Joe Biden elected president

There are thousands of vote left to count in key battleground states.

Here's where each of them stand. 

Arizona

Joe Biden's lead has decreased to 18,553 votes as more votes have come in.

Maricopa County (the state’s largest, which includes Phoenix) released new numbers at 6 p.m. ET.  As of 11:12 a.m. yesterday, Maricopa County had an estimated 44,000 ballots left to count (23,761 early left to count, 15,000 provisional and 5,000 early left to verify)

As of 10:58 a.m. yesterday, Pinal County still had 21,000 early ballots left to count (including 1,800 provisional ballots).

Georgia

Joe Biden has increased his lead in the state to 10,196. Counties still have outstanding ballots, including military, that need to be tabulated.

Fulton County (which includes Atlanta) discovered an issue involving reporting from their work on Friday. Officials on Saturday re-scanned ballots. About 5% of ballots are left to count. Officials released updated numbers overnight.

In Gwinnett County, as of Saturday evening, there were a total of 535 absentee ballots, 965 provisional ballots and three military ballots left to be reviewed after a software glitch continued to hamper counting.

Pennsylvania

Joe Biden's lead has grown to 42,818 votes as updated results (primarily regarding mail-in ballots that arrived after Nov. 3 but were post-stamped and segregated by court order) are pending litigation in state court and in the Supreme Court.

The state website said there are 55,962 votes to be counted.

As of this afternoon, the website says the following counties have outstanding votes to count:

Jill Biden "is enormously grateful" to Americans for electing her husband Joe as president-elect, according to a statement from spokesperson Michael LaRosa.

Melania Trump has made her first public statement regarding the election, echoing sentiments from her husband that votes should still be counted. 

Some more context: CNN reported earlier today that privately, the first lady has told the President to accept the loss, according to a source familiar with her conversations. 

President-elect Joe Biden will take office at the “apex” of the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, said Sunday.

Gottlieb emphasized the importance of ensuring adequate supplies, including testing equipment, personal protective equipment and, potentially, vaccines.

“This isn't going to be over in 2021,” he said. “I think 2021 will be much better than this year, but you still want to make sure you have adequate supplies as you come down that epidemic curve and head into the fall.”

Former President George W. Bush said he called Joe Biden on Sunday to congratulate him on his victory.

Bush said he congratulated President Trump on the campaign he waged.

“I want to congratulate President Trump and his supporters on a hard-fought campaign. He earned the votes of more than 70 million Americans – an extraordinary political achievement. They have spoken, and their voices will continue to be heard through elected Republicans at every level of government,” Bush said.

Joe Biden pledged throughout his presidential campaign to take the coronavirus seriously, and days into his presidential transition, he will take the first steps to make good on that promise.

Biden will announce a 12-person coronavirus-task force on Monday, two sources with knowledge told CNN. The announcement is meant to signify how seriously the president-elect plans to focus on a pandemic that has reached a record number of daily infections in the last week.

The task force will be headed by three cochairs: former surgeon general Vivek Murthy, former Food and Drug Administration commissioner David Kessler and Yale University's Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith. The additional members are due to be announced on Monday.

The number of coronavirus cases around the world has passed 50 million, according to data from John Hopkins University on Sunday. 

The country with the highest number of infections during the pandemic remains the United States, followed by India, Brazil, Russia and then France.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy went on Fox News this morning to echo what the President has been saying about “legal” votes needing to be counted and that the election isn’t over yet.

McCarthy also suggested that it’s still possible for Republicans to take the majority in the House, saying that “we are less than 21,000 votes away.”

“There are a number of seats – 10 seats that are still sitting out there. Republicans are leading in three, they haven't called any of those, so why would you call the presidential race first?” he said. 

McCarthy pointed to Democrats not being able to regain control of the Senate, losing seats in the House, and losing three state legislatures as grounds to press forward on a recount and challenge to the presidential race.

“We’ve had the most competitive presidential race in our modern history. That's why every vote should be counted, every recount to go forward, and every challenge should be heard. Because if it's still good to keep going on these congressional seats and bring them out, I think we should actually do that as well for the highest office in the land," he added.

First lady Melania Trump has joined the growing chorus of President Trump’s inner circle advising him the time has come for him to accept the loss, a source familiar with the conversations told CNN.

Though she has not publicly commented on the election, privately Melania Trump has weighed in with her opinion, this person said.

“She has offered it, as she often does,” said the source.

Some context: Jared Kushner has approached the President about conceding the election. This morning Trump continued to tweet his opposition to Joe Biden’s win.

Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams reaffirmed her position that after an expected recount concludes in her state that "the results will be the same, Joe Biden has won the state of Georgia" in an interview with CNN on Sunday.

Abrams credited a "Democratic infrastructure" in Georgia, built over the last two years since her run for governor, as one of the primary reasons president-elect Joe Biden did so well there and why she thinks Democratic challengers will defeat both incumbent Republican senators in their respective runoffs in January.

She also commented on the "privilege" of seeing herself and other African-Americans reflected in Kamala Harris' election to the vice presidency.

She added that many other minorities played a large part in Democratic success this election, especially the Latino community which she thinks deserves more engagement moving forward.

"The Latino community is not a monolith," Abrams said. "This is about pulling together coalitions of people of color, of the poor, of the disadvantaged, of the marginalized and be consistent with our engagement and not waiting for an election to meet them and not at the end of an election to acknowledge their value."

Stacey Abrams speaks about President-elect Biden's win: