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CNN Live Event/Special
CNN Election Night In America; Final Hours of Voting Underway, First Polls Close 6PM ET. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired November 05, 2024 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:01]
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Will that be the case tonight? And will that outpace the hidden Trump vote?
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: All right, guys, thank you very, very much. It's been a pleasure working with all of you all day. Appreciate it very much.
And again, we're just about an hour away from the first exit poll data. And two hours from the first poll closings.
CNN's "Election Night in America" gets underway right now.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: It's "Election Night in America". Voters are having their say, your say. And the countdown is on to the very first exit polls and the first results.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: All across the USA, from Arizona to Pennsylvania, Michigan to Georgia and battlegrounds in between, the final hours of voting are underway in one of the closest and most consequential presidential races ever.
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The American people are exhausted with his gaslighting. Enough!
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Kamala, you've done a horrible job as vice president. You're fired!
ANNOUNCER: After a year of stunning twists and turns, the time to choose is here.
TRUMP: We will win, win, win.
HARRIS: We will win!
ANNOUNCER: Tonight, an historic and unpredictable election.
(CROWD CHANTING "KAMALA")
ANNOUNCER: Vice President Kamala Harris aiming to be the first woman and first woman of color to serve in the Oval Office after replacing President Biden as their party's choice late in the campaign.
HARRIS: It is my pledge to you that I will always fight for all the American people.
(CROWD CHANTING "WE LOVE TRUMP")
ANNOUNCER: Former President Donald Trump, hoping to become only the second ex-commander in chief to return to the White House, even after his unprecedented criminal indictments and convictions.
TRUMP: We will never give up. We will never back down. And we will never, ever, ever, ever surrender.
ANNOUNCER: Two tickets with dramatically different visions for the country.
SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Why don't we have a border? Because Kamala Harris refuses to do her damn job.
GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump has no plan for you. His plan is for what's good for Donald Trump.
ANNOUNCER: The entire world in suspense, waiting for the final verdict of voters.
TRUMP: November 5th will be the most important day in the history of our country.
ANNOUNCER: Who will win and when?
HARRIS: Are you ready to make your voices heard?
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN's coverage of "Election Night in America", the race for the White House, the campaign for Congress, and the challenges facing the nation.
HARRIS: Do we believe in the promise of America?
TRUMP: We will make America great again.
ANNOUNCER: There's never been an election like this one, and anything is possible until the last vote
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(MUSIC)
TAPPER: Democracy in action as we see voters casting ballots in Arizona as well as in Wisconsin and, of course, all across the nation with the power of the presidency and control of Congress on the line.
Welcome to CNN's live coverage of "Election Night in America". I'm Jake Tapper.
Right now, Americans are making a monumental decision, choosing either Vice President Kamala Harris or former president Donald Trump to lead the country through the next four years. Well soon get some early clues about what voters are thinking when we roll out our first exit poll results about an hour from now, and that will help set the stage for the battle ahead. The all important race to 270, the number of electoral votes needed to win the White House, all 50 states play a role in getting one candidate or the other to hit that magic number.
But this election is expected to come down to seven crucial competitive battlegrounds that we will be watching very closely in the hours and days ahead.
Georgia is the first key race of the night, when voting ends there at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. Vice President Harris in a tough fight for the state that Democrats flipped from red to blue, four years ago. A half hour after that, North Carolina is in the spotlight. Former President Trump is on defense in this swing state that he narrowly won in both 2020 and 2016.
Then, at 8:00 Eastern, all eyes are on the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. One of the traditional blue collar blue wall battlegrounds seen as critical for Democrats to win the presidency.
Then, at 9:00 Eastern, Michigan and Wisconsin are up for grabs. Two more of those blue wall states where the Harris Trump contest is close and bitterly contested.
Then a third pivotal swing state is on the line at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. That's Arizona, making that a very important hour.
[16:05:04]
And there's one more battleground to watch, Nevada. Voting ends there at 10:00 p.m. Eastern. As we get deeper into the night and the fight for electoral votes.
Erin Burnett and our battleground correspondents are going to give us updates on turnout and vote counting in those crucial swing states, along with Pamela Brown at the voting desk.
John King is at his post at the magic wall, where he will be mapping out the votes and tracking the trends all night long.
David Chalian is crunching our exit poll numbers and will bring us the very first results imminently.
Boris Sanchez is following the balance of power in Congress with 34 Senate seats and all 435 House seats up for grabs.
Our political team is going to break it all down, Audie Cornish, Dana Bash and Chris Wallace are here.
And Anderson Cooper is with David Axelrod, Van Jones, Alyssa Farah Griffin and David Urban.
Plus, of course, we have correspondents covering the presidential candidates. Let's go right now to Abby Phillip at Harris campaign headquarters at
the vice president's alma mater, Howard University, here in Washington, D.C.
Abby, what is the mindset right now from the Harris campaign as results start to come in in some places?
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Jake, I've been talking to Harris advisers all day, people inside and outside of the campaign. The word I'm getting from them is cautious optimism. A lot of these people have been in the battleground states throughout the weekend, and in the last couple of days, they are seeing a momentum shift on the ground. They believe that something has changed in their favor.
