you are in cnn newsroom and im jessica dean in new york. the marathon race for the white house is a sprint. with three days to go until election day in america. moments ago, former president trump making his pitch to voters in north carolina , declaring he is doing much better with women voters than he is given credit

for. >> and these horrible people back there said, well trump is soft with women i do not believe i am soft. they say , he is very good with men. think human . i am through the roof with men. >> we have been saying it is the polls open indicating there is a gender gap in favor of harris with women. men have been favoring trump. in georgia, vice president harris making part of her final pitch to voters with promises of unity. more than 71 million early ballots have been cast in a cycle unlike any other in history, this election remains a tossup. in polling, we are seeing razor thin margins across crucial swing states in pennsylvania, there is no clear leader with the even split between harris and trump. in georgia, where harris held a

rally earlier today and in north carolina, or both candidates are scheduled for tonight, they are neck in neck among likely voters. both campaigns focusing in on the battlegrounds in the final stretch device presidential candidates j.d. vance and tim walz blitzing across the southwest with stops in nevada and arizona. we go to virginia, not necessarily considered a battleground state. where former president trump is making a campaign stop. steve contorno is joining us from salem, west virginia. virginia tends to vote for democrats in presidential races and each of the last four elections. why is trump there tonight? >> reporter: it is a great question jessica. it is certainly a surprise to virginia republicans that donald trump would take time out of his campaign schedule to come to virginia of all places. look , donald trump knows it is a difficult path to 70, especially if one of the blue wall states fall in the midwest

. you want to find an alternative route to the closing 270 electoral college votes one of the states where they have remained bullish for months is virginia. now, they had a lot more optimism about virginia back when joe biden was the nominee. there were plans to run a robust campaign here, as well as in states of minnesota, rhode island, new hampshire and new mexico. we have seen him visit new mexico in recent days and now, he is making this trip to virginia. republicans here acknowledge it is a longshot, but they cannot leave any opportunities on the table . if this is close, they want to do with the can to gain enthusiasm in the final moments. he is coming here from north carolina. sandwiching this stop in between rallies . he will be in north carolina tomorrow and norfolk, carolina on monday showing how important the battleground is. the vice president also holding in the event there. in fact, are kate sullivan snapped a picture of air force two and trump' us

airplane at the same airport at the same time. showing how the campaigns are converging on each other in these critical battleground state. north carolina, not a state the trump campaign expected to spend so much time in, in these closing weeks. clearly, looking at his schedule, showing how important it is for him to defend north carolina. otherwise, all hope might be lost for them >> steve contorno virginia tonight. let's go to cnn's eva mcammond. she got exclusive interview with vice president harris before the rally earlier today in atlanta . what did she tell you? >> reporter: we see from the vice president and her team, then progressively making the case to every available undecided voter . they are particularly focused on young voters. you see here and in north carolina, she is introduced by first time voters it comes at a time when many americans expressed dissatisfaction with the current state of the country. i

asked her about this. take a listen. >> listen, the folks are watching this interview right now and note that prices are high. we need to bring them down. waited deal with the cost of housing and we have a supply shortage. my plan is not linked to work with the private sector to cut to the tape to build more housing in america, but also, to give for some homebuyers and $25,000 down payment assistance to get the foot in the door. >> reporter: the message from the vice president is essentially, i feel your pain and i have a plan for it. part of the strategy also includes employee in all of these celebrity surrogates here in georgia and north carolina. it is part of the when we vote, we win concert series . it is aimed to get people to pay attention in the final hours. for those that did not vote early, to get out and vote on election day. >> eva mckend with exclusive

