until the last minute to return their ballots. we're now facing a perception issue. the changes in the postal service if nothing else has created confusion and chaos where none existed prior so the voter education and the confidence boosting we now have to do and will do to ensure voters that their vote is counted is a key part of our work moving forward. >> frank larose, talk to me ♪ this sunday, vote watch. about security on your drop >> they're trying to steal the boxes in ohio. >> so we require that they be election from the republicans. >> with the pandemic leading to under 24-hour video more people preparing to vote by surveillance mail than ever before -- >> you won't know the election they are emptied every day by a result for weeks, months, maybe bipartisan team at the county years after. boards of elections, that's part >> president trump steps up his of the security protocols. fight against mail-in balloting. ohioans trust whether they mail in their absentee ballot or use >> the democrats are meddling by the secure drop box at the board of elections that their voice will be heard because they can track their ballot by going to our website, voteohio.gov, just wanting and insisting on sending like you track a package so you can have that confidence that the board of elections has received your ballot mail-in ballots where there's >> karen brinson bell, i'm curious, you're going to be corruption all over the place. dealing with more absentee ballots than ever before, and it is going to slow down the >> despite a lack of evidence. >> democrats have studied this, republicans of studied this, and no one can find any evidence of rampant voter fraud. >> so many are concerned. >> if there's mail-in i don't at all. >> do you have apprehensions about mail-in voting in counting and the processing of particular this

>> i do. >> plus worries over voter walk me through what is -- how quickly can you verify mail-in rights. ballots? >> when voter suppression and can you verify them before you count them in order to speed happens, it happens up the count disproportionately in minority communities. >> foreign meddling. >> i think north carolina is >> the russians are not trying to interfere in the election of 2020, they are interfering. uniquely positioned for this because we began sending out >> and a weakened postal service. >> the postal service is fully absentee by mail ballots on capable and committed to september 4th to nearly 600,000 absentee requests that we had delivering the nation's ballots received securely and on time we are ahead of the game in sending out those ballots. that's more time for voters to return them. >> poll watchers, delayed we also have had in place for a number of years now the ability to process absentee by mail ballots in advance of election day. results, and conspiracy we also tabulate on election day the results from our one-stop early voting, which we think theories will be about 50% of the ballots this morning, how safe is your vote cast, we'll probably have 30% or welcome to sunday and a special vote watch edition of "meet the press. >> announcer: from nbc news in 40% of the ballots cast absentee washington, the longest running show in television history, this is a special edition of "meet the press" with chuck todd by mail. good sunday morning and a so even by the close of polls on happy labor day weekend to everyone not only may this actually be election night, we may be reporting as much as 80% of our voter turnout and how they have the most important election in chosen at the time that the

polls close. our lifetime it certainly will be the most unusual or unlike >> so you may end up being a any election in our lifetime this year because of the fast counting state with results covid-19 pandemic for the first time a majority of americans say they plan to vote early, and that has huge consequences according to this week's nbc quickly. i know ohio and, frank larose, i news survey monkey poll 52% of americans say they plan to vote know you guys process early, early, 33% by mail, 19% early in person which brings me to you, jocelyn but there is a huge split benson you guys can't start processing until election day it took a long time to get results during your primary. should we be prepared for thanksgiving and the michigan results to be coming together? >> no, but we should be prepared for this to be closer to an election week as opposed to an between how democrats and election day republicans plan to vote the bottom line is we are not 54% of those who lean republican going to have the full results and a counting of all of our plan to vote on election day in person ballots on election night. we already know that while among those who lean we've asked the legislature to democratic, 71% plan to vote by mail or early in person. make changes to the laws to give that is all but certain to lead to an election night in which president trump may appear to be leading because those election us more ability to be prepared and count those ballots more efficiently. day votes are counted first and they have not acted for reasons that i don't fully completely are republican leaning, only to fall behind joe biden in the following days and weeks as understand, but that said, we're mostly democratic mail-in votes

