jimmy host: [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> on c-span, a discussion from the heritage foundation about the trump administration decision to impose new sanctions on iran. at 8:00 p.m. eastern come our election night coverage begins as the results come in for house, senate, and governor races around the country. will also bring you victory and concession speeches from the candidates and on c-span2, the wilson center looks at the political and economic impact of u.s.-mexican migrants that come to the u.s. with voters heading to the polls today, this morning on "washington journal," we discuss key battleground races in florida, west virginia, missouri, texas, arizona, and california with university professors from those states. also, vote. or founder talks of

-- also vote. organ founder talks about voter turnout. we will also give you a chance to join the conversation by phone, facebook, and twitter. is next.on journal" ♪ novemberis tuesday, sixth, election day 2018. u.s..s. house seat,35 senate seats. plus countless state and local offices and initiatives and ballot measures. good morning and welcome to "washington journal" on this election day. three hours of discussion and we welcome your questions. we will check in on key house and senate races and hear from

you. here is how we break the phone lines up. if you voted early, the line to use is 202-748-8000. if you are voting today, that line, 202-748-8001. if you are not voting this election, 202-748-8002. we welcome your comments on facebook. we will look for your tweets @cspanwj and try to get to some of those throughout the morning as well. you can start dialing in with your thoughts on this election day. matt drudge sums it up like this. the front page of the drudge againstwith him or temporary president trump yesterday had three final closing rallies in cleveland, indiana, and cape girardeau. front page of the usa today broadens that discussion out in terms of with him or against him. contests, go for broke reveal a clash of visions.

susan page writes what is at stake? democrats warned midterm elections will undermine the future of american democracy unless president trump's authoritarian instinct are curtailed. "fear is the dominant issue bar that is remarkable because the economy is strong and the nation doesn't face an immediate foreign-policy crisis although there are trouble spots around the world. instead of a sense of peace and prosperity, the final weeks of the campaign have been dominated by violence and conflict. the mailing of improvised explosive devices to more than a dozen leading democrats, a caravan of central american asylum-seekers making their way across mexico. first -- or an

increasingly diverse melting pot. cityng at the kansas star's, we mentioned president trump yesterday campaigning in cape girardeau, the kansas city headline,eir president trump makes last midterm push. they write the president is a shadow hanging over midterm elections that will determine the future of his administrations and asked voters to help preserve fragile gop victories that could be erased by democratic gains in congress. his closing argument in cape girardeau, here is what president trump had to say. [video clip] >> i am asking every citizen from every party, every background, every race, color, and create to reject the democratic politics of anger, division, destruction and unite behind our proud, noble, and righteous destiny as americans.

that is what it is. get your family, get your friends, get your neighbors, get your coworkers and go out and vote for republican congress for republican senate. go out and vote republican tomorrow. [cheers and applause] this tuesday. wait a minute. this tuesday, in 15 minutes, we are almost in to tuesday. back to home and sleep and get up early and vote. i need the people of missouri to seize this incredible moment in --tory by electing the great

and he will be someday, the great josh holly, as your -- josh hawley, as your next senator. host: this election day. 202-748-8000 if you voted early. 202-748-8001 if you are voting today. if you are not voting, 202-748-8002. caroltter at -- @cspanwj, weighs in with i am going to cast my vote now and i will return asap to join washington journal. it's almost always the first part of my day. 2016 70d in congress times to eliminate pre-existing conditions. they are actively working on a bill that would ensure people with pre-existing conditions. -- weto preston, new york hear from new york city and hear from preston, who is voting today. welcome. caller: i wanted to say

something to everybody, especially my christian brothers and sisters who voted for donald trump. policies, his his attacks on immigration, separating children from their parents at the borders, that he is moving the u.s. embassy to jerusalem or scuttling the iran deal or cutting regulations that hurt our environment -- maybe you like all of that. you have traded policies you like for your christian values, the values that have guided and sustained the people of this country since its founding. our american values welcoming the stranger, dignity and compassion for all human beings, equality under the law. respect for truth and humility, what humility? no policy is worth that price? i am sick and tired of hearing what i am hearing out of this president's mouth.

these tweets, these insults, this division. we have responsibilities to protect judeo-christian values for all the people of this country and we have the duty to elect people that are going to protect those values. i ask you all, those of you listening today, think about what is going on here. think about what you are giving up. think about that when you go to the polls today. what message will you send? thank you c-span and god bless america. host: we go to cindy in san antonio also voting today. caller: hello, how are you doing? host: fine, thanks. caller: i am voting today and voting straight ticket red. i was once a democratic voter. long years, i8 went through horrible hardship. because of that, i decided to

switch over to republicans. whoever is coming out to vote , they votednever early, whoever they voted for, that is their choice. trying to change peoples' minds on who to vote for is not going to work. host: how long ago did you decide to vote straight ticket, as you said. caller: after the obama administration. i voted for trump. i went through hardship for 8 long years. i had to give up my apartment. i ended up homeless. i paid my dues, my taxes, what ever i had to do, and i retired and i was treated as if i was worthless. i did not get nothing but three dollars in the 8 years of the obama administration on my social security, retirement.

my son had the hardest time finding a job. with his education, he graduated, he went to college. he could not find a job for 202-748-8003 long years -- for 8 long years. he had to take mcdonald's jobs and work as a cashier in a grocery store. now he is working a job that now,him $18,000 a month which is a lot better for him. i was able to stand back up and find a decent place to stay and no longer homeless. longffered like that for 8 years. that is why i switched over to republican. host: appreciate you calling in this morning. 202-748-8001 for those of you voting today. if you voted early, 202-748-8000 . this is the front page of the washington times, trump versus the resistance. both sides drive-up optimism, but turnout is key for midterm elections. missouri, where

the president was yesterday. welcome. steve voted early. tell us about your experience and what are you looking forward to on this election day? caller: good morning. happy voting today. i already voted. i wanted to say we have such a short attention span in this country. less than 20 years ago, bill clinton handed on a silver platter a balanced budget, a robust economy to george w. bush . the first thing he did, a big tax cut, empty out the bank and 9/11 happened and everything, i am not blaming him all for that. he ran it straight into the don't like obama. i did not like obama much and he ran up a big bet. -- debt. we have a massive debt we are

quite have to pay for. we have gone up almost $20 trillion in -- years. the same things happened -- the same playbook. trump has always cut taxes. he does not even care if he loses because he got his money. mueller comesf out with charges. i voted democrat, but i don't really like him. there is no choice. host: what is your sense in the senate race we are hearing the most about with josh hawley and senator claire mccaskill? you say you voted democratic, how do you think the race will go? caller: i think mccaskill will yull it out because josh hawle is terrible. he said he is for pre-existing conditions. he has a lawsuit for the insurance companies not -- to be

exempt from that. he is a total liar just like bush. host: one more thing. has health care been sort of the central issue in that race, do you think? caller: yeah, i think that is a lot to do with it and the divisiveness of our country and the state is divided. they are that and. host: thank you. another race in virginia. tim kaine, former president obama stumping there. kaine aims to create the winning streak alive. they write just a few cycles were moved from when republicans -- democrats had a solid lock, senator tim kaine is on the break of ensuring the commonwealth is represented by two democrats in the senate for at least two years. republicans have been shut out in statewide races since 2009 that streak will

continue. in the 2018 senate race, mr. kane has far outpaced republican challenger corey stewart in public polling and fundraising and said he thinks virginians will respond in a positive manner. the photo accompanying that article of the former president barack obama and senator tim campaigning with barbara wrecks didn't, the theressional delegate in 10th race in virginia. here is some of what the former president had to say about what has changed since his administration. [video clip] this countryter of is on the ballot. who we are is on the ballot. [applause] politics we expect is on the ballot. how we conduct ourselves in public life is on the ballot. how we treat other people is on the ballot.

news is all across the country, what i am saying is this great awakening, people i think you had taken for granted we had made certain strides, we have made certain progress. of course, women are treated with respect. of course we are not going to their skine based on color, their last name. of course we are going to expect basic decency and honesty and folks in highfrom office. suddenly people woke up and said, i guess we cannot take this for granted. we have to fight for this.

in that great awakening, i feel hopeful. host: all of those campaign events we covered yesterday available on our website, c-span.org. election day 2018, voting in new york, vince, welcome. caller: how are you doing today? i am enjoying your show. and with voting today much thought, i have decided to vote republican this year. what i have seen in the hatred from the left, the violence, storming the supreme court as they did, the mobs that chase people down the halls of congress, people being confronted in restaurants by mobs of people, this is organized hatred. it is much different than the lunatic loners we have seen that the left like to portray of being created by trump.

what we are seeing from the left, and i have seen this for toy years developing, i hate say it, but it is very akin to the brown shirt tactics of the nazis in germany where they tried to silence dissent and beat those who dare oppose them. abouteally very concerned the house of representatives being given back to very radical people like maxine waters, mr. schiff, mr. cummings, and mr. nadler, chairing committees. the two interesting women, justice ruth bader ginsburg will remain one of the saddest people in america if the republicans keep the senate because she cannot retire. hillary clinton will be the

happiest woman in america because all of the investigations, which have been stalled for years to find out what she really did colluding with the russians and others and whereiotic server problem 33,000 emails disappeared, that will end. she will be very happy. i tell my friends who might vote democrat, be careful what you wish for because with the democrats taking control of the house, this remarkable economic recovery, which obama could never get a 2% gdp in any of the 8 years and his presidency will come to a streaking -- screeching halt. jupiter, new york, bill voted early. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you today? host: i am good, thank you. caller: i agree with the gentleman who had comments about

the status of our country. as much as people think trump is a lunatic, he has definitely moved our economy forward and he sadreally exposed the situation we have with people coming over the borders, which they have been doing for years. i used to live in new york and i had some domestic help and the people come in and say we came here just to have a child and now for the next 85 years, my child can get medicaid and medicare and get money every benefits.all sorts of these are -- host: these are people that work for you? caller: yeah. host: was it one person or a lot of people would tell you this? two people over

years. i work very hard in wall street and m of the financial world. i moved to florida because i had done well and wanted to enjoy life a little bit. have been here five years and it is amazing how many people come from other countries and um willay -- mr. gill probably win as the governor because there are way more people from other countries living in florida than citizens of the united states and i am fortunate enough, i am a fifth-generation american. my great great grandfather came over in the early 1800s and i have always felt our country had a bright future. other than trump being able to keep things on the straight and narrow. i know he is kind of off the charts in the way he expresses things. i agree with the gentleman that was just on the phone that -- i am going to subpoena everything.

i am going to get him thrown into jail. it is unbelievable the hatred and the anger and i hope and pray something can come about that would change that in america because right now it is a country you do not want to be in. many people from wall street are moving to new zealand and australia and buying islands in the south pacific. trump doesn't last another two years -- host: that is bill and his view from jupiter, florida. we are joined by peter bergeson, a political science professor at florida gulf coast university, focusing mainly on that tight senate race in florida, the incumbent bill nelson and the governor, rick scott on this election day. what is your sense of where that race stands and who has the edge ? guest: it appears to me that it is a dead heat, perhaps a slight

nelson and ther democrats. host: the previous caller mentioned in talking about the movernor's race with mr. gillu and ron desantis, talking about and the role of the vote of immigrants. how important of a factor will that be both immigrants and people of different nationalities in florida? how important is that minority vote? guest: it will be important, but not significant. of the immigrant vote here is primarily going to be from puerto rico. it may be 1%, 2% of the vote, probably not much more than 3% at the most. i think that is way overstated, frankly. host: president trump yesterday

wrapping up three different rallies, he has done some in florida. what has his influence been on that senate race in particular? guest: he has brought out his reinforced traditional republicans. the race has gone considerably tighter. he also, i think, is establishing a base for himself in running two years from now. florida is obviously a swing state. in a presidential campaign, he won two years ago. he had a purpose of increasing voter turnout hoping that knockor scott, who might off senator nelson, but also looking to years down the road. host: how bad will the hurricane michael of a couple years ago that walloped the panhandle and mexico beach and that area -- is there any sense of how that will affect voting? guest: there is no question it

will depress voter turnout. it cannot help to. they are still in a period of recovery. a lot of people lost their homes, are disoriented, perhaps even out of jobs. voting is not necessarily going to be a high priority and, subsequently, this will have perhaps a negative impact on the republican turnout because the reliable is a very republican vote area. host: palm beach coast with a report on early voting which ended on sunday in florida. a democrat edge republicans in florida, early votes nearly 5.1 million floridians have cast their ballots for tuesday's election, surpassing the pre-election voting of any midterm in the history with democrats edging ahead of republicans in the number of ballots cast. had the state moved to make it easier in years to early vote?

