captioning sponswsed by neur productions, llc >> woo judy woodruff.ing, i'm on the newshour tonight, the counting continues-- joe biden gains ground in undecided states as the trumpign questions the results so far and files lawsuits. then, we are on the ground across the country, including pennsylvania. with its 20 electoral votes at stake, both campaigns stay focused on the keystone state. and, a troubling surge-- u.s. coronavirus cases to100,000 in a single day for the first time, as hospitals nationwide brace for a huge increase in patients. all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

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>> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations inra education, demc engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institution and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcastin and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the presidential ra now hangs on a dwindlin handful of states, as the world waits for a decision.

around the country,te tallies are taking place against a backdrop of lel battles and protests. lisa desjardins begins our coverage. >> desjardins: across th country, states of flux-- counting and waiting for full results from key states pennsylvania, north carolina, nevada, georgia. former vice president biden remains in the presidential lead, both with the popular vote and the electoral college. he projected confidence this >> we continue to feel very good about where things stand we have no doubt when the count is finish senator harris and i will er declared the winn the process is working, the count is being completed and we'll know very soon >> desjardinsident trump made no appearance today bai the two campgns showed a glaring contrast. as the president t unsubstantiated claims of

illegal voting, and at one point wrote, "stop the count!" in their daily briefing on results, biden campaign manager jen o'malley dillon urged the count to continue. >> counting votes and counting every vote is a fundamental tenet of our democracy. >>esesjardins: the counting roll on in arizona, with more than half a million votes left. president trump s gained some ground, but still lags and the associated press has stood by its call of the state for biden. in pennsylvania, the opposite as mister trump held onto a lead but team biden was quickly cutting the margin. this as the trump campaign is pushing an unprecedented strategy of legally and rhetorically casting doubt on election integrity in places the president is behind. there are no credible reports from officials or independent observers of significant irregularities with voting practices. still, in nevada this morning, president announced a fourth lawsuit there, claiming that

people voted from outside >> we are filing this federal lawsuit to protect legal voters. >> desjardins: the state supreme conied the campaign's request to stop counting some mail-in ballots. and officials overseeing the pivotal las vegas-area tally, are being meticulous.ed they >> we are not aware of any improper ballots that are being processed. >> desjardins: in pennsylvania, a court ruled in favor of the trump campaign on e,logistical isllowing them more access to observe the count. >> we're not lving until we witness every vote that transpires in there >> desjardins: election ficials are making progress. in alleghany county, home to pittsburgh, officialsaid the ndrst big round is done, a they are leaving roughly 30,000 harder-to-process ballots until friday. >> wt i will say is alleghen county probably preressed them fahan just about anybody. i'm proud of the fact that they did, certainly in the spring we did and the other night during the 300,000 that gished last night.

and as accurately as they can.an we want to make sure it's an >> desjardins: in a virtual hearing, judge cynthia stejeens ed a quickly-filed trump request to stop counting absentee ballots. she adjourned reminder of the big picture. >> i have no basis to find that there is a substantial likelihood of success on the merits. i believe everyone here, at their best, seeks to have a full and fair election process. thank you. >> desja the legal fights led to a few dozen protests around the country, both from voters demanding counting continue, and that it stop. elizabeth fohey joined a group of pro-trump voters in detroit.a >> then i'm here is to state that it wasn't a proper election result and that we need to look at every single vote. every american deserves a right to vote, and a right to have their vote counted properly. it's clear that there have been

illegal thin happening in this state. >> desjardins: in neby macomb county, biden voters carol and fredsarney believe the proces is working, and that biden's win in michigan is a good sign. >> i think i well. it went better than i thought it would because of all the threats you hear going on at these polling places. >> trump is for trump, and for his one percent. so that's why i voted fobiden. >> desjardins: two days after the election, more voting numbers are coming into view, but the future for washington is still not known. for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. tonight and we turn now to yamiche alcindor, she is outside the white housjoe, an yang is again in whiington, delaware, near the biden campaign. yamiche, with all of the lawsuits being filed by

