Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Presidential Election Still Not Decided Yet, With Three States Yet to be Called

Aired November 03, 2004 - 08:33   ET

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

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


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. We're going to get right back to Bill in New York in just a few moments.
The presidential election still not decided yet. Three states have yet to be called, New Mexico, Iowa and Ohio. It's Ohio, though, and its 20 electoral votes which will put either George Bush or John Kerry over the top. Right now, it is too close to call. President Bush is leading, though, by 145,000 votes. But at least 135,000 provisional ballots have not yet been counted, and the counting doesn't even begin until tomorrow. The Kerry camp says there is as many as a quarter million outstanding provisional ballots. Those numbers are being tallied. CNN projects 254 electoral votes for President Bush, 252 for Senator Kerry. 270 are needed to win. The Republicans are confident that President Bush has been re-elected.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARC RACICOT, BUSH CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN: We believe that we have won the state of Ohio, and that we've won the Electoral College with at least 286 votes. The president has received, we know for a fact, the highest number of popular votes ever for any president who's ever been elected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Mark Racicot, counting New Mexico, Iowa and Ohio in the president's corner. President Bush did much better than expected in the popular vote. He leads by about 3.5 million votes, and his party made strong gains in Congress, taking over five formerly Democratic seats in the Senate.

Barack Obama's victory over Republican Alan Keyes in Illinois is more coronation than election. The outcome of their U.S. Senate race really as never in doubt. The rising Democrat star, now senator- elect, joins us this morning from Chicago.

Nice to see you. Congratulations to you. How're you feeling this morning?

BARACK OBAMA (D), ILLINOIS SENATOR-ELECT: Well, I'm doing great. How are you?

O'BRIEN: I'm doing well, thank you. But no one's calling me senator-elect, and that's what they're calling you. Big change for you. Tell me how it felt when you finally realized officially that the deal was done? OBAMA: Well, it's a huge honor. I am so grateful to the people of Illinois for trusting me with this enormous responsibility, and after I get a little sleep and thank the voters and take my wife and kids out for some fun, then we're going to have to get busy making sure that we set up strong constituent service offices, that we hire up a staff and that I start learning the ropes in Washington.

O'BRIEN: Let's get you to weigh in on what's happening here in Ohio. Essentially it's a numbers game and those numbers are tight. A narrow margin.

What do you think the Kerry campaign should be doing at this time? Some are saying it's over, time to call it's others saying, no, they shouldn't.

OBAMA: Well, you know, I think it makes sense to be prudent, to take time over the next couple of days to just assure not only Democrats, but also Republicans that all of the votes have been counted. And I'm certain that at a point when there's a clear and decisive determination with respect to the existing votes that are out there, that I think that Senator Kerry will make a sound judgment. But I don't anticipate something dragging on for weeks, or being settled in the courts the way it was in 2000. I think this is something that will be determined in the next couple of days as we make sure that all of the votes that are out there are counted effectively.

O'BRIEN: President Bush leading by 3.5 million votes in the popular vote. Give me an explanation for why this is the case? It's shocking many people this morning.

OBAMA: Well, yes, listen, the president has one of the best political teams ever constructed. They ran an extraordinarily effective campaign. I think that people are concerned about the prospect of the war in Iraq, but they're also concerned with whether we should change presidents in the midst of that war, and I think that all those factors have come into play, and the president is to be congratulated for running an outstanding race.

I would give the president or John Kerry, whoever ends up governing for the next four year, the same advice, and that is step back and try to be a little bit humble about the state of their victory, because I don't think that in a 51-49 or 50-50 split that any of us, Democrat or Republican, can take confidence that we have all the answers, and I think it's important for us to be able to work across party lines and build up from the places we agree to, rather than just assume that we can steamroll whichever side is not in power.

O'BRIEN: Before I let you go, I want to ask you about something you told me when we chatted when we were in Chicago. You said your biggest concern right now as you head into the Senate is the impact on your family and how that will change things. Still feel that same way, and what are you going to do about it?

