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Georgia Senate Election Night Coverage Continued; Too Early To Call Georgia Senate Runoff Races. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired January 05, 2021 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:00]
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Tell us what you're learning.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jake, earlier we reported that President Trump and Vice President Pence had a lunch today. It doesn't appear they actually had lunch during this meeting between the two of them, where we are now being told that basically the Vice President went through step by step with President Trump what it is that he can do on Capitol Hill tomorrow as Congress is meeting to certify Joe Biden's win.
And in essence, he told the President that part of that is not going to be an ability to block the certification of Joe Biden's win, basically this lowering of expectations of what the President can expect, someone who has been incredibly loyal to him over the last several years, but whom the President has been criticizing, over the last several days, what he can expect, when Pence does go up to the Hill tomorrow.
Now this is a meeting that they had today, the Vice President just left the White House a few moments ago, so that means they are not going to be watching these returns here in Georgia come in, that's pretty unusual given they typically try to watch them together.
But, of course, things have gotten incredibly tense between these two in Donald Trump's final days in office, which is, you know, not a typical relationship between the President and Vice President and what they've had over the last four years, Jake, because they've tried to navigate what's going on.
And now this is this ultimate test that the President is putting Pence in and he wants him to go up there and cause this disruption. And even though he has been convinced by some outside advisers, some internal advisers that Pence does have a bigger role than he does tomorrow, Pence told the President that is not going to be something he has been able to do, because he did meet with the Senate parliamentarian earlier this week for several hours going over exactly what his role is going to look like.
And he told the President that does not involve not being able to certify Biden's win as the President would like him to do.
TAPPER: All right, Kaitlan Collins, great reporting. Thanks so much. And this is another example of the crazy because if a Vice President
could just on his own decide that they're not going to accept certain states, I mean, then why didn't Joe Biden do that four years ago against Donald Trump? Why didn't Al Gore do it? Or Richard Nixon? Or Walter Mondale?
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Because it's not how it works. And no matter how much President Trump is trying to bend the realities of the Constitution that got him to the place where he is in the first place, it's not going to happen.
And the issue is that he has spent the last four years creating a reality that so many people who know better have gone along with, but the jig is up at this point, and the fact that he is even trying to pressure his own Vice President, which look, I mean, in some ways, you can understand where he is coming from, given the history of the past four years, Mike Pence has been very, very loyal to Donald Trump.
We don't know other things that have gone on behind the scenes that he has tried to get Mike Pence to do that, he said, I'm not going to do that. I don't think so.
TAPPER: If --
BASH: Right, but in terms of the public face, Pence has been extremely loyal. But this is just one other example of the President trying to claw and cling to anything he can that is never going to happen.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's just talk about Mike Pence for a second, because congratulations, he has discovered at the 11th hour that you can't do something that was obviously unconstitutional in the first place.
And the idea that he has been waffling over this and studying it for weeks and weeks and weeks is I think ridiculous on its face. I mean, it is very clear, not just because of the point that you made, which is that if this were a power that were instilled in the Vice President, why wouldn't someone else have used it by now?
Why is it that in all the years, we've not had a Vice President just sit there in the Senate and say, I don't want to count the Electoral College votes from these states, and I'm going to make this guy the President?
It hasn't happened because it's unlawful, and Mike Pence knows that it's unlawful and he has waited until this moment to tell Donald Trump that because that's not a profile in courage. That's a profile in the opposite of courage, not being willing to tell the truth when you know what the truth is.
And, you know, I think we can expect Mike Pence to do the right thing tomorrow. But I also think that we can probably expect Mike Pence to also do other things that might give a nod to the rest of this foolishness, which is the idea that somehow there was this widespread fraud that does not exist. I just, you know, at this point, this is really -- it's not anything
to celebrate. It's just the basics of the Constitution that he is finally recognizing.
TAPPER: It is going to be fun in January 2025 when Vice President Harris all of a sudden has the power just to not recognize certain states in the Electoral College -- Wolf.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Yes, it's amazing. It's crazy. All right, take a look at this. We have another key race alert. They're doing an impressive job at Georgia. Polls have been closed for about an hour.
More than 25 percent -- 26 percent of the vote has now been counted, a quarter of the vote. Plus as now in and the Democrats still maintain a lead, Raphael Warnock as a leader of almost 65,000 votes over Kelly Loeffler: 587,000 to 522,000. Fifty two point nine percent for Warnock, 47.1 percent for Loeffler.
[20:05:10]
BLITZER: Remember, 26 percent of the vote. It is in similar situation with the Ossoff and Perdue. Jon Ossoff, the Democrat, he has a lead of almost 58,000 right now over Perdue, 584,000 to 526,000. Fifty two point six percent for Ossoff; Perdue, 47.4 percent -- for Perdue. So the Democrats still maintaining their lead.
John King, we're watching this very closely. More than a quarter of the vote is in. The polls have been closed barely an hour.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Polls have been closed, barely an hour. The count is coming in relatively quickly, but we still have a long way to go.
If you're the Democrats, you're glad to be on top. You also need to know, again, that's a million plus, right? A million plus, 1.1 million there and change. More than three million votes were cast just early. So we have a lot of votes to count still. A lot of votes to count still.
But you'd rather be on top. Two races tracking relatively, 55,000-vote lead, 52 percent for Jon Ossoff, 52 percent -- 53 percent if you want to round up for Reverend Warnock there. The Democrats doing -- let's just keep it on this one for now.
The Democrats doing what they need to do so far. Fulton County, Atlanta and the suburbs around it, the number one population center in the state, Democrats need to be above 80 percent. They'd like to be higher than 81 percent, but you need to be 80 percent or higher if you want to be comfortable as a Democrat. That looks good.
