Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Event/Special

Vote Counting Continues; Biden on Brink of Victory?;. Aired 3- 3:30p ET

Aired November 05, 2020 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: The 2020 presidential election continues this hour. Will day three be decisive?

Right now, former Vice President Joe Biden is optimistic about clinching a victory, as he makes new gains over President Trump in key battle grounds. We're watching the scramble to count votes in undecided states like Georgia that could tilt the election.

We're also standing by for new information from Georgia's secretary of state at any moment. We will have live coverage.

Biden has significantly cut into the president's lead in both Georgia and Pennsylvania, the election outcome now hinging on those states, as well as Nevada and Arizona, where Biden is ahead. As we get more and more results, it's all about reaching 270 electoral votes, Biden on the brink of that, with 253 right now, Trump with 213.

He has a very narrow path to winning reelection.

Now let's get a key race alert.

Let's start in Georgia right now; 98 percent of the vote is in. Look how close it is. Trump has 49.5 percent. Biden has 49.2 percent. Right now, Trump is ahead by 12,828 votes, 16 electoral votes, very, very close in Georgia. Still plenty of votes outstanding.

In Pennsylvania right now, where there's 20 electoral votes, Trump ahead by 108,592, 52.2 percent to 48.5. But look at this; 92 percent of the estimated voters in, 8 percent of the estimated vote is still outstanding, hundreds of thousands. We will watch Pennsylvania very closely.

Nevada right now, Biden maintains a narrow lead of about 11,438 votes over Trump, 49.4 percent to 48.5 percent; 89 percent of the estimated vote in Nevada is in.

Let's take a look at Arizona right now; 86 percent of the estimated vote is in there. Biden maintains his lead, 68,129 over Trump, 11 electoral votes at stake in Arizona right now. We're watching those states so, so closely. Let's walk over to John King at the Magic Wall.

The next few hours, we could know who the next president of the United States is going to be.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The trend lines in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the state of Georgia right now prove that that could well be true. We have to get to the finish line.

But there's a great deal of pessimism among Republicans right now, as they watch the trend lines. Again, let's start in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. You see that lead, 108,592 votes, with 92 percent of the vote in.

In a normal election, you would think that might be enough to withstand any late charge. But this is not a normal election. The ballots still out tend to be mail-in ballots, and we know everywhere, but especially in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, they're lopsided in Joe Biden's favor, Wolf.

So, we know the math exists, as they count the last 370,000 or so votes. The math exists because a lot of the votes that have yet to be counted are here, 83 percent now in Philadelphia. It was 80 percent to start the day. So they have made some progress.

But look at what's happening here. Joe Biden has to get somewhere in the ballpark of 60 percent of the remaining votes. Maybe a little bit more, maybe a little bit less will do. But he's getting 80 percent in Philadelphia, and there are still tens of thousands of votes to be counted here in the city of Philadelphia.

In the suburbs around, Joe Biden's numbers go down a bit, but if he just matches that number, that keeps him in play as we play this out. So, you continue to count the votes in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. You see that lead down to 108,000.

Again, if you have been with us, we can go back in time and look at this as we come through. Want to make sure we get Pennsylvania up here, and we have it. And you go back here. Imagine you're the president of the United States. Midnight on election night, as Tuesday gave way to Wednesday, you're up 548,000 votes. It stretches a little bit by 10:00 a.m. Wednesday.

It's down a little tad by Wednesday afternoon. But then you start to see the slide. As they start counting more of these mail-in ballots, the president's lead has consistently gone down. That was at noontime today. Now you come out to real time, it's even smaller.

It has not, as they count these mail-in ballots, Wolf, not once, with a major installment of votes coming in, has the president's lead gone back up. It has consistently come down, 20 electoral votes. It's the biggest prize still on the board to be claimed. The president cannot win without it. Joe Biden can.

BLITZER: Three hundred and seventy thousand votes still outstanding, we're told, in Pennsylvania-- KING: Right.

