critical moves he has made on student loans, marijuana and the covid-19 response with generally popular with the american public. it's a clear effort to try and separate what the president has done, separate the president to some degree from the blame game that's likely to come out of the next couple of hours or next couple of days. obviously democrats have been very anxious about this moment, very cognizant of both the history here, midterm elections very rarely go well for the party in power and the president's first term, and the reality of the head winds they faced. inflation that remains at four decade highs. the white house trying to make that effort before polls close. this is not about the agenda. whether democrats agree, we'll have to see in the days ahead. >> certainly will. it's going to be days, as you so rightly say. phil mattingly, thank you so much from the white house, and thanks so much to all of you for joining us on this election day. it's time to turn it over to anderson cooper and jake tapper for election night in america!

buckle up, we are heading into the final hours of voting and the first results in one of the most consequential midterm elections ever. >> it's the high stakes race to a fever pitch campaign. >> are you ready to win this election? >> i love to win. >> voters, making big choices in a nation on edge. >> with high prices. >> crime is rising. >> the woman's right to choose. >> what's happening across the u.s. could shake up the balance of power in congress and shape the next race for the white house. >> speak out, get engaged, vote, vote, vote, tonight, democrats are fighting to hold on to the senate, knowing a loss of one seat could cost them the majority. >> we need a senator that understands what pennsylvania is going through, not some guy that has ten gigantic mansions. >> the poster part of the far left radical part of the democratic party, john fetter

nan. >> -- fetterman. >> we must change direction in washington. >> everything is at stake. >> both parties, hoping to expand their influence by winning governors offices across the nation. >> we will never ever surrender to the woke agenda. >> governor desantis only cares about the white house, he doesn't give a damn about your house. >> it is a critical test of the current president's agenda. >> we're already getting it done. >> and the former president's grip on the gop. >> welcome to the new republican party. >> will this election set the wheels in motion for a biden/trump rematch? >> trump and the extreme maga republicans have made their choice, full of anger, hate and division. >> watching our country go to hell, we may have to do it again. >> this is cnn's coverage of election night in america. the races for congress. the contest for governor. and the future of american democracy. >> we're taking our state back by storm. >> our democracy is on this ballot. >> the people are choosing, the

world is watching and anything is possible until the last vote. and we are live in washington on a very suspenseful night in american politics. voters are deciding control of the united states congress and the direction of the country over the next two years. welcome to cnn's special ko coverage of election night in america. i'm jake tapper. the first major election since president biden took office and the first chance for voters to weigh in on his record at a moment when so many americans are struggling with high inflation, and economic anxiety, republicans believe that will work to their advantage, as they fight to win the 218 house seats

they need to e reclaim the majority. the battle will take place in 82 key house races, competitive contests that could go either way. in the senate, republicans need 81 seats to take back control. we're watching 13 key races that will be crucial to the fight for the senate. another factor, former president donald trump who has endorsed a slew of republicans who support his false claims about the 2020 election. some of them could have influence over certifying the results in 2024 or refusing to do so, if they win tonight. that includes some of the candidates for governor in races playing out in 36 places across the nation. the pivotal battle grounds of georgia, wisconsin, michigan, and arizona, covering all of this tonight, dana bash, abby phillip, chris wallace, and our entire election team, john king is at the magic wall. he'll make sense of the wall, mapping out the races district by district. case

casey -- kasie hunt is standing by. including key races, boris sanchez will be reporting results from 36 governor's contests across the u.s. david chalian is getting ready to roll out exit polls on what voters are thinking, and brianna keilar is at the voting desk, keeping tabs on how ballots are counted and we have correspondents spread out across the country at candidates headquarters and vote counting centers. also right here in washington, d.c. first, let's go to manu raju at the headquarters of house republican leader kevin mccarthy. how confident is mccarthy feeling right now? >> reporter: extremely confident. the last couple of weeks, kevin mccarthy has been working on a victory speech he plans to deliver tonight. they believe they will take the majority, potentially as soon as 11:00 p.m. eastern time. that is what they're looking at, in a time they believe mccarthy may come out and deliver remarks, and prepared some off

the cuff remarks as well. we expect to hear from other republican officials through the course of the night, ronna mcdaniel, as well as newt gingrich. mccarthy has been raising enormous sums of money. he has traveled to 40 states over the last several weeks. today in virginia, two districts in which they believe could help them take back the majority. mccarthy and his team i'm told have set the bar at 20 seats. that is more than enough to take back the majority. they believe they clear that bar. it will be a very successful night. they believe that will give them enough for what they consider a governing majority. anything less than 20 seats, they believe while successful to take back the majority would make kevin mccarthy's life more did i difficult assuming he gets the speaker's gavel. republicans and democrats looking at the margins, also significant in tonight's results. >> let's go to one of the most important battlegrounds tonight. pennsylvania's jessica dean at the headquarters of current lieutenant governor, john

fetterman. the battle for control of the senate could hinge on the race. what is the thinking in the fetterman campaign headquarters? >> reporter: yeah, it certainly could, skjake, and across the country, democrats are playing defense. here is where they could play offense. an open senate seat, republican pat toomey is retiring, and democrats would love to pick this up. i talked to several campaign sources late this afternoon, and one of them acknowledging this is a jump ball, we know this is an incredibly tight race. what we are confident in, they closed it out as strongly as they could. the campaign feels like the last five days have been very good for them. they highlight the oprah winfrey endorsement that came late thursday and dominated the local news cycle on friday. they had the rally with former president obama and president biden in philadelphia, and one here in pittsburgh with obama, and they really feel like that has really lifted and given them a lot of momentum heading into today, especially with suburban

women. that was the demographic that came up again and again when i was talking to them. one more thing that the campaign is pretty confident about, jake, it is they believe mehmet oz, the republican challenger who has pitched himself as an independent voice, a moderate, undercut that message by appearing at the rally with president trump over the weekend. doug mastriano, the republican gubernatorial candidate also there as well. >> all 435 house seats are being decided in this election. only the most competitive will determine which party wins control. house republicans must win 30 of those competitive seats to reclaim the majority. house democrats must win 53 of those competitive seats. so democrats face a much more difficult challenge. they have fewer seats in the safe column. we're going to see if they can meet that challenge as the results come in. let's make our first trip to john king at the magic wall to take a look at the balance of power and the state of play when it comes to the house of representatives. >> brand new map. the 2020 census, begets

redistricting, which gets you to the 2020 map. focus on this to begin with. the current house, the prior map. the district lines have been changed quite a bit. that's the map you need to remember. republicans essentially need a net gain of only five. the historical average is 30, if you go back to ronald reagan's days. president's first midterm election, 37 if you start the clock at bill clinton. so you're looking at this map across the country. you mentioned those competitive races. first, let's bring them up this way, and show they are coast to coast. you have competitive house districts from coast to coast. here's another way to look at it, the way you brought it up. we get into how this map tells you here, look at all of that blue, that tells you democrats are on defense. defending way more districts. look at the guide down theory. 57 of these districts have incumbent democrats. 20 have incumbent republicans. and a race down here in texas with two incumbents, think about that. democrats are defending nearly three times as many seats in a democratic president's first midterm year.

