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Election Day Has Arrived; Watching the Polling Places
Aired November 04, 2008 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Your voice, your vote. We are watching the races and the polling places. And taking your complaints at our voter hotline center, as well.
Plus, candidates not done on the campaign trail. We'll follow them to the final stop. It is election day, Tuesday, Novebmer 4th. I'm Heidi Collins. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Election day in the U.S.A. And the candidates are still on the move. Senator Barack Obama heading for a rally in Indianapolis, Senator John McCain waiting to vote in Phoenix, Arizona. And at this hour polls are open everywhere except for Alaska and Hawaii. And as you can see, the lines are getting longer and longer. The CNN voter hotline is also lighting up with voters reporting everything from late poll openings to malfunctioning machines.
We're on top of it all from coast to coast. In fact, Dixville Notch, a tiny village in New Hampshire got things rolling right after midnight. Every registered voter there, that's 100 percent, cast a ballot. Can you believe it? It was a landslide for Barack Obama, 15 votes to John McCain's 6 votes. Dixville Notch has not backed democrats since Hubert Humphrey way back in 1968.
Senator Obama and his running mate, Senator Joe Biden also casting their votes in their respective home towns. They'll be doing a bit more campaigning before meeting back up in Chicago to await out the results. Senator John McCain set to vote next hour in Phoenix, Arizona, then it's back to two battleground states for some last- minute campaigning. He'll watch the returns in Phoenix tonight with his running mate, Governor Sarah Palin. She has just returned to Alaska to cast her own vote.
The best political team on television is keeping an eye on the polls and the candidates. CNN's Ed Henry monitoring McCain's every move. We begin with Ed Henry at the McCain headquarters, in fact, in the Phoenix. So, Ed, where does the McCain camp hope to gain some ground today?
ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Heidi. There are several pieces to the McCain strategy here on the final day. The first thing, most importantly, they have to do, is to try and hold as many of those red republican states that George W. Bush carried in 2004. We're talking about Virginia, North Carolina, Florida where John McCain started his marathon day yesterday in Florida and Tampa, then carried his way throughout the country and ended right here in Arizona in the wee hours of the morning. A very large rally in Prescott, Arizona. That's very significant. He's been there before for his other senate campaigns, also where Barry Goldwater launched his presidential campaign. And in fact, John McCain tonight will be in the Barry Goldwater suite here at the Arizona Builtmore Hotel where John McCain got married to Cindy McCain many years ago.
So some emotional significance here but in terms of the strategy, holding on to the republican states first. If they can do that, McCain advisors believe they can come up about 260 electoral votes, about ten short of the magic number of 270. Then they either need to do one of two things. They need to win Pennsylvania, a state that republicans have not carried since 1988. So it's a very difficult battle there. That got 21 electoral votes and would put him over the top if he held those red states. And then secondly, if they fail in Pennsylvania, they want to sort of try and hobble together some smaller electoral votes states out here in the mountain west. That's why he's going to Colorado and New Mexico today. A break from tradition for John McCain, usually stating here at the builtmore, resting, watching returns for his Senate races today. He's going right back out on the stump in Colorado in Grand Junction and trying to turn out the vote and then he is going to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to try to go to one of these call centers where he's got his volunteers trying to get people to the polls. Heidi.
COLLINS: Yes. I was just wondering, though, Ed, John McCain as we know is going to deliver his speech from the Builtmore Hotel there in Phoenix, other than being a lovely place with some great golf, what is the significance for the senator there.
HENRY: Well, it's interesting. As I mentioned, he got married here to Cindy and also he spent previous election nights here and they've been working all night. I can tell you because they woke me up a few times with the hammering the nails, putting together the platforms for him. He's going to be in a square in the back of the hotel, kind of a very pretty setting with the mountains in the background. And that's where he'll give either a victory or concession speech. It's a very emotional time for him. We saw at that early morning rally here in Arizona, both John and Cindy McCain got emotional, sort of caught themselves, and kind of choked with emotion. Because this is sort of obviously end of a chapter in his political career. He's either going to win in very dramatic fashion, go on to the White House or he's going to have to figure out his next move going back to the Senate. He's got two more years on his current senate term. And if he lost, he would suffer the fate of Barry Goldwater. You know, and John McCain has joked about that before, that Arizona may be one of the only states where young boys and girls are told they can't grow up to be president. He sort of joked about that in the past. But obviously it would be very bitter sweet if for the second time he failed to grab the White House. Of course, he ran in 2000. Heidi.
COLLINS: All right. CNN's Ed Henry. We sure do appreciate that. From Phoenix this morning. Thank you, Ed.