the trump campaign is their legal strategy? >> the president, as well as his legal advisors are employing the strategy e presiden th use for years, and that is flooding the zone with i misinformation, and we're seeing accusationssations. in arizona, pennsylvania, michigan, as well as nevada. they areeally making a grab-bag of accusations here, including that dead people are voting, that people are not being allowed to see the votes that are connected to the president, or who are republicans who want to make sure that the votes are being counted accurately. they're also saying that people who maybe didn't meet the residency requirement voted. they want votes that are favorable of president to be counted, and they don't want the votes that are favorable to joe biden to be counted. the trump campaign isck pushing n that. and there are legal actions looking bad for the prest, including a

judge in georgia saying he is going to be dismissing a case where the trump campaign is saying that sentee ballots are being mishandled. legal advisors for the trump campaign are leaning on the supreme court. and they said they're ping that amy coney barrett, quote, "comes through," saying that the supreme court, where the president has nominated or confirmed three people, that they will be able to step in and hele president win this. >> woodruff: h'mmm. so, johnang, how at this point is the biden campaign responding to all of this? >> reporter: as you might imagine, they didn't muin of the arguments. bob bowdencalls a strategy that is destined for failure. he says it is all political theater, that it is just intended to rile up the president's base. he it is political rhetoric, and the message that the campaign is over. the time for political rhetoric is over. it is time to count the

votes. >> woodruff: and, yamiche, back to you. you mentioned misinformation, a lot of focus on that.o what areu seeing? what are you hearing that helps us understand what kind of things -- what kind o things are being pushed out? r orter: well, the president and the trump campaign have really activated a misinformation campaign, a misinformation ma people who are close to the president saying , ings that are simply not trdy, including his giuliani, and for, rudy acting director of national intellience, ric grenell. they brought out a voter who said her mail-in ballot had been stolen. they said that had no evidence of voter fra, and, two, they investigated that specific case, and that vot did not choose the mail-in ballot when they showed her the signatur and we're seeing allegations from the

president, including lou dobbs, to go to places where the votes are beingco ted and surround them. and rudy giuliani has been on a kremlin-backed news organization making claims that joe biden has some kind ofmentalroblem, of course they're unsounded. all kinds of thing are beid, but most of them are false. >> woodruff: we should poinout that it is lou dobbs on the fox business channel. john cing back to you, just how divergent are the messages coming out of these two compaigns a this point? >> reporter: they really are polls apart. the president tweeting "stop the count, hestop fraud." he pledges to go t court to try to turn this election around and in a number of states,wi trying to win in the courts. on the otheran, as you heard vice president biden saying it is the will of the voter that is important here, so all

votes have to beast. you heard in lisa's tape, the vicedent urging people stay calm, the process is working. the campaign ifirm in its belief that on all of the votes are counted, they wd up victorious, that joe biden will be the nesident of the united states. they also point out that he has -- and the vot that have already been counted -- gotten more votes than any other presidential candidate in history. they're cautioning be patient, be calm, and things will work out. >> woodruff: we're looking at thevetotal, 70 million votes. as we pointed out, joe biden did speak today. and president trump will be speaking some tim after 6:30 eastern. yamiche and john, thank you. so according t ear >> woodruff: according to early ta, black voters made up 11% of the national electorate. 90% of them voted for former 8% backed the president.

but in pennsylvania, where black voters made up 8% of the electorate, 93% voted for joe biden. 6% voted for president trump. our daniel bush s from philadelphia. >> count every vote! >> reporter: outside the philadelphia convention center, where theace to tally the city's remaining mail-in ballotcontinues, demonstrators gathered with one simple message: count every ve. >> count every vote! >> reporter: across the street, supporters of president trump shot back: >> it is a corruptedte. process. it is already very unsafe. it hasn't been done before. >> reporter: philadelphia's only one part of a very divided state. 6.at president trump won in 2 but the city's overwhelming democratic ballots could propel former vice president joe biden to statewide victory, and that may be thanks in large part to

the city's black voters. >> black people, onrece again,oing to save this country. >> reporter: the democratic party said today that t black turnout in philadelphia is on track to rival barack obama's record in 2008. sheris is t vice chair of the pennsylvania democrats. >> he wl be the vice president of the first black president, and the president of the first black vice president. he will have sent the first black man and first black woman to national office. that is not lost on blackle pe >> reporter: it is the culmination of years of outreach e by people like nichola nicholas o'rourke. he is a state ornizer for the pennsylvania working families party. >> what w saw in 2016 was a major dropoff in major black voting. if they turned out because they are excited and had a reason to goote, that by itself could flip the