they go from the northeast corner of maine, all the way do southern california. rank choice voting in maine and alaska, we may not know the results of those seats for quite some time. republicans need a net gain of five. jake, it's possible they could get it right here. ma manu was talking about republican optimism. there are places we will get results early on, and let me close this off, get rid of the lines so you can see it. the commonwealth and state of new hampshire, two competitive house districts there also. a very competitive senate race. we could learn early on in new hampshire. can these two democrats, these are white working class districts, can they hang on, can they be competitive? we'll get early clues there. you drop down from there just in the state of new york, we have ten competitive districts in the state of new york, seven of them are democrats on defense right there. and if you come down to the commonwealth of pennsylvania, 17 districts across the commonwealth, but you see four districts in blue right here. defend, the four competitive

districts in the commonwealth of pennsylvania which has a governor's race and senate race as well, all democrats. we could get early clues as you come down. if we haven't figured it out by then, the commonwealth of virginia, also an upscale democratic suburban district. just across the bridge in the washington, d.c. suburbs. another suburban district down here. a big change in the demographics of this district. can elaine luria hold on down there. so we have a number of examples, even though it could take us quite some time to get to the final house math. these races in the east are going to tell us quite a bit. we stretch down, again, you can start in the east coast, go across the midwest, all the way here that the democrats are on defense so much out here. the democrats have dominated the west coast for a generation. competitive seats in washington, in oregon, in california as well. democrats on defense, jake, their challenge tonight, upend history. >> it's exciting, john king. we don't know what's going to happen. it's fun because it so rarely happens.

dana bash, as we prepare for the evening, what are you looking for? >> i'll pick up where john left off, which is in virginia. particularly it's virginia's second congressional district. elaine luria, an incumbent democrat. people have gotten to know her because she is a member of the january 6th committee. she is in a district that has flipped back and forth over the past 20 years, and she was also a so called majority maker in 2018. she was part of the wave of democrats who helped pick up the house for them. she has spent about $11 million in a small congressional district. in a race. and she has been working as hard as she can up against a very sour mood. we will know early on because polls close at 7:00, and they tend to tabulate them pretty fast in virginia, whether or not she is going to survive and that could be actually will likely be

a telltale for other districts around the country. >> i'll seal you virginia 2 and raise you, an area north of new york, an area biden won by ten points. what's especially interesting about is it sean pat rick malony is running there, and republicans have gone in heavy. they have spent millions of dollars. it got sufficiently tight in the final weeks. the dccc put $600,000 into maloney's race. if he should lose it will be the first time that one house party has taken out the other house party's campaign chairman since 1980. >> you know what i think is so spe interesting about tonight, both parties are like, i don't know

what's going to happen with the senate, and that kind of uncertainty i think is partly about what i consider tonight to be this split screen moment. the top of the ticket in the governor's race and senate race in a lot of states are not rowing in the same direction. when you look at a state like georgia, for example. if you have brian kemp running well ahead of stacey abrams, what does that do to a very tight senate contest? you could tell the same story in arizona, in pennsylvania, in nevada, lots of the key senate races, there's something totally different happening at the top of the ticket, and that's something both parties are looking at. >> one of the places i'm watching closely is pennsylvania, for exactly that reason because we are more than likely, democrats feel very confident about their gubernatorial candidate in pennsylvania, josh shapiro over the republican, doug mastriano. but the senate race could go very differently, and you know, i have been talking to sources throughout the afternoon, and there's a couple of things to watch. this is going to be one of the critical senate races.

we're going to start to get the vote count in early, but we expect it to take potentially days to actually count. that's partly because of philadelphia county, by democratic and republican sources are watching for turnout in philadelphia, and they're also looking for margin in the philadelphia suburbs, which jake, i know you know very well as to having grown up there because they're looking for particularly white suburban women and how they're voting to see how the night is going. >> that demographic is going to be one of the key questions all night long in philadelphia or virginia's second districts, they went towards joe biden and the democrats last time around. the question is whether republicans can get them back. >> fascinating stuff. as we stand by for the first exit polls on what is on the mind of vote, we're going to break down the early numbers. we're finding surprises. stay with us on this election night in america.

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welcome back, control of congress is up for grabs as we head into the final hours of voting across the country in this momentum election. right now, we have a break down of early voting in key battleground states, and we're finding some interesting twists. brianna keilar is at our voting desk. >> more than 45 million ballots were cast before election day in 47 states, and here's what we know about where those early votes are coming from. you can see here on the map, the states that have cast the most early votes, texas, has the highest count with more than 5.4 million votes. next is florida with 4 p.9. 4.7 in california. 2 2.5 in georgia and here's what we can tell you about who is voting. in pennsylvania, we see a pretty

typical divide between the parties when it comes to preelection day ballots. 69% of votes so far from registered democrats. 21% from republicans. and that is roughly the same break down that we saw in pennsylvania in 2020 with 66% of early votes from democrats, and 23% from republicans. but then take a look at this. there are several states seeing a rise in early voting from republicans. in ohio, republicans make up 28% of early votes. that is up 5% from 2020 as you see here. and in florida, republicans are outpacing democrats making up 43% of early votes. that is also up 5% from 2020. so we're going to see what kind of impact these preelection votes will have as results start coming in tonight, jake. let's go live to our battleground correspondents. sara sidner is at a voting location in tempe, arizona. what kind of turnout are you

seeing there? >> it has tripled in the past couple of hours. the line here on asu campus, we're in tempe, arizona. that is part of maricopa county, the largest and most populous county in arizona. typically about 85% of voters vote early. this line is indication that there are quite a few people left that want to get their vote in today. there are a lot of folks here who are students. there are a lot of folks here who are first time voters, and you know, we are talking to them about some of the different issues that they have come here to vote about. there are lots of concerns about a lot of different things, so, you know, and you have people here that are constantly, you know, saying you've got to be 75 feet. you've got people who are constantly making sure people feel safe, but, you know, we've got different voters from different parts of the county because you can go anywhere,

anywhere. okay. so apparently we're a little close. so we have been doing this all day long, talking to different people. apologize for that. we got a little bit too close. you can see, they're serious about making sure that people feel safe here as they vote, jake. >> sara sidner, let's go to nevada. gary tuchman is at a voting site in las vegas. how busy is it where you are? >> jake, we picked a busy place, not only because of the intense interest in three major races in nevada. but we are in a mall, just east of the las vegas strip in clark county. so you can come here, you can shop, you can eat. you can ride kitty rides, you can go to the movie theater and cast ballots. that's what a lot of people are doing here. five minutes ago, i walked down the line, more than 100 people wait to go vote in the 25 stations here, and the people are talking to us about five major issues when we just talked about. no particular order, the economy, crime, reproductive rights, the border and trump.

