campaigns in houston tonight. live coverage here on c-span. you can find our coverage online at c-span.org or listen on the freeseas and radio app. c-span radio app. i looker: sunday night, at mail-in ballots and alexion security. estate thatade be can be called by 11:00 on election night because they will count so much of their early voting quickly, but michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania, other states that will be determinative in this election, they have policies that limit how they can count. >> i think cyber security experts are less concerned right now about the threats to vote

counting, and that is a good thing. that is because of the increase of paper records and increased coordination among the states and federal government. there are a lot of reasons to feel good that the security of this election will be better. announcer: mail in alexion ballots, son -- mail-in and alexion security, sunday, on c-span's q&a. week, washington journal has been focusing on battleground states. we examined what has changed since 2016, what public policy issues or motivating voters and try to get some clues as what to expect in just a few days. few days. today we will look at the commonwealth of pennsylvania. joining us is julian routh, covering the campaign for the u.s. post-gazette. let's start with the supreme court decision. what did they decide about

ballots in pennsylvania? shut: to supreme court three day extension to mail-in ballots. they failed once and they failed again last night, but justice alito left the door open to potentially re-examine this case when the time comes. the times said before the election, most likely the latter, now just in preparation, the pennsylvania secretary of state said they are going to invite counties to segregate all in the three days counting. it is kind of precautionary, but at the same time it is probably smart. i talked to legal experts yesterday who said that those ballots should be segregated because there could be some legal challenges after this as well. the supreme court decision last night was remarkable in the way that justice alito wrote that he does believe there is a high likelihood that this deadline

extension was unconstitutional, but they did not have time to rule before the election. just as amy coney barrett did not participate in this decision. what were republicans trying to do i bringing this before this court -- ringing this before the supreme court? guest: they were bringing the trump campaign wishlist to several courts around pennsylvania. this effort had failed originally, so they had an -- they have asked the supreme court to take this issue up, to strike down the state supreme court's upper ruling, which extended the deadline originally. this was before amy coney barrett was confirmed, so after that split, the republicans went back to the supreme court again and said can you expedite this matter, which is a different way of looking at it, putting this back page.

that is what the republicans last night -- that the supreme court split 4-4 again, that they could not do it quickly because the election is only six days away. host: what about the protesting we are seeing in philadelphia over walton williams jr. -- walter williams jr.'s shooting? what is the impact on voting? not exactly sure what the impact on the elector is at this point. law and order is the sick -- the polle biggest issue in one . during the primary election, there were also protests. or i were not as ardent guess inflammatory, but these are more intense, and i think there is fear among county election officials, that this could disrupt the election of the election.

i think it is still to be determined. i would like to do more reporting on that, but we are on the western side of the state. i think it is something to pay attention to. state of earlyhe voting in pennsylvania, and how will it work on election night? tost: early voting had come an end this past tuesday because that was the deadline in pennsylvania to apply for a mail-in ballot. so pennsylvania was basically letting you go with your county election boxes, and to all in one stop, apply, fill out your ballot, and return it again. that came to an ed -- to an end. so far mail-in ballots being knocked off, there have been more than 1.8 million returned, and 3 million had applied. i think on election night it comes down to how many counties are going to pre-canvas the mail-in ballots starting that

day, and which ones are going to wait until the following morning . the secretary of state said it could be a matter of days before we get reputable results here or a majority -- an overwhelming majority of results. there are a lot of questions to answer. host: if you look at what happened in 2016, president trump eking out a victory in pennsylvania, 48.2 hillary clinton's 47.5. the president beat the secretary of state by 44,290 votes. what is it looking like now? guest: i am no expert on polling, because we could see that hillary clinton lead in the 9% before the4 to election. it is tightening in a way that donald trump i don't think is going to win by 44,000 votes.

