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Romney in Virginia; Obama Leads in Ohio; Battleground Blitz of Swing States; The Balance of Power; Final Arguments Before Election; Long Lines Snarl Florida Voting; Final Arguments; Ohio Provisional Ballots Controversy; States Decide Same-Sex Marriage, Marijuana; Four States Vote on Same Sex Marriage

Aired November 05, 2012 - 14:00   ET

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


BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Very exciting week this Monday. I'm Brooke Baldwin. And here we go. This is the real life political thriller gripping the nation. Folks, we are now hours away from the final chapter. Tomorrow is the day the majority of the nation heads to the voting booth.

And take a look at this here. Brand new, this is CNN/ORC polling here, shows really neither guy, look at this, 49 percent to 49 percent. Talk about a page turner here.

But for some voters, the voting has already begun. Look at the lines. You see the sign. Miami-Dade County. These folks waiting hours to cast their absentee ballots there. You know the deal in Florida. Battleground state. One of the battleground states getting a visit from Mitt Romney as he and the president are maximizing each and every campaign hour.

President Obama is hitting Wisconsin, he's hitting Iowa, and, of course, Ohio, before heading to Chicago. And very soon he will be rallying the crowds in Columbus, getting a boost from some a-list celebrities. We will take you there here in just a moment for the president.

Meantime, Mitt Romney, he is traveling up the eastern seaboard with stops in Florida, Ohio, Virginia, and, of course, New Hampshire. And during the next hour, we will take you live to his event in Fairfax, Virginia.

Speaking of Mitt Romney, he is already making his case in Lynchburg and CNN's Jim Acosta is on the campaign trail with him.

Hey, Jim.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: With a slew of new battleground state polls showing Mitt Romney trailing President Obama only slightly on this day before Election Day, the GOP nominee is making his closing argument to voters. At a campaign stop here in Virginia, and earlier this morning in Florida, Romney warned the crowd that the country could be in store for another recession and potentially another debt ceiling crisis if Mr. Obama gets another four years in office. Romney is trying to make the case that he's the leader that can bring the country together. Here's what he had to say.

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When I'm elected, the economy and the American jobs are likely to still be very stagnant. We're -- you know this year, by the way, this year, the economy is growing more slowly than last year. Last year more slowly than the year before. I'm not going to waste my time complaining about my predecessor when I'm president. I'm not going to spend my time trying to pass partisan legislation that's unrelated to jobs. From day one, I'm going to go to work to help Americans get back to work.

ACOSTA: After his stops here in Virginia, Romney heads next to the ultimate battleground state of Ohio and then he ends the night in the state where his campaign all began, in New Hampshire. Then his campaign says tomorrow morning he will wake up and vote near his home in Belmont, Massachusetts.

Jim Acosta, CNN, traveling with the Romney campaign in Lynchburg, Virginia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Jim Acosta, thank you.

The president, at this hour, is traveling to Ohio where a brand new CNN poll of polls, which we should point out tracks a number of different polls, shows President Obama with a lead. Take a look here. The president is three points. Slight advantage here in Ohio. Three points ahead of his challenger Mitt Romney. The poll average includes the University of Cincinnati survey which talked to some voters just yesterday. So, let's go to Columbus. Let's go to White House correspondent Brianna Keilar, who's live for us there.

It looked like a pretty packed house this afternoon where the president will be speaking. And speaking of that Ohio poll, Brianna, that we just showed, slight advantage? How is Team Obama feeling about those numbers?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: They're feeling good, Brooke.

Now, this is a sliver of an advantage, I will tell you, but President Obama is enjoying and has consistently for a while this sliver of an advantage here in Ohio and in a number of key battleground states. But Ohio is really the most key battleground state. You look at the picture nationally, and he's not quite performing as well. Our latest CNN/ORC poll of polls nationally has Mitt Romney tied with President Obama, 49-49. But aides to President Obama, David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs, expressing confidence this morning, saying that they think he will carry not only the electoral college, but also the popular vote.

And, yes, it's already very noisy here in the Nationwide Arena, as you can tell, Brooke. There's actually some areas that you can't see, I know, on camera, in the upper levels of the arena that are not full at this point. But President Obama won't be speaking for another couple of hours. So we'll see if those fill up. There's some overflow area outside in case. And he's really trying to get enthusiasm going by bringing out some entertainment firepower.

