House control still hangs in the balance, but members of the pro-Trump Freedom Caucus have started voicing their demands
Colorado’s secretary of state explains why the state’s votes won’t be fully counted until next week
Colorado is still counting ballots — a process that could take into next week to be fully complete, according to Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold. The main reason why it takes so long is because of the state’s election model, she said.
“The Colorado election model is extremely accessible,” she told CNN Friday, saying that in addition to voting in-person on Election Day, voters also have the option to vote early or vote by mail. Colorado sends all registered voters ballots ahead of the election.
“If voters really turn out in the days leading up to Election Day and on Election Day, that just means it takes time for the county clerks to process the ballots,” Griswold said.
Additionally, while votes are being processed, each county will hold some ballots until next Wednesday, she said. This is because that is the deadline for military and oversees ballots to be received by clerks, Griswold explained, adding that it is also the deadline for voters to fix any signature issues on mail ballots.
“The reason that they do that is because as voters fix their signatures and as overseas, the military ballots are continuing to come in, the vote of how a Coloradan casts the ballot has to stay anonymous,” she said, noting that the only way to ensure that the vote stays anonymous is to hold “a certain number of ballots in every county” so the way they vote “is actually disclosed in reporting.”
“So the process is ongoing and what is the most important thing is that every vote counts,” Griswold added.
GOP Sens. Rubio and Hawley call for a delay in next week’s leadership elections due to Georgia runoff
From CNN’s Manu Raju
Two Republican senators — Marco Rubio and Josh Hawley — are calling for a delay in next week’s Senate GOP leadership elections. While Mitch McConnell is widely expected to easily win the top spot again, making him the longest Senate party leader in history, he is facing some dissension in the ranks.
Hawley says he plans to oppose McConnell and called for a delay, citing the upcoming Dec. 6 Georgia runoff.
“I don’t know why Senate GOP would hold a leadership vote for the next Congress before this election is finished. We have a runoff in #GASenate — are they saying that doesn’t matter? Don’t disenfranchise @HerschelWalker,” Hawley tweeted.
Rubio tweeted: “The Senate GOP leadership vote next week should be postponed. First we need to make sure that those who want to lead us are genuinely committed to fighting for the priorities & values of the working Americans (of every background) who gave us big wins in states like #Florida.”
The comments come as Politico reported that Rick Scott was considering a long-shot bid against McConnell but ultimately dropped the effort amid the lackluster GOP showing on Tuesday. Scott had little chance of defeating McConnell, who has been working for months to lock down the votes and told CNN last month that he has the votes.
CNN has reached out to McConnell’s office about the Hawley and Rubio comments.
Catch up: Here’s where things stand in Arizona and Nevada vote counts as key Senate races remain in play
From CNN’s Jeremy Herb and Paul LeBlanc
New batches of votes were reported late Thursday evening in Arizona and Nevada – states with key races that will determine control of the Senate – but it’s still not clear when enough of the outstanding hundreds of thousands of ballots will be counted to call the Senate and gubernatorial contests in those states.
Arizona’s most populous county, Maricopa, is expected to begin reporting votes from the critical batch of roughly 290,000 early ballots turned in on Election Day – and the partisan composition of those votes could determine who wins the state’s Senate and governor’s races.
More votes are expected to be reported on Friday as counting continues. If you’re just joining us, here’s what to know about where things stand:
Arizona:
- CNN and other news networks have yet to call the Senate race between Democratic incumbent Mark Kelly and Republican challenger Blake Masters, or the governor’s race between Democrat Katie Hobbs and Republican Kari Lake.
- The CNN Decision Desk estimated there are roughly 540,000 ballots still to be counted, as of late Thursday evening. The majority of those, about 350,000 ballots, are in Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix.
- The biggest chunk of uncounted ballots, about 290,000, are votes that were dropped off at vote centers on Election Day. A top official told CNN late Thursday that Maricopa County expects to start releasing the first results from those outstanding ballots Friday evening.
- Those ballots could be key in determining who will win the statewide races for governor and Senate. The mail-in ballots reported so far in Arizona lean heavily Democratic while Election Day ballots strongly favor Republicans – but it’s still too early to know which way the mail-in ballots turned in on Election Day will fall.
