thanks for being with us here this friday night, this friday before the election. it's very exciting. i'm very excited. when john f. kennedy beat richard nixon in 1960, that was very close. the electoral college numbers don't look all that close, the electoral map didn't look all that close, but that election was very, very close. there were basically 100,000 votes in total between kennedy and nixon across the whole country. election night, that night in 1960, it went on forever. nixon appeared at a hotel ballroom at 3:00 in the morning east coast time, and he kind of, sort of talked about conceding, but he didn't actually concede. nbc news didn't end up calling the race for kennedy until 7:00 in the morning.

and when they did make that call for kennedy, they were actually wrong about which states everybody had won at that point. kennedy did actually win the election and nixon did formally concede around lunchtime the following day, the day after election. but that race was nuts. this is great. i've got something to show you. this is great. michael beschloss tipped us off on to this stuff. we went into the archives and found out today. part of what was nuts about watching the election returns in 1960, was in addition to the drama of the close race and 40 was winning and where and whether or not that was really a concession, do you think that was a concession? in addition to all the native, organic drama of that contest, that night in 1960 was also the night that the tv networks chose to unveil their brand-new mysterious, unknowable computing machines.

that was basically the tv side show act that year alongside the election. these gigantic beeping machines that could somehow tell who was going to win. watch this. >> in another part of the city, the rca 501 computer is beginning to whirl away digesting these numbers faster than we can even utter them. >> i'm down in wall street in midmanhattan with our rca 501 computer. only one-tent of the total vote is in, we're going to have what we call projections. that's estimates on what the final vote will be in a popular and then what the final vote will be in the electoral college. here's how that projection will be made. the rca 501 computer is connected with nbc's vote gathering equipment up there with you in midmanhattan. down here in wall street, the computer takes in vote totals, punches them out on tape. that tape is fed electronically into banks of magnetic tape storage reels.

now, the information can be called up with other information from the electronic console. i think we can call it a wedding of political science and electronic science. it achieves its election results which i'll be reporting throughout the evening by doing some computations. the political equations and the experts tell me to accomplish these equations humanly would take the work of 60,000 clerks. this is richard ardness with the rca 501 computer. >> it's now about ten minutes old. it puts them out pretty fast. projects the popular vote for president like this. 51.2% for kennedy, 48.8% for nixon. which i believe is the same thing it's been saying all night.

the odds it figures -- i didn't know electronic computers figured odds, did you? >> no, i've never heard that before. that was new to me tonight. >> we may be able to find some other kind of work for the 501 when the election is over. >> it can compute odds? maybe there will be some other kind of work for that there computing machine after this election is over, fellas. nbc's whiz bang rca 501 computer. it did get the election results right basically, on that election night in 1960. the nbc computer did pick kennedy. i should tell you that abc and cbs also unveiled their own computing machines on their election night broadcast in 1960 and the abc and cbs computers were wrong. both of their computers picked nixon in a landslide. computers have gotten better since then.

and they use less tape. when election nights are big blowouts, they can sometimes be a little forgettable. when ronald reagan just rolled jimmy carter in 1980, nbc news called that election that night at 8:15 p.m. and, you know, however consequently that election was in the long run, and it was consequently, no one remembers all that much about the very end of that presidential race let alone what happened on election night. it's when things are close. it's when things really go down to the wire when they tend to get a little nuts and things tend to get memorable. in terms of this race we're in now, the polls have definitely tightened in the last few days. there are people who say that the polls are less useful now at this point in the race than they might have been in previous elections because early voting is so popular now because so many people have taken advantage of absentee voting and cast their ballots already, more than 37 million americans have already voted. so because of that, because such

a huge chunk of the vote is in, there's an argument to be made that looking at the early vote totals, that tells you a lot more about who is going to win than looking at polls for these last few days. steve shale out of florida tells us that he thinks by the end of the weekend, 70% of the vote might be in in florida, ahead of election day which doesn't come around till tuesday. election forecasters rely on all the various data they have to work with. they have been moving states from lean democrat to toss-up or toss-up to lean republican. you're definitely seeing the polls tightp in the estimation. the polls and the prospects for each candidate you're seeing those tighten in the eyes of the people who make projections about these things. one very blunt but indirect sign that the election is getting closer is that the markets have been freaking out a little bit. since donald trump's numbers started going back up last week, the stock market has been a little nauseous. and you are seeing this interesting correlation throughout the general election campaign.