BLITZER: -- right now.

The secretary of state told us a little while ago that maybe, by the end of today, we will get the results from Pennsylvania.

We're waiting for a news conference from the secretary of state, John, from Georgia right now. We will presumably be getting some new information from Georgia right now. Right now, the president is ahead by only 12,835 votes with 98 percent of the vote reporting, still 2 percent out there.

KING: And, again, we have seen the exact same trajectory. As they count the mail-in ballots last -- remember, coronavirus election. Some people voted by mail. Some people voted early by standing in line. Some people voted on Election Day.

The president's doing fine with the Election Day vote. The vote, the people who stood in line to vote early, most of that has been counted. These are mostly mail-in ballots.

I'm going to get to where the most votes are here. But the most votes outstanding right now in terms of one county are here. You spoke to Martin Savidge, are correspondent on the ground, last hour.

[15:05:00]

Here in Chatham County, they're counting. There are 17,000 ballots to count still. If you look, Joe Biden's getting 57 percent. In the mail- in ballots, his percentages tend to run higher than that.

So, here's one place we're looking as they try to count the votes here. It's a small operation. They say they're going to try to get as many done as they can today. But watch. We need these votes to come in. And, again, where are the votes outstanding still being counted? That's one blue county.

It doesn't mean there aren't some in some of these red counties, but there's a big basket of votes to be had here. And we're also waiting for the final installment Fulton County. Every time we have got a decent installment from Fulton County, Joe Biden has narrowed the president's lead, Atlanta and the suburbs around it.

We go West to Cobb County, you see Joe Biden getting 56-plus. They're close to finishing there. You move this way, you come back to Fulton, you come over. Gwinnett county has been a godsend, if you will, for the Biden campaign, 58 percent here. And you come down here as well.

BLITZER: Hold on a second.

Georgia's secretary of state is just about to make a statement. Let's listen in.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

GABRIEL STERLING, GEORGIA VOTING SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION MANAGER: -- details of where we stand right now.

And I will give the caveats that this could have changed as I walked across the street. This is an ever-changing environment we're in, but we have come down to approximately 47,277 ballots still outstanding that are with the counties currently.

And I will go through the list, as we did last time. Then I will try to come back and give some specifics as to where we stand.

Chatham, 17,157. Clayton, 6026. Cobb, 700. Floyd, 682. Forsyth, 4,713. Fulton, 7,305. Gwinnett, 4,800. Harris, 3,641, and Laurens, 1,797. And a little one down here at the, bottom, Taylor 456.

Now, I'm going to go through and kind of give you where we stand and the situations behind these numbers. So we will start at the top.

And if you notice, several of the counties over there this morning have now dropped off, as they have completed their uploads of the ballots that they had in hand.

Chatham County is still currently scanning. I know they're working. We have an investigator there just to keep an eye on things, because, at some point, you all -- one of you all are you're going to ask me what happened down there, and I need to be able to answer with a firsthand account from our own people. So that's what happening there.

Clayton County, we talked to them this morning and again after lunch. They're continuing to work. They have continued to scan and make uploads. As you noticed, their total has dropped. Cobb County's continuing to finish off their ballots there.

Floyd, I don't have a clear answer on the 682 just yet. Forsyth, Mandi, who's a great elections director, is working to get through that stuff. She is very much on the side of being accurate, rather than being fast in some ways, which is really good and helpful, because she is a very diligent director.

Fulton continues to draw down their number. They have 7,305. Again, with the work of our monitoring there, we're keeping a close eye on that number. There were 1,200 ballots with the second stage of signature match. They were brought over from State Farm Arena today. That's -- they're inside that total.

One other specific item I have from Fulton County is, they have 3,900 provisionals. I do not know the coding on those provisionals. As you may or may not know, depending on the coding, there has to be actions done by the voter, or there's an automatic acceptance of those ballots, again, depending on the coding of those. I do not have that detail.