Well, as we said, Barack Obama is back on the trail after voting. He's got a couple of events today. But he'll close it out in his home city, Chicago, a live picture there. A massive rally plant for Grant Park tonight. Chicago's mayor says they could have one million people there.
Keeping an eye on the process. CNN is the only network to set up a voter hotline in order to take your calls. That means you can tell us where you're seeing voting problems. CNN's Carol Costello is live in New York for us this morning. One of the people who is tracking the voter hotline. I know you've been getting an awful lot of calls.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 5,000 so far, Heidi. 5,000 calls this morning. You want to hear a really strange problem they're having in parts of Virginia and North Carolina. Here it is, it has to do with mother nature. In parts of Virginia and North Carolina was really raining hard this morning. And voters were standing in line for up to two hours. And they got completely soaked. When they got into the polling station, they got a hold of those paper ballots and they became soggy. That means the optical scan machines could not take the paper ballots. So poll workers were asking voters to put their ballots in this big bin until they could dry out and then put them in their optical scan machines and their voyes would count presumably. But what a strange problem.
COLLINS: No kidding.
COSTELLO: I know. Here's another problem people in North Carolina are having. Listen.
The polling center at Barwell Community Center doesn't even have ballots. They opened up at 6:30 this morning. So there was no ballots at Barwell Community center in Raleigh, North Carolina.
COSTELLO: You know, Heidi, we heard a lot of this kind of problem, and we figure it was because the polling stations were just opening up this morning and that's when the bulk of the problems would occur. Not only with not having enough ballots, but with machines breaking down and people on the way to fix them. Hopefully poll workers are now ironing out those problems and they'll start to settle down now.
COLLINS: Yes. We hope so. All right. And we know you'll stay on top of all those phone calls. Are you answering the phone yourself, Carol?
COSTELLO: I am. I've been so busy. I mean I'm tired just like --
COLLINS: You're going to watch that tennis elbow.
COLLINS: Carol Costello, sure do appreciate it.
And we do also want to hear from you. If you run into problems at the polls, call the CNN voter hotline. Help us track the problems that we will report the trouble in real time before you. Once again, that number 1-877-462-6608. We are keeping them honest all through out the election and beyond.
COLLINS: CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano standing by with the election day forecast. All right. So there's a couple of trouble spots. But kind of wouldn't you say overall it seems to be a relatively nice day?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN, METEOROLOGIST: Yes, not too bad. We do have some spots that we want to highlight where the folks who are already at the polls or heading that way know it's pretty miserable. Boston, New York, a lot of the major metropolitan areas in the east coast, back all the way down to Philly. Not going to be a problem today. So fairly comfortable today as well in 40s and 50s. Actually, climbing into the 60s in parts of upstate New York. So, there you go there. Not an issue. But you go south of the Mason Dixon and we start to see some problems, Richmond back through Hampton Roads, and through Raleigh, down through extreme parts of northeast South Carolina, some rain. But most of the heavy rain is out here. This is a coastal low that is taking its sweet time going over towards Del Marva and obviously throwing some moisture in here. So this is kind of a gloomy day with the umbrella necessary, especially in the eastern parts of Virginia.
Meanwhile, the snow shovels and the parkas necessary out west. You go west of the I-10 or the continental divide, we got winter storm warnings that are posted anywhere from six inches to 24 inches through the Wasatch of Utah potentially with this storm system. Places like Chicago, let's take a look there, not a problem at all. Temperatures right now in the upper 50s.
COLLINS: Beautiful.
MARCIANO: There it is. The Magnificent Mile, and the bridge over the river and the buses flowing nicely. And the sun shining.
COLLINS: Wow. Are you going to sing?
MARCIANO:: It did sound kind of sing song, but no. Maybe god bless America. Should we have a little kumbaya?
COLLINS: Yes, we'll probably -
MARCIANO: No.
COLLINS: We keep the viewers right where they are.
MARCIANO: Seventy-ish for a high and Chicago should be all right.
COLLINS: Gorgeous.
MARCIANO:: Meanwhile pretty nasty from Seattle back to San Francisco. That's where we see rain and the higher elevation snow. But this time of year out west north of San Fran, especially this is kind of what they get. So I think the folks can handle it no problem.
COLLINS: All right. Rob, we'll check back later on.
MARCIANO: Sounds good.
COLLINS: Thank you.
MARCIANO: All right.
COLLINS: We're watching more than the presidential race though today. The entire House of Representatives up for re-election of course and maybe more importantly, 1/3 of the Senate. CNN's Jim Acosta joining us live from New York with more on the balance of power.
