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you. craig melvin here. election day is finally here. so far more than 99 million americans have already voted nationwide. in just eight hours that first big group of states will close their polls on this election day. in fact, a live look right now at democracy in action, a polling place at the museum of the american revolution in philadelphia, the birthplace of america could very well help decide america's future. pennsylvania, a must-win for both campaigns. this morning across the country, voters are telling us why their vote this year is so important. >> my vote matters. i matter. my children -- i have six grandchildren and it matters. i want to put the right people in the right place. >> this is my first time and i'm voting for biden all the way. >> i'm voting for trump.

the reason i'm voting for him is i like everything he's done in this country. >> we're this close on the precipice of changing this country for the rest of my life and for my kids' lives and my grandkids' lives. nothing more important than being here today. >> now joe biden is in scranton, pennsylvania, touring his hometown. any moment president trump will be leaving the white house to visit his campaign headquarters not far away in arlington, virginia. folks, a quick public service announcement. tonight not going to be like any other previous election night. we are not living in normal times. we're in the middle of a pandemic. the way we vote has been transformed. experts are warning beware of a so-called blue or red mirage as those results do start to come in tonight. be patient until more votes are counted. our team at msnbc here to make the calls based on the data, based on the facts. this is what we do.

let's start with our reporter rs on the ground. nbc's peter alexander is covering the white house. kristen welker is in philadelphia. both are the host of msh weekend today." nbc's steve kornacki is at his big board, his home for the foreseeable future. plrks alexander, word a rt show time ago the white house is planning to have hundreds of guests in the east room. what's the mood like in trump world right now? >> that's exactly right. testing will be required when the president gathers with those 300 to 400 folks, a chance to thank his campaign staffers across the river in virginia. he's running an hour behind schedule for that event. the president can claim credit for one thing already this morning. that is, helping produce record turnout right now, not just from republicans, but democrats as well, craig, as you look at those massive numbers heading into today and tens of million

expected to vote as well. today the president woke up with his preferred morning show, "fox & friends" and was asked whether and when he'll declare victory tonight. take a listen. >> at what point will you declare victory? >> when there's victory, if there's victory. i think we'll have victory. i think the polls are suppression polls and i think we'll have victory. i'd like to find out on november 3rd, the end of the evening or late into the morning, whenever, who won the election. >> reporter: the president said he's not playing any games. one game he is playing right now is single out the crucial battleground state of pennsylvania where voters' votes will be legally counted. mail-in ballots could be counted for the next three days. the president blaming that situation upheld by the supreme court saying it will cause chaos and be dangerous, even tweeting it could cause violence in the

streets. twitter flagged that tweet saying it was disputed information he was sharing, that it might be misleading. even pennsylvania secretary of state came out and said the president knows full well that it is hard to commit fraud in the state of pennsylvania. bottom line, craig, the folks inside the president's campaign remain optimistic that those rallies, those massive rallies will mean big numbers on their behalf of the polls today. >> peter alexander with a look inside trump world. kristen welker in philadelphia. joe biden in pennsylvania, kristen. the ticket hitting a number of other swing states. how is the biden camp feeling this morning? >> the biden campaign is feeling optimistic, craig, and confident. they are not ready to say this is a fait accompli. that's why you have vice president biden back in pennsylvania, a son of scranton, born there. he's making a stop in scranton

to try to energize those last-minute voters. he's also going to be stopping here in philadelphia to try to drive turnout among african-american voters and voters here in the suburbs of philadelphia. why such attention in pennsylvania? biden has made a number of stops here, as has kamala harris, as have some of his top surrogates. that is because it is very difficult for president trump to win re-election if he doesn't win the state of pennsylvania. the biden campaign saying they don't need it to get to 270, but they would like to have it to try to block the president's path. that's why you're seeing so much focus on this state. i'm standing outside a polling location, craig, where folks have been lined up all morning long, many of them before work. it's slowed a bit right now, but we anticipate it will pick up again. i can tell you having reported here in pennsylvania and other key battleground states from florida to georgia, there is so much energy and enthusiasm on the ground which is why you're seeing those big numbers that

