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Countdown to Election Dayl Voting Headaches Post-Sandy; A Washington Outside the Beltway; International Reaction to U.S. Campaign
Aired November 04, 2012 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone. And welcome. I'm Don Lemon, coming to you from the beautiful Boathouse Restaurant in downtown Columbus, Ohio.
This is the state that could be the place where the next president of the United States is decided. And we have crews everywhere.
We want to tell you first off, though, President Barack Obama and his challenger Mitt Romney have no space in their schedules today, and why should they? I want you to look at the number at the bottom of your screen. It says, two days. Two days is what's left before the election in America.
The two men and their camps are all over America today. Both of them got early starts. President Obama at functions from New Hampshire to Colorado, while Mitt Romney is keeping his attention focused on states further east.
They're working late, too. One of the president's events is at 10:30 tonight in Aurora, Colorado.
That is Mitt Romney and his wife Ann at an energetic GOP rally this afternoon. That's in Cleveland, Ohio. He told supporters a slogan used by the president four years ago better applies to him this time around.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: If you believe we can do better, if you believe America should be on a better course, or if you're tired of being tired, then I ask you to vote for real change. Paul Ryan and I will bring real change to America from day one.
When I'm elected, the economy and American jobs will still be stagnant, but I won't waste any time complaining about my predecessor.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: OK. So that was Cleveland, Ohio. But Mitt Romney is now in Pennsylvania. I told you they were busy. He wraps up the day with an appearance in Newport News, Virginia. Very busy schedule.
And that's President Obama arriving a little while ago in south Florida. He took issue with his opponent's promise of, quote, "real change". Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Here's the thing, Florida. We know what change looks like. What Governor Romney is offering ain't it. Giving more power back to the biggest banks, that's not change. Another $5 trillion tax cuts for the wealthy, that's not change. Refusing to answer questions about the details of your policies until after the election, that's definitely not change.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: President Obama's next stop just down I-71 from where I'm standing right now. He's going to be in Cincinnati, then it's out west to Colorado before he calls it a night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: By the way, you see this lovely young woman? We're going to let her ride with me in my limo to the high school, OK?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Great.
BIDEN: We're going to go have a cup of coffee.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: She's too young to vote, but you could still call her Vice President Biden's new BFF, best friend forever. Biden made an impromptu stop at a restaurant in Cleveland today before a rally at nearby high school. The 17-year-old told him that the rally was at her school but she couldn't go because she had to work. So the V.P. gave her and her twin brother a ride to the event, that after she assured the vice president that she could get a ride back to work.
If it seems to you that the candidates are hitting the same states over and over and over -- well, you are right. They're pouring all of their energy and most of their advertising money into those so-called battleground states where the choice for president is not yet considered a lot.
Those things change slightly every four years, but these are the battleground of 2012 right here. President Obama is polling better than Romney in most of them, but well within the margins of error. That means all nine battlegrounds can go either way.
Election news today out of battleground state of Florida to tell you about. Early voting technically ended yesterday, but the heavy turnout prompted officials in several counties to extend early voting. People were reportedly waiting in voting lines for up to seven hours in some counties. Wow.
President Obama won Florida in 2008. And today the state is just too close to call, as we've been seeing, all the battleground states. Right here in Ohio, the campaign spin is so fast, your head might just spin off your neck if you listen to hard. Each camp, Obama, Romney, insists they have the advantage in Ohio. And candidates are zigzagging across the states at a frantic pace.
The running mates both focused on Ohio today as well. Earlier, Paul Ryan rally supporters in Mansfield, Ohio. Vice President Biden making two stops in Ohio today.
So that's where Peter Hamby comes in. He's right here with me in Columbus, Ohio.
Peter, it's a virtual deadlock in Ohio with the clock winding down, and some say that President Obama might have a tiny sliver of advantage in Ohio. Do you buy that, and if so, which groups in Ohio voters are going to play larger here?
PETER HAMBY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, I mean, people here generally think, Republicans, Democrats, Obama has a slight advantage. Internal Romney Republican, they insist that it's tied. But poll after poll shows a one, two, three, you know, point lead for Obama. The most comparable election to this, Don, it's probably 2004. And if you go back and look at those polls, Bush led by one, two, three, four points heading into Election Day, and he won.
