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CNN Live Event/Special
Fulton County, GA Officials Expected To Report Additional Votes; Less Than 60K Votes Separating Trump & Biden In GA; PA Official: Expect 100,000-Plus More Ballots To Be Counted Tonight; Expecting New Vote Totals In Arizona, Georgia Tonight. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired November 04, 2020 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So if there was a change, if the counting of these absentee ballots resulted in a change, it would be quite a startling political story. But you could see these people are genuine heroes, we've seen this - I was just in Ohio last few days covering (inaudible) working in the precincts, but those people watching how hard they work, watching how hard these people work and these are American heroes.
They're not only working hard for a very important reason, but they're working hard during a COVID pandemic. They're brave and they're courageous and we just can't give them enough credit.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: And, Gary, just to be clear here, you said in the adjudication part of the room, there are partisan representatives. So there is a Democrat and a Republican official there to supervise whatever decisions are being made, I just want it - because we've seen that in other states, even though the Trump campaign is out there complaining about not being allowed to watch the similar processes in Pennsylvania or Michigan. But you're saying that as in those other states, there is a Republican and a Democratic observer there just to make sure that everything is kosher.
TUCHMAN: I can be very specific with you and that is this, I spent most of the day today in DeKalb County, as I told you, which is right to the east of Fulton County. In DeKalb County, what they had were groups of four adjudicators. They work together; one Republican, one Democrat, two Independents.
They then vote on whether a ballot is OK,m that its intent can be ascertained. The vote is usually unanimous, they said. If it's two in two, then call an election supervisor in the room to break the tie. But they said there's rarely an issue with having to break the tie.
So yes, they work well together. It's pleasant to see bipartisan support among the adjudicators. They take their job seriously. And I can't tell you exactly it's the same way here, because we just arrived here (inaudible) time ago (inaudible) I kind of interrupted that lady, which I kind of feel bad about (inaudible) wasn't supposed to talk to her, so I apologized to her for doing it.
But I did talk to a lot of people in DeKalb. I tend to talk first and take the problems from talking to people later from the supervisors. But either way, we did talk a lot in DeKalb County and that's what they do. And that's how it's usually done in most counties, not only here in Georgia, but in other states also.
TAPPER: Yes.
TUCHMAN: Nothing is done with partisan decision-making. The idea is to make it as fair as possible. That's always been the concept of doing these things when you have vote counting afterwards here in the United States.
TAPPER: Gary Tuchman, subscribing to the better to ask forgiveness than permission school, which we appreciate, of course. Gary, we're going to check back with you. Let me take it back to Wolf Blitzer.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Thanks very much, Jake. John, Georgia, we're about to get a dump of thousands and thousands of votes right now. The President is ahead, 56,739 right now, 94 percent of the estimated vote is in. Meaning, there are 6 percent that's still outstanding.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And Gary Tuchman right there in the room where it's happening, if you will. And look, we're grateful for Gary and his reporting, but I would echo Gary, grateful for all those people. You hear things, you read Twitter, certain candidate in this race is saying all of these horrible things are happening. Math is happening, democracy is happening, vote counting is happening.
When you see these people, most of those workers, they're here in Fulton County. Most of those workers are most likely Democrats who work in Fulton County. And guess what, they're counting votes that include votes for the President of the United States. They're just doing their job and they're counting the votes.
And as Gary noted, you have Democrats, Republicans, Independents in the room and they're working it out together, the way it's supposed to be done. So the question is, is there enough math. As we wait for those votes, this is Fulton County. Look at Joe Biden getting 72 percent of the vote here. He needs to get somewhere in the ballpark of 70 percent or more of the remaining votes.
Gary noted he was over here earlier in DeKalb County to the right, to the east, in the Atlanta suburbs. Eighty-three percent is what Joe Biden is getting in that county. If he matches those totals, as they keep counting these votes, he has a chance to overcome this math because you look at 56,739 in the wee hours of the morning this morning when we left here at 3:00, 3:30 this morning, that was a much bigger lead for the President. So what's happening? What's happening?
They're counting the votes in metro Atlanta and the suburbs. You're heard Gary note there are other counties down here as well throughout the state as you move down here. This is one of them, Houston County. Now, there's a military base here, as Gary noted, they're counting votes here too. And guess what, this is a county where the President is leading.
Does that mean the votes still being counted or going the President's way? We don't know that. We'll count them and tabulate them, but they're counting them everywhere. They're counting them in predominantly Democrat places. They're counting in places that are Republican places that are closer. That's the way the process works.
But I just want to focus here, you look at Atlanta in the suburbs. As Gary noted, not since Bill Clinton in 1992 as a Democrat carry the state. Just look at the suburbs around Atlanta, you have to go way back in time here. Let's go back to 2004 when George W. Bush won it. You see how much more red that is?
Republicans used to dominate the suburbs in American politics, especially in the south. As you come more forward, let's just check in on Obama in 2012, picks up a little bit, more of it, African-Americans in the Atlanta area.
[19:05:03]
But then in 2016, you see the Democrats start in 2016. You start to see it. This is a 51-46 race if you round up statewide and now you come to 2020 and you see even more blue here and you come in - now you look in, it's the margins. So you look into Atlanta, Fulton County, 72 percent for Joe Biden, we'll go back in time, 69 percent for Hillary Clinton, the Democratic stronghold. It's the most votes in the state right here in Fulton County.
