lakeland. voters if they show up will be waiting until the last hour to make their decisions. if you are in line by 7:00, you will still be able to vote, even if you don't get your ballot in your hands until after 7:00. the candidates in this all important presidential race cast their ballots this morning. both hillary clinton and donald trump floated in new york and tonight, they are watching and waiting like the rest of us to see who our next president will be. news channel 8 is covering all the races that matter most to you. we have coverage in tampa bay and all over the state. we begin with rod carter live, tampa waterside hotel. this is where bay area democrats will be watching and hoping to see hillary clinton declared the winner of this residential race. >> reporter: they are all going together here in the second- floor ballroom at the marriott waterside. you can see behind me the stage is already set.

you have a lot of big-name democrats throughout the state of florida who are going to be here. senator bill nelson among them. ederaine, sean shaw. they are all scheduled to speak at this event. hillsborough county plays a large role in presidential elections. 19 of the last 20 presidential contests, the way hillsborough county voted, that is the way the election turned out. we talked to bob buckhorn about why that is. >> i think the because we the perfect demographics, the age, the ethnicity, the orientation, the income levels. this county is what america looks like. >> reporter: and again, the actual event here starts in the next half an hour. about 6:30 pm is when there was start -- when they will start letting people in line. most importantly, they will be sitting here watching those

victory tonight. >> a lot of confidence at the hillary clinton headquarters. a fun night for sure. now to the republicans and their presidential nominee, donald trump. melanie michael joins us from a trump watch party. >> we have said it before, trump has to win florida if he has any hope of winning the presidency. race is going to go tonight perhaps. >> reporter: we will indeed. we're coming to you live from the hyatt hotel in sarasota where the rsvp list has grown to 3700 people expected to show up as the republican party puts on a massive event for donald trump. for some of the local races, joining me is the donald trump cochair of the party and campaign. this is a big night for you guys. you have to win florida, what is the feeling?

and enthusiasm. with a record crowds at the polls today. a lot of republicans across hillsboro, pinellis, sarasota, charlotte. we're seeing record turnout. that's great news for donald trump. i expect a big victory tonight and i encourage everyone to come join us as we celebrate the night away to celebrate the election of our next president, donald j trump.>> reporter: i say it -- i saw a couple practicing a victory dance and you say the turnout has been good.>> we are optimistic t of these counties. we don't know how people will vote but our overall numbers, our get out the vote, walking door-to-door, calls, we're seeing record turnout. it's a big day for us and we expect to celebrate tonight. >> reporter: hanky so much. the cochair for the state for the trump at -- for trump campaign. it will be a long night no matter how you look at it. we will be here for the

you live in just a little bit. we will send it back to you.>> a lot of optimism in his voice. democrats hope to win back control of the senate. if they do that, they need to pick up five new republican seats, four if hillary clinton wins. one race that will be watched closely as the one here in florida. that is the rubio-murphy battle. >> senator marco rubio is expected to be reelected but hes in miami. that's where candace mccowan joins us now. rubio's run for the president made this a long shot for his opponent. >> reporter: absolutely. you know the national rain -- name recognition is hard to contend with and rubio has been ahead in the polls most of the race. he has attacked his opponent, congressman patrick murphy, on his resume. rubio said it was at the very

attendance record. rubio spent the night with one- stop in miami to thank his supporters. >> you called, knocked on doors, stood with us through different circumstances we confronted and we are eternally grateful for that. >> reporter: here at the hilton in miami airport, this party doesn't start until 6:30 pm and in the next couple of minutes we will see the reasons behind us start to fill. he takes the stage later this evening after the race is called. >> candace mccowan live at the hilton. from rubio's election night headquarters to palm beach gardens. patrick murphy and his supporters are going to watch the results come in from the palm beach gardens marriott. we just heard candace talk about the confidence from rubio's camp so what is the

up beat and positive. they have a couple new polls giving them encouragement and the campaign manager says it will be a sprint to the finish. as candace mentioned, a lot of the polls have not been in patrick murphy's favor and he does not have good name recognition in the state but he has also been on top of that. the senatorial campaign committee stopped providing him with ad money which frustrated supporters who felt he was gaining trailing by seven points but to newer polls showed him leading by a point so he is hoping for a photo finish. >> the race tightened when rubio decided to endorse donald trump. republicans across the country decided i can't stand for that and he immediately saw the polls tighten. that's a big reason this will be so tight tonight. >> reporter: this race is being

nation because we will find out which party will hold control in the senate. this election party set to begin later this evening. we are expecting shortly to see people piling and here. john rodgers, back to you. >> live in palm beach gardens, thank you. florida is a battleground state. >> and part of the reason why, is all the independent voters here. we're going to take a closer look at how that could make the presidential race in predictable. >> plus, target 8 safeguarding your vote. what is being done to protect your vote against cyber attacks. and here is a live look in new york city. the iconic rockefeller center decked out in red white and blue and renamed democracy plaza this election night.

