good afternoon from new york. i'm chris hayes and we're now officially one hour away from the first polls in the country closing in parts of indiana as well as kentucky on an election day in america where basically no news so far is good news. that is what i want to explain. noib wants a lot of incidents and reports of wrong doing and so far things seem to be progressing smoothly because

largely more than 100 million americans already cast ballots before the day began. all of the in person voting systems across this country that could have been faced today with a crush, amidst a pandemic raging out of control, they've had that load lifted for them. i've personally heard reports from people all over the country who are used to waiting in line saying today has been easy and thank god for that. in the last hour joe biden spoke about what he's hearing about the turnout so far. >> what i'm hearing is that there is overwhelming turnout. and overwhelming turnout particularly of young people, of women, and there is an overwhelming turnout among african-americans, for example in, georgia and florida over the age of 65. so, i mean, the things that are happening bode well for the base that has been supporting me. but we'll see. we'll see. >> despite or because of the

coronavirus pandemic we shattered the record for early voting already and while we don't know what the final turnout numbers will look like, it does seem reasonable to expect a high turnout election based off of everything that we've seen. up until today. we'll begin with our correspondents who are fanned out across country at polling places in key battleground states. rehema alice is in philadelphia and morgan ratford. how has it been. >> reporter: just as you mentioned in your introduction to all of this, this morning here at fill more in what is called fish town on the water front, a diverse community here in philadelphia. people lined up around 5:30 to get in here for 7:00 and concerned they may see super line longs. once they got in, it is a place that holds about 2500 people, they had no problem voting.

since then we've seen a trickle of voters coming and going. no incidents reported whatsoever in this area. i should also tell that you one of the things that this location they said this time last year they had a 62% turnout of registered voters from this community. before today, they had a 52% turnout of registered voters in early voting. as ever as of today, 24%. so they are 74% of turnout of voters in this area in this election versus only 62% from four years ago. so for them, this is a very solid turnout. what have people been saying. they're talking about covid as something that is on their mind. they're talking about the appointment of federal judges. they want to see competence in their officials in particularly in the white house. and they're also concerned about criminal justice and police reform. and i should tell you, chris, that police reform is literally on the ballot here in philadelphia. there is a question that is saying to people, do they want

to see a change in the police frisk -- stop-and-frisk policy. voters here in philadelphia have a decision on that and it is coming after you know just last week there were riots following the police killing of a black man just last week here in philadelphia. so these are issues that people are thinking about in this community. and they're voting on. >> nbc's rehema ellis, thank you for that dispatch. now turning to morgan ratford live in charlotte, north carolina. a hotly contested state. what have you seen today in charlotte, morgan? >> reporter: that is right, chris. i'm back in my home state of north carolina and at this hour there are two big things that we're keeping an eye on. number one, this afternoon, we heard from the state board of elections and they said there will now be a 45 minute delay in reporting results from precincts across the state. that is because there were a few polling locations that with going to stay open a little bit later because they got a later start. so again, that does not mean that all of the precincts

tonight will be open 45 minutes later but me through wait 45 minutes to report until the last polling station closes. the second thing we're watching is interesting because we've been talking to state party officials from both parties as well as a state board of elections and they're keeping an eye on the final hours on the unaffiliated voters. they have seen a surnl in the north of 100,000 registered voters since the last election and keeping an eye on the 400,000 registered unaffiliated voters since the last election. so typical my whether we talk to officials they tend to generally swing republican in this particular state. but just recently they've been seeing a lot of new families, young families moving into that area so some state republicans are concerned they're going to swing democrat. we've been here at the polling station talking to people you will day about the issues they care about. they've talked about the pandemic, response to covid, talked about jobs, health care,

the economy, the things that you would expect to hear from people in a battleground state in a hotly contested race, not only for the presidency but for the senate. that is what we're hearing now is two and a half hours before the poll close. but again we'll not hear anything about the reporting of the results until 8:15 tonight. >> morgan thank you for that great reminder for everyone watching this as the numbers come in. d's and r's unphilaffiliated. no one knows what is up except in a few rare instances maybe in nevada where they have a good track record. but keep that in mind. we don't know what the splits with of r's and d's. joining us now john clain and former white house ebola response coordinator and political analyst ser lena maxwell and senior director of progressive programming for sirius xm. ron, i saw an item today, there

