and google plus pages. good evening, everyone. welcome to "al jazeera america" on election night. i'm john siegen that you willer in new york. >> the only greatest honor and privilege of being a one-term governor of new jersey is a two-term governor of new jersey. >> wig big win for chris christie. the question now, will he complete the term, or will he run for president? a nail-biter in virginia. hours after the polls close, a decision in that state's governor's race. guns, succession, water and more. the issues, not the candidates, that brought voters to polls across the nation. plus, meet america's new

voters. we go to a place where teenagers are casting their own ballots. election day 2013 still not over, but that isn't stopping the speculation about the future. polls are closing at this hour in several western states. in the east the most closely watched races have been decided. republican chris ychristie has been re-elected by a wide margin. terry mcauliffe wins the governor's race in virginia. he's speaking to supporters in virginia right now. voters in new york city have chosen a democrat to succeed michael bloomberg, bill de blasio. voters have made decisions about gun control, higher taxes and

the minimum wage. we have reporters covering all the major races tonight. we begin in new jersey. the issue really wasn't who would win, it was by how much. would chris christie get a big enough mandate to propel him into a strong position for the 2016 race for president? the republican won by a landslide over democratic challenger barbara buono. a few minutes ago he spoke to his supporters. hi, john. >> reporter: hey, john. i think this was the story of the night really. governor christie came her seeking a second term as governor of new jersey and he got it in spades. 60% of the vote going to him in most of the categories. people say this was the beginning of christie 2016. if it wasn't, it sounded like it in the speech he delivered in the hall behind me after his spectacular landslide victory over his democratic opponent, barbara buono. the speech had no direct

references to going to washington, d.c. full time, but there were plenty of hints that washington should turn on his tv and watch what he's doing as governor here in new jersey. take a listen to part of the speech that he just gave in which he emphasized again that he always gets the job done. >> i want to promise you tonight, i will not let anyone, anything, any political party, any governmental entity or any force get in between me and the completion of my mission. >> reporter: john, the figures for governor christie are astonishing as he enters his second term as governor. 60% of the vote in motor categories beats buono by a good 20% in most of them. he woman -- won the women's vote in new jersey and he was up against a female democratic candidate. he tied for the hispanic vote. he got 31% of all democrats in

this state. remember, he's a republican governor. there are only 33% of democrats registered in the state anyway, and he got 31% of them. he made headway among young people. he tapped into constituencies badly desired by his party, the gop. "the new york times" he's he's a front-runner on the republican side. if it turns out he isn't, he's a politician that must be taken extremely seriously over the next couple of years. john. >> john, thank you. in virginia the governor's raefs was a litmus test for the republicans and the tea party affected by negative publicity with the government shutdown. it put terry mccall live and terry had a razor-thin riktary. mike viqueira is live in tysons

corner, virginia where terry has just spoken to supporters. mike. >> reporter: john, if you be hear we're in the celebration stage here at the headquarters at tysons corner, virginia. we heard from the republican in this case, the sitting attorney general of the commonwealth. he came a lot closer than the polls indicated before the election, john. he said it came down to the wire. he was outspent by $15 million or at least outraised by the man behind me on stage celebrating with his family and fellow virginia elected officials from the democratic party. he said he was outspent by mcauliffe by $15 million. the thing that got him was a point and a half this evening of pulling off an upset and winning the race. according to cuccinelli it was obamacare. he stressed that during the closing weeks of the race.

that was his closing argument in the face of the debacle in the launch of healthcare.gov website. that's one way to look at it. another way to look at it, john, is that a sitting president has not had a member of his own party, not seen a member of his party elected president of -- governor of virginia in a generation. so democrats are going to tell you tonight was a rejection of the tea party in virginia. cuccinelli is a tea party affiliated conservative. did not carry the crucial counties in the northern part of the virginia, the most densely populated part of virginia. the virginia suburbs, the excerpts of washington, d.c., and the result is what you see tonight. here's terry mcauliffe just a little bit earlier. >> over the next four years, most democrats and republicans in virginia want to make virginia a model for pragmatic

leadership that is friendly to job creation. >> reporter: and that is mcauliffe talking about his theme for the next four years, the stewardship of the commonwealth of virginia here. transportation and more highways, the gridlock on the highways? virginia is something to behold rivalling the political gridlock across the potomac river and stressing the need for bipartisanship. he's going to look for it when he goes to richmond to become the next governor in virginia. >> mike viqueira with a close one in virginia tonight. i want to bring in boris epstein. he's a contributing editor to u.s. news and world report. welcome. >> good evening, jon. >> how do you read this election in virginia tonight? >> you know, the issue is that the american voters tend to lag after a crises. so the obamacare rollout is unquestionably a crisis and a disaster for the last several