Big show here today. The biggest show of all of his rallies. Both Jay- Z and Bruce Springsteen will be performing, Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK. So Jay-Z and "the boss" in Columbus, helping rally for the president.

I know you and I talked, when was it last week, week before, you were talking about how the president, he's already cast his ballot in Chicago. So what will the president be doing tomorrow on Election Day?

KEILAR: It seems like he'll be shooting some hoops. This has actually become an Election Day ritual for the president. It started back in 2008. He'd do a pick-up basketball game when he was facing key primary races. And we understand from sources with the campaign that Reggie Love, the president's former personal aide who left the White House about a year ago, he's rejoined the campaign here in the final days and he is in charge of putting this game together. Sort of, I guess you could say a superstition that President Obama has. There's a little bit of nostalgia going on certainly on the Obama campaign as you have a lot of kind of the old players coming back. We heard from David Axelrod this morning. He said it's sort of like a long running series when all of the characters come back. We'll see if that nostalgia lasts, Brooke. I'd say that it will definitely be directly proportional to whether or not the president wins tomorrow.

BALDWIN: Brianna Keilar for us in Columbus. Brianna, thank you.

And voters -- voters in the battleground states, they have been bombarded with more than 700,000 airings of campaign ads. Folks, that is just between the months of April to October. Tomorrow you will have your final say. And so we, of course, being CNN, we have correspondents spanning the swing states really just to get a beat on what they're thinking. So, Martin Savidge, let's begin with you in Cleveland.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Martin Savidge in Cleveland, Ohio.

And, Brooke, we're standing outside of the county board of elections where early voting is what these people are standing in line for. Early voting in this state, it should be pointed out, started back in October. And here we are in the month of November. The crowd is not quite as big as they were over the weekend, but, after all, it is a workday.

It's a festive atmosphere. The police are trying to keep the traffic moving, but you can hear the music. A deejay set up right across the state. Then, on top of that, there's also hot beverages that are being served down there to try to keep people feeling pretty good. And they are feeling fairly good. We haven't seen any problems or heard of any altercations.

But the reality is, most of these voters will tell you, they have heard all the ads, they've been bothered by all the robo calls and now Ohio realizes it is time to vote. JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm John Zarrella in Miami-Dade County, outside the supervisor of elections office here. And the issue, of course, the big issue in Florida today is, people having the opportunity to vote. Early voting ended on Saturday. Some people waited in lines three, four, five hours. The Democratic Party then filing a suit early Sunday morning saying that people had to have a meaningful opportunity to vote in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, heavily Democratic counties.

Miami-Dade County here and up in Palm Beach responded by allowing people to come yesterday and today to file absentee ballots. That's what this line is here that you see. People picking up absentee ballots, filling them out and then turning them in again. The line is perhaps three or 400 deep. It goes all the way around the corner behind me here.

Now, that is what the folks are doing here in Miami-Dade. They'll be allowed to do this until 5:00 this afternoon. Anyone who's still in line at 5:00 when the office is officially shut will, of course, be allowed to vote.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is the final day of early voting here in Iowa. This battleground state where both camps want these six electoral votes. And you see the voters behind me lined up already, casting their votes.

What I can tell you is that they are seeing record early voting in Iowa this year. They say 40 percent of people that vote will have voted early. That is key when it comes to the ground game. The Obama camp, the Romney camp neck and neck, knocking on as many doors as they can, making as many phone calls, trying to get every single supporter they can to the polls.

Now, when you look at the numbers, traditionally Democrats leave Republicans in getting the early vote out. But we're told that lead is more narrow this year than in past years. As of the votes through Friday, registered Democrats here in Iowa had a lead of about 63,000 votes over registered Republicans in terms of getting them in.

At the same time, you have a race here that is neck and neck. The final "Des Moines Register" poll came out here over the weekend. It has the president leading by five points. But it is still a very, very narrow race here. Far too close to call.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kyung Lah in Denver.

You can definitely tell it's the day before election day. What you're seeing here is the ballot prep. These are the early votes. And this is where the ballots are pulled out of the envelopes. Again, early voting has been going on here in Colorado for two weeks.

I'm walking down the actual path of a ballot and what's happening here now is that the counting has just begun. What you're seeing over here are the machines that count the ballots, they're sticking them in, they run through, and they count them. But, the ballots won't actually be tabulated until 7:00 p.m. tomorrow night. That's when voting ends here in the state of Colorado.

