November 6 - The Latest Polls in Florida and Ohio; Why North Carolina is the Critical Swing State; The Rural / Urban Divide in Pennsylvania; Important Court Rulings Impact the Vote in Arizona

Full Program

Part 1

Today, two days before the election, we examine the latest polls in the key battleground states that will likely determine the outcome of this presidential election as well as which party ends up controlling the senate. We will begin with Florida and Ohio that appear to cancel each other in the sense that Trump will likely take Ohio and Hillary Clinton Florida, thus making North Carolina and Pennsylvania the deciding states which we will also look into along with Arizona. Peter Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac Polling Institute where he is the chief spokesman for the Florida and Ohio polls, joins us to discuss the latest numbers in both Florida and Ohio and the less-than-stellar candidates the Democrats put up against vulnerable Republicans with former Democratic Governor of Ohio Ted Strickland blowing his lead over Rob Portman and Patrick Murphy failing to unseat a very beatable Marco Rubio in Florida.

Part 2

Then we discuss how North Carolina is shaping up as the key swing state with Jonathan Weiler, the author of “Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics” who also writes for Durham North Carolina’s Independent Weekly. We discuss the status of rampant GOP voter suppression efforts in the state, the close senate race and how much the evangelical zeal of the bathroom-obsessed Governor is backfiring in his race and others across the state.

Part 3

Then we analyze the races for president and the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania with Dr. Terry Madonna, Director of the Franklin and Marshall College Poll who is also a pollster for the Philadelphia Daily News and many other newspapers and television stations in Pennsylvania. With both candidates having spent more time in this state than any other, we look into the rural/urban divide and assess the key senate race in which the very conservative Republican Senator Pat Toomey is neck-and -neck with the Democrat Katie McGinty who might not have been the best choice to challenge such a vulnerable senator.

Part 4

Then finally, with the Supreme Court just handing the Republicans a victory in Arizona by reinstating a state law that restricts the collection of ballots by third parties and advocacy groups, limiting the collection of early ballots from voters and their delivery to election officials, we speak with Evan Wyloge, an investigative reporter with the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting who was previously with the Arizona Capitol Times. He joins us to also discuss the GOP’s poll monitoring plans and the political fate of Donald Trump’s controversial buddy Sheriff Joe Arpaio.