on this fourth day of the presidential election, america's choice becoming clearer by the hour. i am wolf blitzer. right now, former vice president joe biden is on a path to winning the white house as he pushes farther ahead of the president in pennsylvania, a must win for trump. more and more votes are being counted and reported in that key battleground state. new results could be revealed at any time. we're also standing by for an update on vote counting in nevada. this nail biter election is playing out in pennsylvania and nevada as well as in georgia and arizona. all those contests are close right now. but biden certainly has the edge. the driving question now, will biden reach 270 electoral votes soon. he is close to winning that number with 253 right now. let's go to a news conference under way now. we are watching the latest developments. let's listen in. >> expected turnout i reported yesterday was incorrect. the 51,000 votes that i reported would be available today is actually a little over 30,000. here's the reason why. when we processed ballots on the counting board, our tracking mechanism changed from precinct based ballots to page numbers. for the first time in clark county, the ballot is so large that our ballot is two pages long. so they have to track that when we scan ballots so that we can verify that the count on those pages is correct. my staffer inadvertently, mistakenly reported to me there were 51,000 precinct ballots to count yesterday, and in actuality, 51,000 pages. that explains why when you saw the updates today, you only saw 30,000 instead of the 51. however, the universe of ballots i communicated yesterday is still accurate. the only thing you need to do is take it down approximately 20,500 from the 51 to the 30,000. but the 63,000 ballots reported yesterday are in the system in various stages. those will still be reported. beginning today, we will begin to report our reports two times a day. you've already seen the update for this morning and the afternoon, we will put up a fresh report on the mail ballots that have been read into the system sometime before 4:00. we are required to report to secretary of state first. once they indicated to us that they received it and it is verified, we'll be able to post on our end. rather than give you a specific time, i'll just tell you it will be sometime before 4:00 p.m. now, one more time i would like to go through ballots that are separate from the universe that i reported. we still have the provisional ballots. all laptops from election day have been downloaded. all of that information is available to my staff. today we will start in earnest reviewing provisional ballots. there are 60,000 of those to go through in various categories. i want to remind you that we have to coordinate with secretary of state because again, we are not a top down registration state, we work from bottom up. all 17 counties have to report to the secretary. they still have not given me the instructions. i know they're on the way, but at some point they'll let us know when to send our report up, and that will be the tool that they use to match against the other 16 counties in nevada to make sure nobody duplicated a vote one county to the next. we want to prevent that. once we do that, we can begin to release provisional ballots to count. however, that won't happen until the secretary of state verifies that report. a reminder that the id required voters, their deadline is today at 5:00 p.m., for those required to provide an id, that has to be sent to us by 5:00 p.m. today. we have a cure line available. 702-455-6552. we have staff available to assist those individuals with getting that into us. the u.s. mail update for this morning. we received 241 ballots in today's mail that will be added to the number i call the universe of ballots to be counted. it's looking clear the number of ballots is going to continue to go down. however, i wanted to assure the general public, we have been working close with the regional supervisor at the u.s. postal service, they're doing an excellent job of reviewing all of the post stations here in clark county. in fact, they have been sweeping regularly more than once on a daily basis, and if they identify anything that needs to be delivered to the office, they get it to our office within three to four hours. doesn't go through the process of having set up for us to pick up there, they're physically delivering those. we appreciate their effort. they're making sure as we are that we're counting every ballot eligible to be counted. thanks to the u.s. postal service locally. the cure process is another group of ballots we need to process. they have until thursday, the 12th of november to cure that. my staff will not leave this facility until we have counted all those ballots that have been identified as curable. ab 4 was clear in the legislative special session, all ballots have to be counted by november 12th. and with that, i open it up for questions. you need to be at the mike. good morning. right there. right there. >> good afternoon or good morning. can you tell us the number of ballots you expect in the afternoon dump? you said 31,000 was the total for this morning. >> not 31,000. >> i'm sorry. 30. let's be clear here. >> 30,403. >> this afternoon, before 4:00 p.m., how many do you expect? >> because we're dumping two reports a day, i can't accurately give you that number. the only thing i can tell you is numbers reported is my universal ballots that need to be counted is still accurate. we know we're going to need to get approximately 63,000 ballots into the system. 