are counted. there are so many questions surrounding this election. increasing tabulators, we're will president trump declare victory on election night and insist on mail-in ballots counted afterwards are fraudulent will the postal service be able to get those ballots in on time? will hurdles be put in place to make it more difficult for black increasing capacity to more efficiently and securely count and hispanic voters to get to those ballots but i'm laser the polls? how many mail-in ballots will be focused on accuracy. disqualified and why if this takes a few extra days and could weeks of legal challenges make 2000 and its to ensure we have a full and hanging chads seem simple and accurate counting as a result of quaint every race, that's what it's going to take. those are just some of the issues we're trying to deal with all this week on vote watch on nbc news and msnbc starting with this special edition of "meet the press. we're going to be transparent we're going to begin with a throughout that whole process to crush of expected mail-in votes make sure every citizen knows and an election, the likes of where we are in the counting process and how many more which we have never seen ballots we have to get through >> it's my greatest concern, my >> are you concerned that people may take the delay in getting all the results in michigan to single greatest concern. this president is going to try declare a phony winner to steal this election. >> yes, but to me that's just going to be another example of the type of misinformation and disinformation that we're seeing >> they're trying to steal the multiple ways from multiple election from the republicans. >> the stakes could not be platforms and voices in this higher, as the two parties clash over how to conduct an election in the middle of a global health election cycle

crisis more than 190 million americans in 44 states are eligible to so we are going to counter that misinformation with truth and cast a vote by mail without an accuracy these are ballots that have been excuse beyond the coronavirus. counted and reported, this is in 2016, 33 million voters or about one-quarter voted by mail. where the work is still this time, it could be more than happening and we'll continue to twice that number. for months the president has engaged in a campaign against keep the public updated. being that source of trusted information of clear facts and mail-in voting, though he is data is going to be really voting by mail himself, to delegitimatize the results of the election if he loses. >> voting by mail is fraught with fraud and abuse. important for every secretary of state this year as we seek to >> if you do universal mail-ins with millions and millions of cut through lots of different rhetoric that's going to only be increasing in the weeks coming up to election day and beyond. >> frank larose, senator marco rubio of florida has actually got a bill that would change the day the electors meet from december 14th to january 2nd essentially it's because he said, look, states may need more time they may need more time to certify, and don't -- it's an artificial date, december 14th you can shift that around. ballots, you're never going to would you like more time know what the real result of an election is. >> i don't like this mail-in >> chuck, we're certainly planning on having our electoral ballot deal. college meet on december 14th. >> a "washington post" analysis we're preparing for that of course we count the ballots on election night and always report that is unofficial tabulation we know over the next ten days found 372 cases of voter fraud as long as those ballots were out of 14.6 million votes cast legally cast they can continue by mail in the 2016 and 2018 to be received at our board of elections, that's our law here in ohio. alone. so we're making it clear that

>> academics have studied this, the numbers that you hear on election night are never the lawyers have studied this, final result democrats have studied this, that's going to be even more so the case this year as we rely on republicans have studied this more and more absentee and no one can find any evidence balloting. of rampant voter fraud. we're even changing the way the election night reporting is done on the website to make it clear >> the president's fear of that there may still be tens or hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots mail-in voting may be rooted in whether it's one of my former military teammates that's serving overseas or maybe someone who procrastinated and the 2016 election where he wasted until the last minute as long as they were cast, they deserve to be counted. overperformed on election day in election date we'll give a snapshot of those results but key battleground states. the final result is what matters. >> jocelyn benson, i think we learned from you it's election week frank larose, poll workers you brought up and karen brinson in florida, for instance, hillary clinton led before bell, be as prepared as you can election day by 247,000 votes. trump won election day voters by 360,000 and won the state. in the fight over mail-in be voting, the postal service has become a flash point good luck. we're all counting on all three after an urgent warning last month to dozens of states that it cannot guarantee all mail-in ballots will be counted. of you doing an outstanding job. postmaster general louis dejoy this is one case where backtracked before congress. >> the postal service is fully regardless of party, everybody capable and committed to wants all three of you to delivering the nation's ballots securely and on time >> will you put the sorting succeed. machines back? >> no, i will not. >> you will not. >> i will not. >> the chaotic primary cycle -- it took pennsylvania 28 days to count all its primary votes. so thank you. >> thank you when we come back, hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots in new york, it was 42 days. states like wisconsin, georgia were thrown out during this year's primaries and texas were plagued by long coming up we'll look at three battleground states where rejected ballots could make all lines at the polls, 11th hour the difference in the world. court rulings and failing voting

machines. >> it is pouring out here. how long have you been waiting >> about three hours. >> you've been waiting here three hours? >> we stood in line and kept right now, hearing, you know, there's we're all doing our best to keep each other safe. machines coming. at walmart, despite everything that's changed, we didn't know if things were one thing hasn't, and that's our dedication to you and our communities. broken it made me think this is -- this we're working together, in-store and online, must be what voter suppression through pickup and delivery, to safely get you the essentials you need. looks like. ♪ >> if you have a 69, 70% voter turnout in our presidential election in november, that could take days. >> and experts worry a long timeline could erode voter confidence in the election and come on in, we're open. become fertile ground for disinformation campaigns. >> if the election results are close, will you trust them >> if there's a mail-in, i don't ♪ trust that at all. >> i would like to say yes, but sometimes in the back of my mind i don't know. >> and joining me now are two men who have represented their respective parties for years and know as well as anyone what might -- what we might expect all we do is hand you the bag. this november. it's mark elias and ben simple. done.