DeKalb County over here, Democrat, Joe Biden ran in the 80s here. If you're Reverend Warnock, you're very pleased with that. Let's check on the other race there, see, over 87. So the Democrats are tracking.
Now we still have a long way to go and you're starting to see one of the things you're watching here as you see the red come in; rural, small town America, Trump country, Republican country. So you start to look now and you look here, if you're the Republican, you're happier at 82 percent. But smaller county, 79 percent counted already.
So we're getting to the point, we are just at the beginning of it, of looking around, where's the vote? Where are we missing votes? We know we're missing vote in the major population centers, 77 percent counted here, only one percent counted here. So we're going to bounce around, 159 counties. It's a complicated state.
Some of them are moving quickly, some of them not as much. So we need to watch for context. But again, you see the Democrats there. One interesting thing so far, and everything we are saying in this hour and probably for the next hour or two, be careful. We're still getting votes in. Things can change, and the context can change.
But one interesting thing, if you look, I'm going to start in Fulton County again, Senator Perdue is losing and losing badly, but look at his vote total: 18,883. Look at the other race, Kelly Loeffler, about 700 fewer votes in Fulton County. That's Atlanta and the suburbs around it.
Let's move over here to Cobb County. You see Loeffler: 31,346. Look at Senator Perdue, above 32,000. Again, a few 100 votes, but he's getting more votes.
Let's come over a little bit more over here to DeKalb County, 11,972 for David Perdue, the Republican Senator, 11,500; about 400 votes change. Now, why do I make that point? Number one, we'll see if it holds up. It may not. We are early in the vote count.
But number two, Kelly Loeffler was picked by the Governor. When Johnny Isakson, the Republican Senator retired, she was picked for this one reason -- for this one reason: they believed that she was a more moderate Republican woman who could win, do a better job in the suburbs, do a better job because they saw what was happening.
They saw the suburbs trending away from the President and trending away from Republicans, and the Governor thought she was the better candidate. The President wanted Congressman Doug Collins, remember, who ended up running in the primary. But the Governor appointed her as the interim senator. She was supposed to be the answer to the Republican suburban troubles. Let's watch as the night plays out, because once she was in the Senate, she went full Trump.
She went full Trump and so does she suffer in the suburbs as President Trump suffered in the suburbs, or what we are seeing in those early numbers just preliminary and she comes back and runs a little bit stronger? It is a couple of hundred votes here, a couple of hundred votes there. So some people are saying what's the big deal?
If it's a very close election, a couple of hundred votes can matter. Remember the President -- President-elect carried the state by 11,000 plus. So just one of the many little things we'll watch as we go through the night.
BLITZER: It is interesting. They did debate, Kelly Loeffler and Raphael Warnock as opposed to the other two candidates. David Perdue refused to debate Jon Ossoff. I wonder if that debate is having an impact.
KING: That's possible as well. Look, David Perdue have been very, very loyal to the President as well. David Perdue saying even after that reckless, reprehensible -- what do you want to call it -- call when the President of the United States called the Republican Secretary of State of Georgia, thinking about this, thinking about the presidential race.
The President of the United States -- these votes have been recounted three times. Joe Biden won Georgia. The President calling the Secretary of State and saying can you find me 11,780 votes? Can you find me enough votes to change the lead? David Perdue saying it was disgusting that the call leaked. Not disgusting that the President tried to cheat or that the President asked the Secretary of State to break the law.
So David Perdue has been pro-Trump, too, so I just -- I don't make the point to say that he is stronger in the suburbs per se, but the Loeffler appointment was made with that particular reason in mind. The Governor knew what was happening in the suburbs across America, knew the Democrats were trying to register new voters, were succeeding in registering new voters in Georgia.
[20:10:07]
KING: She was picked for a reason. It is one of the things we'll watch and again, it's early, so it could change. Senator Perdue, yes, he has more experience on the ballot. But we know in November he did perform better than President Trump in the suburbs. Does he outperform her even though she was picked for that very reason? It is something we'll watch as the night goes on.
BLITZER: We certainly will. David Chalian, with almost 30 percent of the vote is in, getting close to a third of the vote in and you have a good sense of how much of this vote that has already been counted as the early vote as opposed to the vote today.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: The vast majority of it is pre- election vote. We'll take a look here. You see Raphael Warnock, 648,000 votes; Kelly Loeffler, 583,000 votes. As you noted, 29 percent of the vote is in right now. That's our estimate, 29 percent of the vote is in.
Of that vote that's in, 93 percent of it is pre-election vote. It's the early in-person absentee by mail vote. And we know that Democrats participated in this runoff more so that way than did Republicans. That's their advantage category, the early vote.
We think that is going to come down as a share of the overall vote to 72 percent. We think at the end of the day, 72 percent of the overall vote will have been early vote.
Well, when that happens, and more Election Day vote comes in, that is likely to favor in this contest, Kelly Loeffler. You see the similar thing happening in the other race between Ossoff and Perdue, 29 percent of the vote is in. That's where we are currently. Ossoff, 650,000 votes; David Perdue, 600,000 votes.
Of that vote, now it's 92 percent, it is pre-election vote, the big likely Democratic category in-person early voting, absentee voting by mail. That is going to come down 20 percentage points to 72 percent. We think. That's our estimate that 72 percent of the electorate will have voted early.
So that number comes down as the Election Day voters get counted and we know that Republicans have indicated they are far more inclined to participate in person on Election Day.
So as those votes come in, they're likely to be Perdue votes over Ossoff votes and are going to narrow the margin you see between the two candidates.
