>> good evening, ed. amazing job in columbus, great job in ohio tonight. great to see you there. thanks to you at home for staying with us. happy election day, so far tonight, in ohio, the most closely watched race in the nation, not even two hours after the polls closed, voters ve rej kasich's union busting laws, 61% of ohio voters voted to reject that law. 39% of ohio voters voted to keep that law. much more on that in just a moment. on issue three in ohio, a largely symbolic vote against national health reform president obama signed into law last year, so far with 89% of precincts reporting, 64% of ohio voters have voted yes to amend the state constitution against health reform and 36% ohio voters voted no. in maine, where polls closed earlier this evening, voters have decided to reinstate a four decades old state law that allows you to register to vote

on election day. republicans changed that law this year and got rid of it after 38 years in maine. with 79% of precincts reporting, 61% have voted yes on issue one to restore same day voter registration and 39% voted no. and in mississippi, they decided a fertilized egg is not a full blown person. initiative 26 would have banned abortions no exceptions and the most popular forms of birth control, hormonal and types of fertility treatment and turned a miscarriage for cause for criminal investigation. with 81% of precincts reporting, 58% of voters voted no on constitutional amendment to finding a fertilized egg as a person and 42% of mississippians voted yes.

on the ballot on mississippi amendment 27 amended the state constitution so you can no longer vote in mississippi unless you show documentation you've never before been required to show. and not every registered voter in mississippi has. with 79% of precincts reported 63% of mississippians voted yes to that voter id measure, 37% voted no. the associated press calling that one saying that measure has passed. there were two big attempted recalls of republican officials tonight, seen as broader bellweathers how this year's republican politics in the states have been going over with real voters. in michigan, republican paul scott seen as ally of rick schneider. the yes or know on his michigan recall has been seen as bit of proxy whether michigan is feeling buyer's remorse for the republican agenda they had since the 2010 elections, right now, that recall race is an even split.

and facing recall, republican state senator, russell pierce in arizona, president of the arizona state senate, the man who sponsored arizona's papers please, anti-immigrant law. russell pearce is currently losing to his challenge. 100% of precincts reporting, jerry lewis to challenger russell pearce seen as having an eight point lead. jerry lewis, you should know is also a republican but he is a republican who has denounced what russell pearce and governor jan brewer did to arizona's image with the papers please legislation and denounced it something to akin to alabama 1964. at this point, this race is not being called by the associated press but it 100% situation with jerry lewis defeating the state senate president. in kentucky, steven beshear was challenged by david williams and they rejected the challenge and re-elected with 99% reporting governor beshear won it handily,

56-35%. and jack conway faced his own republican challenger, todd p'pool, and he got support from celebrities. rudy guiliani giving endorsements but with 99% reporting, jack conway beat todd 55% to 45%. in indianapolis, republican mayor, greg ballard keeping his job against melina kennedy. mayor ballard getting 51% to democrat kennedy's 47%. and annise parker facing five different challengers, the first

ever openly lesbian big city mayor in the nation and parker declared victory and just missed a runoff election in order to keep her seat. in georgia, 120 cities and counties holding a referendum whether to allow the sunday sale of alcohol. early poll results showing most atlanta area jurisdictions saying yes to spirits on sundays and a referendum whether booze can be sold in grocery stores in washington state. with 100% of precincts reporting, 60% voters approving that measure. costco will be delight. in virginia, where republicans control the governor's office and a majority of the house, tonight's races could give them majority in the state senate. until tonight, a net gain would flip the state senate to republican control with 2%.

