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Final Presidential Push; Hurricane Sandy Relief Efforts Continue

Aired November 02, 2012 - 15:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: It is the top of the hour, everyone. I'm Don Lemon. Thanks for joining us.

This is CNN's special coverage of the final battlegrounds. I'm coming to you live in downtown Columbus, Ohio, the state that has become the biggest prize in this presidential election. With four days left, of course, the candidates are moving at a frantic pace.

Throughout the show, though, we're going to be taking you on a battleground state blitz, revealing their strategies, bringing you their last-minute arguments.

Plus, we're staying on the crisis across the Northeast as gas lines become scarce after Sandy -- as gas becomes scarce after Sandy and folks beg for help in places like Staten Island and beyond. And we will get to all of that in just a moment, but, first, the report that has got the attention of the American voters and the spin teams as well from both campaigns.

Those new jobs numbers, that's what I'm talking about. They just came out today, and this is what they look like. During October, the U.S. added 171,000 new jobs, but the jobless rate inched up 0.1 percent to 7.9 percent from 7.8 percent, of course.

Analysis on that in just a moment. But, first, we got to wondering, what does this mean in all those important swing states? So we dispatched our reporters to Florida, to Iowa, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Colorado, and, of course, here in Ohio where I am.

And we begin in the battleground state of Florida with CNN's John Zarrella.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF: Don, in Florida, certainly jobs like in most other places, are the number one issue. And already here in Florida, people expressing their opinions, early voting, tomorrow is the last day. The lines are very, very long, an hour-and- a-half to two-hour waits in a lot of places.

The one thing with jobs in Florida is the construction industry, very hard hit, particularly in home building. There are so many foreclosed homes out there, the glut of the market there still hasn't absorbed those homes. And if you go up the coast, just three hours up to the Kennedy Space Center, coincidentally today, the last of the three space shuttles being retired, Shuttle Atlantis.

That program ending. Just at one company alone, United Space Alliance, more than 4,000 skilled workers have lost their jobs.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the economic numbers here in Iowa tell a pretty good story for President Obama. You have got 5.2 percent unemployment here. That is far below the national average of 7.9 percent.

You have a robust farming sector here in Iowa that is really helping the economy. And the housing crisis all but surpassed this state. So you would think that Iowa could be a shoo-in for the president. But that's not what we're hearing and seeing across the state here.

The big concern among many people we have talked to here in Iowa is the deficit. They hate the spending, they hate the government debt. And that is the common thread here that we're hearing. People are worried about the big picture, long-term, what does the deficit mean for their kids. When it comes to jobs, that top line number of 5.2 percent is much better than elsewhere

However, some folks here say, look, the jobs we have are lower paying jobs than they used to be. We're not getting enough hours, we only have part-time work. So there is still a jobs concern here, but I would say it is surpassed by the deficit concern.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in Wisconsin, it is all about jobs. The unemployment rate has hovered around 7 percent for the last six months, below the national average. But it has been stagnant.

There has been good news and bad news in this state since the recession; 170,000 total jobs were lost during the recession. And only about 10 percent of them have been replenished. Some days there is good news, some days there is bad news. Recently, just last week there was bad news in the middle of the state in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

A company by the name of Oshkosh Defense, they make military vehicles, they announced, they will be laying off 450 full-time United Auto Worker employees. That will hit that very small region in the middle of the state very hard. President Obama was in that area yesterday. Governor Romney is here in the Milwaukee area today.

What happened in Green Bay will not translate, likely, throughout the entire state, but you can imagine that the folks who are tied to the defense contracts will be leaning towards Mitt Romney because it hits home for them.

Bottom line here in Wisconsin, like many other states across this country, jobs is the number one issue.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The recovery here in Nevada has been spotty at best, still has the highest unemployment rate in the country, 11.8 percent. Here in Clark County, it's even higher than that, 12.3 percent.

We're on top of the Stratosphere here. This hotel and casino has poured more than $20 million into renovations in the last couple of years. They are optimistic that things are going to get better. They have even added jobs, more than 100 in the last couple of months. And there are others smaller signs that things are getting better. That's the Strip right behind me. That big blue building to the left, that's the Fontainebleau. That's been 70 percent completed for more than a year. It has cost $2.9 billion to get to this point so far.