entire commonwealth. >> reporter: many black philadelphians say their vote for biden is a vote for, if not more, agast donald trump. >> even my radical friends who don't vote on inciple have voted in this election because it is so stark. and so it is a vote for ival, i think. >> reporter: candace lives in west iladelphia, not far from where last week police fatally shot walter wallace, black m armed with a knife who had a >> walter wallace, i think that was on the minds of a lot of people in philadelphia, when they went to the polls. also because it was sort c a reminder of this sort le that we've been in for decades when it co the policing and police violence. huge turnout from black votersiladelphia, and regardless of the outcomings people here say there is more work to be done. >> as a progressive myself, i know even thee though

we have endorsed him, he candidate. ideal joe biden says he doesn't believe in defending of in defue police, and we do. >> so, yeah, i would just -- i think he owes us. >> reporter: here in philadelphia, judy, the voting continues, but that battle tdeliver on promises to black voters is still ahead. a quick note on the vote count here in pennsylvania, the secretary of state just said a little while ago that 350,000 ballots emain to be counte -- remain to becout only a fraction of them are in-perslots cast on election day, those are the ones that have favored prt trump. the majority of the mail-in ballots that have been breaking heavily for joe biden. sdemocrats are saying it

not a matter of if joe biden passes donald trump, who's votes are under 100,000, they say it is ama er of when. it could come as early as tonight, maybe tomorrow. as this is happening, judy, you can see a lively scene behind me. there are trump supportersf focused on all these legal challenges we reported on at the top of th hour. as welere are democrats here, and they are starting to party and celebre. they see that victory could be close at hand. backo you, judy. >> woodruff: all right, dan bush. we know some of the ballots, because theyin didn't start the counting of those until later than the in-person ballots. daniel bush g us from philadelphia. thank you, dan. we turn now to michigan, whe find william brangham, who is in dorit dorit. -- detroit. you've been out talking to voters. tell us what they are saying to you? > reporter: i spen got chunk of day in macon

county, legendary for the reagan democrats. obama won macon county twice in a row, but don trump flipped in that 2016. biden still lost it, but he did much better than hillary clinton did. when i was talking to voters, the overall sense i got was one of they don't want to talkire about it anymore. one woman i talked with today said she was sick of the lawsuits, sick the allegations of fraud, sick of all of the name i made the assumption she was a biden supporter, and e said, oh, no, no, i supported president trump, but i'm still sick of those th this is what i've heard today as well, an election that has cost and caused some personal scars for people. i heard a lot of stories of people who have seen their relationships come apart because of this election. one grandmother told me a story about how sh and her granddaughter nearly came to blows over this.

heard about friendships lost. one couple i talked to who both biden supporters, the husband in that family, he is a retired mechane said he had lost five friends over their differences between president trump and joe biden. so it has taken toll emotionally in some way, and personally for a lot v ofers. >> woodruff: no doubt across the country as well. william, yesterday you were at protests at pces where they were counting votes. there had been a lawst -- has been a lawsuit filed by the trump campaign to stop the counting.ll tell us wheref that stands right now? >> reporter: that's if you remember fast night, there were really strong protests of people trying to op -- this was outside the detroit location where they were counng mail-in ballots. protestors were out there saying stop the fraud, stop this count. the cou continued, that office closed up. we went there this morning, and there was

just a handful of protestors. so that sense of arder has died down. the trump campaign filed ala uit, claiming they sh had been getting enough access, and they wanted better eyes on that process, and the judge threw that out,g there was no real evidence cited by the tru campaign. donald trump campaigned here six times. he really wanted twin michigan. he fought hard to be here. the very last campaign op that donald trump made in the entire election was in grand michigan, and that's kent county, a county that has gone veral times in recent cycles, was pretty red. he left saying, if you don't vote for me, i may never come back to this area again. joe biden flipped kent county, and helped him win michig and its 16 electoral votes. >> woodruff: inte bsting. it wasg crowd that the president drew, but it

is a reminder that t size of the rallies don't always mean it will result in the counter of the votes. as we've been reporting, present trump's lead in georgia has been cut to a narrow margir, as of this hherere still more than 47,000 ballots from around the state that rain to be counted. our miles o'brien joins us again tonight from atlanta. miles, tell us at this hour where does the counting stand? >> reporter: judy, as you point out, that margin beeen joe biden and donald trump is diminishing as we speak. only about 9500 votes separate the two candates at this juncture, with more than four million votes cast in georgia. there is still some counting to be done, as you suggest, in the mid-40,000 range, mail-in and absentee ballots need to be scanned and tallied.