63,000 the next couple days will be entered in the system. >> 63,000 still outstanding. 30,000 this morning. and you don't know how many this afternoon. >> no, i can't give you that number accurately because we changed to two report in the day. they're going to work as hard as they can. they're being very efficient back there in the way they count through the iccs, we'll get as many in as we can and continue to read after that report and there will be another report tomorrow morning with whatever we read this afternoon and evening. >> this is my colleague, joe ling kent. >> i know we talked about pace yesterday, there's increasing pressure on your county to count faster. you have the capacity to count 71,000 ballots a day. why not process that number, joe? >> as i described yesterday, the process is deliberate in the way we process here. through the mail ballot process system, that's the first step. that machine will verify signatures and those that aren't verified as a match, that has to go to a manual physical process. and there are two steps in that process. we have staff running through those. we have to run through the two steps and then at that point it moves to the counting board. the counting board works to verify those records to make sure batches are matching and that we are reconciling correctly. they go through the process of separating ballots and getting them here for us to count. there's no speeding up that process. as i indicated yesterday, we're going to continue to count, make sure we're accurate. we are anticipating and hoping that the number of ballots we see now, we should hopefully be ready for final count in the majority of mail ballots by sunday sometime. >> by sunday. what's your message to all of the people out there watching clark county who say come on, let's go, hurry it up. >> i think i mentioned yesterday that the priority is to make sure we are accurate in what we are doing. we're not interested in moving as fast as we can. we want to be accurate. we're fortunate at this point we have staff working many days and they're very efficient at what they're doing. we're confident work is being done accurately. that's what our main goal is. >> talk about the circumstances that require an id, what are the id required ballots. there's quite a lot of them. how are they different from other ballots that need to be cured? >> the easiest explanation for the cure is that those voters that send back a mail ballot that's not signed at all or has a signature that doesn't match our history of signatures in the system, they enter into the cure process. >> we're monitoring that news conference. the nevada registrar of voters giving an update on what's going on. clark county as we all know by now, learning a lot of geography throughout the country right now, las vegas, biggest chunk, 72% of the population of nevada is there. he says there are still 63,000 outstanding votes, ballots that have to be counted in clark county. >> so obviously if you look, 72%, could be as high as 73, 74% depending on turnout. this is a big challenge. you count the 60,000 votes, you see what it does to the winner. normally, especially if you post a decent win, big win out of clark county, almost always the statewide winner. that's the challenge going forward. we'll wait. you could hear in reporter questions, frustration why it is taking so long. it is friday, i believe. the election was tuesday and they have been slow in clark county. frankly, mr. gloria had to correct something he said yesterday which adds at a time people want to know results, adds to the confusion. at least he is taking questions. he dug his own hole asking the questions about these. we are waiting for the vote. this is a place where you see a lead for joe biden, that's come down a bit. joe biden is leading in nevada. doesn't need it, if he wins pennsylvania, but interesting to watch. this was a hillary clinton state, this would be a biden hold. in a few of these counties as they come in in recent hours. i want to come to douglas county. use this as one example. these are not my numbers by any chance. you see it is a smaller rural county. one little thing that happened the last couple of hours. you have votes coming in, president gets 3292. and former vice president gets 1663. so you see the overall biden lead. 62% for the president. so again, if you're the biden campaign, you want to protect your lead. you know the president will get in counties that are red will get the votes. one of the reasons in the biden campaign, you want clark county to report votes, you think that's where the advantage is. more than 70% of statewide vote. here's one example going through this in every county in contested states. here, the lead, come back to statewide, see the president getting 63% in douglas county, statewide, former vice president, joe biden has a lead. but it is shrinking. >> 92% of the vote is in. let's take another quick break. more special coverage coming up. taking a close look at pennsylvania when we come back. we made usaa insurance for members like martin. an air force veteran made of doing what's right, not what's easy. so when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. that's how you do it right. usaa insurance is made just the way martin's family needs it with hassle-free claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. because doing right by our members, that's what's right. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. ♪ usaa s- uh um... >>it's shiori. sh-ori. thank you, that's great. ♪ shiori. i really love it. and sweetie can coloryou just be... gentle with the pens. okey. okey. i know. gentle..gentle new projects means new project managers. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a short list of quality candidates from our resume database so you can start hiring right away. claim your seventy five dollar credit, when you post your first job at indeed.com/home. had the powere with type one diabetes to manage their condition without finger to manageto always knowon their glucose levels and where they're heading with just a glance at their smart device. the power to make treatment decisions to customize alerts and alarms to help keep them in range. the power to lower their a1c. all this knowledge... powered by a small wearable. the dexcom g6. welcome back to cnn coverage of the presidential election. a lot going on at this hour. votes being counted, campaigns are strategizing. check in with jeff zeleny in wilmington, delaware where the biden campaign is. jeff, you reported last hour that the former vice president now possible, possible, we don't know yet, haven't called anything, president-elect, is preparing for a prime time address this evening. tell us more. >> jake, that's right. joe biden i am told is preparing for a prime time address this evening. he will address the nation about the election results. they believe it will be a moment to give a victory speech. of course, that's not in their control. this is one of many things, presidential campaigns are tightly controlled. this is out of their control, it is in the hands of election officials. most importantly in pennsylvania. i'm told there's still an air of confidence that's been with the biden campaign the last several days. the vice president is at his home, with his family this morning, also looking ahead, working on possible transition names to be announced, but they're not getting ahead of themselves on that. he is going to be delivering a speech. jake, this will be steep in history. as we said several times, he first ran for president in his 40s. youngest person in that race in 1988. now in two weeks time, two weeks from today he turns 78 years old. oldest american elected president, if he is elected president. and it is a different time than he could have imagined when he got in this race. he would also be the second catholic to be elected president. he is someone that likes to go to mass before election day, before big primary days. faith is a big part of his life as well. as he prepares for this speech, there's really a sense of calm in wilmington, but apprehension when this will happen. but there's not much anxiety over the outcome, they're not sure on timing. one thing is clear tonight in prime time, joe biden will be on the stage behind me here where aides are busy setting it up. >> you talked about he will be the oldest president ever elected in the united states when he first ran for president in the 1988 race, i was a freshman in college. abby phillip here a few feet from me wasn't even born when he first ran for president. a lot of history going on here. kaitlan collins, a lot going on behind the scenes. president trump, you reported in the last hour, not planning on conceding even after, if i should say, the race is called for joe biden. what more can you tell us? >> reporter: yeah. basically the president is being described as angry and frustrated, often doing two things he has done throughout his presidency which is watching television, complaining that enough people aren't out there defending his claim, his baseless claim that the election is being stolen from him. i am told it is creating a frenzied atmosphere in the west wing because people are realizing that joe biden is on a path to victory and he is pulling only further ahead of the president by the hour when they have been told by campaign officials for the last several days don't worry, we're going to figure this out. by friday, the president will be reelected and that's obviously looking increasingly less likely. what's happening inside the west wing are a few things. those that are closest to the president are working to manage his frustration and anger now as he is complaining there aren't enough people defending him. chief of staff, mark meadows, playing a big role in feeding the president's claim that the election is being stolen from him, including in places like pennsylvania where the president is touting all of the conspiracies about what's going on there. and some people in the west wing do not believe what mark meadows is doing is helpful. and the other thing, people are looking for jobs, starting to wonder what their employment situation will be, where they're going to go going forward because there wasn't this idea that the president could lose, even though he was down so many polls, people thought it was president trump. he would find a way to pull it off. now they're realizing it seems increasingly less likely. so it led to a frenzied atmosphere inside the west wing now. one person we have not seen since about 2:30 wednesday morning, vice president mike pence, even though he did tweet yesterday, seemingly trying to support what the president was saying at the press conference, even though it didn't match what the president said was going on. he, i am told, is one of several people making calls today, trying to get donations for a legal