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CNN Live Event/Special
Biden on Verge of Presidency; Biden Expands Lead in Georgia; New Votes from Pennsylvania Expected Any Minute; PA GOP Asks SCOTUS To Order Segregation Of Ballots Received After Election Day, State Officials Say They Are Already Doing It; Biden's Lead In GA Widens, Deadline For Military Ballots Passes. Aired 5-6p ET
Aired November 06, 2020 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[17:00:00]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Election Night in America continuous. Joe Biden on the cusp of becoming president elect Biden but he is on that cusp a while now.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: It sure has been a while, Anderson. He's leading Pennsylvania where we are expecting new numbers shortly from Allegheny County is growing but his margin in three other states is anywhere from close to incredibly tight, especially, especially, Anderson, right now Georgia.
COOPER: Yes. In this hour the latest on all the changing races with live updates in all the key states, plus the latest from both campaigns as the race gets closer to the finish line.
Up first. Where we stand big with the big picture. Phil Mattingly joins us for that. So, where are we?
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Waiting for votes. You may be familiar with this. We have done it a few times over the course of the last couple of days.
Look, let's topline things first as it currently stands. Joe Biden sitting at 253 electoral votes, needs either one state, Pennsylvania to come through for him or some combination of Nevada, Arizona. That would get him to 270. We also have Georgia as well where it is razor thin right now. But I do think everybody is paying attention to Pennsylvania and that is because we think, we think is possible at this hour we will get a decent chunk of vote.
What we have been waiting for is a lot of different counties outstanding. Most of them in Democratic strongholds, southeastern part of the states, still waiting for their absentee, their vote by mail, they start to come in. Sorry, not come in, the votes were cast, counted and actually released. That count is what we're looking for.
The big thing outstanding right now that we think may come this hour is and vote -- not come in. The votes were cast. Counted, and actually released, that count is what we are looking for. The big thing outstanding right now we think may come is Allegheny County. And we expect I think 35,000, 36,000 votes in Allegheny County. COOPER: Yes. 35,000.
MATTINGLY: 35,000 votes in Allegheny County is what we've been waiting for. And the expectation here based on everything we have seen kind of the trendlines over the course of the last 12 to 15 hours in the state of Pennsylvania is this margin, pay attention to this. In Allegheny County, home of Pittsburgh, Joe Biden 58.7 percent, 39.7 percent for Donald Trump. When we have seen mail-in ballots tabulated whether it's in Philadelphia or across we're even talking --
COOPER: I want to show - I just want to show we are putting up on the screen new numbers out of Georgia. Vice President Biden's lead has now grown to 4,263. The margin had been, a short time ago, about 1,585.
MATTINGLY: That is a big jump.
COOPER: That is a big jump.
MATTINGLY: That is a big jump. So, I don't know offhand right now, wait for a second, for our team to put it together in terms of where they came in. I think the one thing that we have been waiting for that I've been talking to you about over the course of the last couple of hours is waiting for Gwinnett County to come in.
COOPER: Right.
MATTINGLY: I don't know if that is the case and I'm not totally sure offhand if that is what it is right now but Gwinnett County was kind of the big outstanding vote in terms of absentee that had not been released yet, hadn't been tabulated and released yet. And so, that would be kind of the answer I would assume. I want to confirm, Anderson. Don't hold me to that right now.
COOPER: But he has gone up about 2,500 votes.
MATTINGLY: So, this is the interesting point here. We just confirmed it is Gwinnett so that was the big outstanding vote we were waiting for in Gwinnett and we've been talking the last couple of hours that when Gwinnett comes in, there's a very good chance that Joe Biden is going to pad his lead. Pad his lead because if you look at this margin, 58.4 to 40.2 percent and it was coming mail-in which is leaning even more heavily Democratic based on the trendlines that Joe Biden jumped up nearly 4,000 votes.
COOPER: Yes.
MATTINGLY: Let me say it 3,800 votes. So, what does that actually mean going forward? One, I'll say something that's pretty simple and not complicated here. 4,263 is a lot more than 1,000 - more than 1,500.
COOPER: And in a potential recount -
MATTINGLY: Yes.
COOPER: -- which is likely to happen in the state of Georgia, it is very unlikely, a recount - I mean there have been recounts before. It is rare that they have a significant vote differential.
MATTINGLY: That would be a catastrophic failure if they suddenly discovered 4,000 votes were wrong. But I think the other thing to is you're also going to trying to figure out what the landscape is for the military votes that are still to be tabulated. We also have provisional as well that will still be tabulated.
And so, everything if you're the Biden campaign who I would note has felt good about what was outstanding and what they expected to come in, everything you're seeing that adds to your vote total as you go in to maybe some uncertainty with where -- how the military ballots are going to break. May traditionally break Republican but we will see when they actually come in and count them and how the provisional are going to break. You're a lot happier going in with a 4,000-vote lead than you are with a 1,500-vote lead.
And I think the other thing we can draw from what just occurred with Gwinnett coming in is there's not a lot more vote left outstanding. There are a couple of thousand here or there throughout the state. But Gwinnett was the big outstanding vote. Gwinnett broke Biden just like we expected.
COOPER: The other kind of open question is exactly how many ballots from overseas might there be? Because the way they said it was that there could be as many as 8,410, the wording - the officials said was votes that could have been postmarked and received by today.
