JOHN YANG: Tonight on PBS News Weekend, we check in on the Pennsylvania races that could help decide control of the White House and Congress.

Then what's behind the recent rise in executions in America, after years of decline and election officials reflect on the threats and the stress they've faced since the 2020 election.

WOMAN: We have faith that we're doing a really good job and we're, you know, we do things in a bipartisan team, and we work so well together.

And then you have someone saying, you know, don't have faith in that.

(BREAK) JOHN YANG: Good evening.

I'm John Yang.

Hopes are dimming tonight that the killing of the leader of Hamas would build momentum for a ceasefire as Israel presses its air campaign in Lebanon and Gaza.

In Lebanon, an IDF strike on the Christian majority city of Judea, which is north of Beirut, left two people dead.

It was the first Israeli assault in that area, and in Gaza a series of strikes on refugee camps and hospitals over 24 hours has killed more than 50 people.

Health officials say 11 of the dead, including three children, were from a single family.

Survivors say there's nowhere for them to go.

UMM SAAD ABU AL-AWN, Displaced Gazan (through translator): Our home is gone.

My family's home.

It completely collapsed, and now we're living in this we have no other place to stay.

JOHN YANG: In northern Israel, a drone targeted one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's homes.

The Israeli military says it was launched from Lebanon, and Iran says Hezbollah, which is an Iranian proxy, is responsible for the attack.

Netanyahu and his wife were not home at the time, and no one was hurt.

To the north in Kiryat Ata, an Israeli man was killed and several others injured when Hezbollah rockets hit cars and buildings.

Striking Boeing workers at a vote next week on a proposed new contract, the deal would give a 35 percent pay raise over four years, plus additional retirement fund contributions.

A month long, strike has stopped production of the 737 Max, which is one of Boeing's best-selling passenger jets.

On the campaign trail, former President Trump says if he's returned to the White House, he'd fight for American workers.

At a rally in Detroit Friday night, Trump vowed to bring manufacturing jobs back to the city.

DONALD TRUMP, Republican Presidential Nominee: I will protect our workers, I will protect our jobs, and I will protect our borders.

I will protect our families, and I will protect the birthright of our children to live in the richest and most powerful nation on the face of the earth.

JOHN YANG: And Vice President Harris was in Detroit today highlighting what she says is Trump's increasing instability.

KAMALA HARRIS, Democratic Presidential Nominee: Donald Trump has proven himself to be increasingly unstable and unfit, and he's trying to take us backward.

He is someone who demeans the American people, who has no actual plan for uplifting the middle class.

JOHN YANG: This evening, Harris is in Atlanta for a Get Out the Vote rally, and Trump holds a rally in Pennsylvania, outside Pittsburgh.

And in Cuba, the power grid collapsed for a second time today, shortly after officials said service was being restored from Friday's blackout.

Government officials blame deteriorating infrastructure, fuel shortages and rising demand for electricity for what's considered the worst blackout since Hurricane Ian three years ago.

There are reports that power is again being restored.

To make matters worse, newly formed hurricane Oscar is expected to bring heavy rain and strong winds to the island throughout the weekend.

Still to come on PBS News Weekend, questions about how capital punishment is being applied in America and election officials talk about their growing concerns about safety.

(BREAK) JOHN YANG: This fall, Pennsylvania is living up to its nickname as the Keystone State.

Both the Harris and Trump presidential campaign see its 19 electoral votes as key to getting to the 270 needed to win.

In addition, Pennsylvania contests could determine control of Capitol Hill, so it's where we begin our check ins on battleground states in the final three weekends of the race.

Julia Terruso is national political reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Julia, let's start by just telling me what's the state of the race now.

In Pennsylvania, how do things feel with a little about two and a half weeks to go?

JULIA TERRUSO, National Political Reporter, The Philadelphia Inquirer: he state of the race is neck and neck in Pennsylvania.

You see that in polling with a tied race here anywhere between one and four points separating Trump and Harris, and then you also just feel it in terms of the amount of time both candidates are spending in this state.

Both of them and their running mates were here in the past week, along with surrogates, just kind of blanketing the Commonwealth.

JOHN YANG: In those visits.