So what we're about to hear as you come back out, look at the margin, 72 percent. Joe Biden needs to get of the remaining votes there, 70 percent or more as we go. And so you're looking around, again, Fulton, DeKalb, you move up here to Gwinnett. Not quite, it's a more conservative. As you move away from the city, you tend to get more Republicans in the suburbs on the outer loop 58 to 40.
Still, Joe Biden winning convincingly but - and you see here, you're up to 95 percent. So here's what you're looking for, that's 95. But you come this way, you're still at 89 in the place where Joe Biden is getting above 80 percent. So if you're in the Biden campaign, you think let's keep counting them. They keep coming in like that. We're in play. Same, keep coming in like that, we're in play.
You move over here, the margins go down a little bit in Cobb County as you move away, but still 10 percent to be counted here. I want to check down here in Douglas County. Again, a big Biden margin here, but you're up to 93 percent. Also, a little bit smaller population-wise as you move away from Atlanta.
So bottom line, Wolf, 56,000. We're waiting for a big chunk out of Fulton County we could get any minute. That will be a huge indication. They report 10s of thousands of votes, 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 of those votes and you see the gap continuing to narrow. Then we will know Joe Biden's trajectory and the possibilities of overcoming that in the State of Georgia.
Look, Democrats have wanted Georgia for some time. A month from now, they might think this is a moral victory. Today, they want the math victory.
BLITZER: They would love that if they could carry Georgia. That would be huge. I want you to listen to this, Erica Hill is in Nevada for us right now. Erica, you got some news, what do you hear it? ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR AND NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf. Well,
we've been waiting on more numbers. The Secretary of State said overnight when they put out the most updated numbers a little after 2:00 am that we would not get any more results until tomorrow morning at 9:00 am local time. Well, you can imagine a lot of people are wondering because this is such a tight race between Joe Biden and the president here in Nevada.
A short time ago, they told CNN that they are hopeful that they could maybe give us some more updates this afternoon. We're still waiting on that information and as we wait, there's a lot of focus on Clark County. So that's where I am right now. Of course, it is home to Nevada, some 70 percent of active voters in this state are in Clark County. It has leaned heavily Democratic in the past.
What you're seeing behind me is some of these mail ballots that are being processed. This is the big sticking point here in the county. The Clark County registrar told us we won't have any new numbers from here either until tomorrow morning, that they were following the lead of the Secretary of State.
But as we look at these mail-in ballots, the reason this is so tough is we don't really know, Wolf, how many outstanding ballot there are. And the reason for that is that for the first time this year, every active voter in the state of Nevada would send a mail-in ballot because of COVID understandably. So we can look at the number of ballots that have been returned. We can look at the number of people who showed up to vote. We can look at the number who registered same day because you can do that in the state of Nevada.
But to be honest, it's a little bit of a game of math and we don't know ultimately how many votes are outstanding, because those people who received a ballot could have voted in person or may decide not to vote at all.
BLITZER: Well, Erica, as soon as you get that information, as soon as you get the numbers, let us know. We're watching Nevada very, very closely.
So John, we're going to get numbers, more ballots out of Georgia and Nevada, both states that could be really, really significant.
KING: We hope so. And again, if you've watched our correspondence throughout the day in Detroit, in Philadelphia, Gary Tuchman just now in Fulton County, that's Atlanta, Erica Hill out in Nevada, transparency is absolutely critical here. We have a very close race for president. Nevada and Arizona could put Joe Biden over the top. In Nevada, Joe Biden's lead, 7,647 votes. It's been that way for some time. We have it as Erica noted, no new votes out in Nevada, essentially, during the daytime hours here today.
And so if you're the Trump campaign, you're saying, we want to see the votes. We want to see the additional votes. And you can completely understand that, whether you're a Biden supporter or a Trump supporter, it's a close race. This is the state that could make the difference right now. And so if you're the Trump campaign, you're saying what's happening
out there. So I think the transparency part is absolutely critical. You want them to get it right, that's what they're going to say. It's an unprecedented election. But you want to see more.
And as Erica noted, look, 7,647, 49.3 to 48.7. This is a very competitive race. In a state that has been trending blue, a state that Hillary Clinton carried four years ago. You see the margin there. Again, a close race, though, 48 if you round that up to 46 if you round that up.
So this is a closed state, trending blue but Republicans, especially President Trump have been competitive in the state of light. This is the ballgame. This is the ballgame where Erica is. She's in Vegas, Clark County. Vegas and the suburbs, very different place than 25 years ago, one of the fastest growing areas of America also an area hard hit in the COVID economy, because the tourism industry is down.
[19:10:01]
So this is a great laboratory of American politics at this moment because of the Latino population, because of the suburban growth, because of the economic issues. And look what you get, 53 percent, 45 percent, again, this is just Clark County, sure.
BLITZER: Hold on a moment, John. There's a briefing going on in Fulton County, Georgia right now. They're giving us some new information, let's listen in.
RICHARD BARRON, FULTON COUNTY ELECTION DIRECTOR: The only ballots that are adjudicated are if we have a ballot with a contest on it and which there's some question as to how the computer reads it. So the vote review panel then determines voter intent.