guest: yes, it has. there has been somewhat of a seesaw issue on early voting over the last 8 years. they have really made it somewhat easier to vote earlier. more places, more days on which to vote. that has increased and led to the early voting. contentious between the two republicans and the two democrats for the top two seats on the ticket. they have also increased early voting turnout. host: florida is the scene of the 2000 presidential election, the hanging chads. in signs you are looking for terms of potential voting anomalies or problems at the poll? what are you keeping your eye out for? onst: i am keeping my eye the turnout factor here in southwest florida, which is a very republican-rich area.

in addition, the miami east coast area of miami-dade and i-4ard county and the corridor between tampa and orlando, those are going to be todayy and who turns out and where the final undecided, how do they break. peter bergeson, a political science professor at florida gulf coast university. thank you for the input on this election day. guest: thank you very much. i appreciate it. is one offlorida race several throughout the program that we will get an update on. if you voted early, the number to call is 202-748-8000. if you are voting today, 202-748-8001. if you are not voting this election, 202-748-8002. send us a tweet as well. that is @cspanwj.

a couple here, colin says i voted on saturday, early voting with his two suns, first time voting with his sons. jody says i voted early and wasn't going to be convinced to change from supporting humanity, equality, justice. says today will show a side america is on. the side of hate or love and respect for the others. yes, democrats have a message, health care, immigration, education, social security, medicare expansion, opioid crisis, gun control, and so much more. this is lamar. hello there. caller: hello. how are you doing this morning? host: doing fine. you are voting today. what time are you getting out to do that? what time to the polls open? ander: they opened at 6:30 me and my wife went and voted

early and got back and she was able to go to work and i am retired. host: tell us about your take on this election day. if you wanted to tell us how you voted or your sense of how things will go in your state and nationally. short and a while ago, america got a wake-up call when we got a new president and i wee been pleased of course, don't all go 100% with the way everybody thinks, including our president. economically, i have seen a great change, a good change in investments have really come about and he takes a stand. he may not word it the way a lot of people may like, but he is that are affect -- matter of fact. i have a sister that speaks her mind and speaks frank.

she tells the truth and tries to do what she says she will do. all these people making promises, if they don't at least try to do what they promised to do, they need to be knocked off. not taken out, but taken out of office if they are not going to try and do what they promised the people. the people are so skeptic and this president, like i said, everybody doesn't agree with if thet he tries and people would have gotten behind him like other presidents and him andtayed behind pushed, we would have seen a lot more done, sir. that is the reason i called in today. i wanted to say that and i did not care who heard it or who i am. some even may recognize my voice. i tell you right now, i think it is a positive thing and i am happy and i hope we have a good

results today. i think we will. it is amazing, the turnout. it's really amazing. host: it was strong this morning? you and your wife voting this morning, we saw a lot of -- you saw a lot of people? we got there early and i was number 10 and when we walked out, the difference was amazing. host: we hear next from washington state. alan who voted early in a state -- correct me if i am wrong, washington state has a male in voting system? caller: although by mail. i hope the republicans sock it to these racist media people that get on and talk raise all the time. they are the most racist people in the world. chris matthews talking about dog whistles. i will tell you something. when the media imagines a

whistle, all the media racist dogs come running. it to they really sock them. host: on the media, politico preparations on some media outlets. no idea what is going to happen, news outlets prepare for midterm surprises. -- chief spends a lot of time talking about the kentucky 6th district a lot. alert centers and pretty much anyone else who hand touches election night coverage has at least 16 scenarios of what might happen. the only thing that is the same is the first polls close at 6:00 a.m. in eastern kentucky. in the washington post newsroom, steven ginsberg says he has encouraged editors and reporters to "embrace not knowing what

will happen on election night." his rivals at the new york times are taking a similar attack, the approach is "prepare, prepare, prepare." patrick healy says "but with eyes wide open for a number of scenarios." our election night coverage here on c-span and c-span radio gets underway live beginning at 8:00 eastern as polls close throughout the night. we will bring you the results as they come in. we will have victory and concession speeches from key races across the country. all of that getting underway at 8:00 p.m. eastern powder springs, tim, good morning, who is voting today. powder springs, good morning, tim. caller: good morning. it is amazing how some people view this president. they want to turn their head with all these lies he talks about. all the different divisions he

tries to put upon this country. new i think god for this millennium -- we want god to bless america, stronghave to have leadership morally at the top and this president has not demonstrated that. previous callers were talking about how obama screwed up the economy. they are quick to forget he inherited a mess and he straightened this mess out despite the fact that mitch toonnell stated he was going be a one term president and nobody was willing to work with him on the other side. i think god again for these young folks who are registered to vote who are going to make a difference and show our generation, which i am 62 years old, our generation, what it is really like to work together and make america strong. host: that is tim in georgia.

bill is next. bill voted early in ohio. what part of ohio is that, bill? caller: that is in the southwest , lower part near cincinnati. host: go ahead with your comments. to talki am so excited and tell somebody how good i feel about the country and i think the president -- trump, aretwo years so far rejuvenating many people's faith in the country and i think it exposed how biased the media has been and it has been terrible to think about how many years that has been going on. i think now that president trump is in, the economy is going really well and i think the repatriation of funds from off hugeorporations made a difference. a huge difference in how that money is being spent versus our own federal reserve printing new

money, which has no basis. i think that is a really good thing and i think making our military strong has been wonderful and giving us a presence in the world to where we can make a difference. i think nikki haley at the u.n. was amazing. our focus on energy and energy independence has been great. i think reduced government interference has been good for the economy. i think president trump has put wisee around him who are and experienced and i think that helps. i don't trust the polls. i think the crowds at the trump enthusiasm means something and i am hoping for a red wave. offert think the dems much. justices on the

supreme court speaks well of the turn in values for our country and getting back to base roots. i don't think the dems own health care. i think republicans are for preconditions. host: you are hoping for a red wave? caller: yes, sir. host: appreciate your call, bill calling from ohio and on the front page of the financial times, trump targets midwest states in the final push to hold senate majority. holding three rallies yesterday, indiana, cleveland, and last night in cape girardeau, missouri. let's hear from salisbury in north carolina, lewis, who is voting today. good morning. caller: good morning. good morning, c-span. good morning, america. yes, i am going to vote today. it's a little rainy here, but that rain will not stop me and my family. we are just waiting for the

moment, the polls are just a block from my neighborhood -- my residents. i am looking forward -- residence. i am looking forward to it and cast my vote for democrat. it is amazing how some republicans can overlook the rhetoric from this president and everybody that he is promoting or campaigning for. just the other day, this man stated he is a nationalist. he says he is a nationalist, how many other republicans jumped on board because we know what that is all about. we already know he just doesn't like people of color. we already know he just doesn't like people coming close to the borders. he is sending troops out carrying a sheen guns and machetes -- machine guns and machetes and it is totally ridiculous.

why does it profit a man to gain the world, but to lose his soul? people will see, this election, it is going to be a blue wave and they ain't going to be able to stop it. they will still be mad when they see a blue wave, but it is ok. our country needs to get back to where it used to be with the person you has respect for other people and countries as well. host: the rain can't -- the weather can cause concern in voting across the country. a storm system will push from the northeast into new england today, making for a soggy election day. this rain could be heavy at times and could bring travel disruption. in addition to windy conditions, parts of north dakota, wisconsin --wisconsin, minnesota severe weather across the mid-atlantic, damaging wind and flash flooding possible with

thunderstorms from southeastern pennsylvania to north carolina. a be safe as you go out and vote. to centerville, massachusetts, phil is voting today. good morning. caller: good morning. bill from ohio is delusional. the money the corporations brought back to america. all they did was buy back their stock. same thing with the tax cut. they bought back their stock. republicans are definitely against preconditions with medical. it is a clear choice for me. my mother raised me to respect people, it does not matter what color you are or what religion you had. as americans, we have lost our way. , financially, too much greed going on.

crazy.lth gap is it is just ridiculous. for anybody to sit here and think because america is doing great economically -- it has nothing to do with number 45. the president before him, he should get 90% of that, trump should get 10% of that. if you look at it for what it is really worth. -- because he had two supreme court picks, they stole a pic from obama. they forgot that. it is amazing how they forget things. i don't trust them. ofy lie and suppress people and immigrants from voting, which is sad and there should be a law against that.

this election day, welcoming your calls. if you voted early, that is 202-748-8000. voting today, 202-748-8001. if you are not voting this election day, 202-748-8002. on twitter, we are @cspanwj. a couple of tweets on election day. keep america moving forward and out of the hands of the deceiving democrats who want a war with israel. dems hate god and hate prosperity. trump has delivered us from them. busier in the -- than the 2016 election. not saying what area that is. james says illegal immigration nate on hisate from blog, final election update from nate silver, democrats are not certain to take the house, but they are clear favorites and his posting from late yesterday.

he writes, this is a difficult article for right not for a personal reason, but because i am not sure what i am supposed to lead with, the most likely outcome or the uncertainty around the outcome. nate's overriding either way there is a potential for misunderstanding. people can mentally "roundup high probability to certainty" 86% might seem like a sure thing, but it isn't. would you board a plane that had a 14% chance of crashing? an 80% chance is the chance the democrats have of winning the in theive or take a bid various versions of the forecast model. odds of keeping the senate are also north of 80% in a nice bit of symmetry. range of plausible outcomes is broad and includes republicans keeping the house does not mean all such outcomes are equally likely. mayint on which some people

be confused, too. early in south carolina. caller: hi there. i wanted to ask everybody that voted in 2016 to please get out and vote again for republicans --ause if we lose bad especially if we lose the house, there is nothing this president can do and he keeps making this country great again. if you love your children, your grandchildren, and your great grandchildren and wants them to have a decent life, it has got to come from donald trump and i will tell that man from massachusetts he is living in a fantasy and barack obama never got any kind of decent economy to this country. host: thanks for the call. throughout the morning, we are taking a look at some of the key senate races. in west virginia, joe manchin across -- against patrick

morrissey. joining us is patrick hickey, a professor of political science at west virginia university. thank you for being here on this election day. quite a back-and-forth on that race between joe manchin and mr. morsi. issey. morr guest: i think senator manchin has an advantage. it will come down is the mansion hin brand or the trump brand more powerful. tot: has joe manchin tried tie into some of that trump brand? in other words, emphasizing areas where he and the presidency i to i or agree on some issues? guest: he has. he says he will vote with the president -- agree with the president when it is best for west virginia. his vote on kavanaugh was a signal to conservative democrats

that he will support the president on some major issues. points out he votes with the president more than any other democrat in the senate. host: what has been the number one issue in that senate race? guest: it has really been health care. manchin, who is really focused on health care and keeping coverage for pre-existing conditions. west virginia really than a fitted from the affordable care act. people like everything about the affordable care act other than if you call it obamacare. senator manchin has run on keeping health care and attorney general morrissey has run on she will be a strong supporter of the trump agenda. host: has joe manchin try to fashion himself as not necessarily like robert byrd, but along the lines of being able to deliver those sorts of programs, etc. for west virginians? guest: yeah, i think senator manchin is a great retail

politician who is always traveling the state and meeting voters and really trying to deliver the goods to voters and show he can use his position in washington, d.c. to procure benefits for west virginia. host: looking at their paper and the headline, west virginia early vote ends with strong turnout. the numbers doubled in five counties since the primary election. obviously a big factor. how has that been a change from purity is -- from previous years? guest: we are one of three states with sort of automatic registration. when you go to the dmv and most states, you have to opt in to being registered to vote. in west virginia, you are automatically registered to vote unless you opt out. isefully that new law

increasing registration. election day and campaigning in west virginia, what is your gut instinct on how this vote will go? guest: if i had to bet money, i would bet senator manchin will win. key senateof the races, north dakota, montana, other states, it is hard to poll . not everyone in west virginia has a cell phone. not every west virginia and is answering their landline. i think it will really be about turnout and whether the president has visited west virginia three times in the past two months and whether the strongnt -- president's support of general morsi can --morrissey can overshadow the work -- has done. host: patrick achy with a look at that key senate race.