both pro and anti-trump. is this precinct busier than normal. less busier than normal. there's no way to know in nevada by individual precincts. like most states, you can go to any voting center in the county you live in. there are 17 counties in nevada, clark county being the most populated, 75% of the population lives here. they make it very convenient, and also to vote early. even before the polling places opened today. 34% of the registered voters in the state of nevada already had their ballots received by early in-person voting, and mail-in voting. this state, if you register to vote, you automatically receive a mail-in ballot. those have to be received by this saturday, if they're postmarked by today. the polls are open for another four hours here in the state of nevada. >> gary tuchman, thank you so much. we appreciate it. two of the big battleground states when it comes to control of the senate, are the states we went to, nevada and arizona. >> 35 senate elections in all.

we have identified through our friends at inside elections as well. we do eight most competitive seats. there are others that could come into play. you get surprised in the midterm elections. the eight most competitive seats are evenly divided in four held by republicans, and four held by democrats. six of these eight states were held by joe biden. >> menarrowly in three of them. >> you look at the terrain, new hampshire to nevada and arizona. the best way to look at this, especially early on as we wait. we talked about how democrats are little room for error when it comes to the house. a five-seat pad, if you will. they have no room. absolutely no room for error in a democratic president's first midterm with those head winds of inflation in your face, the historical average back to reagan, you lose two. democrats could have a good night by historical standards and lose one. that would give republicans the senate. >> that's why this is so fascinating. republicans suddenly of late in

this campaign think we have a chance in new hampshire. let's bring it to this map. if don bolduc were to pick up new hampshire, democrats to 489. what do they have to do to keep the majority, pick up a piece. if you lose a piece, you have to pick up the piece. this is the best hope, the pennsylvania senate race. your home state. this, like new hampshire, will be decided in the suburbs. let's hypothetically say the democrats can get that. they're back to 50/50. you go through the competitive races in georgia, arizona, nevada, republicans say keep an eye on colorado and washington state tonight. the democrat hoping for a surprise in a state, carried by trump, north carolina, carried by trump. ohio carried by biden. wisconsin. democrats are hoping they have an upset up their sleeve. it would be remarkable if they do, but very close races, all three of those. what's going to happen as we count the votes is follow the chess. let's go back to where we are.

come back to 50/50. here's how we rank them heading into election night. toss up pennsylvania, toss up georgia, toss up nevada. lean republican in wisconsin and ohio, and north carolina, and then again, you have states out west. the most vulnerable democrat is where gary tuchman is. the democrats are worried about this one. if republicans take one away. a adam. >> and can i say one thing about nevada, i believe this is the first election statewide nevada in decades that harry reid, the former senate majority leader is not alive. he had that state. it was a well oiled machine. he had close ties to the unions. e he could eke out victories, narrow ones, he's not there anymore. >> that has been up to the .1 of the exceptions to the rule, in the sense that the national

political parties and state political pearties, their influence has deteriorated. if you can flood money in from anywhere, the state parties and national parties diminished, and that's what a lot of democrats worried about. do you have a good operation, turnout on election day, are you keeping close track of everybody. that will be one of the tests of all of these places. democrats promised to provide ut. i -- provide us. democrats say they are going to surprise us. they say, remember, donald trump made end roads among latino voters. that could matter in the senate race here. it could matter in senate races everywhere. >> colorado, too. in the denver suburbs, places where the latino population is 6% or 12%, 15%. a swing constituency can matter. democrats say they are going to survive us. the challenging part about this map is that the president has absolutely no room for error. so if you see one of the blues turn red, then you look at the map all night, which one of the

reds can turn blue. we're going to be watching this play out across the country. republicans are very confident they will get at least one. some republicans are looking for two or three. but these will all come down. suburbs in pennsylvania. suburbs in georgia outside atlanta. m maricopa county, this will be decided like all close ones in the suburbs. >> it's exciting. we're getting close to the first exit polls. first we're going to take a look at the biden and trump factors in the election. which one of them will have a bigger impact on the outcome. we'll talk about that when we're back in a moment:. tensions were high. luckily, replacement costumes were shipped with fedex. which means mr. harvey, could picture the perfect night. we're ready for the holidays, so you're ready for what's next.

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live pictures of the u.s. capitol on the tense midterm election night, with the control of congress on the line. we'll be tracking votes as they come in for as long as it takes. let's go back to brianna keilar at the voting desk. a lot could hinge on key battle grounds in the west. >> let's take a look at two key western states, arizona and nevada and why we might not get final tallies for days. in arizona, polls close at 9:00 p.m. eastern, and no results will be released until 10:00 p.m. an hour later, and we could see results from maricopa county even later. what's going on in maricopa county. earlier today, arizona officials said tabulating machines at 20%

of 223 voting locations were rejecting ballots as voting got underway. file this under technical difficulties, and we learned from election officials that this problem has been resolved and all of those votes will of course be counted. state officials are expecting the majority of ballot processing will be done by this weekend. meaning if there are some tight races in arizona, we may not actually have final results for a few days here. then in nevada, this is the first midterm election with universal mail-in voting, it was a method first put if place. everyone in the state is sent a ballot in the mail. to be clear here, everyone receives one. they don't have to use it. voters can go to the polls in person today. we don't have too many details from election officials about what order ballots will be reported tonight, which means, it could take longer to project the win skners and even though election workers started processing mail ballots, nevada

will continue to accept mail ballots postmarked on or before today through november 12th, anderson. >> all right. former president trump will be among those watching the return to arizona and nevada closely. two to have the states where he challenged his 2020 election laws, kristen holmes is at trump's home base at mar-a-lago in palm beach, florida. what are you referring to about his focus? >> well, might be 2022, but the focus is largely on 2024, and that third presidential run, which we are expecting trump to make an announcement on just a week from today. what they are looking at is how many seats the house picks up, which of trump's endorsed candidates in the senate as well as gubernatorial actually pick up their seats as well. how big is the red wave that can give them the momentum he needs, going into the expected announcement next week. they are also particularly watching which races they believe trump will be given credit for. that is the senate races in arizona, in ohio and pennsylvania. that is of course if republicans

