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American Morning

Presidential Race Still Remains Too Close to Call

Aired November 03, 2004 - 10:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: More than 15 hours after the nation's polls first began to close, the presidential race still remains too close to call. CNN's projects that a mere two votes in the Electoral College separate George W. Bush and John Kerry. Iowa and New Mexico will declare their winner later today, but even those Electoral College votes will fail to give either candidate the 270 votes necessary.
So all eyes this morning on Ohio, where bush has a lead of more than 136,000 votes. If the uncounted provisional ballots number is less than that, as the Republicans claim today, Bush would be assured victory in Ohio, and of course, more importantly, in the Electoral College. It is still unclear what will happen here in Ohio. It could be days before all of those ballots are counted, in fact.

U.S. Representative Bob Portman is from Ohio. He joins us this morning to talk on what's been happening yesterday and overnight.

Good morning to you.

REP. BOB PORTMAN, BUSH CAMPAIGN ADVISER: Good morning, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Any surprise to you that it's Ohio that the nation is looking at this morning?

PORTMAN: Not at all. We've been in the spotlight all along, and Ohio came through for George Bush last night. It was a great night by him. He won by over 136,000 votes here. We do have some provisional ballots out still, but it was a great night for George Bush, and he clearly is going to be the victor in Ohio.

O'BRIEN: I like the way that you say we have some of those provisional ballots out here. Actually that's sort of the focus of the whole entire debate.

PORTMAN: Well, even if, looking at it mathematically, even if John Kerry were to win 90 percent of those provisional ballots out there, and even if 90 percent of them were deemed to be valid, neither of which is going to be true based on the record.

O'BRIEN: Very hypothetical, I'll give you that.

PORTMAN: Right, still he would lose by over 10,000 votes.

O'BRIEN: How are you doing the math? Because we still only have 135,000 provisional votes... PORTMAN: I think actually there are 154,000 provisional ballots, because we've talked to every board of elections in the state, they've all come in, and we have about 136,000-vote margin. So if you assume that 90 percent of them are valid, and again as you know, in Illinois with the new Haba (ph) ballots, it was 17 percent were valid...

O'BRIEN: So that's a high number.

PORTMAN: Ninety percent is valid, which is very, very unlikely, and let's assume 90 percent go to John Kerry, which is very unlikely, given that a lot of these counties that have provisional ballots coming in are Republican counties, and we expect it to split more or less the way Ohio split, but even if that were to happen, still he would be 10,000 votes short, and that doesn't even account for the fact that it doesn't count for the overseas ballots. As you know in 2000, we have 10,000 overseas ballots come in from overseas military. About 90 percent of them went with the president. So it would seem to me that just mathematically the numbers are insurmountable, and that's why I think we can say we won Ohio; it may take some time legally to work through this, but I would hope that we could move on.

O'BRIEN: Do you think Senator Kerry should say that President Bush has won Ohio. Are you saying the senator should concede at this point.

PORTMAN: I think if the math is accurate that I just laid out, then I think there is no way that Senator Kerry can beat the math. Even using new math, we can't come up with a way he can win. And therefore, I think it would be good for the country if Senator Kerry, looking at this state, and looking at some other states that apparently George bush is ahead in, that you talked about a moment ago, that he would concede as soon as it is possible so that we can move on and get the country moving.

O'BRIEN: Is it bad for the country if he does not? If he says, you know what, let's count them all, take the 10 days before they start counting these provisional ballots?

PORTMAN: Well, I think the lawyers would be very active then in Ohio, we'd be litigating a lot of different matters, and I would say to see that. If the math is as I says it is, as I said it was earlier, again, he can't win 90 percent of those ballots, we don't believe. Ninety percent of them are very unlikely to be valid, and yet he would still he not win in Ohio.

Also, I think it's interesting this year that we have a different situation on the national scene. The president won, as you know, 3.5 million votes margin nationally.

O'BRIEN: Huge, huge surprise this morning.

PORTMAN: So it's a different sort of a situation, a big difference from what we thought yesterday afternoon with the original exit polls coming in, so this is a clear victory for the president national in terms of the popular vote, and I hope that as soon as possible, we could move on and begin to bring this country together. It's been a tough election. There were bad feelings on both sides. It was hard fought. I think it would be good for the country for us to have the lawyers move out of the way and have the country move ahead with a very important agenda.