thank you -- patrick hickey with a look at that key senate race. thank you for being with us. if you voted early, the line is 202-748-8000. if you are voting today, 202-748-8001. who are not you voting in 2018, 202-748-8002. let's hear from diane in woodstock, georgia. good morning, she voted early. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i early voted. i voted for all democrats. i am hoping and praying that the votes are not hacked because we have paperless voting machines kempand secretary of state is running against stacey abrams purgedernor and he has

like 70,000 black voters from the polls. all of this stuff. and people calling in saying democrats are haters. as far as i have seen, nobody on the democratic ticket is a nazi. , whiteon nazi nationalists, whatever. we don't allow people like that. there are several nazis running on the republican ticket. that is ok with them. it is not ok with me. it would not be ok with democrat if somebody wanted to be a nazi . i don't know what they are talking about. i don't even hate trump, i just think he is horrible and want him to be impeached and removed from office, but i don't really hate anybody. i am disgusted right now.

i am disgusted with trump. i am disgusted with his gop lackeys in congress and the senate and everything and the cult followers of trump. i have never seen anything like this in my entire life in this country. whenever you have a fascist leader, you have a cult personality. that is what is going on right now and it is so frightening to me. and it is so scary. host: in terms of impeachment. you say you voted democratic. do you think that sort of effort, if the democrats were to win the house, do you think that should be a priority of the democratic party? god, i hope so. i pray to god. i pray to god. this is a nightmare. it is like a kafka-esque nightmare that decent americans that are not brainwashed i trump

cannot wake up from. host: one of the key national races are focusing on the governor's race in georgia. brian kemp and stacey abrams, the democratic running for that race. this is the atlanta journal , what toion, ajc.com watch for in georgia on election day and they write for a while it felt like nothing could touch the 2016 elections when georgians rendered judgment on candidates named trump and clinton. -- dialed up the intensity to new heights. ajc writing georgians cast roughly 2.1 early votes, shattering previous reference -- records. the top of the ticket clash between stacey abrams and brian kemp has attracted an unprecedented amount of money, much of it from outside georgia.

in illinois, connie is voting today. what time do the polls opened there? caller: our polls opened at 6:00. i am out of bed with a cold, so i am running late. i have 3 points. the people talking about drop being a nationalist, so were quite a few other presidents, including abraham lincoln. a nationalist cares about their country. nationalistn white to trump. trump is not a white nationalist that is a person that does not care about their country. that is the guy that hates trump that shot up the synagogue. another point is cnn was running pictures of oh, look, trump is yanking babies from their mother

at the border, putting them in cages until somebody pointed out those pictures were from the obama administration. quitmmediately putting -- putting those pictures out and now you have got president obama saying biden out there trump is ripping babies from the arms of their mothers. they cannot remember much, can they? and president obama said he is troopsolitical, sending to the border. president obama sent troops to the border. i guess him and joe biden, i guess they are not lying to anyone. is -- the young kids that

,re running, abrams, gillum that, i don't know what you call that bozo down in texas. sinema in arizona. they are running on communist views. host: what did you say? they are running as communists? views. on communist they are socialist. host: that is connie in illinois. dorothy in mississippi, who also voted early. caller: good morning. how are you this morning? host: doing fine, how are you? caller: first of all, the lady that called, they are not socialists. they are people trying to get america back. that is the first thing. can you hear me? host: we can hear you just fine. caller: the second thing is i voted for trump.

i would never vote for him again. people are not seeing anything on their paycheck, that is number one. number two, he is a disgrace. he is embarrassing. and like marco rubio said, he is a con artist and i feel sorry for the people that believe him. people believe him because they are racist. those poor people on their door, they want to send them back. i think it is awful. i am a christian woman. i know we cannot afford, but they can try to do something to help those people. they don't want to because most of them are racist. most calling in our calling in about trump. trump has done nothing and i voted for him like a fool, which was the biggest mistake of my life. host: why did you vote for him the first time? caller: i thought it was somebody different.

want anybody in my pocket -- nobody does that i have talked to. host: thank you, dorothy. throughout the morning, we will try to look at some of the looks ahead this morning as the polls close. a couple of news organizations have put together items to watch for. this is the wall street journal and their view of things. critical races to watch on election night, 6:00 p.m. polls closing, key race to watch is 6t h congressional district in lexington, the seat currently held by andy barr who represents an area where the gop typically does well, but facing a well-financed opponent and a retired -- pilot. 7:00 p.m., florida polls close. we talked about that with the governor's race and senatorial race.

indiana closing at 7:00, senator joe donnelly. the georgia governors race, we talked about that, 7:30 polls close in ohio. john kasich is leaving the governor's mansion. in west virginia, we talked about that with professor hickey from west virginia university and those polls closing at 7:30 tonight. our election night coverage on c-span and c-span radio getting underway 8:00 eastern. election results as they happen. the victory and concession speeches tonight starting at 8:00 eastern. brooklyn, new york, voting today, anthony. good morning and welcome. caller: good morning.

my name is anthony reyes and the people who call, the trump haters, they are hilarious. they call him a racist and all this stuff. the one who really divided this country is barack hussein obama. the debt when he got in. obama made the debt from $9.7 trillion to nearly $19 trillion. i am somebody who unfortunately is on disability. everybody talks about the republicans are going to cut social security. they are not. do you know who did it to me? the democrats under barack hussein obama. i did not get a raise for 8 years. ims sorry, i don't mean to yell. said valerie jarrett, she they will never forget the political enemies. my enemies are the democrat party. host: anthony in brooklyn in new york city. this is from breitbart.com in their lead this morning.

rally with missouri rush limbaugh, holding his final rally in cape girardeau, the hometown of the talk radio host and here is what president trump had to say last night. [video clip] ares we speak, democrats openly encouraging millions of illegal aliens to break our laws and violate our borders and they want to sign them up for free well care -- welfare, free health care, free education, and most importantly, they want to give them the right to vote. [boos] i can't imagine why. democrats' immigration policies are extreme, dangerous, and reckless. they support catch and release. they want to free criminal aliens. they want no protections for american workers and taxpayers and they want totally open borders, which means crime will

pour in to our country. illegal immigration cost our country more than $100 billion every year and that is more than the budgets of missouri, indiana, and wisconsin combined. i mentioned those places. do you know why? because we have very important races in those places and we have all these academy award type cameras going -- we want to win in those places, too. care of ought to take its own citizens first. nearly 100% of the air -- of the heroin in the united dates enters from the southern border along with really -- roughly 80% a cocaine and meth and substantial portion of deadly fentanyl. these drugs destroy the lives of

hundreds of thousands of people. host: president donald trump last night in cape girardeau, missouri. good morning and welcome to "washington journal." if you have voted early, the line to use is 202-748-8000. if you are voting today, 202-748-8001. if you are not voting, 202-748-8002. welcome your comments on facebook and twitter. we area couple of tweets here. this one from michael, who said i never thought about social security or medicare ever. i think when programs are managed well and beneficial for everyone involved, these programs believe burden on families. donna says mississippi is right. he does not care about anyone but himself and profits. the call screeners got a dinner break.

i am not sure what james is talking about. we will be back tonight for our election coverage. let's go to pittsburgh and here from robert. good morning. caller: thank you. i will say two things. i'm a retired veteran. war, we werem supporting this man. veterans, think about that. thou shall not commit adultery and fornication. this president did that. that's not not live. o.is president did that to as a democrat, we support these people coming in. i am telling the people, wake

up. this man will say anything. you people that colin that you love this man -- call in that you love this man, you think he would have dinner with you? host: what time are you going to vote? voter: i am going to go down the street. host: we go to greenville, north carolina. robert voted early. good morning. caller: all the christians need to think about what they are backing. , god wouldone of us not vote for donald trump. lying, a cheat, a misogynistic pig and he will do anything at all costs. the country to

get what he wants out of life and that is more money. i do not think he is a billionaire. you said you voted early. what do you think the big issue is driving people to the polls or driving them to vote early in north carolina? caller: in north carolina it is red. there is voter suppression. this country is split down the middle. -- i am my whole life going to be 71. i have never experienced anything like this. party on an tremendous activist said the republican party is the worst party that has ever existed in the history of the world. that is how bad it is.

he said this election is going to decide what happens with this country and the rest of the world. host: let's hear from philadelphia. canon voted early. thinking donald trump is about the republican party. they are afraid of donald trump. everything he says, they go around -- along with it. the economy was moving. -- only thing they did was take their foot off the economy. let the motor off. the people talking this crazy stuff. it is ridiculous. they did nothing but hold up the economy now. you are doing a great job. it is crazy. the people watch out and see

who's at these rallies and no your neighbor. have a great day. host: one of the key races keeping an eye on the day is missouri with claire mccaskill and the attorney general josh holly. joining us from missouri, the terror the political science department at the university of missouri st. louis. david robertson that your screen. what does it stand -- where does it stand? guest: good morning from missouri. this is the closest race in the country. it is dead even. host: what forces made it so? why was it not an easier race for claire mccaskill to win? guest: made top races are close. she was expecting it to be close. it was close in the spring.

the reason is the state of missouri is made up of lots of rural folks but also urban folks and the dominant boat in the state -- vote in the state comes from the suburbs. those forces together country balance in a way that makes results often close, painfully close for the candidates running for statewide or national office. post in the st. louis dispatch this morning, hannity speaks onstage at the trump rally. how important of an influence of figurehead has he been in this senate race. -- race? guest: he is the key to this race. he asserted this race is about him. it is an election that focuses on his presidency and so he has made it referendum on trump.