Are they focusing on different parts of the state and sort of, how does that fit in with the political geography of Pennsylvania?

JULIA TERRUSO: Sure.

So I think former President Trump's strategy had been to focus really on a lot of those Rust Belt white working class parts of the state that really helped carry him to victory in 2016.

Vice President Harris has had been focusing the suburbs Philadelphia, but then also traveling to a lot of the areas where President Biden was able to do a little bit better than Hillary Clinton in 2020 and win.

You know those collar counties represent about 30 percent of the voting population in the state, and so I think you're seeing both Harris double down there, and former President Trump trying to, you know, lose by less in some of those democratic suburban areas where there are just a lot of voters.

JOHN YANG: We've got a little bit of sound from two Pennsylvania voters I'd like to play for you.

MARK LOPATIN, Harris Supporter: The MAGA movement has veered away from Republicans and become a totally extreme group.

I've maintained my Republican stature, but I can't support a movement that just doesn't stand for human decency.

MARY, Trump Supporter: I was happy when he was president, because we could live better.

Taxes were lower, food was lower, gas was lower.

I could afford to live better.

You made me happy.

JOHN YANG: Julia, as you talk to voters around the state, what are they telling you is on their minds as they try to decide their vote?

JULIA TERRUSO: I think those two voters you just illustrated are very representative of what I hear.

You know, the number one issue in Pennsylvania is the economy.

But when you talk to voters about what's motivating their vote, supporters of former President Trump say the economy.

They say immigration and the border.

Supporters of Vice President Harris say really the threat of another Donald Trump presidency to them their fears about what would happen to abortion rights and kind of other democratic freedoms, is a lot of what I hear from you know, folks supporting Harris.

JOHN YANG: And of course, this is an important Senate race in Pennsylvania, Democratic Senator Bob Casey running for reelection against hedge fund businessman named David McCormick.

Tell us about that race.

JULIA TERRUSO: Senator Casey is a well-known senator in the state, and up until about August, he was leading in this race by about eight percentage points.

It was looking pretty good for him, but Dave McCormick has run a very strong campaign here.

He's narrowed the gaps to about four or five percentage points.

I think you see Casey getting a little bit nervous.

He recently came out with an ad in which he touts having bucked Biden on a fracking decision that the president made, and he touts siding with Trump on putting tariffs on China.

So that shows you that a Democrat who is also a very close ally of Joe Biden sees the political advantage of indicating to potential split ticket voters that there's, there's a home for him, you know, with them.

JOHN YANG: And also with the battle for the control of the House.

There are three House races in Pennsylvania that are considered toss ups.

Tell us about each one of those.

JULIA TERRUSO: First, you have two Democrats who are hoping to hold on to their seats.

There's Susan Wild facing Republican State Representative Ryan MacKenzie.

That's in the Lehigh Valley, which is a battleground part of Pennsylvania.

Wild only won that seat by less than two percentage points in 2020 so I think it's a place where Republicans are really hoping they might be able to pick up the seat there.

It's an area where the Latino population is growing.

It's one of the largest Latino populations in the state.

But it's also a district that the Biden did win by more than four percentage points in 2020.

The second Democrat is Congressman Matt Cartwright, who represents the northeast portion of Pennsylvania.

That's a district that actually Trump won in 2016 and in 2020 so he's managed to hold on in this plus Trump district for the last number of cycles, really, by running very local races, kind of focusing on being a moderate.

His challenger is a man named Rob Resnahan who has been a prolific fundraiser, and that's actually a race that where you see the most money spent in the state, and then finally, in the south central part of Pennsylvania, it's where Harrisburg is, York County, you have Republican Congressman Scott Perry.

Perry has been a long time Trump ally.

He was investigated by the FBI for his role in trying to overturn the election results in Pennsylvania here.

So I think there was a lot of thought among Democrats that he might be vulnerable the last time he ran.

This time a popular former news anchor, Janelle Stelson is running against him, and she has massively outraised him in that race, so she actually had a lead.

It looks like it's narrowed, definitely the three to watch in Pennsylvania.

JOHN YANG: Julia Terruso, the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Thank you very much.

JULIA TERRUSO: Thank you so much for having me.