i think it is going to be a little closer. biden has the edge in polling, but i would give most of this to the democratic strategist at the time. -- hillaryere clinton did not visit in the areas outside pennsylvania. there have been more resources put on the ground and some of those rural areas, some of the telik counties, allegheny county and philadelphia. so i think that if that strategy pays off, we could see an extremely close election, and i think joe biden is probably leading right now. but again, democrats are very concerned about the secret pres. trump:. that has even showed up in polling here. host: in what way? guest: there was a polling done that was very reppo. they pulled democrats come at -- it was very reputable. , and 50%ed democrats said that they assumed people

that they knew were voting for trump and they were not telling them. they were read on election day people that they know in their own lives who may have been hesitant to talk about their support of trump, they were going to go vote for him. where do each of these candidates have the strong cold in the state of pennsylvania? caller: this is a state of -- there are two geographically very dark blue areas in philadelphia on the east, pittsburgh and the west. beenhe counties that have traditionally blue are more purple because of the trump ability to connect with those people in 2016. the rest of the state is pretty red. there are pockets here and there, like eerie county, where traditionally blue working

-- both think it candidates can sort of make their appeals to each one of voters, trump and philadelphia will not win there by any means. but in terms of the rural, red, and color county purple, joe biden has been able to go in there and try to say hey, joe biden said he would remember you, the forgotten man and woman. if you got and i am the one who will remember you. that is sort of the geographical makeup, and extremely interesting state for 20 electoral -- 2020 electoral votes. host: here are the lines for viewers. if you are supporting the trump-pence ticket,. .f you are --202-748-8002 if your supporting the biden-harris ticket, 202-748-8001.

undecided,. night, where will there be early signs that one candidate may be petty toward a victory in pennsylvania? pennsylvania, you know, counties are not allowed to tally all the male-in ballots until 8:00 p.m. that day. they are not allowed to start opening envelopes, canvassing, getting them ready until 7:00 a.m. on election day. there was a fight in the legislature over this the last couple of weeks. talks stalled. republicans wanted some more things in terms of residency requirements to change, but the democratic governor was not willing. there was a back-and-forth blame game on that one. because of that, you are not going to see an incredible amount of mail-in ballots being

tallied right away. there could be a decent amount by maybe 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning and some of these county ladies -- counties that have better staffing. so when the polls close and you start seeing the in person voting come in, as elsewhere, democrats are speaking donald trump to have a lead in that, depending on whether or not he calls victory. that is a whole different story. again, secretary of state here says we might not have the overwhelming majority or it is all set because of the 7:00 a.m. wait time until you have to hand in a ballot. it could take a couple of days, public not weeks, to get results. what was their turn out like in the philadelphia area in 2016? guest: the turnout in philadelphia was great for the most part. it was more the suburbs in

allegheny county around pittsburgh and the suburbs around philadelphia, where you saw the turnout increases at the time. i think a lot of democrats who, you know, grew up in those places in democratic families, those were the ones that switched republican. a turnout is no worry for democrats in philadelphia -pittsburgh. probably not going to be this time, and for mail-in voting, you're seeing it is probably going to be a lot greater this time. we will go to john, in tysons corner, virginia, a republican. you are up first. caller: i will just say that if you want lower taxes, if you want less regulation, if you , if youe public safety support the second amendment, you would vote for president trump. if you support free criminals and rioting and looting and savagery, within all the big

cities, then you're going to vote for biden and kamala harris. it is as simple as that. with regard to pennsylvania, philadelphia is just -- they have a very strong reputation for corruption. unfortunately, i go there a lot for business trips. i see it, i hear it. there is massive, massive democrat party corruption they place in philadelphia. nobody is allowed to address it. nobody is allowed to challenge it or address it or eliminate it. routh, have you reported on this? guest: president trump has said that. he has made the case and is willing to talk about that. the problem is, on the debate stage, i think the first time he had said the quote "bad things happen in philadelphia this is something that -- "bad things happen in philadelphia." --s is something that people

when trump said bad things happen in philadelphia, he was referring to poll watchers, which were denied entry into s.tellite officer trump is saying that bad things happen and poll watchers are not allowed in philadelphia for him. poll watchers are allowed in philadelphia. they have to be certified by the boards of elections. they are still allowed. i think some of these warnings are misguided, but i have not done too much reporting in philadelphia, the city proper, to know about democratic politics there. michigan, terry is watching. what do you think? caller: one of the things that disturbs me is we watch throughout the summer what was happening in these big cities. i don't understand why