defense fund for the president because of course they're going to need a lot of money to follow through with rigged counts and lawsuits they're threatening. that's one thing the vice president is playing a role in as he stays behind closed doors. he is one of several trump allies playing a role in that today. >> before i let you go, we were talking to ben ginsburg, noted republican election lawyer not long ago. i said that i hadn't seen credible evidence of election fraud, certainly not widespread, certainly not enough that could change an election, but also frankly i haven't seen any evidence of election fraud, period. when the trump team makes these allegations, other than easily debunked stuff that you can read on dark recesses of the internet, are you seeing anything that rises to the level of this looks real, this looks serious? >> reporter: no. and i am getting a lot of texts from unhappy campaign officials because we have been calling the claims, allegations from the president baseless, but that's what they are, jake. they're not able to point to hard evidence they're taking to court to show that there is this substantial voter fraud that they're talking about. there are little ways you can see through what they're saying, things like yesterday they brought out a woman in nevada saying she had her ballot stolen, she believed. later we heard from the secretary of state who said they investigated it, looked into it, they talked to the woman, the signature on her ballot matched her signature. they believe she was going to fill out that ballot. another thing, they talked about how they didn't have poll watchers in certain locations in places like philadelphia. trump campaign attorney admitted in court yesterday they did have their people in the room, they were complaining how close they were. things like that is not building a lot of credibility for people making these arguments. and the white house long struggled with credibility when it comes to allegations of voter fraud. the president has been claiming it since the day he took office, the day i started covering him, now he is ending his presidency potentially by making more claims like this, that they're struggling to justify. >> kaitlan collins, thanks so much. excellent reporting. appreciate it. as always. while we were talking to her, joe biden's margin in pennsylvania increased even more. you can see he has 13,371 votes more than donald trump in the keystone state in pennsylvania, a pivotal state if joe biden were to win that state. he would have 270 electoral votes and he would be the president-elect. we have not declared that, we have not rejected that. if he were, that would be the ball game. >> it would be. and the biden campaign, never mind joe biden and his family, senator harris, her family, they're kind of in suspended animation. like this for the past 12 hours because they're weightiaiting f moment when pennsylvania likely will have another wave of votes and the expectation based on the way it is going is that that will increase and make it as obvious as it is to them that he will be the president-elect. but obviously she said nobody is there yet. meantime, what they're doing, jeff zeleny reported that the former vice president is going to give a speech later tonight, they're working on that speech. i am told that the content of that will be everything we heard from the former vice president since the first day that he announced his candidacy, which is the whole notion of bringing the country together. he is going to really lean into that theme as he has done so many times and obviously given where we are now, it will have a lot more meaning. >> for democrats now, they also want to hear from joe biden a little channeling of their feelings of frankly relief after working for four years to get donald trump out of the white house. this has been a stressful week for a lot of democrats who tuesday were panic stricken that joe biden lost. now they're looking at the possibility that he might not lose. i think there's a lot of pent up desire to feel validated, not pushed aside in the interest of trying to extend an olive branch, so this is the balancing act that joe biden will need to do tonight. it is a combination of two things. yes, reach out the hand but also validation for his own party that got him here, that their values will be taken to the white house, that they are not going to be sort of pushed aside just for purposes of saying that you want to be bipartisan. there's a lot of quiet talk among democrats about what a joe biden transition might look like and how far he might go to reach out to republicans. there was some griping about the convention, about how many republicans played a role in that convention. you know, i'm sure the biden campaign has been thinking about this for quite some time, this is not a new conversation, but it is going to have to be dealt with tonight to some degree, in addition to unifying the country, just allowing democrats to have this moment. it has been a long time coming. >> absolutely. that's going to be a difficult needle for the biden transition team to thread should it come to that, should it come to them announcing policy proposals, when it comes to announcing a cabinet. it is traditional for a president to have somebody from the other party in the cabinet. george bush did it, barack obama did it with several people, including chuck hagel. i don't think president trump did it, but healing has not been one of his priorities. so that will be