captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodrf: good evening. m judy woodruff. the "newshour" tonight, eight days to go-- president trump and joe biden intensify their campaign travel as vice prespence's staff endures a covid outbreak and early voting continues to break rds. then, confirmation-- the senate holds a to elevate judge amy coney barrett to the supreme court to replace the late juste ruth bader ginsburg. hospitals nationwruggle to handle aajor influx of covid patients as infe rise dramatically across the u.s. and, securing the vote--s the election approaches, questions

remain about the integrity of voting machines in georgia. >> there's a lot more we have to learn about georgia's election systelpm and that's going to inform how to better secure elections, not just in georgia in november, but across the country for years to come. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour." >> major funng for the pbs wshour has been provided by: complicated, a lot goes through your mind. with fidelity wealth management,

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>> this program was made po by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ticking down, and theis candidates' schedules are u.s. presidential race. the and, as they enter the home stretch, the coronavirus is again roiling the race. >> thank you very much. >> woodruff: as the candidates enter the final week of the presidential campaign, the covid-19 pandemic is top of mind. the white has, once again, been rattled by the virus, after pence's close aides testedent positive over the weekend.

they include chief of staff, white hse docto said he's considered "essential personne"" and cleared mr. pence to kee, his scheduumping today in minnesota. >> four more years means more i jothe iron range and all over minnesota. fo more years means more judges who will defend our liberties. four more years means more support for our police and more support for our troops. >> woodruff: but the rally also violated state covid restrictions-- as many of president trump's campaign events have done. tcohis after the u.s. set a new daily record for covid-19 infe on friday-- and nearly matched that high on saturday-- more than 83,000 new cases. president trump coues to assure americans the virus is under control, and he claims the number of cases is surging because the country has ramped up testining.

act, records show testing accounts for only a smal percentage of the rise in cases. but on sunday, white house chief of staff mark meadows made this concession. >> we're not going to control the pandemic. we are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation areas. we are making efforts to contain >> woodruff: for hisart, president trump made three stops today in the battleground state of pennsylvania, where his >> pennsylvania gets it. by the way, we win pennsylvania, we win the whole thing. ( cheers ) you got to get out there. big deal. >> reporter: meanwhile, this afternoon, biden paid a brief visit to a site involved in turning out democratic voters in delaware county, pennsylvania. i don't know if he doesn't have

any idea what to do eor h doesn't care. >> woodruff: >> woodruff: joe biden campaigned in northeastern pennsylvania saturday. >> hsays he represents every man and woman in this country. he got elected and immediately forgot the forgotten man. >> woodruff: i spoke to voters from the area which is key to helping then candidate trump take the entire r then-candidate trump to win the entire state back in 2016. northeext pennsylvania rienced the largest regional flip in the state-- president obam's roughly 36,000 vote margin in 2012 switched to an 86,000 vote margin f mr. trump. jim haigh lives outside allentown, and didn't vote for either mr. trump or hillaryc nton in the last presidential election. this year, he's voting for biden, based on what he's seen from the president. >> over time, i mean, day after y, month after month, it became evident to me that there really was no vision, that there

really was no moral compass. if joe biden was walng down the sidewalk and fnd somebody's wallet, he would pick it up and make sure it got back to that person immediately. where, i think donald trump would take that same wallet up, take the cash and credit cards out and just throw it back on the sidewalk. >> reporter: annie howell is a stau lives in luzerne county, nnsylvania, where mr. biden campaigned saturday. howell pised the president's handling of the pandemic, and the economy. >>i think that he was very proactive and aggressive in his approach. don't see how he could have and i'm very in line with him. wanting to reopen the economy. people are suffering. >> woodruff: there's a lot of comment about thylpresident's , his, his strong language he uses in going after his critics or people he disapproves of, the tweeting and so forth. u have thoughts about al that?

does that matter to you >> i see it as an asset. i'm not opposed to it at all. and i think a lot of people utink what he's thinking,e actually has the-- we'll call it bravery-- to express it. >> woodruff: leah casner supported hillary clinton in the 2016 election, and was shocked byhe trump victory. >> i had hoped our institutions would be strong enough to withstand even a donald trump. but i fear that that has proven .not to be the ca >> woodruff: and then along comes the pandemic. and you watched, and what did you see? >> nothing being done that needed to be done. the refusal to listen to the scientists, the belittling of it. in this area, we have-- many people don'tit seriously. >> woodruff: casner alspraised mr. biden for choosing california senator kamala harris as his running mate. >> i think his selection of

