captioning sponsored by wnet sreenivasan: on this edition for saturday, october 24: theti presid candidates continue their campaigns as more states open for early voting; new covid infections surge to record ghs; and the next stops in our series "roads to election 2020," missouri and wisconsin. next on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. the cheryl and philip milstein

family barbara hope zuckerberg. the leonard and normklorfine foundation. charles rosenblum. we try to live in the moment,s to not misat's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow mo can help you make th of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement servicme and inves. addi oprovided by:has been consumer cellular. and by: and by the corpora opublic broadcasting, a private corporation funded by theic am people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: good evening, and thanks for joining us. ten days before the traditional thectionay, americans have already cast mor 56 million ballots. that's more than 40% of the total votes counted in the 2016 general election, according to

the u.s. elections project. president donald trump cast his ballot iperson this morning in florida as that state began early in-person voting. >> i voted for a guy named trum ( laughs ) >> sreenivasan: his opponent, biformer vice president jon, started thday in pennsylvania with another drive-in rally signed to keep supporters socially-distanced in their cars and honking in place of cheering. >> it's go time! it's game day! l we're ten dat, and it may come down to pennsylvania. >> sreenivasan: in his remarks, biden continued to emphaze that he has a plan to tackle the coronavirus... >> i'll shut down the virus, not the economy. we can walk and chew gum at the same time. >> sreenivasan: ...and repeated his position on fracking, a controversial and big industry in pennsylvania that president trump has said biden wants to shut down. >> i'm not banning fracking in pennsylvania or anywhere else. >> sreenivasan: bidedrove to pennsylvania today from hihome in delaware.

the president, meanwhile, flew from florida to a rally in north carolina. >> four more years! four more years! four more years! >> sreenivasan: during a speech that lasted more than an hour and veered fm attacks on vice president biden to building a border wall to falsely stating outbreaks are the result of mo testing, mr. trump also called mail-in voting "horrible" and called for voter i.d. laws. >> but we can't play games. this is our shuntry, and you ld have voter i.d. everybody should have voter i.d. ( cheers and applause ) right? they don't want voter i.d. do you know why thdemocrats don't want voter i.d.? only one reason: b purposes. there's only one reason you don't want it, because you're going to cheat. >> sreenivasan: after north carolina, the president headed tohio and then planned an evening rally in wisconsin before heading back to washington, d.c. s alasator lisa murkowski said today that she will vote to confirm judge amy coney barrett to the u.ssupreme court. during a rare weekend session of the senate that began today, the

republican nator said she still opposes holding a vote so close to a presidential election but called barrett "the sort of person we want on the supreme court." the full republican-majopety senate is ed to vote on barrett's confirmation as soon as monday. new cases of the coronavirus reached another record high number in the unitda states yest johns hopkins university's covid-19 tracking projec reported 83,757 new cases on friday, breaking the one-day record of 77,362 cases reportedj y 16. over the course of the pandemic, moe u.s. has now recorded 8.5 million cases and more than 224,000 deaths.is the coronavirulso resurging in eure. in france, where curfews are in effect in many large cities, there are now more than one million confirmed cases and close to 35,000 deaths. in poland, police in warsaw

fired tear gas at protesters who oppose new restrictions that went into effect today. restaurants and bars are now closed for two weeks, and schools will be open only forch dren up to third grade. the country had a record number of new infections yesterday, more than 13,000, but the demonstrators said the newns restrictren't needed. among those testing positive ist poland's presiandrzej duda, who said today he has no symptoms but is now quarantining. globally, johns hopkins reports there are now more than 42 million confirmed cases of coronavirus infections, and more than 1.1 million people have died as a result of covid-19 since the pandemic began last winter. hureds of firefighters in colorado are working against a string of wildfires in the state's drought-stricken areas.n wind gusts oht estimated at more than 60 miles per hour helped stoke flames. three of the largest wildfires in colorado's history have takel e this year, with two of them still growing. the cameron peak fire, the

largest, has burned more than00 20acres and was 60% contained as of friday, according to officials. the state's second largest fire, known as the east troublesome fire, is just 5% contained as of yesterday. late last night, grand county sheriff brett schroetlin confirmed the two elderly people who refused to evacuate died in the fire. colder temperatures and snow are in the forecast beginning tonight. in california, the national weather service issued red flag fire warnings, and pacific gas & electric says it may cut power to as many as one million customers this weekend, including most of the san francisco bay area. pg&e, the nation's largest utility, said it could begin safety shut-offs as soon as tomorrow in central and northern california as those areas could see the most dangerous fire weather of the season. wind gusts and low humidity are forecast starting tomorrow morning, which raises the risk of downed power lines sparking fires in the dry brush the shutof in 38 counties coullast into tuesday.