O'BRIEN: Certainly has been a long night for all of us, and turning into a long day as well.

Representative Bob Portman, nice to see you. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

And let's head it back to Bill in New York -- Hey, Bill.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Soledad. For four years many Americans wondering if there would be a repeat of the Florida debacle during this election. So far so good from Florida.

From Florida, Palm Beach Gardens, here's Gary Tuchman again.

Good morning.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill Hemmer, hello to you.

Let's talk about Interstate Four. Interstate Four runs from Ebor (ph) City in the west -- that's a historic part in Tampa -- to Orlando and the central part of the state, to Daytona Beach in the east. An important part of the state that both camps, the Bush and Kerry camp, both thought they had to win, the I-4 corridor, the swing voters around there. It went heavily toward George W. Bush, and that helped lead him to victory, a very decisive victory in the Sunshine State.

There were long lines yesterday, a huge turnout. John Kerry's people thought that would mean a lot for him, and it did; it gave him an extra half-million votes over Al Gore in the year 2000. However, it ended up meaning a lot more to George W. Bush -- he got a million more votes in Florida than he received in 2000. So instead of winning by 537 votes, as he did in 2000, George W. Bush won by 377,000 votes here in the Sunshine State, and he won all 27 electoral votes.

Kerry had to do well in south Florida. The most Democratic County in Florida is Broward County to our south. In the year 2000, Al Gore beat George W. Bush by a 2-1 margin. Well, this time John Kerry got 54,000 more votes than Al Gore got, but George W. Bush got 58,000 more votes than he got in 2000, and that gives you an idea that John Kerry didn't do as well in South Florida as he needed to do, and certainly did not do well in the I-4 corridor.

One more thing I want to mention, Bill, some very simple mathematics, despite all the talk about Ohio today, Ohio would have meant absolutely nothing electorally if Kerry won the state of Florida. If Kerry won Florida, he would have 279 electoral votes, and he would have made his victory speech by now.

Bill, back to you.

HEMMER: How much do you think Jeb Bush, a popular governor, approval ratings right around 70 percent, helped his brother there? TUCHMAN: Jeb Bush, being the governor of the state in the year 2000, being the governor in 2004, has meant an immense amount to his brother. The fact is that Jeb Bush was not at the Republican Convention this year; he was busy here with hurricanes. He had a very statesman-like role here, and despite the fact that he wasn't at the Republican Convention, that helped his brother, serving in NEVILLE: at role during the four hurricanes in Florida this summer.

HEMMER: He was prominent going back to August, too. Gary, you're right about that. Thanks, Gary, again, down there in Florida.

I want to go to Atlanta now, the CNN Center, and say good morning to my colleagues there, Daryn Kagan and Rick Sanchez.

How are you guys doing? Where were we four years ago? We're back there again, it seems.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: I was sitting next to you four years ago, and you were on your way to Florida, that's where we were.

HEMMER: That's right.

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Where were we last night?

KAGAN: We were sitting here, waiting for our turn.

Good morning to you, Bill. We're going go from Atlanta, we're going to go to Washington and get an insider's perspective.

SANCHEZ: Yes, will the government be impacted by this presidential race in sudden limbo.

Our guest is Jim Vandehei. He's good enough to join us, a reporter for "The Washington Post."

Hey, Jim.

JIM VANDEHEI, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Good to be here.

SANCHEZ: I'd like to get your reaction on something. It seems like the mantra from the Republicans this morning is John Kerry really needs to do the right thing, the statesman-like thing, and concede. Here's how C. Bowden Gray put it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

C. BOYDEN GRAY, FMR. WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: The math doesn't add up. And you can insist on principle and put the country through ten days or more of uncertainty and invite all kinds of other mischief, but I think that wouldn't not be the statesman-like thing to do. I mean, Nixon could have insisted on a recount in 1960. He didn't. There are other examples of where presidents could have -- or candidates could have. I think it's over. As a complete practical matter, it's over.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SANCHEZ: That seems to be the party line. What's your take on what you've been hearing? I'm sure you've heard that from other people, as well, including, by the way, Rudy Giuliani this morning.

