hello, i'm ros atkins, this is outside source. things are still very tight in the us election. the outcome now depends on the results injusta outcome now depends on the results in just a handful of states and the counting goes on. this election is too close to call. multiple battle ground states... there are millions of ballot still dared to sift through. donald trump has already claimed without evidence that he has one and he says the democrats are trying to steal the election. we will be going to the us supreme court. we want all voting to stop. we wa nt court. we want all voting to stop. we want don't want them to find any ballots at four o'clock in the morning and add them to the list. joe biden is calling for efforts to stop the counting of millions of male and votes outrageous. we are

going to have to be patient until the hard work of telling votes is finished. and it isn't over until every vote is counted, every ballot is counted! after the early drama of florida are clearly going towards donald trump and then being projected for donald trump, as he went deeper into the night into after the polls had closed it became clear that a handful of closed it became clear that a ha ndful of states, closed it became clear that a handful of states, familiar states for those of you watch the us election every four years were going to be crucial. three of them win the midwest, wisconsin, michigan and pennsylvania. donald trump took all three last time and he is trying to all three this time and he needs to do is to stay in the white house. georgia, remarkably, is also not been called at the moment. both candidates are neck and neck and now

we need to get into the numbers around these states and reeta chakrabarti around these states and reeta chakra barti is definitely around these states and reeta chakrabarti is definitely the person to help us do that. she has got a touch screen to help her out, give us us the details, please. i will do my best, as you can see here it is the grey states that are still being counted and they are the ones that are still in play. you will see the ones that roz has just mentioned there and we're still waiting for results there. we may have to wait for some time. let's see. i want to show you in detail one of the states in the west, arizona, which is, as you can see pretty close there. three percentage points in terms of the votes counted so far, but there are still 12% of votes to be counted. now, arizona has, for a long time, been a stronghold, and you can see five previous elections have all voted for the republican candidate. because of demographic changes in arizona, the democrats have felt they were in with a real chance here

and the fact that they are still counting the votes does suggest that it is really indeed very close. we thinkjoe biden is ahead by 100,000 votes or thereabouts, but there are nearly 400,000 left to so we will be watching that very closely for you in the coming hours. another one i wa nted in the coming hours. another one i wanted to have a look at is wisconsin, which is taking up a lot of commentary at the moment because look at that! these are the figures, just barely anything between the two candidates. now, here in wisconsin, as our correspondence there were saying a little bit earlier, the local, the state democratic party has declared it forjoe biden. they say that they have one stop we are not projecting it yet, but they are very confident. however it is not clear whether they have won or not and what the margin of victory might be, and if it is very small the republicans can challenge that and

given that we know president trump is wanting to use every means at his disposal to challenge anything that says that he hasn't won, i think we can expect the wisconsin result to be somewhat delayed. so there you 90, be somewhat delayed. so there you go, to really key states and the place that they are in right now. reeta chakra barti, thank place that they are in right now. reeta chakrabarti, thank you very much indeed. let's just reeta chakrabarti, thank you very much indeed. let'sjust reiterate what she was saying there, it is not clear what the outcome will be in several of these key states and anyone saying otherwise is not being straight with you. it is not clear which way they are going and do not, as reeta chakra barti which way they are going and do not, as reeta chakrabarti was saying, read too much into the current standing in those states is the count goes on because we know from state to state, certain types of voters may be more likely to be counted earlier or later because of the difference between mail—in ballots a nd the difference between mail—in ballots and in person on the day ballots. so let's stay on this. we do not have a clear direction of travel on some of these key states. all of this could be completed further because there may be the possibility of recounts in some of these states, not least because the

rules differ from state to state, which is going to make it more complicated still. wisconsin, which rita has just been talking about, doesn't have an automatic recount. however, a candidate can request one if trailing by less than 1% of the vote, which is a real possibility, as we have been seeing. the margin between biden and trump in wisconsin is currently less than 1%. the also different in michigan. there are automatic re—because if the margin is less than 2000 votes, so that is really tight. we can, each request on allegations of fraud as well and the opposing candidate can file a objection to that. that will cause more delays. donald trump is talking about challenging pennsylvania food courts and in pennsylvania an automatic recount is called if a margin is less than .5% of all those and anyone can request recaps on grounds of electoral errors. but there are tight deadlines on those requests and when they can be felt. let's continue to focus on pennsylvania and it was was inevitable perhaps that we would. it