The secretary of state's office says 1.7 million people have already voted. They estimate that will be about 2 million by tomorrow. Eighty- five percent of all voting in Colorado happens before Election Day. Smooth so far, but they expect it may be smooth on Election Day.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: Kyung Lah, thank you so much.

And make sure you watch CNN all day long tomorrow. Just keep it on CNN for Election Day. Our special coverage begins tomorrow night, 6:00 Eastern. I will be anchoring a special NEWSROOM at noon tomorrow along with Joe Johns in Washington.

And as we are on the eve of Election Day, some areas, the voting trouble has already begun, like these lines. Seven-hour wait times. Now the lawyers are stepping in. Ali Velshi is all over it, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Let's talk about Florida. Florida, again, looking at a very, very close race. And right now possibly a very, very ugly legal battle. Democrats lawyering up over Governor Rick Scott's refusal to extend early voting hours. The aim of voting is to make it easier for people to cast their ballots. But I want you to look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD: Let us vote! Let us vote! Let us vote!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Chanting "let us vote." Long lines. We're hearing some wait hours. Maybe you've been in a line like this here. Seven hours. Voters being turned away. This is what we're hearing. Ali Velshi is watching this for us. I spoke with him just a little while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let me bring in Ali Velshi, our chief business correspondent here.

First, just talking about Florida.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

BALDWIN: So far, early voting, 4 million people.

VELSHI: Yes.

BALDWIN: But when you look at those lines in Miami-Dade, they're insane.

VELSHI: Right. We probably have half the state already having voted, but we have lines that could have 400 people in them. And it's weird, because you've got to go there and get your provisional ballot, then you have to fill it out, then you have to get in another line and drop it off. So it's discouraging some voters from voting.

BALDWIN: Is it?

VELSHI: This is, of course, after, as you know, they changed the law so that you had 14 days of advance voting, now you only have eight. So that's a big problem. We're hearing of some people spending up to seven hours in lines.

Now, it may not bother you that much that, you know, people have to stand in lines and some will go away. But, remember, 2000, 537 votes separated the winner from the loser. President Bush takes Florida. And as a result, he takes the presidency.

BALDWIN: Several hundred votes absolutely matter. Absolutely.

VELSHI: Yes. Yes. Yes, and Florida's one of those -- one of those couple of states where everybody there knows every vote counts.

BALDWIN: Ohio, we were talking earlier --

VELSHI: Yes, that's the other one.

BALDWIN: You said the other squeaky wheel. We need to talk about Ohio.

VELSHI: Yes.

BALDWIN: Early voting has just ended at 2:00.

VELSHI: Right.

BALDWIN: 2:00.

VELSHI: Again, huge turnout for early voting in Ohio. So that's ended. There's a bit of a problem there as well. The secretary of state imposed this new form that if you vote provisionally, which means you come without ID and you can't really, you know, fully prove who you are, you've got to fill out a different form. And the criticism and some lawsuits say the form is too complicated.

Now, I brought it up on the Internet. I've taken a look at it. I have to agree. It seems more complicated than it needs to be to achieve what it's trying to achieve. This may not matter in Ohio. These provisional ballots don't get counted, unless there isn't a winner, until November 17th.

But, Ohio is a dead heat again. Some polls show President Obama ahead, generally speaking within the statistical margin of error. One poll that's out there that shows him ahead outside of that margin of error. Bottom line is, it's really tight. If you win Ohio and Florida, you probably win the presidency. If you win neither of them, you've got a tough road ahead of you. And if you win one -- if each presidential candidates wins one of them, they've still got to play the rest of the board. So these two are going to matter a great deal.

BALDWIN: We'll be watching very, very closely. Ali Velshi, my thanks to you.

VELSHI: My pleasure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Obviously we're watching the race for the White House very, very closely. But I want to focus now here on the balance of power, specifically the high stakes in the U.S. Senate. Next, hour a shift in power in the Senate could impact the next four years and we're highlighting three races you need to watch.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: With tomorrow's vote we could see a shift in the balance of power in Congress. You know the deal. Republicans have the majority in the House of Representatives right now. They would love to grab control of the Senate. On the flip side, Democrats control the Senate and are looking to gain power in the House. But the question is here, does either side really have a chance to make any political gains? Let's bring in senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash, who has been covering all of these races here, all of these senators and members of Congress.