VANDEHEI: Right, we've been crunching the numbers since last night, and it does look difficult for John Kerry at this point. The Kerry campaign is saying that until this is mathematically impossible, they're not going to concede this election to George Bush.

What they want to do is they want to take a look in Ohio, find out how many provisional ballots are out there, but also and find out if there's any voting irregularities throughout this state and figure out if that all the numbers could work in their favor.

So, I think they're going to take a good part of today and try to figure that out, talk to their lawyers, survey the landscape, and figure out what it looks like.

SANCHEZ: Since Mr. Gregg broached the subject -- and we're talking about history -- let's go ahead and go back to about four years. Do the people of Duval County who perceive, 25,000 of them, that their votes didn't count the last time, do the Democrats, does John Kerry owe it to them to see this thing through to the very last check or balance?

VANDEHEI: I mean, that's what we heard from John Edwards last night, and that's what we've been hearing from John Kerry throughout this campaign. He really did make a commitment to those voters. And he's talked about it in Florida. He talked a lot about it in Ohio.

So, I think he's going to do this. He's going to take it until the end, until all the votes are counted and it's crystal clear that he's not a winner. And I must say that, in talking to Democrats, the mood is they're very nervous. They don't think that this can happen. They don't think that the numbers are going to add up. But they also -- there's a lot of pressure on John Kerry to fight. There's a lot of loathing of George Bush out there among Democrats, and there's no interest whatsoever in sort of giving up until they absolutely have to.

SANCHEZ: You washed John Kerry throughout the campaign, covered him just like -- for what? How long were you with the senator?

VANDEHEI: I was with him from the beginning. I started with Howard Dean, and then I went on to John Kerry when he started to catch fire early in January.

SANCHEZ: What did he do wrong? Or maybe the way I should ask it is what could he have done better?

VANDEHEI: You know, it's interesting. When I was talking to Howard Dean in December of last year, he made a what turned out to be a very pressing point. He said that Democrats have to somehow break through in the south, and they have to be able to communicate to church-going rural voters. And it looks like from what we're seeing in the exit polls that John Kerry was not able to do that. In the end, he tried to go hunting. He tried to talk about sports. And he tried to reach out to those voters that aren't in big cities, that aren't part of the Democratic base, to show that Democrats have broadened their appeal.

It doesn't appear he was successful in doing that. In Democrats, when you look at that map and you look at the blue on the two coasts and the rest of the country is a sea of red, they have to figure out how to communicate to that block of voters. John Kerry always struggled in doing that.

SANCHEZ: Jim Vandehei, "Washington Post," thank you for being with us this morning.

VANDEHEI: Good to be here. Take care.

SANCHEZ: Appreciate it. All right.

KAGAN: And here's now some more election news headlines. Election officials across the country say the presidential race drew the largest voter turnout in decades. According to the latest estimates, at least 112 million registered voters cast ballots in person yesterday. That's at least seven million more voters than in the bitterly contested election in 2000.

In Illinois, a rising star in the Democratic party ascends to the U.S. Senate. State lawmaker Barack Obama easily won an open Republican seat. The 43-year-old drew wide praise in a keynote praise at this summer's Democratic National Convention. He defeated by a very wide margin Alan Keyes, a former GOP presidential candidate and talk show host.

And U.S. voters rejected the idea of legalized same-sex marriage. In all 11 states considering a Constitutional ban, those proposed amendments won by double-digit margins. In Mississippi, 86 percent of the voters supported a measure stating that marriage is strictly a heterosexual institution.

To world news now, in Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai has been declared the winner of that country's historic presidential election. Investigators say a string of irregularities are too minor to reverse the results there. The U.S.-backed candidate will serve a five-year term as the country's first popularly chosen leader.

SANCHEZ: And boy was that interesting last night when that came over the wires, that we have a winner in the presidential race, and it is...

KAGAN: Hamid Karzai. At 3:20, things were getting a little goofy here, and we had a winner in the presidential race, Hamid Karzai -- takes Ohio!

