joe biden on the move on this election day. the president about to visit his campaign head quarters just across the potomac in arlington, georgia any minute as joe biden is making his last 2020 trip to pennsylvania in his hometown of scranton right now. we'll bring you to both places live. this is it. election day. finally when those nearly 100 million early votes already cast start getting counted. tens of millions more people ready to have their ballots counted with the nation on edge and both candidates taking advantage of every last minute. >> i think we'll have victory, but only when there's victory. we have a solid chance of winning. >> thank you. thank you. thank you. >> thank you, joe. thank you, joe. >> that is joe biden in pennsylvania. we are live on the ground there with new reporting coming up from inside his campaign. and live sources inside trump

world say all this signs for them point to the same state. it's all about pa with aides and allies convinced they've locked down other battle grounds we have listed as tossups, but have they really? that's up to the voters. >> this is my first time, and i'm voting for biden. we need to think about our future and make sure that we elect someone who is really going to make my future a better place. >> right now the country is like at a big heart operation right now. and donald trump right now is a cancer -- cleared up a lot -- >> we are everywhere with our nbc news team on the ground. truly everywhere in every place, and on every angle that is important to this race. look at that. a reminder, deep breaths. it's going to be a long day and long night. for the next 60 minutes we're going to overreport and underreact taking focussed on the context and the people.

what you need to know on a day like no other. joe biden in pennsylvania. i think we can pull up the shot as we get started with chris jansing. carol lee outside the white house. steve patterson in detroit. this is joe biden speaking with voters. he has made an election day trip to pennsylvania. he is live on the ground. in a minute we'll have a split screen shot. trump is visiting campaign strappestrap staffers in virginia. he may talk. we're going to live in this moment live, but talk and joe biden making his final pitch to voters in all-important pennsylvania. >> yeah. it's no surprise that on the day that he might assent to the highest office in the country, an office he's sought most of his adult life, that he comes home to scranton. and no surprise he's started here at a carpenter's union hall. it's been the right working

class voters, many of them union members, that she's visited time and again over the years through his years as a senator and now looks for them to vote for him to help him win pennsylvania. drew was inside. he was inside for 40 minutes with you. tell me what he had to say? >> it was a privilege to have him here. he said that the unions are the backbones of america and he is going to rebuild america with the union help. and he said we will certainly have a seat at the table when he becomes president. >> you've met with him many times over the years. your guys have been working to get him elected. how was his mood? >> he seemed upbeat, genuine. he seemed like i was talking to my grandfather or somebody, an uncle or family member. couldn't have been more down to earth or personable. i think he's really excited and really ready to go and ready to win this thing today and ready

to move on, and build america back better again. >> drew, thank you. we appreciate it. i spent yesterday with union members like drew making phone calls in an area where he will win for sure, but the margin is very important, and then nearby other counties that have gone more republican where they want to close that gap. i talked with the mayor here as well. she said everything has been a full court press. they've been working hard. this is a bellwether area we'll watch to see who carries pennsylvania. as for the vice president himself, let's see where else he might go here in scranton. he seldom goes to just one place. he often visits his boyhood home. he'll probably go to the one of the local restaurants for lunch. there are a couple parties planned here tonight in spite of co-vid and social distancing. they are hoping to cheer in joe biden, hometown boy, as many of

them see him as the new president of the united states. pennsylvania will be key to that. >> and it's election day. if the former vice president goes anywhere, cameras will be all over him. carol lee, we're talking about pennsylvania here. i had a conversation with a source close to the trump campaign. i said what are the top three states you're looking at tonight. they said pennsylvania and then pennsylvania and also pennsylvania. i think it underscores where the head is at of people look agent this race. i think people around the trump campaign feel pretty confident in some of the key battle grounds, optimistic about places like texas, arizona, north carolina, florida, ohio, iowa. even the polls publicly show the president trailing. there's not a ton of optimism in wisconsin and michigan. and georgia some optimism. i want to get a sense of what you're hearing from your sources as we've been working together on this final push for president trump. i may have to interrupt you. as you know, in the building behind you, he's about to head

