♪ judy: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight, eight days to go. prident trump and joe intensify their campaign travel as staff of mike pence has a covid outbreak. hnfirmation -- the senateolds a vote to elevate judge amy coney barrett to the supreme court to replace the late justice ruth bader ginsburg. plus, a troubling search. -- surge. nahospitals onwide struggle to ihandle a majlux of covid patients. and securing the vote -- as the

election approaches, questions remain about the integrity of voting machines in gia. >> there is a lot more that we have to learn about the georgia system. that will help us better secure of, not just in georgia. judy:on all of that and mor tonight's "pbs newshour." ♪ >> major funding for the "pbs newshour has been provided by lu an author shares his perspective on finding abundant and meaningful work in the 21st century as automation, artificial intelligence, and robots take over. available now. >> when the world gets complicated, a lot goes through your mind. with fidelity wealth managemten

we have recotions. that is fidelity wealth management. >> consumer cellular. johnson and johnson. financial services firm, raymond james. bnsf railway's. >> the william and flora hewitt foundation. promoting a better world. at hewitt.org. >> the chan zuckerberg -- working t build a more inclusive future for everyone. ♪ >> and with the ongoing supportd of theseiduals and institutions. ♪

>>wa this programade halt -- possible by the -- and by contributions from your pbs ation from viewers like you. thank you. judy: the clock is ticking down, and the candidates' schedules are tightening up tonight inhe u.s. presidential race. -- pre and, as they enter the homestretch, the coronavirus is again roiling the race. president donald trump: so, thank you very much, allentown. former vice president joe biden: and i like luzerne county!ju : as the candidates enter the final week of the presidential campaign, the covid-19 pandemic is top of mind. the white house has once again been rattled by the virus, after at least five of vice presidents pence's aides testedti posi over the weekend.

white house doctors said he's considered essential personnel and cleared mr. pence to keep up his schedule, stumping today in minnesota.ce resident mike pence: four more years means more jobs in the iron range and all over minnesota. four 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. judy: but the rally ao violated state's covid restrictions, as many of president trump's campaign events have done. this comes after the u.s. set a new daily record for covid-19 infections on friday and nearly matched that high on saturday, more than 83,000 new cases. president trump continues to assure americans the virus is under control, and he claims the number of cases is surging because the country has ramped up testing. accots for only a smallesting

percentage of the rise in cases. but, on sunday, white house chief of staff mark meadows made this concession: m madows: we're not going to control the pandemic. we are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigation areas -- >> why aren't we g to get control? judy:si for his part, pnt trump made three stops today in the battleground state of pennsylvania. president donald trump: pennsylvia gets it. by the y, we win pennsylvania, we win the whole thing. you got to get out there. [cheering and applause] judy: meanwhile, this afternoon, biden paid a brief visit to a site involved in turning out democratic voters in delaware joe biden: the bottom line is, donald trump is the worst possible president, the worst possible person to try to lead us through this pandemic. and i don't think he just -- he either doesn't have any idea what to do or he just doesn't care. judy:oeiden campaigned in

northeastern pennsylvania on saturday. joe biden: trump ran around saying he represents the forgotten man and woman in his country. i get it. bn he got elected, and he immediately forgot the forgotten man. judy: i spoke to voters from the area, which was key in helpingan thendate trump take the entire state back in 2016. northeast pennsylvania experienced the largest regional flip in the state. president obama's roughly 36,000-vote margin in 2012 switched to an 86,000-vote margin for mr. trump. jim haigh lives outsid' allentown, didt vote for either mr. trump or hillary clinton in the last presidential election. this year, he's voting biden, based on what he's seen from the president. anm haigh: over time, i day after day, month after month, it became evident to me that there reallwas no vision, that there really was no moral compass.

if joe biden was walking down the sidewalk and found somebody's wallet, he would pick it up and ma se it got back to that person immediately, where think donald trump would take that same wallet up, takend the cashredit cards out, and just throw it back on the sidewalk. judy: s annie howell isunch trump supporter who lives in luzerne county, pennsylvania, where mr. biden campaigned saturday. howell praised the presint's handling of the pandemic and the economy. annie howell: i think that he wavery proactive and aggressive in his approach. i don't see how he could have done things any better at all. and i'm very in liin with him wato reopen the economy. people are suffering. judy:kn as yo, there's a lot of comment about the president's style, the strong language he uses in going after his critics, people who he disapproves of, the tweeting and so forth. do you have thoughts about all that? does that matter to you? annie howell: i see it as an asset. i'm not opposed to it at

