>> announcer: building a better bay area for a safe and secure future, this is abc7 news. >> hi there, i'm kristen sze. welcome to daily program called "getting answers," asking experts your questions to get answers for you in realtime at 3:00. we'll have lots of questions this week. talk to bay area congressman about what happens if there is a disputed election. also talk with local psychiatrist about what we can all do to cope with the stress ahead of the election and perhaps after. but first, so much confusion has happened when it comes to making sure your vote counts tomorrow along with worries of voter suppression. joining me now to talk about this is justin leavitt, a law professor at loyola law school

in los angeles. thanks so much for joining us. >> pleasure to be with you. >> talk about going to the polls tomorrow, first and foremost, president trump has solicited for people to sign up to be poll watchers. what are their roles? it's not a new thing. >> it's not. and done right, very boring. allows people to come to the polls and watch and make sure everything is going according to the rules and how it should be. there are very strict rules on interferi interfering with or intimidating voters in the election process. and officials have a lot of tools to make sure those there to watch are there to just watch, look, not touch. >> where is that line between poll watching, legal, and intimidation, illegal? >> i think people expect boisterous activity in and around election day. we've had that quite a while and more than 100 feet from the

polls can include calling out candidates and measures and encouraging people to vote for specific things. once you get inside that window though, it's much different process and much different environment. line between watching and intimidation runs right up to anything people do or say that might keep people away from the polls, that might keep them from wanting to cast a ballot. election officials are on the alert for anything like that. >> okay, so like blocking someone's path for example, not okay? is that intimidation? >> not okay. >> other things? >> celebrating the voting environment and being rowdy about your candidate, whoever that may be, not intimidation. but getting in way or interfering with somebody physically trying to cast a ballot, or in some places in california speaking directly to the voter rather than the

election officials, there's a bright line. >> certain demographic groups feel like seeing large gathering of group that's historically opposed them can be taken as intimidation. >> there are histories in the country, resonate in minority and disability communities particularly, who have not been treated as we might hope. law makes a distinction between interfering with, intimidating, making somebody feel they can't cast a ballot and supporting a candidate you might oppose. we have to deal with listening to opposition, people who prefer candidates other than ones we prefer, but we don't have to deal with people getting in our way or impeding our progress to cast our vote. >> but what if people are more than 100 feet away, but two blocks away there's a large gathering and caravan of cars or trucks very visible and loud,

what do you think? >> yeah. loud cars and trucks, we sometimes have to get used to tailgating-like conditions at the polls. not something that should be worrisome. but if they get in your way -- and here's the important thing, call your local election official, call 866-our-vote, a national hotline. measures to take. >> give that phone number again, and if producer is able to jot that down, we'll try to put it on the screen for you so folks can see. what is? >> 1-866-our-vote. and also in-language hotlines. nonpartisan, nonprofit with a lot of help for voters during election. >> that's useful and helpful information. talk about harris county, texas. gop filed suit to have over

100,000 curbside votes thrown out. what was the decision on that? >> decision, thankfully, is that people have been voting, voting from their cars. compute whether they had to get out of the car and step into the polling place and if they didn't, whether to throw the votes out. both texas supreme court, very conservative republicans, and federal district trial judge, also a fairly conservative republican appointee said no. voters have voted, election is about eligible voters casting eligible ballots. not going to hear further nonsense of trying to throw out ballots already cast. we won this round, winning a lot recently. lot of noise and hub-bub about people concerned ballots will count but across the country, courts are standing up to make sure they do. >> president trump continues to say votes should stop being counted end of election night.

despite that most states count for days after, always have. is there any way he could make it happen? clock stops? >> short version is no. there's a lot of noise, things he says not always connected to reality. states have always taken more time than election night. may get projection and first guess but official results always take two or three weeks to dot is, cross ts, and there't no power the president has at all to stop votes whenever he feels like stopping them. game six of the world series, rays were winning first inning, nobody suggested we stop the game top of the first. that's what the president is suggesting and it's not how it works. >> if it's not going to work, why do you think he keeps saying this? no doubt he has lawyers that

tell him the same. >> lawyers are telling him it's not going to work. wouldn't be first time that the president's messaging didn't reflect reality. he's got an interest in delegitimizing the election process. we've seen it for five years, before his first election, continuing through election that he won in 2016. he believes for whatever reason that delegitimizing the election process will help and there's no doubt he will complain when we count all the votes that should be counted, taking longer than election day. but fact he's complaining doesn't mean we the voters should be worried about that. voters are in control of the election, president is contestant who can stand by and watch. >> have you tracked any mass voter fraud or ballot irregularity at this point? just fact that more people are doing it by mail, probably should be a few more cases than usual. >> a few minor things, most

administrative error or mistake. we have not seen and don't expect to see any sort of mass confusion or fraud taking place. it's really, really hard to steal a statewide election. it's next to impossible to steal a national one. which is why it does not happen, back through history you don't see it. what you do see, occasional mistakes or anomalies. but there are safeguards in the system to make sure you get your ballot and return it and it's counted, they've only gotten better last couple of years. pretty robust. >> federal judge ordered postal service to deliver ballots timely. are there issues with the postal service following the election? >> there were a few orders to change policies, no we mean it, every ballot in warehouse has to get out the door.