he has come to missouri several to get his base to come out to vote to counterbalance the forces that a democrats in this election nationwide and in missouri. reflecting some of your comments on kansas city star, their headline saying i am on the ticket. -- six vote of support. tell us about josh holly, his rise to being such a close contender with claire mccaskill. what has he been focusing on in terms of his campaign issues and argument on why he should be the next election senator. his venture argument is he supports the trump agenda, pretty much on the line emphasizes emigration, tax cuts,

staying the course with the trump administration and arguing reelecting claire mccaskill is a threat to donald trump and the agenda he stands for. there has been a lot of negative advertising in this race on both sides and from outside contributors. host: what has been her argument andttend a steep -- seat where is she going to retain those boats? isst: her central argument she is a middle-of-the-road democrat. she is not with the crazy democrats on the left of the party. she has always made this argument she is a down the middle senator, that she is independent, that she favors good government and set on many themes she heard from the other candidates, health care

protection of pre-existing condition coverage and other issues like that. have been reading stories about the amount of early voting going on in states across the country but missouri is not a state that allows early voting so -- what is your sense on how the parties are going to drive folks to the polls and is or with -- will a weather be a factor? guest: turnout is the key to the selection. county, allot big kinds of people are driving people to the polls to get every last vote at of an area like this. suburbs are going to be critical around kansas city and st. louis but she is also going to have to hold down the margin in the

-- and cities and rural she is going to have to win some of those counties because she has not one throughout the state in her past two senate elections. the county i am looking at is jefferson county which is a trump county now. it had been a working-class lieu collar democratic county for many years. it is a swing county and if it swings back, that will be an how well indicator on she is doing in the selection. host: let's wrap up. how did the state going 2016 during the residential election? guest: the state went heavily for donald trump by a huge margin. raceestingly, the senate senate buted to the

the republicans were much closer. i look to see whether the democrats were able to make in roads and it included some of the places they ended in suburban areas. morning,ning us this david robertson. thanks for being here. guest: thank you. host: it is election day we welcome your comments and calls. if you voted early, the like to call is 202-748-8000 isyou are voting today, that 202-748-8001 if you're not voting,

202-748-8002 greg voted early. caller: thanks for c-span. go back to the early days. what i want to comment about is the call of one of your earlier mentioning heers was a former wall streeter and how wealthy he became after working on wall street and how all his colleagues were buying islands and moving to australia and other parts of the world because of their wealth and the undere country had turned president obama. i found that galling for him to make those assertions, particularly with the issues going on in the country now. -- with president trump. a person who has some he cannot tell the truth. it prosecutes what the

constitution says about our country in terms of what it is supposed to stand for, when it comes to caring about others, caring about people trying to come to america to better their lives. i am not talking about illegal aliens. i am talking about people who have stood in line's trying to get into the country legally. i have issues with illegals getting benefits. as a person who finds the .onstitution being the bedrock when the press is one of the only institutions that is inside the constitution to be protected , i say that caller who has all his wealth and all the people and his ilk who have all the becausehould not go they do not represent the conscience of america.

-- says being voters suppressed in all the other colleagues who does not look like me. but they are members of fight --rica's, or other menaces moved to australia. we do not need that kind of thinking. we have gone to war with other countries who have not bought the thing we support. i am a vietnam vet. and but for those things the constitution stands for. thanks for the call. int: that is greg jacksonville, florida. the polls closing at 7:00. we have been looking at full closing and what to look for.

we will so you're reporting in the wall street journal. here's the new york times. things to keeping on a non-as you watch your coverage. -- votes state-by-state. we are talking 8:00 eastern. a number of high-profile issues -- races. one of the most contentious, the texas race. in tennessee, taylor swift's endorsement of two democrats added excitement to a house and senate race there. claire mccaskill sit -- faces one of the tough election races with david robertson. incumbent is in an unexpected close race. there are critical house races in new jersey, including the republican held seventh congressional district. let's look to the new york times

and the look at what to look for as the polls close at 8:30. the competitive district is arkansas' second which was in the news because of an ad putting french hill. hill is favorite to win. to your calls again. that carolina, voting today. guest: yes sir. good morning. it amazes me how informed these people are. it was donald trump who signed away the regulations that obama put on america and how our military went there having to get parts off of planes in the graveyard, and as far as democrats, they started in the south. they did not start up north.

republicans said as far as a nationalist, look it up in the dictionary. our president is for america to help get america back on its feet after eight years of president obama. they need to educate their selves. i could not believe after sworn, theyump was had the guts to remove the embassy of israel to jerusalem. that he was against the juice. jews.ot -- the i do not understand these people. they had -- cnn had them blaming

the president of the shooting. book out there. it is black bog -- lacked dog yellow dog. these people need to read that book so they see how things me in was and it amazes socialism. the democrats hired socialism. -- i cannot say it well thatgood and they were a rich country. that socialism to govern. these young people that have went to college that are hollering i have got to pay back loans -- they made that choice to go to college. question --host: one more question for you.

since you are voting, what time will you do that? guest: about 11:00. host: we go to susan in florida, voted early. caller: i am calling regarding the affair pulled about the mexican illegals who killed police officers. a lot of people need to do research. that gentleman was supported from the united states under the clinton administration. he got back into the united states during the bush administration. he was arrested in arizona but released by a pale with no reason given as to why. my question is why doesn't president trump as kids pardoned buddy why he let him go? the fox network probably only pulled that it be -- pulled that ad because they would realize what a bungled job that was and

to blame democrats was ridiculous when it was the man screaming about protecting the border. host: to political forces are set to collide as the headline. whatever the precise outcome when votes are counted tuesday, the 2018 midterm campaign has represented the collision of two forces in american politics. energizedtrump and and democratic women. the headliners begins at 12:01 wednesday. rallies --rump president trump's rallies have drawn giant crowds. of 2016, 50lection 8% of self identified republicans said they have a positive view of mr. trump. today that number has risen to 82%. candidates who wants expressed

misgivings about mr. trump state in 2018 to embrace him. senator cruz, who once called trump a sniveling coward, welcomed his campaign help, so did martha makes sally. in sum, whatever the outcome, the election will have to be seen as a referendum on donald trump. eugene in maryland, voted early. good morning. caller: i voted early. i am calling because i want to say? to all of the people in maryland, get out and vote. primarily because i want to give thanks to donald trump. i am a black man. i want to thank him because he

calls me to do something i want all of us white and black, to do. to decide a project. what mr. donald trump did to me. , that the football --sobs, ire as ob asked the lord to give me something i could do. what did i do? i would like all of your listeners to google this. google it. take out your pencils. google lift every voice and sing. trump calls me, a 76-year-old man to get mba teams across the nation to sing and play the nico national anthem.

the washington wizards, the boston celtics. thei am getting calls from la lakers that they want to sing and play the nico national anthem. -- nico national anthem. all i am saying, mr. trump thank you for inspiring me. i want mr. trump to inspire others. i know without a doubt god is in the mix. i know without a doubt that the successfulill be this day. our cameras are in the northern virginia suburb. this is christchurch, one of the polling places in northern virginia. a district one by hillary clinton and 2016 and a close race with barbara comstock, the incumbent being challenged on the 10thratic side by

congressional district, barbara comstock winning that back in 2016. our cameras there as the polling place gets underway. we continue to take your calls. if you voted already, the number is 202-748-8000 today,are voting 202-748-8001 and for those were not voting, 202-748-8002 dear he is in mississippi. we will be voting today. the gentleman that called in -- he knewnd democrats were going to be successful today. they will not be in this city.

democrat.be a blue. -- blue dog democrat. but the democrats are so crazy people i believe do not put drop in office. host: what made you crazy? tell us that moment when you decided to vote for president trump in 2016 and how big of an influence do you think he is in mississippi and other key races? maybe the northeast in the heartland and the soft. a huge influence because people will say he is a liar. .very time he opens his mouth everything you see he is going

to do. -- everything he said he is going to do. i think he has a huge influence. host: thanks. we will go to chattanooga tennessee to go to marry who is voting today. good morning. caller: good morning. what collars -- immigration about the economy? a certain way to divide the country, he said if you can convince up -- the worst what men he is better than the best college man, he will look in his pocket. we have to wonder. to give the sum than -- the person something to look down on

to feel better about themselves. people since 1998, they said donald trump said if i run as a like andn, i could they still heated up. i bet my numbers would be terrific. themselves, is donald trump pulling something over them? thank you. host: one quick question about the senate race in tennessee. against the former governor, a democrat. who do you think will win? marsha blackburn helped push the opium crisis. there are so many people caught up on opium. all she does is lie. every commercial she place on tv -- plays on tv is a lie.

people know the truth. it is amazing how every republican this election is lying. these are the key races to watch in the 2018 midterm elections. republicans are expected to pick up seats. there are dozens of tight races keep an eye on tuesday. the news foundation wrote up a list of races to watch november 6. there are five of the candidates and the tossup senate races are incumbents. joe oflson of florida, indiana, claire mccaskill of missouri. the senate race in arizona is listed as a tossup.

jeff flake is not running for reelection. let's go to dayton, ohio. thomas voting today. doner: irony got my vote at 6:30 -- i already got my vote done at 6:30. i am one of the guys that called a couple calls ago. i voted for president obama. i went to mr. trump. i have been called a racist and white privileged and it blows my mind that i changed so much. think we have to got eight members of congress, a black caucus that associate with lewis fair con. . am wondering racism is what is dividing the country.

it started with trayvon martin. it was not a police officer. a white officer lost their job because of a lie. this is what has divided our country. we have got the news media saying all this crab. and take out and presented your taxes because it is costing $300 billion a year. got bless you that i am not a racist. i voted for president obama. from denison,ar texas who voted early. caller: i would like to associate myself with -- i have taken black studies.

i have spent a lot of time studying anthropology in history and of native indigenous peoples. host: let me ask you, you mentioned the previous caller. do those feelings that you are expressing, does that happen influence on how you vote. it is a nuanced question. the word am outraged racism is tossed around. i love c-span. i watch it more than anything. i like to watch the debates. i like to watch the hearings. you consider -- i know you do not allow hate speech. i would appreciate it if people

who call people not to than racists, you would cut them off. a girl was saying, one thing i would like you to consider -- everybody these days has become so desensitized to attack for having a political opinion and being called racist for it, that if you give your opinion for it, you have to apologize. you have to say i did this. i studied that. you know you are going to be called racist. many take the pre-existing stuff. president trump and the republicans have said it -- have said a million times. i do not know how many times i can say it yet the democrats keep saying they are going to

get rid of the rest of obamacare which has been nibbling. but the racism thing -- when i hear light racist, crackers. you are talking about -- they are going to have to do something about white men. just a couple days ago. i get that feeling that when i hear the inroads, i grew up in the south. it was not the obama administration you started that it is a word vile words. especially with a white person using it. i do not think of it for years. the other you know is some fake word somebody has made up.

they thought you were racist. this president anytime, they are and associating you with all the stuff that has been associated with racism over the years. the national thing is such a joke. host: i appreciate your input. david on texas. we are live. virginiaas in northern , barbara comstock in a tight race with jennifer waxed income of the democrat. it is morning in northern virginia. much of the mid-atlantic area. we will keep our eyes on the polls as we go to our next caller, silver spring maryland. it is voting today. caller: good morning. i am calling for two reasons. the first is immigration. there have been a lot of questions lately.

viewerso remind our that as much as 40% of the soldiers under washington were foreign-born. it is not just the beginnings. it was 80 by immigrants. alexander hamilton was our secretary and the founding of american governments. emigrants have contributed to this country tremendously. secondly, i live in silver spring's. i am voting for larry hogan. he is a governor of the state i am voting democrat for two reasons. we need to have check and balances on this present. does president. we need to maintain back. this president has disgraced this country in many ways.

reduced our credibility around the world and such. i just want talk about socialism. democratic socialism, what we have. stillof polars are recipients of social security, medicare and so on. programs you fund the united dates fund that provide services to the people. that is what them aquatic socialism is about. sem not supporting it per but that is what it is. if you think i do not support socialism, we have that already. int: thank you for calling election day. through the morning, we are getting input on t senate races across the country.

