steve internal is there and he is joining us with the latest from the rally steve, what is the former president thing to

virginians tonight? >> reporter: he is delivering his closing message to the state and really, to many voters who have yet to cast their ballot did same quote, are you better off now than you were four years ago? when you talk to republicans and operatives in his party, they say that is the message they wish this campaign have focused on more in the closing weeks of this race instead, there have been so many other controversies and issues that have distracted from that message being the focal point of this campaign. we spent several days talking about a comedian suggesting puerto rico was an island of garbage there was a suggestion that he put robert f. kennedy jr. in charge of women's health and healthcare in this country. there was a spat with liz cheney. all of these elements have distracted from donald trump focusing in this final week about the economy . one of the reasons he has had such

difficulty focusing on the economy as a top issue is because he does not really believe it is the number one issue in this election. he believes it is immigration and the u.s. southern border. he says that quite often when he is at these rallies. he tells it to the media and he says it in his appearances. it is the number one issue for him, immigration . it is issue he won on in 2016. he lammons he could not campaign on it in 2020. he is here four years later making that a focal point of the closing stretch. i should point out the rally in virginia is sandwiched in between two stops in north carolina. he will also be in tomorrow and monday as well. they did not expect to spend that much time there. clearly showing how important it is to hold north carolina in these final days. >> steve contort merrill in virginia. after stopping in georgia, vice president kamala harris travel to north carolina. she

will stop in michigan and pennsylvania. priscilla alvarez is live in charlotte. priscilla, north carolina has voted republican in the past three presidential elections. democrats tend to get their hearts broken there. it is not worked in the last three presidential elections. how is this campaign working to change the script-flip the state? >> reporter: i have been speaking to senior campaign officials over the course of the election cycle. what they have repeatedly said is that they will be bullish on north carolina . because in 2020, former president trump did win this state, but he won by a slim margin. they are hoping they can turn the state this time around the vice president's message and letter today was one intended to reach those swing voters who have not decided who they will vote for get. the vice president continuing to stress her theme of unity and also, casting former president trump as

consumed with revenge . and saying he is quote, increasingly unstable. take a listen. >> this is not someone thinking about how to make your life better. this is someone who is increasingly unstable. obsessed with revenge. consumed with grievance. and the man is out for unchecked power. >> reporter: now, that line is when she is repeated multiple times on the campaign trail. over the last few days as part of her closing argument. she tries to have voters visualized who could be in the oval office next year. the campaign is also using the closing ad to touch on the theme of unity. an add will be running during nfl games today. it will bookend $370 million paid ad purchase that we talked about before.

this is because senior campaign officials are projecting a degree of optimism when it comes to undecided voters who are fatigued by former president trump. they are hoping in the closing days of the election that they can bring them over to the vice president, so that they can support her. of course, all of these events and the lead up to election day are intended to mobilize voters of course, it was a star-sided event in north carolina intentionally. because the campaign is trying to generate enthusiasm and hoping to capitalize on early voting ahead of tuesday. >> priscilla alvarez on the trail in charlotte, north carolina tonight. joining us now is senior political commentator david axelrod. i need to congratulate you because you just released the 600th episode, which is incredible of your amazing podcast the a.c.t.s files. congratulations. we are three days out. i want to get your

30,000 foot view of where you think we are right now. >> close. very, very close. it is a race in which the battleground states are all separated , all within the margin of error. many within a point . fractions of a point. and everyone is grabbing for a advantage. what is interesting to me is all of the attention on north carolina. because earlier in the week , the harris campaign had actually cut its television by -- bui in north carolina. later in the week, they restored it. now, she is going there. and trump is going there four times . it makes you feel it both campaigns feel like the state is in play. i also think that if you are kamala harris , you

want an insurance policy in case there is some chip in the blue while you are counting on. north carolina , 16 electoral votes . george, which was today, 16 electoral votes. that is an insurance policy. i expect she was been most of the next 48 hours concentrating on those three blue wall states. it gives you a sense of how close this races. >> it is really incredible. >> one thing , i was so interested in the two reports from stephen and priscilla. steve said a lot of republicans are frustrated because trump keeps getting off message and would like him to be on the same message that his campaign is communicating on television in its advertising. it has a lot to do with the economy. priscilla showed the vice president talking about how unhinged and vengeful and so on