But early voting right now is the key, and talking to Republicans today, they're looking at some of the early vote numbers this specific weekend, yesterday and today, voters coming from churches. These are Obama supporters casting ballots today. There is a real concern in the Republican camp in Ohio right now.
LEMON: I'm glad you brought that up, because, you know, you hear the spin, we hear spin, and, you know, when I'm sitting back in a company studio in Atlanta, New York or D.C., wherever I am, you hear the spin and you kind of put it out there.
But when you're on the ground, Pete, you get a distinctive idea of what is going on. And I think the Romney people are definitely a little bit nervous, as you said, because I went to this polling place today that we showed, and there were people, I mean, literally circles of people, and it's heavily Democratic. I asked one of the police officers, and he said it's been all Democrats, man, I'll tell you that.
HAMBY: Yes, you showed those lines in Florida. The lines are that long here, and it's cold out. Look, Democrats are expected to win the early vote. Polls show they won the early vote. They won the early vote last time.
But Republicans braced for that. They expected, they boosted their turnout operation. But, again, today, after these churches emptied, people want to vote. There are still lines going on. That means Republicans are going to have to turn out their supporters at an even higher rate on Election Day. It makes it even tougher, you know, for the Republican Party to win if Democrats bank a ton of votes, which it appears they're doing today. LEMON: Today. At last check, we had the secretary of state on, 1.6 million votes here. That's from absentee and in-person or mail in or in-person voting. But that was as of, I think, on Friday. So the numbers are going to be even higher. I've always thought that the surprise was going to be the early votes, and that's what the polls are really not showing.
The interesting thing, though, there is also an issue here with the provisional ballots that's going on in Ohio. Talk to me about that.
HAMBY: Well, yes. This is a question about provisional ballots. You mentioned Secretary of State Jon Husted. Democrats are accusing him of voter suppression, you know, he wants to throw out provisional ballots.
What is a provisional ballot? If you show up on Election Day and say you already got an absentee ballot but didn't cast it, you're allowed to cast the ballot on Election Day that is put in a separate file. If your address doesn't match your voter registration, if you got married and your name changed, and that doesn't match your voter registration, you're still allowed to cast he ballot on Election Day, they just put it aside.
LEMON: Right.
HAMBY: The numbers in their favor, Democrats, right? So if the election comes down to 100,000 votes, 50,000 votes --
LEMON: And it could.
HAMBY: Yes. And you have on the side, 200,000, 300,000, 400,000 provisional ballots, and there's a recount which would start 10 days after Election Day, this could slip.
LEMON: Right.
HAMBY: I mean, these provisional ballots are going to be very, very important.
LEMON: And they can't be counted, as you said, until 10 days after Election Day, which means November 17th.
HAMBY: Yes.
LEMON: Which means -- yes?
HAMBY: Only then do they start counting them.
LEMON: So just start counting them.
HAMBY: So we could be here in the cold in Columbus for the rest of November.
LEMON: To talk about all that, Pete, I want to tell you and I want to tell our viewers. The secretary of state, Jon Husted, is going to join me at 7:30 Eastern. We're going to talk about that provisional ballot and other issues when it comes to him being accused of voter suppression. He's going to sit -- he's going to be very honest with us. He'll be here on CNN, 7:30, Jon Husted.
Thank you very much, Pete Hamby.
HAMBY: Yes. Thanks, Don.
LEMON: Appreciate it.
To the recovery now from superstorm Sandy and what would be an unprecedented move. Election officials in storm-wracked New York, well, they're considering drawing out the presidential election race past Tuesday. Past Tuesday. Interesting.
We said that could happen. If the turnout is less than 25 percent in counties heavily damaged by hurricane Sandy, voters could get an extra day to cast ballots. It was only common sense, people, that they would have to do something like this.
Well, that day would be scheduled as far as 20 days after Election Day. Late yesterday, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie ordered early voting sites to offer extended hours through the weekend.
Death toll now from hurricane Sandy, by the way, rose again today to 110 in the United States. Power is slowly being restored. Yet, more than 2 million people along the Eastern Seaboard are still without electricity, 700,000 of those are in New York, making for a very cold night with temperatures expected to hover just above freezing.