BLITZER: That's a really important point, you know, and John King hovering over this is the coronavirus pandemic. I wonder how many voters decided maybe it's not necessarily a good idea on Election Day to go wait in line and show up given what's going on, especially in Georgia right now, which is having an awful situation as far as hospitalizations, cases and deaths.
KING: Right. There's both the 2020 factor in that, plus the here and now of the today factor in that than it was in 2020. We do know Democrats because Joe Biden was holding smaller events.
Joe Biden was telling Democrats don't come out to big rallies. Joe Biden was criticizing President Trump for his big rallies. Democrats disproportionately voted early.
Today in Georgia, I can show you some of the numbers if you want to see them. It's just as bad too when you look at it right now, hospitalizations in Georgia setting records; hospitals all across the country, but Georgia is not immune to what is happening. Georgia is one of the states performing the worst right now when it comes to vaccine -- the vaccine rollout in terms of the numbers there.
That's hospitalizations, you look -- come to me, come back down here. You look at the seven day of new cases. Again, Georgia was part of the summer surge. And we thought this was horrific. Well, this is when you were at 4,000 cases in the state. Look at where they are now? Twice that 8,000 new infections a day on average in Georgia.
So coronavirus is a giant factor in the state without a doubt. And back to David Chalian's point what he is saying right there, he is a little bit more polite than I am. What he is trying to say to Democrats is, you see these leads right now, don't pop the champagne. There's a lot of votes still to come in.
A lot of votes still to come in, and that matters everywhere because we're showing you these margins here. We're showing you these margins in Atlanta. The Democrats are going to win Fulton County, Atlanta and the suburbs around it. The Democrats are going to win. There's no question about that. But -- but, if this is all early vote, when the later vote comes in,
you know, does Kelly Loeffler get at least of the today votes, does she narrow the margin some? Does she narrow the margin some there? Does Senator Perdue do the same there? Does the same happen over DeKalb? Can you get Jon Ossoff from 87 percent down to 83 percent? So we need to wait.
BLITZER: We have got a key race alert right now. A huge number of votes just came in. Take a look at this. Thirty seven percent of the estimated vote is now in, in the State of Georgia. More than a third of the vote is now in. The Democrats have impressive leads right now.
Raphael Warnock has a lead of almost 190,000 votes over Kelly Loeffler, 56 percent to 44 percent. He has 881,000 votes; she has 692,000 votes, 37 percent of the estimated vote is in, a huge number just came in on the other -- in the other contest of the Senate runoff between Jon Ossoff, the Democrat and David Perdue, the Republican, 37 percent of the vote is now in.
Ossoff has a lead of almost 172,000; now, it's down to under 64,000 vote lead over Perdue, 55.2 percent to 44.8 percent. Ossoff has 879,000 votes, Perdue has 714,000 votes, almost 750,000 votes.
[20:15:13]
BLITZER: John King, that's a huge number that just came in, 37 percent of the estimated vote is in. We continue to assume that's the early voting that's being counted relatively quickly.
KING: Yes. And the bulk of it came from right here. We were just talking about it a few moments ago. Look at the big jump. Look at the big jump in the votes right there, not just in the gap, but in the vote total right there.
A giant number of votes just came in from Fulton County. They're up to 83 percent of the estimated vote right now. So if you're a Democrat, you say great. We've got a big basket of votes in this report out of Fulton County. Jon Ossoff at 74 percent in the county. Pastor Warnock at 75 percent in the county, 274,000 to 91,000 there. That's that.
Well, that's what patted those leads right there, giant incoming from Fulton County. The question is, is it enough? Right? Just because we're waiting for others.
So we get this giant from Fulton County that says -- that one says 83 percent of the estimate there. So we're going to see as we bounce through this as we go. We've seen a little bit more come in from the other surrounding area, we are up to 28 percent in DeKalb County.
Again, if the Democrats can keep that margin in DeKalb County, then they'll be healthy and happy. But it's early vote right now.
I'm told Clayton County also came in, that's just south of Atlanta. This was huge for Joe Biden, right? You see Pastor Warnock at 89 percent right there, up to 69 percent of the vote. Let's check on the other race. Jon Ossoff at 89 percent. Clayton County, if you go back and you remember with us through the
days after Election Day, go back, President Trump pulled out to a big early lead in Georgia, as they counted legitimately cast -- legally cast ballots despite what you hear from the President.
But in the days after, Clayton County was one of the places Joe Biden at 85 percent. The Atlanta Airport is right here, just over the line in Clayton County, suburbs here, every African-American turnout in Clayton County, absolutely critical to Joe Biden's math back in November and there's a huge number of votes that are coming in again.
So you see these lopsided margins. How did David Perdue do? Here, you've got to hit this and then hit this, David Perdue at 13 percent. Back in the 2020 race where he came up just shy of winning. He's at 11 percent right now. Those margins could matter. Again, we're only 69 percent. We need to count more votes before you can have the full context.
But you're starting to see, just look at it right here. This big giant pot of votes and still forming, the big giant pot of votes came in mostly in Fulton County, but also in the suburban areas. We also, Wolf, did also get our first votes from down here.
We're waiting on Augusta, Savannah and Columbus, key areas for the Democrats and you see in Muskogee County here, Jon Ossoff at 74 percent if you round up, Pastor Warnock, also 74 percent if you round up.
So when these votes come in, you can see big swings. The question is, where do they come from? These are Democratic areas right now. You pull back out the map, I'll get rid of the distracting circles for you here. The map down here filling in as it should. The question is what's still out? Right? We're still only at 39 percent statewide, so we have a long way to go.