We're trying to make sure that every ballot is counted and we expect to be here - we're bringing in some more fresh people, because we've had people here all day. We expect this to go probably until midnight or more.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) how many absentee ballots were casted in Fulton County in for this election and where are you now with (inaudible) ...
BARRON: We have somewhere near 142,000 that we'll be at, at the end of the process. We've scanned 113,130 as of moments ago. We've adjudicated 106,000 plus of those. The 106,000, those have already been published on the website. We're going to run more frequent batch updates over to English Street (ph) so we can get those, the vote review panel to update those, to go through those and adjudicate those so we can get more updates throughout the night.
BLITZER: Hundred and sixteen.
BARRON: Essentially right now we've got five scanners and because - we only have five openers too, so we can't - even if we brought in more scanners, it's not going to help at this point. What we would need is more space and if I - when we need more space, I would have to ask everyone here to leave so that we can get more tables in here. We're going to do all - we're going to finish tonight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) ...
BARRON: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) ...
BARRON: As long as it takes, we're going to be here. That's why we're bringing in fresh bodies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said (inaudible) ...
BARRON: The what?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... the number of new votes (inaudible) ...
BARRON: Well, we'll end up getting to the total, which is above 142,000. We've already scanned in 113,130. What takes the most time is getting them off, because the cutters and extractors has to cut through two envelopes, so you run through it twice and then it goes over to the flatteners. And that is a manual process over there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) ...
BARRON: Well, right now we're up to 106,000 up from 74,000 yesterday. We're up to 106,000, on our way to - it'll be somewhere in the neighborhood of 142,000, so ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) ...
BARRON: Can I what?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) ...
BARRON: OK. No. Well, no, but you can't publish a batch until that batch goes through adjudication as what it does, any ballots in there that are flagged to be adjudicated by the vote review panel, those have to be dealt with before you can publish that batch. So the vote review panel will go through and they'll see any contest that's on a ballot that has some question as to the way it was marked. The vote review panel then decides voter intent.
None of the ballots get rejected. All that happens is if there - you make a determination on a contest on a ballot, whether if the person - the voter intended to vote for this person or this person. So there aren't any rejections. If a ballot is rejected, it's done before you get to this process for either missing signature or signature mismatch.
So once it goes through the scanner, it's going to count the ballot. It's just that there may be a question on one race or contest on that ballot.
Well, it's mostly the space. I mean, we don't have - at this point, we might bring in some more tables and just get some letter openers and try to start opening by hand to supplement what we have with those.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) ...
BARRON: Yes. Yes, sometime. Probably, it'll be after midnight by the time we get them through adjudication.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are there any other (inaudible) this election (inaudible) in-person or in any other way (inaudible) ...
BARRON: Well, yes, any 1915 [00:00:34] ballots, the military overseas, they have until Friday to come in and then any provisional ballots.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) ...
BARRON: I don't, it just - I don't know how many ...
BLITZER: All right. So we'll continue to monitor that briefing in Fulton County, that's Atlanta, Georgia. The largest county in Georgia right now. I think he said that they've already received 142 absentee ballots. They reviewed about 106,000 of them, so they're going to release maybe 36,000 more in the next few hours.
KING: Right. The math bounced around a little bit. That was the bottom line as well. They got about 36,000 more to go. And again, this is Fulton County, Atlanta. You see those people counting the votes. They said they're kind of overwhelmed, but they're going to get through it. He promised they'd be done by late tonight, he says they'll stay as long as it takes.
So if you think if there's 36,000 more ballots to be had here, this is the question, let's come out to the statewide total first, 56,000 vote lead at the moment, 56,739. And you think just in this county alone, the largest county in the state, 36,000 votes. We know Joe Biden was winning at least 72 percent, although we're told today and counting these absentee and mail-in ballots, the percentage for Joe Biden is actually higher in what we've seen reported today.
So if you just think about it, again, you can do the math at home, it's 56,000, round that up to 57,000. Just round that up. There's 36,000 ballots right here just in Fulton County. Joe Biden needs, it's pretty obvious, the overwhelming majority of those to get him back in the hunt. It still wouldn't be enough even if he won say, 75 percent, 80 percent of them, but it would narrow the gap and that's just Fulton County and that's what's important to note.
Fulton County says they'll be done by late tonight, maybe in the wee morning hours, but we'll get these here. And then you move over here to DeKalb County and we have ballots out here as well. The numbers have moved throughout the day, so we'll try to get the latest number here, but there are still thousands of ballots to be counted here and this is a place where Joe Biden is winning more than 80 percent of the vote.
And so this is a very narrow path for Joe Biden to catch up, but it's possible because we have these votes out in the Democratic suburban counties around Atlanta Metro, including Atlanta itself where that news conference played out.
Again, you're looking at 56,000, 57,000, if you want to round that up at 94 percent. The math gets hard, but what we have seen today in counting of these absentee ballots is that Joe Biden is running ahead - certainly, well ahead of his statewide numbers, because most of these ballots, not all, but most of these ballots are in Metro Atlanta, which is predominantly Democratic. Which is why in the Biden campaign they have some hope of overcoming this math and we just need to play the process out.
BLITZER: Sixteen electoral votes in Georgia, if you take a look at 253, that Biden has right now, 253 plus 16, you get very, very close, 269 to 270 you need.