Gwinnett is down to 4,800. That was a -- we had discussions with them about what that -- why they had the 7,700 out there. Part of that is just a scanning differential between the accepted ballots and those that were reported. So, their actual total is 4,400 of the absentee ballots, new absentee ballots to scan and report. And they did have an issue that was asked about earlier this morning.

They had a corrupt memory card on one of the early voting ICPs, the polling place scanners. They discovered that. They took the ballots from that. They re-scanned those. And those will be included the totals. It's approximately 400 votes, and that is included in the 4,800.

But that's one of the benefits of having a paper backup, is that you can -- if those situations occur, you can take care of those.

Harris is continuing to work. Laurens County, we talked to them this afternoon. And they are trying to figure out exactly where the batches are for the 797, because they had thought they had uploaded them, and they looked and realized they have not.

Taylor had a unique issue. They did their absentee ballot printing in- house. Something along the way made the ballots not the appropriate size. So, if you have a ballot that is based on coordinates, which a hand-marked paper ballot is, and it is not the right size, it cannot be scanned.

So they're going to the process of duplicating each of those ballots on the ballot marking devices. And then what they have to do is have to take the original ballot and the duplicate ballot, so they can tie them together, and to be marked that each one matches to the other one to keep a paper trail alive of the original artifact of the voter.

[15:10:05]

They will take those ballots, and it's 456 of them, and then run them through their scanner. They are a little over halfway through that process right now. As you can imagine, it's an arduous process. You want to be precise and make sure you get the ballot reflecting exactly what the intended vote of the voter was. So, again, it gets to a total of 47,277.

On another note, following up on another question that was asked earlier today, we have -- this is included in the counts we have right now. There are 17,529 UOCAVA, which is our military and overseas ballots, have been accepted in the counties.

And, as I noted earlier, under the federal laws, the UOCAVA ballots that are postmarked by Tuesday can be accepted up to tomorrow, Friday. So, of the pool of those, there are 8,899. That doesn't mean any of them will arrive or it means that all of them could arrive. We have no way of knowing that number.

So, I just want to make that clear. It's not that there's 8,900 ballots to be counted. Those are ones that could arrive to be counted and any subset thereof.

So, with that, I will answer any questions you may have.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, can you tell us how long you think it will take for the count to be finished?

STERLING: Well, let's see.

First of all, I'm not the secretary. I'm the statewide voting system implementation manager.

(LAUGHTER)

QUESTION: Well, let me ask you that question again, sir.

STERLING: Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

QUESTION: How long do you think it will take for these to be counted?

STERLING: Again, as we have been stating for weeks and months, that, with the advent of paper, it's going to take time.

We anticipate having the count -- quote, unquote -- "done" when the legal deadline for certification is, which is going to be 10 days after the election. That's when we're done, because there are ballots that are still coming in. There are ballots to be cured. There are ballots that provisionals that are to be verified.

So, we can't know how long the process will take. We hope to have clarity on the outcomes of these elections as soon as possible. However, when you have so many important elections in the state being so close, done is a very relative term at this point. We're trying to get all the legal votes counted accurately, so we can get the right results and make sure that everybody's vote is reflected properly.

(CROSSTALK)

STERLING: Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

QUESTION: What is your message to people around the state and around the country who claim the amount of time it's taking Georgia is some sort of effort to steal an election?

STERLING: The effort here is to make sure that everybody's vote, legal vote, is counted properly, and that the actual results are reflective of the voters' intent.

The issue we have in Georgia is, like I said, it's a close vote. There's other states that have more votes to count than we do, but it's a wide margin, so nobody cares. So, this is the first time we have used paper ballots in the state in 20 years. So, as we said, two weeks ago, three weeks ago, the secretary stood where I'm standing and said, this is going to take a little more time.

These close elections require us to be diligent, and make sure we do everything right.

Yes, sir.