So a lot of the people that I'm speaking with, they are feeling good coming into tonight. One person, though, who doesn't really want to talk about winning is the candidate herself, Vice President Kamala Harris, is almost superstitious about not wanting to have that kind of conversation. She has been head down all day today on the phones, doing phone interviews with radio stations. She just went to the DNC here in Washington a few minutes ago to call voters and ask them to get out and vote. She has been working on getting out the vote.
One person who spoke with her recently said she is not one to even get close to measuring the drapes. She wants to make sure every single vote is counted before her mind goes to that place. And right now, the Harris team, they are in work mode. They still believe they have a lot of work to do to keep their voters coming out to the polls, as we get into these evening hours, Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Abby Phillip with the Harris campaign at Washington, D.C.
Let's go now to Kaitlan Collins, who is several hundred miles south at Trump campaign headquarters in West Palm Beach, Florida, near Mar-a- Lago.
Kaitlan, what is happening in Trump world in these closing hours of voting?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF CORRESPONDENT: Jake, they're watching everything very closely. This is a team that has been poring over these numbers all day, much like the Harris campaign has as well.
For Donald Trump himself, he didn't arrive back here in Palm Beach, Florida, until about 5:30 this morning. That came after he held that late night rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he always closes out his presidential campaigns. He hasn't gotten much sleep based on what I've heard from sources who say that he has been peppering his aides all day long asking for updates on this race and where the polling stands right now, and how the voting has been looking today. I am told one thing that they have zeroed in on is that number of early voting where Republicans have done very well, obviously a change from just a few years ago when Donald Trump was incredibly critical of early voting. Those numbers have given them a newfound confidence in the last 24
hours or so, Jake, and that is the number that Trump campaign aides are giving to surrogates in order to try to boost them and excite them going into this. Now, whether or not that confidence is warranted, Jake, remains to be seen.
And I should note, I am at the Trump campaign convention center, where this is -- they are going to be having their party here tonight Trump himself will be watching the returns come in from his Mar-a-Lago club just a few moments away. There are 700, several hundred guests that are invited there and those that we are expected to be around him are names like Elon Musk, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Dana White, newfound allies of his that have obviously been out on the campaign trail with him as well, Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Kaitlan Collins, we'll check back with you in a minute.
Now to the magic wall, where John King is mapping out the candidate's potential paths to 270 electoral votes.
John, how do they get there?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jake, we begin the night with each candidate having several paths to 270. But we also know from history that certain states tend to loom larger, if you will, in that path.
So let me start here with the three right here. Those are the three states, the blue wall, the so-called blue wall, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin. They have voted together since 1992.
They have voted blue in every election except 2016. Remember, that was Donald Trump's big surprise. He flipped the blue wall red and he won the White House.
So they are the most important states. And if you are the vice president of the United States, they are your easiest.
[16:10:02]
There are no easy paths to 270, but this would be her easiest look where we have her right now, 226 electoral votes, solid or likely Democratic, 219 votes solid or likely Republican. If the vice president can hold Pennsylvania, Joe Biden won it, hold Michigan, Joe Biden won it, and hold Wisconsin, Joe Biden won it, that alone, as long as she wins Nebraska's second congressional district, would get her to 270, and she would be the next president of the United States. That's the blue wall strategy.
Now, can she win without the blue wall? Let's take those back. She can. She can win with the Sunbelt strategy. That would be North Carolina, Georgia. And then you come west and you do Arizona, and Nevada.
Now these would be tough. Donald Trump has been consistently either ahead or at least than other states, and the polls there. But the vice president can do it simply with the Sunbelt strategy.
So let's look at this from Donald Trump's perspective. Can he do it with just the Sunbelt strategy? Let's start there. The answer is no.
Watch. If Donald Trump wins North Carolina, wins Georgia, wins Arizona and turns Nevada red for the first time since 2004, I believe, that would only get him to 268. So Donald Trump needs at least one, at least one of the blue wall states. That's what makes this fascinating, Jake. They have voted together since 1992.
The question, we've broken a lot of rules in our politics the last eight or 10 years, the question is, do we break one tonight? If one candidate can put these together, if it's the vice president, she's automatically president if Donald Trump wins these three, he would only one more going through.
TAPPER: So as the votes come in, what are you going to be looking for?
KING: So let's switch maps as we do that because you went through the poll closings. I think we should prepare the American people to think, I don't know, it'll go to Saturday like 2020 did, but we should be prepared for an election that were not certain of the winner tonight. However, because several states do promise to count faster, we're going to get some significant clues. This is the 2024 map. Votes will fill in pretty soon, right?
So let's go back to the 2020 map to answer your question. As you noted, we're going to get Georgia results first of the -- of the battleground states, right? And so, what are we going to look for right away, right?
Number one, how fast are the returns. Number two, how is the vice president of United States doing in the bedrock of any Democratic victory? That's Fulton County. That's the African American vote, and the close in suburbs of Atlanta, absolutely key.
It was key to Joe Biden's win. You see, he got 73 percent in Atlanta, and the surrounding suburbs. It would be key for the vice president.