And it looks like they're going to get back to construction in the not too distant future. So people across Nevada and here in Las Vegas hopeful that they're through the worst of it and better times are to come.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in Colorado, the number one issue is very much jobs. But talk to the registered independent voters and it gets a little more personal. It is about my job.

Here in the state of Colorado, key swing state, a third of the voters are Democrat, a third Republican, a third registered independents. The unemployment rate in the state is about at the national average, 8 percent. So we drilled it down a little bit further. We went in this key swing state to key counties talking to the key demographics, suburban women, and what they tell us is it is very personal, it is about job security and who they vote for is going to depend on how they feel that person will lead to security in their jobs for the next four years.

Who is that person going to be? And how is he going to affect what I put on my kitchen table? Then we talked to college students. Those college students say they were so enthusiastic four years ago, but this year is very much a different game in part because they're not convinced that when they graduate, that they will have a job at graduation time.

So, here in Colorado, you talk to the registered independents and it is about jobs, but it is much more about my job -- Don.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Thank you, Kyung.

We're going to drill down in Ohio more in this broadcast. I'm live from Ohio now. OK. Let's talk about the new jobs report. It is out just this morning. I want you to take a look at those numbers again, if we can put them up on the screen. There they are.

Nationwide, employers added 171,000 jobs. But the unemployment rate inched up a 10th of a point to 7.9 percent.

We have two views of these numbers from the campaign trail today. First, we're going to hear from Mitt Romney.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He said he was going to lower the unemployment rate down to 5.2 percent right now. Today we learned that it is actually 7.9 percent, and that's nine million jobs short of what he promised. Unemployment is higher today than when Barack Obama took office.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: All right, now from the other side, the president zeroing in on those numbers today. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And today our businesses created nearly 5.5 million new jobs. And this morning, we learned the companies hired more workers in October than at any time in the last eight months.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: OK. Now to someone who can talk about all of this for us, break it down.

Jill Schlesinger is the editor at large at CBS MoneyWatch.com.

Jill, good to see you. Thank you for joining us here to help us with this.

You heard the candidates weigh in. How would you characterize today's reports, beyond what the rhetoric of what they are going to say about it?

JILL SCHLESINGER, CBS MONEYWATCH.COM: Well, first, let me just say they're both sort of right. So each side has a point.

But when you look at this report, I was so elated this morning; 171,000 is more jobs than we thought were going to be created. We thought there were only going to be about 125,000. You talked about the unemployment rate. But let's discuss why it went up.

It went up because we had a few more people reenter the work force looking for jobs. That means they feel optimistic that they can get a job. We have been talking about how people have been leaving the labor force, so we had some people come back into the labor force. That pushed the unemployment rate up by a 10th of a percent.

And another real positive, revisions to the previous two months totaled 84,000. We're averaging about 157,000 jobs a month this year. It is trending a little bit above last year. But the bottom line is, it is slow. And that is what you are going to hear when you go talk to people out across the land.

LEMON: Yes. And I want to look at the jobless rate by education, because it is also about education, right?

It looks like things are improving for people with a college degree and for high school graduates. But for people with some college, or with no high school degree, it is worse. Tell us about that. SCHLESINGER: Well, this is a terrible trend, of course, for young folks. You want to say, look, college is worth it. College is not worth it though if you come out with debt up to your eyeballs.

What a lot of the experts are telling us who are looking at education is they say get an education, but don't pay through the nose for it. And for those folks who have been out of work for a long time, we find that they're having a hard time securing a job.

The average duration of unemployment is still about 40 weeks. We have five million people who have been out of work more than six months. So there is some real negatives that are going on in our labor market, and they are -- I guess this election is coming down to whether you believe the person who was running the economy for the last four years should get some credit for rebuilding, or whether he could have done a better job and then you elect the other guy.

LEMON: All right, Jill Schlesinger from CBS MoneyWatch.com, Jill, thank you.

SCHLESINGER: Great to be with you.