Yes, we really do seem to focus so much on the presidential election when this whole other issue is potentially even more important, as important for sure.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. You're talking about singing a song with Rob Marciano, the republicans are probably singing "Under Pressure" right now.
COLLINS: Under pressure.
ACOSTA: That is it because they're seriously under pressure on this election day. And that is because this could be a map-changing election, not just for Barack Obama but for democrats down ballot. And let's show you the balance of power right now as it stands right now in the congress. In the house it is right now 236 for the democrats, 199 for the republicans. Those are the seats held by either party. And then in the senate, a slim march majority, 51 for the democrats and 49 for the republicans. That is a slimmer majority there. But check these out. These are the seats that the democrats think they can pick up, six to nine seats in the Senate. If they get nine, they get the magic number of 60, that is a filibuster-proof majority.
In the House they're looking at this, 25 to 30 seats. That would be a huge gain of seats for the democratic party in the Congress. Now, why is all of this happening? Well, you have to look at the individual races, and let's start in Virginia. It's a good place to start because Mark Warner, the former governor of Virginia running against the former governor Jim Gilmore. He showed democrats several years ago when he won the governor's race in Virginia how democrats can win in the south. And Barack Obama has picked up that blueprint and run with it. Mark Warner heavily favored to win I the state of Virginia.
Alaska, Ted Stevens has a small problem on his hands. He has a felony conviction on his record. That is favoring his opponent, Mark Begich, the mayor of Anchorage who is popular in that state. The polls show he is now leading in that race against Ted Stevens. Let's move to Georgia, Saxby Chambliss, if this is a bad night for the republicans, key in on this race, Saxby Chambliss could be knocked out by a veteran of the State house there, Jim Martin if there's a high African-American turnout. But right now Saxby Chambliss leading in the polls.
Moving on to North Carolina. This is a race a lot of people are watching Elizabeth Dole, the wife of the former presidential candidate and a former cabinet member herself. She ran an ad that was very controversial in the final days of this campaign, accusing Kay Hogan of essentially being an atheist. That ad may have backfired according to political analysts in North Carolina. And Kay Hagan, a state senator there may knock Elizabeth Dole out of the United States Senate which would be a huge upset. And of course, my favorite race in Minnesota, I'm going to wrap it up here because they're asking me to. Norm Coleman, the incumbent republican versus Al Franken. Heidi, if a comedian can win a seat in the United States Senate, there's hope for all of us. And with that, I give it all back to you.
COLLINS: That's my home state, my friend.
There you ago. We are watching closely.
ACOSTA: We shall see.
COLLINS: All right. Thanks so much, Jim Acosta, appreciate that.
ACOSTA: You bet.
COLLINS: We have live reports from three battleground states, coming your way, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: The presidential race, 21 months of campaigning, countless cities and towns, today all of it could hinge on voters in the battleground states. We have reporters in those swing states. CNN's Joe Johns is in Virginia. In Tallahassee, Florida, we have Sean Callebs and Mary Snow is in Columbus, Ohio. Let's begin in Ohio. CNN's Mary Snow at one of the polling places in the capital city of Columbus. Hello again, Mary.
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Heidi. We're in West Columbus and there is no long line here right now. That is because many people think of the early voting here in Ohio. People were able to take advantage of early voting beginning September 30th up until yesterday. As you may have remembered, there were very long lines. There are some today scattered throughout Ohio. One of the things that is making headlines, though, is Ohio's voting system is being put to the test. Here in Columbus, people are using touch screens to cast their ballots. Other places will be using paper ballots. People are being given a choice. This is Ohio has taken many measures to correct what happened in 2004 when there were so many problems and the nation waited on Ohio for its late results. Officials are hoping that that will not be repeated. They're also hoping that the early votes will alleviate some of the lines. This made it more than a million and a half people turned out to cast their ballots early. Heidi.
COLLINS: All right. We are watching all of it. Going to be a very interesting day and a long one, too. Mary Snow, glad you're there. Thank you.
Now let's check in on Virginia where a democrat has not won the presidential vote there since 1964. This year republicans find that streak in jeopardy. Our Joe Johns is in Newport News this morning. Hey there, Joe.
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Heidi. Actually I moved. Right now I'm in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
COLLINS: Got you.