OBAMA: Well, the first thing I'm going to do is take time with them. I'm going to take my weekends back for a couple of months and get home for dinner. But I think that this is a challenge that not only politicians feel, but I think all of us feel, and that is, in our hyper-busy modern life, trying to make sure that we're doing right by our children and that we are savoring what's more precious in our lives, that that's something that we're strategic and intentional about, making sure that happens, and I'm going to do my best to make sure that happens.

O'BRIEN: Senator-elect Barack Obama joining us this morning. Congratulations to you, and thanks for being with us.

OBAMA: Thank you so much, Soledad -- Bill.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Soledad, getting news from Kelly Wallace. She's with the Kerry campaign up in Boston. Kelly tells us that there is a campaign staff meeting under way, and apparently aides are telling her an update of some sort will come out at 10:00 Eastern Time. Kelly reported that about 40 minutes ago. But the other material about talking to folks in Ohio, the experts, et cetera, this morning. So as soon as we get more regarding the Kerry campaign, its strategy and plans, we'll certainly pass it along to you.

Also want to get to Florida. Doubts and deja vu caused a lot of concern that voting problems from 2000 would resurface again this year. It appears to have gone quite well.

Back to Gary Tuchman in Palm Beach Gardens this morning.

Gary, is that a correct read there in the state of Florida this time?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly -- Bill, certainly quite well for George W. Bush, not so well for John Kerry, if you look tat that way. It's fair to say, though, that the Sunshine State has beamed its rays twice in a row for George W. Bush. This time much more decisively. There was a huge turnout. We know that now. We were talking about that yesterday before the voting started. We expected it. There was long lines from here in Palm Beach County to Miami-Dade County in the south, to Duval County, the home of Jacksonville in the north, to Pensacola, Escambia County in the west. Lots of people turning out.

Most people, a lot of observers thought that would benefit the Democratic candidate. And indeed, John Kerry got a lot more votes than Al Gore got in the year 2000. He got 547,000 more votes than Al Gore got. However, George W. Bush benefited much more from that big turnout. He got 920,000 more votes in 2004 in the State of Florida than he got in the year 2000. Hence, the big 377,000-vote difference this time around compared to the 537-vote difference in the year 2000.

Case in point, though, here. Kerry had to do well in south Florida. This is a very strong county for him, Palm Beach County. He got 6,000 more votes this time around than Al Gore got in 2000. But once again, George W. Bush did much better. He got 21,000 more votes in Palm Beach County, a strong Democratic county, than he did in the year 2000. And that made an awful big difference. Bill, back to you.

HEMMER: And also right along that I-4 corridor, Gary. We could see the returns coming in around 8:00 last night, and clearly George Bush was getting a higher percentage in those critical counties than he did four years ago.

Gary, thanks. We'll get back to you in a moment, OK? Gary Tuchman in Florida. Here's Heidi now with more.

COLLINS: Some more election headlines, in fact, Bill.

As we've been reporting, the State of Ohio holds the key to the outcome in the presidential election. But in Iowa, some 60,000 requested absentee ballots have not been returned yet. The count there is expected to continue until next week. And results are delayed into other states. Thousands of absentee ballots are still being tallied in New Mexico this hour.

U.S. troops stationed in the Iraqi city of Falluja are seeing a new battle unfold this morning. They're glued to the TV sets watching live coverage of the U.S. presidential election. Military sources say there's a lot of interest in the elections among the troops. Thousands have sent in absentee ballots over the last couple of weeks.

The U.S. Senate's top Democrat has been unseated in South Dakota. Tom Daschle, becoming the first Senate party leader to be voted out of office in 52 years. Republican John Thune will take his place in Congress. Daschle is expected to speak a little bit later on this morning.

And a look at another presidential election halfway around the world. Hamid Karzai can now celebrate victory in Afghanistan after an investigation into possible voting irregularities did not find any major problems. Karzai will be inaugurated for a five-year term later on this month. So, five years there. Only four here, as we all know.

HEMMER: Remember the videotape we all watched yesterday? Gary showed a little bit of it. There's lines that snake around buildings and down city blocks. We're lucky in New York. Took me 10 minutes, in and out.

