Addressing the virus. Cases are on the rise nationwide and were nearing 240,000 deaths due to covid. And our hearts go out to each and every family thats lost a loved one to this terrible disease. In america, the vote is sacred. Its how people of this nation express their will and it is the will of the voters, no one, not anything else chooses the president of the United States of america. All right. Former Vice President biden urging people to stay calm and be patient and he says he has no doubt that when this is all said and done, that he will now we have yet to hear from President Trump. He is on social media. His last tweet was three words, stop the fraud in all cap, by the way, without evidence of any fraud, but with that we want to bring in our first guest, we enjoyed his conversation so much on midday that we invited him back. Dr. Derek madonna with the center for politics and Public Affairs and franklin and Marshall College coming to us from pennsylvania where its all happening. Terry, thanks for coming back. My pleasure. Thanks for having me. Again, ill assume our viewers can hear you. Im having audio issues, so viewers, do bear with me on this. This is the challenge of live television, but winning pennsylvania will put joe biden over the top so that is where the attention is. What is the latest in terms of when we think well know who the winner is in pennsylvania. Thats a great question and we dont know for sure, to be candid with you. Heres a story, were doing mailin ballots on after the voting took place in person, pennsylvania had 1. 4 million uncounted mailin and fr provisional and absentee ballots. Mailins you need no excuse. You just click a link and the department of state sends you get the ballot mailed to you and the fact of the matter is as we speak now as you indicated, President Trump has about a 95, 97,000 lead in the state, but heres the story. They are pushing about 200,000, 190, 200000 mailin ballots in areas of the state that are strongly for joe biden. Im talking about philadelphia and the suburban counties outside of philadelphia and they still have to be reported. Allegheny county, pittsburgh, they have about 30,000 mailin ballots and theyre not even going to start to count them until tomorrow, and then theres some trump counties where the mailins are likely to go for him and both sides, you know, are very optimistic about it, declaring that theyre going to win the pennsylvania primary, and we have 20 electoral votes of the states out there. Of course, as i think all your viewers know joe biden is pretty well on his way. He has 264 of the 270 electors needed. So we could be talking about georgia, north carolina, nevada, and arizonas close. A number of Networks Said its biden, biden, biden, but you cant rule out a Court Challenge there so this is, in some respect, because of the mailins one of the most unusual elections in american history, and not because were not going to know immediately the week after, perhaps, and know the results, but literally because of the mailins and the number of lawsuits that are certainly going to follow. Weve had two in the state of pennsylvania just recently. Yeah. Thats true, and i want to get to that in a little bit, and i want to dive in deeper into the remaining ballots. Based on my math it seems like he needs over 70 of what remains in order to catch up to President Trump. Now that sounds like an impossible task, but youre saying because the mailins have been breaking overwhelmingly for biden, it is doable. Do youio know what the percentage is going for him in terms of the mailins . Yeah. About 78 in 78 . In the areas that i mentioned before that are critical to him, about 78 and now hes not doing that in every single county. Sure, but if he hangs i if hi 78 even at 70 hes likely to catch up and some argue that he will be in the lead in pennsylvania. Got it, and it is doable. And i just want to tell viewers for those who dont know philadelphia. I worked there for four years, and i do know philadelphia and pittsburgh very much like californias coastal areas in the way we vote, but the rest of pennsylvania is like going inland here in california when you get into the central valley, much more conservative. Terry, its like a microcosm of the whole country in the state of pennsylvania. Yeah. Thats a good point. I like it this way, the urban areas and the suburbs not just in philly, but in some of the other cities in our state are biden country and then you get to rural and small towns. Rural and small towns in the heartland of the state and up in the northeast and out in the southwestern parts of pennsylvania, in the old mining and mill towns whose ancestors worked in iron and coal and steel and of course, big supporters of fracking and the hydraulic activities. Yes. In fact, terry, i am so glad you brought that up and if you thought that bidens comments from fracking. We would meneed to move away from it really hurt him enough with pennsylvania voters enough that it could make a difference for him . I couldnt agree more. Biden, unlike hillary clinton, went out of his way to go after the workingclass voters not just in pennsylvania, but in ohio and michigan, in wisconsin, in, you know, a couple of the Battle Ground states which trump won, by the way, four years ago and were going to obviously have to wait and see how pennsylvania turns out, but i dont think theres any doubt and he courted them and youre right, the statements that he made ended up being confusing, at best. Ill leave it at that, confusing at best and hes not getting rid of it immediately and hell stop the subsidies to natural gas and turn it over to wind and solar and eventually it will be gone and youre right. That certainly didnt help him in those areas of our state. Gosh, terry, we could probably talk for a whole half hour and we only have a couple of minutes left and i want to focus on this which is those ballots that came in between election day and tomorrow. Tomorrow is the new deadline. Normally, you guys in pennsylvania got to get it in by election day and due to covid the state Supreme Court extended it by three days and theyre setting those ballots aside and counting them separately in the way they sort them. There could be Court Challenges, as you know. There is a Court Challenge to that, arguing that it violates pennsylvanias election law and the other one has to do with poll watchers and how close they could be in the city of philadelphia where they were kept 25 feet to 100 feet away from where the ballots are counted and a judge said they could be within six feet. It sounds to me like the covid19, six