If you're the Democrats, you like what you just saw, but you have a way to go. And you have to remember the bulk of what we are seeing, as David Chalian just emphasized, it is early vote, early vote. As they count the Election Day turnout, that's where Republicans are banking on a comeback and we will see if that's true.
You see north of Atlanta here, right? So you see all these counties here. Fulton County, DeKalb and Gwinnett right there. I want to go back to the 2020 election, back to the Senate race. It is here, these are still empty on our map.
Forsyth County, to the north of those suburbs, a Republican county, big for Senator Perdue. It was big for President Trump and his loss. Cherokee County. We know there were long lines in these counties. These are absolutely key to the Republican Election Day turnout.
So you pull them back out, if you're a Democrat, you're thinking we've pulled out to lead. That's good. But as we count votes, you see a lot of blank still. We have nothing from those counties yet. Those will be a key test. What are the margins for the Republicans in these counties? And
another one you see is over here, Paulding County, we knew there were long lines here today. This is a Republican county. And if you come down as well here, waiting to see, no, we still have nothing from Houston County.
These are big Republican counties, absolutely critical to Republican turnout. So they're gray right now, which means we don't have votes. If you're the Democrats, you're looking at 170,000 vote margin. You feeling happy right now, we need to see some of more of these Republican areas to understand the context.
BLITZER: One thing we haven't seen anything in Savannah. That's a pretty Democratic county, as well, the area around Savannah. Take a look at that.
KING: It is and one reason I suspect we haven't seen anything is that they kept at least a couple of precincts open because they had a little difficulty, no big deal. Some problems with the programming cards, but they opened the polls a little late. And so the decision was if we opened 40 minutes late, then we're going to keep them open 40 minutes late. So I suspect that's part of the reason we haven't seen anything.
Chatham County, right here. Again, it's fifth -- fifth largest county. It's a very big county, and it's very critical to the Democrats. We have nothing right now. So let's just go back and remember how important this was. Again, Joe Biden won the state by 11,000 votes and change while he won Chatham County by 20 plus there -- 25,000 right there.
So for the Democrats, this is the key, as Joe Biden did here. Run it up. Run it up in the places where you have your votes because you have to offset all this red in most of the other parts of the state.
So you're right. You make an excellent point there as we wait to see what happens in these Republican counties up here to the north of Atlanta and to see when we get -- let's just check a couple of these, 86 percent.
So most of the Republican vote counted, 91 percent there. Most of the Republican vote counted. You are seeing this happen more and more in these Republican counties, 86 percent here, 95 percent there. So you're looking around where there are votes still to come.
If you're the Democrats, you need to run it up here and run it up here. And if you're the Republicans, you're really waiting on Cherokee and Forsyth, you need to see big turnout numbers and big margins to give you some confidence that you can make this up. Because you know, the Democrats -- this is early voting. The bulk of this is early voting, you knew the Democrats were going to take a lead with that.
The question is when you start to see some real turnout metrics from your larger Republican counties, are the numbers there?
[20:20:56] BLITZER: We will find out soon enough. Almost 40 percent of the vote
-- the estimated vote -- is now in. They are counting the votes relatively quickly in Georgia. ELECTION NIGHT IN AMERICA CONTINUED will continue.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:25:18]
BLITZER: We've got another key race alert. Welcome back, 41 percent of the estimated vote is in. They are doing an impressive job counting the early ballots and the today ballots in Georgia.
Right now, the Democrats have impressive leads right now. Take a look at this. Raphael Warnock has a lead of more than 207,000 votes over the Republican, Kelly Loeffler. He has almost a million votes, 993,000 votes. She has 785,000 votes, 55.8 percent to 44.2 percent.
Remember, 41 percent of the vote is now in. In the other contest, the Democrat Jon Ossoff, he has a lead of more than 215,000. Now it is 204,000 votes. He has more than a million votes right now. He has more than a million, 1,001,000 votes. David Perdue has 796,000 votes, 42 percent of the vote is now in; 55.7 percent to 44.3 percent.
The Democrats have impressive leads right now. Let's go over to John King at the magic wall. Still plenty of votes out there. But the Democrats, they're doing well so far.
KING: You'd always rather be leading than losing, but you do have to add the caveat. Most of this -- much of this, we're starting to get to the point where we are seeing some today vote, but much of this is still early voting where we know disproportionately favors the Democrats.
But if you're the Democrats, you're looking at the map, are we doing what we need to do where we need to do it? Right? In other words, are we running up the vote following the Joe Biden path to victory? The Democrat hadn't won for President statewide in Georgia, since back in 1992. Democrats statewide have had a miserable time in Georgia in recent years. You have two Republican senators. So are you doing what you need to do?
Well, here's one way to look at it. Number one, let's just look at the metrics, up to 43 percent of the estimated vote, 55 percent for Raphael Warnock, the Democrat leading there by about 183,507, excuse me. Jon Ossoff's lead, a little bit bigger 192,000, fifty five percent to 45 percent if you round up Senator Perdue.
So if you're the Democrats, and you're looking at this, again, we have a long way to go in the vote count. We're not at the halfway point just yet. But you're trying to ask yourself, are we winning where we need to win?
So let's highlight the counties Joe Biden won. There are 159 counties in Georgia, Joe Biden won about 30 of them. So you're going to see a lot of red on this map tonight. That's the way rural America works. It votes Republican.
But you see right now, very early votes here in Chatham County, the only one of the Biden-run counties that you see any red in is Chatham County. I just looked at it. It's about a thousand votes. If you flip to this race, it's blue, the Warnock race.
BLITZER: Just flipped.
KING: I will look more closely at it, and they flipped in the Warnock race. Let's go back and see, it's still red in this race. We're expecting votes there in a while. So I'm not even sure that could be an anomaly.