all. and i think a lot of people think what he's thinking, but he actually has the -- we will call it bravery to express it. judy: leah casner supported hillary clinton in the 2016wa election, anshocked by the trump victory. leah casner: 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 case. judy and then along comes the pandemic. and you watched, and what did you see? leah casner: nothing being done that refusal to listen to the scientists, the belittling of it. in this area, we have most many people don't take it seriously. judy: casner also praised mr. biden for choosing california senator kamala harris as his running mate. i leah casnehink his selection of kamala has been

very good for my view of him. i really felt that he was not quite as respectful of women and of people of color as he could have been. and this has certainly changed my view of that. judy: stephen williams is a trump supporter from thopersburg. he says he doesn' always agree wit president's attacks on joe biden or his reluctance to wear a mask. stephen williams: i don't like the way the president s people. i can -- it's not very presidential. that's not my style. that bothers me. but the real reason i'm a republican is because of abortion. the democratic party supports abortn. i'm totally against it. judy: so, thinking about the trump presidency, how ha you thought of it? what's your impression been? ephen williams: i think he's kept a lot of his promises, most of them, actually. i have been pleased with the econo, with the sovereign borders, with relations with china and other

countries, the trade deals. i have been very pleased with what he's done so far. judy: with eight days left until the election, early voting has already soared to record highs. more than 60 million people have cast their ballots. that's more than the total who voted early or absentee in016. ♪ stephanie: i'm stephanie with newshour west. them the united states senate has confirmed federal judge amyt coney barrett supreme court. in a near parline vote this evening, 52 republicans voted for her and 48 against her. susan collins of maine was the oneepublican who voted against

her nomination. a swearing-in ceremony on the south lawn of the white house taking place right now, barrett is expected to take one of two oats before she considered one the suprurt and tomorrow, she will take the judicial both. until the last minute, democrats acnssed the majority republi of bad faith by according to senator chuck schumer using barrett in the midst of the election. we will reportn the debate after the new summary. in another win for the republicans, the supreme court refused to allown extension of wisconsin's mail in ballot deadline. it blockedul ag that allowed ballots to be counted even if they arrived up to sixays after election day as long as they were postmarked by them. 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 paties overwhelm hospitals. and, in europe, new surges in italy forced bars and restaurants to close ew ly, while a ghttime curfew in spain came into force. wall street had a long day, as covid cases surged and economic stimulus hopes dimd. the dow 650 points, more t 2%, tolost close at 27685. the nasdaq fello 18ts, and the s&p 500 fell 64. in belarus, factory worker students and businesses staged a longtime presidentndere, as lukashenko again defied demands to resign. crowds of pensioners and students filled the streets of minsk, linking arms in solidarity against lukashenko and the arrests of thousands in two months of protests.

august reelection gged.shenko's armenia and azerbaijanea accused ch other of violating a day oh tre in nagorno-karabakh. clashes resumed in the disputed territory. fithe ceas was agreed on sunday in talks brokered by the a u.s. chs upped the ante in escalating tensions with the u.s. the foreign ministry announced sanctions today on u.s. military contractors that t supply weapotaiwan, including boeing, raytheon and lockheed martin. >> as china has repeatedly pointed out, the u.s. arms salet wan seriously violates the severely damaged china's it sovereignty and security interests. china firmly opposes sales.rongly condemns th stephanie: beijing also ordered six u.s. news media companies, including abc, the los angeles

times and minnesota public radio, to file detailed reports on their orations inside china. last week, the u.s. ordered x chinese media outlets to file similar information. the 27th named storm of the atlantic hurricane season grew into hurricane zeta today. it's on track to strike mexico's yucatan peninsula tonight, and then the storm is likely to weaken and to la somewhere between louisiana and the florida panhandle on wedneay. extreme fire danger is again threatening parts of california. in the south, strong winds are pushing the silverado fire in orange couy. two firefighters suffered severe burns in the blaze. that prompted evacuation orders today for some 90,000 people. in northern california, more ntan a million people face blackouts to preigh winds from damaging lines and sparking new fires. e superiendent of virginia military institute resigned today after black cadets alleged

systemic racism. retired general j.h. binford peay has run the military college since 2003, and there haveeen repeated o accounracist incidents. virginia governor ralph northam has ordered an independent investigation. and the republican running for u.s. senate in minnesota, jason les, had emergency surgery today. his campaign said it was a severe iernal hernia, and that the surgery was successful. lewis is challenging tina smith. the incumbent democratic senator. still to come on the newshour, the senate votes to elevate judge amy coney barrett to the supreme court. hospitals nationwide struggle to handle a major influx of covid-19 patients. the race for senate in south carolina remains a competiti much more. ♪ from w epa studios in