to campaign head quarters for a pep talk to staff. >> no problem. it is all pennsylvania for the trump campaign. they feel good about all the states that you just mentioned. kailee even said this morning on fox news they think ohio is a lock. so it's really down to pennsylvania. they don't feel good about michigan and wisconsin. and you heard the president in his closing argument really rail against pennsylvania's handling of mail-in ballots saying the supreme court decision to allow pennsylvania to count those ballots until friday, the ones that are in by election day, it's always worth noting, saying that was a bad decision. it could lead to corruption. there's no evidence of that, obviously. but his closing argument was a little bit all over the place. it was a little bit of that and old grievances and a little bit of criticism of joe biden. but the campaign feels good just in the sense of their ground game. they feel like they have a solid ground game in states like pennsylvania. and their rallies. the turnout in the rallies, they

feel good about that. the big question is whether that turnout at rallies actually translates into turnout at the polls and gets the votes needed to win reelection. we don't know. >> carol, you're right. we're taking a look so viewers know. joe biden, he is outside. he's on the front porch of the home he grew up in. his childhood home in scranton, pennsylvania as he makes this stop to the battle ground we've been talking about. i know ali is watching all of this from delaware where joe biden will return later tonight to watch the returns come in. it's interesting. carol is talking about the president's potential path to victory. it is a narrow one but not impossible. talk to us about what the biden camp sees as their path and what they're going to be looking for tonight. >> well, if the trump campaign has a narrow path, the biden campaign sees multiple paths and i'm putting an emphasis on that s. they see a different ways to do that. right now they're looking at early voting data and they're

also trying to make sure they're getting out the vote to seal the deal. as chris jansing was talking about, it's not just about winning. it's also the margins you're able to establish there. let's take a look at some of the paths to victory that the biden campaign has laid out. i'll have your control room pull it up. the first one is the midwest plus pa path that would be wisconsin, michigan, and pennsylvania as one of the possible paths. then one of the other paths is the sun belt route. that's north carolina and florida. though the more democrats that i talk to inside and close to the campaign, there is a skittishness around florida, unsureness about if they're able to win there. the campaign has been clear. they don't need florida to get to 270. part of that is because of the expansion route. these states in yellow here. arizona and georgia. we've talked about those as states that democrats have tried to make end roads in for years. democrats now thinking that maybe now is the moment that they're ripe to be flipped. frankly, this is also a little bit of a mix and match strategy.

because you can kind of pair all of these different routes together and joe biden can still cobble together an electoral college victory. all of this lends to a feeling of cautious optimism among the sources that i and my colleagues are talking to inside the campaign. because as they're look agent the data, they're thinking about this in terms of math. it's numbers at this point. but also in putting out this strategy of the multiple paths to win, that's their way of trying to preempt the president if he says he wants to declare an early victory, they're trying to show that's probably not possible. they've gone so far as to say they don't see a scenario in which donald trump is deemed a wictor an election night. because they're look agent states across the country, lots of different poll closure times. they're laying the groundwork here to prime the american electorate, frankly, to the fact this could be a long night and there's a lot of different ways for them to get there'ven if

donald trump comes out and says unfoundedly that he's won the election. >> i want to talk about a couple things from the last couple minutes. in addition to joe biden in scranton, we're seeing melania trump in florida. she just cast her ballot in that battle ground state in west palm beach. we'll bring that video to you. we don't believe she's talked to reporters. and carol and i were talking about how the president is heading to campaign head quarters. that's delayed. we thought it was going to happen in the first couple minutes of the show. it's an hour. we'll bring that live when it happens. one of the states we're looking at on every one of the maps as we talk about the paths to victory is the state of michigan. steve, you're in detroit. one thing the democrats are watching for this, and this is going to be a really crucial battle ground. black voters whether they're going to turn out for biden after failing to turn out for

hillary clinton in 2016. >> i got off the phone with a democratic strategist who stressed the importance of the detroit voter. both of the parties seem to be relying on shoring up their bases in areas that make sense. for the gop, that's the industrial rural bourbon swiush swing areas. for the others, it's -- look at the line here. we were here yesterday for early voting. this snakes all the way inside back through the building there. it's almost quadrupled in size. we'll walk out the door here. one thing that is important to note is speaking to the city clerk, she was estimating about a 60 % voter turnout here in the city of detroit earlier this month. she since adjusted that to about 50% late last week. if you remember, when trump beat clinton, in 2016, the numbers were almost the same.