peter was just talking about, this record turnout when it comes to early voting. now, in terms of the vote here in pennsylvania, as peter noted, they could be counting those mabts. biden for his part after his stops in pennsylvania will head home to delaware and watch returns with his family and friends. >> all right. kristen welker in a city she knows well, philadelphia. kristen, thank you. mr. kornacki give us that 30,000-foot view of this race, where it stands right now at 11:07 here in the east. >> let's take a look here, craig, as we continue to wait for the first polls to close not long from now. here is the battleground map here coming into tonight. of course, the big story here is that the president is playing defense. all these states you see here in the battleground are states that trump won in 2016, that he's

trying to defend, trying to shore up, trying to hold on to, at least 270 states' worth of electoral votes to get himself re-elected. a lot of these states like arizona, like texas, florida, georgia, north carolina, ohio, these states are very close in the polling. donald trump very close when you look at polls of these different states, but there are some of these battleground states, especially these two, wisconsin and michigan, where the polling hasn't been nearly as close. these are the two states, the two battlegrounds trump won in 2016 where he's lagged the farthest behind joe biden consistently in this race. there's also pennsylvania which is where in between. our final poll in pennsylvania, nbc/maris poll put joe biden ahead by five points. that's not as close as a lot of other battleground states. from donald trump's stand point, here is what he has to do here, if he doesn't get wisconsin and

michigan -- i'll show you what this will look like. if he doesn't get wisconsin and michigan where he trails by the most, and then loses pennsylvania where he comes in today down five points, joe biden is going to be over 270. trump has to get pennsylvania in this scenario. but then all those close battleground states i just checked off here, trump wouldn't need one of them, we wouldn't need some of them, he'd need to win all of them. he'd need to sweep through the rest of the battlegrounds. every state right now, maybe he's down a point, maybe he's down two, maybe it's tied in the polling. every single one of them has to break his way, plus he'sen in got to pull off the upset there in pennsylvania. that is a very, very narrow path, and if it doesn't all go his way, that could be it for him. >> in previous elections we've said florida, florida, florida. tonight it would see as if it's going to be pennsylvania,

pennsylvania, pennsylvania, steve kornacki. steve, thanks as always, sir. we should note here we will all be tracking steve kornacki tonight as well. check this out. if you tweet with the #trackingkornacki, there's a kornacki emoji. a lot of fun to be had there. two other states that could be nail biters tonight. wisconsin and michigan, as steve just pointed out there, president obama won both of them twice. they flipped for trz four years ago. can democrats win them back? cal perry on the ground in milwaukee. heidi przybilla in serling heights, michigan. cal, tell us about what you're seeing this morning. >> reporter: democrats hope they can run up the vote here in milwaukee. it was just a difference of 25,000 votes four years ago. they're hoping they can obviously make that up. i want to introduce you to this

gentleman i've been talking to for about 20 minutes. talk to us about your motivation. >> just read difficult for change. the last four years has been despair rat to say the least. >> what's the most important issue to you? >> better alertness to things. covid, for example, my father was the first person in wisconsin to pass from covid. that hit us hard. i want more alertness, more leadership. leadership is the most effective thing we need in this country right now. >> how hard is it for you to hear what the president says about covid? >> baffles me. i can't put it into words, just the things he say and he stands by those, the negativity he brings, it's terrible. it's terrible. >> i'm sorry for your loss. thank you for talking to us. also a five-year vet. thank you for your service. >> no problem. >> reporter: craig, we spoke to the biden campaign. they said there's a good chance

tonight they'll be down but they'll be back by the end of the night. they count the early votes separately in milwaukee. as we've been telling our viewers, pack your patience tonight on these results. >> all right. cal perry in milwaukee. heidi, you're also at a polling place there. what are you hearing from folks on the ground in michigan? >> reporter: craig, we're here in the heart of macomb county, it went twice for alabama and then went for trump. we're here with sterling heights mayor who voted for trump in 2016 and now has cast his ballot for joe biden. mr. mayor, why the change of heart? >> i don't think we have enough time to get into it. trump is just bad for our country, bad for the city of sterling heights, bad for macomb county. i made a mistake, i regret my vote. i learned early on he was not going to do what's best for us here in macomb county.