SANCHEZ: Claiming Ohio. boy was that tough. It was a real good chuckle last night...

KAGAN: Broke the tension a little bit.

SANCHEZ: ... broke the tension. Hey, Soledad...

O'BRIEN: Yeah, no one's looking to Ohio to weigh in on that race, fortunately, because here in Ohio we have enough going on as we wait to really get the final tally. Things still hang in the balance of those 20 electoral votes, that the Republicans say they have taken. But of course, it's not over until it's over.

The election also having a dramatic effect today on Wall Street. We're going to take you live to the Stock Exchange just ahead. AMERICAN MORNING is back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: I want to check of the markets right now, about 10 minutes before the hour. The markets trading about an hour-and-15- minutes now. We're told they're up. How far? Here's Rhonda Schaffler down there. Rhonda, good morning.

(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to talk a little bit of health here, and whoever ultimately wins the presidency will have to deal with the major issue of health care. Well, actually (INAUDIBLE). Both parties say the system needs a major change. Elizabeth Cohen joins us with the whole story on that, and some of the changes coming up.

Good morning.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Daryn. Good morning.

Whoever wins this presidency, whoever is our new president, will have to deal with many big problems, but one of the most intractable seems to be health care. The costs just keep going up to the point where General Motors spends more on health care than it does on steel.

Let's take a look at some of the numbers that make this a particularly American problem. The U.S. spends more money on health care than any other country. That's $5,000 per person per year, but only has the 24th highest life expectancy.

So some people say, are we getting what we're paying for? We're behind countries like Japan, Australia, Switzerland, as well as many other countries. So as Daryn mentioned, a lot of people say we have to have a major change in health care. But the thing is, when you start messing with people's health care, they get angry. So how do you do a change that people are going to find acceptable?

KAGAN: Right, and there's a lot of people out there who still need health care. What kind of numbers are we talking about uninsured.

COHEN: Uninsured, unfortunately, just like health care costs, those numbers keep growing, to the point now where one in six Americans is uninsured, one in 10 children is uninsured. There are five million more uninsured Americans in the year 2000, and the government pays $25 billion to finance those uninsured. So the problem with more and more uninsured, that seems to just keeps going on and on.

KAGAN: And another big medical bill out there, medical bill, is for prescription drugs and the rising cost of those.

COHEN: That's right, and those keep going up and up to the point where Americans now spend between 35 and 55 percent, the cost are 35 to 55 percent higher in this country than other countries, so some people have gone to Canada to get their drugs, but the FDA says they can't ensure that they're safe and high-quality drugs.

And in addition to that, you have a situation where Medicare, you have the Medicare plan that just came up for prescription drugs that old people would be able to get prescription drugs, but a lot of people say that hasn't worked terribly well, that it's really not much cheaper than it ever was.

KAGAN: Lots to do.

COHEN: Lots to do in this area, that's right.

KAGAN: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you for that. Now that the campaigning is over, now the governing begins.

SANCHEZ: Let's go to Soledad. She's standing by in Columbus, Ohio, where there may be new information coming out of there soon on this never-ending race that everyone seems to be watching.

Soledad, what you got?

O'BRIEN: Let's not use that word, "never-ending," shall we? It's a little too early for that. Yes, we're waiting to hear from Ohio secretary of state. He's supposed to be making some remarks soon. Of course, the bottom line is these provisional ballots, just how many are there out there? That number is officially unclear at this time. We're going to get the word on that. And then, of course, what's the next step after they get those numbers? Is there enough of a margin for Senator Kerry to still pull it out? We will find out. That's ahead.

Stay with us. AMERICAN MORNING continues right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Four years ago the catchword was hanging chad. This year, the catchword is provisional ballots and the state of Ohio. We are expecting a briefing from Ken Blackwell. He is Ohio's secretary of state. We are expecting that momentarily. We're going to bring it to you as soon as it happens here in Columbus, Ohio. We are waiting, of course, on that final tally when the total number of provisional ballots here in the state of Ohio. Some estimates have been anywhere around 150,000 to 250,000, depending on which camp you believe, waiting for that final number, and then of course the next step for Senator Kerry. A short break as AMERICAN MORNING continues right after this.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired November 3, 2004 - 10:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: More than 15 hours after the nation's polls first began to close, the presidential race still remains too close to call. CNN's projects that a mere two votes in the Electoral College separate George W. Bush and John Kerry. Iowa and New Mexico will declare their winner later today, but even those Electoral College votes will fail to give either candidate the 270 votes necessary.
So all eyes this morning on Ohio, where bush has a lead of more than 136,000 votes. If the uncounted provisional ballots number is less than that, as the Republicans claim today, Bush would be assured victory in Ohio, and of course, more importantly, in the Electoral College. It is still unclear what will happen here in Ohio. It could be days before all of those ballots are counted, in fact.