So talking specifically about the Senate, Dana, how could the power shift?

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's start with where things stand now, Brooke. Take a look at this. This is basically a virtual Senate. And right now there are 47 Republican seats, 51 Democratic and two independent. Let's look at what is at stake on Tuesday, tomorrow. All of these white seats are going to be up for grabs. So it's 33 seats. It's a third of the Senate. That happens every two years. But the reality is that most of these are not super competitive.

So let's turn over those just for the sake of argument and just, again, keep focused on these white seats, Brooke. These are the ones that are incredibly competitive. And you know what, there actually are a lot of them if you look at this. Mostly Democratic, but some Republicans. And so Republicans have to defend their own, but also take a number of Democratic seats.

BALDWIN: OK. So among those white, most interesting. Those highly competitive races. Tell me about three that you've been watching closely.

BASH: Well, I want to start with the state of Virginia.

BALDWIN: OK.

BASH: Because this race is so razor thin, it so close. You're talking about the Democrat who is the former governor of Virginia, Tim Kaine, against another former governor, George Allen, who was also a former senator. This, at this point, is the most expensive Senate race. Like $82 million. And it's still going up. And I'm telling you, living here, we see the ads over and over again. So we're definitely watching this. This is a Democratic seat that Republicans really want to pick up.

The other seat that I want to talk about is another Democratic seat that Republicans desperately need and want. It is in the red state of Montana. John Tester is the incumbent Democrat. He's just in his first term. And Denny Rehberg is challenging him. This is another race that's been pretty expensive. Almost $45 million spent. And there's no major media market in Montana. So that's a lot of money out there. And guess how much that's moved the dial. It hasn't at all.

BALDWIN: Huh.

BASH: We went into this race, 1 percent difference in the polls. Right now, the day before Election Day, 1 percent difference in the polls. It's just too close to call.

And the last one I want to talk about is probably the marquis Senate race of this election year. It is the one, of course, in Massachusetts. The incumbent Republican senator, Scott Brown, is fighting for his political life against his Democratic challenger, Elizabeth Warren, who is incredibly well funded. Going into tomorrow, I can tell you that Republicans privately are very pessimistic about holding on to this seat. They really feel that Elizabeth Warren is going to win. Some of the polls in the past 24 hours have showed it tightening up. But, you know, this is Democratic Massachusetts, historically. So especially in a presidential year, when most people in Massachusetts are going to be voting for the president, they think that Elizabeth Warren will likely have this in the bag.

BALDWIN: Dana Bash, we will keep watching those -- both the Senate. We -- I know you and I have talked much about some of the tight House races.

BASH: Yes.

BALDWIN: We'll be looking at those in the days to come, in addition to the race for the White House.

We're also looking at voting issues. Voting issues specifically in the state of Florida. And my next guest is in Florida right now. And his guy has a lot riding on this state. Coming up next, here he is, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, on what those long lines mean for President Obama's chances. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Joining me now live from Miami, a big time Democrat, Antonio Villaraigosa. He is the mayor of Los Angeles. You may remember him chairing the DNC, the Democratic National Convention.

Good to see you, Mr. Mayor.

MAYOR ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA (D), LOS ANGELES: Good to see you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Let's begin with this. Mitt Romney was in Florida. First stop actually this morning. So let me just play a little of what he had to say to Floridians. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He was going to focus on creating jobs. Instead he focused on Obamacare and that killed jobs. He was going to cut the federal deficit in half. Instead he doubled it. He said that by now unemployment would be at 5.2 percent. And last Friday we learned that it's at 7.9 percent. Now, that's -- that's 9 million jobs short.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: You heard the crowd. Mitt Romney listing reasons not to vote for the president's re-election. Sir, in 60 seconds, because I have a lot I want to get to with you, 60 seconds, give me two reasons to vote for Barack Obama.

VILLARAIGOSA: Well, first of all, let me say this was from a person who was 47th out of 50th in job creation, a person who when he worked at Bain piled debt on companies, laid people off, and shipped jobs overseas. I think the biggest reason to vote for President Obama is what we have what now 31 straight months of growth. The other reason is that 32 million people have health care and that 12 million jobs will be created by -- according to Moody's Analytics, in the next four years if we keep charting the course ahead. That was 40 seconds.

BALDWIN: OK. That was 40 seconds. Nice job, Mayor Villaraigosa. Good job.

