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Tight Race For Virginia And New Jersey Governor, Too Early To Call; VA Election Official: "Heavy" Turnout, Some Ballot Shortages Today; Polls About To Close In Race For New York City Mayor; Minneapolis Voters Deciding Whether To Replace Police Dept. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired November 02, 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: And we are just moments away from the end of voting in the New Jersey governor's race. We are expecting that at the top of the hour. Let us get a key race alert.

It is still too early to call, the New Jersey Governor's race between Democratic incumbent Phil Murphy and Republican Jack Ciattarelli. We expect the first results soon now that the polls have closed, but we do not have information about that race yet.

Let us now do a key race alert for the gubernatorial race in Virginia. The latest numbers have come in with 34 percent of the vote in in the Commonwealth of Virginia, Republican Glenn Youngkin remains in the lead, 573,314 votes. That's roughly 54.3 percent of the vote. He is almost 100,000 votes ahead, 97,167 votes ahead of Democrat Terry McAuliffe who has 476,749 votes. He has 45 percent of the vote as of right now, John King. Terry McAuliffe is nine percentage points behind. We don't expect that margin to hold necessarily, but so far, Glenn Youngkin has done what he needs to have done.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In the early vote count, he has, but to your point I want to emphasize, we don't know what's going to happen tonight, but we do know you go back in Virginia election history, whether it's presidential, prior governor's races, the Senate race in 2014 where you've seen Republicans take a big leap, even a big lead like that because we have about a million votes there, a little more than that if you add it up. We expect about three million votes cast in this race. So we have a very long way to go.

But if you are the Republican candidate, here is one thing, I'm going to go down to the tiny southwest corner of Virginia, right? Buchanan County, you say, why am I focusing on this? It's 6,000 people, right? Why would you think about that?

One of the reasons Republicans are happy is here is the question, could a Republican who kept Trump at arm's length run it up in Trump country, right? Eighty five percent of the vote with about 90 percent of the vote counted there, right?

Look at that number, 5,078. Four years ago in the race for governor, the Republican won with 3,400 votes. The Republican Campaign is happy saying in rural Virginia, turnout is up from the last governor's race and the margins are coming in for Glenn Youngkin as a count.

Now, those are smaller numbers, but in a close race where every vote counts, this was challenge number one, run it up. Get the Trump base to turn out and vote Republican even though you told President Trump, please, don't come to Virginia. At the moment Glenn Youngkin seems to be meeting that challenge.

Then the next challenge is suburbs here. The rich area here and then this is it. The ultimate prize in Virginia is up here. So how are we doing in those? If you're the Youngkin Campaign, you're looking at Chesterfield County, suburb south of Richmond, traditionally Republican have gotten more Democratic recently. You think okay, and Reiko County, more voters here when you come up to the north of Richmond. McAuliffe winning here 60 percent of the voting, just match it up.

Sixty percent for Northam, again, Terry McAuliffe can underperform Ralph Northam, the Democrat from four years ago. He can underperform him. He does not want to underperform him significantly. All right, Ralph Northam won if you come back to the statewide numbers, four years ago, it was not close.

So when we compare McAuliffe to Northam, you want to sound maybe not as good, but he can afford to underperform some. The question is, how much and that's why, in the end, we will come up here because you see about a third of the vote just shy in Fairfax. This is your giant biggest basket of votes in Northern Virginia. The last of it, it tends to come in late meaning midnight or later.

Seventy three percent or seventy four percent if you round up at the moment, if you go back, he is over performing in the early count here, Terry McAuliffe over performing the percentages of Ralph Northam, but look at the vote in the end here, right, at Fairfax County, 255,200 for the winner four years ago, which is why when you look here, 98,000, we have a long way to go. We have a lot more votes to count.

If you're McAuliffe, you're looking at Fairfax and you're thinking in a very close race, if he can get it closer, pull back up, see where we are, because votes are coming in constantly, just shy of 100,000 vote lead for the Republican right now. Glen Youngkin, you are happy with what you're seeing so far. But again, you remember, Republicans have led before only to be disappointed as the late votes comes in up here, a lot of counting still to do.

TAPPER: That's another sign to your home planet.

KING: That was my knuckle. I did that one. I didn't do the last one. That was my knuckle.

TAPPER: To the thing where you compare McAuliffe to Biden and Youngkin to Trump in terms of underperforming and over performance.

KING: So let's start with McAuliffe. He is the Democrat in a blue state. All things being equal, he should win this state. All things are not equal -- COVID, pandemic exhaustion, Biden approval rating down, people worried about the economy -- so all things are not equal, which is why this is a competitive race.

