rewind pencils and bullets. on al-jazeera. this is al jazeera. hello i'm barbara starr and this is the al-jazeera news hour live from london thank you for joining us coming up in the next 60 minutes long lines across america voters turn out in big numbers following an unprecedented election campaign. with a big rallies behind them donald trump and joe biden make one final appeal to voters and supporters voting early has been of the finding trend in this u.s.

election but in some key states could it now delayed the final result and austria a country on high alert dozens of arrested in police raids after monday's attack in vienna. hello thank you for joining us voting is underway across the united states in the most controversial and highly anticipated poll in recent years 100000000 people have cast their ballots early setting the stage for a record turnout there have been long lines at polling stations as voters try and stay safe amid the coronavirus pandemic doubletalk and joe biden meanwhile have been battling for every last vote with biden out in pennsylvania and trump in virginia speaking in arlington trump told reporters he will scald fit into a victory you know i'm not

a concession speech your acceptance speech. hopefully will be only for doing one of those 2 and you know. winning is easy losing is never easy now for me it's the. but i think we have when we rallies the likes of which in the history of this country probably in the history of the world no. he's ever seen before. there's a tremendous love going on in this country and there's really a tremendous unity there's a tremendous unity nobody's ever seen that we take an airport and the airports not big enough to hold the crowds nobody's ever seen a thing like that and our opposition has you know we have a few people sitting in circles and that's ok that's not abnormal that's not have normal actually i mean that's the way it is to live now filing fisher who joins us from washington d.c. alan you saw the president there speak about 2 hours ago seeming almost enough called the flames it's certainly very tired because this has been

a controversial campaign an intense campaign and that exhausting campaign as well. well the campaigns will start to get the stakes it palls they'll have their own polls coming to their headquarters to give them an idea of exactly how this race is going donald trump didn't sound overly confident didn't he was a step away from the very bullish donald trump that we've seen on the campaign trail over the last 3 days remember he's done 17 events in 3 days that's the kind of normal pace that you expect of a presidential campaign but this is been anything but a normal presidential campaign just the fact that he's saying we haven't looked at a concession an acceptance speech as scriptwriters probably have and then not attacking the idea that he would be sending lawyers into every county and that's what he was saying in the campaign trail for the last couple of days and when asked if he would confirm and accept the result when he was on t.v. today he said now we will declare victory if there's

a victory to declare this isn't the time for games that's not the donald trump we've been listening to for the last couple of days but he's convinced that there are echoes of 2016 we had that in some of the speeches when he attacked his opponent as being part of a crime family of being incompetent of being in the pocket of china he said the same thing about hillary clinton but he believes that when he looks at the polls which also 4 years ago at this point gave hillary clinton the chance of winning in a member looking in those polls and thinking everyone every single one said that hillary was going to win then he thinks that there's a cause and that he will pull off an unlikely a victory certainly what we're hearing from across the country is that this time now it is very high add that to that $100000000.00 voters across the u.s. have already voted early that would suggest that this is going to be a record turnout and normally that tends to favor the challenger rather the incumbent all donald trump also know is that his campaign has failed to articulate

what the next 4 years will bring when asked that on several occasions he said. more of the same only better it's hardly a message to inspire people but he believes that he's a better choice than joe biden joe biden of course is older donald trump has accused him of not being fully in command of his senses and thinks that he will tank the economy one of the biggest insults that donald trump could fire 4 years ago that was that barack obama should have been a one term president that he was washed than jimmy carter jimmy carter of course you remember lost after just one term in the white house to ronald reagan is something that donald trump wants to avoid he wants to avoid politically he wants to avoid it for legal reasons but also his ego just wouldn't accept the fact that after 4 years the american people said you're fired. allen says she was the latest from washington to the moment alan thank you. well speaking of joe biden making his last bed for philadelphia's votes fight invalided to be

a president who would unite the country. we have a normal for opportunity i want everybody to understand the public nationwide is bigger that i know you're going to drool over congress cars are taken from smart move. career we're going to grow but certainly we're going to rebuild a middle class yes. i'm all right. this country or you know you don't know. our property. or is a proud democrat if you elect me i'm going to hurt your prayers and i'm going to cover you know road states or blue states firstly you've heard specter. joe biden speaking there a little earlier aloud. joins us live now from wilmington delaware which is joe biden's home state so things like i mean i guess will biden said just say or in