washington. stephanie: with amy coney barrett's confirmation, she is the third supreme court justice nominated by president trump. a legacy that will be felt for yef s. judy woodrll have a conversation with dick durbin in a moment but first, john yang reports on the big cases ahead that barrett may have a chance sjohn: as tenate wrapped up etdebate on amy coney bar's nomination to the supreme court today, there have been bold predictions about what she woulo s a justice. >>lmost 50 years of precedent upholding a woman's right to control her own body are in jeopardy. >> judge barrett will uphold our cherished constitutional rights, including the second amendment. john: replacing the late liberic on ruth bader ginsburg with barrett, a protege of the late conservative icon antonin

scalia is the biggest ideological shift in decades. marcia coyle is chief washington corresponde for "the national law journal." >> the court went 11 yearsge without a chn justices unti2005. that was the longest periodn modern history without a chge in personnel on the court. in just 15 years, only four years more, the court has seen seven new justices. and so that's something the court itself has to adjust to as well. ijohn: once swo barrett could consider requests for the court to review mail-in ballot deadline changes for next week's election. and beginning next week, she's -- she will take part in oral arguments on some t-button cases, november 4, free exercise of religion and nondiscrimination. can a philadelphia catholic charity reject same-sex foster parents?r questions fromtt, who describes herself as a faithful catholic, are sure to be closely

watched to see how she keepshe pledge she made in her confirmation hearings. judge barrett i do see as : distinct my personal, moralan religious viewmy task of applying the law as a judge. >> i think she is going to be tested right away. john: ira lupu of george washington university law school has filed a friend of the court brief against the charity's position. >>nk i tmy coney barrett is going to have some strong personal views about the freedom of a catholic organization to provide soci services as it chooses and about same-sex marriage a the way catholic services should be entitled to relate to the question ofe. same-sex marri the question, the mystery is to what extent those views are going to translate into constitutional views or legal views on the court.

john: november 10, the affordable care act. shod it be struck down as unconstitutional? the fate of the aca was a focus forat demothroughout barrett's confirmation hearings: >> your nomination is about the republican goal of repealing the affordable care act, theac obe they seem to detest so much. >> unfortunately, that is th cloud, the orange cloud, over your nomination. john: as a law school professor, barrett criticized the previous supreme court rulings upholding the law. in her testimony, she sought to ease concerns. judge barrett i'm not here on a affordable care act. i'm just here to apply the law and adhere to the rule of law. john: and on november 30, the census. can the trp administration excde those illegally in the country from the numbers used to determine each state's representation in congress for the next 10 years? t yet on the court's docket, but looming on the hizon, abortion. as a notre dame law school professor, barrett signed

personal anti-aboreliefs. during her confirmation hearing, barrett declined to call roe vs. wade a super precedent. judge barrett it's not vecase : thatone has accepted and doesn't call for its overruling. >> the closest case to the court is mississippi's 15-week abortion ban. the justices could make a decision to hear that almost as soon as barrett join the court. john: florida state universi law professor mary ziegler: >> the last time we had a donald trp nominee on the court who seemed to make difference to abortion in brett kavanaugh, we saw a virtual explosion of anti-abortion legislation in 2019.d , i would expect, with amy coney barrett, a justice who is at least personally very pro-life, that you would have a similar explosion and definitely many more apals to the supreme court. john: analysts caution against reading too much intett's early cases. it can be the case that the fect of a new justice on the court isn't really fully known

for some time. >> i think it was justice breyer who said that it takes three tos five yefore a new justice really begins to feel comfortable being on the court. so, yes, it could take a while. john: at 48, barrett would beth youngest supreme court justice in nearly 30 years. and lifetime tenure means she will likely be on the bench for generations to come. for the "pbs newshour," i'm john yang. judy: dick durbin of illinois is the second highest ranking democrat in the senates also a member of the senate judiciary committee. and he joins us now from capitol hill. in senator duthank you very much for talking with us. as you know, republicans are on the verge of confirming president trump's third appointee to the supreme court. she will be -- judge barrett will be sitting on the court as early as tomorrow. how -- and this is over the fierce objection of you and every other democrat. how dig a