On a positive note, though, New York City public schools will reopen tomorrow. Schools that were heavily damaged will remain closed, and students in those schools will be reassigned temporary locations.
Lot to do, some recovery there, but still a long way to go.
Two days before Election Day. What have the campaigns done right and where have they missed the mark? We're going to break it down with our CNN contributors. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Welcome back to our coverage of "America's Choice 2012". We're live in Columbus, Ohio, at the beautiful boathouse restaurant in downtown Columbus.
And, you know, on this Sunday before Election Day, there is no doubt that the faithful are filling the pews with prayers for their presidential hopefuls. Of the 3 million voters in Iowa, about 30 percent called themselves evangelicals or Catholic.
But as CNN's Poppy Harlow discovered, the faith factor has voters divided.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
POPPY HARLOW, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the heart of Des Moines, evangelical Christians flock to Grace Church to talk faith, family and the presidential election.
RACHEL BRADSHAW, EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN: Honestly, what it boils down to is what does the Bible say and which candidate is going to follow the closest?
HARLOW: For Bob and Rachel Bradshaw, that candidate is Mitt Romney.
BOB BRADSHAW, EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN: I don't know how, in his right mind, the president could be for abortion the way he is and support same-sex marriage. It's just -- it's hard for me for that -- somebody that claims to be a Christian, you know, makes statements to support things like that.
WASI MWAMBA (ph), EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN: It's not an easy choice to make either way.
HARLOW: Dawn and Wasi Mwamba have wrestled with their vote.
DAWN MWAMBA, EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN: My religious beliefs are not in line with either one. If anything, it's probably going to end up being Mitt Romney.
HARLOW: Fifty-seven percent of voters in the Republican Iowa public caucuses identify themselves as evangelicals. They supported Rick Santorum over Romney, many uneasy on over Romney's moderate past on issues like abortion and his Mormon faith.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that concerns everybody who concerns themselves an evangelical Christian.
HARLOW: But that was then.
(on camera): You previously said that the Romney campaign snubbed social conservatives.
STEVE SCHEFFLER, IOWA FAITH AND FREEDOM COALITION: I think he has proved to himself that he's tried to make that outreach to social conservatives as well as economic conservatives. He's done a good job here in Iowa.
HARLOW: While Iowa's evangelical voters seem to be moving into Mitt Romney's camp, here's the traditionally Democratic Dubuque, the president may place more of a challenge. The Catholic voters we spoke with here are split over issues like abortion, funding for contraception, and the government's role in providing for the poor.
DAWN LUEKIN, CATHOLIC ROMNEY SUPPORTER: The life issues which many Catholics, most Catholics, hold dear and central to their faith, but then there's this belief that remains that the Democratic Party somehow cares for the poor better. I think it comes down to that tension.
HARLOW: How big a role does your Catholic religion play in your vote?
KATHY KRUIGER, FORMER NUN: I think it's big. I'm an ex-nun. And I -- the group of nuns that I'm associated with to this day are pushing for Obama.
HARLOW: Is the pro-choice stance difficult for you to reconcile?
KRUIGER: It was very difficult. It bothered me for a long, long time.
HARLOW (voice-over): As did the same-sex marriage issue, both of which she ultimately looked past.
But for Catholics like Ellen Markum (ph) and her daughter Dawn, some issues are non-negotiable.
LUEKIN: For me it's the life issues. I'm very pro life, and I want an administration that supports that view.
ELLEN MARKUM, CATHOLIC: Then I would say sanctity of life and sanctity of marriage.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: CNN's Poppy Harlow in Des Moines right now.
Hi, Poppy. You know, I understand the Catholic bishops have weighed in pretty vocally in this election. Is that having an impact?
HARLOW: It absolutely is. I mean, a lot of Catholics listen to that U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. And what they did is they came out very vocal, Don, in opposition to the Obama administration's rule that requires health insurance providers to provide free contraceptive coverage. So, what that does is that complicates the president's relationship with those Catholic voters.