most ballots come from the pockets of blue in georgia, which have voted very strongly in favor of joe biden. if you do thmathematics on that, there is no question that margin between the two candidaes will diminish. and depending on how you that joe biden would overtake donald trump, being the first democrat to win georgia since bill clinton d iid1992. tomorrow is the deadline overseas ballots.litary there are less than 9,000 of those that could potentially come in between now andhen. and thn there are provisiol ballots, which need to berified. we don't have statewide numbers on that. here in fulton count there are about 3,000 of those. so we're watching the number by tomorrow we'll have more visibility on this, deliberately here, judy. >> woodruff: miles, we of the states wheywas one were able to start counting early, the ballots that came in explain how,n, it is

taking so long to count. >> reporter: yeah. it is -- they had some time. they had a couple of weeksdv ince of the election. it is not as big a number say, philadelphia.with in, but what happened was a lot of people, frankly, waited until the last minu. there was a huge arrival of ballots right up before the election, and on election day, and, of course, election officials on election day have other things to do. so we've had to wait for that. so they didn't really get busy until wednesday. you go through the process of signat verification, and the ballots must benn s. and then about 2% to 3% of these hand marked ballots have ambiguous markings onth , and it requires a bipartisan panel to adjudicate and gthrough to try to determine voter intent. it is a relatively laborious process. and the folks here in georgia want to make sure they get it right. we spoke with gabriel

sterling, who is in charge of the imitation of the voting system for the secretary of state. >> fast isreat, and we appreciate fast. we more appreciate accuracy. accuracy is going to be the bedrock upon which the outcomes of theseve the elections, either on the winning side or the losing side.>> reporter: so the dates to keep in mind here are the counties have to certify their elections individually. their deadline is fay the 15th of november. the state has to certify statewide by november 20th. after that, if the margin is inside half a percent betweeatthe two cand, it's all but certain there will be a recount. so there is still a long road ahead here, given the closeness of this race in georgia, judy. >> woodruff: it certainly sounds like stretch to come. and ven as i'm asking you out why it is taking so

long, of course our attitude is it should take as long as it needs to because every vote neetods e counted. miles o'brien reporting from atlanta, georgia. ank you. and now that we've heard the state updates, or amna nawaz and lisa desjardins are here to offer some crical context on where the race stands. amna? >> nawaz: thank u, it is a good chance to remind everybody where that race for 270 stands. formefor mr. biden, 264, and for donald trump, 214. the tal for biden includes arizona. 11 electoral votes wo him on wednesday in the early morning hours, when the a.p. called that race for mr. biden. the "newhour" relies on "the associated press" for those calls. not been made by otherhas outlets. here is why: there are about 254,000 votes out

there. and another 30,000 or so in pima county, sou of that, and that's why some outlets have not yet made that call. the a.p. says they stand by that call. and the votes are ver much being counted, but they say the facts will lead the way. >> lisa: and arizona also has a very hot senate race, which the a.p. has called in favor of mark kelley, but martha mcsally is not giving up, she isot conceding. >> about 89% of the expected votes in so far. but there is another state looking for a call, and that is the state of pennsylvania. lisa, 20 electoral votes at stake here. >> lisa: the keystone state is key -- you knew i this election season.e what is interesting about this red a blue map, there are very few changes from 2016. one is up here on the n

jersey border. monroe coty, red, and north hampton, blue. this is a new pickup forth democrats right here. these are very close counties. one thing i want to say that is on most people's minds, these are two counties that have finished couing, including their mail-in vote. i know dan bush was talking about this, where are all of the votes still left to be counted. mostly we know when they are, early votes, absentee votes, but we know that philadelphia county is still counting, and allegheny, over by you, anpittsburgh, they have the 30,000 outstanding votes that they will get to on iday, that we talked about earlier. >> nawaz: meanwhile, two days after election d, some senate races still not yet called. when you look at the balance of power, remd us what is at stake here. >> lisa: we have a tie, 48-48. look at the white dots, there are four outstaning senate races, one in the state of alaska.