general how of biden's book claimants' being going down in his home state generally what's the mood like there. well they've been receiving get very well messages of unity messages that this country can do better is something that's resonated with a lot of people particularly here in wilmington delaware delaware being a states that is very diverse in nature those recent remarks or the latest remarks that came from the contender joe biden also struck at the working class he remembered how it was for him growing up and spoke about his grandfather and father and it was trying to a message i was trying to reach maybe a section of society that donald trump had managed to reach 4 years ago and that had helped him into the white house so we're looking at a few key messages that have been coming out from the democrats particularly in the

past 24 hours the central the 1st and most pressing one was this that they were trying to canvass people to make them believe that what was at stake here wasn't just a simple choice that comes around every 4 years but what was at stake was the quare of america's identity namely its democracy number 2 was that the division that donald trump or that they believe donald trump and played on in terms of garnering and polarizing society so that he actually garnered support for him was actually something that was destructive and that he was positioning himself joe biden as somebody who was going to be a uniting force a number 3 now what we're seeing is this constant underlying underlining of their policies or the attempt to try and recover the economy after the blow it's taken or it continues to take because of coalwood but also because of what they see is a mismanagement by a president who essentially dismissed the virus in the beginning and since hasn't been able to grasp. this situation so those are the messages that have been coming

out from the democratic candidates and his aides what's also. porton to look out is as we heard there talking about sending his lawyers is out and was talking while the democratic party and joe biden also have very kind of war room set up where they're fundraising to ensure that they have enough assets to contest also from a legal perspective if there are any of those contentious states that will go on to recounts or other issues so there is some sort of cautious optimism amongst them they feel they're in a strong position but as the saying goes it's not over until the fat lady sings i mean they see here or biden said earlier it's not over until they cross not ribbon to cross the finish line so they're waiting until the results come in and i guess at least when we start getting some results we'll get an idea of how much longer it could be protracted if it is john let's show you live with the latest from wilmington delaware which is of course joe biden's home state jim thank you. now

one of the key stories of this election is how many people have voted before election day itself and this could change how the results come in more than 100000000 people voted in person or by mail ahead of polling day a huge chunk of the total 136000000 who voted in any way back in 2016 that in some states those votes will already have been counted although the results will not be known until polls close in the other batch of states they will currently be counting them as election day polls are cast elsewhere they are stored and counted along with the ballots cast until polls close and in a small number of states counting of early votes can vary even within the state itself finally new york will not even count them until tomorrow adding to the time that it will take to get the full picture rob reynolds explains.

there's been a tremendous surge in mail in and absentee ballots cast in this election we're going to see tens of millions of more americans vote by mail than have than any other former presidential or any election really this despite president donald trump's repeated false claims that mail in voting is rife with fraud no there's there's no evidence of widespread fraud the process catch is that the process is to bahrain to catch these sorts of issues percentage is about 0006 percent of all ballots cast 9 states plus the district of columbia send ballots automatically to all active registered voters in the rest voters may request absentee ballots despite fears that trump appointed postal officials were engineering a mail service slow down observers say delivery time has not so far been an issue we've actually been hearing good stories about very quick delivery when will all

these ballots be counted well it depends on the state all across the spectrum of the united states you have a variation in the rules of which the voters need to abide by the way in which ballots are counted be be it the laws and policies and procedures or the type of the quitman that they're using most states begin processing and preparing mail in ballots for tabulation well before november 3rd that means they'll get results quickly it's just a handful of states that don't allow that processing to occur until election day or after but that handful includes the crucial swing states of wisconsin and pennsylvania ballot counting there could delay knowing who won if we're down to the wire and it's all contingent upon a couple of states we may not know the projected outcome and tell long after election day a couple of days maybe a week and as millions lined up for early voting armies of lawyers. from both sides

are poised to dispute the results in the courts there have been more than $300.00 lawsuits around election administration so far this year just days ago the supreme court ruled against republicans allowing pennsylvania and north carolina to continue counting ballots after election day look i'm i'm a former elections official litigation can reach havoc in the election process specially in the middle of the conduct of the election there are many variables but the bottom line is have patience unless one of the candidates wins in a landslide americans and people around the world may have to wait a while before they learn who has been elected president of the united states robert oulds al-jazeera los angeles. peters is the executive director of the center for information technology and public life at the university of north carolina at chapel hill she explains how the corona virus could contribute to