philadelphia and pittsburgh did not bring in national guards and law enforcement in the first place. it is really interesting to find out who is responsible for telling police officers to stand down and not to draw their weapons? i mean, to me it is ridiculous. people are dying, businesses are being destroyed. and the city officials are sitting back on their hands allowing it to happen because they are -- because their complacency. host: you talked about a pole. you mentioned this briefly at the top, that past voters, i assume it asked likely voters about who they trust more on law enforcement. what pole was this? guest: i think this might have been the mullen bird pole, or l.e monmouth pol it surveyed voters on their most important issues, and law & order came up and i think was

the second-highest behind health care, covid-19, and then the , fory asked participants registered voters to indicate who they trusted more on law & order. joe biden won that by three or four points. i will push back on one thing the caller said, which is in pittsburgh, the democratic mayor has actually been criticized, had been criticized during the protests earlier this year for deploying police too much, for the police response in general, who thought that it was too intense. i think that goes against the fact that people are saying that -- the onetic mayor who has been criticized for it. host: howard in philadelphia. good morning, greta. supporting the president, go ahead.

i live in northeast put althea, and people need to recognize that there are major -- there is major support for president trump in north philadelphia, in other pockets of the city. it is not getting reported, it is not getting recognized by any of the media. we are out there having rallies in northeast philadelphia for president trump. should know that pennsylvania is a numbers game. 2016ry won pennsylvania in by 565,000 votes. 105 thousand in philadelphia. she started with a 460,000 vote lead. yes, there is corruption in philadelphia, but i'm telling you right now, president trump will have major, major support in the city. it is not just the downtown areas, it is not just certain sections.

philadelphia is the largest voting bloc in the city, and everyone will come out and they will support president trump. one more thing to say, somebody needs to start talking about hunter biden's laptop. it is ridiculous that this is not getting attention. nbc, and there is tons of corruption. c-span needs to report on it. host: julian routh, his comments about north philadelphia and support for the president there. calleri don't think the is wrong at all, and i think we're seeing the same thing in western pennsylvania, which is the media at large when they come into town here will say that pennsylvania is going to sweep joe biden into the white house in this p wave, this wave against donald trump. but i think donald trump support has been extremely visible in

the suburbs, especially in allegheny county and up or from here in heery county. i have done a lot of reporting on it. at the same time, you have to preface that by saying that donald trump's support has been visible. joe biden supporters and joe citedhimself have covid-19 mitigation and precaution is the reason they are not showing support and rallying and having big crowds. while i agree that donald trump has that support -- and it might be more than anybody thinks -- but joe biden maybe hasn't gotten the chance to prove how much support he's had. ohio,columbiana, supporting the president. hi, justin. and becausecalling you have a guest on who is talking about joe biden making states more purple, union labor towns and whatnot. i am from columbiana, ohio, and

that is right on the western border of pennsylvania. i am a working class man. that -- i believe that biden has gotten pushed more into this -- into the cities, and trump support is closing in on him a little bit. a very good story that we get around here on i like to call it the inauthenticity of joe biden. is the delphi retirees that we hear a lot about in the youngstown area. it is a very good example on how mr. biden really could not care less until he needs something constituents or the voters or whatnot. it kind of really breaks my heart, because i love everything

the times we see america come together. usually in the face of tragedy, and it is terrible to see it like that, but everything is so divisive. i see a bigger divide in the democrat party than i do with anything else. it's almost like they are running under a banner of unity against everything they hate. they are running on a platform of hatred, and it is disguised as unity. it is sad. let's hear from helen in las vegas next, supporting the president. hi.er: i just want to mention that the things are being said by trump is not true. because i followed him four years-plus. thought that ever -- aboutld continually

biden and sleepy joe that he mentions. he was going to be out of the white house. they were going to do things because of the things that he did wrong. they talked about it. that's all they ever did. of taxes, because of everything else. he lives in a house, his getaway house, they call it. never pays taxes on it. we did. states that he has two or loose his own money to run, campaign? so two callers who talk like they don't like the other guy.

oft is the likability factor these two candidates in pennsylvania? isst: the likability factor -- you know, it is a little starker than in 2016 because they called joe biden pennsylvania's third senator. he is very well-liked around here, and donald trump is not very well-liked. put too much stock into that. i mentioned before that this is a bastion of political areration, and people here left -- congress members, senators who are sort of above the fray politically -- pat toomey is the perfect example. pat toomey has been a guy who went to the senate and not called out president trump but also not exactly supported him.