those results are still being tallied. in iowa, a special election could have made the whole state go red, the republicans control the statehouse and one seat away from tying with the democrats in this senate. the republican governor, in an act of political genius appointed one democratic senator from a republican leaning district to a state board. thus persuading that democrat to resign from the senate and forcing tonight's election to replace her in cedar rapids. if the democrats win this one, they keep their one seat majority in the senate. if the republicans win, it's a tie and the republican governor gets to be the deciding vote. the first thing republicans would have done had they taken this over, probably voted immediately to repeal iowa's same sex marriage law. tonight, democrats have held on to their majority, associated senate calling the raze for democrat liz mathis against the republican, cindy golding. another race keeping our eye on,

san francisco, ed lee has been interim mayor since gavin newsome left to become california's lieutenant-governor. and facing 15 different challengers in san francisco. if he elected today he will be the first asian mayor. heavily asian there and chinese. and he would become the only mayor elected in part due to a video endorsement that looks like this. ♪ thank you for blessing me and the rest of the city with ed lee. only 5'5" and gets everything done. see the moustache ♪ 2 legit 2 quit. ed lee. >> i think the floating moustache is a little scary. very early returns in from san francisco showing ed leeway ahead. at this point those are just

early returns. the most closely watched race across the kris an effort to repeal what ohio republicans did early this year when they stripped union rights. and a yes vote would have left what the republicans did in place with a yes vote and no vote would repeal what republicans did and reinstated union rights. right now in ohio with 89% of precincts reporting, it's a blowout in ohio, the union stripping law has been recalled. 39% of ohio voting yes against union rights tonight and 61% voting no to reinstate union rights. as soon as those results were announced, white house press secretary jay carney offered the president congratulations saying quote the president congratulates the people of ohio for standing up for workers and defeating efforts to strip-away collective bargaining rights and commenced teachers, firefighters, police officers and other workers who took a stand to defend those rights.

bill burton the former press secretary for the president did as well tonight only with an eye toward 2012 presidential politics. bill burton writing from the outside group sporting the election, tonight, ohio voters rejected the republican vision for america that rewards big corporations and the wealthiest at the expense of middle class families. john kasich's agenda in ohio is a mirror of mitt romney's and finance more tax cuts for big corporations and the wealthiest. in 2012, voters won't have to guess what mitt romney's america looks like because they have seen it and rejected it in ohio. and congrats to my brothers and sisters in labor. big win in ohio tonight. not talking about the pregnancy thing despite the labor -- never mind. get it? never mind.

richard trumka, the head of the afl-cio actively campaigned against issue 2 in ohio says politicians who take away union rights should see this as a referendum, go in and make war on your employees and rather than make jobs with your employees, you do so at your own peril. >> and seeing the vote results much the same way. >> it's clear that the people have spoken and you know, my view is when people speak in a campaign like this and in a referendum, you have to listen when you're a public servant. there isn't any question about that. i've heard their voices, i understand their decision and frankly, i respect what people have to say in an effort like this. as a result of that, it requires me to take a deep breath, you know, and to spend some time reflecting on what happened here. you have a campaign like this, you give it your best.

if you don't win and the people speak in a loud voice, you pay attention to what they have to say and you think about it and so people ask what will you do if this doesn't fail? i can tell you, now, it's a chance for me to catch my breath and try to gather my thoughts together as to what we do next. >> according to a reporter at the "columbus dispatch" tonight, more ohioans voted against the anti-union measure than voted for governor kasich last year. again, at this point with 89% of precincts reporting in ohio, 61% of ohio voters voted yes tonight -- excuse me, voted no tonight. 61% of ohio voters voting to repeal kasich's union stripping bill tonight. 39% of ohio voters voting to uphold kasich's anti-union effort. joining us now is ben

jealous, president and ceo of the naacp who has been in ohio doing get out the vote work on issue two. as you may have just heard, issue 2 has now been called in ohio. it has been defeated, which means the effort to restrict union rights in ohio by the republicans there and the state republican governor, john kasich has been repealed by the people of ohio. let me get your reaction to that. >> this is great news. this sends a strong message to governors across the country, don't mess with main street. yes, if people need to negotiate, negotiate, don't go after their basic rights. this is a great day. >> ben, as the national leader of a civil rights organization, like the naacp, i wanted to talk to you about this tonight because i guess mostly i simply wanted to ask, what were you doing in your role as a, in your capacity at the naacp, door knocking and canvassing on this union rights issue in ohio? why is this a national issue for you and for your group? >> look, you know, when you look at the black community in ohio, disproportionately black men,

