#123]] Presidential Election Results: Biden Wins (ceunah NewsCNN}
How Trump’s $300 million ground game may have helped narrow the race
From CNN’s Josiah Ryan
Republican insiders are crediting a $300 million get-out-out the vote effort organized by the Trump campaign and allies for narrowing the gap in many states, CNN’s Ryan Nobles reported early this morning.
“Republicans are talking about… the ground game that the Republican National Committee and the Trump Victory Organization put into place shortly after President Trump was inaugurated,” said Nobles.
Nobles reported on Friday that the campaign had spent more than $300 million on a data and ground operation and less on television and digital advertising in the final leg of the campaign.
“They firmly believe that that ground game was going to be a big part in narrowing the gap, in many of these key states and they’re now saying that we’re seeing that play out in realtime as these votes come,” added Nobles.
CNN Projection: Biden wins Hawaii
Joe Biden will win Hawaii, CNN projects.
There are four electoral votes at stake in Hawaii. It takes 270 electoral votes to win the 2020 presidential election.
Who won in 2016: Former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton carried the state, and President Trump won the general election.
Biden takes the lead in Wisconsin
From CNN’s Allison Gordon
Election officials count absentee ballots in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, early on November 4.
Election officials count absentee ballots in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, early on November 4. Scott Olson/Getty Images
Results from Milwaukee have flipped Wisconsin to Joe Biden, who has a lead in the state right now, CNN’s Phil Mattingly says.
Earlier, the city of Milwaukee’s absentee ballot information was delivered with a police escort, CNN’s Ryan Young reported.
“When they have those three officers walking with them, you understand the importance of the event,” Young told CNN’s Chris Cuomo.
The election is far from over with millions of votes still outstanding in key states, including in battleground Wisconsin.
Biden campaign manager calls Trump speech “outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect”
From CNN’s MJ Lee
President Donald Trump speaks during election night in the East Room of the White House on November 4.
President Donald Trump speaks during election night in the East Room of the White House on November 4. Carlos Barria/Reuters
Joe Biden’s campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon issued a strongly worded statement following President Trump’s White House speech, calling it “outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect.”
“The president’s statement tonight about trying to shut down the counting of duly cast ballots was outrageous, unprecedented, and incorrect. It was outrageous because it is a naked effort to take away the democratic rights of American citizens,” she said in the statement.
O’Malley Dillon went on to say that “the counting will not stop.”
Vote counting is still underway in key states. Here’s what you need to know.
From CNN’s Maeve Reston and Stephen Collinson
Workers with the Detroit Department of Elections help process absentee ballots at the Central Counting Board in the TCF Center in Detroit on November 4.
Workers with the Detroit Department of Elections help process absentee ballots at the Central Counting Board in the TCF Center in Detroit on November 4. Elaine Cromie/Getty Images
Votes are still being counted in several key states across the US, and no winner has been determined in the presidential election.
If you’re just reading in, here’s what you need to know about the race:
All eyes on the Midwest: The election is far from over with millions of votes outstanding in key states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan — ballots that were cast before Election Day that have yet to be counted. Pennsylvania has counted 39% of the mail-in ballots it has received, according to the state.
Counting underway in Arizona and Georgia: Joe Biden appears to have made significant gains in Arizona, a state which Trump won in 2016. Georgia appeared at a standstill as officials in Fulton County, which includes Atlanta and its populous suburbs, said they would resume counting at resume at 8 a.m. ET.
President Trump attempted to claim victory: Donald Trump called for a halt to legitimate vote counting that is underway around the country and sought to mislead his loyal supporters by conflating the legitimate counting of ballots with voting as he falsely claimed Democrats were trying to “steal the election.”
Biden holds the lead: The Democratic nominee holds the lead in the Electoral College at this stage in the night, 220 to 213. Remember: 270 electoral votes are needed to become president. Speaking to reporters, the former vice president urged them to “Keep the faith, guys. We’re going to win this.”
Longtime Republican election lawyer: “Let all the votes be counted”
From CNN’s Leinz Vales
Benjamin Ginsberg, right, prepares to testify before a Senate Rules and Administration Committee hearing in Russell Building titled “Bipartisan Support for Improving U.S. Elections: An Overview from the Presidential Commission on Election Administration,” on February 12, 2014.
Benjamin Ginsberg, right, prepares to testify before a Senate Rules and Administration Committee hearing in Russell Building titled “Bipartisan Support for Improving U.S. Elections: An Overview from the Presidential Commission on Election Administration,” on February 12, 2014. Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call
Benjamin L. Ginsberg, a longtime Republican election lawyer who co-chaired the Presidential Commission on Election Administration, said Wednesday that President Trump should “let all the votes be counted,” following his attacks on legitimate vote counting efforts.