BLITZER: Gabriel Sterling, we should say. That's Gabriel Sterling. And his title is voting system implementation manager. John King, he did say nearly 50,000 votes are still outstanding. And then he listed the counties where they are. And you have been taking a close look at those counties. Right now, Trump is ahead by 12,835 votes. And the question is, are there enough votes outstanding for Biden to take the lead in Georgia?

KING: The answer is yes. There are enough anyway. And it's especially yes because of where the gentleman just explained the votes are outstanding.

And, again, props to him and others like him who have repeatedly come out. This is the second time we have seen him today. They're transparent about what's out there and about how quickly they can count them.

Wolf, correct my numbers as we go through this if I get something wrong, but I just want to walk you through. Look at this lead, 12,835, right, 98 percent in. You think, can Joe Biden -- he's 49.2, the president's 49.5. Can he catch up and pass him?

With 47,000 votes out, 47,277, yes, that's obvious he can. The question is, where are they? Can he get the scope of it?

So let's go through this and let's start over here, Chatham County, Savannah, surrounding areas, right? We have 17,000, right, 17,000 votes, 17,157 votes right out here. Look what Joe Biden is getting, 58 percent of the vote so far. And we know, doesn't mean it will continue to happen, as they count these mail-in ballots, Joe Biden's percentages tend to be higher than that.

They have been in the state of Georgia as this process has played out. Again, it's not a guarantee. But you can look at 17,000 votes here. You look how much Joe Biden is winning the county by, he's likely to pick up some ground. That's just in one county.

Now let's come over here, Fulton County. This is Atlanta. This is the Democratic stronghold. It's the largest population center, 7,000 additional, 7,000 and change additional votes, we were explained, still to be counted here. Joe Biden is getting 72, round up, 73 percent of the vote in Fulton County.

Logic tells you -- it's not a guarantee -- but logic tells you, with 7,000 more votes to be counted, Joe Biden is going to run up those votes if he's getting 72 percent there.

So, then we move over here, Cobb County. We have additional ballots here. I believe 700 was the number voted -- noted by the gentleman there. And you see -- the election administrator -- see Joe Biden's getting 56 percent of the vote so far in the full count. And, again, in the mail-in ballot, he generally has been getting a higher percentage than it averages out there.

[15:15:09]

So, let's move over from here. There were -- DeKalb, he did not mention. DeKalb was running up its votes. I didn't hear him mention. BLITZER: No.

KING: They did a good job counting there. He did mention Gwinnett. There are 4,400 in my--

BLITZER: Forty eight hundred.

KING: Forty eight hundred in my notes.

So, again, 4,800 votes in a blue county. You see Joe Biden right there getting 59 percent of the vote so far. I want to pop one up here. There are some red counties. He did mention there were some votes to come in from Forsyth County. The president is winning here. So, when you look at it, your eyes tell you the president's going to pick up some votes here.

But we also know that, in the mail-in voting, even in the Republican red counties, Democrats tended to vote early.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: He mentioned Clayton County, too, with about 6,000 votes.

KING: Right. And, again, that's just South of Atlanta.

So, Atlanta and the suburbs is the engine that could power Joe Biden's comeback in the state of Georgia. And, again, just for context, the president must win Pennsylvania and Georgia. There is no path to 270 for President Trump without Pennsylvania and Georgia. Joe Biden can get there without either one of those states.

The president has to have them both. And you mentioned, I think, what was the number, 6,000 here?

BLITZER: In Clayton County, 6,026.

KING: Right, 6,026 in Clayton County. And just, look, I mean, you don't have to do -- 85 percent of the vote is what Joe Biden has been getting in Clayton County.

Again, Wolf, no guarantee he gets 85 percent of those 6,000 as they count them. But you're -- what you're saying just doesn't lie. It tells you what you need to know.

And, as you come back out, again, we just went through all those blue counties, right, 47,000 votes outstanding. Most of them are in blue counties, meaning counties Joe Biden is winning, some of them counties Joe Biden is winning convincingly, 60 percent, 70 percent, 80 percent.