do take those seats. now, there is one other race that they are watching very closely and that is the florida governor ron desantis. a big victory for desantis could give desantis the momentum he needs with allies and donors following this election. i talked to one source who said they believe that they have encouraged trump to actually announce earlier than later because of this. as we know, desantis is considered the most formidable opponent to donald trump should they run in 2024. i have to say, in the interview that i just listened to, trump essentially says that desantis has no idea if he's running but there's no tiff, but then he follows that up by saying he does run. he might reveal some details he knows about him. clearly it seems like a veiled threat on the eve of the election. >> not even so veiled. pretty much ripped that veil right off. thanks so much. here the with team in new york. i mean, it is interesting, gloria, to see what candidates

have wanted to be close with joe biden on the democratic side and what candidates have, you know, wanted to be seen with trump and which didn't. mehmet oz was at a rally with trump but did not mention his name once. >> you kind of wonder why trump was even there since mehmet oz has been trying to move to the center and virtually erased trump from his campaign, but if trump says i'm coming, there's really nothing you can do about it. but biden, for example, hasn't been in georgia, arizona, nevada, these are very tight races. they don't think he's going to help them much over there, but whatever happens, and thanks to scott jennings for this, we know that donald trump is going to take credit for any victories because here is what he just told news nation, was it. if i win, if they win, meaning his candidates that he's endorsed, i should get all the credit. if they lose, i should not be blamed at all.

but it will probably be just the opposite. there you go. >> nice philosophy. >> the difference between the biden situation and the trump situation is he honestly can take credit for those candidates being the nominees in those states. mehmet oz wouldn't be the nominee but for donald trump, masters in arizona, you know, herschel walker, he sort of orchestrated that, j.d. vance in ohio, so he is responsible for those candidates. >> accept if they lose. >> well, but he's going to get responsibility for them. i'm sure dave and others will make sure he does, if republicans lose that. in biden's case, it is very much, i mean, i went through this in 2010 when i was working for president obama. the president becomes the fulcrum of the attack against

the governing party, and so candidates often don't want, particularly swing states, biden's numbers in the swing states and districts are actually lower than his national numbers, which aren't that high. it's not advantageous for candidates. >> biden was welcome in pennsylvania, which is a swing state, and he was there with obama. look, i think that we had hoped that you could kind of throw trump to the wolfes and be done with him. he's come back leading the pack, and that's going to be a problem going forward, but i think tonight, what i'm excited about is that people on the ground are still fighting. polls have been wrong. guys, everybody, polls have been wrong. polls have been wrong in 2016, in 2018, and i think you might see some surprises tonight when you think about in wisconsin, mandela barnes, they're closing strong. they're fighting back, coming on. you might have surprises in north carolina. i think we've got to take a step back and let the voters do their thing tonight. it's not about donald trump. it's not about biden.

it's about the voters. >> i think van is overly optimistic. i'm here to help you tonight. there's going to be a lot of postmortem worked on tomorrow about trump, about biden. i think it's interesting to see how much the former president on some of these candidates. 120 million bucks in the bank, how much did he spend in pennsylvania. in some of these races he could have thrown in cash. he didn't choose to throw in cash. if they lose are people going to point to him and say you're sitting on $120 million, you didn't spend any to help mehmet oz and j.d. vance, compared to scott's former boss, mitch mcconnell, raising close to $300 million for candidates. can mccarthy the same? raising money, and put an effort into it. i think if you're going to ascribe credit, if there's a big win tonight for republicans, i think mccarthy, scott, and i think kevin mccarthy, and the nrcc. >> i think what's remarkable to

axle rod's point, i expect republicans to do well. there are paths to republicans taking back the majority. that is with the worst candidates than what we would have like to have seen recruited, and that's because of donald trump. >> doug ducey not getting to the senate race. more vulnerable ones, blake masters in arizona, mehmet oz, i anticipate we'll do well. you have to take a step back, and realize republicans could have been in a stronger place. >> as mitch mcconnell says candidate quality was not the greatest. if it turns out to be a wave. then it's a wave. >> i think this quality candidate narrative, it's through the lens of did the republicans get the best candidates, obviously they have had challenges, but nobody has stopped to ask, were the democrat candidates the best candidates, some of the democratic incumbents extremely weak. out in washington state, we're in a dead heat race at the last minute. a gratuitous contest against

masto. let's be honest, a lot of challenges. there's a different focus. >> everybody has been focused on republicans. the democrat haves had their own, and no one wants to talk about it. >> some of our candidates maybe be the most exciting people in the world, but they aren't crazy people. i think the challenge that you have right now, if you're going to be honest is the democrats' big problem is we have what appear to be some out of touch elites. that's what the knock is on us. on the other side, it's out of their mind populists who are literally scaring people not believing in the election, not believing in the constitution, and that is the difference. and so i think that when mcconnell who is certainly no swish, sags -- says you got candidate crazy candidates. >> put an asterisk next to john fetterman. >> john fetterman is a beloved respected democrat, he's done well, and the only reason you have a shot is because he has a healthy issue.

>> the only reason we have a shot is the policies. he's against fracking. he voted against the guy who's going to be the governor, the attorney general of pennsylvania, 200 times plus. >> you stop campaigning in the senate race. >> you can't say one good thing about oz, and that's why you have to attack fetterman! are you going to filibuster. >> there is a bit of a recruitment problem on the dems. mandela barnes is not the strongest candidate. >> indeed. >> here's the deal. that may well be true. wait until tonight. he is closing strong. >> north carolina as well. >> beasley i think is an extraordinary candidate. >> why didn't obama go there? >> i do not know. beasley could be the sleeper tonight. she's african-american, an unbelievable candidate. she didn't get support from the

party, but look, i will stand with our candidates from here to eternity. you can't stand with some of the people in your own party, and you know it. >> the elephant in the room is joe biden's lack of popularity here. you know, these candidates you may say they're bad, whatever, it's hard to overcome a president with popularity in the low 40s. that's it, you're pushing the ball up the hill the entire time. you may have great candidates, but -- >> there is going to be a debate within the democratic party if wisconsin goes down, if pennsylvania goes down, about whether a more center left candidate could have done better than the candidates who were promoted by the wing of the party. >> this point you made, you could analyze these races a lot of different ways, and it's all sort of gut feel on candidate quality but the fundamentals of elections really don't change. if the president's in the low 40s. if the right track wrong track is 30/70. if 2/3 of the country thinks we're in a recession, if inflation is waging, the gravity

means a lot more than our gut feelings about the candidate. >> the clues about how this night may unfold. we'll zero in on top battlegrounds that will decide control of the senate including the key race in georgia, all ahead. stay with us. treatment of women and he is working on that. do you want to expand on that? we have decades of accusations of harassment, assault. weinstein, knows what we're doing. every call you make is being recorded. this is bigger than weinstein. this is about the system, protecting abusers. this is all going to come out. can we even afford this house? maybe jacob can finally get a job. the house whisperer! this house says use realtor.com to see homes in your budget. you're staying in school, jacob! realtor.com. to each their home. every year, millions of people find a health plan at healthcare.gov during open enrollment. ♪

