CNN Staff Heard Cheering Behind The Scenes As Doug Jones Took Lead Over Roy Moore

At roughly 10:19 p.m. Eastern, Hale Country finally turned in their votes. “Look at this! Wow, look at this,” exclaimed Blitzer. “All of a sudden, Doug Jones is taking the lead.” “Hale County just came in, which puts him back in the lead,” explained Inside Politics host John King as they stood in front of the map. And as they spoke an audible whoop from off-camera could be heard.

Even before that, there was some excitement brewing at CNN. “So, if you’re in the Jones campaign a little while ago you were biting your nails, and now you're saying okay this math could work for us but we’ll see,” King stated. “Now, I’m going to check when the panel gets on the board here, again 72 percent Jefferson County, we'll keep an eye on the margin there.”

Following that analysis, there was a commotion off camera. “They're getting excited across the room there which tends to happen on election night,” King explained.