markets have tended to react negatively whenever things perk up for donald trump. over the last nine days the stock market has been very negative. it has dropped every single day of the last nine days. market analysts are attributing those drops town easiness with the prospect that donald trump might have a shot at winning this election. nine straight days of losses on the stock market is the longest uninterrupted decline in the market in more than 30 years. so from lots of different angles, you can see the tightening of the race. but hillary clinton is still favored to win the race in the end by all the 21st century iterations of the rca 501. at fivethirtyeight.com they're giving her a 64% chance. "the new york times" gives her an 84% chance of winning. a lot of other analysts make

election projections like this and they have hillary clinton's chances of winning higher or lower depending on who you ask. looking at them real quick, the huffington post as a polling aggregator, they've got clinton's chances at 98%. the prince's election consortium has her at 99%. the professional prognosticators like cook and roth and larry sabato, they've got the race forecast as either likely democratic or leaning democratic. so there's a range of projections out there depending on the methodology of the different forecasters and what they consider to be the relevant data at this point. but all of the nationally recognized forecasters, all of them, are now predicting that it's more likely clinton will win on tuesday night than trump will win. but if you have been feeling a little tension in the air, that's real. as we get down to the wire, get

down to the very end, in a close race getting down to the very end, we're getting a lot of dramatic news. today was a lot of dramatic legal news. actually today down the line uniformly was a good day of legal news for the democrats. in all these various states there's been various legal fights to stop voter intimidation tactics by the republican party and by the trump campaign. also there have been a lot of legal efforts to block republican efforts to make voting harder by various means. today in kansas and in ohio and in arizona and in north carolina, democrats won legal battles over voting rights and voter intimidation in all of those states today. democrats basically ran the table in terms of their big legal fights in the state. we'll have updates on all those legal battles coming up later on in the show with one of the lawyers that has been spearheading that voter rights fight in the courts. the other battle that i think was a legitimate shock to the system at this late date in the race, the friday before the election, was the bridgegate trial.

guilty on all counts. new jersey governor chris christie, of course, came very, very close to being donald trump's vice presidential running mate. he did not get the vice presidential job but trump then gave christie instead arguably the most substantive job he had to offer in terms of shaping what the trump administration would be like if he wins. donald trump put chris christie in charge of his transition effort. which means he's basically choosing staff, choosing personnel for donald trump's federal government. today back home in new jersey, two of the senior people who chris christie chose for his own administration were both convicted on all of the federal felony charges for which they were being tried. this is the scandal involving political retribution on christie's behalf using the george washington bridge between new york and new jersey as the means of punishment.

the clinton campaign has already called for trump to drop chris christie as his transition chief given these guilty verdicts today. we don't know whether to expect that might happen but the trump campaign did announce that christie's planned trip to new hampshire to go campaign for donald trump at three separate new hampshire events tomorrow, that trip has been called off. no explanation as to why. we'll have more ahead on that as well. but as we head into these final days, one thing is starting to seem very clear, and i'm trying to think about this from sort of a 30,000 foot perspective. looking at that archive footage from 1960, looking at archive footage from some of the other races and stuff that happened three and four days out, four days out in the 2000 election when the george w. bush dui was exposed, for example. looking at the kind of things that happen at this point in the race, i think it's clear that we do now know for this race that when the history of this year's election is written the standout