interview with vice president harris in atlanta. joining us now is the republican secretary of the commonwealth of pennsylvania , al schmidt. thank you for being here with us. we know it is a busy time for you. >> it is indeed in a busy time for all of us. >> first, let's start with the news you got about the supreme court ruling allowing pennsylvania voters whose mail ballots are rejected, to have their votes counted through a provisional ballot . is a little in the weeds, but it is important. harris campaign: the decision fair, saying its quote, puts an end to the trump campaign's fight and visit me into tonight voters the right to vote. what is your reaction to this ruling? what are you seeing in terms of more challenges or legal challenges from both campaigns? >> the shapiro administration is very happy with the decision and it in the fits voters. if a voter voted by mail in the to

sign it or dated, or include the ballot in a secrecy envelope which is required by pennsylvania code. if they vote in person at the polling place with a provisional ballot, they would still have their vote cast and the vote was to be counted. it is a victory for voters, which is the most important thing. >> i think something that is really interesting about the commonwealth of pennsylvania is the u.s. secretary of state and your team and election workers have to deal with is that each county has a lot of latitude in how it interprets the rules. you all have to get on the same page there is a lot of latitude there. how have you been working with the local county officials to streamline this process ? >> elections in pennsylvania are at the county level. we have 67 counties in the past

year i visited every one of them to sit down with the election director to find out how the pennsylvania department of state can be most supportive of their efforts to make sure election day runs smoothly and every voter's vote is counted. cast on or before election day . we work closely with our county partners. if you are voter in pennsylvania, you should have confidence that the hard-working professional civil servants are working night and day to make sure your vote will be counted and the shapiro administration will support any effort , or pose rather, any effort to prevent a vote from being counted. >> counting ballots is not a partisan issue . you want to do it right and make sure they get counted. i do want to ask you about a unique position , especially in the commonwealth, that you are in right now. you of the former president , his running mate and elon musk

pushing election fraud and conspiracy theories. a lot of them specific to pennsylvania. trump posted on truth social, quote, vignette is cheating and getting caught at large-scale levels rarely seen before there is no evidence of that. what is your response to something like that ? and how are you all combating this information? >> i was an republican election commissioner in philadelphia 10 years, elected by republicans again and again . and investigated hundreds of allegations of voter fraud. i have a good understanding of how it occurs and how it does not occur . when it does occur, the extent to which it does at all. voter fraud in pennsylvania is extremely rare. when it does occur it is easily identified. referred to law enforcement by our county partners . when warranted,

prosecuted. >> does it make it harder for you to have to continue to message out this is being done in a legal and secure way? >> it is absolutely a challenge to fight against the avalanche of misinformation and disinformation intended to deceive voters to. whether it is to keep them from casting their vote, or to undermine confidence in our election results and our system of government. it is why we have taken such a proactive approach. the truth is the antidote to lyse here. we need to spread the truth as far and wide as we can about how elections in pennsylvania are free , fair, safe and secure. >> we know the former president pointed to an investigation in lancaster county over hundreds of voter registration forms that officials suspect could be fraudulent . can you give us an update on that investigation

and what the truth is , speaking of truth, in that? >> there was some mis-reporting in terms of the volume of voter registration implications i am not talking about pallets. and talking about voter registration implications that were received. lancaster did the right thing, as all of our counties do. which is to investigate those applications that seem like there is something amiss further. when you are applying to vote you provide your social security number and driver license number . be sure to vote for the first time, you are producing i.d.. there are all sorts of safeguards in the process look forward to hearing from lancaster about the scope of how big that issue was. it is easily identified . in this case, as in all cases, to prevent impacting the integrity of our races . >> election day is coming up on

tuesday nobody needs reminding, least of all you and everyone working in pennsylvania on this. the last go around in 2020, it did take some time to get the votes counted. it was until saturday that we had a winner in pennsylvania that put biden over the edge to claim victory and be victorious in 2020. walk us through what you think might be the appropriate timeline for people to keep in mind. i know a lot of the laws of the same , but there have been changes to speed up the counting and streamline it. >> one thing that has not changed in pennsylvania since 2020 is the law that prevents our counties from beginning to process mail ballots before 7:00 am on -- a.m. on election day. we can begin the process weeks in advance. in pennsylvania, it can only begin at 7:00 in the morning. there