-- how big of a setback is ts for democrats? >> well, it's a disappointment, because we as you said, we are appointment on the highest court of the land. the authority to fill three of those slots with people of his choosing is a troubling development, particularly at this moment in te. judy, if anyone was coursing through the channels today and looking, finding the broadcast of the united states s they would be shocked to learn that we weren't talking about the coronavirus. here we are, with an infection running rampant, 225,000 americans dead. we spent five straight days on one supreme court nomination. and, secondly, i think they would be a lite surprised that the standard the republicans set four years ago to deny president obama the authority fill a supreme court vacancy so close to an election is being ignored by the republicans now. and then, when they that the hurry-up is so that she will be on the court in time to strike

down the affordable care act in the midst of a panmic, i think all those things are very troubling. judy: well, several things to ask you about there, i mean, but starting with the senate republicans and their refusal to act on president obama's nomination to the court, merrick garland. the court -- there were eight stices for a year. is that an argument for adding a couple of t?stices to the supreme co >' judy, i dont think anyone has come up with a formula on what to do with the court in the future. but i will tell you what i believe the american people are looking for, balance on th' court. they dot want too many democrats, too many republicans. they want some people who are more moderate. they wantsi des that are not predictable. they don't want apo tical agenda that is going to dictate this court's future rulings. and that, i think, sadly, i' where we' headed. judy: judge bartt said during this confirmation hearing that she was not on a mission to destroy the affordableact.

do you believe her? >> well, i'm skeptical, because she's been very ken, critical of the chief justice when he found the act she published an a saying she disagreed with him openly. critical as well of the anfordable care act itself those raise questions as to whether or not she should recuse herself, at a minimu recuse herself from this hearing. and let me say, ev though she denies having any bias on the case, president trump, in his prigious tweeting, has said that was what he was looking for. he wanted a supreme court justice who would eliminate the affordable care act. he believes he found one. she may deny it, but that's what he said. judy: there is also -- senator durbin, as you know, there are two important mail-in ballot questions before t court right now that affect this election. should judge barrett recuse i herselit a conflict of interests if she participates in these cases? >> to protect her ingrity and the integrity the court, she

should recuse herself from any cases relating to this presidenal election, anoth case where the president was outspoken in his tweets. he wanted nine justices on the iopreme court in case there were any election que to come before the court. for goodness'd sakes, this prt doesn't have an unuttered word. we know exactly what he's thinking. he wants a friendly justice on the court if he needs a ruling that united states again.t of t dy: and, finally, senator, you brought up the question of covid relief for the american people. there's a $2 trillion bill that s been sitting before th congress since the summer. and now we' election. speaker pelosi has said she doesn't want to come down from a number close to $2 trillion. ould she agree -- should she agree to compromise on this because of the many, many americans who are hurting right now?de

>> both should agree. but let's be honest. senator mcconnell sent a msage to the white house last week and said: it's over. we're not going to consider any more covid-19 legislation. and, unfortunately, he has boycotted all the negotiating sessions. he just won't even attend them. he has no interest in it. he doesn't see, as he said, a sense of urgency in dealing with this. i can tell you, there'a sense of urgency in my state o illinois and his state of kentucky, when you look at the record number of infs and deaths in both of those states. we should be dealing with this issue. and speakerelosi has tried, tried, tried with thisit house. it would be helpful if the other element, the republican control of the senate, would be part of this negotiation. judy: but you're saying both parties have a responsibilityre o negotiate, to come together? >> absolutely. and we started at $3.4 trillion. the last number i heard wasll closer to $2 tn, $2.3 she's come dowatically.elosi. but the point she's making was brought home to me today by illinois hospital administrators. i had 30 of them on a phone call. they're

desperate for help. they are worried that they can't really meet the needs in my home ste with the people who are facing infections and icus. they'relp looking for a g hand from washington. and here we are doing what? fivn straight dayne supreme court nominee, not a minute being spent to find the solutiou to this coronachallenge. judy: should speaker pelosi accommodate further, more? >>l, w'm calling on both sides to be reasonable. and i think she has brought the number dowdramatically from $3.4 trillion. they're close enough now, there should be an agreement. judy: senator dick durbin, thank you for talking with us. ♪ judy: covid cases are now spiking in parts of the country that were spared the worst of it rlier on. but that's not all. some states are seeing a second surge now.