we adapt and we change. you know, you just figure it out. we've just been finding a way to keep on pushing. ♪ ginsberg when we say recent with ben, we mean this past week recent ben, welcome to retirement, i guess, and welcome back to the show mark elias, to both of you let me start with just doing the than rheumatoid arthritis. when considering another treatment, ask about xeljanz... landscape of lawsuits as we a pill for adults with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis when methotrexate has not helped enough. stand right now. more than we've ever seen for xeljanz can help relieve joint pain one election cycle and swelling, stiffness, the rnc is involved with 41 and helps stop further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections. lawsuits in 19 states. before and during treatment, the democrats have 18 different your doctor should check for infections, lawsuits in 17 states. we know it's more than we've ever seen before like tb and do blood tests. yes, some of this is tell your doctor if you've had hepatitis b or c, covid-related. mark elias, since you're have flu-like symptoms, or are prone to infections. involved in many of these suits, let me start with you. serious, sometimes fatal infections, of all of these lawsuits that cancers including lymphoma, and blood clots have happened. are out there, what are the one taking a higher than recommended dose or two that you think most of xeljanz for ra may increase risk of death. tears in the stomach or intestines urgently need to be decided and

resolved for us to understand and serious allergic reactions have happened. what's going to happen in november don't let another morning go by >> well, first of all, thank without asking your doctor you, chuck, for having me on about the pill first prescribed for ra more than seven years ago. ben, congratulations on your xeljanz. retirement i think that there are a few categories of lawsuits that need to be resolved and pretty quickly. the biggest ones have to do with the rules involving the processing of absentee ballots some states ballots have to be welcome back it is data download time received by election day in several different analysis order to count including from "the washington some have to be postmarked by election day to count. late received absentee ballots post" and npr found roughly half is one of the biggest reasons for rejections that we see in elections. a million mail-in ballots were we've been litigating to try to move states to the postmarked by election day as a way to make rejected from states that held sure that voters are not disenfranchised due to delays in the postal service and the like. so i would say that that's among those important cases that have their primary elections during to be resolved >> you know, ben ginsberg, this is one of the phenomenons in that not every state has the the pandemic so we decided to dive into three of the states that had the same rule when it comes to a postmark closest margins in 2016 and look >> yes, it's one of the glories at how many ballots were thrown out, whose they were and why they got tossed. you know the states by heart, wisconsin, michigan and pennsylvania

of the federalism that we president trump won all three by razor-thin margins, taking the practice here in the country white house by their combined 77,000 total votes all three allowed no excuse i mean what's true is a mail-in voting now recognition that this is a different election because of michigan and pennsylvania are doing it for the very first time so let's start with wisconsin. more than 23,000 mail-in votes covid, but also a recognition were cancelled in the states primary earlier this year, and that states and counties which there were lots of reasons many of them were different. do administer elections have some voters missed the deadline safeguards in their laws to be or had mail issues sure that people can take credibility in the results of the election and your lead-in to the show, but most were rejected because there are questions about the credibility of the election results, which makes those of certification issues like a safeguards in state laws important to be sure that they're in place and known >> well, ben, let me ask you the problem with a witness reverse of the question i asked mark what's the one or two lawsuits that you think particularly from signature. fewer ballots were rejected in the republican side of the aisle that you think are crucial >> the results of absentee michigan's spring primary, balloting and how those votes 10,694 will be counted and a clear set the biggest culprit there, most of rules is right. so there are, again, the arrived too late to be counted, followed by signature problems safeguards in state law to be and mail issues. sure that the person who casts the ballot really is the person and finally in pennsylvania, who signed the envelope as well.

