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CNN Live Event/Special

Fetterman Sues Over Ballots; Johnson Fights for his Seat in Wisconsin; The Speed of Vote County in History; Control of Congress at Stake; Powerball Posts Winning Numbers; Storms, Snow and Record Heat for Voters. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired November 08, 2022 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: If not tonight, early tomorrow morning or the next day with how votes are counted here.

SUSAN O'ROURKE, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: Right. Thank you.

CARROLL: All right, Anderson, we're going to send it back to you.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good to hear from those voters.

Jason Carroll, thanks so much.

The Democratic candidate (ph) in Pennsylvania's hotly contested Senate race is suing to have mail-in ballots in dispute counted.

CNN's Ana Cabrera is following that story for us.

So, fill us in.

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Anderson.

More than 1.1 million ballots were already cast in Pennsylvania before election day. And now there's a fight happening about whether some of these ballots should be counted. At issue here are undated or misdated ballots.

So, this is a ballot that was actually cured this election cycle. Just yesterday the voter went in and fixed the date. Others may not be cured in time. And so now Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman has joined a lawsuit asking a federal court to supersede a previous decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and allow those misdated or undated votes to count, arguing the date on a mailed ballot envelope has no bearing on a voter's qualifications and serves no purpose other than to erect barriers to qualified voters exercising their fundamental constitutional right to vote.

So, how many votes are we talking about? Well, we know of at least 3,400 in Philadelphia County. We know of at least 1,000 in Allegheny County. Now that's the Pittsburgh area. A couple hundred others that were undated or misdated in Monroe County. All three of these counties voted for Biden in 2020.

And, Anderson, as you know, thousands of votes could make a difference in a very tight race.

COOPER: Yes, and it's expected to be very tight.

How long might we be waiting for races to be called in Pennsylvania? Could take a while.

CABRERA: Anderson, it could be a while. Pennsylvania didn't even start processing its mail-in ballots, meaning taking them out of the envelope and having to put them through those tabulation machines, until 7:00 this morning.

Historically, Democrats prefer to vote by mail or vote early. The numbers this year do fit that pattern if you take a look here at the pie chart. Sixty-nine percent of pre-election ballots in Pennsylvania were cast by Democrats.

Now, remember, Republicans historically favor voting in-person on Election Day. So, those votes are going to be among the first results we're going to get tonight. And that's why the early map might fill in red and we may then see a blue shift as those mail ballots are counted.

This year, by the way, 63 counties, so the majority of this state, including the biggest county, Philadelphia, is going to do a marathon count going around the clock until every single mail ballot is counted. So, no rest.

Just to set the expectations here, Anderson, one election official in Philadelphia tells us they could still be counting votes until at least Wednesday evening, again, in Philadelphia area alone, Anderson.

COOPER: All right. We'll be here with them.

Thanks so much, Ana.

Now to Wisconsin. Republican Senator Ron Johnson is hoping to keep his seat as he faces a challenge from Democrat Mandela Barnes.

CNN correspondent Lucy Kafanov live at a polling place in Milwaukee.

What's it been like so far?

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Folks still coming in here to cast their ballots at this particular polling location. Inside there are crowds, even though it doesn't look like it on the outside, but, you know, it's early morning, people are trying to get here before they go to work or do whatever it is that they have to do to vote.

It has been an incredibly closely contested election, both for the governor's seat, as well as for Senate. And we've been talking to voters here You know, I can't really quite tell you that there's enthusiasm. It almost feels like the issues are too heavy for that. We spoke to some of the Democratic vote, or voters who are voting for the Democrats. They feel that democracy is at stake. They are tired of the divisions that they're seeing in the country, and they want to cast their ballots to shift that. As far as some of the Republicans that we've spoken to, for them it's

been bread and butter issues, the economy. They are tired of the social division issues that have been coming up. They want to see change on inflation and the economy and they don't feel that the Democrats could deliver that for them.