JOHN YANG: While the execution of a Texas man was temporarily put on hold this week, more than 2,000 inmates remain on death rows across the country.

The Texas case has highlighted a recent increase in executions and questions about how capital punishment is applied in America.

Ali Rogin has more.

ALI ROGIN: Since the death penalty was reinstated in the 70s and late 80s on the federal level, some 1,600 people have been executed in the US.

This week, Alabama executed Derrick Dearman, responsible for killing five people in 2016.

Dearman had dropped his appeal and asked to be put to death.

This follows five executions in the U.S. in the span of a week in September.

More executions are set to take place before the end of the year in Alabama and at least five other states.

Maurice Chammah is a staff writer for The Marshall Project, a journalism nonprofit focused on criminal justice issues.

He's been covering the death penalty for over a decade, and is the author of the book "Let The Lord Sort Them."

Maurice, thank you so much for joining us.

What is behind the rise in the number of executions that are being carried out?

MAURICE CHAMMAH, Staff Writer, The Marshall Project: There's no one reason.

There's kind of a bunch of factors.

I mean, the Supreme Court is very conservative and is so less likely to stop executions than they used to be, and then you have a lot of Republican state governors and attorneys general who see and it's kind of politically advantageous to pursue executions, especially at a time when former President Donald Trump is running for office, and the death penalty was a favorite of his as well.

ALI ROGIN: One of the more high profile cases right now is that of Robert Roberson in Texas.

On Thursday, his execution was temporarily paused by the state Supreme Court.

Can you tell us about this case and why it's causing some to question what's legally taken into account in these execution cases?

MAURICE CHAMMAH: Yeah, it's a really shocking and unprecedented situation.

Next week, state legislators here in Texas want to bring him to the state capitol to testify.

They issued a subpoena for him, sort of as a 11th hour play to try to stop the execution.

They're concerned, essentially, that the courts did not adequately look at new medical findings in his case.

He would be the first person executed under the theory of Shaken Baby Syndrome, but many now question whether he really killed his daughter or whether her death was an accident.

He's maintained his innocence for more than 20 years.

The case has become a real reckoning over whether the courts are sort of up to the task when the science changes in a case, and whether there's this risk of executing innocent person.

I'll also add that a lot of his supporters are Republicans.

It's been a kind of bipartisan effort on the state legislators part here to step in when they feel like the governor and the state's courts have sort of abdicated their responsibility.

ALI ROGIN: What about the methods used in executions?

Have those changed over the years?

And how has that affected the number of executions that take place?

MAURICE CHAMMAH: This is another reason why executions seem to be going up.

So about 10, 15, years ago, pharmaceutical companies stopped allowing their drugs to be used in executions.

This led to a frenzy among many different states trying to source new combinations of drugs and lots of litigation.

So now some states are looking to fentanyl and ketamine, and then even beyond lethal injection to the firing squad and also to the electric chair, and Alabama recently pioneered the use of nitrogen gas.

ALI ROGIN: There's another high profile case that of Richard Moore of South Carolina.

He's set to be executed on November 1.

What is different about his case, and why is it drawing more attention than other cases?

MAURICE CHAMMAH: Well, Richard Moore was given the option of how he would choose to be executed, between electric chair, lethal injection and firing squad.

He ended up picking lethal injection, but it stands to reason that at any point someone in South Carolina could choose the firing squad, which hasn't been used in more than a decade in the US.

It's very rare, and I think will set off a lot of attention and scrutiny in that state.

Richard Moore himself has also been calling attention to some of the racial dynamics in his case, the fact that there were no black members of his jury, and that the crime that he committed, the murder of a convenience store clerk, was, by his own reckoning, severe, but not, you know, sort of what we would consider the worst of the worst, that there are kind of racial dynamics and geographic dynamics dictating why he's getting executed and others aren't.

ALI ROGIN: And let's talk more broadly about that factor of race.

How does race tend to factor into who is and who isn't executed?

And what does that say about longstanding issues with the capital punishment system?

MAURICE CHAMMAH: Well, death rows across the country are disproportionately black, and the numbers are even more out of whack when you look at the race of victims in capital cases.

