Election 2020 presidential results

President Trump's lead in Georgia has shrunk as more votes continue to be tallied in Fulton County, home to Atlanta, CNN's Wolf Blitzer said this evening.

Despite what Trump may think, there aren't any "nefarious things going on" with the vote counting process in places like Fulton County, CNN's John King said.

"Republicans and Democrats and independents [are] in every one of these rooms across America, red state, and blue states counting the votes," King said. "In these predominantly Democratic counties, populous counties, Atlanta, Fulton County, 10% of the vote statewide, will come out of this one county, we'll get more votes later today."

CNN's Wolf Blitzer and John King report:

Nevada election officials say they expect to release more election results on Thursday from the battleground state where six electoral votes hang in the balance.

Secretary of State Communications Director Jennifer Russell confirmed to CNN officials will provide updated election results Thursday at 12 p.m. ET / 9 a.m. PT.  Those results will include additional votes from the state’s two most populated counties.

In pivotal Clark County, home to Las Vegas and nearly 70% of the state’s active voters, early in-person voting and ballots cast on Election Day show former Democratic nominee Joe Biden with a slight edge over President Trump. But thousands of outstanding mail-in ballots could determine the race.

Of the 1.2 million ballots sent to Clark County voters, records show 413,000 have been returned so far, of which officials have processed 337,000. But ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 will still be counted if they are received by Nov. 10. It is not known how many more ballots are yet to be received.

Clark County Registrar Joe Gloria confirmed Wednesday afternoon he will not release the number of mail-in ballots dropped off on Election Day, as well as those delivered by the US Postal Service on Nov. 3 and 4 until Thursday morning. 

Asked late Tuesday if mail-in ballots could potentially flip the election, Gloria replied “…it all depends on the margin of victory, but certainly that is a possibility.” 

The county is also still processing provisional ballots, those sent to voters overseas, disabled voters and those from new residents. Nevada is one of 19 states that allows same-day voter registration.

In Washoe County, home to the city of Reno and the state’s second most populous county, the registrar of voters said all Election Day in-person votes and ballots received on Tuesday have been processed.

The county registrar said more than 21,000 votes were counted on Election Day and another 9,000 mail-in and ballots placed in drop boxes are being tallied.

Philadelphia’s ballot counting process is an open and transparent one, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said during a news conference Wednesday evening when asked about the Trump campaign lawsuit to stop the state’s counting of ballots.

Philadelphia has been streaming ballot processing from the pre-canvassing period, he said.

“I think it's being live streamed on their website, so I guess you can get it, anybody can get it anywhere in the world, so I'm not sure how that equals a lack of transparency. It seems to me it’s never been more transparent than it is right now," the governor said

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar said she couldn’t speak to ongoing litigation, but the state will “oppose every effort to at any point shut down the vote.”

All of the votes in Fulton County, the most populous in Georgia which includes Atlanta, will be counted by the end of night, promised the county's elections director Richard Barron this afternoon. 

Barron said there are still 36,000 mail-in ballots to be counted in the county.

He added it would probably be after midnight by the time the ballots make it through adjudication. 

The biggest challenge at the moment, according to Barron is limited space in the elections facility. He suggested he may try to squeeze more tables in to the room to allow manual opening of envelopes containing mail-in ballots. 

Barron said he expected his team will have counted more than 142,000 votes by the evening's end. 

Watch the Fulton County Election Director's news conference:

There has been no formal communication between Joe Biden and President Trump today, a person close to Biden said. 

Biden didn’t mention the President in his remarks here, even as he extended an olive branch to Trump supporters and pledged to be the president for all Americans – whether they voted for him or not.

But Biden’s tone was unmistakable today – he did not aggressively go after the President or talk about him in a mocking tone as he often did on the campaign trail. He did not attack him on Twitter. A positive tone was set – even as they put teams of lawyers in place to prepare to challenge Trump’s lawsuits.

If tradition holds, the two men will have to talk at some point – when a winner is known.