overall, the country is averaging close to 75,000 new cases a y over the past seven days. that's led to a big jump in hospital admissions, straining health care systems, as we just heard from senator durbin, andg forcspitals to make very difficult decisions. alliam: that is right, judy. let's taut utah as a prime example of this. there were more than 100 new cases in the state yesterday. that's an increase of about 30% from just two weeks ago. the state has suffered more than 570 deathsnd since the ic began. hospital officials say their facilities are operating at near capacity, raising the prospect they could be forced to prioritize who gets admitted to their intensive re units. dr. edwa stenehjem is an infectious diseases specialist with the intermountainca heal system, which is the biggest system in utah. dr. stenehjem, very good to have you on the "nehour." as i mentioned, you are seeing this big uptick in cases week

over week. how are you handlinga that, wi these people coming to your hospitals? >> yes, thanks, william. i mean, we're doing everything we can within our health care network to ensure that we really strategize and put the patients where they need to be. and so we have quite a few spitals right here in utah, and we are spreading our patients out to ensure that all of our hospitals see covid patits and non-covid patient alike. we have had to open up icus down in southwestern utah. and then we have also added new bedse of our orthopedic spine hospitals to accommodatesu the as well. william let's see e cases keep : going up. do you guys have the capacity to keanding and >> yes, so, we expect the cases, a least in the hospital, to keep going up fomber of weeks. we know that hospitalization is delayed after the cases are detected. at's typically delayed from seven to 10 days. and so, at this rate, we can expect our hospitalitions to keep going up for the next at least seven to 14 days.

and that's assuming that something changes in the community. we have plans to accommodate this surge. and we have a number of surge plans that we will activate. and so we will continue open up icus, continue to make room for beds. and we will continue to shut ofe soctive surgeries to accommodate further surge. but the biggt issue is not necessarily the beds. the biest issue is our health care tworkers. that's al resource that'going to be most limited as this ntinues. william: is that because you simpop don't have enough , or the people you have are near the end of their rope? like, what is that? >>ng it is a number of t one is, we have been at this for months. and so our caregivers are tired, they're frustrated, and they keep seeing these patients over and over again. and the fact of the matter is, as we open up more icus, we're not making more icu docts. we're not making more icu nurses or hospital staff or hospital physicians. and so we will be in a situation where we will be bringing inys ians, nurse practitioners,

p.a.s to potentiallycare for these patients. and so your icu patient may not be cared for by an icu doctor, or they may be directly cared for.not and so those are the things we really worry about when our numbers continued to surge, is that we will have patients that we can't take care of them the way we want to. william: i remember, earlier in the pandemic, when things were really bad in new york, and then in minnesota, i talked with some hospital officials there who were having to have ve uncomfortable conversations about, if this capacity gets so stressed, we have to sta triaging, in essence, who gets that crucial icu bed and who doesn't. have you guys had those conversations? and how have those gone? >> yes, the utah hospital association has certainly put forth some guidance to that to our governor that is looking for approval. fortunately, in utah, we have not had to be in that situation. ab this point, we have bee 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 that will occur and what will happen. but we certainly hope that we can stem this tide and not get to that point. william:an you help me understand what you understand epidemic in utah? of the i mean, are people abiding by social distancing and mask-wearing and all of those precautions? >> yes, it really started - this surge of the epidemic started when schools went back in session. ea and we saw ay nice uptick in cases in 15-to-25-year-olds. and then, essentially, le clockwork, they transmitted it to their parents and grandparents in the community. and so we have seen this pretty aggressive community ngansmission really been drive driven by that y age group. and now we're seeing cases increase in all age groups. and i think it comes back to the matter is that, yes, we have some state level guidance that is issued per counnu based on ther of cases we have, but in the fact that not everybody's following at guidance.

and we're seeing a lot of people in the communisk not wearing and we're seeing a lot of large congregate settings where people are not masked and they're transmithe virus. so, it comes back down to simp public health measures of wearing a mask if u have to go out, abiding by socialan ding, not getting together in large groups, outside is better than inside, and handwashing. it's as simple as william: one last question. the president has alleged at hospitals are exaggerating the coronavirus death totals. and he said that they're doing it to make more money, that, if you have a covid case, you get more money than if that person is no vid case. he cites no evidence for that. have you seen any evidence that that is occurring? >> absolutely not. and, as a health care worker that has been in this fifot now the past seven months, i find that comment very insulting. wiiam: all right, dr. edward stenehjem of the intermountain healthcare system in utah,

thanks very much for being here. ♪ judy: the confirmation battle over amy coney barrett has put judiciary committee chairmanah lindsey in the political hot seat, as he seeks a fourth term in the u.s. senat with one week left in the campaign, gavin jackson of south carolina etv reports on how graham's democratic challenger is making this a closer race than even democrats expected. gavin a park near charleston, : utcarolina, transformed into a political battlefield where more than 100 supporters sounded the war cry with their car horns as jaime harrison rallied his base. >> enough is enough with the hatred! enough is enough with the bigotry! enough is enough with the division!