JOHNS: They're all close, in fact. Want you to take a look first of all at the line. What you can't see is it sort of goes all the way around this church, the Mount Olive Baptist Church in Virginia Beach. And there have been through out this day probably about 400 people in that line extending right up inside the building. I talked to somebody right at the front a little while ago said it had taken her about an hour to get in. And that is par for the course. Now what's interesting here and why we're here is because Mount Olive had some problems this morning. Polls were supposed to open, 6:00 Eastern time. This poll didn't. That's because the poll chief wasn't here. He had all the equipment and ballots and so on that you need to actually get up and rolling for voting day. They had to bring somebody in. They actually brought in one of the officials of the Virginia Beach election board who sort of walked them through the process, got them up and running over a period of time. But it was very slow. And these are the kinds of things we're looking for. We got calls into the CNN hotline from people saying there were problems, and we came to check it out. This is what we found. We're talking about human error here as one person put it. No high jinx. The big story of course right now is turnout. The official I talked to with the Virginia Beach board of elections says turnout is off the chart, Heidi.
COLLINS: Wow. All right. We'll stay on top of this one, too, alongside you. Thanks so much, Joe Johns.
I want to move on to Florida now. A crowned jewel among the battleground states, of course. Our Sean Callebs, our own crown jewel is in Tallahassee for us this morning. Hey there, Sean.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, the emerald eyes of Heidi. Thanks very much. 27 electoral votes up for grabs here in Florida. We're in the capital, Tallahassee. You know, we're not seeing long lines, kind of like what Mary is saying in Ohio. Well, the reason was so many people turned out and voted early, 4.4 million out of 11.2 million registered voters. Going to step out of the way and show you people kind of trickling in, trickling out. People come right up, they make their way in and they vote. You see in the foreground that little white placard. That marks 100 feet. We're not allowed to go within that as journalists. We have to stand back and speak with voters as they come out.
A lot of students in this area. And kind of interesting, there was an article in the "Orlando Sentinel" last week. They did an exhaustive study, Heidi, of people who are voting, the early voters. African-Americans make up 13 percent of the population here in the state but voters but the "Sentinel" had a great article and pointed out that so far blacks have made up about 22 percent of the early votes. So tremendous amount of interest. I want to point over this way just a second, too.
Right across the street from the state capitol, the significance here everyone remembers the voting irregularities back in 2000. Well, the Secretary of State's office is up and running. They told us out of 6,000 and some odd polling precincts that are out there, they had a problem at exactly two. One, the locks were actually changed on a building. So when people got up there, they couldn't open the door. Secondly, in Palm Beach, a poll worker was inside doing paperwork when the doors should have been open. So there were some people out there waiting and if you look at some lines, we have down at Palm Beach County. you can see not huge lines, not the kind of things we have seen in the two weeks leading up to today, November 4th, but people still waiting, waiting patiently. They expect a huge turnout here today. And one more reason to watch this exciting battleground state throughout the day, Heidi.
COLLINS: Yes. Definitely. Sean Callebs, sure do appreciate it. We'll check back with you a little bit later on.
Meanwhile voters going to the polls and sending us i-reports. They're pretty good, too. What they're seeing and what they're saying.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: If you happen to be in the middle of Manhattan, you can keep up with every election day moment. Just look up, CNN is coming to you right there on the Jumbotron right there in Time Square.
Now to Obama headquarters in Chicago. CNN's Don Lemon is there following all of the events. You have a beautiful day where you are.
DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, my gosh, Heidi. It's amazing. You know that moving to Atlanta from Chicago, it's really unbelievable to see the city like this. I've been documenting it all on my own little camera. You wouldn't believe the excitement in this city. Heidi, last night, we got in yesterday. And last night people were out and about and excited and walking around Grant Park. I just want to show you a little bit of the setup here. So people at home can get an idea. Right to this -- this is part of our setup here for CNN where all the media is lined up. That's the stage with all of those flags that Obama is going to walk out on and address the crowd. They've been setting that up and setting up the teleprompter and what have you. As we come around here, you can see the beautiful part of the skyline. That's just part of the skyline of Chicago in the background here, beautiful buildings, working on them, lots of high- rises here. And all these porta potties that are set up around this area, Grant Park. This Grant Park, they call it Chicago's front yard because it is so beautiful.
And just outside of all this, you've got the aquarium, you've got the museum, you've got every single beautiful attraction that you want in the city. I'm going to walk this way and then show you the media is stet set up over on this side. This is part of the whole setup here in Chicago. Btu again, it's a beautiful setup. And people here are excited. As I said, we came in last night. People were walking around Grant Park and walking around the city awaiting this event. 70,000 tickets at least were given out to come here. But the mayor says he's not going to stop anyone from coming down. They're expecting about a million people to show up here at Grant Park sometime this evening and starting earlier today. It's tough to get in. It was even tough for me to get in.