feet and keep six feet away and then they republicans and the Trump Supporters argue, but then they move the machinery back so they couldnt see the actual ballot activity thanks going on, you know, to process the ballots. Right. It never ends. There are multiple lawsuits and challenges on multiple fronts and i wonder with these ballots that were legally cast because the state Supreme Court said hey, its fine, as long as they arrive by friday. Is that a big worry for people in pennsylvania that all of those people who thought they were good may end up having their votes thrown out. Thats a great question and i would actually be stunned if a judge, after all this time and its not the first time thats been in court, and the fact of the matter is that as you accurately point out the state Supreme Court, yep, yep, go ahead, you have those extra days, i would be really surprised at this point. Imagine the turmoil that it would create. You get my point . It would be massive turmoil in terms of what to count and how to count them and theres no way theres no way at this point that that should be overturned and im not saying that as a fan and im just saying in the midst of this process. I understand. Look, we have only ten seconds left so i know you dont have a crystal ball, but based on your best guess do you think President Trump will hold his lead in pennsylvania . Yes or no . I wish i had a better answer. Right now, if biden does as well as we think hes going to do, hell probably eke out a narrow victory, and he has to continue as you accurately pointed out to do as well as hes been doing particularly in philadelphia, the suburbs and other cities and particularly pittsburgh and allegheny county. All right, terry maddon a director of center for politics and Public Affairs from philadelphia, thank you so much. So great to talk with you. Take care. My pleasure. Thanks for having me. Folks, well take a short break, but next well talk about ballot counting and the future of voting and chancellors professor of law, happy to answer that. All right. Welcome back. We expected a slowdown when it came to counting ballots and with the handful of states now many people want answers. So joining us to talk about this chancellorus professor of law, professor ross, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. Its great to be here. Absolutely. The Election Results are taking a while. Many people are wondering why is the ballot counting taking so long, but is it actually or is the counting actually going very well, smoothly and quickly considering . This election has gone incredibly smoothly. I know it doesnt feel like that to people because people are anxious and they want to know the result, but think about the fact that we are holding an election during the pandemic in which states have adopted a mailin balloting system some for the first time in this extensive sort of way so counting ballots takes a long time. We see that in california, which it takes a week or two after the election to get results. So i dont think anything is going awry. Thats good to hear. The Trump Campaign has filed lawsuits in most of the remaining battleground states. I want to start with the one in pennsylvania. I was talking about this with our earlier guest about there was an extension. So the ballots that arrived after normally election day and thats the normal deadline between that and tomorrow, and theyre being counted sort of separately, you know . Because there are Court Challenges to those ballots and im just wondering is it possible for a Supreme Court to get involved and say, hey, pennsylvanias state Supreme Court, you guys said that those ballots were still be counted if they arrive by friday and actually, even though you said that and even though we do give states the right to decide how they run their own elections and sorry, actually those cannot be counted. Can the Supreme Court do that, and is there a federal route for them to get in there . Yeah. Its certainly possible. The federal route is not the route you might expect. You might expect that the federal route might be based on pennsylvania law that suggests that ballots have to be issued by election day or had to be mailed in and received by election day, but the federal courts do not have the authority to intervene and disputes involving some state law. So instead, what they would have to do is interpret the constitution in a way that suggests that only legislators can decide how ballots will be counted by electors during president ial elections which would be very unusual given that roles have a role in the federal government with respect to laws that are enacted by their jurisdictional legislator. So thats where the court could come in and the court could ultimately decide that these ballots should not be counted, but what gives me some hope is that there seems to be a very small numbers of these ballots that are being received in pennsylvania between wednesday and today and theres an expectation that that number will remain low. If it does remain low then its likely that the margin of victory in the state will exceed the number of ballots that are received by pennsylvania after election day which the moot the case against these ballots. All right. Lets not forget it always starts with the local level and the state level. It doesnt go immediately to the Supreme Court no matter what anyone says about who they want to decide the race. Okay, but i want to ask you, if it does come down to that because a lot of people are still remembering 2000, bush versus gore and the Supreme Court does somehow make a decision that affects the outcome the other way, what do you think that does to the fabric of our society which some will say is already pretty torn in our faith and democracy and i guess also our institutions . I want to start by saying its an unlikely scenario and a scenario that i hope doesnt come about and just imagine there is a scenario and it would be extraordinarily damaging not only to our society and to the court that decides this case and the Supreme Court because it will be seen to the extent that they rule in favor of trump trup evidence that the court is bias against President Trump in terms of the office to our country and to our democracy and the faith that the people have in our institution will be very much disruptive and you will have almost probably about half of the American People who will feel that the president did not legitimately win the election. Look, i want to ask you also, like, here we are in california. There are so many ways to ensure that your vote gets counted, right . You