for instance, one of the demographics in this country, probably the demographic that has the hardest time finding a job, yet alone a good job, disproportionately those jobs are union jobs, are public sector jobs. people came up from the south to ohio for a better life. and this bill was aimed right at the heart of that better life. the reality is, rachel, we're active in 1,200 communities across this country. we very much recognize that in this century, the battles are really about laws, about passing laws, enacting laws, defeating laws. you know, in the last century, it was about actually going into court and arguing. now it's about really getting into the street, doing the hand-to-hand combat that's required to make sure that the right law passes, the wrong law gets defeated. that's why it was so important that before we defeated issue 2, we kept that crazy voter i.d. bill to the 2012 ballot. that was going to go into effect before that. quite frankly, this victory

would not have been possible if it had. >> why do you think it couldn't have passed had it been on the ballot in 2012? what would have been the difference there, ben? >> look at a state like wisconsin. they passed their voter i.d. bill and right away, one-half of blacks, one-half of latinos, a similar portion of students, couldn't vote because they didn't have an i.d. it literally is the reincarnation of the poll tax. when people come after your right to vote, they do it to make it easier to come after all of your rights. i was up in new york where we announced a big second push around voting rights. we'll have a big day of action on december 10th, human rights day. saying to this country, saying to this world, we right now are going through the most coordinated attempt to go after voting rights this country has seen in a century. we all need to wake up to the fact that they're coming after our voting rights because they are trying to come after our right to organize.

come after women's rights. come after all sorts of basic civil rights. we have to come together and defend the basic right to vote. >> ben jealous, president and ceo of the naacp, a man who i learn something from every time i talk to you. ben, thank you so much for joining us tonight. i really appreciate it. >> thanks, friend. >> last night, when we covered the lead-up to this ohio vote, calling connie schultz, we played a sound of one of the fox news celebrity, in ohio campaigning for the governor's side of it, for governor kasich's side for issue 2. this was the sound bite of mike huckabee speaking recently in ohio. >> make a list of 10 family members, 10 friends, 10 neighbors, 10 folks you work with or have worked with in the past and call up and ask them are you going to vote on issue 2 and are you going to vote for it? if they say no, you just make sure they don't go vote.

let the air out of their tires on election day. tell them the election has been moved to a different day. that's up to you how creatively you get the job done. >> mike huckabee joking if you know anybody who is going to vote for union rights, tell them the election is on a different day. a hilarious voter suppression, dirty tricks joke and then today, democrats in ohio really did report getting robocalls saying the election was not today but tomorrow. >> hi, i am calling to remind you that tomorrow is election day. it is critically important you go vote to protect the future of our country. >> despite that robocall, people did vote by the tons. the "columbus dispatch" reporting tonight in absolute numbers it appears that more people voted against the republican governor's union busting law tonight in ohio than voted to elect that ohio governor in the first place. food for thought.

amid the genuinely critical elections around the country today was also a new installment of the herman cain performs art project. we have many more performance art projects coming up. i've been so looking forward to this. when my asthma symptoms returned, my doctor prescribed dulera to help prevent them. [ male announcer ] dulera is for patients 12 and older whose asthma is not well controlled on a long-term asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. dulera will not replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. dulera helps significantly improve lung function. this was shown over a 6 month clinical study. dulera contains formoterol, which increases the risk of death from asthma problems and may increase the risk of hospitalization in children and adolescents. dulera is not for people whose asthma is well controlled with a long-term asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid. once your asthma is well controlled your doctor will decide if you can stop dulera and prescribe a different asthma control medicine, like an inhaled corticosteroid.

