the works. this is the first chance for americans nationwide to weigh in by ballot on what has happened since trump took control of the white house. and already we know many, many more americans want a voice today than the last midterm election, at least 33 million ballots have been cast in the early vote, blowing out the total number for 2014. and in just less than three hours, the first polls close in indiana and kentucky, giving us those first indications of if republican will keep control of congress. and cnn has crews all across this country to bring you the very latest on what both parties are calling the most consequential midterm ever. let's begin in florida. rosa flores is there outside miami. of course the anticipation is high for the senate and governor's race. you were telling me that a lot of young people are showing up. >> reporter: you're absolutely right. you know, brooke, florida is known, is infamous for these razor thin margin elections.

trump took this state by about 1% in 2016, and the midterms are no exception. let me set the scene for you because i'm live in the heart of the financial district here in downtown miami. now, this polling place at a church, you don't see a line right now at the moment, but don't be fooled because by the time you woke up this morning, 39% of florida's registered voters had already voted. when you compare that to 2014, that's an increase of 62%. people here are involved. they're out voting. now, when you break down those numbers by party, that's when we get these razor thin margins that we're talking about. of course had is just an indicator because this is based on how people were registered. are you ready for this? the number of republicans is 40.1%. the percentage of democrats of

40.5%. now, that's what we're talking about the razor thin margins. and then there's the 19.3% of no party affiliation or other. since president trump took office, about 1 million people have registered to vote here in florida. and there's this misconception around the country that most of florida's voters are seniors. brooke, that is not the case. 52% of registered voters are either millennials, genxers or genzers. i can tell you there's probably one thing that will unite everybody here in florida after today, and that is that we're no long going to be bombarded by political ads. there's been a lot of them here

in south florida. >> people will not be sad to see them go. rosa flores in miami for us on those key, razor thin races there. we're also watching a potentially historic governor's race in the state of georgia where democrat stacey abrams would like to become the first african-american female governor but she is also in a tight race with the republican brian kemp. we just want to show you the photos of a moving tribute to the pittsburgh shootings. a woman took these picture as she walked into the polling state today. she's an immigrant from saudi arabia and says she has voted in every election since becoming a u.s. citizen in 2012. she says she waited in line for two hours to vote today, even though she arrived just minutes before the polls opened. so with that, gary tuchman is live for us in georgia. i mean, obviously since so many

people are watching when thein,000 yathe in th in,000 when the enthusiasm is there, is that being reflected there? >> reporter: yes, it is. cobb county georgians are voting. there's been a steady stream of voters coming into this precinct. this morning before the doors even opened at 7:00, it was pouring outside, it was thundering and lightning. the reason we came here, it an interesting place. it's the former home of the former speaker of the house newt gingrich. it used to be a very republican county but it's gotten more democratic over the years and in 2016 hillary clinton actually won here over donald trump, and that was not considered very likely. it happened so it's become a

battleground county. you have a combination of the big gubernatorial race and the fact people have come here because they symbolically want to vote with president trump or symbolically want to vote against president trump. the gubernatorial race and that factor have brought a lot of voters. the turnout here and everything so far at this particular precinct has been very smooth. one other thing i want to mention to you, brooke, there have been up to 20 days of voting in the state of georgia. each county does early voting their own way but some counties had 20 days starting october 15th, more than 2.1 million votes had been cast before they came to the polls today, this compares to 900,000 last year, so more than double. there's an intense interest in the state of atlanta. >> my friends, i was like have you voted, you have voted? they said, "we did that a week

ago." >> from virginia, two incumbent republicans may be at risk of losing their seat. in the senate, tim kaine faces cory stewart and president obama made a surprise visit to virginia to campaign for tim kaine. brian, what's the story where you are? >> reporter: a very energized voting base in sterling. this is a key suburban battleground. it's in the suburbs here and all offer the country that the battle for the house is going to play out. here in sterling and in this tense voting district where barbara comstock defending her seat against wexton. they have more than doubled the output from the mid terms. a lot of that is gentlemen like the gentleman i'm about to speak

to now. you're an employee at sales force, a big technical company here. what drove you to the polls? >> pretty much a change of what's going on in this country? there's a lot of pretty much unpleasing things that are going on. so as someone of african-american dissent, i think it's my civic duty to participate in democracy so pretty much we need a change in how we approach people, how we talk about things, how we resolve issues and not to attack everything we don't agree with. we're never going to agree with everything but we can come to a common understanding on differences that we have. >> reporter: we're told whether you agree with president trump or disagree with him, he's driving people to the polls today. did he drive you to the polls? >> he did but i wanted to come by someone not dividing us.