48% voter turnout here in the city of detroit, and that was by an absolutely slim margin that this state went. i want to talk to the voters here. sir, what's your name? >> kevin green. >> hi. we're with msnbc. i want to ask you why you thought it was important to vote in this election. what over the last four years has led you to the polls today? >> i think this is a historical election. being a lifetime detroiter, i often feel our population is unrepresented and underserved and has been in the current administration. i also want to see this country come to some kind of civility where we're able to work with one another for the common good of the nation. >> let me ask you detroitered got flak for not showing up in 2016 that gave the state to donald trump. what do you think is different this year? do you think more people are inspired to vote this year? >> i think there's a referendum

on the current administration in detroit, and you'll see that with the increased voter turnout here in detroit. and so what you're seeing is a backlash on the current administration as you see the numbers of detroiters vote. >> thank you for voting. thank you for talking to me. the x-factor in all of this is the vast number of absentee ballots that have been cast. more than 3 million, and because they had to be tabulated starting this morning, we don't expect to see the full picture here in michigan for another few days. hallie, back to you. >> interesting, steve. listening to that conversation you're having about how this is a referendum in the eyes of that voter on the administration's response and for so many voters according to polling a referendum on the president's pandemic response. that is in stark relief to wisconsin. that's a battle ground and a place where they're battling the pandemic, and you're at lambo field, a huge polling location so people can social distance even though the surge of coronavirus is happening there.

>> what's interesting about the fact of where we are is that lambo field is the heart of the city. and this morning just outside the field, which, by the way, is not allowed to have any fans at any of the packer's games this year which obviously has been a devastating blow morale-wise to the people of green bay and wisconsin. outside this is the tailgate village part of the tailgate facility here. outside here this morning at 6:30 in the morning this morning, there were likely about 40 or 50 people lined up trying to get inside of this place to cast their vote. people in the line were telling us that this is the most important vote they have ever cast in their lives and they were not going to miss being here for anything on this day. fortunately, because we're talking about green bay, today is a very nice day, and there are lineups all over town, but this place is -- this place was picked specifically to handle so

much voting. and as steve was just discussing, counting the ballots that were sent in early, some 55% of voters here in green bay have already cast their votes by mail. those votes are now being counted today, and chances are the next time you see me, i'll be over there watching them count the votes. >> we will be looking for you. thank you all. our road warriors kicking us off this morning. you've heard from reporters in three of the most important states, pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin. i know those are the three states steve kornacki will be looking at as well. steve, i want you to help our viewers follow the polls closing like the pros. the states and the order and what it tells you about where the race stands. >> that's the interesting thing. look at the battle ground map here. you mentioned these three,

michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania. critical for donald trump to win at least one of the states and the campaign has keyed into pennsylvania. let me show you that piece of it first. it sets up what will happen early in the night. if biden were to get wisconsin and michigan, and those are the two states of the entire battle ground, those are the two states where biden is polling the best and trump's is the worst. you could see how close that moves biden to 270. that's why pennsylvania becomes a must-win. if biden got that and went three for three in the states, he's over 270. trump is playing defense in all three. he has to shore up pennsylvania. it's a huge if here. even in pennsylvania trump is trailing in the poll but if trump holds on in pennsylvania, he's in the game for the electoral college. this is where the timing question comes in. all three of these states, we think it's going to take a while. in pennsylvania if it's really close, potentially days with all the mail-in ballots that just

now they're opening for the first time in pennsylvania, and so that brings you to earlier in the night. 7:00 p.m. eastern, we're going to have most of florida basically everything except the panhandle is going to start reporting out that hour. florida gets this stuff done quickly. they've been doing early voting for a long time. they know how to get it out quickly. we may get a pretty good picture of florida in the first few hours tonight. same for north carolina. maybe for georgia. ohio could be -- we could get a lot from ohio early. even texas. by 11:00 at night, we may get a ton of vote there. what this sets up is one, two, three, four, five states i just circled. five big, battle ground states that donald trump won in 2016. and when you look at the challenge i just outlined here in the three states that come in late, these are essentially all each one of these five states i circled, a make or break state for donald trump.