joined an author inside the author of texas politics. the nation has been watching texas politics in the race between the democrat and ted cruz. where do you think ink stand? -- things that stand? guest: i think it is going to be tight. there is a 3-5 difference between the two. the problems for democrats is they have been wondering when the last time someone in a was in theaters. it is an uphill battle. when thing we see with david's work is there is electricity he has brought the -- to the state and democrats responded. although mr. mears do not bring out democrats, it is clearly the case. host: ted cruz read a piece

about this earlier waiting up to the 2016 election. had unkind words about president trump. that changed. the huge rally in texas not long ago. how important of an effect has president trump been in this? guest: this is to campaigns for truck. his assistance for ted cruz is good. statewide, it is popular among the republicans. so rallying support for ted cruz has been something good. he needs republicans. that is something they are worried about not happening. the problem is the other side of the campaign. him, thated cruz made is to be excited. there are races were trump is unpopular. any district that has any suburb

is in jeopardy of losing support on college-educated voters or female voters. you have got half a dozen races here. nationally, it is there in texas. the issue of the caravan of migrants on the way to the u.s. has risen to the top of the list at least for the president. is that as big an issue in the cruise campaign? the immigration issue has been saturated in taxes. is on then where it top minds of most texas voters. yourepublicans are thinking may have independence turned off but it is such a statuary issue. peers the texas tribune. the headline is uncertainty

hangs over texas as voters had to the polls this election day. what has the early voting the mike in texas? guest: it has been blockbuster numbers we have not seen before. 5 billion people have put it. texas votes early. we'll out for two weeks of early grouting. -- voting. we are at the point of having big surge on election day today but most people have already cast ballots. from the university of houston looking on the tight race between ted cruz and beto o'rourke joining us. he has got a blog that keeps an eye on texas politics. again, the author of inside texas politics. things were being with us. host: through election day, we

are live in northern virginia at the 10th congressional district polling lease at christchurch. the tight race there in northern virginia, the republican incumbent is barbara comstock. her opponent is jennifer waxed in. linus voted early, that -- line is 202-748-8000 for those voting today it is 202-748-8001 can come up good morning. >> i know the issue is about voting. i voted in the eighth district. i voted saturday. i saw it was a privilege to pass .y votes for the opportunity i find egregious from the previous calls to change.

to say they are offended by racism is a joke. me to callnot want them racist, i can call them prejudiced. to have means you have two things. you have to have prejudiced and power. when you talk about white supremacy, racism -- you have the power -- white people, white privilege. the term white. europe,sk people in white is a definition they created when they got here so they can identify amongst themselves. every time i hear someone who likes those causes we need to get over it. host: what do you think that colors point? he found the easy use of the

arm not see for people was sense of -- do you agree? i am not anti-semitic. it does not apply to me. whether somebody is being called a not see. i am sure they are repeating something. a race they have systematically hurt. they have a thought process that allows you to determine if you are thinking outside the race. if you are thinking about with it, to sum it up. i grew up in a desert my entire means i have never been in an environment when snow exists. the book they have today is clear. when they talk about terrorists,

churches ind black philadelphia, tolleson oklahoma. if anybody has the audacity to say somebody who looks like a , does that being offended by being gone racist. you voted early. we're looking at the 10th congressional district in fairfax. does that cover your area in alexandria? guest: i am of the eighth district which covers -- caller: i'm of the eighth district which covers southern fairfax county. host: what is the race? caller: i cannot remember. that is don byers and that race? caller: yes. host: thank you. we're keeping an eye on the 10th congressional district. we go to lucas phil, ohio.

if the democrats take over, we will become open .orders and a socialist country i hope all of you who footage for the democrats, i hope you are satisfied. as far as trump not serving in the military, i do not recall that obama served in the military either. a beat on of hearing that drum. we areave open borders going to be subject to whoever wants to come in and remember majority rules. host: let's take a look at what people are saying on twitter. republicansf the take the house the democrats will claim the machines were hacked. mary says people are turning out

to vote. collins is my wife is that the polling position 30 minutes early and the line was 200 .eople it was so busy and the lines were long. i voted all gop from this. voted early because i was going to vote straight republican matter what changed. frank is not voting this election season. why not? caller: i am not voting because i like a lot of c-span. when i see votes down party lines, like a gang come like to gangs going against each other. i say why should i vote? these people are not for my interests. they are for their own interests . how am i going to keep my job? it divides the country.

what good is voting? are saying from watching c-span, you have decided not to vote. caller: yes. from watching the hearings, watching the debates, congress. partyline --at partyline vote and it is directly divided by the two parties, it makes me sick. it makes me sick. i believe the only way we could dealhis is today with gas with two-party system and everybody is an independent in the government gives each candidate and amount to advertise so everyone is under equal grounds. we covered 162 debates. many of which is inclined on our website. and a reminder for our live coverage, coming up tonight.

how are things going at the polls from matt rogers, who tweets this. in arlingtonnct virginia, i have never waited with 10 people. the line is snaked around twice with over 100 people. that is from matt rogers to jeffrey in indiana. who is voting early or has voted early. jeffrey, sorry about that. ander: i have already voted their early voting behavior in northwestern -- northwest indiana is heavy and intense. we are building the no one will show up to vote today on election day because the vast majority of statewide, actually early voters have been to the polls with early voting opportunity.

i guess my previous caller from bayside new york took some wind out of my sails. we had a though tremendous lack of informed voters and they want everyone -- seems to be everyone running to their opinions based on a motion -- emotion and finding facts to support those opinions that originate with emotions and nobody informed on the factual data and on that basis, i have youalute c-span until you have been disappointed no last several years that the general not provided the whole

context but providing limited information. i find a have to resort to c-span or other resources. to learn what the facts are. i get the headlines but nothing else. the past has been the media i relied on. you and c-span are a godsend and go bless you. thank heaven you are there because i can go to c-span, i can see and hear the entire speech and then i have basis on which -- an actual basis to reach my conclusion. thanks. christopher is voting today. -- are you caller: how are you? you do a tremendous job representing both sides. i am a staunch liberal but i

appreciate sharpening my knives against the opposing sides the love hearing the views. i voted down the line for blue. usually i am more of a purple guy. ?o they will see us i voted republican for mayor because i like checks. this vote felt like a check on the president. i am not against economic progress. frankie, nailed it. he said party lines make me sick. this,like whoever winds we beat you deny you have to do what we say. no. we are here, and it together.

understand where someone else is coming from and try forcing her views on someone. it is training and exhausting. pennsylvania went through redistricting over the last years. you think more broadly it will in the u.s.utcome house allegation? caller: in pennsylvania, i voted for governor wolf has his opponent is the aggressive trumpiism. he does not want to talk about any other issue besides beating. you have got to redraw the maps. i did -- it did not affect my district that much.

southeastern pennsylvania suddenly goes democrat. unaware we joke in the city and color kentucky yeah -- kentucky. it is the red state now. i have never noted to be anything but democrat. there are other people here and you cannot just ignore them. you have to give them opportunity. that is what i did not like about mr. trump's campaigning style. it is about fear of the other and they are coming to get you. doing great.s i'm a small business owner that i do not have health care and i would really love that great health care he was saying he was going to give in the campaign trail. that might pull independent

voters like my fiancee. she lives in new jersey. she was looking for reason not to vote for bob mendez. there was no information about student loan forgiveness of debt or anything. she is an issue voter. she does not just throw her flag in the air. i think a lot of people are like that. i think c-span does a good job that there are like 11 different countries in this country. int: thanks for weighing looking at support across the country. the headline from the socko tribune, but for control. raises faith. illinois statewide offices spent yesterday eve capping out the most expensive gubernatorial

race in history, bringing an end more than 20 months. tuesdayune is opening at 6 p.m., opening at 7:00 p.m. and the fitting the campaign rhetoric, the chicago area forecast calls for blustery winds with light rain and gentle. in plato, texas all the not voting in 2018. good morning. tell us why you are not voting. caller: i may have a strange reason. i would do a republican ticket. -- it iserywhere i go obvious the great things that are going on but my strange reason is my wife is going to .ote straight democrat i was going to vote straight republican. .e were going to negate

you both decided not to go? we decided we are not going to go. host: has it always been she's a straight line democrat and you are a straight-line republican? caller: yeah. the last time i voted was back in that day. she isy i do not because going to negate my vote anyway. you are happy to vote. if this were as some were writing, if this is a referendum on president trump agenda. estate and hereal is helping -- caller: i'm in real estate and he is helping my business. the economy is great comparatively.

there is a help wanted sign in almost every store i go into. they may be $10 an hour jobs but still. improved and i am a trump supported for sure. bob, not voting. interesting reason why. this is the headline from an indiana paper. the item in richmond, indiana somebody had mentioned this in terms of early voting. the headline, early vote almost equaled last midterm. 9770 eight people have cast ballots by new monday. this is in richmond, indiana. how busy has it been for officials? the election day could arrive. there were already nearly as many votes as the previous midterm. let's hear from fayetteville, north carolina. good morning leroy.

go ahead. you are on the year. about: i called to talk donald trump's tax release. it is not going to hurt us now but the next four years, most definitely we're going to see results. ride to kill bush back in the day. everybody talked him down. .ook what happened i think god for the real helped.n brothers that i appreciate them. the other ones, no. a lot of them talking and i am not a prejudiced man.

treat you good, treat him good. step back. host: that is leroy in north carolina. keep nine -- keeping an eye on senate races across the country, we go to arizona next and hear -- who is a political science professor. two congresswomen on the selection date morning, what is your sense of the race? guest: it is tight. it is going to be exciting to see what happens tonight. it could go either way. the cultures are having a hard time calling it. they will either have it as a dead even race or sentimentally. host: you have two women, to members of congress running against each other but on the , how do you think

that willparty lines as men do. we do not see a lot of unity among women across the aisle. my research has shown that democratic and republican women have different ideas of what it we doto be a woman, so not see them cross and i'll a lot to support female candidates. a public and women will continue to vote republican, as they always do. and females from the democratic party will do the same. in this case they haven't each own -- have their own fema candidates to support. host: where do they have to win? >> a cloudy of a voters are thestered republican, so republican candidate has a clear advantage in that sense. but there are many independents in arizona.

the independents have to make up a plurality. they outnumber the democrats. and the democratic candidate has a moderate sense about her. she was a moderate representative for her district. she voted with donald trump about 60% of the time. so she is taking from the democratic pool and independents. cindy mccain on campaign bus tonight in arizona with governor ducey, and candidate mix valley going to the final election eve rally and there is cindy mccain, that we can tell, may be first campaign appearance we have seen her at. has she had a role and what has that been? >> the family has not been overly active in campaigning, as the caller suggested. so, you know, there has not been a huge presence.

