announcer: building a better bay area. moving forward. finding solutions. this is abc 7 news. kristen: hi, there. this is kristen sze. hope you had a good weekend. you are watching "getting answers" live on abc 7, hulu live, and wherever you stream. we asked experts your questions everyday at 3:00 to get you answers in real-time. today we have the president of the california voter association, to explain how to load properly given this is not a typical election, and when results might come in. also joining us, uc davis dr. and member of the covid-19 task force. he will discuss your at home tests and how to do it properly. but first, where the recall election stands and governor newsom's chances.

the biggest name to stump for him is here in california, president biden. joining us right now to discuss the recall is the vice president of political data inc. paul mitchell. thank you for joining us. paul: thanks for having me. kristen: the latest poll was from uc berkeley and it showed him beating the recall by a big margin. what are the latest numbers and how confident are we about them? paul: the latest numbers to show him beating the recall by approximately 20 points, a wide gap considering six weeks ago without this was a race in a single digits. the poll by berkeley showed that the no side was at 40 -- the yes side was at 47% and the north side was that 51%. so it looked like it was going to be pretty narrow. but now that more people are

paying attention to it and voting and the changed a lot in the next eight weeks, we see that it will go down in defeat tomorrow. in terms of votes that have been cast, we are able to tell not how people voted, but who voted, and we see the democrats, almost 4.5 million of them have voted. among republicans, about one million republicans. with a race that is very polarized, it is a good indicator of where it stands. kristen: so things are looking good for governor newsom at the moment. going back to how things looked two months ago, i know he has really turned things around. you mentioned that some of the messaging has changed. talk about what else has changed, and was there something flawed about the way those dire warning polls were conducted that give us a full sense perhaps of how close things really work? paul: there was a flawed poll

that misstated the question. they ended up rescinding the result of that poll. but the berkeley poll six weeks ago that showed a four-point race, i think that was real. if you were to have the election on that day, with a lot of democratic voters not even taking the recall seriously, if he asked democrats, is it really happening, i didn't even think it was qualified? republicans were hyper engaged, focused, and motivated. if we had that election on that day, the governor could have been in really big trouble. but once in the poll came out and once people started spending money on ads, once the ballots arrived in people's homes, the enthusiasm gap really lessened. so you might still have the most energized, excited people in the state be on the pro-recall side, but even those who aren't very motivated or excited, mailing in

that ballot sitting on your kitchen counter doesn't take much work. on top of that, in terms of closing that enthusiasm gap, the national issues have taken center stage, whether it is the response to covid, or the decision out of texas where the supreme court basically punted on defending the roe v. wade precedent, really sending progressives in a tailspin about what was the future of choice in this country. so those things happening before a major recall in a very blue state i think might have been the end of it for the recall effort. kristen: and how much of it do you think is also, looking ahead to next year when we have the midterm elections? president biden was here today, last week vice-president kamala harris was talk about that injection of the national leadership and how this is turning into conversation

that extends beyond just the governor's office. paul: we even saw bernie were in and elizabeth -- bernie sanders and elizabeth warren here. when the media is fed that information, those big names, they end up focusing on those issues being talked about by the campaign. if they are not out here stumping with the governor and having the president out here, that may be the media's attention goes towards the reason the record was started in the first place, the reason we saw the recall get the signature regarding the covid policies and so on. the message around having those big endorsers is about nationalizing the election. i do think also that there are going to be lessons drawn from this election when people look towards those 2022 midterms. around the country, generally the first midterm after a president of the new party, it is a really horrible midterm for that party.

we could see folks looking at california and saying, ok, governor newsom was able to beat the recall with big numbers by focusing on what he was doing to ensure safety with covid protocols. they will talk about his record on covid instead of running away from it, to talk about issues like the environment and choice. that might end up looking a lot like a better formula for national campaigns going into this midterm election cycle. kristen: right, that is so interesting, he is fully embracing his covid policy when it is what got him in trouble in the first place. . people were unhappy with how he was handling it. it has turned around and a lot of it is because we are still in it. i want to talk about the gop side. is that conservative talk show host larry elder still the frontrunner in that field? i wonder to what degree he has been hurt by comments he has made in the past many,

accusations by his ex fiance. paul: he is still the clear favorite in the republican field. that has got to really gall traditional leadership within the republican circles who look to somebody like kevin faulconer as an example, former mayor of san diego, republican, who was able to get elected in a state that politically looks like -- in a city that politically looks a lot like the state. in san diego, you don't get elected as a republican by being really polarizing, you get elected as a republican by being able to work across the aisle, being more diplomatic. so i think a lot of republicans have been looking to somebody like kevin faulconer as it opportunity for 2022 or for a future gubernatorial run. and this election with larry elder taking over could put