weeks. my prediction would be if this election were a week or week and a half from now, cucenelli would have won. luckily for mcauliffe it didn't hurt him enough because americans lag in reaction to issues like this. >> mcauliffe had a lot more money. he had bill and hillary clinton helping him and president obama helped him. >> president obama at this point is a nightmare for democrat candidates. now with these elections behind us looking ahead to midterms in 2014, if there's not a significant rebound for president obama, he's going to be a pariah for many democratic candidates, especially those in red states such as louisiana and states in the south. he has a huge credibility problem right now due to the obamacare rollout, and not just the website rollout but due to the canceled policies people are experiencing after he said specifically there will be no cancellations for folks if they like their insurance plans.

>> in virginia is this a big plus for the tea party tonight because it was so close? >> no. it's not a plus for the tea party but for the republican party. the night overall is a plus for the republican party. >> there was a lot of talk about the tea party in virginia, especially cucinelli was talking about it right? >> yes. if the tea party was as strong, he could have got over the hump. the issues with obamacare and president obama and mcauliffe are facing are not tea party issues. this is not social conservativism and the issues the tea party is running on. >> in fact, in alabama tea party candidate lost a race tonight as well. let me talk to you about governor christie in new jersey. no surprise that he won. everybody predicted that. what does it mean for his presidential possibilities in the future? >> if he lost it would have been a huge problem. that's a threshold issue right there. he had to win this election in

order to continue to be a front-runner for the 2016 nomination for president as a republican. the fact he won by the margin he did, the fact he did so overwhelming with the hispanics, minorities, democrats in new jersey showing he can reach across the aisle only strengthens his candidacy. he's the republican that republicans across the country can get behind. he's not a tea party republican or rhino republican in name only. it's a mainstream republican and mold of reagan he can unite the party behind him. >> this launches him into the stratosphere when you talk about the front-runner for the republican party in your opinion? >> absolutely. he has to be one of the top two or three candidates. ted cruz and rand paul hurt themselves by the shutdown. they have to be behind, and governor christie is up there. >> let me talk about the new york mayor's race. after 20 years of republicans,

the city of new york now has a democratic mayor. your reaction. >> frankly, this saddens and baffles me. not only 20 years of republicans as mayor, but 20 strong years, 20 years of economic prosperity, of safety. bill de blasio worries me very much and i'm disappointed. >> what happened to republicans in new york? >> the republicans in noshgdz are outnumbered 3-1 by democrats. if you look at the history of mayoral races, democratics one if there's no crises. if there's a crises, republicans win. giuliani won because of the crime crisis and bloomberg because of 9/11. there is no crisis. new york is in good shape thanks to those good republican governors. de blasio is not going to do any good for us. >> you're worried about de blasio. why? >> i'm worried about what he's doing as far as the police force goes. he's already said he's against stop and frisk. you can cut the number of police force out there and cut benefits and pay to them.

that's one. two, he does need governor cuomo's approval to raise taxes, but he can put forth other policies like detroit and cities like that around the country. when you see overly liberal policies put into place, you see wealth get out of cities, and those cities become dangerous to live in. >> it's great to see you tonight. thanks for being on the program. >> thanks, john. voters in sunnyvale, california are voting on a new gun measure. lisa, what is this referendum, and do you have any results tonight? >> reporter: well, john, the polls just closed, and early results show 70% voted in favor, 30% against this gun measure. a lot of opinions here at the polls today. one man who was i an iraqi war veteran and gun owner tells us he's worried about the provision that says all guns would have to be locked up if not in use.

then we spoke to a woman who voted for measure c, and she says to us, quote, why would you need more than ten rounds in a magazine? that was also part of the provision. we're here in silicon valley where the mayor voted today. this is his measure. he had $3,000 of support by new york mayor michael bloomberg. both say they believe cities should drive gun reform legislation. >> we spend more time sitting with local officials. this is really a local issue. we can't wait for congress. we can't wait for the state senators. it has to be ground up and not top down. >> reporter: and we should tell you that this town has about 140,000 people in it, and the mayor describes it as a low-crime city. he points out so are newtown and columbine. also, the nra has promised to

sue now that measure c has passed. john. >> all right. lisa out in california tonight. thank you. voters in colorado cast their ballots on several controversial issues including whether to raise taxes to fund schools. the polls closed about two hours ago and the results are in on the two major tax hike amendments. amendment aa proposed a tax 25% increase on marijuana taxes. the measure passed with about 65% of the vote. amendment 66, which called for increasing state income taxes to raise $1 billion for schools failed. about 60% of the vote rejected the amendments. paul is live in denver with more on the results. paul, what does the failure of the school funding bill mean for colorado and the governor that really pushed for it? >> reporter: john, i'm here at the election night watch headquarters of amendment 66. the crowd is still here having