LEMON: Well, we're less than an hour away from a new CNN/ORC poll of Ohio voters to tell you about. All eyes have been on the Buckeye State, because many believe Ohio, many believe that Ohio, this state where I am right now, will decide who will be the next president of the United States. And you only need to follow the money to see proof of that.

The president has spent close to $54 million in state ads, ads in this state from April through October 27. That's a lot of money, Mitt Romney close to $28 million. Only Florida has gotten more campaign ad dollars. Florida has 29 electoral votes, more.

That's why. I'm going it turn now to our chief national correspondent, John King, who is in southwest of me. He's in the town of Cincinnati, Ohio.

So, John, it is very good to see you. I have been wanting to talk to you about this for a while now.

So Mitt Romney is there, going to be there later on. And he is in -- going to be in Ohio. He was in Wisconsin earlier. The latest CNN poll of polls shows that Obama is up by three points. So take a look at that. What can we read, if anything, into those numbers? Is that sort of within the margin of error or not? Is it enough to for the Obama campaign to feel safe or no?

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is close enough, Don, for the Romney campaign to overcome it on Election Day if they have a significant turnout, a significant intensity, a significant energy event advantage.

But one of the things that is interesting about Ohio, some of these other swing states have gone up and down. The president was up three, then it was tied, then Governor Romney up was up one or two, or at least the president's lead has fluctuated.

Ohio has been steady throughout what we will call the general election season, if you go back to April, when we knew Governor Romney would be the nominee. The president has pretty consistently had a three- or four-point -- there's been a couple of polls with bigger than that, but essentially a pretty consistent lead for the president.

And we will see our new numbers at the top of the hour. What does that tell you? That this state has been relatively static, part of it is all that ad spending you talked about. The most disappointed people in Ohio on Wednesday will be the owners of the local television stations when the cash cow runs dry.

But can Romney overcome a two- or three-point Obama lead on Election Day? Yes. Is it difficult? Absolutely. You're in a critical area. In Columbus, the president needs the union government workers, he needs the African-Americans in that city. Governor Romney has to do better in the suburbs than John McCain did.

Up in Cleveland, the president gets a huge boost from the Democrats, especially minority voters in Cuyahoga County, Lake County, and the suburbs are a key battleground there. I'm back here in the Cincinnati area, Don, because I like to retrace steps from prior campaigns.

When you came here late in 2004, you could tell the steam was out of the Kerry campaign and that George W. Bush was starting to take off. Four years ago, Hamilton County, normally Republican, has to be Republican for Romney to win, when you came here four years ago, there was no doubt the McCain campaign was on life support and the president actually carried this county four years ago.

So in going around this morning, I can tell you this, both sides are working extra, extra hard. The Obama campaign concedes the Romney campaign is doing much better than the McCain campaign. You mentioned Governor Romney will be in this area, not in Cincinnati, but just to the north of here tonight. We're told Republicans expect some 35,000 people at that rally. If that kind of a number shows up, let's get ready for a long count in Ohio.

LEMON: Oh, yes. I have been going around the state, and you're here. And it is get-out-the-vote, get-out-the-vote early, early, early. That's what both sides are focusing on. You're right. The Republicans here are extremely organized and are really motivated this time because they know what happened back in 2008.

Early voting, I have been watching it. What about what you have seen in the same state where I am? Do you think it is going to exceed 2008 numbers?

KING: Yes, although though there was a dip in Cuyahoga County after the storm. The day of voting, for a couple of days, is a little below what it was in 2008. But overall across the state, both parties think that it will exceed.

The Obama campaign thinks that's a key asset. The Republicans say, look, we're not going to win early voting in Ohio. Our goal is just to be closer to the president than the McCain campaign was four years ago. I will tell you this, when you visit the campaign headquarters, this is one of the things they're doing.

You can early vote in this state through Monday. So the campaigns are calling people, and they called yesterday or the day before, and they said -- you know, say they called your house. They say, Don, are you going to vote, and you say yes, and they say when, and you say, well, I'm going to go early vote in the morning.