But this is where we are right now, 148,000. See more votes have come in just trying -- this as the magic of the magic wall, if you will. More votes come in during the conversation, 150,000 vote lead for the Republican.

TAPPER: He just jumped up about 50,000.

KING: He just jumped up, so we'll look from where those votes came from in a minute. So we're going to -- where is McAuliffe underperforming Joe Biden? You see where we are right now? When things turn off, right, you see all these counties that are still on the map? Terry McAuliffe at the moment in the early count is underperforming Joe Biden.

Now again, Joe Biden won by 10 points. Terry McAuliffe can underperform Joe Biden even significantly and still win the race.

[20:05:09]

TAPPER: I mean, Fairfax County is one of those that he need to bump --

KING: Fairfax is one of those counties, as is Prince William's County down here. So, you're looking at two of the suburban counties where let us compare what we're talking about. This is Loudoun County. You see 53 percent, right? I have to do two clicks here to get you back to it.

You come to the presidential race here, Joe Biden is getting, you know, 61 or 62 if you round up. Again, he can -- because the margins were so big for Joe Biden and for Ralph Northam, Terry McAuliffe can underperform. The question is by how much?

Now, let's turn that off and look at it whereas Youngkin over performing Trump, right? Let me do it. Let me turn this off first. Come back, just to show you. This is where we are live. It's now 152,893, so the lead for the Republican is growing. Again, a lot of votes still to count.

So if you're Glenn Youngkin, how am I doing compared to Donald Trump? Am I over performing? Yes, in a lot of places, including down here in Trump country.

TAPPER: So let me ask --

KING: At the moment.

TAPPER: So Youngkin's path, the concept of his victory was that he would be able to get people in what was this -- Buchanan County?

KING: Yes, Buchanan County.

TAPPER: That he would not only keep the people who voted for Trump, but maybe even build on it, and in places like Fairfax County, just narrow the margins. KING: Exactly.

TAPPER: Does he have to flip any county? Or can he just over perform in super red counties like Buchanan and just narrow the margins in super blue counties like Fairfax?

KING: Can he? Yes. But that's asking a lot. You would have to over perform on steroids. You would essentially need every voter to come out in here just because the population is so vast here.

TAPPER: So, he has to flip.

KING: Yes. He has to flip some. So you're looking right now where could you flip, right? Again, if you come down here and you look at Chesterfield County, if you go back to the last race for governor, it was blue, right?

The last race for governor, Chesterfield, the suburb south, very close, very competitive, but it was blue. So there are places where at the moment, he is changing the map. Again, we have a lot of votes to count, but it's really hard to see even when he was in the other night, Youngkin was here in Loudoun County. It's the fastest growing County in Virginia. It's not the largest population center, Fairfax County is, but Loudoun is the fastest growing, and that growth is what has hurt Republicans in the suburbs.

It's white college educated, it is younger voters, it's Latinos, and it's Asian voters who are increasingly a swing population in Northern Virginia. So where are we right now? A 52-47. Where were we four years ago? Sixty-forty.

So Glen Youngkin is narrowing the gap there. Is that enough? That depends on the turnout as we go through more of the night, and remember, we're still waiting to kind of Election Day vote, which is where the Republicans said they would over perform in the Election Day vote. We'll find out the next few hours.

TAPPER: And we're also of course, waiting for early vote. David Chalian, you have some new information from the battleground desk in terms of what voters who went to the polls, what they were thinking, what mattered to them?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes. Well, and we're digging into what you and John, were just talking about the difference between how much of this vote is early vote versus how much is Election Day vote? So right now, here are the vote totals as things think stand.

We have about 41 percent of the estimated vote in Glen Youngkin has 710,176 votes; Terry McAuliffe has 554,288 votes. So the question is how much of this vote that's in already is early absentee vote? People that either voted early in-person or voted by mail absentee?

Well, right now, our estimate is that 23 percent of this current vote that you see in is made up of early vote, people who voted before Election Day, but we expect that 23 percent to go up to 37 percent. We think at the end of the day when every vote is counted, 37 percent of the electorate will have voted early. That means 63 percent of the electorate will have voted on Election Day.

If indeed Terry McAuliffe is significantly outperforming with Glenn Youngkin in early vote as Democrats hope that he was banking that vote that growth from the current 23 percent to the estimated 37 percent is opportunity for McAuliffe to try to make up and dig in to some of this Youngkin lead -- Jake.