that is seen as a race that will likely g republican, but alaska takes a good amount of letime to count, so s not talk about alaska for a minute. it relies in the two other. senate rac two in georgia. let's go through where we are with those to remind people. this is the kelly loeffer race, appointed to fill a vacated seat. this is a roff. none of the candidates have received more than 50% of the vote, which is what is required in georgia. so we'll h runoff. doug collins will not make it, but kelly loeffler will go up against thero pastoratlanta. we'll have this result in january. look at this, david perdue, the incbent republican, remember what i said, 50%? he is just there. he may fall below itca e in georgia, the votes coming in are largely from fulton county, which is in atlanta. i think when you look at georgia, i want to also

lk about a suburban county outside of atlanta cobb county. this is why jon ossoff was in that race. hillary clinton narrowly won this county. it is the second largest county in the state, and it is diversified. we're seeing massive growth in terms of mies. about 51% white residents, black, about a 28nd hispanics have really grown there. this is why democrats feel go about georgia in the future. the question is: can they pick up this senate race now? >> nawaz: i believe there is a deeper look if we want to see where people are votin cobb county. >> lisa: here is the deal, this is why jon ossoff is in thee, r 54% in cb county, and perdue up there, in thed clearly outside of atlanta. >> nawaz: there is t toher key race as ye be called, in the state

the north carolina. cal cunningham has been challenging thom tillis. bring us up to speed. >> lisa: this is another one that could be a squeaker. it really depends on the amount of turnout that came out for j biden versus president trump. and let's look at what thes map loke in terms of who voted and how in north carolina, or even georgia. if you break the down, you saw more like red dots down near the bottom. look at north carolina, but most of these counties have red and blue dots in them. this is a more purple what democrats haveounty. is they have outpaced republicans by huge margins in the city. what we're doing now is waiting fosome of the final votes to come in. 93% of the expected vote. these are th three races that will decide who will be in charge of the u.s. senate. mitch mcconnell, the republican leader, said in the last day he is not sure who is goingo win. >> nawaz: profound implications there.

two days later, we're waitg on some house-calls -- the majority of the races have isen called. s not what the democrats wanted to see so far. >> lisa: right. this is what has been called so far. it doesn't give the full picture. you see the white dots, about 37 house seats to be determined, too close to be called. the fa democrats are facing right now a loss of somewhere between -- it is up from what i said yesterday -- somewhere between 10 and they have majority of 17 seats right now. so it looks like democrats, and speaker nancy pelosi, is facing a very small margin for her ormocrats. my rng is that there was quite somewhat of a contentious call among democrats today, and talking to democrats who say what happened, they say they really lost on a few issues, including, i believe in florida, they we pegged with the idea that democrats are too cialist and it cost them house seats. >> nawaz: and a number of rac still to be

called. lisa desjardins bringing us up to speed. thanks. >> lisa: thanks. >> woodruff: a quick correction: earlier dan bush said the voting continues in pennsylvania. he meant to say the vote counting continues. and as amna explained, ballots are also still being counted in the battleground of arizona. tod officials there are se release more vote totals later this evening. let's bring in the state's top election official, katie hobbs. she is arizona's secretary of ate and she joins me fro phoenix.>> oodruff: katie hobbs, thank you very much for joining us. so bring us up to speed on where the vote count stands right now? are about 450,000 ballots left to be counted inhe state. the bulk of those

obviously in maricopa county, just under 300,000. and we expect them to release some additional results this evening, 7:00 p.m. arizona time. and so that will, you know, see a more about where things are going after that. >> woodruff: so i'm asking everyone this question, even though what we a know is what we really care about is every voteets counted and counted accurately, but tell us why it has taken several days after the election to get the llots counted. >> well, the ballots that are being counted right now are ballots thate w weren't able to signature verify and startng proces and tabulating before the election. it was early ballots that got dropped off in the last couple days of monday or tuesday before the election. so we have had unprecedented turnout in arizona this year. didn't know, how many of those ballots would be dropped off in terms of being ab to estimate how

long it would take. and there were just a lot of thoselots. honestly, we are where we thought we would be ins te counting right now. of where we were in 2018ba with morots at this point. >> woodruff: and just to rules and regulations, are there observers from both parties watching the counting? >> absolutely, yes. additionally, our tabulationcenters have cameras in every tabulation room. so anyone can go to the county elections website for their county, find the link, and watch the tabulation as it is happening. >> woodruff: you said a moment ago it will take a little longer to get some of this information. do you have an idea of when all of the counting will be fini >> um, i think the bulk of it, what we've been told -- the bulk of it will be done this weekend.