pg&e's equipment has been blamed most devastating fires in recent years. for more electn coverage and the latest national and inrnational news, visit www.pbs.org/newsho. >> sreenivasan: with just little more than a week until election day, we're continuing our series, "roads to election 2020,"ith a look of issues onhe the ballots intates of wisconsin and missouri. we start in missouri. including virginia and new jersey, which will have a chanca to change ththeir states handle redistricting. that's the process by which s state and fedel lawmake apportioned throughout a state. years once the newnsusery ten report is released. redistricting is a comicated process, but the outcomes have a huge effect on the political makeup of a state and, indeed, the whole country. each ste has its own method of redistricting, and attempts to change those mhods are often contentious. missouri voters succeeded in changing their ristricting process two years ago, but a new

endment on the ballot this year could take the state back to its old system. newshour weekend's zachary gree e story. >> reporter: when shayna prapaisilp. louis businessman, voted in the 2018 midterms, one of the biggest issues on the ballot was a constitutional amendment called "clean missouri." >> one of the many reasons why i missouri has kind e of theas, biggest loopholes when it comes to campaign finance. but just as important, in my opinion, when it comes to my district, is t fair drawing of maps and state legislative districts here in the state. >> reporter: clean missouri, ich passed with 62% of the vote that year, established limits to campaigntributions and lobbyist gifts to state lawmakers. it also changed the way state legislative districts are drawn. bersre, bipartisan commissio chosen by the major political parties were in charge of the mapmaking process. if they were unable to agree on a map, the responsibility shifted to missouri's appellate cour but clean missouri assigns that

duty to a single, nonpartisad demographer quires that districts be drawn to make them more competitive, meaney should have a close to a 50/50 split of republican and democratic voters as possible. >> it added transparency, independce and clear criteria to our state constitution to ensure that voters come first, not politicians. >> reporter: sean e cholson was ean missouri initiative's campaign manager. >> we could just see that we've got a legislature where politicians don't really have to worry about their voters back home. everybody's in these-- or almost everyo's in these super safe districts. >> reporter: nicholson points to the psided nate of ssouri's legislature. in the last general election, republican state house a senate candidates respectively received about 55% a of all statewide votes, and yet 0%publicans make up nearly of the state house and nearly 68% of the state senate. this is because mostratic voters are packed into cities while most republican voters are spread out over missouri's suburbs and rural areas.

shisne prapaisilp says that is a big reason why he voted in favor of clean missouri. >> i think all wre asking here, for those of us living in more urban areas, is to have, you know, not even an equal voice but a voice in state government. >> reporter: but supporters of clean this may when missouri's republican-held legislature approved a resolution that put a new amendment on the ballot,en ent three. this new amendment would revert the redistricting system, eliminating the statehe demogrand giving mapping power back to bipartisan commissions. dave griffith is a republican member of missouri's house of he actually voted against the resolution because the majority of his constituents mipported cleaouri, but he also says that many of them didn't understand the redistricting changes it made. he'll be voting for amendment >> i thinkhat the legislature and the senate we're trying to do in the fix r amendment three was be try and get a er understanding to the voters about what they voted ont and gim another chance to

be able to make some corrections-- and cose corrections. >> reporter: jason rosenbaum is a political correspondent for st. louis public radio. he's been covering missouri's redistricting process for over a he says the republicans see clean missouri as an existential threat to their legislative super majority. >> in their view, the way clean missouri is crafted inherently benefits democra because if you have to have a competitiveness and rtisan fairness standard, that means that it's going to be linked to, like, statewide elections, whi are much closer than some legislative races. if you don't have a certain number of legislators, you can't override a veto.an if there's a democratic governor, there can be a real check and balance betwn a republican legislature and-- and the democrats throughout the ste. >> reporter: opponents of amendment three, like shawn nicholson, say it goes even further than reverting back to the old redistricting system. generally, all states draw

voting districts based oontotal populabut amendment three drawn on the basis of one be that could mn thghly 1.5 million people not eligible to vote, like children and non citizens, woulnot be counted during redistricting. >> what they want to do is draws hat don't represent all of our families, that don't represent all of our communities. it would be discriminatory in of color happened to beunities younger. if your community is undercounted, you don't get your fair share of representation, and you don't get your fair share of the resources. >> reporter: statere esentative griffith says that this issue has been overblown. he says the bigger issue is that by trying to balance the number republican and democrat voters, clean missouri could create geographically stretched- out voting districts. that means voters could end up with representatives from outside their communities. the reason that i'm for amendment three ishat it is going to keep the districts contiguous. they're could be close together. that people were going to have access to their-- their