Earlier, Heidi, you guys showed pictures of Barack Obama voting at Hyde Park at the Beulah Shoesmith Elementary School, a historic elementary school in Hyde Park. He voted there this morning with his wife, Michelle and his daughters Sasha and Malia. Both by his side this morning. So it's very interesting, coming off the campaign trail last night as you have been reportion, we have been reporting as well, we saw Barack Obama shedding a tear and at least wiping his face with a handkerchief there because his grandmother, Madeline Dunham, 86 years old, died of cancer. So it's a very interesting day for him. Bitter sweet in a way. One more day that she didn't hang on to see him possibly, possibly elected president.
COLLINS: Well, that is a very, very sad note to all of this. Our condolences certainly go out to him. I know she was very, very important to him in his life.
Let me ask you, though, what he is going to be doing this afternoon. As you mentioned, we did see him vote already, early this morning. So what's next?
LEMON: OK. Interesting. He has a tradition, every single election day, every time he's been elected, he plays basketball with his buddies, right. So part of the reason I came here to Chicago was to do stories on people, the people who were proud of him, part of his inner circle. I didn't know it was going to turn out to be a big deal. So they told me where he's going to be playing basketball. I called one of his friends and said I'm going to interview you tomorrow, what are you guys doing? They didn't expect him to show up, right.
So they said it's going to be one of two places, Don, and now I'm trying to get his buddy back on the phone and I can't get him. So you know, he doesn't want to tell me but he plays basketball with - I'm sure he's watching. Alexi Giannoulias who is the Treasurer, Illinois Treasurer. He's going to be playing basketball with him and also the head of Chicago Public Schools as well Arnie Duncan, and some other of his buddies that he has a tradition, an election day tradition with. But he plays with them all the time.
COLLINS: Well, I don't know Don, I mean, maybe they're a little intimidated by you. Maybe they don't understand that you don't want to play, you just want to watch them play. Either they're afraid.
LEMON: I can't play. I'm not a good basketball player. So Obama wouldn't want me on his team though. There you go.
COLLINS: All right. Don Lemon, thanks so much coming to us live from Chicago. Appreciate that.
LEMON: All right. Heidi.
COLLINS: If you're standing in line to vote today, you might be right next to somebody speaking live to CNN. Our Josh Levs is checking in with CNN i-reporters as they go to the polls to speak with supporters of both John McCain and Barack Obama. Hey there, Josh. JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We've got it all, Heidi. We're hearing from supporters of both men. Take a look at this page behind me. Let's zoom in for a second. From I-report.com, they're just rushing into us every couple of minutes. Forget couple of minutes, we're getting a few every minute. I want to show you a couple new ones really quickly. Take a look at this. Burroughs Elementary School. This comes from Karen (inaudible) showing us the long lines there. This is interesting, from (Sahara Bern) New York, look how she voted, the older system. Interesting stuff from our I- reporters.
We've been following a lot of I-reporters throughout all this including Chuck Burkhard who is a McCain supporter in Windber, Pennsylvania.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHUCK BURKHARD, WINDBER, PENNSYLVANIA: I'd like to encourage those that are going to vote this year to vote based on the candidate's policies, agenda and even their voting record in the senate. Not by the propaganda that you're getting in your e-mails.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: Chuck is on the line with us right now. Chuck, are you with us? Chuck are you here.
BURKHARD: Yes, I am.
LEVS: Hey listen. So you told me that you went and voted today. Tell us a little bit about how you made this decision that you wanted to vote for John McCain.
BURKHARD: Well I made the decision based on issues, not, you know, like I said in the I-report, propaganda or negativity or anything like that. And the issues I support are the tax breaks across the board for everybody, not just one class. Energy independence, he's more aggressive in that end. Also, he's pro life.
LEVS: This is interesting. Really quickly you told me that your wife, you're not sure how she's going to vote today.
BURKHARD: No, it's kind of odd. She's undecided. And I find that odd you know that she's undecided this late in the game. But you know she's a smart woman. I love her. She's going to make her decision based on her feelings and she'll do the right thing for herself.
LEVS: I understand. Thanks for joining us. We're going to follow you and find out how that works out for both of you. And folks, we've also been following this Obama supporter in Cincinnati, Ohio.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KHRYS STYLES, CINCINNATI: One of the things that are most important to me right now is health care. My dad is retired, all of his benefits seem to be going down the drain. I don't know what he did in all the years building up to it. I need something to ensure that my dad is going to be taken care of.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: Chris Styles join us now. Chris, are you with us?
STYLES: I am.
LEVS: I understand you're actually at the polling site right now waiting to go cast your ballot.
STYLES: Yes. I actually just finished.
LEVS: Oh you did, ok congratulations. We know how you voted. You voted for Barack Obama, right?
STYLES: But of course, but of course.