And when you look back at 2008, the president got almost 60 percent of the Catholic vote. So, it is somewhat dividing that vote. Obviously, as you can see, we're at one of the staging centers for the president here in Iowa, one of about 350 volunteers are out making calls, canvassing, door knocking, trying to get the vote out because the ground game here is just as important as it is where you are in Ohio, Don.
LEMON: Oh, yes.
HARLOW: Look at the opinion page here. This is the opinion page of the "Des Moines Register". Today, Clinton op-ed and Ryan op-ed. So, you've got their surrogates weighing in as well -- Don.
LEMON: Yes, I've seen those lines at the polling place. Oh my goodness. It is on.
Poppy Harlow in Des Moines, Iowa --
HARLOW: I know.
LEMON: -- thank you very much.
Two days before Election Day, what have the campaigns done right and where have they made some missteps? Where this they missed the mark? We're going to break it down with our CNN contributors, coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right, one of my favorite parts of the show. We can't let this day go by without a visit from CNN contributors L.Z. Granderson and Ms. Ana Navarro. L.Z., of course, also senior writer for ESPN.
So, hello to both of you. Ana is a Republican strategist, of course.
We discussed this race for months, all right? I want to look at the big picture with you guys tonight and take an honest look at both campaigns, what they did right and what they did wrong.
We're going to start with the Obama campaign, and in a few minutes we're going to take you back to analyze the Romney effort, OK?
So, Ana, you first. As a political strategist, what did the Obama campaign do right during this campaign?
ANA NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I think one of the things he did right was his convention. The Democrat convention was a very good put-out, organized event. I also think -- look, he did a couple announcements that very much energized his face, the gay marriage announcement, the announcement on the DREAM Act directive, helping the immigrant kids.
Those two things help him out a lot with the base that was disillusioned -- the gay base and also the Latino base that are very crucial to him.
We all said it was political -- that it was a politically-motivated action, but it helped him tremendously politically. So even if it was politically motivated, it worked.
LEMON: OK. L.Z., what about you? What did the Obama campaign do right?
L.Z. GRANDERSON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: What did he do right? Oh, boy. Well, I think first thing they did right was they were able to expose Mitt Romney for being the flip-flopper that he is, and not so much the president himself but as much as his surrogate.
I think his surrogates, particularly President Clinton, did a marvelous job -- and Ana talked about the convention. His speech was the highlight of the entire thing, and what he did essentially was just dismantle Mitt Romney and his logic. I think that was helpful tremendously for his campaign.
And then also what Ana talked about, energizing his base by being political. I don't like it. It's not what he promised. He said it would be politics as usual, but you know what? Politics as usual worked, because he did energize his base. He did restore faith in the people that believed he was going to bring change.
So I think he did a really, really good job of emphasizing the flip- flopping of Mitt Romney, as well as potential for social change with the DREAM Act sort of initiative, as well as supporting marriage equality.
LEMON: OK. Now, Ana, what did the Obama campaign did wrong?
NAVARRO: Well, you know, look, I think that there is no doubt that the worst moment for the Obama campaign and the game-changing moment was that first debate. It was a debate where he just didn't show up, he mailed it in, he didn't put the effort, the heart and soul that people expected of him. He did not meet expectations.
It changed the entire race. Had he performed up to expectations in that race, we would not be in this toss-up today, most probably.
And, you know, let me tell you, if he loses this race on Tuesday night, I think he's going to be kicking himself for a while over that bad performance in the first debate, and I think Michelle is going to be kicking him for decades.
LEMON: Yes. Hey, Ana, you know, I have to say that you're probably right about that, and I said on this show, and I tweeted out that the president's performance in that debate was not great. I just was put it -- it was not great, and I'm putting it lightly here. I got a lot of flak from Obama supporters from that, but that is the truth.
And then later, even the administration and the president himself said that he didn't do so well in that campaign. He did terribly, let's just be honest.
So, L.Z., you usually defend the president on this show. What did you think the Obama team did wrong in this campaign?
GRANDERSON: Well, I definitely agree with the debate. A couple months ago I wrote a piece for CNN.com, and I essentially said nothing else mattered in this campaign except the first debate. If the president performed well, game over. If he didn't perform well, he could be in trouble and, you know, it's come to pass.