KING: Right. So we know right now if Joe Biden can just protect his leads in Nevada and in Arizona, that would be enough. That would be enough. But just remember the moment we're in right now, where the President's campaign, we'll see if they follow through. But the President's campaign says we're going to send lawyers to Pennsylvania.
We're thinking about lawyers to Michigan. We're thinking about a recount in Wisconsin. We're in this time with the Trump campaign and their war room is trying to think how close is this, if there's one state, we if we got one state back, would that make the difference.
And so imagine if that also went blue, not only does it change the Electoral College math, it gives Joe Biden more of a cushion, which then changes every other political decision that has to be made. It would change Republican - if this comes down to one state, there'll be some Republicans who side with the President who say fight it out.
If Joe Biden can run up another one and pad that a little bit, then you'd have Republican saying, Mr. President, back off. The American people have spoken. Would he listen? We'll see. But it's not just the Electoral College math, it changes the political psychology, if you will, which is why we want to count them all.
And again, to be fair, the President's team says they think they can change those. Again, Joe Biden is ahead right now. The trajectory is in Joe Biden's way, but just as we want to count the votes here. We should count the votes there. We will get to a landing place when we get more of the votes.
BLITZER: Let's count the votes in Pennsylvania as well. Sara Murray in Philadelphia for us. Sara, what are you seeing and what are you hearing?
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we did just get an update from the Secretary of State, Kathy Boockvar, and she said even though this count is going slow in Pennsylvania, they are expecting to get hundreds of thousands more votes total tonight and in the overnight hours. And look, we know that just here in Philadelphia County that they've been working 24/7, they are counting all hours of the day. That's true with a lot of these big counties across Pennsylvania. We
are still getting these numbers rolling in kind of county-by-county. There haven't been any major issues that have been arising. It just takes awhile. It's a lot of mail-in votes.
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It's the first time they're grappling with this number of mail-in votes and that's why the Secretary of State also offered this kind of word of caution tonight. She said even though we're going to continue to get these numbers rolling in, it could still be a matter of days before we get the overwhelming majority of these ballots tallied. So they just keep urging patients here in the Keystone state, Wolf.
BLITZER: All right. Sara, thank you. Eighty-six percent of the vote, Pennsylvania, John, is in. The president is ahead by 245,000 votes, but that's a lot less than it was just hours ago.
KING: It's a lot less than it was and it's trickled down from midnight, 2 am 3 am through the day time hours today as they've counted more. So again, in a normal election, you would look at 86 percent, a lead of 245,000 votes and you would say, OK, that's impossible. Because look, they're splitting the votes along those ratios, that's not enough for Joe Biden to make it up. That's what you would say in a normal election.
But Sarah just made the most important point and it's a bit of broken record. But remember, a lot of people mailed in their ballots. We know from the data in Pennsylvania in particular, overwhelmingly, a Democratic vote people who mailed in their ballots, then people who voted in line early and then people showed up on Election Day.
So election officials are dealing with three separate batches of votes, if you will, and where Sara Murray standing, she's standing in Philadelphia. So if you look out here and you look at that number, 47.4 percent, your eyes tell you and your math skills tell you, Joe Biden can't make up 245,000 when he's getting less than half of the vote.
However, where we're still counting votes include places like Philadelphia where lo and behold, still 30 percent of the vote out, Joe Biden is getting nearly 80 percent of the vote. You move to the other suburbs around here, 61 percent of the vote. So that is why when you look at the statewide numbers, they tell you one thing, but when you zoom in on where we're still waiting to count votes, because this is a slow and arduous process again, 57 percent, 58 percent if you round up out here, statewide, Joe Biden needs more than that in the math, but you see if he can run up good numbers here, still votes to count.
Again, this is the total counted so far. What we know so far is at least in the past, those mail in ballots have been even more lopsided in Joe Biden's favor. We don't know if that will continue. But we do know as we count them, there is a mathematical possibility he can overcome that which again in every single one of these states, the Biden campaign wants to count them all here. The Trump campaign wants to count them all here, on that we should all agree, count them.
BLITZER: Count the votes. We'll be patient and then we'll watch what's going on. We got a key race alert right now.
All right. John, take a look at this. We're talking about Georgia right now. Trump's lead has shrunk to 47,000 votes right now. Trump has 49.9 percent Biden has 48.9 percent, Georgia, 16 electoral votes. It's now down to 47,111 votes. It keeps getting smaller and smaller that lead and we're waiting now, bracing for a whole bunch of new numbers to come in.
KING: We are. And again, we just heard the gentleman, the election official in Fulton County. You look at the statewide number, that was a much bigger number hours ago. So again this is a tense day for everybody. If you're watching at home and you have a favorite in the race, especially if you're one of the partisans in the Trump campaign headquarters or the Biden campaign headquarters, and you have national headquarters and guess what, you have people on the ground here too. And the important point, and Gary Tuchman noted this, you have people in the room. In the room.
So, again, the President has been saying he thinks there's nefarious things going on. There are Republicans, and Democrats and Independents in every one of these rooms all across America, in red states, in blue states, red counties and blue counties counting the votes. The reason this is getting interesting is because in these predominantly Democratic counties, populous counties, Atlanta, Fulton County will give you 10 percent of the vote statewide, we'll come out of this one county. We'll get more votes later today.