TAPPER: Yes. The race remains very competitive as the actual counting goes on. We're going to take a very quick break. When we come back, more from the New Jersey gubernatorial race, the Virginia governor's race, and much, much more. It is election night in the United States. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:13:32]

TAPPER: We have another key race alert for you this evening as we watch these important governor's races and the actual vote come in. Let's start with Virginia. In the Commonwealth of Virginia, 42 percent of the estimated voters in and Republican Glenn Youngkin remains in the lead, at 43 percent vote in.

Glenn Youngkin was 768,647 votes, that's 55.7 percent of the vote. He has 166,291 votes ahead of Democrat, Terry McAuliffe who has 602,356 votes. He has 43.6 percent, but it remains a very competitive race and we are waiting still for more than a million votes to come in.

To New Jersey, the Garden State with only one percent of the vote in, incumbent Democratic Governor Phil Murphy has 25,358 votes. That's 70.9 percent of the vote. He has 15,238 votes ahead of Republican Jack Ciattarelli who has 10,120 votes, 28.3 percent of the vote. But again, that is only with one percent of the vote in, Phil Murphy with a big lead, but still 99 percent of the vote to go.

Let's look at Virginia because we have more votes in, we have 43 percent of the vote in and tell me where the votes have been coming in from.

KING: Well, you start to see a lot of these more rural counties, a lot of the red filling in. We've seen a lot of that vote coming in, but we are getting some other votes. We come down here to Southeast Virginia, you pop up here in Norfolk for Democrat Terry McAuliffe, about 16 percent of the vote in.

[20:15:11]

KING: This is obviously one of the key Democratic strongholds, 63 percent with about 16 percent, I just want to go back in time and look, 73 percent, Ralph Northam, the Democrat who won four years ago.

So you're seeing consistently early vote. We have a ways to go. So, numbers could change dramatically. Right now, Terry McAuliffe winning where Democrats need to win, the margins below where the Democratic candidate was four years ago, a much smaller community over here, you move over toward Portsmouth, 20th though, you look at decent numbers change.

Here is what you'd look at, though. If you're looking at this strategically, if you are in the Republic, if you're in either campaign headquarters, if you're the Republican, you're happy down here, Virginia Beach across the bottom. Ralph Northam won all three of those counties four years ago, Joe Biden won all those counties one year ago, and so you see down here some strength.

TAPPER: How much of the vote has come in on those --

KING: Let's pop them out and look. Virginia Beach right now, we are up to about 40 percent of the vote. And again, 58 percent for the Republican, and if you go back four years ago, Ralph Northam won with 51 percent. Close. It was competitive, but it stayed blue.

If you come back up to where we are today, you move over here. Chesapeake where you talked to Joe Johns earlier; again, a lot of votes to be counted still, so it's red now. That doesn't guarantee it stays red. With 16 percent of votes, 65 percent for Youngkin now, if you go back in time, you see how the Republican candidate got 46 percent.

So again, we have a ways to count. So, you don't jump to conclusions if you're sitting at a campaign headquarters. So you're thinking, are we meeting our metrics, as we look at the map? Again, in this part of the state, what makes them happy, is -- I'll use Buchanan again, just as an example because they are so close to finish.

TAPPER: It is so Stark also.

KING: Yes, number one, you see a big lead, but it's not just the big lead. Glenn Youngkin needs the raw math, not just the 85 percent. He needs the raw vote totals in these smaller counties, and the turnout is just higher than it was four years ago.

So if you're the Republican, and you know, that as we get later in the night, and we come back up here, you know, Fairfax, the giant vote count, you know, we have a lot more votes to count here. We already have 98,000 plus for the Democrat, 34,000, but it's only 32 percent.

Again, you go back in time, remember that? Look at that 98. You know, Ralph Northam got 255,000 votes in Fairfax County alone four years ago, and we believe turnout is higher tonight in this race than it was four years ago.

So we have a lot more votes to count and Republicans have been disappointed many times before in Virginia, as the map fills in this way and they build a lead only to see 11 o'clock, 12 o'clock, 1:00 a.m., and 2:00 a.m., the rest of the votes come in up here as they are counted.

But if you're the Republican campaign, Republicans have not won statewide since 2009. So if you're Glenn Youngkin, you're looking at some of your metrics and you think, we're doing okay. That history though is what tells you, don't rush to conclusions. We have a long way to go punch. TAPPER: Punch it up to Prince William County because I want to go to

Boris Sanchez now who is in Manassas in Prince William County. He has some more raw vote totals for us that I don't think we've gotten yet -- Boris.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jake, before the numbers get to John at the magic wall, they come here to the Headquarters of Elections in Prince William County and I'm looking at raw data right now with 58 precincts reporting.