Then for me, the biggest test here is, can Donald Trump perform in the suburbs at his 2016 levels? Watch. He's losing here in Cobb County, but with 47 percent in 2016. In 2020, he drops to 42 percent.
It was Donald Trump's suburban struggles that cost him the election in 2020. So we will get some early clues in Georgia, Jake, as you come back to the 2020 map here, and then well come up to 24 right in here, about half of the vote in the state of Georgia is going to come right in here in the metropolitan Atlanta area.
Yes, Donald Trump will run it up in the rural red areas. We will want to look there to see if turnout is as high as it was in 2016. And it was even higher in 2020. So, we'll get some seeds of the Trump base. But if the Trump base is turning out and the Harris base is turning out, this is a race that will be settled, Jake, once again in the American suburbs. Donald Trump won the suburbs in 2016. He collapsed in the suburbs in 2020.
TAPPER: Very interesting. John King, thanks so much.
I'm here at the table with my panel and let's just run down, starting with you, Audie.
What are you looking for? Obviously, there's so much.
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There is.
TAPPER: But like, just give me one.
CORNISH: I would say that 2020 was a historic turnout. I mean, the highest since the 1900s. So if it doesn't match that, who stayed home and why?
And I think so many of our questions will come to that. Which groups stayed home and why?
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump has been running for two years. Harris has been running for 170 -- 107 days.
So, one of my big questions is particularly with her candidacy, is whether that was just enough time to introduce herself to the country and to candidates who weren't -- who were dead set on running or voting for a Democrat, weren't so sure about him, or whether she could have used a little bit more time.
CHRIS WALLACE, CNN HOST, THE CHRIS WALLACE SHOW: This has been, I think, the most explicit gender gap, gender-appealing election in my memory. And so I'm going to be looking at the gender gap and as they say on Wall Street, past performance is no guarantee of future results. But it is an indication.
So I look back at 2020. The electorate in 2020 was 52 percent women, 48 percent men. Among women, Biden was up by 15 points. Among men, Trump was up by eight points. So I'm going to be looking to see, one, whether the margins change one way or the other, pro-Trump, pro-Biden and also the overall electorate, 52-48, four years ago. Is it going to be a different mix of men and women this time?
BASH: And also, even if it is -- isn't a different mix in terms of overall numbers, are the women who are voting, voting differently? Registered Republicans, independents voting differently because this is the first presidential election post-Roe.
[16:15:03]
And that is why so many -- I think one of the sort of phrases of the week is, is nauseously optimistic.
CORNISH: Yeah.
BASH: We probably all heard that from both sides of the aisle, but from the Democrats, they are still banking on women in particular. And some men --
CORNISH: I know, and were so focused on that --
BASH: -- in so many states.
CORNISH: But what's fascinating is Kamala Harris actually didn't run as an identity candidate, right? We're not looking at someone who took the Barack Obama approach in talking about her resume and trying to appeal to people's better natures when it comes to race, and she's not doing what Hillary Clinton did.
BASH: But she's running on freedom. And when she says freedom, she talks -- she's the number one thing in that freedom bucket is reproductive rights.
WALLACE: On the other hand, there was that hot mic moment when she was sitting down, Kamala Harris, with Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, and she said, we really got to work on the men. They definitely feel that with this bro strategy that -- and getting the endorsement just today from Joe Rogan, that that Donald Trump has succeeded in appealing to men and appealing especially to young men and even young men who are Latino or Black, they got to cut a little bit into that and they also need to do really, really well among women, including Republican women.
TAPPER: We're closing in on our very first exit poll results, early insights into the minds of people who turned out to vote and the issues driving their choices for president.
Straight ahead, we're going to take you inside polling places in crucial battleground states where ballots are being cast right now.
Stay with us as we track every vote until we know who wins and who loses, whenever that may be.
This is "Election Night in America" on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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TAPPER: Spotlight right now on Wisconsin and the six other make or break battlegrounds in the presidential race. Voting ongoing all across the country as this unprecedented election is moving toward an uncertain conclusion.
Erin Burnett's heading up our battleground command center -- Erin.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: All right, Jake.
Well, our correspondents, of course, are talking to voters, election officials across the country in battleground states, Pennsylvania and Arizona right now, those battlegrounds that have played such a crucial role again and again and maybe the deciding factors tonight.
Let's start with Kate Bolduan. Kate, you're in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, and we have just heard about
lines and lines and lines across the state. What are you seeing and hearing right now?
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: First and foremost, we are in Bucks County, as you said, Bensalem, is the swingingest county in this swing state. And we've heard from officials here in Philly and other collar counties like Montgomery, that turnout today is high. What that means and who that benefits? TBD.
But we have been talking to voters all day. Their stories, fascinating. With me is one of those voters here. This is Heidi Dragan (ph).
Heidi, thank you so much.
You told me you were born and raised here. This is your high school. What's -- what's driving your vote? What's motivating your vote this time?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Women's rights. I have a daughter, and I want her to have the same exact rights that I had.
BOLDUAN: You're about to walk in. Would you like to share who you're voting with? Voting for?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kamala Harris.