it's important to have those rules down close to 27,000 ballots were thrown out this year the way ballots are going to be just as in michigan, the biggest issue there was the return deadline followed by mail issues collected, absentee ballots will like the ballot label being misplaced or damaged be collected, is very important to have down it also matters whose ballots there's a phenomenon known as get thrown out in pennsylvania many of the ballot harvesting. rejected ballots came from philadelphia and suburban montgomery county that's right next door. crucial democratic counties. remember, the number of rejected there's a case up before the ballots remains relatively small. but if 2020 looks anything like 2016, especially in supreme court, precisely who can pennsylvania, those rejected ballots could make a huge difference when we come back, what get absentee ballots and turn changes are needed to reform the system our panel is next. them in needs to be known in the moment calls for more. and northern trust delivers more. each state >> mark elias, that has been a with specialized expertise. proven strategies rooted in data and analytics... touchstone here, who collects and insights borne from over 130 years the ballots, where do they get of successfully navigating economic turbulence. giving you clarity. dropped off. inspiring confidence. and helping you uncover new paths forward. i know you're involved in a couple of these. northern trust. wealth management. what state or two do you believe this is most acute >> yeah, so first of all, the case that ben mentioned is a case that i'm actually involved in litigating. it helps illustrate, i think, part of what's at stake for democracy this fall. the case in arizona, which is currently pending before the

supreme court to see whether they'll hear the case, involved an arizona legislative enactment that was brought after shelby county, after the state was no longer subject to preclearance, in which the ninth circuit found that the state banned third-party ballot collection as a way to intentionally discriminate against latino northern trust. i'm a verizon engineer, and i'm part of the team building the most powerful 5g experience for america. voters it's 5g ultra wideband, and it's already available in parts of select cities. it wasn't an accident, it wasn't like los angeles and in new york city. happenstance and it's rolling out in cities around the country. the legislature in arizona with massive capacity, purposely passed a law to it's like an eight lane highway compared to a two lane dirt road. prevent third-party ballot collection to disenfranchise 25x faster than today's 4g networks. some voters. we know that native american tribes around the country have in fact, it's the fastest 5g in the world. similar concerns about third-party ballot collection. but a lot of what we're seeing from the republicans don't deal with third-party ballot from the network more people rely on. collections, it deals with states using drop boxes. we've seen republican secretaries of state in various this is 5g built right. states prevent counties from only on verizon. trying to institute drop boxes

>> ben ginsberg, what is the concern on the drop box? let's find a technicality to complicate this process or is there real evidence of issues that your side is arguing? >> well, the evidence -- people have evidence of drop boxes being abused, then it should come forward with real specific instances. the theoretical problem with drop boxes is they're boxes sitting out there in public. if there is a problem with who's collecting the ballots and whether in some states there are blank absentee ballots going out, that people can collect -- a person collect more than one and put in, that's a problem but there are ways, we are fortunately on labor day weekend, and there are ways to get adequate security around drop boxes >> well, and there's cameras i know that in ohio they claim that they have 24-hour

i want to shift to something that we may now see in north carolina, and that is an attempt at double voting it may all be due to something the president said this week take a listen. >> so let them send it in and let them go vote and if their system is as good as they say it is, then obviously they won't be able to vote if it isn't tabulated, they'll be able to vote. so that's the way it is. and that's what they should do i don't like the idea of these unsolicited votes. i never did. >> ben ginsberg, i want to start with you on this as the president undermined his own argument here by essentially endorsing attempted voter fraud. >> well, the clip had some mangled syntax in it, but there

are -- there are any number of states which do allow voters to vote absentee, to be able to track their voters and see if they're received or not and if they're declared valid by the local jurisdiction if they're not, those states do have ways for people to go in and cure whatever happened to their absentee ballot in arriving you'll vote a provisional ballot or in some states you'll just void the absentee if it comes in, but there is a way to do that perfectly legitimately if your absentee ballot is not received >> you know, mark elias, could welcome back you see a scenario where all of us are used to knowing the winner of the presidential essentially a state like north election on election night or carolina is flooded with sometimes the wee hours of the basically people that wanted to morning, 2000 an exception of be sure their vote was counted, showed up twice and only lengthening the amount of time it takes to even find out whose course votes are legit or not but people who follow congressional races are more accustomed to waiting a few days to finds out >> well look, i hope the people this year with the rise in of north carolina don't follow what is really irresponsible advice from the president and mail-in voting those places may offer a cautionary tale. it's really shameful that he take the u.s. senate race in said what he did because the fact is it's a felony in north 2018 in arizona between martha carolina to vote twice mcsally and kyrsten sinema when most of us went to bed,

