Continues to loom over all aspects of american life. Election officials across the country urging patience, cautioning voters against jumping to conclusions before enough ballots are counted, and reminding people that it is normal to vote for vote counting to continue for days after an election. In fact, it happens every year. What we do know already, a staggering and historic tally of early votes. More than 100 million ballots cast nationwide. It showcases just how extraordinary the election is already shaping up to be as voters continue to cast their ballots into the remaining hours of this president ial contest. Of course much of the tension on this final day of campaigning is centered on pennsylvania, where joe biden was out with voters throughout much of the day in his childhood hometown of scranton this morning. Then on to philadelphia before making his way to the city where his campaign is headquartered, in wilmington, delaware just in the last hour. Both campaigns have acknowledged in recent days the importance of the keystone state. The clearest path to 270 electoral votes for joe biden runs through it. And donald trump basically cant win without it. Already the Trump Campaign is beginning to signal some concern over voter turnout today in pennsylvania. A person with direct knowledge of Trump Campaign operations telling nbc news, the team in pennsylvania was not as prepared as it should be in a state that could decide the presidency. President trump maintaining a lowerkey schedule today than his opponent. He called in to fox friends this morning, had some complaints for them, and made a brief visit to his Campaign Headquarters in virginia before hunkering down inside the white house as the drama of tonights historic vote tally is set to get under way. Lets go out to two of the most closely watched states tonight. The aforementioned pennsylvania. My colleague and friend ali velshi is in philadelphia where joe biden just wrapped up a visit there. And in miami lakes, florida our friend Alicia Menendez joins us. Ali, lets start with you. Whats the feeling there . Very enthusiastic. Very positive. We dont have lines right now. Im at the overbrook branch in philadelphia. The library. Overbrook for those of you who know philadelphia is west and north of west philadelphia. Its predominantly an africanamerican area but im literally blocks from where the city of philadelphia ends and it becomes those famous main line suburbs that we talk about so often. And those suburbs, by the way, have been swinging more democratic. They used to be sort of red areas. Theyre now blue areas. The issue here, as you know, nicolll nicolle, is not whether joe biden is going to win philadelphia and the counties around it. Its by how much. Because as donald trump has made this appeal to pennsylvania, particularly as it relates to joe bidens position on fracking in more rural pennsylvania and western counties of the state, the turnout in allegheny county, which is pittsburgh, and Philadelphia County are going to matter. I just had somebody ted me, a local city councilor tell me they are looking at turnout numbers here that are mimicking Barack Obamas turnout numbers, not Hillary Clintons turnout numbers. In the end there are counties in which a republican president ial candidate doesnt get a lot of votes at all in some of these Philadelphia County, philadelphia city, philadelphia counties, but they are looking at levels of voting that are very enthusiastic. The other thing su just mentioned Donald Trumps call in to fox. Hes tweeted and hes said to fox because of the Supreme Court decision to allow ballots to be postmarked until today that will be counted on friday he thinks thats going to be a problem, its going to delay the results out of pennsylvania and its going to cause unrest. As you know, theres been some unrest in philadelphia in the last week or so because a man was shot last monday by police in west philadelphia. There was some unrest because of that. The National Guard was in town because of that. They made very clear, the governors made very clear, as has the mayor, the National Guards not here for election stuff. I spoke to two voters here about an hour ago who said i dont know what this talk about violence is, theyre not expecting any of that in philadelphia. They are expecting, however, that we may not have complete results in philadelphia or in pennsylvania tonight. So if it does come down to it is, you know this better than anyone because youve been talking about it a lot, if it does come down to the 20 votes that the state of pennsylvania has up for grabs we may be waiting a while. Nicolle . Thank you, ali velshi. Alicia, let me bring you into this. Just pick up on alis threads about turnout, about the feel on the ground, and pick up on this trump interview this morning. One thing about donald trump is he doesnt really hide a lot in terms of strategy, in terms of his feelings, in terms of his mood. And this fox friends interview belied what im hearing about more fluor, which is that donald trump is in a strong position in a state like florida, much stronger even than in certainly than he is in pennsylvania. By the admission of his own advisers. Do people pick up on that . Are they watching the tone that trump has struck today and some sort of downtrodden mood that he was projecting there on National Cable . Well, everything here has been a big party, nicolle, which is interesting because there havent actually been that many voters coming in and out. One poll watcher told me 3 30 normally here during early vote this park lot was absolutely packed. You could not find a spot. Today i just havent seen many voters going in and out. This is a precinct that broke for trump four years ago. All of the voters i have spoken with, all trump supporters, some of whom who decided late, some of whom have always known they wanted to vote and were going to come out today. I think a lot of this goes back to the fact you that already have 9 million floridians who have voted either because they voted early in person or because they voted early by mail. So there is both an advantage to democrats built in there. They