this is seen as a new seat, a new slate with two different types of candidates. host: the caravan making its way through central america on its way to the border, obviously a big issue for president trump nationwide. shas it been an issue in this campaign? >> for arizona voters, donald trump disapproval has been increasing. and arizona republicans actually tend not to be as conservative on immigration as we see among republicans in other states. for example, the portal wall is less popular among arizona republicans than among a lot of republicans who do not live on the border. immigration is certainly a big issue for the state of arizona, but it does not necessarily increase arizona support for the president. host: on the economy, some pundits have said the president should be emphasizing the success of the economy. has it been an issue in the senate race in arizona? >> the issue most frequently

brought up in the arizona senate ads has been health care, that seems to be the issue arizona and's are that arizona is most concerned with. the economy has taken a bit of a second fiddle when it comes to the issues the candidates are raising. so it is an issue. the economy is doing well and americans are happy with their pocketbooks. with how their stock market, or stock portfolios are looking, but it has not been the biggest issue in the arizona race as we have not seen it be a big issue anywhere this year. host: professor klar, political science professor joining us to talk about the senate race in arizona. thanks for being here. >> my pleasure. host: more on this election day. more ahead here on c-span. we will take a break, but when we come back we will talk with debra cleaver of the nonpartisan group, vote.org, about their efforts to increase voter turnout, including trying to

make election day in national holiday. we will be right back. ♪ 2018 election results will come in as the polls close across the country tonight. the first polls close at 7:00 p.m. eastern in states such as virginia and georgia. ohio, west virginia and north carolina close a half-hour later. much of florida closes at 7:00 p.m. as well, except for part of the panhandle, where they close at 8:00 p.m. polls in pennsylvania, the new england states, and several southern states, including mississippi and most of texas, also close at 8:00 p.m. arizona, wisconsin, and new york are among a number of states with polls closing at 9:00 p.m. polls in nevada and utah 10:00 p.m. california and hawaii close polls at 11:00 p.m. eastern.

no sites in oregon or washington state, but vote by mail ballots are due by 11 p.m. alaska closes voting at -- eastern. -- 10:00 p.m. eastern. which party will control the house and senate? watch election night coverage starting tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern, as a result come in from house, senate and governor races across the country. hear speeches from the candidates. then on wednesday morning, we will get your reaction to the election, taking your phone calls live during "washington journal." c-span, your primary source for campaign 2018. "washington journal" continues. host: election day 2018 and joining us from san francisco is debra cleaver, founder and ceo

of vote.org. we will talk about efforts to increase voter turnout. welcome and tell us about your organization, what do you focus on and why did you found it initially? guest: this goes back to the 2000 election, where we had a 50% voter turnout in america and as a result the presidential election came down to a repeated recount in a single county in florida. and it was ultimately decided by the supreme court. so basically just horrified turnout was so low in this country, that a single county could decide the presidential election. so i started one organization in 2004, another in 2008, and then more in 2016 -- then vote.org in 2016. host: what is the target audience, first-time voters, those who do not typically show up at the polls? guest: this will be very nerdy,

but we target low propensity voters, which means people who are less likely to vote. and historically in the u.s., those of are young people and people of color. host: the -- guest: and low income people. --st: the organization's fact says the u.s. trails most developed countries in voter turnout. so how do you turnout potential, low propensity voters as he called them? guest: a wide array of tactics. basically, we borrow heavily from traditional marketing, which says you need to contact someone about seven times to sell them your product. so we look at registered people as potential leads. and then ballots cast as our actual sales. it is like corporate marketing, only in this case we are not try to sell you goods, we are try to sell you voting itself. so what we do is we aim to

contact somebody at least seven times. and we do this by fully saturating any inexpensive media channel we can buy, including billboards, text messages, radio ads, social media, and sometimes we do this by working with companies to make sure people have time off to vote. host: our guest is debra cleaver , vote.org founder and ceo. we are talking about voter turnout. here is how we have divided the phone lines. if you are but he voted, 202-748-8000. if you are planning to vote today, 202-748-8001. and if you are not voting, 202-748-8002. and how do you ensure that your efforts are seen as, and are actually, nonpartisan. that your efforts are turning out voters regardless of party. guest: we never mention a

candidate or political party. we literally just tell people to go vote on tuesday, november 6. we have 2600 billboards up right now, all over america, and all of them say "vote, tuesday, november 6." everybody thinks the government put them up, which is fine. we never tell someone who to vote for or why. we literally tell them, go vote. host: do you find, has your organization found that partnering with celebrities or political people like president obama, or taylor swift -- we read an article about driving the vote in tennessee -- do you think that helps to lure the turnout effort? guest: oh my god. we did not know that taylor swift was going to tell her instagram followers how important it was the vote, then tell them to come to vote.org. we registered 400,000 people to

vote four days after she told the fan base to come to our website, so we would say celebrities, when they are heartfelt and sincere can be extremely effective at increasing turnout. host: where the 400,000, i did not hear it clearly, where they in one state or across the country? guest: nationally, but over 63% of them were under 30, which is taylor's fan base. host: what is the term, what does the term of vote rolling mean? and what efforts does your organization do to stop that? guest: ok, so vote rolling in this case, do you know what rick rolling is? host: no. guest: i will teach you a little bit about internet culture right now. rick rolling is when you basically trick someone into clicking a link that takes them to rick's video of "never going to let you down."

i have no idea how it got started. the internet is a wild place. but if you weeks ago -- a few weeks ago, somebody started posting that he knew the real reason ariana grande and the man from saturday night live, i do not know his name, had broken up. and there was a rick rolling link. everybody wants to know why they broke up, apparently it is interesting gossip, so people started clicking on it and it was taking them to vote.org. and it went viral on twitter and people referred to it as vote rolling. in this case, we did not want to stop it. it was great. people were registering to vote. host: before we go to calls, we have a number waiting, in terms of you joining us on the west coast, polls opening up fairly soon there. reports here on the east coast of early turnout. and we have read early articles so far about early voting having

record levels. what is your thought on that? guest: i think early voting is great. we are one of the only countries in the world that votes on a workday, which decreases voter turnout, so early voting is a great way to vote on the weekend. and i think it is a good sign. record early voting this year it is think we will have record shattering turnout. in this election. early voting is great. i know from my mother and my aunt, both of whom are on the east coast, that the lines are very long at the polls. which is a good sign. host: we want to hear your experience on voting. if you have already voted, 202-748-8000. voting today, 202-748-8001. and not voting, 202-748-8002. debra cleaver, vote.org founder and ceo is with us. now we go to marion, iowa. good morning.

caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i have a couple thoughts to share. um,t, this whole campaign, i have gotten three text messages a day from people trying to get my vote. and i do not think that is acceptable. haven iowa, we now privatized the medicaid. and, um, i am 38 years old. and my mother is 75. i have a brother who is 50 who is autistic. and have to be on that. and now that it is privatized from the republicans, um, that has totally messed with them financially. this am hearing all of socialism fear mongering from a lot of the republicans and

republican supporters. and i really think that that is wrong. and it i is not really socialism, it is societal. we need to help people. and there is so much hate on both sides. thank you for taking my call. host: marta in iowa. your thoughts? guest: i know the text messages can be annoying, but they have been shown to increase turnout. and i think that we can all put up with just a little bit of annoyance if it means it is going to get some people who otherwise would not have a voted, to the polls. and i also agree it is important americans have health care. and we are one of the few nations, civilized nations in the world that is not provided universal health care. i cannot speak to the privatization of medicare, but i can say that health care is important. host: let me ask about text messaging. i want to point out this article, about six types of

misinformation to watch for in what to do if you spot it. they write about suspicious text messages. they say text messages are the breakout technology of the 2018 campaign, and many campaigns have been using peer-to-peer texting apps to encourage voters to turn out. if you are on a party's voting list, you may receive legitimate text messages encouraging you to vote, offering a ride to the polls, but beware any text messages that tell you the voting hours or locations have changed, new forms of id are required, or that your voter registration is not valid. , does yourer organization use text messaging as a way to encourage registration and participation? was the firstg organization to use peer-to-peer text messages to register voters and increased turnout. 2016, theoneering in

first group to do this. we ran probably the largest text campaign in america this year. i believe we sent 38 million text messages. so we are strong believers in text message. we clearly identify ourselves and we are a nonpartisan trustworthy group. but i agree that if you get information telling you that the polls have changed, ours have changed, you are not registered to vote, you should double check that with your state, and never trust any message that comes to you from an and identified group. host: we have a lot for folks who are not voting. we will get your votes -- your thoughts from brett. not planning to vote. caller: i am not proud i am not voting. i am 60 years old. i have always voted until about the last 10 years. i see, i see myself as part of

the problem if i vote. if i vote republican or democrat, it does not matter, there is a constant divide in a war between the parties. so, you know, no one gets anything done. nothing is ever accomplished. until there is a viable third party, you know, we're just going back and forth. i am not proud of this, but i do not see that my vote is effective anymore. i do not see any of these politicians really working for the people. it is all about the party. it is all about the division. and i see, us going into civil see us goingy -- into civil war, eventually. i'm not trying to be a fear monger. that is how i see it. host: he is saying his vote does not count? guest: can i ask a question? host: i'm sorry, he has left.

guest: i was going to ask about the propositions. i know a lot of people are frustrated by the politicians themselves, but in california we get to vote on the propositions, which are basically the laws themselves. i have not voted yet today because the ballot is so long, it is on my desk at home and we have about eight pages to vote on. even if i did not vote for the candidates themselves, there are so many things to vote on. i hope that he will reconsider and if he is still registered, go down to the polls and vote on the propositions. int: let's hear from adam wisconsin who has already voted. caller: hi. thank you for taking my call. i wanted to comment on what today means and the hyper partisanship we have. i think there has been kind of a belittling of the election as a referendum on donald trump. i think exposition management

could be in order for some folks who perceive it that way. just because i think donald trump is a businessman and i think he will be able to work with either party. so they may not get everything they want if they are a democrat or republican, but it could be interesting to see how it shakes up things in the next election. host: thanks, adam. guest: 80,000 people will be elected to office this year, so there is a lot more on the ballot than donald trump. trump and i are both native new yorkers, he is a businessman, but perhaps not the most successful. in akron, ohio. planning on voting today. caller: thank you so much for answering my call. i plan to vote today. the thing that bothers me the most is i would like for you to ask your guest, your callers,

youcan a person vote when have people taking away their health care, public assistance, and they are so poor, yet they still do not vote for their own interests. but they vote and to things are being taken away from them. host: let's address the issue of the vote denial or problems at the polls. as we sit here on election day morning, what is your sense broadly across the country about accessibility to the polls, about efforts to make sure that the polls -- that the voter lists are accurate. guest: first i should say that anybody who encounters anyone at the polls trying to dissuade them from voting, they should call the national election protection hotline, 866-ou r-vote.