kamala has been very good for my view of m. i really felt that he was not quite as respectful of women and of ople of color as he could have been. and this has certainly changed my view of that. >> woodruff: stephen williams is a trump supporter from coopersburg. he says he doesn't always agree with the president's attacks on joe biden, or his reluctance to we a mask. >> i don't like the way the president demeans people. i can, it's not very presidential. that not my style. that bothers me. but the real reason i'm a republican is because of aborton. the democratic party supports aborti. m totally against it. >> reporter: so, i'm thinking about the trump presidency. how is-- how have you thought of what's your impression, been? >> i think hs kept a lot of his promises. most of them, actually. i've been pleased with the economy, with the sovereign

borders, with relations with china and other countries, t trade deals. i'm veryased with what he's done so far. left until the election, early voting has already soared to rd highs. more than 60 million people have cast their ballots. tthat's more than theal who voted early or absentee in 2016. >> woodruff: in the day's oiter news, the states senate moved to confirm federal judge court.ett to the supreme majority republicans lined up behind barrett while democrats complned again that the senat should not consider any nominee this ciolose to an ele we'll report on the debate after the news summary. cities across the u.s. are now scrambling to contain fresh

waves of covid-19. hard-hit el paso, texas, reported a record number of new cases today. officials urged people to stay home for two weeks, as patients overwhelm hospitals. and in europe, new surges in italy forced bars and restaurants to close early, while a new nighttime curfew in spain came into force. wall strt had a long day as covid cases surged and economic stimul hopes dimmed. the dow jones industrial average lost 650 points-- more than 2%-- to close at 27,685. the nasdaq fell 189 points, and the s&p00 slipped 64. in belarus, factory workers, ss tuded businesses staged a one-day national strike as long- tt ime presidexander lukashenko again defied demands to resign. crowds ofer pensionand students filled the streets of minsk, linking arms in

solidarity against lukashenko, and the arrests of thousands in two months of otests. >> ( translated ): many social groups are now subjt to violence, those are health and others.urnalists, student they have already been warned to leave the country, so i am very worried. i want to see my children, to raise my grandchildren hereunn our ry. that's erwhy i made this po >> woodruff: the protesters say lukashenko's august re-election was rigged. armenia and azerbaijan accused each other today of violating the latest cease-fire in nagorno-karabakh. clashes resumed in the disputed mountainous rritory, populated by ethnic armenians inside azerbaijan. the cease fire was agreed on sunday in talks brokered by the u.s. ina has upped the ante in escalating tensions with the u.s. the foeign ministry announced

sanctions today u.s. military contractors that supply weapons to taiwan, including boeing, raytheoand lockheed martin. >> ( translchated ): aa has repeatedly pointed out, the u.s. arms sales to taiwan seriouslys violae one-china principle, and it severely damaged china's sovereignty and security interests. china firmly opposes and strongly condemns these arms sales. >> woodruffing also ordered six u.s. news media companies-- including abc, "the los angeles times" and minnesota public radio-- to file detailed reports on their operations e china. last week, the u.s. ordered six chinese media outlets to file similar information. the 27th named storm of the atlantic hurrine season grew into hurricane "zeta" today. it's on track to strike mexico's yucatan peninsula tonight, then head north into thgulf. the storm is likely to weaken, louisiana and the floridan

panhandle on wednesday.e xtirremedanger is again threatening parts of california. in the uth,trong winds are pushing the "silverado fire" in orange county. that prompted evacuation orders today for some 60,000 people. in northern california, re than a million people face blackos-- to prevent high winds from damaging lines and sparking new fires. the superintendent of virginia militarinstitute resigned today after black cadets alleged systemic racism. retired general j.h. binford peay has run the military college since 2003, and there have been repeated accounts of racist incidents. virginia governor ralph northam has ordered an independent instigation and, the republican running for u.s. senate in minnesota-- jason lewis-- had emergency surgery today. his campaign said it was a severe internal hernia, and that

the surgery was successful. lewis is challenging tina smh, the incumbent democratic senator. still to come on the "newshour," the senate votes to eleve judge amy coney barrett to the supreme court; hospitals nationwide struggle to handle a major influx of covid patients; the race for sene in south carolina remains surprisingly competitive and much more. >> woodruff: amy coney barrett is pto become the third supreme court justice picked by president trump, a legacy that will be felt for years no matter the outcome of the election. as john yang reports, she willui ckly have a chance to make her imprint on some big issues.