gavin this senate race has nebecome the closest statewide race in decades,hat has senator lindsey graham in the political fight of his life. >> he says the main reason he's running against me is because of the way i behaved in kavanaugh. the main reason i'm going to win is bdause of the way i behave in kavanaugh. gavin: the same issues that areo fueling tighs and record-breaking fund-raising by harrison are the issues graham hopes will secure him stronger consertive support and a fourth term, his close support of president donald trump and his supreme court nominees.>> and thank you, more than anything else, for pting up with the never ending --you have to go through. gavin graham's push to confirm a e : supreme court nomi an election year, despite his previous stance to the contrary, up. left many graham voters fed >> senator graham has really disaointed me. i voted for h several times. right out of his mouth, what he said: "use these words agai." and i did. i used ese words

against him. >> i'm a 40-year republic, but you know, we are voting biden and harris. the last four years ha been so emotionally disruptive. i have voted for in office too longtimes,'re just you just need a change. gavin: losing moderad center-rightepublicans, who helped him win the 2014 primary and later that election by 17 ints, is one critical way jaime harrison has a pathway to victory. but graham is still holding onnt of republicans, and enticing others in places like anderson, which is part of the ultra-conservative upstate >> six years ago, i probably said i wouldn't have voted for him, but he's come around to fight for our country. will stand by him. >> i thin't's better that he' closer to thpresident now, because he stands up for him when all the demon rats in the world are against hi gavin anderson is also home to : longtime repubcan activist susan aiken, who first met graham when he ran and won his first race for the 3rd

congressional district as part of the republican revolution of 1994. >> there's been times i have not agreed with m, but i'm kind of like ronald reagan said. if you agree withe 80 percent of the time, you are 80% my friend, not 20% my enemy. gavin: jaime harrison, a former congressional aide, state party chair, lobbyist, and currentlyrm associate chai with the democratic national committee, says graham's radical shift is y he got in the race las september. >> i'm aboudoing the people's work. gavin while south carolina is : growing, and democrats are energized from the 2018 flip of the 1st congressional district home to charleston and a growing number of new residents, state trdemocratic party chairma robertson admits the state is far off from becoming as blue as its neighbors. >> i don't know that we're a purple sta. i think that south carolina is an independent state that trends republican because democrats have not necessarily run the best of campaigns. and i think that's one of the things that makes jaime's

campaign so successful, is that he's actually talking about the values that bind us, ite of the fear that separates us. gavin and thfund-raising has : been successful as well. harrison's third quarter $57 million fund-raising hole shattered thsenate record. even graham broke senate gop records by raising $28 million. while the two continue to saturate airwaves, social media sites and mailboxes, like they have for months. harrison's overall fund-raising is on track to total $100 million. t money has boosted party coffers, funded a wave of resources that will heldown-ballot candidates now and assist in future statewe races, as democrats look toward the next bate in their war to shift the state. for the "pbs newshour," i'm gavin jackson in columbia, south carolina. ♪ judy: ptecting the voting process from outside interference is a high priority

this election season. in his latest report, miles o'brien looks at some of the latest technology being used in georgia, and whether it provides a stronger defense against paper ballot.n the traditional it's part of our ongoing leading edge series on science and innovation. miles in georgia, early voting presidential race is a toss-up, and both senate seats are in play. so, naturally, the political world iservously wotching what voters here will do, while, in thd of computer science, they are votensely tracking what thng machines will do. >> georgia is kind of a petr dish. miles alex halderman is a : professor of computer science at the university of michigan. >> there's a lot more we have to learn about georgia's election system. and that's going to hel inform how to better secure elections, not just in georgia in november, but acrosthe country for years to come. : independent elececurityl of

experts getting unprecedented access to 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 haveet up a complicated system, which is centralized, and doesn't seem to have any safeguards. miles georgia's vote-tallying : is a complex assortment of laptops, ipads, magnetic cards, touchscreens, printers, and scanners, lots of moving part >> this is the poll pads. on election day, its used to check in voters. barron is fulton : county's director ofnd registrationlections. he gave me a demo. >> it tells whethewe issued an absentee-by-mail ballot, whether somebody' they have voted that absentee ballot, or whether they are