COLLINS: Ten minutes. In and out. That's the best way (INAUDIBLE).

HEMMER: The long lines we watched yesterday, they're all too familiar to so many. Wait until you hear how long some college students waited to cast their ballots. It went well into the evening, that's a hint. Back in a moment, after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. Here's a look at how the popular vote has fallen out in the election yesterday. Fifty-eight million popular vote for President Bush, 54 million for Senator Kerry. You can see the percentages there, 51 percent to 48 percent. One percent for Ralph Nader.

Around the country, record numbers of voters endured some long lines to cast their votes. But some students in Ohio are saying their wait was longer than most. Some students at Kenyon College stood in like for up to 11 hours.

Sara Kaplow attends Kenyon College. She says she was one of them. Nice to see you. Thanks for being with us. You didn't really get much sleep, then, last night.

SARA KAPLOW, SOPHOMORE, KENYON COLLEGE: Definitely not. About 20 minutes all told.

O'BRIEN: Seven hours -- were you one of the longest waits, or were there others who were waiting even longer?

KAPLOW: There were others who were waiting much, much longer. My roommate was there for 10-and-a-half, and there was another half hour of people behind her. So, 10.5. The longest was about 11. Most got in around 7:00 to 9:00.

O'BRIEN: You're a sophomore. You're 19-years-old. This is the first election that you're voting in. You're from Virginia, though. Why are you voting in Ohio anyway?

KAPLOW: I live here eight months of the year. When they vote on taxes, it affects my tuition. When they, you know, vote on the water rate, it affects my -- how much I'm paying for laundry this week. So, I mean, my car's registered here. And in Virginia my vote would be pretty much canceled out by about 12 different Republicans.

So, you know, I live in Ohio, and so that's where I decided to vote.

O'BRIEN: So, you felt that your vote could make a difference here in Ohio is what you're saying?

KAPLOW: Yes.

O'BRIEN: How do you feel then when you wake up and it's still undecided?

KAPLOW: Well, that was pretty expected. We were all kind of waiting for that. We didn't expect what happened last night to happen, being there for 10 hours. But we pretty much knew that was going to happen. We were prepared for that. We just wanted to do everything that we could.

O'BRIEN: You voted for Senator Kerry.

KAPLOW: Yes.

O'BRIEN: And how are you feeling this morning when you see the numbers that have come out?

KAPLOW: It's a little disheartening. It's a little disappointing...

O'BRIEN: Meaning you think he's lost?

KAPLOW: That's what it seems to be. I mean, they will have to count each and every vote. A bunch of news agencies reporting that polls in Ohio closed at midnight, and I was standing there watching people continue to vote. So, there are some numbers that are going to have to be tabulated, but it's looking like it's going to Bush -- which, you know, again is kind of disappointing for us who were there for hours on end.

O'BRIEN: Is it frustrating for you? I mean, since this is your first election, would it impact if you vote in future elections to have it undecided at this point?

KAPLOW: Absolutely not, actually. We all had a great time, despite the wait. You know, it was kind of bonding. We all made friends with new people and, you know, sat there and ordered pizza to a line. So, it was a really good experience, and we really -- I mean, we did literally everything we could.

And again, the results didn't turn at the way we really wanted, but you can't always have that.

O'BRIEN: It's not a done deal yet.

KAPLOW: I know.

O'BRIEN: Sara Kaplow, a sophomore at Kenyon College, not wearing her jacket this morning. It's a little nippy out here, Sara. All right, go back inside and warm up.

KAPLOW: All right.

O'BRIEN: Let's go back to Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Soledad. Thanks.

In a moment here, the pre-election poll said the race would be tight, and it was to a degree. Where do we go from here, though? Carlos Watson has some heroes on both sides in a moment, when we continue, after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: Question now with the financial markets opening in about 35 minutes from now, how will they react today, and also for the uncertain investor, are there lessons from the 2000 election?

Looking back four years and also looking ahead, he's our guy, Andy Serwer. Good morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: That's it. Good morning, Bill.

