[ crowd chanting ] contested elections. Undelivered ballots, legal challenges for days. What role the courts will play in this historic election. Good evening, whoever wins the presidency will do so on a razors edge we think well know before the newscast ends in a few hours but the winner has no mandate. We are not one United States, not right now. The evidence is irrefutable. We are two tribes who see this nation, its troubles, its trials, its triumphs vastly differently. We have our own priorities, goals and aspirations. We disagree about what america is and should be and many of us appear primed for a fight. Theres no solution that magically presents itself upon transfer or continuation of power. At some point maybe we better understand each other and Work Together towards common goals, were not there yet. Thats clear and if the elections process has taught us anything its that the road to unity does not run through it and may, in fact, lead us further from it. That said i can report tonight the process is working its just slow and messy as our democratic experiment has always been tonight, the vote is in. The count is on and five battleground states that could swing this election, all the ones you see here in yellow are still too early or too close to call unless theres a sea change, demands for a recount and legal fights are just beginning. In arizona were waiting for hundreds of thousands of uncounted ballots to drop which could extend or erase joe bidens lead in pennsylvania, President Trumps lead has been narrowing. The Trump Campaign suing to stop the ballot counting and asking the Supreme Court to intervene the Trump Campaign also trying to stop counting in michigan nbc news projects biden has won that state in wisconsin, the Trump Campaign demands a recount. Nbc news declares biden is the apparent winner there. Today, the former Vice President pushing back on the Trump Campaigns attempts to stop the ballot counting. Every vote must be counted. No one is going to take our democracy away from us not now, not ever. We, the people, will not be silenced we, the people, will not be bullied. Joe biden says he will not be declaring victory just yet but he says he has enough votes to reach 270 and we have reporters in battlegrounds across our great nation covering all angles and both campaigns we start with Kristen Welker at biden headquarters in wilmington, delaware kristin, what are you hearing from the challengers Campaign Reporter well, shep, the Biden Campaign is feeling increasingly confident about its chances to get to 2 270 electoral votes. Joe biden addressed the nation and when he really struck that bullish tone and said he was not there to declare victory but he feels confident they are on the path to 270 votes so why are they feeling so confident . Because they are starting to win back the blue wall that President Trump won back in 2016 those critical midwestern states that you mentioned, michigan and wisconsin. Remember, Hillary Clinton could not hold on to those states, and the Biden Campaign has long said that they will be the key if he is going to win the white house. So the focus tonight on nevada, on arizona and, of course, on pennsylvania as well now, its important to note that joe biden doesnt necessarily need pennsylvania, but if he doesnt win nevada, if he loses one of those other states, then he will need a pennsylvania in order to get to 270 and that is where you could see this becoming a very long, protracted battle as you pointed out, the Trump Campaign already launching legal fights in a number of these different states and ive been talking to biden, Campaign Officials about that throughout the day. What is their response, their strategy to deal with that and i can tell you theyre quite defiant. They call those legal challenges charades and pathetic and say they have a team of lawyers ready to fight, ready to get into action. Theyre fundraising off it so is the Trump Campaign so to give you a sense of where it stands the Biden Campaign launched its transition website i want to go back to a point that you opened with, though, shep i think it is really critical to where we are right now and that is, this is a nation thats deeply divided you heard biden address that he vowed to be president for all people if elected. If he is elected or if President Trump is reelected that is undoubtedly going to be one 69 Biggest Challenges moving forward. Shep. Kristen welker with the Biden Campaign now eamon javers covering the president. Reporter increasingly frustrated with claims about a victory that does not yet exist and may not come to pass here and making unfounded claims of fraud. Trump tweeting, we have claimed for electoral vote purposes the commonwealth of pennsylvania which wont allow legal observers, the state of georgia and the state of North Carolina, each one of which has a big trump lead additionally we hereby claim the state of michigan if in fact there was a large number of secretly dumped ballots as has been widely reported president ial candidates dont get to just claim victories. They have to earn them in the voting meanwhile the campaign professionals on the trump team are expressing confidence as well holding a Conference Call earlier today in which they suggested that theyre willing to declare victory in the state of pennsylvania. Thats largely because they say theres enough trump vote out there to prevent the president from losing the state, particularly in butler, york and blair counties of pennsylvania theyre demanding that news organizations retract their arizona call a number of