>> mr. president... >> reporter:e senate apped up debate on amy coney barrett's nomination to the supreme court today, there were bold predonicabout what she would do as a justice. >> almost 50 years of precewont upholding n's right to control her own body are in jeopardy. >> judge barrett will uphold our gherished constitutional , >> reporter: replacing the late with barrett-- a protege of theg hete conservative icon antonin scalia-- would biggest ideological shift in decades. marcia coyle is chorf washington spondent for "the national law journal." >> the court went 11 years thout a change in justices until 2005, when chief justice william rehnquist died and now that was the longest period in modern history without a celnge in person the court. in just 15 years, only four years more, the court has sn seven new justes. the court itself has to adjustng

to as well. >>r: repornce sworn in, barrett could consider reques for the court to review mail-in ballot deadline changes for next week's election. and, beginning next week, she's set to take part in oral arguments on some hot-button se november 4: free exercise of religion and non-discrimination. can a philadelphia catholic charity reject same-sex foster parents? question from barrett-- who catholic-- are sure to behful closely watched to see how she keeps the pledge she made in her confirmatio >> i do see as distinct my personalws, moral, religious v and my task of applying the law as a judge. >> i think she is goine tested right away. >>eeporter: ira lupu of geo washington universy law school has filed a friend ofhe court brief against the charity's position. >> i think amy coney barrett is going to have some strong

person views abo, about the freedom of a catholic organization who provide social services as it chooses and about same sex marriage and the way catholic services shoulde entitled to relate to the questn of same sex marriage. i have no doubt that she has the question, the mystery, is to what extent those views are going to translate into constitutional views or legal >> reporter: november 10: the affordable care act. should it be struck down as unconstitutional? the f aate of t.a. was a focus for democrats throughout barrett's confirmation hearings: >> your nomination is about the republican goal of repealing the affordable care act, the obamacare they seem to detest so mu. >> unfortunately, that is the cloud, the orange cloud, over your nomination. >> reporter: as a law school professor, barre criticized the previous supreme court rulings upholdinghe law.

htin her testimony, she soo ease concerns. >> i'm not here on a mission to destacroy the affordable car i'm just here to apply the law and adhere to theule of lawnd >> reporter:n november 30: the census. can the ump administration exclude those illegally in the country from the numbers used to determine each state's representation in congress for not yet on the court's docket, but looming on the horizon: abortion. professor, barrett signed statements affirming her personal anti-abortion beliefs. during her confirmation hearing, barrett declined to ca roe vs wade a "super precedent." >> it's not a case that everyone's accepted and doesn't call for its overruling. >> the closest case to the crt is mississippi's 15 week abortion ban. the justices could make a decision to hear that almost a soon as judge barrett joins the >> reporter: florida state universitlaw professor mary ziegler. >> the last time we had a donald trump nominee on the court, who

seemed to make a difference to abortion in brett kavanaugh, we saw a virtual explosion of anti- abortion legislation in 2019. that was really the birth of the and so, i would expect with amy coney barrett, a justice whose at least personall, very pro- lihat you would have a similar explosion and definitely many more appeals to the supreme court. >> reporter: analysts caution against reading too muchento barrett'ly cases. it can be the case that the effecton of a new justiche court isn't really fully known for some time. >> i think it was justice breyer who said that it takes 3-5 years before a new justice really bengns to feel comfortable b on the court. so, yes,t could take a while. >> reporter: at 48, barrett would be the youngest supreme courjustice in nearly 30 years. and lifetime tenure meanshe'll likely be on the bench for generations to come. for the pbs newshour, hn yang. >> woodruff: dick durbin of

illinois is the second highest ranking democrat in the senate. he is also a member of the judiciary committee and he joins us now from capitol hill. senator durbin, thank you so much for talking with us. as you know, republicans are on the v of confirming president trump's third appointee to t supreme court. will be sitting on the court as early as tomorrow. and this is over the fierce objection of you and every other democrat. how dig a setback is this for mocrats? well, it's a disappointment because we, as you said, we are putting a rson for a lifetime appointment on the highest court ofhe land, and to give to president trump the authority to fill slree of thosots with people of his choosing is a troubling develicment, palarly at this moment in time. judy, if anyone was coursing through the channels today inand lo finding the broadcast of the united states senate, they would be shcked to learn that we weren't talking about

the coronavirus. here we are with an infection runningrampant, 225,000 americans dead, we spent five straight days on one supreme court nomination. a little surprised that thebe standard the republians set four years ago to deny president supreme court violation vacancye to an election is being ignored by the republicans now and then when we hear that the hurry up is so that she will be ton court in tme to strike down the affordable care act in the midst of a pandemic, i think all those things are very troubling.ll >> woodruff: several things to ask you about there. but starting with the senate prime minister and their fuels fuels -- their refusal to act on president obama's nomination to the court, merrick garland, there were ght justices for a year. is that an argument for adding a couple of justices to the supreme court? yo judy, i don't think an