Markets are looking for resolution here. Perhaps anticipating a bush victory, stock futures are up sharply this morning. Dow futures up 100 points, that's a six-month high. Markets overseas in Asia and Europe are up. The dollar is stronger. Oil is up as well. There's sabotage going on in Iraq that's been moving that commodity.

As far as 2000, what can we learn? Well, basically, of course, when the election was tied up in 2000, the markets swooned. It was not a good situation at all.

Here's the Dow right after the election. You can see there's a false peak there in early December when it looked like we'd get a resolution. Overall, though, down 10 percent at one point, then overall 5 percent, and then of course the markets continued to go down after that. There is Nasdaq falling even more. Of course there are other events going on, like we're coming down off the bubble.

Another interesting point here is that perhaps priced into the market before the election was the possibility of a tie-up. So now that we, perhaps, don't have a tie-up, the market may wind up rallying over the intermediate term, because traders were so concerned that the markets were going to be tied up with -- that the election would be tied up for weeks and possibly months. If we don't have that, we could be looking at a period over the next couple of weeks and months where stocks go up.

HEMMER: Which goes to your point that you made an hour ago, about trading yesterday, when it looked like, what, the Internet Web sites were predicting it could be too close to call.

SERWER: Yes, right.

HEMMER: There was uncertainty in the markets, and they really dropped off.

SERWER: Stocks tanked, and it now looks like they're going to resolve, if the election is resolved, perhaps even today.

HEMMER: Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

HEMMER: More now with Heidi.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: With the outcome of this election still in limbo, Carlos Watson is here to give an insight in what helped shaped this election, so far anyway.

And, Carlos, you are not in limbo.

CARLOS WATSON, CNN POL. ANALYST: I'm not in limbo.

SERWER: He's tired.

HEMMER: Very tied.

COLLINS: Hey, you know, you say there are some actually heroes, if you will, to point out, on both campaigns. Let's start with the Bush team. WATSON: Well, President Bush, at least three people come to mind right away. One is his brother. Got to thank your brother Jeb Bush, governor of Florida, who this time instead of a cliffhanger, delivered you a pretty solid victory in Florida, maybe by five percentage points when everything is counted. No. 2, you got to thank your brother's son, your nephew, George P. Bush.

COLLINS: Keeping it all in the family.

WATSON: Keeping it all in the family. George P. Bush was one of a number of key surrogates who reached out to the Hispanic community. And we end up believing the exit polls, the president went from getting 35 percent of the Hispanic vote to north of 40 percent, may have made a difference in places like New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Florida. Not bad at all.

COLLINS: What about Karl Rove here?

WATSON: I think Karl Rove, because remember when everyone talked about increased turnout, they thought ultimately would mean good news for Democrats. Karl Rove has long said that he thought that were evangelical Christians may have stayed home in 2000, who he was hoping to get out, looked like it may have worked. So you got give all three of those guys stars, if you will.

COLLINS: OK, now turning to the other side of the fence -- the Kerry team.

WATSON: Really quickly, Kerry was the only one, so far, who seemed to steal a new state, or at least a new state he stole was New Hampshire. I mean, it was a Bush state in 2000. Jean Shaheen (ph), his campaign manager, former governor of New Hampshire, so give him that one. Bill Clinton helped with turnout in Pennsylvania. That was a big win. And then John Kerry himself for winning those three debates, least got him back into the race. And in the end, it may be all for naught, but before that, he was down by high single digits, even double digits in some national polls.

COLLINS: All right, Carlos, thanks for that. We'll work on the limbo in a little bit.

WATSON: I'm definitely going to stay around.

HEMMER: Jack's out today. We're asking viewers whether or not John Kerry should concede. That's the e-mail question of the day in Jack's absence. So hope to get to more next hour at am@CNN.com. Back to Columbus now. Here's Soledad out again out there in Ohio -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: All right, Bill, thanks.