if you are registered, there is nobody who should be trying to stop you. this year has been interesting, because there are some elected officials who seem to be trying to decrease turnout using some tactics of dubious legality. but at the same time, this is america and the people get to choose the politicians, not the other way around. host: headline in the columbus dispatch this morning summing up the election day morning, "it is up to you now." with a picture in the columbus area. now, john. he has ever devoted. good morning. -- has already voted. caller: i want to thank c-span. i listen to you every morning. one of the things i have noticed, i have served in the military for 12 years and i have never seen it as divided and fractured as what it is today. and it is sad, because you

realize there are a lot of people who have come a long way to sacrifice to see this country running the way it is running and it is terrible. i am all about having a national holiday for voting, because it is important. if you can have a national holiday for columbus day, a guy that killed and murdered people, why can't you have a holiday for voting? i mean, it is like the one right every american has that people choose to misuse and abuse. that is the sad part about that. host: why is there not a holiday? we are one of the only countries that votes during the work week. guest: that is an excellent question. i cannot imagine why we do not have a holiday. and as he suggested, columbus day is a holiday, so i suggest we switch them, instead of celebrating columbus day and giving people time off on columbus day, we should have time off on election day. they are not very far apart from each other, only a month apart. so it is not really clear why we

have not made this change that would increase turnout. host: alexandria area, northern virginia suburbs, planning to vote is greg. good morning. caller: good morning. i am concerned when we speak voters, weow income are also talking about low information voters. that person who has little awareness of civics, economics, you can go down the list of critical issues. is getting the same boat i am. -- vote i am. i used to be an advocate for voting, thinking that would make people more likely to inform themselves, but i do not see that as the case at all. what responsibility do you have when you are advocating voting to make sure that people know what is going on? guest: um, well, i would say for starters there is a ballot guide on our website that lets people

know exactly what is going to be on the ballot today. we work with ballot ready and ballot pdo to provide the information. and i could see how somebody might argue that people should have to pass a basic civics test before they are allowed to vote, but then we would get into questions on who would design the test and if it is somebody like me, i'm an expert, but maybe i would only pass the test. this is not a requirement to vote. it is an interesting idea, but it is not a practical idea. and the few times in our country that we have passed requirements for people before we let them vote have only served to disenfranchised people. host: have your vets -- have your efforts been accepted, or have you run into opposition in some states with the voter registration efforts? guest: we have some states who have pushed back at us for

registering voters. texas and out. -- stands out. they make a very challenging to register to vote. the most difficult stay in the country to vote. they do not offer on my registration, which is a common sense option offered by every other state, but in order to register in texas you need to be deputized. which is, on the one hand it is kind of funny, it is like rounding up a posse, but on the other hand it has a chilling effect on the voter turnout. so i would say that the state of texas has had issues with us. and we have had issues with the state of texas. but i imagine that over the next few years we will work together, because i refuse to believe that texas does not want people to register to vote. even if they behave that way. host: we want to remind radio listeners and watchers that the organization vote.org, that is the website, and on their front page -- if you do not know where to go, you can find out what is

on the ballot there. find your polling place there. address and it will bring up that information. that is across all 50 states and the district of columbia, correct? guest: yes, and over one million people have used the polling place locator just in the past 24 hours. host: louise, washington dc. good morning. caller: hello. host: go ahead. caller: i am in washington dc, and along with the rest of the people in washington dc, we are only allowed to vote in the presidential election. no other national election do we have a voice in. we have a couple of people in congress, but they do not have a vote. and of course, the republicansd don't want washington dc to have a vote because most of us are democrat and republicans do

not want us to have a say in government. but they are very happy to tax us. and i want to thank you for this program. and debra cleaver, thank you for your organization. host: thanks for the call. guest: you are quite welcome. and i agree, there should be no taxation without representation. and dc, puerto rico and guam should be states. host: word on twitter about the idea of a holiday. "great idea. yes to voters day. no more columbus day." we will get another call here. this from wilmington, north carolina. an alexis, go ahead. caller: i have to say, this is my first time. can you hear me? host: yes. caller: this is my first time talking to c-span and i did not

know how important your are. and i want to thank you for being on the air. and if you can do anything about spreading it, because all i could do was listen on the livestream, i cannot watch it without having cable. so i was very glad to hear this morning. and i was compelled to call in. on the national level, people that voted for donald trump will vote for trump. and our christians, i am talking to you. at what point do you say i am a christian first, and my pocket comes second? because that is what is up against this election. besides a real racial issue that has bubbled up. , thanks to the man in office.

and i say thanks because you really find out who your friends are. host: we will let you go. , she isnd debra cleaver talking about president trump. let's move the discussion forward to 2020. what will the organization doing terms of voter registration heading into the presidential election? guest: so our goal for the presidential election is to run a program that is 10 times bigger than what we did this year. so this year we registered 1.2 million people, um, doing some quick math that should put us at about -- it is a little early -- we want to register about 12 million people in 2020. and then we want to run an even larger get out the vote drive than we ran this year. this year was about 30 million people. so if we go 10 times bigger than that, that would be every person in america, so we probably will

not get that big. but the plan is more of the same. turnout in the presidential elections is generally about 65%, we think we can reach 75% if we work really hard. again, we are nonpartisan, we do not care who you vote for, we just care that you go. host: that is debra cleaver with us from san francisco. vote.org founder and ceo. and that is the site to use this morning if you want to find out where to vote, with some of the issues are and more. host: thank you for being with us. guest: thank you for having me. host: more here on election day as we look at a polling place in the 10th congressional district. that race with barbara comstock, the republican incumbent, jennifer websense the democrat challenger in what is considered to be a close race. we will open up our phone lines to hear about your election day experience and your thoughts on

election day. if you are planning to vote. 202-748-8002 if you are not voting. and if you voted early, 202-748-8000. we will get to your phone calls momentarily. we are joined on the phone by thomas hicks, the chairman of the u.s. election assistance .s. election u assistance commission. tell us about your organization and its role on election day. formed inwas 2002 to help the states administer elections by providing additional information, by providing funds, and certain certification of voting machines on a voluntary basis. we have about 25 employees. we have given out about $4 billion to the states since 2002.

in 2018 we gave out $380 million to the states to help with the administration of the process, mostly in the cyber security, shoring of those systems either by purchasing voting equipment, or by shoring up voting registration systems, or helping with the election audits. host: on the issue of cyber security in the week ahead of the election here, the defense secretary james mattis said at an event this past week that the number one responsibility for u.s. cyber command was the protection of the u.s. election system. how does your organization interface with cyber command and also with homeland security on the selection day? guest: well, through the designation of critical infrastructure, the eac sits as cochair to the government

coordinating council and we work closely with the department of homeland security, and states, on the issue of cyber security. i believe that we are light years ahead of where we were in 2016 in terms of getting information out to the states. and having states funnel that information back to the federal government. one of the major problems in 2016 was that states didn't know who to talk to in terms of getting information to, when threats were being laid out. tehy could -- and they could talk to us, but when cyber issues came up that needed homeland security to get information out to the states, homeland security was talking to the states but not to the right people. and i think with the help of the eac, we have rectified a lot of those issues moving forward. host: you mentioned $380 million

provided by congress as grants to the states. rg with ate, eac.o breakdown of how the states are using that money. 36.3% of the money, $134 million, on cyber security. you are talking about 20% on voting equipment. voter registration, nearly 14%. election audits of the actual results, 5.6%. and 2% on communication. if you had a look at one area where you thought states could be a better job, or were deficient in their efforts or funding available to them, where do you think it could be? guest: it -- since we have such a diverse country, what would work in maine will not work in california, so california might need better registration system, but maine might need is something entirely different. i cannot pinpoint one thing overall.

but i would say that the eac has worked with the states to identify issues they have. and help with the purchase of new voting equipment through a -- process, or with our testing and certification process to look at different types of machines they can work with. but also with voter registration. since those systems are a web based, a lot of states are working towards rectifying to ensure that those are fortified against attack. host: and how confident are you in the security of the u.s. election system, the states across the country into their election systems? guest: i am very confident. we know that there will be issues. that does not necessarily mean that those are issues that are cyber related. there are issues with every election, whether or not it is

waking up late, opening polls a little bit late, or the long wees, or rain happening -- cannot control the weather. so there will be issues on election day, but i have confidence with contingency plans and the election officials that are out there, that the election will run as smoothly as possible. host: it is certainly election day, but any news or updates you want to tell us about any problem areas so far? the polls of been open for a couple hours. guest: so far, we have not heard too much. we heard about long lines, but that is a good thing. that means americans have confidence in the process and they are out there exercising their democratic rights to exercise the right to vote. host: the chair of the u.s. elections assistance commission, thomas hicks. they are at eac.gov. thomas hicks, thanks for being

with us. guest: thank you. goodbye. host: let's continue with your calls and thoughts on election day. steve in rosemount, minnesota, who has already voted. thank you for waiting period caller: good morning -- watiiti. caller: good morning. they closed our local polling place and they sent out a mail in ballots. it is the best thing ever. you fill it out, sign it, then have somebody else who is a registered voter sign on the outside ballot with you. and then you put it in the mailing bin and mail it back. and i think you would be surprised how many people would start voting the never voted before. host: so you are hooked in terms of early voting? no more going to the polls for you, you like the mail in ballots?

caller: it is the only way to go. host: we appreciate that. we are keeping our eye on a polling place in the 10th congressional district. also looking at some news organizations. world. the lawrence voting underway. and there again, the county clerk predicts record turnout for midterm elections. from the lawrence world. in missouri, richard is planning to vote today. hi, there. caller: yeah, i am getting ready. my wife has to do her hair. then we will go down. we live in a small area. missouri seems to be important this time. that claire is -- has a close race. and he is really a moderate -- she is really a moderate. are you still on? host: yes, you are on the air, richard.

go ahead. caller: claire is a moderate democrat. i guess that is what you call that. anyhow, she has a close race and we will have to see how it goes. there has been talk about the races. i -- maybe all republicans are not racist. those i know personally, even relations and friends, there is no doubt in my mind they are racist. after obama was elected, the tea party came in and it was strictly republican. that is how the -- that's how i decided who was racist. i have been a democrat or republican all my life, one or the other, but this country is really divided. and i hate to say it, but as old as i am it really does not matter anymore. i will let you go. host: richard in missouri.

imperial, missouri, anita is not voting the selection. caller: well, i guess it is because i am extremely, extremely -- uh, down. i do not see a blue wave coming. the red wave is going to happen because of how gerrymandered our country is. and the reason i called is because of your guests. professor davidson from the university of missouri, st. louis, said that jefferson county was going to be important. i live in jefferson county and it has been gerrymandered into three different parts. the voting with people from lake of the ozarks, practically across the state for me. as well as people from west adult, which is -- dalton, which is way to the north of st. louis. host: that is because of the

shape of the district there? caller: yes, we are very gerrymandered. and when the -- when debra cleaver was talking about how important it was to get out and vote, i kept wondering about how back in the day of clinton when paul ryan and others started thinking about how they could make sure that we turned red, they decided that they would get the state legislatures and gerrymandered the whole country. and i think they have done it and i do not see how there is going to be a blue wave. now, i was heartened by the man u had call from missouri. mightybe, just maybe he make me think i should get out today. but i cannot help thinking that paul ryan must be thinking, "what you wish for -- be careful what you wish for. host: thank you for being with

us. on a blue wave, one of those states we may see indication of that is california. joining us is berkeley institute of governmental studies poll director, mark dicamillo. professor, in california there obviously is many congressional districts. what is the sense you have of where some of those key districts stand in terms of democrats winning back control from the republican seats? guest: there are probably 7-10 districts held by republicans that are seen as at least somewhat competitive this year in california. the berkeley igs poll that i direct polled in eight of them in mid-september, and the new york times has updated our poll in six of those districts. what we are seeing is the

democrats appear to be ahead in about two or three of the districts. that is a little less prominent than it was in mid-september when we did our poll. it was looking like maybe four or five of them. so we will have to see how they turn out is. everything relates to turn out. and in california, many voters vote by mail. of the 20 million voters, 13 million of them have been sent to mail ballots. so it will be pretty much an election that will be determined by those who choose to fill out those mail ballots. host: any sense of how many have returned the ballots? we have heard about record returns so far in early voting in other states. guest: as of yesterday, it was about 4 million. and you know, we are expecting a turnout perhaps in the 11 million range. i think that would be my expectation for this election. a lot of those mail ballots are

turned in on election day. and according to state law, they allow any ballot that is postmarked on election day to be counted, so they are coming in in the days after the election. it is going to be adjusting, too too, if theng, nation is waiting for california and that will decide the house. one thing that is a problem here is that we probably will not have all the ballots counted for about a week, so we may have a long period of waiting. host: why does it take so long to count the ballots, because they are mail in? guest: yes, it is the late arriving ballots, i would suspect 3 million or 4 million will show up today at the registrar's office, but they cannot count them today. they have all of those other ballots that they are setting up and counting, so i would think

you only have about 70% of the vote counted by the end of the night tonight. so it will be a frustrating experience if you are waiting for the house to be turned by two or three or four districts in california. host: broadly on the house races. the san francisco chronicle over the weekend, "here is what is at stake in tuesday's election." "trump is an evangelist for those preaching them elections are a referendum about me. he make it more than he bargained for in california is likely to play a large role. the results will probably -- becoming speaker of the house, but it remains to be seen if it will leave a check on trump, like with nancy pelosi, or with kevin mccarthy." guest: yes, it is ironic that no matter which party wins it may