a delay in the announcement of results i think the pandemic is absolutely changed how we vote and i believe that those changes change always creates some degree of uncertainty and i think election officials have been very careful to communicate how those changes are happening how they're securing the vote and how they're serving voters in this time unfortunately the fact that that uncertainty is still present allows bad actors to be able to for there so that uncertainty i think as an elections community we've been working really really hard to ensure that voters have faith in the system but yes we're seeing challenges to that and people taking advantage of the novelty factor to try to undermine trust in our voting process. the rule in elections is everything varies based on what state you're talking about i'm here in north carolina where the election boards have been counting mail ballots and been counting early votes as they've come in and we expect to have results by tonight or tomorrow in michigan and wisconsin and pennsylvania the rules

are a bit different and we know that it may be a little while and so the answer as to when we'll really know the come of the election depends on which states it really comes down to and how close things are so we have to be prepared to be patient but we may also know quite a bit yet tonight. well we're watching all 50 states to discover the election result it often comes down to just a handful of them these $21.00 which include wyoming and alabama are almost certain to support president trump these 17 including california and new york are set to vote for the democrat joe biden so that leaves these so-called swing states which will go either way and which the campaigns have focused their efforts on but some are more important than others and the election is the cited by the electoral college 270 state votes given that either candidate is what it takes to become president now more populous states have more meeting places like florida with 29

pennsylvania with 20 michigan was 16 and wisconsin with 10 are crucial. or for nearly 5 decades the electoral college votes in the state of minnesota have gone to democratic presidential candidates in 2016 president trump lost at the state by less than 45000 votes now it's one of the battlegrounds that could determine the outcome of the election and the sugar name travel to minnesota to speak to voters. a patchwork of soybean and corn field stretches across the plain of blue earth county minnesota the campus of minnesota state university is in manned kaito the seat of the county it's attracted a small community of immigrants in 2012 the county voted for president barack obama in 2016 it pivoted to president donald trump. is a somali immigrant he's the 1st person of color elected to the mancuso school board

the democrat says the evolving demographics of the county are at the root of its political whiplash in 2016 that really gives. a lot of my. 'd or white brothers and sisters a lot of anxiety that change of 4 generations there of lived in you know they feel a sense of belonging but of a ledge and the system so that being threatened. was something that from exploited. a 20 minute drive away on the duncans and family farm there harvesting the last acres of corn sold to make ethanol and pro-business anti regulation mindset of the trumpet ministration i appreciate we don't like people telling us how or what. we there's a sense of freedom out here agriculture and hog production are the economic drivers

of blue earth county the population is about 90 percent white according to u.s. census data the counties biggest city bank cato is the site of the largest mass execution in american history in 86238 members of the dakota tribe or hong after the u.s. dakota war trials when westerman is dakota and the director of the humanities department at the university we have to acknowledge. the injustices of the past. according to native news online the native american vote could be a factor in swing states such as minnesota there has been a robust national get out the vote push that's one way that our voice can be heard is to vote and participate in the process and get in there and help make those changes the local say you won't see many campaign lawn signs or hear arguments

about the election though they may disagree about politics what people value more is what binds them together as neighbors natasha going to name just 0 blue earth county minnesota. offer more now let's go to john hendren he's live for us in chicago so just talk us through why states like where you are illinois and minnesota are so important. absolutely 1st let me set the scene for you we are in downtown chicago beneath the train so you may hear that while we're talking and you can see they've been expecting long lines here all day right now there's a bit of a low but local chefs are handing out food to the people who are waiting in line and then inside this is a super site so this is one of the larger ones where people are coming in to chicago to vote they've been doing this all day long and this is going on all throughout the u.s. midwest why is this region so important because it used to be the democratic blue

wall there was a line of states from pennsylvania there's are train from pennsylvania to minnesota and then in between the very key straights of my old michigan wisconsin all of them in play all of them he stepped minnesota were flipped by donald trump in 2016 at wisconsin in. michigan by the way had not voted for a democrat for a republican for president since the 1980s so when donald trump flipped those states it was a shock to the system hilton to have to interrupt him there at his own handwriting in chicago it's just that we have to go and listen to joe biden who is speaking with reporters now let's listen. i was overwhelmingly african-american but all of the black church a black church was the heart and soul. entire movement for peace. and so. when i started off as a kid getting off i had

a job with a nice country called kind of. my car i wanted to work on the side because. i knew. played ball with a lot of. great black athletes but i knew you know i didn't know who they are we knew each other for friends but i i didn't know them and it was a great education like the green mile you know you see the movie well it is like that you know you began doing you realize that the people i've known for a long time. you know did they live in the middle of a city and a county that was white didn't know anybody i mean they knew but they didn't know anybody and it was really a case of for me and i'm i'm not being more dramatic or coming or really was and i think i told a couple of your guys you and your friend are all the lifeguards have got time you