i came out to give my civic vote. >> reporter: it's the young dynamic, brooke, that has really taken over this district and this county. the numbers are staggering in 2011 they had seven voting precincts in loudon county, now they have 98. 76,000 more registered voters have come into this county. it's one of the most fast growing, most affluent counties in the country. right now it's a key suburban battleground, especially that race between barbara comstock and jennifer wexton, a very tight, tight race. >> you appreciate the enthusiasm on both sides of the aisle. brian todd, thank you. let's take a deeper dive now with a reality check of what to look for tonight. john avalon, what do you have?

>> after you go out and vote, keep an eye on the basic election benchmarks. first thing, the number 37. that's the average number of house seats that a president party loses in the midterms if he's below 50% approval. and president trump is way below 50% in the latest cnn poll, an historic low for a first term of 39%. democrats need just 23 seats to gain control of the house. on the plus side for the president, unemployment is near a 50-year low and if republicans lose more than 63 seats, it could be a tsunami but that is looking not likely. ten are the number of states that they are trying to flip seats in. it's an even steeper uphill climb for democrats. they need to pitch a near perfect game to gain control of

senate. 16% is the average swing of independent voters to opposition party in the last three midterm elections. speaking of swing voters, 206. that's the number of so-called pivot counties that president trump won in 2016 that barack obama had won twice before. look at this map. that's the real battleground, folks. notice how they cluster around the upper midwest, iowa, wisconsin, michigan. democrats are making strong runs for governor in each of these states. while it's annoying to say it all comes down to turnout, it's a cliche because it's true. 40% is the average turnout for eligible voters in the last three midterm elections, including the wave election of 2006 and 2010. america should be able to do better than only 4 in 10 voters casting a ballot given the stakes. whatever your age, whatever your party affiliation, today's the day, go out and vote because

democracy is not a spectator sport. >> amen to that, john avalon. i did my in-person absentee ballot back home in new york on saturday. and you voted? >> oh, yes. >> of course you did. >> to john's point, has the president made voting great again for both sides? and also a new line was crossed. new reaction from employees at fox news after sean hannity appeared on stage with trump during a rally, after specifically saying he would not do that. so will fox take action? and just in, broken voting machines, long lines, bad weather, we are getting our first sense of some of the issues voters are experiencing today. we'll get an update from the department of homeland security coming up here. you're watching special election

coverage. here we are, wherever "here" might be. election day. when you rise above the... the noise. the tweets. the talking heads. what you hear and what you see are two different things. you hear about how "we're a nation divided." yet, from where we sit, we see no such thing.

we see half a million people - today alone - stitching together some supposedly very divided states. red states. blue states. and every shade of purple in between. we see people working across party lines. state lines. yes, even airlines. all looking for for that uncommon, common ground. a nice reminder: that if you really want to see what this country is made of. maybe it's best to go see it for yourself. i'm a musician about to embark on a concert tour,r. with the majority of which will be down south. atlantic city? the deep south. this thanksgiving... in the deep south, there's gonna be problems. when you see me worried... tony. you'll know if i'm worried. how about some quiet time. it's amazing you said that, my wife used to say that all the time. their journey inspired an unexpected friendship.

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welcome back, you're watching cnn. i'm brooke baldwin. just before president trump's final campaign rally last night in missouri, fox news host sean hannity said he would not go on stage with president trump a day before the election, except he did. >> mr. president, i did an opening monologue today. i had no idea you were going to

invite me up here. >> fox news and hannity himself said he was only there to broadcast the show and to cover the rally. so the criticism has been pouring in. now the network is responding. so let's go to brian stelter with that, our cnn business chief, media considers and host of "reliable sources." what is fox saying about this, brian? >> this is very strange, brooke. hannity was presented as a special guest at this rally. everybody knew the campaign was promoting his appearance there. fox tried to distance itself from the campaign saying hannity is just there to interview the president. but as everyone saw, he got up on stage, he revelled in the attention and he was there to help the campaign. look at the statement from the network reacting to all the criticism saying, fox news does not condone any talent participating in campaign events, we have an extraordinary