is jaw boning and attempt job from the trump camp when with he might declare a victory. i saw this today a reporter in axios if news organizations declare joe biden the elect he plans to address the new nation even if president trump continues to fight in court advisers tell axios. tell us about that. >> reporter: well, look, chris, joe biden doesn't decide who won the election, donald trump doesn't decide who won the election, the american people decide. and if the results tonight or overnight or whenever they come in show that joe biden has won the election, then he will address the country as someone who has won the election. we're not going to get in front of it. we're not going to leap frog it. we're going to let the voters decide the outcome. that is who is the judge in our system. it is not the candidates, it is the voters. and we're seeing record numbers of them coming to the polls and voting early and in person. they're voices will be heard tonight and i'm very hopeful that voices will speak out for

joe biden and kamala harris. >> zerlina, we've gotten used to the last eight or nine months watching a lot of failures at many levels. and one thing that is striking to me as we watch this election day steam towards the conclusion, 100 million voters voting early that there as been success in administering elections in this country. in some cases it is the happy story thus far, a lot of people working as poll workers and doing hard to work to make sure voter could vote safely. >> absolutely, chris. and that is really the credit to organizing on the ground. not just on the biden campaign and on the behalf of democrats, but also just the organic grassroots organizing that began with the women's march on january 21st, the day after donald trump as sworn in in 2017 and continued through the 2018 midterms and special election since. and so i think that what you're seeing is people have planned

ahead of time for what to expect on election day and i think it is really important to establish that the fact that 100 million people have already voted it allowed the joe biden campaign to target those folks in the voter data base and universe that are left. and that gives them an incredible advantage on the day of g.o. tv. so if you're able to curb the dropoff of 1 million voters, that is sufficient, chris, so i think to your point and open about whether donald trump thinks he wants to declare victory, that is not up to him. it is going to be to whoever gets to 270 as you said on your show. but also i think that the smooth nature of today's so far, knock on wood, is the credit to organizers who have put themself out front as americans and are participating in an engaging democracy and that is a really

great thing to see on a day like today. >> so i want you to stick with me but we want to go to the man of the evening. steve kornacki who has i believe our first look of any exit polls of the evening. tell us about where the follows come from and what they say. >> let's talk about this before i show you the numbers. it is the first wave of the exit polls. we're going to get more over the next few hours. there were folks at polling sites collecting interviews with people who voted early but there was a lot more this year in terms of exit polling of contacting voters and all sort of states that voted early and voted by mail, and voted in person early. fining out who they were, and calling them and including them in the exit polls so it is a big effort. i'll show you a couple of national numbers about broad things in the exit poll. i think this is an interesting question. asking voters to choose between

two the major theeps hemes here. you heard about controlling the coronavirus and rebuilding the economy which was a more important issue to you. and you're seeing here 52 saying containing the coronavirus, 42% saying rebuilding the economy. again, national first wave exit poll take that for what it is. also there was some time of the decision here. we talked so much about having minds made up well in advance of the election. i remember in 2016, we were saying, wow, 85% had minds made up well before the last month. you're seeing the same number here. 85% saying it wasn't the last month of this campaign. it was well before the last month of this campaign that they made up their minds. and then a couple of candidate qualities we kind of through at folks an said which one matters the most, four doififferent choices. 32% saying a strong leader. that is the most important thing to them. having good judgment, clocked in at number two. caring about people like me at 21 percent.

and then uniting the country at 19%. these are the four main qualities, you see what folks were weighing in on there. so some broad sort of qualities of candidate character there and then the two major issues, chris, hear about a lot. >> could i ask a method logical question to be clear on this. this is data that includes a sort of random sampling of people that voted early and from this morning voting today. >> yeah, traditionally, you have thousands of folks around the country at polling sites. that is still there. but in recognition of 100 million people voting early, now we say it is a poll, it is a phone poll but when you see the media polls in advance of the election, where biden is up five or trump is up two, those will have 800 or 900 people, we're talking about tens of thousands so it is a different type of poll, the exit poll. and it is been done for years in states that have heavy early voting. we're just doing it in many more states now. >> i want to go back and i think