BOLDUAN: How have you voted in the past? 2020, 2016?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Democrat.
BOLDUAN: Democrat?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
BOLDUAN: What do you think of the messaging you're hearing from Donald Trump? Is it a vote for Kamala Harris, or is this a vote against Donald Trump this time for you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For me, it's for Kamala, but it's definitely against Donald Trump. I'm over the rhetoric, not proud that's what's representing our country. We can do better.
BOLDUAN: What do you think of the nature of this election? How toxic it's gotten, the messaging, the two different realities, really, that we've been seeing presented by these candidates?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's -- well, on his end, extremely toxic. I love the way she's ending, not toxic. Not saying bad things and just really making a difference in what she's going to do for us. So I'm excited. Very excited.
BOLDUAN: Pennsylvania, always a swing state. You live in one of the most competitive counties in the state. Thank you so much, Heidi. Really appreciate your time. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
BOLDUAN: We've been talking to voters all day. Their stories all fascinating and their voices now being heard.
Erin, because they're going in to vote.
BURNETT: They're going in to vote, and they're waiting to vote and they're going to wait and wait.
And Maricopa County in Arizona, it could, of course, all come down to that. We hear about possibly record turnout where you are, Kyung, in Mesa.
What are you seeing now from voters? Looks like there's a line behind you.
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: There's a very long line here and before I start showing you this line, I want to point out that in Maricopa County, the average wait time is two minutes.
But that's not the case here at Mesa Community College. This is the end of the line and I just want you to walk with me a little bit. You can see that there are families here. It's a very diverse line. It's just not college kids who are lining up to vote here.
It's a -- you know, this is really just a slice of the entire electorate here in Arizona. We are seeing Latinos. We're seeing a lot of women. We're seeing students. We're seeing older voters.
We are hearing from the Maricopa County recorder who just tweeted saying, please go somewhere else to vote because this is not typical for what you are seeing in the county. What they are seeing is very, very short wait lines.
And this is Haley.
Hi, Haley. You were just talking with my producer Ana Maya (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
LAH: And who are you voting for today?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kamala Harris.
LAH: You're voting for Kamala Harris. What's interesting about this particular district is that it's a very independent district, that you also have friends who are voting the other way.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Yes, I do, very close friends actually.
LAH: And that's pretty typical for -- for this county.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right. LAH: And so, what we're seeing is a lot of independent voters as well
as we walk down this line further, this -- and I want to point out that its a 75-foot rule before you hit the -- where people are voting. And we're not there yet. That's how long this line is.
There are signs up to encourage voters to go elsewhere because the lines are so long here. But the other thing is, if you look at this line, you see everyone's being really polite. There are -- there's this child in a cart over here.
[16:25:03]
Everyone's being very patient. And this is really democracy at its finest. But if it comes down to Arizona and Maricopa County, Erin, the one thing to point out is that it will come down to those independent suburban voters here in Arizona just like this one -- Erin.
BURNETT: Really incredible. Just looking at that line that Kyung has and also that, you know, the sign that says go somewhere else. But yet people are standing there waiting, waiting to cast their vote so that every vote can be counted.
Of course, long lines, a sign of turnout. But also you want everyone to be able to vote. You don't want people to turn away.
Let's go to our voting desk where Pamela Brown is getting some real time updates on the turnout.
What we're really seeing, tracking the early voting trends and what you can already ascertain from the data, Pamela, and I understand you have some new information on Georgia. What are you paying attention to?
PAMELA BROWN, CNN CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I've been talking to my sources on the ground there in Georgia who are affiliated with the election there. And here's what were learning at this hour, Fulton County will likely seek a court -- from a court, an extension of polling hours. So here's what's going on there, affected by those non-credible bomb threats we've been reporting throughout the day until 7:30 p.m. That's what a Georgia official with knowledge of the request told me, just moments ago.
That same official telling me there are two polling places in Cobb County that will stay open until 7:20 p.m. and one place in Gwinnett County that will request an extension until 8:00 p.m. and is in court this hour.
But the official told me the majority of precincts will still report the bulk of results by 8:00 p.m., and we keep hearing from officials there, including the secretary of state, that that first drop around 8:00 p.m. will likely be around 70 percent of the total vote there in Georgia, Erin.
BURNETT: Wow, which is they've been saying they're going to be efficient. They're going to be quick. We hope that that is the case. So, you know, we hear everybody talking about the gender gap. And you
just heard Chris Wallace talking about that. What can you tell us about this gender gap that we've been hearing about in the ballots cast prior to today? As we're starting to get a fuller picture of who has shown up to vote?
BROWN: It's a really good question. Let's just zoom out a little bit here and look at the overall early vote. Nearly 84 million Americans had already cast ballots before things got started today. So that's less than the overall number in 2020, when we were still in the middle of a pandemic.
But this number accounts for roughly 53 percent of everyone who voted in the 2020 election. And there's a clear gender gap in pre-election voter. Though I should note it is narrower than it was at this point. Four years ago. Look at this here on your screen, 1.4 million more women than men have cast pre-election ballots this year. That's actually a slight drop from the 1.8 million more women than men casting votes early in 2020. And that's partially because fewer people overall have voted early than four years ago.