guys you got these jobs were used we've been relatively well known athletes who go . there. and you know there are people they all be 13 lifeguards i work with all of became really successful. and. what it was interesting. we'd sit and talk and they'd ask me questions or scan me or ask why i think i've told you before you know give me ask me do you have a jerry can mean a 5 gallon stand for gas sign i said know what 3 of jerry cans for i'm going to go see my grandmother. i swear she needed for her low burner summers no she lives in north carolina i can't stop a gas station we can't stop gotta have mine i mean things like that there were sort of i opened. what i think are better now i know they're better and you

see things happening here that are that are changing the way which people interact there's a lot more i got involved running for the county council because here i thought there was on. fer the 1st redlining the county people want to move best change the lot and soon a whole range of things to change but there's still a great need what was happening is that the people who are. those people who are in a position that are getting engaged in that manner and this pain really like i said are you know we are guys like reverend harry and we still go i go to mass and i go down cities church and we talk about plans about what we're going to do to be segregated movie theater we're going to march for south remains i'm not i'm not making myself out to be something special we're just a lot of folks my age got engaged and that's how i got it what are you afraid now

about america and what you think about america that you didn't know 972 you were not teacher 2000 looking back a part of your career in a moment around race well i mean there's a whole lot hopefully you know with age comes a little bit of wisdom and what i know is that hadn't changed is my absolute belief in the american people you give it even shot they can do anything i mean they really can't fight. and i'm not here what's your plan. b. it. was pretty. well look like i said you heard the news the lines today several times. presidents character terms . what votes counting are not counted and you know voters attorneys present this is a guy no matter what he does no matter what he says the votes are going to feel

like. no no i don't mean look at the present one service or how he says it but you know i don't feel it is possible in the pond and by the way as you see some of the articles written to me this talk about. repeated disruptions and things like that i mean these embarrassing republicans republicans are walking away from i mean this is. a lot like i said. i'm superstitious about predicting the outcome for happens just for the way out of always run and go but i'm hopeful $100.00. for what i hear here is that there's overwhelming turnout and overwhelming turnout for gree of young people of women and personal rawi turnout among african-americans for example in georgia in florida over the age of 65 so i mean

the things that are happening. both well for the base that has been supported but we'll see we'll see what emerges i think. that. well i don't know we don't know how the system for example if you had a florida command of i won it's over done in florida is going to command you know what happens is the early votes occur and some other states i think are going to do well and i will never established that blue wall i feel good about that we'll see what effect this is just so one sort of. you can think of the election recent past where so many states are up for grabs the idea i'm playing texas georgia north carolina florida i mean come on faxon's i don't

know. well but you know there's also been other tradition to have been able to run less than one pennsylvania that kind of goes all kinds of tradition the only thing you know is. traditions are made to be broken there's just so much to play right. into such overwhelming vote out there we'll see. if there's something to talk about tonight i'll talk about it not only to the votes are counted the next very very narrow gauge was there. to biden's people there in wilmington delaware which is of course his home state that is where you're going to be is exit polls start coming in and that should begin to happen in the next hour or so speaking to reporters a mentioning also the counting of the votes now this is been an unprecedented election especially consider the number of people that voted before polling day

many of them by post and now a federal judge in washington d.c. has ordered a sweep of 12 postal districts in a bid to track down undelivered mail in ballots the u.s. postal service estimates that around we $100000.00 ballots it's processed have not actually been scanned at ballot counting locations voters' rights activists say slow delivery is plaguing some key swing districts they say some ballots could be sitting uncounted at postal facilities around the country. coarseness of the we joins us live now from pittsburgh so there are concerns that some ballots may be over looked which could potentially be really important tell us what. yes in philadelphia pennsylvania where i am is one of those districts where the judge ordered a sweeper to look for those missing ballots you have to remember that there is an unprecedented number of mail in ballots being requested for this election and this

is something new as a result of the coronavirus people voting by mail in changes to many states election systems allowing them to do so here in pennsylvania 3000000 mail in ballots have been requested about 3 quarters of them have been returned but the state does not allow those ballots to be counted until election day starting on election day and some counties have said that they will not even begin to start counting them until tomorrow so this has been an issue for president trump who's called the legitimacy of those ballots into question. and he's also questioned another state court ruling here in pennsylvania which allows the boat votes to be. accepted up to 3 days after the election he said that that's something that shouldn't be allowed he's made a big complaint about this said it will lead to violence and so on but you know i

have to say there's been a lot of enthusiasm here among voters. polling station behind me is a bit quiet now but people had lined up early in the day before the place opened up and i spoke to some of the voters out there and they said they came out specifically because of those concerns and i wanted to make sure that their votes are indeed counted have a listen to what they say because of what trump is threatening to do with any of the mail in vote in a big lead or i want to do my part to contribute to my vote and make sure the numbers for biden it's literally like the right to vote i have my absentee ballot but never open with me on that and think it's important you know. so many people are hurting because so much. in everything and this is the one day that we came at least put some like to be very. good.

