and lady gaga. president trump wraps up his estate in grand rapids, michigan, joined by melania trump and vice president pence, also live here on c-span. ♪ >> tomorrow is election day, november 3. stay with us to discover who the voters select to lead the country and which parties will control congress. live coverage on election night starts at 9 p.m. eastern and continues through 7 a.m. eastern join the conversation, share your experiences as the results come in, and hear from the candidates. watch live on c-span or listen live on the c-span radio app. election night on c-span, your place for the unfiltered view of politics. >> this week washington journal

has been focusing on key battleground states. reporters and analysts from on the ground. we will examine what's changed since 2016. what public see -- policy issues are motivated reporters here, and what clues to expect in a 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, andnn,

>> what is the likability factor for these two candidates in pennsylvania. guest: the likability factor is a little starker than it was in 2015. they called joe biden pennsylvania's third senator. he is very well-liked around here. donald trump is not. at the same time i think that falls under sampling that before they need to sample so i would not put too much stock into that. at the same time likability does

matter. this is a bastion of political moderation. people here and let congress members, senators who are sort of above the fray politically. pat toomey is a perfect example. he has been a guy who has went to the senate and not called out president trump -- >> you can find "washington journal" at c-span.org and was anytime.nt online taking you now to latrobe, pennsylvania for a campaign rally with vice president mike pence. pennsylvania is on of three states the vice president is visiting today ahead of the election tomorrow. >> we were running for reelection when we got the call. mike, it's, going to be great. and it has been great.