Still to come this morning, in 2,000, the catch phrase was hanging chads. Well, this year it's provisional ballots. And Ohio is at the center of all the attention. A look of that's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. We're right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired November 3, 2004 - 08:33   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. We're going to get right back to Bill in New York in just a few moments.
The presidential election still not decided yet. Three states have yet to be called, New Mexico, Iowa and Ohio. It's Ohio, though, and its 20 electoral votes which will put either George Bush or John Kerry over the top. Right now, it is too close to call. President Bush is leading, though, by 145,000 votes. But at least 135,000 provisional ballots have not yet been counted, and the counting doesn't even begin until tomorrow. The Kerry camp says there is as many as a quarter million outstanding provisional ballots. Those numbers are being tallied. CNN projects 254 electoral votes for President Bush, 252 for Senator Kerry. 270 are needed to win. The Republicans are confident that President Bush has been re-elected.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARC RACICOT, BUSH CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN: We believe that we have won the state of Ohio, and that we've won the Electoral College with at least 286 votes. The president has received, we know for a fact, the highest number of popular votes ever for any president who's ever been elected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Mark Racicot, counting New Mexico, Iowa and Ohio in the president's corner. President Bush did much better than expected in the popular vote. He leads by about 3.5 million votes, and his party made strong gains in Congress, taking over five formerly Democratic seats in the Senate.

Barack Obama's victory over Republican Alan Keyes in Illinois is more coronation than election. The outcome of their U.S. Senate race really as never in doubt. The rising Democrat star, now senator- elect, joins us this morning from Chicago.

Nice to see you. Congratulations to you. How're you feeling this morning?

BARACK OBAMA (D), ILLINOIS SENATOR-ELECT: Well, I'm doing great. How are you?

O'BRIEN: I'm doing well, thank you. But no one's calling me senator-elect, and that's what they're calling you. Big change for you. Tell me how it felt when you finally realized officially that the deal was done? OBAMA: Well, it's a huge honor. I am so grateful to the people of Illinois for trusting me with this enormous responsibility, and after I get a little sleep and thank the voters and take my wife and kids out for some fun, then we're going to have to get busy making sure that we set up strong constituent service offices, that we hire up a staff and that I start learning the ropes in Washington.

O'BRIEN: Let's get you to weigh in on what's happening here in Ohio. Essentially it's a numbers game and those numbers are tight. A narrow margin.

What do you think the Kerry campaign should be doing at this time? Some are saying it's over, time to call it's others saying, no, they shouldn't.

OBAMA: Well, you know, I think it makes sense to be prudent, to take time over the next couple of days to just assure not only Democrats, but also Republicans that all of the votes have been counted. And I'm certain that at a point when there's a clear and decisive determination with respect to the existing votes that are out there, that I think that Senator Kerry will make a sound judgment. But I don't anticipate something dragging on for weeks, or being settled in the courts the way it was in 2000. I think this is something that will be determined in the next couple of days as we make sure that all of the votes that are out there are counted effectively.

O'BRIEN: President Bush leading by 3.5 million votes in the popular vote. Give me an explanation for why this is the case? It's shocking many people this morning.

OBAMA: Well, yes, listen, the president has one of the best political teams ever constructed. They ran an extraordinarily effective campaign. I think that people are concerned about the prospect of the war in Iraq, but they're also concerned with whether we should change presidents in the midst of that war, and I think that all those factors have come into play, and the president is to be congratulated for running an outstanding race.

I would give the president or John Kerry, whoever ends up governing for the next four year, the same advice, and that is step back and try to be a little bit humble about the state of their victory, because I don't think that in a 51-49 or 50-50 split that any of us, Democrat or Republican, can take confidence that we have all the answers, and I think it's important for us to be able to work across party lines and build up from the places we agree to, rather than just assume that we can steamroll whichever side is not in power.

O'BRIEN: Before I let you go, I want to ask you about something you told me when we chatted when we were in Chicago. You said your biggest concern right now as you head into the Senate is the impact on your family and how that will change things. Still feel that same way, and what are you going to do about it?