news organizations, not nbc news have called arizona for biden. The Trump Campaign demanding that be retracted. They say theyre confident that the president s is going to win North Carolina and georgia and they expect the trump reelection confirmation as soon as friday and, shep, i can tell you there are a rank of emotions inside the white house tonight with some advisers with sort of chest thumping confidence. Others slipping into pessimism about where all of this is headed as this race is still unclear in terms of an outcome, shep. Many eamon javers, thanks. A political race turning into a legal battle in wisconsin. Nbc news declaring joe biden the apparent winner of the badger state by less than a percentage point. A top election official in wisconsin confirms all the ballots are now counted. Nbcs Gabe Gutierrez is live in madison. Gabe, what are you hearing on the ground there reporter hi there, shep. Well, yes, as you mentioned a razor thin race here and you saw the numbers just there, nbc news projoekting biden the apparent winner now this recount, what will happen and how will that play out . The Trump Campaign can officially ask for that recount once the counties certify the results. That could take at least a week then they have several days to file the petition and then Election Officials have up to 13 days to conduct the recount and might not be finished in wisconsin until much later this month. Shep, what happened . What put biden over the top here when something we have been waiting for all night yesterday in the sense of absentee ballots came in from milwaukee and green bay and added to bidens lead but, shep, you remember a few days ago, there were projections all over the place, public polls that had biden up by even double digits one poll had him up by 17 percentage points. How did the race get so close . Weve been speaking with Trump Supporters especially in the kenosha area south of milwaukee and they said that they wanted to turn out for President Trump and stayed with him and might be some hidden trump vote their didnt participate President Trump beat Hillary Clinton four years ago by less than 23,000 votes. Right now the separation is 20,000 votes or so but the breaking news this afternoon, nbc news projecting that biden is the apparent winner here in wisconsin, shep. Gabe gutierrez from madison a tight race in another big ten state too, michigan. Nbc news has the former vp as the projected winner by the slimmest margins the Trump Campaign filing a lawsuit to make the vote count in michigan stop cnbcs Brian Sullivan live at Ballot Counting Center how does it look inside, brian reporter you know how it looks inside and how you make the vote count, you count all the votes. Thats what theyve done in grand rapids and wanted to show the transparency to us so allowed us to look in. One of those mysterious vote counting centers you hear about and reference the lawsuit. Earlier all those tables filled with votes and representatives of both parties, by the way, carrying them over, tabulating the votes going through some of the contested ones as well you know how its done, men and women, republican and democrat both parties sit there, they look at the ballots, they go over them, if they have a challenge there is a lawyer behind from each party i can assure you everything was civil. Both parties talking to each other, going through problem, going through the ballots and they did it all in i guess a michigan nice way. Kind of hard to believe. Donald trump being called the winner by nbc news as you said right now joe biden, excuse me, 100,000vote marriagesen and yet theres about 97,000 absentee ballots to count by our estimates as well. Donald trump filing a lawsuit but at least here in grand rapids, the counting is done the work is done and we have called michigan for joe biden, 16 electoral votes obama won by 450,000 in 2012 trump by just under 11,000 in 2016 biden going after two group, shep, he is going after that Blue Collar Union worker that may have sided with trumps message four years ago but not today and female voters, biden capturing 8 more of the female vote in managering this than he did clinton did in 2016 so michigan being called for joe biden and our thanks to the good people in grand rapids for letting us inside. I can assure you both parties got along very civilly, very kindly it was wonderful to see. Back to you. Sully with the good news in grand rapids heres a look inside the Pennsylvania Convention center where workers have been processing the ballots all day looks like some of them are still at it. Across the state more than 1 million mailin ballots have yet to be counted still. For context thats about half of all the mailin ballot there is from the Pennsylvania Department of state nbcs rehema ellis is there in philly reporter hi there. I should tell you theyre chipping away at that million number and part of the way theyre doing that is by whats happening behind me in this convention center. Theyre working on a 24hour schedule and saying theyre going to continue doing that until all the ballots are counted. Here in philadelphia, they say theyve gotten through about 66 of those mailin ballots and in allegheny in the western part theyve gotten through 68 of those ballots. These are very important because, you know, Hillary Clinton lost this state by less than 1 or 44,000 votes. So any vote that comes in here while the president is up in the inperson balloting at this moment, the biden people say they are shrinking that number and think theyll be able to do a lot more once these mailin ballots are