kevin faulconer in single digits and kind of leave him and other potential 2022 candidates like kevin kiley or john coxe in shambles. kristen: and i know that kevin faulkner and elder represent the two different competing wings of the heart of the republican party. does the fact that elder still leads suggest that it is still all about from within the party, and how long will the political landscape still be all about trump? paul: i am sure that is a question a lot of folks are asking themselves, watching the last days of the selection be defined by trump. today trump put out a statement saying that this was a rigged recall election, that republicans -- it was almost like a republican voter suppression technique, that republicans should not trust vote by mail, trust the results of this election. if you want your voters to vote,

it is not smart to tell them that their vote doesn't count. so we are seeing this election defined by trump and trump busy. there are that i think there are people in the republican party who cringe at the idea of their own voters being told not to trust in the system. the chair of the republican, jessica patterson. has done an extraordinary job trying to bring back faith in the system among the voters, but yet it still seems to be defined by these other louder voices nationally. kristen: paul mitchell, always great talking with you. thank you so much for your insight. hopefully we will be in conversation as the result start to come in. take care. paul: thank you. kristen: we are taking a short break on the air, but the conversation continues on facebook live right now. coming up, we will be joined by

kristen: welcome back. we are talking about california's recall election tomorrow. now we will focus on the process. joining us is kim alexander, president of the california voter foundation, a nonpartisan nonprofit working to improve the voting process. thank you for your time today. kim: thanks for having me. kristen: let's start with accusations of fraud. larry elder's website is already encouraging people to report election incidents on the "twisted results of the recall." the implication is that something is afoot. i wonder if he had seen any sign of something unfair, rigged, or

flawed going on. kim: the only thing i have seen that is causing me concern are all these false claims about election fraud. there is no evidence to back these up. it is just undermining people's confidence in the election, which is if people see problems, we want them to be reported to election officials, and the secretary of state has a hotline 1,800-345- vote. so i hope people will report issues to the authorities. kristen: what safeguards are in place in california to make sure fred is less -- to make sure fraud is less likely to happen? kim: every voter in this election was mailed a ballot, in an envelope that is coded to that voter. when you return it, you have to sign your name on the back of that envelope and that signature

is compared against the signature on file. . if they don't compare, the office will contact you if your signature changed or if you did not do it the way you did it when you register to vote he will, have a chance to resubmit your signature. if you don't sign, they will contact and ask you for that. and all the equipment is tested and certified. we have the most robust voting system certification requirements in the country, and will also require a voter verified paper trails. there was a time we had paperless electronic voting and many of us. fortunately, california was one of the first states to mandate that california have a paper ballot. we also require audits and people can watch that process after the election. so we have a very secure system and voters should have confidence their votes will be accurately counted. kristen: maybe you can address a few of the concerns i have seen. one is that there are holes in

those ballot return envelopes. i wasn't sure i understood the concern, because it has been that way for years, right? kim: they are designed to help voters who have low vision locate that all-important area on the back of their envelope where they need to sign their name. it turned out in this election that some voters discovered that if they put their ballot in the envelope in a certain way, in some counties where they punch of those holes, there recall vote would show through. that is something we need to look at, we don't want that happening, but that is not assigned that someone is trying to steal your vote. ballot tampering is a major crime, you can spend years in prison for doing that. so even though there is this legitimate question about the ballot design issue, it is not an indication that there is fraud. kristen: speaking of the design, some people are concerned that the fold with the candidate's name is a way of rigging the election. can you address that?

kim: is not a way of rigging the election. have 46 names on this ballot, so it is possible someone's name will appear in a folder on one of the vote five mail-in ballots. they have the same content on the ballots. if it is the case, the reason there is concern about where that overall appearance, if the ballots tear in the process, the vote may be in that chair. if that happens, election officials will remake that ballot, and they do that in teams of two, so the ballot can be accurately scanned and counted, so that is not a reason for people to be worried about the selection. kristen: every registered voter was sent on ballot. what are the different ways you can turn it in and make sure it is countered and make sure you

can still vote in person kim:? kim: all 58 counties will have in-person voting available across the state tomorrow. voting sites are open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. you also can turn in your work by mail ballot at any voting location in your county or if you find yourself out of your county tomorrow, bring your ballot with you and drop it off in another drop box or voting site and they will get it to your home county for you. . if you lost your mail-in ballot, you can go to your voting site. once they verify that your ballot has been they will issue you another ballot you want to avoid putting ballots in the mail tomorrow unless you are sure it will get postmarked by september 14. you can go in and ask for it to be canceled at the counter to verify it will be postmarked by election day. there is a seven day grace period for county ballots, but they have to be postmarked by september 14.