mcsally was in the lead but 57% you know, the attorney general of the votes were accounted for. at that point there was still more than 600,000 mail-in votes that hadn't been processed yet so nobody declared any victory two days later on november 8th, more processed mail-in ballots had given the tiniest of leads to sinema. again, no declarations the next day friday, november said he needed to look up state 9th, the president decided to law to see that. i'm here to tell him what the tweet. state law is in arizona signatures don't match, electoral corruption, call for a new election, we must protect our democracy. the tweet coincidentally came after sinema took the lead but she expanded her lead and on monday mcsally conceded the race so it not only will slow up the process, because those second votes will get caught. there won't be people whose sinema won by just over two ballots are counted twice, but he's putting at jeopardy those individuals who may be listening percentage points. to him and following this not a landslide but usually a really, really irresponsible race you can decide on election night. statement. with that i'd like to bring in but it could also gum up the works. this morning's panel >> all right, let's talk about post election day and some of we have michael waldman, janai these nightmare scenarios. nelson and nbc news national ben, i'll start with you security analyst clint watts clint, it's on this topic right you were involved in 2000 and, there that i want to begin we don't have to speculate whether the president will mess

mark, you've been involved in around with the vote count we have evidence that he did it once in 2018, during that various recounts over the years, successful in most of them arizona senate race, and that's so, ben, what is your nightmare why i wanted to start here scenario -- what are your nightmare scenarios here that the issue of misinformation and you're most concerned about that you think viewers ought to be warned about >> well, 2020 will not be 2000 disinformation, i heard it from 2000 was the recount of one the board of elections folks state under very tight we've talked to, we heard it from the election lawyers. this seems to be the greatest concern of this election deadlines, but that was met. what's different about 2020 is the onslaught of absentee ballots and the number of states >> chuck, it's called the liars that have extended the deadline for when those ballots can come in postmarked on election day, but dividend, right? when they can come in. that's putting a huge amount of faith in the postal service to once you put the information out there, you set the agenda and drive people's perceptions around what reality is you and i have talked on here a couple of different times. deliver the ballot so i guess my nightmare nightmare scenario is there's a prolonged count because of all the absentee ballots and then lo and behold after people tend to believe what they whatever that deadline is in the state, three days after the hear first and hear the most you can bet in this campaign coming up on election night, they're going to be pushing a message of victory, a message of cementing what reality will be for them election, a week after the election, a bunch of ballots come in that the post office and this is going to cause such chaos, such trouble, and my biggest worry on election night just kind of lost. is that people will be mobilized at polling places or even advance to polling places leading to voter intimidation or

and so it's not the fault of the voter that those votes weren't counted, what do you do then that bumps into the electoral belief that the thing is rigged even though you've had all these great experts on here today restoring faith in our democracy and trying to tell people how to trust the results of the vote. college deadline. >> janai nelson, this is what >> mark elias, what are your you focus on in some ways. various nightmare scenarios that you think we ought to be prepping for i mean the backbone of the naacp has been access to the polls, creating more access to it, and obviously the misinformation is of concern what are your biggest concerns >> so a couple of things first, to ben's point, what he just described in fact a variant about this upcoming election, of that happened in 2018 in the and is it the access issue >> well, at the naacp legal senate -- close senate and defense and educational fund we are deeply concerned about gubernatorial elections in misinformation and florida. disinformation, and of course about access to the ballot in you may remember that andrew gillum lost by 0.4 of a percent and senator nelson lost by 0.1 light of the pandemic that has of a percent part of that did deal with delayed mail ballots due to a sorting facility that had had a wrought havoc on the closure due to terrorist pipe bombs being mailed through it. african-american and latinx community. as we know, african-americans are three times as likely to what's instructive about that is how senator nelson and mayor gillum reacted, which is they have been affected by co didn't attack the process, they didn't accuse the election workers of bad faith, they didn't claim there was massive to have passed away as a result of the completely mishandled pandemic fraud. and so that necessarily means that african-americans are more i represented senator nelson in that we fought hard during the recount, but then we understood likely to have to rely on that the votes that had been mail-in voting, and the

misinformation that the president has disseminated about the reliability of mail-in cast had been counted. voting is deeply concerning. so many people will need to rely what i really worry about is a on that method of voting in order to preserve their health, in order to exercise their constitutional right to vote, president that right now is and to malign the very process that he and attorney general laying seeds of doubt about democracy every day, and he is trying to undermine the u.s. postal service, confidence in it, confidence in mail balloting, and i hope that post election day he acts more responsibly, although i don't have high hopes for that >> well, the reason we're dedicating a full hour to this is because of our concerns about how the vote will be counted, what will things be like after election day, and, therefore, why we have two lawyers leading our show today anyway, mark elias, ben ginsberg, ben, good luck with retirement barr and so many in his cabinet use as their method of voting i see what you're trying to do and so many americans have it will suck you back in, my friend they will suck you back in. >> they may. successfully used over time is such a hypocritical move and is >> congratulations, ben. >> anyway, thank you both. much appreciated a clear and present danger to up next, we'll take you to one of the largest vote processing centers in the country and show you what happens to your ballot after you mail it in stay with us our democracy.