Since you are in Florida, I think we should everyone, of course you're the mayor of Los Angeles. This is not your home state of California. But, still, you're there. I want to talk to you about these lines. These lines of early voters that we are seeing today, you know, looks like winding around street corners. You have people in southern Florida casting ballots, waiting for hours to do so. Some, from what I've heard, some are just walking away. They're giving up. Question to you is, how confident are you that by the time these polls close tomorrow, that everyone who wants to vote can?

VILLARAIGOSA: Well, as you know, the governor, Governor Scott, and the legislature reduced early voting by six days. They even fought in court the opportunity to extend voting hours at a polling place where there had been a bomb threat. Our hope is that people will go out and vote. I can tell you, there are about 125 offices. We have been working two years here in Florida and we're going to knock on doors --

BALDWIN: But what's your confidence level? Are you confident that everyone who wants to vote will be voting?

VILLARAIGOSA: Well, I'm -- I'm confident that we'll going to make every effort to get them out to vote. And remember this, you all have talked about the enthusiasm gap.

BALDWIN: Yes.

VILLARAIGOSA: I haven't seen it. I didn't see it in Tampa. I haven't seen it in Miami. We have people waiting in line -- BALDWIN: Not by the looks of the lines.

VILLARAIGOSA: Yes, that's exactly right.

BALDWIN: Right.

VILLARAIGOSA: People want to vote. They want to exercise their right to vote.

BALDWIN: The -- as you point out, the Democratic Party of Florida, they've actually filed suit in three -- three heavily Democratic counties in south Florida to try to extend some of the voting hours. Do you expect a judge to act on that before tomorrow? And if not, sir, should we see this as your side possibly preemptively laying the ground work here for some kind of challenge post Election Day?

VILLARAIGOSA: Well, I hope that a judge will act quickly to extend the hours. But I can tell you that we're working hard.

BALDWIN: If not?

VILLARAIGOSA: We're not going to wait on that. That's why we have some few thousand people just in Miami-Dade alone working, knocking on doors, getting that vote out.

BALDWIN: You are, as we point out, the mayor of Los Angeles. You are a bit of a mover and shaker in the Democratic Party. Exactly why are you in Florida on the day before the election?

VILLARAIGOSA: Well, I was asked to come to Tampa and Miami. I've been, frankly, in Iowa, Colorado, I've been virtually every battleground state. I have because this election matters.

It matters to people in Los Angeles who is in the White House, who is in the House and the Senate. I'm going to work as hard as I can until the polls close and then I'm going to Chicago and celebrate President Obama's re-election.

BALDWIN: This is a pretty big day here, Mayor Villaraigosa, the day before the election, Florida specifically. Did you want to go to Florida?

VILLARAIGOSA: I did want to go to Florida. I wanted to go wherever they sent me, but Florida is without question a battleground state. It is going to be very, very close. About 150,000 more Democrats have early voted than Republicans.

But this is going to go all the way to the wire. I've been saying that for a year. The nation is evenly divided. I do expect that the president will win here, but especially will hold the line in Ohio and Iowa and Wisconsin. We'll win in Colorado and Nevada, and I look for victories in other states as well.

BALDWIN: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, mayor of Los Angeles, thank you, sir. We appreciate it. We'll be watching here all day tomorrow. And from -- VILLARAIGOSA: I know you will.

BALDWIN: We will. From provisional ballots to one of the most famous swing counties in the U.S., we're talking battleground Ohio. Don Lemon is there. He will join me live from Cincinnati with a sign that the political landscape there is changing yet again.

But first, on the eve of Election Day, take a look at this, seems investors claimed the waiting game. The Dow pretty flat at this hour, hour and a half away from that closing bell. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: A new CNN poll of polls has just come out. And President Obama, he has a slight advantage in Ohio over his challenger Mitt Romney by 3 percentage points. It is a small lead in the state that may have the biggest impact in this presidential election.

Ohio is embroiled also in controversy now over this piece of paper. This is a provisional ballot. That is the ballot voters have to fill out if they don't, they can't provide any kind of identification.

A court hearing is under way now about who gets to fill out part of this ballot. I want to go to CNN's Don Lemon who has been anchoring all weekend long out of Ohio. He is live for me in Cincinnati.

Don, we are going to get to the provisional ballot bit in just a moment. But you're out there. You're with a long line of voters. We see this CNN poll of polls showing Obama is ahead barely. What is the sense you're getting from folks in Ohio?

DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Stick with me, Brooke. I have a lot of paper here that I to get through because I just came from upstairs speaking to the assistant director of elections here in Hamilton County.

These are the latest numbers, official numbers, you can see, they highlighted them for me. OK, so as of yesterday, this is the latest numbers, remember, a lot of people still haven't voted today and their still gathering information.

So as of yesterday, they're saying that 23,051 people have voted here, have voted early here. And that includes everything, the absentee ballots returned, everything. Now, here's -- to give you an idea, in 2008, by yesterday, 24,960 people had voted.

So any say they're about 2,000 behind the 2008 numbers so they don't believe they're going to make that up. OK, here's the other information that I got. This involves those ballots, absentee ballots returned.

So they said they sent out 119,830 absentee ballots. So far they received 103,377 back. That's 86 percent of the absentee ballots that were sent out. Again that does not include yesterday. And to give you an idea, today they're open from 8:00 to 2:00. But the people who are waiting in line, I'll show you in a second, they'll get to vote if they're in line, the people who are already in line. Yesterday they were open from 1:00 to 5:00. They didn't finish until 8:30 and they said yesterday they had almost 1,300 people, 1,297 people who voted early yesterday, OK -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK, show me the people.

LEMON: You see it, right? Look at that and it goes all the way around the corner on the other side of the building. We don't even have enough cable to show you. How long have you guys been in line? How long have you waited?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three hours.

LEMON: About three hours. How long did you wait, three hours?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: About three and a half.

LEMON: Three and a half hours. So people have been waiting in this line for three and a half hours, Brooke, three and a half hours. I'll be able to question if you want to talk about the provisional --

BALDWIN: I wanted to get to the provisional ballots. As we pointed out because there's this court hearing happening right now, provisional ballot is the ballot that you -- let's say, if you can't provide, you know, identification, this is something that's counted once the polls close. And in a state like Ohio, every provisional ballot matters, what's the deal today?

LEMON: OK, so here's the deal. They are in court now as you said and I spoke to the secretary of state, I'll get to that in a second. The secretary of state here, John Husted, who is a Republican, sent out. To level the playing field, he says, he sent out applications for absentee ballots to every single registered voter in the state.

Almost 8,000 -- 7.7 million people, almost 8 million people and this is what you get. And once you say yes, I do want to vote earlier on absentee, you send this back in the mail. OK, so you send it. Then they send you the actual absentee ballot.

For people who don't return this, as I said, they have gotten 86 percent of it back, but the number, 15 percent or so who haven't returned, 14 percent, if they come in and they try to vote in person, earlier on Election Day, they're going to have to do a provisional ballot.

And so on Friday, the secretary of state, Brooke, issued this directive saying instead of the election worker entering the Social Security number or the information about your I.D., you have to do it. It is the voter's responsibility to do it.

So voting rights advocates are saying, you know what, that's a real issue here because you are changing the law. I spoke with him, listen to what he said and we'll talk on the other side -- Brooke.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON HUSTED (R), OHIO SECRETARY OF STATE: Well, actually, this is the way it's been for several elections in the state of Ohio, to change -- to do the form differently and to administer it differently would be the change.

What we are doing is consistent with the way elections have been run. And understand, this is like casting a vote. We wouldn't want the poll worker to cast a vote for someone else. We want the poll worker -- we want the voter to do this so it is right and their vote will be counted.

LEMON: Does this have the possibility, though, of having provisional ballots, hundreds of thousands of them tossed out as this group who --

HUSTED: No, what we're talking about here are a handful of ballots in the big scheme of things in terms of how this is done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, people have been telling me they don't believe this will be a handful of ballots because so far, I think there are about 200,000 or so, Brooke, still out and that's going to put all of them in jeopardy, people haven't marked them correctly or they don't mark them properly once they do come in to vote.

As you can see, all these people here, there are bound to be some people who actually applied for absentee ballots, didn't send them back and now they have to come in and face this and make sure they get all of their information correct on this.

That's really going to be the issue here in Ohio, these provisional ballots, among other things. You know, the attorneys, everybody, they're going crazy about this. So we'll be here and monitoring it for you.

BALDWIN: OK, that is a potential, a potential headache you'll be covering, Don Lemon, for us in Ohio, over the next 24 to 48 hours. Thank you for that. We'll come back to you.