But if you look at the counties that Biden won, we'll use this race to look at it. You see the gray. That means we have no votes yet. We have no votes yet. Right? And we just have -- let's look at Chatham County here. You have 1,100 votes.
BLITZER: You know, I am in that point in time -- we've got Martin Savidge who is on the ground force in Savannah, Chatham County right now. So what's going on as far as the vote count is concerned, because very few votes have been counted so far.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. Tom Mahoney, he is the Chairman of the Chatham County Board of Elections, just talking to him and they are hoping, he said momentarily, although I was looking at the tabulation room and I didn't see a lot of action there. But he believes that within say, an hour, they'll start posting the first numbers.
Now, he expects that to be a fairly significant number, maybe not the entire early vote, but certainly a significant number. So you would be talking around 68,000 to maybe 72,000 early votes. We're talking about absentee ballots that arrived before today, and then also those in person early votes.
In fact, it will be the in person early vote numbers that will come out the very first and then followed by that will be the absentee ballots that arrived again before today. And then after those numbers come out, maybe later, maybe around midnight or so we should start to see the total numbers or close to total numbers of what were in-person voting on actual Election Day. That's the breakdown he is talking about.
Now, I said, are you going to count all night? He said, they will count all night unless when it gets around midnight, they suddenly get an influx of votes and they realize that hey, we will not finish overnight. So they would stop then and continue again sometime in the morning hours.
But it is their hope, and they believe they still can get this all done tonight. Just remembering, of course, there are other ballots, the overseas ballots that we've talked about, provisional ballots, they would still have until five o'clock on Friday.
BLITZER: Yes, the military ballots as well. Standby, Drew Griffin is in Fulton County, Atlanta for us.
What are you seeing what are you hearing over there, Drew?
[20:30:01]
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: They just held a news conference. Richard Barron, the elections director, and he does say, we are on track with processing, we should be able to process almost all if not all ballots tonight, Wolf, a very positive on just how his counting is going. Of course, we're seeing some big numbers already coming out.
I asked him about the in person voting today. And what that figure was compared to November's election. Very interesting that 10,000 more people voted today in person on Election Day than voted in person on Election Day in Fulton County on November 3rd. That may be due to the fact that there were four fewer advanced voting days in Fulton County, but I thought that was interesting that the in person voting today was higher than the actual Election Day.
Again, they believe they're on track. They have a voter review panel that's going to meet at 11:00 p.m. tonight that could be the last panel they need to review the troubled absentee ballots that they would have to have some kind of decision made by. But again, he's hoping all the ballots will be counted in Fulton County, the largest county in Georgia tonight. Wolf.
BLITZER: Yes. Very, I'm impressed by how quickly they're counting the votes in Georgia right now. Stand by Drew. Nick Valencia is joining us right now. He's in DeKalb County. Indicator that's not far from Atlanta. What are you seeing? What are you hearing over there?
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Much like what Drew is seeing in Fulton County Wolf, we're seeing the same thing here in DeKalb County and outperformance of in person voting today. I just spoke with the county spokesperson who tells me that there's been approximately in their preliminary numbers 60,000 in person votes today.
You compare that with what we saw an election day in person voting in November, whether it was just 47,561, so far eclipsing that total. What does that all mean? You know, that's going to be the question as this night goes on. This is traditionally a Democratic stronghold, though we know historically Republican voters tend to vote in person. But, you know, Ossoff, and we're not counting that this Democratic stronghold will play in their favor.
Behind me this activity is sort of slowed down. We've seen a lot of cars show up here and vanilla envelopes, and they don't really want to talk about what we're doing -- what they're doing. We're on our way inside where we're told, you know, the throughout the night, there'll be a scanning, tabulating and uploading those votes to the Secretary of State's office hoping to get through the votes tonight.
But they did tell us Wolf that they're going to try to get through as much as they can, but we should not expect a final tally tonight, that will probably happen more. So on Friday, they've got to wait for provisional ballots, overseas ballots, all that goes into the equation here. So it's going to be potentially a long night in DeKalb. Wolf.
BLITZER: We'll watch every moment of it together with you, Nick, thanks very much. You know, you got to admit John, they're doing an impressive job in Georgia. What 44 percent almost half of the vote in Georgia has now been counted. The polls closed what an hour and a half ago.
KING: Again, they did a good job in November. It could take several days. But every state was dealing with the unprecedented pandemic environment. People waiting in line to vote early, people met voting by mail early, people who turned up on Election Day with all the pandemic security concerns.
Georgia did a very good job in November, President will tell you otherwise. The President is wrong. And Georgia (INAUDIBLE) doing even a better job learning the lessons of November and doing an even better job site, particularly in processing the early ballots. Again, we're still waiting.
To Martin's point, we have just a tiny smattering of votes out of Chatham County. This is where Savannah is, it's absolutely essential to the Democrats. There's the Warnock-Loeffler race, you come over here to the Perdue-Ossoff race, this one even has Perdue ahead with about the same amount of votes carried. You know, we'll watch these numbers as they play out. Right.
But this essentially is a we need to wait until we get more votes. So now, you pull out to the statewide, Jon Ossoff at 154,000. That lead was bigger a little while ago. It's bouncing around a little bit as more votes come in. Let's check the other race. The Warnock lead a little bigger than the Ossoff lead right now.
And so again, what are we looking for? We just got our first votes here, Richmond County, where Augusta is, we just -- this the first time we've seen votes here 28 percent, 80 percent, 81 if you round it up, Professor Warnock 80 percent there. Again, so you go back for context, what happened in the presidential race, Joe Biden had 68 if you round up, Jon Ossoff had 66. So, you look at where the numbers are right now.
