By Meg Wagner, Melissa Macaya, Melissa Mahtani, Veronica Rocha, Amanda Wills and Fernando Alfonso III, CNN
Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden's lead in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has grown to 555,833 votes, which represents 80.78% of the votes counted thus far, according to data from the city's election office.
President Trump currently has 125,897 votes, which represents 18.3% of the ballots counted so far.
From CNN's Paul LeBlanc
Provisional ballots are cast when there's a question about a voter's eligibility, and are specially held for counting until officials are certain the vote should be accepted. If a voter, for example, forgets their ID at home, or isn't showing up in the voter rolls, they can cast a provisional ballot.
Under federal law, any US resident should always be able to cast a provisional ballot at a polling place, even if their registration status is not clear. That allows officials to accept the ballot but hold it aside while any questions are worked out.
Once cast, election officials determine whether the voter was eligible to vote. If they were, the vote will be counted just like any other.
Why these ballots take longer to count: Different states handle provisional ballots in different ways.
Generally, though, these ballots are kept separate from all other ballots while they are investigated by election officials and are counted last.
Here's how the National Conference of State Legislatures describes the investigation process once a provisional ballot has been cast:
"This process entails verifying the voter's identity and eligibility to vote, and may require the voter to provide further information. If the identity of the voter and the voter's eligibility can be established through reviewing the voter rolls or verifying a signature, all or a portion of the ballot will be counted. If their eligibility cannot be established, the ballot will not be counted."
As a result, voters often need to be their own biggest advocate when it comes to provisional ballots — following up with local elected officials to confirm they have looked into their qualifications and have counted their vote.
Read more about provisional ballots here.
From CNN's Josiah Ryan
Pennsylvania's Democratic attorney general Josh Shapiro addressed questions over outstanding provisional ballots in the states, saying he's unsure how many there are but that historically they tend to reflect overall results in the state.
As of 5:45 p.m. ET Joe Biden leads President Trump in Pennsylvania 3,315,745 to 3,301,204 with 96% of the vote counted.
"Historically, provisional ballots tend to track the overall vote, because these are ballots that are sort of random throughout the state based on someone who arrived who had a need to fill out a provisional ballot," said Shapiro.
"Logic dictates that they would tend to follow the vote or of that region or of that state," he said.
Shapiro said he did not know how many such ballots exist but Republican speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Bryan Cutler has said there are about 100,000, and CNN has reported there are at least 69,000.
Shapiro reminded the audience that the delay in counting the provisional ballots is due to a state law which did not permit their counting until 5 p.m. ET today. He added that the state will not declare a winner until all of those ballots have been added to the total count.
"They're working hard, moving as quickly as they can, and they'll get the results out soon," he told CNN's Erin Burnett. "...We're working carefully and diligently and following the law, and it takes some time."
Watch:
On-air reporting from CNN's Sara Sidner / Written by CNN's Maureen Chowdhury
A Las Vegas voter waiting in line outside of the Clark County Election Center told CNN's Sara Sidner that she was there to cure her vote.
The voter said she was there to correct her identification. She brought with her three forms of identification, including a passport, registration and an ID.
Clark County requires voters show two forms of identification and a document that proves that the voter lives in the county, Sidner said.
She told Sidner she recently moved to Las Vegas from Texas and found out she needed to correct her identification after being contacted by election officials. "They called ... and they paid a well check at my home," the voter said.
The voter said officials told her they needed to make sure her ID was correct and to also confirm her identify.
She said she voted for Joe Biden because she "believes in him."
Asked if she had any reason to doubt that her vote or anyone else's won't be counted, the voter said:
"This is why we're here today, to make sure the right thing is done and they are doing the right thing."
Watch:
From CNN's Justin Gamble and Dianne Gallagher
Gwinnett County, Georgia, an Atlanta suburb, has faced a day-long delay in reporting a crucial batch of votes due to a technical problem as the presidential race in the state hangs in the balance.
At around 5 p.m. ET Friday, Gwinnett County was finally able to upload about 4,000 outstanding absentee-by-mail ballots, as well as re-run roughly 460 early voting ballots that had to be transferred from a "bad data card," Gwinnett County spokesperson Joe Sorensen told CNN.
Originally, the county had hoped to upload these results at 8 a.m. ET; however, there was a technical issue with the Dominion system used to upload to the Georgia Secretary of State's office, Sorenson said. Gwinnett County says the blame for the delay falls solely on Dominion Voting Systems.
Kay Stimson, vice president of Government Affairs at Dominion Voting Systems, told CNN that the situation in Gwinnett County “does not relate to system software and has had no impact on the accuracy of vote totals or tabulation."
Stimson added that "the company regrets the operational delays the issue has caused for the county."
