To your family, and you would have anxiety leaving the house, thinking that potentially you were exposed, hearing of someone nearby that has tested positive, thinking, is that me . Between our er doctors and our hospital doctors, our icu doctors, everybodys tired. They see the patients that are coming in, the tempo of patients, and its not just in our hospital, its across the city. All of my colleagues that i talk to across the city are realizing that there are more patients coming in, sicker patients coming in. And so, as you can imagine, people are just tired. Theres that exhaustion. But again, we buckle up and we have to take care of the patients, right . Were trying to do the best that we can as this epidemic sort of spreads throughout our city. So, it was a domino effect. My uncle got my grandfather. My grandfather got my grandmother. My grandmother got my mom and my uncle, and then my mom got my father and my siblings and i sick. This weekend, over the last week to two weeks have really been, the tempos increased. Its been amazing. Were seeing all sorts of patients. The narrative historically has been above 65, those that have multiple comorbidities, but were seeing 20yearolds, 30yearolds, 40yearolds. Yes, its definitely hard. It would have been hard. I knew it was going to come, but knowing that it was because of covid was definitely one of my biggest fears, and it came true. But it makes me smile because that day that they took him to the hospital, when he tested positive, he i went to go visit him just to see how he was doing, and i asked him how he was feeling. He struggled to get his words out, just because he was having difficulty breathing. Then he finally said, como campion, which is like a champion. So that just proves how he felt about the virus, how he felt about life, really, because he had told me that before. So it made things a little easier for me. Of course, i wish i didnt have to go that way, but unfortunately, thats the way it did, and i just hope no one else has to go through that anymore, or less people have to go through that anymore, and that this pain can stop for everyone as soon as possible. Andrea cortez is 23 years old. There are 15 members of her family in el paso who have been infected with the coronavirus, tested positive. Shes talking there with all that sadness. Shes talking about her grandfather, lazaro, who did not survive. He died with covid. El paso tonight is in crisis. El paso is closing in on 1,000 people hospitalized with covid in that one city alone, in addition to everybody else who has to be hospitalized for every other reason. Theyve got 1,000 Covid Patients hospitalized, nearly, in el paso now. Theyre adding 30, 40, 50 more Covid Patients to their hospitals every day. There just isnt the medical capacity to treat that many people. So i wanted you to see the medical director from the hospital talking about how exhausted the Health Care Providers are. There is 111 Covid Patients on ventilators right now in el paso. According to the citys latest data. 111 people all on ventilators right now. That one city. In almost every state in the country, 47 out of 50 states, the epidemic is now officially growing. 47 out of 50 states. So its getting worse. More than 1,000 americans died from covid today alone. Last night we covered the new study out of kansas that compared kansas counties with a mask mandate to kansas counties without a mask mandate. The clearasday, totally blunt findings of that study are good news, that you can cut your new case numbers in half by implementing a mask mandate in half. New cases in kansas doubled in the counties without a mask mandate. They stayed flat in the counties that did require masks. Its as simple as that. Kansas conducted what amounted to a natural experiment on mask mandates, and what they found could not be more clear. That ought to be news that we can use. That ought to be prescriptive information for us. Tonight, beyond that, we got more evidence along those lines about mask mandates not only bringing down new case numbers, as was proven in kansas, but also bringing down covid hospitalizations as well. This is brandnew data out of tennessee. It is just as clear. It is just as clearly prescriptive as what we are seeing out of kansas. The news right now on covid is terrible. It is a blessing that the diagnosis about what to do about it to bring the numbers down is so clear and so clearly proven in multiple states. Were going to have more on that later this hour. Were also going to be speaking with Sherrilyn Ifill, head of the naacp Legal Defense fund. Among all of the other things theyre doing right now to protect the election, to protect Voting Rights, they have also today in their court fight against the Trump Administration, messing with the post office. Today they turned up jawdropping, new information about just how badly the Trump Administration has made sure to screw up the mail, right in time for this election. Thanks to Sherrilyn Ifill and this court case that her organization is fighting, we now know that in the allimportant swing state of pennsylvania, where the most democratic votes in the state are going to come, obviously from philadelphia, the Trump Administration has now made it so that less than 43 of firstclass mail is being delivered on time, 42. 