MATTINGLY: Yes. So, the universe is today is the deadline. And so, they didn't have, when the secretary of state was giving his briefing, or the election officials were giving their briefing is the entirety of the universe of what was coming in. I think what they said is they had a total that had been -- that could come in of 18,000.
[17:05:03]
They believe they had 10,000 that had already come in. They were waiting for 8,000 outstanding that could come in by the deadline today and they made clear it won't be the entire 8,410 and it won't be zero. It will be somewhere in between there. So, you're looking at the universe between 10,000 and 18,000.
COOPER: And the 10,000 that they've already had, do you know -- have they counted those? Do we know?
MATTINGLY: I don't believe they have counted them but don't quote me on that. So, I think the bigger issue now is obviously, one, what the total number is out of that group, but you assume it's somewhere between obviously 10 and 18,000 less than 18,000. But also, how are they going to break? How are they going to break? Because when the biggest batch of, if I have it correctly here the biggest batch was coming from Fulton County which is Democratic county but military ballots sometimes, they tend to go more Republican. So, we'll have to wait and see on that.
I think the kind of bringing it all together, the reality is right now, Joe Biden and the state that hasn't gone to Democrat since 1992 as they are almost done counting these votes is now up by 4,263 votes.
COOPER: Right.
MATTINGLY: It's almost certainly going ahead into recount and we just need to sense of the universe around.
COOPER: And if tonight was the deadline, the last for receiving those ballots from military, you would think that then by sometime tomorrow perhaps depending on speed and how tired they are, they may be able to get those results.
MATTINGLY: I am absolutely not going to guess when anything is counted or completed.
(LAUGHTER)
COOPER: Fair enough. Fair enough. But all of that, of course, hanging over all of that is that there is likely to be a recount in this state?
MATTINGLY: I don't think there's any question about that.
COOPER: Yes.
MATTINGLY: And I think the officials in both campaigns would tell you that. I think the election officials in Georgia would tell you that.
COOPER: Yes. I want to go to Arizona. Our Bill Weir who is standing by in Phoenix. Bill, what are you seeing?
BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, as the great Tom Petty once sang, "The Waiting is the Hardest Part." And that has been the theme song of the week. The machinery of Democracy continues to grind. I think we all agree though that right Trump's -- true Trump speed these days.
And here's the topline numbers. Joe Biden now less than 40,000 vote advantage in Arizona. We have seen that lead slowly chip away as the numbers came in from Maricopa, from Pinal County. There's about 142,000 votes left to count here in the biggest most populous state -- county in Arizona 220,000 votes for the entire state left to do. And so, they tell us that they can do about 70,000 or 80,000 tallies per announcement.
So, tonight, at 7:00 local time, 9:00 Eastern, we will get those latest numbers and we'll see if those margins, President Trump's numbers have been coming in higher than Joe Biden. A lot having to do with the absentee order that was mailed in. Democrats sent theirs in much earlier in a state where absentee -- automatic absentee has been a real thing in this state for a long time.
The question is how many of those late arriving absentee ballots that came in on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday before Election Day, how many of those are President Trump supporters? A lot of the folks in the parking lot out there think there is going to be a lot, but we should know tonight, Anderson, maybe in Arizona, maybe before Pennsylvania we will get some clarity out of this state. And of course, the A.P. And Fox News has already called. But being super careful because it is just so close.
COOPER: I just want to be clear. When you say those late arriving ballots, late arriving in the process but legal? They are allowed to arrive.
WEIR: Legal, of course.
COOPER: Allowed to arrive late.
WEIR: Exactly. Exactly. Either they were dropped off in person on Election Day but when the ballots went out, you know, weeks ago, a lot of folks got them in the mail early on and which is the trend around the country a lot of those folks are Democrats.
COOPER: It is so fascinating to see that, you know, just -- we have been watching this now, this drip, drip of them counting the ballots and we have seen Joe Biden's lead drop gradually in the state of Arizona. Now you said it's less than 40,000 vote lead but some 220,000 votes left still to count in the state. A lot to watch. Bill Weir, we appreciate you being there for us. We'll continue to check back in with you.
I want to go now to Sara Sidner. She is covering the voting in Nevada. She joins us now from Las Vegas. Sara, what are you hearing?
SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, there are still 63,000 ballots that need to be counted. We heard that earlier from the registrar. But this line has been forming for a while now. It's getting longer and longer. What you're seeing in this line are people who have to cure their votes. In other words, people who have to in this case, show their I.D.'s.
And I've talked to a couple of these folks. I'm going to bring you back down here because one of these folks has graciously agreed to talk. They've been in line for a bit here. But I can tell you that all of these people here want to make sure that their vote is counted and they have been called here because they need to for some reason cure their vote.
Let me talk to this young lady here. My name is Sara. I'm from CNN. What is your name?
CHRISTINE PORTLY, VOTER (ph): Hi! Christine Portly (ph).
[17:10:00]
SIDNER: Christine (ph) what are you doing in line? Why are you here?
PORTLY (ph): Correct identification. They just need to do - to make sure I am. And I have three identification, passport, registration and I.D.
SIDNER: OK. We don't want to show your address. So, you've shown - you have to show them you two forms of identification. And then something that shows that you live here, right?