LEVS: We were just hearing from a McCain supporter. Tell me why did you choose Barack Obama?
STYLES: I chose Barack Obama because he is the first candidate that I've ever actually been able to listen to and understand what he was saying. I got from him compassion and he was genuinely, in my opinion, genuinely concerned about our country and what happens. I don't feel like he's all show. And he was just a real American to me. That's why he's getting my vote.
LEVS: Chris, really quickly. You told me that as you were walking into the polling site today, it's such a heavily democratic area, but there were people outside far enough away from the site encouraging everyone to vote democratic. You didn't see anyone even bothering to say please vote republican, right?
STYLES: No, I did not.
LEVS: Heavily democratic precinct you're saying. Listen, thank you so much for joining us. Folks we encourage you, send us your videos, photos, stories today, ireport.com. Keep in mind that in some states it's illegal to bring cameras inside polling places. You can't always do that. Heidi, later this morning we'll be speaking with some more i-Reporters.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: I know we will, they are all over the place, aren't they?
LEVS: Literally everywhere. Every state in the entire country we've got iReporters right now.
COLLINS: All right, very good Josh, we'll check back a little bit later on.
We do want to hear what you're saying and see what you are doing this Election Day 2008. As you go to the polls, share your voting experiences with CNN. Send us your iReports, go to ireport.com. We just might take you on air.
To this story now, a bull ready for slaughter, an African village ready to celebrate. We're talking about Kogelo, Kenya, it's the hometown of Barack Obama's father. CNN's David McKenzie is there. Good morning to you David.
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONENT: Good morning, Heidi. That's right. I'm right in Kogelo. Though the sun has pretty much set here in the remote part of western Kenya. Right behind me is Barack Obama's grandmother's house, Sara Obama. Right next to me over here is his half brother's house, over there there's an extended family they're watching a TV that is hooked up to a car battery trying to see the results come in. This is really Obama country, and as you say, they've prepared a bull. I guess that bull Heidi is the only real supporter of McCain. Should Obama win, they will slaughter it and have a big feast here in Kogelo. Heidi?
COLLINS: All right, a very interesting perspective there. We will keep an eye on that side of the story as well. David McKenzie, nice to see you. Thanks.
Did you happen to have any problems at the polls? Our voter hotline center is taking your calls. We've got an update coming shortly.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: A pretty cool shot there of Times Square, New York City, we are on the jumbotron today so you can track everything that's happening this very important Election Day, 2008. In fact, we're looking at what could be a record Election Day turnout. People are standing in line in the rain in some places for the chance to vote. Polls are open across the continental United States now. Alaska gets going in about half an hour. Hawaii voters have until noon eastern.
The candidates are voting and then hitting the campaign trail one last time. Senator Barack Obama getting ready for a rally in Indianapolis after casting his ballot in Chicago earlier today. Senator John McCain is about to vote in Phoenix. Then he is off to two battleground states. Obama's running mate, Joe Biden, voted in Wilmington, Delaware, the two meet up in Chicago to wait for the return. McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, she votes next hour, and that will be in Alaska. Then she will join McCain in Phoenix as the votes are counted. Expect a record turnout. We keep talking about it. It could lead to potential problems though for voters. CNN is in fact the only network to set up a hotline so you can call in with problems and concerns.
As you might imagine, we've gotten a lot of calls so far this morning. CNN's Carol Costello is handling every single one of them by herself and is going to keep this thing on track. Carol, what have you had, 5,000 calls, right?
CAROL COSTELLO: Yes, 5,000 calls and I'm an amazing multi- tasker, because I am female. So I can handle it. We have an interactive map that tells viewers where the most problem calls are coming from. Right now it's New York state, New Jersey and Virginia is having a lot of problems. Florida is actually third now. I take it back. New Jersey is after Florida now. But I told you the problem with the rain in parts of Virginia, Chesapeake, Virginia, voters are standing in the rain, getting wet, going into the polling place, they're getting their ballots wet, and the optical scan machine won't take the ballots. Well, poll workers now say voters are required to dry themselves off --
COLLINS: There's an idea. It's brilliant.
COSTELLO: Brilliant, brilliant. I want to read you a problem we're just getting in from West Palm Beach, Florida. Florida's Palm Beach County is reporting problems at a couple of polling stations with so-called under votes where machines reject ballots because voters are not filling out the second page of the ballot, and that page contains proposed amendments to the Florida constitution. Apparently if you don't fill that page out, your vote is rejected. So they send you back in. You have to fill out that second page. Be sure to do that so your vote counts in Florida.
COLLINS: Yep, we've heard a little bit about that this morning, definitely. All right, CNN's Carol Costello trying to keep the entire thing on track for us single handedly.
