>> tonight on kqed newsroom. californians voted in record numbers. we'll talk through the winners and losers and state and local meures with her politics team. thpresidential race is too close to call. decratic candidate, joe biden, is leading in key battleground sta s. we wandered toe north bay. to fill our with the old charm of the niche appeared welcome to the newsroom. now for kqed newsroom 2020 coverage. t's be good with state and local election news. >> they handed companies with a big win with prop 22 winning by more than 58%.

arcus responded by sending stocks sring for uber and lyft. prop 15 failed. criminal justice measures across the bay area are leing. potential he strengthening t.ersight of law enforcem despite a spirited challenge, scott weiner retained his seat for four years. leading in his senate race against dan raffle. politics and governor senior editor and government correspondent. to thank you for joining us. scott, this election is projected to set a state record for the numberof votes st. do you see an impact from the record turnout? >> for joe biden, he will get ai massivoric margin out of california right now. 4 million ballots still coto

t he's got a 4 million+ lead over donald trump. that will pad his national advantage he has. in terms of ballot asures, it's hard to say. it was a mixed bag. if you go do the list of ballot measures, californians embraced things like criminal justice rerm. prop 20. they rolled those things back. they endorse giving parolees the right to vote. expanding consumer privacy. at the same time they rejected prop 15 which would raise property taxes on commercial operties. they aljected affirmative action with prop 16. they accepted prop 22, rejecting labors argument against prop 22 in support lyft and huber and other gig cod anies. >> that wobring back affirmative-action. we notice it was not on track to succeed and it did fail. can you tell us what happened and why? >> the campaign will talk isabo

for a while. it's impossible to get in all the millions of voters minds t we saw in polling thatd play out in terms of the final numbers is it did not resonate with people. i don't think the campaign was successful in making the connection between black lives matter and racial reckoning where having. there seems to be confusion even among latinos and voters of color. what this would do, whether it would benefit them. affirmative action as a statement has a lot baggage attached to it. i think we will see if the polling plays r out, youn voters were more likely to support it. it certainly was not the victory that i think they hope to win when the legislature put it on the ballot. a protest around the nation in june. prop 22 one. that means that workers do not need to be full-time employees.

union leaders say they are nodo with this fight. is there anything they can do now that voters have weighed in? >> they are at a clea disadvanta playing defense. they filed a discrimination lawsuit saying the biases against drivers of color. they may be hoping when joe ts biden into the thwhite house, can go to the labor department and get more favorable rulings. maybe more national guidelines hthat woup these drivers organize, for example. i think it will be tough. the big loss for organized labor is this willbecome a national conversation. the gig economy is expanding t everywhere, st in california. companies like uber and lyft will take prop 22 elsewhere and use it as a template toat replicate voters here have done in carving out this exception ain't california labor law. they don't have a lot of good

options, i wo>>d say. one of california's biggest export is our ideas.il wesee that nationally coming up. and a cole proposals with usg both rent control. what is this say about our perspective about housing and what we arwilling to do about affordability issues? >> this may not be a popular opinion. i think when you look at this ballot, you can't necessarily california's progressive, business, labor? i think what we've seen historically is that californians take their time and lo at them individually. proposition 21 the rent control measure was a battle. rent control has always been controversial in california. what you see historically, even though we are progressive on al sossues, when it comes to economics there's a split between property owners and renters, for example. it was also run by an unpopular

figure, michael weinstei the head ofthe healthcare foundation. he got undercut by democrats in the legislature passing the mild version of rental hi protection led to governor newsom not supporting this. they got outspent also. i think with the exceptn of affirmative-action come on every single ballot measure that won they out enthere opponents. you cat look at in a vacuum. with prop 15 the commercial property tax increase. you have a complicated situation for proponents in the recession and so much uncertainty and when californians havealready's been resident roto back anything with prop 13. this ballot measure uld lead to their property go u just commercial properties. you spent time this week for with governor newsom and

election elected officials who e phone banking in san francisco. what were their targets and how successful were they in's persuading voters? >> gavin newsom texted maybe 2 to 3 people. he spent a lot of time talking, as did heothers. told me when i asked him where he was texting, pennsylvania, s who knmaybe he reached voters that were on the fence. this was an opportunity for him and others inthe bay area. there were two mayors there. jackie speier was there, fr barbara lee the east bay. the local members from the legislature. this is basically to give the on election day. o do he did talk about things like who he would name to haplac kamalais if the biden

