State of pennsylvania this final day. Already more than 93 million americans have cast their ballots, more than twothirds of the total number of voters in 2016. Just remarkable turnout, poppy. Its a huge number, and it is fueled by enthusiasm, it is fueled by a pandemic that is also growing worse by the day. 50,000 americans right now are in the hospital due to covid19. States across the country battling surges the experts warn will only get more dire. We are live across the country this morning. Lets begin in the keystone state in so many ways this election with our alexandra field. Good morning, alex. Reporter good morning to you. People behind me in pittsburgh are lined up to drop off their ballots, the way to do it the day before election. At the same time both campaigns are locked in a battle to get people to the polls tomorrow. No one is taking their eye off of pennsylvania. Youve got President Trump making a fourstate swing, including a stop in scranton. Hes got Vice President mike pence doing Campaign Stops in erie and latrobe. As for the democrats, they are adding some star power to the pennsylvania roster. Joe biden will be campaigning on election eve right here in pittsburgh, alongside lady gaga and in the eastern part of the state in philadelphia, hell see senator Kamala Harris alongside john legend. This is a critical state because its a state that President Trump was able to flip with just 44,000 votes back in 2016. Pennsylvania polls show joe biden with a narrow lead, but he is leaving nothing to chance, trying to appeal to a broad swathe of voters with a pretty singular message, that he is the man to best lead the commonwealth and the country through covid. Jim, poppy . Alexandra field, good to have you there, thank you. This morning President Trump in another state to turn the election, florida, before starting his fiveevent fourstate campaign swing. Ambitious . Cnns randi kaye is in florida with more. What are we going to see today . Reporter good morning, jim and poppy. Im here in Broward County lauder hill, florida. They are well into tabulating the early votes, the mailin voting and the early inperson voting. Theres a flurry of activity behind me, all of that is being uploaded into the machines so theyll be ready to go tomorrow on election day. But donald trump is waking up here in florida, in miami, just south of here. He had a late night rally in miami, in miamidade last night, ended about 12 48 in the morning, well past curfew. Hes going to head to four states today, going to michigan, north carolina, wisconsin, and pennsylvania. Florida though still a tossup. No clear leader here, and certainly weve been looking a lot at the africanamerican turnout here in the state. It is lagging in miami and in miamidade. Its a big reason why barack obama is heading here today. Hes going to have an election closeout rally this evening in miami. Is he really trying to rally support among africanamerican voters for the biden camp, trying to offset some of the support that donald trump is so egg from cuban americans, for years hammering home the message that democrats mean socialism, cuban americans are buying into that and that has really resonated with them. Certainly all eyes on florida with barack obama in the state today. Randi kaye, thank you for the reporting on the ground. Cleveland now, joe biden will begin his day. Our gary tuchman is in cleveland. Good morning, gary. Reporter poppy and jim, good morning to you. Its one day to election day but this is day 24 of early voting in the state of ohio. Every county, all 88 counties in the state open the doors at 8 00 a. M. This morning, including this one, cuyahoga county, home of cleveland. You can see the line, people started lining up at 6 00 a. M. , two hours early. It was dak, it was snowing. The windchill was 27 degrees. The snow has stopped. It is no longer dark, the windchill has gone up one degree, 28 degrees and the line stretches more than 400 people down the block to participate in the early voting. I can tell you here in the state of ohio, they havent missed the president ial election, gotten every president ial election winner correct 14 straight elections. Four years ago, donald trump won this state by over 8 but right now the race is too close to call. It is a must win state for donald trump but joe biden is campaigning here today. The decision was made to add a stop in ohio today so later this morning, about ten minutes up the road here in downtown cleveland, joe biden will be participating in a campaign event. We could tell you the secretary of state who is a republican here in this county in this state, i mean, told us yesterday that theres recordsetting early voting. He says by the time the early voting is over theyll know the figures tonight. More than 50 of the registered voters in this state will have participated in early voting and also says all votes will be counted. Theyre lenient here, postmarked by today, absentee ballots but ten days until after the election is over for the mailman to deliver the absentee ballot and it will be counted. Jim and poppy . That is just a happy story of this election, right, the people lining up behind you. Weve seen it in so many states voting as is their right. Gary tuchman thanks very much. Pennsylvania officials are already saying it will be days or even longer before all ballots are counted in that state. Governor tom wolf is urging patience and the secretary of state is saying late arriving ballots postmarked by election day that arrive through friday will be counted, that is drawing fire from the trump campaign. The president says hes sending his lawyers to the state Election Night to challenge mailin ballot measures, a challenge Kristen Holmes theyve really been expecting in pennsylvania. Absolutely. That was the big concern over the Supreme Court case, the justice said segregating the ballots after 8 00 p. M. On Election Night, there was