>> you said there used to be signs for trump everywhere and now there's a lot of biden sprinkled in there. >> a lot more biden than clinton signs, a lot fewer trump signs. i've heard from friends and neighbors saying they can't stomach the guy. i sense we're headed in another direction. >> this is the place where trump came and said we're going to have a manufacturing renaissance. i'm going to be focused on the forgotten man. >> what i've hearing from neighbors, friends, family member, we're concerned about his leadership on the pandemic, what he's doing, dis unifying the country. we need strong leadership, someone focused on getting our kids back to school and he's more focused on his twitter account. i think the voters here will see that, see his failed sleet ship on a number of different fronts and vote for change. >> i don't have to ex-particular into you the importance of macomb county. if macomb goes for biden.

>> forget about pennsylvania, wisconsin, florida, it's game over. >> so certain places will go for biden. certain places will go strong for trump. if macomb swings for biden, it's probably over here in michigan and the midwest. >> the bold assessment according to the mayor. thank you for that conversation, heidi. cal perry, thank you as well. there are just a few hours left until the polls close this election day. i'll talk to a former republican governor of pennsylvania who says he's voting for biden as well. we'll talk about why that state is a key battleground and perhaps when we could start to see some votes come in from the keystone state. a live look right now at a polling place in mobile, alabama. i'll check in with a senior adviser for the trump campaign and the dnc war room. all of that and more in our

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right now the battle for pennsylvania is between a native son, joe biden, and a candidate who flipped it in 2016,

president trump. hillary clinton lost the keystone state by 44,000 votes. that's less than 1% of the state's total. msnbc's stephanie ruhle is in philadelphia this morning. she's been talking to some voters. steph, what are they telling you? >> reporter: craig, people are taking election day seriously. they lined up here early at the museum of the revolution and we're not seeing huge lines here, but i can tell you from those i spoke to, they didn't vote early, not because they didn't trust the system. they wanted to show up and feel the vote. they said this year matters more than anything, and i want to share a conversation i had with one voter, heather parker. >> you've been voting for many years. was today a different voting experience than you've had before? >> absolutely. it felt more powerful than any time i've ever voted in my whole life. it felt like i was voting for myself, for my daughter, for her children, for years to come. this vote really matters. >> reporter: craig, there's a lot of talk about voting

security issues, are they going to count the votes in time. i spoke to the attorney general who said by early hours wednesday they should have the votes counted. and he doesn't feel like there was there are a lot of voter fraud issues. i'm a block away from where the constitution was signed over 200 years ago. here we are in pennsylvania, a state that could decide it all. >> can't think of a cooler place to cast a ballot, by the way than that museum. stephanie ruhle, a few blocks from the liberty bell as well. thank you. let's turn to a man who knows pennsylvania very well, tom ridge, former republican governor of that state, also our country's first secretary of homeland security in president george w. bush's administration. mr. ridge has said he will be voting for joe biden. governor, the president posted a tweet monday night, a tweet critical of the state supreme court ruling allowing pennsylvania to accept mail-in

ballots received after election day. the president claiming the decision would, quote, induce violence. we're not showing the tweet because twitter flagged it as misleading. your reaction to that? >> it's not the first time president trump has rejected an opinion of our judicial system. from time to time, it's just another reminder that not only does he not understand or respect the rule of law of the constitution, he may not understand the concept of separation of powers. at the end of the day, and i hate using that phrase, but frankly we're in the going to know at the end of this day how pennsylvanians ultimately vote, craig, because we're waiting to count 2.4 million absentee ballots that they've already received. so i think we need to remind the president that delay in pennsylvania -- by the way, in all other 49 states, delay is