/hris ticket is successful. he was anxious to shake thands ked to a mom with young babies. that's the thing, bread and butter for politicians. >> no update on new gavin newsom would appoint for kamala harris seats should she to the white house. a young challenger lost but she is being hailed as a smart younleader who willbe successful in a future bid. what does that tell us about the strength of progressives in california? >> it says a lot. a this is 25-year-old woman unknown politically before this year. she threw her hat into a ring ae months ago. she had a great showing and excited a loof folkin the bernie sanders camp of the republican party here in san francisco. they are both progressive democrats. one san francisco scott gets painteis business friendly democrat. if you look at the record he's part of the left. also the suboard of rvisors and got the e support of establishment. thiss not necessarily a loss

for her, she has raised her name and excited a coalprion of ressive democrats in san francisco, we will be hearing from her again. >> on the south bay, david is leading against the rival. and what the lead signifies.rt >> dave he is very well known in santa clara county, a member of the board of supervisors he ran unsuccessfully for more mayor. he's tight with organized labor. and the challenger they are both democrats. you see is republicans have succeeded inmore moderate democrats. and rabble was in that vein. she was endorsed by president apobama. he had inted her to serve on the fcc. the general election commission. she served as a l general coun for santa clara county. not as well known as david cortez he but the power dynamic betwn the more moderate,

business friendly democrat and the more labeler friendly. and david cortez he seems to be winning that see. he will be going to sacramento, most likely. six criminal justice refo measures look likely to prevail. if you look at this as a whole, what changes do expect to se >> this is in concert to what we've seen around criminal justice reform. local voters and even statewide voters with the defeat of prop 20. are willing to go further than state lawmakers are to take on police uusons and the st quo in law enforcement. these are all broad press strokes and accountability and oversight mefoures. san franciscexample, sheriff's department will have oversight for the first time ever. real win for justice advocates.

it will put some pressure on state lawmakers to look more closely me of these reform issues of the governor has promised we will revisit next year. it speaks to hofurther have e electorate has been in california over the past 10 to 15 years on questions about criminal justice reformceand poaccountability. of the grassroots support is going to continue to spread throughout the state. distract incumbent mayor,be michael tubb has a popular young democratic superstar in some ways in the democratic party, he's trailing his republican challenger, does that surpri you? >>eryone assumed he would úhe won 70% of the vote last time. he was not raon the r of the media. that might've been part of the problem. the newspaper there has had a w online news organization called the 209 called the area code.

is run by mayor tubbs and a stream of negative articles online about him. oualleging corruption wi evidence. it influenced voters there. kevin lincoln, african- american, more conservative, up republican. he's ahead. rethere's still votes to be counted. tubbs is a rising's dart. barack obama had endorsed him. a documentary on hbo. real surprising outcome if the current margin holes. > rmer san francisco district attorney has won over the cumberland in los angeles. they were down 20 tspond sometime. what changed in the race we did see a lot of financial support from criminal justice reform and grassroots efforts. he was talked into running by folks down there who saw that

the democrat was not representing the future of criminal justice in california. we seen ula left tilt in los angeles county. all first steimle female board of county supervisor we have a lot of on the nggroun organi it's not always been as politically engages san francisco. maybe that's changing. thank you both. for the latest california state and local election results visit kqed.org /elections results. we've made and mentally prepared for election day to turn into election week but as vote counts drag on, many are becoming weary of the uncertainty over who will be the next president of the united states. vice president joe biden has resounding won the popular