maricopa county will be releasing their totals daily at 7:00 untieyl e done. and the other counties with smaller amounts o ballots are doing it regularly during the day. i don't have all of the specific times, buty the weekend we should have most of the ballots counted. are provisionals.l be left until tuesday, to complete thresolving of those provisional ballots to determine if they can be counted. obviously, that a much smaller portion of the votes that are woutstanding. druff: the trump campaign, as you know, is filing suit in a number of states aund the vote count. are you prepared, if that takes place? >> we are prepared. there hasn't been a sheet filed here yet. honestly, i'm not sure what it would be that you would contest. right now he is in a position to want the votes be counted in arizona. of course they are going to be counted, whether hent them to are not.

so stopping the vote count is not something that i think he would try to do. after the election, should there be a push for a recall, maour recalin is extremely narrow. and there is no basis for someone to go t court and request a recall if the race is not within that margin. per our sta laws. portfoli>> woodruff: i know there is an allegation going arou the arizona count that ballots that had been marked with sharpie pen, as opposed to a ball point, were being discounted. could you set us straight on that? >> aely, i would love to set you straight on that. the sharpies were provided by election workers because they are the recommended markers for marking the tabulaters. because the ink dries fasto. there is truth to those llots being invalidated.

if there were, if the tabulater couldn't read it, it would be spoiled and the voter would be issued a new ballot. in the tabulation center, if thtalater can't read the ballot, there is a process place to make sure all of the ballots are counted. if it was crayon, red pen, a sharpie, it is going to s counted, regardl whether it can be counted by the machine or not. >> woodruff: well, i'm glad to let you have a chance to set us straight on that because we know that is an allegation that has beyi around, and it is important to be clear with people on what the truth is. all right. katie hobbs, who is the secretary of state for arizona, we appreciate it. thank you. >> thank you so much. >> woo as we've heard

tonight, president trump and his allies have continuettack the integrity of the vote- counting process, with so far unsubstantiated claims of fraud. in some cases, they have taken their complaints to court, across several of the battleground states that have yet to be called. jeffrey brown takes a deeper look. >> brown: some of these lawsuits to help us sift through all of this is ri hasen. he's an election law expert at the university of california- irvine, and author of the book "election meltdown." >> ricker thanks for joining us. far to these legalrn so challenges? are there specific categories you can them into? >> yeah, they're pretty much small bore cases. most of them are trying to do something like get better access for trump observers to get into polling places. that might be to try to slow the vote count down

in places where trump is trying to l stop,e in pennsylvania, a biden win. there was one case of an allegation of illegal ballots being counted in georgia, and a court found n that there w evidence for that. suggestions that they're going to file suit, either for a recount in wisconsin. they've claimed that there are non residents voting nevada. but they haven't proposed these suits or any produced any evidence to >> are there lawsuits out there, or potential lawsuits, that you waare ching for carefully that might have real consequences? >> well, i order -- if you're talking about in terms of affecting the upcomeoutcome is unlikely. in bush versus gore, it came down to the electoral colleotes in the state of florida. in that state, the race was so close. w

within a few thousand votes, and came down to 537votes the state, so you could start litigating over particular rules or parcular ballots. here,at to happen if it is not a very close in the electoral college, these lawsuits won't matter. and even if you take a recount in wisconsin, most recounts statewide don't shift a lot of votes. there is a 20,000 vo difference in wisconsin, and most recounts shift fewer than 300 votes, according to a study. so it is really hard to santa the onlsay. the only one that plausible, when it comes down to pennsylvania, if it is very, very close, fiis t over the ballots that arrived after november 3 at 8:00, and by november 6th. igthe parties are ling in the united states supreme court over this case. if biden is ead, trump may want those ballots to be counted, rather than,

stop those ballots from being counted. >> tell us about the burden of proof in cases oflection law. and i ask because we're seeing governors, and we just heard from the arizona secretary of state, explaining to the public teiy're taking time and they want to make sure that all of the votes are counted, that the process is r but how mucheference do courts typically give to state governments in cases like this?>> if you're talking t a case where you're trying to contest the outcome of an election, the burde of proof is very high. have you to sho there were illegal votes cast in cuch a way that would cast ud over the election. or you would have to point to some procedure that wasn't followed. it is rd to get a court to order a change in election results or something like that. some of the lawsuits mht be successful. in pennsylvania you had an