have been significant developments since 2020. counties have acquired additional climate . they have a lot more experience than they had in 2020 . the first time they were dealing with the mail ballot voting on a large scale . and also, you were voters, while still widely embraced, compared to the peak covid environment in 2020. new equipment, more experienced and fewer votes to count. one thing i would like to mention is that it always comes down to how close an election is. whether you have mail ballots or do not pennsylvania, michigan, arizona or georgia . it comes down to how close an election is before you can determine who won and who lost. >> it will take the time that it takes the harris campaign has said it expects the former resident to declare victory early on tuesday before the votes are fully counted. are you all prepared to respond if that happens?

>> it is always up to the voters to determine who won a election. i can say with great confidence that our voter should have confidence that their vote is going to count in pennsylvania. the shapiro administration will protect the right to vote and prevent any effort from getting in the way of that. >> certainly, as they are counting again, it will be a process. in terms of safety for these public servants who are running these elections in counting these ballots and making sure everything is done, what all have you done to ensure their safety and to make sure that those people are protected while they are doing this? >> there are lessons learned from experienced in 2020. that is why we set up the election threat task force in pennsylvania. meetup of federal, state and local partners in law enforcement and election administration. if any

of that ugliness returns, that i and many others experienced in 2020, there are open lines of communication. everyone knows what everyone else's role is and law enforcement can focus on their job so that election officials can focus on their job. which is counting votes in a democracy and a time-sensitive environment. >> secretary al schmidt, good luck to all of you as a process unfold over the next three days. we appreciate your time. from the first votes to the critical count, no one covers election night in america like cnn. special live coverage starts on monday at 4:00 p.m. right here on cnn. just how close are the polls with three days to go? we will run the numbers back in a moment. for >>

in the final days before election day, vice president harris and former president trump are making a full-court press and the critical blue wall states were the latest polling shows incredibly tight races in each of them. with a slight edge for harris and

michigan and wisconsin and a dead heat in pennsylvania. joining us to discuss this, ron brownstein, senior editor at the atlantic and cnn senior panelist. the weekend before election day. we have made it. the jumping off point with the blue wall states. which do probably represent the straightest path to victory for either candidate. what do you make of the state in play of those right now? >> first of all, i coined the blue wall and 2009. for the 18 states that ultimately voted democratic in all six elections from 1992 to 2012. the most states either party has won over six consecutive election since the foundation of the modern party system and 8020. trump famously dislodged michigan and wisconsin from the blue wall in 2016 . when people talk about the blue wall they are usually referring to those states. the bricks that fell out of the wall have become the wall. what is important is

since 2016, democrats have regained the initiative in those three states. the evidence is the counter mobilization or the backlash with trump has been more powerful than the mobilization that trump effectuated in pennsylvania and wisconsin. the democrats won the governor's and more in 2022. they flipped three legislative chambers. and of course, biden won all three in 2020 by combined 20,000 votes. the difference is infinitely -- inflation in particular, creates a tougher environment. given what is happening and the erosion democrats are seeing is primarily along non-white voters harris is largely held in the support from biden's white voters, which is higher than clinton. these three states are phenomenally white and older and paradoxically are considered a safer one for her than the sun belt ones that are

younger and more diverse. >> it is interesting to bring up that point. in talking with people, you remind them of the conventional wisdom we have held a long time . a lot of it in so many ways is getting turned upside down in this race if it ends up shaking out in the final result one of them being to your point, harris's strength with white voters. and maybe trump 's gaining strength with voters of color especially in cities. >> race and age are kind of narrowing as defined in this election . and gender and education levels are widening in this election. if you look at it that way , in the sun belt states , such a high percentage of the electorate overall and certainly, high percentage of democratic coalition , are voters of color. even small shifts away