U.S. Representative Bob Portman is from Ohio. He joins us this morning to talk on what's been happening yesterday and overnight.

Good morning to you.

REP. BOB PORTMAN, BUSH CAMPAIGN ADVISER: Good morning, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Any surprise to you that it's Ohio that the nation is looking at this morning?

PORTMAN: Not at all. We've been in the spotlight all along, and Ohio came through for George Bush last night. It was a great night by him. He won by over 136,000 votes here. We do have some provisional ballots out still, but it was a great night for George Bush, and he clearly is going to be the victor in Ohio.

O'BRIEN: I like the way that you say we have some of those provisional ballots out here. Actually that's sort of the focus of the whole entire debate.

PORTMAN: Well, even if, looking at it mathematically, even if John Kerry were to win 90 percent of those provisional ballots out there, and even if 90 percent of them were deemed to be valid, neither of which is going to be true based on the record.

O'BRIEN: Very hypothetical, I'll give you that.

PORTMAN: Right, still he would lose by over 10,000 votes.

O'BRIEN: How are you doing the math? Because we still only have 135,000 provisional votes... PORTMAN: I think actually there are 154,000 provisional ballots, because we've talked to every board of elections in the state, they've all come in, and we have about 136,000-vote margin. So if you assume that 90 percent of them are valid, and again as you know, in Illinois with the new Haba (ph) ballots, it was 17 percent were valid...

O'BRIEN: So that's a high number.

PORTMAN: Ninety percent is valid, which is very, very unlikely, and let's assume 90 percent go to John Kerry, which is very unlikely, given that a lot of these counties that have provisional ballots coming in are Republican counties, and we expect it to split more or less the way Ohio split, but even if that were to happen, still he would be 10,000 votes short, and that doesn't even account for the fact that it doesn't count for the overseas ballots. As you know in 2000, we have 10,000 overseas ballots come in from overseas military. About 90 percent of them went with the president. So it would seem to me that just mathematically the numbers are insurmountable, and that's why I think we can say we won Ohio; it may take some time legally to work through this, but I would hope that we could move on.

O'BRIEN: Do you think Senator Kerry should say that President Bush has won Ohio. Are you saying the senator should concede at this point.

PORTMAN: I think if the math is accurate that I just laid out, then I think there is no way that Senator Kerry can beat the math. Even using new math, we can't come up with a way he can win. And therefore, I think it would be good for the country if Senator Kerry, looking at this state, and looking at some other states that apparently George bush is ahead in, that you talked about a moment ago, that he would concede as soon as it is possible so that we can move on and get the country moving.

O'BRIEN: Is it bad for the country if he does not? If he says, you know what, let's count them all, take the 10 days before they start counting these provisional ballots?

PORTMAN: Well, I think the lawyers would be very active then in Ohio, we'd be litigating a lot of different matters, and I would say to see that. If the math is as I says it is, as I said it was earlier, again, he can't win 90 percent of those ballots, we don't believe. Ninety percent of them are very unlikely to be valid, and yet he would still he not win in Ohio.

Also, I think it's interesting this year that we have a different situation on the national scene. The president won, as you know, 3.5 million votes margin nationally.

O'BRIEN: Huge, huge surprise this morning.

PORTMAN: So it's a different sort of a situation, a big difference from what we thought yesterday afternoon with the original exit polls coming in, so this is a clear victory for the president national in terms of the popular vote, and I hope that as soon as possible, we could move on and begin to bring this country together. It's been a tough election. There were bad feelings on both sides. It was hard fought. I think it would be good for the country for us to have the lawyers move out of the way and have the country move ahead with a very important agenda.