BLITZER: Thirty-six thousand.
KING: Right. And as votes have come in throughout the day from Fulton County, they started with 142,000. That's one of the reasons the statewide lead has been shrinking, because Joe Biden has 72 percent in the county right now, in the votes counted today, his percentage is actually higher than that. So we're waiting for votes there, we're waiting for votes here.
Again, your eyes tell the story, he's getting 80 percent plus in this county. If that continues, then Joe Biden is in play as they continue to count votes and you move over here. Again, nearly 60 percent, then the math gets a little more interesting, but you keep counting them.
And again, I just want to make clear, we're looking at these Democratic counties in Metro Atlanta. We do know, we've been told that there are some more votes, places like Houston County has some votes coming in. Here the President is doing better, that does not guarantee that in the vote still to be counted he continues to win. But that's one of the reasons to be fair to the President, some of these votes and you just pick a random county. In a lot of these places now, you're at 95 percent. It's a smaller county.
But there's a possibility, we're focusing on Metro Atlanta, because that's where the most votes are. And if Joe Biden is to come back that is going to have to happen. But there are some smaller counties that it's possible the President could pick up on as well.
BLITZER: Yes. And as we keep saying Georgia is so important, 16 electoral votes. We'll see what's happening. We should get those numbers fairly soon. We're awaiting those new vote totals out of Arizona, where Joe Biden is leading. Also out of Georgia where the race has dramatically tightened over the past few hours.
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Will we learn the winner of the presidential race soon? You're gonna find out. Stay with us.
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BLITZER: All right. Welcome back. We got a key race alert right now in the critically important battleground State of Arizona right now, 81 percent of the estimated vote is in. Joe Biden maintaining elite of 93,000 votes over Donald Trump, 51 percent to 47.6 percent.
Kyung Lah is on the scene for us in Phoenix, Arizona right now. We're bracing for more results. What are you learning, Kyung?
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR U.S. CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'm watching my clock here, Wolf, because in about 90 minutes and that's an approximate time that's been shifting depending on when the data is available. In about 90 minutes, the Maricopa County Recorder's office anticipates that they will have some new data. We haven't had it all day.
They anticipate a few hours after that to have a second round of ballot results. So two dumps today, ballot results from Maricopa County, the critical Maricopa County that encompasses Phoenix. So it's a populous county. You win here. You win the state most likely.
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So what is happening in the state of Arizona? Here, we are seeing ballots still being counted. You see these boxes behind me. These are the ballots that have been counted. They are sealed. They're going to head into a vault.
In Arizona, there are about 615,000 to 635,000 that have yet to be counted. In Maricopa County, that number is about 450,000 ballots that have yet to be counted. And when you ask the recorders office, well, what are these ballots, when did these come in?
They came in at the tail end of the early votes, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and then we're seeing both sides here in Arizona, the two parties, the GOP saying they think it is going to swing their way, that their voters come in late, and the Democrats saying, no, no, no, we think they're probably our voters.
So we just have to see how big this data dump is going to be, and then we also have to see who it is, where these ballots return. We are certainly, Wolf, going to be watching this clock just about 90 minutes from now.
BLITZER: All right. Kyung, we'll stay in very close touch with you. We're anxious to get those numbers.
Let's go over to John King, take a closer look at what's going on in Arizona right now.
Thousands and thousands of votes are about to be disclosed.
KING: So, we still have a few states where we're racking them up. Just in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, we're counting them there. Let's move over to Arizona. This will be very important, because, again, on a day when we know if Joe Biden holds this lead, and holds that lead, Nevada, Joe Biden gets to 270 electoral votes, high intentions and expectations in the country.
Let's get -- let's get these votes. So, where are we -- 93,000 votes, that has been steady for quite some time because as Kyung Lah just noted, been a long time. So, 90 minutes from now, we get some votes from here. Maricopa County, and this is, unless it's incredibly close in the state, this is the ball game, 60 percent or more of the vote comes out of Maricopa County, which is Phoenix and the suburban area around it, Joe Biden at the moment, 52 percent to 46 percent.
So, you're looking at a 6-point race essentially, this is exactly a 6 point race in Maricopa County. Joe Biden has to stay ahead, win the majority of the votes and he will carry the state without a doubt. We're looking 80 percent there.
The question is how many do we get in the next installment? Is it enough to project things out, or do we still have to wait? We'll see. We get those in about 90 minutes. It's been a long day, but, you know, patience -- patience is a virtue, we'll get there.
We have down in Pima County, 87 percent. And again, Joe Biden getting 60 percent of the vote here. So, in the two largest counties, Pima and Maricopa, we're waiting for votes, and everything we see so far tells us Joe Biden is winning a good majority there and even bigger majority here.
So, your eyes tell you their going to bring in more votes, and if they stay roughly in line with what we have seen so far, Joe Biden will carry the state of Arizona. But we don't know that until we have seen them, right?
So, just a move around a little bit more in the conservative parts of the state, 87 percent here. You see the difference in the vote count, right? It's a smaller county, but still, a chance for the president as they count the last 13 percent here, a chance for the president to make up ground. We should not discount that possibility at all. Come back out now, and bring the state down.