is a perfect example of the type of legislator that pennsylvania likes, and they sent to congress somebody who is likable. that is going to be a huge determinative factor of who wins the election. int: let's hear from gary agnes. who is there, is it jeff? caller: yes, ma'am. host: yes. supporting biden. caller: i know they used to produce a lot of gas up there. safe,e says fracking is so fracking is say. i don't know how we are going to do away with fracking and heard the whole industry. host: let's talk about fracking, julian routh. how is that playing out in pennsylvania? guest: that is such a great question. republicans and donald trump, that is a huge selling point right now.

if been holding campaign calls in pennsylvania frequently to tear apart joe biden's position, energy position, and promote american energy and independence because pennsylvania is the second-largest natural gas producing state in the country. republicanstime, and donald trump have exaggerated some points of the impact of a fracking band. donald trump's campaign recently said there are 609,000 fracking jobs in pennsylvania. he said that in fracking there are 30,000 to 50,000 jobs, so nowhere near as many in the fracking industry. about treatment all day, and the number could grow. biden hase time, joe had to clarify his position so many times on this and was just not clear with voters for months on this issue. trump has been playing that video compilation of biden talking on this at his recent

rally. it is an important issue in pennsylvania. not sure how important it is to the regular voter who is not in that industry, but at the same time it is something that trump is not focused on much in the last couple of days of the campaign. host: we are talking about the battlegroundhost: what are your? caller: myhost: what are your t? caller:our screen. you can see what it was in september, 8.1%. linda in michigan. supporting the president. hi, linda. caller: good morning. i have been watching what's going on in the news. i studied it like i have never studied it before. ,hat's going on in philadelphia

applies to fracking. everybody knows joe biden and tv, saidn tape come on they were against fracking, they were going to stop fracking. , she sayshe past year york he is waiting for biden to get in so she can stop fracking by 2015. they will be a spiderweb effective fracking get stopped. it will be a trickle-down effect. people in philadelphia need to pay attention not to what they hear about what they see. the facts. like when they show him saying i am not for fracking. host: we heard that. julian? guest: linda is right. tape not been on exactly embracing the idea of

fracking. i have to say his campaign has clarified his position is to ban new oil and gas permits on federal land. most of the fracking done in pennsylvania is on private land. a big majority of it. it left a lot of voters confused about the topic. donald has seized on it. there is no question joe biden wants to transition. banning fracking his first days in office is not true. said,den campaign has again, he does not embrace fracking. i think it is fair to say. we will see how that plays with voters. host: where would that play with voters? what parts of pennsylvania should people be watching? guest: western pennsylvania in particular. northeastern pennsylvania as well. on the border of pennsylvania and ohio there is a lot of

places. the industry is well embraced. host: what about erie county? itst: it's important because was a blue county for a long time, up until donald trump came there and spoke about revitalizing prosperity and bringing back the steel industry. lost a n -- notoriously biggest steel mills and they have been feeling the effects for decades. trump said i am bringing all this stuff back. prosperity is coming back to erie. they believed him. that's important to see if they believe him again. trump has been making these cases he's going to bring prosperity next year, post covid, and bring back the economy.

says he forgot you the first time and i will be the one to remember you. erie county is so indicative of the profiles that swung the 2016 election. we will see if it does it again. host: anthony, supporting joe biden. caller: thank you for taking my call. one of your last -- i think we live in two different realities sometimes. democratico say reality is so much more accurate. your last caller said things like cnn is not covering the biden laptop issue. who cares about it? there is no evidence there that there was any wrongdoing whatsoever. you turn on fox news, they very rarely mention the tragedy of this virus. just like they did with hillary clinton in benghazi, they just

pound this laptop story every time you turn on fox. the laptop, the laptop, the laptop. it is ridiculous for voters to look at the coverage and say, well, fox and all of am talk radio is being fair and balanced. cnn and emison bc are not. that is just ridiculous -- msnbc are not. when people say biden is lying ,bout fracking and other things locale trump lied -- look at how trump lied. it is on and on and on. not to mention the record high debt. everybody was up in arms about the record high debt when obama was president. they look at the record high trade deficit. the tax policy failed to help american voters. that is what is important. improve thething to