But I think he did some other things. The campaign did some other things, too, that they could have done better. They didn't take full advantage of Mitt Romney's lack of experience with foreign policy, in helping to connect the dots between an inexperienced person with foreign policy and the domestic economy. He could have connected the dots better between George Bush rushing into war and how that negative impact in the economy, he didn't do that.
I also felt that he really let Mitt Romney off the hook with Massachusetts. You have to remember, this is a man who had to flee, basically, the states. He characterized as he decided to go to the Olympics. But the truth of the matter is he had a sub-40 percent approval rating when he was leaving office. It wasn't as if he was opting to leave, voters were kicking him out.
He did not do a enough good job, he being President Obama, pointing that out. He spent too much time on taxes and he spent too much time on Bain Capital, and not enough on his time as actually being governor which I feel was very vulnerable.
And then the last thing I think they did not do well was connect the dots with women's rights. They spent too much time allowing it to be dictated by abortion and contraceptives and not enough about the opportunities that the Democrats, particularly his administration has forth for women. You got to remember, two Supreme Court justices were appointed under him, both women. He didn't do a good job pointing that out.
LEMON: OK. L.Z. and Ana, don't go anywhere, because we're going to come back to you in just a few minutes here on CNN and we're going to ask each of you what the Mitt Romney campaign -- what they did right and what they did wrong. And I want you think about your answers because we're going to see you in about four minutes here on CNN.
In the meantime, the battleground state of Virginia, plenty of voters on both sides of the political lines. But we found one thing they can all agree on.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right. Our coverage now, "Countdown to Election Day" continues here on CNN, live from Columbus, boathouse restaurant, of course.
And while the presidential candidates continue barnstorming the battleground states, voters in Virginia still speaking out on their favorite candidates in a very original way.
CNN's Athena Jones spent the day at what's called a pumpkin chunkin' event.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi. We're in Virginia. This is, of course, a key battleground state.
We spent the entire day talking to people at this pumpkin chunkin' event. This is the place where people can bring their Jack O'Lanterns and used pumpkins and just both of them, either dropping them from high heights, or chunking them at the so-called pumpkin wall of death. And I even got a little bit of pumpkin chunkin' myself.
We're in a Loudoun County. It's a swing county in what is a swing state. This county went for President Obama back in 2008. His margin of victory here was over eight points, a little higher than across the rest of the state of the state, but this is a county that went for Bush the previous two elections. And so, it's a county to watch.
We've been speaking to people here about who they support. Let's listen to what two of them had to say.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'll be supporting President Obama. I believe he stands for women's rights, for children's rights, for everyone's rights more than people who represent the top 1 percent. UNCLE BOB, VIRGINIA RESIDENT: I was -- had high hopes for Obama, but he just hasn't fulfilled them. So I think it's time for a change, and Romney is the kind of manager/organizer that can do the job.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JONES: So we had a chance to talk to several people here, some of them from Loudoun County, some of them from elsewhere. One thing I can tell you, everyone seems to agree on, both Republicans and Democrats, is that they've just about had it with all of the political ads.
Back to you.
LEMON: Oh, we've all had it with the political ads.
Athena, I want to see the Pumpkin Chunkin right there. I want to see it.
LZ Granderson and Ana Navarro back. I'm sure they wanted to see that and we just saw the aftermath behind her.
You guys are going to help us assess Obama and the Romney campaigns again. What worked, what didn't work, what they did right, what they did wrong. And we talked about team Obama just a few minutes ago. So let's focus now on the Romney team. A lot of people say it's impossible to overstate how big that first debate was for Mitt Romney.
LZ, from your last answer, I know you agree.
GRANDERSON: Oh, absolutely. I mean, he -- I don't want to say he was fantastic, I want to say the president was that awful. If the president had been on his game, he would suddenly just dismantled all the arguments that Romney tried to put in front of him, but he was off his game, and because he was so off his game, Romney looked that much better.
But I will give him some credit. He was energized, he was hopeful, and he did a really good job, not just at the debate, but even leading up to the debate. He did a very great job shifting the dialogue away from President Obama as a failure to we could do better. And that was very important because the job numbers kept suggesting we were actually improving, and so he couldn't tell us we were doing awful when we had several months of job growth. And so he shifted the dialogue and said, you know what, yes, he was doing OK but I can do better. And carried that kind of message to the energy during the debate, I think he did a very good job.