COSTELLO: Dry yourself off.
COLLINS: I mean I'm thinking paper towels. Carol, thank you.
As we said, we are the only network with a voter hotline center today. So go ahead and call us if you have any trouble at the polls. And then we will tell the story. That number, 1-877-462-6608. That's a little bit easier if you remember gocnn08. 877 being the key there. We are keeping them honest all the way through the election and beyond.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COLLINS: Too young to vote, but old enough to cover the candidates. Two reporters from Scholastic Kid talk about their time on the campaign trail.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: As Americans across the country head to the polls, investors want to know what the outcome will mean for Wall Street. Some hard numbers show the stock market is pretty good at forecasting election winners. But Kevin Winters tell us what will happen to the market. That's the big question. Susan Lisovicz on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange this morning. And boy those numbers right there, the Dow up 240. We like the looks of that.
SUSAN LISOVICZ: Yeah, a lot of red, white, blue and green, green arrows today on this Election Day. Very nice. You know the S&P 500 though has been a remarkable indicator of who or which party will actually win the presidency. Going back to 1928, it's been 80 percent accurate in that if the S&P 500 is up in the three months leading up to Election Day, the incumbent or the incumbent party will win. If it's down, it's just the reverse. I think you know what the case is this year, the broadest of the three major averages, the S&P 500 is down about 24 percent going into voting day. No matter which party, Wall Street just wants a winner, wants to end the uncertainty and hopefully we'll get it by the end of this long, long day. We've got a lot of winners in Wall Street though. One hour and 15 minutes into trading. The Dow right now up 245 points. The NASDAQ is up 41 Heidi.
COLLINS: All right. CNN's Susan Lisovicz, we sure do appreciate that. We'll keep our eye on those triple digits. Like the looks of it so far. Thank you.
LISOVICZ: You're welcome.
COLLINS: We are also keeping our eye on something else. This is pretty good too. Want to take you back to New York City now. Right there in Times Square -- if you've ever been there, you're probably going to recognize this guy. Not only Richard Roth who is standing by, but Richard, I know you had a very, very special guest today on this Election Day.
RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, accent around the word special. I'm here with Robert Burke, someone who has voted. He's the naked cowboy found in times square, major tourist attraction here. Who did you vote for?
RICHARD BURKE: John McCain.
ROTH: How come?
BURKE: Well, just a very obvious fact that he would have more experience being that he's older and wiser.
ROTH: Can we hear that you're truly the naked cowboy?
BURKE: I'm the naked cowboy, you got to do what you got to do.
ROTH: I'm a long way from the United Nations. What is McCain's position on nudity in times square?
BURKE: He's all for it. He's all for capitalistic, entrepreneurial spirit, all that type of stuff.
ROTH: What is your sense though, you get a lot of international tourists here. The feeling is around the world it's Obama who they want. Have you engaged with people about the elections who come here and stick dollars in your underwear?
BURKE: In the last couple of days I have just because obviously a high point in communication, period, but I would say, no.
ROTH: You've got McCain, Palin here, where is it on your clothing at all?
BURKE: No, I've got a button. My father is wearing seven of them right now, Cincinnati. He's at the campaign -- that's another thing, the kind of people that are going to -- the people that will vote for McCain are people like my father who are literally at the election booth from 6:00 to 10:00 at night. The people that would vote for Obama might show up but they're not doing that kind of intensity. With the numbers so even, the psychological tendency to go for a sense of security, people will go for McCain. It will be a landslide, McCain.
ROTH: I don't know about that cowboy. I would say you can bet the shirt off your back. But it's already off your back. Thank you, it's Robert Burke, the naked cowboy. I'm Richard Roth, fully clothed here in times square. Heidi, back to you.
COLLINS: It's not often I'm speechless, Richard. I sure do appreciate that. We wanted to hear some more music from him. We only just heard that little itty bitty ditty there. Are we going to hear any more? No more.
ROTH: No, I didn't --
COLLINS: He can't play us out, huh?
BURKE: Say that again?
ROTH: No, there's no special campaign song he has.
BURKE: America --
COLLINS: All right, guys, we sure do appreciate it. Once again, Richard Roth, very far from the UN that's for sure. Richard thanks so much. Live from New York City's times square. We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: The presidential race and the battleground states that could decide the outcome. We have reporters in those swing states. CNN's Ted Rowlands is in Henderson, Nevada. In Philadelphia, Brian Todd and Dan Simon is in Aurora, Colorado. We have CNN crews all over the country and specifically focusing on those battleground states. Let's begin in Colorado. Dan Simon is standing by now in Aurora. Good morning to you once again there Dan.