be that the speaker will be a californian, whether it is a republican or democrat. that is interesting. when we did our polls, it definitely is a referendum about donald trump. when you look at the supporters of republican candidates, they are pretty much on board with donald trump. those that are supporting the democrats are opposed the donald trump, they think he is not doing a good job. so it is a high correlation with how people feel about the president when they are voting in the congressional elections. dicamillo.is mark does your organization, do you do day of polling in terms of what people are thinking as they go or as they leave the polling places? guest: no, we are shut down. we did a statewide poll this week, in which we were measuring preferences in the governor's race. there is a u.s. senate race and

other statewide elections. but that was the last of our polls. host: thank you for being with us, giving us insight into the california races. guest: thank you. host: 15 more minutes left on "washington journal" on election day. this is the christchurch polling place in the 10th district in northern virginia, the 10th congressional district. barbara comstock is the republican incumbent and jennifer what extent is the democrat challenger. we continue with your calls. and nancy is in evans, georgia. she already voted. caller: good morning. i am nervous because this is the third time i have tried to get through. i have something to say. i have been listening -- i have an unusual stand here. i am from mississippi, but i now live in georgia. i am a social worker. the thing that is most disturbing to me as i heard this

morning is the difference between the black people who are calling in and the white people calling in. i am not prejudice at all. i have a daughter who is engaged to a black individual. my parents raised me to not look at race, to look at the person, look at the inside of the person. and it is very disturbing to see what is going on here in georgia right now with our governors race. oprah, president obama, john legend, all of these people coming in at stirring up rachel -- racial divisiveness. you know, i do not think they would be here if stacey abrams was a white democrat running on the same stance that she has. and it is sad to me as a person races to gett for

along and are represented -- to get along. and as a christian it is hard to see -- it did not start during donald trump. during his administration. it started during president obama's administration. i did not vote for him, but when he got in i cried because i hoped the country would come together against racial lines, but instead of that it seems we have gone so far backwards that it is very disheartening to me as a somebody who would like to see us all be americans and not -- i am a white american, i am an african american. american, that is what i want to get back to. host: steve from same poor lucy, florida -- port st. lucie,

florida. caller: i have pre-existing cancer and my republican vote died when john mccain died. today, it is a referendum on whether the american people think that checks and balances is a good idea for our country. and 80 time one party gets too much power it is bad for the market people. so i am encouraging everyone. i voted straight democrat this time and i am a libertarian. and i encourage everybody to do the same, so that we have checks and balances on this government. and the main thing down here in florida that people are not talking about his amendment 4, that is the felon voter rights. we believe that that will lower if theydivism rate here bring them back their voting rights, so i encourage everybody "yes" on four.

and we will need debra cleaver done here to register all those people for the 2020 election. and rick scott, red tide rick, do not vote for rick scott. he has been the worst governor. the state is polluted all over. we have blue-green algae in lake okeechobee, little town of stuart just got hammered two out of the last three years, and i am hoping people there do not vote for rick scott because he does not deserve our vote. florida is polluted. host: that was a steve in florida. 202-748-8000 if you have already voted. 202-748-8001 if you are voting today. and 202-748-8002 if you are not voting. a couple of tweets here. this one from senator chris murphy, saying he is live in the car on his way to vote in cheshire higher. and from millennials today --

this is texting out the vote. this one from mickey welsh, tweeting martha roby arrives to vote with her family at the snowden women's voting place in alabama. and from the candidate for senate in tennessee, representative marsha blackburn, thank you for your support. and now we call from illinois. good morning, are you there? we will china that. i will-- try that. we will go to sunrise beach, missouri. and mike has already voted. caller: yes, sir. me in my wife were number three and four at our voting places morning. it is there to be have a voting, but i want to bring up that most of my friends that are democrats

are going to vote democrat, regardless of what you try to do to tell them to pick the person off of the ballot, instead of just voting one way. and i will like to see some kind of legislation that limits the time that you can start taking out ads. what i am worried about is we are going to start hearing ads for the 2020 election and we are just getting over all of the ads we were bombarded with for the 2018 election. i would like to hear your view on some kind of legislation that will kind of give us a year break before we have to hear it again. so thank you. host: the gazette, eastern iowa, the front page. the iowa governor's race all about turnout. governor kim reynolds in iowa. and another story, iowa among the worst at restoring voting

rights, right -- writes the gazette. along with kentucky in florida, states that disenfranchised people with felony convictions unless they complete the restoration process and get approval from the state government. grayson in north carolina. hi, there. already voted. caller: i wanted to say that in arden, north carolina, we are in buckham county and this district also has three districts. so we have been saturated with ads. and a lot of ads. i have already cast my vote. and of course, i was glad to, but we get all of the commercials from surrounding districts. and there are counties -- one district except three counties, that is like 118, 119. and throat a circle around -- throw a circle around the area.

and like the other caller said, her county had three districts. we do too. it has been very hectic this election cycle and it always kinds of throws a monkey wrench in the rest of north carolina, because this county does not get a lot of the news from raleigh and eastern north carolina. and it is -- it has been a very hectic, but a good election cycle. people are glad to have, glad to be able to vote. but i just want to say that this is another one of those counties that has three districts. host: another view from north carolina. is in durhamni voting early. caller: good morning. i would like to say, you know, this election is very important. callers do not take

it personal that some of the people are with the racial -- like, with the racial divisiveness, it is whether they want to do right or wrong. if they want to vote for someone that is for killing babies and bringing illegal people to this country that is not for americans, because they do not hire americans, whether you are black or white, you know, with all of their -- you know, -- because these shops have opened up in this country on every corner. but do not take it personal. god is separating the week from the chest -- cahaste. whether they want to do the right thing or not. i voted for donald trump and i voted all red.

-- in this election. so i love donald trump. host: ok, toni in north carolina. the reaction on twitter as well. this one from ms. reinhardt, saying "our kids are listening from james bill, wisconsin. first-time voters hoping in the city." and another viewer says "vote to send them home." trump tells people to vote against him." like doug pollsters change or not to be wrong again, please invite them on washington journal to explain how they are perpetually wrong and always in the same direction." we will hear from linda in tennessee as we keep our eye on the 10th congressional district polling place in northern virginia.

linda, good morning. caller: good morning. yes, i already voted. i voted straight red. and i am an independent, but i am going to change straight republican. and there is a lot of democrats that i do not -- but they are also changing their -- to republican. [indiscernible] and people say they cannot get a job. they find that everywhere. a lot of people just do not want to work. thank you. host: paul in new jersey, planning to vote today. good morning. caller: hello. how are you doing? host: fine, thanks. caller: i'm really worried that the election is going to go the same way it went two years ago. where we had the, the horrible

election year with putin's spies. i have the five i do's of the donald trump campaign. host: go ahead. caller: the five i do's . i do ignore obama's triumphs. i do invent obama turpitude. i insist on trump. i ignore obvious treason. and i idolize outrageous trickster. host: ok. paul in new jersey. one more from alex in maryland. who has already voted. caller: thanks for taking my call. i will keep it short and sweet. from other colors -- callers about the "new ear" of racial divisiveness -- era" of racial

divisiveness, i just want to say it has always been divided. things are structurally wrong. i think it is important to recognize this. important to recognize marginalized voices. so again, probably, probably something that people who are not in positions to be disadvantaged by these laws unfairly had to notice and now have to notice because these voices are much more audible, the problems are much more visible. so i think that it does not need it can tool of division, be a really important tool in restoration. and i really hope you would consider these voices as legitimate. host: a gallup poll as the campaigns come to a close, a poll on the top issues facing congress, those congressional races published here. the importance of issues, the top three very important.

one, health-care, if i percent of respondents said that. summary of percent said the economy is very important. 70% also said immigration is an issue. we look at other issues as people go to the polls today. and we continue with more calls. ted caller: i am going to vote today. i voted for trump. i will not be brainwashed. i am voting for a common sense man. he has policies that are good for tennessee. policies are bad, he will go against them. what more would you want from a candidate? millions of dollars have been taken from the pharmaceutical companies.

someone who for sold out to the pharmaceutical industry. today.be voting janice has already voted in washington. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. host: thank you. go ahead. caller: i voted democratic all the way and voted on october 18. a goodness for mail in voters. country needs to go to mail-in votes. that is the best way to vote. blue wave, go. host: washington state and oregon, two states that have done a pulling quiz and have mail-in votes which are due at 11:00. timesl check of closing

and things to watch for tonight. new york times with a piece, what to watch for 9:00 p.m. closings led by gretchen witmer, candidate is set to create big gains in state and federal races. 10:00 p.m., three important senate races dominate the western collection of states. two women vying for an open seat in arizona vacated by jeff flake . and senator dean heller faces a tough reelection in nevada. the coda heidi heitkamp is most honorable democrat. 11:00 p.m. eastern, what to watch for is if control of the house comes down to california, you may go to sleep. the slow counting state has multiple swing districts and allows mail-in ballots all the way until election day. we heard that a bit earlier. a.m., we will be

up doing coverage on c-span. what to watch for, a governor's race in alaska, surprisingly became competitive after bill walker the independent dropped out and endorsed the democrat senator. the race had been a close three-way battle, but now that it is just a democrat versus republican, the seat is up for grabs. by 1:00 a.m., voting will have completed in all states. to las vegas, we here from tammy. good morning. caller: hello, i love your show. prosperity and against identity politics. heremerica got gutted out and i grew up in kansas city. obama said jobs were coming back and trump is working to fix it. things like steel maze to be made in america. it is a national security threat. ,f you are an environmentalist do you want steel and tons of last week shipped across the

globe question mark it does not make sense. also calling people racist for wanting secure orders. why would i vote for that? i lived in l.a. for 15 years. when you bring an uneducated their world poor, they cannot compete in a high-tech economy. they have no choice but to turn to government. you get terrible schools, hospitals close, services are terrible. it only gets worse and is coupled with extremely high taxes. i moved to las vegas and i brought my business and jobs when i did. it is not racist to point out that immigration is an issue. host: let me ask you about the dean heller race. are you voting for that? caller: i voted red across. i do not want the democrats act in power. said don't gohe back to judging people by skin color. what do we hear from people who

aren't racists who want the immigration problem solved. host: we will let you go there and hear one more caller from nick in silver spring, maryland. you are on the air. thatr: i just have to say i am 48 years old and i get goosebumps when i vote. to those do a call out throughout history from 1776 through the suffrage movement and the civil rights movement who helped secure and expand the right to vote for us americans. i think it is unfortunate there are people who don't bother or don't understand the link between their lives and what happens in washington and the state capital and who they vote for. so many people have fought and died for this great experiment democracy. we have to fight for it and honor the right. host: nick in silver springs for historical perspective to help us wrap up on this election day "washington journal."

on "washington journal." we will be back tour at 7:00 a.m. eastern. we will see you then. ♪ >> see c-span bringing it to center.tage we are having technical to the police. we will look at this morning's "washington journal.

it is a election day 2018 and joining us from san francisco is deborah cleaver, the founder and ceo of boat.org. half-hourlk the next about efforts to increase voter turnout. tell us about your organization. on and why have you founded it. actually goes back to the 2000 election where we had 60% voter turnout in america and the presidential election came down to a repeated recount in a single county in florida. andas ultimately decided horrified turnout was so low in a singletry that county could decide the presidential election. i started one organization in 2004 and another in 2008 and then 2016.