we still have ron and zero lena and i want to follow up. i want to be clear, these are not gospel or outcome, it is an early snapshot of a part but not whole of the electorate. but i do think the coronavirus question posed there, ron, was interesting. i think the two things aren't oppositional to each other. i think that getting a strong economy depending on dealing with virus. but i'm curious your reaction to how you think about that issue and how it is played out in this campaign? >> well, chris, i think you're exactly right which is obviously joe biden has from the earliest days of this outbreak been on top of it. he's launched a plan to deal with it. he's talked about all of the ways trump mishandled it. but whichever way the voters answered the question, joe biden is the better candidate for president. he has the plan to fight coronavirus. and unless we get the virus under control, we're not going to get our economy back to where it needs to be. now he has an kpik plan to build

back better. that is part of it. when you look at exit polls you're seeing voters strongly believe in biden able to handle coronavirus and a strong vote of confidence on the economy. the two things put together plus his ability to unite the country and our discussion about how we're going to bring people together to solve problems, i think all of those things are leading to what i hope will be a very good night for us today. >> zerlina, that polling on when people made up their mind is fascinating and points to the last nine months of our lives, the craziest most tumultuous that we have lived through in which the polling and the politics were shockingly stable in terms of what we've seen. >> yeah, that is does surprise me, chris. because i think one of the things i've been thinking about all week is the fact that the pandemic has essentially equalized some of the impact of the damage and incompetence of

the trump administration. early on it was the muslim ban or child separation which impacted specific communities but the pandemic was something that impacted everyone. not in the exact same way. but certainly changed everyone's daily lived existence and i think that that is the most pressing concern. so it does surprise me a bit that folks had perhaps decided before they had to go into quarantine. but i do think especially in the late phase of the campaign here, basically donald trump's rally schedule was a reinforcing message that he does not take the pandemic seriously, that he does not follow scientific guidelines and defying them every single time he has a rally. so even though he thought those rallies were great for hip, i think it just reinforced in voters' mind he's not able to handle the crisis which needs to be handled in order to get the economy back on track and get the country back on track. >> it is a great reminder just because it is fln election day, there are ubs if coming in that

accident lo -- that don't look great. and there are people watching that are worried about loved ones and hospitalized. ron and zerlina, thank you both. zerlina will be up late on peacock with metty hassan starting at midnight on the choice. a lot more to get though this hour. we'll look at how democrats auto pushing back against disqualifying ballots and joe biden's fight to pick off red states. we also have james car vel with us. it is election day and settle in and don't go anywhere. and don't go anywhere. - [narrator] this is steve. he used to have gum problems. now, he uses therabreath healthy gums oral rinse with clinically-proven ingredients and his gum problems have vanished. (crowd applauding) therabreath, it's a better mouthwash. at walmart, target and other fine stores. and then there's the best. we like cage free, and which ones just taste fresher and more flavorful? only eggland's best.

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after the polls close tonight we could see the opening of what might be the largest post election legal bat until american history. that depends on what happens tonight. the trump and biden campaigns have deployed hundreds of lawyers to key battleground states for what could be a state by state and county by county

fight over which ballots should be counted. and that could go well beyond 2,000 when all eyes were on flo and the hanging chads. president has been focused on pennsylvania since the u.s. supreme court declined to overvalue a pennsylvania state supreme court ruling that the state must count mail-in ballots received up to three days after the election. trump called the decision dangerous and claims without reasoning or justification that it will lead to quote, rampant and unchecked cheating. joining us now alex wagner and in the heart of bucks countries, pennsylvania, also with election law analyst ned folly and anita gupta, former head of the civil rights division at the justice department. alex, i think pennsylvania has been probably the most watched state for a whole bench of i think because the clearest path to a biden ivanka is a michigan, wisconsin,

pennsylvania win. pennsylvania polling the closest there. also there has been a ton of litigation. how does it look from bucks county where you are? >> democrats are ready. i spent time with the bucks county commissioner the other day and he has tried to prepare for every eventuality. i think they're most concerned about the secrecy envelope that needs to be enclosed and there could be no marks and must be seals and there is stray marks on the outside of envelopes and not entirely sealed. but i'm sitting right now had the headquarters of the democratic party where there is a small army of lawyers who will be going back and forth to the building through that window which is where the county board of elections is meeting and they are going toe-to-toe with any republican lawyers who were trying to pull out some of the ballots for qualifications s, s both sides are ready and have their eyes set on the prize which is the ballots.