still eligible to vo miles once a voter is deemed : eligible, the ipad activates a magnetic card, which in turn unlocks a so-called ballot marking device or bmd. his is a pretty complicated way to do something you could do with pen and paper. there are advantages here, right? >> yes. the advantagesre, it puts a true mark on the screen. miles when done, the voter are recorded in hureadableons text and in a q.r. code, which is read and counted by anca opscanner. georgia's secretary of state, brad raffensperger, says this is re accurate than pen and paper. >> the problem with pen andme paper is, some you have your instructions on what you're supposed to do, but you end up with spoiled ballots. sometimes, people will put an x here, but then ty circle this one here, or they will make differenmarks on it. what did

they really mean there? >> still, elections officials tell us they seldom see a hand-marked ballot where they 2019, georgibought the devices from a canadian compancalledon domioting systems. they replaced paperless machines like these made by a now defunct company called diebold election systems. a federal judge forced the state to scrap the discredited devices. electionis security actmarilyn marks was part of the lawsuit that triggered the change. but, for lot-marking devices, now used widely in 14 states, are not the ideal remedy. >> we need paper records that are marked by the voter, with the voter's own hand, where we know that was recorded the way that the voter wand it recorded miles: so, she andhe other plaintiffs took aim at the new voting machines. the lawsuit came into sharp focus after their chaotic debut in the june primary. the poll pads took as lo as 30

hours to download the voter database, displayed the wrong races, and would randomly shut down. and the power-hungry ballot-marking devices 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 have learned a lot of lessons. we're putting technicians in everye polling place.to we havake sure that not only do the poll workers know how to use the equipment, but then these technicians are then going to be relied upon to fix any issues. we want just fly under the radar and do our jobs and stay away from the news. [laughter] miles but eltion eerts : working for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the state have uncovered several troubling issues. alex halde looked closely at the q.r. codes where the votes are encoded for the scanner. >> by analyzing the structure of the q.r. codes, i have been able to learn that there's nothing

duplicating one, aheer from just duplicate would count the same as the original bar code. miles and in late september, r : anotncern came to light. during testing, election workers found half the names of the 21 candidates for senate intermittently disappeared from screens duringhe review phase. dominion sent out a last-minute software patch. >> i'm worried that the georgia system is the technical equivalent to the 737 max. they have just maso a last-minute ware 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, and this is mission-critical, into production without proper time for testing. that's really one of the waysrs bad acre finding the vulnerabilities to exploit is

looking for honest vulnerabilities and finding out te they can be weaponized, i they can be expl hemiles: despite alloncerns, federal judge amy totenberg decided to let the election proceed with the ballot marking device system. the secretary of state says post-election audits will bring a q.r. code discrepancies to light. >> we're in the process of really continuing to expand the capabilities that we have, so we can audit more of the races. when we do the audit, we actually do it on the human-readableortion, and not on the q.r. code. miles: alex halderman and histe at michigan conducted a mock election to see if voters are likely to catch mistakes on the printouts. only 7 percent spotted a deliberately planted error. so, double-check your ballot before you scan. for the "pbs newshour," i'm miles o'brien in a. ♪

judy: believe it or not, we are a week in a day away from thecl polling on november 3, and, already, more than 60 million americans have cast their ballots.il the campaigns are out delivering their closing messages to voters. our politics monday team ihere for analysis of the final sprint, amy walter of the cook political report and host of public radio's "politics with amy walter," and tamara keith of npr. she also co-hosts t "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 doing, where they're going. what do you make of their schedules, their travel, what they're up to right now? tamara: president trump igoing everywhere in the next few days.

you had in your pirlier in, as the show, but he is truly going all over the place. he's going iowa and michigan and wisconsin and nevada and and what he is try do is mostly defend ground from the last election. you know, president trumreally narrowly won by creating almost an impossible scenario, and now he has to defend that. and, at the same time, joe biden is -- he is not doing as many events, certainly, as president trump. they have made a calculation they don't want him out as much, in part because in large part, because of theco navirus. but there are interesting things happening, like e biden going to georgia and kamala harris going to texas. judy: and, amy, as you look at the candidates' itineraries, what do you see? what does it tell you?