Then they are going down to the early voting places and they're getting the list of people who voted and they're calling back the people who said they were going to vote, but haven't shown up yet because they want to get as many early voters in the bank so that on Election Day, they can go out for those -- to make the last-minute push for every last vote.

So it is remarkable the amount of technology and the data available to all these campaigns. If you promised them you were going to early vote and you haven't, they are going to dog you until you do.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: Yes, we witnessed that. John, thank you. John is in Cincinnati. I'm here in Columbus.

And, John, just to show you how important this is, Mitt Romney also in Ohio. We're going to go to Etna and listen in.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... million jobs short. Those are real Americans. Can't find work; 23 million in all can't find work or can't find work that is up to their needs, only find part-time work.

This is a critical time. The president was a president who took office with the economy as the number one challenge. And, you know, he's got a higher unemployment today than when he took office. Think of that. The president of the United States presides over a nation under his leadership where unemployment is higher than the day he took office.

And then, of course, he said he was going to save Social Security and Medicare because they were headed to insolvency. What has happened instead? He made no effort to save either one. And in fact, he took $716 billion from Medicare to pay for Obamacare.

And then he said he was going to lower the cost of your health insurance by $2,500 a family by now. Instead, it has gone up by $3,000 a family. And gasoline prices, they're also up by $2,000 a family. And then, of course, he said he was going to work across the aisle on the most important issues that America faces.

The last time the president met with either the Republican leader of the House or the Republican leader of the Senate to talk about jobs or the economy or the deficit was in July. All right? So this is a president who has promised a lot of things, but his record is very different than the promises.

Instead of building the bridges that we need in America, he built a broader and broader divide. And I have a very different approach. I recognize that this president is, again, making new promises. And these are promises he can't keep, just like the last ones, because he says he's going to keep us in the same path we're on.

And one thing we know is if we stay in this same path, $16 trillion in debt will become $20 trillion in debt. We know that high unemployment today will be high unemployment over the next four years. We recognize that take-home pay will continue to decline. We will see stagnant wage growth. We know that he will devastate the military. His secretary of defense said in fact the trillion dollars in cuts to the military, those trillion dollars in cuts would devastate our military.

Unless we change course, by the way, we may be...

LEMON: All right, a very busy time for both challengers for the White House, both men who want to be in the White House. That's Mitt Romney speaking in Etna, Ohio. He was in Wisconsin earlier, another battleground state.

The president here in Ohio speaking twice today, holding two live events. But that's Mitt Romney.

Up next, though, the right has been hammering the administration's response to the Benghazi attack in September, even saying the media has ignored it. Not true. CNN has been covering every development from day one.

But with four days until the election, four days, are voters buying into this particular narrative?

CNN's Fareed Zakaria joins me live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Ohio voters in Hilliard and Springfield heard the president today speak of -- quote -- "progress."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: The American auto industry is back on top. Home values, housing starts are on the rise. We're less dependent on foreign oil than any time in the last 10 years.

Because of the service and sacrifice of our brave men and women in uniform, the war in Iraq is over, the war in Afghanistan is ending, al Qaeda has been decimated. Osama bin Laden is dead.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, you can't doubt the cheers, but what about the president's speech? So much said in one sound bite. Is it all true, though?

Let's go to Fareed Zakaria, of course the host of CNN's "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS." We want some answers from him.

Fareed, we know Osama bin Laden is dead. But the auto industry is back on top? Are we less dependent on foreign oil? Is the rest of what the president said accurate?

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN WORLD AFFAIRS ANALYST: Don, I think broadly what he said was accurate, but with the exception of the first part. Let me go to the rest of it.

The auto industry is back. The auto restructuring is really a great American success story because it was a government bailout, but it was a very tough bailout. As Romney correctly says, Obama forced those companies into bankruptcy, forced them to restructure, forced them to become competitive, not something you normally think of when you think about government ownership.

This was more like a private equity fund. Housing is up, which is a huge and very important piece of this. Energy, we're going through an energy transformation because of natural gas. The one piece that is a little complicated is the jobs numbers, as you pointed out a little earlier with your guest.