has come up with a formula on what to do with the court in the future, but i will tell you whie i be the american people are looking for, balance on the court, they don't want too many democrats or republicans, they want people who are more rate. they want decision that are not predictable. they don't want a political agenda to dictate this court's future rulings and that, i think, sadly, is where we're headed. >> woodruff: judge barrett said during this confirmation hearing she s not on a mission to destroy the affordable care act. do you belve her? >> i'm skeptical because she's been very outspoken, critical of e chief justice when he found the act constitutional, he published an article saying she critical of the affordable care act itself. and those raised questions asto whether or not she should at a minimum recuse herself from this hearing. and let me say even though she denies having any buys on the case, president trump and his prodigious tweeting has said that was what he was looking

for. he wted a supreme cou justice to eliminate the affordable care act. he believes he found one. she may den it,t that's what he said. >> woodruff: there is also, senator durn, asou know, there are two important mail-in ballot questions before the court now that affect this election. half?d judge barrett recuse is a conflict of interest if she participate in these cases? to protect the integry to have court, she should recu herself in any cases relating to this presidential election. another case where the president was outspoken his tweets, he wanted nine justices on the supreme court in case there were any election questions to come beforehe court. for goodness sakes, this president doesn't have an unuttered word. wenow exactly wh he's thinking. he wants a friendly justice on the court if he needs a ruling that makes him president of the united states again. >> woodruff: finally, senator, u you brough the question of covid relief for the american people.

there's a $2 trillion bill that has been sitting before the congress since the summer, and now we're getting cse to this election. speaker pelosi has said she doesn't want to come down from a number clo to $2 trillion. should she agree, should sh agree to compromise on this because of the many, many ericans who are hurting right now? >> both sides should agree but let's be honestsenator mcconnell sent a message to the white house this week and said it's over. we're not going to consider any more covid 19 legislation. unfortunately, he has boycotted all the negotiating sessions. he won't even attend them. he has no interest in them. he doesn't see a sense of urgency in dealing with this, as he said. i n tell you there's a sense of urgency in my state of ilinois and his ate of kentucky when you look at the record numbers of deaths and infections in those states. we should be dealing with this issue andaker pelosi has tried, tried, tried with this

white houseel it would beul if the other element, the republican control of the senate, would be part of this negotiation. >> woodruff: you're saying responsibility to negotiate, to come together. >> absolutely. started at 3.4 trillion. closer to $2.2 trillion for speaker blowsy. she's comeown dramatically. the point made to me by ilnois hospital administrators today, i had 30 on a phone call, they are despfor help. they are worried they can't meet the needs in my home state withe le facing i think infections in i.c.u.s, they're looking for help from washington, and we're doing five straight days an on a supreme court nominee, not one minute on the coronavirus challenge. >> woodruff: should speaker pelosi accommodate furer more? >> i'm calling on both sides to be reasonable, and i think she hasrought the number down dramatically from $3.4 trillion. they're close enounow they

should be in agreement. >> woodruff: senator durbin, we thank you very much for talking with us. >> you bet. >> woodruff: covid cases are now spiking in parts of the country earlier on.e worst of it but that's not all: some states are sseeeing nd surge now. overall, the country is averagine to 75,000 new cases a day over the.ast seven da as william brangham reports, that's led to a big jump in hospital admissions, straining alth care systems and forcing hospitalrys to face ifficult decisions. >> reporter: judy, let's talk about utah as a prime exale of this. there were more than 1,600 new cases in the state yeerday, which is an increase of about 30% from just two weeks ago.

the state has suffered more than 570 deaths since the pandemic began, and hospital officials say their facilitiesre operating at near-capacity, raising the prospect they could be forced to prioritize who gets admitted to their intensive care units. dr. edemward stenes an infectious diseases specialist in the intermountain healthcare system, based in salt lake city. dr. stenehjem, very good to have you on the "newshour". as i mentioned, you are seeing this big uptick in caseweek over week. how you handling that with all these peop coming to your hospitals? >> yeah, thanks, william. i mean, we're doing everything we can within our healthcare network to ensure that we really strategize and put patients where they need to be. and, so, we have quite a few hospitals right in utah and we are spreading our patients out to ensure all our hostals see covid patients and non-covid patients alike. we've had to open up i.c.u.s down in southwestern utah and of our orthopedic spineds in one