>> there are normal and abnormal jockeying. i've covered close elections and when it is razor thin margins there are fights over ballots and what can and can't be counted. that happens in the queens d.a. race but the president's aserks that you have to know election night is ludicrous and nowhere in our laws an i wan to play this clip of him compressing this idea that lawyers will go in and deliver him victory on election night. take a listen. >> i think it is a terrible thing when people are or states are allowed to tabulate ballots for a long period of time after the election is over. and i think it is a very dangerous decision because you're going to have one or two or three states depending on how it ends up, with a tabulating ballots an the rest of the world is waiting to find out. now i don't know if that is going to be changed.

because we're going to go in the night of, as soon as that election is over, we're going in with our lawyers. >> we're going in with our lawyers. i think donald trump has learned throughout his 40 years career that there is a lot you could do with lawyers but i'm not quite sure they're going to give him what he wants here. what do you think? >> well after trump said that, everyone clamored to say every state in the union actually tabulates ballots after voting ends on november 3rd. so the reality is that given covid and what the strain of covid has placed on elections and the fact that we're seeing a surge of people voting by mail, there needs to be some patience to figure out to give the states the time to actually do the counting. what is interesting is that today just now the michigan secretary of state just announced that it is likely that michigan will be announcingity results tonight because so far they have relatively smooth

operation of elections. but we all know that we have to be patient. and the president could say whatever he wants. but the fact is that the voters are going to decide this election. there is no question that we are seeing unprecedented amounts of lawyers basically getting deployed to protect the count largely as a result of what the president and republicans have been trying to do, to disqualify votes, technicalities and baseless charges. but in the end, i fully believe that it is the voters that will determine this election and my only ask right now is that for voters that are maybe standing in line around the country, stay in line. you've got to -- you'll be able to vote as long as you're in line. voters are coming through this election despite all of the noise, all of the distractions. >> you know, ned, there was a case in texas yesterday that was really embodied i think a lot of what has been going on this election. we've seen an avalanche of

lawsuits by the gop and republican affiliated individuals. to try to disqualify ballots to make it harder to count them. in this case, an audacious lawsuit at the district court level rejected by the texas supreme court so throw out 127,000 cast ballots at drive through voting locations in harris county that the federal judge, the district level threw that out but the result was interesting, the clerk announcing that for election day they would reduce to only one site of this drive through voting because they were worried about status of those ballots counted on election day which shows how much the courts have loomed over election administration. >> well that is true. i think the clerk there was cautious. i would like to think that the legal system will protect voters, especially voters who rely on what they're told by election officials and by the courts about what is valid. so, i'm hopeful that all of the

voters who do the right thing in terms of what they're told will get their ballots counted properly. whether it is texas or pennsylvania or north carolina or anywhere. >> yeah, alex, we're the same age and same generation. we remember y 2 k, and it is a fascinating story, people thought that the computers around the world would melt down because the dates only included two digits and there was a lot of work done to work on that so it won't be a disaster and then it wasn't a disaster. and i think you could make a little bit of a case so far about the election administration process. there was a lot of warnings and in response to the warning a lot of changes and energy such that we're now in a place that so far is looking pretty good. >> absolutely. that is the sense that i've gotten across the country, chris. there is widespread awareness over what could happen and there are widespread preparations to make sure those eventually don't come to pass. i will tell you the bucks county

commissioner knows the spotlight that is on him. he told me he wakes up in the middle of the night thinking about things that might go wrong, rights texts down and send them in waking hours to his workers to make sure that things go smoothly. sometimes i think we've grown up as long as we're dating ourselves in an era of decay and this is one of the moments where it feels like the institutions might actually work and that is exhilarating. >> i think it is a great point. again, we're at 5:30 here on the east coast on election day. so nothing is done until it is done. but there is a a lot of hard work. thank you all. ahead, joe biden is making a push in red states like georgia and texas. tom perez will talk about expanding the map ahead. and the battle for control of the senate, senator mazie hirono joins us after this break. i'm susan and i'm 52 and i live in san francisco, california.