vote. as of friday afternoon he was leading in pennsylvania, nevada, arizona and georgia. with a razor thin leadin georgia a recount will take place there. president trump has made baseless lames of voter fraud. and they will ha lawsui in key battleground states. joining me now is a fellow at st the hoover ution and former advisor to the presidential campaign of mitt romney and marco rubio. and from los angeles is a professor of the loyal law school and host of the passing judgment podcast. thank yofor joininus. let's start with the legal challenges president trump has i mounted in s states. do you see any of them having the strength to prevail? >> i don't at this point. what you need in a legal

challenge you have tofind a provision of the law that has been violated and then you have to find evidence to support that assertion. at this point, see that in any of the cases and that's why frankly, presament trump's legal is having a bad batting average where a number of cases have been dismissed or they've failedthto continue those cases. the real question i think a lot of people have is, is there a case in a statthat's outcome determinative where the case itself, could determine the tc e of that stay. at this point i think the answer is no. of the hypothetical would be, of course, everything comes out for pennsylvania and then pennsylvania comes down to a few late arriving ballots and then those late around arriving ball s are subject challenge and it could potentially go all the way to the supreme court. i don't see that allenge right no not the bush versus gore moment>> did the president have republican party support in his

continued fight for the white house? >> if it dles, it's dwg. there is some republicans who continue to stand with the president. what i've observed of over the last couple ofhours and days. the number of republicans that are willing to go all the way with the esident, willing to endorse there's notion of widespread voter fraud or somehow counting on to stop in one state or another, that's not something i find supported by the broad majority of republicans. you aranhearing more more officials begin to pull the ripcord to cu the tiand express their own concerns about some of the president's claims and the impact of the claims on our abilitto trust in the electoral process in american democracy more broadly. >> what your response to anger over mail-in ballots is misplaced. he should instead direct his state legislature that restrict did counting of mail-el ballots beforetion day? >> the president, as i understand it himself he voted early. and not by mail but he voted early. he clumped in his criticisby

early voting and vote by mail and he tried to get those mplaints and that was confusing. at the end of the day. what we saw this year in the electoral process was a process that in most states, the vast majority of situations worked extremely well. even when you had cows that . began la yes, it took time for pennsylvania to process its counts. we are seeing the same thing in arotona, nevada and r states. can there be improvements made? of course there can be and should be. republican and mocrat legislatured to look at state law that would allow votes to be counted earlier. the president himself, so did so much disinformation and discord into the process, i fear many republicans it will be difficult to bring this back. hopefully over the next couple ofars we will have the

process of trying to repair some of the damage that's been done. e >> one of presidents big wins has been the supreme court and nominees there. he's indicated he will take the fight to thsupreme court. jessica, do you see a role for a supreme court? for example the gop petitioned to stop counting mail in ballots re ived after electi day. is there a legal argument there ? >> i don't think there's a winning one at best. you mention something that is so important and not just now fo but going ard. president trump has remade the federal bench. he has nominated now a third of the supreme court. that's largely in part why establishment republican stayed with him. they may not have liked x, z but he was enormously effective in remaking the branch. your question about could this masu it to the eme court? at this point, i don't see it. again, what you would need is a case late in pennsylvania you mentioned, where goes through either the state supreme court, trl court

level, court of appeals, pennsylvania supreme courand then if ere's a question of federalaw, it jumps over to the u.s. supreme court or a case where goes of the federal system, trial court of appeals in u.s. supreme urt. you would still need four members of the supreme court in every case to agree to take the case and eren five methat would make it did decision favorable to president trump. i know it was important for him to have justice barrett on the court before the election in case there was litigation. number one i don't think there is the big litigation that reaches the supreme court. number two. i don't think there is a law that everyone that is appointed by president trump would vote in a way that would get him a favorable outcome. this may sound nacve. there is a difference betwvin a conservative legal philosophy and wanting a republican political win. they

don't map onto each other always. >> you are right when you sayre blicans didn't leave him despite his concerns about his behavior. we saw that through the vote and how splithe countr you have thoughts on why the polling, once again seemed to be so off it, especially when they were ying to gauge voters preferences for trump in swing states. >> polls are a snapshot in time first of all. secofl of all they t assumptions from the posterior about who will show up to vote. electorate is off, thpole one thing the trump campaign said all along, they were looking to remake the electorate and introduce voters who havever voted before. upper midwest or places like miami dade county in florida. they did that. they actually introduce folks into the electric who have not voted