hospitals to accommodate the >> let's see the cases keep going up. do you guys have the capacity to keep expanding and expanding and expanding? >> yeah, so t we expect cases at least in the hospital to keep going up for a number of wee. we know that hospitalization is delayed after the cases are detected, that's typically delayed from seven to ten days, so, at this rate, we can expect our hospitalizations to keep going up for at least seven to 14 days and that's auming something changes in the community. we have plans to accommodate this surge, and we ha number of surge plans that we will ac vat, and, so, we will c to open up i.c.u.s, continue to make room for beds and continue to shut off some elective surgeries to accommodate a further surge. but the biggest issues is not necessarily beds, the biggest issue is our healthcare wke and that will be the most limited resource as this continues. you don't have enough people or

the people you have are at the end of their rope or what is that? >> yeah, it's a number of things. we have been at this for months and our caregivers are red, frustrated and they keep seeing these patients over and over again. the fact othe matter, as we open more i.c.u.s, we're not making more i.c.u. doctors or hospital physicians, and, so, we will be in a situation where we will be bringing i pnsicians, nurse practitioners, p.all to potenthelp care for these patients. so your i.c.u. patient may n be cared for by an i.c.u. doctor or may be overseen by one but not directly care for. so those are the things we worry about when our numbers continue to surge is we ave patients that we can't take care of them the way we want to. >> reporter: i remember early in the pandemic when things were bad in new york and minnesota, i talked with hospitofal cials who were having to have uncomfortable conversations

about if this capacity gets so stressed, we have to stagirt tr who gets the crucial i.c.u. bed and who doesn't. have you guys had those conversations, and how have those gone? >> yeah, the utah hospital association has certainly put forth some guidance to our governor that isooking for approval. fortunately, in utah, we've not had to be in that situation at thipoint. we have been able to manage our patients effectively with the resources we currently have. we certainly don't look forward to that day, and we have planned for that day and how t will occur and what will happen, but we certainly hope that we can stem this td e not get to that point. >> reporter: can you helme what you understand to be the drivers the epidemic in utah? distancing and mask wearing and all those preheutions? >>surge of the epidemic started when schools went back in session and we started a nice uptick in c 1ases to

25-year-olds, and then essentially like clrkckhey transmitted it to their parents and grandparents in the mmunity, so we've seen this pretty aggressive community transmission bei driven by that younger age group. now we're seeing cases increase in all age groups. i think it comes to the fact of the matter that, y, we have state-level guidance issued per county based on the number of casewe have, but, in fact, not everybody is following that guidance and we're seeing a lot of people in the community not wearing masks, ande're seeing a lot of large congregate setthere people are not. ♪ e --and are not masked and are transmitting the virus. it comes to measures of wearing a mask if you go out airstrike biding by social distancing, not getting together in large groups, outside is beer an inside and hand washing, simple as that. >> reporter: one last question. e president has alleged hospitals are exaggerating the

otcoronavirus deas, and he said they're doing it to make covid case you get more money than if that person is not a covid case. he cites evidence for that. have you seen any evidence that that isn occurg? >> absolutely not and, you knas, a healthcare worker who has been in this fight for the past sen months, i find that comment very insulting. >> reporter: dr. edward stenehjem of the intermountain healthcare system in utah, thank you so much for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: the confirmation battle over amy coney t has put judiciary committee chairman lindsey gracam in the polihot seat as he seeks a fourth t with one week left in the campaign, gavin jackson of south carolina etv ports on how

graham's democratic challenger is making this a closer race than even democrats expected. >> reporter: a park near charleston, south carolina, transformed into a political battlefield where more than 100 supporters sounded the war cry with their car horns as democrat jaime harrison rallied his base. >> enough is enough with the hatred. enough is enough with the bigotry. enough is enough with the division. >> fill the seat! has become the closest statewide race in decades-- one that has senator liney graham in the political fight of his life. >> the main reason he's running against me is because of the way i behaved in kavanaugh. the main reason i'm going to n is because of the way i behaved in kavaugh. >> reporter: the same issues that are fueling tight polling and record-breaking fundraising by harrison are the issues graham hopes will secureim stronger conservative support and a fourth term: his close supp president donald trump and his supreme court justice nominees.