not a sign of trouble. delay is not a sign of fraud. it's not a red flag. delay is counting absentee ballots in the hands of the guardians of democracy, local elected officials, republicans and democrats, been doing it year after year after year. the election is safe, the ballots are secure, and no matter what you think or say, america's voice will be heard in spite of your repudiation, again, of another judicial decision that didn't go your way. >> mr. secretary, the fbi investigating an incident in texas where vehicles of president trump supporters surrounded a biden campaign bus on the highway. the president's reaction was to criticize the fbi. what does this tell us about how the president might respond if we do, god forbid, see any sort of violence or disruption this

we week. >> whether republicans or democrats, i've had the positive experience with the elections. again, you're talking about a president and now a candidate who didn't repudiate, but actually congratulated these individuals as patriots. the elections are at the hands of 50 states and 50 different governors and 50 attorney generals, governors have capacity to deal with whatever unrest or chaos you might through your whispering campaign suggest is the appropriate response. i would encourage his followers, whether republican or democratic, this is the most fundamental institution in this republic of ours. i would plead -- i think there's no reason for anyone to react violently because all 50 states have absentee ballots. weave had 100 million people already cast their ballots. we have unprecedented voting lines. i was the 41st person in line today 15 minutes before the

polls open. let america's voice be heard, mr. president. instead of congratulating americans, call on your fellow americans, your fellow americans, mr. president. when you get elected you not only represent the people that supported you. your responsibility is much broader than that. call on the american public who you were elected to represent. be calm. be patient. let the votes be counted. real simple. >> secretary, i want to ask you about this news just coming in with regards to some of the ballots you mentioned. the u.s. postal service now reporting its fifth straight day of fewer on-time ballots. 28 states, of course, as you know, do not accept ballots that they receive after election day even if they're postmarked before the 3rd. this fifth straight day of delays from the postal service,

how concerned should we be about that? >> i think it's a legitimate concern, whether you're republican or democrat because i suspect men and women regardless of their partisan preferences have voted absentee. the question remains whether or not, if the ballot is postmarked on november 3rd or before, that the courts will allow them. i can't tell you what a judicial decision will be in that regard. these elections are state related. there are rules and they may vary from state to state. the outcome of whether or not those votes will be counted appropriately in a federal system whether the states oversee the elections. ultimately i think their guidelines will prevail. first of all, i wish i could give you and your audience some comfort they'd all be counted. we'll have to wait. more importantly, we need to understand that even in pennsylvania today, they've

already received 2.4 million absentee ballots. it's going to take them probably until thursday -- the attorney general said they might be counted as early as wednesday morning. it would be wonderful music to everyone's ears to have that kind of finality. the delay is not fraud, not a red flag. it's americans doing their job at the local level. >> governor tom rich, thank you. appreciate your time. right now we're taking a live look at voters in god's country. it's columbia, south carolina. that appears to be -- that looks like the northeast area there. no, it's not. we'll figure out exactly where that is in columbia. as we enter the final stretch of the campaign, i'll talk with a trump campaign adviser and dnc adviser about what they're watching this morning. this is msnbc.

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and honest bidding site. an ipad worth $505, was sold for less than $24; a playstation 4 for less than $16; and a schultz 4k television for less than $2. i won these bluetooth headphones for $20. i got these three suitcases for less than $40. and shipping is always free. go to dealdash.com right now and see how much you can save. i am pleased to report that we can identify this polling location in columbia, south carolina. i'm ashamed that i didn't recognize it sooner. that's the corner of pickens and waley street. that's the gamecock water tower. that's about a mile from where i used to live in columbia, south

carolina, as folks are showing up to cast their ballots. our nbc white house team reporting it is a state that president trump is very optimistic about, south carolina, of course. i want to bring in steve cortez, the senior adviser of strategy for the trump campaign. steve, let's talk about the path to 270 here. what do you think is the most likely way that the president gets there? we should also note it was steve cortez that joined me the day after the election four years ago. i believe it was me and you on the set at 30 rock. >> indeed it was. i'm not sure i've been on with you since. i guess i'll see you every four years for election tv. as far as the path to 270, the one i'm most focused on is the sunbelt sweep. primarily focused on that because we're doing incredibly well with hispanic voters.