nutty thing that surprised everybody at the end that historians and journalists will talk about forever when they talk about this election, we now know what they're going to talk about. what they're going to talk about will be the political intervention, the brazen multifaceted, political intervention into this election by the fbi. >> he's got a surprise or two that you're going to hear about in the next few days. i'm talking about some pretty big surprise. >> i heard you say that this morning. what do you mean? >> we'll see. >> you're lucky because we've got to go. we're out of time. i want to keep pressing you. >> we're not going to go down. we're certainly not going to stop fighting. we've got a couple things up our sleeve that should turn this around. we've got a couple of things, some pretty big surprises. what did you mean? maniacal laughter. that was rudy giuliani rubbing his hands together in glee,

saying something was coming. that was on fox news two days before the fbi director sent a letter to congress about hillary clinton, a letter that made no specific allegation of any wrongdoing but because it was from the fbi director and about hillary clinton it nevertheless shook the politics of this presidential race right to its core. rudy giuliani said two days ahead of that that he knew something was coming. last night on this show we asked was it possible that rudy giuliani was tipped off to what the fbi director was about to do? how did he know? did the fbi tell him? this morning he bragged that, yes, in fact, he had gotten advance word. >> i did nothing to get it out. did i have a role in it? no. >> brags that four days before the political election, they've been getting tipoffs from the fbi about donald trump's

political opponent. they're given a heads up over at the trump campaign before anything is released to the public let alone to congress. ranking democrats on the judiciary committee and the government oversight committee in congress today asked the department of justice inspector general to look into these bragging claims by the trump campaign that they had advanced word asking the inspector general at the justice department to find out if in fact there were people in the fbi who were trying to influence the election in that way, who were trying to help the trump campaign in that way by feeding them insider information ahead of the public. that happened today. the fox news channel today itself also made a remarkable retraction today. >> all the time but especially in the heated election on a topic this explosive, every word matters.

no matter how well sourced. which brings me to this. i explained a couple of types yesterday the phrasing of one of my answers to brit hume wednesday night saying it was unartful, about saying how the investigations would continue after the election. i answered that, yes, our sources said it would, they would continue to likely an indictment. well, that just wasn't inartful. it was a mistake. and for that i'm sorry. >> that's the reporter and anchor bret baier at fox news channel today. i don't usually do this on stories like this, but i'm going to take a point of personal privilege here. i will tell you in my view, in my personal view, i think that bret baier is a good reporter and a good anchor. i also think he is a good person. he made a mistake on this story. in this business, that is a very hard thing for people to admit. but not only did bret baier admit that he made a mistake, he

explained the mistake and i think this is important, he didn't talk around it. he had the courage and decency to use the word mistake in saying what had gone wrong and then saying he was sorry. and that's really, really hard to do in this business. there's a reason you don't hear a lot of on-air corrections in this business, but that was well done and the right thing to do and i think it's worthy of respect. okay. what bret baier initially reported and has now retracted and called a mistake and apologized for was this claim on fox that there was an active fbi investigation of hillary clinton that was likely to lead to indictments. that was a fox news claim from earlier this week. but to be clear, what bret baier did today was he took that back. >> indictment obviously is a very loaded word, john, especially in this atmosphere, and no one knows if there would or would not be an indictment. >> nobody knows if there would or would not be an indictment. it was a mistake when fox said

there would be. hope it didn't create a false impression. hope that didn't affect the race. at the end of a presidential race, especially when it's close, things go a little nuts. and the fbi director apparently trying to influence the election, fbi sources leaking false information to generally pro-trump news outlets. fbi sources giving advanced notice about politically damaging information to the trump campaign. one fbi field office reportedly using materials created by the head of the trump campaign and funded by trump's biggest donor. using that as their fbi research, as their fbi evidence to try to open up new investigations on hillary clinton which they then leak about to the trump campaign and to pro-trump news outlets. yes, stuff always goes nuts at the end of a presidential campaign. but this is not just actors behaving in a nuts way, this is