had about 100,000 more of their voters showing up for that early vote or those mailin voting. The challenge for dchlz or the advantage for republicans is they have 150,000 high propensity voters who as of yesterday had yet to vote. So they were hoping, republicans were hoping to turn them out. What democrats were hoping was that they had enough npa voters, voters with no party affiliation, who for them could make up the difference. The other thing im hearing from democrats, a little bit of concern over this county, miamidade, which is a democratic county, will be a democratic county tonight, but it becomes a question of margins. Some concern that republicans have built their margins here in part because of inroads that trump has made within the hispanic community. So thats something that well also be watching tonight. But the one thing i keep hearing from everyone is this is going to come out to turnout, and so were going to be watching that turnout, seeing whether or not people turn out. And part of the reason thats important is because it seems as though democrats and republicans, nicolle, are using two very different models. Democrats seem to be using the 2012 model you when you had barack obama getting about 60 support among the latino electorate, still carrying the state, and then you would have in that case, if joe biden hits that 60 number, making up the difference among some of those npas weve seen him polling well with, among white voters and among seniors. If he can do that, democrats believe he can carry the state. Republicans seem to be using a 2016 model. Those are the numbers that they want to see replicated again tonight. And i think that is the question and part of why the analysis you hear from the two parties is pretty different. Alicia, you mentioned not a lot of people coming in and out to vote. Is that reporting that you can apply to any other precinct or is is that specific to your location . Yeah, weve been talking to our other nbc reporters who are on the ground, other precincts in this area, in south florida do seem to be slow. I asked one organizer about it earlier today. They said they werent entirely clear on what it was, that there was some concern the sort of fear and exhaustion that has been baked into this election, particularly here in south florida, could be demotivating voters. At the sometime she said listen, im hopeful that people are going to get out of work at 5 00, 5 30, and then youre going to see them rushing to the polls. But we wont know until we get there. Nicolle . Ali velshi, alicia mend ez, thank you both so much. Theres nothing like that ground truth. Thank you for starting us off with that. Lets turn to some of our favorite reporters and friends. Nbc and msnbc National Affairs analyst, my friend john heilemann. Hes in st. Pete, florida. Hes the cohost and executive producer of showtimes the circus. As well as the executive editor of the recount. As well as the host of a podcast that he got me to say some words i had to drop some dollars into the swear jar this morning over. Also joining us, Washington Post columnist and msnbc political analyst Eugene Robinsons here. And our dear friend a. B. Stoddard, associate editor and columnist for real clear politics. I will start with you, john heilemann. This is as weird of a year, as bizarre of a context for people to have to decide who to put in charge of our troubled country for the next four years, troubled in terms of the pandemic and the economic challenges that have ensued. I know youre sort of barnstorming in a nontraditional way. What is the feeling that you get out there . Well, first of all, hi, nicolle. Happy election day. And i think you know dish think i will say, not to be overly selfpromotional about the podcast, hell and high water, but theres been an outpouring of love for you over this podcast. Its only been out for a few hours. But thousands of people saying how much they love hearing you talk not when youre on television, just in a more casual environment. And also amazement that you curse more than i do. Which i dont think anybody thought was possible. But the f bombs were flying throughout this podcast. What a way to start. Swearing like a sailor. Did they really need me . Dial it in. Thats what id say. Just dial it in. You know, ive been all over the place, nicolle the last 72, now headed into more like 84 hours or so. We spent the weekend in texas, iowa, minnesota, montana, ohio, georgia and now as you said im down in florida, in pinellas county, which is like the swingiest swing county in the state, and im going to hang out here and watch some pinellas data geeks in the Pinellas Democratic Party count the votes here tonight and maybe give us an early window into whos going to win florida. Look, i think there is an extraordinary amount of something that you and i have talked a lot about. Theres an enormous amount of fear, an enormous amount of trepidation, and an enormous amount of anxiety all over the country. You go north, south, east, west. The notion of this resurgence of covid, than it ever desurged ever, but right now its on fire in a lot of places around the country and you see it in every corner, in every nook and cranny and crevice. Its front and center and its in the background all at once. But theres also this other thing, which is you know and its stunning to see it. Is that we told america that this virus was serious. We told america. And i mean america knew this already. But we in the media who cover this stuff, we kept telling them the virus is really serious and this election really matters. And so youve got to plan your vote. Youve got to do stuff to get ready for this if you want your vote to count, take steps, take measures, make a plan. You know, a lot of the Political Class and the Communications Class that covers it really projected this message for months and months. And people listened. I mean, listened in a way that i think is just stunning to see. And i said north, south, east west, been all over the country in the last four days, and man, people just they get that this election matters a lot. They get that they are on the ballot, that the