trump is. he is actually vetting her message in the final week and that has to make republicans uncomfortable. i am sure they would love him to stay tethered to the prompter a little bit more and deliver the message they think will help him win this election. but, he is not closing well . she is closing a much more disciplined way i said earlier today, she has been criticized for being too cautious. but, being disciplined in the final 72 hours is really a advantage if you are on message. being undisciplined can be very damaging. we will see how that works out. >> that dovetails nicely into the other thing i wanted to ask you about for this specific thing the harris campaign said this week that they believe these voters that are making up their minds as we speak, late-breaking voters, are breaking their way. they feel

pretty confident in the trends that they are seeing what do you think about that? do you think it is true? >> all i can do is look at the data i can get my hands on. i think there may be something to that. it would dovetail with what i perceived to be the case, which is that she has been , for the last 10 days or more, she has been on a pretty consistent message. and you heard it summarized at that speech at the mall the other day, on tuesday . she has been repeating it around the country. i am focused on your problems and he is focused on his problems. i think it rings true with a lot of voters. there is something holding voters back from committing to donald trump. if you just look at the right track number of the country, 28% the president's approval rating flirting with 40 and some of the economic numbers- not the

numbers of the economy, but the numbers of how people feel. you would say the incumbent party would lose that election. yet, they are in the position to potentially win this election. a lot of it has to do with deep reservations about donald trump. about his motivations and his self-control. about whether he can be relied on to fight for middle-class families or whether he will be focused on himself and elon musk and others. they have seized that message in the last 10 days and they are driving it. it would not surprise me if the cross-pressured voters, the ones that are left, are considering this very deeply right now. and some may be flipping her way. >> i want to ask you about this harris add that it's gotten a lot of attention about women that will vote and not tell their partners or spouses. it

is narrated by julia roberts. let's watch. >> in the one place in america where women still the right to choose , you can vote anyway you want . and no one will ever know. >> did you make the right choice? >> sure did honey. >> remember, what happens in the booth stays in the booth. >> some on the right have been outraged by this and compare it to a affair trump told fox news it is a sign of a bad relationship. what do you think about this particular ad in the messaging? i have seen things online with women posting notes in bathrooms. what do you think about all of this. >> you may be more qualified than i to judge that. i do not know how everyone will receive

that ad . i will tell you this, i think one of the great mysteries that is going to be unlocked , one of the theories that will be tested when we start looking at these votes is, are there republican women crossing over ? we know republican women in the suburbs for example, have been voting heavily in the suburbs of atlanta. of the coming out to vote for donald trump, or is some portion coming out to vote for kamala harris? we know that there are non-college white women who could be a poll of support for kamala harris . i do not know whether they feel uncomfortable talking with people about their vote or not. clearly , we are not seeing that show up in the numbers particularly. we will see what happens on tuesday. that is one of the things i will be looking for. the other is, is there

going to be a surge of trump voters not attached by the pollsters for the third election. there are a lot of theories that pollsters are over-correcting and they are actually accounted for in the polls . we do not know the answer to that either. we are in the position of having to watch the selection in the old -fashioned way and wait for the votes to be counted. >> look, the democrats have certainly been very anxious about this and very nervous. there has been a lot of anxiety throughout the country on both sides. this is a high-stakes election that means a lot to americans. it brings so much emotion to all of this. >> look, i think there is no doubt that many many americans are feeling the stakes. donald trump obviously has stakes that surpass for anyone else has run for president. because , in a

sense, his own future outside of politics is going to be determined by this election if he has to stand trial. and he has made it clear he will not stand trial. because if he does, he will fire the special counsel that brought the indictment. there is a lot around the selection . concerns about democracy. and let's be clear, to a lot of americans, it is a fundamental question americans who do not have the luxury to be consumed by the impact on democracy because they are worried about how to pay the bills. they are asking, who is actually going to fight for me? who might help me a little bit? do they say, i felt better under trump and i did better under trump? or, are they going to say , he is off on his own thing here and we do

not need that kind of vengeful nests. -- vengeful this. i would rather take a chance on someone that would help me. that is what the harris campaign is counting on. it is a high-stakes affair. i don't have times i get stopped everyday and people say, just between us, who is going to win? it beats the hell out of me. i just do not know . i don't think anybody does . >> we are just going to have to wait and let the people have their say. david axelrod, thank you and congratulations on 600 episodes of the axe files. with about 60 hours until voters head to the polls on election day courts across the nation are busy doing legal issues ahead of the vote count. we break that down next. is seen in exclusive, there inside look into the detroit vote counting plants. the 2020

count turned chaotic. what will 2024 look like?