95 . In detroit, which happens to be the democratic voter stronghold of the allimportant swing state of michigan, mail is being delivered in detroit on time less than 53 now. Less than 53 of the time now is the mail getting there on time. Northern ohio. Hello, cleveland the mail is now on time only 56 of the time. In south florida hello, miami its 63 of the time. I mean, thats one way to try to win an election, right . If everybody has to vote by mail this year, then throttle the United States mail in democratic strongholds in all the swing states. Easy peasy. Nice work, if you can get it. We talked last night about warnings from people like former u. S. Attorney general eric holder, who is now bluntly warning American Voters that it is now too late to rely on the mail to get your ballot in. If you have your ballot still at home, you have to physically bring it into a drop box now or to the Clerks Office or to another location that your city or town has set up to drop off ballots. It is too late for the mail now. We have also seen that warning from michigans secretary of state. She released this blunt statement yesterday as well it is too late to rely on the United StatesPostal Service. Were seeing similar warnings now from state officials in the allimportant swing state of pennsylvania, also the allimportant swing state of wisconsin. Officials in both of those states warning, it is now too late to count on the mail. Youve got to bring your ballot in, in person now. Theres no other way. So, were going to talk with Sherrilyn Ifill tonight about her organizations lawsuit against what trump has done to the post office and Everything Else the naacp is doing right now to try to get all our votes counted and push back on the voter intimidation measures we are now seeing around the country. But bottom line, right now, is that it is time. Its time. If you have your ballot at home, it really is too late to mail it in. Dont panic. Dont worry about it. Just be real. You need to drop it off by hand instead now. If you need help figuring out how to do that in your state, nbc news set up a very clear website. Nbcnews. Com planyourvote. You can go there to help figure that out. You put in what state youre interested in learning about, and it will direct you to the information in terms of how you can get your ballot in now. But hear me now. Bottom line, in all states, it is too late to count on the mail now. Dont mail it now. Bring it in yourself. Election expert rick hasen, who we have relied on for years on this show in terms of his knowledge of election law rick hasen is now online all but screaming rick hasen is a very mildmannered guy, which you should know for concontext,t he is yelling now if you live in pennsylvania at this point, you should not use the u. S. Mail to return your ballot. Or at this point anywhere in the u usa. Use a drop box or government office, if allowed, or vote in person. Yes, what he said. We are seeing court decisions, including from the United StatesSupreme Court, coming in fast and furious now about how long various states will be allowed to continue accepting ballots. Republicans in states like wisconsin and pennsylvania, north carolina, have been trying to cut short the time after which ballots wont be counted. Pennsylvania today decided that they will segregate, they will set aside any ballots that are received after the close of the polls on tuesday, even if those ballots were put in the mail and postmarked long before election day. Theyre going to set those ballots aside, if they arrive after the polling places close on tuesday, because they know republicans inevitably will try to get those ballots thrown out and not counted. The newly empowered hard right conservatives on the u. S. Supreme court today signaling that even though theyre not going to decide on that pennsylvania issue before election day, they very well might decide it after election day, especially if it looks like that might make the difference in whether or not trumps elected, right . So, because of that, pennsylvania is making sure that ballots received after the polls close on election day are set aside, just in case, because they know that republicans, and potentially, conservative justices, will attack those ballots and try to have them not counted. And thats interesting in terms of whats happened to the courts and whats happened to the, basically, rightwing seizure of the Law Enforcement process around Voting Rights. But what that means for you, the voter, is very simple like i said, dont put it in the mail at this point if youve got a ballot, youre going to need to bring it in, in person. And while we are on the subject about being real about our expectations, we also need to get real about whats actually going to happen on Election Night, on your tv, and out there in the states that are going to decide this election. Now, theres no reason for this to loom large in your memory, but when pennsylvania held their primary this year, they were originally going to hold it in april, then they moved it to early june because of covid. When pennsylvania, this incredibly important swing state of pennsylvania, when they held their primary this year on june 2nd, not only were the results of that primary not called for six days six days by the press, eight days in the state the states afteraction report on how that primary went noted that in more than half of pennsylvanias counties, the actual count of ballots was still going on more than a week after election day, all right . So, thats just pennsylvania. But a lot of experts, and some wellknown, very stressedout worriers on television, think that the election is more likely to come down to pennsylvania than to any other state, and the polling right there the polling there right now is tight. The state of pennsylvania, even in the best of circumstances, doesnt report their results quickly. Their most recent election with wa that primary in june, when it took them over a week. I mean, this year, pennsylvania is one of the states wisconsin is another where poll workers arent even allowed to open and start counting even one ballot until election day itself. I mean, lots of states, they start processing ballots and counting them as soon as the ballots come in, but in pennsylvania and wisconsin, nope not a single ballot counted until election day dawns. Pennsylvania and wisconsin are also states where they dont have a ton of experience with mailin ballots. In 2018, about 5 of the ballots cast in pennsylvania and wisconsin were cast by mail only 5 . This year its going to be way, way, way, way more than 