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it is election night in america, and control of the united states congress is one of the top prizes tonight. welcome back, we're keeping tabs on voter turnout across the united states. especially, of course, in the key battlegrounds that will decide which party wins the senate. brianna keilar is at our voting desk, looking at two of those critical states and how their early votes will be counted. >> let's take a closer look at pennsylvania and georgia. two states that voted for trump in 2016 and then flipped to biden in 2020. in pennsylvania, the early vote ballot processing couldn't start until today, but there's less than half the amount of mail ballots to count as there was two years ago, so that along with marathon counting meaning no stopping until the counting is done should help get results in sooner. but in philadelphia, officials have reinstated a process just

this morning called poll book reconciliation, comparing mail ballots with poll books from election day to ensure people have not voted twice. just to be totally clear, election official haves not encountered any double votes in the county in the last three elections. they're doing this really to prevent claims of voter fraud from republicans, and it is something that could slow down reporting of results there, but keep in mind, there are fewer mail ballots than there were in 2020. let's go now to georgia where they are seeing record early turn out for a midterm election. more than 2.5 million votes already cast. that is a half million more than the 2 million plus in the 2018 midterms. tonight georgia might be one of those states where the republicans take an early lead, but then as the night goes on, that lead could narrow or flip in favor of democrats. that is what we saw in 2020, but there are fewer mail ballots than two years ago, so that count could be faster tonight,

jake. >> thank you so much, i'm back here at the magic wall with john king. one of the thing our two years ago so that count could be faster tonight, jake. >> all right. brianna, thanks so much. back here at the magic wall with john king. john, one of the thing our few viewers need to keep an eye out for, sometimes because every state counts early votes differently. it might seem as though somebody is taking a lead in a state when it's really just the early votes were counted or not counted and that creates an illusion that that person is in the lead and it could be favoring democrats or republicans. >> we lived through this on election night 2020 so we'll be very cautious tonight and explain things as closely and carefully as we can and urge you to be patient. to your point, let's go back in time and look at the 2020 presidential election. this is the end result and i know there are conspiracies out there. there is no dispute about this.

those votes were counted fairly and over time it took until saturday and beyond election day to get it done. let remind people what happened. this is 9:00 on election night 2020. at this point you have joe biden leading in florida -- i'm sorry, donald trump leading in florida. donald trump leading in michigan. joe biden leading in texas. joe biden leading in ohio. >> and north carolina. >> and north carolina. we'll get more. let's play this out as we get through. we'll move forward until midnight, right? trump has now florida but come off the map and look again. you still have donald trump leading in pennsylvania and in georgia and in nevada and in wisconsin and in michigan, right? he holds utah in the end. what is happening here? these states are counting election day ballots first and voter. election day voting tends to favor republicans so you need to

wait it out. move forward, this is noon the next day. what happened? donald trump still leading in pennsylvania and georgia. biden has taken michigan and taken the lead in wisconsin and nevada and arizona. this is 12:00 noon the day after the election. you move forward to friday, right, a full two days later. what happened? just been counting votes. joe biden went ahead in pennsylvania and in georgia and then of course, you come out. this is what we call the election saturday morning at 11:25 a.m. and this is where it ended up when they finished the count. look at this. look at the difference, though, right? you see the vote count there. even then, even after we called the election, it takes days to count them out. there we go. it takes time. nothing happened. you can look at the sense of pennsylvania on election day 2020 and come back in time -- >> they were still counting -- i know pennsylvania pretty well. they were still counting in philadelphia the most populous county in the entire commonwealth and they were

counting and counting and counting. they weren't inventing votes, they were counting legal lawful votes and it took a long time. >> brianna made an important point. there were more mail in ballots because of the covid pandemic. they were counting everywhere. there was more to count in philadelphia because it's the most populous part. if you look, this is election night 9:00. joe biden is ahead, come forward more, wow, midnight, right? this is midnight as we move into wednesday. donald trump is ahead. you come the next day, noon, donald trump is ahead. this is when he starts saying before this, stop the count. >> stop the count. >> we're done. >> he said -- he lied and said people were still voting. >> right. >> nobody was voting. they were counting. >> they were counting. they were counting ballots that had been cast and received with republican and democratic election observers watching. this happens all the time which is what you want. look, even at noon on friday, november 6th, right, this is when joe biden goes ahead for the first time and you see this by 9,000 votes there and

saturday morning when we called it, it accrued to 28,000 votes and by the time they were down counting in pennsylvania -- >> let's go back to 9:00 p.m. in pennsylvania, okay? we'll have a 9:00 p.m. in pennsylvania here, too. 9:00 p.m. pennsylvania was -- this was what it was. >> biden is ahead at 9:00. the first results that came in. it was later -- >> okay. >> by midnight. >> so this is midnight. and then it is entirely possible, again, that at midnight tonight, the result in the commonwealth of pennsylvania will suggest that the republican is in the lead for the senate and the republican is in the lead for the governor's office. >> also four competitive house races there. two over here and two over here. it is possible. it is quite possible. >> but the votes will not have all been counted. >> no, we will know that and report that as transparent as we get the information from state officials. we will be able to show you the outstanding votes and we'll start with a state with the red.

>> can we do ohio? >> sure. let's come out. let me go back to the beginning. if you bring up ohio on election night. >> on election night joe biden was by 10% points by 9:00 a.m. ultimately, we knew and were telling people do not think the early results in ohio will be the final results indicative of the final results because we know there are a lot of early votes and disproportionately for democrats. >> they are allowed to count the mail in ballots here. some states are allowed to process those, clear them -- >> texas and ohio. >> right and they do that quickly. we were getting texts on election night 2020, joe, joe biden is going to win ohio and texas. >> so again, because there aren't competitive races in ohio tonight, might there be a blue wave tonight? >> democrats are leading and we'll be here as we do in the states where republicans are leading saying those are votes. they're votes. it's not context. we don't have the full picture

yet which happens over time as you count votes and get to the end and the same thing that donald trump complains about in pennsylvania happened in ohio. he won in ohio. he lost in pennsylvania because of what? math. >> right. oddly, he didn't have any issue with it in ohio and texas and joe biden did not claim that he had been cheated out of ohio and texas. >> he did not. >> right. >> because one of them acknowledges the math and one of them does not. >> we're minutes away from unveiling the first exit polls what is on your mind, the minds of voters as you cast your ballots. that's next. and help communitie.