O'BRIEN: Certainly has been a long night for all of us, and turning into a long day as well.

Representative Bob Portman, nice to see you. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

And let's head it back to Bill in New York -- Hey, Bill.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Soledad. For four years many Americans wondering if there would be a repeat of the Florida debacle during this election. So far so good from Florida.

From Florida, Palm Beach Gardens, here's Gary Tuchman again.

Good morning.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill Hemmer, hello to you.

Let's talk about Interstate Four. Interstate Four runs from Ebor (ph) City in the west -- that's a historic part in Tampa -- to Orlando and the central part of the state, to Daytona Beach in the east. An important part of the state that both camps, the Bush and Kerry camp, both thought they had to win, the I-4 corridor, the swing voters around there. It went heavily toward George W. Bush, and that helped lead him to victory, a very decisive victory in the Sunshine State.

There were long lines yesterday, a huge turnout. John Kerry's people thought that would mean a lot for him, and it did; it gave him an extra half-million votes over Al Gore in the year 2000. However, it ended up meaning a lot more to George W. Bush -- he got a million more votes in Florida than he received in 2000. So instead of winning by 537 votes, as he did in 2000, George W. Bush won by 377,000 votes here in the Sunshine State, and he won all 27 electoral votes.

Kerry had to do well in south Florida. The most Democratic County in Florida is Broward County to our south. In the year 2000, Al Gore beat George W. Bush by a 2-1 margin. Well, this time John Kerry got 54,000 more votes than Al Gore got, but George W. Bush got 58,000 more votes than he got in 2000, and that gives you an idea that John Kerry didn't do as well in South Florida as he needed to do, and certainly did not do well in the I-4 corridor.

One more thing I want to mention, Bill, some very simple mathematics, despite all the talk about Ohio today, Ohio would have meant absolutely nothing electorally if Kerry won the state of Florida. If Kerry won Florida, he would have 279 electoral votes, and he would have made his victory speech by now.

Bill, back to you.

HEMMER: How much do you think Jeb Bush, a popular governor, approval ratings right around 70 percent, helped his brother there? TUCHMAN: Jeb Bush, being the governor of the state in the year 2000, being the governor in 2004, has meant an immense amount to his brother. The fact is that Jeb Bush was not at the Republican Convention this year; he was busy here with hurricanes. He had a very statesman-like role here, and despite the fact that he wasn't at the Republican Convention, that helped his brother, serving in NEVILLE: at role during the four hurricanes in Florida this summer.

HEMMER: He was prominent going back to August, too. Gary, you're right about that. Thanks, Gary, again, down there in Florida.

I want to go to Atlanta now, the CNN Center, and say good morning to my colleagues there, Daryn Kagan and Rick Sanchez.

How are you guys doing? Where were we four years ago? We're back there again, it seems.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: I was sitting next to you four years ago, and you were on your way to Florida, that's where we were.

HEMMER: That's right.

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Where were we last night?

KAGAN: We were sitting here, waiting for our turn.

Good morning to you, Bill. We're going go from Atlanta, we're going to go to Washington and get an insider's perspective.

SANCHEZ: Yes, will the government be impacted by this presidential race in sudden limbo.

Our guest is Jim Vandehei. He's good enough to join us, a reporter for "The Washington Post."

Hey, Jim.

JIM VANDEHEI, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Good to be here.

SANCHEZ: I'd like to get your reaction on something. It seems like the mantra from the Republicans this morning is John Kerry really needs to do the right thing, the statesman-like thing, and concede. Here's how C. Bowden Gray put it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

C. BOYDEN GRAY, FMR. WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: The math doesn't add up. And you can insist on principle and put the country through ten days or more of uncertainty and invite all kinds of other mischief, but I think that wouldn't not be the statesman-like thing to do. I mean, Nixon could have insisted on a recount in 1960. He didn't. There are other examples of where presidents could have -- or candidates could have. I think it's over. As a complete practical matter, it's over.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SANCHEZ: That seems to be the party line. What's your take on what you've been hearing? I'm sure you've heard that from other people, as well, including, by the way, Rudy Giuliani this morning.