counted. They had a big push by them to get them out to the polls. They think the mailin ballot will make the difference and despite the lawsuit that the Trump Campaign filed here in pennsylvania today to say that they want to stop the mailin balloting, the governor of pennsylvania says its going to go on and be transparent and theyre telling everybody be calm, be patient and be confident every single vote will be counted shep. Rehema, thank you arizona now where nbc news projects the race is too early to call, yeah, day after joe biden is leading there hundreds of thousands of ballots still uncounted in all important Maricopa County and jane wells live there hi, jane. Reporter hey, shep theyre getting ready to fire up the machine behind me that tabulates some of those ballots and these are some of the bipartisan teams brian was talking about over there look, were going to get big numbers in a couple of hours here the current numbers we have separate the candidates by about 95,000 votes but there have been 450,000 uncounted ballots just in this building today, 600,000 throughout the state but theres a new wrinkle in this story and some are calling it sharpiegate did you know you can use a black or blue pen or sharpie to fill out your ballot in Maricopa County the county was recommending sharpies as the preferred ink to fill out ballots and handed them out last night but the attorney general and former Election Officials wants answers after he got hundreds of complaints from people claiming they were rejected because of things like sharpie ink leaking through. Election officials tell me, thats not true. Sharpie filled ballots were counted. This is the way theres no leakage. There may have been other issues its just the latest issue announced and Trump Supporters are planning a rally outside here friday. The vote, we should get big numbers at 9 00 eastern and then another dump of votes, numbers later this evening that will be the first numbers weve gotten, shep, since very early this morning and could really tell us if this race is tightened or blown apart jane, thanks so much. The business of government is the business of the people. What needs to get done in d. C. And how it impacts the balance of power plus, the man with the election crystal ball is back with us tonight and we have lots of questions about what happened last night dont wait this is the news on cnbc glad youre with us. Were here for a few hours tonight. I have moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. Now, theres skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved. 90 clearer skin at 4 months. After just 2 doses. Skyrizi may increase your risk of infections. And lower your ability to fight them. Before treatment your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection. Or symptoms such as fevers,. Sweats, chills, muscle aches or coughs. Or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine. I feel free to bare my skin. Visit skyrizi. Com. The vote well, the count is continuing. So much for the democrats bid to wing a majority in the United States senate. Right about now it appears the republicans will likely retain control. After defending the necessary seats. But the Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell isnt declaring victory just yet now, i know whats on your minds. I dont know whether ill be the defensive coordinator or offensive coordinator as we speak. I can tell you the latest that i know which is not definitive. Yeah, certainly isnt elon moi is with us tonight. Reporter republicans chances are looking better now that Susan Collins is the apparent winner. The numbers close enough that it could depend on a recount but the democrat has now conceded an collins who never missed a vote in the senate called the outcome an affirmation of her work in Washington Republicans are also seeing momentum in michigan gop candidate john james, a black businessman and rising star in the party is neck and neck with incumbent senator gary peters North Carolina and georgia are weighted too close to call but sitting republican senators are ahead in tallies so far democrats best chance of flipping another republican seat can in arizona where astronaut mark kelly is leading against Martha Mcsally but nbc says it is still too early to call that race so the upshot here is that even if joe biden does end up winning the white house hes going to have a hard time getting his agenda or even just his cabinet through a senate controlled by republican, shep. The house is another big disappointment for the democrats, right reporter that is right democrats are expected to maintain control of their chamber but with a smaller majority republicans have knocked out 11 seats so far according to nbcs calls and that includes frontline freshmen like kendra horn and republicans have also protected suburban districts like ann wagners around st. Louis and say they have the most diverse caucus they have ever seen, more women, more minorities so even with the majority, democrats will not have a lot of room to maneuver and, shep, there will be a lot of questions about the strategy nancy pelosi has pursued as speaker of the house. All right, ylan, ylan mui, thank you. Two republican operatives told me in the morning they expected to lose eight to ten house seats net. Were getting a look at some of the new folks coming up on capitol hill in jiang. North carolina voters elected the youngest congressman, Madison Cawthorn 25 years old a rising 25 i dont even remember that year. He was born in 1995. Aagh bill clinton was in office, o. J. Simpson on trial