an unsettling way for it to go nuts, right? it's been intense enough to know that in the u.s. intelligence community the russian government has been trying to disrupt our election through deceit and political operations. it's another thing to think that parts of the fbi are doing the same thing. there's a lot to cover tonight. there's a lot just to watch in terms of what's happening in the last flurry of activity in this election. president obama is full time on the hustings now. two big events in north carolina today. hillary clinton is at a jay-z concert in ohio tonight with beyonce and big sean performing as special guests. donald trump was in new hampshire and in ohio and in pennsylvania today. trump's doing florida, north carolina, nevada, colorado, iowa and wisconsin this weekend. clinton's doing ohio, florida,

pennsylvania, new hampshire, more ohio. on monday night on election eve we now know that donald trump will be in new hampshire with his vice presidential running mate mike pence. on election eve hillary clinton will be in philly with president obama and michelle obama. and basically no one sleeps between now and tuesday. but do past close elections give us any advice, any useful understanding for knowing what to expect in these last few crucial nutty days? joining us now is our friend michael beschloss, nbc news presidential historian. are you eating protein? are you sleeping? are you adequately hydrating? >> i'm not eating at all, and i don't think i'm going to breathe for the next four days. >> i'm turning to you for historical context. i raised the prospect of 1960 because i wanted to show that great footage you unveiled for us with nbc and their computing machine. the polls say this will be a close race, too.

is that what we'll be looking at in the next few days? >> i think it is. it's almost become the rule that these things that happen in the last days and weeks affect public opinion. it's difficult to measure public opinion when things are moving. best example was 2000, the fact that george w. bush had been arrested for a drunk driving charge in 1976 was released. some of bush's aides said they felt that that moved as many as 20 million votes away from him. votes that are hard to get by pollsters in the last few days. >> late breaking stories like that, we talk about them as october surprises. this year they're like november surprises. >> like the world series is in

november now. >> that's exactly right. we've seen the bridgegate story itself is a bit of a november surprise given the importance of chris christie and the trump ticket. >> the transition director. >> we've got the fbi intervention which is -- turns the out to be not just one story but sort of an ongoing story. is there a way to look at historical context and which kind of late breaking stories do tend to influence the outcome of an election and which end up being trivia? >> the problem is that when it happens this close to an election, it's very hard to separate what is important from what is trivial. one example is 1968, lyndon johnson on halloween announced a bombing halt of north vietnam in an effort to start peace talks. so a lot of these democrats were angry at johnson and hubert humphrey who was running as his heir, came flooding into the humphrey camp, humphrey was

running ahead of richard nixon because people thought there might be peace. at this point the south vietnamese said we're not coming to the peace table and millions of voters moved away from humphrey back to nixon. nixon won the election. later on we discovered that nixon's people backstage had been encouraging saigon not to go to these peace talks saying, you know, help nixon by not going, we'll give you a better deal. johnson was furious. johnson thought this was treason. but in those five days those things were happening so fast it was very hard to find out what was going on. >> and the cross current dynamics with the early vote and so much of the absentee vote being in. >> it's even hard nowadays. >> michael beschloss, nbc news presidential historian. i beseech you, eat protein, adequately hydrate, try to sleep over the weekend. >> thank you, my dear. i give you the same advice. secretary clinton is apparently getting ready to go on stage in cleveland.

there you see her with jay-z and beyonce. president obama just wrapped up in charlotte. donald trump just finished a rally in pennsylvania. there's a lot going on right now. we'll be right back. will your business be ready when growth presents itself? american express open cards can help you take on a new job, or fill a big order or expand your office and take on whatever comes next. find out how american express cards and services can help prepare you for growth at open.com. ♪ gaviscon is a proven heartburn remedy find out how american express cards and services that gives you fast-acting, long-lasting relief. it immediately neutralizes acid and only gaviscon helps keep acid down for hours. for fast-acting, long-lasting relief, try doctor-recommended gaviscon.