You see it up here, and move up here as well. Navajo County, much smaller, but again, the president running it up here, 83 percent. So, we know Phoenix and Tucson, Maricopa and Pima, most of the votes are coming from there. But we want to count the others as well just to make sure we get them all.
BLITZER: Those are the two big cities in the suburbs, we'll watch.
KING: Right.
BLITZER: Jake, back to you.
TAPPER: Thanks, Wolf, and it is the position of the Trump administration that officials keep counting in places such as Arizona where President Trump trails behind Joe Biden and Nevada where he trails behind Joe Biden while the campaign, the Trump campaign is also trying to stop counting or halt it in places where Joe Biden trails behind Donald Trump.
One such place is Georgia, and for the latest information and the latest news on that, we go to Kaitlan Collins now who is covering the Trump campaign and the Trump White House for us.
Kaitlan, what is the latest?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, it's been a day of legal challenges coming out of the Trump campaign as they're trying to figure out what their strategy is going to be now that the president's chance of being reelected has narrowed significantly, and I'm being told by a source that the Trump campaign has filed a lawsuit now in Georgia. That comes after earlier today, they asked for a recount in Wisconsin. They talked about filing a lawsuit in Michigan, and now, we are told Georgia is another state that they are adding to their list of legal challenges.
And that comes, Jake, after the secretary of state in Georgia said just a few hours ago that they still had 185,000 ballots that they were going through, and counting. And we just heard from the Fulton County elections director who said they did believe they were going to finish counting those votes tonight.
So we're waiting for the release from the Trump campaign to see what this lawsuit actually intends to do. Of course, we have seen what they wanted in Michigan. They wanted more meaningful observation. This could be to halt votes while they are trying to get something related to absentee ballots. That's what we're still waiting to figure out exactly what the details of this lawsuit are going to be.
But this is yet another legal challenge that we're seeing coming out of the Trump campaign, as they are basically scrambling to try to figure out what their strategy is going to be as they are trying to hold Biden off from becoming the president-elect while they are waiting for those votes to come in in places like Arizona and Nevada as they are trying to figure out if they can still have any kind of a path to victory at this point.
TAPPER: All right. Kaitlan Collins, thanks so much.
So many things, Jeff Zeleny with the Biden campaign, covering the Biden campaign for us, so many things that we have covered when it comes to this president, and not normal behavior, not what we expect from a presidential candidate or a president himself. This idea of just trying to stop the counting in places that are advantageous for him, and keep it going in places where they need the votes is not how campaigns behave in general.
Is there any communication going on right now, Jeff, between the Trump campaign and the Biden campaign?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Jake, the only thing the Biden campaign has heard from the Trump campaign's point of view is the lawsuits. That is about the extent of it.
And for all specter of the Florida recount from some 20 years ago, that is indeed hanging over this, although it's different in most every way. One of the other ways it's different is there was no phone call last night. Of course, Al Gore called George W. Bush and then retracted his concession.
There have been no communications between Joe Biden and the president. But we certainly heard a different tone from Joe Biden today as he spoke in the building behind me here, the Chase Center, he didn't mention him by name but also his tone was so different from other things we have heard. There was no mocking, there was no dismissive of him.
And I'm told by that top Biden advisers have told their aides and staff and supporters to not use this moment to make fun of the president, to mock him, to go after him in any way. They are adamant on counting every vote, and that is their focus here.
So it is unclear at what point if they will ever speak. The Biden campaign is still hoping to have a victory celebration if they do indeed win these states, which they need to do. It could go either way.
So, Jake, usually these things are worked out in advance, the aides to both of the candidates have phone numbers, no word on if there's been any talk at all. One thing is clear, a Biden adviser said, we still have the number for the White House -- Jake.
TAPPER: Right, and both candidates trail behind 270, which is the magic number of electoral votes needed.
Kaitlan Collins, you have some more information?
COLLINS: Yeah, we just got this statement. We are now learning what this lawsuit that the Trump campaign is now filing in Georgia, this is brand new, about mail-in ballot, they sent out a release from Justin Clark, that's the deputy campaign manager at the Trump campaign, and they are talking about mail-in ballots being legally counted they have to be received by 7:00 p.m. on Election Day. They are claiming there were ballots received after that time frame.
Of course, there have been a lot of claims coming out of the Trump campaign. So, we're going to have to check with our reporters on the ground in Georgia about this, Jake. But this is another effort by the Trump campaign, basically they are saying that they want them to resolve this issue and pause counting votes while they do this.
So, this is another effort by the Trump campaign when it comes to Georgia, a place that they did not think they were going to have to worry about, but now we're seeing the president's lead there so substantially narrowed that the Trump campaign is obviously now worried about Georgia which, of course, is not a state they can afford to lose at this point as these votes are still being counted tonight.
But this lawsuit is clear. It is now going to be about ballots being mailed in, when they were received, and this is an effort that we have seen not only in Georgia but also in other states like Pennsylvania as the Trump campaign is trying to figure out what they're going to do here to try to keep the president in the White House.
TAPPER: All right. Kaitlan Collins, we'll wait for the evidence of malfeasance, as opposed to just taking the Trump campaign's word for it.
And one of the things that's going on here, the word flailing does come to mind, but earlier today, one of the president's offspring tweeted out a video that supposedly was of somebody burning a bag of ballots for Trump.