before who disproportionately supported president trump. posters were looking to partisan compositions of the n electoratetion day that frankly, were not accurate. that was in part, one of the reasons why a lot of pollsters miss on key states fllike ida. it also reflects certain assumptions that posters themselves have about the nature of the electorate, the natues of support for ent trump. i think the posters in the polling industry, they have to take good, halook at what went wrong this time around. when we are all said and done they won't be too far off the national popular vote as they weren't in the 2016. it's proving how hard it is to pull in the states where ulit's diffto get an effective response rate or effect of assumption about who will be democrats had their hopesh in senate races across the country.

they were not able to pick up the seats they expected and they face a ry neural path to flip control of the senate appeared to races had to a runoff in georgirp was that sing to you? >> i would love to say i called about but it was a bit surpring and maybe i did buy into some of the polling. i also bought into some of the money. there we a couple of democratic challengers who were really well-funded. i thought there was some people like maybe susan collin lindsey graham thatlo to the polling and looked at the amount of money that their opponents were raising and looked s at what happening in the world and i thought maybe there's a chance here. it does show, my nac wasn't a chance and there is such power of name regnition. such power of incumbency. in terms of what's going happen in georgia, it's not a done deal. huge implications for if there is a president by not a vice president biden, huge

implications for his term goinge forward if crats control the senate. at this point that's a very big if. democrats are expected to hang onto the majority of the house but republicans picked up at least six seats in the house races. what part of the darepublican agdo you see our significant and winning those seats and attracting those. >> even members of the house supreme court nominations and confirmations. the mination of amy coleman barrett reminded a lot of republican voters about the value of having some kind of republican repe sentation. they m not want to vote for president trump so they split the ticket. they supported the senate candidates. i also think some of the president's remarks aboun what joe biwould do in terms of energy policy in terms of other areas of policy where they may have felt lot of his voters

may have felt that sounds extreme to me, they may have decided to gowith a republican down ticket as a check on president biden. there will be a number of things going re. quite obviously, republicans vastly out expectations when you look at the house. they look to out form expectations on the senate side and to appear on the side track tohold the majority of the senate. nobody would've thought possible as recently as last we>>. et's say joe biden goes into the white house without senate support because of republicans keep their majority. mitch mcconnell could refuse to bring items to a vote in the senate. jessica, are you expecting gridlock for the next four years? >> i am expecting some level gridlock it. republicans in different democrats havedifferent ideological backgrounds and different philosophies on how they wa to achievcertain goals. the question is how much gridlock. vice president biden if he en

becomes presbiden will want to work with senate majority leader. in the senate there's things we need to get ne in thshort term. the question is the long-term goals everyone can come together and have some sort of consensus.my guess is it leaves wanting a little bit more and not merely obstruction for an entire term. >> i'm relatively optimistic. there are ways in which a repuryican senate could be useful for a president biden. there is history there working together. mission call mitch mcconnell and joe biden know each e other from senate. that will be useful to getting things done wetuers infrastr healthcare or the economy. i also think the republican important foil to hold off the progressive left. biden was never interested in single-payer healthcare and the green new deal has the republican senate as a convenient party to blame. n

t these things done because we got a republican senate here. wanted to doand enforce the he priorities he wanted to enforce instead of giving into the progressive left. >> thank you both for joining us and for your insight. let's take a look at something beautiful. tonight we take you th solana county city of venetia. this was the state capital from 1853 to 1854. >> you can find more of our u can reach me on twitter, facebook and instagram . from all of us here at ed

newsroom, thanks for joining us, good night. :

robea divided nation, a divided washington. >> we have no doubt that when the count is finished, senator heirs and i will be law declared the history. on the brink of history after days of counting and standoffs. >> it will be hopefully cleared up but it will probably go through a legal process. robert: but political war continues as president trump fights on. some reference urge caution. >> we heard nothing today about any evidence. >> a divided nation. and a dided washington. next. -- "washgton week." funding is provided by -- >>