interim appeals court provide greater access to the ump campaign in philadelphia, so they got poll observers, i20tead of beineet away, they were six feet away. but it is not the kind of relief and these are not will change the outcome of the presidential election. it is rlly hard to see a tigation strategy to try to flip the results of this election if biden ends up top. >> and just in our last minute, rick, whats the process? we see cases, some going to federal court.ome going what everybody wonders is how long does this o n? right now we're talking about how long the actual countinggoes on. is it possible that the legal cases drag on for some time? >> the legal cases could drag on for weeks or even longer. but i don't think that anyone is going to be ying much attention. if, for example, it is a lawsuit over pennsylvaniaba and thots at issue are not determinative, or

pennsylvania is not determinto the outcome of the electoral college. so it really depends on how ings shake out. right now i'm not seeing anything that is suggesting this stuff is significant. >> all right. rick hasen, the university at calornia at irvine, thank you for helping us out. >> thank you. >> woodruff: while election votes are still being counted and legal s are playing out, the pandemic is not on hold. thtoll is climbing and we've ossed another unwelcome threshold: more than 100,000 cases in the u.s. in a single day. nearly two dozen states recorded more cases in the past week than in any prior week-long span. and 16 states reached highs for iocovid-related hospitaliz. more than 234,000 people in the u.s. have died. doctor carlos del rio is a

professor of infectious diseases and global health at the emory university schooof medicine. >> woodruff: dr. del rio, thank you very much for being here. what are these record-high numbers telling us about what is going on? >> doctor: i think they tell us that we have a pandemic out of control right now in our country. and it is spreading both inurn and rural settings, and its spreading across young and old populations. so w really have basically a forest fire that we're no controlling. >> woodruff: what does it say that hasn'een done that should have been done? hereoctor: well, are a lot of things that could have been done. and, you know, it is always difficult to play monday morning quarterback. opportunity to dol something. there are several things. number one, weever had a national strategy. each state hasrhad th own strategy. and as a result of that, it i really hard to fight

a pandemic with 50 different plan number two, we've never had a coordinated approach at looking what we do. for example, having a mask mandate across the country uld be difficult, but not impossible. and it could be coordenated. you cade what exactly what interventions you need to do. our testing system has not worked well. you still have peopl despite having a lot of tests, we still have peopleho cannot get test results within 24 hours and are waiting four to five days. if you wait for that long, a lot more infections are happening. and our contactng is totally broken down. we have not done contact tracing appropriately. and finally, i would say we're really focusing too much on not doing things that need to be done. we're saying, lets the community and let's let the virus run. when some things need be done. for example, avoiding crowded places and indoor settings, certain things that could be done to prevent the widesead

events and the super-spreading events in thismic. >> woodruff: where does the responsible and the blame lie here? >> doctor: i think at th end of the day, blame has to lie on the administration. i think one of the big mistakes the administration did is i don't think they ever took this seriously enough. ey started well by having the task force. but they rapidly inactivated the c.d.c. play a critical role inc. this pandemic is really one of the missed opportunities and one of the most dreadful mistakes we've had. they politicized c.d.c., and that has tremendous consequences because the c.d.c. has not been able to make public health recommendations. they've been able to do recommendations ave been, you know, sort of isctored to fit the needs of the admration. and then, finally, the administrati really has -- instead of taking a central role, for example, advocating an act to start having a mass production

of p.p.e., they sort have left it up tthe states, and said the states have to fight amongst themselves about getting testing, and that has had of that.nces as a result >> woodruff: i want to ask you, you know, about what should be done next. but before i do that, i have to point out it is not just the united states that is seeing a surge in covid again. it is happening across europe. so this is takg place other parts of the world. >> doctor: absolutely. and i've talketo colleagues in europe, and the colleagues in europe recognizthe mistakes they made. they made the mistakes that i think we're all making. which is, number one, people are tired of the pandemic. there covid fatigue. so when we locked down initially to prevent cases from going up, people thought that would be enough to control the viru but they didn't realize the moment you let go of the restrictions, if you don't put in place masking