is one of a handful of states where they didn't start counting any votes until election day, so that means we may need to wait until friday perhaps to get a result there. election officials say they are working as quickly as they can as they give us this update from philadelphia earlier. when half of the votes in the city are cast by mail and half of the votes are at the polling place, counting votes cast by mail, if you're going to do it right and you're going to do it accurately — because there is no other choice — takes a little bit of time. so i know that is very frustrating, it is frustrating for you and it is frustrating for us, but if you are going to get it right and you're going to prevent problems which jeopardise voters' votes, it is more important that we do it right then we meet artificial deadlines. let's stay in pennsylvania and turn to philadelphia. eliza griswold is a contributing writer for the new yorker — and she's long been following political campaigns in pennsylvania. very good to have you on the programme. i wonder as you look at

the results we have in pennsylvania, what are they telling us about the different ways that these two campaigns resonated with voters there? well, they're telling us exactly what we expected, which is what we have seen so far is this red mirage. we are seeing the early returns, which are largely in—person, go to trump. so right now we have one million more mail—in ballots to count. that was as of this morning around 10am. those are largely going to be biden. and right now, trump is 700,000 votes ahead in pennsylvania. so that is looking good for biden, by the end of the day and onward. and as you just heard, we know that pennsylvania officials are saying, look, it is going to take us until friday.|j don't expect account before friday. i have seen on your latest newspaper article headline, it is going to be article headline, it is going to be a wild ride. and you are certainly right on that, which are the way it goes! you talked about potentially the vote counting becoming chaotic

because of all the legal challenges. explain to our viewers why you think that is. so i will explain what i saw yesterday morning, which was in itself chaotic and this is what the republicans are now challenging. this looks like going forward certainly one, if not the most major legal challenge we are going to have, which could go all the way to the us supreme court. so add 10p the night before election day, basically pennsylvania decided that election workers could contact voters if they had made a mistake on their ballot. in pennsylvania one of the things thatis in pennsylvania one of the things that is most in issue are these things called naked ballots because the republicans have tried to mandate and have successfully mandated that every ballot inside has a second envelope, which is a secrecy envelope. and if your ballot is missing that, and we have never used them before, but if we are missing out, if you don't put that second secrecy envelope in your outer envelope and what is going to

happen is your vote is going to be discounted. so at the last minute, basically pennsylvania ordered that if election workers could scrutinise the envelope and tell that didn't have the second envelope then they have the second envelope then they have the second envelope then they have the right through the parties for the democrats and republicans to contact voters and they have got another shot at it, they could come and givea another shot at it, they could come and give a provisional ballot. the republicans have gone crazy about this because county by county, people do different things and that is what happened in president bush versus is what happened in president bush versus gore in 2000. what they looked for were inconsistencies between counties in electoral practices and that is what we're seeing republicans not to go for here. eliza griswold, before i let you go, ijust wondered notjust as a journalist, but as an american as well, how you reacted when the president stood up in front of the american flag last night and said, i wa nt to american flag last night and said, i want to be counting to stop and i'm going to use the supreme court? how did you feel at that moment?” going to use the supreme court? how did you feel at that moment? ijust felt sickened. but 0k, one thing

thatis felt sickened. but 0k, one thing that is hopeful about that is that it is so bold and abuse of power, may be the supreme court will push back. maybe they will be embarrassed that the president wants that. eliza griswold, thank you very much. eliza griswold, thank you very much. eliza griswold writes for the new yorker magazine, which is where you can read her work. let's speak to the bbc‘s north america editor, jon sopel bbc‘s north america editor, jon sopel, who is live with us from washington. i think we just spoke just under 24 hours ago is the story started to unfold. i wonder what reflections you have and what has happened since then? beyond wanting to go to sleep for about 12 hours? yes, that's right! my reflections, and you too, probably, but my reflections a re and you too, probably, but my reflections are that it has sort of been a wild ride hasn't it? because at the start of it, had the democrats being very upbeat, very confident, pretty certain they were going to be heading towards victory