“If you have objections to either the particular ballots or to the process, then you have remedies after the fact from each state individual contests laws or recount laws if the margins are close enough,” Ginsberg told CNN’s Jake Tapper during CNN’s special election coverage.
“But these are legally cast ballots, Jake, or at least will be determined to be legally cast ballots by the appropriate local county and state officials. And for a president to say we are going to disenfranchise those legally cast ballots — it really is extraordinary.”
Philadelphia expects another update on mail-in ballots at 9 a.m. ET
From CNN’s Mark Morales
Philadelphia won’t have an updated number on mail-in ballots until 9 a.m. on Wednesday, said Lisa Deeley, head of the Philadelphia City Commissioners, which is a bipartisan board of elected officials in charge of elections and voter registration.
Election officials are waiting on in-person voting numbers to be reported by some individual precincts and ingested into their system before they can report the number of mail-in ballots, Deeley said.
“That’s just the configuration of our system,” said Deeley, adding that it was a reporting issue, not mechanical.
The delay in in-person results from the field are slowing down the reports, particularly in West Philadelphia, Deeley said
“We are counting, we have been counting, we are going to continue counting until it’s done,” Deeley said. “We’re just waiting for the rest of the in-person results to come in from voting machines.”
Another update with mail-in votes will come at 9 a.m., Deeley said.
As of 1:10 a.m. ET, with 1,598 of 1,703 divisions reporting, former Vice President Joe Biden has received 73.3% of the city’s votes, and President Trump has received 25.67% of the city’s vote.
3:00 a.m. ET, November 4, 2020
It’s 3 a.m. ET: Here’s where things stand in the race to 270.
From CNN’s Allison Gordon
Based on CNN’s current projections, Joe Biden has 220 electoral votes while Donald Trump has 213 electoral votes.
Here’s the latest look at where things stand:
Reminder: Each candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.
Arizona’s Maricopa County has processed more than 1.4 million early votes so far
From CNN’s Kyung Lah
Arizona’s largest county has processed and counted a total of 1,487,624 early votes out of a total of approximately 1.7 million early votes cast, according to the Maricopa County Elections Department.
There are roughly 248,000 outstanding early votes that have been signature verified but not yet fully processed. Election officials will start counting these remaining early votes Wednesday as well as an undetermined number of mail-in ballots that people delivered to voting centers in person that have not been processed in any way.
On Election Day, approximately 167,000 people voted in person at 175 voting centers within the county.
As of 12:40 a.m. local time with 75 voting centers reporting, a total of 74,485 Election Day votes have been counted.
3:05 a.m. ET, November 4, 2020
Longtime Republican election lawyer calls Trump’s claim a “distressing moment”
From CNN’s Josiah Ryan
President Donald Trump speaks during election night in the East Room of the White House in Washington, early on November 4.
President Donald Trump speaks during election night in the East Room of the White House in Washington, early on November 4. Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty
Veteran Republican election lawyer Ben Ginsberg expressed dismay at President Trump’s attacks on legitimate vote-counting efforts this morning, saying he had never seen a President behave in such a manner.
“It is a distressing moment for me as a long time Republican to see a call to disenfranchise so many people,” said Ginsberg. “…What the President said tonight is not only unprecedented and it not only lacks any basis in the law, it really is a disservice to all the other men and women who are on the ballot as Republicans today.”
When asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper whether he’d every seen anything like this from a President, he replied, “No. Not even close.”
2:54 a.m. ET, November 4, 2020
Trump attacks legitimate vote-counting efforts and claims fraud without basis
From CNN’s Kevin Liptak
President Trump attacked legitimate vote-counting efforts in remarks from the White House early Wednesday, suggesting attempts to tally all ballots amounted to disenfranchising his supporters.
“Millions and millions of people voted for us,” Trump said in the East Room. “A very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people.”
His remarks were laced with misleading statements and outright falsehoods and amounted to an assault on the Democratic process. He insisted that states where vote tallies currently show him leading should be called in his favor, despite significant outstanding votes yet to be counted.
He said he was preparing to declare victory earlier in the evening.
“We were getting ready for a big celebration. We were winning everything. And all of a sudden it was just called off,” he said.
Trump baselessly claimed a fraud was being committed.
“This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country,” Trump claimed.
“Frankly we did win this election,” he said, despite millions of votes still outstanding.
Saying he would go to the US Supreme Court, Trump said he wanted “all voting to stop.”