he's got to go five for five in these states where we could get a picture tonight. he's got to sweep them all so that when he gets to the results coming in to wisconsin, michigan and pennsylvania, he's got a shot there still in the electoral college. i think those five first few hours tonight, going to be a lot of attention on those. >> steve, i know where you will be watching those states. i know where i will be at the white house watching the states. we'll see you all night long as the special election night coverage starts at 4:00 eastern with nicole wallace. at 6:00 we have brian williams, rachel maddow, and nicole wallace on msnbc. next up, we're taking you to the south to three battle grounds president trump needs to win, three states steve just mentioned to win back the white house. our road warriors are live at the polls in florida, north carolina and georgia with more on who needs to show up to make it happen. and we're also heading to texas, a state we normally wouldn't

talk about on election day because it's normally red, but maybe not this year. coming up, we're live. ♪

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♪ when the lights go down

as we mention admin out ago, we just saw melania trump at the polling site down in west palm beach, florida. she's on the left side of the screen. she just finished kath casting her ballot, one assumes for her husband in one of the battle ground states we're watching very closely.

voters are starting to line up early this morning. that's on top of what we've already seen in florida. record breaking early voting numbers even before today. not just in florida but in north carolina and georgia, too. joe biden is getting ready for two final stops in florida. one final trip in north carolina, too. morgan is in charlotte, north carolina, a place where both campaigns are reaching voters. we are in miami, and we are in atlanta at a site being closely watched for possible voting rights issues after killer long lines in june. morgan, you're talking to the first-time voters in north carolina. we've been staying this repe repeated repeatedly. president trump has to win that state tonight. what changed for them this election psych snl. >> a lot of things. in the last four years and especially the turnout on election day. you mentioned the record-breaking early voting numbers. this is typically one of the busiest polling stations here in

this county. i was at this polling station four years ago and the lines were wrapped around the building. it's pretty quiet now. that's because just moments ago election officials at this polling site said 80% of their precinct already voted early. and that's really confirming the patterns we're hearing from the state board of elections. they said they've already seen 4.6 million people cast their ballots early. they're expecting by the end of the day to pass that 5 million ballot threshold. that's the number of people who voted across the state in 2016. but as you mentioned, hallie, i have to tell you, both campaigns are still really trying to crank out the voters on election day. especially the democrats. they're trying to recapture that 2008 momentum that helped them flip the state blue for the first time in 40 years. that was largely due to the black voter turnout. i want to introduce you to sylvia miller, she has never voted before in her life until

now. listen to what she told me. >> miss miller, have you ever voted before? >> no, i have not. >> this will be your first time voting? >> yes. >> what made you decide to cast your ballot? >> you know, since i've been sitting in the house and can't go nowhere, i've been watching a lot of tv. i've heard so much about president trump and vice president biden that i started paying a lot of attention to what was going on in the world, and it seems to me we got to get him out of there. >> hallie, to give you context, there are 7.1 million registered voters in north carolina and about 1.5 million of them are registered black voters. what's fascinating is in 2016, president trump took the state by just about 173,000 votes. and that's almost exactly the same number of registered black voters who voted in 2012 but decided to stay home in 2016. so that shows you just how crucial that african american

vote here is in north carolina. hallie? >> sure does. morgan in north carolina. i want to let folks know when you were talking we were showing a picture of joe biden. he was leaving his childhood home in scranton. you could see the scrum of reporters there. he didn't make any comments or say anything newsworthy. we'll stay on both the candidates. in the meantime, back to florida. alison, you're hearing from voters in the state who could play a decisive role in how tonight goes. millions of people have voted early in that state. why did voters tell you they decided to show up today? >> yeah. the lines we saw some lines this morning for the most part, though, it has been not a long wait here in north miami. probably because we have seen over 64% of registered voters in miami dade county vote early. we are in north miami. this is a city in miami dade county. it is a majority minority city with one of the largest, the largest, actually, haitian american communities in the

united states. this is an area where biden has made several stops. barack obama was here last week. this is an important city for democrats. the question is have they done enough to mobilize cover constituencies to win in big enough margins to offset swing counties across the state. hillary clinton did win miami dade by a lot. 63%. but that margin was not big enough to help her carry the rest of the state. we've been speaking to voters. we just met one woman who came on her birthday to work and volunteer at the polls here, trying to make sure that members of florida's black and brown communities are showing up to vote. here's what she told us. >> whoever wins, donald trump, biden, whoever wins, we really

need you to know that we're coming to the table this time. we're not just going to give you our vote. we're coming to the table. we have issues. real issues that need to be addressed. >> new reporting monday morning, florida democratic party executive director explained his view that a 120,000 ballot edge for registered democrats over registered republicans heading into election day would put biden in range of winning. it's white knuckle time in his words. 120,000 edge is his guess. according to our data, democrats are 448 votes away from that right now. 119,522 more democrats than republicans have voted early as of sunday. i don't know about you, but i am not going to make any bets on what happens in florida tonight. it's going to be a nail biter. >> please don't.