lots of enthusiasm among voters we heard from some biden supporters there i've heard from traps supporters here in pennsylvania as well yesterday we were about an hour outside of philadelphia and there was a line and bucks county outside the election office there of people who had requested mail in ballots and didn't get it or perhaps had. had some issue with their mail in ballot including one woman who drove 13 hours because she didn't receive her mail and ballot and wanted to vote for president so a lot of enthusiasm on both sides but we may not know who comes out ahead here in pennsylvania for several days the governor here and other officials are warning people to be patient for those results to come in. because the salumi joining us live from pittsburgh pennsylvania with that crystal thank you. so a complication there potentially and it's also worth remembering that the us has

a unique and i guess quite complex way of electing its president called the electoral college system it's complicated and contentious if you're talking about who actually gets the most votes now each state is given a share of electors and that share depends on the size of the state's population so populous states like california texas new york florida they have more electoral college votes the entire nationwide electoral college is made up of $538.00 members candidates need just over half those votes twins so a minimum of $270.00 that is the magic number so during an election when people vote for their preferred candidate well they're actually voting for these electors who in turn give their votes to the candidates and a few narrow victories in the swing states can make all the difference because most states have a winner takes all system if you get the most votes at the ballot box you get all

the electoral college votes for that state maine in the brask are the exception to this these states actually split their electoral college votes and in america it is still possible to lose the popular vote and still win the election it's actually happened 5 times and twice in just the last 5 elections including of course 2016 when hillary clinton got nearly 2900000 more votes than donald trump but trump flipped some crucial states with high electoral vote counts and got past that critical number of 270. president trump in 20161 a lot of the middle of the country by very large margins in this in different states are 20 to 30 points so indiana kansas this this interior of the country was very strong for trump as those returns come back tonight if those numbers hold then you say ok he still has his group but if those

start slipping and he's winning these states by $910.00 points a lot less that's probably an indication that you're going to see numbers move in other states around the country and that will give us an indication of what will happen this evening meanwhile the attorney general for the state of new york is investigating allegations that people received phone calls telling them not to vote on the election day she said the so-called robo calls are disturbing eggroll and also being investigated by the f.b.i. and several other states officials from the partment of homeland security say the calls were being made in an effort to suppress the vote and spread misinformation. still to come on al jazeera this news hour. uganda's pop star turned political rival bobby why no rest just after he made it up to next year's ballot and the devastated by one storm now bracing for another the

philippines prepare for a storm at sun. after record breaking lee miles start to the week things are about to get colder in europe we're still comes in the atlantic but it's got more of a northerly tendency here so temperatures are inevitably going to drop this is the cult front as it sits significant in spain produced some snow over the tops of the high ground that you can see even from madrid madrid's temperature about 10 degrees that is cold the sun's come out to the north so only 11 in london would probably feel better because there's no chill in the wind significant weather in the east and that's as well for cyprus turkey and the band significant rain we've been thunderstorms with hail slowly moving through thirty's again but in the eastern med

but it's the western med slowly warming up in madrid it's not doing so helps where there will be a chew in the air in central and western europe so western and eastern med you know that will be on the stormy side that'll affect the weather in morocco with rain probably on the up as much as i'm not sure it's cold enough yet for snow it might just be a bit wouldn't bank on it it's just showing up there for the science mostly a dry picture never shows had disappeared from west africa in the last 4 or 5 days it reappeared and have going all way around the corner actually significant showers even if far north as banjo. minus signs up on the boat i'm the 1st time in the country can they do that they found out who made in the country it's in. if you go to the lead a mechanic walks off you will see dad soon to tell you all come back

a bit before. my nigeria ivory coast produce question him upon you cannot think of . my nigeria women are strong we need. to mind nigeria on al-jazeera. the latest news as it breaks there was never much doubt about which choice chileans would make but now it's official the chileans will be writing a new constitution details coverage to 14 and 15 year old students amongst those facing charges for prosecutors over complicity in a terrorist assassination in-depth reports from around the world and while it was the biggest gathering and months the numbers were not what they used to be last year.