- In addition, Maricopa County has about 17,000 ballots that were not read by the tabulator on Election Day because of a printer error, and those ballots still need to be counted, too.
- Maricopa County updated an additional tranche of just over 78,000 ballots on Thursday night.
- In Pima County, Arizona’s second-most populous and home to Tucson, a new batch of 20,000 ballots was reported Thursday evening. Elections Director Constance Hargrove told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and John King that the county has been able to report batches of approximately 20,000 ballots per day, and anticipated another ballot drop of 20,000 on Friday.
Nevada:
- Key races in the Silver State, including the Senate contest between Democratic incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto and Republican challenger Adam Laxalt and the governor’s race between Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak and Republican Joe Lombardo, have not been called as of Friday morning.
- The CNN Decision Desk estimated there were about 95,000 votes outstanding as of Thursday evening.
- In Clark County, the state’s largest, which includes Las Vegas, there are more than 50,000 ballots still to be counted, Clark County registrar Joe Gloria said Thursday.
- Nevada state law allows mail-in ballots to be received through Saturday, as long as they were postmarked by Election Day, meaning counties are still receiving ballots to be counted. But many ballots now arriving are being disqualified because they were postmarked after Election Day.
- Jamie Rodriguez, interim registrar of votes for Washoe County, said the county disqualified 400 mail-in ballots on Thursday – about two-thirds of the mail-in ballots the county received – because they were postmarked late.
- Washoe County, which includes Reno, still has about 22,000 ballots left to count, Rodriguez said, and the county expects to get through most of them on Friday.
- Clark County added around 12,000 votes on Thursday night. The county says it will provide an update Friday on its remaining ballots to count.
What is causing the delay? The biggest reason the vote counting is taking so long is the way that each state handles the ballots outside of those cast at polling places on Election Day, including both early votes and mail-in ballots.
When races are within a percentage point or two, those outstanding ballots are enough to keep the election from being projected. Of course, the lag was anticipated – it took news organizations until the Saturday after Election Day in 2020 to declare Joe Biden the winner in the presidential race, following a massive increase in mail-in voting amid the pandemic.
These are all the races that are yet to be called that will determine the balance of power.
Trump posts barrage of false claims about midterm races
From CNN’s Daniel Dale
Former President Donald Trump has never stopped posting false claims about the 2020 election. Now he is also posting false claims about the 2022 election.
Even as he proclaims the midterms a “Big Victory,” Trump is making a variety of baseless declarations that various 2022 races were rigged or stolen.
On his social media platform on Thursday and Friday morning, Trump:
- Falsely insinuated that Pennsylvania’s US Senate race was stolen — even though Republican candidate Mehmet Oz, who trailed by more than 200,000 votes as of the time of Trump’s post, had conceded defeat to Democratic candidate John Fetterman without a fuss more than 30 hours prior.
- Falsely claimed that Republicans would win the Senate “if we can stop their very obvious CHEATING.” Democrats have a solid and entirely legitimate chance to maintain control of the Senate. There was no sign of cheating. Key Senate races in Arizona and Nevada are still too close to call, leaving control of the Senate undecided.
- Falsely claimed that Clark County, Nevada, a populous Democratic stronghold that is home to Las Vegas, “has a corrupt voting system.” There was no basis for this claim. Clark County Registrar of Voters Joe Gloria responded that Trump clearly remains “misinformed.”
- Falsely claimed that Arizona officials who said the count would take additional days “want more time to cheat!” There was no basis for this claim; the count is proceeding as normal.
- Baselessly claimed that “very strange things are happening with the votes cast in Nevada and Arizona,” and that, in Arizona, “their [sic] finding some very strange ballots?” It was not clear what Trump was talking about here, but there has been nothing strange reported about the votes cast in those states.
These are the races that haven’t been called and will determine the control of Congress
From CNN’s Ethan Cohen
CNN has yet to make projections in several races as control of the House and Senate hangs in the balance and votes continue to be counted in key states.