we'll see what happens on election day. optimistic about our share of the hispanic vote all over the country. what i mean by a sunbelt sweep is we would hold states we held last time, key stoets like florida and arizona, but also pick up nevada as a swing state. we're very confident we're going to win nevada and i think we're going to get competitive in new mexico as well. if i'm right about that, that means joe biden would have to sweep all the upper midwest states, pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin and minnesota. i think that's a very tough position for the biden campaign to be in. that's our analysis right now and is my projection. >> you mentioned the president's strength with hispanic voters particularly. there's national exit polling from 2016 that showed that hillary clinton garnered about 66% of the support with latinx voters, trump with 28% four years ago. in our latest national survey it

shows mr. biden at 62% and the president has ticked up just one percentage point. where are you seeing that strength with the president among latinx voters? >> sure. i'd be happy to talk about that. in florida, for example, over the weekend, so very fresh. a "washington post"/abc poll showing us winning the hispanic vote. fox news polling which generally isn't that friendly to the president, fox news latest poll shows 38%, the previous one showed 42. they're consistently around the area as 40%. we believe we're at least in the 40s if not threatening to actually win the hispanic vote on a national level and doing better than that on some of the more conservative states. florida in particular, the latina vote there is tis tingt from hispanics in other parts of the country because there's a

bigger concentration of people of cuban and venezuelan descent. it's both what the president has done in his affirmative track record, but also the fact that the 2020 democratic party as it lurches ever further to the left and embraces a lot of the tenets of socialism and representatives of socialism, things like bernie sanders and aoc, they're alienating a lot of hispanics in florida, people who are keenly aware of the dangers of socialism because they themselves or their ancestors fled socialist regimes. those voters in florida are rallying to the trump side and will be part of the equation that puts us over the top for victory in the sunshine state today. >> steve cortez there with a bold prediction. steve, do come back before four years from now, sir. thank you for your insight and analysis. >> that's a deal. let's turn to the democrats' path tonight. for that let's bring in lily

adams, senior spokesperson and adviser for the dnc war room, also the former communications director for senator kamala harris' presidential campaign. lily, we just heard what the trump campaign is looking at tonight. what does the biden campaign's path to 270 look like? >> i think first, craig, talking about what we just heard. you called it a bold prediction they'll win states like new mexico and nevada. i would call it delusional that they'll win new mexico and nevada. it haven't seen donald trump in new mexico in quite some time. this is the heart of the problem for the trump campaign. he has a very narrow path to 270 to try to replicate what he did four years ago whereas vice president biden and senator harris have multiple paths, whether they go through the sunbelt, through the midwest and the great lakes states, there are multiple paths that get them over the top to 270. with the turnout we see in early

vote, we go in with a very strong advantage today. >> what states are democrats wore ride about among those battleground states? are there any? >> look, i think you're always going to worry until every vote is counted. there are states we're seeing that were states donald trump won like arizona, wisconsin, north carolina, where you see that today based on our modeling that donald trump would have to win more than 60% of the election day vote that i think is just not borne out in any polling or data that we're seeing out there. what we saw is so much of this vote is already in. in every state, every battleground state that has party registration available, democrats are ahead heading into the final stretch of election day. >> let's talk about a state you know well, the lone star state, texas. democrats, again this cycle, seem to think texas is very much in play. for viewers and listeners on

sirius satellite radio who probably don't know this, your grandmother ann richards was the last democratic governor of that state. how are you feeling about texas today? >> look, i think it's a really strong sign for democrats that we're having this conversation. i not only feel very bullish about the chances of how competitive this can be at the top of the ticket, but also i feel extremely proud that texas democrats might win back the texas statehouse for the first time since 2002. i think we'll see heavy gains with the house of representative seats up in texas and those suburban areas. i feel very bullish going into election day. part of the reason is because of the strong suburban support that vice president biden and kamala harris are seeing, but also because of the hard work that people have done in texas for 20 years now, since my grandmother won that governor's seat many years ago to try to flip the state and push it blue. >> lily adams, we're out of