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right now a heated midterm battle is underway for congress in the united states. democrats and republicans competing for the power to control the agenda in the u.s. house and the u.s. senate. i'm jake tapper in the cnn election center and we're counting down to the first votes on this election night in

america and our first exit poll results are coming in right now. we're just moments away from bringing you crucial early clues about how this night might play out. president biden has acknowledged he and democrats are fighting against the tide since the party in power traditionally loses seats in the midterms. republicans need to win 218 seats to reclaim the majority in the house. five more seats than they have now. it's likely to come down to 82 key house races, competitive contests that could go either way. in the closely divided senate, republicans need 51 seats to take back control. that's only one more seat than they have now. 13 key senate races will be crucial in deciding which party is in charge of the chamber. we're also following, of course, the 36 governors' contests including key races of georgia, wisconsin, michigan, arizona and florida. here in the cnn election center, dana bash, abby phillip and chris wallace are watching all

the important contest. john king is at the magic wall getting ready to break down the results state by state, district by district. kasie hunt is following all 35 senate contests including the crucial key races and boris sanchez is watching the 36 governor's contests across the u.s. david will bring us the exit poll what is on the mind of voters and brianna keilar is on the voting desk watching for any problems at the polling places. our correspondents are out in force and other kilo ey locatio. let's go to phil mattingly. obviously president biden has a lot riding on what will happen today and in the following days. how is he spending the last few hours? is on his mind? >> over the course of the day the president has been behind closed doors, called into a couple radio shows to boost turnout in certain places and

spoken to dellmocratic campaign chiefs to thank them for their work. i'm told the president and his actual political team are separated. the political team is a few feet away from the west wing and the president is planning to watch returns with his senior team tonight likely in the residence at some point and what they're watching right now more than anything else is a hand full of those battle ground senate races. when you talk to white house officials, they are keenly aware between the history and the economic headwinds, the house is likely not going to be held but they do feel like there is a fighting chance to hang onto the senate and they believe that's a reflection of the work they've done over the course of the last two years. keep in mind, the president has made very clear several times over the course of the last few weeks that he believes this is not in fact a referendum on his administration this is a choice between two parties and the white house is trying to echo that circulating a memo i obtained today, two close allies trying to make the point the president and his agenda, particularly his agenda remain popular in isolation. the problem, however as democrats discovered over the

course of the last several months, when inflation remains during four-decade highs and some people don't necessarily grapple with everything in the agenda, they face real problems. right now, the white house believes that there will be losses, they hope at least to stem some of the losses when it comes to the senate, jake. >> fphil mattingly, thank you. jeff, you're at the headquarters of the republican senate candidate herschel walker. that's another state that's key to deciding control. what's the mind set of the walker camp this evening? >> well, jake, it's ironic herschel walker's best chance to win out right is less to do with his democratic rival warnock than a republican on the ticket. that republican would be governor brian kemp. all republicans all day long and democrats privately will say governor kemp is in command of the race and do not there will be a runoff in the contest and the question is how many kemp voters, how much republican

strength could spill over into the senate race. this senate race is one of the most competitive in the country. the second most expensive just right after pennsylvania. senator raphael warnock a democrat elected just at the beginning of january 2021 right after president biden narrowly won georgia has been died to the biden administration. that's what the walker campaign is counting on. again, the question to avoid a runoff election, how much support can they get from brian kemp. really here in georgia tonight with one more hour left to vote, jake, 2.5 million people have voted already. officials say they believe about the same number of people will vote today on election day. so ironically, the walker campaign is talking a lot to the kemp fellow republican campaign to pull them over the edge but we'll see one more hour to vote here in georgia. thanks, jeff zeleny. let's g to david with the exit polls. >> first, these are preliminary

initial exit poll results. these are surveys that we've done of voters who voted on election day as well as the tens of millions of voters who voted prior to election day. this is a representative sample of the overall e lelectret. we want to look at the overall feelings about the way things are going in the u.s. this is a bleak picture from this electret. look down here, 39% dissatisfied. 34% are down right angry. that's 73%. three quarters of the electret say they are dissatisfied or angry. 20% satisfied. joe biden's approval rating a key marker in midterm elections, 45% of those voting in this midterm election nationally, 45% approve of the job biden is doing, 54% disapprove. this kind of looks like what

we've seen in a lot of preelection polling. he's upside down and well below 50% approval. what about biden as a factor in your vote? well, he is a factor for about half of those voting today. 18%, though, say the factor is they're supporting biden with the vote today. 32%, a third of people voting in the election say they're doing so to oppose joe biden. 48%, the other half roughly say biden isn't a factor at all. how about biden policies. are they helping or hurting the country? according to the early preliminary exit polls and again, some of these numbers may shift as we get more survey data in, 46% of the electret says biden's policies are hurting the country. that's compared to 36%, a smaller portion who say his policies are helping. 16% say they're not making a difference at all. >> david brutal numbers for president biden there. the last one is significant, a

plurality, 46% say biden's policies are hurting the country. 16% not making a difference, which isn't exactly a resounding endorsement, either. that's 62% of the people out there who think that his policies are hurting the country or not making any difference. >> and a third saying they are using their vote, even though joe biden is not on the ballot to show their opposition to him with regard to congress or others. to me, though, the first one, we covered politics for a long time and things changed a lot. one thing that has never changed is what we call right track, wrong track. whether people just feel good or not about the country and the fact that almost 75%, so three quarters of americans are either dissatisfied or down right angry. that is brutal. >> you know what is lining up like three first term midterm elections. the first midterm after a new president, '94 clinton 2010,

obama, 2018 trump, in all of those cases the president's party two times democrats one time republican lost between 40 and 63 seats. when people are unhappy with the state of the country, and they don't think the president is helping, they think he's hurting, they take it out on the president's party and i don't know that we'll see 40 to 63 seats lost but it doesn't bode well for the democrats. >> sometimes it's really that simple. i think the candidates and campaigns want to often make it about all kinds of other stuff but when americans are unhappy and in this case, we know they are unhappy about the state of the economy and pocketbooks, it really boils down to that and the party in power gets penalized for the sour mood that this e letlectret is in. >> in reality, this number, 25% of people are enthusiastic or satisfied. that means there are a heck of a lot of democrats out there that are not satisfied or angry. >> david has more numbers from