from the democrats, particularly -we will have to see what pans out among black voters and black men. small shifts can be damaging their ability to win those states where it is generally tougher to win white voters . historically, parts of run better among white voters with the former blue wall states. michigan, pennsylvania and wisconsin. a larger share of electric . 80% and michigan, 80% of pennsylvania and 90% of was consul . you have a scenario where it is not hard to imagine that harris has the advantage in the popular vote and it will erode what biden did in 2020 and he won by .5 points . she may only win the popular vote by as little as hillary clinton did, 2 points or less. even if she does, she is holding her some more support with white voters will be in better position than

hillary was to hold michigan and wisconsin with a narrow advantage in the popular vote. pennsylvania obviously , it is the toughest of the three. we are accustomed to the idea that all three states vote to the right of the nation overall. because they did in 2016 and 2020. but it was the opposite in the first four elections of the century. if we have this inverted pattern of racial support, it would not be surprising to me if in fact, these states vote more democratic than the country overall, or something very close to the overall national level. >> it is so interesting. you mentioned the gender gap, which we talked a lot about. we have still not seen nikki haley on the trail for donald trump. she has said she is waiting by the phone for his phone call. we have not seen her. both campaigns, certainly the harris campaign, has said they would love to pick up some of the nikki haley voters. and trump as well, i begin about pennsylvania. what you make of

him not bringing her out on the campaign trail ? we are showing video of her with dave mccormick, the pennsylvania senate candidate , republican candidate in pennsylvania. >> etiquette is indicative-firs t of all, it is a real signal of how trump views the rest of the republican party. when he was president the first time, he felt he had to make concessions to other power centers in the party now, he feels he is make no concessions to anyone. that he has broken the party to resist him on anything. it is a mistake. is no other way to describe it. nikki haley-type republican voters , probably independents who lean republican , the most logical place for harris to grow relative to biden in 2020. a lot of parts of electric you look at, young men , latino

men, maybe blackman -where she will probably struggle to match what biden did and they lose a few. where can she offset that? most logical place is big , racially diverse, well-educated, populous inner suburbs around philadelphia, milwaukee, detroit, atlanta and phoenix. the nikki haley voters probably described , are a very attractive target for her. i think -we talked about it before. you look at the 2022 election results and michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin and arizona but they show you that i didn't' is performance in 2020 among white women with a college degree was not the ceiling for democrats. after january 6th, the democrats did better among women than biden did two years earlier. harris probably is going to have to do better among those women. haley can help trump, but obama pick

up the phone. >> it is such an interesting dynamic that we will watch. since last weekend when we saw you, we had the trump rally on sunday night. we have seen what has transpired in the last full week before voting . how would you categorize the moment as we head into the last three days. >> i cannot remember if we said this last weekend. i am paraphrasing . someone said to me months ago, in the final days of the election, the real question is , what is the question? is the question going to be, are you better off than you were four years ago? most republican professionals would want voters to be thinking about that as a go to the booth . most voters, despite all of the success of biden with the job market , will say no . that is not the question we are discussing in the last few days. we have been discussing island of garbage. i will

protect women, whether they like it or not. robert f. kennedy jr. will get control of federal healthcare policy. vaccines and women's health. liz cheney should face rifles on the other side. donald trump has been almost on a crusade to remind people that everything else they did not like about his presidency , aside from the fact that gas and groceries were cheaper. may not be enough to get harris over the top. it looks like pennsylvania is a battle of the old. someone will win it by a tiny margin. in terms of what we are discussing in the final days, the construct certainly would seem to benefit harris more than trump because it is so focused on all the hesitations people have about trump . even if they consider him better. >> ron brownstein, we will see you soon. we appreciated. --

appreciate it. how close is the selection? we'll run the next.