interesting. but while they're also running to find a chuck hagel or john kasich or whoever to put in the administration, they also have other issues and other groups that are important parts of the coalition that theoretically assuming it happens the way we think it is that got him to the white house, people of color, progressives, bernie sanders, talk of bernie sanders wanting to be secretary of labor, elizabeth warren, talk of her being secretary of the treasury. there are a lot of competing values. i want to take another moment. you did this earlier, i want to do it again, which is when kamala harris, senator kamala harris gave her speech at her convention such as the convention was, we all took a moment to acknowledge what an incredible moment it was for girls, for women, for people of color to see themselves represented that way. and we are on track to have this moment as you acknowledged very eloquently a few hours ago colo vice president in the history of the united states and what a remarkable moment that will be should we get there and we think we will. >> yeah, it will be. i mean, i think even that on a day like today, if joe biden ends up being able to give that speech and kamala harris we're hearing will also speak tonight as well is what they're planning, that's going to be a historic moment. it is its own glass ceiling moment. i mean, hillary clinton was not successful in becoming president of the united states, but there has never been a woman vice president of the united states. there's never been a person of color as vice president of the united states. it is a huge glass ceiling moment for women and black women and for south asian women. and, you know, we do have to take a moment and just let that sink in because there's a lot of partisan bickering going on, but in a normal world in which we are not at each other's throats politically, and in the past in this country we have allowed those moments to be recognized and to be celebrated for what they are. >> yeah. and hopefully as you said earlier, they will be, even by people who would have preferred that kamala harris weren't the first person just because of her party, first woman to get this role. this is obviously much, much, much less important, but the other thing is you talked about senator harris, her husband. this will be the first time we'll see a second spouse, second dude, whatever they call him, which will be another dynamic. >> not to mention the first jew in that building. >> that's true. there are a lot of norms that are going to be busted, assuming this happens. and we'll have a lot of time to talk about what it means and just the role of, we've already seen in lots of situations in politics the woman in the spotlight as the candidate, as the front person, and when i asked senator harris about this in an interview that i did a couple months ago about it, she said well, we're partners, which of course is true. any man would say that also. it is a new thing. she embraced that. she said we're going to move things along and represent these dynamics that you're seeing across the country in families everywhere. it's different now. this is a time we're going to see it in the white house, in the executive branch and obviously over at the naval observatory. assuming this happens. >> assuming it happens. i think the speech that he gives this evening, assuming the race is called by then and i don't know that it will be, but the vice president is leading now in pennsylvania by 13,371 votes, nevada by 20,137 votes, in arizona by 43,779 votes, georgia, up as well, although that's going to go to a recount because of the slim margin. we could be there. i think that's interesting what you're saying about the fact that this cannot only be a speech that appeals to john kasich, no offense to governor kasich, but this needs to be a speech that makes progressives feel good about joe biden being elected. it's a speech that needs to be, look, let's be honest, progressives and in particular minority groups, minority communities have spent four years being miserable because they felt the president, not everybody in these groups, imogi am generalizing, they thought president trump at the least looked down on them, at the worst was a racist. and without question, he said racist things. this is a moment that i think a lot of americans, liberals, progressives, people of color and others want to hear that their values are being reaffirmed. >> yet we have a new statement from president trump. i'm going to read it. we believe the american people deserve to have full transparency into all vote counting and election certification and that this is no longer about any single election, this is about the integrity of the entire election process. from the beginning we have said that all legal battles must be counted, from the beginning we said all legal ballots must be counted and an illegal ballot shouldn't be counted. we met resistance by democrats at every turn. we will guarantee the american people have confidence in our government. i will never give up fighting for you and our nation. >> i mean, okay. where's the evidence of malfeasance? that's a nicer sounding statement that somebody crafted for him than what we have been hearing from him the last several weeks and months, but the same bottom line applies which is where is the evidence that that has not happened? >> i agree with you. i totally agree with you, evidence, all of that. but the fact that he allowed somebody to craft this in his name