returning now to your vote counts coverage. here is a live look from storm team 8 -- from eagle 8 hd. if you live in this area, you still have about 50 minutes to get to the polls. that is pretty much strew all -- too much to all over florida. west florida stays open. it's still 7:00 there but it's

i wanted to talk about something interesting about florida. when you think about all of the people we have here, it is almost split evenly when it comes to democrat, republican and independent. how important is the independent vote>> florida has one of the highest percentages of independence but the fact of the matter is some research indicates that independence tend to be former democrats or republicans who want to shed the label but tend to vote the same way they always did. the problem is, it's very difficult to predict how de florida law, if you have no party affiliation, you can't vote in the primaries so there is no paper trail. a couple surveys recently have indicated that donald trump leads hillary clinton nationally by about 12 points among independents. >> that bodes pretty well for him thinking that we will break -- they will break his way

hispanic vote which is coming out in unprecedented numbers. not so much enamored by hillary clinton but offended by some of the inflammatory comments that donald trump has made in his talk about a deportation force and building a wall.>> this latino vote is strong and especially strong in kissimmee and donald trump showing up to rally -- and bill clinton showing up to rally support brendan, thank you so much for being here. we will check with you throughout the night. we have much more coverage coming up. we're going to show you the strategy behind winning florida, plus safeguarding your vote. what is being done to stop fraud at the polls. a live look at our tampa news sunday. our team is working hard to bring you coverage of this important election. we will be back with more

c'mon in, pop pop! happy birthday! i survived a heart attack. i'm doing all i can to ng brilinta. for people who've been hospitalized for a heart attack. i take brilinta with a baby aspirin. no more than one hundred milligrams as it affects how well it works. brilinta helps keep my platelets from sticking together and forming a clot. brilinta reduced the chance of another heart attack. or dying from one. it worked better than plavix. >>don't stop taking brilinta without talking to your doctor since stopping it too soon increases your risk of clots in your stent, heart attack, stroke, and even death. brilinta may cause bruising

like stomach ulcers, a history of bleeding in the brain, or severe liver problems. tell your doctor about bleeding, new or unexpected shortness of breath, any planned surgery, and all medicines you take. >>talk to your doctor about brilinta. i'm doing all i can. that includes brilinta. if you can't afford your medication,

here we are. about 45 minutes left before the polls begin to close. josh benson joins me to talk about this electoral map. what do we have here? >> hillary clinton has a sizable lead. donald trump is going to have to do a lot of work with these tossup states. year after year, florida is a big prize. >> donald trump according to national polling has to pick up these gray areas. these are the battleground

to pick up one of these blue states, this blue wall that hillary clinton has going in her favor but let's look at florida. >> let's zoom in to our state because there is a lot of counties we will be focused on. you know how it works up north and south. >> with the democrats, we know they are going to easily handle this part of florida. this is a democratic stronghold but appear in the panhandle, this area will be strong donald trump. keep in mind, we we have 10 counties up to here that we want to know the results until about 8:00. we won't get a call for florida in tell about 8:00. but we talk about the i-4 corrider all the time from saint peart -- st. petersburg to volusia county, to daytona. this is key to any victory for donald trump or hillary clinton. you have 6.5 million votes already early voted. you have 5.5 million people just along this corridor. >> let's look into that area.

democrats and 1.5 million independence. donald trump and hillary clinton both fighting hard in here. >> if we look at florida itself, are we going to see any action? donald trump has a second home in palm beach county. could he win that? >> i don't think donald trump can claim victory in palm beach. it is a very strong democratic area. it's true all across the state. we talked about this maybe donald trump pulls the number down a little bit but the total vote is key. this is not like an electoral vote. you want to take all 29 electoral votes, it will be won in the i-4 corrider. we have 12.5 million registered voters and we are going to have a record turnout. we also have some other things going on. we're going to look at some of the local races. the senate race, district 13 congressional race, charlie

sure to stay with us for that. in the meantime, over to stacy. holding the governor accountable. >> the state attorney's office, is it going to enforce the law? >> steve andrews is target 8. >> on the lookout for hackers, the fbi warned all 67 of all florida offices about the possibility of cyber attacks on computer systems and steve andrews found elections offices are confident they can ward off any attacks meant to alter the outcome of the election. >> they are confident but they also know to never say never. the fbi provided all 67 counties with the ip addresses of certain computers. the agency claims those may be up to no good. as the masses defended, voters in counted issues at the polls. among them, paper jams and optical scanners.

