote lead over Donald Trump, 51.3 percent to 45.5 percent. The second congressional district in Maine with one electoral vote, 33 percent of the vote is in. Trump is slightly ahead, 8,841 votes, 50.6 percent to 45 percent. Only a third of the vote is in Maine, the second congressional district.
In Montana right now, Biden is ahead by -- but its close by about 1,300 votes, 49.2 percent to 48.1 percent, and 20 percent of the vote in Montana is in. So, we are watching those contests as well.
KING: And so, again, very rarely does it happen, but every now and then, those one value, you've mentioned the Maine second congressional district, Democrats all along have thought that Maine was a state that they were going to win and win quite comfortably.
As you can see, we are very early in the count right here, but you see the red up to the northern part of the state. Donald Trump carried this congressional district 4 years ago. Maine and Nebraska do it by congressional district.
It is very rare that it comes down to, you know, 269-269 or 271. It's very rare that that happens, but on a night like this, we'll keep track of that count there because Democrats thought they had that one in their back pocket, but Democrats have been surprised in some other places tonight or least appear to be on the verge of being surprised.
So, we'll watch as it plays out. And so again, you're going to go across this map and you are looking at this map and if you are watching at home, this is important. Throughout the night, Donald Trump had been leading in the popular vote.
As we get the west coast results, Joe Biden is now 1.6 million votes ahead there. That's important from a symbolic and a moral victory, but it's not how he pick presidents.
BLITZER: John, we got another key race alert. An important one right now, the commonwealth of Virginia, look at this, 73 percent of the vote is in. Biden is now ahead by some 219,000 votes 52.3 percent to 46 percent for Trump.
All of a sudden, Biden takes the lead in Virginia. 13 electoral votes at stake in Virginia. That is significant, John. We were looking closely at those suburban Washington, D.C., northern Virginia counties.
KING: And so let's see what happened there because again, we've seen this play out in Virginia before where the Republican takes an early lead and the northern Virginia counties come in. You see Fairfax County was at 28 percent moments ago. Now it's up to 86.
If you need something fixed at home, you just need Pam Brown to talk about it on television and then apparently it just happens right away. Pam talks about it and in comes the vote. So, that's good. It's a good thing. I'll give you Pam's phone number later in the program.
But, you know, as you go through this -- look, on a night like this, when people are nervous, when we do have the county, it is important for people and so we give them credit for counting the votes when they did.
And when you pull that back out then, all of a sudden, a state that you were watching all night long and you're wondering why is that red, we talked about this all night long and we're going to talk about it apparently through the night and into tomorrow when it comes to Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
We need to be patient. It's a very different year. These are good people who count votes. We beat them up sometimes. We ask why aren't you doing this more quickly. They are good people and they're counting the votes. We want them as quickly as possible.
So you now you see this and that puts Virginia back, again. So you come back out and you look at this map where we are right now, right. So now we're at 11:47. This is where, normally, we're thinking are we close? Are we close to making a call?
We are not. We are not, why? We are not, why, because we're waiting for so much. Number one, you see those, they are red right now, but it's just not contextual. It's real, the president leads in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, but we are missing a ton of votes. We are missing a ton of votes.
And so you look at this part of the country. Has anything changed, right, when I take this up? Has anything changed from 2016? No. Has anything changed from 2016? No. Not yet. We're not done. We haven't called some of these states, but in terms of who is leading right now, and so the only thing on this map right now is different is that, Arizona.
And that's not called yet either, but it seems to be trending Joe Biden's way. So, that was a key target for the Democrats. There is a senate race out there as well, too. That was one, the Democrats came into the night thinking and hoping there would be more than one.
We're not done yet. There may well yet be Georgia as we just noted. They have a lot of votes to count in Georgia. It is still close enough for those votes to make a difference. But the Democrats who spent this week saying it's going to be a blowout are reconsidering that right now.