It wasn't real. It was bogus. It was upon further inspection a bag of sample ballots. It was just complete crap and yet there it is, one of the president's sons tweeting it out. The lies are -- having coming now for years, but I guess we shouldn't -- we shouldn't expect anything other than that.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: No, and maybe it is a coincidence, I think all three of us think not that as we are seeing the lead that the president has shrink in Georgia, poof, we have our inboxes a lawsuit from the Trump campaign because they claim that there are 53 late absentee ballots illegally added to a stack of absentee ballots.
As you said, let's wait for the proof. And the thing about a court of law because that's where they are trying to put this is they would require evidence to prove that this is the case.
And so -- what -- this is classic Donald Trump.
[19:40:03]
He did this from the beginning of his time as a private citizen in business. He is incredibly litigious. So, this is not something that is a surprise, but it is, you know, pretty -- pretty clear that they're doing this. If Donald Trump had a healthy lead in Georgia, this would not be happening.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That was 53 ballots, 53, not 53,000 or 5,300. It was 53? There are 50,000 votes roughly separating Joe Biden and Donald Trump in Georgia, and hundreds of thousands of ballots still uncounted. So we're talking about really big numbers in Georgia.
And this lawsuit, like you said, it's just muddying up the works in a state where they really kind of need to just slow things down. I do get the sense that a lot of these lawsuits are about maintaining a narrative. They want to buy themselves as much time where they're perceived as being as viable as possible in as many places as possible.
And they're buying time, particularly for Pennsylvania because they do, perhaps, think that's their best shot. But at the same time, inevitably, these votes are going to be counted and the outcome is going to be what it is, and no amount of delay is going to change what the outcome actually is, but you're seeing in this delay, this space of time where there's delay, the president and his children and his lawyers trying to put out all of this disinformation to confuse people about what's really going on.
TAPPER: Yeah, I mean, I think that that's part of it, I also think part of it is that whether or not they believe it, and they're that delusional, or they just are trying to undermine the integrity of the election. They do not want a President Biden to be able to claim that he won fair and square, even though there's no evidence to the contrary. And nobody has yet won.
We are awaiting those new vote totals out of Arizona and Georgia. Will they be game changers with Joe Biden on the brink of 270 electoral votes or will they not?
Stay tuned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:46:09]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: We are expecting to see some more votes counted in Arizona and Georgia. We're expecting two sets of results coming in tonight in Arizona over the course of the next several hours. Unclear exactly how many votes we'll be getting.
But, Gloria, do you anticipate any clarification on where things actually are in Arizona?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you know, we might. We'll get -- we'll get results from Maricopa County, and so we'll be able to see a big bunch of ballots.
COOPER: Not total results, though.
BORGER: No, not total results but if you look at Maricopa County, and I know the Biden campaign is kind of looking forward to getting those results, they can say, then, that they are head by a margin that you would not be able to beat given the remaining number of votes.
RICK SANTORUM, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Trump campaign is equally anxious.
BORGER: I know. I know they are.
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Let that be a clue. We'll see. Because their theory is that this late drop-off votes are going to skew Republican and if there's a large number of votes that are reported, even if they're not determinative, they will give you a sense of the direction.
COOPER: What's the evidence that these would be Republican leaning?
BORGER: Independent.
SANTORUM: Again, what I was talking here is not when -- it's not where they are, it's when they are.
COOPER: They came in late.
SANTORUM: And these came in late. They were almost like if you will, going to the polling place. You drop them off at the ballot box at the day of, which is sort of what the Trump people were all aiming for, trying to get something --
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: More Republican.
SANTORUM: More likely.
JONES: And you got a lot of people nervous now because, you know, Arizona has not been called by CNN. That is very scary to the lot of Democrats. People -- we're still, you know, stink bit from 2016, and so --
AXELROD: It's hard to get Democrats nervous.
SANTORUM: I can tell you --
JONES: I wonder why.
SANTORUM: Republicans are nervous about what's going on in Georgia right now.
BORGER: Right.
SANTORUM: These numbers, and you know, you're going to hear this from conservatives, you know, Georgia keeps coming up with ballots, you know, and that's one of the frustrating things in this type of election.
BORGER: It's called voting.
SANTORUM: I understand. But when you have these type of absentee ballots, things like that, you don't know exactly how many you have. And that's -- it sort of leaves that, you know, well, what are they doing, right, because, you know, they keep coming up with ballots.
The reality is, you're right, that's called voting. This is nothing unusual about this process. It does happen all the time. You don't know how many absentee ballots until, guess what, you get them and count them. That's when you find out.
COOPPER: They're filing lawsuits in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, not I notice in Arizona, at this point, because they want those votes, those unknown absentee ballots that are just dropped in, they want those ones.
JONES: It's almost kind of political.
COOPER: I mean, I don't know.
SANTORUM: How about that.
AXELROD: You guys are such cynical people.
BORGER: So here's the thing in Georgia, all right, Trump won by 211,000 votes last time. The lawsuit you were talking about, Anderson, there is somebody saying that 53 late absentee ballots were illegally added to a stack of on-time absentee ballots. And that --
COOPER: Fifty-three.
BORGER: Five three.
JONES: Fifty-three.
BORGER: So you're going to -- if this is what you're going to do, after a certain point, everybody wants a fair election.