VANDEHEI: Right, we've been crunching the numbers since last night, and it does look difficult for John Kerry at this point. The Kerry campaign is saying that until this is mathematically impossible, they're not going to concede this election to George Bush.

What they want to do is they want to take a look in Ohio, find out how many provisional ballots are out there, but also and find out if there's any voting irregularities throughout this state and figure out if that all the numbers could work in their favor.

So, I think they're going to take a good part of today and try to figure that out, talk to their lawyers, survey the landscape, and figure out what it looks like.

SANCHEZ: Since Mr. Gregg broached the subject -- and we're talking about history -- let's go ahead and go back to about four years. Do the people of Duval County who perceive, 25,000 of them, that their votes didn't count the last time, do the Democrats, does John Kerry owe it to them to see this thing through to the very last check or balance?

VANDEHEI: I mean, that's what we heard from John Edwards last night, and that's what we've been hearing from John Kerry throughout this campaign. He really did make a commitment to those voters. And he's talked about it in Florida. He talked a lot about it in Ohio.

So, I think he's going to do this. He's going to take it until the end, until all the votes are counted and it's crystal clear that he's not a winner. And I must say that, in talking to Democrats, the mood is they're very nervous. They don't think that this can happen. They don't think that the numbers are going to add up. But they also -- there's a lot of pressure on John Kerry to fight. There's a lot of loathing of George Bush out there among Democrats, and there's no interest whatsoever in sort of giving up until they absolutely have to.

SANCHEZ: You washed John Kerry throughout the campaign, covered him just like -- for what? How long were you with the senator?

VANDEHEI: I was with him from the beginning. I started with Howard Dean, and then I went on to John Kerry when he started to catch fire early in January.

SANCHEZ: What did he do wrong? Or maybe the way I should ask it is what could he have done better?

VANDEHEI: You know, it's interesting. When I was talking to Howard Dean in December of last year, he made a what turned out to be a very pressing point. He said that Democrats have to somehow break through in the south, and they have to be able to communicate to church-going rural voters. And it looks like from what we're seeing in the exit polls that John Kerry was not able to do that. In the end, he tried to go hunting. He tried to talk about sports. And he tried to reach out to those voters that aren't in big cities, that aren't part of the Democratic base, to show that Democrats have broadened their appeal.

It doesn't appear he was successful in doing that. In Democrats, when you look at that map and you look at the blue on the two coasts and the rest of the country is a sea of red, they have to figure out how to communicate to that block of voters. John Kerry always struggled in doing that.

SANCHEZ: Jim Vandehei, "Washington Post," thank you for being with us this morning.

VANDEHEI: Good to be here. Take care.

SANCHEZ: Appreciate it. All right.

KAGAN: And here's now some more election news headlines. Election officials across the country say the presidential race drew the largest voter turnout in decades. According to the latest estimates, at least 112 million registered voters cast ballots in person yesterday. That's at least seven million more voters than in the bitterly contested election in 2000.

In Illinois, a rising star in the Democratic party ascends to the U.S. Senate. State lawmaker Barack Obama easily won an open Republican seat. The 43-year-old drew wide praise in a keynote praise at this summer's Democratic National Convention. He defeated by a very wide margin Alan Keyes, a former GOP presidential candidate and talk show host.

And U.S. voters rejected the idea of legalized same-sex marriage. In all 11 states considering a Constitutional ban, those proposed amendments won by double-digit margins. In Mississippi, 86 percent of the voters supported a measure stating that marriage is strictly a heterosexual institution.

To world news now, in Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai has been declared the winner of that country's historic presidential election. Investigators say a string of irregularities are too minor to reverse the results there. The U.S.-backed candidate will serve a five-year term as the country's first popularly chosen leader.

SANCHEZ: And boy was that interesting last night when that came over the wires, that we have a winner in the presidential race, and it is...

KAGAN: Hamid Karzai. At 3:20, things were getting a little goofy here, and we had a winner in the presidential race, Hamid Karzai -- takes Ohio!

SANCHEZ: Claiming Ohio. boy was that tough. It was a real good chuckle last night...

KAGAN: Broke the tension a little bit.