helming of journalists tonight and we're extremely proud of their work. this was an unfortunate distraction. hannity is not a journalist, he's an entertainer. there's a story on cnn.com now about how staffers inside fox are really troubled by this erosion of standards at fox news. obviously fox is a cornerstone of the gop get out the vote effort and there's no denying that. what fox's primeti timelintime s is support the republican party. for years conservative media has supported candidates like president trump and all the senate candidates running on the

republican ticket. you know what's happened the last two years? there have been progressive media companies like crooked media, they are on the ballot in some because tonight because they've been doing these huge get-out-the-vote effort. >> just in case you thought there was any bit of daylight between that other channel and now this white house, barely exists. brian stelter, thank you very. i want to open up this conversation with ana navarro. welcome back. the midterms, the enthusiasm, the voters are out and about. despite how you may feel and we know how you feel about the current president, do you -- did he make voting great again? i know. i know. >> i do think that the silver

lining to the trump presidency is he has awoken something in america which had been asleep. i think we had forgotten about the responsibilities and duties that come with living in the greatest democracy in the world, and you see now a level of engagement, a level of participation that you didn't see before. >> so midterms. >> i think we are seeing the number of lgbq people of color, women candidates as a result reaction to donald trump. i think the metoo movement owes a lot of energy to his election because so many people were so angered and frustrated by seeing that. we see it in the protests that happen improve mptu all the tim. the hive is awake. he's awoken the hive. >> absolutely.

he energized voters on both side. the problem is what is it going to mean for republicans? and we don't know until we know, but i just spoke to a republican source who has a lot of information about tracking polls and exit polls and this is what the source said -- we lose the house, we keep the senate. trump's closing arguments helped with tight senate races, probably. they don't know. they won't say there's a lock. but probably did real damage in suburban swing districts and here's the close, we could be wiped out in california, new jersey and pennsylvania. >> could be wiped out. >> probably, could, maybe, if. it's interesting how the conversation after 2016 is couched on so many contingencies.

if you stop eating carbs, if you lose weight, do exercise and have less stress, you're going to feel better and live longer. >> because everyone was wrong and no one -- better to be probably than wrong this time around. >> you mentioned a second ago women. i think there are a lot of woke women in this country. it's almost as if in the 11th hour president trump or someone at the white house was like uh-oh, we may have a women problem. when you looked at the rally last night, you ivanka trump, sarah sanders, kellyanne conway and it was an awkward moment when the president was teeing up his own daughter. watch this. >> i don't know if they'll say this is nepotism, but the truth is -- you're not allowed to use the word beautiful anymore when you talk about women. you're not allowed. it's politically incorrect. no, no. it politically -- i will never call a woman beautiful again. and every man here, every man

here, raise your hand. you will never, ever say your wife, your girl friend, anybody is beautiful, right? so i'm not allowed to say it because -- because it's my daughter ivanka. but she's really smart. and she's here. should i bring her up? come on. ivanka, come up. >> i do think it's -- so there was that. i do genuinely think it fascinating the gender gap story that came out of the cnn polls here on today's elections and fast forwarding to 2020. he's going to have a problem with women. >> listen, my beautiful women friends, it used to be a gender gap. it is right now a gender grand canyon, which requires more than a bridge to gap. and i think, you know, you don't -- you don't build that bridge in one rally on one night. by the way, a ridiculous rally

and a ridiculous stunt and ridiculous attempt. it's been destroyed and it's been built, the gap, by many years. you know, what have we seen in the last few weeks? we have seen a kavanaugh hearing, where we saw a judiciary committee, the members of the republican judiciary committee, not one woman, on an issue that ended up being so much of a gender issue and affected so many women. we saw the chair of the judiciary committee, the republican, say there's no women in the republican judiciary committee because it's too much hard work. despite the fact that the democrat ranking member is a woman and 80 years old. so, you know, i think it's been so many things. of course trump's tone, trump's language, trump's flaunting and boasting of sexual assault. yeah, those things don't help, you know. and this is a stunt, a

last-minute stunt that's not going to change anybody's mind. by this point you don't know who donald trump is, i don't know where you've been for the last three years. >> i do think there are so many potential firsts and so many women, an unprecedented number of women running for office this year. it will be interesting to see how many of them are actually elected, much in part because of how the nation feels about him. >> those black women in alabama, sisters, come out, latinas, come out. >> ana navarro and jamie gangel, thank you so much. coming up, we'll take you to texas. that race has generated so much attention. even triumph, the insult comic dog went to the lone star state. >> tell me this, beto, does it concern you that half your base thinks they can vote for you through instagram? >> yeah, it's going to have to turn into real votes. >> ted, is it true you would

defend the constitution at all costs, except for when donald trump calls it ugly on twitter? >> i love the constitution. and twitter is twitter.

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and let us entertain you... ...with over 3,500 channels of entertainment, including the latest movies and box sets from around the world. ( ♪ ) we even have live sports and news channels. ( ♪ ) and your free wi-fi will start shortly. enjoy your flight mr. jones. world's best inflight entertainment. fly emirates. fly better. ( ♪ ) everybody wants a new, different, better world. here's to the people who do what it takes to build it... to keep it running. the people who understand no matter what the question, the obstacle or the challenge, there's only one answer... let's do the work. (engine starts, hums) that last place was pretty nice.

i don't like this whole thing. i think we can do better. change is hard. try to keep an open mind. come on, dad. this is for me, son? principal. we can help you plan for that.

one of the most contentious

senate races is unfolding today in texas. you have the democrat here, beto o'rourke, who is hoping to unseat the republican incumbent there, senator ted cruz, in a deep red state. senator cruz's closing argument is that o'rourke is dangerous for texas. >> we're seeing conservative democrats, moderate democrats. there have been million of conservative moderate democrats in texas over the years. those texas democrats are looking at the national democratic party and it's getting so extreme, getting so radical. >> o'rourke was spotted voting in el paso today. he said he is ignoring the polls and is confident he will pull this one off. >> reporter: are you expecting to win? >> yes. >> reporter: what do you base that on? >> i just don't have a poll, don't have a pollster. just traveled to every single county in texas, listened to everybody. have so many amazing volunteers that we are working with, knocking on millions of doors,

making that human-to-human connection that we are in such desperate need of at this moment of division in the country, bringing people together. i feel it. and so, yeah, it feels good. >> with me now todd gillman, the washington bureau chief for the "washington news." ted cruz wants to hold on to that senate seat. probably didn't think it would be as close as it has been. beto o'rourke getting a lot of texans out and enthused. talk to me about early numbers in texas. what are you seeing? >> they're big but nobody know what is it means. there is clearly a surge among younger voters, voters under 30, that is almost certainly breaking for beto o'rourke. can you s you can see it in the crowds. the democrat crowd are very big, more ethnically diverse than

republican crowds. but there's also more turnout that favors cruited cruz. you have issues on the minds of voters like president trump that really cut both ways. the democrats want to send a message, and the republicans see the democrats wanting to send a message and push back against it. >> if o'rourke loses the senate race tonight, i know he has said he is not interested in a presidential run, but can you see the democratic party just based upon sheer enthusiasm for this young guy in texas, do you see the democrats trying to change his mind? >> well, possibly. there are certainly many people in the democrat being party in texas and beyond texas who have become absolutely worshipful of beto, but i really have to question the logic of putting somebody up for president who hasn't even carried his own state. the math for democrats becomes wonderful if texas becomes

democratic because then you have texas plus new york plus california and it becomes almost insurmountable for republicans in a white house race. but if texas is not part of that equation and you put a texan on the ballot -- now, could he be up for a cabinet in a democratic administration? certainly. would he be a terrific surrogate for democrats running around the country? sure. if he wins the senate race, well, now he's a dragon sl oon took down ted cruz and took texas blue, if not purple. >> let me ask you about ted cruz. what happens if ted cruz loses? >> i don't know. he was making well over a million dollars a year as an appellate lawyer. he is a tremendously talented appellate lawyer. if he loses, i think his presidential ambitions are over. because if he's the guy who was -- who lost texas when republicans haven't lost a statewide race here since 1994,

he already has this kind of divisive, abrasive personality. people love him or hate him. it was always going to be a bit of an uphill road for him to run for president. it's a little hard to imagine. again, if he wins reelection, when trump is no longer running, then the next opportunity it is possible that cruz would try again for the white house. >> mm-hmm. todd gillman, thank you very much in texas. coming up next, it's not just about the candidates here, folks. it is about marijuana and medicaid expanse aion and everything in between. we'll break down the ballot measures to watch next with mark preston. it felt like my heart was skipping beats. they said i had afib. what's afib? i knew that meant i was at a greater risk of stroke.

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welcome back to our special live coverage of election day. control of congress, that's not the only pressing issue on the minds of voters here because for some states, marijuana, criminal justice reform and health care are all on the ballot. so cnn senior political analyst mark preston is here with a couple of examples of these ballot measures. >> in arkansas you need an i.d. to vote today, but you're voting on whether you need an i.d. to vote. the reason being because in arkansas they have tried to pass laws a couple times.

the most recent was knocked down as unconstitutional by the federal district court, but since then the state supreme court said that in fact you will need an irch.d. to vote today. but they are voting on whether in the future you'll need an i.d. to vote. north carolina as well, the same thing, where you're going to need -- they want it enshrined within their constitution. let's go to florida. >> this is interesting. >> this is really interesting. 1.5 million former felons might be able to vote after tomorrow. and if you put that in perspective, 13 million people right now, brooke, can vote in florida. you're adding 1.5 million people to the rolls if this is approved, that would be amazing. >> that doesn't include, though -- >> rapists, people accused of sexual offenses. >> and then marijuana. >> right. >> legalize it? >> they are projecting right now marijuana will be a $21 billion industry by 2021. it was only $9 billion a few years ago.

michigan and north dakota legalizing recreational marijuana. there's a good thing it can happen medicinally, too. in missouri they're voting not on one but three different taxing measures on legalizing medical marijuana. in utah, looks like it's going to pass. we already have opponents and supporters working together to try to get some kind of compromise no matter what happens. >> and lastly, i think we have time, medicaid expansion. >> medicaid expansion, a very, very big deal. specifically among states that were not accepting it, idaho, utah, nebraska. ida idaho, the governor, endorsed medicare expansion. these states that did not have lost tens of millions of dollars and they're trying to get back in the game. >> mark preston, thank you very

much. coming up next, broken voting machines, shortage of paper ballots and polls that opened late. we'll have an update for you from the homeland security. be right back. [ disapproving grunts ] [ gulping ] uhh. how much emotional eating have i been doing? [ wimpers ] that's hurtful. here we are, wherever "here" might be.

election day. when you rise above the... the noise. the tweets. the talking heads. what you hear and what you see are two different things. you hear about how "we're a nation divided." yet, from where we sit, we see no such thing. we see half a million people - today alone - stitching together some supposedly very divided states. red states. blue states. and every shade of purple in between. we see people working across party lines. state lines. yes, even airlines. all looking for for that uncommon, common ground. a nice reminder: that if you really want to see what this country is made of. maybe it's best to go see it for yourself. i saw my leg did not look right. i landed.

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on this election day in america, we could see record turnout for midterm voting nationwide. but what if you're among those in the other camp, the maybe voter? maybe you're wondering after a long day at work is it really

worth it to sit through traffic in bad weather to wait in a long line to vote? if that is you, you have to hear from 79-year-old marian haslem. as a black woman from the deep south, imagine the lengths she went through back in the day to try to vote. >> tell me what these pieces of paper are. >> this is the test that said i was eligible to vote for the next six months. >> this is before the voting rights act of 1965, dated january 20th, 1964. >> that's right. >> was that the first time -- >> that was the first time. this is where i paid to vote. i had to pay a tax. this is a poor tax. i had to pay to vote after i passed the test because of the color of my skin. see, voting was not so much of a right for me as a want for me. it was a big deal to be a voter. >> and we had a much longer conversation. if you don't vote, miss marian

will take offense. let's honor the generation with our power today. it's a similar message that we heard from oprah last week. she shared a story from some 17 years ago where he walked miles to vote. >> he walked six miles to go to the polling location in le grange. after he got there in his good suit and tie, they said, "boy, you at the wrong place, you at the wrong place. you need to go to mountville." so he walked another six miles to mountville. and when he got there they said, boy, you at the wrong place, you need to go to the rosemont school." i picture him walking from dawn to dusk in his suit, his feet

tired, getting to the rosemont school and they say, "boy, you too late, the polls are >> we were eagerly awaiting his return home, and we were hurt, we were pained, we were saddened that he had not had the chance to cast his vote, but it also built within his children and now his grandchildren and great-grandchildren the determination to be a part of the voting rights process in every election. >> and finally, consider the enduring message of major brent taylor, the utah mayor and national guardsman who was killed this past week in afghanistan. in his final message on facebook, echoed today by his widow. >> brent himself put it best

just days ago when he implored of us all, i hope everyone back home exercises their precious right to vote, and whether the republicans or the democrats win, i hope that we all remember that we have far more as americans that unites us than divides us. may god forever bless america. >> so if you have thought of a reason not to vote today, let's honor these americans. it is our right and our privilege to do so. we are getting some reports of broken machines, a shortage of ballots. we're getting our first sense of those issues voters have run into today. we'll have those details for you next.

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that last place was pretty nice. i don't like this whole thing. i think we can do better. change is hard. try to keep an open mind. come on, dad. this is for me, son? principal. we can help you plan for that.

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than your customers thought possible. comcast business. beyond fast. after all the talk of election meddling and voter suppression, we have been keeping a close eye out today for any issues that voters have run into while trying to cast their ballots. the department of homeland security insists there has been nothing out of the ordinary, which is a great thing. let's go to cnn's alex marquardt. >> reporter: there have been a lot of issues, but there always will be. we need to emphasize that. what we are seeing so far has not been truly disruptive or

extraordinary. we've been keeping tabs on a whole range of issues. everything from what has been happening at the polling stations to the machines, all the way to what we really fear the most, and that is hacking into the systems by malicious actors. let's go through those one by one. this is what we're seeing at the polling stations across the country. i can't go state by state, because that would take too long, but we have seen long lines, especially in places like georgia. sometimes there simply aren't enough machines for the number of voters who have turned out. jesse jackson down in georgia today called it inhumane, how long the lines were and how few machines there were. in some places, there aren't enough ballots. in some places, the scanning machines are not working. as you mentioned, the department of homeland security looking at these issues, talking to the vendors and the polling stations, the state election officials there, saying these are typical issues. they're not necessarily extraordinary. brooke, you and i have talked about misinformation. this is also another one of the fears. on twitter, on facebook, people

putting out wrong information about how to vote, where to vote, what times you can vote. so far today we've seen the secretaries of state in both new jersey and rhode island say they have seen reports of misinformation. just a short time ago, dhs saying they have seen intentional misinformation that was rapidly addressed by the platforms, those would be the social media platforms. the states and we in the media, we at cnn, are always cautioning voters to check out the official feeds, the official websites for that official information on where to vote. you have to go to the official resources. then you have something as simple as the weather. a lot of people vote depending on the weather. you can see this blue band up and down the east coast. there's a lot of rain today. that's going to affect lines. that's going to affect people deciding whether they actually want to go out and vote. finally, the big fears i mentioned, hacking. so far, there's zero sign of any sort of breaches or hacking. there is some scanning, which is akin to you being on google

street view and a malicious actor taking a look at a house on google. so they're testing, they're looking, they're probing. there have been so far no intrusions. they're calling it run of the mill. everything they've seen they cannot trace back to a single actor like russia. so brooke, a lot of these issues, all across the board, but nothing so far truly disruptive. >> good. knocking on my desk here. we did just get some video of the government's command center for monitoring elections. tell me more about their process. 30 seconds. >> so there are a number of command centers, a number of operations rooms that dhs has set up. what you're looking at there is one of the rooms in arlington, virginia, that's being run by the department of homeland security. you've got a lot of different agencies in there. you have a lot of different companies like facebook and twitter. you have the vendors as well. this is just dhs showing us it's all hands on deck, that everyone is communicating so we can have a safe and secure election. >> as it should be. i know you're tasked with any

potential voter irregularities tonight. in the nicest way possible, i hope we don't see you once. alex, thank you very much for covering all that for us. stay with cnn for all the latest on election night. i'm brooke baldwin. thanks for being with me. "the lead" with jake tapper, starts right now. welcome to a special election day edition of "the lead." i'm jake tapper. we're just two hours away from the first crucial polls closing tonight. polls closing at 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. eastern that could give us an early and important indicator of wheres night might be headed. we're in the thick of what is perhaps the most critical nonpresidential election in modern times. it's clear many of the votes being cast today are being cast either for or against president trump and his policies and the future of the trump presidency could hang in the balance.