But even with that drop, Erin, female voters are voting at a higher rate than men in all seven of the battleground states we're watching. Look at this right here. The orange bars are female voters, and the green bars are male voters. You can see here in these key states -- Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin -- female voters are outpacing male voters across the board.
Erin, former President Trump, he has been reaching out to male voters in his final push. We'll have to wait to find out the numbers we're seeing now, how they compare to the votes that come in tonight.
BURNETT: All right. Pam, thank you very much.
And some of the Trump campaign, Jake, of course, saying, all right, young men, come out and vote. We'll see if they do as people get out of work. We'll see who shows up to vote now.
TAPPER: Indeed. And we are standing by for the first results from our exit polls of voters in the make or break battleground states. That's coming up just minutes from now.
Our correspondents are on the ground at key polling places. We'll get another update on turnout and more, that's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:32:44]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: And we are back with CNN's live election coverage.
You're looking at a live picture from Lawrence, Georgia -- Lawrenceville, Georgia, where polls are open. We are also standing by for our first exit poll results as were now in the final hours of voting here on the East Coast. I want to right now, let's get the check on the voting in North
Carolina and Pennsylvania to Brianna Keilar first in Charlotte, North Carolina.
How busy is your polling place? What's it been like the last couple of hours?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's been picking up. No lines here yet, but officials inside Anderson tell us that they're seeing higher traffic than usual.
And I'm here with Julia Strader someone who just voted and while things are moving pretty quickly inside, it actually took you a while. Tell me about that.
JULIA STRADER, NORTH CAROLINA VOTER: Yes, it took me about two hours. I had to change my address that I was registered to vote at, so I had to sit for the help desk for two hours.
KEILAR: Okay, most people just came in and out, but not for you. So you're a 24-year-old voter, and you are registered with who?
STRADER: I am unaffiliated.
KEILAR: Okay, so you are one of those unaffiliated voters that both of these parties are looking for. But tell me you have a little disagreement, not just in your family, about politics, but also with your boyfriend.
STRADER: Yes. That's true. We just don't really see eye to eye on that part. But it's also nothing crazy for us. But --
KEILAR: Okay. And so what are you focused on this election?
STRADER: I'm focused on definitely just picking the right person, I think. That was the most important part to me.
KEILAR: You don't want to say who you're voting for.
STRADER: Correct, correct.
KEILAR: And why is that?
STRADER: I just -- you know, the internet. I just don't want to be ripped apart, honestly. So that's -- that's the key for me.
KEILAR: But this is a pretty divisive election. What do you think about that?
STRADER: I think it's really polarizing. And it's kind of just a little sad to see such separation in our country. So I'm really hoping that in the next few elections or the next few years, we can kind of come back together at some point hopefully.
KEILAR: Well, Julia, really amazing that you took your two hours to vote. Thank you so much for talking with us. STRADER: Thank you, thank you. Have a great day.
KEILAR: And, Anderson, this is a county that a lot of people are going to be looking at, Mecklenburg County. Democrats do outnumber Republicans here. But for the first time, those unaffiliated voters, people registered like Julia, actually outnumber Democrats, according to the latest board of election numbers.
[16:35:08]
So we'll be keeping an eye on what happens with them tonight.
COOPER: All right. Brianna, we'll check in with you.
Let's go to Brian Todd right now at a polling place in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh.
How strong is turnout there?
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Very, very strong, Anderson, and we are expecting a rush hour surge just minutes from now. People coming in and out of here all day long, cars pulling in and out of this lot at a steady pace today, lines, you know, intermittently. But some of them have really stretched down the block here at various points in the day. And we do expect much more to come because you've got a little over three hours left.
A lot of flexibility built into the scheduling here. People have until 8:00 p.m. to vote here.
I'm here with Nick Sherman. He is the commissioner of Washington County.
Nick, you have told me earlier about an extraordinary turnout.
NICK SHERMAN, WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA, COMMISSIONER: Right.
TODD: Tell me what you expect by the end of the day.
SHERMAN: Well, right now, in Washington County, we're looking at somewhere north of 80 percent, potentially.
TODD: Wow.
SHERMAN: My wife voted here this morning. She was about an hour and 40 minutes for it. So this is a Washington County and North Strabane is a bedroom community.
So we had a big rush in the morning. The line stretched out the door down the block. Right now, this is what we're calling the calm before huge numbers here pretty soon, and all over Washington County. I was in Cecil Township, the south suburbs of Pittsburgh. There's about an hour and a half to two hour line earlier today. So we're seeing a pretty big turnout in Washington County. We're really happy about that.
TODD: Nick, thanks very much for talking to us. And good luck with the rest of the evening. It's going to be an electrifying night here.
SHERMAN: Absolutely.
TODD: Thank you. Thank you very much.
It's been great here in Washington County, guys, really just exhilarating vibe here from voters. They're just -- they're so excited about the fact that this state could well decide the next president.
Back to you.
COOPER: All right, Brian. We'll check in with you. Back with the team here in New York.
David Axelrod, you've done a couple of these.
