
As ballots continue to be counted in multiple battleground states, some of them are receiving extra scrutiny in a process known as ballot adjudication.
Intricacies of the process vary by state and sometimes by county, but it typically involves a small panel of people reviewing a ballot to determine either the voter’s intent or whether the ballot can be counted at all based on whether the voter was eligible to cast it.
The adjudication process is underway in a number of the battleground states, including Georgia and North Carolina where Donald Trump and Joe Biden are neck and neck in a close race.
Biden spoke in Queen in Wilmington, Delaware this afternoon, reminding anxious Americans to keep faith, and have patience while all votes are almost done being counted.
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According to the T.A.P. and Politico, Biden is leading with 264 electoral votes, and Trump with 214, with a very close win for Biden.
Georgia is currently at 98% completion, with Trump and Biden almost tied, giving everyone a reminder that every vote counts.
Donald Trump and his campaign including the Republican Party filed a lawsuit against the Chatham County Board of Elections, but Judge James Bass dismissed the case.
Here are the following updates:
- Arizona: Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs said Thursday morning that approximately 450,000 ballots are left for the state to count — with about 300,000 of those coming from populous Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and its suburbs. Hobbs, speaking on NBC, did not have an estimate on how long it would take for the remaining ballots to be counted. She described the remaining ballots as including “early ballots that voters dropped off on Election Day at polling places.” She said workers Thursday morning were verifying signatures before the ballots could be tabulated. Eleven electoral votes hang in the balance.
- Georgia: About 47,000 ballots are outstanding in Georgia as of 3 p.m. ET, election official Gabriel Sterling said in a news conference Thursday. Trump was ahead by fewer than 15,000 votes around midday Thursday, according to the latest reports. Chatham County, which includes Savannah, had the most ballots still uncounted Thursday morning, more than 17,000 votes. Sixteen electoral votes hang in the balance.
- Nevada: It’s hard to determine how many ballots are outstanding in Nevada because the state is one of a handful that mailed ballots to all active registered voters. Election officials will count mail-in ballots received through November 10, as long as they are postmarked by Election Day. Biden’s lead increased to nearly 12,000 votes in Nevada midday Thursday after an updated results release by the state. Officials in Clark County, home to Las Vegas and more than 70% of the state’s voters, said they expect to have all of their ballots counted by the end of the weekend. Six electoral votes are at play here.
- North Carolina Trump leads in North Carolina by more than 75,000 votes, with an estimated 95% reported. The state is not expected to report any additional results until next week. To finish its count, North Carolina is waiting to see if 116,000 outstanding requested absentee ballots are returned by November 12. In North Carolina, an Election Day-postmarked ballot can be counted if it is received by 5 p.m. ET on Nov. 12. But the state still does not know how many of those 116,000 voters chose to instead vote in person or drop off their ballot on Election Day, so the number of potential outstanding votes could shrink. Fifteen electoral votes are at stake here.
- Pennsylvania: In Pennsylvania, about 370,000 ballots remain to be counted, state officials said. And Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar said election workers could finish tallying “the overwhelming majority” on Thursday and have a clear winner. Mail-in ballots continue to arrive in Pennsylvania where state law allows election officials to receive and count mail-in ballots that arrive by Friday. Boockvar has asked counties to segregate any ballots arriving between 8 p.m. ET November 3 and before 5 p.m. November 6 in light of a possible legal challenge from the Trump campaign. Twenty electoral votes are at stake here.
SOURCE: CNN