on the hustings in north carolina today, president obama drew attention to this voter suppression phenomenon that's been happening in specifically in north carolina this year. republican activist groups have campaigned in north carolina to get thousands of people kicked off the voting rolls in the lead-up to the election. well, today in north carolina president obama told the story of one of those people who got purged off the voting rolls. she's 100 years old. she's a north carolina resident named grace bell hardison. weeks ago she found she'd been purged off the voter list. she got attention thanks to reporting at the nation. she was able to get herself reinstated after a fight. she's lived and voted in north carolina her entire life. she's 100 years old.

she apparently wrote a letter to president obama about her experience which the president read aloud on stage today. >> yesterday, yesterday grace bell hardison sent me a letter. i want you to know what she wrote. dear mr. president, at 100 years old, you can believe i've seen it all. it is by god's grace that i'm still able to be here with my family. i lived through the civil rights era. i know the blood that was shed in the name of the right to vote. i can assure you, mr. president, that i will keep fighting on. if i haven't stopped fighting at 100 years old, then neither can you.

ms. hardison got her voter registration reinstated. you better believe she's going to vote. they targeted the wrong woman. >> they targeted the wrong woman. there was a really interesting ruling today in north carolina in the democratic effort, in the civil rights effort, to stop that purge of thousands of people off the voting rolls right before election day. it was one of the states today in which democrats and civil rights groups actually had huge victories in the court. it could be a very big deal for election day. those stories are coming up soon. stay with us. and when they save, you save. that's auto and home insurance for the modern world. esurance, an allstate company. click or call. esurance does insurance a smarter way, which saves money. like bundling home and auto coverage, which reduces red tape, which saves money. and when they save, you save.

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if donald trump is elected president, the put who would staff up his administration, who gets hired who gets put in charge of what is chris christie. he hosted a meeting where for the low, low cost of a $5,000 donation to the donald trump transition, you can get the privilege of hearing chris christie describe what staff will be brought on board to run the federal government under president donald trump. that said, chris christie, of course, also has a day job. he works as the governor of the great state of new jersey. as of today, four of the people he hired for his own administration have been convicted of federal crimes, corruption charges and political retribution schemes carried out on behalf of chris christie for his political benefit. say what you will about chris christie as a politician and public servant, but his ability to find the right people and put them in the right jobs, that might not be construed as his greatest asset right now with four of his aides and appointees looking at prison time. but that's what he's in charge of for the would-be trump administration.

the two people convicted today are looking at the possibility of 20 years in prison. chris christie is picking all the new top staffers for president trump. after the conviction on all counts today of christie's deputy chief of staff and one of his top appointees, now we'll be looking at sentencing, so we will see how much time they'll do. but christie himself may be taking the stand himself. christie in person. 2 1/2 weeks from now. in a related criminal complaint that was brought about in the bridgegate scheme. the timing means that if elected tuesday, chris christie will presumably be taking the stand two weeks later to talk about his own role in the criminal bridgegate scheme. while he is simultaneously serving as the head of the transition team for the president-elect. and that is going to be particularly awkward, not just in the abstract but because it's

not like donald trump himself complete ignorance or can take christie's side in this. he can't. he can't. not with this on the record. >> look. here's the story. the george washington bridge. he knew about it. hey, how do you have breakfast with every day of your lives, they're closing up the largest bridge in the world, the biggest in the united states, traffic flowing, during rush hour, people couldn't get across for six, seven hours, ambulances, fire trucks, they're with them all the time can the people that did it. they never said, hey, boss, we're closing up the george washington bridge tonight, no, they never said. they're talking about the weather, right? then so he knew about it. he knew about it. totally knew about it. >> totally knew about it. donald trump speaking in december. governor christie put out a statement today in response to the guilty verdicts insisting that he never knew about the scheme while it was happening

despite all of the testimony to the contrary at the trial. keep in mind at the trial both the defense and the prosecution said that governor christie knew about the lane closure scheme while it was happening in september 2013. he knew about it before the media started to pick it up. first in a traffic column by the bergen record then in "the wall street journal" which was the first newspaper to link that mysterious days' long traffic jam to a political scheme that was aimed at winning political endorsements for chris christie. here's the amazing kicker in this story in terms of our democracy. as the bridgegate scandal that those papers broke, as the bridgegate scandal first went to trial, the bergen record, first paper to report anything about it, they were told by their corporate owner that their newsroom is getting gutted, cut nearly in half as bridgegate went to trial. this week as the bridgegate case went the jury, "the wall street journal" announced that it's gutting the greater new york section of the journal that