health care of americans. this is what people are looking at. pennsylvania voters are smart and not going to fall to the playbook of the article things like laptops. host: anthony mentioned several issues. julian routh, from your reporting, what are some of the top issues voters care about and is motivating them to show up to either already vote or show up on election day? guest: besides the ones we have talked about that do include things like law and order and even fracking, i think the biggest issues on people's minds are who was going to better handle the covid-19 pandemic and the survival of the affordable care act, no matter which side you are on. senator bob casey has been warning democrats and sounding the alarm for months saying that

they should be telling voters the survival of the affordable care act and protecting people with pre-existing conditions is very much on the ballot. it is something that will play well here. health care, he is right in saying that is important given the confirmation of amy coney barrett and the way the courts have changed the last couple of years. covid-19 continues to hit this state very hard. it is in the top 10 of most deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. cases are researching again. the secretary of health said we should be prepared and we are not rounding the corner. those issues are extremely important. it is really a melting pot of the political universe here. host: another headline. the pennsylvania health secretary cautions against even small holiday gatherings as

covid-19 cases continued to soar. jeff from pennsylvania supporting the former vice president. you are on the air. caller: good morning. how are you this morning? host: what are your thoughts? caller: my wife is being discriminated against because of disabilities to getting a voting ballot. no one will do anything about it. host: discrimination for voting in what way? caller: they claim they mailed her a valid the 13th of the ofth -- ballot the 13th october. we don't have it. they told her to come in tomorrow and fill in -- there is no way to get her into the poll. these are republican-controlled voting districts. -- making alling

kinds of claims. there is no accommodation for her situation. host: julian routh, any o thoughts -- any thoughts? guest: i would like to do reporting on that topic,. access to the n email, me a that would be great. the overwhelming focus is the distribution of mail-in ballots and getting people to return them. there are a lot of people doing good work on this. it is something that will decide the election. host: larry, you support the president in tennessee. good morning. caller: i do support our president. i have heard a lot of talk about the laptop. that is a big deal to this country. the gentleman before, i would like to tell him to do a little more research and to look at the

man who was an eyewitness sitting beside the vice president of the united states making deals with china. i used to be democrat. in the last eight years i have changed to a cold-blooded republican. partys not the democratic that me and my mother went and worked on for 20 years. not even close. i hope to god this country sees what is going on. host: ok, larry. democratsth, how many president trump convinced to vote for him and 2016? 2016? guest: it is hard to quantify the amount of the phenomenon we are talking about. i don't have the numbers but i

will say democrats do believe that was very much enough to swing the election to donald trump and give him that 44,000-vote margin. trump talked about in the last four years and before 2016 saying this is not your grandfather's democratic party, which has been shared down ballot in pennsylvania. it is making an impact. whether we can quantify that in 2016, i would have to look. it was probably enough to swing the election. host: crystal in philadelphia. you support the biden-harris ticket? caller: the caller from michigan um,d philadelphia needs to, open their eyes and stop listening to what is said. i am here. don't be telling me from michigan was going on in philadelphia. the guy down in florida i theeve talked about

problems we are having in philadelphia. yeah, we have problems. laptops. you try to make something up like you beat hillary up over it. philadelphia, look, biden says we need the police to be more respectful and do safety stuff. the way they handled that boy with the knife coming after the police, shoot him in the leg. you don't have to shoot him 14 times. gun laws. why do you need to be buying 50 guns in pennsylvania? it doesn't make any sense. you have to have some kind of control. sensible controls. you guys out there keep drinking the kool-aid that lying president keeps putting out here. -- just the way he is trying to lead the whole country, we have to get some sensible controls with health

care, with gun laws, with policing. who is there to help us and protect us? i love police. the guy in the northeast. he might be having rallies on his block. i live in northeast philadelphia. he can stop with the nonsense. you have your pockets of people allowing the proud boys. we are going to stand out in the rain. day but we wet for a are not going to get soaked for another four years with this guy. , let's talk routh about gun issues in pennsylvania. the second amendment and those that would like to see some reform. how does that play out and where? guest: i think it plays out in a couple of ways. i want to mention this week marked the two-year anniversary of the tree of life massacre,