neck in neck, razor thin, a toss-up ; no matter how you put it, almost no respectable poster is willing to predict what will happen to state. senior reporter harry enten joins us now with his take . harry, let's run it back. how close is this race? >> you ask me every weekend. every weekend, i feel like i have to get out my thesaurus to find out another way to put

that this race is too close to call. it is looking setting for my s.a.t.s. three days left to go. this race is way, way too close to call why? let's look at the polling aggregates across the seven key battlegrounds we are talking about. in the sunbelt, you see more red than blue. no blue in the sunbelt , but too close to call. trump by three in arizona, two in georgia and one in north carolina and tie in nevada. come to the great lakes and a little more blue. one point and michigan. when you break out this, the less than, you know how close the races. in pennsylvania , tied. that is the bottom line of this election. we too close to call at this point. all of the key states arguably the most supportive one, pennsylvania , tied. >> put that in terms of the electoral math .

>> how does the electoral map pan out? if the results match the polling averages, neither candidate gets to 207 electoral votes. i do not even know what other way to put it. pennsylvania, it becomes all-important key state . whoever wins pennsylvania one >> -- wins the election. the commonwealth of pennsylvania, just to the southwest of new york city, becomes the all-important state. if you can figure out who wins pennsylvania, you probably know who will win the election at this point, the polls can only tell you both candidates are short of the 270 electoral votes needed to win , if they are right on the money. which, they probably will not be. >> explained that to us. they are not perfect. >> no, they are not perfect let's go through history. since 1972, at the key battleground states the polls

are not perfect. they are a tool . they get you in the neighborhood. when the resources close and all the keep battle states are within this that is the average error band. the average error band since 1972 is 2.4 points. -- 3.4 points. you talk about the margin of error, we are talking more plus or minus 9 points all of the key battleground states are within this band and they are within the average of the error band. let's look at what happens if you have average error and apply to the electoral map if we have average error and donald trump benefits from average error, he gets we passed 270 electoral votes he gets to 3 to 12. he carries all of the great lake battleground states that he carries the southeast battleground states of north carolina and georgia. he carries nevada and arizona out west. of course jessica, there is no guaranty that the polls

necessarily benefit donald trump , even though they did in 2016 and 2020. the polling could benefit kamala harris, like it did the democrats in 2020. if there was a polling that benefited kamala harris she would get north of 300 electoral votes she gets 319. she carries the great lake battleground states. wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania and southeast battleground states of georgia and north carolina. she would carry the southwest battle ground up nevada and arizona. the bottom line is the polls point to a race too close to call. an average miss in either direction could turn into electoral college block but we do not know at this point. >> it could be one on the margins, but it looks like electoral college blowout if it went one way or the other . i think this is the question i get the most. when do we know who won? >> if you recall last time

around in 2020 we did not call pennsylvania until saturday morning. it was 11:24 in the morning when wolf blitzer came out and we projected that joe biden was going to win the 2020 election. i think it is probably the worst case. florida back in 2000, 37 days. there is a chance that the election is a being wider, you go back to 2022 in pennsylvania and that senate race was called at 1:00 in the morning wednesday. the key point is five points in 2022 versus a point in 2020. with fewer mail in ballots, the chance of counting them, people are used to it. pennsylvania has changed the laws. michigan makes it easier to count the ballots before the election is completed. on tuesday, you can back it up closer to when the polls close. or wait until saturday. at this point, all i

can say is, who knows. >> we will get through it together here we are saturday before the election . make a bold production right here, right now. the dolphins or the buffalo bills? >> that is not a tough prediction. bills mafia is going to warp and have wonderful dolphin for lunch afternoon . josh allen on march up the offense up and down the field and we will crush them. wolf blitzer and i will root for our buffalo bills together. so sorry, miami dolphins are going away. >> our executive producer tim will be disappointed with that prediction. >> sorry friend, you are going down. >> harry enten, thank you. president trump will soon take the stage in salem, virginia. vice president harris will take the stage at a rally in charlotte, north carolina.

will keep an eye on both.