representation and be able to talk to their representative and-- and know who they are. >> reporter: political reporter jason rosenbaum isn't sure what stricts would look like under either amendment, but he does point out that both sides are missing a big issue in this tbate. ov past 30 years, almost every bipartisan commission hasa ed to agree on redistricting. the task then falls to appellate judges who have drawn five of the last six legislative maps. >> the criticism of the judges getting involved was that they didn't have really any expertise in redistricting. i think that some of them may ve just wanted to do the jobs and get out of there without real understanding or comprehending what the impact oe whatwere drawing was. r the people that are really into redistrting in ssouri and whhave followed this process and really don't feel that judges are the appropriatbe people tandling this, i think they just see the clean-- e clean missouri system as a better way of doing things that doesn't necessarily eliminate

politics or partisan influences but tries to reduce them and at the same te creating, like, the most competitive playing field possle. >> reporter: for shayne prapaisilp, it's these same partisan influences that have cast missouri voters back into a years ago.t they decided on two >> i think it says something when two-thirds of missourians-- which, you know, by definiti, that... it has to be a bipartisan group of citizens-- said, you know what? you know, regardless of how we are voting for our political candidates, these are the necessary reforms at the bare-- bare bones, you know-- the kind of the guts of the system thatee weto implement. >> sreenivasan: with protesters across the country dng police reform, the president has made the issue of law and order one of the hallmarks of his mpaign. it's an issue that's playing out in the milwaukee, wisconsin suburb of wauwatosa.

protesters there demonstrated earlier this month after officials decided not to charge a police officer who fatally shot 17-year-old ain cole in february outside a local mall. thosprotests and other stemming from another police have become part of thes summer campaigns in a race for the wisconsin state assembly. wieronsin pbs political repo zachary schultz has the story. >> yay! >> reporter: democrat robyn vini burst onto wisconsin's political scene in 2018 when she won the tritionally republican 14th assembly district. >> for us, it's people matter. and that's at the core. so, in 2018, we broke the record of number of doors knocked for an assembly campaign. >> reporter: the 14th runs eastd westontains parts of the milwaukee suburbs ofauwatosa and brookfield. vining won the open seat by just 138 votes, and she had to appeal to all voters.

>> we ran a campaign last time focused on people. democrats voted for me. independents voted for me. republicans voted for me. >> reporter: the question for vining is whether she can keep that coalition together. i'm running for office based on how did i do my job for those first 15 months before there was a pandemic? s how have i done my job aa legislator during the pandemic? >> i'm bonnie lee. i'm running for state assembly in this district. lee says she respects the work robyn vining put in to get elected but says she needs to be replaced. >> i believe tt i represent this district actut ly a little re accurately. >> reporter: lee says there isss one core that voters in the suburbs are worried about: public safety. >> really, after about the last couple of months, this issue has come to the top. the's not a day that goes that i don't talk with somebody who says"we are thinking of

leaving"-- in particular, wauwatosa, mwaukee. then, that's how communities die, and we-- we c't have that happen here. >> reporter: bonnie lee is not the on republican talkin about this. donald trump spent the summer campaigning on law and order in response to the protests against police shootings that popped up around the country. >> because we're f law and order. they say, "don't use that term. it's too tough." no, order.y wants law and >> public safety-- law and order, as the present would say-- is sort of going to be front and center on the ballot in november. >> reporter: andrew hitt is chairman of the republican party of wisconssh. he says thting of jacob blake in kenosha and the fires and a teenaglantet saw .ill two people were a turning point in the sta >> what happened in kenosha's very unfortunate, i think, but it did kind of refocus a little bit this race, at least for wisconsin. >> trump has fueled the chaos

and fueled the violence and cheered on a vigilante who cames to k and shot two people dead. >> reporter: ben wikler is chair of the democratic party of wisconsin. fooling themselves if they think that-- that people like the chaos that they're experiencing under donald trump. >> reporter: donald trump is not running for state assembly in uwatosa, but his presenc looms over every race down the ballot. >> got presidential campaign going on that's pretty polarizing oboth sides. >> reporter: acrosthe country, 2018 saw suburbs that were once republican strongholds turn blue. in wisconsin, robyn vining was the only democrat to accomplish that. h >> the subure changed dramatically. >> reporter: democrat gordon hintz is the assembly minority leader. he hopes to expand on vining's win. >> there are a districts similar to hers-- sometimes even, maybe, perhaps with better numbers-- that i think there's a road map. and i think we have candidates that really, you know, reflect the model and the yle that

representative vining has demonstrated as successful. >> reporter: for her part, vining says there's no magic t rmula. >> the formula ttters is that the community rises up and claims the seat. how that happens is going to be different in every com, right? >> i'm running for state assembly in this district. >> reporter: bonnie lee says the district didn't rise up against republicans, and people didn't change their minds. she says the 1h started voting mocratic when democrats moveduk out of mil. >> i certainly see that here in wauwatosa.th itsed to b if you were a city worker, you must live in the city of miaukee. and then, that was lifted, and plenty of people moved into wauwatosa. quite a few of those were eucators with, you know, teachers' union. >> it's not always about partisanship. people votfor people versus party. and i think, honestly, i think that's the trend. >> reporter: whether vining has made the 14th a true swing