something like eight or nine lawsuits around the country focusing on different parts of postal service operations and so far they've been complying with the judicial orders. courts understandably stepping up supervision as election day gets closer to make sure all the ballots are delivered that should be. workers, people in the regional offices sending ballots in have every interest in complying. >> justin leavitt, professor at loyola law school in los angeles. thanks s thanks so much for your insight and time. take care. >> absolutely. go vote. >> absolutely. what happens in disputed election, we'll talk about that more up next. i'm alex trebek here to tell you about the colonial penn program. if you're age 50-85 and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three p's. the three what? the three p's? what are the three p's?

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folks, welcome back. there is some concern over disputed election. hopefully that's not a big chance of that happening, but it is a worry. so what happens afterwards if it does happen, that's one of the number of concerns as we approach one of the most highly anticipated presidential elections of all time. joining us now to talk about it, congressman and south bay representative rohit khanna. how are you doing? >> well, i hope you're doing well as well. >> thanks for joining us from d.c. if there is to be election dispute, we all hope not, walk us through how it can be settled fairly. >> we're prepared. first principle should be that every ballot gets counted. sounds obvious but anyone who has voted. voted before election day, your vote should count. and there are many, many lawyers

that will make sure that that happens. important thing for all elected officials to say clearly there should be no violence on any side. should not be something that undermines the democratic process. i have faith that the democratic process will prevail and the votes will be counted. >> are you part of any effort to fight any legal battles that should arise over ballot disputes? >> i'm not personally part of it but have been briefed by biden champai campaign and mark elias is prepared and has won legal victories to make sure ballots are counted and can't disqualify them on a technicality. i go by ro khanna, and i have to stop to think how i signed, ro or rohit.

you shouldn't be able to throw ballots out because of those technicalities and we have to guard against. you wrote a piece talking about if there is chaos, you have solution of special commission. talk to us about that. >> bruce ackerman is a constitutional law scholar at yale and has studied american history and i, we said should have a commission, recommended that justice roberts, a republican appointee, should chair it, resolve all the disputes to take it out of politicized process. unfortunately that commission was never set up. maybe can do so after the fact, though that's tougher. and we're going to have to rely on the judicial process and hope that you're going to have judges like the judge in texas, federal court and texas supreme court said no, not going to throw out 120,000 ballots. that's dishonoring american

democracy. people say how do you trust republican appointed judges, to some extent if you pen decisions to disenfranchise american people, you earn that place in american history. >> but those of us who are older remember bush versus gore, wasn't decided for weeks. miami-dade county ballots that leaned democratic were thrown out. and justice had a lot of weight in that. state officials seem to have a lot of power in determining the outcome. >> state officials do have power, state supreme courts have power. good news is state officials and state supreme courts and many of the battleground states, they're not in republican hands, not in pennsylvania or michigan or wisconsin where you have democratic governors and secretaries of state.

bush versus gore was a terrible decision that called into question the legitimacy of the court at the time but it's important to have context. that was over 500 votes. you're talking about now an effort to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of potential votes. that's not going to fly. close election with a few hundred votes will be vigorously contested. but can't have biden take 300,000 person lead and courts try to disqualify those ballots. i don't think the american people will stand for that. >> congress man introduced a bill for term limits. doesn't any change to the court require a change to the constitution? >> no, it doesn't actually. can do it by statute.

it's in fairness -- scholars have argued over it. our bill would say 18-year term limit on judges but still be judge for life, could go from supreme court to different court. there's a difference of opinion in constitutional scholars. some say if you're judge for life that's fine. others say means you have to be judge on a particular court for life. and that's disputed. but there are many who think a statute would be constitutional to term limit if you had life tenure as a judge on some court. >> why do this? other than it's currently 6-3 conservatives, why should the nation embrace it, conservative or liberal? >> we had started working on the term limits well before the amy coney barrett appointment. the american public overwhelmingly supports term

limits. we have them for members of congress, senators and president, makes no sense that supreme court justice should be there 40 or 50 years making decisions for a generation that had nothing to do with them getting on the court. when 6-3 liberal or 6-3 conservative. i don't think justices need to stay there more than 18 years. >> what about the argument if there were term limits justices would not be able to decide on the principles and conscience but would have to bow to political pressure. what do you say? >> i don't think 18-year term will have them bow to political pressure. to the extent would have them consider some contemporary opinions that's probably good thing so they're not so disconnected from society. 18-year term is long enough and still would be judge for life, livelihood and title to give them independence. >> all right.