We've also sort of seen a bit of a climate of fear here. At least one voter that I talked to pointed to election observers. He wasn't quite sure who they were. He felt intimidated. Again, that's just one person's experience. But it speaks to the broader climate of fear with voting irregularities also coming up as a topic in this election.

We have seen a barrage of negative ads on both sides. Again, the outcome will depend on how many independents turn out to vote and who they cast their ballots for.

Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Lucy, appreciate it.

What - actually, and what we can expect tonight and when we - when we'll know which party controls the House -- the House and the Senate, I want to talk to Harry Enten about that. We'll talk to him next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:39:15]

COOPER: Election Day in America. Voters casting ballots at polling places across the country. One thing everyone wants to know, how soon can we actually expect results? Joining me is CNN's senior data reporter Harry Enten.

We've waited a long time for elections in the past. What's it going to look like this year?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yes, I think patience is a virtue. I think that is what we're going to have to sort of take in and hold to be true.

So, let's go in Arizona, right, key Senate gubernatorial race there. Took days to project the 2020 presidential winner. The later counted ballots in Arizona were good for the GOP. So, sometimes the later counted ballots are good for the Republicans and in some states it's good for the Democrats.

Let's go to a state where it's good for the Democrats. Georgia, the 2021 Senate runoff winners weren't projected until the Wednesday after the election. Here, the later counted ballots were good for the Democrats in 2021, as well as in the 2020 presidential race.

[09:40:03]

Let's go back out west to Nevada where again it took days to project the 2020 presidential winner. You might be noticing that this is sort of a theme. It takes days oftentimes at least back in 2020. Here the later counted ballots were good for the GOP in 2020, but according to my colleague, and our colleague, Marshall Cohen, it's unclear if that will hold this year. We'll just have to wait and see in a lot of these states if these past pattern hold.

Let's go back here to the east and let's go to Pennsylvania, where, again, it took until the Saturday to project -- the Saturday after the election to project the 2020 presidential winner. Later counted ballots, though, here were good for the Democrats. Those mail ballots were counted later in the process. So, don't be shocked if in, let's say, the Senate race with Mehmet Oz jumping out to a huge lead and then we see John Fetterman climbing back and back and back.

But, if you're looking perhaps for, you know, a clue early on in the evening to understand what's going on, here are some important House races with poll closings before 8:00 p.m. where historically the ballots have been counted fairly quickly. North Carolina's 13th, Ohio's 13th, Virginia's 2nd and Virginia's 7th. So, these will give us some early clues, Anderson.

But, again, the thing that I think we'll keep saying over and over again on our is patience is a virtue, it's better to get the vote count correct than to get it fast and inaccurately.

COOPER: All right, Harry Enten, thanks so much.

ENTEN: Thank you.

COOPER: Appreciate it.

ENTEN: Let's go to my colleague, Alisyn Camerota.

Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks so much, Anderson.

OK, you just heard Harry. Everybody settle in, get comfortable here. And I do think we need to always remind people that it's not necessarily Election Day, it's election week, or it's even election month, OK. However, Abdul, that's not what some right wing frankly Trump allies are already doing.

So, Christina Bobb, one of his former lawyers, yesterday said on a right-wing network, there should be absolutely a result no later than the middle of the night, meaning tonight, or early Wednesday morning. I think those areas that don't have a result, it's going to look very suspicious. In other words, already planting the seed of doubt.

DR. ABDUL EL-SAYED, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That's absolutely right. So, I'm from Michigan and we know that in Wayne County, in Detroit, they count votes a little bit later. You have a higher density of people, of course. And so fewer election officials counting more votes, it's going to take more time.

But this is sort of a way of trying to set the table around the fact that really only the rural voters or the suburban voters are the ones that you should be paying attention to. And so it really is worrying because, well, this is a structural reality of what it takes to count votes.

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: This is why -- I mean all - all the races are important and I know we're all watching, you know, Senate Pennsylvania, Senate Georgia, but the three races that I think are most important are Kristina Karamo in Michigan, Mark Finchem in Arizona and Jim Marchant in Nevada. They're all running for secretary of state. They're all election deniers. They have all suggested in some way that they might not certify elections, that they might refuse.