And, you know, again, if Jon Ossoff can keep that number, he's golden. But remember, this is early votes coming in. So it's disproportionately higher for the Democrats. You see the 28 percent, later, you see a number that gets you into the 60s in the 70s to start to trust the context of what you're seeing. But again, in the early Democrats know what they do need one piece of their puzzle is run it up in the early vote. And you see that happening there. Those are the first votes we had seen there.
We saw just a moment ago, we talked about down here first votes coming out, we're almost up to half in Muscogee County, which is where you have Columbus and 74 percent for the Democrats in that race 74 percent for the Democrat in that race as well. And if you go back again, this was 61 percent for Joe Biden.
So again, you're seeing the impact that getting early votes reported first, it warps the totals a little bit and we need to be aware of that as we go through it. It's good for the Democrats, they're getting the numbers that they need. But again, to go back to the Perdue-Ossoff race 60 percent was what Jon Ossoff got right here in November. And remember, he came up just short, winning.
[20:35:16]
So we need to watch and see, as it continues to play out, just to come back, make sure I'm on 2021. And come back as we go through this year, just to check was 152 moments ago, it's down to 149. What's happening, votes are coming in. Seeing the southern part of the state, rural part of the state filling in red, up in the northern part of the state. I just want to check, I'm going to keep going back to this all night long.
We're still only up to 3 percent. This is one of my test counties because it's where the President had his last rally to try to turn out the Trump base at a time. He's beating up on the Republican establishment. The dissonance there. Does that affect turnout? We'll get a better sense. It's very early. This one comes on and I just want to check. We still have nothing Wolf, two counties.
I'm watching very closely. Cherokee County here, Forsyth County just to the east. This is, you know, half hour, 90 minutes north of Atlanta, two very big Republican counties. We still have absolutely nothing. We do have some votes came in over here.
Let's see in Paulding County. This is a very important Republican county. They're up to about half percent of the vote, 66 percent for Senator Perdue. No longer senator his term ran out, but he was the incumbent senator running in the ballot, Senator Loeffler, who's the interim senator right there at 66 percent. And again, if you go back to 2020, this was an area where the President got 64 percent.
So, if you're the Republicans, as you start to see those votes come in, and you're thinking, are we meeting our metrics? We see the Democrats meeting their early vote metrics, the question is what happens when you get Election Day votings? If you're the Republicans to come back to just to see how Senator Perdue had 63 percent in Paulding County back in November, it's getting 66 percent right now. Again, it's only half of the vote. So we need to see how it plays out.
But if you the Republicans watching, that's a metric you want it to meet, and you're watching through the rest. You start seeing down here, just want to check up here, this is going to be all Republican, the question is how much of it is in 84 percent smaller counties, not a lot of votes. But in close elections, these small counties matter?
A couple hundred votes here, a couple dozen there, it helps you offset the Democratic advantage elsewhere. So you see 64 percent still some county to do down here, 99 percent here 95 percent here. Again, not a lot of math coming out of these places, but when you're at 64 percent, you have the Republicans you're thinking I got several hundred more votes still coming in at a minimum, which helps you offset what is happening up here. I just want to check to see if any of these percentages have changed. So at 29 percent in DeKalb, 28 percent in Gwinnett, 81 percent in
Rockdale, Democrats running up pretty impressive numbers here. Again, you compare this to where we're in the presidential race, right? So, 76 percent for Ossoff here, 70 percent for Biden, 69 percent for Ossoff back in November.
Again, we have a ways to go. So most of this 81 percent, what happens? This is going to be key in these Democratic areas. When you see them at around 80 percent, what happens when we get to 90 and 95 and closer. That's the today vote. That's the today vote. And so yes, the Democrats going to win this county, but do Republicans narrow the margins? Are the voters who coming out today, there are a lot of suburban Republicans in Georgia.
Some of them voted for Joe Biden or stayed home because they don't like Donald Trump. Do they show up? That they understand the national implications of this race. That's why more than a half billion dollars has been spent on advertising in this Senate race. And the Republican ads are saying do not give Joe Biden a Democratic Senate.
So, this will be Democratic at the end of the night by a lopsided margin. The question is does the late vote narrow those margins there, here and even here, even in Fulton County. Can Senator Perdue push that up just a little bit more? If so, puts him back in play. If Jon Ossoff can keep it there can be interesting.
BLITZER: Right now, he's got to have a little smile on his face. But remember, more than half of the vote still has to be counted. 46 percent of the estimated vote is in. The Democrats are ahead by about 150,000 in Raphael Warnock's case 136,000 in Jon Ossoff's case. We're going to continue our coverage right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:43:00]
BLITZER: All right, we have a key race alert. Take a look at this. Almost half of the vote is now in Georgia. 49 percent of the estimated vote is in. The Democrats still maintain impressive leaves Raphael Warnock over Republican Kelly Loeffler. Warnock has almost 150,000 vote lead over Kelly Loeffler she has 979,000 votes.
He has 1,129,000 votes 53.6 percent for Warnock, 46.4 percent for Loeffler. The other Senate race Jon Ossoff, he has an impressively 134,000 vote lead over the Republican David Perdue. He has 1,120,000 votes, to Perdue 986,000 votes, 53.2 percent for Ossoff, 46.8 percent for Perdue. Remember 49 percent almost half of the vote in Georgia is now in.
David Chalian is watching all of this. And so much of that vote that is in almost half of the vote is early voting. People who voted over the past few weeks either by mail or in person.