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other than election day in america, you might have also noticed sneaking into your news today that prime minister bunga-bunga is gone or going, italy is on the brink of defaulting on their debt and

silvio berlusconi said he will step down and a reform package will be passed. iran is not just working on anywhere things for anywhere power but working on an anywhere power but working on a nuclear bomb. and a space launch towards moon today but asked for help from regular people with telescopes around the world to figure out when it leaves orbit. that's ominous. there is a coast-to-coast test of the alert system tomorrow and a bridge between vermont and new york that was imploded two years ago in 2009, that bridge has as of today been rebuilt and reopened. it's cute. hooray. also today along with your election day news, this happened. >> will the businessman by the name of herman cain step forward? here i am. because that's the person herman cain is. you see, that's one thing about herman cain that i think a lot of the american people know, and that is just because it's tough

is no reason for me not to do what i feel like i have to do. some people don't want to see herman cain get the republican nomination and some people don't want herman cain to become president of the united states of america. i can't tell you what their motivation is other than to stop herman cain. >> herman cain art project today proclaiming at a bizarre, long press conference that a person named herman cain never acted inappropriately with anyone. ever. herman cain added that herman cain does not even know herman cain's latest accuser. herman cain referring to anonymous accusations despite the televised press conference of one very specific name, now publicly identifiable accuser and second very specific now known by name accuser who spoke this afternoon to "the new york times" about her alleged sexual harassment by herman cain. herman cain adding herman cain does not even know herman cain's latest accuser but being persecuted by the democrat machine and the media and forces

that do not want a businessman such as herman cain to be president. >> i've also had the privilege to represent a number of innocent victims accused by the media of serious crimes, false accusations, on trial in the court of public opinion where there are no rules. the rules are made up by the media. >> the machine to keep a businessman out of the white house is going to be relentless. and if they continue to come, i will continue to respond. >> mr. cain, lee ross with fox news. you made several mentions of machine, the democratic machine. who are these people? who is involved in this? is it a conspiracy? >> i cannot -- i cannot say that it is a conspiracy. we do not have definitive, factual proof.

we can only look at some coincidences to suggest it that maybe someone is deliberately behind this. we have not been able to make any determination to point any fingers or place any blame on anybody at this point. when we step back and look at the fact that there's no facts, no factual evidence to back these up, we can only infer that someone is trying to basically wreck my character and like the other gentlemen alluded to, plant doubt in the minds of a lot of people who are going to go to the polls and vote. >> last night on the "jimmy kimmel show" they said they were raising so much money since the sexual harassment allegations were made public, that if other republican candidates for president were smart, they would hire women to make similar accusations, which is hilarious.

but that was late night. joking around time. today it was time for explanations for some straight talk. making things clear. here, for example, is the official herman cain art project explanation of a settlement between mr. cain and one of his accusers. >> i've been criticized by some members of the media that i have changed my story. when the firestorm started a week ago monday, i was presented with the accusation of some settlement was made. settlement to me means there were legal implications. later during that same day, i then recalled after all those years that there was an agreement. that's what businesses sign with employees who are departing the company. they call it an agreement. settlement implies legal implications. all of the potential legal implications or ramifications or accusations were found to be baseless. >> all clear?

just in case it's not, earlier tonight on "politics nation" with reverend al sharpton on msnbc, a lawyer for one of mr. cain's accusers told reverend sharpton he's planning a press conference for all five of herman cain's known accusers. it is hard to glean whether hearing from all five of those women at once is likely to have impact on the herman cain campaign for president. at least in a bad way. we're told to expect that press conference. herman cain is statistically tied with mitt romney in the latest nbc news/"wall street journal" poll for republican nomination for president of the united states. he's tied for first. joining us now, melissa harris-perry, professor of political science at tulane university and msnbc contributor. it's great to see you. thank you for being here. >> absolutely. it is election night! >> it is election night. can we break away from herman cain for a moment and ask your reaction to the issue 2 news, issue 2 has been defeated which means the union stripping bill in ohio has been repealed. >> that's right. so one win for the unions, now we have to get one for the uterus. >> the fact that it happened on election day is a tragedy.