PORTLY (ph): That is correct.
SIDNER: Did you just move?
PORTLY (ph): I did. I'm from texas. Yes, I am.
SIDNER: So, how did you find out that you needed to show up here to make sure your vote is counted?
PORTLY (ph): They called. They called and had a well check at my home. Yes, they did.
SIDNER: And what did they tell you? Did they tell you why you need to show up or did they say, look, you need to come here and we need to make sure --
PORTLY (ph): They wanted to know if my I.D. was correct and who my I.D. say that it was and it's me, Christine Portly.
SIDNER: And Christine, are you willing to tell us who you're voting for?
PORTLY (ph): Joe Biden.
SIDNER: And what do you think so far? Right now, he is up in this state by I think about 20,000 votes. What do you think about the process so far? There are folks who are questioning the process. What do you think about it?
PORTLY (ph): He is a God and true honest man and I believe in him and I'm backing him in the name of Jesus.
SIDNER: Do you have any reason to doubt that your vote or anybody's vote won't be counted that should be counted?
PORTLY (ph): This is why we here today to make sure the right thing is being done and they are doing the right thing.
SIDNER: Thank you very much. I appreciate your time.
PORTLY (ph): And thank you for being here.
SIDNER: So, you heard there she is here to show her I.D. And I can tell you that anyone who had gotten the same call that she did and was contacted, telling them that they needed to bring an I.D. or cure their vote they have to do that by 5:00 p.m. today. That is the deadline.
Folks have been standing in line for a while here. We did speak to one brand-new first-time voter and she told me she simply could not wait any more. She wants to keep her job. She had to go to her job. She'd been in line about half an hour. So, she left. And she left with you know quite sad because her vote won't be counted because she simply just could not wait in line any more. This line is moving fairly slowly.
COOPER: And Sara, I just want to make sure people know, in some states, this whole idea of curing a ballot, it's not in provisions for some states. This is legal in the state of Nevada? This is a common practice?
SIDNER: That's right. There are some counties that you have to show I.D. or if they think there is something wrong with the ballot, they want to try to make sure, for example, a signature is correct or they are confused about something they don't like, something that they see on the ballot then they will call you and say, hey, you need to come and cure this. But the I.D. is important, obviously, here in this state.
It's not in every state you have to show an I.D. when you go to vote but one of the voters down here voted in person and they still called him saying I need to go ahead and check your I.D. again. And so, he is standing in line down a little bit further.
All of the people that are in line here, by the way, Anderson are all saying they are going to try to stick it out as long as they can to make sure that their vote is counted. So far as I mentioned earlier, there are about 63,000 mail votes that still need to be counted that are in the hands of those who are counting ballots. We should hear what happened to those and who those went to ostensibly by the end of the weekend. That is what the registrar here had told us earlier today.
COOPER: I think it's so important that you're there showing this. I mean it's just so interesting to see and you know the dedication of so many citizens coming out, Republicans and Democrats, who want to make sure that their vote does count. It's also very important because just showing those I.D.'s is interesting. We have heard Lindsey Graham earlier, I believe he was on Fox, maybe it was last night, basically saying he doesn't trust in Nevada, that he made the allegation that undocumented immigrants were voting in the state of Nevada. You're saying that people have to show an I.D.?
SIDNER: Absolutely. I mean they are very strict. That's why all of these people - I mean, look at this line. I mean, you know all of these people in this line have to show an I.D. and the law says that by 5:00, that needs to be done. And so, they are here. They are willing to wait. They are willing to show their I.D. and you know that is part of the process here. It doesn't mean that there could be something that slips through.
But they are being extremely careful. And you know we should also mention those who are counting the ballots who took a pledge to do their job and do it legally. We should also mention you know the hard work that they have been doing over many days now, but these folks are committed but they do have to show I.D. for sure and that is what they are here doing.
COOPER: Sara Sidner, I'm glad you're there to show us as well. Thanks very much.
Let's go back to Erin.
BURNETT: Yes. I mean those images are so powerful. Just so, people really understand. I mean, what all this is giving us is this unprecedented view into this country and how this system works and how, you know, dedicated people are, as voters, as people counting the ballots, to get this right.
[17:15:00]
All right. Well, more now on the candidates here. We are coming into the evening hours, still awaiting a call which way the race goes. And Phil Mattingly is reporting that Joe Biden's margin is growing in Georgia. When you look at those numbers in Georgia. We did obviously just see a significant increase if you're literally just tuning in.
That went from a margin of 1,585 to now 4,463 favor Joe Biden. That was a big jump there in Georgia. I want to find out what President Trump and Vice President Biden are going to be doing over these next few hours.
Jim Acosta is talking to his sources at the White House. Arlette Saenz in Wilmington with the Biden campaign.
So, Jim, let me start with you. What are you hearing President Trump is going to be doing here these next few hours?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are waiting to see. We're waiting to see if president is going to be making some remarks. He may want to get ahead of Joe Biden before he makes those comments later on this evening.
I can tell you right now the president has been in the Oval Office huddling with advisers throughout the day and I'm being told that the scene behind the scenes is one of chaos, that the president and his advisers are scrambling to find a way to mount some sort of credible claim that there has been some viable, you know, allegation of voter fraud that they can put forward. And at this point, I'm told by an adviser that is just not happening.