CHALIAN: Exactly. I mean, the vast majority is early vote. Take a look at these contents. You see, 49 percent of the estimated vote is in right now. Raphael Warnock 1.1 million votes, Kelly Loeffler 979,000 votes, but how much of that 49 percent of the vote that's in is early vote, 90 percent of it, 90 percent the vast majority is early vote. And we know that that early vote tends to favor Democrats.
They participate in the early vote in greater numbers than do Republicans. At the end of the night, we think that number is going to drop down to 72 percent of the overall electorate will have voted early. So, 28 percent of the electorate is going to be Election Day vote. And that Election Day vote favors Republicans. They turn out in person on Election Day in greater numbers. Take a look at the other race. It is the same story.
In the Ossoff-Perdue race again. Right now, roughly half the expected vote is in and you would think, hey, a seven-point lead for the Democrats when half the vote is in. Democrats are sitting pretty but this is the context. Ossoff with 1.1 million, Perdue with 988,000. 90 percent of the vote you're looking at right now is early vote, early in person voting, absentee by mail voting, voting that favors Democrats. That's going to come down to 72 percent as more Election Day vote comes in and favors Perdue.
[20:45:20]
Wolf, just remember, back in November, Jon Ossoff beat David Perdue by three percentage points in the early vote. But remember, Perdue actually bested Ossoff by 88,000 votes because he walloped him by more than 20 points with the Election Day vote. So, we don't know how this is going to end. But we do need to see more of that Election Day vote come in to see if indeed this is going to get closer than it currently looks with those seven-point mark.
BLITZER: Yes. Still a lot of votes out there to be counted. Let's go over to Pamela Brown. She's looking at some of the key counties. What are we waiting for? What are you seeing right now, Pamela?
PAMELA BROWN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, Georgia election officials are telling us based on what we're seeing coming in, it could be a very long night. And sources I'm speaking to on the ground they are in Georgia say even though it could be a long night. They are happy with how things are playing out so far, with how quickly they're able to tabulate some of these early votes.
And here's what we're hearing from the various counties we're tracking the Atlanta region. In Fulton County, we're told by an official there that they are on track on processing and should be able to process almost all if not all ballots tonight, so that's good news there in DeKalb. In DeKalb, I'm told from official there that they're waiting to see how the tabulation is going before deciding their timeline tonight.
Now most of what we're seeing from DeKalb are those early votes that would skew Democratic and just a very small percentage of today's votes, the in person today voting. In Cobb County, another county we're keeping a close eye on, what I'm told from officials there is that last time during the general they left around 3:00 a.m., 4:00 a.m. then resumed several hours later, I'm told it's probably going to be a repeat there in Cobb. And then you look at Gwinnett, another important county, they're in Georgia and told by an official there if it seems achievable, county officials would work through the night.
Were also it's important to point out that the state system that they were used for signature verification for those absentee ballots to process them, that has now been extended the hours for that until 2:00 a.m. It was going to shut down at 11:00 p.m. So that will help these officials in Georgia process and tabulate those absentee ballots. Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, take a look at this Pamela, 51 percent, more than half of the estimated vote is now in. The Democrats still maintain a lead, although it's gone down a little bit. Raphael Warnock has a lead of more than 133,000 votes over the Republican Kelly Loeffler. Jon Ossoff's lead, it's down to 113,000 over the Republican David Perdue. We're watching this very, very closely right now.
John King, it's going to go up and down the Democrats lead was more significant. It's gone down a little bit.
KING: The question is, will it keep going down and what will happen to it? That is the question right now. David Chalian just laid it out there perfectly for you. Demo -- just like in November, Democrats disproportionately voted early. So, when we got the early votes, Democrats Jon Ossoff in this race. Raphael, Warnock in this race opened up healthy leads. Right, but that lead Warnock's lead was above 180,000.
Not all that long ago, 30, 40 minutes ago. Jon Ossoff's lead, now 106,000 was above 150,000 not all that long ago. Over the last 30 minutes as more votes have come in, including more votes cast today, the beginning of the votes cast today. The Democrats leads have come down. Now doesn't mean Democrats won't get more votes to win votes cast today. But Republicans expect to have an advantage and they hope a very significant advantage in the today vote just like they did in November.
So, the question for these Democrats, as you say, and again, it's not all in yet. This is Chatham County. This is a big Democratic area, Martin Savidge just laid out, you see only 1,000 votes here, 1,000 and change votes here. So, we'll see. This is a big Democratic area. When we get these votes, expect the Democratic lead to expand out a little bit again. And Martin said they could start to come momentarily.
I want to look down here at Richmond County, we're up to 71 percent, more votes coming in there. So now we're counting today votes. For the most part, I assume most of that is early vote that was counted earlier. Again, I'm looking at the smaller Democratic areas, but down here in the Columbus area, about half of the vote. So, Democrats can expect more here.
But the question is Wolf, is that enough? Right? Is that lead enough? Do you have enough to withhold the Republican today, Election Day votes? 101,000 for Jon Ossoff, 121,000 plus for Pastor Warnock. And again, we lived through this in Georgia, in November in reverse. Donald Trump opened up a giant lead because they counted the Election Day votes first, Joe Biden chipped away at it consistently and steadily over the course of four days, as they counted the early ballots. And we had the flip side of it and other states.
Again, I mentioned this earlier, but the big Biden lead in Ohio, the big Biden lead in Texas back on election night in November, was those votes were real. did what they counted the early votes first, and when they counted the Election Day vote, Donald Trump over took him. So, we are reliving November in the flip side of it in the state of Georgia, and that they have so many early votes in now, but up to 52 percent, 116,000, Pastor Warnock under 100,000 now, 99,000 for Jon Ossoff.