and social disng and other measures, the virus is going to come back and spread very rapidl. europeans saw this very quickly, people started going out and traveling and going to bars and restaurants, and goi to other places, and without the pharmacological measures of masking and social distancing, there was immediately widespread of the virus. and then itis really hard to control. so they made the same and europe is much like the united states. it is not one blob block, but different areas doing things differently. >> woodruff: you described a number of things that should have been done differently at the national and federal level. we're heading into the thanksgiving holidays in just a few weeks. what is your advice on a personal level to americans, given ere we are in this pandemic? >> doctor: you know, i think its very hard to tell people don't get together for the holidays. but i would recommend tt you get together in

smaller groups. i would try to keep it under 10 iuals. i would tell people to -- the group that you're going to get together with, have a discussion with them and say, l's all, you know, quarantine ourselves and avoid contact with others for the next two weeks before et together. let's get tested before we get together. let's get retested asoon as we aive to our destination. there are things we can wedo. masks. if the weather is good enough, try to do itin outsidead of inside. there are things you can do to actually prevent the spreading. but i tend frequently my family and i will get together and have 20 or 25 people, but i don't think that's a good idea. if you have a o high-ri elderly person, it is probable the not a good time for the to be with you at thanksgiving. >> woodruff: dr. del

rio, we thank you for being with us. >> doctor: delighted to be with you. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, another 751,000 americans appliefor unemployment benefits last week, as the pandemic forced more job cuts. that number was down slightly from the week before, but still high. overall, the economy has regained about half of the 22 million jobs that were wiped out last spring. but, the pace of new hiring has slowed markedly since june. as expected, the federal reserve rapt its benchmark interes near zero today, and indicated it could do more to spark the economy. fed chair jerome powell spoke >> the outlook for the economy. is extraordinarily uncpetain and wilnd in large part on the success of efforts to keep the virus in check a full economic recovery is unlikely until people are confident that it's safe to reengage in a broad range of activities. >> woodruff: powell and other

fed officialhave urged congress to pass another stimulus package. on wl street, the post- election rally kept going, with major indexes gaining two to 2.5%. the dow jones industrial average was up 542 points to close at 28,390. the nasdaq rose 300 points, and the s&p 500 added 67. across central america, the remains of hurricane "eta" kept dumping rain and flooding homes for a third day. honduras was especially hard hit, with residents trudging through waist-high water. some used boats to move pets and loved ones down flooded streets. the storm could move into the gulf of mexico early next week. the president of kosovo resigned today to face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity at a special international court. hashim thaci led ethnic albanian guerrillas during kosovo's war

for independence from serbia in the late 1990's. he has repeatedly denied the charges. >> ( trianslated ): a promised, i would not allow the ofpresident of the republi kosovo to go to court. that is why, to protect the iegty of the presidency of kosovo, of the kosovar people and respecting the partnenthip with thenational community, i am resigning from the post of present. >> woodruff: thaci is one of 10 foer rebel leaders indicte for murder, forced during the kosovo war in 1998 and '99. and, a conflict is escalating between the governme of ethiopia and an opposition region. that ethiopian fighter jets attacked their regional capital. on wednesday, prime minister abiy ahmed accused tigray of attacking a military base. that sparked fears oa new war, just a year after abiy won the

nobel peace prize for ending a war with neighboring eritrea. >> woodruff: moments ago, president trump appeared in the white house briefing room. he continues to cast doubt on the election process. here is some of what he had to say. >> president trump: if you count the legavotes, i easily win. if you count the illegal votes, they can try to steal the election from us. >> woodruff: the president is speaking just moments ago. and a reminder, there is e dence for the president's claims about all of the votes are being counted. that process has beenen pro be accurate for

decas, as you've been hearing from officials tonight. and that is the "newhour" r and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here. tomorrow eveni for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe, and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> when the world gets complicated, a lot goes through your mind. ith delity wealth management, a dedicated advisor can tailor advice and recommendations to your life. that's fidelity wealth management. >> you can do the things you like to do with a wireless plan deswined for you. talk, text and data consumer cellular. learn more at coumercellular.tv

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welcome to "amanpour & co." here's what's coming up. >> we have aki team w day and night until every vote is counted. >> we will be here until the job is done. >> a nail biting election for world, billed as a referendum on donald trump, it is a squeaker on votes still being counted.gh to i'll speak to ohio's republican governor, mike dewine, michigan congresswoman elissa slotkin, noah feldman and norbert rottgen will join me with an allied view. the primary question on most americans' minds no matter how this shakes out, d we have a