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Here we are.
COOPER: Here we are.
AXELROD: Here we are.
COOPER: What are you thinking?
AXELROD: We've taken a long journey together in this incredible saga that nobody could have written. And it seems fitting that were here in the on election night, an hour and a half before the polls close and I got a -- I asked someone who's deeply in the bubble of this campaign where he thought the race was, and he said, we can say with a tremendous amount of authority that we don't know because turnout is very high. It's high in the rural areas. It's high in cities and suburbs. And we honestly have to look.
But I think Chris Wallace made the important point. You know, we are -- how the margins that they have among genders is going to be really important. If men vote for Trump in larger numbers than women vote for Harris, that bodes well for him. If she votes -- if women vote for her in larger numbers, she's going to win the race because women will vote, there'll be a larger proportion of the electorate.
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, I think Dixville Notch was kind of a metaphor for this entire race. It just feels like a complete --
COOPER: It was a split vote in Dixville Notch.
GRIFFIN: A split vote, so yeah, the breaking news 3 to 3.
And listen, Donald Trump has the advantage in this because he's been running for two years, but he's really been running for nine years. Kamala Harris came into this race three and a half months ago. If she pulls that off, this is a monumental accomplishment of politics that I don't think any of us could have predicted could happen.
It will come down to the gender gap. It's going to come -- we're going to keep our eyes, I think, on where some of these suburban, where some of these urban numbers are tonight in Philadelphia, turnout is going to be huge but then look to the suburbs. Is this peel off of women who are outside of Philadelphia and just can't, maybe voted for Trump before but can't tolerate him this time? That bodes well for her.
But never sleep on Donald Trump. This is somebody who has come back from things no other political figure possibly could. And I think that this genuinely could go any direction.
DAVID URBAN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah. So I mean, Anderson, we sat here through all these things, right? We sat here through the trials, the convictions, the Bronco ride through the city almost, right? The assassination attempts.
To, you know, to Alyssa's point, this is -- if Trump wins, it is it is like a Phoenix rising from the ashes. People wrote him off as nobody wanted to talk to the guy. No one wanted to go to Mar-a-Lago. He was he was dead man walking.
COOPER: He was like the bear that RFK Jr. killed rising back.
(LAUGHTER)
URBAN: And also, I mean, the guy was nowhere. And here we are back as people in the bubble on the Harris campaign, are saying, we don't know.
I've talked to like, heads of, you know, really important Democrats in the city in the state of Pennsylvania who say, we don't know. Everybody doesn't know. And so, the fact that whoever wins this race, whether its Donald Trump or Kamala Harris, whoever wins, it's going to be historic just for that exact reason. They both sides have done incredibly well.
VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: And -- and that's why I'm just proud. I'm proud of Kamala Harris. I'm proud of somebody -- you know, that she had to pick up a baton that had been dropped, and she had 107 days to do something extraordinary. And she has.
And I'm also proud of the grassroots people who are out there, won't say die, knocking on doors or anything they can. We know something and we don't know something else.
[16:40:00]
We know for sure that there is an authoritarian movement in this country. We know it's pulled in some amazing people, good people, union workers, veterans, some people here, here with us. But it's led by somebody who is an authoritarian who does not believe in our Constitution.
That movement is strong. We know that. It has pulled in the richest man in the history of the world. That's a strong movement. Elon Musk,
It's pulled in one of the most famous political families, RFK Jr., with his whole movement of conspiracy people. There is a strong authoritarian movement. The question is, is there a movement for freedom that can stop it? We're going to learn tonight. Is there a movement for freedom and decency and dignity that can stop that movement? That's what we're going to learn tonight.
COOPER: Well, we'll soon get an early read on what battleground state voters are thinking.
We are nearing the rollout of our first exit polls. Plus, we'll get updates on Michigan and other blue wall battlegrounds that are so important.
Right now, a lot ahead after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TAPPER: It is America's choice, right now, and we're watching as voters are casting ballots in Mesa, Arizona. You see there on your screen, and throughout other battlegrounds that will determine whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump becomes the 47th president of these United States.
[16:45:00]
Let's get to the magic wall now, where John King is looking at the so- called blue wall.
John, what are you watching for?
KING: So, Jake, as you look through these states as we go, one of the questions people have all the time is why these seven? Right? Why these seven?
Nevada is a lot different from Pennsylvania. Wisconsin is a lot different from Arizona. Why are these the seven battleground states? What makes them so unique that they're generally toss ups all the time?
It is because of the greatest dividing line today in American politics, and that is education. If you look at this, see the dotted line across the top? That is the national average for the percentage of a population nationally that has a college degree. Massachusetts and Vermont, two of the blue states that are significantly above that, the percentage of the people who have college degrees, they vote blue reliably. West Virginia and Arkansas, among the states that are a good deal below the national average for voters with a college degree, they vote red.
What makes the battlegrounds unique? Look at them with the exception of Nevada, which is below a little bit below, they hug the average. That's why they're battlegrounds.
You have a equal percentage of people with college degrees without college degrees, so that is what unites them. Even though geographically they are far apart.