The job numbers are good, better than they have been, but we're still trending much below historic recoveries. And that is a problem. I don't think there's much the president can do about it. It is because we're digging ourselves out of a deep hole of debt. But it is fair to say the job numbers are not as impressive as the president claimed.

The rest of it I think was pretty accurate.

LEMON: OK. Let's talk now, Fareed, about the September 11 attack in Libya that killed four Americans.

The right and conservative media outlets have been going after the administration over reports that CIA leaders denied repeated requests for their people in Benghazi to help in the fight. And just yesterday, a senior official denied that to CNN, that that ever happened.

That whole back and forth, they say, never happened. And so just days before this election on November 6, do you think that this will have any impact on who wins or do you think this is just an argument for ideologues here?

ZAKARIA: I think it is the latter, Don.

I think this is a highly politicized set of charges and countercharges. I think the Republicans have been searching for some entry point to criticize Obama on foreign policy. Obama has had what the public regards as generally a pretty successful foreign policy.

Libya proved to be one place they could go in, because there was a -- there was a mishandling of the events right after the assassination, the murder of the ambassador. They didn't know what was happening. They got out some wrong information.

But the idea that there was some kind of purposeful, you know, cover- up, that there was deception or that there was some kind of treasonous behavior, many of these implications go beyond clumsiness and incompetence. I think it is fair to say that there was a fair amount of clumsiness and incompetence.

But then to go to deceit and deception and even treason, it seems to me there is absolutely no evidence for this. We don't even know whether there was -- whether it's fair to say they were ill-prepared for this. Remember, we have got 265 consulates and embassies, diplomatic postings around the world.

On any given week, 25 of them ask for more security and, you know, you have got limited resources. You make the decisions you can. In retrospect, of course we should have reinforced Benghazi. But we know that in retrospect. It is not always as easy to tell at the moment which of those places you should reinforce.

So I think we need an investigation, but it should be an impartial investigation, done by experts, not politicians in the heat of a campaign.

LEMON: Fareed Zakaria, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

ZAKARIA: Pleasure, as always.

LEMON: The aftermath of Hurricane Sandy -- yes, absolutely. The aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, gas lines, shortages across the Northeast forced hundreds of people to wait hours and hours in line in the cold for gas, for their cars and also for their generators. When will help arrive there? Is it on the way? What is going on? Susan Candiotti finds out next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Battleground Ohio's 18 electoral votes may be critical points in the presidential race.

CNN's latest poll of polls finds 49 percent of Ohio's likely voters support President Obama; 46 percent of Ohio's likely voters support Mitt Romney. It is that close.

And, in Ohio, the phone lines are burning up with campaign calls. I visited phone banks for both campaigns in Dayton, Ohio, volunteers dialing and talking constantly trying to sell their candidates to prospective voters.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON (voice-over): It is sort of a symphony of noise. Dayton, Ohio, these Obama volunteers are trying to reach everyone they can as the clock ticks towards Election Day.

(on camera): Do you ever get distracted by all the people around you calling? ARLENA SMITH, OBAMA VOLUNTEER: No, we don't. We talk all the time. And everybody is talking. Right now, they have all stopped.

(LAUGHTER)

SMITH: But, no, we talk at the same time and get the same message out to whomever we're talking.

LEMON (voice-over): Chris Cameron (ph) and her husband, Bill Butler, traveled a long way to Ohio to help the president.

(on camera): Why is it so important what happens on the ground right now?

BILL BUTLER, OBAMA VOLUNTEER: Well, we're from California. So, we came to Ohio because, you know, California is kind of a safe state, and we wanted to be where the action was. And, you know, it is really important to get every single voter out there.

LEMON: Alina Smith is the veteran here. How long have you been doing this?

ALINA SMITH, OBAMA VOLUNTERR: Oh, about 50 years.

LEMON: Fifty years you've been volunteering ...

SMITH: Yeah.

LEMON: ... for the Democrats?

SMITH: Yeah.

LEMON: And for the president now?

SMITH: Every time.

If they don't have rides, we're standing ready to pick them up and carry them and put them right on the spot, whatever it is.

LEMON: On the other side of town from the other side of the aisle, another group of ladies is burning up the phone lines for Governor Mitt Romney.