This adviser was telling me just a short while ago that, quote, "People are enabling the president behind the scenes." And I asked this adviser you know who is doing this? And this adviser said the president's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani is one of several aides and relatives close to the president who are simply enabling him right now as he refuses to deal with the reality that the White House is slipping away from him.
I will also tell you that this adviser is telling me that they believe that some believe inside the Trump campaign that Georgia is just gone. And there is no credible path to the presidency without Georgia. You can't put together the number of electoral votes the president needs without Georgia at this point and that is because of Pennsylvania. They see those votes going to Joe Biden in Pennsylvania and in the words of this adviser I spoke with a short time ago, Pennsylvania is, quote, "The fat lady singing for President Trump."
That Pennsylvania once it gets called means that it is over for President Trump. He will no longer be the president of the United States come January. But I will tell you, they are having a - it is just a devil of a time behind the scenes trying to convince the president that he has to deal with the reality that this is slipping away from him and this adviser describes to me, it is a scene of chaos right now. Erin?
BURNETT: It is. The votes dripping in and dripping in. Georgia now a little bit tick for the president was able to narrow that a little bit. 4,234 from 4,467. This is where we are here. Vote by vote by vote dripping in. Arlette Saenz is in Wilmington as I said with the Biden campaign.
So, Arlette, as you hear Jim's reporting, the president's mindset, the chaos around him. What is Joe Biden thinking about tonight and what is his evening look like as we all sit here and watch these tallies change vote-by-vote?
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin, Joe Biden and his campaign are just as closely watching these results as they are hoping that one of these states will help put them to that magic number of 270 electoral votes. But really right now it's just a waiting game and a patience game. That is something that the campaign has been stressing for several days now and that's something they have to keep adhering to.
And as the sun is setting here in Wilmington, Delaware, there is still some staff milling about here at the chase center preparing the site for potential remarks this evening. Earlier in the day, the Biden campaign said that the former vice president and his running mate Kamala Harris were expected to deliver remarks in primetime.
But as that primetime hour quickly approaches, the question is whether Joe Biden still will deliver remarks even if this race has not yet been called in his favor. Now, Biden has spent the day at home here in Wilmington, Delaware, with his family and advisers watching these results come in and the last time we heard and saw from Joe Biden was a little over 24 hours ago.
A moment where he urged patience and calm as these votes continued to be counted. You know over the course of the day, the Biden campaign has seen some signs of hope as they have seen their leads expand in some of these states like Georgia and Pennsylvania, right next door to here in Delaware where he is. But right now, they are still patiently waiting to see whether there will be a call in this race and whether it will be in his favor.
BURNETT: All right. Arlette, thank you very much.
And just ahead, we are awaiting another new batch of results, new batch of results that have one county in Pennsylvania. This is a crucial county. Tens of thousands of ballots are outstanding.
[17:20:00] And, obviously, all eyes on Pennsylvania. So, this is a crucial batch about to come. The state race that is changing by the moment as our special live coverage of this election continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: All right. We are waiting for word from Western Pennsylvania with what we will believe will be an update on the counting there in crucial Allegheny County, Pittsburgh. We are joined by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro. And attorney general, OK, good to talk to you again.
So, we are expecting to hear more from Allegheny County tonight and there's a lot of ballots outstanding there. We understand about 35,000. Do you anticipate that we will know more about the vote count in Allegheny County soon?
[17:25:00]
JOSH SHAPIRO, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF PENNSYLVANIA: I think you'll know some more soon. And look, the good folks in Allegheny County are working around the clock. I do think it's important to point out, Erin, because I know that there was some noise surrounding why they hadn't started counting or there was a delay.
They are following the law in Allegheny County. There was a court order which indicated that they couldn't start processing and counting these ballots until today. So, I know they are working hard. They are moving as quickly as they can. They will get the results out soon.
BURNETT: And you know, look, I have to ask you how soon? People are just -- we want to get them counted and counted correctly but is this hours and hours or do you think that they are imminently ready to let us know how that went?
SHAPIRO: Look I think it will take some time. I was just stopped by a teacher from Pennfield Middle School here in Montgomery County said if you ever get the chance to talk to John King, ask him what is going to happen. So, I know everybody is on edge. I know everybody wants to know. What I can tell you is here in Pennsylvania we are working carefully and diligently and following the law and it takes some time and we want to make sure we have accurate and legal count.
BURNETT: OK. So, I want to ask you. When we talk about the law here. Your Pennsylvania house speaker Republican Bryan Cutler, he says he believes there is about 100,000 provisional ballots, right, which could come from any number of situations including someone had a mail- in or decided to vote in person. There are all kinds of ways you can get those. He believes that number is up to 100,000. I know here at CNN we have it least at 69,000 so that is reasonable. Is it reasonable to you? And then he says there should be no results from Pennsylvania until everyone of those ballots has been finalized in terms of its status. Do you agree?
SHAPIRO: OK. First off, there won't be results from Pennsylvania until those ballots are counted. BURNETT: OK.
SHAPIRO: What you as a network choose to do in terms of declaring something is, obviously, up to you. In terms of the number, you indicated CNN is reporting 69,000, Speaker Cutler said 100,000. I don't know what the number is. The person who knows is the secretary of state.