amy yes, i agree with tam, in : that the trump campaign's playing a lot more defense and biden's on offense. the fact that -- and i looked at where the president was today in pennsylvania. these are in those white working-class kind of areas that he did very well in 2016. but this close to election day, if you are all about just shoring up your base, that's a problem. this is the part of the campaign where you're getting in your last-minute sale to those final undecided voters or those handful of swing voters. you should be in those places right now, not just trng to make sure that the people that already do like you come and turn out. judy: and, tam, pick up on that. and the message that we're hearing from the president is pretty much the same message

he's been deliv tamara yes, i mean, i feel like : amy and i are sort of broken recordon this. but president trump's theory of the case here is that he's going to find new republicans, he is going to find people who support him who didn't vo him last time and get them out to vote with his amazing ground game. they say that, you know, they have this voter turnt operation, 2.5 million volunteers who made 10 million voter contacts in the la week. and they are goingal -- , they are going with a base plan. that is eir plan. judy: and, amy, i mean, i lood at one of the spots the president was at to visit today in pennsylvania that you just mentioned, martinsburg, population, i 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? amy: right. that's kind of his plan, right, which is not necesrily to win back some of those he's not

there trying to win back some of ndose suburban voters in around philadelphia, but, instead, is going back to the small towns, rural areas that turned out in droves. but, remember, judy, even thougr theyd out at record numbers, totally, fo, unexpected numbers, he that only got him less than a 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 suburn areas, but he's not doing as well as he did in 2016 with older voters, seniors, independent voters.th e are the voters that are going to determine this election. now, look, the president does have a very good track record of, at the end oa campaign, coming in and firing his base up and ensuri 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 le to make up some ground where joe biden has taken some of those 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 where hillary clinton underperformed the obama number. and so he's trying to not just run up the score in the suburbs, but to at least lessen the margin by which he loses in some s these whiter working-cl areas. judy: and, tam, meantime, the vice president has been hit, his staff -- five members of the staff have been hit with the coronavirus. he's still out on the trail. tho ors say he's testing negative, he's an essential worker, but does this send a good political message for him?

metamara: well, , it certainly proves how essential they believe it is to have him out there campaigning, because, you're right -- his chief of 'taff has tested positive for coronavirus. he'what's considered a close contact, and yet vice president pence is out there. we did see him campaigning in minnesota. he wore aask as he got off air force two, which he hasn't been doing in the past as often. so, haking some changes, because the cdc, guidelines s you're returning to work as a essential worker you need to , wear a mask at all times you know, in terms of the message is sends, this is part of the big divide in this campaign. kamala harris took several days off the trail when people who wer't even considered close contacts, but had flown on her campaign plane, tested positive. the biden campaign has made a calculation that taking coronavirus very seriously is part of how he's gointo win this race. the trump campaignt

and presidump and the vice president have made the calculiothat saying that america is turning the corner, saying it's going to get better, worry about the nu thedon't president has started saying, cases, cases, cases, in the way he use russia.russia, russia, their calculation is sort of to ignore the coronavirus, pretend it isn't there, and talk about the economy. judy: amy, in the time go ahead. amy: well, judy, a while back, a republican strategist gave me a very good line that i use oftenl at momene this. and he said, you can't win on turnout if you're losing on message. and the president is trying to boosu tu but the message on the coronavirus is not where the rest of the country is. a lot of republicans do believe the corner's been turned, do not majority of americans are still worried about getting the coronavirus, and they disapprove of the job that the prident is doing on the issue.

so, thfact that this is front and center in the last week of the campaign is not a great thg for this president. judy: little bit of time we hav ley, i just want to ask you about one thing the president is reported to have said this week to a group of donors. he said he thinks the republicans are going to retake the house of representatives, although he's less sure . out the senaat about that? amy: no. [laughter] elin fact, it's more lthan not that not only do the democrats keep the house, but they could increase their numbers by more than 10 seats. and where republicans continue to lose seats are in the suburbs in places like texas, indiana, in and around sort of midsized cities like saint louis and cincinnati. so, the house is not in play this year. and, in fact, democrats are likely to increase their numbers there. judy: reality check all the way around. amy walter, tamara keith, last seven days to go. b

thank yh. dy: and thanking them and with that we say -- that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. linus on and again tomorrow evening. thank you and please stay safe. we will see you soon. >> major funding for the "pbs newshour"n has bnded by -- >> cfo. caregiver. eclipse chaser. taylor's advice to help you live your life. life well planned. >> johnson & johnson. ♪ >>su cr cellular. bnsf railway. the candida fund, committed to advancing restorative justice in meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas.

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ -today on "cook's country," bryan makes julia the ultimate greek chicken, ck challenges bridget to a tasting of crumbled feta, adam reveali his top pick foid measuring cups, and lawman makes bridget foolproof crushed red potatoes with garlic and herbs. that's all right here on "cook's count."