Once this upload is complete, Gwinnett County says the only ballots remaining will be a currently unknown number of ballots needing cure, provisional ballots waiting for review and any outstanding military/overseas ballots received by today's 5 p.m. ET deadline.
From CNN's Maureen Chowdhury
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told CNN's Erin Burnett that she "absolutely" believes Georgia will flip for Joe Biden.
"This is our year. I've known for a while that Georgia was trending blue," she said.
Bottoms noted she knows "it's going to be a thin margin, but we're used to close elections."
Bottoms referenced her own election which had a 132-vote difference with almost 100,000 votes as an example.
When asked about the possibility of a recount, Bottoms expressed confidence in Biden's chances.
"I'm confident that a recount will show that Joe Biden has taken Georgia and also if it gives people the confidence that they need in the integrity of this election, I think that we should have a recount, but it's going to be a close one but we are blue," Bottoms said.
Bottoms also remarked on the historic nature of Biden's campaign and Kamala Harris potentially becoming the first woman of color to hold the second highest office in the country.
"This is a historical election and to have Sen. Harris join the ticket and for us to be a part of changing the history of this country, I think really speaks to the legacy of John Lewis and Joseph Lowery and Dr. C.T. Vivian. All three great giants who we lost this year in our state. It's a great year. And this really is the most important election of my lifetime and so many others and to have Kamala Harris be a part of this historic moment makes it even more special," Bottoms said.
Remember: CNN is yet to project a winner in Georgia. There are 16 electoral votes at stake in the state. Neither Biden nor Trump have received the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. According to CNN's latest projections, Biden has 253 electoral votes to Trump's 213.
Watch:
From CNN's Annie Grayer
Michigan Republican House Speaker Lee Chatfield announced Friday that the legislature’s oversight committees will meet Saturday “to begin an inquiry into the election and counting procedures in our state for this election and future ones.”
“This isn’t to change results. America needs certainty and unity. This will help," the Republican lawmaker tweeted.
Chatfield affirmed, “whoever gets the most votes will win Michigan! Period. End of story. Then we move on,” waving off concerns about electors breaking with the results.
Senate Minority Leader Jim Ananich criticized the decision, calling it a “very sad development.”
“This is a very sad development and it only serves to feed the chaos on which this president thrives,” Ananich said in a statement provided to CNN.
Some context: The announcement comes as Trump and the Michigan Republican Party have tried to make claims of fraud in how the election was conducted in Michigan without any success.
The Trump campaign’s lawsuit claiming voter fraud in Michigan has already been thrown out and no new claims with evidence have been brought forward.
On-Air reporting from CNN's Brian Todd / Written by CNN's Maureen Chowdhury
There are still approximately 35,000 outstanding mail-in ballots in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, but results could start coming in today, CNN's Brian Todd reports from an elections returns warehouse in Pittsburgh.
"Some of those were postmarked before Election Day, some were postmarked on Election Day. They're arriving and they didn't start counting until after Election Day," Todd reports.
Inside the election returns warehouse in Pittsburgh, Todd described the vote counting process.
"These are the people doing the most critical work. They're called the return board," he explained.
"They're counting ballots right now. Right now, the ballots that we're told they're counting are from military members overseas ... who have registered to vote in this county. Earlier, they went through damaged ballots," Todd said.
He added that the return board members had counted about 3,000 damaged ballots of the 35,000 outstanding ballots. "We're told they have about 3,500 military and overseas ballots that they're going through," Todd also noted.
There are an additional 29,000 other ballots that need to be counted as well, which are being segregated because they had the "wrong information put on them when they were mailed out. That was corrected," Todd said.
"They were re-mailed out and then people mailed them back, but because of that issue, by court order, they've got to be counted starting at 5 p.m. ET today," Todd explained.
Todd explained that there is an observer watching the voting process from behind.
"Very transparent process," Todd said, noting that there are cameras mounted in the room and monitors showing the voting process.
See Brian Todd's reporting:
From CNN's Kevin Flower
Arizona has an estimated 250,000 to 270,000 unaccounted ballots left to count, according to Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.
Hobbs, speaking to CNN's Anderson Cooper, said 137,000 of those ballots were in Maricopa County and that after the release of more results tonight, that number would go down below 100,000 ballots.
"They have been doing about 60,000 to 70,000 at a time" Hobbs said of the Maricopa County Elections Department. "They have told us they expect to be counting through the weekend and should have pretty much everything except for provisional ballots wrapped up this weekend."
Hobbs said the other counties with larger amounts of outstanding ballots included:
Remember: CNN is yet to project a winner in Arizona. There are 11 electoral votes at stake in the state. Neither Biden nor Trump have received the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. According to CNN's latest projections, Biden has 253 electoral votes to Trump's 213.