i could be going into like incredibly great detail on county school board races around the country. but instead, once again, the republican presidential politics of the day are about herman cain and sexual abuse allegations. he seems to be making the case the allegations have been good for him. raising a ton of money. other candidates should seek these allegations, too, because they let you run against the media, the conspiracy. what do you make of that? >> a little bit of both. this is one of the moments where none of my political science models made sense. i went and talked to some folks today and spoke with a woman who was working in a shop and said to me, i feel so bad for mr. cain because he seems like such a nice guy and why would anybody wait a decade to tell this story? and so clearly these are people trying to bring this nice guy down. i said, what is it that makes you think he's a nice guy? what are the things about him? she says, well, i think that 9-9-9 plan might mean i have to pay more taxes, but he has a plan. he has something i can understand.

so then i backed up and said, okay, the one model that makes sense to me here is this. one of the things that challengers always benefit from is very low information. people don't know much and so they take just a few cues and then they form pretty actual durable opinions based on the initial cues. and herman cain is doing a beautiful art project here. he is performing the kind of strong republican who no matter what you say against me, i'm always going to stick to my story. sarah palin did this when the pregnancy of her unmarried daughter came out and she said, you will not use this against me in typical ways. george w. bush used this when the tide turned against the war in iraq and said nonetheless, i'll send in a surge. this is the way the republicans have demonstrated we have backbone, we're strong, you can't beat us with all of the things you normally would use to discredit a candidate. >> on the substance of the woman who you spoke with today, on the substance of the idea the sexual harassment allegations against mr. cain are suspect because they happened a decade ago and

people didn't talk about them until now, he was never a front-runner with a chance of winning the republican presidential nomination before now. people are presumably bringing these forward because it's a question of the character of a guy who's about to be in a very, very powerful position. is that a hard to grasp concept? >> not necessarily. so, you know, when i responded to her, the reason this woman had not come forward previously, she didn't actually work for the organization. she had not filed the sexual harassment claim. that's not what was going on here. you can understand why you wouldn't file a claim in court. because there was not enough that happened in a he said/she said to actually get a criminal conviction. she saw, yeah, that makes sense to me. still, i wonder, why didn't these other people? i said, you know, they're actually bound by an agreement that says they can't talk about it. she was like, oh, wow. it occurs to me that in our current discourse around women and who women are, we have this language that women are these money grubbers, they're gold diggers. and what they do is go after

powerful men, claim false paternity suits and claim sexual assault. we should always look at any woman with suspicion and suspect she's just after a powerful man for his money, that this framework, kind of our popular culture, this degrading of women, i think has infected our political understandings as well. >> and it is seeing these women who have come forward, getting their names dragged through the mud and seeing them get outed as they try to preserve their an anonymity. some of them is deja vu all over again. melissa harris-perry, tulane university professor and msnbc analyst. thanks for being here. we'll be right back with today's latest on the elections.

on ohio's issue 2, a vote would have upheld governor kay 6's appeal and a no vote would have overturned what say kick did. reinstated the union rights. and the associated press called it the no winning 61-39%, a decisive margin. in maine, deciding whether there will be same day voter registration in maine. the associated press called that. voting overwhelmingly 61-39% to bring back same day registration to undo what republicans had

done to change maine's voting laws. in mississippi, the romney supported person hood by defining a fertilized egg as a person, that has lost in mississippi and lost badly by 16 points, the ap calling that for the no vote. so far, 58-42%. connecting to a big national story, the intern credited for saving gabby giffords' life, he appears to have won a school board seat in arizona tonight. and a stunning recall election. russell pearce and the anti-immigrant papers please law appears to have been turfed out of office.

voters put pearce up for recall. the associated press has not called this one yet but he is trailing his challenger 53-43%. we'll have more including one local school board election that has national implication, a local school board one seat where the results reverberate nationally. coming up. please stay with us. [ male announcer ] we asked real people if they'd help us with an experiment for febreze fabric refresher. they agreed. [ experimenter 1 ] relax, take some nice deep breaths. [ experimenter 2 ] what do you smell? lilac. clean. there's something that's really fresh. a little bit beach-y.