Here is where things stand in both chambers — and which races are yet to be called:
SENATE: CNN has not made a projection in two seats – Arizona and Nevada. Georgia’s Senate race is headed to a runoff, CNN projected earlier this week.
- In Nevada, Republican Adam Laxalt currently leads Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto by about 9,000 votes. As of Thursday evening, CNN’s Decision Desk estimated that approximately 95,000 votes remained to be counted in the state. By-mail ballots can be received in Nevada through Saturday as long as they were postmarked by Election Day.
- In Arizona, CNN’s Decision Desk estimates that about 540,000 votes remain to be counted. Vote reports from Thursday night expanded Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly’s lead, and he’s currently ahead of Republican Blake Masters by about 115,000 votes.
We expect vote reports tonight from the largest counties in both states.
HOUSE: CNN is yet to make a projection in 26 races.
- CNN made nine House projections Thursday, seven for Democrats and two for Republicans. These include two seats in California with two Democratic candidates. While CNN cannot yet project which candidate will win those seats, CNN put both in the Democratic column.
- Republicans need to win seven more seats to reach the 218 needed to control the House, Democrats need to win 20 more seats to reach 218.
Nearly all of the House races yet to be projected are in states with a significant number of votes left to count, such as California, Arizona, and Oregon, which could mean it will be some time before control of the House is determined.
Kevin McCarthy faces rocky road to speakership if Republicans win House majority
From CNN’s Melanie Zanona and Manu Raju
Members of the pro-Trump House Freedom Caucus are withholding their support for House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy’s speakership bid and have begun to lay out their list of demands, putting the California Republican’s path to securing 218 votes in peril if the party ultimately takes the House with a slim majority.
McCarthy and his team are confident he will ultimately get the votes to be speaker. But the conservative hardliners are emboldened by the likelihood of a narrow House GOP majority and are threatening to withhold their support – something that could imperil his bid or force him to make deals to weaken the speakership, something he has long resisted.
Rep. Chip Roy of Texas told reporters that “no one currently has 218” votes for speaker, which is the magic number McCarthy would need to secure the speaker’s gavel on the House floor in January, and said he wants McCarthy to list in greater detail his plans for a wide array of investigations into the Biden administration. And Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona complained that McCarthy seemed to backpedal on whether he’d be willing to launch impeachment proceedings into President Joe Biden or members of his Cabinet.
“I’ve heard from multiple of my constituents who question the wisdom of proceeding forward with that leadership,” Biggs said, adding that there needs to be a “frank conversation” about who they elect for the top job.
Members of the group are also pushing to make it easier for lawmakers to call for floor votes on ousting a sitting speaker. That is something that McCarthy is adamantly against and was wielded over former Speaker John Boehner before he eventually resigned.
Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado said it was a “red line” for her, but not everyone in the Freedom Caucus is united on whether to make that a hard line.
The Freedom Caucus, a group that includes dozens of hardline members, have been meeting in Washington, DC, this week for their new member orientation, where they have begun to plot out their strategy for the speaker’s race. With a slimmer-than-expected majority, they see an opportunity, and are planning to use their leverage to get more power in a GOP-led House.
Where things stand in GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert’s tight race against Democrat Adam Frisch in Colorado
From CNN’s Chandelis Duster
Ballots are still being counted in Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert’s Colorado district, where she is in a tight race against Democrat Adam Frisch.
CNN has not made a projection in the race yet, but Boebert was ahead of Frisch by 1,122 votes as of 9 a.m. ET Friday.
The boundaries of the 3rd Congressional District shifted after Colorado added a new district because the 2020 Census showed population growth, with the state’s independent redistricting commission creating a map that added an eighth seat in the northern suburbs of Denver.
Encompassing the western and southern portions of the state that includes Grand Junction, the majority of residents living in Boebert’s district are White and many residents have traditionally registered as Republican.
As of Sept. 1, nearly 31% of registered voters were Republican, nearly 24% were Democrat and 44% were unaffiliated with a political party, according to the state’s independent redistricting commissions.
Boebert won the county in the 2020 election with 51.4% of the vote, defeating Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush who had 45.2%. Under the new redrawn district, former President Donald Trump would’ve won the district by nearly 8 percentage points but would’ve won by about 5.5 percentage points under the older map.