Again, we haven't finished with these states, but if you're going to have a blowout, even when you're waiting for some votes to be counted, in a blowout year, you're leading. You intend to lead. So it doesn't mean one or two of these won't flip back, but you don't see.
You don't see any evidence right now of a huge wave. And that's going to matter not just for the presidency, as we get later in the night in the Senate, as we start doing the House tally because tomorrow we think about governor's races and state legislatures.
The fact that there is a lot of red here is better news for Republicans. How good? We don't know yet. That takes a few days to sort through that. And so you come back to this map here right now, again, Joe Biden now ahead in the popular vote. That's just a moral victory. It's a symbolic victory.
If you start to stretch it out, then it does affect the Electoral College map. But if it's pretty close as it is right now, then you are doing state by state, hand to hand combat of presidential politics, and that comes down.
[23:50:00]
I just want to check this one again. We kept waiting, was Ohio going to change -- 88, again, we're still waiting. I was just communicating with a very good solid Republican vote counter in Ohio, very confident. That's going to stay for Trump. Not a Trump person. Just this very smart Republican vote counter.
We'll see. We'll see if she is right, but, you know, it sure looks that way. You come back here again, again, so you see this right now. You think it's halfway through, 519,000 votes, that's big, right? Even in a big state like Pennsylvania, however - however.
Let's go west to east this time, 98,000 votes. We've been stuck there for a long, 70 percent of the estimated vote. Allegheny County, that's Pittsburgh, that's the suburbs around it. Remember that 98,000. This is a higher turnout year. We're seeing that everywhere in the country.
Four years ago, Hillary Clinton got 367,000 votes in Allegheny County. We're just nowhere near done. We have a lot of votes to count there. Let's just come - I just want to check in some of the counties for the president. That's a county we expect to go for Joe Biden.
Westmoreland County was a place where we expect the president to win. This was a challenge. Joe Biden campaigned here. When he came out of the Democratic convention, he took the train ride. Joe Biden came here on purpose. He wanted to see if he could narrow the gap.
This is 64 to 33 last time. Let's come back here now, not so far anyway - not so far. This would be -- again, this would be if the president can hold this, that's a big deal. Joe Biden went into these communities thinking I can narrow the gaps, but again, we're in the early chapter of this and we don't know what we have left to come out.
Let's come back over here. Again, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, this is what matters most in terms of the vote count. Democrats need to run it up big in Philadelphia. Joe Biden at 248,000, so just shy of 250,000 votes.
You think that's a big lead. You see 75 percent, but to emphasize the point, we have a long way to go. Hillary Clinton got 584,000 votes in this county four years ago. We've got a ton of way to go. Wolf, back to you.
BLITZER: We'll be patient. We got another projection right now. Take a look at this. CNN projects that Joe Biden is the winner in Virginia. Virginia goes for Biden. Biden beats Trump in the commonwealth of Virginia, 13 electoral votes go to Biden.
Take a look at the Electoral College map count. Right now Biden has crossed 200. He has 205 Electoral College votes right now. Trump has 114 -- 270 needed to win the presidency. Let's take a look at some of the key race alerts right now.
Arizona right now, look at this, 76 percent of the estimated vote in Arizona is in. Biden is ahead in Arizona by more than 207,000 votes, 53.6 percent to 45 percent for Trump. So, let's go back to John King right now. Arizona, 200,000 vote lead right now with that number and that percentage of vote in. That's pretty significant, John.
KING: It is, it is indeed. And so again, that's 2016. Let me come back to 2020, come through my time warp here and pull out Arizona. It is significant. Now, again, it's a flip, right. It would be a flip. It's a
traditionally red state so you're going always be a little bit more cautious before you call it. And so we want to wait and see, but you're up to 76 percent. You're up to 207,000 vote lead, 1.2 to 1, and this is the bread and butter of Arizona, 67 percent of the vote in Maricopa County.
You see Joe Biden, just shy of 800,000 votes, right there, 54 percent. Let's just go back and take a look. Hillary Clinton, 700,000 votes, 702 -- 702. The Democrat this time, 798. So at 96,000 more votes and we are not quite complete yet here.