Now, this is how it plays out when you look at them this way. This can also play out within the states. Come on over here and I'll show you what I'm talking about here.
Let's just take Pennsylvania as an example. Pennsylvania, as you know, Jake, your home commonwealth, one of the most complicated states on the map. So what happens down here?
Let's look at Montgomery County. Used to be when I started doing this, a Republican suburb. Now, it is a strongly Democratic suburb. Look at Joe Biden, 63 percent of the vote there.
Well, let's take a look at education in Montgomery County. Look at the percentage, nearly 60 percent, well above the national average in Montgomery county. Have a college degree. That's why it's the clearest dividing line that's going to vote Democratic. That's Montgomery County.
Then pull out and just pick randomly pick a county. Donald Trump does very well out in these rural counties. So you pick up here, Tioga County, he gets 75 percent of the vote there, right? So let's take a look and just do the comparison.
Bring this back out, pop that up and look well below, right? Almost half, right, in Montgomery County it was nearly 60 percent, here is 31 percent with a college degree.
So education the greatest dividing line in American politics right now. And it is -- it is the one common factor, Jake, that makes the battleground so competitive.
TAPPER: Fascinating.
Back to Erin Burnett now in our battleground correspondents -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right, Jake, so we're talking about these battlegrounds, and you talk about the education and what makes the battleground a battleground. We're getting new information from Nevada and Wisconsin, two crucial battleground states.
Jim Acosta is at a polling place in Las Vegas.
Jim, earlier, secretary of state from Nevada was talking about where you are just the surge in youth turnout that they're seeing as they try to figure out how long it will take to count.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right.
BURNETT: What are you seeing right where you are in Las Vegas?
ACOSTA: Well, they're pulling out all the stops, as they do in Vegas to get people out to vote, Erin. And we are outside Allegiant Stadium where the Las Vegas Raiders play. And I'm with one of the Las Vegas Raiders right now, Charles Snowden, who came here to vote and he's a defensive end with the Las Vegas Raiders.
And I guess, Charles, why are you out here at this particular site to vote? I guess maybe it was a requirement from your employer or what can you tell us? And what was on your mind more seriously when you went in to vote?
CHARLES SNOWDEN, LAS VEGAS RAIDERS DEFENSIVE END: Yeah. No, it wasn't a requirement I just think its just, you know, how often can you say you play in the NFL and get to vote at your home stadium?
And so, I just wanted to come out, you know, do my civic responsibility and get out and vote.
ACOSTA: And what issues were on your mind? I know you were telling me before we got started, you didn't want to say who you were voting for, but what was on your mind going into the ballot box?
SNOWDEN: You know, definitely just housing, women's reproductive rights and just, you know, just trying to be on the right side of history.
ACOSTA: All right. Very good.
And, Erin, I mean, this county that we're in right now, Clark County, I mean this is going to be the big vote total here on election night. We're expecting those returns to come in later on this evening. The polls close at 7:00. That's when we'll start to get a lot of the tabulations coming in, Charles's vote with all of the other Nevadans who have cast their ballots. We'll get those numbers in later on tonight.
Back to you, Erin.
BURNETT: Right, and we'll see. Of course, you know the Harris campaign has expressed confidence about Nevada, optimism, but we just don't know. And as these votes come in, Trump's campaign saying optimism as well.
Let's go to Wisconsin. Sara Sidner, you're in Cedarburg, which is a suburb of Milwaukee, obviously, a must win state in the blue wall.
So what are you seeing where you are right now?
SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Cedarburg used to be a reliably red city since 1926, by the way. But things changed in 2020 when Joe Biden won by just 19 votes. And we are seeing an incredibly large turnout here, according to officials.
I do want to give you some sense of what's also happening, something that no one knew might happen. But you're seeing the non-registered voters over there. They are here to register to vote. So far, that number is at more than 300. People have come in and newly registered voters here in Cedarburg, they could make the difference, when you think that only 19 people made the difference in 2020.
Now I want to give you an example of what happens. They register here. They come to this desk behind me and they have to show their ID. They are checked in on the voting rolls and then they take a little piece of paper that you're seeing right there, and they go to their district and they pick up their ballot, which the all of these folks here working at the polls have. And then turn to your left here, they vote right here and it goes into
the tabulation machine, which is down here.
[16:50:06]
There are only two of them, but this is the only place to vote in the whole city. So you see a lot of folks coming through. And we're also seeing a very high number of absentee votes, 5,500 of the about 9,500 folks who are registered to vote.
Now, we just happened to see this young lady coming up. You came here today. What did you come to do? Because I noticed you were not a registered voter when you walked in the door. What happened?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not a registered voter I got my ID and I just gave the lady my ID and I registered to vote with my mom and then I went to the nice ladies at the district four. And then I got a ballot and did that. And it took less than ten minutes.
SIDNER: Have you ever voted before? Is this your first time?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is my first time. I just turned 18.
SIDNER: Why was it so important for you to vote?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to be a part of the difference along with -- along with, like, all my friends are voting right now and they've been a hot topic. So I want to join the group, too.
SIDNER: It's been a hot topic. How old are you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm 18.