He has to overcome a 12,000-vote lead. It is more than within reason to think that Joe Biden has the chance to do it. We need to count the votes. The administrator there, again, applaud him for his transparency, that they're doing the best they can today.

One other thing he did say at the end, they don't know how many will come back, but they have mailed more than 8,800 ballots to military personnel and other Georgians who are living overseas. You never know how many of those are going to come back.

So, if this is very close at the end, those can take another week or two to come in. So, we may have to wait on those, if you have a very, very close election. The question at the end is, when we get all the mail-in ballots that they're counting today, and perhaps some of it will go into tomorrow, what's the margin?

And could that 8,800 -- and he doesn't know. You could get 800 of those back. You could get all 8,800 back. Those are the ballots that have been requested overseas. You never know how many going to come back until the deadline passes. But we might have to wait because of the potential universe of 8,000 more votes. That depends where we get at the end of the count today and all of these small counties.

Again, just to bring up this one again, Chatham County, you talked to Martin Savidge. We have reporters on the ground and most of these places, which is great for us. And the officials are being transparent. Martin Savidge said they're trying to finish today, but they have limited resources and staff.

The question is, of those -- at least if they don't finish, how many of those 17,000 do they count? What does it do to that lead? And, again, most of the other remaining votes are right here in Atlanta and the surrounding suburbs, where, hour after hour after hour, as those vote totals have come in, a couple hundred at a time, a couple thousand here and there, Joe Biden has been consistently cutting into that lead, which was once giant. It is now in peril.

BLITZER: Yes, 12,835.

Just remind our viewers what it was four years ago.

KING: Sure. Let's go back to four years ago. And you look right here.

This was -- again, the Democrats made a big run on Georgia. The Democrats for years have been saying Georgia is changing, the suburbs are changing. It's getting younger. It's getting more college- educated. It has a high African-American turnout.

Hillary Clinton, 51-46, when you round up, so a five-point race four years ago, and then you come in here, and we're looking at a much closer race. And, again, if you were watching us late Tuesday night, you would have thought the president was going to carry Georgia. We're seeing this in every state.

In states that saved the mail ballots for last, Joe Biden is coming back.

BLITZER: David Chalian, you're looking very closely at Georgia right now. It's a real nail-biter.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: No doubt about that, Wolf.

There's that 12,835-vote lead for Donald Trump right now that has been shrinking consistently since Tuesday night, 49.5 percent to 49.2 percent, with 98 percent of the vote in. But, as John was just showing you, and we heard from state officials, there are an outstanding pot of votes that are roughly about 48,000. He said 47,000 and change. But as a rough estimate, there are these 48,000 votes still to be counted.

John was just taking through county by county, but statewide, take a look. Joe Biden would need 63 to 65 percent of those 48,000 votes that are left to be counted in order to overtake Donald Trump and win Georgia. Donald Trump only needs 34 to 36 percent of them.

But, as John was just showing you on the map, these votes that are out there to be counted are coming from Democratic powerhouse areas in the suburbs, and it's the mail vote, which is a Democratic-leaning universe of voters.

And so Joe Biden has been collecting north of 63 to 65 percent in this last day in Georgia, as votes have been coming in. And if he continues to overperform what he needs here, he can remain quite hopeful that there's a chance to overtake a Donald Trump in Georgia -- Wolf.

[15:20:02]

BLITZER: David Chalian, thanks very much.

So, who would have thought Georgia was going to be at play at a big time like this in these final hours?

KING: And, again, as David just laid out, the math is there. That doesn't mean it will happen. But the math is there, especially when you look at all the blue counties.

So, you're looking at where we are right now, 253 to 213. Again, as I said earlier, the president of the United States cannot -- his path is so narrow right now. He cannot win without Georgia. Just imagine a world -- we have been talking all day. We're waiting for out West, Arizona and Nevada, to get Joe Biden to the finish line.

But let's just say. We have seen that there's some indication that -- this is hypothetical right now, but the lead has been shrinking here a little bit. What about -- what if the president carried both of those? There's no guarantee he will. The Biden campaign is confident, actually, it's going to win both of those states.