the exit polls, david? >> jake, we're taking a look at the issues driving voters' decisions in this election. we asked folks in the exit poll and again, this is preliminary information. we'll get more as the night goes on. what was the most important issue to your vote. inflation for 32% of the electret. this is a national look at those showing up to vote today. interestingly, abortion 27% of the electret said it's the most important issue of the vote. that's a closer second than we've seen in a lot of preelection polling. crime 12%, gun policy 12%. inflation is issue number one. we asked folks what is the condition of the nation's economy? you see here is three quarters of the electret, 36% say not so good, poor, 39% and add that together, 75% of the electret today says thumbs down on the

state of the nation's economy. we also asked has inflation caused harm to your family or hardship to your family? 20% of voters today across the country tell us severe hardship, another 58% tell us moderate hardship. so that's combined together nearly eight in ten voters are experiencing some kind of hardship, 22% say no hardship. we asked how does your financial situation compare to two years ago, the classic political question. 46 percent of voters in the election across the country say their financial situation is worse than two years ago. 35% say about the same. only 18% say better. and gas prices specifically as you guys know, the biden white house has been focused on gas prices every day. yes, 61% of voters in this election across the country tell us gas prices has been a financial hardship for them. 38% say no, jake.

>> all right. david, thanks so much. and dana bash, i mean, again, 75% of the country says the condition of the nation's economy is not so good or poor. 78% of those in the exit polls say the inflation has caused their family severe or moderate hardship. again, brutal numbers. >> brutal numbers. the first poll that david showed us, which obviously does have inflation at the top. we all know that it's not a surprise. the second one being abortion in 27% of people saying that that is the most important issue to your vote talked to democrats on the campaign trail in the white house. they say that's the reason why a lot of democratic candidates are even in the game right now. not that it's really going to change the outcome ultimately of control but at least keeps democratic candidates -- >> and what is so interesting is that and i'm going to say i'm surprised that abortion turns out to be that most important issue for so many people but democrats, last time i checked

spent ten times more on advertising on abortion than they had on inflation and i think they will look back. clearly, it was a dobbs decision overturning roe v. wade was going to be a silver bullet and carry them to victory but -- >> i just want to cite the dobbs scenario as a marage. it was very, very real. it totally changed the dynamic. democrats will say they had to max -- they had to hit the gas on abortion, maximize that because of what we're seeing in the exits. a full quarter of the electret came out to vote on that issue but the problem is, the one thing that sticks around throughout all of this is the economy and that is what is raring back to the forefront for so many. >> what i thought was interesting here, which david pointed out the numbers in the exits don't line up with the polling data going into election about what people cared about and the order they ranked it. we've had a lot of questions

throughout this time about new voters, people that hadn't been in there before perhaps not getting captured by the polling. maybe this is a sign we'll see more of that tonight than we expected. we obviously don't know yet. >> you know what is missing from this top five issues? democracy. >> oh. yeah. >> not even in here. not to say it not an issue for people but doesn't -- >> not the issue. not theish issue. >> we looked at exits people said i'm unhappy about the direction the country is going and angry. i wonder how many people are angry about the fate of our politics? >> the state of our politics, yeah. absolutely. it tough to read these poll numbers without more detail. obviously, abortion 27%. we don't know they're all supportive of abortion. >> i'll tell you, a lot of partisans think those are all -- >> sure. it might make a difference in pennsylvania, michigan, et cetera. we're closing in on the first vote tallies. a new round of exit polls revealing who turned out to vote and how donald trump factored into their choices.

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. tonight voters delivering their verdict where they keep the house and senate. election night in america, i'm anderson cooper with our political team. i want to go to the battle ground of pennsylvania where it'd is at a voting location outside of pittsburgh. brian? >> reporter: right, anderson, we're at the post 5:00 rush here

in al gailegheny county. this could get busy after work. voter turnout very, very high from everything from officials here and county wide. we also have information to report to you from the county spokesperson who told us that the sheriff of allegheny county not long ago had to take out a cease and desist order for three people or more going around to polling places and posing as election polling security people in an attempt to possibly interfere with some of the voting going on. they issued a seize and desist order. they were trying to find those at least three people, possibly more but haven't been able to find them. the nuisance activity officials here in allegheny county and all ove over the country are trying to nip in the bud. we're told they tried to find the three individuals posing as election security people, possibly interfering.

was it a case of voter intimidation? we're trying to get more information on that. that's one of the nuisance issues we had to deal with. we're told the turnout here in allegheny county very, very high and of course, the mail in balloting is extremely high in allegheny county, maybe the highest in pennsylvania and we're getting officials saying that about 156,000 people have filed mail in ballots. so that could make a huge difference later on in the evening, anderson. >> we'll check in with you later. i want to go back to david chalian. >> anderson, we're looking at the composition of the electret, different demographics and what the electret looks like. we'll look by race. these numbers will shift as the night goes on a little bit. 76% of voters today across the country nationally are white. 9% black. 10% latino. 2% asian.

1% native american. 2% other racial and ethnic groups. 76% white is significantly a whiter electret than the presidential election in 2020 when 67% of the electret was white. when black voters made up 13% of the electret. this is a whiter electret that we're seeing than we saw two years ago. among age groups, 10% say they are 18 to 29-year-olds make up 10% of the electret. 20% 30 to 44, 36% 45 to 64, 34% are senior citizens. this, too, is a much older electret than we saw two years ago in the presidential when 22% of the electret was 65 and older. we also take a look at the education divide of crucial sort of line in the american political landscape. 40% of voters today across the country are white voters with a college degree. 36% are white voters without a

college degree. 11% voters of color with a college degree. 13% voters of color without a college degree and finally, just the party makeup, partisan i.d. here, how people identify 35% of voters in this election day are republican. 34% self-identify as democrat, and 31% self-identify as independent. so a roughly ly split electret >> interesting to see david alco chalian. thanks very much. david axelrod? >> first of all, this is nationwide so it's hard to particularize to the key contest here. i think overall, democrats would like to see a better turnout among african americans among younger voters that had been the hope and that had been the concern and right now, you're seeing in philadelphia and other cities where there are in states