drinks and music playing, but the party is over. a resounding defeat for governor hickenlooper and his effort to push it through and funnel it to state education. voters here said no to that increase and resoundingly, 66 to about 34. the numbers are still coming in. almost a 2-to-1 margin here. governor hickenlooper spent a lot of capital on this. he has an election next year. a lot of questions about his political future going forward. john. >> what does this mean for education in colorado? >> reporter: well, colorado is in the bottom ten states in terms of per-student state funding. so that question still remains, how is colorado going to improve its public education system if it can't raids -- raise the money? governor hickenlooper said this is the beginning of the fight. it's the second time in recent years, in 2011 a similar measure was defeated.

it's not sure how colorado can raise the money. >> the marijuana tax issue passed with a large margin. what about the issue regarding some voters who want to secede from the state of colorado? >> reporter: the feed is gone. >> unfortunately, we lost paul out in denver. we'll try to get him back a little later. good evening, everyone. we're looking at a massive snowstorm right now that's making its way up here towards the western part of the great lakes. it first started off here in nebraska where we saw up to a foot of snow. it is now pushing up here towards parts of minnesota as well as wisconsin. we don't expect to see as much snow in the areas as what we saw here in nebraska, but still overnight we're going to see 4 to 6 inches of snow falling in this area here.

what's going to happen over the overnight hours is the storm is going to continue to make its way over here towards the east. tomorrow morning, though, if you see here, we're looking at very heavy rainshowers across parts of chicago. that is going to cause problems at the airports as well as if you're driving across that area. 4 to 6 inches there, and that will continue. after tomorrow we think the snowstorm will move into canada and the event will be over. we're looking at very cold temperatures coming through the region. omaha is at 36 degrees right now. towards the north, rapid city, you are looking at 19, and up towards bismarck at 23. when i come back later on in the hour, we talk about a supertyphoon headed towards the philippines. results are in, and a closely watched primary race in alabama. republican bradley burn beat out the tea party candidate dean young in the 1st congressional department. burn was the establishment candidate with lots of support

from business and house republicans. young had support from senator ted cruz and former tea party candidate sharon engel but not as much funding. illinois is on the verge of becoming the 15th state in the country to recognize same-sex marriage s. both the state senate and house passed a gay marriage measure earlier this evening. illinois's governor is expected to sign the bill. if so, the law will go into effect in june of next year. the town of sanford, florida made headlines when neighborhood watchman volunteer george zimmerman shot and killed an unarmed teen named trayvon martin. tonight the town announced new rules for the neighborhood watch program. we have the story from sanford. >> reporter: just shy of 55,000 people, sanford is celebrated for its small town charm and tour guides. some here feel their sense of safety was shattered since former neighborhood watch volunteer george zimmerman shot and killed trayvon martin last year. >> it left a sore, and it hasn't

healed. it won't heal. >> reporter: now the police department plans on revamping its neighborhood watch program. the newly hired police chief cecil smith said when he arrived seven months ago, the program was in shambles. >> it was a mess. and our goal right now is to clean that mess up by having people understand that we are moving forward. we're not looking back. >> reporter: tuesday evening he began recruiting volunteers and announced the new rules for neighborhood watch. beginning next year volunteers will undergo 10 to 16 hours of training and background checks. they'll be required to sign waivers releasing the city from responsibility if they go beyond the scope of their duty to observe and report. the chief is also recommending but not requiring that volunteers leave their guns at home. that's upset some local gun owners. >> i don't agree with it, you know. i think every american citizen has a right to bear arms. >> reporter: fred says owning a gun is one thing.

knowing how to properly use it is another. >> even though we have the right to bear arms, for these associations you have people totally untrained and have no idea what they're doing and carrying a gun. it's not safe. >> reporter: lifetime resident and private investigator john wright says neighborhood watch volunteers are supposed to patrol and leave the protecting to the professionals. >> if a neighborhood or community wanted armed security, then you hire armed security. >> reporter: the chief hopes by revamping the neighborhood watch program and all the police department policies this will be a new beginning for the city of sanford. >> we learned that we needed to take better care of our own neighborhoods. guns is not the way to do it. >> reporter: during the packed meeting, the police department urged people to join the neighborhood watch program. right now only four neighborhoods participate. we'll continue our election night coverage, and we want to