and that it seemed a little less certain as florida came in and then you heard arizona and so that was the bumpy ride we have all been on. but then of course you had joe biden saying i'm confident of victory, donald trump saying the election has been stolen and that there is fraud being perpetrated and then everything went kind of mad. as we stand here now, i think by the tiniest of margins there is a path thatis tiniest of margins there is a path that is may a touch easier forjoe biden to get to 270, the magic numberfor winning biden to get to 270, the magic number for winning a presidential election, than there is for donald trump. here's a presidential election, than there is for donald trump. he is ahead and if he wins all those three states then he has got there with 270 electoral college votes, but my goodness it is tight and it is going to be contested and maybe we need to think of this as act one of the drama, the voting and counting, and act two is the legal challenges that might follow, potentially protests on the streets, which is the more worrying prospect. so that may come down the track in

the coming days. jon sopel, in terms of the support we have seen for donald trump, last time i checked he is significantly up on the number of votes he got a 2016 when he was elected president, which suggests whichever way this goes his form of politics and his platform and connection with some americans is not necessarily going anywhere? yes, and you could argue he has massively strengthened his position with the republican party, that it is now absolutely the donald trump party, asa absolutely the donald trump party, as a result of his showing in the election. the other thing is that i think the democratic party were so set last night on proving that the 2016 vote for donald trump was an aberration, that it was a holiday romance that was misguided and had run its course and it's time to get serious again. well, thatjust didn't happen. donald trump got a record number of votes, more than he got in 2016. butjoe biden got more votes tha n got in 2016. butjoe biden got more votes than anyone in any recent

presidential election because the turnout seems to have been at its highest for over a century. that is remarkable. that is the vibrant thing about democracy. what comes next is the more certain part. 0k, jon sopel, thank you very much indeed. do followjon sopel on twitter for more updates as he charts this amazing story. throughout this edition of outside source we will bring you all the latest developments and we are reporting from all the states at the centre of this political drama. 0ne of them is michigan and one of the biggest cities in michigan is detroit, the centre of the auto industry in america. our reporter is there. tell us more about what is happening in michigan. well, the votes are still being counted, the secretary of state for michigan was addressing journalists not long ago, saying that then there were about 100,000 still to be counted. the county that michigan is in has a number of votes. . . michigan is in has a number of votes... sorry, but we are in at the

moment, in detroit are still having votes co m e moment, in detroit are still having votes come in, but she does expect that by this afternoon we will be able to give some idea of where we are at. it is really interesting. she has been underlining again and again and again that it does take time to count votes, so please be patient with them. they are concerned with accuracy, rather than speed. thank you very much, lebo diseko, an update from michigan there and remember we are bringing you all the latest here on 0utside source and in the coming hours here on bbc television there is also ongoing coverage via the bbc website. we will be back to the states very shortly, but i do want to turn to the situation in the uk because mps have voted in favour of a four—week lockdown in england to combat covid—19. its nationwide lockdown will begin at midnight, just underfive lockdown will begin at midnight, just under five hours' time. lockdown will begin at midnight, just underfive hours' time. the latest government figures show there we re over latest government figures show there were over 25,000 new covid—19 infections recorded in the latest 24—hour period. that means the

average number of new cases reported per day in the last week is over 22,000, and we know that 1445 people have been admitted to hospital on average each day over the last week to saturday, and also nearly 500 deaths were reported as people have died in the last 28 days have been reported with a covid—19 test. the nhs in england have said its hospitals are now on the highest alert level, back to where they were during the first peak of the pandemic. let's bring you the bbc‘s reporter, iain watson, lives with us from westminster. we expected this to go through, but whether any dramas in the commons? there was, actually, and what was interesting as it was a massive victory for the government, of course, because the labour opposition largely supported the government's measures. they felt the government's measures. they felt the measures were introduced too late, but also they did feel they we re necessary , late, but also they did feel they were necessary, so the drama really came from boris johnson's were necessary, so the drama really came from borisjohnson's own side of the house of commons and interestingly i think it was not so much the quantity of those who

rebelled