SANTORUM: Someone lost by eight votes, and won by 30 votes, 53, in a close election, 53 may be the deal.
JONES: But 100,000 --
SANTORUM: Yeah, still.
BORGER: But what I'm saying is what they're really worried about is not those 53 ballots, they're worried about the fact that Trump won by over 211,000 in 2016 and that is not what they are seeing.
AXELROD: That is something that we should note. We're sitting here and we're saying there's great suspense about whether Trump or the Democrat will win Arizona and Georgia.
[19:50:08]
JONES: Wow.
AXELROD: Which would have been unthinkable not long ago.
SANTORUM: I'm not too sure that's true. We were sitting here before any of these results came in. The national polls saying, including CNN, saying he was going to lose by near double digits.
AXELROD: No, but I'm saying historically, Rick.
SANTORUM: No, I understand. AXELROD: Something happening in this country, there is a new coalition in these states between Georgia, largely African-American voters but not exclusively. Also, Asians and Hispanic voters and suburban voters.
In Arizona, Hispanic voters and suburban voters. There are new coalitions growing that are making these Sun Belt States much more competitive. So, whatever happens tonight, that is an interesting development in American politics.
BORGER: So, and it's not -- so it's really not about 53 votes. It's maybe by something that they can't control at this moment. Win or lose, it is these coalitions that are shifting on the Republican Party, whether it's demographically, or regionally.
COOPER: You talk about a coalition. Is there going to be a little soul searching in the Democratic Party when this is all settled, and whoever wins wins? Just looking at the house results, looking at what they were expecting.
JONES: Everything went great. What do you mean soul searching? Everything went great for us.
You mean the fact that we were supposed to take the Senate, didn't. Suppose to grow our majority in the House, lost a bunch of seats.
COOPER: Right, lost African American -- I mean, not total, obviously, there are overwhelming support. But President Trump was able to take up African-American males, African-American females.
SANTORUM: Again, someone who is universally condemn by the media as a racist and a bigot, right, against Hispanics and blacks. So, I mean, there is an issue here and it comes down, I think, to the biggest loser in the election is not Donald Trump, it's the far-left of the Democratic Party. They're the ones who got repudiated tonight, which is a blessing to Joe Biden.
(CROSSTALK)
SANTORUM: It's a complete blessing to Joe Biden because he now has every defense to say, well, you know what, you guys -- this message, I'd like to help you but I've got a deal with --
COOPER: I mean, talk about packing the court, that's gone.
SANTORUM: Packing the court is gone, D.C. statehood is gone. Ending the filibuster, not under Republicans.
And so, this is -- this is a great thing for the country, because we aren't going to have these kinds of institutionally jarring fights that may occur when --
(CROSSTALK)
JONES: It's a great thing if you like stability, it's a great thing. Who doesn't like stability? The problem --
SANTORUM: Think about our Constitution.
JONES: Listen, you get your turn. Listen, the problem that you have now is that you've got some problems that were not sure how we get them addressed.
It doesn't feel great if you're a Democrat. I just want to walk through a list of particulars here. It doesn't feel great if you're a Democrat to be up maybe 3 million votes, or 4 million votes from the presidency and you still don't know if you're going to have your chance to get your guy in the White House. It doesn't feel good. It doesn't mean you're going to change the Constitution.
But the other side has to start acknowledging, how many times can Republicans get this close while losing by millions of votes? People who want somebody to be the president of the United States. It doesn't feel that great.
I know that people don't want us to have D.C. be a state. Or Puerto Rico to be a state. But you also, you got Wyoming with 500,000 people and got two senators and California has got 30 million people and two senators. Some things are trying to starting to great on the rising majority and if we don't do something about it, it's going to blow out another way.
COOPER: So, tonight, will there be a resolution on Arizona? I mean, if there's two batches of votes --
AXELROD: I suppose it depends on the size. There are 600,000 votes out and the first batch they were talking about tonight I think was maybe 70,000. It will give you a very clear sign. And it may give the people who have higher pay grades than us here and elsewhere who make these calls on races a real clear sense of trends that could allow them to call.
It will certainly give us direction. I think if Nevada comes forward, we may get even clearer sense.
COOPER: We're watching the vote counting in Georgia as we await the results from that state, as well as from Arizona, of course. Will we be able to project winners in either of the battlegrounds? It is all ahead.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:58:44]
BLITZER: We are in 92 a very special election coverage and we're inching closer and closer to learning who wins the White House.
We've seen former Vice President Joe Biden lock up to critical wins in the last few hours, besting President Trump in both Michigan and Wisconsin. Now, we're awaiting potentially, significant results out of two of the six states that are still undecided. We expect new vote totals tonight in Arizona where Biden is leading, and then Georgia where the race has dramatically tightened.
This comes as Biden is close to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the contest, locking up 253 compared to 213 for Trump. The Trump campaign filing legal charges now in multiple states as the number seems to be working against the president.
But nothing is final, not yet, as votes are still being counted right now.
Let's get a key race alert.
And two of the battleground states in Arizona right now where there's 11 electoral votes, 82 percent of the estimated vote is now in, Biden is leading Trump by's 90 almost 93,000 votes 51 percent to 47.6 percent. That's Arizona.
In Georgia right now, where there are 16 electoral votes, the President Trump is leading Biden by almost 46,000 votes.