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi. We are inside a high school library, Ridge View High School. What do you think of when you think of libraries? They're usually quiet, right?
COLLINS: Yeah.
SIMON: Well, that is the case today in this polling place. We are not seeing any lines at the moment. The reason why we think this is, is because early voting was such a success in the state of Colorado. About half of Colorado voters have already cast their ballots. We have some poll watchers here, Juanita, you guys are making sure that everything is ok. What do you make of the fact that there aren't any lines?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I think it's because of the early voting and people are working right now, but during lunch and when they get off, I think we'll have more people turning out.
SIMON: It's 9:00 local time here, just before 9:00, so maybe in a couple hours, lunch time, we'll be seeing some more lines. But, again, Heidi, you had half of the people in Colorado already vote. So not a bad problem to have. This is really what they wanted. They wanted to see short lines here in the state of Colorado. So we'll be keeping an eye on things here and get back to you if things change.
COLLINS: Yeah, a very important state this time around, certainly. Dan Simon, thank you.
Pennsylvania, also one of those key battleground states. Voters there saw a lot of the candidates over the last few frantic days and now it's time to see if all that stumping paid off. CNN's Brian Todd joining us live from a polling place in Philadelphia this morning. Hi, Brian.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi. This place is a real study in contrast. As you mentioned, the state of Pennsylvania has no early voting so they're worried about long lines here. But again, check this out. No lines right at the moment at this polling station in the Overbrook Library. You can see right back there people are getting processed right through, going straight to the voting booth. We just talked to one voter who said it took a total of about two minutes for him to vote. The contrast for that, was not too long ago this morning, about two hours ago, maybe three hours ago, just after the polling station opened the line snaked out this door, down one street and then way down another street, hundreds of people in line here, really were just waiting very patiently. The Pennsylvania state authorities here telling people to try to avoid those peak hours between 7:00 and 9:00 a.m. and also after 3:00 p.m. Clearly a lull right now but they're going to be monitoring the 3:00 p.m. and onward period to see if people are going to be coming in droves again.
COLLINS: Oh sure, understood. All right, Brian Todd, thanks for that. Republican John McCain predicting an upset win in the swing state of Nevada. CNN's Ted Rowlands is joining us now from Henderson. Hi there Ted.
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey Heidi, more of the same here in Nevada polls have been open for just about an hour as you can see behind me. We're in a high school in Henderson, Nevada. It has been steady throughout the morning, but not a lot of folks here right now. 46 percent of the folks here in Nevada have voted during the two-week period of early voting but they are expecting an astounding 80 percent plus turnout for the state of Nevada. So they are bracing for problems later today if they come up. Clark County officials say that they have enough people though for the after-work rush. Bottom line here, you mentioned it, Nevada is a battleground state. In all of those scenarios, there's one that it could come down to Nevada as polls close across the country. People well aware of it here and excited. We talked to a lot of people who voted with smiles on their faces today. Right now no problems, just excitement in Nevada. Heidi?
COLLINS: Hey, very good. We like the no problems thing. Maybe we'll come back to you more often. Ted Rowlands, thanks so much.
Election Day 2008, stay with us all day for the voting and all night for the results. The best political team on television plays here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: On the trail with kid correspondents. Scholastic.com had its own army of reporters covering the campaigns. Earlier we talked to a couple of them about their experiences and excitement on the election. Check it out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELIZABETH CONWAY, SCHOLASTIC KID REPORTER: Today is a historic election because no matter who wins, history will be made with either our country's first African-American president or our first woman vice president. So I'm very excited for this tonight, to find out who wins. It's really just -- it's just waiting now.
COLLINS: Yeah, Jacob, did get any sleep last night?
JACOB SCHROEDER, SCHOLASTIC KID REPORTER: Yes.
COLLINS: You did, do you think you'll get any tonight?
SCHROEDER: Probably, I hope.
COLLINS: Let me just ask you, when you look back over this very long electoral season, we've pretty much been covering it for about two years if you will. I know you guys have been out there. You've talked to a lot of the candidates. You've really played a role. Jacob, what have you learned about this system in general that maybe surprised you?
SCHROEDER: Well, I was surprised to learn that the electoral college officially elects the president and that New Mexico is a battleground state and how important a battleground state can be to this election.
COLLINS: Yeah. It can really upset the whole apple cart, can't it?
SCHROEDER: Yeah.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: It doesn't get any cuter than that. I'm Heidi Collins, join us again tomorrow morning beginning at 9:00 a.m. eastern. For now the CNN NEWSROOM continues with Tony Harris.