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texas turning blue is literally a long time coming. this is been in the making for two years. nobody believed it until 2018 occurred. the folks across the street, i love it. there is nothing like election. >> a lot of enthusiasm in the state of texas, a state seeing record breaking voter turnout in one of several democrats are hoping to turn blue as the latest polls show trump and biden neck-and-neck. a tight race in the lone star state. campaign manager jen o'malley dillon told reporters we feel like it is clear we're winning. all data underscores how many path ways we believe we have and how few trump has. let's bring in correspondent garrett haake live in houston.

>> reporter: yeah, chris, it is been fascinating. about a million and a half, almost 1.4 million and change those who live in harris countries came out and cast their ballots early. if they could get the number of total votes here in harris county up around 1.7 to 1.8 million they will feel good about taking this state over. they'll bank 150,000 votes so they need to see about 150,000 more before close of business tonight to really make them think that they have this on lock. if you look around the state, i've heard about democrats they feel good about dallas and tarrant county which is super interesting, that's the dallas-fort worth suburbs and a place that beto o'rourke flipped and where they think they could accumulate votes. earlier in the day they were concerned about the rio grande valley and el paso, to turn the latino voters into actual voters to get turn out, but look you

follow texas politics as closely as i did. if he does win the state, he's going to do so in the massive turnout numbers. i have to set aside my expectations. i've been to this polling place a couple of times and there is usually long lines. that is not the case today. but the numbers are what the numbers are and i think we could be in for a very interesting night in this state. >> the benchmarks are what i've heard and this is very close. harris county moved to democrats and tarrant was the holdout where you had the traditional suburban affluent southern voter that has moved away from republicans and we saw that from 2018 and interesting to see where the splits are tonight. thanks for that dispatch. very interesting night ahead for the state of texas. another traditionally red state, democrats are highing today is georgia. want to blayne alexander who is live in atlanta. what is it like there, blaine?

>> reporter: well it is quite remarkable here. we're in fulton county, the most populous county in the state of georgia and the thing that stood out to me today and so many people watching georgia is what you heard garrett say, the short lines. just walk with me. this is where we were back in june and the lines were stretched there around and the corner and around the corner again. people were waiting forge hours. i spoke to a woman holding her baby and getting rained on waiting for four hours. today literally like night and day. and officials, every official i've talked to from precinct managers to the secretary of state are pointing to early voting. because people turned out in such large and record breaking numbers, almost 4 million people cast their ballots early and that is why we're seeing this around the state of georgia seeing short wait times. about two minutes on average the secretary of state said for the

state of georgia. all that means with georgia being so closely watched today as a possible state that could be flipped blue by democrats it means we could have results in a timely manner. he's saying they could come in as early as tonight with noon tomorrow at the very latest. >> that is fascinating. polls close at 7:00 p.m. in the state of georgia. if you're watching this, and you're seeing that, it is a good day, you could go vote. you could put on a mask and go vote around this country and you're almost certainly not in enormous lines. i can't guarantee that but we're seeing it place after place. thank you both. that was great. joining us now, the chairman of the democratic national committee tom perez in preparation for this evening in delaware. how are you feeling, tom? >> i feel optimistic. as o'malley and dillon said and we have multiple path ways to success. and donald trump has a very

narrow panelway. i spent the weekend, i spent saturday, sunday and part of yesterday in texas. if i told you a year ago i would spend the last weekend before the election in texas, that would have surprised you. but texas is genuinely in play. and i was in all of the cities along the rio grande valley, whether it was corpus christi brownsville and others cities and where i would slightly disagree with garrett is i understand that you have numbers in places like harris countries, tarrant county, but you also when you start adding up what is happening, in these other counties, it is remarkable. and latinos are turning out big time. i think when you look at you're going to see remarkable latino turnout. when you look at williamson county which is suburban austin. in 2014 that was hard core republican and now ready to flip

everything top to bottom. and everyone i talked to, everyone in my six city swing here, they said to me, joe biden and kamala harris are so helpful at the top of the ticket. there is a fusion coalition of hard core democrats, people coming out for the first time and independents and john mccain republicans. but i could call them here in texas, i think they're george w. bush conservatives and there is nothing compassionate about anything donald trump has done during his presidency. so it is not only watching the democratic turnout, i think you ought to keep an eye on the independents and republicans who are party of lincoln republicans, party of george w. bush republicans and similarly in georgia, the reason why i saw short lines in that piece there is because atlanta and fulton county and most of atlanta have