LEMON: OK. Ana? What else did the Romney team do right?
NAVARRO: Persevere. You know, I try to block out the Republican primary from my memory so that I can sleep well at night, but really, it was a divisive, long, painful process. And Mitt Romney trudged through it, through his discipline and his superior organization, and it was difficult to imagine that we would be able to put Humpty Dumpty back together again after that primary. He has been able to do so. He has energized the Republican base, he has united the Republican Party. We saw a tremendous show of unity just a few days ago when he was at a rally with 100 top surrogates from all over the spectrum in the Republican Party that are now fanning out in states with him.
The other thing that I think he did very well was raise the money.
LEMON: Yes.
NAVARRO: We -- the Republican Party, John McCain was very much outspent by President Obama, by candidate Barack Obama four years ago. That allowed President Obama -- candidate Obama to have a superior ground game, to just have resources that John McCain just was not able to put in.
LEMON: And Ana --
NAVARRO: Mitt Romney did a good job raising funds in this -- in this cycle.
LEMON: OK. On my last -- your last answers are going to have to be a little shorter because we're running out of time. I want to know, Ana -- and I'll start with you. What did the Romney team do wrong? What should he have done?
NAVARRO: The GOP convention. It was a -- you know?
LEMON: OK.
NAVARRO: Old, white and boring as a stale loaf of bread. And I also think his initial efforts with Latinos were lacking.
LEMON: Wow.
NAVARRO: If he were doing just a little better with Latinos now, he probably would be winning in places like Colorado.
LEMON: OK. Go ahead, LZ.
GRANDERSON: Taxes. He handled that conversation horribly. He's been running for president now since 2007, and he handled the conversation of thee tax returns as if he was expecting that. He did a terrible job with that. He allowed that to dominate the conversation. And truth be told, it still is a part of conversation. Not only among Democrats, but there's still Republicans who want to see his tax returns and that's because he did not handle that conversation well.
LEMON: OK. OK. One-word answer, seriously. Who is going to win? LZ?
GRANDERSON: Obama.
LEMON: OK. Ana?
NAVARRO: I will only dare predict Florida. Romney wins Florida. (LAUGHTER)
GRANDERSON: We'll give you Florida. We'll take the other 49.
LEMON: Right. Thank you.
NAVARRO: Democracy wins.
LEMON: All right. Appreciate you, guys. All right. All right. We told you about long lines for early voting, everyone. Even showed you some of those lines. But wait until you see what I found at one polling station here in Ohio. You are not going to believe it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: You're not going to believe this. You're not going to believe this. Just two days to go until the presidential election. A poll out just this morning from NBC and "The Wall Street Journal" shows President Obama and Mitt Romney in a dead heat. Nationally. The president has a slight edge, 48 percent to Romney's 47 percent, but that's well within the sampling error.
Another new national poll. This one is from ABC and "The Washington Post," gives Obama a one-point lead, 49-48 percent. NBC polls also finds Romney's national favorability at 53 percent just shy of the president's at 54 percent, a 54 percent rate.
OK. This is what you're not going to believe. Because you really need to pack your patience today along with a warm jacket and some gloves if you plan to take part in early voting here in Ohio. At some polling places, the lines were as far as the eye could see. I have never seen anything like this. While voters waited and waited and waited to take part in early voting.
I went out earlier today to check out one of the polling places here in Columbus. Look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: So this is the end of the line here at Franklin County where they're allowed to vote 1:00 to 5:00 today. I'm just going to give you -- it circles all the way around here. There are a couple of circles. I hope you guys aren't getting dizzy. And then it's going to snake around all the way through the parking lot. Another circle and then all the way through.
Let's go see -- one of our -- one of the guys we've been trying to talk to here is Mark.
Mark, how long -- how long have you been in line?
MARK, VOTER: Oh, we just got in line. We have no idea how long this will take.
LEMON: When you saw that line, what did you think?
MARK: I thought it ended here at the side of the building until a woman was screaming, end of the line.
LEMON: Yes.
MARK: There are circles within circles. Did you notice that?