broke the political side of bridgegate. the two papers that broke this story wide open both got gutted while it was in the courts. chris christie is still the head of the trump transition team, at least for now. tonight christie called off his trump appearances in new hampshire this weekend. but four of chris christie's aides and appointees are federal convicts now. chris christie's own political career is likely toast because of all this. all that happened because of smart, local beat reporters, not pundits, local beat reporters working for newspapers following leads, digging up dirt, not taking no for an answer, not believing chris christie when he said, no, i never heard about it. in all of it at the end, turns out the endangered species the local beat reporters without whom we'd have never known that this abuse of power happened. subscribe to your local paper. pay to join the website of your local paper. seriously. your country needs you. hey look, it's those guys.

[music] shawn: look at those pearly whites, man. [music] bud: whoa, cute! shawn: shut-up. jess: are you good to drive? shawn: i'm fine. [music] [police siren] jess: how many did you have? shawn: i should be fine. jess: you should be? officer: sir, go ahead and step out of the vehicle for me. shawn: yes, sir. bud: see ya, buddy. today, shawn's got a hearing, we'll see how it goes.

good luck! so, it turns out buzzed driving and drunk driving, they're the same thing and it costs around $10,000. so not worth it. teachers, firefighters and nurss support prop 51. prop 51 repairs older schools and removes dangerous lead paint and pipes ensuring classrooms are safe for all students. for safe schools vote yes on 51.

teachers, nurses and firefightes support prop 51. prop 51 will upgrade libraries, science labs, and classroom technology and relieve school overcrowding creating more opportunity . . . and better learning for students help students succeed vote yes on 51. late tuesday night the hopewell missionary baptist church in greenville, mississippi, which is a black church in a mostly black community, that church was hit by an arson attack.

it was deliberately burned and defaced with vote trump spraypaint graffiti. this is a 200 member church, 80% destroyed in the fire. authorities still don't know who is responsible for burning that black church, but they are talking to a person of interest in the case. at least there's that. on wednesday night's show when we first reported on this church fire we also reported that a go fund me page had been set up with the goal of raising $10,000 for repairs. that $10,000 goal was met in a matter of minutes. when we report on that wednesday night, that go fund me page was way past its $10,000 goal that had been set that morning. all the way up to $90,000. tonight i can tell you that they've now raised over $200,000 which is awesome. and they're going to need it given the amount of damage they went through. but still no arrest. still no explanation. and that congregation will be without a home church this sunday. i'll be right back.

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here's what election day will look like in green county, missouri. this is the front page of today's springfield news leader, on guard. papers reporting that green county, missouri, will be posting armed sheriff deputies inside all the polling places on election day. there's a couple ways to look at this. this election season does seem to have brought out more than its fair share of unhinged people. having law enforcement, having deputies at polling places to keep the peace is maybe not a crazy idea. but the other way to look at this is we don't have a great history in this country with armed law enforcement stalking around the polls. right now republicans are waiting to hear any minute from a federal judge who will issue a ruling on whether the national republican party has violated legal restrictions it's been under for over three decades now, restrictions that were put in place because they sent vigilante poll watchers into minority precincts during a governor's race in new jersey in the '80s.