For Mary Mogan, sometimes their calls are a success.

MARY MOGAN, ROMNEY VOLUNTERR: Can we count on your vote for Mitt? Yes, that's what I want to hear! Thank you, ma'am, so much.

LEMON: And sometimes not so much.

MOGAN: Can we count on you for Mitt Romney? Hello? I guess that's a no.

LEMON: Across the table, one-month, call newbie Angie Dodd says she's un employed she's hoping a President Romney will help her get back to work. ANGIE DYE, ROMNEY VOLUNTERR: I hear excitement on the other end line and that excites me even more and it is very encouraging, you know, that there's a lot of Mitt Romney supporters out there.

LEMON: And they dial and dial some more.

Let's see your dial finger. Is it -- do you -- is it calloused?

Which one -- which finger do you use?

DYE: I kind of use them all.

LEMON: You're a fast dialer now.

DYE: I am. I'm getting pretty good at this now. I don't need the little cheat sheet on how to do it anymore.

LEMONS: Two teams, working hard and changing the meaning of phoning it in.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Those Ohio phone bank volunteers are probably dialing until their fingers cramp today as both candidates make last minute stops in Ohio.

Just ahead, presidential candidates getting ready for election day which means ling up thousands of lawyers in polling places.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Back here now, live in Ohio. Thousands of lawyers will descend on this state for election day. Did you hear that?

Thousands of lawyers, lawyers from both campaigns will be scouring polling places. They're going to be looking for any signs of voting irregularities or voter intimidation or suppression that might be lawsuit worthy.

So, I want to bring in now, Dana Walch. He's the deputy director of Franklin County, the Franklin County board of elections here.

So, thank you.

DANA WALCH, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, FRANKLIN COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS: Thank you for having me.

LEMON: How are you dealing with this barrage of lawyers that we're hearing about?

WALCH: Well, it is election season in Ohio. and Ohio has been through this numerous times before, from 2000, 2004, and 2008.

So, election officials here in Ohio are kind of accustomed to Ohio being the epicenter of a presidential election.

So, this isn't really anything new to us. We've had it before and we're ready for it again this year.

LEMON: Voting lines are expected -- you've had great turnout when it comes to early voting, which is absentee voting. You've had great -- so, it is expected that a lot of people are going to turn out.

Do you think -- are you prepared for the number of people to come in because, remember 2008, the Obama campaign asked that some of the polling places be open later.

Do you think that's going to happen, number one, and are you prepared for the number of people to come in?

WALCH: I don't think a scenario where we have to keep the polls open will occur this year, but it's always a possibility, if a judge orders it and that's the only means by which you can do that here in Ohio.

But we here in Franklin County are prepared. I know the 87 other counties are prepared around the state. We've put extra poll-workers out there to assist voters, greeters to make sure that voters are getting into the right location. All of our testing is ready on our machines.

We'll have voted almost 40 percent of our voters early here in Franklin County, approximately 200,000. We're hitting 200,000 voters today with still three days to go.

LEMON: Yeah, that video you're looking was actually was shot on Monday. It wasn't shot on Thursday. That was down in Hamilton County. We kind of got a behind-the-scenes look at absentee voting there and just what goes on

Since the secretary of state sent out applications, ballot applications to everyone, they're getting a lot of people who are returning them now, a lot of people who did absentee voting.

"The New York Times" talked about -- I don't know if you saw the report that, supposedly, there were hundreds of people who went in and they said that they were not registered for absentee voting, that they were not registered, but then a search showed that indeed they were.

What are you doing to make sure you have checks and balances like that where it is accurate?

WALCH: Our bipartisan teams of election officials here in Ohio and we do -- every country board of elections here in Ohio has the same number of Democrats and Republicans at their board.

We have bipartisan teams that go through and check absentee ballot applications. We search multiple ways, not just on name, but we search by name, address, birth date, driver's license number.

We put it through every check and double-check we possibly can that, if somebody did send us a voter -- or an absentee ballot application, that we're making sure that if they're a registered voter, they're getting that absentee ballot back mailed out to them. LEMON: Real quickly, before you go, you know the provisional ballot, everyone is concerned because you don't actually have to count it until, what, November 17th, right?