feels like a little tiny, maybe a toe into the idea that maybe he is coming to grips with what could happen. >> it feels like what they're actually doing is putting on paper that they believe the entire american election system is corrupt. and that's a real problem. i do not think, beyond there's no evidence for that. you have to have the evidence first before you make such a -- >> we are past the point of pivoting. >> i didn't say pivot. i never said pivot. what my hope is, that perhaps this is the beginning of getting him to the point where he recognizes things. you know what, we have a long way to go. they're going to have time if they find that evidence to present this in court. you can make a political statement like this but political statements don't work in courts of law. to challenge an election, you have to do it in a court of law. if you don't have the evidence, it is not going to go anywhere. >> the way this works is the evidence comes, then the complaint. >> absolutely. >> that's not how they're doing this. trump is doing the complaining and now running around looking for evidence. >> i'm totally agreeing with you. >> i'm not going to applaud his new tone. joe biden's lead in pennsylvania is growing by the hour. and we're expecting new numbers soon. stay with us. our special coverage continues right after this. we have no idea what's going to happen next. we can't always keep our distance. but we can still help protect each other this flu season by getting vaccinated. if you're 65 or older, get the superior flu protection of fluzone high-dose quadrivalent. it's the only 65+ flu vaccine with four times the standard dose. and it's free with medicare part b. fluzone high-dose quadrivalent isn't for people who've had a severe allergic reaction to any flu vaccine or vaccine component, including eggs or egg products. tell your health care professional if you've ever experienced severe muscle weakness after receiving a flu shot. people with weakened immune systems, including those receiving therapies that suppress the immune system, may experience lower immune responses. vaccination may not protect everyone. side effects include pain, redness, and/or swelling where you got the shot, muscle ache, headache, and general discomfort. other side effects may occur. if you're 65+, don't settle for a standard-dose flu shot. move up to superior flu protection. see your health care provider and ask for fluzone high-dose quadrivalent by name. are covered by both medicare and your state's medicaid, here's something important to know. medicare annual enrollment is here and ends december 7th. so now's a great time to look at a unitedhealthcare dual complete plan. it could give you even more health benefits than you already have. call now to see if you're eligible. medicaid gives you benefits and medicare gives you some, too. but a unitedhealthcare dual complete plan can add even more benefits... ...and features compared to original medicare. like $0 copays for all covered prescriptions. more dental coverage, too. most plans even give you over $600 in credits for health items. plus, up to $50 for healthy foods each month. all at no extra cost to you. hurry, annual enrollment ends december 7th. so if you have medicare and medicaid, call now to see if you're eligible, or to enroll in a dual complete plan from unitedhealthcare. ♪ joe biden took the lead earlier this morning, still has a lead. it is growing in pennsylvania. he is 13,374 votes ahead of donald trump. 49.5% to 49.3%. brian todd is in pittsburgh, joining us now. what's going on there, allegheny county, second largest county in pennsylvania. >> reporter: that's right, wolf. we're here with the man at the center of what we hope is not a storm, rich fitzgerald, allegheny county executive. a place they're counting mail-in ballots. they were counting ballots that were damaged earlier and starting to count those from military and overseas. do you have results for us? >> we don't have results, won't be posting them for a few more hours. we have about 3,000 ballots being processed that traditional, regular mail-in ballots throughout allegheny county, looks like 3500 or so military ballots. i'm told maybe by 5:00, little after 5:00, may post those 6500 or so ballots. >> 35,000 plus total mail-ins and others after election day. how long to take to get through these? >> these are all before election day. there's 28,000 they'll begin looking at after 5:00 tonight. they still have another 3 or 4,000, making sure about the secrecy envelope, dates, those kinds of things. they'll work through the night. haven't taken a break. didn't take a break for lunch, will keep moving on it. >> have observers reported any problems, complained about anything? >> no. as a matter of fact when we swore in the election board this morning, we had the republican chair as well as myself talking and basically thanking workers, they're doing it in a good way, they have been doing it with observation. the press is here to watch it. there's cameras everywhere. this is a very transparent process. >> question many ask not just in pennsylvania but arizona where they're still counting votes and elsewhere, a question many americans have for places like pennsylvania, and you have the answer. it is logical, of course. but can you tell people why it takes so long after election day to get through the ballots? >> because we were not permitted to begin this process until election day. that should change. i know florida and some other states