armed off-duty law enforcement officers to supposedly protect the ballot. but they stalked around minority polling places wearing guns and intimidated the heck out of voters. the republican party has been banned from election day poll watching stuff ever since because of that thing they pulled off in the '80s in new jersey with all the guys with guns. a federal judge is expected to rule, we think, maybe late tonight, maybe tomorrow on whether the rnc actually violated that ban with the stuff they've been doing that this year. we're expecting that as late as tomorrow. a national ruling on the national republican party and poll watching, but there are similar lawsuits targeting six specific states with similar complaints. in ohio today a federal judge issued a restraining order against the trump campaign, restraining order against the trump campaign and longtime trump adviser roger stone who has been hyping the campaign's voter protection efforts. this judge has issued the

restraining order, has ordered the campaign and its supporters to avoid, quote, harassing or intimidating conduct at polling places. and now tonight in north carolina, a federal judge has ruled that thousands of voters who were illegally purged from the voter rolls in a process that she called insane, those voters have to be reinstated. we reported on this case, this purge in north carolina earlier this week. reported on the naacp suing over those thousands of people being thrown off the rolls. well, the judge in that case has now issued a ruling, has ordereded that those thousands of people in north carolina need to be reinstated right now in time for the election. joining us now is the lead attorney representing the north carolina naacp. she's also the legal director of forward justice. congratulations on this win today in north carolina. >> thank you for having me. >> so how many voters are

reinstated by this ruling? is it instantaneous? will they definitely be able to vote on tuesday? >> the judge ordered that they will be able -- they will be reinstated in time to vote on tuesday and i believe that the counties are already working to carry that out and it will be carried out. and it is the injunction applies to three counties and it is probably around 4,000 voters. one of the counties they haven't ascertained the exact number, but we think it's around 3,000 in that county alone. >> there's always this flurry of legal activity right before every election. i think particularly those of us who aren't lawyers, who don't necessarily know how the courts, what the power of the courts is in this, sort of hear this. you hear about that ohio restraining order against the trump campaign and trump supporters that they can't intimidate people. and you wonder if it's too little too late. you wonder if with the election

four days away that a legal order like this can and will be enforced and people can have confidence in that. what's your view of that? >> i believe that it will be enforced and the courts do become more vigilant in the days before an election because last-minute activities are difficult to police, but the federal government has the power to enforce court orders. i believe that they will be enforced. >> in your professional view as a person who has been very active in voter protection, voting rights law over the years, with what we've seen specifically in north carolina, so much heat on north carolina this year, do you think that there's potentially enough voter suppression activity by the state, by local governments, by local officials or potentially enough voter intimidation plans by people and this election that it really could affect the result in that state? is it a big enough problem that we should worry about the result there? >> well, rachel, i do believe that north carolina is ground zero for voter suppression going back -- it goes back decades. the type of activity that you describe that resulted in that new jersey nationwide consent

decree was also engaged in by senator jesse helms among others in north carolina in the past decades. but yes, in addition to -- and then the voter suppression law that actually north carolina represented north carolina naacp in that case where they tried to do the most restrictive photo i.d. in the country and tried to take away same-day registration and take away a week of early voting and take away the wrong precinct battle county. and the court stepped in. so i'm hopeful with this latest victory that just came out today with the federal court ruling and the monster voter suppression law and with continued vigilance and the fight back empowers voters. so we're telling voters do not be intimidated. intimidation is illegal. and the people who do it should be arrested and they should be prosecuted.

>> people should be vigilant about it and also determined that nobody's going to pressure them out of exercising their right. penda hair, lead attorney representing the north carolina naacp and the legal director of forward justice, a real activist on this subject for a long time. thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you. >> we have much more ahead tonight. stay with us. ♪ ♪ well, if you want to sing out, sing out ♪ ♪ and if you want to be free, be free ♪ ♪ 'cause there's a million things to be ♪ ♪ you know that there are ♪ and if you want to be me, be me ♪ ♪ and if you want to be you, be you ♪ ♪ 'cause there's a million things to do ♪ ♪ you know that there are ♪ wopen up a lot of dawn. tough on grease...yet gentle. dawn helps open...