This is day of voting: Terry McAuliffe right now with a 29,437 vote total, Glenn Youngkin 25,716 votes, roughly a 4,000 vote difference between the two of them. That is day of voting.

I also have some numbers for mail-in voting. Remember, Prince William County has been tabulating mail-in votes now for a couple of weeks. So far, the tally shows -- actually, let's go ahead and repeat these numbers really quick again. Terry McAuliffe, this is day of voting, 29,437; Glenn Youngkin, 25,716, day of voting in Prince William County, an area that Terry McAuliffe is counting on to lead him to the Governor's Mansion, as it helped do in 2013.

This is the most diverse county in the Commonwealth. Of course, Youngkin trying to make inroads with moderate voters on education and the economy. Getting back to those mail-in numbers again, this county has been tabulating them for several weeks already. They count it by three different congressional districts.

So far, the total, Terry McAuliffe holds an advantage 5,000 -- rather 6,572 votes versus Glen Youngkin, 2,127.

Again, Terry McAuliffe 6,572, Youngkin 2127. Roughly, 4,100 votes separating the two candidates there. These numbers likely going to get to the wall very soon. We'll keep you updated as we get more Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Boris Sanchez in Manassas in Prince William County. And just to remind our viewers, Prince William County is one of the four major Democratic stronghold counties right outside Washington, D.C. It is where the Democrat in any race needs to really build up the score in order to account for and make up for all the Republican votes in the rest -- in most of the rest of the Commonwealth.

[20:20:05]

So here we have roughly 5,000 votes advantage for Terry McAuliffe if you count the early votes and the day of voting in Prince William County.

KING: Right. The question is, how is that -- you know, how much higher do we go as you count all these votes? I just want to push this aside a little bit and bring this out, just to get you in statewide. You mentioned why this matters. I'm going to blank out the numbers a little bit and just pull the county back out again.

Again, Washington, D.C., Arlington, Fairfax, Prince William. As the suburbs have shifted over the last 25 years in American politics, you go from blue. It used to be competitive. Now, it is solid blue. It used to be a swing county, lately it has been blue.

The question is, can Glenn Youngkin cut into the margins? This is where we are right now. We haven't got those -- the numbers Boris just gave us. It will be tabulated through when the county officially reports them, but this is where you are right now. And again, you go back in time and you're Ralph Northam, you won with 61 percent.

So if you're Terry McAuliffe, you don't need 61 percent, but you've got to win the count. You have to win this county here. If you come back to where we are right now, I just want to look at it, you have to go way back in time. Right?

So you look at the 2017 rights. If you go back to the last time a President, a Republican won the state for President, you go back George W. Bush to carry Prince William County, so that was -- this used to be this -- used to be the Republican way to win in Virginia. Yes, the close-in suburbs, Fairfax Arlington, Alexandria, went Democrat, but the outer, the Loudoun's and the Prince William's were Republican. That has been the dramatic shift. If you watch it play out, just watch this. Watch this area right here in Northern Virginia.

George W. Bush wins because the suburbs were growing, Fairfax and Loudoun, but then you come through it, Obama wins. That was the beginning of the change. It started before Trump and then the suburban revolt against Trump has put it on steroids.

The question is, can Glenn Youngkin overcome that tonight as we continue to keep counting the votes? That's where we are.

TAPPER: Yes, one of the things that's so fascinating about tonight's race is that the Commonwealth of Virginia is so traditionally Democratic just in the last few elections, although you and I are old enough to remember when it was a Republican stronghold, but states change, Ohio used to be competitive, and now it is pretty reliably Republican.

The votes are coming in, and it is very exciting. It is anyone's race. I wouldn't put money on either one of them right now.

Stay with us as CNN's Election Night in America continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:26:29]

TAPPER: We have another key race alert for you now here in these two competitive races in Virginia and New Jersey.

First to Virginia, the Commonwealth of Virginia where Republican Glenn Youngkin has 910,320 votes. That's a 55.5 percent of the vote. He is almost 200,000 votes ahead of the Democratic challenger. He has 191,219 vote lead against Democrat, Terry McAuliffe. Terry McAuliffe, with 719,101 votes, 43.8 percent of the vote. That is with 51 percent of the vote in, but that is still a lot of outstanding vote that has yet to be counted. Still, Glenn Youngkin with the lead, 55 percent to 43 percent as of right now.

In New Jersey, the Garden State, incumbent Democratic Governor Phil Murphy has 79,154 votes. That is 68.7 percent of the vote. He has a roughly 44,000 vote lead against the Republican, Jack Ciattarelli who has 35,061 votes, 30.4 percent of the vote. That is still only four percent of the vote. So Phil Murphy with a big lead right now, but we're still waiting for 96 percent of the vote.