>> thanank you, more nything else, for putting up with the never-ending ( bleep ) over the >> reporter: graham's pu to confirm a supreme court nominee in an election year-- despite his previous stance to the contrary-- has left many graham voters fed up. >> senator graham has really disappointed me. i voted for him several times. right out of his mouth what he said, "use these words against me." and i did. i used these words against him. >> i'm a 40 year republican, but you know, i, we're voting biden and harris. this is like the last four years have been emotionally disruptive. i have voted for lindsey. sometimes they're just in office too long. sometimes you need a change. >> reporter: losing moderates and center-right republicans, who helped him win the 2014 primary and later that election by 17 points, is one critical way jaime harrison has a pathway to victory. but graham is still holding on

to plenty of republicans, and enticing others in places like anderson, which is a rt of the ulconservative upstate region of south carolina. >> lindsey is finally coming around. four, six years ago, i probably wouldn't have voted for him, but he's coming around to fight for our country. and so'll stand by him. >> i think it's better that he's closer to the president now because he stands for him when all the demon rats are against him. reporter: anderson is also home to longtime republican activist susan aiken, who first met graham when he ran d won his first race for the third ngressional district as part of the republican revolution of 1994. >> there's been times i have not agreed with him, but i'm kind of likere ronalan said, if you agree with me 80% of the time you are 80% my friend, not 20% my enemy. >> reporter: jaime harrison, a former congressional aide, state party chair, lobbyist and currently associate chairman with the democratic national committee, says graham's radical shift is why he got in the race last september.

>> i'm about doing the people's rk. >> reporter: while south carolina is growing and democrats are energized since the 201fl, the first congressional district, home to charleston and a growing number of new resmoents, state cratic party chair trav robertson admits the state is far off its neighbors. blue as >> i a don't know that we' purple state. i think we're an independent state that trends republican because democrats have not necessarily runhe best campaigns. that's onema thing thas jaime's campaign so successful. he's talkisng about the val that birnd us instead of the f that separates us. >> reporter: and the fundraising has been successful as well. harrison's third quarter $57 million fundraising haul shattered the senate record, even graham broke a senate g.o.p. record by raising $28 hellion. whilewo continue to saturate airwaves, social media - like themailboxes- have for months-- harrison's overall fundraising is on-track to total $100 million. ye money has boosted part a wave of resources that will

help down ballot candidates now and assist in future statewide races as democrats look toward tto next bale in their wa shift the state. for the pbs newshour, i'm gavin jackson in columbia, south carolina. >> woodruff: protecting the voting process from outside interference is a high priority this easlection . in his latest report, miles o'brien looks at some of the latest technology being used in georgia, and whether it provides a stroer defense against tampering than the traditional paper ballot. it's part of our ongoing leading edge series on science and inno.vation >> reporter: in georgia, early presidential race is a tossup, and both senate seats are in play. so, naturally, the political world is nervously watching what

voters here will do. while in the world of computer science, they are tensely acking what the voting machines will do. >> georgia is kind of a petri dish. >> reporter: alex halderman is a professor of computer science at the university of michin. >> thre's a lot more weaave to learn bout georgia's election system and that's going thelp inform how to better secure elections, not just in georgi in november, but across the country for years to come. >> reporter: he's among a handful of independent election security experts getting unprecedented aco the inner workings of the state's $107 million voting system rolled out earlier this year. also taking a deep dive: election security white hat hacker harri hursti. >> they have set up a complicated system, which is centralized and doesn't seem to have any safeguards. >> reporter: georgia's ve tallying system is a complex assortment of laptops, ipads,

magnetic cards, touchscreens, printers scanners-- lots of moving parts. >> this is the poll pad. on election day, it is used to check in voters. >> reporter: rick barron is fulton county's director of registration and elections. he gave me a demo. >> it tells whether we issued an absen, tee by mail ballether amebody's voted early, whether they've voted thentee ballot, or whiher they are eligible to vote. >> reporter: once a voter is deemed eligible, the ipad tes a magnetic card which in turn unlocks a soalled ballot marking device-- or b.m.d. okay. so, this aretty complicated way to do something you could do with pen and paper. there are advantages here, right? >> yes. advantages are... it puts true mark on the screen. >> reporter: when done, the voter prints a ballot. selections are recorded in human readable text and in a q.r. code

which is readnd counted by an optical scanner. georgia secretary of state brad raffensperger says this is more accurate than pen and paper. >> the pr paper is sometimes you have your instructions on what you're supposed to do, but you end up with spoiled ballots. sotimes people will put an x here but then they circle this ere or they'll make different marks on it. what did they really mean there? >> reporter: still, elections officials tell us they seldom see a hand marked ballot where they can't determine voter intent. in 2019, gvirgia bought the ces from a canadian company called dominion voting systems. they replaperless machines like these, made by conow defunct any called diebold eltion systems. a fehederal judge forced state to scrap the discredited devices. electiosecurity activist marilyn marks was part of the lawsuit th triggered the change. but, for her, ballot marking devices-- now ud widely in 14