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probably thought the election couldn't get any other weird little twists and turn in it at this point. well, here's something to watch in case this election really goes down to the wire on tuesday night. today, a democratic member of the electoral college, so one of the people who actually casts the vote that elects the next president, democratic member of the electoral college said he will not vote for hillary clinton, even if she wins his state. he's from washington state.

hillary clinton is expected to win that state on tuesday, but robert was a bernie sanders supporter in the primary and today he told the a.p. that he believes hillary clinton is a criminal and that she doesn't care about american indians. he is native american himself. he told if a.p. today, quote, she will not get my vote, period. millions of us vote for president. but it's really only the 538 people who are the members of the electoral college who ratify that choice and actually pick the president. the electoral college will cast its votes after the election on december 19. we expect them to be bound by the way their states voted, but expectations -- i mean, it is unusual, it is exceedingly rare for an elector not to vote the way his or her state voted but technically, there's nothing in the constitution that would block that. and in fact, he says he's perfectly happy to bear the one penalty in law that's supposed to stop him from doing this. apparently, under state law, there's a thousand dollar penalty if he doesn't cast his electoral college vote the way his state votes.

he says he's perfectly happy to pay and he's not voting for clinton. it's a far off possibility he could personally throw the election here, though. at 270towin.com, there are 97 different permutations in which this election could end in a 269-269 tie, and the electoral college. if he doesn't vote the way his state votes, if he says he's not going to do it, 269 minus 1 gets you to donald trump is president. that could happen. stay with us. ♪

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like their photo claims tool. it helps settle your claim quickly, which saves time, which saves money. and when they save, you save. that's auto and home insurance for the modern world. esurance, an allstate company. click or call. esurance does insurance a smarter way, which saves money. like bundling home and auto coverage, which reduces red tape, which saves money. and when they save, you save. that's home and auto insurance for the modern world. esurance, an allstate company. click or call. what does john kerry know that we don't? the state department just announced secretary of state john kerry's immediate post-election plans. right after the election, at the end of next week, secretary of state john kerry is going to antarctica. he's the highest ranking u.s. official to ever go to

antarctica, and then after he goes to antarctica, he's going a further 980 miles south to the freaking south pole. john kerry is going to the south pole to ride out the aftermath of the election next week. does he know something that we don't know? when we got to that news story in today's staff news meeting, the reaction in the room was not what i would have expected. everybody was like, antarctica? take me with you, john kerry! everybody is stressed out about the election. whether you support trump or you support clinton or whether you're the last collar county soccer mom polling cliche in the country, everybody is stressed out. if you're worried your chosen candidate isn't going to win, the best way to alleviate that stress is to act, to do something about it. call the campaign you like. volunteer to phone bank. volunteer for whatever else they want you to do in this last weekend. do that. you will feel better. i don't recommend that you spend the weekend fantasizing about fleeing the country, about running off to antarctica,

unless you're john kerry, that's not happening. but might i also suggest spending a little time with an old pal. an old pal is a classic drink, it's only got three ingredients. it's been around since the 19 -- sorry. been around since the 1920s. you only need three things and some ice. you need two ounces of rye whiskey. oh, cartoon pouring sound. two ounces of rye whiskey. and then there's only two other ingredients, and they both get the same amount. you get three quarters of an ounce of campari, which you should have on hand anyway for making negronis and 3/4 ounce of dry vermouth, the white one, and all you do is stir it, strain it into a cocktail glass, call it your old pal, and don't stress out.

remember, on tuesday, this will all be over and done. be nice to yourself. be nice to other people in your life. don't worry. don't stress. it will be okay. cheers. that does it for us tonight. we'll see you again sunday night at 9:00. sunday night at 9:00. now it's time for "last word with lawrence o'donnell." good evening, lawrence. >> rachel, i think of you as my old pal. >> thank you. you're even more delicious than this. >> but let me tell you something. the stuff that you just put in that glass, if you made me drink it, it would be torture. >> you're not a drinker, lawrence. >> that stuff. oh my -- >> i drink for the two of us. don't worry. >> you do -- tonight, you do. yes. thank you, rachel. hillary clinton is on stage tonight with jay-z and beyonce and there's beyonce. >> i want my daughter to grow up seeing a woman lead our country. and know that her possibilities are limitless.