Let's go back to Virginia. Obviously, this is a much more competitive race where anything could happen, 51 percent of the vote is in. Where have the new votes come from?

KING: Well, we're starting to see again, all these rural counties starting to fill up and again, it is a small number of votes. I just picked a random one here, Amherst County. You see 64 percent of the estimate in. Glenn Youngkin in rural Virginia, which is Republican stronghold, always Trump country as somebody would say now, doing what he needs to do as you walk through these counties.

But as you start to move up, the question is, is the math here that the Republican is getting overwhelming enough to offset? Jake, we still have a long way to go. In Fairfax County, we're going to come back to it repeatedly. It may sound redundant or repetitive at home, but it is so critically important where Terry McAuliffe is getting 72 percent of the vote right now. There are several hundred thousand votes still to be counted here. Right? We're at 37 percent of the estimated vote.

So if you come out statewide, and you look and you see 193,000 or 194,000 almost Republican vote lead, it would be easy to say, looking at all that red that the Republican is on the march here and the Republican is in good shape here where we are right now, but we have lived this. We've lived this in past Virginia governor's races, past Virginia Senate races, and the two past presidential races in the State of Virginia, where the Republican gets a lead and then when you come up here, Fairfax is the biggest, a lot of votes still to be counted here. Some of the smaller suburbs here, only 10 percent in Alexandria. This is not going to be a ton of votes. It's a smaller community, but more votes for McAuliffe to be counted here.

It says we're at close to 70 percent in Arlington, so more votes, but a modest amount to be counted here. But then you start moving over into Fairfax County. You mentioned earlier, Prince William County, smaller population. The largest is here. The fastest growing is in Loudoun, which says up to 95 percent. Youngkin, the other night predicted he would win Loudoun County, a 10-point gap for him there is better than past Republicans. Is it enough? That's what we'll find out as we count more votes.

I just want to come down here again, only at 23 percent in Prince William County. And as you watch the Republican map grow, a couple of things you're watching if you're the Democrats. Number one, what's left in Fairfax? And if it stays at a percentage, anywhere close to that, Terry McAuliffe can make up a lot of ground. So that's what you have to watch with only 37 percent in Fairfax, this is always late into the night we're watching, this giant basket of votes. If it stays anywhere close to that percentage split, then McAuliffe is

going to make up a lot of votes when the rest of them come in. We don't know that. There is no guarantee of that. So that's what we wait for. That's one thing and again, I mentioned this earlier, the Republican, Youngkin, I just want to see if the percentages have changed at all and they have not.

[20:30:00]

Twenty percent in Chesapeake, 46 percent in Virginia Beach. I just want to move over here to Suffolk, 30 percent here. This area of the state it used to be reliably Republican, Democrats have done very well in recent cycles, including both Joe Biden and Ralph Northam, winning these three counties with more votes to count but you're looking at the map, Glenn Youngkin has to change the map.

TAPPER: Yes.

KING: Presidential history in Virginia, recent governor's history in Virginia --

TAPPER: He has to flip counties. Right now it's not done, but right now those southeastern counties.

KING: Southeastern counties, and here again, Chesterfield County suburb south of Richmond, he's doing it there as well. The question is, is the margin big enough in places where there's less population. You can see the building blocks for Youngkin rewriting the map, but the key building blocks are here, especially Fairfax County.

TAPPER: So speaking of Northern Virginia, and Fairfax County, punch up Fairfax County, because I'm going to bring in Ryan Nobles right now, he's going to give us an update because he gets the votes before they come on the magic wall.

And Ryan, what do you have for us?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Jake. And we do have an update now, some of these precincts are starting to trickle in nine of the 247 precincts have reported Terry McAuliffe now at 109,000 votes, Glenn Youngkin, just over 42,000 votes. And to John's point, it's really the percentage here that we have to watch in terms of the McAuliffe campaign, because Fairfax County is where they have the most available votes that they can get in all of Virginia. And when that first batch of votes came in, that were all early votes, and vote by mail, we saw them a call of campaign with a route of 74% of the vote that had come in. This next round of votes that came in that came from voters that voted today, we saw that number start to trick -- trickle down from 74%, to just a little more than 71%. That's not a good sign for the McAuliffe campaign as they go on into the night.

Now, one optimistic sign for the McAuliffe campaign is that we're not done counting all the early votes, there's somewhere in the range of 25,000 or so early votes that have yet to be fully counted, they had to rescan a group of those early votes, he performed well, in that first round of really votes that were already counted, as we said, somewhere in that 74% range. So, there is optimism that if you're with a McAuliffe campaign, that you could do well in that group of votes as well.

And the other thing we have to keep in mind when we're talking about Fairfax County is that they're still going to be a lot of vote by mail ballots that have to be counted on not just tonight, but over the next couple of days. Of course, any ballot that is postmarked by tonight, and is received by Friday can still be counted. So if this turns out to be a very, very close race, which it could as the way it tracks on, those vote by mail, both ballots are going to be very, very important. But the Fairfax County vote now starting to trickle in not just those early votes, but also the Election Day votes. And those numbers have to continue to come in big numbers for Terry McAuliffe, if Democrats have any hope of winning tonight, Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Ryan Nobles. Thanks so much. He's in Fairfax County.

John, a bunch of Arlington County, if you would, because one thing that I'm curious about. So Terry McAuliffe doing very well, he has almost 80% of the vote here. It's almost 70%, almost 70% of the vote. It has the turnout, though matched what it's been in previous years. In other words, this is whatever 62%, 62,000 people with 68% reporting. What is the turnout in Arlington County been in the past?

KING: That's a key point to look at. Again, it's not a presidential race. If you go back, let me go first. Just the last governor's race was a close up earlier. Again, Ralph Northam wins the county with 80% is 68,000 votes. Right. So where are we right now? Terry McAuliffe at 49,000 votes, they say 68% is. How high does that number go? That will be one of the things to watch. I told you earlier. We are seeing -- we know turnouts going to be higher than 2017. We are seeing higher turnout in the smaller rural counties.

TAPPER: Right.

KING: We're seeing that the question is, is the Democratic turnout also higher? Number one, is the turnout in those counties higher and then number two, then what are the margins? That's the key math Ryan Nobles was getting, I know you were waiting for someone in the field to say the count might not be done tonight. We have a ways to go. We have a ways to go.

Now look, if you're looking at the map, it can be confusing when I go county to county. When we get a small smattering of votes, we write them on the chalkboard, it can be confusing, we just want to show you the reporting in the field. If you're looking at this right now, with 56% in, Youngkin in the lead by more than 207,000 votes. We know, we know this is a much more competitive race in the Commonwealth of Virginia than the Biden Trump race was that was 10 points. We know this is a more competitive race than the last governor's race, which that's an eight-point race, a nine-point race when you round up there four years ago.

Everything on this map now tells us it is a much more competitive race than either the last race for governor or the last race for president. Everything tells us that that it's much more competitive. We have way too many questions still to be answered before we can say, you know, anything beyond that, especially again, we've lived this too many times. This fills in, the Republican takes a big lead and we wait. And we wait here and Ryan just made a very key point. How many votes are left? Does Terry McAuliffe keep that big 66, 67 close to 70% margin in Fairfax County? If so we're going to be at this a while. If not we'll see.

[20:35:07]

TAPPER: I mean one of the other things when you compare 2021 to 2020, with Biden-Trump or 2017, with Northam-Gillespie is Donald Trump was a presence.

KING: Right.

TAPPER: He was in the White House in both of those races. That was a huge motivator, not just for Republicans and all over the country. But for Democrats --

KING: Absolutely.

TAPPER: -- a lot of people worried a lot of Democrats worried that the Democrats are not as motivated to vote this year. We'll see. We'll see the numbers are still coming in. It's very competitive. It's anybody's race. The numbers are coming in from New Jersey, the numbers are coming in from Virginia. They're coming in from all over the country.

We'll have much more for you after this quick break. It's "Election Night in America," stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: We have another key race alert for you now. Let's look at the board here in Virginia. The governor's race Republican Glenn Youngkin has an almost 200,000 vote lead, there is 58% of the vote in, now 59% of the vote in we just got some more votes. Glenn Youngkin with 1,026,074 votes, that is 54.8% of the vote. He is 191,843 votes ahead of Democrat Terry McAuliffe who has 834,231 votes, that is 44.5% of the vote. As of right now with 59% of the vote in Glenn Youngkin has a 10 percentage point lead over Democrat Terry McAuliffe

[20:40:31]

In New Jersey with 6% of the vote in Democratic incumbent Governor Phil Murphy has 110,498 votes, that is 66.3% of the vote. He is about 500 -- I'm sorry, he's about 55,829 votes ahead. A Republican Jack Ciatterelli who has 54,669 votes, 32.8% of the vote -- of the vote, but again, that is only 6% of the vote reported.