country is on the ballot as much as donald trump and joe biden are on the ballot. This is a fundamental existential choice. And they really took extraordinary proactive measures to make sure they were going to have a say in how this was worked out. And i have found that element of it for all of the fear and trembling out there in the country, and theres a lot of it, to see people that committed and that focused and that comprehending of the stakes here and then taking actions to make sure they got to have a say in their future, i have found it kind of incredibly inspiring over these last few days. Its inspiring, a. B. , and it also i mean, you get to these final hours when youre still having theoretical conversations. And just to pull back the curtain a little bit, we get the most unreliable wave of early data in about an hour. Theyre called exit polls. And they come in amen. Thank you for telling everybody that. Yeah. The first three waves were wrong. So were very judicious as a network not to report data until its more solid. But i want to ask you just about heilemanns point. People were told to plan their vote. Everyone. It was not a partisan message. This network sponsored a campaign, plan your vote. Donald trump didnt want people to vote by mail. Donald trump disparaged the mailin vote. Donald trump, in the words of ben ginsburg, republican election lawyer, encouraged his supporters to commit felony vote fraud. So the only people that were hearing a different message from this nonpartisan covidinspired plan your vote were the trump voters. And it might be one instance where that information ecosystem bites trump in the butt. I mean, he was told that he was telling his voters not to trust the mail. He was slowing down the mail itself, telling his voters not to trust absentee vote. He was attacking the early vote for months. And it seems like one of the things well learn tonight is, one, whether or not they believed him. They usually do. And two, whether or not that helped or hurt him. Well, first of all, nicolle, thank you so much for having me on this day. Its been quite a journey. And im going to echo john heilemanns election day praise for you. Youve been a very valuable voice to millions of people in just a wretched, dark time. But on a positive note, i am completely amazed that we have reached this point of the day and we have had a really peaceful, organized process brought to us by not only the people you just talked about, the voters, but these Election Officials across the country in thousands of places, in thousands of separate systems, in both parties or nonparty affiliated, who are devoted to a legitimate process. And theyve worked so hard in the pandemic. Weve had new volunteers come in and replace volunteers who were over the age of 65 and just couldnt put themselves in harms way and risk contracting the virus. This has just been an epic event in people coming together and working so hard to protect this syst system, which is the foundation of our democracy and makes this country so wonderful. So im just stunned at how many people whose names well never know were going to do a great thing and donald trump never realized that. You had to get past them. Now, that said, there will be a lot were hearing bad news about the post office again. There will be a lot of frustration about ballots. There were 550,000 absentee ballots in the primaries earlier in the year. Its really hard to pull them out in some places properly. So that could cut into joe bidens lead. And i also just want to point out thaefrg the president said and weve been talking about for weeks and months but especially the last two days, in advance announcing that you as president of the United States will disqualify and discount and delegitimize legally cast ballots in the United States of america, if that isnt a high crime i really dont know what is. And the silence of republicans has been absolutely shameful and i really hope that were going to be hearing from them in the days to come if donald trump continues to stoke his supporters, lie about what happened and create an alternative narrative about the results and his lawsuits and Everything Else. A lot of people to thank today. And im really, really grateful for how far weve gotten to the 4 00 hour. I want to say that that is one conversation that regardless of the results tonight that needs to be picked up. As you said, by democrats and republicans. And you see ben ginsburg and michael steele, theyre nonelected officials, but they are the most prominent republican voices. And i would hope that if anyone wants to be a party that still stands for voting and democracy that they would participate in those efforts in an autopsylike effort. I want to play each sides heres joe biden. Lets listen it in to what he says. Hes in will ming ton, delaware. Lets listen in. Well, i think its because two reasons. One, my activities related to access for opportunities to donald trump. Mr. Vice president , has this clearly been an Unprecedented Campaign because of the pandemic. Just looking back are there any lessons learned, any regrets, anything youd no, theres not. I mean, as you guys know, youve had to cover me for a long time, i havent changed what ive been saying since the day i announced. And the day i announced, everybody thought that i was way off base. And by the way, i dont mean that as a im not being critical of anybody else. Im just saying that i believe very, very strongly, i really mean it, that we have to restore decency and honor in our system or its going to fall apart. Secondly, i believe extremely strongly, and i know youve all watched it from the very beginning, that we have to rebuild the middle class. We have to give ordinary people a fighting chance. They can do anything when you give them a chance. And third, we have to unite the country. All three of those things are viewed as either too much of a reach or not a reach enough. And i havent changed my view. And so you know, this is for example, i didnt realize this was here. Reverend herring, who was one of the five major leaders in the black community when i got started in wilmington back when i was