SIDNER: You're 18 years old, so are you graduated from high school or are you about to graduate?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm about to graduate. Class of '25.
SIDNER: Class of '25, and you said all your friends are voting. So the possibility is, is that this is popular with young folks. Perhaps there will be a lot more young folks who come out and vote.
Now, the last question, who did you vote for? And why?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I voted for Kamala Harris.
SIDNER: Why did you do that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's a Democratic and I do approve of her women's rights and being different for the minority group, yeah.
SIDNER: Thank you so much for talking to us. I appreciate it. And thank you for registering to vote. It's great. All right. Congrats on your first time voting. It's amazing. Appreciate it.
All right. That is what's happening here in Cedarburg. And things are starting to get a little more busy. But we've been watching people trickle through all day long. They're expecting that potentially, this may be a record for the percentage of voters. They're expecting potentially 95 percent of registered voters to show up and vote here in this city.
BURNETT: That is amazing. Ninety-five percent.
I mean, Jake, just to think about it, and I know it's too early to tell yet, but you know, we've heard from secretaries of state in Michigan, in Georgia that we could have record numbers there.
I mean, it is incredible and something to celebrate. I hope everybody can, no matter what the outcome is.
TAPPER: Yeah. We heard from that gentleman in Washington County, Pennsylvania, about the more than 80 percent turnout there. We're on the brink of a big reveal on this election night in America. The very first exit poll information from the 2024 presidential race is straight ahead.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:56:31]
TAPPER: Welcome back.
You're looking at voters in Lawrenceville, Georgia, who are like, so many others across the United States, making important decisions right now. The nation at a crossroads, waiting to learn if Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump will be the next president.
And we're back with our election coverage.
John King, should we all be bracing for the kind of protracted vote count that we had in 2020, which really lasted until Saturday? Should we be preparing for that or not?
KING: Well, we're told by state officials, Jake, officials we trust this will be somewhere in the middle. They don't think it's going to be as long as 2020, but they do think it could take a while, especially if it's very close to some of the battleground states.
One thing we do have to be prepared for is for the map early on in the night perhaps not to look like the map is going to end, either later in this night, or as we get a day or two down the road and we get final results.
Why do I say that? Remember 2020. Some states count votes one way, other states count votes another way, meaning some states count Election Day ballots first. They tend to favor Republicans some states count mail in ballots first, early ballots first. They tend to favor Democrats. We do not expect the difference to be as lopsided as it was in 2020,
when the mail in ballots, the early ballots disproportionately favored the Democrats but remember 2020, this is how the map ended up. And how it ends up is what matters most, how it ends, not how it begins. It ended this way with Joe Biden's big victory.
But let's just go back in time to remind you this is 9:00 at night on Tuesday night in 2020. You look right here, right? So Michigan is red, Texas is blue, Mississippi is blue, Missouri is blue, right?
Pennsylvania in this scenario is still blue. Ohio is blue, right? That's an unusual map. That's because some states were counting mail ballots first, disproportionately Democrat. Some days were counting Election Day ballots first, disproportionately Republican.
Now, let's just go through what happened as we went through the night. This is midnight. You see, Texas went back to being Texas. It's a red state. Missouri went back to being Missouri. It's a red state, as they continued to count the votes right.
You still see Ohio goes back there. Then we get to 12:00 noon on Wednesday, the next day. What has happened? Michigan has gone blue. These have gone back to themselves. Keep an eye, Pennsylvania is red here. But it's only noon on Wednesday.
We continue to count the votes. By noon on Friday, Pennsylvania is blue. Michigan is blue. And I just want to take this off at this point the map is filled in pretty much where it ended. This is noon on Friday and then of course, it was Saturday morning just before noon. Results came in in Philadelphia. We're able to project Joe Biden as the winner.
So is it going to be as confusing as that? You know, some people call that a mirage. It's not a mirage. Those votes are real. Joe Biden was leading in Texas. Joe Biden was leading in Missouri. It just wasn't the full pie. It was a piece of the pie.
So we'll have that again tonight. Some states count in different ways because the states decide how to administer their elections. So the word of the night, just as it was in 2020, is let's be cautious. What you see at the beginning might not be what you get at the end.
TAPPER: Right. And also important to remind people is if they need reminding that four years ago, we were in the middle of a deadly pandemic, and that was one of the reasons why so many people were voting early.
More people voted early four years ago than -- than this time.
KING: Right. And so we know that that number is down some. And we know that the Republican number is up. What we don't know is, are those are those new Republicans. Most of the data suggests they're not new Republicans. They're just Republicans who took advantage of, oh, I can vote early and I don't have to wait in line.
That's how some of that happened. But that's one of the things we want to watch as this plays out. This is the 2020 map again, as we come into the 2024 election map. That's what you want to see.
And we will get some early clues. We do know in Michigan, they said they'll count faster in Pennsylvania they say they'll count faster. But in Wisconsin, they say they'll count faster.
So while I want to prepare everybody that this could take a few days before we know the ultimate winner, I do believe if those states are keeping their word and they get that done that quickly, we actually may get some clues tonight. And we also may get some clues --