Here is what I know historically about provisional ballots. Again, historically. I have no knowledge about these ballots. But historically, provisional ballots tend to track the overall vote because these are ballots that are sort of random throughout the state based on someone who arrived who had a need took out a provisional ballot and logic dictates that they would tend to follow the vote of that region or that state.
BURNETT: OK. So, now, another group of ballots. The ballots of course which were postmarked by Election Day but received after, which of course by your law now can be counted, being challenged in court. And, therefore, segregated. So, lawyers for Pennsylvania Republicans are now asking the Supreme Court, attorney general, to order your state to, quote, log, to segregate and otherwise not take any action on those ballots.
Now, I was under the impression, we keep seeing the shrink wrap and everything that is what you were doing number one. Is that the case you're doing that with all of those ballots, and do you think there's any scenario under which they become significant to the outcome?
SHAPIRO: OK. Great question. So, let's back up on these ballots. These are ballots that were legally cast by Election Day, put in the mail and received up until, you know, I guess about 28 minutes ago in Pennsylvania. OK? So that the ballots that we are talking about.
Then the question is what does segregate mean? So, essentially the directive from the secretary of state said we are going to basically take these ballots and separate them, put them aside and then count them. And that was the directive that came from the secretary of state.
On two separate occasions, Republicans have asked the Supreme Court of the United States to essentially overturn a state Supreme Court ruling that said those ballots should count. On two separate occasions, the United States Supreme Court refused to intervene in that case.
Now what has happened? I believe it's technical the Trump campaign although an arm of the Trump campaign has asked to intervene in the United States Supreme Court in order to be heard on this question. And I believe that briefs are due in that case in about two weeks or so, give or take. And so, that is the status.
I know there was a lot of noise made by the Trump campaign that we are taking this to the Supreme Court. You're talking about, to answer the other part of your question, you're talking about, you know, roughly the secretary of state can give you the exact answer, you know, several thousand ballots. Not tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands based on the estimates that were coming in from the various counties that received ballots on Wednesday and Thursday. I hadn't gotten an updated count today on Friday, but they were relatively small number.
[17:30:00]
Why Erin, because voters in Pennsylvania heard elected officials, heard leaders and heard candidates say, look, if you're approaching Election Day and you had the ballot in your hand, go drop it off at a drop box and make sure that your ballot is counted. It seems like the vast, vast majority of voters who were in that position instead of putting their ballot in the mail ended up dropping off to the drop box so that their ballot could be counted.
BURNETT: It was pretty amazing, right? You send out 3.1 million ballots, and you only have a few thousand in this scenario, vast majority would certainly be an accurate characterization there. All right, Attorney General Shapiro -- go ahead.
SHAPIRO: And again, I just want to clarify, the Secretary of State will speak to the total number of ballots. You asked me a general question --
BURNETT: Right.
SHAPIRO: -- about the numbers. And so I just want to try and give you a general answer to that.
BURNETT: Right. No, no, I understand that. I understand that as we're trying to get those numbers, we have about 4,000. But we'll see how it actually pans out. They could come as you say, up until 29 or 30 minutes ago.
All right, thank you so much, Attorney General Shapiro. Anderson there with the very latest on Philadelphia and Pennsylvania and the legal challenges and where we really stand.
COOPER: Yes. Erin, thanks very much, it was great interview. I'm just told that there's going to be a press conference in Allegheny County that is going to be -- it was moved to 6:30 p.m. So obviously, we'll be monitoring that as well. But let's look at Pennsylvania here.
He was saying, he wasn't sure about the total number of segregated ballots. The number we had, I think was about 3,000. Kate Bolduan earlier had reported, there about 1,000 segregated ballots in Philadelphia where she was and then the others would be elsewhere.
MATTINGLY: Look, I think for all the legal atmospherics or battles that have been kind of playing out on this specific issue. This doesn't seem to be an issue that would have too big of an effect. I think the bigger issue which the Attorney General was talking about was provisional ballots. And I think people have been trying to figure out the universe of provisional ballots that are outstanding.
I think Erin was saying that we have at about 69,000, people have estimated about 100,000. I think the Attorney General made a point that I've heard about provisional, as we -- and to be clear, we're still waiting for more vote by mail to come in you were talking about Allegheny County, is that the provisional will largely track kind of the universe of voters depending on where they are, you know, younger voters who move around a lot, might go provisional, they might lead Democrat.
So I think what I'm trying to say is with the 100,000 provisional ballots totally shake up the race, the Attorney General says that it would more or less track with how the voting has been throughout the course of things, but --
COOPER: Well, let me just ask, in provisional ballots, is it I know, it's often people who they don't have an I.D. or something where they need the I.D. check.
MATTINGLY: Yes, polling place, they move --
COOPER: -- seem straight. Does that also include mail-in ballots or that there's a problem with a signature or there's a question about it? Would that be considered a provisional ballot?
MATTINGLY: It's a good question. I don't know specific --
COOPER: Yes. OK. Obviously, because that is if its mail-in ballots that might include a higher percentage of Democratic voters.
MATTINGLY: Yes.
COOPER: If it's voting on the day, it might be a higher percentage of Republican voters.