will the candidates fight it out on the campaign trail and the election is playing out in court moments ago, a judge in georgia dismissing republican lawsuit that aim to block the county election offices from opening this weekend to let voters hand-deliver their ballots. the lawsuit named one

county . the democratic stronghold of fulton county, which includes a lot of atlanta. in another significant ruling, the supreme court is leaving in place a pennsylvania court ruling that backup ballots can be counted if initial mail and eyelets are rejected for technical reasons. join us now is conservative election writer ben ginsberg. i want to start with the ruling coming out of pennsylvania. how significant is this up in court ruling in the case? >> in terms of pennsylvania, it will be thousands of ballots. 6.8 million go to pennsylvania . if it is a really close election it will not. it also matters for the message it sends that the supreme court is not going to jump in to stop votes from being counted in this situation. >> for somebody like you

observing that information, that is a good thing that votes will be counted, right? >> yes. there was some skepticism about which week the supreme court was going to go because of the virginia ruling earlier this week on allowing non-citizens to be taken off the rules. here , the seven court is allowing more ballots to be counted and rejecting a very strict interpretation republicans asked for, to reduce the number of ballots. >> let's talk about the georgia case. the new decision out of georgia with the judge dismissing republican lawsuit that aim to block county election offices from opening this weekend to let voters hand-deliver their mail-in ballots. it was a democratic-held county , fulton county >> i suspect it was not a

accident. they do allow ballots to be brought in over the weekend. it talks about the philosophy the republican party is doing in an attempt to throw up barriers to people voting and ballots to be counted. it is an odd strategy for my party to be taking, given that president trump has said his goal is to get low propensity male voters off the couch and into the polling place , yet, the message from the republican party is to throw up barriers. >> i want to ask, because we are seeing a wave of election litigation that looks like the 2020 election with trump and his allies. they lost nearly every case but one. why do you think they are doubling down on this approach? and, how should people think about and process , as we see more litigation happening as we get closer to election day , and very likely be on election day as well?

>> i think it is pretty obvious. it is an approach being pushed by the ultimate-by donald trump. he has talked about elections being rigged. he talked about it nonstop in 2020. but even more so in the after years. which you pointed out about 2020 is really important. we have seen this playbook run before. in 64 quart courses that they had every right to bring. they were nonetheless unable to produce any evidence of fraud or regularities to change the outcome of the case. now, you are seeing the same playbook run in 24 . i think it is important for consumers, in other words, voters, to realize that past performance is indicative of future results in this case. there was no evidence to back up the charges last time. you are getting the same charges. they should be

taken with less credibility because of the field and similar record of 2020. >> make sure to think of it with a high bar. thank you so much and we appreciate it. abortion is set to be a big focus this election cycle . it is difficult on the ballot in a number of states we will break down what voters will decide coming up.

will

on tuesday in 10 states voters do not just voting for who to put in the white house .

they are also looking directly on whether to restore access to abortion, or limit access where they lifted cnn correspondent julia vargas joins joins us from los angeles. what are the key states to watch what exactly are they voting on? >> reporter: voters in these 10 states will be deciding whether they want to amend their state constitutions to include the right to abortion up to viability. usually between 22 and 24 weeks. one of the states is key to watch is florida. that is because it is one of the ones that serves the most people. since the six-week abortion ban went into place in may, nationwide, it led to 7% dip in abortions. that is 30% of abortions in florida cut . and led to a dip across the nation. that is because one in 10 abortions that happen in the united states happen in florida. in the beginning of the year we had about 80,000 abortions a month in the state.