little comeback is a reminder of the top stories on al-jazeera voting is underway across the united states and the most controversial and highly anticipated poll in recent years there have been long lines at polling stations of the 100000000 people have cast their ballots early setting the stage for a record to turn out donald trump and joe biden have been battling for every last vote speaking in virginia tom told reporters he was confident of victory while biden was in philadelphia and found that tonight. we can speak now to political scientist brian schaffner he joins us now live via skype from medford in massachusetts sir thank you so much for joining us here on al-jazeera as we've been saying in the sky this is obviously been a very controversial campaign after i suppose you could say

a 4 year controversial presidency there's a lot of people that doubt it's going to be a clean handover that the results whenever we get them might be contested do you share those worries that this isn't going to be a never mind the campaign but the results themselves may not be clear cut or like they have been in previous years. yeah i mean it's hard not to share those concerns especially when the president has said you know there's one of their strategies on election night is to maybe declare victory even if it doesn't look like he might win or basically to do everything they can to cast the outcome into doubt so i think you know i i think there is a concern there of course you know if the if the polls that we've seen hold up it's very likely that biden will win by enough so that it would be very difficult for trump to make much of a claim to having one or 2 there being any doubts in the in the outcome but but you

know if it's a closer election i think there could be a very very contemptuous time following election day. we'll be getting the exit polls on these that this the 1st exit polls in an hour or so but one thing we can be pretty sure of is a record turnout what do you think it is that pushed so many americans to go to the polls this year when they perhaps didn't previous years. well i mean as you know the the party politics in the united states have been increasingly polarized over the last decade and you know the 2 sides people in the. voting public sort of dislike the other party so much it really does motivate them to get to the polls i think democrats have been chomping at the bit to vote out of office for 4 years so they have been very very energized and we've seen tremendous numbers of democrats voting early over the past month but republicans are still also energized trump supporters and they are coming out on election day in big numbers

as well. not only has his presidency been controversial but of course all of this is happening in the middle of a global pandemic and the u.s. is particularly badly hit if there hadn't been killed 19 and if it hadn't affected the u.s. as much as it has to sink we would even be having conversations about how close it might be between biden and trump or do you think we'd be talking about a pretty predictable trump 2nd term. that's a really great question and i think it would have been a close election actually regardless that you know one of the things that you can see if you look at donald trump's approval rating during his 4 years in office is that it is been very steady in terms of about only his approval ratings held steady around 40 to 43 percent with over 50 percent of people disapproving of him so there are lots of people who are always going to vote against him i think what the what the pandemic has done has probably turned what would have been

a very close election into a potential biden large victory so if if biden does win by say 8 percentage points like the polls are showing i think you could chalk up the size of his victory to the results of the pandemic of it a lot of countries when someone loses an election they are literally oh well not quite literally but sort of boost all of that sort of presidential or prime ministerial residence literally the next day that's not the case in the united states no matter what happens donald trump will remain president for a couple of months what impact do you think that that might have on any contested vote and also we know that trumps personality and sometimes be a little bit extreme what do you think the impact of him staying on of the 2 months could be. i mean it's a great question i often try my best not to try to predict what trouble do but you know that it's certainly a question on everyone's minds i mean one of the things that's unique about the

united states is that votes are tallied at state by state at the state level they're not tallied by any federal agency that trump controls so in that regard trump doesn't have that much control over sort of who is declared the winner state by state that said if if trump does lose the election he has a couple of months in office to sort of you know make a mess of things and you know we have seen cho before sort of actor radically and there's no reason to think that trump who had just sort of been defeated might not do things that would you know be to be troubling for many people in many parts of the world especially countries where democracy is perhaps in its infancy the pictures of shops being boarded up and the u.s. head of you know expected violin solo or whatever might happen after the fall is pretty shocking i have to say are you worried about what might happen in the next hour was theys or even weeks. there's definitely some concern and i think we you

know we've had some incidents already there was video of for example trump supporters basically running a biden campaign bus off the road in texas and you know the you know in the past our elected leaders have been very careful to discourage such behavior and i think the problem now of course is we have a president who does not discourage it and in fact when that incident happened with the trucks running the biden bus off the road what you saw was trump re tweeting the video and saying he loves texas basically endorsing that behavior and i think you know when when you have when tensions are high when people are already very polarized as we are in the united states when you have a leader of one of the parties who is willing to encourage these things it definitely can produce you know actual acts of violence and you know even after trump's election in 2016 we saw an increase in the number of hate crimes that were