already blown through their 2016 numbers. and so that is the story in every county i was in in texas over the weekend. and that is why -- but we want people to run through the tape. so if you're in line, make sure you stay in line. and whether it is in texas, georgia, or anywhere across the country. because we're leaving nothing to chance in all of these battlegrounds. >> tom perez, there in wilmington, delaware. has been crisscrossing the country in anticipation of this day. thank you so much for making time for us tonight. >> pleasure to be with you. and tonight, controlling the senate, maze your hirono of hawaii. and this senator battle laz gone back and forth. there were a possibility that has shown republicans now favored in whether that is alaska or kansas but still a solid tier of races that are either toss up or leaning democratic. how important is senate control

to you. >> it is all important because as long as mitch mcconnell is in control of the senate, we're not able to pass legislation that will help people that will actually address the pandemic and get it under control. so it is critical. mitch mcconnell has sat on a -- that will help people during this pandemic for five months. so it is all important. for any number of reasons. >> i wonder what your thinking as -- since you bring this up, election day is today but the senate and the president will be the same tomorrow and the day after that and for a month or two. we might hit 100 to y,000 covids is there thinking that could be done after today to get this -- this pandemic under control and get people the relief they need? >> i think what could happen ifs if mitch mcconnell in the -- decides to pass all kinds of legislation that will actually harm people, than when we take

back the senate, that is why it is so important that everyone continue to vote and that every vote counts. because we can undo the things that he does in the last moments if that is what it is going to take to move us forward. >> your state of hawaii, i noticed there with these really interesting stats about early turnout and some of the states were the ones you heard a lot about. texas for instance, georgia. and their there are states that are hotly contested for the first time in several decades. hawaii was at the top of the list. what is going on in hawaii that people are running to the polls? >> they know what is at stake and so there is a lot of energy. and i think that the idea of being able to vote for joe biden and kamala harris is energizing everybody. so we've had more people voting in hawaii than before statehood. so that is astounding and that is why i have hope that insanity

and decency could be brought back to our country through the election of joe biden and kamala harris. >> just so folks know, we're showing the early exits. those are not definitive. but interesting numbers down there as they go state by state. senator mazie hirono is from the state of hawaii which smashed the turnout before election day started. thank you, senator. >> thank you. aloha, everyone. >> and what to watch for tonight, james carville and fran chesa will join us. you're there for the long haul. come back in a few minutes. and we'll keep going. going ♪spread a little love today

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all right we're coming up on the one hour warning. it is close. 7:00 p.m. eastern polls will close in georgia, indiana, cent,

south carolina and virginia and vermont and it is state until morning. we've got a few polls closing at 6:00 p.m. and a few counties in kentucky and indiana when our live coverage starts 12 minutes from now. joining us now james carville and fran clesa desoto. victoria, le me start with you. i've seen a lot of interesting reporting and polling is around latino voters and incredibly heterogenius group of folks that span with different political inclinations and showing that joe biden has come down from hillary clinton ab what are you looking for in terms of turn youts and also the margins there. >> right. so both of those, latinos have the dubious honor of having the lowest rate of turnout. but what we've been seeing in

this early voting period and also what we saw in 2018 is latinos are starting to buck that trend. they're saying, you know what, we are now awakening, excuse the cliche of the sleeping giant. so i think just looking at my home state of texas, the early vote numbers are incredible and i think they show a new trajectory. when itms could to the choice, there is a lot of question there. because we have been seeing the trump campaign putting a lot of work into courting latino votes. they know they don't need an overwhelming amount of latinos to support them but they need about 30% and that is the target and they've been putting in the work. so the question is, these new latinos who have been turning out are they going to lean democratic or republican. if i were a betting woman, just looking at the youth turnout and the registration of the young latinos, think that is going to help the democrats in seeing that new voter enthusiasm. >> james, you have had the

thesis throughout and pretty simple election in many ways that there is an incumbents president running for re-election and the country is a mass and in bad shape and in 1992 when bill >> yes, he's never going to win. look at my shirt. it's mardi gras. all this bedwetting, i think what people are going to be surprised about is that younger latinos are going to va g ting greater proportion than anybody thought. that's something i base on not just a wish and a whim but i think they'll surprise enough and traditionally i voted demographic but i think we'll be surprised how the news that i hear out of florida is genuinely encouraging. i think we're going to have a big night.