So regardless of the race of the perpetrator, if the victim is white, it is more likely to lead to a death sentence.

But beyond these racial disparities, whether someone gets the death penalty seems to have more to do with what county they committed the crime in, who happens to be the district attorney, whether the state leaders are really actively interested in pursuing executions or not, and really, in the context of all of the murders that take place in the United States in any given year, the number of people who are sentenced to death and then executed is just a vanishingly small number.

And when you get really into the weeds of why it's those people, it can feel quite random.

ALI ROGIN: We are just a few weeks away from the November election.

What are the policy differences between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris on this issue?

MAURICE CHAMMAH: So Trump oversaw more executions than any president in decades in terms of federal executions, and he has amused about bringing back guillotines and firing squads and group executions.

Many of these things are outside of the purview of the president and are extremely unlikely, but they suggest a certain appetite for capital punishment.

President Biden campaigned four years ago on a promise to work against the death penalty work to abolish it.

He has not done a whole lot on that front.

And in fact, the Democratic Party dropped the death penalty opposition to it from their platform this year, which suggests that really the ball would be in President Kamala Harris's administration, it would be in her court to really decide.

As a prosecutor in California, there were times when she really opposed the death penalty, and other times when she kind of sped appeals along towards execution.

So it's really anyone's guess what she would do with that power.

ALI ROGIN: Maurice Chammah with the Marshall Project.

Thank you so much.

MAURICE CHAMMAH: Thanks for having me.

JOHN YANG: With about two and a half weeks to go until election day, some places around the country are still looking for people to work at polling places.

One reason for that could be the threats and harassment that's been aimed at election officials since the false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

Tonight, we hear from current and former election officials across the country.

This report is from our partners at News 21 that's a national student reporting initiative based at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.

WOMAN: Tuesday, 7:11 pm.

ANDREW NICKELS: Hi, Tina Barton, this is a pissed off patriots of America.

Guess what?

You're going to pay for it.

You will pay for it.

You should be in prison, if not the least paid, you should be executed under federal prison.

We will take you out your family, your life, and you deserve the throat to the knife.

Watch your back.

Silly.

Watch your back.

TINA BARTON, Former City Clerk, Rochester Hills, Minnesota: So when I first got that message, it was the Tuesday after the November general election, obviously walking into the office completely exhausted, and then saw that the light was flashing on my phone and listen to the voicemail.

It's not something that any election official signs up for, and it's unfortunate that it is a burden that a lot of us are bearing in this field.

TONYA WICHMAN, Board of Elections, Defiance County, Ohio: We had a gentleman that liked to come into the office just to question what we did loudly or cause an issue.

He would stand at ball games and just stare at me, or try to make me uncomfortable when I'd go watch my nephew play basketball.

The accumulation of all of that ended up in 2020 on election day, when he was yelling at my poll workers, and it kind of turned into a circus throughout the day.

He turned me into the state.

Showed up at our board meeting, and I told the board, I said, this is something I'll finish this election, but this is something I really need to think about, if it's worth the mental drain of trying to defend yourself all the time.

TAMMY KAPPEN, Clerk, Defiance County, Ohio: I think being from a small town, people are just they know what they know, and they're really not willing to be educated or hear any other type of point of view.

It's a difficult place to be in when you have such nonsense being spread, kind of on the national level.

And then it comes down to us, where we have faith that we're doing a really good job, and we're, you know, we do things in a bipartisan team, and we work so well together.

And then you have someone saying, you know, don't have faith in that.

TATE FALL, Director of Elections, Cobb County, Georgia: I think here in Georgia, people have a lot of opinions about elections.

Right?

Whenever I meet someone, normally I don't tell them what I do right away.

And then, if they ask, I'll answer, and then they'll say, Oh, you work in politics.

I said, No, no, I don't work in politics.

My job is to administer and grade the test.

That's it.

I was accosted by someone for where I work.

I stupidly was wearing my county rain jacket, and she was very kind, and then she saw my jacket, and just kind of launched into this, the election was stolen.

You don't count my votes.

I know my ballot is not counted.

For a long time, Cobb was Republican stronghold in Georgia, right?

And then people who have lived here their whole lives, they feel like all of a sudden Cobb became blue, and that was in 2020.