congressman ro khanna of silicon valley, it's going to be busy days ahead. keep us posted. >> thank you. encourage everyone to keep voting. pleased that turnout in california is so large. really proud of our state. >> absolutely, lot of people voting. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> lot of people might be feeling anxious, maybe even you, and stressed counting down to the election. we'll talk about local psychiatrist next about how t

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all right. welcome back. we polled our viewers on "midday live" and more than 80% said you're feeling anxious one day before the election. you're not alone. joining us to talk about managing that stress as we get ready for tomorrow, transpersonal psychotherapist

cochran of san jose. thanks for joining us. how is it going? >> seeing a lot of people stressed like you say. >> election day disorder is real. what are the symptoms. >> what we're going through is natural neurobiological response to fear. our brains haven't really changed last 10,000 years, when we're stressed and fearful, we perceive it as life-threatening and bodies respond. panic attacks, high blood pressure. feels like world is coming to end, rather than feeling there will be an end to it. >> your patients who come to see you, are they able to identify they're suffering symptoms due to the election or do they tell you covid or something else? >> hard to discern right now. so many things going on. covid, elections, fires, smoke.

people lost their homes. so many ways that people are stressed right now. but depending on the situation, people are able to identify this is what i feel and i don't know what to do with those feelings. no matter what the source, it's about being able to find a way to address them so they don't destroy your quality of life. >> but you are seeing high anxiety level right now right? >> absolutely, yes. for months. >> what do you tell people? granted everyone is different, response to different techniques is different, but what are some things to try? >> well, the first one, believe it or not, is the serenity prayer. grant me the serenity to accept the things i can't change, the courage to change the things i can, and the wisdom to know the difference. sometimes we get very involved trying to change things we can't

control. what we do have control over is our response to what's going on in the outside world. what is helpful, one, be aware how you talk to yourself about what's going on. phrases like, i can't stand this, this is too much for me, i don't know what's going to happen, my life is ruined, everything i know is over -- that kind of thing just sends your adrenaline through the roof and makes things worse. it's -- go ahead. >> is changing your mindset the only thing you can do? i feel like a lot of people have a hard time doing that. >> yes. you're absolutely correct. a-plus, four points for you, absolutely right. people go to that place, i can't do that. that's one of the phrases, i can't do that. begin to talk to yourself and empower yourself that you can't. let's go through -- >> let's do it together. happy to try it.

>> one of the things that makes us feel better is oxytocin. and our bodies produce that naturally. it's produced when we're touched or touch someone else. what you do is put your hands over your heart, your sternum, both hands crossed. and say these words or something like it -- even though i'm frightened. repeat. >> even though i'm frightened. >> even though i'm overwhelmed. >> even though i'm overwhelmed. >> even though i'm really, really scared this pain will never end. >> even though i'm really, really scared this pain will never end. >> i absolutely love. >> i absolutely what? love. >> unconditionally accept. >> and unconditionally accept. >> myself. >> myself. >> take three deep breaths. deep breath in, nice, slow

exhale out. very good. again. nice and slow. very good. one last time, deep breath in. and let it out nice and slow. there you go. you're all set now. >> i do feel better. i do feel better. and i wonder if it's really hard for people right now too because you said it's part of the touching, reaching out and connection but many people can't do that right now due to pandemic fears, right? and also after the election lot of people are talking about i don't know if i want to go out there. i'll just argue with people. those normal connections aren't necessarily there. >> you're absolutely right, and that is very frustrating for us. even though people get caught up in things like i want to get my hair done or pedicure or something like that, what they're really asking for is that touch again. those are services in which we get touched. that's why hairdressers hear our

life stories so much, they're touching us and it spills out. they get more information than they know what to do with. we crave those things for cosmetic value and value of touch as well. >> humanity of being together, psychotherapist margaret cochran of san jose,

thank you so much for joining us on this interactive show, getting answers. today we covered the election, which is tomorrow, it's been going on though, and voting. talked about difference between watching polls and intimidation at the polls. there is nonpartisan election hotline to answer your

questions, 866-our-vot tonight, the final push on the eve of an historic election in america. president trump and joe biden racing across battleground states. their closing arguments in the final hours of their campaigns. the president holding five rallies in four key states today, telling voters in pennsylvania, if he wins there, he wins, quote, the whole thing. the president making news on the eve of the election, strongly hinting at a rally that he could fire dr. fauci after election day. the crowd cheering. tonight, joe biden traveling to ohio and pennsylvania. he plans to visit scranton, too, where he lived as a boy. saying, it's time for donald trump to pack his bags and go home. arguing, we must unite the country and we must get the virus under control. tonight, the historic early vote in this pandemic. more than 97 million ballots already cast. the path