SANCHEZ: ... broke the tension. Hey, Soledad...

O'BRIEN: Yeah, no one's looking to Ohio to weigh in on that race, fortunately, because here in Ohio we have enough going on as we wait to really get the final tally. Things still hang in the balance of those 20 electoral votes, that the Republicans say they have taken. But of course, it's not over until it's over.

The election also having a dramatic effect today on Wall Street. We're going to take you live to the Stock Exchange just ahead. AMERICAN MORNING is back in just a moment.

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HEMMER: I want to check of the markets right now, about 10 minutes before the hour. The markets trading about an hour-and-15- minutes now. We're told they're up. How far? Here's Rhonda Schaffler down there. Rhonda, good morning.

(STOCK MARKET UPDATE)

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to talk a little bit of health here, and whoever ultimately wins the presidency will have to deal with the major issue of health care. Well, actually (INAUDIBLE). Both parties say the system needs a major change. Elizabeth Cohen joins us with the whole story on that, and some of the changes coming up.

Good morning.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Daryn. Good morning.

Whoever wins this presidency, whoever is our new president, will have to deal with many big problems, but one of the most intractable seems to be health care. The costs just keep going up to the point where General Motors spends more on health care than it does on steel.

Let's take a look at some of the numbers that make this a particularly American problem. The U.S. spends more money on health care than any other country. That's $5,000 per person per year, but only has the 24th highest life expectancy.

So some people say, are we getting what we're paying for? We're behind countries like Japan, Australia, Switzerland, as well as many other countries. So as Daryn mentioned, a lot of people say we have to have a major change in health care. But the thing is, when you start messing with people's health care, they get angry. So how do you do a change that people are going to find acceptable?

KAGAN: Right, and there's a lot of people out there who still need health care. What kind of numbers are we talking about uninsured.

COHEN: Uninsured, unfortunately, just like health care costs, those numbers keep growing, to the point now where one in six Americans is uninsured, one in 10 children is uninsured. There are five million more uninsured Americans in the year 2000, and the government pays $25 billion to finance those uninsured. So the problem with more and more uninsured, that seems to just keeps going on and on.

KAGAN: And another big medical bill out there, medical bill, is for prescription drugs and the rising cost of those.

COHEN: That's right, and those keep going up and up to the point where Americans now spend between 35 and 55 percent, the cost are 35 to 55 percent higher in this country than other countries, so some people have gone to Canada to get their drugs, but the FDA says they can't ensure that they're safe and high-quality drugs.

And in addition to that, you have a situation where Medicare, you have the Medicare plan that just came up for prescription drugs that old people would be able to get prescription drugs, but a lot of people say that hasn't worked terribly well, that it's really not much cheaper than it ever was.

KAGAN: Lots to do.

COHEN: Lots to do in this area, that's right.

KAGAN: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you for that. Now that the campaigning is over, now the governing begins.

SANCHEZ: Let's go to Soledad. She's standing by in Columbus, Ohio, where there may be new information coming out of there soon on this never-ending race that everyone seems to be watching.

Soledad, what you got?

O'BRIEN: Let's not use that word, "never-ending," shall we? It's a little too early for that. Yes, we're waiting to hear from Ohio secretary of state. He's supposed to be making some remarks soon. Of course, the bottom line is these provisional ballots, just how many are there out there? That number is officially unclear at this time. We're going to get the word on that. And then, of course, what's the next step after they get those numbers? Is there enough of a margin for Senator Kerry to still pull it out? We will find out. That's ahead.

Stay with us. AMERICAN MORNING continues right after this.

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O'BRIEN: Four years ago the catchword was hanging chad. This year, the catchword is provisional ballots and the state of Ohio. We are expecting a briefing from Ken Blackwell. He is Ohio's secretary of state. We are expecting that momentarily. We're going to bring it to you as soon as it happens here in Columbus, Ohio. We are waiting, of course, on that final tally when the total number of provisional ballots here in the state of Ohio. Some estimates have been anywhere around 150,000 to 250,000, depending on which camp you believe, waiting for that final number, and then of course the next step for Senator Kerry. A short break as AMERICAN MORNING continues right after this.

Stay with us.

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