it's something elections offices prepared for. >> if for some reason, all electronics go down, we have those ballots we can and tabulate. >> reporter: they are also preparing for cyber attacks. >> are you at all concerned about hackers having some sort of affect on this? >> that's a tough question you know. i hope not. >> reporter: the fbi was concerned enough it held a conference call with all 67 supervisor of elections offices. >> a concern and we were able to just go in and block those. >> reporter: the pasco county police chief is concerned about hackers spreading misinformation. >> there is talk about sending people to the wrong polling places. >> reporter: but what about hackers changing clinton votes to trump and vice versa? according to the pinellis supervisor elections office, there is little chance of that. >> it's a close network -- closed network. there is no internet access in

isn't worried about rigged elections but he's happy to vote. >> i still have confidence in the american system. i feel like my vote does matter. >> reporter: according to brian corley, his website me be vulnerable to hackers and he's ready to shut it down if staff suspects they had been hacked. >> if a website is hacked, what about the vote totals? >> each supervisor of elections has multiple backups for this election for vote totals. scanners put the data on encrypted thumb drives and they get paper receipts. if the numbers don't match, the ballots can be hand-counted. if there is a hand count, that is by law open to the public and something else important to note is if you are in line at

right to vote. >> as long as you are in line at 7:00. thank you very much. if you have a problem you want steve to investigate, the number is on your screen. a reminder of how short the days are. 74 degrees right now. very pleasant weather conditions expected through the evening hours. i mentioned the dew points are down so temps in the 70s a comfortable. just a short time to vote but do it if you can. the evening temperature, just gorgeous. a warm and dry stretch. above average temperatures for the last 14 days and 24 days in a row. this is at tampa international airport. 14 days without rain. eagle 8 hd got a great shot of the downtown area. rachel has this beautiful shot as well. the nice thing about an earlier sunsets is sunset photos.

we had an incredible view last night. 70 degrees for our metro cast. also a cold front approaching the area. a little more hazy early in the day. 65 degrees at 8 am and 79 degrees in the forecast area at 5 pm tomorrow. expect a few more clouds as a cold front rolls through. 74 degrees arcadia, same in bartow, st. pete 75 degrees, 69 degrees wiki washy. high clouds continue to reach front. not expecting much precipitation on the boundary itself as it pushes to the south. just a few sprinkles on the east coast but not much at all driven by the easterly flow. a few clouds as you saw with the cold front moving in in the afternoon. musick cloudy skies is the front approaches the area. early thursday it pushes south. slightly cooler, slightly drier air setting up a nice weekend. you can see that for thursday

overnight low temperatures in the upper 50s to low 60s, about where we expect to be. seasonal weather very dry. we have a veterans day on friday. we will be at florida national cemetery. sports is coming your way next. decision night in america. nbc news brings you unparalleled coverage of this unprecedented elti guthrie, and chuck todd late tonight for decision night in

the way the lightning are playing after their three-game losing skid on the road, it's easy to chalk up monday night's loss to the panthers as a blip on the long journey this season. but the goal that turned out to be the game-winner as one that victor hedman would rather forget. he mishandled the pocket mazone

play. riley smith took advantage. the lightning had cashed in earlier in the period so it's a tough loss that needs to be forgotten quickly. >> one mistake can cost to the game so look forward to the long season. he just got to refocus. >> mistakes have been and it's just too bad because we played a pretty strong game. we just got to regroup. >> we are counting votes tonight. in baseball. it's gold glove award night. this ''highest honor for defensive excellence. kevin kiermaier hopes to make it back to back gold glove's in the american league up against jackie bradley -- jackie bradley jr. of the red sox. he missed 48 games with a broken wrist, which was not

the overall voting. college football player rankings come out tonight. will ohio state leave -- leapfrog washington? >> i know one person in our building who is helping that happens. >> they dominated, didn't they? a reminder, we are just 30 minutes away from right down to the polls close. results will start coming in in this historic news selection -- in this historic election. tune in for our nd you can also get updates through our app, www.wfla.com or follow us on social media by using #wfla politics. >> we will have results scrolling across your screen throughout the night and you can get results on our website at www.wfla.com. the nightly news is up next followed by news channel 8 at 7:00. >> we also have news at 8:00 on great 38 and we will be

we will have a special one-hour edition of this newscast. in the meantime, have a great night and we we'll see you

tonight, breaking news. decision night. it all comes down to this. >> and america's best days are still ahead of us. if we reach for >> the new adventure is making america great again. we're going to do it. >> on this historic night, who will it be? hillary clinton or donald trump? just moments away from the first polls closing. voters lined up across the nation to make their voices heard. the candidates, after criss-crossing the nation, end up just a