that's smart of you. i think that's what we should all be doing tonight. blaine, you're in georgia. an important state we're watching perhaps early in the evening. there's a big change in atlanta. police are stationed at polling sites. what are officers looking for and how are voters reacting to the presence of police at the polls? >> it is a major change. we're in fulton county, georgia's most populous county. every single polling location has an officer to watch out for voter intimidation. the aclu of georgia has volunteers across the state of georgia doing the same thing. if we look outside, there are a number of volunteers out here that i've spoken with, talking to voters as they come in and out and making sure the experience is smooth. i want to introduce you to wesley. you came in, you brought your young daughter to vote as well. but you said that those reports of possible intimidation, or people coming out here to possibly confront voters, that was on your mind when you came

out here? >> yeah. it surely was. i had to make sure i paid attention to the cars as i was pulling in because i have my baby girl with me. you know? you hear the reports of the crazy people, so just a precaution for me. >> and i will say everything went smoothly for you? >> yes. >> nothing to be concerned about? >> nothing to be concerned about. we were in and out in five minutes. >> and you cast your first ballot for barack obama in '08. in june you waited about two and a half hours? >> yes. due to the coronavirus pandemic, i think it was -- it was a lot of chaos around here. it took way longer than expected. >> night and day. wesley, thank you so much. hallie, that's something notable. the fact that back in june we saw people waiting for four hours here. i spoke with the precinct manager. it's large. usually about 4,000 people come here and vote. she says that due largely to early vote, they've seen a few

number of people today and they've been able to manage the line so far. >> that's really interesting. it is a night and day situation it sounds like. thank you all for your excellent on the ground reporting. we've taken you to the rust belt and the south, next, out west. checking out the papers in arizona. that's what democrats are trying to put in the win column for them. we're live in arizona. and this morning the scramble to stop the spread of bad information online this election day. why your feeds are looking different today and what we're hearing from top election security officials. live pictures now from el paso down in texas where voters are waiting the get into a polling station there. you're watching our special election day coverage right here only on msnbc. needles.

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election day and how important it is without talking about one of the big reasons why it's so important. the pandemic. pretty much the entire country is seeing an up tick or spike in coronavirus cases. check it out. that's in orange. all of that at the same time as voters are heading to the polls to vote. both candidates have made the pandemic part of their closing arguments. joe biden blaming the president for how he's handling it. the president suggesting

incorrectly the u.s. is rounding the corner. and yet again, that's a statement from president trump being co-tra dikted by a top adviser this morning. dr. deborah birx saying co-vid is a massive threat and needs an all out response that has not materialized. one crucial area, the sun belt. all orange in the map due to coronavirus. now being debated which states are red and blue. you can see some of them in yellow with the electoral states. texas and arizona are not looking as deep red. it tees up the electoral votes needed to push either candidate as close as possible to 270. voter turnout is expected to surge in the sun belt. arizona is already above and beyond the number of votes cast in 2016. before in person polls open this morning, texas is two-thirds of the way there. i want to take you to crucial battle ground states out west,

sown south. garrett haake in texas, garrett, outside of houston, this is literally the district you grew up in. a democrat has not carried texas since 1976. you're a son of texas. you've been on the ground in elections past. what are voters telling you this morning? what's the reality check? >> i think the interesting thing we've continued to see in texas and it started in 2018 is the collapse of republicans in suburban districts like this one. this district has a little bit of downtown houston. a little bit of the suburbs. republicanism is in the blood of folks here. this is george h.w. bush country. this is a strong mitt romney kind of district. what you're seeing is folks who are -- would never in a million years describe themselves as a democrat but can no longer bring themselves to vote for president trump. i know a lot of people who are biden cornyn voters. they don't want to think of themselves as democrats but they

don't think of themselves as the party of donald trump. at this polling place i met a number of folks who are the kind of trump voters you'd never see caught dead at a rally, for example. that's not their style anymore. as the part and the electorate in the suburbs in houston and dallas separate from each other more, you get a much more competitive state. i think that's what we're going to see tonight on election night. is it enough to make texas blue? i don't know. we'll see the turnout. averaging about 20,000 people an hour here in harris county where they've already broken their overall turnout numbers just based on the early vote alone. >> vaughn is in phoenix, a place you know well considering you grew up there. the race is tight. we've heard a lot about the focus on latino voters that could help turn arizona blue, but at the same time you hear the term red wave. talk to us about that. >> the big demographic are independent voters.