MATTINGLY: Yes. I mean, I think there's a theory out there that it would lean more Republican. I think, to be -- in this, I think is an important point. We don't know. We don't know the universe of it right now. And I think provisional traditionally track where the state's actually voting. So we'll see how it plays out. I have been talking to a lot of people on the ground that think it is going to sway things one way or another, despite the size. I think the bigger question right now, as we look at Joe Biden right now with a 14,536 vote lead is we know that there are counties that are traditional Democratic strongholds that still need to report their vote by mail from Philadelphia on out into the collar counties, obviously Allegheny County as well.
One, when do they report? Two, does President Trump in any way, shape or form eat in to the margins that Joe Biden has been putting up whether it's 80 to 85 percent in Philadelphia, moving on to 77 percent in Allegheny? If that keeps up, it's not a matter it's win. But we don't know yet because of all of that's outstanding currently, as we wait for the count, and we wait for the reporting.
COOPER: Yes, right now Joe Biden's lead is 14,536. Again, there's going to be a press conference in Allegheny County. The reporting that we had from Brian Todd earlier was that there are some 35,000 votes there. In fact, Brian Todd has an update in Allegheny County. Let's go to Brian Todd. Brian? BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Anderson. Well, there's been another kind of frustrating delay here in Allegheny County, we were promised that we might get results by about 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time, the first results that would have been posted since about the 8 o'clock p.m. hour last night. We're not getting them now for at least probably another hour. You know, this, it takes them a while to process these votes. So about 3,200 votes that they've already processed were damaged. So those take some time.
So what we're going to get in about an hour's time, we were told now is roughly 3,200 votes that were damaged that they had to go through and count. In addition, we're going to get about 3,800 plus votes from military members and overseas voters. And only at that time, Anderson, will they then start the count for those 29,000 segregated ballots. That count, excuse me was supposed to start at about 5 o'clock. So this is, the headline here is, Anderson, it is a slower grind than we even were experiencing before and frustrating to people here who want the results, frustrating to us who are covering this.
But again, they're saying they've got to do this right, they've got to go through these in a pain staking way. They've been here all day, today and yesterday and earlier in the week they say they're going to work through the night. We don't know what that means as far as, you know, how late they're going to stay, whether it's going to be into the overnight hours, but they promise us that that will, that will be the case.
[17:35:15]
Now, what they did say is that those 29,000 segregated ballots could take a couple of days to count. Now, that's a pretty big chunk of the vote here in Allegheny County still outstanding. So, you know, the question is, you know, when of those going to come in? Are those going to boost Joe Biden's margins even more? We expect they probably will. But we don't know to what extent.
But again, the slow, kind of frustrating grind of this vote and vote count is continuing here in Allegheny County, kind of cavernous around here right now. But we say -- we are told that they are going to be at this most of the night, Anderson.
COOPER: So let me just clarify here. You said that there are some ballots that had been damaged, have a crease in them, whatever, a tear or something like that. That's -- they have been counted. I think you said it was what 3.700?
TODD: About 3,200 of those maybe a little more?
COOPER: 3,200, OK.
TODD: Yes.
COOPER: And it was 38 --
TODD: And those are the ballots that were damaged. Correct. COOPER: And it was more than 3,800 military ballots and overseas ballots that had been received have been counted as well, that's correct?
TODD: Correct. So that, you know, between the two of them, when you've got 7,000, close to 7,000 votes that we should get results from in about an hour. But when you think of 35,000 plus outstanding votes in Allegheny County, it's a relatively small percentage. But look, it's a chunk of it. We're waiting for it. It's going to maybe tell the broader story of how Joe Biden and Donald Trump fare in this county.
COOPER: And just one thing I noticed that you said 29,000 segregated ballots have yet to be counted. And that may take some time, are those the same, because we had just been under the impression that in -- like in Philadelphia, there's an estimated 1,000 segregated ballots, why are there so many segregated ballots in Allegheny County?
TODD: These were ballots, Anderson, that had been mailed to voters weeks ago, that had the wrong information on them. They had made their mistakes printed on them. They caught that by court order, they were ordered to remail the ballots that had the correct information. And so voters were encouraged to fill in those ballots and send them back. So that's why they're -- I mean, I don't know why there are so many of those.
COOPER: So this is a different --
TODD: But that's --
COOPER: Got it. This is a different batch --
TODD: Sorry, go ahead.
COOPER: Phil, correct me if I'm wrong, this is a different batch that are segregated ballots of --
MATTINGLY: Of the Supreme Court, the fight that has gone, the legal battle that's happened --
COOPER: Right. Yes.
MATTINGLY: Yes, yes.
COOPER: OK.
MATTINGLY: This is a different batch. This is a --
COOPER: -- he's calling them segregated ballots, but they're actually -- these are ballots that was sent out in I guess, from Allegheny County that had their -- had a mistake on them.
MATTINGLY: Yes. Just with Brian's reporting that they had the basically what they had sent had mistakes or a mistake on them, and they recognized it and had to send out new ballots. And now they're waiting, and they will be counting those. And so that is something because of how the process work, they could not start counting those until I believe after 5 or 5:30 p.m. Brian, I know the better answer to that. Could not start counting those --
COOPER: Right.
MATTINGLY: But they are not a part of the legal, the other segregation.
COOPER: Right.
MATTINGLY: It's good times.