concerns about litigation. I want to start with governor tom wolfs ad talked about urging patience. Cnn learned he will release a Television Ad statewide on election day telling people to remain calm, that it is normal the results will likely take longer than just election day to come in. Now it goes to show you just how much concern there is over the fact that there will likely not be results on Election Night. Whether it be invalid claims about victory or baseless claims about fraud or just unrest and this ad is going to air every single day until all the ballots are count and a winner has been announced. Take a look at part of this ad here. Folks in our election offices, your neighbors, family and friends, are working hard ensuring every single vote is counted. So it may take a little longer than were used to, even a few days but thats okay. And poppy, i want to touch on something you just said here, which is that donald trump said in a rally over the weekend he would be sending lawyers into or the campaign will be sending lawyers in to pennsylvania on Election Night to question or challenge the validity and the expediency of counting those ballots. Lets be clear here. It will likely not have a result and that is normal. In the state of pennsylvania there have been more than 2. 2 million absentee ballots cast. They are not allowed to process, scan, count a single absentee ballot until 7 00 a. M. On election day. This is a lengthy process and going to delay results. Several county also process a single ballot until the next day, they are understaffed, dont have time or within their right. I want to talk about that extension we talk about with scotus. We did see yesterday the secretary of state in pennsylvania issuing new guidance about those late arriving mailin ballots. Shes now saying that they should be counted, and that they should go forward as being counted. So this is already drawing fire from the campaign. Weve talked to legal experts today who say that this might just be a preview or likely to be a preview of the litigation were going to see after the election, regarding these ballots particularly if its a close race. One last thing to touch on. We talk about the deadlines, deadlines, deadlines and what they mean for ballots. The United StatesPostal Service has been ordered by a judge to mandate extraordinary measures to address a delay in processing ballots in certain mailing centers. So they are now going to be using express mail, which guarantees deliveries. We are a day from the election, a lot of the states have the deadlines of the day of, so this is a little bit late here on that. Kristen, important headlines. Thank you for running through them with us. As kristen highlights listen to the facts. You, the listener, the viewer can find lots of helpful information in one place from your local voting locations to what time polls are open. All of this at cnn. Com vote. Its very helpful if you have questions, go there. Youll find your answer. For sure. Joining us to talk about all these headlines, Jackie Alameny author of the Washington Post and a Senior Reporter from politico in florida, mark. Mark, you have a fascinating piece on pennsylvania in morning. I ask and show the president s rally in butler, pennsylvania over the weekend. Democratic strategist rebecca katz its hard not to look at the crowd and feel terrified he could win again. Hopefully well show people the crowd shots not just the lovely sunset behind him. To that point, can you speak to your reporting on the early voting in pennsylvania versus the other battleground states . Because you write fewer 2016 voters in pennsylvania have turned out during early voting than in the other rust belt states. Right, well early voting in the form it is in pennsylvania is completely new to them, and what you see in states is that you have kind of two problems with that when you introduce a new major way of voting. Theres a problem on the voter side, and theres also a problem on the Election Administration side, and people are just getting used to this. It is true during the primary there are a Record Number of preelection day ballots, early votes cast, so what pennsylvania also has that the other states dont have is this intense focus, the keystone state is probably aptly named because it looks like it is the state that both trump and biden are going to fight over the hardest in the final days, and as was mentioned earlier, the president has a strategy of sending his lawyers there and he wants to stop as many of these mailin ballots especially what theyre going to classify as latearriving ballots from getting counted and theres an entire legal problem that could crop up if the legislature decides to step in and invalidate the results. Yes. I dont want to spread conspiracy theories. Pies things could happen in the future and this is the things that people in pennsylvania are talking about, democrats especially, theyre also nervous, democrats are, about gop plans to send poll watchers to all of the precincts and fears and concerns about voter intimidation. So a lot of things going on in pennsylvania. Im based in florida and i got to say im looking at pennsylvania like thank god its not us. We should be careful about language, to even categorize ballots as late arriving. Correct. By law they are not late arriving. This is a description thats gone out there. By law they are valid and we have to be clear about that. Jackie thats why i made sure to say thats how they classify them as that. I was not saying that myself. For sure, and it wasnt a criticism of you, just as folks are processing this at home, be careful to what you listen. Theres a lot of disinformation out there about what is a valid ballot and what is not. Jackie, clearly pennsylvania is a focus here, and rightly so, because the president essentially needs it to win, but i wonder, are we missing something here just to play devils advocate for