precanvas, meaning days before they start to open the envelopes. we weren't allowed to do anything until election day. that delays the process. we could have had this done and given results tuesday night. we didn't have to go through this three or four day process if allowed to precanvas. i hope the legislature, state legislature changes that. >> you're frustrated. are there any other frustrations you have with this? >> no, that's a frustration. we warned everybody. the governor tried to get it done. governor wolf did everything he could. twice they came to him, republican legislature came to him and said if you do this, we'll give it to you, and he said yes, and then they still said no. they couldn't take yes for an answer. >> good luck with the count. we'll be here, monitoring it, get the results when we can. >> thank you. >> reporter: no results yet, they'll start to count 28, 29,000 ballots that are coming in starting 5:00 eastern time today. won't take much longer to upload those and get results to you, hope to have them by tonight. maybe the bulk of the vote in the county will be resolved. >> good to know, brian todd. in pittsburgh, allegheny county, what do you make of the developments. allegheny county, second largest county in pennsylvania. >> the process and delay in the process because as the gentleman explained, state law says you can't touch them, you can't touch them. delay in the process is flowing down. joe biden is up, that's been increasing steadily, not by huge numbers. you mention where brian is standing here, 10%. allegheny county, 10% of the vote state weigh. talking 35, 40,000 ballots they're trying to count. okay. joe biden is getting 60%, shy of that here. mail-in ballots he is getting even higher. you would like to see the lead grow. when they count ballots, it will grow. it is a democratic strong hold. he is riding high on mail-in ballots but they can't touch them until later. you saw how late florida was counting election night. they're allowed to take them out of the envelopes, do everything to verify them, then on election day they go in the scanner. pennsylvania, because of state law they can't. it is arcane. people are getting a geography lesson, learning about counties across the country. learning different states do it different ways. because of that, we're waiting on votes in the state likely to decide the next president of the united states. a process we have to go through. there's no question where the math is heading, joe biden continues to methodical build the lead, places we know like allegheny county, like over here in philadelphia, and suburban collar around it. i will move it up so people can see it. this is the foundation again. any democratic win statewide in pennsylvania starts here. that's where the ballots are. the question is how quickly can you process. >> i want to speak to senator bob casey. thanks for joining us. what's the latest information you're getting? when do you think we're going to get final numbers in pennsylvania? you have been upbeat the past several days that biden is certainly going to win. >> wolf, it is hard to be certain when that will transpire, when you have all the ballots that are mail-in ballots outstanding to process. as john and you have indicated, that lead is growing. i expect it to continue to grow ultimately, and when i say ultimately, when there's a certification process based upon official count, that lead should be somewhere around 100,000. >> john? >> help us through this. we were going through this with the gentleman in allegheny county, people around the country and world are learning different states do it different ways. sometimes within states they do it different ways. i want to go through this. best math, 124,000 mail-in ballots are outstanding statewide. then there are provisional ballots, just in philadelphia alone, about 20,000 provisional ballots. if you show up at the polling place, maybe moved the last couple years, you fill out provisional ballot, then they check to be sure you're legit. are those counted anyway or if the lead is outside the number of provisional ballots at the end in the commonwealth of pennsylvania, do they set them aside because they're not going to impact the outcome? >> provisional ballots will be counted. i think it was york daily record newspaper published a story said about 92,000 state, those will be processed. that process takes longer. that's why the difference between the unofficial count a few days after the election usually is lower than the official count. when i ran in general elections, often my margin of victory goes up substantially after, well after election day because of that. so the provisionals, basic rationale for why you have provisionals, if you have been approved for mail-in ballot but didn't receive it, you're allowed to cast a provisional ballot, has to be review of that. then if you received a mail-in ballot but it was rejected, you can vote by provisional, then they make assessment whether to ultimately count that ballot. it is a process. but there are a lot of votes still outstanding. they're not included in the number. >> when you say, senator casey, that you think when all of the vote is counted, biden will win the state by roughly 100,000 votes, right now it is 13,374. going up every few hours, tell us how you came up well, the good news, wolf, is that the voters project came up with that estimate. i'm relying on them. these are folks who looked at this very carefully, and i think conservative, there's