>> michael waldman, one of the things that we also featured in our data download has to do with spoiled ballots and how -- if you look at the state of pennsylvania, it's pretty clear that it looks like that the votes of people that live in philadelphia, and you can check the census and decide if that's going to end up impacting more voters of color, but it sure looks like more voters of color saw their ballots thrown out let me ask you the question this way, michael waldman, what is the best way to guarantee that your vote counts >> well, the best way for anybody to guarantee that their vote counts is this year it's an unusual year vote early, whether you vote by mail early, whether you vote in person early, whether you use drop boxes, which is actually how most people who vote by mail vote and that is something we as citizens can do. states need money, congress passed some, but it's all in the

negotiations over the stimulus more money will help the states count ballots better i'm a verizon engineer, and i'm part the private sector can step in of the team building the most but i do think you've hit on powerful 5g experience for america. something else, which is all of it's 5g ultra wideband, and it's already us need to understand that every vote should count, whether it's voted by mail or voted in available in parts of select cities. person every vote should count. and this idea that there is something wrong with vote by like los angeles and in new york city. mail in the middle of a pandemic, that's not a charge, and it's rolling out in cities around the country. that's a lie with massive capacity, and that is -- it's it's like an eight lane highway extraordinary to have the compared to a two lane dirt road. president of the united states 25x faster than today's 4g networks. going out of his way to try to undermine faith in american democracy in the middle of a crisis like this in fact, it's the fastest 5g in the world. so, you know, we all need to be patient and understand as you've from the network more people rely on. said it's not going to be this is 5g built right. only on verizon. election night we're not going to have the announcement at 11:00 on the east coast probably the way we (vo) while you may not be running an architectural firm, have other years but that doesn't mean there's a tending hives of honeybees, and mentoring a teenager problem, it just means people are carefully counting the votes. -your life is just as unique. >> clint watts, facebook announced that it was going to not allow new political a raymond james financial advisor gets to know you, advertising in the final week of the election for fear of this your passions, and the way you help others. manipulation of voting access and things like this it looked like a nice press so you can live your life. release, but boy it certainly

looked like a lot of loopholes that's life well planned. to this announcement to me did facebook really do anything and is advertising really the best way to stop misinformation? >> yeah, chuck, it's a great welcome back with 190 million americans eligible to vote by mail, spurred by covid concerns, point. look, i'm glad facebook did something, but it's pretty late in the game. states are preparing for an unprecedented surge in mail-in ballot so what happens to your ballot one week out after you mail it? as we just heard, the best thing we asked my colleague, jo ling you can do is vote early if there's misperceptions about kent, to take us to a processing when and how and where you vote, they'll be coming out way before center in orange county, seven days it's mostly individuals that are california, south of los doing this the question is twofold, i angeles. think. one, how do we tag that content, regardless of platform all these platforms are being used to try and sow >> reporter: in orange county, california, the final sprint to disinformation or misinformation into the public. the second part is what i've really seen over the last two election day begins on october weeks is calls for mobilization, whether it's protests, and this is only going to converge.

5th. we've got covid-19, racial justice protests and election night all coming up at the same in a month all of these time and they all compound on each other there have been mobilizations, envelopes will be stuffed with ballots and sent out to voters calls to mobilization on social once they're returned here to media that i've seen across the country that has brought tons of the registrar, that's when the process kicks into high gear people to local municipalities orange county's nonpartisan chief elections official, neil kelly, oversees the fifth largest voting jurisdiction in the united states. he says he's running a military-style operation to handle what's likely to be the biggest mail-in vote ever. >> i think we're probably going to see upwards of 90% honestly for the november election. and absolutely overwhelmed law >> reporter: that could add up enforcement, kenosha being one example. to 1.2 million in orange county. so i think that's the other phase. yeah, i'm worried about kelly has been anticipating the misinformation regarding the election and voting. i'm really worried about mobilizations and how the social onslaught since the pandemic hit in march, investing more than a media companies can try and quell that as well. million dollars in new machinery and doing dry runs to prepare. >> janai, i want to talk about voter suppression issues look, it was a huge -- it was a >> you know, i lose sleep a lot huge issue in the state of georgia. at night i think stacey abrams believes various tactics, whether it's i think every election official voter roll purging did cost her that election. does what states are you most focused on this cycle where you're most concerned about those issues one of the things that i lose >> well, we're focused on a sleep over is making sure the number of states, we're a nonpartisan organization, so our foremost concern is to ensure voters understand their options. every voter has an opportunity