time. i didn't get a chance to ask what position you'd take in a biden/harris administration. we'll save that for post election analysis should your candidate win. >> thanks so much. nbc's special election night coverage kicks off just a few hours from now, 4:00 p.m. eastern with nicolle wallace followed by chris hayes at 5:00. then brian williams, rachel maddow, joy reid, likely putting things into context into tomorrow. the biden campaign has its eye on three red states have on the picked a democratic for president in 20 years. we'll go live to those three potential new battlegrounds when we come back in just a moment as we leave you with a live look at a polling location in wilmington, north carolina. frustrated that your clothes get damaged

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arizona, texas and georgia, they have not picked a democrat for president in more than two decades. so far in arizona, more than 2.4 million people have already voted. in texas it's more than 9.6 million, and in georgia more than 3.9 million folks have cast their ballots. we want to check in with our reporters on the ground in those three key states. gadi schwartz is in glendale, arizona, morgan chess ski is in el paso, texas. we start with nbc's priscilla thompson in norcross, georgia. what's the scene there? >> reporter: we're tracking issues in spalding county about an hour away from here where when polls opened the computers went down. they weren't working.

the county had to scramble to get paper ballots to their more than 20 polling locations across the county. we're monitoring that. the good news is here on the ground in gwinnett county, we haven't seen widespread technical issues and haven't seen long lines. this morning folks did begin lining up at 5:00 a.m. by the time polls opened, there were three dozen people in line at the first polling location i was at. those folks moved through quickly. they were concerned that the lines would be longer. that hasn't been the case. i spoke with a spokesman for the county about that and he says turnout today has been lighter than they expected. certainly lighter than what they'd see on a typical election day. obviously this year is far different because so many people have already voted early in person or by absentee. about 60% of the registered voters in this county have already done that. we'll be keeping an eye on these lines throughout the day. now, my colleague morgan chesky is just a few states away in texas. morgan, what's it like on the

ground in el paso? >> reporter: priscilla, good morning. certainly an excitement in texas that we haven't seen for several election cycles. that's because for the first time in my lifetime texas is being labeled as as to-up state with polls putting biden and trump neck and neck. the signs out loud and proud, everyone trying to get the last bit of campaigning in. the sheer number of texans that already cast their vote in early vote surpass the entire amount of people that casted a vote back in 2016. if you ask folks what will be the difference maker in this election, they point to 1.8 million new registered voters since 2016. democratic operatives will tell you the majority of those people will vote for joe biden. republicans will say it all depends on how many people actually turn out to the polls. if we're right under 10 million right now, this number could eclipse 12 million.

we're talking about truly unprecedented territory for texas. my colleague gadi schwartz is following the latest in arizona we'll send it to him. gadi. >> reporter: morgan, we're seeing very similar stuff here in arizona. we're in glendale right now. you're seeing this long line. it's important to note as you see people standing in line, arizona has also surpassed with the early vote alone in 20 to the entire vote during 2016. so there is quite a bit of excitement out here. the big question is, we've got 700,000 more registered voters than in 2016 in 2020. who are those registered voters? where are they coming from? are they new transplants, people that will fall in line with this state's long history of being in the republican corner? the truth is it's probably somewhere in the middle. we've seen a huge influx of people moving in from states like california. we've seen an explosion in the

population of the young vote. in fact, maricopa county has 18% of young people living there. one of the largest percentages in the entire country. again, you can't discount the poll that president trump has here. maricopa county was the county that gave him the most votes in 2016. we'll season enough. craig, back to you. >> gadi schwartz for us there in arizona. morgan chesky, thank you. priscilla thompson, thank you as well. a live look right now at more voters who are lined up in columbia, south carolina and mobile, alabama. south carolina on the left side of your screen, mobile, alabama on the right side. up next, we're going to head live to north carolina, south carolina's hat. we'll also go to florida, the specific communities and counties our experts are going to be watching very closely in the sunshine state. first, though, check out one voter who just hit the polls moments ago, the last democratic

nominee for president, hillary clinton sharing this photo on twitter writing just voted, felt good. [ beeping ] [ engine revs ] ♪ uh, you know there's a 30-minute limit, right? tell that to the rain. [ beeping ] for those who were born to ride, there's progressive. hello is friendly... hello is open... it's welcoming... everything we want to be when helping people find a medicare plan. so if you're looking for yours, say hello to hellomedicare... ...a one stop shop for medicare plans, ...including a range of unitedhealthcare medicare advantage plans.

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asaving 50% vs. other carriers built just for customers 55 and up. with 2 unlimited lines for less than $30 each. call 1-800-t-mobile or go to t-mobile.com/55. a state that could tell us a lot about where the night is headed pretty early, florida. both parties believe turnout is the key to victory in the sunshine state.

one group of voters, republicans are looking at, cuban-americans. the state is home to 66% of the cuban-american voting population and according to the pew research center, most, 58%, most identify as republican. msnbc's alicia menendez is in miami lakes, florida with more. >> reporter: craig, many voters here voted early. andrea is the director of new florida majority. what are you doing to get voters out in this final stretch? >> we have over 800 canvassers around the state, knocking on doors of voters who voted yet. and you can see, music at the polls, fun, celebration of voting on election day. we're seeing a ton of energy

around the state and hoping a lot of people will come out who want the trefump era to end. >> reporter: so much enthusiasm among cubans and cuban-americans. of course the state is diverse. organizers are trying to get out puerto ricans, dominicans, and the rest of that electorate. >> alicia menendez, we love live shots like that, thank you for that. nbc's trymaine lee is in north carolina. what are you seeing and hearing from voters there, buddy? >> reporter: craig, i'll tell what you, it's amazing, beautiful day out here in durham, in durham county. it's been slow and steady all day. last election cycle, hillary clinton won this county but lost the state. meanwhile, 170,000 black voters who voted in 2012 did not vote in 2016. so it's all about turnout.

but right now, in this cycle, the 1.5 million black registered voters in north carolina, 900,000 have already voted. so the big question now is, it's all about turnout. still, folks we talked to said they didn't want to mess around with the mail, they wanted to vote in person here today. let's take a listen to one of them. >> i don't trust the mail thing, the voting in the mail thing, i really don't trust that. so it's better to vote in person so you know that you got all your votes down. >> i voted for biden. i don't know too much about the election but i have watched some of the stuff on tv about what he would do for everybody. >> reporter: we're getting a lot of the voters we talked to saying they voted for biden, which is no surprise, this is a democratic county. folks are still excited, it's about turnout. so far it's been a slow trickle but so many folks have voted early, the big question is how many will turn out for election day. >> that is the big question.

trymaine lee in another battleground state for us, north carolina, trymaine, thank you, sir. today is your last chance to vote in this election. voting is a right we have because so many americans fought for it, died for it, a right that many of us take for granted. americans like andrew goodman, james cheney, michael schwermer. they were in mississippi to register folks to vote in 1964 when kkk members abducted them, then brutally killed them. americans like a mother of five from detroit. she saw images from bloody sunday on tv, that notorious day on the he edmuond pettus bridge. she headed south to volunteer to drive protesters in alabama.

a kkk member shot and killed her. on that bridge, the late congressman john lewis faced down armed officers, one of whom cracked is skull so we could all vote. this is our first national election without congressman lewis. so we thought we would leave you with his words. >> my dear friends, your vote is precious, almost sacred. it is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have to create a more perfect union. [ cheers and applause ]

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and happy election day. i'm andrea mitchell at msnbc election headquarters in new york, as millions of voters across the country join those millions more who have already voted, shattering all records for an american election. the candidates could not be more different in their approaches to the big challenges facing our country. a pandemic nearing an even darker hour. an economy on the edge. unemployment, racial inequality, and a partisan divide ripping communities apart. after phoning supporters from the white house today, president trump will meet with campaign staffers at his virginia headquarters and national republican committee operators to rally the troops o