in may and june the number went down to 5000 -- 5400. that is a big drop there. in 2023, about 9000 people traveled to florida to receive and make abortion. that is because they were coming from mostly states like texas, louisiana, mississippi and alabama, that are more restrictive. another state watches misery. that was the first state to implement an abortion ban after roe v. wade was revoked. that is also one of the most restrictive states in terms of what the abortion laws mean. no exceptions for survivors of rape or in set. providers are at risk of legal liability. there are exceptions for medical emergencies, but it does not apply to other princely convocations that can, -- complications that can come up in pregnancy. in nebraska,

there are two measures on the ballot that had to do with abortion rights. one of them would preserve a 12 week ban in place right now. another would be to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution. we are hearing so much about this nation wide issue. high profile liberties and figures lending their voice to this issue . starting with beyonce last week at the rally in houston with kamala harris. making it very clear where she stands on the issue. talking about the importance of reproductive rights . and chrissy teigen this week, in arizona, speaking about her own experience of meeting a late term abortion . showing up at one of these ovens in arizona. regardless of how the election goes on

tuesday and who becomes president, these states and these ballot measures will have a profound effect on what abortion looks like in the country. >> julia vargas jones, thank you for that. up next, a scene in exclusive. inside look at how detroit hopes to avoid the chaos with the vote county next week.

four years ago chaos erupted at a detroit voting center. supporters pounded on the windows that were blocking the view of vote counting in the city. how do you avoid that mayhem this time around and get faster results? detroit now has expedited signature verification on ballots and new million-dollar machinery. cnn's marshall koehn got a maggie slysz of look. >> what if i told you this could help prevent this? the scene here is incredibly tense. for election officials in detroit, that is the hope. >> laws have changed. we have pre-processing now that certainly will speed up the results. >> it is election in america. >> in 2020 vote counting dragon

past election night as joe biden overtook donald trump on his way to winning michigan chaos erected at the convention center where they were counting ballots. >> in detroit, there were hours of unexplained delays. >> this year, michigan's new election laws could avoid a repeat of chaos. we have been granted exclusive access to the election center in detroit. right behind me, they are processing about 10,000 ballots. the ballots in this room very well could decide the election. >> today, after we received the ballots, my staff go through all the mail. >> signed ballots and envelopes are fed into a new million-dollar sorting machine that detroit bought after 2020 it snaps a picture of each document to compare signatures to those on file. >> it cannot get counted without a signature . >> why is a signature important >> the signature authenticates the ballot.

>> were people out there say there is no verification, your response? >> are. >> seen in word personal information for the sake of privacy. >> this is the most human part of the process. it is pretty different. this one is a full name. at this point, the returned ballot is rejected for further review. >> even with the safeguards and reforms, some michigan republicans do not have faith in the process like your neighboring macomb county, which trump carried twice . you are no fan of vote by mail ? >> i hate it. drop boxes are terrible because people stuff anything in the boxes they voted by mail. >> you just told me you voted by mail. >> once. to get to the township and put it inside the building of the court office. >> you saw it go in. >> i saw it go in. >> four years ago this was a hot spot. >> yes, it was. someone posted

on social media, asking for every republican in the state of michigan to come to detroit. it was so crowded, to the point where we had to stop people from coming in. >> federal prosecutors recently suggested the trump campaign try to -- tried to incite a riot that they. >> all of a sudden, we heard the walls and windows rattling and people began to chant , stop the count. >> did you stop the count? >> absolutely not. >> look at your screen. workers put cardboard over the windows of a county station so that nobody could see in . >> these three windows were boarded up and they were trying to board these up. before they could, i came over and said take the cardboard down. i hate it when that happened. >> why >> because, this is designed for transparency. this is democracy.

>> do you regret papers were put up on the window? >> i do not. i do not begin thing we did keep her coworkers focused and feeling safe-and if that is what it took for it to happen, i would do it again. i am am a government employee. that is what it used to be. now, i truly feel like a protector of democracy. >> marshall koehn is joining us now. it is such a great report there. walk us through with the biggest fears for election officials are in detroit. >> it has to be disinformation . that is the name of the game right now . you to saw one of the top officials, daniel baxter, explain how things got out of hand two years ago after a rallying cry went down on social media among trump allies and republicans , claiming falsely that the steel was on in detroit and you better get down there to stop the steel.