a moment to focus so much on pennsylvania . The other notable phenomenon now again based on polling is just how close the race is in states that President Trump won handily in 2016. North carolina, ohio, georgia, even texas, that you have remarkable things going on in other states. I imagine we could be surprised as to what state turns this election ultimately yes, jim, youre exactly right. The focus on pennsylvania is warranted in that it is going to be a very, very close race, and there is a perfect storm of factors brewing as mark noted that makes the race pretty unpredictable. Im here in georgia, i spent the weekend here in the suburbs outside of atlanta, and what weve seen and what so many people have seen here since really 2016, since the advent of trumpism is the bubbling up of a blue wave that the state is on the precipice of achieving largely in part to stacy abrams, after her 2018 bid against the now governor brian kemp. She really mobilized this state, created three organizations that helped with voter turnout registration and outreach to underserved and minority communities. Dozens of voter strategists and activists say this effort to get people politically involved civically engaged has made all the difference but what im also focusing on that i think is a microcosm of the president s larger problem across some of these red states, he won georgia by five. He ostensibly should not be campaigning in rural georgia on the eve before election eve, if this is actually a solid state for him but hes having problems with white voters specifically, white women voters. We heard the tale of suburban house moms gone wild throughout this entire cycle, but i really saw it firsthand on a hyperlocal level, a bunch of women who are volunteering for the first time in cobb county, georgia, which voted overwhelmingly for mitt romney in 2012 and took a step out of the closet as a lot of the women described to me in 2016, when it swung for hillary clinton. Now the place is completely galvanized. Theres this very local candidate running for House District who is trying to unseat an 18year incumbent, and she believes this woman sarah tindal gizal there will be a tripleup effect, the movement is strong amongst women who never volunteered in their life and knocking on doors and trying to turn the state blue. Listen, so many surprises are possible here, right, and i suppose one thing we could count on, were going to be surprised by some things that come out of tomorrow. Jackie, mark, great to draw on your broad experience here and im sure well be talking to you again in the coming days. Thanks for having me. Still to come this hour, 127,000 ballots on the line in texas. A federal judge is set to hear a challenge to drivethrough voting in the largest and democratical county in the state, the Harris County clerk with a central role in all of this joins us next. Also, all of this as the nation continues to fight the coronavirus pandemic. The president is suggesting that he may fire the doctor that Americans Trust most, dr. Anthony fauci. Can he even do that . Next. With this seal, this restaurant is committing to higher levels of cleanliness. The expertise that helps keep hospitals clean, is helping keep businesses clean too. Look for the ecolab science certified seal. Ithe first full prescriptionis pstrength nonsteroidal antiinflammatory gel. Available over the counter. Voltaren is powerful arthritis pain relief in a gel. Voltaren. The joy of movement. To stir that fire, university of phoenix is awarding up to one Million Dollars in scholarships through this month. See what scholarship you qualify for at phoenix. Edu. To save you up to 60 . These are all great. And when you get a big deal. You feel like a big deal. Priceline. Every trip is a big deal. Welcome back. Right now 127,000 balance lots that have already been cast are at stake in texas as republicans there try to get them thrown out. All those ballots were dropped off legally during drivethrough voting in Harris County, big county, 5 million someodd people. Next hour a federal judge will hear the republican groups challenge to the votes even though the states allrepublican Supreme Court rejected that challenge on sunday. With me now to discuss the potential repercussions of this is the Harris County clerk, chris hollands. Thank you for taking the time this morning. Good morning, jim, glad to be here. We have a decision coming in the next couple of hours. What do you expect in this ruling, and if you lose, will you intend to appeal to the Supreme Court . Well, jim, this judge took an oath, and that oath is to defend the laws and the constitution of the United States, and the law is clearly on our side here. We followed texass Election Code to the t and set up drivethrough voting and our plans are public for many months. More than 100,000 texans cast their ballots in this way, completely legal and as you noted an allrepublican texas Supreme Court has thrown this case out, as illegitimate and this judge should do the same thing today. The republicans argument is by the constitution, it is state legislatures that set the rules for an election, not local counties. What is your response to that argument . We agree 100 and thats why we followed the texas Election Code, created by the texas legislature. We were allowed to have polling places inside buildings, and inside movable structures, and thats what set up, these are large tent structures that you can drive into and cast your ballot and you cast your ballot on the machines in the exact same way folks who walk in to other Voting Centers do. Its completely legal. When i was last on this show, jim, we were talking about adding Voting Machines to a small library. We did that, and the way that we did it was by adding tents outside of that library. Not only would this seek to throw out the 127,000 votes but there are other votes across Harris County cast in this same way. I want