WALCH: We have a 10-day period after the election.

LEMON: So, if someone goes in, if someone asks, because, like I said, the secretary of state sent provisional -- absentee ballot applications to everyone. So, if you fill one out and then you don't vote and you go in on election day, then you have to vote provisionally, right? And a number of other things for provisional ballots.

WALCH: That's correct.

LEMON: Are you concerned about that process around the nation? We are. Because that may mean that we won't know who the president is, actually, if it comes down to Ohio until two weeks after the election.

WALCH: Well, Ohio has had provisional balloting for as long as I can remember. We've had it for 20, 30 years here in Ohio, so it's a process that Ohio election officials are accustomed to and ready to deal with.

If a voter did request an absentee ballot and tries to vote on election day, they do cast a provisional ballot. We here in Franklin County have been sending out the same time of application that Secretary of State Husted sent out this year for a number of years.

So, voters here are accustomed to receiving those proactive, absentee ballot request forms. So, we don't think it is really going to be a huge problem and, even if a lot of folks do vote provisionally, Ohio election officials have been through this drill before because we've had provisional ballot. We're ready to handle it.

LEMON: You know how to deal with it.

WALCH: Thank you very much.

LEMON: Thank you, Mr. Walch. Appreciate it. Thanks for coming on.

All right, you know, the race must go on ,of course, but at what cost? At what cost?

Despite public criticism, New York police officers and fire crews scheduled to work the New York marathon instead of helping with Sandy recovery efforts.

Now, critics step up their efforts to get the annual race canceled. My next guest is pretty upset about it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: It's an issue dividing the city of New York right now. I'm talking about the decision to push ahead with the New York City marathon. This afternoon Mayor Michael Bloomberg remained defiant about it, saying it is good for business and it is good for morale.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, MAYOR, NEW YORK CITY: While we help people, still help the companies that need business, still generate a tax base so that we have the resources to help people, and we give people something to cheer about in what's been a very dismal week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: All right, well, State Senator Liz Krueger's district on the east side of Manhattan was one of the hardest hit by Sandy and she's not happy. She's posting this on twitter.

It says, "Many elderly and disabled people are trapped with no food, water, and electricity. The race should be moved to focus on recovery."

Well, Senator Liz Krueger joins me now. And, senator, thank you, first of all, how are you doing?

LIZ KRUEGER, STATE SENATOR, NEW YORK (via telephone): I'm doing fine, thank you. I just want to slightly edit. My district, about half of it is in the dark, half of it is fine. Many other areas of the city are even harder hit, but I feel like I'm speaking for all of us when I say we need all our police, all our emergency responders, all our ambulances, all our firefighters, all our structural repair people focused on those areas most in need.

Central Park is in my district. I love the park. There is no emergency to fix the park, which is where they are knocking down the tree limbs, and they're using emergency generators to set up for the race. That's unacceptable.

LEMON: Well, beyond that, though, you say that it is in -- I don't know. Are you saying that it is in poor taste and you're worried that the marathon may take away valuable resources, as you said, but beyond that, you think it is poor taste?

Because the mayor says that it is good for morale, and it's good for people around the country to see the city keep moving on.

KRUEGER (via telephone): It is not a question of taste. It is a question of what is the government's responsibility.

Our responsibility is to use our resources and our personnel to do emergency response and rebuild. It is not a morale question. New York City will come back bigger and better, but not by Sunday.

We need to focus all of our attention on the emergency at hand. With all due respect, I think the mayor is overall doing a fabulous job at focusing the government resources on putting them where they need to be. But it is Friday at 3:45. We are not anywhere near recovery in much of this city or the region. Not one resource should be used for something that is not an emergency.

The trucks cannot get through the streets. We cannot get gas in the gas stations to refill the cars of emergency personnel.

I'm being told nurses and home attendants cannot get to their patients or clients who are home because there is no movement of transportation or gas or cars. I have three hospitals that have been evacuated in my district alone.