Let us now go to Sara Murray, who is in Richmond, Virginia at election headquarters who can give us an update on the status of the votes coming in. Sara.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, we talked to Chris Piper, he's the commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections. He wouldn't put a number on where the turnout stands but he did say there is heavy at turnout. One of the hiccups he said they were dealing with today election officials across the state were ballot shortages. He said about half a dozen counties places like Appomattox, Chesterfield counties, experienced ballot shortages, they had to get additional ballots brought in -- and to enable in order to ensure that everyone there was able to vote. He did say overall this is the day that has gone very smoothly. He reiterated to voters this should make you all trust the process. These are secure systems. Additional ballots were brought in, people were able to vote, people should feel confident that they were able to cast their ballot that they were able to vote very important message I think on Election Day, Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Sara Murray. Thank you so much.

New York City polls close in 18 minutes and we will bring you the results live for that. We're going to squeeze in another quick break. We'll be right back when "Election Night in America," continues. Stay with us.

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[20:46:17]

TAPPER: We can now make a projection in one of the two special congressional races in Ohio today. CNN projects that Democrats Shontel Brown has been elected to Congress in Ohio's 11th District holding on to the seat for Democrats. She defeats Republican Laverne Gore in the district, which stretches from Cleveland to Akron. That leaves Democrats with a narrow majority in the U.S. House of Representatives holding 221 seats to 212. For Republicans two seats are still up for grabs. There's another one in Ohio and another one in Florida where a special primary is being held. We're awaiting results of those two.

We now have a key race alert for you. Now we're looking at the governor's races in Virginia and New Jersey. Let's look at the numbers with 61% of the estimated vote in from Virginia. Republican Glenn Youngkin remains in the lead. He has 1,061,140 votes, that's 54.6% of the vote. He is 192,385 votes ahead of Democrat Terry McAuliffe who has 868,755 votes, that is 44.7% of the vote. Glenn Youngkin right now with many votes remaining to be counted with roughly a 10 percentage vote lead almost 200,000 votes ahead as of this hour.

Let's go to New Jersey now. With 6% of the vote in incumbent Democratic Governor Phil Murphy has 112,300 votes at 64.4% of the vote. He is 51,768 votes ahead of Republican Jack Ciattarelli who has 65,270 votes, that's 35.4% of the vote.

And we just got another percentage point with Phil Murphy remaining in the lead. And tell us what the where the votes are coming in from in the Garden State, John.

KING: A lot of votes still to be counted. But Democrats who right now have a serious case of jitters when it comes to Virginia are feeling more confident. When it comes to Blue New Jersey you mentioned Governor Murphy seeking to be reelected 63% of the vote to 36% of the vote.

We have a lot of votes still to come. But if you look at Newark, Essex County, Newark largest urban area right there, the third largest county in the state, running it up as a Democrat has to do in the urban area. But again, only 7% of the vote but again filling in as the governor would like you move up here, you're starting to move into the New York suburbs and around your come up again running it up. You have someone at your table who has a long life history in Bergen County, you can ask her about this when you get over there still no votes from there.

But essentially look at New York City here and the suburbs right up here. This is where this race is normally one of those big population centers but if you come down here, Mercer County is Trenton the suburbs around it. Again, only 7% but the early vote coming in the way Governor Murphy would like it to as you look up. Again, Camden, you're familiar across the -- from Philadelphia, Camden, the suburbs here 74% for the governor just to go back in time. Look at a 25% there. You got 67% here four years ago.

So, if you were looking to see if there would be a night of Democratic panic, meaning losing two governorships, it appears only at 7%. Let's be careful, go ahead.

TAPPER: What's the red county right in there?

KING: Right in here, you come over here. Ocean County, I believe that was also read. Yes, this is a reliably Republican county out here. See, Kim Guadagno, four years ago, 62% of the vote. It's about a little shy of that Jack Ciattarellirally, as it fills in. So the map is filling in the population centers for Democrats early on still at 7% and we'll watch it. but this one is filling in a way that early on anyway, Democrats can be much more confident than what they're seeing here. Again, a long way to go still here, but when you see Glenn Youngkin 261% of the vote counted now.

[20:50:00]

Ryan Nobles mentioned this Jake quickly earlier as more votes coming in Fairfax what happens to Terry McAuliffe percentage he was above 70 early on now down to 67%. So a lot more votes to come in here. But if you're looking at the trend lines in this map, if you're in the Youngkin campaign, you're a lot happier than if you're in McAuliffe headquarters right now when you pull that out.

TAPPER: Yes, I mean, that's an 80,000 vote lead from McAuliffe if double it. That's only 80,000 and he -- and Glenn Youngkin is right now 201,000 votes ahead of Terry McAuliffe, that's not going to be enough in that county alone.