MARK: Yes, unfortunately.
LEMON: So what --
MARK: It sure would have been nice if they can have more than one place open for this.
LEMON: Yes.
MARK: You know, obviously there's a need for it and they're not real concerned about filling that need.
LEMON: Yes. Does this discourage you, though?
MARK: It disappoints me, but it isn't going to keep me from voting.
LEMON: Yes. All right. Thank you. Good luck.
All right, come this way. Let's go over here. Just so you guys can believe what I'm saying.
You're going to be here a long time, trust me.
(LAUGHTER)
So let's go through here. How long have you guys been waiting?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two hours.
LEMON: Two hours? How long have you been waiting?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two hours.
LEMON: Two hours. Have you ever seen it like this before?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
LEMON: No. Worth it, though?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes, absolutely. Yes.
LEMON: All right. Well, the reason that too many people are in line, because in Ohio in one county, you can only have one polling place open for early voting. So not only foot traffic, there's car traffic as well, and that's the end of the line, which is really just the beginning because that's when you finally get inside to vote.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: I'm telling you, it's unbelievable and it's been that way at a lot of polling places I've been to. Hundreds of thousands of people now in New York, power still out. And they're searching for food, water and gas. We're going to take a look at how they plan to cast their votes on Tuesday.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: While the presidential election is on the minds of many Americans tonight, for others it is on survival. Food, water, keeping warm in the areas devastated by Hurricane Sandy.
With thousands of people still without power and basic needs, light of people are wondering how they will be able to vote on Tuesday.
Our national correspondent Susan Candiotti spoke with people in the hard-hit Rockaway district in Queens, New York.
And, Susan, what are people there saying?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They are saying that they've got one big mess on their hands.
Don, take a look at where I am standing. I am not on a street, I am not on a sidewalk, I'm not on the beach. I am standing on a huge chunk of boardwalk. A boardwalk that used to run north and south behind me along the ocean. But now it is broken up by crashing waves from super storm Sandy, and it is on side streets, this being one of them.
This boardwalk is now strewn with all kinds of debris from the homes that line this -- what was a street. And you've got furniture, you've got washers and dryers, and you've got downed power lines, no power. They are -- the temperatures are plunging now, and for a lot of people, voting is the last thing on their minds. But for others, it is something they will never give up. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, voting is on my mind, even though I'm living in all this mess, I still am who I am. It hasn't altered the essence of my person.
CANDIOTTI: Is voting the last thing on your mind right now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, it's not really -- I'm not making it a problem because if I have to walk, ride, whatever, I'm going to get to my polls.
CANDIOTTI: You are going to make sure you go?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to get to my poll.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CANDIOTTI: But how? I mean they still don't know where they have to be. It turns out that about -- at least 143,000 people in this particular area will be going to polling places that are not their usual ones. So how do they find out where they're supposed to be going? There's no Internet unless they have spotty phone services that are still working and they can look it up.
There's no power, so, for example, the GOP said they're trying to send some people or plan to send out to walk around flyers and get the word out. Other than that, I know that they are -- the company that makes the voting machines has set up -- sent out about 130 generators to get those to the polling stations to make sure that there is power there to run the voting machines. So they're trying to do everything they can to help people who are determined to get out the vote to try to do that -- Don.
LEMON: Oh boy. All right. Susan Candiotti in the Rockaways. Thank you, Susan.
For some small business owners, the election isn't about whether President Obama or Mitt Romney wins, it's about a winning plan for the economy. That's next.
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LEMON: Democrat or Republican, after all the speeches, all the commercials, the economy is still the top issue for Americans this election year. For this week's "Building Up America," CNN's Tom Foreman spends a day with a few small business owners in the tiny town of Washington, Virginia.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just an hour outside of D.C., people in the small town of Washington, Virginia, are waiting to see what the election brings their way. And many, like cabinet maker Peter Kramer say they don't really care so much about whether the Democrats or Republicans win, just as long as the creeping economy starts racing again.
PETER KRAMER, CABINET MAKER: I'm saying it's both of those people's faults and, yes, somebody fix it. Let's get some people in Washington who want to sit down and say let's solve the problem and stop the gridlock.