i thought that. i've said it all year long. i don't see a single thing that causes me to pause in that prediction. >> let me ask you a followup about those two states i talked about, georgia and texas. georgia, texas, ohio represent the three highest electoral vote totals that donald trump won in 2016. those are all three states where their polling averages are within a point or two. what does it mean for the demographic party in those states if donald trump ends up carrying them narrowly? does that mean for politics in that state to be competitive this way? >> in texas there is actually a reasonable chance that the legislature could flip in those two states. lina hildago, the county commissioner in harris county, one of the most significant

elections you'll see. we're going to pay attention to these state legislative races. my friend calvin might be the next speaker of the georgia house from columbucolumbus, geo. i'll keep an eye on that. i'm not concerned at all that biden is going to win. what i hope is the margin is sufficient and is definitive that the country tells this guy exactly what they think. if you look over my shoulder, you'll see there is a little papi van wrinkle left at $200 an ounce and it's going down tonight, one way or another. >> this is the first election since 2000. this happens every 20 years you have election in which two things are on the ballot, obviously, the president, you have every house race, state legislatures but you've also got a redistricting coming up based on the census which means election night again, those down belt races all the way flowing through in every state of union will have implications for ten

years from now. >> so chris, in 2010 when we had the tea party revolution close to 700 state legislative seats flipped and that has changed the course of the decade, right? we see the politics that we see i think in large part because of the tea party revolution. hear in texas the tea party won so many seats that they had a superhear jurorty th supermajori supermajority. they didn't need to technically show up. the focus on the states. it's not as sexy as politics but presidential politics are important but what happens during redistricting years is crucial. for me, that's something i'm keeping my eye on and as james said, texas has a very real possibility of flipping and i think if the house here in texas flips, we're going to see a lot of changes in texas across the board. >> james, there has been a lot of characteristic bravado and

trash talk from the trump campaign trying to sike a lot of people out. >> he is elusive. he lost the biggest midterm election in the last 100 years with the highest turnout. he's approval is 43%. he's not a paper tiger, he's a nothing. he's nothing. he's going to get deseeded soundly. it going to be a good win. it going to be good for the united states tonight. people have been tired of this guy since the night he was elected. the only people that fear him are these bedwetting democrats who are going to win. get over it. going to be a good night and professor victoria, i'd ask you but i do think we're going to see some -- i think we'll see a

nice increase in the young vote in this cycle. i think people are under estimating how activated the youth of this country is. i really do. >> we've seen victor some indication of the early vote. >> we have. we have seen across the board young folks come out and vote like never before. again, latino folks. here is the campaign speaks to them. i think the coronavirus, the silver lining to it is that politics has become much more personal, and we know that young folks, black, white, brown don't vote because politics tends to be more far removed. you don't have a mortgage to pay. you're not paying taxes. with the coronavirus and so many deaths, deaths of loved ones, politics is much more personal and young people are seeing it. >> yeah and it's a good reminder of the pandemic, which continues to burn out of control on the backdrop of this day in this very, very difficult year for so many. james carville, victoria, that

was great. thank you very much. all right. the first polls will be closing at the top of the hour. the first characterizations of the night are coming in just over an hour from now. msnbc prime time coverage, brian williams, joy reid, rachel maddow, nicole wallace, we start after a short break. stay with us. wallace, we start after a short break. stay with us ♪ since pioneering the suv in 1935, the chevy suburban has carried many things. nothing more important than family. introducing the most versatile and advanced chevy suburban and tahoe ever.

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>> announcer: live from democracy plaza, here now are rachel maddow and brian williams. >> here we go, 6:00 p.m. in the east and we're underway. americans have been voting for days setting records and still voting at this hour in what is a titanic struggle for the future of our country. it will now be decided during an uncontrolled pandemic in our country, which explains the 100 million plus votes that are already in. brian williams here with you