OBAMA: Well, the first thing I'm going to do is take time with them. I'm going to take my weekends back for a couple of months and get home for dinner. But I think that this is a challenge that not only politicians feel, but I think all of us feel, and that is, in our hyper-busy modern life, trying to make sure that we're doing right by our children and that we are savoring what's more precious in our lives, that that's something that we're strategic and intentional about, making sure that happens, and I'm going to do my best to make sure that happens.

O'BRIEN: Senator-elect Barack Obama joining us this morning. Congratulations to you, and thanks for being with us.

OBAMA: Thank you so much, Soledad -- Bill.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Soledad, getting news from Kelly Wallace. She's with the Kerry campaign up in Boston. Kelly tells us that there is a campaign staff meeting under way, and apparently aides are telling her an update of some sort will come out at 10:00 Eastern Time. Kelly reported that about 40 minutes ago. But the other material about talking to folks in Ohio, the experts, et cetera, this morning. So as soon as we get more regarding the Kerry campaign, its strategy and plans, we'll certainly pass it along to you.

Also want to get to Florida. Doubts and deja vu caused a lot of concern that voting problems from 2000 would resurface again this year. It appears to have gone quite well.

Back to Gary Tuchman in Palm Beach Gardens this morning.

Gary, is that a correct read there in the state of Florida this time?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly -- Bill, certainly quite well for George W. Bush, not so well for John Kerry, if you look tat that way. It's fair to say, though, that the Sunshine State has beamed its rays twice in a row for George W. Bush. This time much more decisively. There was a huge turnout. We know that now. We were talking about that yesterday before the voting started. We expected it. There was long lines from here in Palm Beach County to Miami-Dade County in the south, to Duval County, the home of Jacksonville in the north, to Pensacola, Escambia County in the west. Lots of people turning out.

Most people, a lot of observers thought that would benefit the Democratic candidate. And indeed, John Kerry got a lot more votes than Al Gore got in the year 2000. He got 547,000 more votes than Al Gore got. However, George W. Bush benefited much more from that big turnout. He got 920,000 more votes in 2004 in the State of Florida than he got in the year 2000. Hence, the big 377,000-vote difference this time around compared to the 537-vote difference in the year 2000.

Case in point, though, here. Kerry had to do well in south Florida. This is a very strong county for him, Palm Beach County. He got 6,000 more votes this time around than Al Gore got in 2000. But once again, George W. Bush did much better. He got 21,000 more votes in Palm Beach County, a strong Democratic county, than he did in the year 2000. And that made an awful big difference. Bill, back to you.

HEMMER: And also right along that I-4 corridor, Gary. We could see the returns coming in around 8:00 last night, and clearly George Bush was getting a higher percentage in those critical counties than he did four years ago.

Gary, thanks. We'll get back to you in a moment, OK? Gary Tuchman in Florida. Here's Heidi now with more.

COLLINS: Some more election headlines, in fact, Bill.

As we've been reporting, the State of Ohio holds the key to the outcome in the presidential election. But in Iowa, some 60,000 requested absentee ballots have not been returned yet. The count there is expected to continue until next week. And results are delayed into other states. Thousands of absentee ballots are still being tallied in New Mexico this hour.

U.S. troops stationed in the Iraqi city of Falluja are seeing a new battle unfold this morning. They're glued to the TV sets watching live coverage of the U.S. presidential election. Military sources say there's a lot of interest in the elections among the troops. Thousands have sent in absentee ballots over the last couple of weeks.

The U.S. Senate's top Democrat has been unseated in South Dakota. Tom Daschle, becoming the first Senate party leader to be voted out of office in 52 years. Republican John Thune will take his place in Congress. Daschle is expected to speak a little bit later on this morning.

And a look at another presidential election halfway around the world. Hamid Karzai can now celebrate victory in Afghanistan after an investigation into possible voting irregularities did not find any major problems. Karzai will be inaugurated for a five-year term later on this month. So, five years there. Only four here, as we all know.

HEMMER: Remember the videotape we all watched yesterday? Gary showed a little bit of it. There's lines that snake around buildings and down city blocks. We're lucky in New York. Took me 10 minutes, in and out.