How could this place I've lived in my whole life all of a sudden be blue?

Something must be going on.

And I think that it's really fear, this fear that the place that they've known their whole lives has changed.

I'll have conversations for an hour with voters.

I'll bring them back here in my office.

I'll sit down with them.

I'll show them tapes and paperwork and everything you could think of, and they'll stand up and they'll shake my hand, and they'll say things for your time, but I still don't believe you.

When half of the country doesn't believe in the foundation of our democracy, I don't know what's next, and it scares me to think about that.

CHRIS HARVEY, Georgia Peace Officers Standard and Training Council: When I talk to people about the 2020, election, I always make the distinction between the election itself in November, which went very, very smoothly.

It was only the results of the election and the aftermath that really -- that really kind of blew up.

I got a call from a friend in Washington, DC, who told me that I had appeared on the dark web and that I'd been doxxed, and that they put my home address, picture of me, contact information and stuff like that, saying that I was going to be killed because I had not verified absentee ballots or something.

And, you know, they said, you know, every time you leave your house, make sure you tell your family goodbye, because you're not going to see them again.

RUSS SKINNER, Sheriff, Maricopa County, Arizona: Maricopa County, the elections process was a very sleepy, quiet one day event for the most part.

What we saw in 2020 was obviously something that really shook us and our community.

I mean, obviously a lot more security measures taking place with fencing, but we do additional measures.

You'll see everything from the roadway to the sidewalks to the parking lot fortified.

And I hate to say that and use that, but that's the reality, and our number one job there is to make sure that they're safe and that they can carry out the process that needs to be done.

MAN: I'm just disgusted by people like you.

You're a, joke.

You deserve to be -- WOMAN: I'm sorry, I cannot tolerate that kind of language, if you would like to talk to me in a civilized -- MAN: Someone should shoot you in the head.

WOMAN: I'm hanging up.

TOD LIDDY, Attorney's Office, Maricopa County, Arizona: I've been at the Maricopa County Attorney's Office for 16 years, where I've gotten letters to me.

Actually, it's a letter to my wife, but it came to the office saying that this person was going to kill our fourth child, and they named him.

So my phone rang, and I was told go upstairs to sit in county attorney's office.

The FBI is there.

I need to talk to me.

And they had two very specific threats to me and to my children that they had got on the internet, and they put armed guards on my house, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

This is what they give you when the FBI tells you, you better wear body armor and you better carry a firearm.

JOANA FRANCESCUT, Assistant County Clerk, Shasta County, California: I've built this team.

I've built a very resilient and strong team.

However, I am having some team members leave because this work is hard.

In the last six months, I've lost eight people, eight people that have had out of 21 it's a third of my staff say, this is too much.

I cannot do this any longer.

That's a lot.

Before 2018 it was a lot of fun.

The process was fun.

We really enjoyed seeing people.

Election Day was a great day.

Post-election in 2020 we saw a huge shift in how we were being treated.

We completed an election during a pandemic, and ensured that everybody had the right to vote with the record numbers, the highest number of voters that we've ever had, then highest number of ballots we were counting in Shasta County.

And we did that very quickly and efficiently.

And instead of getting celebrated, we're getting yelled at because of the voting system we used.

People were angry because we handed the sharpies on election day and then post-election, they heard a rumor that Sharpies were bad and they shouldn't have used Sharpies so they didn't think their vote was counted without understanding the big picture and having all the pieces in front of them, they're making assumptions based on what they believe, instead of understanding that election administration is a very complex task/ WOMAN: There has been a dehumanization of those in the elections world, I think that for a lot of people, they're angry at government.

They're angry at all things elections.

The truth is, is we have secure elections.

The truth is we have accurate elections.

WOMAN: The election officials across the country are amazing.

Everyone wants to do it.

Right?

WOMAN: Yes, it's hard, right now.

Yes, I'm probably the most stressed I've ever been in my life, but I still come to work smiling every day because there's joy throughout every single day, even when it's hard.

JOHN YANG: And that is PBS News Weekend for this Saturday.

I'm John Yang, for all of my colleagues, thanks for joining us.

See you tomorrow.