a stark warning from laurent. i run supreme leader submitted a t7 breaking response to israel and it states after israel targeted iranian military sites last month. chief global affairs correspondent matthew chance has details from jerusalem. >> reporter: a new threat

against israel tonight from the iranian regime . the supreme leader allowing a crushing retaliation against israel and the united states for actions against iran . speaking at a meeting with students ahead of the anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the u.s. embassy in tehran. he threatened what he called a teeth-breaking response for what they are doing in iran on the resistance front. a reference to the embattled militant group like hamas in gaza and hezbollah in lebanon. he added iran has the right to respond to israeli strikes according to iranian state television. iranian officials have played down the israeli strikes . and missile productions and defense sites

in the country. in recent days, the language seems to have hardened. earlier this week, a high ranking iranian official said iran would carry out definitive and painful responses for the attacks. probably before the u.s. election. israeli new source said israel is on a high state of readiness for an iranian response. >> matthew chance in jerusalem, thank you for that. trump supporters are doing what they can to win the election. and what they can to undermine the election if he loses.

you give me the chance to fight on your behalf as president, there is nothing in the world that will stand in my way. we know donald trump . right . we do, don't we? here is one of

the things we know about him. this is not someone who is thinking about how to make your life better. and , this is someone who is increasingly unstable. obsessed with revenge . consumed with grievance . and the man is out for unchecked power. in less than 90 days, it will either be him or me sitting in the oval office. we are going to do this. >> kamala , kamala 's point

>> thank you. how about sharing with your friends? this is a thing we want to share with folks. just to imagine what this means and the choice in front of us. imagine, and let's ask the friends not here, to imagine the oval office. you have seen it on tv, right? imagine the oval office and if he is elected, donald trump on day one would be sitting in that office stewing over his enemies list. but, when i am elected, i will lock in on your behalf, working on my to do list. and at the top of my list is bringing down the

cost of living for you. that will be my focus every single day as president. i will get a middle-class tax cut to over 100 million americans . i will interact the first-ever federal ban on corporate price gouging on groceries. fight to make sure that hard-working americans can actually afford a place to live. and, if you are caring for an elderly parent, my plan will cover the cost of healthcare under medicare. >> kamala! kamala! kamala!

>> it is all good. >> kamala! >> it is all good do you know what? one of the reasons we are here is because we are fighting for democracy . and the right for folks to speak their mind. right now, i am speaking. so bringing down the cost of living for you includes making sure that we are caring for those that are caring for others. it is okay y'all. democracy can be complicated. it is all right. it is all right. this is what democracy

looks like. included in the work we will do , is ensuring that medicare covers the cost of home healthcare for seniors. i will tell you, a lot of how i think about these policies is based on my own experiences. when my mother was sick, i took care of her. >> kamala! kamala! kamala! kamala! >> it is all good . it is all good. listen, it is all good. look , we all want the war in the middle east to end. we want

the hostages home. when i am president, i will do everything in my power to make it so. so much about what i care about is truly about dignity. it is about dignity. it is about the importance of lifting people up and not trying to tear them down. which is why my plan will lower the cost of childcare. cut taxes for small businesses . do we have small business owners in the house? yeah we do. i love our small businesses. you are all part of the backbone of america's economy. keep doing what you do. i love our small

businesses. and our work will include lowering healthcare costs. because where i come from , in terms of how i think about this, access to healthcare should be a right and not just a privilege of those that can afford it. on the other hand, donald trump's answer to the pressures you face is the same as last time. another trillion dollars in tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations. and this time , he will pay for it with a 20% national sales tax on everything you buy that is important -- imported . clothing, toys, food , cellphones-a trump sales tax that economists have estimated will cost you additional $4000

per year. on top of that, donald trump still wants to get rid of the affordable care act. which would throw millions of americans off their health insurance and take us back to the time when insurance companies could deny people with presenting conditions. to member what that was? we are not going back. we are not going back. we are not going back. and we are not going back, because ours is a fight for the future