CAMEROTA: Unless they win.

CUPP: Unless they like the results. And they've tried -- they've tried in the past. They want to try again. I think those might be the most important elections. You might not feel them. I understand pocketbook issues and crime. I get that. But that's the future of future elections and democracy.

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: But - but what I would say is, remember, we've seen this movie before. This is very Trumpian. And, actually, let's remember that some of the members of the legal team that were behind Trump's legal strategy in 2020 are working in these very states. They are trying to set up a narrative that says, if it's not a red wave, something went wrong.

CUPP: Yes.

FINNEY: And so that's part of why what we're doing is so important to remind people, it's going to take time. We've got to be patient. And the thing about that is, that means the system is working.

CAMEROTA: Right.

FINNEY: That means votes are getting counted. That means we're working out whatever questions there might be about provisional ballots or what have you. That's how it should be to make sure that even the votes that are cast later today in California get counted with the same veracity as those that get counted earlier tonight.

CAMEROTA: Yes, except I worry that the people who are most susceptible to the suspicion are not watching right now.

CUPP: (INAUDIBLE).

CAMEROTA: And so all of these seeds that are being planted, then what, Charlie?

CHARLIE DENT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look, in Pennsylvania there are 1.1 million absentee ballots. None of them could be processed until this morning.

CAMEROTA: Yes, by law, right? (INAUDIBLE)

DENT: By law.

Now, the legislature, they could have changed this. They could have allowed the processing of these things maybe a week in advance, but they didn't - they chose not to do it, so we're probably not going to have an outcome tonight. It took us four - it took us until Saturday to do 3.5 million in 2020. So, maybe it will take a couple days to get there.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about some of the issues that are on people's minds as they tell us when they come out of these voting booths. So, these are a couple of voters in Wisconsin who are just sharing their differing philosophies basically.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's really about saving our democracy and making sure that people have the right to vote. Kind of fighting the political divisions. So, yes, it's about maybe we can continue what we've continue to do.

[09:45:02]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The economy is definitely a big one and - and to be frank with you, it's just -- like there seems to be much more care about the sexuality of people and not people struggling to pay their rent or paying their mortgage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: And there it is, Abdul. I mean they capture it perfectly.

EL-SAYED: Yes, one of the really interesting outcomes of a "Times"/Sienna (ph) poll that came out just about a week before the election was that 70 percent of Americans agreed that democracy was in crisis, but only 17 percent of them attributed that to authoritarianism. The rest of them talked about corruption and the ways in which a lot of democracy feels like it is -- it's had the talons of big corporations put into it.

And I think that as we think about what comes out of this election, it's going to be really critical for us to be asking, how do we make sure that beyond saving the ability to actually vote for your representatives, we're also asking, how do we make sure we remove the obstacles that a lot of folks feel like are getting in the way between their political will and the outcomes of our actual public policy.

CUPP: I mean, I've been covering lots of races over the past -- we all have. And I -- to me it feels like Republicans talk a lot more about gender and pronouns and, quote/unquote, groomers than Democrats have on the campaign trail.

FINNEY: Yes.

CUPP: But Republicans are also talking about crime and inflation in ways that I think just get right to voter fears. Fears that are real in many cases. And I don't think Democrats were wrong to talk about democracy. I think it's one of the most important issues. But you can't go out there and say the economy is great. You can't be Joe Biden and say the economy is strong as hell. You can't be Ron Klain and say, you know, everything's fine, we're not planning for a recession.

FINNEY: Yes.

CUPP: You just can't tell voters they're wrong to have fears about the economy and crime.

FINNEY: Yes.

CUPP: I think they could have done it all. They really chose to sort of marginalize those issues.

FINNEY: Well, first of all, we never want to tell voters they're wrong because they surely do not like to hear that, let me tell you.

CUPP: Yes.