COLLINS: Ten minutes. In and out. That's the best way (INAUDIBLE).

HEMMER: The long lines we watched yesterday, they're all too familiar to so many. Wait until you hear how long some college students waited to cast their ballots. It went well into the evening, that's a hint. Back in a moment, after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. Here's a look at how the popular vote has fallen out in the election yesterday. Fifty-eight million popular vote for President Bush, 54 million for Senator Kerry. You can see the percentages there, 51 percent to 48 percent. One percent for Ralph Nader.

Around the country, record numbers of voters endured some long lines to cast their votes. But some students in Ohio are saying their wait was longer than most. Some students at Kenyon College stood in like for up to 11 hours.

Sara Kaplow attends Kenyon College. She says she was one of them. Nice to see you. Thanks for being with us. You didn't really get much sleep, then, last night.

SARA KAPLOW, SOPHOMORE, KENYON COLLEGE: Definitely not. About 20 minutes all told.

O'BRIEN: Seven hours -- were you one of the longest waits, or were there others who were waiting even longer?

KAPLOW: There were others who were waiting much, much longer. My roommate was there for 10-and-a-half, and there was another half hour of people behind her. So, 10.5. The longest was about 11. Most got in around 7:00 to 9:00.

O'BRIEN: You're a sophomore. You're 19-years-old. This is the first election that you're voting in. You're from Virginia, though. Why are you voting in Ohio anyway?

KAPLOW: I live here eight months of the year. When they vote on taxes, it affects my tuition. When they, you know, vote on the water rate, it affects my -- how much I'm paying for laundry this week. So, I mean, my car's registered here. And in Virginia my vote would be pretty much canceled out by about 12 different Republicans.

So, you know, I live in Ohio, and so that's where I decided to vote.

O'BRIEN: So, you felt that your vote could make a difference here in Ohio is what you're saying?

KAPLOW: Yes.

O'BRIEN: How do you feel then when you wake up and it's still undecided?

KAPLOW: Well, that was pretty expected. We were all kind of waiting for that. We didn't expect what happened last night to happen, being there for 10 hours. But we pretty much knew that was going to happen. We were prepared for that. We just wanted to do everything that we could.

O'BRIEN: You voted for Senator Kerry.

KAPLOW: Yes.

O'BRIEN: And how are you feeling this morning when you see the numbers that have come out?

KAPLOW: It's a little disheartening. It's a little disappointing...

O'BRIEN: Meaning you think he's lost?

KAPLOW: That's what it seems to be. I mean, they will have to count each and every vote. A bunch of news agencies reporting that polls in Ohio closed at midnight, and I was standing there watching people continue to vote. So, there are some numbers that are going to have to be tabulated, but it's looking like it's going to Bush -- which, you know, again is kind of disappointing for us who were there for hours on end.

O'BRIEN: Is it frustrating for you? I mean, since this is your first election, would it impact if you vote in future elections to have it undecided at this point?

KAPLOW: Absolutely not, actually. We all had a great time, despite the wait. You know, it was kind of bonding. We all made friends with new people and, you know, sat there and ordered pizza to a line. So, it was a really good experience, and we really -- I mean, we did literally everything we could.

And again, the results didn't turn at the way we really wanted, but you can't always have that.

O'BRIEN: It's not a done deal yet.

KAPLOW: I know.

O'BRIEN: Sara Kaplow, a sophomore at Kenyon College, not wearing her jacket this morning. It's a little nippy out here, Sara. All right, go back inside and warm up.

KAPLOW: All right.

O'BRIEN: Let's go back to Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Soledad. Thanks.

In a moment here, the pre-election poll said the race would be tight, and it was to a degree. Where do we go from here, though? Carlos Watson has some heroes on both sides in a moment, when we continue, after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: Question now with the financial markets opening in about 35 minutes from now, how will they react today, and also for the uncertain investor, are there lessons from the 2000 election?

Looking back four years and also looking ahead, he's our guy, Andy Serwer. Good morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: That's it. Good morning, Bill.