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aside from the vote today in ohio to recall the republicans' stripping of union rights there, issue 2, the most closely watched race in the country tonight is in mississippi. mississippi had a full blown statewide election today. members of the state house, the state senate are being elected today. statewide elected officials are elected today including the state choosing a successor for republican governor haley barbour. he is the governor with the highest approval rating of any governor in the country. looking at the statewide officials races in mississippi gives you some sense of how the political playing field is

tilting now in that state. republican lieutenant governor phil bryant is heavily favored to succeed haley barbour. right now, current lieutenant governor phil bryant is ahead and calling the race for phil bryant. it may be more notable to point out that the democratic party did not even bother running anybody in three of the statewide races. tonight in mississippi. the democrats didn't run any for lieutenant-governor in the state, or for secretary of state or for state auditor. they're letting the republicans have those for free. the main reason everybody had their eyes on mississippi tonight is because of their ballot question that proposes a constitutional amendment to define a fertilized egg as a full-blown person. when the national media reported on this, they described it as an abortion ban but it's much more than that. if this were simply an antiabortion measure, there wouldn't be much suspense about

the outcome of today's vote. a large proportion of mississippi voters are against abortion rights. the reason there's been suspense about this is because defining a fertilized egg as a person not only bans abortion in all circumstances, if a woman became pregnant through rape, for example, she would be forced by the government of the state of mississippi to bear that child. same goes for a woman who became pregnant as a result of incest and same goes for pregnancies that could threaten a woman's life. this is not just no exceptions, this could ban some forms of hormonal birth control like, for example, the pill and also the iud and in vitro fertilization. a fertilized egg anywhere in mississippi that did not result in a live birth nine months later could be a crime scene under this measure.

in a state like mississippi, a strongly antiabortion state like mississippi, the prospect of the state opening up a miscarriage investigation detectives division has struck people as a little bit oogey, which is why it is so astonishing, frankly, that republican presidential front-runner mitt romney says he supports this thing. romney around like a bad smell foa long time. mississippians with strongly held antiabortion beliefs say they have been weirded out by this person hood initiative. for example, the aforementioned anti-abortion haley barbour is ooged by it. >> i'm pro-life. they picked me as a their "man of the year" several years ago. i believe life begins at conception. unfortunately this personhood amendment doesn't say that. it says life begins at fertilization or cloning or the functional equivalent thereof. that ambiguity is striking a lot

of pro-life people here as concerning. and i'm talking about people that are very outspokenly pro-life. i am concerned about some of the ramifications on invitro fertilization. ectoptic pregnancies, pregnancies outside the uterus in the fallopian tubes. that concerns me. i have to just say it. a lot of pro-life people have problems with this particular language. there's concern this is ambiguous and there is even an enormously pro-life state like mine, there's some concern about this. >> you heard haley barbour making that case, right? even after hearing that and publicly voicing that argument against mississippi's initiative 26, voicing it in multiple

venues and all the reasons why he's an anti-abortion evacuate, a bad thing to vote for, he voted for it. he said he voted absentee and he voted for it. >> you expressed some discomfort, you talked about some kinds of pregnancies which could become a real problem here where surgeons have to deal with it, what about the legal implications and why are you supporting it? >> it does concern me. it's unnecessarily ambiguous. i voted for it because i believe life begins at conception and a lot of other pro-life voters won't. it's not a good test. >> not a good test, so don't hold me to it. yes on one side of the argument and yes on the other side of the argument.

and the poll was about evenly matched on this issue. throughout the campaign one of the most interesting thing to watch was the grassroots campaign that sprung up against this thing in the part of the country where it was almost impossible to imagine this springing up. mississippi mounted a fierce scrappy homegrown campaign to stop initiative 26. there are petitions being gathered and measures being proposed for personhood initiatives like mississippi and banning abortion and ibf and things proposed all over the country now. more than 90 house republicans in the u.s. congress, almost 40% of house republicans say they support one of these for the whole country. they support a person hood bill for the united states in congress. the person hood ban abortion and birth control must have thought if they could pass it anywhere in the country, they could pass it in mississippi. the no on 26 is prying to prove

them wrong. tonight, it looks like they have done it. the associated press has called it for the no side. the fertalized eggs are people amendment has been defeated in mississippi. in mississippi. yal e,llutho pe di