being carried out in the united states and trump has been shown by others and by my own research to embolden people's expressions of prejudice towards other people and there's no reason to think that you know if he's giving out those signals after the election that people won't act on them frank schaffner a political scientist joining us from medford in massachusetts or is feeling great talking to you thank you for sharing your expertise with us thank you very much for having me. and we're going to have live i'm interrupted special coverage of the u.s. elections shortly starting from $22.00 g.m.t. as those live results begin to come in our correspondents will be reporting from crucial states across the country plus we have expert analysis in washington d.c. both of what the impact will be in the u.s. at the course around the world you can watch all of that here on al-jazeera starting from $22.00 g.m.t.

in 15 minutes and before that let's take a look at some of the day's other news allstream police have arrested at least 14 people in connection with monday's shooting in the capital vienna a memorial was held for the 4 people who have died the perpetrator has been identified as a 20 year old man who had been released from jail late last year austrian chancellor sebastian court says described the shooting as a terror attack paul reece reports from vienna. caught on camera a heavily armed attacker is seen looking for victims in the cobbled streets of vienna seconds later he shot this man at close range. the attacks took place in 6 locations in the heart of the capital dozens of people were shot upon hearing some shots downstairs i looked on the window and i saw the attacker running into various bars and restaurants around when i was 3.

and people running away in. one or 2 packets chasing them or the history there's only so. suddenly the shooting started at 1st we didn't know what it was but suddenly people in the neighboring gotten started to run we stayed standing there and there was shooting getting closer so we started to run away because we didn't know if we were running in the right direction and we ran into our hotel and he said that. it came on the last night before austria and i was new restrictions to counter the spread of coronavirus it was through these streets that the attack a moved with an automatic rifle a hunger and a machete killing and wounding as people had a last night out before lock down. one armed attacker was killed by police he's a 20 year old man named as a cute him. with jewel citizenship of both austria and north macedonia he had been released from prison in december facial i was serving

a 22 month sentence for attempting to travel to syria but was released early after attending a the radicalization program. that they've never been to the oft the suspect was previously convicted he was sentenced for attempts to join the jihad and for attempts to join the islamic state terror organization a huge manhunt continued overnight and into tuesday following reports there had been more than one perpetrator 14 people were arrested in 18 raids across austria analysis of thousands of mobile phone clips later suggested facial i had been acting alone but late on tuesday the existence of another assailant had still not been ruled out austrian chancellor sebastian kurtz laid a wreath for the victims in vienna as doctors fought to save the wounded victims in hospital biggest look enough to be the hero of cognition based last night would therefore go down in history as a night in which some of our fellow human beings fell victim to a brutal attack an attack on our free society but one thing is clear we will not be

intimidated by the terrorists we would defend our fundamental values our way of life and our democracy with all our might we will seek out and hunt down the perpetrators those behind them and like minded people and bring them to justice austria has been shocked by the violence and many questions remain as to how the gunman was able to carry out monday's attack paul reste al jazeera vienna. uganda's opposition leader bobby wine has been dragged from his car and arrested moments after us candidacy for next year's election was approved this comes after another opponent to the longtime president was also held by police you know what he was 70 says he will crack down on the enemies who are causing unrest reports. minutes after submitting his nomination papers to run for president. this is what police did to the winds car his party official streamed video live on

social media. was dragged out bundled into a police van and driven off. just moments before the pop star turned opposition politician that completed the nomination process in uganda as capital kampala he wants to challenge president yoweri museveni who's been in office for 34 years we have not we. transfer of power from one leader to another since our country became independent in 1900. 70 declared himself president for life in our country. the day before the 70 completed his nomination to run again for president the opposition complains that past elections have been rigged the electoral commission denies it this time campaign rallies are forbidden the government says because of the global pandemic.

the. one who wants to be. another presidential candidates who represents the largest opposition party in parliament was arrested by police on his way to the nomination he was later dropped off at the venue by police without his shoes this is from. the wine was later released he's popular among young ugandans especially in towns and cities the poll to do to take place early next year you can the past elections street protests and police crackdowns this one looks to be no different. malcolm webb al-jazeera police on the ivory coast of used tear gas against opposition supporters after they

gathered outside their party leaders house the clashes come after the government accused former president and recall and video of sedition for creating a peril administration earlier on tuesday president allison what data overwhelmingly won the country's presidential election in a landslide victory the opposition boycotted the poll saying what it has been for a 3rd term was unconstitutional they say only 10 percent for eons voted the philippines is bracing for another storm after at least 20 people were killed by a typhoon at the weekend gone e is the world's strongest typhoon so far this year and struck provinces south of the capital manila on sunday or than 345000 people were placed on the mandatory evacuation orders jimmy i mean duggan reports now from by which was one of the provinces worst hit. the province of by you.