st nes-- a the ideal remedy. >> we need paper records that are marked by the voter, with the voters own hand, where we know that was recorded the way that the voters wanted it recorded. other plaintiffs took aim at the new voting machines. the law ssuit came inrp focus after their chaotic debut in the june prary. the pollpads took as long as 30 hours tod downle voter database, displayed the wrong races amlnd would ranshut down. and the er-hungry ballot marking devic blew circuit breakers in numerous locations. poll workers-- many of whom had no hands on training because of the pandemic-- were often befuddled by the new technology. >> we've learned a lot of lessons, we're putting technicians in every single polling place, an we have to masure that not only do the poll workers know how to use the equipment but then these technians, they're going to be relied upon to fix any issues

that com ie a polling place. we want to just fly under the radar and do a our job stay >> reporter: but election experts working for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the state have uncovered several troubling issues. alex halderman looked closely at the q.r. codes where the votes are enc fod the scanner. >> by analyzing the q.r. codes, by analyzing the structure of the q.r. codes, i've been able to learn that there's nothing that stops an attacker from just duplicating one, and the duplicmeate would count the sa as the original barcode. >> reporter: and late in september, another concern came to light. during testing, election workers found half the names of the 21 candidates for senate screens during the review phase. dominion sent ou a last minute software patch. >> i'm worried that the georgia system ithe technical

equivalent to the 737 max. they've just made a last-minute ftware change that might well have unintended consequences and cause even more severe problems on election day. >> you never want to rush something which is mission critical-anthis is mission critical-- into production, without proper time for testing. that's really one of the ways bad actors are finding the vulners abilit exploit is, exactly looking for honest vulnerabilities and fy ding out if tn be weaponized, if they can be exploited. >> reporter:espite all the ncerns, federal judge amy totenberg decided to let the elllection proceed with the marking device system. the secretary of state says post election audits wi bring any q.r. code screpancies to light. >> we're in the process of really, you know, continuing to expand the capabilities that we have so we can audit more of the when we do the audit, we

actually do it on the human, readable portion and not on the q.r. code. >> reporter: alex halderman and his team at michigan conducted a mock election to see if voters are likely to catch mistes on the printouts only 7% spotted a deliberately planted error. so dor uble check yllot before you scan. for the pbs newshour, i'm miles o'brien in atlanta. >> woodruff: we are just about one week from polls closing on november 3, and already more than 60 million americans have cast their ballots. still, the campaigns are out delivering their closing messagesvo trs. our politics monday team is here for analysis of the final sprint amy walheter of t "cook political report" and host of public radio's "politics with amy wa ker." and tamath of npr. she also co-hosts the "npr

politics podcast." hello to both of you. only two mondays to go before election day and, as these days dwindle down to a precious few, tam, we look even more closely at what the candidates are doing, where they're going. what do you make of ths,eir scheduheir traveling what they're up to right now? >> prisesident trumoing everywhere in the next few days. he's in pennsylvania today, as you had in your piece earlier i the show, but he is truly going all over the pla. hes' going to iowa and michigan and wisconsin and nevada and arizona, and what he is trying to do is mostly defend ground from the last election. you know, president trump really narrowly won by creating almost he has to defend that and, at

the same time, joe biden is -- you know, he is not doing as ny events, certainly, as president trump. they've made a calculation they don't want him out as much in large part because of the coronavirus, but there are inteing things happening, like joe biden going to georgia and kamala harris going to texas. >> woodruff: and, amy, as you look at the candidates' itineraries,t what do you see? what does it tell you? a >> yeah,ee with tam in that, you know, the trump campaign's playing a lot more defense and biden's on offense. the fact that -- ani looked at where the president wasa ty in pennsylvania, these are in those white working class kind of areas that he did verwell in 2016, but this close to election day, if you were all about just shoring up yo base, that's a problem.

this is the part of the campgn wheryou're getting in your last-minute sale to ose final undecided voters or those handful of swing hovoters. youd be in those places right now, not just trying to make sure that the people that already do like you come and turn out. >> woodruff: and, tp, pick on that. and the message that we're isaring from the president pretty much the same message he's been delivering. >> yeah, iean, i feel like my and i are sort of broken records on this, prbuident trump's theory of the case here is that he's going to fi new republicans, he is going to find people who support hiwh didn't vote for him last time and get them out to vote with his amazing ground game. they say that -- you know, they have this voter turnout operation, 2.5 million lunteers who made 10 million voter contacts in t we lastk, and they are going really -- they are goin with a base plan.