that is what led to all the chaos. but, it is not just detroit. it is throughout all of michigan. the secretary of state in michigan, jocelyn benson, a democrat, has been in a war of words the past few weeks with elon musk of all people. the richest man in the world. the owner of twitter/x , because he is been peddling all kinds of nonsense about the voter rolls in michigan. this is a local, state and national issue of disinformation. the folks down there are optimistic that they will be able to have a better outcome this year because they learned the hard lessons from 2020. >> we talked to the cemetery state jocelyn benson earlier in the show , talking at the security to put in place to protect election workers. what can you tell us? >> in detroit specifically, will be more police on hand. the officials to make more police nearby, just in case anything goes awry. this year, the vote counting will be in a

room with no windows. there will be plenty of poll watchers from both parties, democrats and republicans, inside to keep an eye on it. no windows this time, so nobody can bang on the outside, which caused a lot of fears and intimidation for the poll workers just trying to do their jobs count the votes. >> did election officials give you any idea when they may be finished with the ballot counting? >> that is the big question four years ago, we projected joe biden's victory at around 4:15 p.m. the next day, wednesday. everyone i have spoken to think the results come in faster this time around. the city clerk you just saw, janice winfrey said she is hoping to have all of the votes reported out of detroit by midnight on election night. one of the reasons why it took us until wednesday afternoon to project was because we are waiting on big vote drops from detroit . if it comes faster, a projection could come faster. it is of course, what we all want to see. >> marshall koehn, as always,

thank you so much from the first votes to the critical count, no one covers election night and america like cnn. we have special coverage that starts tuesday at 4:00 p.m. right here on cnn. for >> ekend.

>> every weekend if you look at the get out my the source to try to find out another way to put the reese's too close to call. it is a game studying for my s.a.t.s. we have three days left to go. this race is too close to call . why? let's take a look at the polling aggregates across the seven key battlegrounds we've been talking about. you see a little more red than blue there is no blue in the sun belt. it is to close with trump by three in arizona month two in georgia and one in north carolina and anti-nevada. come to the great lakes and a little more blue. a point in michigan. when you're breaking out this symbol, less than, you know how close the reese's. in pennsylvania,

tied. that is the bottom line of the selection. we too close to call at this point. all of the key states within a couple of points and arguably, the most supportive one, pennsylvania. it is tied. >> it is tied. put that in terms of the electoral map. >> how does the electoral map are out? if the results match the polling averages, guess what? neither candidate gets to 270 electoral votes. i do not even know what other way to put it. pennsylvania comes the all important key state. whoever wins pennsylvania wins the election. we've been talking about it week after week . the commonwealth of pennsylvania , just to the southwest of me in new york city, he comes 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 table candidates are short of the 270 electoral votes needed to win. of course, if the polls are right on the money, which they probably will not be. >> explain that to us. they are not perfect. >> no, they are not perfect. let's go through history. since 1972 and look at the key battleground states how offer the polling averages? the polls are not perfect. they are told to get you in the neighborhood . but when the reese's this close with all the key battleground states within three percentage points, it is within the average error band. the average error band for state polling election since 1972 is, get this, 3.4 point. if you talk about the margin of error, 95% confidence level we are talking more like plus or minus nine points. all of the key battleground states are with in this error band. within the average error band as well. what happens if you have average error and apply to the?

if we have an average error in donald trump benefits, he gets way past 270 electoral votes. he gets to 3 to 12 why? he carries all the greatly battleground states, the southeast battleground states,, and george. he carries nevada and arizona out west. of course, there is no guarantee that the polls being opened the silly and if it donald trump, even though they did in 2016 and 2020. the polling could benefit kamala harris, like it did the democrats in 2022 if in fact, there was polling that benefited kamala harris, she would get north of 300 electoral votes. 319. why? she carries the greatly battleground states, michigan, wisconsin and pennsylvania. southeast, georgia and in the southwest battleground states of nevada and arizona . the bottom line is this. the polls at this point point to a race too close to call, but a change

in either direction could turn it into electoral college block. we do not know . >> it could be won on the margins, but look like electoral college blowout. i think this is a question i get the most. when will we know who actually won? >> when will we know who actually won? if you recall last time around in 2020 we did not call pennsylvania until saturday morning. it was 11:24 a.m. when wolf blitzer came out and we projected that in fact joe biden would win the election. that is the worst case. a visa, if the reese's closer, it will go beyond that. remember, florida in 2000 37 days. there is a chance that if the election into wider, you go back to 2022 v. the senate race was called at 1:12 a.m. on wednesday . the senate margin was five point then versus

presidential margin being a point in 2020 with fewer pallets and a better chance of counting ballots, many states have change the laws, like michigan to make it easier to count the ballots before the election is completed on tuesday. you could get a closer call time to when the polls close, and not have to wait until saturday. at this point, all i can say is, who knows. >> who knows harry enten, thank you three days before the election there is a new poll you want to hear about. is coming up next on the cnn newsroom.