>> the options, mail in your to cast an equal ballot, regardless of any party ballot early, drop it off in one affiliation. of these secure drop boxes or so we're focused on states that deliver it in person to a vote center starting four days before have a majority african-american election day you can, of course, always vote population, regardless of, in person. >> so when your ballot arrives, again, whether they're considered swing states or not the first thing it does is go into this piece of equipment because we believe that the what this piece of equipment does at a very high speed, it's capturing an image of that right to vote is fundamental and signature in a split second. must be protected at all costs >> what happens if your signature is not legitimate? so we have operations in a >> it goes to another tier for number of states through a additional review. >> a human is comparing the prepare to vote campaign where signature here >> correct we're educating voters about all of the options that they have to correct. cast a ballot, to ensure that it is ultimately counted. you've already noted that there a human being is comparing every single signature is disparity in terms of what ballots get thrown out, what so if it's a good ballot, these ballots get counted. ballots come into this device there are disparities in early right here and this piece of voting equipment splits the envelope there are disparities on a open number of fronts that make equal access to the ballot unequal this operator will pull out this throughout our country, and that individual ballot. >> is she able to see the way i falls largely on the shoulders cast my ballot of african-americans and latinx >> no. voters what we are most concerned the secrecy of the ballot about, though, this particular remains because it stays folded election cycle is the until it goes to another team misinformation that can mislead for opening. voters about where and when to this is the moment of truth vote and we are calling upon because now it comes in and we social media platform leaders, scan it and are capturing all the silicon valley leadership, the data where the voter voted. to ensure that there are clear

>> reporter: although orange county captures mail-in ballots rules around voting and that as soon as they arrive, no ballots are counted until election day california allows ballots to arrive up to 17 days after disinformation is identified and election day as long as they're postmarked by november 3rd flagged and removed from those kelly has 30 days by state law to count all the votes but platforms immediately. believes they could finish in >> you know, michael waldman, one of the things that two weeks. as for the criticism from the white house -- supposedly makes our election so >> mail-in ballots will lead to the greatest fraud secure is that we have so many universal mail-in is a very dangerous thing. it's fraught with fraud and every other thing that can happen. >> i try and stay out of the different rules and regulations, political fray as an election official, right? but just in general when you talk about the security of depending on state, voter mail-in voting in general, i think it has more secure aspects than in-person voting. >> reporter: what we saw is a registration deadlines, but it situation where the county has the time, money and resources to handle the expected surge in mail-in voting but that's just not the case nationwide. does feel as if this year that not all counties are this fortunate or prepared. chuck. >> jo ling kent with our report there in southern california jo ling, thank you as sophisticated as the it's leading to more confusion mail-in system is in california, than it does security. it still takes quite a bit of time to get results. >> well, you know, we don't have for instance, in 2018, 17 house one national election, we don't races in california were called even have 50 state elections, we after election day

12 of them more than a week later. have hundreds and thousands of elections run by counties. when we come back, attorney general william barr last week said it is reckless and that's the legacy of our system dangerous to shift to widespread mail-in voting is that really true? coming up, how states are as we've had it. getting ready for election night. ♪ really there's a great benefit to having some national standards and some national expectations there should be access to vote by mail for everybody who wants to do it (peter walsh) people came and they met and they felt comfortable. there should be early voting opportunities and safe in-person it's what we did with coogan's. voting opportunities everywhere. and if we have those kinds of you felt safe and, if you were safe, you could be joyful. national expectations, the kind of crazy profusion of rules won't matter quite as much but this should be an impetus to us to understand we need to everybody has a coogan's. upgrade, modernize and fix o and almost half those small businesses, >> and hopefully that is yet another thing this pandemic has they could close if people don't do something. exposed in all of us here. michael waldman, janai nelson, clint we have to keep our communities together. if you haven't figured it out yet, it is more important than ever to know your state's that's how we get through this. rules and to plan your vote. so please check out our interactive guide that has all you need to know about casting a ballot ♪ look for it at nbcnews.com/planyourvote to learn more and there will be vote watch segments all this week so thank you for watching. enjoy the rest of your labor day weekend. stay safe, and we'll see you next week. because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press. find a stock basedtech. on your interests or what's trending. get real-time insights