polling has shown the president down anywhere about 20 percentage points among independent voters after winning them in 2016, and they make up about one-third of the electorate. with the president expecting a deficit of support among independents, it turns into the question about turnout on the republican and democratic side, and so far what you've seen compared to 2016 is that democrats far outpaced republicans in terms of returned ballots. that's where it comes down to "today." i was talking with republican officials that said respect the red wave today. so far we are seeing by a three to one margin republican voters coming out to the polls in person today at the same time you're talking about literally this election coming down to potentially hundreds of votes, thousands of votes, and that's why it's important to talk to folks like norris. norris, you were one of the voters that didn't vote in 2016 you were telling me. but this time it's different.

why? >> well, i would say i wasn't really exposed to much information back then. i kind of just throughout my life have voted for whoever my parents told me to vote for or my school or teachers or community or even who i thought i should vote for based on what i looked like. and this is the first year i've got to think about myself, be exposed to both sides. hear things all around, and really form my own opinion, make my own decision. i feel like it's important now more than ever, because of -- i mean, with young people, they're listening once again to celebrities or to their parents and not really forming their own opinion, but i think now with a rise in social media and people even being aware now of censorship, that people want answers. right? so i feel like i've been able to ask those questions and get the answers i want and come out here and vote. >> thank you very much. hallie, norris and voters, we've

seen the 2020 levels exceed 2016 totals already in the state. that has to do with the fact that democrats and republicans, voters that didn't come out in 2016 are at the polls today. >> vaughn live for us there in arizona. garrett haake in texas. thank you so our road warriors on the ground there. across the country, not just in those states but in places like new york, washington, you may come across scenes like these. businesses boarding up. officials warning of the potential for unrest depending on how the election goes. unrest that might be heightened by misinformation and disinformation online. spreading things that aren't true about rigged voting machines, supporters. all of it with a potential to build up doubt in the election results. chad wolf is talking about what voters need to know and the role they have that you have in combatting this information. listen. >> voters should consume information responsibly by thinking critically and using

multiple trusted sources for news and updates. perhaps most importantly, voters should be patient while waiting for the outcome of this year's elections. >> so that's what voters need to do. but what about the big social media companys? what about twitter, facebook, google? are they ready to handle it all? let me bring in our technology reporter. talk about some of the steps that these social media companies are taking, the tech companies are taking and why some of our social media feeds might be looking different today. >> the social media companies are working overtime to avoid the mistakes and the embarrassment of 2016. their actions fall into a couple categories. there is ads, labeling, and removing, and then declaring a winner. so we saw, for example, twitter take action on one of trump's tweets last night. he called a voting process

dangerous and said id allowed cheating. for facebook, they're pausing political ads today and tonight. they're going to wait until results are called by major media outlets and showing the name of the official winner when it is declared. twitter is requiring an official announcement from news outlets or states before they let a candidate celebrate victory. and they've also been doing this really interesting prebunking this year. they have been putting on top of your feed anticipated false claims and sort of giving you facts about voter security and early voting. and then they're going to remove tweets that call for interference with voting or polling locations. and google is adding a big results page from the associated press to the top of their search page. but it is confusing. the advice we heard in the beginning instead of relying on social media companies that have failed us in the past, and continue to do so in regards to

misinformation, it's incumbent upon us to be good information consumers and skeptical about any of the unverified claims we might see. >> that is so important. we're lucky to have you and the rest of the team as a resource at msnbc to make sure we are sorting through the junk content from the good solid content. we're going to bring that to you all day and all night. brandy, thank you so much. we want to give you a live look behind the scenes in my hometown of philadelphia inside the convention center. look at this shot. that's workers officially starting to process mail-in ballots this morning. this is all happening as we speak. it's a process that ain't instant. you have to open the envelope, verify signatures and blattflat the ballot and count them all. each state has their own rules on when counting can start. florida has been processing the mail-in ballots for weeks. officials there in pennsylvania that you just saw just started