[20:50:06]
Again, you expect this to happen but the partisans are watching at home, people who have a stake in the race of a Republican, you're cheering that if you're Democrat, you're thinking, whoa, that was 150,000 plus, not all that long ago. What's happening? What's happening is we're starting to count their votes in rural Georgia, Republican, Georgia, very small county here, but a place where David Perdue is running it up, right. 73 percent.
Pulaski County, David Perdue running it up 60 percent, 70 percent when you round up there. 70 -- 67 percent here. So as these votes come in, this is what happens. In rural areas, the votes come in, they cut into the Democratic margin. The question is, you see the blue areas, there are still votes to be counted. What happens?
What happens when they count? The Election Day votes here in Henry County? Does Jon Ossoff stay at around 66 percent? Or do the Republicans come up? Let's just check the other race. They're tracking pretty close to see state, this Pastor Warnock state at 66 percent or does that number start dropping down?
Presidential race for context? Joe Biden got 60 if you round up. So, you're trying to see if you're following the Biden path to victory, which was a very narrow one, 11,000 votes change, if you're the Democrats. That's what you're looking at. You're looking at the percentages, turnout drops, is it proportional across the board? Just come back to where we are now. Come back up here, DeKalb County, only 29 percent of the vote in. So if you're a Democrat, you're thinking we have more votes to come here.
Again, the question is not well, the Democrats, Ossoff and Warnock when DeKalb County they will, we know that. The question is as more votes come in, the percentages change, can the Republicans get closer here, narrow the margins here. So, it's not such a lopsided advantage? Can they narrow it there and then counting all the red from the rural areas? And again, I've been waiting for this one all night long.
Forsyth County, we still have nothing. This to me will be one of the tests, because we're going to get Republican votes today. My very Republican County, absolutely critical to Republican statewide, it was a big county for President Trump back in 2012 -- back in November, we still have nothing from Forsyth County, a key test. Are Republicans coming out to vote? They tend to vote more today.
And then you move over here to Cherokee County, where you see 68, 69 percent. If you round up there for the president back in November, he lost the state but this was a critical piece for him. We've come up here now, we have only 1 percent in Cherokee County. So, if when those votes come in, in Forsyth and then Cherokee, the question is how big are they?
What impact do they have on the Democratic lead, and to the Democrats then offset it? If you're the Democrats, you're really waiting on Chatham, and you're waiting for Fulton and the suburbs around it to see if as the today vote comes in. Do you maintain where you are? Hopefully you inch up a little bit. The big concern for the Democrats is do your margins here drop even by a couple 100 votes that matters in a close election.
BLITZER: Because the Democrats are looking at Fulton County where Atlanta is what only what percentage of the vote is in Fulton County, 83 percent. They're still what 70 percent of the vote outstanding, but there's a lot more outstanding vote right now next door in DeKalb County. Take a look at that.
KING: Right. So you come over here you're looking at DeKalb County, you've only counted about 30 percent of the estimated votes. So you've got seven and 10 votes still to count in DeKalb County, and it's a major population center, the fourth largest county, this is a suburb, a lot of Georgia is a big suburb, but the Atlanta area in the sprawling suburbs around it.
This is an area that has become increasingly critical to the Democrats. You see, again, Ossoff at 85 percent, 86, if you round up Pastor Warnock at 86 percent. If you go back to the presidential race, Joe Biden had 83 percent. So the Senate candidates right now overperforming, a little bit the metric where Joe Biden was.
The question is, do you -- can you keep maintain that or at least stay relatively close to it when the rest of that vote comes in? Because what we have right now is the early vote, which we know was disproportionately Democrat. You mentioned Fulton County, again, this is a big laboratory, a big question for me, in the sense that you look where we are now, 74 to 26.
If you're round, let's go back to 2020. Joe Biden, President Trump was at 26. Right, Joe Biden at 73. Look at where Perdue was. Senator Perdue in the one-on-one race. The other Senate race was a jungle primary. In the one-on-one race in November were Perdue came up just short. He outperformed President Trump in the suburbs around Atlanta. He outperformed him. Can he do that tonight?
Again, 1,000 votes, 800 votes, 2,000 votes that could matter a lot in a close race. So, we're waiting to see. You see 146,000 for Senator Perdue back in November, when you look at the presidential race 137,000 and change for the President. David Perdue outperformed President Trump in the Atlanta suburbs.
Traditionally, Republican suburbs especially when you move farther away, you get from the urban areas right there. Does that happen tonight? We still have a ways to go and counting those votes. If you're the Democrats, you're looking at your margins now down to 77,000 for Ossoff as the today votes come in, down to 77, Pastor Warnock also now under 100,000. Today, votes are starting to come in. The Democratic margins are shrinking. Next hour is going to be really interesting.
BLITZER: It looks like it's tightening a little bit 55 percent of the estimated vote is in. When we come back, you're going to explain to jungle primary to our viewers as well.
[20:55:05]
We have much more of our special coverage, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: All right, we have another key race alert. Right now, the Democrats are still in the lead. Although the lead is narrowing a bit Raphael Warnock is leading almost 80,000 votes over the Republican Kelly Loeffler 51.7 percent to 48.3 percent. More than half of the vote is in 56 percent of the estimated vote is in Warnock is ahead of Loeffler.
The other Senate race Ossoff versus the Republican Perdue, his lead, Ossoff is about 62,000 votes over Perdue 51.3 percent to 48.7 percent. 1.2 million for Ossoff, 1.1 million for Perdue. Take a look at the ballots of power.
This is what's at stake tonight of these two Senate run off elections in Georgia. Right now, the Democrats have 48 seats. In the U.S. Senate, the Republicans have 50.