go back out to colorado. paul is in denver. we've resolved our technical problems. so in colorado tonight the voters voted against a tax hike for education. they voted for increasing taxes on marijuana sales. there was an important issue about succession that got a lot of attention nationwide. some want to secede from the state of colorado. what happened with that proposal, paul? >> reporter: john, so far tonight it looks like 50 states, no 51st state or new colorado or baja, wyoming. there were 11 counties voting on it. at least six have voted it down and four have voted yes. even if this passed all 11 counties, it wouldn't get past the statehouse and really a nonstarter. it has got some publicity and headlines and grooevengss by colorado being dominated by the

urban centers in denver, boulder and fort collins and rural voices aren't heard. >> was there a fracking measure on the ballot as well in colorado? >> reporter: it's gone again. >> was there a fracking measure on the ballot in colorado as well? clearly, we're having some audio problems. paul beeben, thank you. we turn to detroit. mike dugan has been elected the new mayor there. let's go there to follow the story. bisi, what can you tell us? >> reporter: as you just mentioned john, yes, mike dugan, a former hospital ceo, has been elected mayor of the city of detroit. he defeated wayne county sheriff by a very large margin. now when dugan takes office in january, he will become the first white mayor in the city in nearly 40 years. now, dugan around here is known as being the fix-it man. he used to run the detroit

medical center. during his time there, he turned the center around, which at a time was facing financial ruin. so it appears that he was able to convince voters here in detroit that he, too, can turn around the city. now, when dugan takes office, as i mentioned, in january, he will do so with very limited power because there's a state-appointed emergency manager who is in control of the city for at least another year. although dugan has made very clear he's not a fan of municipal bankruptcy, he has vowed to work closely with the emergency manager to get the city of detroit back on track. john. >> bisi in detroit for us tonight. bisi, thank you. time for sports with michael eaves. >> thanks a lot. for the first time since he was suspended following allegations that he bullied a teammate, richie incognito spoke on the scandal for the first time.

wsvn tv in miami caught up with him today outside his doctor's office. during the brief encounter he said he was trying to weather the storm, and it will soon pass. the nfl is currently investigated his ongoing threats to jonathan martin who left the team last week. in baseball the seattle mariners have hired lloyd mcclen ton to be the new manager. mcclel done served as a detroit tigers hitting coach since 2007. soccer x was canceled just three weeks before it was to be held in rio due to the current civil unrest in brazil. that's according to the event's organizers. the state government said it was canceled due to funding problems. it raised more fears about possible disruption of next year's world cup scheduled for brazil. we'll have more sports news in

about 20 minutes as al jazeera continues.

welcome back. we're keeping an eye on the election results across the country, but here are some of the other stories we're following tonight. secretary of state john kerry is back in israel hoping to get the

stalled middle east peace talks going again. after three months of negotiations, there's no sign of a break through. he's expected to meet with palestinian and israeli leaders on wednesday. the family of the young man who fired shots inside the new jersey mall last night is looking for answers. the parents say he never intended to hurt anyone but himself. his body was discovered in the mall hours after he opened fire inside the mall. police say he died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds. it was a razor-thin victory for virginia's governor, democrat terry mcauliffe. he beat ken cuccinelli in a contested race. in new jersey governor christie's landslide vikt may may have propelled him to the top of the list of republican presidential candidates. democrat bill de blasio has been

declared the winger. randall pinkston is in brooklyn following the election. what can you tell us? >> john, the count is still underway, but at this point it appears bill de blasio may have a landslide victory over republican joe lhota. what is really interesting is that new yorkers feel the city is in much better shape than it was 20 years ago when the first republican was elected mayor, giuliani followed by bloomberg. nonetheless they decided it was time for a change. minutes ago this auditorium was filled with people listening to the acceptance speech by bill de blasio. he made a strong reiteration of his primary campaign points that he was going to do what he could to close the income gap, to deal with trying to buy -- developers to buy into building affordable housing. he said that what the city needs to do is make sure that everyone has an opportunity to rise based on the strength of their abilities and their hard work

and not their zip code. >> it doesn't matter where you were born, what you look like, what your religion is, or who you love. if you have brains and heart and guts and faith, this city, more than any other in the world, will offer you a real chance at a better life. for generations new york has meant opportunity. that's what it has been to so many, and that's what it must be again. >> reporter: and de blasio maze reference to one of the controversial issues of this campaign, the police department's stop and frisk policy. without referring to it by name, de blasio said public safety is a prerequisite for a great city but so are civil liberties. you can't have a great city unless you have both. so it was a very, very strong