in your customized view of the market. it's smarter trading technology for smarter trading decisions. fidelity. i'm a sustainability science researcher at amazon. climate change is the fight of our generation. the biggest obstacle right now is that we're running out of time. amazon now has a goal to be net zero carbon by 2040. we don't really know exactly how we are going to get there. it's going to be pretty hard. but one way or another we're going to reduce our carbon footprint to net zero. i want my son to know that i tried my hardest to make things better for his generation. now there's skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months after just 2 doses. skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, such as fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches, or coughs. or if you plan to or recently received a vaccine.

♪ nothing is everything. ask your dermatologist about skyrizi. find a stock basedtech. on your interests or what's trending. get real-time insights in your customized view of the market. it's smarter trading technology for smarter trading decisions. fidelity. welcome back how you vote by mail depends on where you live nine states and washington, d.c., automatically send ballots to voters. voters in another ten states automatically get an application for an absentee ballot sent to them in half the states, 25, people are allowed to vote by mail without an excuse or with the coronavirus as their excuse. in six states, mostly in the

south, require an excuse to vote absentee by the way, 20 states have changed their rules due to the a record heat wave adds fuel pandemic this calendar year. to the deadly california wildfires. hundreds rescued by helicopter and joining me now are three but is any relief in sight state officials whose job it number 1 is out. not from losing a match but will be to oversee the voting in tossed for losing his temper and their respective states. republican secretary of state frank larose of ohio, democratic accidentally hitting a line secretary of state jocelyn judge. > as the pandemic continues to benson of michigan, and state board of elections director karen brinson bell of north carolina impact almost everyone, one area welcome all of you to "meet the press. karen brinson bell, i'm going to that's taken a tough turn is start with you north carolina, friday absentee ballots went out adoption and what happens to kids who need a forever family? how would you say your level we may be in the last day of of -- where is your level of the summer season, but are you concern when it comes to tough enough to take on the preparedness for this election record for being buried in ice season plus a michigan boy and his >> we have been optimistic the new puppy ar entire time. this is not the first time that north carolina has been 60 days out in delivering absentee by mail ballots that's par for the course in our state. it's just that we're trying to get out more than we typically

would. we were fortunate to have our primary as part of super tuesday, so we were ahead of the pandemic we have had a small election in june that helped us to prepare and i am so proud of the 100 county election directors and boards for the preparations and steps that they have been taking. >> frank larose, unlike karen mentioned that north carolina was on super tuesday so avoided a covid postponement, you guys did postpone so you basically had to run the traps a couple of times. how important was that experience for you going into november >> you know, ohio had a primary set for march 17th the governor made the decision that it wouldn't be safe to go forward with in-person voting so our state legislature chose to conclude the election as an all

postal primary of course we carried that out. some of the lessons that we learned from that, though, is that our boards of elections are incredibly well positioned to handle high volumes of absentee voting. >> what concern right now do you have about november as far as ohio's preparations are concerned? >> chuck, the thing that we're thinking about more than anything right now is poll worker recruitment it takes 35,000 ohioans to run in-person election day so we're doing all we can to recruit those poll workers next making sure that we get accurate information out to ohio's voters. it's just crucial that people have reliable information. that's why your profession is protected by the very first amendment and that's why one of my most important jobs is being that source of accurate and trusted information for ohio's voters >> jocelyn benson, what did you learn from michigan's experience you went with -- you ended up with a high volume of mail-in ballots, and obviously you've gone through a whole bunch of election changes since 2016 that you're going to be implementing for the first time so give me your assessment of where you feel like michigan is right now. >> chuck, one of the silver li 2020 for us has been options for voters and

opportunities to clarify those options. voters in michigan can vote early by mail, they can return ballots through a drop box we placed close to a thousand secure drop boxes all around the state. they can vote early in person at their clerk's office and every precinct will be open on election day we've been able to hone this plan through three successful elections that we've had already this year where we've seen in every single one, turnout has doubled, putting us on track to have michigan's november election be the highest turnout ever in the history of our state. >> i want to go to the postal service issue. you were pretty concerned about it at one time where are you now? have you had reassurances from the postal service folks that you've dealt with since this kerfuffle began? >> yes i have spoken directly with the postmaster general and we've been in constant communication

with our postal leaders on the ground here in michigan. we're approaching this from a two-pronged strategy one is to make sure the system