Election 2020 presidential results

"I think we definitely could" know the result in Pennsylvania by the end of the day today, Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar told CNN Thursday.

"I think there's about 550,000 some-odd — plus or minus — ballots that are still in the process of being counted today. Some of those may have already been counted but are not yet uploaded. But yeah, they're coming in," she said, adding that the counties are ahead of schedule.

There are approximately 370,000 ballots left to count in Pennsylvania, according to the state's website.

The largest number of outstanding votes remain in the big population centers, she said.

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UPDATE: This post has been updated with the latest numbers of outstanding ballots in the state.

A state court judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Trump campaign that asked for an immediate halt to the vote counting until its representatives had “meaningful” access to ballot counting and adjudication.

Judge Cynthia Stephens was highly skeptical throughout a virtual hearing on Thursday about the lack of admissible evidence in the case and whether the campaign had sued the right party (Secretary of State Benson).

The lawyer representing the state, Heather Meingast, said the case was essentially moot because the counting had already concluded. “The ship has really sailed on the relief that they’re requesting in this case.” 

The judge said that the Trump campaign’s request is going to be denied in a written order, which will not come today, but she was not convinced of any substantial likelihood of success on the merits of the case. She said she will get an order out tomorrow afternoon if she can.

The judge seemed to express exasperation that this case was brought by the Trump campaign and ended the hearing by saying she adjourns the matter “where everyone here seeks to have a full and fair election process.”

Philadelphia elections officials have asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to reverse a ruling that allows canvass observers for the Trump campaign to sit closer, and observe more closely, as mail-in ballots continue to be counted. 

The legal filings forced election workers to briefly stop the process of counting mail-in ballots just before noon ET. They have since resumed.

“The count is going forward,” said Kevin Feeley, spokesman for the city commissioners, who are overseeing the election in Philadelphia.“There was a brief pause earlier today in light of ongoing litigation but it has resumed in accordance with the law.” 

Philadelphia election officials argued that allowing the canvass observers to sit closer jeopardizes both the safety of ballot processing and the privacy of voters, according to the latest court filing.

The Supreme Court in Pennsylvania has yet to weigh in on the request. 

“There’s was a petition for allowance of appeal by The board of elections in Philadelphia. The court has taken no action on this filing,” said Stacey Witalec, spokesperson for the Supreme Court. “They will review it and determine either to grant or deny the appeal.”

According to the city officials’ filing:

You can read the court filing here.

Clark County, Nevada, election official Joe Gloria said staff is preparing to count "a little over 51,000 ballots" today that will be reported on Friday morning.

"The bulk of our ballots we're hoping will be ready by Saturday or Sunday, this weekend. And again we won't complete until Nov. 12 with all of those ballots that serve as exceptions," he said.

Clark County is a major population center in Nevada, where Las Vegas is located.

Gloria said the county received a total of 63,262 mail-in ballots that need to be counted and processed. This number includes ballots that were dropped off at voting centers, ballots that were mailed through the US Postal Service and ballots that were pending ahead of Election Day.

Gloria added that the US mail will continue to deliver ballots that were postmarked on Nov. 3, through Nov. 10.

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A Georgia state court dismissed a lawsuit filed by Georgia Republicans to prevent the "unlawful counting of ballots received after the election" in Savannah. They filed the lawsuit after a poll watcher for the party allegedly viewed unprocessed absentee ballots mixed in with absentee ballots that were set to be tabulated. 

Judge James F. Bass made the ruling orally in court Thursday morning, and it was filed with the court this afternoon. 

The state Republican party and the Trump campaign said they filed the court documents in Chatham County Superior Court on Wednesday evening after a party poll watcher "witnessed absentee ballots that had not been properly processed apparently mixed into a pile of absentee ballots that was already set to be tabulated.The proper chain of custody for the ballots was not followed," they alleged according to court documents.

The ballots in question were small in number: "one stack of three ballots, and a second stack of fifty-three ballots," according to a copy of the filing provided by the state Republican party. 

As of 12:45 p.m. ET, there are approximately 50,401 ballots still outstanding across Georgia, according to a statement by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

Almost all of these outstanding ballots are absentee ballots, Georgia Deputy Press Secretary Jordan Fuchs tells CNN.

Fulton County — the largest county in the state and home to Atlanta —has finished processing ballots, the county commissioner said in a news conference.

President Trump's lead in Pennsylvania has significantly gone down in the last 48 hours, with him leading by about 115,000 votes. At one point Trump led by more than 600,000 votes.

What's being counted now are mail-in ballots, which are disproportionately coming in for Joe Biden, King explained. The momentum is currently working in favor for Biden.

The President cannot win reelection without the state's 20 electoral votes. "The math doesn't work," CNN's John King said.

In large population centers in the state like in Montgomery County, Biden is outperforming Trump with mail-in ballot counts and we're still waiting for results to come in from Philadelphia, which has 12% of the state's population.

In 2016 Hillary Clinton won 584,000 votes in Philadelphia County. Currently Biden is just 100,000 votes shy of that with votes still to be counted.

"The expectation is that turnout will be up, so it is not unreasonable to think Joe Biden's going to get really close or maybe even higher than that Hillary Clinton total, which is a game-changing event," King said.

King added that the votes are there for Biden.

"Joe Biden is on the trajectory, if he keeps getting those mail-in ballots, the percentages he's been getting over the last 24 hours, the math is certainly within possibility," he said.

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Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon is urging patience as the results continue to filter in, saying that while the story is going to be "very positive" for Biden, the counting is still happening and it’s going to take time. 

She said she believes the counting will go "throughout the day and into tomorrow." 

“And we are equally confident that we are going to be able to watch the counting throughout the day and into tomorrow to finalize these last states that are going to put us over the top to 270,” Dillon said.

Dillon outlined how the campaign sees the result in each state, cited below. On Arizona specifically, a state two outlets have called but the majority have not yet, Dillon stressed that they expect the race to be close and the margin to grow tighter but ultimately she believes they will win the state by "tens of thousands" of votes. 

“It wouldn’t be a presentation if I didn’t say I’m bullish on Arizona. We expected it all along to be close and as we look at the data that’s outstanding we see a number of Democratic counties that are yet to report,” she said. “We do expect the margin to be closing. This is the trajectory. We will win by tens of thousands of votes but that margin will close.” 

Remember: Each candidate needs 270 electoral college votes to win the presidency. Based on CNN's projections so far, Joe Biden leads the race for the White House with 253 electoral votes. President Trump has 213 electoral votes. CNN is yet to project a winner in six states.

Joe Biden's lead in Nevada has gone up from 7,647 to more than 11,000.

Biden holds 49.5% of the vote, while Trump holds 48.5%.