There are enormous problems, unfortunately. I would love a morale boost. I feel we're doing morale boosts by encouraging volunteers to go out and help us with the relief effort and the responses to my pleas for volunteers have been overwhelming, including from people who thought they were going to run the marathon who have now said, I don't want to run the marathon. I want to help New York City get back on its feet.

LEMON: Yeah, well, State Senator Liz Krueger, thank you.

And, as you know, we have been showing pictures from Staten Island. People there are livid. They're desperate on Staten island, but the mayor also saying that the money, the money that it would bring to the city would also would be helpful in this time.

Again, our thanks to State Senator Kruger.

You know, the -- there are gas lines because of the shortage of gas. It is causing chaos all across the Northeast. As folks line up for miles and hours, hear what is happening to fix that mess, coming up.

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LEMON: More on the devastation across the Northeast. Superstorm Sandy is gone, but billions of people still feeling the pain that Sandy left behind and here's what we know today at this moment.

One-hundred-sixty-five people have died since the storm started its track across the Caribbean last week and that includes 95 deaths here in the United States.

More than 3.5 million customers still without power in 15 states. That's from Maine to New York and New Jersey, D.C. and beyond.

And now I want you to look at this, hundreds of people lined up for miles at this gas station in New Jersey. Lines like this can be seen in several cities across the region.

And for some who waited for hours, it could mean life or death. Many are still without power since the storm tore through their neighborhoods and they desperately need gas to run generators and more.

We have this just in to CNN now. The Justice Department is sending more than 700 people to keep an eye on the presidential election.

Up next, why federal workers are being dispatched to polling places in dozens of states.

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LEMON: We're just four days from election day. Can you believe that? And the Justice Department announced just today its civil rights division will send 780 federal observers to monitor polling places. It's sending personnel to 51 jurisdictions in 23 states, including six battleground states.

CNN's crime and justice correspondent Joe Johns, "On the Case" for us from Washington now.

Joe, I would ask you why they're doing this. Is this something new? I know why they're doing it, but is it new?

JOE JOHNS, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: It's not new quite frankly, Don. They've done this before, but when you think about it, go over the numbers one more time.

Government is going to essentially 780 observers or Justice Department personnel, 51 jurisdictions, 23 states, six battleground states, what we found so interesting is the number of people they're sending to individual states.

Florida's number one on the list. Government sending observers to a total of seven different counties in the sunshine state.

State of Pennsylvania is the runner-up with five different counties followed by Ohio and Texas, each with four locations, and Maricopa County, Arizona, home of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, also is going to have federal observers.

LEMON: Yes. And we should point out the states in yellow, those are the ones the Justice Department's sending monitors to.

JOHNS: Right.

LEMON: So, what are these people going to do? Are they just observing? If they find something, do they say, hey, listen, we need to get to that. What are they going to do?

JOHNS: They're watching for specific things, possible violations of federal voting rights laws. And they're also supposed to protect the rights of access to the ballot on election day.

Many of the places these federal observers are actually going to have been previously identified as places to watch by the court or the Justice Department.

And, Don, we also got word today that the Justice Department is watching early voting in Florida. Put out a little statement announcing they're going to be observing voting in the Miami-Dade area. We didn't hear any more than that. We do know in Miami-Dade there have been some serious problems with traffic and people being able to get in. The lines are just so long right now for early voting in South Florida.

LEMON: Man, it's going to be something to watch. See what happens on Tuesday.

Joe Johns, thank you very much.

We want to tell you that President Obama's set to speak any moment in Ohio.

And we're back right after the break.

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LEMON: Hey, viewers, you need to stay put because in about 30 seconds here on CNN we're going to get some new numbers here in Ohio, polling numbers.

This state is so critical that the candidates are making their last pitches right now. Mitt Romney's in Ohio. President Obama's in Ohio. John King is in Cincinnati, of course, with the CNN election team and we have people spread out all over Ohio.

I am here. I have been behind the scenes in the voting process and talking to voters and it is going to be a close one. Both sides energized and they know the spotlight is on them. The world will be watching Ohio.

I'm Don Lemon. Thank you for joining us.

Now to "THE SITUATION ROOM" with those new polls and Mr. Wolf Blitzer.