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voters in maine today went to the polls, lucky them, among the issues they voted on, whether it should be harder to vote in maine, asked if they want to restore the decades old law that lets you register to vote on the same day you vote. this started when republicans won control of the governorship and state legislature last year. by june republican lawmakers sent governor paul lepage a bill to end the long standing ability to register to vote on election day. the governor signed it and they put it up for a citizen's veto with petitions saying people were unhappy with this is decision. republicans have given a number of reasons making it harder to vote in maine. rationale a, many of us believe the democrats intentionally steal elections, despite the republican chairman's clearly heart felt beliefs, same day registration has never been shown to be a fraud problem in maine and next, this long time

republican operative wrote if you haven't registered by the date of the election, you're not committed enough as a citizen to vote. most same day registration serves are unengaged in the process because nothing says unengaged in the process like showing up to take part in it? amazing to me this logic. republicans in maine have put forward a new rationale that is jaw dropping, now saying same day registration is bad because same day registration is gay. that's the new republican party argument against it, the republican party of maine placing this ad in the newspapers warning mainers gay and lesbian interests support same day registration because they're out to corrupt republican democracy. and this mailer, checking

the gay marriage alliance. first, stealing elections and then don't like new voter, they're not committed and blaming, like elton john. you are trying to knock the guys around a little bit. you're not? they insisted the ad they put in is not gay bashing but part of the republican party's education efforts and some have taken umbrage of what's being done by the party like this senate candidate, andrew dodge, a tea party activist challenges olympia snow telling them that the republican chairman that needs to step down. that's the response from the republican right. the response from voters, put same day voter registration back. and they called this race, maine

voters citizen repealed the efforts by state republicans to get rid of the ability to register on the same day you vote. joining us, shelly, married to a man known in republican advertising of financial support for marriage equality of voting rights in maine because they want you to think that's a bad thing. thanks for joining us tonight. i appreciate your time. >> thank you. i'm glad to hear they called the race. this is crazy. you can see it's happening all over the country. the attempt to take away people's right to vote, discourage people from voting. the republicans overplayed their hand once again and trying to talk about a gay alliance was frankly a disgusting turn of events on their part. maine voters have said no. >> sorry to interrupt for a moment. it was so strange to me they ran the big gay ad, their final

missive? why did they turn to that at the last minute, seems so unrelated and random? >> so random because they had no good argument for taking away your right to register. we had two incidences of fraud, encourages people to vote working people and people who can't get to the polls. this is a national agenda from the outside and won't disclose their donors and putting up crazy ads around hate. question the voters. it's disgusting what they were doing and thrilled maine people pushed it back. >> because of the way the governor's race was decided, the governor-elected with just a third of the vote, nowhere near a majority, what do you see on tonight's loss in maine? do you think it's a broader shot across the bow? >> republicans had a crazy agenda the governor has gotten

behind in the state. they had a crazy redistricting plan in the legislature including republicans pushed back on that one, trying to gerrymander the lines, if you can't win the election, change the rules. i hope it sends a strong message. this is one of the first 2012 elections starting to tell us what the voters are thinking. they are saying this is an extreme agenda, don't take away our basic rights, don't mess with democracy. i hope the voters are starting to question this bizarre agenda out there. democratic congresswoman from maine, thanks for talking to us tonight. >> thanks for having me and thanks to all the voters for doing the right thing. next on the show, more election results, a long night here, in all sorts of good ways, stay with us.

breaking news out of wake county, north carolina, where an incumbent school board member has won his runoff race against a republican challenger. democrats are won four seats back from republicans last month and this win tonight puts democrats back in control of wake county north carolina schools. wake county school board elections have had national implications and been of national interest ever since republicans last year on that board moved to abolish one of the nation's most celebrated racial integration policies in wake county schools. the anti-integration republican majority elected two years ago was supported by the americans for prosperity group the conservative activist group