Want you to forget about the presidential race just for one quick minute because we have to talk about same sex marriage. Perhaps talk about marijuana. The push is on to legalize both controversial issues in several different states?

CNN contributors, John Avlon and Margaret Hoover, they will be weighing in next. Don't miss it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Tomorrow, a handful of states could change the discussion of the country on two very controversial issues. Same sex marriage and legalizing marijuana. We're about to talk about both here.

But first, pot, take a look at the map. Washington State, Oregon, Colorado, you will be voting on legalizing marijuana. I'm not talking marijuana for medicinal use here. In these three states, they will decide if they want to legalize marijuana for recreational use.

Let me bring in our favorite married political power couple, our CNN contributors, John Avlon and Margaret Hoover. John, I read your column in the "Daily Beast" today, so you run through sort of these several key interesting, colorful ballot initiatives if you will.

So we are going to begin with drugs. We begin in Colorado. You call Colorado to quote you, "ground zero," for the most ambitious marijuana legalization issue in the country. Tell me about Amendment 64.

JOHN AVLON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, Amendment 64 would basically try to legalize and regulate marijuana like liquor. It is approaching it in a sober minded way, if you will, saying that not only will this help state tax revenues, but they'll dedicate the first $40 million of revenue to new school construction.

So it is a very different pitch for marijuana legalization than we have seen in the past. Both in Colorado and Washington, the polls show it has a real chance of passing.

The additional x factor here, of course, is Colorado is such a crucial swing state. How Amendment 64 pot legalization could impact presidential turnout is one of the fascinating x factors this of this election.

BALDWIN: Let me just play this. This is two opposing views. This is coming out of Denver. Roll it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BETTY ALDWORTH, CAMPAIGN TO REGULATE MARIJUANA LIKE ALCOHOL: Take marijuana off the streets, where it is universally available, and place it behind a counter, where we can start to realize the tax benefits, where we can limit access to the people who are -- only the people permitted to buy it.

HAPPY HAYNES, DENVER BOARD OF EDUCATION: In our constitution, our state constitution, really, right next to the right to vote and freedom of religion, we have the right to get high?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, Margaret Hoover, you have all these folks coming in with -- we're using Colorado as an example, you know, voting on legalizing or not marijuana in this swing state. Who does this help most in the grand scheme of things, Romney or Obama?

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, the overriding thought is that it would help President Obama. However, the Democratic governor of the state of Colorado has even said that he's not in favor of it, has failed to endorse.

The truth is, this policy would put the state of Colorado, my home state to the left of the country, the Netherlands, when it comes to marijuana policy. I mean, this isn't decriminalizing. This is making use legal for personal purposes and then regulating a private sector market for marijuana.

So this is an extremely progressive law and, you know, the jury is out. We'll see what happened. While it is polling a few points ahead, generally -- they're going to have to be leading by six or seven points by Election Day to get them over the edge when it comes tomorrow. We'll see how they do.

BALDWIN: We'll see how they do. I'm going to move from marijuana, I want to get to same sex marriage. Take a look at the map because I want to show you these four states that have same sex marriage on the ballot tomorrow, Washington, Maryland, Minnesota, Maine.

With Maine possibly representing the biggest turn around here on how same sex marriage is viewed three years ago, all three years ago, Maine voters rejected their governor's decision to allow same sex marriage. Recent polling suggests a shift in Maine. Listen to this, and then I have a question.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN SOUCHET, MAINE DEFENSE OF MARRIAGE: The end result in November I think will be the same. It's going to be another campaign, unfortunately. We are disappointed as divisive and as contentious as it was in 2009, this say tough time to be going through this again.

BETSY SMITH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, EQUALITYMAINE: Many people changed their minds and many continue to change their minds and they want another chance to bring fairness and equality to the state of Maine. We are going to give them that chance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: John, what do you make of this? I mean, could this be a tipping point in support of gay marriage in the country?

AVLON: I mean, you know, America's at a tipping point. We're now a thin majority of Americans for the first time support marriage equality. President Obama is coming out in favor of marriage equality.

But of course, marriage equality measures have been rejected to the ballot over 30 times. So if Maine does become the first, this is very historic. The real question is about putting civil rights measures to a popular vote.

But this would be really historic if Maine were to move in this direction after just three years ago. But Margaret has worked on this issue enormously, much more than I have -- so I would refer to her.

