'Every Vote Matters': Governor Baker Urges Every Election Ballot Be Counted
HAVERHILL (CBS) - With votes in several states still being counted in the 2020 election, and President Donald Trump suing Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia over ballot counts, Gov. Charlie Baker had a simple message on Thursday.
"My view on this is very simple. Every vote matters," Baker said during a press conference in Haverhill. "Every vote should be counted, and when we get to the end of the process, and we figure out who won and who lost, we have to move forward and recognize and understand that at the end of the day, we succeed and we are at our best when we recognize and appreciate the fact that it's a big country with a lot of points of view."
Earlier this week Baker confirmed that he did not vote for either President Trump or Democratic challenger Joe Biden, saying, "I blanked it." He did the same in the 2016 election.
The Republican governor has criticized President Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and for not committing to a peaceful transfer of power if he were to lose the election.
Ballots in Nevada, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina continue to be counted, with no declared winner in the presidential race as of Thursday morning.
Baker said that he wished more people would focus on the record number of voters in this year's election. So far, more than 140 million votes have been cast.
"I really worry that at some point along the way here, we have treated our differences as dividers instead of opportunities for growth," said Baker. "We should be celebrating the fact that we had the largest turnout in U.S. history in this most recent election."
As of Thursday morning, Biden holds a 253-213 lead in CBS's count of electoral votes. 270 electoral votes are needed to win.