COOPER: It's confusing, but we got it. So that's Brian, that's 35,000 votes, which have been cast, which have not yet, some 29,000 of them have not been counted. The others have been counted. We're just waiting for those results to be released. And we believe that'll be at 6:30. Appreciate the update, Brian Todd.
TODD: That's right.
COOPER: Yes. Go ahead, Brian.
TODD: Yes. That's right. Yes, and you're looking at close to what 7,000 votes, we think roughly, that are going to come in at about 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time. And only then will they start to count those 29,000 other ballots that were segregated, where they had those mistakes on the ballots.
The counting of those may take a couple of days. So again, it's a grind and we're getting little increments of votes.
COOPER: Right.
TODD: And small results starting in about an hour.
COOPER: Yes, 36,000 vote total from that. Brian Todd, appreciate it. We'll continue to check back in with you. Let's go back to Erin.
BURNETT: All right, and try to get to more discussion on exactly what all these means. So you're going to get a fifth of the votes from Allegheny County, we believe in the next hour but then 29,000 more to count these ones that are segregated, but I want to be clear, they're segregated that fall in the category of mailed by Election Day, but received after that is a different group of votes that we are talking about and other terminology can be confusing, but I think they just laid all that out for us.
Ben Ginsberg is with us longtime Republican election lawyer, who also represented George W. Bush in the Florida recount of 2,000 and the Vice Dean of USC law school Franita Tolson. Franita, let me just start with you with the situation here in Allegheny County because this is a crucial chunk of votes, 35,000 votes, we believe, we are going to get about a fifth of them, about 7,000 over the next -- in the next hour, but that leaves 29,000 to review according to Brian Todd's reporting.
[17:40:09]
They are set aside by court order. They can't start counting them until 6:30 tonight. We're told this could take a few days. Is this normal Franita?
FRANITA TOLSON, CNN ELECTION LAW ANALYST: This is all normal. I know that we are in the middle of election. I know things are very polarized, it's contentious. But I can't emphasize enough that the process is unfolding. Even if we get to the point where there are recounts, that is still normal, right?
State law will provide for recount. So the idea that they can't start counting until later this evening and then that count might take more time, that's still a part of the process and is still normal. There's nothing abnormal about this.
BURNETT: So Ben, let me ask you about the provisional vote situation, right, because, you know, we had this range that we sort of counted, there could be up to 69,000 of them. The Republican Speaker of the House in Pennsylvania says up to 100. So there's a large number of them, certainly these would be the margin that we have by any situation. There's a large number of provisional ballots. Provisional ballots can come from a lot of different scenarios, including you get a mail-in ballot, but you go cast in person, you don't have I.D. you aren't able to surrender the mail ballot when you do that, you have to cast a provisional. That's just one of many situations under which you would file one.
But you just heard the Attorney General of Pennsylvania tell me that he believes that those provisional ballots will track what we see in the vote that we have in the state thus far. Therefore, it would not alter the result, they are going to wait to count every single one of them before they certify. But that could take quite some time.
From all of your experience, do you believe that will be the case that those provisional will split in much the same way as the popular vote in your state -- in the state of Pennsylvania already has?
BEN GINSBERG, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: That is generally what happens. But it's also true that usually provisional ballots are cast by new voters to the system. So there are some lack of familiarity problems with the votes. Now, so the answer to the question is going to depend on the demographic changes in Allegheny County, I think, and who the new voters are. But it is generally true that those provisional will track the overall results of the county.
BURNETT: You're looking, Franita, just to emphasize the point here at a number of provisional, which greatly exceeds the current margin of victory in the state, that margin is changing, and it's going to continue changing because ballots are coming in. But what I'm getting at obviously is, is this a process that ends up taking longer because of those provisional ballots?
TOLSON: Oh, absolutely. It could. You know what provisional ballots -- voters get a chance -- opportunity to come in with whatever documentation they need in order for their vote to count. And so that could extend the process. And it also could extend the time in which it takes to get a firm understanding of who's won the state of Pennsylvania. So yes, it could draw it out but there's deadlines here. So Pennsylvania has a certification deadline. And so we'll -- I mean, we'll know even if we don't know today, we will know. But yes, the amount of provisional ballots and also in light of the margin between the candidates could extend this process out.
BURNETT: It could extend it out. Ben, we have a process extending out. You have the Trump campaign eyeing recounts in Wisconsin, eyeing a recount in Georgia, which state officials have seemed to indicate that they think is very likely. And yet you have an electoral college that is scheduled to meet for its vote by law on December 14th, can all these recounts, can all of this be adjudicated by then?
GINSBERG: Well, they certainly can be if the states follow the processes well. But it's a challenge because remember that recount laws and individual states really are run mostly for local races, for legislative races. Occasionally, you get a statewide. And what we found in Florida in 2000 is that the Florida election laws have never been stress tested for a high scrutiny statewide presidential recount.
And so states do face particular challenges. That'll really be true in Georgia that we'll be dealing with the two runoff elections at the same time.
BURNETT: Yes. All eyes will be on Georgia, as they are now but Pennsylvania as well and of course, Nevada and Arizona. Ben and Franita, thank you both very much.
[17:44:17]
And just ahead, a new big batch of military votes added to the mix in Georgia. So we're going to tell you what we see explain what it means for Joe Biden's current narrow lead in that state when our special live coverage continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: I was trying to fill before about absentee military ballots just before the break. The assumption is that they tend to skew Republican. The question is does that premise still hold true giving changing demographics specifically we're looking at the state of Georgia. CNN's Brianna Keilar has been looking into that for us. So Brianna the deadline in Georgia to receive absentee ballots from service members or Americans living overseas that just passed, they were due by 5:30 today, what do we know about these votes?
BRIANNA KEILAR, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: So what we know Anderson is that Georgia so far and this is according to the Secretary of State's Office in Georgia had received and counted 18,008 overseas ballots. So that's going to be military members. That's going to be their family members, like their spouses, and that's going to be other Americans who are overseas.
[17:50:14]
Georgia said they still had 8,410 outstanding. So those are ones that have been requested absentee ballots sent out to people who requested them. They haven't been received back. The question is, and so we're still awaiting the count. What did they get in as of 20 minutes ago? We don't know that right now. But the question is, is this going to make a difference?
A couple of points there, one, 8,410 ballots, they're not going to get all of those back. Some of those are ballots, and this is very usual that have been requested but ultimately, we're never cast. And then there's the other question about, well, how do active duty military members and their families align politically?
And one of the things we keep hearing from advocates is don't assume that they will vote monolithically. In fact, there's actually data, recent data, polling data from "Military Times", that suggests there has been support for Donald Trump that has eroded since 2016. And there's actually a trend towards Joe Biden, when it comes to what active duty military members are, how they're going to be cast in, how they have cast their ballots, I should say.
You have to keep in mind that these are folks who have been in the mix, post 9/11. They are bearing the brunt of war. They are the ones who have had to deploy over and over. They are younger. They are at least, you know, some of them when you look at the average. They're reflecting some of that younger social awareness in the country as well. So they can't be seen as reliably Republican as they were more so in 2000.
Brianna Keilar, really appreciate it. Thanks very much. Erin, let's go back to you.
BURNETT: All right. So look, here's the big question. What is all of this going to mean? Scott Jennings, when you look at this, you know, Brianna making an interesting point, right? People may make an assumption about a group of ballots and how they're going to go. And I think one thing we've learned is that you can always make these assumptions. And that's the case.
But nonetheless, that chunk of ballots and we don't know how many were actually sent in, which is really important, right, 8,400, it could be 2,000, it could be 8, it could -- we have no idea. But I mean, that is greater than our margin here. So this is every vote is so crucial in Georgia and everywhere. But certainly, Scott, these votes matter.
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, no doubt. And they should all be counted, by the way, and both campaigns should want them counted. That "Military Times" poll she referenced, it broke 52-42, Trump to Biden, so pro-Trump, but, you know, that's a pretty close margin. Also, not everybody who lives overseas is in the military. You do have some diplomatic people. You have other people who are not part of the government at all. And they probably split out a little different politically.
But I think we ought to count every single one of these, these military folks are overseas. They're defending America. They deserve to have their votes counted. So I'm glad those ballots are coming in.
BURNETT: And this is, Karen, going to be the case of every single one of these states, as we start looking at numbers that many people are not even familiar with, right, when you're talking about segregated ballots and provisional ballots, and overseas, and all of these other different acronyms that are used for that, there's still a lot left to count.
KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, absolutely. And as we've been all been saying, we've got to make sure that every single vote is counted. And people, you know, think of the people who waited in line to cast their ballots, we were, you know, we saw our colleague out in Nevada for people who were had returned to make to -- for the curing of their ballots.
So we want to make sure every vote is counted. But there does become a point at which when we get into a certain margin, and we have an understanding of how many ballots are left out there to count and where those ballots come from, and where the margins look like that we'll get a better picture about I mean, an increased picture, I guess I should say --
BURNETT: Yes.
FINNEY: -- of where we are, no question. And look, we're all, you know, for a lot of Americans, they're learning in real time about some of these acronyms that you mentioned. And the good news is, this is our democracy working.
BURNETT: Yes. And, you know, Scott, one thing I also want to make a point about is, you know, there are some when, you know, Lindsey Graham throwing out, you know, people who are here illegally voting in Nevada, you know, they have to use I.D. there. You know, our Sara Sidner was showing I thought just a powerful thing. People showing up, right, with their I.D. to care their ballot waiting hours, right, to prove that I am who I say I am, and this is who I voted for.
You know, this system, what we're seeing is that there's so many layers of checks and balances, that I think, Scott, should give people a lot of calm and confidence. It is amazing what we're seeing across this country, ballot cams in Allegheny County, people lining up with their driver's licenses in Las Vegas. This is incredible.
JENNINGS: Yes, some people have argued over the years that we should have a more federalized or central electoral system. I think we're learning why that would be a terrible idea, our diffused electoral system, where you have state and local officials all over the country, doing their work and doing the public service they were elected or appointed to do, keeps any one person, even a president, from wielding any too much significant power in the election system.
[17:55:07]
So the diffusion of power in our elections protects every ballot. It protects all of us. It protects the integrity of democracy. It's working the way it's supposed to work. We'll count all the ballots. All the claims will be adjudicated. And we'll have an outcome. And everybody should celebrate that and accept the results no matter who you voted for.
BURNETT: All right, thank you both very much. And thanks to all of you, our special coverage with Wolf Blitzer and Jake Tapper continues after this break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