5 . And those states just dont have a ton of experience and, you know, wellworn infrastructure for dealing with that, so its going to be slow. Even if everything goes perfectly, its going to be slow. It is not a sign of a breakdown in the system. Its a sign of the system, particularly in pennsylvania. Up in michigan, they do have more experience with mailin ballots there. About a quarter of all their votes in 2018 were mailed in as opposed to 5 in wisconsin and pennsylvania. So, michigans more used to dealing with considerable numbers of mailin ballots. But even still, michigan is now explicitly warning that nobody should expect Election Results from michigan on Election Night. The secretary of state is just saying, nope, its not going to happen. Theres not going to be michigan results on november 3rd. It will take longer than that to get the votes processed and counted. And so, i mean, you can say this about a lot of different states. In alaska, for example, where theres a really interesting senate race right now, where an incumbent republican senator might lose his seat alaskas saying they wont even start to count ballots, other than ballots cast on election day. So, any absentee ballots, any mailin ballots, alaska isnt even going to start to count those ballots until a week after election day. So, in individual states, theyre not even theres no expectation whatsoever that were going to have quick results, if the results are anywhere, anywhere near close. But thinking about the president ial race, i mean, michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin . That trio of crucial states . On Election Night, experts are warning theyre trying to sort of raise awareness of the fact that the way the vote is going to be counted in those states, the expected partisan divide between an early vote thats likely to be heavily democratic and an electionday vote thats likely to be heavily republican experts are warning that particularly when looking at the crucial tier of northern battleground states pennsylvania, michigan and wisconsin experts are warning that when the first results are released after polls close on Election Night, from those states, those states are likely to look better for trump on Election Night than how they are going to turn out in the end, because the republicanleaning votes are likely to be tallied first. Now, theres a few other potentially important states where that same dynamic might be at work. In virginia, for example. But michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin is where the experts are most focused in terms of a potential false impression on Election Night in states that could be determinative. Of course, its also why President Trump is now constantly insisting that the winner of the election must be declared on Election Night yeah, before all those other pesky ballots are counted that might show a result that he doesnt want. Senate democrats have just put out a short, little guide. Interesting. Ive never really noticed that sitting senators have done Something Like this before, but its helpful, actually. And basically, what theyre doing here is theyre trying to set expectations for what the election is going to be like as we, the voters, as we, the citizens, absorb information about the tally as it is taking place. Theyve called it counting votes and what to expect on election day. And they actually i credit them they actually spell it out sort of perfectly. This year, we know that in some states, vote totals on Election Night might not give us a complete picture of who might win when all votes are counted. Election experts warn that because this year a higher percentage of republicans are voting in person, while more democrats are requesting mailin ballots, early vote counts that dont include many absentee ballots may create the false appearance that republicans are ahead. President trumps rhetoric indicates he may exploit this illusion and claim victory for himself, then falsely claim that theres massive fraud in mailin ballots that have not yet been counted or reported. Some states are working to reduce the opportunity to undermine our elections in this way by reporting how many outstanding absentee ballots remain uncounted. Americans should be prepared to reject misinformation and be patient about results in places where counting ballots may take longer. Be patient. Reject misinformation. I feel like we should all collectively get that same tattoo right now. In the great state of minnesota, theyve always got huge voter turnout there, which is a source of great minnesotan pride. Theyre almost always the best in the country. Today, four former governors of minnesota, republican, democratic, and independent. Do you remember who the recent independent governor of minnesota was . Four governors of minnesota put this together that im going to show you, basically to tell people to chill out, to relax, and reject misinformation, be patient. Basically, saying dont expect an Election Night result. Also, i should warn you in advance, in this video, we learn that a significant proportion of former minnesota governors have unexpectedly interesting hairdos. Minnesotans Minnesotans Minnesotans minnesotans weve all had the privilege of serving as governor of this great state. While we may not agree on every issue we all agree that this election is the most important election of our lifetime. So, make your voice heard and vote. Vote. Go vote. With so many of us voting by mail, it may take a little longer to verify a winner. And thats okay. Its by design. A delay just means our system is working and that were counting every single ballot. There may not be a clear winner on Election Night. But no matter who wins, lets demonstrate the civility and decency that minnesotans are known for. There is so much more that unites us, rather than divides us. Lets show the country theres a better way. If youre a man and you have ambitions to be governor of minneso