FINNEY: Look, I think, though, what you're seeing with candidates, there's not a single candidate on the Democratic side that has only run on a single issue because, I think as we saw in that tape, voters are carrying a number of different issues.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely.

FINNEY: The economy is important. They are worried about crime. They are worried about democracy. And so most of the ads I've seen -- and, remember, there's a lot that's going on under the surface, grassroots organizing, canvassing that isn't as much what we're talking about on television but that is going directly to some of those deep concerns.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

DENT: And democracy (ph). Republicans overstate voter fraud. Democrats overstate voter suppression. It's easy to vote. We run good elections. The problem is what's happening after the elections and people who have a predetermined outcome in mind. That's the problem.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely.

All right, meanwhile, speaking of winners, we just got the winning numbers from last night's Powerball drawing, guys. We may be billionaires and not even know it right now. It caused a lot of confusion overnight. We'll show you the numbers and explain what went wrong there. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:52:34]

CAMEROTA: OK, this is just into CNN.

The winning numbers for the historic more than $2 billion Powerball jackpot have just been posted to the lottery's website after a delay overnight which left millions of us wondering if we won.

CNN's Martin Savidge joins us now with the winning numbers.

Did I win, Martin?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's the question we all have is, all right, did somebody actually win. If you're standing by with a wad of tickets in your hand, let me just give you the numbers real quick. They are 10, 33, 41, 47, 56, and 10. Now, if I hear anybody screaming in the next minute I'll let you know.

Essentially, we do not know exactly what the hang-up was for about ten hours. The drawing is usually done Monday night at 10:59. That did not happen due to security protocols according to the multistate lottery authority.

And the name there gives you an indication of what might have been the problem. The lottery is not just one monolithic entity. It's made up of about 48 different lotteries that includes 45 states that play Powerball, if included Puerto Rico, it includes the U.S. Virgin Islands and it also includes Washington, D.C.

Somebody, we are told, but we're not told which entity, had a problem. They have to certify their sales and play data before the lottery numbers can actually be drawn. Everybody has to do that. One person had a problem, one entity, which so far is remaining nameless. So, that was the reason for the delay.

If you're wondering, have they ever delayed before? Yes, they have, but less than an hour, not 10 hours. And when we've got $2 billion on the line, many people are like, what in the world is going on here.

So, now you have the numbers. We just don't know if we have winners.

CAMEROTA: OK, those numbers don't ring a bell. So, I will get back to you.

SAVIDGE: I'm sorry.

CAMEROTA: Yes, thank you. Thank you, Martin. Great to see you.

SAVIDGE: Yes.

CAMEROTA: All right, so if you're heading out to the polls this morning, you may have to contend with some extreme weather, from snow to record heat. And Floridians are facing a late season subtropical storm, which could be dangerous.

CNN meteorologist Chad Myers has our Election Day forecast.

What are you seeing, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, we're seeing a lot of rain and snow back out west to California that will get into Nevada, even in Utah. But the rest of the country is really pretty good. And, actually, very warm. Temperatures in the 80s in New Orleans right now. Cooler than you were in New York but still very mild and no real rain.

But here is where the rainfall is. Bay area, all the way down to L.A. Heavy, heavy rainfall and could be three feet of snow in the Sierra. [09:55:02]

Somewhere around Yosemite could pick up three to four feet of snow int hose higher elevations. That will certainly slow you down.

Overnight, there were some road closures due to spinouts. Right now things, I guess, are a little bit better out there.

Now, back here to Nicole, which will be a hurricane likely as it makes landfall. Still making a few showers today in Florida but nothing that's going to interrupt your voting. We do have hurricane watches, tropical storm watches and even a few tropical storm warning here because of the landfall expected late tomorrow night and overnight on Thursday.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chad, thank you for all of that.

MYERS: Yes.

CAMEROTA: And CNN's Election Day coverage continues after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:00:04]

COOPER: And Election Day in America well underway. I'm Anderson Cooper. Thanks for joining us.