U.S. will have a "better sense of where Pennsylvania stands" in election today, state attorney general says
With Pennsylvania's 20 electoral votes still up for grabs in the presidential race, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro said on "CBS This Morning" on Thursday that the nation will have a "better sense" of where the state stands later in the day. Shapiro told co-host Anthony Mason the state's top elections official indicated the majority of ballots could be counted by Thursday.
Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar "indicated that the vast majority of those ballots would be done, counted today, so I think you'll have a better sense where Pennsylvania is likely to land later today," Shapiro said.
A win in the Keystone State would carry former Vice President Joe Biden past the finish line in the race for the White House. As of Thursday morning, CBS News projects Biden has 253 electoral votes and President Trump has 213 with 270 needed to win the presidency.
Mr. Trump has already claimed he won Pennsylvania. Shapiro emphasized that's not how it works.
"A candidate doesn't claim something," he said. "What happens here in Pennsylvania, according to the law — and it's my job as the chief law enforcement officer of the commonwealth to enforce that law — is to make sure that legal votes are counted and then when they are, that the will of the people is respected, and that's the process we're going through right now, and so I think it really does a disservice to these community members who are doing the counting, does really a disservice to the commonwealth and the country to make those kinds of predictions or proclamations."
As of Thursday morning, roughly 763,000 mail-in ballots still had to be counted, CBS News correspondent Jericka Duncan reports. About 166,000 of those ballots were from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
The Trump campaign has demanded "meaningful access" to review ballots that have already been counted. Shapiro has said the vote count is fully transparent.