Boebert suggested to CNN on Thursday that a lack of voter enthusiasm for her party’s candidates for governor and Senate caused her race to be much closer than anticipated.
She noted that Gov. Jared Polis and Sen. Michael Bennet, who are both Democrats, skated to reelection. “I think Polis and Bennet definitely carried the ticket for the Democrat Party,” she told CNN.
She added, “I don’t know if there wasn’t enough enthusiasm for our top ticket candidates for governor and Senate or what happened there. But there was a lot of shifting of the votes there.”
Boebert still expressed confidence she would eke out a victory. “Of course, I expect to win.”
How Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp took on Trump — and created a blueprint for the GOP
From CNN’s Michael Warren
After a disappointing election they blame partly on the influence of Donald Trump, Republicans across the country are looking to Georgia’s newly reelected governor for inspiration.
Those eyeing a potential 2024 confrontation with the former president may find wisdom in the Brian Kemp playbook, starting with page one: The best defense against Trump’s attacks is often to simply ignore them.
“It lays out this blueprint,” said Stephen Lawson, a Georgia-based Republican operative. “I think there’s going to be lessons here for other people the president has recently lashed out against. If you don’t take the bait, you’ve got a pretty good chance of winning.”
When Kemp refused to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 win in Georgia, Trump made the governor his No. 1 enemy, publicly railing against him throughout 2021 and recruiting a credible primary challenger. Throughout it all, Trump failed to draw Kemp into a fight, and the first-term governor overwhelmingly won his May primary and handily defeated his Democratic opponent, Stacey Abrams, on Tuesday.
Republicans say Kemp’s strategy against the former president gave him an independent profile for the general election without sacrificing support from pro-Trump voters.
“Kemp didn’t need Trump, but he took care to make sure Trump partisans felt like they could be a part of the Kemp coalition,” said David Kochel, a Republican strategist and presidential campaign veteran. “It’s totally safe to ignore Trump. You don’t have to heap praise on him if you’re running that kind of campaign. Praise the policies, the results of the administration, just don’t personalize it, which is what Trump wants.”
Kemp’s approach has the attention of plenty of the party’s bigwigs, impressed by both his principled stand on the 2020 election result and his ability to survive as a target of Trump’s fury.
“I think it also accrued to his benefit financially. He was able to get a lot more resources from across the country,” said Marc Short, who served as chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence and also advised Kemp’s campaign this year.
Kemp told CNN he recognizes that he’s helped contribute to a model for Republicans to win the White House again.
Read the full story here.
Nevada’s Washoe County hopes to work through “vast majority” of 22,000 remaining ballots Friday
From CNN’s Paul Vercammen
Washoe County, the second-most populous county in Nevada, said it still has 22,000 ballots left to count and hopes to get through most of them on Friday.
“I think we should be able to get the vast majority of them done. There might be a small amount that will trickle into Saturday,” Jamie Rodriguez, interim registrar of voters for Washoe County, told CNN.
The county includes the city of Reno.
Rodriguez said of the 22,000 remaining votes, about 20,000 are mail-in ballots. Another 1,914 are provisional ballots.
Rodriguez said the county disqualified 400 mail-in ballots on Thursday — about two-thirds of the mail-in ballots the county received Thursday — because they were postmarked after Election Day. “The bulk of the mail we received (Thursday) was postmarked on the 9th,” Rodriguez said, referring to the day after Election Day.
Rodriguez said that in the past, some voters have mailed their ballots on Election Day — but after the last mail pickup of the day, causing the ballots to be postmarked for the next day, which disqualifies them from being counted.
The 22,000 ballots that remain to be counted have already had the postmark verified, she said.
On Friday and Saturday, it is still possible the county, like all counties in Nevada, could receive more ballots that were postmarked on Election Day. Saturday is the last day ballots are allowed to arrive.
Washoe expects to update its vote totals at 11 p.m. ET Friday night.
What’s at stake in Nevada: A crucial Senate race between Republican nominee Adam Laxalt and Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto has not been called. The contest could help determine which party controls the Senate.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/election-results-congress-senate-house-11-11-2022/index.html
