Election 2020 presidential results

President Trump’s campaign attorneys worked into the night attempting to justify the President’s baseless claims of widespread electoral fraud as Joe Biden edged into the lead.

In what may be a sign of how the campaign is viewing what could be its final hours, a source said they set up a hotline to take incoming calls about alleged voter fraud. They even set up an entire room at their headquarters in Arlington dedicated to the hotline.

Despite the president’s insistence, there have been no legitimate allegations of widespread voter fraud in this race.

Trump has framed the vote counting process as a conspiracy to steal the election from him — and the hotline is further evidence of how his staff is trying to justify his claims after the fact.

Watch:

CNN’s John King said neither Joe Biden nor President Trump flipped supporters in Pennsylvania since the 2016 election -- instead, each campaign was able to rally more voters to the polls. 

“If you look at this state, not a lot changed from four years ago; people just turned out more votes,” King said.

King said that there’s no evidence that Biden was able to switch a lot of Trump voters to cast their ballot for him, even as the former vice president played up his Scranton roots to working-class voters during the campaign.

“Actually, there's evidence that the President turned out more voters,” King said.

“This was a big turnout election in battleground Pennsylvania, which we knew could be the decisive state in this election. Both campaigns poured tons of resources in it. Both campaigns spent the final hours of the campaign focusing on this state. They both turned out more voters,” King added. 

Watch:

Joe Biden is waking up today on the cusp of realizing a quest he started more than three decades ago: Winning the presidency.

But it also comes with a stark reality. If he wins, he will have to fight for the legitimacy of his own victory.

Even as the votes are still being counted in Pennsylvania, his native commonwealth that could put him over the top, his advisers have mounted an aggressive behind-the-scenes push to get his supporters – and, even more importantly, Republicans to help validate the sanctity of the election.

The Biden campaign took note of President Trump’s dire tone in the White House last night and began a plan that is underway today to get his old allies in the Senate – and others from a lifetime in public life – to speak to the legitimacy of the election.

In Wilmington, Delaware, with the sun already rising in the morning sky, the stage is still waiting for Biden. He will address the country at some point, but aides said the timing is out of their hands.

Early this morning, Democratic nominee Joe Biden took the lead in Georgia, where 99% of the state vote count has been reported.

Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, Biden is only behind President Trump by a little more than 18,000 votes in the Keystone State after having trailed at one point by more than half a million ballots in the hours after polls closed. Tens of thousands of votes — most of them from strongly Democratic areas, including around Philadelphia — remain to be counted.

Here's why this matters: Trump cannot find a route to 270 electoral votes without Georgia's 16 electoral votes and Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes, so his chances of securing reelection will hinge on developments in the two states.

Right now, Biden has 253 electoral votes. If he wins Pennsylvania, he's over the 270 electoral vote threshold. If he wins Georgia, he's at 269.

And remember: Four more states — Alaska, Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina – are still yet to be projected. Trump has leads in Alaska and North Carolina, while Biden has leads in Arizona and Nevada.

For Joe Biden, Pennsylvania is personal.

His hometown of Scranton plays a central role in his identity as “Scranton Joe.” It was central to his Scranton versus Park Avenue messaging he used in his pitch to working class voters, particularly in Pennsylvania and the upper midwest. 

The Biden campaign expects to win Pennsylvania by a “sizable” margin when all the votes are counted.

If that comes to fruition, it would be the payoff for Biden’s many trips to the Keystone State during his campaign, which he kicked off and closed in Pennsylvania. 

Biden spent Sunday, Monday and Election Day almost exclusively in Pennsylvania. On Election Day, Biden’s stops took a nostalgic turn, as he dropped by his boyhood home in Scranton as well as other favorite places in his hometown. 

As of now, Biden is only behind Trump by a little more than 18,000 votes in the Keystone State, after having trailed at one point by more than half a million ballots in the hours after polls closed. Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt told CNN that there will be a vote count update in “the next hour or two.”

The state has 20 electoral college votes. If Biden wins Pennsylvania, he would win the presidency.

It's the third day after the election, and CNN has not yet projected a winner in the presidential race.

There are six states that are still too close to call: Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Workers in these states continue to count ballots.

If you're just reading in this morning, here's what happened overnight in the race to 270 electoral votes:

With about 95% of its votes reported, Pennsylvania is still counting ballots.

In Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania's largest county, about 50,000 votes mail-in votes are still to be counted, according to Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt.

It would not be surprising if counting wrapped up in the county "at some point today, if not even this morning," Bolduan said. "One person involved that we've spoken with quite a bit said, as of last night, they're calling it a full-court press to get this done."

In Bucks County, the most competitive of the suburban counties outside of Philadelphia, the race has been tight with about 95% of votes reported.

"A note from a Bucks County official yesterday was that they've been tracking the mail-in ballots that are coming in. They have trended to be about 77% for Joe Biden," Bolduan added.

The race for the White House remains razor thin as election workers in key states continue to plow through ballots.

In addition to Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and Pennsylvania, the races in Alaska and North Carolina remain too close to call.

Here's a look at where things stand in five key states we're watching this morning.

Joe Biden holds a 253-213 lead in the Electoral College. Either candidate needs 270 electoral college votes to win the presidency.

Here's why it's taking so long: The coronavirus pandemic fundamentally altered the math on how people cast votes. Whereas roughly 46 million people had voted earlier in 2016, more than 100 million did so in 2020 – a stunning increase driven by concerns about Covid-19 and a series of state law changes designed to make it easier to vote early, whether in person or by mail.

Particularly in our urban cores where millions upon millions of votes were cast and need to be counted, the sea change in how America votes ensured that the tabulation process was going to be both slower than in recent elections and slower than any of us would like.

When you double the number of early votes and keep the same rules in place about when and how they will be counted (and the same or fewer number of election officials to count them), what we are seeing right now is to be expected.

Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt said that there will be a vote count update in “the next hour or two.”

“We have been counting for the past several hours. And I expect you'll see another update in the next hour or two,” he told CNN’s Don Lemon. 

The next update will not be the total 50,000 ballots, Schmidt said, adding that “it’s important that we all do this in the right way and that we report information until the official channels like we always do.” 

Schmidt also said that election observers have been watching the vote count process “the entire time.”

Watch: