time. it is go time. we are not even down to the wire. this is it. i'm don lemon, of course, joining erin burnett today, trying to help erin out today although she doesn't need the help. this is an election unlike we have ever seen before, erin. millions of voters have lined up across the country. they have been doing it for days, right? doing it for weeks. but many lined up before dawn. and even before the first polls opened this morning, 100 million ballots have already been cast here in the united states. that is a jaw-dropping number. the president is about to visit the rnc offices in arlington, virginia. he has been expected to return to the white house, erin, for the night. so we'll see. >> we will see. a gorgeous day in washington and across this country. no excuse for people to not be out there voting if they haven't already. joe biden spending the day in pennsylvania soon heading to wilmington, delaware, where he'll spend the evening. the next four hours, we'll talk to voters as we count down to history.

it is an extraordinary moment in this country. this election taking place during a deadly pandemic that has taken the lives of more than 230,000 americans and yet we are seeing turnout we have not seen in probably 120 years. and we have reporters fanned out across this country in crucial battleground states. i want to start with randi kaye in florida. what is the scene where you are in lighthouse point? >> reporter: hello, erin. we're here in lighthouse point, as you said. this is a very red pocket in a very blue county. we're in broward county, florida. right near ft. lauderdale. there was a line here at this voting precinct earlier. that line has gone down. but we did get a chance to talk to some voters. but i can tell you that we don't expect a lot of really long lines today because about 850,000 people have already voted here in broward county. that was in the early voting, in the vote by mail and the in-person early voting which ended on sunday.

and about 9.1 million people have voted statewide, about 95% of the 2016 total. so we don't expect to see long lines. but i did get a chance to speak to some people here. one guy didn't want to tell me who he votesed for but he didn't decide until he went inside. he was full of angst for weeks and was pro life and wants racial equality and is torn to vote for. the person he voted for he wasn't still happy with his choice but felt he vould vote. a woman said she voted for donald trump. she thinks that he's handled the pandemic well and he's been honest with the american people. we're certainly getting a mix of opinions here. but here in broward, hillary clinton really did well back in 2016. so it is a highly democratic area. she had about 66% of the vote here. so it is a very, very blue area of the state. the supervisor of elections here in broward expected that we

would see 100,000, maybe 125,000 people voting in-person today on election day. we already well into that, of course, with more than 54,000 just here in this county. but we'll see where it goes. the question is, who is voting today? right? we have the independents about 1.9 million of them voted in the state already so far. we'll see if more of them turn out. we'll see the republicans turn out for donald trump. he is expected to do well in the pan handled and miami dade and pulling in that cuban american support. joe biden expects to do well in places like here in broward county and elsewhere in the state. the african-american vote was lagging a bit in the latina vote was lagging a bit in the miami area, but they were certainly hoping to boost that so they sent barack obama in there earlier this week. so we will see. as we know, donald trump won this state in 2016 by about 113,000 votes, act 1.2% joe biden, of course, erin, would like to change that. >> i mean, it is amazing when you see what's happening.

and people voting with their party and those all-important independents. so far outpacing the margin of the last victory trump had. it all depends where they go. let's go to philadelphia, pennsylvania. people have been lined up before the polls even opened. that's where kate bolduan is today. what are you seeing where you are in philly? >> reporter: hey there, erin. we are at the museum of the american revolution. a place that is rich with symbolism when you're talking about election day in america. this is the first time that this location has been a polling site in philadelphia after the county expanded the number of polling sites after the primary. we can show you some video from this morning when we arrived here just before 7:00. that's when doors opened. there were lines kind of around the block as people were waiting. they've been lining up since about 6:00 in the morning from folks i spoke to. once the doors opened, when there was the real kind of rush of the morning, was about an

hour-long wait. the line has completely died down now. you can see behind us, you can see those voting booths and the tables are all set up for their electronic voting system. i spoke with several of the voters outside when we were waiting to get in. and i asked them why they wanted to take part in voting in person today rather than take advantage of the mail-in ballots that we've talked so much about since this is the first time that pennsylvania has allowed no excuse mail-in voting. and overwhelmingly the voters i have spoken to they say they wanted to make sure that their vote counted. they wanted to leave no shadow of a doubt. that's why they were going to show up. it's in the midst of a pandemic and they wanted to vote in person. as far as the mail-in voting, we've got updates from the secretary of state just a short time ago. and the numbers are huge. more than 2.5 million mail-in ballots have been returned. it's an increase of about 100,000 from their report yesterday. and they say that represents more than 81% of all of the mail-in ballots that are out there.

so they're getting a big return in terms of mail-in balloting. the spokesman for the county, erin, tells me that there have been -- they think, around the county of philadelphia, things are going well. there's been a smattering of reports of issues, but right now would be among the 718 polling stations in the county they are not concerned. there are no significant issues so far. erin? >> let's hope it stays that way. obviously all eyes on pennsylvania where kate is. i want to go to another state everybody is focussed on at this hour, wisconsin. nearly 2 million early votes had already been cast as of this morning, which is 64% of the total ballots cast in 2016. now it comes down to whether we're going to make another record there based on turnout today. ryan young is live in milwaukee. ryan, what are you seeing? and what are voters telling you? >> reporter: yeah, absolutely. what a big number and a lot of energy put behind this vote so far. we arrived here around 5:00 a.m. this morning. people slowly started rolling in around 6. we saw lines all the way down this hallway but obviously right now you can see there's a little

bit of a lull right now. voters usually check in right there. then they go in through the process. you see all the workers wearing ppe. right now you can see someone is cleaning the door, making sure as folks walk in they're not exposed to the coronavirus. that's a big deal because the numbers in this state have been pretty high. now, we're five miles south of downtown milwaukee, which this area went red in 2016. let's not forget that donald trump narrowly won this state by less than 1% back in 2016. so these voters really know that their votes count. if you look back in this direction, you can see the active voting that's going on right now. this is the whole process. we've been talking to folks who have been telling us what they care about. they wanted to make sure not only was their vote heard, but they wanted to be a part of history. in fact, take a listen. >> a change for everyone to get back to living normal and being, you know, happy to live where we don't have to worry about dying

or being sick or not being able to go outside, not being able to do things with our kids. so it's very important for people to get out and vote. >> reporter: don, she was a small business owner. it really meant something to her to be here to do that vote. we talked to another man who told us basically he didn't like both candidates but he felt he had to vote especially because he knows people are counting on wisconsin. look, this whole idea if you look inside there, you saw all the workers wearing the ppe, everybody is wearing their mask and this is a place you can show up on the last day, show up today, and register to vote and cast your vote and walk on out. right now, no lines, no waiting. people are interested to see how this turns out in this state. don? >> yeah. erin, listen, this is what people have been -- we weren't sure about. we've seen so many people voting early. how is that going to affect the numbers today on election day? nobody knows. >> nobody knows. >> nobody knows. thank you, ryan. maybe mark preston knows. our senior political analyst

here at cnn live at the magic wall for us. i've been wondering, mark, that wall is so magic, why doesn't it tell us who is going to win? >> well, in some ways it kind of does, don. how about this. let's start off where we were, don, back in four years ago when the dust all settled. this was donald trump's victory right here. you have a sea of red. a few islands of blue, but basically donald trump really dominated. and dominated in states, by the way, that democrats had traditionally won. let's watch, where was donald trump yesterday which kind of tells you the path that he's looking at. he was in florida. he was in georgia. he was in north carolina. he was in michigan. he was in iowa as well. now, if you look at where we are now, that drops his total down to 224 electoral votes. you need 270 electoral votes, of course. let's look at where we're going right now. let's assume that donald trump can win florida. republicans, even though there has been a huge democratic turnout, republicans are pretty bullish on that.

look, georgia, democrats feel good about georgia. they feel like there's a possibility they could get it, but it's still a republican state. it has really only voted for democrats three times since 1976. two of those times for jimmy carter. let's give that as well to donald trump. look how close he is there right now. 269 votes, 232 votes. well, north carolina might be a little bit of a reach for him, so we're going to give that to joe biden at this point, brings joe biden up, well, where do we go then? we go right here, don. this is what we've been talking about. over and over and over again. these three states in the midwest, let's add this, let's take that away. let's take that away here. and what do we see here? we see pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin and iowa. now, i will say this, there is a good chance, there is a good chance, that donald trump could pick up iowa. and if that's the case, look where he is now, 245.

but the bottom line is, don, he needs to win right through here. this is where donald trump needs to win. and that is what is going to take him to victory. at the same time, though, don, let us look at where is joe biden going to be? well, that all depends. but the bottom line is here, let's go back through these states again. if you look at all these states right here, we'll even throw maine in because it is an arizona out here. look where joe biden can go now. there are so many more paths. even if he loses florida, even if he loses georgia, even if he loses north carolina, joe biden can win pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin and he gets 257. we're not even talking about arizona. >> speaking of joe biden, he's making stops today, mark, in pennsylvania. we know pennsylvania was key obviously in 2016. it's going to be key to this

year's election to the road to 270, getting to 270 electoral votes. so give us -- you said that he has so many more paths. >> right. >> i'm sure you can't do all the scenarios here today. is there a likely path that is going to happen? >> well, don, i think it's worthwhile to say when you look at pennsylvania and in particular right here, this is a state we saw them flood the zone yesterday. joe biden sent everybody into pennsylvania yesterday. joe biden was in pennsylvania today. philadelphia, in scranton today as well. we saw the lines in philadelphia. people are still voting. so, that's really important. also, you hear donald trump talking over and over and over again about what's going to happen in pennsylvania. well, donald trump does really well here and he did really well here. now, we want to see joe biden do well is in here. he wants to do well out here in pittsburgh. and also down here in the middle. >> yeah. and he's got to do well in the big metro areas, right, because what the trump people are trying to do is make it up in the rural areas, trying to get -- get as

many votes there as possible. all right, mark, thank you very much. erin, here we are on election day. >> i know. i know. it's amazing when you talk about where they're each trying to run up the votes and you see that, trump's strategy, run it up everywhere he knows he can in those more rural counties. it worked last time. that's his hope today. so we're going to go around, check everywhere over these next few hours here. don and i checking in with every single reporter and how confident the campaigns feel as they're looking at these turnout lines, right, don. and no lines right now in milwaukee. what does that actually mean? and we'll go to the battleground, latest from georgia and florida as well and ohio and the ohio governor mike divine is going to be with us. you're watching our special coverage, election day in america. still a father. but now a friend. still an electric car. just more electrifying. still a night out.

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welcome back to cnn's special coverage of election day in america. voters making their voices heard in all 50 states right now. polls are open. both candidates traveling today, close to home, but they are out and about, don, right? they are not stopping, not leaving anything on the table at

this point. and so, you've got the first lady casting her in-person ballot in florida this morning. the president, meanwhile, traveling in virginia. as i said near to home. and joining us with more on the president's schedule, our senior white house correspondent joe johns. this is an odd day for the candidates, right? they have to fill the time. they don't want to stop but they're sort of just waiting. what does the schedule look like for the president and the first lady? >> reporter: well, i can tell you one nithing, the president' schedule is slow today. quite frankly the president has been behind schedule all day. he started out about 45 minutes i think behind schedule for a television interview that he did this morning on fox. and now he is headed over to the republican national committee annex in arlington, virginia, just across the river. he's behind schedule on that, in fact, as well. he's going to meet there with some campaign staffers who also have offices there and that is the only thing on his schedule except for the election party,

which is expected tonight. that's here at the white house. initially we've been told this party was going to have about 400 people in attendance, but now we're told that number has been scaled back to 250. it's going to be held in the state floor of the white house, which is specially the first floor of the white house where they hold state receptions. seven rooms there, including the east room, which is cavernous, if you will. and there was some question about what they're going to do about coronavirus and social distancing. and what we do know is that the testing for individuals who are coming to this location will be done off site apparently also we're being told that those people are going to get rapid tests. they're going to be given bracelets when they come into the facility. so those are the things we know about tonight. the big question is whether it will be a victory party or not. just not clear that it will be a

victory party, but the president was asked about it. he said i think we'll have victory but only when there is victory. don, back to you. >> all right. it looks like they're preparing -- thank you, joe. >> erin, looks like they're preparing for something behind joe johns. a lot of activity going on, stages, bank wets. what is that behind you, owe? >> reporter: looks like gardening, quite frankly. there's the garden variety media core, if you will, here certainly on election day to see what happens. >> yeah. we'll see what happens. trying to get it all ready just in case. there is a victory party or whatever kind of celebration or not celebration there is tonight. so, why don't we get to cnn's jeff zeleny, he is our senior washington correspondent tracking the former vice president's schedule today. jeff is in wilmington, delaware, a beautiful place. jeff, good afternoon to you. so what are you seeing there? tell us about the former vice president's movement, how did he spend his morning, what's going

on? >> reporter: well, don, joe biden started his day here at his home in wilwilmington, delaware. he attended mass at his catholic church and spent a brief visit to his son's grave site, beau biden, also visiting the grave sietd of his late wife and baby daughter which started at the very beginning of joe political career. he's also moving forward to scranton, pennsylvania. earlier today, he stopped by his boyhood home in scranton, pennsylvania. pennsylvania is critical to his chances in this election. these 20 electoral votes could not be more important to him and the trump campaign. in visiting his boyhood home. he signed the wall of his boyhood home and he said this -- he said from this house to the white house with the grace of god, joe biden november 3rd, 2020. so we will see if that comes through or comes true later

today. but as for the former vice president now, he's just landed a few moments ago in philadelphia. he's making a few stops there, of course, trying to get out the vote, urge all of those pennsylvania voters who have not yet voted early to cast their ballots in person. then he's going to return here to wilmington. he'll be watching the returns from his home and then move to election center. we just spoke to some top biden advisers just a short time ago and campaign manager jennifer o'malley dillen had this to say. she said we are going to know what the outcome is tonight or what it is shaping up to be, not necessarily the result. but they believe the early voting results coming in from florida, from georgia, from north carolina will give them a shape of what this electorate is looking like. she also says to the former vice president plans to address america this evening, not necessarily to claiming a victory or concession, but addressing america on the election night. they're feeling positive about that. we will see joe biden as the day goes on and apparently tonight

here in wilmington, as well. >>wilmington, delaware. a beautiful day there. lots to talk about now with a lot of folks that we have here. so we have jamie, david gergen with us. so good to see all of you. home. i know everyone is excited. everyone is nervous. we'll try to walk them through it right now. so hello david, let's start with you. trump and biden have made the case and it all comes down to turnout at this point. what are you watching for, david? >> i'm watching for how long the lines appear to be as the day goes on. so far, don, i'm going to say i'm optimistic about what's happening. i think it's good for the country. there was all this talk about the country and our democracy entering a dark chapter. now we have seen two things in the last few days. first, the avalanche of voters, people insisting that, no, to voters are insisting that they control our politics, they select people.

the voters are in charge. i think that's and woreful sign for our democracy. and today, secondly, we have these lines that develop at the various polling booths and very, very importantly, everything has been peaceful. you know, we've gone through all sorts of cities in america today that are boarded up, awaiting possible violence and now this is going on peacefully. i think those are good signs for america. >> it is quite -- it's unnerving, i wouldn't say it's shocking to be here. you live in new york city, to see macy's, madison avenue, fifth avenue, all these businesses boarded up around the country. i've never seen anything like this as it comes to an election. >> right. right now i'm in d.c. the same thing is going on in d.c. you know, just to david's point, i can't believe this is my 10th presidential election that i have covered. and i've been struck by the turnout which i think is just extraordinary and something we

should celebrate. but i think we can't forget this is a referendum on donald trump, which is typical when you have an incumbent. what's not typical is it's also a referendum on how he's handled the coronavirus. and the republicans i've been talking to the last couple of weeks have been concerned that obviously the polls have looked a certain way for a long time now. we're going to see what the voters have to say. but, they are concerned that whatever happens today that trump, if it's not going his way, will fight it. remember the other day we saw former president obama take that 3-point shot and he said that's what i do. well, donald trump, he fights. that's what he does. and they're really concerned about the future of the republican party and one said to me just this morning, more chaos

and disruption is not good for the future of the republican party. >> yeah. >> don? >> it's not unprecedented but it's hard to get an incumbent president out of office. as you have seen what's happened around the country with these long lines, you see the lines, philadelphia up in other polling places, other cities up just moments ago as jamie was speaking. what do you see? how you reading today? >> well, a couple of things. it was interesting and wonderful see the vice president went to mass this morning. there's a great line in the catholic service. >> a lot of people praying today. >> as i wait in joyful hope. that's what the line is. it's a nice statement about people being anxious and hopeful for the future of the country. i have mixed feelings. i got up at 6:00 to stand in line. there was a long line at the polling place i go to. as i got in there, this will ring true for david, how many thousands of american citizens are poll watchers who just contribute their time to do this

peacefully and safely, to do the most sacred thing we do in america, which is to have elections and give everybody a chance to vote. and secretaries of states and clerks of courts and thousands of american citizens making the day go well. it was a very peaceful voting process. i went back a couple hours later just to see how the lines were going to go. by the time goit back there, the line was gone. the other thing to remember, 100 million people have already voted. that is an extraordinary number. in the last highest number i think was 136 million. >> you can't expect election day this time to look like in previous -- considering the number of people -- >> no. >> who voted early. it's not going to look the same. it would be unrealistic to think so. >> it's going to be different. this is going to create a number of different problems throughout the day. there are a number of states that vote early and count early. and if those states come back and they're in favor of joe biden, we'll have a very early night. if they don't come back early, or they don't go in favor of biden and we move into pennsylvania and waiting on wisconsin, et cetera, et cetera, it could be a late night.

then the voting issues will come into play about when they counted, how they counted and how soon we'll know. i don't think we'll know the answer to that obviously until later this afternoon. but, i'm with david. i have a lot of hope that today is going to go better than people expected it to, just from a process point of view and that we're going to know more than we thought we would know tonight rather than tomorrow or the next day. >> we still have a long ways to go until the polls close. people can still vote until we start making projections and you guys are going to be on it hatv long time. thank you very much. >> erin, there's a lot of people hoping and praying today. going to church might not be a bad idea. >> that's right. don, so here we are just hours away from the first returns. as don and i sit here now, in a few hours, we're going to be getting these exit polls and the first states are going to start closing. it's incredible. ohio and georgia could go either way. governor mike dewine from ohio is here and the growing coronavirus threat. deborah birx speaking out saying

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♪ welcome back to our special kov coverage of election day in america. voters have lined up some for hours. ohio, our gary tuckman is there in the strongville, which is just outside of cleveland. gary, how are things where you are? >> reporter: erin, the polls have been open here in the state of ohio and strongsville for 6:03. and this particular precinct for the first 5:55 there was a line of 20, 30, 40 people for the first time all day. i mean, from 6:30 a.m. when the doors opened until now. the line has shortened but there's still a lot of voters here. we picked this precinct at the strongsville senior center in the suburb of strongsville, ho. it's an even steven place. of the city's registered voters, 70% roughly are registered to no party. remaining 30% are exactly split between democrats and republicans. when we talk to voters outside before they come in or after they come in, it's easy to find

biden voters. it's easy to find trump voters. and it reflects what's going on here in the state of ohio. the polls are too close to call. and this is a state that since the civil war has picked a winner in every presidential race except for four times, since the 1860s. what i can tell you right now is that people are coming in here, there's very little drama. it's almost like a race for town assessor. that's really good sign because a lot of people obviously have been frightened to come in to vote. no drama here whatsoever and very few problems in the state. for example, but i want to show you here, erin. this is the registration desk when you come in. and they have ipads which register you on the ipad. in frankly county, the biggest county, columbus, the state capitol, they had minor problems with their ipads. they went back to paper registration, which is what happened four, five years ago in the state of ohio. no big problem. so that's the biggest problem they had here in the state of ohio. what i do want to tell you is

the way they vote here in ohio is people come into these booths. there's nothing electron nick these booths. they have a paper ballot. they put their pen on who they want to vote for. fill in the dot. and then they come to the scanner, these three scanners here. this woman is about to put her ballot in the scanner. once it goes in the scanner, it registers their votes. one more thing i want to tell you, erin, is that unlike pennsylvania, they count votes quickly here. the early voting will start getting tabulated as soon as the polls close at 7:30 p.m. tonight. erin? >> we'll see how quickly that goes. thank you very much, gary. we'll talk to the governor of ohio in just a moment. i want to go to georgia first. spalding county, just south of atlanta, did have an system wide issue with polling machines. we understand that's been fixed. i want to go to nick valencia in georgia for us. we understand these issues were resolved in spalding county, but you have an issue that causes a delay and can have a bigger domino effect. what more can you tell us? >> reporter: it was scary this

morning in spalding county. we understand a computer glitch took down the voting machines and led officials to have to bring in about 2,000 provisional ballots. as you mention, erin, it has quickly, according to the state, been resolved. that seems to be the story line here across the state of georgia. look here in gwen net county, there's no one in line. there were people waiting at 5:30 to vote. they waited 40 minutes. across the state, according to the secretary of state's office, the average is 30, 40 minutes to wait. no one in the urban centers is waiting more than 30 minutes to vote. this is the battleground within the battleground state of georgia. i want to show you what's going on, very minimal activity. this is a county because of recent demographic changes inched towards the left. it's where you can find trump supporters as well as biden supporters. and joe biden is hoping to inch this county even further to the left. hillary clinton won this county in 2016. and the gubernatorial candidate

for the dems in 2018 stacy abrams carried the county giving optimism to joe biden's adviser. biden has to fight a lot here. 16 electoral votes the first democratic nominee since 1992 if he wins the state. but of course this is a state that trump carried by 5 percentage points without even visiting just to show you how desperate he is, though, to win this state, trump has been here three times since july. last week joe biden was here for the full day. sending his closing message in warm springs. he desperately wants to win this state and advisers are telling him he can. the polls are close here. they are expecting an uptick during the lunch hours. we'll see what happens after 5:00 p.m. when people start getting out of work. erin? >> nick, thank you very much. it is just so amazing we watch all of us together trying to understand what it means when you see a line or don't see a line or, you know, on the back of what's been historic early voting across this nation. i want to go to the governor of ohio, republican mike dewine as promised. governor, i really appreciate

your time. so, you know, we were just talking to gary tuckman laying out things are working in spalding and how they go with the ipads and log in and they submit their ballots. and then he said unlike pennsylvania, you all are going to count quickly and start the second the polls close. how quickly are you going to count? are we going to be able to know clearly tonight which way ohio goes? >> well, i think so. you know, unlike other states we allow things to get ready the absentee ballots as well as the in-person voting. we had a huge in-person voting and absentee ballot, maybe half of all the votes that counted were cast before election day. but those will be the votes that are counted first. and so, after 7:30 p.m. they can count those, they can put them in the machine, they can run them. and you know, we'll get some -- the early numbers that will come back will be those early votes, those will be the absentee. one would expect that biden at

that point would be ahead and then the rest of the night frankly president trying to catch biden. and you know, he either will or he won't. i think he will. i think it's going to be a very, very close race. i think the president squeaks it out. >> squeaks it out. let me ask you about the turnout because this is the big question, right? 3.4 million ohio voters are the numbers i have, governor, cast absentee ballots are voted early, 60% of the total number of votes cast in the entire 2016 election. so before this election, ohio never passed this number driven by the pandemic. what are you seeing today? are we going to set a record for all of ohio? are you seeing the in-person surge or not? >> yeah. there's quite a big in-person surge. fran and i vote in cedarville. our wait was about 45 minutes. we went at a time about 10:15 that should have been not that

heavy. they told us at the polls where we have several precincts coming together that literally from 6:30 when they opened the doors it never stopped. the line was around the building. and i'm getting texts from people around the state who are seeing that. so i think you're seeing a very large vote. >> well, i'm glad. i think people are glad to hear governor's wait in line, too, 45 minutes. gives you a sense of how things are going. >> it's a beautiful day out today, though. >> so our poll has ohio at a dead heat, 46%. joe biden did a last minute play going to cleveland. you said you think trump is going to squeak it out. what gives you that confidence? >> well, the president is going to do well again in the ohio valley, which is historically a democrat area. steubenville, youngstown, ma hoeny valley that area along the river. he's going to do exceedingly well in all rural counties of the state. i think he could exceed even the votes he got the last time.

you know, he's going to be obviously weaker in some of our suburbs, suburbs around columbus, for example. so it's going to be a close race. the president won with a big margin last time, but i think he's going to win this time. i think the intensity is there. the ground game it seems to me from what i can observe for the trump team, you know, has been a lot better than the ground game for the biden team. >> huh. that's really interesting and we'll see how significant that sort of thing is going to be, right? >> it's going to be close. >> usually that is crucial. so i want to ask you one other thing, the u.s. postal service keeps reporting these drop in on time movement of ballots. it's a problem. makes a lot of people worry, right, the day running. fewer than 80% of ballots in ohio were moved on time and you talk about the ohio valley, that number there is in the low 70s. so, my understanding, governor, is that in your state if you postmark a ballot by yesterday, it's going to count if it gets received by november 13th. so you've got some pad, ten days. >> ten days.

>> ten days after the election. so are you confident that every single one of those mail-in ballots that was postmarked by yesterday will be counted? >> well, i don't think anybody can guarantee every single one, but ten days is a long time. we have great opportunities for people to vote and for their ballots to be counted. so i like our system in ohio. you can vote in person. you can vote the weekend before in person or you can vote for a whole four weeks absentee. so we have very open voting in ohio. i think the democrats and republicans who run it at the precinct levels do a phenomenal job. secretary of state has done a good job. so we're not seeing any glitches yet so far and don't expect any. >> all right, governor dewine, i appreciate your time. good to talk to you, sir. >> good talking to you. >> you heard what he said that we should get a clear result out of ohio this evening. next, coronavirus entering its most deadly phase as voters go to the polls. this is according to an alarmed task force doctor. dr. deborah birk now speaking

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election day in america, new numbers that we just have show more than 102 million americans casting early ballots amid the pandemic. we have been telling you 100, we have up to 102 people early voting and now long lines in key swing states on the actual final day in person including in pennsylvania. a state that could decide who wins the white house. so, this is the big question, right, with all the complexity here of 50 states and 50 sets of rules and 50 sets of complications on absentee and early and in-person, how are we going to put it all together? let's go to sam fise. it couldn't get more complicated than the stew you have to put together. everybody wants to know how likely is it that we're all going to know tonight or wake up tomorrow morning and know who

won? >> well, i'm not going to put odds on it, but it's possible that we'll know tonight. i would say somewhat less likely than in other years, but remember, two out of the last five elections we have not known the results or not known who the president was going to be on election night. 2000 everyone remembers 2000. but also in 2004 when the election came down to the state of ohio, we all went to bed or went home for a nap and didn't have the results in ohio until the next morning and actually about 11:15 in the morning we were able to project ohio in that case for george w. bush. in this election, it depends on the early reporting states. there are a few states across the country that are battleground states that report their votes relatively quickly. florida reports relatively quickly. north carolina reports relatively quickly. georgia reports relatively quickly. ohio reports -- there you see on the map, ohio reports relatively quickly and even texas.

so, those states, if they're not close and we're able to make a projection, could give us an indication. if biden wins one of those southeastern states, for example, that's an important sign because those are really important to the president's math. so it's possible but no guarantees at all. >> you just don't know. early counting and you hear, sam, from the governor of ohio, right, he's saying he thinks trump will squeak it out. we have it obviously as a tie in the poll of polls and have no idea how it's going to go. >> right. >> how are you going to be, you know, as cnn sort of going in on all of this? right? figuring out how you count and when you project? how does all that work? what can you share? >> so, this year is different than any other year. everything in the country is different because of covid. why would elections be anything different. the most important difference this year is that so many americans voted by mail. and we've been talking about those mail-in votes in pennsylvania, for example.

it takes longer to count mail-in ballots. you have to open the envelope, open the outer envelope, check the signature, scan the ballot. it takes a while. and certain states, pennsylvania, most of michigan, wisconsin, they couldn't begin processing meaning even opening the envelope to those ballots until today. and so, those ballots have to be processed and then they have to be counted. so, tonight, as you look ahead to polls closing starting around 7:00 p.m., look to the early states like floridaen processin ballots for a long time. you see the green states there on the map. they've been processing their mail-in ballots for weeks now. all the mail-in ballots have been processed that were received they'll report early. the those are likely to favor joe biden early going. joe biden supporters, democrats,

are much more likely to vote by mail than trump supporters. pennsylvania, wisconsin, michigan, those mail-in votes will come much later. they'll be added to the count o. so those states may favor donald trump late into the night until those mail-in ballots go in and then the count will even out a little bit. >> yeah. it's just really hard. people have to understand, i guess, you have to be patient. right? you may see a state look like it's going one way and then the other and that's just the way it's going to be. that's because they're counting honestly and fairly. that's what it's reflective of. >> that's exactly right. >> so sam, thank you very much. don, i fell like that's the thing we all need to take a deep breath and understand is that, you know, we're used to a system where the votes just kind of tick up and tick up. here you may see tick up and tick up and leap on each side. it's going to be different because of how people are casting their votes. >> sam is right, we're living the middle of a deadly pandemic. i think the one things he did

miss is the rhetoric. we have the record-levels i think in anxiety but also the rhetoric from -- coming from the trump side, saying we don't want to count votes after this time and all the legal proceedings that happen. we have legal proceedings that happen after every election. but not to this level. and we have to remember, there is no -- no one comes out officially on election night ever and says, hey, listen, this is the winner. it's just a courtesy. st usually a projection from a network and just a courtesy that both sides usually follow. looks like there's going to be a winner one person says usually i concede and then the winner comes out. we'll see if that happens again tonight but the process still going on. let's get to it, ryan young is live in america. ryan, listen, there's no way that there will be as many people at the polls this time around considering 102 million people who voted early or the 100 million people or so who voted early in this country. there's no ways the lines are

going to be the same, but take us to your polling place. what's going on? >> reporter: yeah, that's a actually a fantastic point. i think we're starting to see that within this room. first, when we got here early this morning, you could really feel the energy. people were lined up. they were in their cars. it's about 30 degrees this morning, but no one really cared. then you look down this hallway, people all the way down the hallway lined. this is a first-time poll worker who said he wanted to be part of this process. that's the cool part about wisconsin. everyone is telling us they were excited to be a part of history. the room where it happens, this is where the voting is going on. and on the inside, you can see how workers are doing the extra care to make sure they're wearing all their ppe. let's not forget the fact that coronavirus has hit wisconsin very hard and so because of that they're taking very close precautions to make sure everything is cleaned after every single voter. so many people have voted over the last few days. this is all part of a process.

we talked to one voter who basically said he was voting between the lesser of two evils. >> well, yeah. >> my decision to vote is who i felt was going to cause the least amount of damage. that's where i stand right now. that's not the best way to decide who is the vote, but eventually maybe we'll have candidates to where we're not voting of the at least. we're voting for the most of. >> reporter: don, i've been criss-crossing this state for the last few years talking to people. let's not forget that donald trump won this state by less than 1% in 2016. so many people were surprised back then. now you can see the president putting the focus on the state. look, he was just here last night in kenosha. got here last night to do his last rally. this is all a part of the process. and i'm just taking us to another little part of this. there's another little sanitation station. they have this stuff set up so no matter where you go they're cleaning constantly because of the coronavirus.

let's not forget, don, this is one of the first times we've ever seen people show up in masks to cast their vote. one of the things they wanted to make sure especially with so many elderly people showing up that it was safe. >> listen, as well they should be. but listen, it's not just the coronavirus. we have to remember you said kenosha, wisconsin. we have had unrest on top of that, the summer of george floyd and the protests in this country and unrest when it country and police brutality. people are also going to the polls for that and i would imagine that's on the minds of the people who are voting in wisconsin. >> reporter: yeah, absolutely, don. you talk about especially we're just outside milwaukee. you think about the black vote. a lot of people were saying before in 2016, folks didn't really get out to vote. well, on saturday when we were out talking to voters, we saw energized group of black community who was out voting in number. there was a reason for that, they said they wanted to be part of this process. they said they were tired of seeing the things that they have

seen over the last few months. but there's so much going on in this community, especially as diverse as it is. >> ryan joining us from milwaukee. ryan, thank you very much. appreciate the job you're doing out there. look, this is the day it felt like election day for weeks now. but this is the actual day that people get to go to the polls. the last day really to decide who is going to be the next occupant of the white house. erin burnett and i are here for the next hour, couple of hours or so. we'll have much, much more on our election day coverage straight ahead. we have reporters on the ground all across the country as america votes today. ♪ we're all putting things off, especially in these times. but some things are too serious to be ignored. if you still have symptoms of crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis even after trying other medications, it may be a sign of damaging inflammation, which left untreated, could get much worse. please make an appointment to see your gastroenterologist right away. or connect with them online. once you do, seeing the doctor is one less thing to worry about.

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>> yeah. >> masks and not socially distant, but you know, doesn't look like a trump rally. >> well, at least we have to give them credit for wearing masks, which has been sort of what the trump folks have been saying not to do the entire time for this pandemic. we see some masks at the trump rally, of course, but usually it's the folks behind the president who are on camera. couple familiar faces in that crowd as we wait for the president. arlington, virginia, president trump is scheduled to show up at any moment to speak to his campaign staff. bill stepian and i don't know if you recognize that face to the left, that's boris epshtyen who used to appear on this network and then went on to work for another very pro-trump network. but again, erin, this is his staff. >> yeah. and they are -- the staff headquarters as they're waiting. this is in arlington. the president, as we've been talking about, don, he worked last night five rallies until well after 1:00 a.m. in the morning when he called into his

fox news interview this morning, it was 45 minutes late and you could hear all the rallies in his voice, right? scratchy. whatever happens here you can't say that the president left anything on the table in these final days. >> no. >> he was out there. >> forget how many rallies. he's done a record number of rallies over the last couple days and record-setting number of rallies in just one day. some days four or five rallies in different cities around the country. and now this -- the rallying time is over really because this is election day. >> right, this is the sort of rallying of his troops. we are going to take this live, everyone, as the president speex, joe biden speaks to their troops we will take it live. not sure why our camera is pulling out. we're watching this very carefully there. but for those just joining us, this is our special coverage of election day in america. this is what it's come down to, don. 102 million votes and trump will meet with his campaign staffers. biden, i'm sure, will speak to his. and they are now waiting, as we all are, for the voters and what

they have chosen. >> it's interesting because as i am reading here it says this campaign stretched on for two years. it feels like we have been in perpetual campaign mode honestly since president trump descended those -- that escalator in the summer of 2015. it feels like we've been in perpetual campaign mode. i think the day of that he was inaugurated, i think either that day or the next day, he declared re-election. so he's really been in campaign mode. and he's been having those rallies around the country since 2015, 2016. and didn't even stop when he was in the white house for the past three and a half plus years he has been in the white house. but you're right, erin. imagine this, i don't know if you and i ever thought we would be talking about before electioe voted already. that is unprecedented. there's the president. >> it truly is. there you see walking out greeting. you see the applause. as he walks out, let's listen to

what he has to say, the final words he's going to have to give to these people who have worked day and night tirelessly in an effort to re-elect the president of the united states. here he is. [ cheers and applause ]. >> thank you very much. we just got back. we had some incredible rallies and incredible times. and i hear we're doing very well in florida. we're doing very well in arizona. we're doing incredibly well in texas. we're doing -- i think we're doing -- i'm hearing we're doing well all over here. i hear the lines are amazing. the lines have been amazing. and i think we're going to have a great night. we're going to have a great night. and we're going to have much

more importantly a great four years. but, i want to thank everybody. tremendous group of people. come on over here. this is the media. they're very nice. they treat us -- come on over. come on over here. young, attractive people, no politics. and so day, some of the people in this room i predict, some of them will be president, i hope. but they've been working very hard. and i know you'll be here all night. and i think you're going to see some tremendous results. and you know, we had rallies. there was love at those rallies. and there's never been rallies like that. there has never been and i say it in front of the media and they can check it. they can fact check it if they want. but there's never been anything like we just had. and i think a combination of the debate, maybe the debates but the debate certainly the second debate and the rallies were -- it was a good combination. and we really -- i think we took

off. so, it's been really good. i want to just thank everybody in the room. you see these people we travel with these people. they're extremely nice. and they respect very much what we've done. actually i think they do. if you want to know the truth, i think they do. yeah, please. >> how you feeling today mr. president? >> i feel very good. after doing that many rallies, the voice gets a little choppy, i think. god did not design it for that much. but you know, look, we did a lot of them. we did actually six the last day because one finish at 2:00 a.m. so i put it on. so we did five plus. but we did a lot. then i feel great really. >> if you win tonight, what's your message to americans who didn't vote for you? >> everybody should come together. and i think success brings us together. we're going to have a tremendous success. we had 33.1% up in growth gdp and nobody has ever seen a number like that. the last time the number was

less than half. and i think that was in 1952. so we doubled up the number, more than doubled up the number. i think we're set for tremendous success. and success is going to bring unity. i was bringing it before then we got hit with the china virus. and that certainly -- you had to go back and i think we've done an incredible job with respect to that. other than public relations because -- i'm not sure that it's possible to convince you of it. you people were not really convincible no matter what we did. but we've done an incredible job. not only in handling it, don't forget, we were expecting and people were projecting 2.2 million people. we closed up the greatest economy in the history of the world for any country, not just for our country. and we are now opening it up. we saved more than 2 million lives. and did an incredible job with therapies, therapeutics and with, i think, maybe cures because frankly some of this

stuff is so good. but if you look at the ventilator situation, we had a ventilator problem. now with all the work that everybody has done including jared, people coming in from silicon valley, and now we're sending the ventilators all over, i mean, all over the world now. all over the world. we're producing them for other countries. but it's been an incredible period of time. and i think that if you look at -- i say it and i say it proudly we're rounding the corner. the vaccines are coming out very soon. they're having tremendous success. johnson & johnson, moderna, pfizer and we're going to have something -- we're going to have a very special year. next year, i think, is going to be more successful than it was last year. we had the best year we ever had last year. and i think we're going to be right in that category for next year. so that's very successful. >> mr. president, have you written an acceptance speech and concession speech? >> no, i'm not thinking about

concession speech or acceptance speech yet. hopefully we'll be doing only one of those two. you know, winning is easily. losing is never easy, not for me it's not. but i think we have -- when you see rallies, the likes of which in the history of this country, probably in the history of the world, nobody has ever seen before. there's a tremendous love going on in this country. and there's really a tremendous unity. there's a tremendous unity. nobody has ever seen that. where you take an airport and the airport is not big enough to hold the crowds. nobody has ever seen a thing like that. and our opposition, as you know, would have a few people sitting in circles. and that's okay. that's not abnormal. that's not abnormal really. that's the way it is. we would get crowds of 50,000 people, 45,000 people, more. nobody has ever seen anything like that. so it was an honor. they're great people. these are people that they appreciate what we did and they

also remember before i got there and before we all got there, this group has been with me. a lot of them are very young, but they've been with me, many of them, for a long time, right? a long time. i really came here to thank you all. then i'm going to say -- and get immediately back to work. [ cheers and applause ]. >> that was president trump. don, it was interesting listening to him there. >> yeah. >> he's tired. you know, he wanted to thank them. he was very clear to not say, you know, there was no bluster of i'm going to be declaring victory early. there was none of that. i thought there was one thing there little insight into his psyche. winning is easy, but losing for me is not. losing is hard. he seems like a president who very much -- let's listen to him again. >> very good place for me. i went to college there. it's always been good. i think pennsylvania is very important. florida is very important,

obviously. a lot of people talked about texas. and texas we will have a tremendous victory there based on everything that you see. this is no longer polls. this is now we're looking at what's happening. tremendous victory in texas. i'm hearing we're doing tremendously well in arizona. i think we're doing well all over, yeah. >> when do you think we'll know a winner? should every vote be count nod matter how long it took? >> i think you'll know possibly tonight, depending on the extent of the victory. i think the ruling on pennsylvania was an unfortunate one by the supreme court because i think we should know what happens on the night. let people put their ballots in earlier. but you have to have numbers. you can't have these things delayed for many days and maybe weeks. you can't do that. the whole world is waiting. this country is waiting. but the whole world is waiting. and a lot of shenanigans. a lot of bad things happened with ballots when you say, oh, let's devote days and days and all of a sudden the ballot count

changes. you take a look at philadelphia, the history of philadelphia politics, no. i don't put people on their honor code. i don't think it's right. and i think it's a very dangerous thing they've done with that decision and maybe their wisdom will change that decision or maybe we'll go back and give them a right to change it. but that's a terrible -- very dangerous decision with this country what they did with pennsylvania and some others also. you have to have a date. and a date happens to be november 3rd. and we should be entitled to know who won on november 3rd. and if somebody comes along and puts a ballot in way late, they shouldn't be -- they should put the ballot in earlier. there's no reason why they can't put the ballot in two weeks earlier or one week earlier. i think it's a very dang louero decision for our country, in many ways. >> can you speak to the american people tonight regardless of the youm come?

>> i they. we have to see. we have a big night planned. we'll have a very big night. i think we'll have a tremendous -- look, i'm looking right now i'm looking at different locations. and we're seeing lines of people. and they're wearing a lot of red material. including hats. but no, we're seeing in certain areas that would be trump areas, we're seeing lines of people that are extended for miles. you're seeing it, too. you don't have to say. but you're seeing it, too. so i think we're going to have a great night. but it's politics. and it's elections. and you never know. i can say that texas, arizona, a few of them are looking very, very strong. florida looking very, very strong. they spent hundreds of millions of dollars in florida. but the people of florida they know i love them and they love me. we just have an automatic bond. yeah, please. >> speaking of florida, especially in terms of seniors are you worried about -- >> no.

i don't think we're going to have any slippage. i think -- look, my relationship to seniors, i happen to be a senior. i don't want to say that too loud in this group. people are averaging about 20 years old. but i don't think we're going to have anything. if anything we're going to do very well. i have seen and we have seen african-americans way up and hispanic americans way up. and people have seen that. and you know, i've said with regard to african-american, the black community, i've done more than any other president with the exception of abraham lincoln. and sometimes i say with the possible exception of abraham lincoln. but let's give him a lot of credit, right? but i've done more than any other president in the history of this country for african-american, the black community. they understand it. criminal justice reform, prison reform, historically black colleges and universities. you look at what we've done.

opportunities with tim scott, south carolina, who is great. nobody has done what i've done in terms of the african-american community. so, and they see it. and they're tired of being used by the democrats for 100 years. i mean, it's like been 100 years. so, i think we're doing very well there. i heard we're doing very well with the hispanic community. >> mr. president, did you put your own money into your campaign? >> what's that? >> did you put any of your own money into the campaign? >> you'll see that in the filings. we had plenty of money. we had plenty of money. what i didn't do is call up wall street send me 25 million to the head of every firm. i would be been the all time king of fundraising if i do that. once you do that, you can no longer deal properly with them. you can't. i could have raised much more money. i mean, hillary clinton spent much more money than i did. and in this case, when they

raise that much money, that means to me they're making deals. that can happen. so, thank you very much. we'll maybe see you later. have an exciting day. for you, i appreciate everything you've all done and we'll see you soon. okay? >> so erin, there was a lot to fact check there because basically we heard a lot of propaganda from the president of the united states and i'm sure you can help me through it. the pennsylvania decision, though, sticks out with me the most because he's talking about the pennsylvania state supreme court. >> yeah. >> left in place the u.s. supreme court left in place pennsylvania state supreme court's decision that allowed counting of ballots received up to three days after the election. remember, it's a republican legislature that made the decision not to count early vote tallies or ballots until tomorrow. that's in pennsylvania. so that was propaganda. also, we have to remember when he says everyone should know on election day by november -- there were states in 2016 that the president did not know that he won until it was -- the votes

were counted after election day. >> right. >> there's nothing unusual about the votes being counted after election day. the specific quote that he said winning is easy, losing is never easy. especially for me. i think that's very telling. he also said tremendous unity in the country. there's not tremendous -- he's talking about the folks at the trump rally. there's not tremendous unity in the country when you have trump supporters out on interstates trying to run down buses and drive biden campaign people off the road. there are human lives who are on that bus and the president is saying, oh, this is great. and then you have marco rubio saying the same thing, coming out in florida saying the same thing. yesterday, there's no tremendous unity in this country. we have never been more divided because this president divides. criminal justice, criminal justice do your homework on criminal justice and on hbcs, historically black colleges and universities. it is not what this president says it is, neither of them are what he says they are.

many people both democrats and republicans who have been doing the hard work when it comes to criminal justice reform. also, the president fought tooth and nail for criminal justice reform. that was something that jared kushner, who we saw there by the way at that thing not wearing a mask had to push for and he did not want it. so there's so much to talk about. i almost feel like i'm not sure if we should be running this propaganda video as people are still going to the polls to vote today because not much of what he said if anything was true. >> well, and it was a rehash of a lot of things he said. but i do think there was a tone there that was significant, right? for those who thought that he was going to be bluster and bold and i'm assured a victory and i have my speech ready, he didn't do that. >> no, he didn't. >> he said i don't have one. we might possibly know tonight. in a sense he seemed a bit down, maybe just because he's tired, a bit more -- i felt. >> i think he's tired. >> looking at his thinks very wt involve the white house. i heard a change in tone there.

but, you know -- >> listen, erin, i'm not going to disagree with you that he didn't say that he's going to -- he has a speech ready and he shouldn't -- he probably should not say that. that was very smart of him but i didn't hear a change in tone. he still called the china virus and ventilators that we're doing all these ventilators. >> yeah. >> that was after massive public outcry to get that in place. the greatest economy, as we know from daniel dale, that is a lie. >> right. i just think the focus today being on how is he going to handle the election and what's happening. i think it was a little different than what some people may have expected there. >> but as you know, he'll say one thing and do another. in the same breath. >> that's him being tired or change tonight, we'll see. but he's talking about lines across the country which we're seeing as well as we're looking at polling stations in some of the crucial battleground states. reporters from michigan to texas. we have been checking in with them don and i through the past hour and a half. i want to go to omar jimenez in detroit. omar, you know, both campaigns

spending so much time where you are to try to get voters to the polls today, right? continue with those records. what are you seeing right now? >> reporter: well, we've seen significant turnout. things have gone smoothly so far here in michigan and in detroit, which is what officials wanted to see. there were long lines to begin the day. but part of that was just because the doors hadn't opened yet. when the door did there was a little lag of getting people in. so, that's a good thing. but the polls opened at 7:00 a.m. today. not just to allow people inside but crucially that is when we could start counting absentee ballots here in the state of michigan. and there was such a record number of backlog of absentee ball lots before we had got on the this day. over 3 million of which. and while detroit isn't necessarily expected to be a very contested portion of michigan, earlier this morning we were up in macomb county, a county that president trump

flipped from democrats to republican in 2016 a county whose winner has gone on to be the state winner for governor's races and presidential races, spanning the last seven years in a row, and we spoke to voters there, particularly younger voters about the contest, the importance of the moment and why they felt they needed to have their voice heard. >> it's crazy that the outward advertising for voting that we've seen this year versus 2016, i don't think i saw anything. and it really says a lot about where we're coming as a country and i'm really proud that the younger generation is coming in and making sure that they're voting. >> my friends with like, it doesn't matter. my vote really doesn't count. and then we saw the results and so this year a lot of them had made the choice to vote either before or are in line currently right now as well. >> reporter: and those people we spoke to were 25 years old and 27 years old. what's interesting act that is that that was the biggest growth in absentee ballot demographics

that we saw in regards to ballots that were returned. it grew from 2.5% in 2016 up to 9.4% in this election. and when you look at -- again, overall record absentee ballot turnout that we have seen, it is something that is going to add to the time in counting these ballots. erin, don? >> omar, thank you very much. let's go to texas now. biden campaign is hoping to flip it for the first time in 44 years. brian, i don't know if you heard trump talking, he's assured he thinks of a tremendous victory in texas. but all eyes are on texas, which usually is not the case in a presidential election. never is the case in a presidential election. what is the turnout where you are, brian? >> reporter: erin, very energetic turnout. we're here at the multiservice sender on west gray street in houston. this is one of the busiest polling places in the entire city. and in the entire county of harris county. all morning long, all day long, you've had duelling kind of campaign rhetoric on either side of the west gray street here. on this side democrats and

others of their ilk chanting, doing slogans, playing music. on this side over here, you have trump supporters doing the same thing, they've been trying to shout down each other all day long and yelling campaign rhetoric and other things. nothing menacing and threatening, it's all good natured. there's competition here. this is really exemplary of the energy that's here in the houston area. this is a busy precinct. they had long lines here earlier. i'm going to walk over here and talk to the police chief of houston. chief, thanks for joining us. what made you want to come down here? any security concerns at all about what's going on here? it's gotten heated, nothing threatening. what were your concerns? >> this is the only location in all of harris county where we have opposing sides. i just wanted to come down and make sure that everybody knows that we expect everyone to exercise their first amendment rights but to be respectful of each other and most importantly to realize this is houston where we come together. regardless of our differences. and so i'm proud to be here. and i'm proud of the fact that everything has been going smoothly so far. >> any problems, any anomalies

of any polling stations in houston? >> not yet. remember that our governor extended early voting and we have actually been keeping eyes on these location. one of the things i'm proud of as an american police officer is that if you think about the history of policing we have been seen as oppressors trying to oppress the vote in the past. and i think in this election, it's so heated the american people, our community, actually wants us out here to make them feel safe and we're proud to be part of that. >> reporter: thank you, chief. good luck today monitoring the polling stations. the chief has been talking to people, making sure it's peaceful out here. you heard him say there's been no real trouble, but this is really where the spirit of this polling station is. right now inside the voting room, it's a little slow. so we wanted to show you where the energy is out here on west gray street. these people have been out here all day long. again, duelling campaign rhetoric. it's really kind of fun to watch. lots of horn honking going on here. you know, you talked about early voting across the country. texas set records. almost 10 million texans voted before election day.

that was more than the total number of people who voted in the state four years ago. so, they're setting records all over the place here. it doesn't seem to have affected turnout, at least at this polling station. it's been very vibrant all day, guys. >> i love the word vibrant. and you know the context of what brian is saying 1.9 million new registered voters in texas this time from four years ago that's incredible. that's horde narly any four-year period it would be 700,000. you're seeing such a huge increase, tripling of normal. and they're turning out to vote and that is exciting. let's go to north carolina right now. north carolina a crucial state. i don't know if you heard sam feist we may know earlier in the evening, we may, but there are now discussions in north carolina about whether to extend hours at polling locations which could delay the results. this could be significant. i want to go to suzanne malveaux who is standing by.

north carolina is state we thought we might know earlier but now perhaps that could be changing. >> reporter: it could be changing. i've been speaking with election officials. they've been very prideful, if you will, about the fact that they believe it could have the results out unfushlly of course, by 7:30 p.m. this evening. that might actually change. there's an emergency meeting that's taking place. north carolina state board of elections saying they might actually extend the hours of four polling places because they were delayed slightly in opening. and under state law, by majority, if you have that majority, if they vote that way, then they can go ahead and if it's interrupted by more than 15 minutes or so, they can go ahead and extend those hours. so that is what they're considering at this hour in this emergency meeting. those four counties being gilford county, two locations in sampson county. we have been told that one of the reasons there was a delay was that some of the poll workers were tardy, a little bit late. and that in time it was quite

early as you can imagine, 6:30 was the time that voting was to begin. another at a church where they had a printer issue. and that had to be resolved. and so they're considering allowing people to extend those hours and vote just a little bit longer. so we'll see. we'll get those answers shortly. see which way they go. north carolina pretty much has been on the side of extending hours and extending opportunities for folks who -- for folks to vote through the legal process. so we'll see which way this goes. >> all right, thank you very much. that obviously important and significant that they're going to extend so every vote can indeed be counted if people have been waiting. let's go now to new hampshire where polo sandoval sat a polling location right now. what are you seeing in terms of turnout, how smoothly it's going? >> reporter: well, erin, earlier we heard from officials at this particular polling location they said their main goal was to make sure this would turn out to be a

fair, safe and efficient election. after checking in with them and some of the folks at the state capitol seems like that is the case. i tell you what, the number of voters that have been stopping by at this location described as one of the busiest in the country, it really is impressive. this line actually snakes out of this high school gym and then around the vehicles in the parking lot. so certainly gives you a sense of the excitement and the interest that people have in this part of new hampshire in the election. we've been told that at least 40% of the total electorate in this part of new hampshire has already cast their ballot either in person or absentee. and back to that issue about safety, i can tell you after observing here for the last couple days, erin, we really have seen poll workers go above and beyond that people feel safe. you have the plexiglass in safe where the voters are checking in before heading over to the booths. you have the ppe that folks are encouraged to wear. you're seeing very few people without a mask here. and then finally, just constant sanitizing of the booth itself.

i've watched this young man goes into those booths after each voter and cleans up before another voter goes in. so that certainly gives you an idea of what people are talking about here and then finally we need to remind viewer obviously about new hampshire's role in the primary. obviously extremely prominent. general election, though, remind you it was only four years ago that hillary clinton won new hampshire by less than 1%. winning new hampshire would be a faert feather the president would want in his cap. those four electoral votes have not gone to the republican. high interest and it seems like things are continuing to move forward with high interest and things running very smoothly in this part of new hampshire. >> that's what we like to hear things running smoothly. those following that, we are hearing it. no major reports of any issues at polling stations thus far. this is exactly what everyone in this country wanted to see. next, u.s. district court judge ordering the postal

service to sweep underperforming districts for election mail processing facilities by 3:00 p.m. eastern time in a bunch of states including some crucial battleground states. we'll have details next because this is significant as to whether those ballots will count. senator tim kahne how is he feeling act tonight? you're watching special election day coverage in america. when you switch to xfinity mobile,

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♪ we're back now live with cnn's election day coverage. kamala harris, vp candidate now in detroit, michigan, speaking. let's listen in. >> seen and heard by joe and me and that they may actually decide the outcome of this race. >> senator, what is your message to some americans who are on edge about potential unrest tonight? wh >> have faith in the american people. i do strongly believe that we, whoever you vote for, will defend the integrity of our democracy and a peaceful transfer of power. and that there are certain lines whoever you vote for that we

won't cross. >> reporter: how are you feeling about your chances today? >> the day isn't over. right now i'm just here to remind people to vote because the election is still happening right now. it's not over. >> thanks, guys. >> thank you, senator. >> thank you, all. >> senator kamala harris appears to be at the airport in detroit, michigan, taking a couple questions from the media. someone asked her about the peaceful transition of power. she hopes there will be one. saying the day is not over. people are out there still voting. and that is so. as we are going through this, there is breaking news to tell you about. a u.s. district court judge has ordered the postal service to sweep under performing districts for election mail processing facilities and to do it by 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. eastern time in a number of states including some critical battleground states. we want to get straight to ana cabrera on top of this breaking news for us. anna, where is this happening and why? >> it appears they are

struggling to move ballots on time, don. they're at significant risk of not making to election offices to be counted. a federal judge just ordered these to happen in the underperforming districts to ensure that no ballots have been held up and any identified ballots are immediately sent out for delivery. coming after we learned today is the fifth day in a row that ballots are moving slower through the mail than the day before. especially in these critical battleground states. this is according to some new court filings. and in five of these states with low processing scores, michigan, wisconsin, georgia, new hampshire and maine, they do not allow ballots to be received after election day. consider this, the secretary of state of georgia saying as of this morning they still had nearly a quarter million outstanding ballots that were sent out to be mailed in that had been requested and had had not been returned just yet. usps says these delays are largely due to staffing shortages because of covid-19. but the postal service has been ordered to take extraordinary measures to get these ballots to the election offices by the

cutoff time for each of these states. again a federal judge now upping the anti-once more, ordering usps to have the postal inspectors to sweep for election malt by 3:00 p.m. eastern so the next hour and a half, don. >> we have to keep a close eye on the postal system since there have been irregularitieirregula. we'll discuss. ana cabrera is on top of it following that for us. i want to get to harry, cnn politics senior writer and analyst. harry, good to see you during the daytime. here we go. we've got -- tell us what we should expect to unfold? how is this night going to unfold, do you know? >> well, no. i don't know how it's going to unfold in terms of the outcome, right. >> i don't mean the outcome. >> right. but i think we have a pretty good understanding sort of how the votes are going to come in, right. and we know this is something we've been discussing for a long time. there's a major break between certain parts of the country that the mail-in votes that will

be delivered first. essentially what you see is before election day they can process the mail-in votes in places like arizona, florida, north carolina, that along the sun belt versus in the midwest, michigan, pennsylvania, wisconsin, they can only start processing those mail-in votes on or after election day. so essentially, we might not get results in those key mid western battlegrounds for a while to come. it wouldn't be surprise if we know who has won there this evening. >> let's talk about the different reporting times for mail-in and in-person ballots. that's going to impact what kind of results we're seeing and when we're seeing them. explain that for us, harry. >> sure. you know, it's just so important to point out there's just been a huge partisan split in the different ways that people are sort of voting, right? we know in florida, for example, just the in-person early vote and the vote by mail differed significantly by party registration. my guess is the in-person day of vote election day vote is going to differ again. so in a state like florida,

where the mail-in votes and the early votes will be counted first, you would expect someone like joe biden to jump out to a lead an then as those election day votes start coming in trump will catch up versus in the northern battleground what we should expect is joe biden will actually be behind significantly in those early results probably if you believe the polls and then he'll catch up as those votes come in. very different picture in the sun belt will trump will do worse in the early ball lots versus the early belt the mid western states early. >> joe biden is making stops in pennsylvania a state that is really important to him and it's important to the president as well. not essential to joe biden in his path to 270. walk us through biden's likeliest routes to the white house. >> sure. so we'll just start off with the easiest which is essentially win the states that hillary clinton won and then add in pennsylvania, add in michigan and add in wisconsin and that gets you plus nebraska second congressional district, you can see nebraska weird color in

there, 279 electoral votes. that is biden's best path at this particular moment. and you'll notice he doesn't have to win florida, doesn't have to win north carolina and doesn't have to win arizona on this particular map. >> but he has to win pennsylvania. >> he has to win on that particular map. i will if we flip forward there's a map we can win without pennsylvania and that's a very interesting map where if joe biden even if he loses in pennsylvania, but he wins in arizona, plus nebraska's second congressional district plus michigan and wisconsin, that get him exactly to 270 electoral votes. there's an alternate path for biden even if he loses pennsylvania but it's very, very tight, don. >> let's talk about the president now. he may have his path i think is a bit narrower than joe biden's but he does have a path. there is a realistic route to his re-election. the best scenario for the president. >> yeah, right. he does have a path. this election i would not be shocked if donald trump won this election. his best path basically relies

he has to win pennsylvania and arizona plus then hold in the sooets with florida and north carolina and georgia. but essentially the big thing you should take away from this don, is donald trump almost assuredly has to carry both pennsylvania and arizona. if he does not, if joe biden wins one of those two states it could be a very, very long night for the president. >> all right. harry, you ready? we're going to be up until the wee hours. >> i am so ready i have my drink right here. i'm drinking the caffeine. no naps. just going straight on through. you and me, don, we'll do it together. >> i'm going to need a nap. you're a young whipper snapper. i'm an old man, i need a nap. >> i try. next we'll check in on the battleground pennsylvania. battleground pennsylvania at this hour where joe biden is trying to russell up last-minute votes. your journey requires liberty mutual. they customize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. wow. that will save me lots of money.

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you're having one more bite! no! one more bite! ♪ kraft. for the win win. welcome back to our special election coverage election day in america former vice president joe biden spending part of today in pennsylvania. visiting philadelphia and the town of his birth, scranton. i'll check in with alex field in pittsburgh right now. and obviously, alex,

pennsylvania it all could come down to pennsylvania and you know we're starting to get some details, crucial counties saying we're starting to tabulate, starting to put things together from this record-breaking early vote. so, where you are right now, how divided are voters? >> reporter: well, look, pennsylvania is divided. that's why we've seen both of the campaigns put so much time, so many resources into it. you have seen president trump spending his time in the areas of state where he is popular, really going after the voters who turned out for him before. joe biden, of course, would have more of the advantage in the big cities. what's interesting about the spot that we're in is that we're in allegheny county, home to pittsburgh, of course. it's the spot of blue in the sea of red back in 2016 when president trump flipped the state by just 44,000 votes. but in this neighborhood, franklin park, they actually did tilt toward trump. so people who lined up to vote here earlier this morning tell me their neighborhoods are deeply divided. they say there are strong

ideologic, political, emotional divides that are separated by nothing more than a fence or a driveway. they've also described this as a tense day. they say they have anxiety. they say they know so much of the country and the world is focussed on what happens right here in pennsylvania. and they say all that anxiety is heightened by the fact that we might not know the results from pennsylvania for at least a few days, erin. >> right. that of course is -- nobody wants to be on those pins and needles. just in terms of the wait times in the polling stations, how long would you say about, alex, that people are waiting to vote today? >> reporter: so, we saw a big rush of people right when the polls opened. we've been to two different sites in franklin park this morning. a couple people went to first one even before the site opened. throughout the morning we saw pretty heavy foot traffic. people were waiting act an hour. some people said they waited as much as an hour and a half. at this point, erin, the middle of the day you can walk right into this site and vote.

so, there was a tremendous amount of enthusiasm that was visible this morning. it seems to have tapered off maybe in the afterwork hour. you'll see it pick up again. pennsylvania is also a state that has 3 million mail-in ballots requested. 2.5 returned. about 80% there. >> we don't know where those 600,000 when they're coming if they choose to vote in person. that surge and then the little lull. what does that mean? are we going to hit these record numbers? is there going to be another surge later in the day. not everywhere some places. but there are real questions. what it will mean and we all are, as i said, on pins and needles. so if your ballot in pennsylvania with this focus on the ballots, alex, say you get a notification, your ballot was rejected. one of those, you know, 3.1 million mail-in ballots. can they go to the polls today and cast a vote, you know, if there are other ballot was rejected? >> yeah, sure. you can still go in and ask for

a professional ballot. still mail-in ballots that can be submitted today. you can also take your mail-in ballot right to a polling p instead, you have to surrender go through the regular in-person voting process. so we still don't know what that total number will be when it comes to that 3.1 million that were applied for. we don't know the total number of voters. you're right we have to have patience while we tease out what the enthusiasm looks like. this is a state that doesn't have any history of early voting with this quantity of mail inform ballots. yes, a lot of enthusiasm for that. we have to see it if holds up through the day if a lot of people are voting that way for convenience or if we're going to see record number. >> 102 million ballots cast early. early votes in this country. record setting by any measure. and some projecting overall voting could go up to 160 million which would be levels we haven't seen in more than 100 years. we don't know. it all depends on the in-person

turnout today. maine crucial because of the flit electoral college votes there and what will happen in maine district 2. go to evan in brewer, maine. totally different -- alex had her coat on but not nearly as cold as where you are right now. so, the weather, snow that you had at one point, how sit the weather affecting turnout? >> reporter: the past couple y dada days pleasant, dry. getting a snowy day. came down this morning about three inches this morning. at first some officials we spoke to were worried it might affect turnout a bit. that hasn't actually happened. people have shown up. it's maine. they're used to it, come out and vote e voted. here where i am, mentioned that all-important district that could flip and actually did for president trump in 2016, this place had a big, long line

through most of the morning but now things quieted down. election officials tell me inside a steady group of voters coming in today and also as you heard from pennsylvania, 64% more than 63% of the 2016 turnout already happened in maine before today with that absentee and early voting. >> again, a question what this really means. hoe early could we see results tonight from maine, evan? >> reporter: polls close here at 8:00. if you're in line at 8:00 you're able to still vote. of course, maine is one of those states with that scantron voting system. fill a little bubble in,ut it in a machine. very, very quick to count and already counted a lot of those absentee ballots. seen them do it. saw it in another part of the state earlier in the week and also in the battles of the voting room, she-othey have a b room they're counting ballots

now. absentee and in-person quickly tonight. >> hope that's the case. evan, thank you. this election is watched around the world. around the world in a way it never has before. so how will the results affect u.s. relationships with countries around this world? we are watching. special coverage, "election day in america," right here on cnn. . now, there's skyrizi. ♪ things are getting clearer ♪ yeah i feel free ♪ to bare my skin, yeah that's all me. ♪ ♪ nothing and me go hand in hand ♪ ♪ nothing on my skin that's my new plan. ♪ ♪ nothing is everything. woman: keep your skin clearer with skyrizi. with skyrizi, 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. of those, nearly 9 out of 10 sustained it through 1 year. and skyrizi is 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. ♪ i see nothing in a different way ♪ ♪ and it's my moment so i just gotta say ♪ ♪ nothing is everything. skyrizi may increase your risk of infections

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and welcome back to cnn special coverage of "election day in america." stores boarded up for preparation of possible unrest not just americans are on edge. the world is watching. everyone cares about the american election, right now more than ever. everything is at stake. our chief international reporter joins me now. christiane amanpour, it is an important moment. everybody cares deeply. everybody is watching this. i guess, i don't want to oversimplify it, but who do america's allies want to win tonight? >> on the whole and by vast majority they want biden to win.

why? they want america to get back to its regular role in the world as a sort of gatherer, convener of the multilateral world order that worked since end of world war ii which the united states that been supporting and leading and don't like what we're told by the former british chancellor and treasury secretary, former foreign minister hamlin said to us he didn't think another four years would be survivable of a trump presidency callingal world in a deep freeze of a hostile u.s. disengagement sounds complex. it means the u.s. pulled out of the iran nuclear deal, the climate deal. to an extended tried to russell nato, pull troops out of west jemny. a l germany. certain europeans would like to see a biden win although they do not think it will be american engagement status quo ante and know the u.s. is fed up with international intervention.

go further in the allied camp, go to israel. they'd like to see a trump win. no doubt about it. although a nice statement provided in case biden should win. they like the fact that president trump has, as they say, raised the bar in terms of international engagement or u.s. engagement with the middle east. it has seen what they wanted, an american president isolate iran further than its ever been isolated, give prime minister benjamin netanyahu everything he wants in terms of a a peace call. it's in the deep freeze. any idea of peace between israelis and palestinians and enabled netanyahu to dispense with the idea of land for peace or anything for peace by engineering these normalizations with the uae, with bahrain, sudan cost israel a big, fat nothing and in the great interest of israel. those are some of the issues from allied camps.

pros and cons. of course, saudi arabia and the fossil fuel countries would very much like president trump. >> right, of course. you know, you do look at, right, israel, jerusalem, uae and israel have a trade agreement. things happened in the past four years people would's have thought were a long way off, if ever. what about the adversaries. intelligence reporting russia for trump, china biden and who's intervening and also involved in electioneering. when you look at the adversary side of the ledger, what do you see? >> take the biggest one which is essentially competitor, if you don't want to call it adversary a china. president trump put a huge amount of energy whether trade, tariffs, whether trying to rebalance what many think should be a china/u.s. relationship. there's a major competition now for global dominance between these two huge powers. now, in a swipe, potentially a

swipe directed at president trump, last week president xi said the following words -- in the contemporary world no amount of unilateral im, protectionism or extreme egotism could work. russia hedging but so is israel and prefer trump. >> we're all watching. unilateral. thank you, christiane. i welcome back our viewers here in the united states and indeed around the world. we are happy to have you here with us today. i'm erin burnett and it is our special coverage of "election day in america." a day filled with lines, lots of voters, in a country on edge.