Markets are looking for resolution here. Perhaps anticipating a bush victory, stock futures are up sharply this morning. Dow futures up 100 points, that's a six-month high. Markets overseas in Asia and Europe are up. The dollar is stronger. Oil is up as well. There's sabotage going on in Iraq that's been moving that commodity.

As far as 2000, what can we learn? Well, basically, of course, when the election was tied up in 2000, the markets swooned. It was not a good situation at all.

Here's the Dow right after the election. You can see there's a false peak there in early December when it looked like we'd get a resolution. Overall, though, down 10 percent at one point, then overall 5 percent, and then of course the markets continued to go down after that. There is Nasdaq falling even more. Of course there are other events going on, like we're coming down off the bubble.

Another interesting point here is that perhaps priced into the market before the election was the possibility of a tie-up. So now that we, perhaps, don't have a tie-up, the market may wind up rallying over the intermediate term, because traders were so concerned that the markets were going to be tied up with -- that the election would be tied up for weeks and possibly months. If we don't have that, we could be looking at a period over the next couple of weeks and months where stocks go up.

HEMMER: Which goes to your point that you made an hour ago, about trading yesterday, when it looked like, what, the Internet Web sites were predicting it could be too close to call.

SERWER: Yes, right.

HEMMER: There was uncertainty in the markets, and they really dropped off.

SERWER: Stocks tanked, and it now looks like they're going to resolve, if the election is resolved, perhaps even today.

HEMMER: Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

HEMMER: More now with Heidi.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: With the outcome of this election still in limbo, Carlos Watson is here to give an insight in what helped shaped this election, so far anyway.

And, Carlos, you are not in limbo.

CARLOS WATSON, CNN POL. ANALYST: I'm not in limbo.

SERWER: He's tired.

HEMMER: Very tied.

COLLINS: Hey, you know, you say there are some actually heroes, if you will, to point out, on both campaigns. Let's start with the Bush team. WATSON: Well, President Bush, at least three people come to mind right away. One is his brother. Got to thank your brother Jeb Bush, governor of Florida, who this time instead of a cliffhanger, delivered you a pretty solid victory in Florida, maybe by five percentage points when everything is counted. No. 2, you got to thank your brother's son, your nephew, George P. Bush.

COLLINS: Keeping it all in the family.

WATSON: Keeping it all in the family. George P. Bush was one of a number of key surrogates who reached out to the Hispanic community. And we end up believing the exit polls, the president went from getting 35 percent of the Hispanic vote to north of 40 percent, may have made a difference in places like New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Florida. Not bad at all.

COLLINS: What about Karl Rove here?

WATSON: I think Karl Rove, because remember when everyone talked about increased turnout, they thought ultimately would mean good news for Democrats. Karl Rove has long said that he thought that were evangelical Christians may have stayed home in 2000, who he was hoping to get out, looked like it may have worked. So you got give all three of those guys stars, if you will.

COLLINS: OK, now turning to the other side of the fence -- the Kerry team.

WATSON: Really quickly, Kerry was the only one, so far, who seemed to steal a new state, or at least a new state he stole was New Hampshire. I mean, it was a Bush state in 2000. Jean Shaheen (ph), his campaign manager, former governor of New Hampshire, so give him that one. Bill Clinton helped with turnout in Pennsylvania. That was a big win. And then John Kerry himself for winning those three debates, least got him back into the race. And in the end, it may be all for naught, but before that, he was down by high single digits, even double digits in some national polls.

COLLINS: All right, Carlos, thanks for that. We'll work on the limbo in a little bit.

WATSON: I'm definitely going to stay around.

HEMMER: Jack's out today. We're asking viewers whether or not John Kerry should concede. That's the e-mail question of the day in Jack's absence. So hope to get to more next hour at am@CNN.com. Back to Columbus now. Here's Soledad out again out there in Ohio -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: All right, Bill, thanks.

Still to come this morning, in 2,000, the catch phrase was hanging chads. Well, this year it's provisional ballots. And Ohio is at the center of all the attention. A look of that's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. We're right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com