get the ballot in the mail as long as its postmarked by election day, theres just a lot of support and you can track your ballot and theyre moving toward easier voting and is that the case nationwide in other states, too or is voting becoming less inclusive . . For the pandemic purposes it has become easier in many states. So youve seen expansion of early voting and great opportunities to mail in your ballots and so that has been hugely beneficial in terms of creating a more inclusive democrat see. My worries is that once the pandemic ends that states will revert back to the past practices which required and demanded that many engaged in the inperson voting and the other thick that has change side registration procedures havent changed and in the sense that some states you have to register 14, 30 days and theres no voting in those states. To the extent that that benefits one party or the other. Look, we only have about 20 more seconds, but i do want to ask you, is there realistic talk about adopting some sort of National Standards in the way we vote and count our ballots . Absolutely. Theres been talk in congress about this. Theres a bill thats been passed by the house and the problem is to the extent, and its unlikely that any such bill that was standardized election procedures would go anywhere, but i hope that it will go somewhere in the future. Well, all right. Well see. Uc berkeleys school of law professor ross thank you very much for sharing your insight today. Lets keep this conversation going for another day. That sounds good. Thanks so much. Thank you. Folks, we will take a short break and we will shift when we come back from the election to covid19 because cases are shattering, you know, records again and theyre on the rise. So next were going to turn our attention to the im alex trebek here to tell you about the Colonial Penn program. 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No. The u. S. Set a new record reaching 102,000 new cases in one day according to johns hopkins. The previous record was 93,000 the day before. Tell us whats driving this latest surge. So i think its the consolation of a bunch of factors and a lot of congregant settings in the leadup to the election and as we know they t have political meaning and so in one party, a lot of people are not wearing masks. Theyre riding in busses and its a bit cramped environment and so thats part of it. Part of it, the rallies around that, as well and political rallies and then i think the most important factors are the fact that its wintertime and people are huddled more indoors particularly in the east coast and again what we are seeing now is a movement of the epidemic in the u. S. Or the pandemic from the cities to the rural areas and that provides and poses a big challenge. Yeah. Hey, youve learned something new about kids and covid19, and they have a slightly different antibody response . Theres Research Published within the last day or so showing that kids may not have as robust an antibody response as adults do. Kids and antibody system acts very differently from adults and were not really sure why thats the case. All right. Hopefully well get a better answer in a few months. France, germany and england has issued new lockdowns with reports of fatigue setting in there, as well and what are you seeing there and do you see that happening to us in california . I know. I mean, i looked at the trajectory of what was happening in europe even as little as a month ago people were seeing there are a lot of conversations in the media there amongst my colleagues. We will never have a lockdown again. Weve been there, done that. We cant afford to do that, but of course, after the cases reach a certain threshold there is no other recourse, but to do an entire shutdown or lockdown, and i think that was very shuddering for me to see. I shuddered because, first of all, its been a bellwether for us and the writing on the wall and i really hope it doesnt get here. Right. The eu is saying because of covid they could not get to prepandemic levels until 2023. I dont want to think about it, but also today another headline, we reported denmark is killing off 15 million minks, the little animals because of covid mutation. How does that affect humans . Well, we know that most times most of us, really, with cats and dogs there is no real evidence yet that domesticated animals can cause infections in humans. We probably give it to the animals and thats what the evidence is so far. In terms of the animals roaming around and lions and tigers and reported from the new york zoo. Those animals can certainly get it, but in terms of the reason why they killed the minks or mink, i guess is the plural for mink, i recognize its important, its because they are free that the circulating virus that they had was a little bit potentially more resistant so they didnt want it circulating so that the vaccine would have less effects. The details are very murky. Denmark isnt sharing a lot of thinking around it except that they killed all these mink. How much time, eric . Checking with my producer. 30 second, but i want to ask you this question really quick. Bay Area Public Health officers recommending a 14day quarantine for holiday travelers. What do you think about that . I think these recommendations again are a little bit crude. They dont really reflect the complexity of how safe people are and i have doesnt seem that its been out and about with someone thats keeping safe all of the time and the state is very heterogenous, you know . You cant say its treated as a monolith and theres a lot of variation. San francisco is very different from imperial county. Were back. Thank you for joining us today on this interactive day, be her tonight, when will america know . What were seeing right now in the key battleground of pennsylvania. And President Trump speaking at this hour. Youll hear him right here. And as the nation waits tonight for the results of this election, President Trump, his lead shrinking in pennsylvania. A state he needs to win to serve a second term. Where things stand in pennsylvania, how many votes left . And how many of those remaining votes would joe biden have to get to catch up to the president to surpass him in that key state . Also tonight, the president s lead shrinking in georgia. Now under 10,000 votes. What it means for the president ial race. And could what were seeing there play any role now in control of the senate . Tonight, the other battlegrounds, where the difference is razor thin in arizona. New word coming in at this hour. And nevada, the razor thin margin there. And tonit,