just a lot more to be counted before you get the certification, and that's -- that's the way it transpires in every election. as you can tell, you had rich fitzgerald, the county executive of allegheny county who knows that process well, said there's still a bulk of votes left, in the southeast corner of the state. so there's still some work to do, but joe biden i think is going to not just be the winner, but he'll win -- he's going to win the state by more than president trump did when president trump was certified -- certified 44,292, this margin will be much higher than that. >> we just got a statement from president trump. i want to read a sentence or two from it and get your reaction, senator casey. this is an official statement from the white house -- from the begin we have said all legal ballots must be counted, all illegal ballots must not be counted, yet we have met resistance for this basic print bell by democrats at every turn. you're shaking your head, but give me your reaction. that's a very blunt statement by the president of the united states. >> well, it's bizarre, it's disturbing, and it's a lie. he knows that. every time he does this, he not only undermines or system of voting and our democracy, he undermines our national security. he should act like a president and comply with the constitution or accept the will of the people by virtue of our conversation. i've said it before, and i'll say it again. he's either going to stand alongside the constitution, allow this process to unfold or continue to do what he has been doing and ultimately, ultimately the will of the people by virtue of the constitution will just roll over him. what he should be doing right now is focusing on the fact that we have well el over 100,000 covid cases every day. that's what he should be working on, instead of just obsessing about what his political standing is. >> your republican colleague from pennsylvania, senator toomey, agrees with you. he says the president's allegations of large-scale fraud and theft of the election are just not substantiated. that from senator toomey. we'll stay in close touch, senator casey, thanks as usual for joining us. >> thank, wolf. joe biden is pulling further ahead in pennsylvania. we're expecting new numbers as he becomes closer and closer of the president of the united states. more of our special coverage, right after this. idge. between ideas and inspiration, trauma and treatment. gained a couple of more pounds. that's good for the babies. between the moments that make us who we are, and keeping them safe, private and secure, there's webex. ♪ ♪ beautiful. ♪and if we win, we get to tell you how liberty mutual customizes car insurance so you only pay for what you need. isn't that what you just did? service! ♪ stand back, i'm gonna show ya ♪ ♪ how doug and limu roll, ya ♪ ♪ you know you got to live it ♪ ♪ if you wanna wi... [ music stops ] time out! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ we're nearing the finish line of this historic presidential election. i'm wolf blitzer. we're told that joe biden is preparing for the possibility of a victory speech tonight, if he locks in a win over the coming hours. that could happen at any time as voting continues, where biden keeps adding to his lead. we're standing by for more results from that battleground coming up. biden also has the edge in close races in arizona, georgia and nevada, but only pennsylvania could hand the presidency to biden on its own with its 20 electoral votes, winning the keystone state would push biden past the 270 needed. president trump a's options to adding to his 213 are running out. let's start out in pennsylvania where bide are nbiden's lead ha increased. . once again 20 electoral votes in pennsylvania. almost all of that is -- biden has a small lead, very, very close, 16 electoral votes in georgia. there will be a recount there. in nevada, biden maintains his lead. it's gone down a bit f in arizona, 93% of the estimated vote is in, 11 electoral votes, biden maintains a lead. it let's go over to david chalian, let's talk about the calculation, the decision that cnn, other news organizations that for that matter have to make, when to project a winner. >> you just went through the pennsylvania numbers. joe biden is up 13,410 lead now over donald trump. he's been building that lead since he overtook the vote count in pennsylvania. now what our decision desk is doing, is doing the calculation to get to a level of confidence that we understand the exact universe of the outstanding battle that exist. in order to make a projection, our team wants to be at a high level of confidence that the number two candidate, donald trump in pennsylvania, does not have a mathematical possibility of overtaking the number one candidate. until we get to the highest level of confidence, that will is when he would be able to get to that level of confidence requires understanding exactly how many ballots are out, and where they are, and as you've been seeing with john king throughout the day, as you get vote totals.

Related Keywords

Arizona , United States , Georgia , Nevada , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , Allegheny County , Florida , Delaware , Douglas County , Whitehouse , District Of Columbia , Togo , Clark County , Americans , America , American , Chuck Hagel , Unitedhealthcare Joe Biden , Liberty , Elizabeth Warren , Las Vegas , Joe Biden , George Bush , Brian Todd , Ben Ginsburg , Hillary Clinton , Kamala Harris , Bernie Sanders ,