but the devastation it left behind is beyond comprehension. this is the coastal community. it was once a busy fishing village of more than a 1000 families this is all what's left of it now. more than 90 percent of the homes here have been destroyed it took their see and benedicto 50 years to build their home the only reminder of it now is this. nursy says the water was up to their necks and they had to wade through rough waves to climb onto a wall with their children. but i'm. also afraid so afraid for my children perhaps someone out there may care to help us we are in need of food and blankets we will be grateful for whatever we receive. a 6 year old grandson said. please i am cold enough read this let's leave this place no he was clearly scared

everywhere you turn there is destruction images that give a glimpse of the hardening experience that people here when through. even for a region often battered by natural disasters the devastation here is clearly on president ed this is a community deeply traumatized by typhoon goni and people here tell us they are desperate now they are hungry and homeless. and he was the most powerful storm to hit this year it made landfall in the beagle region early on sunday morning leaving a trail of destruction more than a 1000000 people may need help maxime cow is preparing dinner this part of soup will have to feed 3 families tonight tomorrow's meal she says may not come at all survivors salvage whatever they can during the day and that night they huddle to

sleep on the same ground where their homes once stood keeping their children close they say they were poor but they always had what they needed but typhoon gone me has taken everything away. dog an al jazeera by in the southern luzon region of the philippines. a rescue mission is underway on the beach in sri lanka to save dozens of whales who have beached themselves near colombo crowds defied a krone virus curfew to get the animals safely back out to sea the coast guard and members of the navy also joined the efforts south of the capital city. a 4 year old girl has been pulled from the rubble alive in turkey 4 days after a massive earthquake rescue workers found the child after she'd been trapped for a staggering 91 hours the earthquake demolished the apartment building where she lived in the city of more than 100 people are now confirmed dead but crews are

still working to find survivors where just a few hours away from polls start closing in the united states it's the end of a bitter and divisive campaign between 2 men from very different ends of the political spectrum donald trump has asked the voters for 4 more years to stay tough on immigration use tax cuts to reinvigorate the economy and stand up to countries that he sees as enemies joe biden is making his 3rd attempt for the highest office saying only he can bridge the political and racial divide renew the public health effort against the coronavirus and spend to help the economy the decision will be made by voters from across the country. i believe. you know why i'm just kind of that type of person i'm going to move on with my

everyday life i. you know if biden wins i wish him the best in and his party and life goes on like this is more important than not even if you have read every election but this one in particular seems. just. never been done. well whoever takes their seat in the oval office will need to guide the united states through the next 4 years navigating a global health crisis a devastated economy and the country basically divided by race and political affiliation all the indications are that we could be in that with a long wait for a decisive answer over who was one well that's it for me barbara sarah for this news hour from london but stay with us for live n n interrupted coverage of the u.s. election results with our team of correspondents from coast to coast right here on al-jazeera.

it's one of the most consequential elections in u.s. history and al jazeera will be there every step of the way 9 hours of live coverage up to the minute results as they come in with correspondents across the u.s. and the rest of the world al-jazeera brings you a unique global perspective on the u.s. elections 2020. it's a centuries old battle and the battle is being passed to a new generation. witness follows a young native american as he takes the struggle into a 21st century america everybodys the world well we gave you the sacrifices that we made as a go based on those communities all all on a knife edge on al-jazeera. the health of

humanity is its stake a global pandemic requires a global response. w.h.o. is the guardian of global health delivering lifesaving to lose supplies and training to help the world's most vulnerable people uniting across borders to speed up the development of test treatments and of that seed keeping you up to date with what's happening on the ground in the ward and in the lab now more than ever the world needs w.h.o. making a healthier world for you. to everyone. when corona virus struck america care homes for the elderly became ground 0 they cut corners things don't get done and people die as a result faultlines reveals our troubled industry imploded under the weight of the pandemic we put profit above care. but isn't that the american way.

tells us what kind of people we are. when covert hit america's nursing home on a. pill i'm fully back t. ball welcome to al jazeera special coverage of the 2020 us election in cities 2200 hours g.m.t. 5 pm in washington d.c. and in just 2 hours the 1st polls will close on the east kolosov to one of the most polarizing unpredictable election campaigns of all time.