speech, john. a progressive democrat laying down a new direction for america's largest city. >> so randall, de blasio was way ahead in the polls over the last week. this was no surprise. what does the victory really mean for the city? >> reporter: well, certainly as he pointed out tonight, he's going to try to take the city in a new direction. the question is whether he will be able to convince some key elements of the city to go along with it. principally, developers, the wealthy. de blasio wants to impose a tax on those earning more than $500,000 a year in order to provide free schools for all of the children of the city. he says it's an investment in the future. many of the wealthy say it takes money out of their back pockets and they don't like it. he has to get the approval of the governor to get the tax imposed. he has difficult days ahead if he really intends to impose all of the progressive policies, but

de blasio also said that the city did develop this income gap in a few days, and it's going to take a while to try and close it. >> randall pinkston in brooklyn tonight. thanks very much. in washington state the polls are closed. voters weighed in on issues that could have an impact nationwide. one deals with labeling foods genetically modified. the other would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour in one community. we're live at sea-tac airport just outside of seattle. >> reporter: what we see in the vote to raise the minimum wage for some workers here to $15 an hour, that is passing tonight by about 8 percentage points. by my calculations, about half the expected voter turnout is represented in that figure. so with about 50% of the vote counted, again, that's just by my figures, that minimum wage measure is passing by a pretty healthy margin.

on the other side of the things, the gmo, genetically modified organism food labeling initiative that right now statewide in washington is losing about by 6 percentage points, maybe 7. that's with a little more than a third of the expected turnout counted. so right now we have the minimum wage up, gmo labeling down in the state of washington. john. >> so if the seatac proposal is passed, what impact does it have on the rest of the state, if any? >> reporter: boy, that is really hard to say. in fact, the economist that i talked to said it's hard to measure what the impact of this thing will be, because there are so many moving parts. 6,000 workers are affected, many of them don't live in the city of seatac and live elsewhere. is that money spent here? is it spent in their hometowns? if this is successful, and again, these are just jobs in the airport and surrounding

industries, can that be brought to other counties in the state? it's hard to tell. we've seen similar measures in san diego that passed and resulted in a higher wage for some of the hotel workers there. it may be that in this case organized labor has figured out to target specific types of industries and get the votes they want little by little. i would expect that we see this kind of thing again around the country if this does hold true, and i would expect a lead of that 7 or 8 percentage points at this point would hold true. we'll have to wait and see, though. mail-in voting and a lot of ballots in the works. >> it's different in washington state and other states. thanks very much, al. we appreciate it. joining us now is al jazeera's political contributor dave leventhal. he's the senior political reporter at the center for public integrity. dave, good to see you. >> good to be with you. >> give me your reaction to the race in virginia tonight and terry mcauliffe's sort of

razor-thin victory. >> certainly in virginia it's an absolutely huge victory for terry mcauliffe in part because not only is he a democrat in a state leaning relatively republican. it's a very purple state. but also, too, because he had a huge cash advantage. about $15 million at the end of the day that he could raise more than ken cuccinelli. ken cuccinelli gave it a very game run, but in the end terry mcauliffe is definitely going to prevail here. >> we had a republican strategist on a little while ago who suggested had this election been two weeks down the road or three weeks down the road that cuccinelli probably would have won. what do you think? >> it's entirely possible, but there are so many implications beyond the 2013 here and now race here. he had a variable parade of potential 2016 presidential candidates coming in on the republican side. you had bobby jindal, the

governor of louisiana. scott walker the governor of wisconsin, and you had rand paul and ron paul if you go back to 2012. on the democratic side you have hillary clinton and joe biden. this was definitely in a way a vote that was a proxy in at least some way to the 2016 presidential race. because of all the support that at least ken cuccinelli was getting, had it gone another couple of weeks, maybe this would have been a situation where he would be the victor today because it was ultimately so close. >> maybe it's a good time to talk about new jersey, then, and a race that could have implications as well for the 2016 race. governor chris christie won that election in a landslide. what's it mean for him and the gop? >> it's a huge victory, of course, for him personally, and he says it himself. well, i can walk and chew gum at the same time. i can run for governor in 2013 and also look toward my future in 2016. one take-away from today that was very interesting, he got about 20% of the african-american vote in new

jersey. this was a huge issue for mitt romney back in 2012. he got only about 7% of the african-american vote. it may have been less than that in the end, which was a major, major issue when you have a national election, a presidential election that demographically is the way that it is, and ultimately when it comes down to the votes, so very, very close. so, hey, in any national poll taken right now, chris christie is at the top of the list. any conversation that you have about republican presidential candidates or potential republican presidential candidates, he's the first or second name out of anyone's mouth. as a result he's definitely setting himself up right now to put himself in a very, very strong position. the driver's seat some would argue for 2016, which seems so far away, but at the same time you have superpacs and political committees setting itself up. >> conservative republicans seem to be driving some of the agenda on capitol hill these days.

is a chris christie acceptable to the tea party to those far right in the republican party? >> the not at this point, which is why you have senator ted cruz from texas, why you have rand paul, senator from kentucky and various other names bantied about by folks part and parcel of the tea party. they're not happy with somebody who is a chris christie who reached out across the aisle. think back to hurricane sandy last year when he was arm in arm with president barack obama. these are visuals that definitely in terms of chris christie's credentials from the tea party and the far right wing of the republican party are just not going to play well with them. so as we are in the kind of shakeout phase of who might be in, who might be out for the 2016 presidential race, you're going to have a whole lot of alternatives to chris christie coming from the far right

element of the republican party at this point. >> let's take a listen to what chris christie had to say earlier tonight. >> i will promise you tonight, i will not let anyone, anything, any political party, any governmental entity, or any force get in between me and the completion of my mission. >> was this his speech for the people of new jersey or a speech for the united states of america? >> absolutely speaking to two audiences, and how can you blame him? again, he's definitely got his sights set on 2016, but that is vintage chris christie. sort of a damn the torpedos, whatever comes will come. i'm my own man. i'm an independent thinker. i'm a republican that will do what i see fit to lead new jersey but the country where it's a point he runs as a presidential candidate. that's what a lot of people in

new jersey latched onto with chris christie. he takes a different type of approach and attitude. he has a different type of style than a lot of politicians democrat or republican who are very much in the conversation right now. >> dave, let me get a quick take on new york city's mayor's race and bill de blasio's win. not a surprise. what's it mean for the city of new york and where the city is headed now? >> well, it's -- you have to go back just a few months ago when anthony weiner, all the polls showed he was leading this race. for bill de blasio to come from if you go back far enough from pretty, pretty low marks in the polls running third or fourth to the point where he's at right now, he's somebody who has really, really made his stake in new york city politics as a reformer, as somebody who is definitely on the left side of the democratic party. this definitely could, as some of your guests before had mentioned, lead new york city at least in political philosophy in

a very new direction. >> dave leventhal, it's great to talk to you tonight. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. in some parts of the country 16-year-olds can't drive and not old enough to buy liquor, but in one maryland town 16-year-olds can help decide the future of the community. lisa stark has that story. >> reporter: it's election day in tiny tacoma park, maryland right outside washington, d.c. where the mayor and six city councilmembers are on the ballot unopposed. it's creating enormous buzz because of who is voting. this is the first place in the nation to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to cast ballots in local elections. right after school many did just that. >> today i voted for the first time. >> what did you think about that? >> it was awesome. >> i hope i had an impact on the community. >> i'm trying my best to not

take it all for granted considering we're the only kids in america who have done this. >> reporter: the move stands in stark contrast to what's going on in a number of states where there are fierce battles over laws that could make it tougher for folks to vote. things like limiting early voting and requiring photo i.d.s. the view here in tacoma park is the opposite. >> at the local level we can use all the participation we can get to help shape our very local, very service-oriented democracy does. i'm excited by the thought by letting people vote at 16 and 17, they might be better voters. >> reporter: not everyone agreed. councilmember ted schultz was it is loan dissenters believing teens aren't that engaged politically. >> i suspect a lot will come because they're encouraged by their mom or dad. you would like to think people vote on their own volition. >> historically the older voters turn out in large numbers, but

here today the teens took center stage. i feel like most of my friends are just as qualified if not more qualified to vote than a lot of people. >> reporter: by the time they're 18 in the next presidential election, they will be pros. voting date veterans. lisa stark, al jazeera, tacoma park, maryland. to texas now where the results are in on the state's proposition 6. after years of drought voters will set aside $2 billion to create a fund for future water projects. proposition 6 passed with 75% of the vote. mike schneider is joining us live from austin tonight with more on the results. mark. >> reporter: john, it was expected to pass, and yeah, it passed overwhelming. the party has broken up some, but we have video whether there were a lot more people here. it was never a wild celebration. again, people expected this outcome. it now allows $2 billion from the rainy day fund to be used in

low-interest loans to cities and water districts across texas. they can create new reservoirs and lay new pipelines and replace old ones. joe strauss declared victory for proposition 6 only about an hour after the polls closed. >> i want to point out especially the great work of the texas legislature in a bipartisan way. they came together, collaborated, put their best minds together, and came up with a plan that was fiscally responsib responsible. i'm very, very delighted that not only did we pass the bill in the legislature by a huge margin, but the people of texas today validated our good work with an overwhelming vote of support. >> reporter: all right. despite that bipartisan support in this, there were critics who said they don't like the fact that a three-member panel

appointed by governor perry gets to decide what to do with this $2 billion. they would have liked more oversight. john. >> mark schneider in texas. mark, thank you. shocking new allegations in the miami dolphins bullying scandal this time involving the coaches. that's next. >> a fresh take on the stories that connect to you. [[voiceover]] they risk never returning to the united states. >> grounded. >> real. >> unconventional. [[voiceover]] we spent time with some members of the gangster disciples. >> an escape from the expected. >> i'm a cancer survivor. not only cancer, but brain cancer. america tonight next on al jazeera america determining using some sort of subjective interpretation of their policy as to whether or not your particular report was actually abusive, because if it

doesn't contain language that specifically threatens you directly or is targeted towards you specifically, they may not consider it abuse. they may consider it offensive. and in that case they just recommend that you block that person. >> i don't want to minimise this, because i mean, there's some really horrible things that are on line, and it's not - it's not just twitter, what has happened through social media and the anonymity of the net is that you see websites, hate-filled websites targetting all sorts of groups, popping up. there has been a huge number of those that exist as well. >> from our headquarters in new york, here are the headlines this hour. >> al jazeera america is the only news channel that brings you live news at the top of every hour. >> a deal in the senate may be at hand and just in the nick of

time. >> thousands of new yorkers are marching in solidarity. >> we're following multiple developments on syria at this hour. >> every hour from reporters stationed around the world and across the country. >> only on al jazeera america. michael eaves is here with sports. i've fouled the election all day, and i hadn't paid attention to this store. i'm anxious so hear what you have to say. >> startling information out of the south florida right now. after dolphins offensive lineman

jonathan martin missed a voluntary workout this past spring, miami coaches asked richie incognito to toughen him up. the newspaper sources said they asked him to reach out to martin after he missed two days of the organized team's activities and encouraged incognito to get martin back into the fold. otas are voluntary in the nfl, but the current cultu culture g older players to get them to come to workouts. the nfl is kurnltly investigating incognito's treatment of martin including threatening text messages and voice mail. he's serving an indefinite suspension for conduct detrimental to the team. he'd not been seen or heard from until sunday night until today when wsvn tv in miami caught up

with hi outside his doctor's office. >> i'm trying to weather the storm right now, and this will pass. >> reporter: there's an allegation that you left these voice mails on jonathan martin's voice mail. what do you have to say about those? >> no comment right now. we're going to kind of weather the storm and that's it. >> reporter: your status with the dolphins? your status with the dolphins? to the nba. once you win back-to-back championships human nature makes it difficult to be highly motivated for every game especially against lackluster opponents early in the season. such was the case tonight. make the fact that lebron james and company had yet to win a road game this season added extra motivation. this night belonged to lebron. he scored a season high 35 points but he became the fifth player in nba history to score

10 or more points in 500 consecutive games. he joined kareem abdul-jabbar, michael jordan, and michael malone and moses malone. it was the 162nd time during "the stream" he reached 10 points in the first county. james has scored 50 or more points nine times. he scored less than 10 points eight times since entering the league in 2003. he added eight assists and beat the raptors 104-95. in new york the owner of the knicks expects them to win a championship this year. maybe they should concentrate on beating a non-playoff team first. the bobcats took care of this game from the beginning and hung on down the stretch to win it 102-97. knicks now 1-3 to start the season. finally in dallas the mavericks hosted the lakers, who are expected to be without kobe bryant for the next several weeks following off-season akill

less surgery. ellis nearly outscored the lakers starting five by himself. l.a.'s total was 32 points on the night. mavericks make light work of the lakers, 123-104. >> the dolphins didn't have much to say about this, right? >> they didn't have a comment, other than the fact they're cooperating with the league's investigation into this scandal. >> michael eaves, thank you very much. we'll have awn update on the election and also the weather with kevin coming up.

on august 20th, al jazeera america introduced

let's take a final look at election night. joining us is dave leventhal. he's a senior political reporter at the center for public integrity. dave, let's start with terry mcauliffe. this is what he had to say to supporters tonight. >> over the next four years most democrats and republicans in virginia want to make virginia a model for pragmatic leadership that is friendly to job creation.

>> voters in virginia have a new governor. it's terry mcauliffe. any surprises here tonight? a close win, right? >> a very close win. one big challenge is he got a lot of support from the areas right around here in washington, d.c. and northern virginia. one issue that wasn't talked about quite as much as jobs or the economy or some of the issues that came up in this race was transportation, which is an absolutely huge issue. >> can you explain that? mcviqueira was talking about that earlier tonight. >> it's something that everyone wanted to dodge as much as possible, but it's the 800-pound gorilla in the room. it is just such a problem for so many people. >> traffic problems? >> people have their lives affected, commutes of two or three hours. it's very bad. so this is a major challenge for him. expect democratic voters who came out in force to support him to get him to victory tonight to really be talking about this, even if in the election the candidates themselves didn't

want to talk about it in spades. >> all right. let's go to new jersey now and talk. let's hear what chris christie had to say to supporters. >> i want to promise you tonight, i will not let anyone, anything, any political party, any governmental entity, or any force get in between me and the completion of my mission. >> there really was no question about this one whether it came to chris yisy. it was about how big the win would be, and it was enormous. what does it mean for him going forward? >> it means look forward to 2016. you can almost see that speech for better or for worse, either a democrat or republican using that in a future campaign ad. it's something where he's really trying to re-introduce himself again on a national stage to a national audience in addition to, of course, the people of new jersey who just elected him in a very, very major way.

a lot of democrats coming out to support a republican, which is just a feat you can't pull off in many states. chris christie has been able to do that in new jersey, and that does bode well for his presidential prospects if he chooses to run in 2016. again, he's just somebody who you absolutely have to mention at the top of the list in any conversation about the presidential election. >> let me go to bill de blasio, who won the mayor's race in new york tonight. let's hear what he had to say. >> it doesn't matter where you were born, what you look like, what your religion is, or who you love. if you have brains and heart and guts and faith, this city more than any other in the world will offer you a real chance at a better life. for generations new york has meant opportunity. that's what it has been to so many, and that's what it must be again.

>> so a big change for new york. quickly, if you could, respond to what you think de blasio is headed with the city of new york now? >> if you loved mike bloomberg for his anti-big gulp message to reduce the side of beverages, you'll love bill de blasio and you will hate him if you don't like those things. expect a progressive message out of the gate to hit hard. he's going to be the most liberal mayor new york city has seen in a long, long time. >> dave, thank you very much. we have one more story to tell you about. coralville, iowa has chosen a new mayor and city council tonight. this year's race is influenced by the controversial organization americans prosperity. we have the report. >> the americans for prosperity did not get what it wanted in coralville and in fact it was

handily defeated. it was backed by the billionaire koch brothers, and it came into this community because of the large debt it claimed that the city and city council ran up on development projects. the mayor-elect has been on the city council for ten years, and none of the anti-debt candidates won this evening. we talked earlier to a candidate who says even though he wasn't endorsed by the group, he thinks he was tainted by it anyway. hello again. we're looking at a super typhoon in the western pacific. the joint tie feign warning center upgraded the storm right here. the problem with this is this is going to be the strongest storm system to hit the philippines this year.

so far this year we have seen 11 storms, up to about a category 4 equivalent. this one is super tee foon could be the equivalent of a category 5. the other problem is we're expecting it to hit right here in the eastern part of the philippines, the same place that we saw an earthquake last month that killed 150 people. we will keep you informed. we expect to see a landfall of the system on friday. the other big story is the notice making its way up towards the northern plains and the great lakes. we expect to see another 4 to 6 inches of snow falling across the region. notice the temperatures, though. we have a cold front right here just to the northwest of the front. the temperatures are much colder, actually below freezing. denver is at 23. much warmer ahead of it. memphis is at 63. when you get those conflicting air masses, that's where you get the weather right here, and that's what we have. up towards the northeast we are looking at really some nice conditions. this is a big change since the cold weather we saw on monday

morning. unfortunately, on thursday we are looking at very, very active weather pushing through probably thunderstorms coming through there. a high of 64 degrees dropping off towards the weekend, but it will look better. down towards the southeast, we will see nice conditions from miami, 85 degrees across the board, 86 there. in dallas unfortunately you see very heavy rain on wednesday. thunderstorms and then those -- excuse me. san antonio. those drop off into the high 60s as we go towards friday. up to the northwest, well, we're looking at another system coming in off the pacific. that's going to bring very heavy rainshowers across much of seattle. take a look at the five-day forecast. wednesday, thursday, friday for seattle we're looking at rainshowers. it's not until we get towards the weekend on saturday we see a break. that's a look at your national weather. have a great evening, everyone. john has your headlines coming up right now.

welcome to "al jazeera america." i'm john siegen that willer in new york. here are the top stories. virginia elected the next governor, democrat terry mcauliffe. he beat ken cuccinelli. the campaign atraekted a the lo of national attention. the president and vice president both stumped for mcauliffe while marco rubio campaigned for cuccinelli. a couple of other high profile races, republican chris christie won a second term as governor of new jersey. many say he's likely to run for the presidency in 2016. and new york city has elected its first democratic mayor in two decades, bill de blasio easily beat republican joe