district remains to be seen in november, but e fact is the 14th was created to elect republicans. court documents from redistricting lawsuits show republicans drew the 14th rassembly lines so the vo makeup was between 57% and 59% republican. in the years democrats put up a challenger, the republican received 57% and 59% of the vote.01 but in the republican received 48% of the vos, and robyn vining received 138 more than that. >> i don't think that we are as polarized as we think we are, that democrats live in one area and republicans live another one area. i think that people vote for both pties. >> sreenivasan: for more on the issues that wionsin voters have front of mind this election season, i spoke with pbs wisconsin reporter zacharyz. schu >> well, clearly, covid-19, the pandemic, is the number one w issue acroconsin.

we saw kind of up and down caseloads throughout the summer, but, starting right after labor day, when college kids came ba to campus and after a lot of people around labor day took their family vacations, we saw cases skyrocket. and we're over 3,000 cases a day on t seven-day average. we just had a day with 4,000 new cases, 1,600eaths in wisconsin, and this is clearly the top of the mind. ntit infiltrates every elef life for everyone in wisconsin right now. >> sreenivas: i'm assuming youys re seeing a lot of tv ads these days, but is there a difference in how the campaigns ve been trying to reach these voters? >> absolutely. have been knocking doors since june. they stopped in early spring when both campaigns l that on hold at the beginning of the pandemic. but republicans went back out in the field, and they have not stopped. and they feel that that is still the best way to reach voters and get them to their message. whereas democrats, they're not doing that at all. they have made a strict policydo that thet do doors. they think their voters will penalize them for it.

and they're hopinghat moderates will reward them for not coming to their door andg riskything across that close barrier. >> sreenivasan: w about the local politics and how that connects to the state and federal level? >> absolutely. their-- wisconn's got a lot of rrymandered district at the assembly and state senate levels sorepublicans are running very, very close to donald trump. fthey-- they're not looki any distance. the ones that are, in maybe some of the suburban seats that heee started toome shift towards the democrats, have stly been silent. they're trying to talk up whatever issue that they've worked on locally. outhey don't want to talk a national campaign or about covid, frankly. the state legislature is controlled by republicans and since a bill in the spring, they have not been back in session. and democrats are trying to make that inactivity a big issue for the fall election. >> sreenivasan: i'm assuming that the economy has taken a hit like everywhere else because of all the people that would have come to wisconsin to summer. >> yes, absolutely.

tourism's a big part of our economy here, and the north woods and all the travel destinations, bars andns and restaurants really live and die by these tourism seasons and, frankly, by some of the packer and badger games that we're not seeing tti same ty. all of our stadiums are empty. those are huge drivers of th economy, and it's becoming a political flashpoint in that our democratic governor, tony evers, has tried to enforce more restrictions on bars and restaurants to stop the spread of covid. and the tavern league is going to court to try and open it back up, saying businesses are just going to close down permanently without any more federal assistance. >> sreenivasan: i know most of day, but now it feke it'stion election season considering how many people are actually going to the polls early or mailing in their ballots. what kind of infvemation do we bout wisconsin voters doing that? >> we have already recei md more than olion ballots back in place, which, to give you tme perspectivre were only three million ballots in 2016 together. so, we're at 30% of 2016

now, we're expecting larger turnout th that. overall, 2016 was a down year, especiallyor democrats, and there's a lot more enthusiasm for that. but we have nothing to compare this to. in the past, early voting and absentee-by-mail were considered relatively small pool for voters. but after what we happened in the spring with the pandemic and our-- our presidential primary in the middle with closed-down polling sites, people are voting early and doing that in personry tond get that in as early as possible. i think 150,000 people have voted absentee early in person in just the last two days. >> sreenivasan: all right, zack schultz, pbs, wisconsin. thanks so much. >> thank you. >> sreenivasan: we will contue our "roads to election 2020" series tomorrow with reporting latest on the campand thee the record early voting across the

country. that's all for this edition of for the latest news updates, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. i'm hari sreenivthan. ks for watching. stay healthy and have a good night. pt ning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshoureekend is made possible by: sue and gar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. barbara hope zuckerberg.ar the and norma klorfine foundation. charles rosenblum. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we

believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mual of america financial group, retirement servic and investments. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has been to provide wireless service that helps people communicate and connect. we offer a variety of no-contract plans, and our u.s.-based customer service team can help find one that fits you. to learn more, visit www.consumercellular.tv. additional support has been provided by: and by: and by the corporation for public broadcastinrivate corporation funded by e american people. and by contributions to your om viewers like you. thank you. you're watching pbs. -this s program is brought to u in part

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