Again, what does this tell you? Number one, it tells you the Biden campaign did a good job, but number two, it just tells you more about the suburban revolt. And again, we are seeing other places that are closer than they were four years ago.
This would be a very important pick up for the Democrats if it continues to trend this way. And again, 54 if you round up to 45, so a 9-point race there, if you go back four years ago. It was close, but it was four and half point race in favor of the Republicans.
The demographics shifts in Arizona, the suburban revolt against President Trump. And this could be very, very important on a night where the other opportunities for the Democrats, at least as of now, do not seem to be bearing fruit.
Florida is still red, Georgia is still red, North Carolina is still red, Ohio is still red. So, if you are the Democrats and you are thinking how do we take away, and I can walk over here and show you, how do we take away from Donald Trump's map? This is where we are right now with the states that have been projected.
This part is done. Nothing here is a surprise. So the question is, if you are Joe Biden, how do you get to 270? Well, that would help, right, 205 gets you have to 216 -- that would help. It doesn't get you all the way, but it helps.
Not only does it help you go up, it takes it away from Donald Trump's 306. And so then you are looking at this map. If you're a Democrat, you're looking at this map, you assume this one is going to come your way. We're not done there yet, Minnesota.
And you're looking around here. You assume most of Maine is going to come your way. Right now, President Trump was leading in that congressional district, so let's just take that away. I'm going to make the second congressional district a toss-up for now. The president is leading. The Democrats think they're going to get that, but again, they thought they were going to get some other places too. We'll watch. I'll take it up as a toss-up.
If you are at 229 and you're the Democrats, how do you get there if you're Joe Biden, right? Well, you can't count on Texas right now.
[23:54:59] You're still leading in Iowa? No, you're not. You're not leading in Iowa anymore. You're going to get Hawaii. When we go a little deeper into the night that could shoot up to 233.
And so then, again, it sounds redundant, but you come here and here and even those two, not enough. So, you're looking at that. Do you do that there or the other Clinton state, Nevada, we haven't done the West Coast yet. You get that there. So, that's 285. Can you afford to lose that? We come to that. You can't afford to lose that. So, we're going to walk through the math as we go through this for the rest of the night.
BLITZER: Let's take a quick break. A lot more coming up. We're waiting to see what happens in Arizona. Could Joe Biden pull off a win in that state? We'll find out. Election Night in America continues in two minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: The presidential race still up in the air right now with crucial battlegrounds still too early to call, too close to call. Here's where the fight for electoral votes stands right now. Take a look at this.
205 Electoral College votes for Biden right now. That's where Biden has right now. You need 270 to win the very, very important race right now. Let's take a look at the key race alert right now.
Pennsylvania right now, 51 percent of the estimated voters in. Donald Trump has 56.5 percent to 42.1 percent for Biden. He's got a lead of more than half a million votes right now. But 51 percent of estimated vote is in, still plenty of votes outstanding.
In Michigan, still plenty of votes outstanding as well, 48 percent of the estimated voters in. Trump has 54.4 percent. Biden has 43.8 percent. Trump is ahead by 289,000 votes.
In Wisconsin, 61 percent of the vote is in. Trump has 105,000 votes lead over Biden, 51.6 percent to 46.8 percent.
In Arizona, 76 percent of the estimated vote is in. Biden has 53 percent to Trump's 45 percent in Arizona, 207,000 lead for Biden over -- Biden over Trump in Arizona.
As we follow some of those crucial undecided races, we're getting closer and closer to another poll closing. Just minutes from now, voting ends in Hawaii. Four electoral votes are at stake out of the 270 needed to win this contest.
Let's go back to John King over at the magic wall. John, right now, Trump has 114 electoral votes, Biden has 205.
[23:59:59]
KING: Right. And so, you just mentioned we're going to get Hawaii at the top of the hour, and you know, it would be a shock if this one other -- any way other than that. So, we'll just do that.