We're heading into another critical hour of election results coming up. Polling places are about to close in New York City where voters are choosing a new mayor. Much more of our coverage right after this, stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) TAPPER: And we have a key race alert for you at this hour. Let's look at the board right now. In Virginia, the Commonwealth of Virginia Republican Glenn Youngkin has 1,102,462 votes that is 54.6% of the vote he is more than 200,000 votes ahead of the Democrats, 200,092 votes to be precise. Democrat Terry McAuliffe has 902,370 votes, that is 44.7% of the vote. That is what 63% of the estimated vote in. Republican Glenn Youngkin, retaining his very healthy lead over Democrat Terry McAuliffe.

[20:55:30]

In New Jersey, the Garden State, Democratic incumbent Governor Phil Murphy, with 10% of the vote in has 174,342 votes, that's 60.5% of the vote. He is 62,954 votes ahead of his Republican challenger Jack Ciattarelli who has 111,388 votes, 38.7% of the vote. But again, we are still expecting 90% of the vote of that, from that race to come in.

Voting is about to end in New York City in the showcase mayor's race this evening. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams is highly favored to hold on to the Mayor's Office for Democrats. He faces Republican Curtis Sliwa best known as founder of the anti-crime group the Guardian Angels. The winner of that race will replace Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio.

We are awaiting votes from quite a few big U.S. cities that are choosing mayors tonight. One of them is Minneapolis. That city is also deciding the future of the Minneapolis Police force in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd. Voters in Minneapolis are being asked if the current police department should be replaced with a new department, the Department of Public Safety. This is one of the first electoral tests of policing reform since George Floyd's death.

Let's check in with our correspondents right now. First, let's go to Athena Jones in New York at the headquarters of Democratic mayoral candidate, Eric Adams.

Athena, how are things where you are?

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Jake. Well, polls are just about to close here. You can already see this venue beginning to fill up there is certainly a celebratory atmosphere. But if you're talk -- if you hear from Eric Adams or talk to people on his campaign, they'll say look, they're running through the tape. He just sounded a text a few minutes ago saying, if you're in line by nine, you can vote. But as you mentioned, Adams is heavily favored to win in this Deep Blue City, where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by almost seven to one.

Eric Adams a real contest here was among the Democrats in the primary, he beat out a crowded primary field by putting together a coalition of working class voters, union voters, voters of color, particularly voters in the outer boroughs. He also spent a good deal of his time talking about public safety. You often heard Eric Adams saying public safety is a prerequisite for prosperity. So that focus on fighting crime at a time of rising crime is also something that people believe got him over the finish line, Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Athena Jones in New York, New York.

Let's go to Omar Jimenez now who was covering the vote in Minneapolis, Minnesota, including the fascinating controversial ballot measure there to replace the police department with a whole new reimagining of public safety, the Department of Public Safety. Omar, how's it looking there? What's going on?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jake. So we've got polls closing in just a few minutes here in Minneapolis. And we will know the answers to those ballot questions first, when it comes to the results that are coming in, we expect them and at least the city clerk here says they expect those full results to come in, in just a matter of two hours at this point.

And one thing to watch for in this is it's going to take more than a simple majority, more than the 50% plus one person for this to pass, because it's a charter amendment, it's going to take 51%. And the reason that's crucial is because this was pulling right around 50%. And we could be in a scenario where technically, a majority of people vote yes, on this 50.6%, let's say, and it doesn't pass. And so, those are the dynamics that we're going to be watching for as these moves forward.

And again, while it is to incorporate this police department into a public safety department, it doesn't quite eliminate all officers. No one's waking up tomorrow with no police officers, if this passes. But again, so many people are looking at this as setting the table for the future of public safety here in Minneapolis district.

TAPPER: Very interesting. Omar Jimenez, thank you so much.

Quick overview John, where are we in Virginia?

KING: We are with the Republican candidate, just shy of a 200,000 vote lead, it was above 200,000 a short time ago. So if you're Democrat, you're saying, aha, we can come back late. I will tell you yes. That's mathematically possible. About a million more votes to count. The question is, where can you find them?

One of the places Democrats will look at is Richmond City, the 10th largest county in the state, only 2% of the vote and Terry McAuliffe getting big numbers there. But Jake, there's a lot of votes here for Terry McAuliffe, the question isn't enough. And then you move up to Fairfax County in Northern Virginia. We've talked about it a lot all night up to 53% right now, McAuliffe's percentage at 67%. That looks great. He needs a huge, huge, huge more votes as the rest of Fairfax County comes in the math at the moment looks bleak, but a lot of us account still.

[21:00:05]

TAPPER: All right. John King, thank you so much.