that is their plan. >> woodruff: an amy, i mean, i looked at one of the spots ths ent was at to visit today in pennsylvania that you just mentioned, martinsburg, , populati think, 1,000. can he make up in the rural parts of the state the biden advantage in the urban? i mean, how do you see that? >> right, that's kind of his tlan, right, which is no necessari to win back some of those -- he's not there trying to win back some of those suburban voters in and around philadelphia but, instead, is going bacto the small towns, rural areas that turned out in droves, but rememr, judy, even though they turned out at record numbers, totally for many unexpected numbers, that only got him, yo know, less an percentage point victory in 2016. and what we have been hearing pretty consistently in places like pennsylvania and wisconsin,

michigan, is that the president is not only losing by bigger margins in the suburban areas s, independent voters. voters,h those are the voters that are going to determine this elect n. now, loohe president does have a very good track record of, at the end of a campaign, coming inand firing his base up and ensuring that, at the very least, the floor does not drop out from under him. but, in order to win these states, he has got to be able to biden hen some of thosere joe votes away from 2016. and here's the other thing, joe biden has been going, actually, not just to the suburban areas, but he's also been up around the areas whelary clinton underperformed the obama number, and, so, he's trying to not just run up the score in the surbs

but to at least lessen the margin by which he loses in sme of these whiter working class areas. >> woodruff: and, tam, meantime, the vice predent has been hit -- five members of the staff ve been hit with the coronavirus. he's still out on the trail. the doctors say he's teatsting nee, he's an essential worker, but does this send a himd political message fo >> well, i mean, it certainly proves how essential they believe it is to have him out there campaigning becausree, yo right, his chief of staff has tested positive for coronavirus. he's what's considered a close contact, and, yet, vice president pence is out there. we did see him campaigning in minnesota. he wore a mask aset got off air force two, which he hasn'tng been d in the past as often, but he is making some chans because the c.d.c. guidelines

say if you're returning to work as an essential working, you need to wear a mask at all times. you know, in terms of the message this sends, this is part of the bigivide in this campaign. kamala harris took several days off trail when several people who had flown on her campaign plane tested positive. the biden campaign made a calculation that taking the coronavirus very seriously rtis f how he's going to in this race. the trump campaign and prident trump and the vice president have made the calculation that saying that america is turningthe corner, saying it's going to get better, it is getting bette, don't worry about the numbers, the president has started saying, cases, cases,cases, in the way he used to say russia, russia, russia. their calculation is sort ofto ignore the coves, pretend it ist there and talk about the economy. >> woodruff: amy, in the time -- go y,ahead, yeah. >> well, judy, a while back,

republicanegist gave me a very good line thahe used often in moments like this, he said you can't win in turnout if you're losing on message. and the president is trying to boost turnout but the message on the coronavirus is not where the rest of une coy is. a lot of republicans do believe think it's serious, but theo not majority of americans are still worried about getting thev corous and they disapprove of the job that the president is doing on the issue. so ihe fact that th front and center in the last week of the campaign is not a great thr g is president. >> woodruff: little bit of time we have left, amy. thing the president is reported to have said this week to a group of donors.ay hehe thinks the republicans are going to retake the house of representatales, ough he's less sure about the senate. >> no.bout that? in fact, it's more likely than not that not only o he democrats keep the house but they could increase their numbers by more than ten seats,

and where republicans continue to lose seats are in the suburbs, in places like texas, indiana, in and around sort of mid-sized cities like st. louis and cincinnati. so the house is not in place this year and in fact democraly are lio increase their f:mbers there. >> woodr reality check all the way around. amy walter,th tamera k last seven days to go. thank you both. >> woodruff: and thanking them, and with that we say that's the "newshour" tor ght. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here torrow evening. for all of us at the "pbs newshour," thank you, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by:

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hello, everyone, welcome to "amanpour & company." here's what's coming up. >> what they said last night don't mean nothing to me. you' going toell me what i hear anyway just so i can vote for you. >> so how many swing votes were decided by last debate? pennsylvania's lieutenant governor john fedderma joins us with sara longwell of republican voters against trump. then -- a conflict withen consess a simmering row between russia and turkey erupts in nagorn ikarabakh. wh matters for the region and why the u.s. has called both sides into emergency talks. plus -- >> boy, if y hasn't made your mind up about donald trump

now, i don