BALDWIN: Let's give you the floor, final word?

HOOVER: Well, look, what we have seen in the gay rights movement and in the movement for marriage and freedom to marry generally is a progression in terms of not just popular opinion changing across the country, but also first this happened in the courts. Then it happened in state legislatures. Marriage is legal in six states, seven including the District of Columbia. Now if we see it happen at the ballot box, I think you'll see it in a huge turning point, four states.

I think passing one of them. That I think will be a watershed movement for the LGBT community and frankly, for pro-freedom Republicans and pro-freedom Americans because Republicans, little known story, have also been part of these winning coalitions in these four states.

BALDWIN: Margaret Hoover, John Avlon, guys, thank you.

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BALDWIN: All 435 members of the House of Representatives will face voters tomorrow. But, control of the chamber ultimately rests on roughly 52-60 competitive races. House Speaker John Boehner says he is confident about tomorrow's outcome.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPRESENTATIVE JOHN BOEHNER (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: I feel pretty good about at least maintaining the numbers that we have. You know, after winning 65 seats from the Democrats in the 2010 cycle and all the experts talking about how many seats we're going to lose, 5, 10, 15, I never bought into the idea we had to lose any seats.

As I have been in all these districts, over the last 45 days, our candidates our members are doing well. I'm pretty optimistic about maintaining the numbers that we have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So how would a shift in power in the U.S. Senate impact the next four years? CNN's Tom Foreman takes us to the virtual Senate -- Tom.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, all eyes are going to be on the U.S. Senate to see how the balance of power works out because that will really determine what gets done in Washington over the next four years.

Let me take the camera up high here in our virtual U.S. Senate and show you 47 seats in red held by the Republicans. You see that little strip of blue in the back there, that's the Democratic advantage. The Democrats are controlling 53 seats here, if you include the independents who caucus with them.

Of course, they have the White House with President Obama and the Republicans, of course, run the House of Representatives where they have a majority over there. So what would we see if none that changed and President Obama was re-elected.

Well, we would see a lot of the same maneuverings and gridlock that we've seen so far probably, but we'd also see a new agenda. President Obama wants to raise taxes on the wealthy. He's talked a lot about it. Says it is part of making the economy more fundamentally fair and getting the economy moving again.

He also wants to tackle immigration reform again. This is one of those things he took a lot of heat on not getting done during his first term. Says if he's re-elected he'll try again. And here is a wild card. There might be a Supreme Court seat he has to deal with.

Justice Ginsburg suggested she might want to retire. If she goes away, that's a liberal leaning justice. He would probably put a liberal in her seat and that would maintain the status quo on the court. Let's imagine that nothing changes here and he doesn't get re- elected, but instead Mitt Romney wins the White House. What would he want to do in the U.S. Senate?

First thing, lower taxes on everyone, lower tax rates, 20 percent lower across the board, plus he says he wants to close loopholes. That's his idea of how to stimulate the economy, get things moving and deal with the deficit.

He also says he would like to get rid of Obamacare, talked about this a lot during the campaign. He says he would keep the most popular parts, but the rest of it he would like to chuck out the window. He too might have that Supreme Court seat to fill.

Big difference, though, if it is a liberal justice leaving, he would put a conservative in her place and that would change the balance of the court and you would probably see it in the rulings coming out of the court over time.

Here is the thing. No matter what these men want to do, the simple truth is they can only do it if they have some cooperation in this chamber. What might happen? Well, the Democrats might hold on to their advantage or the Republicans might win those three seats back there.

If they did that, you have a tie and the vice president either Joe Biden or Paul Ryan would have to decide the tie, whenever you had a 50/50 vote or the Republicans might be able to pick up a couple of extra seats in the back and they would have an advantage of some sort.

But almost without exception, there is very little indication that either party has even a hope of winning a 60-vote filibuster proof majority here. And that really matters, Brooke, because without that, the only way either party can get something done is by finding a way finally to work across this aisle -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Working across the aisle. Tom Foreman, thank you so much. Make sure you watch CNN on Election Day, huge, huge coverage, special coverage begins tomorrow night at 6:00 Eastern. We will see you then.

Just in here to us at CNN, we're getting word of the last minute change in Mitt Romney's schedule. And I'm not talking about today, folks. I'm talking about tomorrow, Election Day, really gives us insight on the campaign's thinking. That's next.

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