about 3 1/2 hours ago. josh letterman is inside a polling location in ohio, a state where officials were able to start processing absentee ballots earlier last month. when polls close there, we may get a flood of results that are made up of absentee ballots. what does that mean for ohio once we see the returns coming in? >> we're likely to know a lot in ohio with the state's governor predicting they'll report a decent amount of the early and mail-in votes by 8 p.m. that's a large chunk of the more than 3 .6 million votes cast early in ohio and the results from in-person voting will come in a little bit later. i want to tell you quickly about a situation developing here in ohio in franklin county. there was a glitch with the poll books. they reverted to a backup paper

system for checking people in for that process. >> josh live for us in ohio. thank you. it's fascinating to look at the shots inside some of the places we're seeing as the ballots are getting counted. it's democracy in happening. it's happening in other places as well. in pennsylvania, a pennsylvania county specifically "the new york times" is calling a microcosm of the high tension, confusion, and deep uncertainty around mail-in ballots around the country. it's a county where a complicated two envelope ballot and a glitchy system for tracking votes has caused one official to be bombarded by callers. that election official joins me now, mary beth, the director of the arm strong county elections department. mary beth, thank you for being with us on a crazy busy day for

you. you're carving out time for us on election day. are you confident all this confusion has been ironed out and every vote is going to be counted in your county? >> we're going to make sure every vote is counted. we still do have confusion because pennsylvania has a new method of voting, and the mail-in voting is coming together with the in-poll voting today. and there's still confusion. >> in the work room behind the office you're sitting is where mail-in ballots are being counted in arm strong. do you expect to finish counting everything by the end of the day? >> no. we're not going to be able to do that. we have a team of six people, not -- we're a small county compared to what you see on the screen. they're working frantically, but they're not going to rush

things. we don't want to have anybody get improperly counted. we're taking our time here. >> slow and steady seems to be the way to go for so many counties. but the whole election could end up waiting on small counties like yours. are you ready for whatever today brings? >> yeah. we're ready. i mean, i've long-expected this is going to be a big election, and we'll do whatever we need to do to make sure every vote that can legally be counted gets counted. >> are you confident that you have the support from the state level that you need to be able to get that done? >> the state is working very hard. they are working with an older voter registration system. but they're working very well with what they have, and our county officials have been great here. my county staff has been great. we can get this job done. voters are going to get their vote counted and be patient.

because this is a huge election. we've never had one like this before, and it's very different. >> yeah. patience. that is a skill that i personally have been working on in my own life and i think all of us as americans are going to work on throughout the rest of the week. thank you so much for carving time out of your morning for us here on msnbc. in michigan the secretary of state says it's going to take patience, until friday probably to know the winner. some big cities got a head start processing but not counting the absentee ballots. i want to bring in the secretary of state. thank you for being with us this morning. >> good morning. happy election day. >> you too. does that friday timeline, do you think still hold at this point? what's your operating thinking here? >> well, we have 3 37b9 1 . -- 3 .1 absentee ballots.

we'll have a bettered in at 8:00 p.m. eastern time. we are seeing a lot of efficient movement. the ten hours clerks had in some communities to begin p preprocessing yesterday was helpful so started right away. all that, i'm confident we may have results in sooner, maybe more to announce tonight. we're going to prioritize accuracy and being methodical. we'll have a more specific update tonight when the polls close. >> i know this morning to give folks at home a sense, you've been running between a couple voting locations. have you seen any issues? is everything going smoothly from what you've seen and heard so far? >> i'm in detroit. today was one of the first times ever that every precinct opened on time. the same thing happened in flint. that's a reflection of how much preparation went in to make sure machines were placed ready to go, poll workers ready to go. across the state we're seeing a

lot of people voting. no long lines, no crowding. in part because about two-thirds of the electorate that we expected to turn out voted absentee. we're expecting 2 the 2.5 million to vote today. beautiful weather. calmness and safety at the precincts. so so far, so good here in michigan. >> that's good. you mentioned calmness and safety. i was going to ask you about any potential reports of voter intimidation or any kind of political pressure you're hearing from at polls? it seems like that hasn't been the case the 3 1/2 hours that the polls have been open so far yet? >> that's right. yesterday at some of the early pre processing steters there were problems, but they were dealt swiftly. with very a team in place to address it swiftly. so far, smooth sailing and i'm really proud of all the citizens who stepped up to prioritize the protection of our voter to day. >> one of the things we've been

covering here on this show as relates to your state is this back and forth from the michigan supreme court and various legal challenges when it comes to open carry. anything you've heard so far this morning on firearms being allowed at polling places and any issues with that piece of things? >> we haven't. but we've also been quite clear that voter intimidation is illegal and will not be tolerated by state or local law enforcement or by my office or the attorney general. it's great to see citizens not just respecting the law, but also respecting the need to protect our voters from any fear or threat of intimidation. the very idea that people should feel fear when they're about to cast their vote is antithetical to everything our democracy is about. it's great to see that we're ensuring voters have a good experience. we're in the field, ready to respond quickly for anything that does arise. voter intimidation is illegal and won't be tolerated.

>> michigan secretary of state jocelyn benson, thank you for taking the time with us this morning. >> my pleasure. five, four and three. those are key numbers in today's battle for senate control. today is not just about the presidential race. nbc news is keeping a very close eye on five senate races today, the ones most likely to decide which party takes control of that chim ber. you see them on the screen, arizona, colorado, iowa, maine, north carolina. the number four, that's how many seats democrats need to pick up for a majority without the white house or three if, in fact, joe biden and kamala harris win the white house and can break a tie with who will be vice president harris if she wins. there are major implications for the legislative agendas. nbc's leigh ann caldwell is in the carolinas this morning, in columbia. key things to watch ought for tonight as relates to control of the senate which could be really

important no matter who wins the white house here? >> that's right, hallie, you nailed it. the second biggest story of the night is who comes in control of the senate. there's really as many as a dozen races that could flip seats. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell has consistently said for the past several months that the races are so close that it's a knife fight. any party could win after tonight. there's five races that we are particularly watching because these are republican incumbent senators whose races are statistically tied or they are a little bit behind in their races. they're all having to deal with varying levels of popularity of the president, polarizing president that is having a major impact on these races including arizona, colorado, iowa, maine and north carolina. out of those, colorado is probably the least likely for

the republican senator cory gardner to win. i also want to mention that alabama, democrat-controlled seat is probably likely to be lost as well. so democrats could lose one. but i'm here in south carolina. why? because there is a senate race that is very close unexpectedly, senator lindsey graham, incumbent, is in a tight race against democratic challenger jaime harrison. we caught up with harrison at a polling place here in columbia just moments ago. this is how he feels about the race today. >> i feel really good about where i believe coming into today, i was in the lead, and i think we'll continue that lead going in. so i'm energized. i feel good about where we are. lindsey graham should be concerned. >> reporter: harrison is energized because 33% of the early vote in south carolina has come from black voters. he needs high turnout there.

he needs lots of support from suburban women who have been bleeding from the republican party over the last couple of years because of the president. but hallie, if lindsey graham loses this race tonight, this is a bad sign for republican, not only in south carolina but across the country. >> that is one to watch as well. leigh ann caldwell live on the ground in the carolinas. thank you. before we let you go, we want to bring you up to speed on an incredible statistic. we've been tracking people voting all morning long at polling places in states like pennsylvania. you can see the lines in philadelphia here. but for early voting we have now learned based on our nbc news tracking numbers that 99.1 million people have already voted early. that is our count from target smart from the various secretaries of state. that's nearly 100 million people who have already cast their ballots. roughly three quarters of the total vote count to 2016.

we're only a few hours into voting in much of the country. it's an unbelievable statistic as we get ready for an unprecedented day. you can watch coverage all day on msnbc. i'll be here all night and probably right into the show tomorrow morning as we continue the coverage of election day 2020. that's it for me right now. craig melvin picks it up after the break. this towel has already been used and it still smells fresh. pour a cap of downy unstopables into your washing machine before each load and enjoy fresher smelling laundry for up to 12-weeks. (woman chattering) - [announcer] ordering dinner for the family? - yeah. (group gasps) - [announcer] rewarded! with a side of quiet. (baby babbling happily) grubhub rewards you with a free delivery perk on your first order. (doorbell ringing) - grubhub! (combative yelling) he used to have bad breath. now, he uses a capful of therabreath fresh breath oral rinse to keep his breath smelling great, all day long. (combative yelling) therabreath, it's a better mouthwash.

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