The Biden campaign says that if that time comes, they know how to reach Trump – they still have the number of the White House.

The world was well aware that the US presidential election was unlikely to conclude quickly. 

Record early and mail-in voting meant that America’s allies would have to sit tight and wait to see which of the wildly different candidates would occupy the most powerful office on earth for the next four years. 

Even if incumbent President Trump were a traditional candidate who could be trusted to respect the election result, any diplomat worth their salt would remain tight-lipped until they knew exactly who they’d be dealing with at NATO, the United Nations and every other international forum. Commenting on another country’s electoral process before it’s complete is not common; neither is the incumbent prematurely declaring victory and making up his own election rules.

This election matters more to US allies than any other in recent memory. It’s frankly impossible to do anything significant on the world stage without the president’s buy-in, and Trump has a clear view of America’s role in the world: He pulled out of the World Health Organization in a pandemic. He talks about withdrawing funding for NATO, music to Russia and China’s ears. He tore up a treaty that stopped Iran from making nuclear weapons and withdrew from an agreement on climate change. 

No matter how difficult Trump is to deal with, a good relationship with the White House is essential. It does, however, put allies in a tight spot when Trump decides to attack the democratic process itself. Dominic Raab, Britain’s foreign secretary, has already faced backlash for refusing to condemn Trump’s wild claims. He tweeted sheepishly later that the “UK-US relationship is in great shape and we are confident it will go from strength to strength whichever candidate wins the election.”

The bigger picture: Over the past four years, it’s become clear that Trump has no problem with punishing people he feels besmirch him.

Suggesting that he might be trying to delegitimize the election is probably a swift way to get allies taken off his Christmas card list. So after decades of criticizing other countries when a fair democratic process appears to be under threat, most of America’s friends are waiting this one out in silence.

Allies will be quick to start building relationships with a President-elect Joe Biden if that’s how this shakes out. But right now, they cannot risk upsetting sitting President Trump. And the longer the battle for the presidency goes on, the more awkward that silence could be to maintain. 

As President Trump's lead in Georgia narrows, CNN's John King said Wednesday that "there are enough votes outstanding for Joe Biden to make it up."

"Joe Biden needs about two-thirds of the remaining votes," King said during CNN's special election coverage. "And again, if you look at the statewide numbers you think, okay, there’s no way he’s going to get two-thirds of the remaining vote. But then you think where are they? We know there are still some more."

CNN's David Chalian reported a "rough estimate" of 185,000 unaccounted votes in Georgia. 

"Donald Trump, on the other hand, he only needs between 31% and 33% of that uncounted 185,000 votes in order to hang on to Georgia, keep it in his column, and not let it go to the Democrats. That’s not that big of a percentage, given the fact that overall he’s at 50% of the vote."

About Georgia: Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Wednesday afternoon that there are still 185,000 uncounted ballots in Georgia. Some of the counties with outstanding votes told CNN that they will finish counting tonight, while others are expected to stretch into tomorrow.

There are 16 electoral votes at stake in Georgia  — 270 electoral votes are needed to take the presidency. Biden currently has 253 electoral votes while Trump has 213.

CNN's John King and David Chalian report:

Though Pennsylvania has made “excellent progress” in counting ballots, Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar estimates it will be “a matter of days before the overwhelming majority of ballots are counted.” 

Speaking at news conference with Gov. Tom Wolf, Boockvar estimated “hundreds of thousands” of ballots would be counted Wednesday night.

Currently, Joe Biden needs Arizona and Nevada to win the US presidency. But even as he closes in on the 270 electoral votes to get there, President Trump still has a path open to be reelected. He will need to “run the table,” CNN’s John King says.

Trump needs to hold his lead in North Carolina, Georgia and Maine’s second congressional district. Once Alaska’s votes get counted, King says he anticipates it to go for the President.

This makes a win in Pennsylvania crucial for Trump to stay in the race and fight for Arizona.

CNN's John King reports: