y captioning sponsored b newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newour tonight... >> we have to stop treating our opponents as enemies. >> this is a fraud on theic am public. >> woodruff: ...where things stand: we report t latest numbers as the electoral map moves closer toward a biden win, all while the trump campaign files lawsuits. then, the counting continues-- we are on the ground in the all- important uncalled states where votes are still being added up as the white house hangs in the balance. plus, the fight ahead-- we explore the legal challenges as the president takes to the courts. all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

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still waiting tonight to learn who will be the next occupant ot the house. the tide has apparently turned in favor of former vice president joe biden after the associated press put wisconsin and michigan in his column. 70at gave him 248 electoral votes out of theecessary for victory.tr but presidenp was having none of it. white house correspondent yamiche alcindor reports. >> alcindor: an undecided election. votes still being counted. and, president trump prematurely claiming victory. a day after polls closed, the president spent the morning casting doubt on the vote tallies from the whi house. in a flurry of tweets, he blamed mail-in ballots for why he lost leads he had last night in michigan and wisconsin. president trump wrote that his margins there "started to magically disappear as surprise

ballot dumps were counted." there is no evidence of that. and twitter hid that post, and a mber of others, from users, tsagging them as misleading. the twnderscored what the president has long been laying the groundwork for. in a speech at the white house00 after .m. he charged that legal mail-in balloting was fraudulent.id >> frankly, wein this election. so our goal now is to the integrity for the good of this nation. this is a big moment. this is a major fraud on our nation. we want the law to be used in a proper manner. so we'll be going to the u.s. preme court. we want all voting to stop. >> alcindor:he voting has stopped. it's the counting that pntinues. and, former visident joe biden urged his supporters to be calm as the process goes on. today, he spoke in wilmington, >> i'm not here tore that we won.

but i am here to report, when the count is finished, we believe we will be the winners. >> alcindor: the biden campaign says it is ful prepared to fight any legal challenge by the trump campaign. >> we have lawyers ready to go, papers ready to go, within an hour of heing of any step they take. >> alcindor: legal experts see the potential for litigation coming, largely targeting mail- in ballots in michigan, pennsylvania and wisconsin. today the trump campaign vowed to request a recount in wisconsin. it also filed lawsuit to stop the counting in michigan and pennsylvan. campaign officials claim that they are not being given access to the counting sites. it's a charge that stateon elecofficials denied. but officials in all those playing out as it should. sp at this point i ask for patience out of t to the will of our voters and the work of our election workers who are voluntee across the state. all >> i just feel so confident that evy single valid ballot wa counted in the state of wisconsi >> alcindor: in philadelphia,

city commissioners said they are working as fast as thee can to tally tes. >> it's frustrating for you. but if right and you're going to prevent problems, which jeopardize voters' votes, 's more important that we do it right than meet artificial deadlines. >> alcindor: outside, protesters gathered, calling for every ballot to be counted. state senator sharif street, vice-chair of the pennsylvania democratic party, echoed that demand. >> i am more concerned, as governor wolf has said, about getting an accurate count. than getti a quick count it is incredibly important that we count each and every vote and that we do so accurately. >> alcindor: in nearby poprik said she isical oficia ballots counted in cities, but that the loser should concede.us >> iknow there's been problem in the past in the big cities, and i think that's where we'll be most of having our problems. i think whoever ultimately is found not to have been the nner, i think that perso should then concede. but until we know that fact conclusively, i don't think they should.

>> alcindor: pennsylvania officials say it will likely beb a feore they have even an unofficial result. but a clearer picture of the next congress is already emerging. >> you've given me the honor of a lifetime. alcindor: senate majori leader mitch mcconnell held off his challenger. republicans also look poised to retain their mority in the senate. in the ler chamber, house democrats appeared likely to maintain ctrol, but with a sharply reduced majority, ensuring a divided legislative branch no matter who becomes president. >> woodruff: we turn now to yamiche outside the white housen and our ang is again in wilmington, delware. so, yamiche, i'm going to start with you. what exactly is the president saying right now? what is his campaign saying about the state of this race, given the fact that the a.p. getting closer, it appears, to being comfortabl calling it for joe biden? we don't have other states in yet but it's moving in that

direction. >> reporter: the president continues to do what no u.s president has done in history and that is declare victory prematurely and seek to delegitimize a u.s. election. the president is claiming he won states that the a.p. and other trusted sources say he did not win heassments claimed victoryme several today. he is saying he won georgia, states that have not been officially called by the a.p. which of course is a souhee wet at the "newshour" are using. he's also saying he won michigan and might possibly have won arizona, states already called for joe biden. so what we've seen from the president today is a flood of misinformation. twitter has been labeling twet after tweet with labels that say that this information is not true. if yu loo the president's timeline on twitter, it looks like a colonelaming of labels warning people against listening president is putting out. the i have been talking to people close to the president and who want to see the president win and even they are con the president has gone too far,

y at he is really threatening u.s. democrd being dangerous in this way. another thing to note, judy,me really in says the campaign has been a bit more cautious with the president at times saying not that he has won pathways to get there.tiple but that being said, they are saying he might not announce as early as friday that he is a victor in an election that is not t decided. it is behavioral remarkable rhetoric from the president. he is doubling down and showing no signs of doing this, as joe biden surging patience and saying he feels he will win but has not won alt.the way ye >> woodruff: given all that, what the biden campaign isell us saying. how are they res>>ponding? ell, you'll might not be surprised judy to realize that they have a different take on. this as you heard the former take, they firmly believe theys are on track to win this. electi

with this call in michigan a few minutes ago, this puts them within sixes electoral v of the 270 that they need. there are fotur staes outstanding. they feel that -- or four big states outstanding. any one ofil those put them over the top. they're not so much looking at north carolina anymore, but georgia, nevada, pennsylvania, any one of those would give them viory, and they feel that they are going to get that within the next day, most likely nevada tomorrow, but they're very bullish about georgia, the have been sinst night, where they're still counting some mail-in ballots, mmostly fro atlanta and the atlanta suburbs. they feel that's fertile grojod fobiden. they say they have been winning those mail-in ballots b about 78%, and they think that margin will continue, and they could win georgia, but they believe firmly they will win nevada. >> woodruff: interesting. so, yamiche, we know the

president's path to victory at this point much more difficult, narrower than the path is they do see something.den what do they tell you they're looking at? >> well, they are really looking at the state of pennsylvanng, claiictory without the enp. claiming victory for prestrump, but they're leaning in on a legal strategy to try to wrestle bacsome of the states they think were wrongly called. without any evidence of voter fraud or any issue was happening in these states, but the president is saying he is going to be fundraising. we saw the vice president who the presidenthe did notshes than prematurely declare ctory, but vice president pence said the democrats are trying to steal the election andyou need to give money to the trump campaign to fight these legal battles. the president wants to get to the supreme court. critics say it's nearly impossible for him to launccch y s. bid to try to win this in the courts. that being said, another thing

toote, the president is feeling really good, still campaign aides say to me. they're looking at demographics saying the president was able to up his numbers with latinos, black men, but t path is so anxis., they're feeling very the president is putting on a brave face saying that he feels like he can still win this. >> woodruff: john, for the biden fol, what are they doing? how do they see their next ves? >> reporter: they're waiting to see. they say they're waiting for all the votes to be counted. theye confident that thetes are goingnary r their way. they point out they're winning both the popular and electoral votes. they say they are on track to have the most votes cast for any ticket in american history for biden and harris, and they're anticipang court challenges from the turkey, whic -- from tp

campaign, which they say have no basis. bob bower, legal advisor to the biden campaign,ay they have won the votes and that they are prepared to defend those votes in the courts when challenged by the trump campaign. bob bower says if trump goes to the supreme court, mr. trump will be embarrassed. >> woodruff: strong from the biden camp. john yang, yamiche alcindor. dan bush has been watching the returns in pennsylvania since well before yesterday. dan, we just heard yamiche talk about the wait for votes in pennsylvaniao how is the pss going? what is known about the votes that have still t been counted? >> reporter: judy, you can see behind me there is hghtened police presence and protests here in pennsylvania as the state continues to count its mail-in and absentee ballots. the state received upwards of 3 million of those balls and

has counted roughly 1.7 million but there are still a lot to go and it's important to stress these bloc being counted right now, th're not fraudulent as the president has claimed, they're not also coming in l these were ballots received under state law by 8:00 p.m. on election day yesterday and are now being counted and, judy, is just a matter of resources in larger county like here philadelphia, they can process roughly 30,000 of these ballots. smaller counties like luzerne and others only a few thousand. so it going to take time. officials are not putting an official time on i but have spoken to several who say that they hope to finish counting peese ballots innnsylvania by late tomorrow or possibly friday. >> woodruff: so, dan, the biden mpaign said they feel good about pennsylvania, when it is eventually -- when the counte isntually finished. but we also know the president is saying he's won penylvania. what evidence is there on the ground of the trump campaign legal efforts?

what to you see? >> reporter: judy, eric trump, one of the president's sons and rudy giuliani, a close ally, were here in philadelphia just a eric trump claimed there was ampant corruption" in philadelphia and pennsylvania. giuliani said there was strong anti-democratic activity, as he aid it. hethe campaign said the ballots need to be found. but judye ballots are not lost. right behind me, in a room,ing being counted. the county is live streaming this. they have let the media in i have been that room. it's closely guarded. so these ballots are there, they're being processed, but the trump campaign filed a lawsuit day, as yamiche reported. the biden campaign just receivef thing not more than 20 minutes ago in which the trump campai is seeking to intervene in the supreme court decision to try and halllt s being

counted right now. that's what the trump campaign is trying to do. i spoke th a biden campaign attorney who said, look, we are prepared, we know that this is what they are going to try and do, and we will be ready. >> woodruff: dan bush. stream of the vote counting going on in pennsylvania there yesterday, so we know that ha been taking place. all right, daniel bush there for us in philadelphia. ank you, dan. separately, our william brangham has flow mihigan and joins us now from detroit. william, thank you for being here. as you know, the -- just moments ago, the associated press called michigan and said joe biden is this is even with both campaigns having spent a lot of effortth e. i know you've just recently arrived but what are you hearing from the campaigns about this? >> reporter: well, i think as john and yamiche laid out, the

campaigns staked out their traditional positions. the biden campaign thinks this is great news, sees a its part of the consistent path to victory. this whole caseign is arguing i'm actually standing here in a huge convention center in downtown detroit, where the votes are stll being counted. regardless of what the associated press or any other philadelphia -- i'y -- all of michigan will continue to count ththe votes. are very nearly done but, as we kale into this facility today, there were protestors outside, similar to the ones you saw in yamiche's tape, people on the bideden saying count or revote, people on the trump sid saying stothis vote, stop this count. and whether or not -- i talkedwi a few of the trump volunteers who were outside and at that point, there were rumors that the count had been finalized and bid had won

michigan. none of the trump supporters believed it. they say they don't trust the media. mey think there's real sha cane rigoing on behi now. >> woodruff: what are people about the counting, about whether they've had problems? what are you heang? >> reporter: there is no documented evidence of any kind of fraud going on. there are ballots that get rejected because voters make mistakes, that's totally common. the process isslow because mail-in ballots take longer to open, to unfold, to scan, to confirm the signatures. again, those are totally normal procedures and it was simply state elections rules that didn't allow them to start g.unting those ballots until yesterday morni so the is no evidence of fraud, but there is still an the trump campaign tried to file a lawsuit today saying they

don't have proper access to this kind of counting, that they want more volunteers in hee. as far as i can tell, both the biden and trump campaign have dozens and dozens of people standing at all these tables watching therocess unfold. so this vote is nearly done. if it has been called, thtrp campaign has less and less opportunity to really challenge what's going on. >> woodruff: but i hear you saying both campaigns have eyes on and still have eyes on this process as those votes are being counted. all right, william brangham reporting for us tonight from detroit. thank you, william. so another state, wisconsin, was one to have the keys to president trump's winning the white house in 2016, but as we reported, the a.p. has called a victory for joe biden this year. to give us a sense of all that's ppening there, i'm joined by zac shultz, a reporter with pbs wisconsin. zac shultz, thank you very much sr joining us. again, tell us ttus of complaints.d whether there are

i mean, what's your impression overall of the ballot counting press there? >> reporter: we are done ppunting ballots in wisconsin. it w up earlier this morning. it took through the night for quite a few of the larger cities to count all the absentee ballots, similar to wht we'r seeing from around the country. there was an abnormally large number of absentee ballots in wisconsinond tok a lot long tore count. the last few batches of votes me from a small township in western wisconsin where the clerk nt home sick yesterday and wasn't able to deliver the count. ose are 300,000 blotle. we're talking about a 20,000 vote margin at this point and that's where it stands until we get to the canvass later on but that never changes more than a few hundred votes. >> woodruff: what are you hearing from the bided trump campaigns in wisconsin or washington or around the countrr ction to the call inwi onsin?

>> well, the trump campaign put oua statement saying that they und irregularities. there's no evidence of that hee on the ground in wisconsin. none that we've heard from theer or from the wisconsin elections commission or either of the parties in wisconsin, but they did say that they would request a recount. in wisconsin, if the margin is within 1%, wh ich in this cast is, the second place runner up can request .recou that would be a couple of weeks away from actually going through with tha, procethat we're not at that point yet, but that is something the trump campaign has threatened. >> woodruff: we knew wisconsingo wag to be close, zac shultz, and again this is a state that president trump won narrowly 2016. is there general acceptance of the result that joe biden has won it or are people saying this e?was just impossi what's the reaction? >> no, absolutely, both sides t sebe understanding that case.is a real result in this a number of the republican officials that i follow from

around the state have tweeted out their acceptance of this result,er and there's not any -- we have been through this s many times in wisconsin, every presidential election, unless's nvolving barack obama, is a close one. al gore, 500 vote john kerry, 11o votes. donald trump, 22,000 votes in 2016, this time 20,000 votes. we're used to these close electis and both sides have come to understand that we do transparent, clean, fair elections in wisconsin. well, that has to be reassing not only to people in wisconsin but to people across the country as we get oser and closer to declaring a winner in this election. zac shultz with pbs wisconsin, thank you so much. so now we have had a unique view of how things he been going in the state of georgia. our miles o'brien continues to explore how the vote is being counted there. >> on the day after in atlanta, fulton county election workers were hard at work scanning and counting the last of the mail-in

ballots. they began the day with 45,000 they are among 200,000 untall idea mail-in ballots -- talliedi maballots statewide. they're vowing to have the leon's share of it done by day's end. >> we're pushing hard for that. t we don't geit down but we get the number so small that ere's no question ofwho the winner is would be helpful, really remove all the questions that people might have. >> reporter: georgia's election might garner the most approved award. the primary in june was a disaster. they rolled out a comex new ting system in the midst of the pandemic. it led to a meltdown, and that was not the end of the trouble. in october, more than two dozen fulton county election stafferso contractedid. early voting was disrupted by hurricane zeta power outages, and on election eve a moving company signed to deliver voting machines backed out.

so early on election day, fulto county's election director rick barron came to work in the emergenc operations center dreading a replay. and at about 6:a.m., he got word a pipe burst in the room where the mailn ballots are scanned. >> they were trying to assess whether any of the equipment was damaged, whether any ballots were damaged. d ey didn't fy damage on any of the ballots and i think they're going to be able to get the equipment up and running now. >>poreer: it led to a four-hour delay, but once the in-person voting ben, their stars became ucrossed. voters breezed through voting sites with barely a line in sight. >> once we got past the poll opening about 30 to 40 minutes, and we realized that all of our polls were open, i felt likehe day was going to go smooth. at everythat happened ine looked june. the thing that i've said is that you can't be too timid to ask for help. >> reporter: as the focus

turns to outstanding mail-in tes here and elsewhere, georgia has another bit of luck on its side. the state changed the law to allow mail-in ballot processingt weeks ahead of third. unlike other states legally constrained to wait till virtually the last minute. so now we are all on hooks despite repeated warnings om election systems experts like amber mcreynolds of the istional vote at home institute. so in a sense, as a saww-motion train wreck you coming. >> yeah, i mean, we flagged this. nk flagged this policy issue and, f, it's the fact that these three state legislative bodies refused to, you know, respond to the needs of the election officials, because it was election officials of all sides, all party stripes askinger for this very technical ange that would speed up the election results process. >> election security experts say this is a particurly dangerous

time. potential adversaries can now home their attacks on the integrity of the voting system. university of michigan computer science profsor alexlderman says this underscores the need for states to audit their results. >> we now have a get painted on the back of certain oirticular states that are to be close, amistrip in those states could take the form of attacking e integrity of the paper ballots, could take the form of attacking the computers that are going to be used to count them.d what we ne do is wait for states to perform the necessary ecks and post election audits and recounts and make sure the checks are done accurately enough that we can all have confidence in the results. >> reporter: in the meantime, professor haldeman will be watching closely to see if any hackerehackers attempt to in the

middle of this process and cause mischief. so far, the federal ency, which is assigned to track all of this, says there's no evidence of y teats domestic or foreign to the process that have affevoed antes. mean while, behind me, livepi ures here of the state farm arena in atlanta as fulton county election wor gke through a pile of about 38,000 ballots and counting. they say they will be counting here tonight. until they finish sta they are promising it will all be done tomorrow. but in other places, the wait could take longer. they may take more time than we have patience, judy. >> woodruff: miles o'brien in atlanta, where you have been now for severadays, and this is the kind of reporting that is so important at a moment like this. miles, thank you very ch. now turning to another state, what happens in vegasoes not always stay in vegas. thodds now show iis a pivotal state, nevada, is in

this election. joing us is john ralston, long-time political reporter, he's now with the nevada independent. on, very good to see you again. all eyes are on nevada right now since the a.p. has given joe biden 264 electoral votes. only six more he needs to get to 270. coincidentally, six votes would come his way if nevada goes his way. let me start by asking you what is the vote counting looking like now >> the margin is about 7,500 votes in joe biden's favor. the issue here now, judy, is there are just so many outstanding mail-in ballots, tens of thousands in clark county, which is las vegas, which is a democratic stronghold mare, and where the democrats in the pre-electiol-in balloting won by more than two-to-one, and ty are very confident that, once those are even more in biden's favor. go

a lot of people are asking why aren'tthese votes counted yet. well, this is a new ball game for nevada, judy. we've never had this kind of before.of mail-in ballo the legislature in a special session controlled by the democrats mandated every act of registered voter get a ballot a few months ago and that caused a mix of votes to be very different than usual, and they just don't have the sff, and they're a bit overwhelmed, especially in the urban areas and especially in clark county. but both clarkounty, which is vegas, and washo county, which is reno, said they will announce results at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow. there may be some ruranumbers that come out today, judy, but those are going to be a very small number of votes, won't move the needle that much. >> woodruff: so, john, they're saying 10:00 tomorrow, they put a time on it. any problems, any complai about the voting process other than the fact that, as you said,

it's new and there are a lot to count? >> well, the republican party, which has objected to the mail-in balloting since passed series of lawsuits and found a complained about the opacity of the process saying ty want to bring more transparenc but coincidentally, judy, they only came out that were gettinger crushed in the mail-in balloting in clark county. those have all been fruitltss laws but if it's still close after the ballots areor released tow, you can be sure that we're going to see more lawyers here in nevadag talkout this. the democrats, i think, hope uthat biden will have ach larger lead after the ballots arreleased and that all of that will be unnecessary. >> woodruff: but we will wait and see.t as you're saying, as of now, the plan is, tomorrow morning, we will see an announcement. john ralston with the nevada

independent. we appreciate it. and in thicritical moment, context matters. thankfully, our amna nawaz andsa esjardins are here to offer some clarity. amna. >> reporter: tnks, judy. we're going to pick up now and zoom back out to the national picture for a second, take a look at where we are across the country in the electoral votes. you see there p visident biden with 264, president trump with 214. too few states to be called but let's talk about wisconsin, it went to vice president biden, he won it back fenor prestrump. how did he do it? >> if you compare this to the 2016 map of wisconsin, it's exactly the same except for two counties. one to have the counties that switched is door coty known for cherries and lakeside front. the other is a county in the middle, there we go, salt county right no. let's talk about the place joe biden took away from donald trump .in wiscons donald trump barely won it just

by 1 109 votes in the small county. it is a r wural pla're talking about white working class voters. this is where he won. let's look at what happenedin salk county. let's look at the map of the results from salk coas we have them. joe biden 50% to 48. is 614 votes that joe biden is winning this pivot county by. thi county keeps fling back of ral working class countyple joe biden won and helped him swing the state. >> reporter: he's also beentr king the 35 senate races across the country in this elpution cycle. icans obviously fighting to keep their senate majority. when we take a look at the railo the country, what stands out to you? >> well, first of all, the path for the democrats toake over the senate has gotten very narrowm right now, rats slings need to pick up two or three seats, depending onwhether joe biden wins the presidency, and there are really are only two states

they can draw from, georgia and why is that?na. let's look at a big race that was called today.we ad, in maine, susan collins, republican of maine, survived a riggous challenge from sara gideon, the house speaker in maine. this is a big win, talking to her campaign, incredibly pleased. no one thought -- a lo of people tied think she wold win or win by this much. this is a very big deal for republicans. mitch mcconnell breathe ago big sigh ofelief that she won. >> reporter: what does this mean for the balance power in the senate looking at where it is right now. >> reporter: so thi takes a seat off the board for democrats this is actually now looking atd the house. >> reporter: yes, let's talk about that n, too, because number of races yet to be called in the house. democrats hoping they could open up the majority, expand it evern how are they doing? there are 435 members of congress. each one an important and

individual. 203 democrats have won their races, 188 republicans have won their races. if you look at this right now, amna, we have 44 races left in the house, and as the night was going on, the presidential race so pivotal, i think what was getting lost last night is something, a very bi headline in the house, which is democrats exaicted, nancy pelosi even on the air she thought she would win five, 15, 20 seats. they're going to lose seats, looks like. let's look at one of the places where there's still a possibility of democratic win or loss. abigail span prger, we have been focusing on her freshmen democrat, including the richmond suburbs. she's a former c.i. operative, national security democrat. last night our viewers might remember this race spanberger was down by 20 points, and appeared most of the voting was dreds ofurned out hun thousands of mail-in votes had not been counted at all. this is the story of our

elecon. we're trying to figure out which votes are in. those mail-in votes have gone for spanberger so much she has made up 20 points and now her campaign is feeling good, within striking distance of retaining the street and basically a republican district. so let'talk about the house in general. let's summarize it all up. >> reporter: let's do it. >> rerter: house of representatives, for your friends and family, you can tell them this is what's going on. democrats will likely keep control, nancy pelosi very likely to be speaker of the house unless something unexpected happens. the republican gain, looks like 5 to 12 seat there's about half a dozen democratic incumbents who have been unsead in this election at least, still more on the finally, how did the republicans do it? a lot of the gains are republican women who were a very small minority of the republican house membership. the republican women have added 12 to their numbers. looks like we'rgoing to see record number of republican women in the house this year. still, that's far fewer than democrats have, buit'

something republicans are working on and it helped republicans gaine y putting thmen on the ballot. >> it did indeed and we heardic republican ols selling the number saying this is how we did it, not the way democrats thought it would go. ea reporter: a lot of people scratching their both sides saying they didn't see this in the data and are surprised by this. >> reporter: still a number of races yet to be calle so judy, election 2020 continues. o woodruff: a l surprises, amna, lisa, thank you both. so she was by my side here all last night and nowsafely back at home but we turn again to amy walter of the "cook political report" and the host of the podcast "politics with amy walter" and to deen the election results as much as have them. hope you got some sleep. my first question is one of the thgs you've looked vey hard at who the voters were who each candidate attracted including what happened inwhhe suburbs.

are you seeing there? >> well, judy, we talked a lot about the suburbs, much of 2017 and 2018, democrats made many of their ins there, abigail spanberger, who lisa justte poto was one of those emerging suburban areas where democrats did relly well in 2018 and democrats were hoping that that suburban surge was going to help t sm pick upts across the country and, of course, especially for joede it looks like it worked in some places. arizona, flippinthat state from republican to democrat, thanks to biden's strengtin the "phoenix" suburbs as well as omaha, which is the onedi congressionalrict, so winning that congressional electoral vote there, that's a suburban district. but it only got them so far.s tes supposed to be a place where that suburban sprawl that we hen seeing in the metro plex around dallas and houston was going to bring in a lot of

new democratic members of the t houst didn't happen, and it wasn't enough to flip those sunbelt states that have been fast suburbanizing, florida, texas, we're not sure about georgia and north carolina, but still on pins and needles, bu the suburban surge only took democrats so far. >> woodruff: no question abg ut be pins and needles. you mentioned texas and florida. as we know, democts were reaching for victories in these states. it didn't work out.at s your understanding of what happened, why it didn't happen? >>w,ell, judy, you kno back in 2008 and 2012, democratser were talkingabout something called the emerging majority and it was that they were going to combine their strength in the blue wall states with the growing latino vote in the sun belt, that was going to give tm basically a permanent majority, electoral llege majority thahasn't come out to play, in part

because, in this case, donald trump did pretty well among latino voters, getting 45% of the latino vote in florida, a lot of that from south florida, but also doing wel in texas, where he was ablto -- president trump, that is -- get about 38% of the vote, and demopats really hoping tick up a seat down in therio grande valley that they came up short in 2018, but, once again, they were thwarted this heavily latino area in the rio grande valley once again voting republican for congress and many of those ters also supporting donald trump. >> woodruff: a lot of soul searching going on around tht. amy, sprt from this, we saw in almo all the voter surveys almost half the americans voted interviewed in the surveys said the corovirus, the pandemic affected their vote. what are we sing act how it

affected what they did. >> well, judy, it's a edxag. web we had been talking about the places that were really hard t here at the end of the campaign, places like ohio and iowa andwondering if that was going to sort of dampen enthusiasm for the presidenor r other republicans in the state, that doesn't look like that happened, although, in wisconsin, a state that biden just carried, that may have been a factor.ly ultimajudy, seems like covid, the biggest impact it's had on this race the issue we're spending so much time on, which is eay and absentee balloting. democrats real pushing their votevo to e early, in part because of worries about a id surge there that would deter their voters from showing up at the pol, and that balloting, of course, looks like it's putting joe biden over the top in some of these states, but it also means that we're waiting for thosetes to be counted

right now. >> woodruff: no question about it. amy,e're going to be continuing to want to come to you for questions about what voters did, why they did it and a lot more than t. amy walter, thank you so much for tonight and for last night all night long. thanks. >> thank you. >> woodruff: the push to drive voters to the polls is one aspect to winning an election. tonight, we are again witnessing a different tack. amna nawaz is back to unpack the legal challenges ahead. >> nawaz: thanks, judy. to help us make sense of this moment i'm joined by tammy patrick. she is an expert on election administration with the democracy fund, and a former elections official in arizona. and nate persily, a professor at stanford law school and the co- founder of the healthy elections project, which has been tracking ronavirus-related election litigation. welcome back to you both.

and thanks for being here. tammy, i want to start with you because the process is still veryfuch unfolding and one the things we've noticed is transparency has been sort of the name of the game for many elections the wisconsin election commission that was tracking eets as they were explaining what was going and what was going on. philadelphia has t stream up where you can watch the ballots being counted if you so choose to spend your time that way. take us inside the states where the count is still coninti though, what is going on, how does that infold and why is it taking t time that it is? >> absolutely, and it's great to see you all. so what wee viewing here, and this looks like it's the philadelphia processing center, states that lek officials both at state and local level had t asked y could have some additional time to process the ballots before election day, an that's a very standard protocol in many, many states, where you n actually open up the envelopes, do your verification of the voter and make sure that it is, in fact, the voter that

voted that ballot and get it ready for processing and scanning and then, on election day, ttaling all of the votes. but unfortunately, in this mome, there were too many states and, you know, some of the ones we're waiting on th theirhe legislators and o stepped in with court orders and prevented them from processing before election day. contemplate when you open your mail at home, now magnify that by millions of envelopes. in the state of pennsylvania we heard a lot about naked balts and having multiple envelopes n.tually for every ballot packet that comes in the case of detroit, we're watching ainut 900 or so viduals opening envelopes, getting the ballots out, flattening them and making sure they get ready to go through the tab laters, and that all takesme >> reporter: let me ask you about the idea from president trump and campaign that the vote should stopy, the

filed suit in michigan and pennsylvania to halt the vote, and they give us a sense of what the impact of those kinds of legal challenges co, in states where the vote has already been called and has yet to be called? >> let's be cleared that the vote has happened, the vote can't be stopped, the question is wheher the counting is going to be stopped. right now theye processing the ballots and they count them through the machines and if necessary by hand. so right now, all we're seeing is the normal process of tabulating the absentee ballots, figuring out what the final totals are, if there is a dispute over how those absentee ballots were handled or whether some are legitimate or not, then er have through recount or oth litigation, you will have some contest of the results. right now, there are manyff ent cases that have either been threatened or are already in court. they he several con themes to them. ate first is that they're right sort of bring upot of dust results, okay.ud the electio

eth not clear what the issues are going to be with the alleged fraud.ts lea but the themes you see in these cases are haallegationsthe local officials allowed some people to cure their abseen ballots, meaning if there were defects, they would allow them to correct the mistakes, allegations that tre may have even been political preferences that got into the mix there as to howhey allowed t certain voters to cure, depending on the locality and thenike. but as of your reporters allegation that yodn't havehe adequate observation of the they're an that's what suggesti was happening in philadelphia and elsewhere. >> reporter: tammy, we heart nate mention the recount which a lot had issues because they're requesting a recount when a state was called for jenoe bid

can a recount be triggered just like that? >> absolutely. there are a handful of states where there's an automaticr trigger recount. if the measure of victory is within a certain perpocentage t, there's automatically a recount. also in some states they have where yor can't ask a recount. they have what they often refer to as sore loser laws because quite ten we know individuals that didn't receive as many votes as they thougr they shouldey thought were cast for them, it's very difficult for them to beeve such a thing. so states have protocols in place to trigger an automatic recount if in fact it is a close race, others prevention of frivolous lawsuits and then there are some that if you want to pay for iteaux have recount and that's where it's really quite the landscape but it is important to note there are, as nate mentioned, no new ballots being cast. these ballots being cast are just being counted and many of the ballots have been in the possession of local election

officials for days and weeksth just weren't allowed to process them. >> reporter: important clarification as folks are looking for that information. nate persily andammy patrick joining us tonight. thanks to you both. >> thank you. >> woodruff: we turn now to a key official in a key state, where there are already lawsuits. and where joe biden was just declared the winner this evening. jocelyn benson is michigan's secretary of state and she joins us now from detroit. ms. benson, thank you so much for ta king with us. w the a.p., within the hour, called michigan for joe votes but there are sti being counted. so where does the counting stand right now? >> we believe we are close to seeing a full and complete, unofficial tabulation in the state. we certainly are on track to have those full results tonight.