kristen: someone wants to know, if people cannot wear a mask, will they be accommodated at the polling place? kim: people are requested to wear a mask at polling places. some people have difficulty wearing masks and accommodations can be made. you may have to wait a bit of time where they clear out the voting site and empty it out for you if you are in that situation. it might require waiting longer, but all voters will be accommodated. kristen: is there a way, for those of us who need to check to be sure that our ballot has been counted? can we track it somehow? kim: that is a great question. if you cast your vote by mail ballot, you can sign up for tracking. you can find out that your ballot has been received or

wrong maybe you forgot to sign it, or there are questions about whether your signature matches the signature on file, you can also learn about that through the ballot tracking and proactively notify your registrar, and not just wait. . to hear from them. we have this information on our website at calvoter.org. there, we have all kinds of information to help you vote in this election. kristen: how long do you think it will be before we actually know the results? i know the polls close at 8:00, but how long do you think it will take? kim: it is hard to depends how close the contest is. we will have a good idea how things are going early on admin night. election officials are preparing to count and those will be the early released results. so it depends on how many ballots come in. tomorrow during the seven day grace period, that is always a

big question. if people hold onto their there is a big flood of them at the last minute, every single ballot signature has to be verified before it can be opened, extracted, flattened out, and scanned. there is a lot involved in getting ballots, prepared to count so it can take a bit of time. i think within a few days we will probably know the overall outcome of this election. the second question, that is harder to say. kristen: second question, which may or may not be needed, depending on the first question. came alexandrata, president of the california voter association. thank you so much. kim: thank you. kristen: the conversation continues in facebook live. next we will be turning our attention to the coronavirus and those at-home test kits. they are hard-to-fin hey, i just got a text from my sister. you remember rick, her neighbor? sure, he's the 76-year-old guy who still runs marathons, right?

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covid testing kits are a commodity. joining us to discuss them is a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at uc davis, and a member of california's covid testing task force. thank you for joining us today, doctor. >> thank you for having me. . kristen: a lot of people are turning to those at-home tests, there are two approved by the fda, illume and binax now. can you tell us how they work? >> there are actually quite a few others that have received emergency authorization and a few others that have the over-the-counter claim, but all function the same way. they capture the virus, the proteins that make up the virus, and they are detected by having the antibodies that we engineer to eliminate them. for example, some of these could have a color that shows up on a

piece of paper, such as the binaxnow test. illume has a reader mechanism that can detect it. kristen: so let's talk about that. i want to ask you about the collection of samples process. is that difficult? prone to user errors? are we seeing any false-positives or false negatives? >> many of these tests over the counter, they have gone through a series of tests that they had to submit to the fda to prove that the rates of air very low, and if any errors occur it is likely to cause -- less likely to cause erroneous results. but this can happen, even in the hospital site testing. if the swab collected is not of high quality, say you didn't go deep enough, or you did not go around your nose, it may not

catch enough of the virus to be detected. also, there is some biology with this. you could be at a point in your illness with covid where the virus has not replicated enough to be picked up by these tests. this could happen with pcr tests too. pcr tests are just more sensitive. kristen: so how long should we wait after exposure, if you think you have been exposed to take a test? dr. tran: require you to test twice over a period of time, an interval of 36 hours between the two tests so you can get the first test if it is negative, the second test can capture the covert infection , so it gives you a second chance to catch it. kristen: are you sayin it is a little more likely that you

might get a false positive tests if it is in at-home test, versus a pcr? dr. tran: on average the false negative rate is higher with at-home tests. this is due to the fact that the virus has to copy itself and produce proteins for those antigen test's to detect. kristen: given that, do you think these results will be good enough, presented as proof for a negative test if you go to a concert or travel, or if your employer sc for a negative test? dr. tran: if used correctly, it is a powerful tool. antigen test's are being used widely. but if you are a person who is at high risk for where there are other people who were affected by covid, your chances of getting covid or higher, so if you get a negative tests, it probably behooves you to test a couple more times, to see if it is negative or not.

kristen: these tests are not cheap one of them is $23. the other is $38. if you have to test a few times -- the breaded administration said it will use a federal law to ramp up reduction, and also to make sure that retailers sell them at cost. is that a significant? dr. tran: based on what i have seen so far even checking on amazon, those numbers seem to agree. that defense production act, the numbers will continue to increase. i will have to defer to the manufacturers to see what at cost means. but it still adds up, even if it is five dollars or $10, it adds up for someone who keeps getting

kristen: thanks so much for joining us on this tonight, the big test across this country amid this delta variant and with america now back to school. the surge in child covid cases, 1 million children testing positive in the last month. more than 243,000 new child cases reported in just one week. in new york city tonight, 1 million public schoolchildren have now started the school year. required to wear masks. vaccinations required for teachers and staff. tonight, the fda warning for parents when it comes to vaccinating children under 12. and tonight, two fda reviewers who have joined an article on boosters, suggesting they might not be needed yet, that the vaccines are working. late today, the fda now weighing in. also tonight, parts of the u.s. now bracing for up to 20 inches of rain with a major