But if the president did, and Joe Biden can do this, get you to 269. If he could -- the president's winning there, but if he could do this and this, it's over right there. And so you're seeing a surge -- and, again, the Biden campaign is quite confident out here.

So, the former vice president has well in -- well -- has many more menu options is the simple way to put it to get there. But if you try to do the president's math, you cannot get the president of the United States to 270 without the two of those. He needs them both.

If he gets them both, he's got a couple of options. Joe Biden has many more options. The president of the United States cannot win reelection if he doesn't win the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the state of Georgia. And his lead in those states by the hour is shrinking.

BLITZER: And Biden can win election that he simply carries Pennsylvania and takes its 20 electoral votes.

KING: Right.

BLITZER: He then has 273. You need 270.

KING: Right.

BLITZER: He's the next president of the United States.

All right, we're following the ballot count in the five remaining battleground states. Pennsylvania could decide the race before the day is out.

Stay with us. Our special coverage continues next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:26:48]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: And welcome back.

Let's take a look at the state of the race.

Nevada, you see it there, Joe Biden still the lead 11,438. Georgia, the president is in the lead, 12,835. That lead has been narrowing and continues to. Arizona, 68,129 votes, Joe Biden is ahead in. That state has also been narrowing, but still more votes to come in. North Carolina remaining the same, around 76,000, Pennsylvania, 108,602.

It is Pennsylvania, as you see on the graphic, Biden on the brink of win, waiting for Pennsylvania.

We heard from the secretary of state, Gloria, earlier that they are likely to finish counting the ballots, the -- all the votes by later this -- today.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.

And then we heard Senator Casey say, maybe not so much, that maybe they wouldn't announce it today. So we're all kind of waiting to get some clarification that. I think there may be a presser later this afternoon, 5:00 or so, because everybody knows that's the elephant in the room.

If Joe Biden gets Pennsylvania, it's game, set, match. That's it. And you can challenge, make all kinds of ballot challenges, et cetera, et cetera. But if he wins by a substantial margin--

RICK SANTORUM, CNN COMMENTATOR: Yes, that's the key.

BORGER: And that is the key. And Rick Santorum says that as well, that if he wins by a really big margin, which I don't know what you would call it-- (CROSSTALK)

COOPER: A substantial margin, because of possible challenges.

(CROSSTALK)

SANTORUM: Yes. In Michigan, he's ahead by 150,000 votes now.

So, you don't hear many people talking about Michigan, you're going to do a recount.

BORGER: Yes.

SANTORUM: But, in Wisconsin, he's -- it's 20,000. Again, that's still a big number for a state the size of Wisconsin.

But, again--

BORGER: If it's 100,000, if it's more than 100,000.

SANTORUM: If you get -- if it's more than 100,000 votes, it's a tough slog.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Listen, I was involved in, when I used to be in politics in recounts. You have been around politics a long time.

(CROSSTALK)

AXELROD: It is really, really unusual to move even hundreds of votes in a recount, much, much less thousands, and certainly not tens of thousands of votes.

I mean, that's the reason that Hillary Clinton conceded in 2016.

COOPER: What about potential legal challenges in Pennsylvania?

AXELROD: Well, that's the thing.

I think -- I mean, obviously, the challenges to classes of votes would be significant. I think one significant piece here is that there are these votes that are going to come in after. And the Supreme Court has -- they allowed it to move forward, but raised questions about it. They were asked to segregate them.

But, as I think Dana said earlier, it's really hard to say, we're going to exclude votes that have already been counted. I mean, that's a pretty unusual thing, especially if the voters are bona fide voters.

SANTORUM: Again -- again, this is where the secretary of state has just poked the -- poked the Republicans in the eye in Pennsylvania, because she said before the state Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court, that they would not count the ballots; they would simply segregate them.

And then, right before the election-- COOPER: These are ballots that what?