we are in the final stages in some of our larger jurisdictionn of wrapping up, which is way.ly a success story, by the weht it would take us much longer, but the efficiency and the meticulous work of our election workers has really put us in a position where we're proud to be able to have it near complete if not fully complete results in the next few hours to report out. heard some ofe folks who keep track of how ballot counting goes, and awa there are difficulties speaking about some of the challenges accounting hese so-called naked ballots. what problee you had in michigan as you have been counting? >> i think certainly a lolof our prems were dealt with prior to election day with regards to just litigation around ballots, and we saw this in a number of different states, d also the challges with the postal service and the unreliability there.so e've really focused on

making sure every vote got in 8:00 p.m. tuesday and that voters who were voting absentee for the first time knew the rules, particularly the importance of signing and validating their identity on the envelope in which the absentee ballot was placed. then on election day itself, smooth sailing. there were some efforts to misinformed voters about their rights. we were aebe to quicklyunk those. here we are after the polls closing, tabulating the votes, the biggest challenge is misinformation and we knew that would be the case frome minute the polls closed to the full tabulation of the result, there would be significant efforts to sow seeds of doubt about the integrity of ou elections. but we are here to say that the elections are secure and theon resulte announced will be a full and accurate reflection of the will of the people. >> woodruff: we know the trump campaign has already filed ath ughout to stop the counting in michigan. what effect does that have onur work? >> well, the count has continued and,k, looe're confident in our processes and transparency and security and methodical

nature of our work and because of that i've said that i wt to be abundantly clear no campaign, no politician, no political party, no candidate is going to stop the count here in michigan we are committing to getting this right, making sure it's arc and really straight stay above the political frato really deliver results to michigamichiganders across the g thatdless of who they voted for they could trust the >> woo i'm asking ufsults. suit and the president himself is saying, since the election has taken place, i've won michin. >> yeah, we fully and expected candidates can say things at any point in the election cycle, but candidates don't get to determine who wins an election, the voters do, and the election work, whwork toat tabulevery valid vote and ensure every valid vote and only vadliotes are counted. that's the work we're doing here

democracy requires elections work, so we're continuing to do that work at a very efficient speed that i'm very inspired by as workers have really been commted to this work. we recognize the importance of our state, we recognize the importance of gettinthis right, and, again, when we have those full tabulat results to announce, i am confident and have full faith that there will be a full and accurate reflecti of the will our voters that i hope everyone respectsea >> woodruff:y important for the american people to hear this. michigan secretary of state jocelyn benson, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> woodruff: and, beyond the presidential race, everything from marijuana to ride-sharing was on tuesday's ballot. five me states legalized pot,

tod oregon became the firs decriminalize small amounts of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. uber and lyft fromg theirpted drivers full employees, eligible for benefits. they also refused to reinstate affirmative action for college admissions and public hiring. the march of covid-19 across the united states shows no sign of slowing, with another 92,000 infections in the last 24 hours. in europe, england braced for a new lockdown tomorrow. but the continent's hottest, splgium, reported hospitalizations are slowing for the first time in a month. >> ( translated ): if it continues like this,ll be able to remain below the maximum capacity of our hospitals. so it gives me the oppnetunity to sayore time that by staying at home, by respecting those rules which i have to admiare not always comfortable, lives can be saved. >> woodruff: orall, european

nations recorded a nearly 50 percent increase in virus deaths inhe last week. central america has spent a long, dangerous day in the grips of tropical storm "eta." it lashed northern nicaragua and honduras, after making landfall on tuesday as a catego hurricane. the weakened storm dumped torrential rain, triggered mudslides and tore up towns, l killing st three people. it could swing toward south florida this weekend. the u.s. formally exited the landmark paris climate agreement today. it fulfills a longstanding pledge by president trump, but h it's not cle long it will last. former vice president biden has vowed to rejoin the global pact to fight climate change, if he wins the election. the u.s. supreme court is wading back into religious rights. the justices heard arguments today on whether a catholice agency may ref certify same-sex couples as foster parents on religious grounds.

the agency, in philadelphia, argues tt policy should not bar it from qualifying for city contracts. a decision is expected by june. and, on wall street, stocks scored sizeable gains again, as investors bet republicans will block new taxeand regulations they hold their senate majority. the dow jones industrial average was up 367oints to close at 27,847. the nasdaq rose 430 points, add, the s&p 50d 74. and that's the newshour for tonight. elections are times that unite we share a civic d determine how we govern ourselves. no mter how you cast your ballot, it is the right to do so democracy.des the bedrock of our we are now waiting for the final votes to be counted, and patience is part of the process. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs

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hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour & co." here's what's coming up. with the u.s. now out of the land markma global c accord, where are we in the race against climate change? i speak to architect of that historic paris deal and environmentalist bill mcgibbons who's been rinng the alarm bells for cades. then -- >> ius -- v concern, those two things were clear. it was monumental. and we would deal with it hatogether. >>extra special relationship that reshaped the post-9/11 world for better and for worsro britishcasting legend offers a new len