President Donald Trump delivers a statement on his intent to continue election fight

CNBC's Eamon Javers reports on a new statement from the White House as former Vice President Joe Biden inches closer to winning the election, even though it's still too early to call in several states. For access to live and exclusive video from CNBC subscribe to CNBC PRO: https://cnb.cx/2NGeIvi

The Republican Party of Pennsylvania asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to halt an ongoing count of mail-in ballots received in that state after Election Day, a move that came hours after Democratic nominee Joe Biden overtook President Donald Trump in the vote tally there.

The party is asking the Supreme Court to order the Pennsylvania secretary of state to log and segregate those ballots, but to take no other action, including counting them, for now.

The GOP already was seeking to overturn an order by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that extended the normal 8 p.m. ET Election Day deadline to 5 p.m. on Friday.

The party wants the ballots received after Election Day kept separate and not counted so that they can be invalidated as a group if its broader effort at the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the deadline extension is successful.

It is not clear how many mail-in ballots received after Election Day are among the tens of thousands of total mail-in ballots that have yet to be counted in the state.

But state Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, who had already directed the ballots to be segregated during the counting process, on Thursday told CNN that she did not believe that the ballots received during the deadline extension period would affect the outcome of the presidential race “unless it’s super close.”

Boockvar said that the largest counties in the state received only around 500 ballots each after Election Day, while some smaller counties did not receive any.

As of midafternoon Friday, Biden was leading Trump by more than 13,000 votes. The former vice president had 3,311,820 votes to 3,298,142 for the incumbent president, an edge of 49.5% to 49.3%. About 4% of the expected total vote remained to be counted.

There are 20 Electoral College votes at stake in Pennsylvania.

If Biden, who currently has won a projected 253 electoral votes from other states, wins the popular vote in Pennsylvania, he would be projected as the winner in the race for the White House, according to NBC News’ current analysis.

A candidate must win at least 270 votes in the Electoral College to be elected president.

Trump had been leading Biden in Pennsylvania’s ongoing ballot count until Friday morning, when Biden pulled ahead of the Republican president because of his strong performance in a count of mail-in ballots.

Biden was outpacing Trump in both Democratic- and Republican-leaning counties’ counts of mail-in ballots.

“Given the results of the November 3, 2020 general election, the vote in Pennsylvania may well determine the next President of the United States — and it is currently unclear whether all 67 county boards of elections are segregating late-arriving ballot,” the state GOP said in its filing with the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Thus, without an immediate order from this Court, [the party] could lose its right to ‘a targeted remedy’ “if the State Supreme Court’s decision is ultimately overturned.”

» Subscribe to CNBC TV: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBCtelevision
» Subscribe to CNBC: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBC
» Subscribe to CNBC Classic: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBCclassic

Turn to CNBC TV for the latest stock market news and analysis. From market futures to live price updates CNBC is the leader in business news worldwide.

The News with Shepard Smith is CNBC’s daily news podcast providing deep, non-partisan coverage and perspective on the day’s most important stories. Available to listen by 8:30pm ET / 5:30pm PT daily beginning September 30: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/29/the-news-with-shepard-smith-podcast.html?__source=youtube%7Cshepsmith%7Cpodcast

Connect with CNBC News Online
Get the latest news: http://www.cnbc.com/
Follow CNBC on LinkedIn: https://cnb.cx/LinkedInCNBC
Follow CNBC News on Facebook: https://cnb.cx/LikeCNBC
Follow CNBC News on Twitter: https://cnb.cx/FollowCNBC
Follow CNBC News on Instagram: https://cnb.cx/InstagramCNBC

https://www.cnbc.com/select/best-credit-cards/

#CNBC
#CNBCTV