where there are key races, f efforts going there. that would be my main -- that would be my main take away. again, it could be somewhat different in the battle ground states where there is a real effort to try to motivate key constituents. >> i would say independent is very significant. a third of the electret going out to the inagaidependent so i nevada, there is a strong independent turnout in reno and las vegas right now. that's not good for the democrats at this point, don. >> yeah, that's not good. >> van just got real quiet. >> yeah. >> that's all right, buddy. >> i'm going to get you. >> you look at these things together -- >> wait. i'll say something to make you feel better. [ laughter ] >> exit polls are really interesting. it is a bit of a witch's ca caldron. this is a sample. i'm not optimistic for you. >> if we assume that's right and have not reason not to assume it's right since it our folks

and our folks are the best in the world. that's not good for democrats, i'm going to say it. >> look at that. >> van, 5:00 exit polls. >> that's right. >> you know what? these are going to be very close races. this is interesting. it's a good thing to talk about while we wait for people to actually have votes begin to be counted. i wouldn't over emphasize. some of these were concerns about minority voters, about young voters. >> latinos. >> independent voters have been breaking. they broke four years ago for democrats breaking jaagainst th now. >> van, finish your thought. >> the concern we had is democrats. we need those young people to come out with great passion. that looks like maybe it didn't happen. didn't happen, that's not good for us. we need african americans out there. if they're not out there, that's not good. want to be honest if that's what is going on, that would make me happy. >> what's the comparison with latino voters to last time around because everything we're

seeing in the polls is that democrats are losing altitude with latino voters so we have to see how that turns out. on the age issue, i mean, this means that like 70% of people voting perhaps are over 45. >> and that's not good for democrats. >> 18 to 29 vote signals that democrats focussing so heavily on roe thinking that would be an animating issue with younger voters was probably not the case and signals a lot of folks stayed in. to me that ig signals distrust politics would solve that part of the country. the fact my generation isn't coming out in a big way is concerning. >> back to the demographics, it's obviously a national sample but these hispanic splits and -- could really have an out sized role in some of these campaigns. you look at the races in texas, arizona, the republican numbers in miami-dade, florida strikes me could blow up huge for

republicans tonight and so you've got key races and as you said, this number of hispanics that are gravitating towards repub -- that will be as we head into 2024 if that trend continues it's an earthquake how we analyze this. >> we expect the first midterm votes to be reported in the next hour and the 36 governor's races across the country including contests in the 2020 election deniers. ♪ oh, right. it's today. [chanting excitedly] great wolf lodge! great wolf lodge! how'd they get in? alright, boy. here we go. ♪ ♪

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if you're just joining us, we're watching the elections for the fight of control of the house in the u.s. senate. this is coverage of election night. our correspondents are in the field covering the final hours of voting in the biggest battle ground states. let's go to wisconsin. lucy is at a voting site in the suburbs of milwaukee. lucy, how are the lines there? >> reporter: the lines are incredibly long. you can see people stretching waiting to vote. that line goes past two rooms into a library where folks are actually casting ballots. it is also stretching in the other direction out the door outside. now we are in wisconsin, a suburb west of milwaukee population 48,000 people. this area tends to lead more democratic these days but in the past folks have voted for

republicans and democrats and libertarians. the former republican governor scott walker is actually from this area. now, we've been speaking to the election officials here and they say this is unprecedented turnout for a midterm. it is double than what they've seen even in the presidential election, which tends to bring out a lot more people. they have also reported double absentee voter turn jeouts and haven't hit the afternoon work rush. that's starting now. it's 4:30 p.m. local time here. it's a sign how seriously people are taking this midterm election. the balance of power of the senate hangs in the balance here. remains to be seen of course which way the state will go. >> that's right. of course, they have a big governor's race there in wisconsin wisconsin, lucy. thanks so much. we find gary tuchman. is that a line of voters behind

you? that's not to play blackjack, that's voters? >> reporter: not to play back jack and we're in a shopping mall, not to buy ice cream or shop or go to a movie theater. it's to vote. we seen up to 100 people waiting to vote at the boulevard mall east of the las vegas strip. this is the most populated county in nevada. 70% of the 3.1 people that live in the state live in this county and this is one of the most busy polling places. with us are two voters. this is alexis on the left and tracy ray on the right. i want to ask you first because you're the lady, alexis, tell me what made you decide to come vote today? >> sure. i moved to nevada in april of 2020 at the height of the pandemic and ever since then, you know, the politics of the pandemic, if you will, have really encouraged me to become more politically involved. >> reporter: more left or more right. >> more left of center scale to protect the rights that i feel are important to me.

>> reporter: what rights are those? >> the most important ones, maybe not for nevada but abortion rights as well as the right to vote and free speech. making my voice heard. >> reporter: tracy ray, are you from here? >> born and raised here. >> reporter: you said you used to be a democrat and now republican. >> moved in that direction, yes. >> reporter: what's the reason you came here, the most important reason? >> crime, inflation, crime and inflation are big in my book. >> reporter: left of center or right? >> a little more right. >> reporter: last question, three big races, senate, governor, secretary of state. there are other races but those are the major race. in the senate democrat or republican. >> democrat. >> republican. >> reporter: okay. split decision here on this line of about 100 people. these are new friends that just met each other and i hope they stay friends. back to you. >> thanks so much. let's talk about the governor's

races. they had a big one in nevada because john, we're looking at the fact that in six states that went for joe biden that voted for joe biden just two years ago, it is possible that when don tonight is over or the week is over, those six states not only have republican governors but some will have governors, republican governors all in on donald trump's election lies. >> right and those states will be critical again in 2024 and for the foreseeable future in american politics when it comes to picking your president and think about the dobbs decision. we'll see how it impacts votes tonight. abortion is a state issue as well. abortion rights, election denial, democracy. let's walk through some of them. one is your home state the commonwealth of pennsylvania. josh shapiro favored in the polls. doug mastiriano tried to help donald trump. to this day says donald trump

won in pennsylvania in 2020 and he simply didn't. >> in pennsylvania the governor appointments the secretary of state, a guy that lies about the election could appoint somebody that lies about the election and doesn't allow democracy to flourish. >> expeccorrect. when you come down to counting absentee ballots and the governor has to sign the papers to send et the votes to washing and come to the state of michigan. ciga gretchen whitmer was a potential running mate back then. if she can survive she'll be the national democratic. another election denier, somebody restrictive on abortion rights in the primary and tried to moderate that in the general but another one, michigan a key battle ground state. >> they have an abortion referendum on the ballot, as well. >> they do, as well to make the right to an abortion part of the constitution in the state of michigan but there you go. another battle ground state. another election denier. move across here. tony the democratic incumbent in

wisconsin running against tim michael. michael said if you elect me, republicans will never lose another election in wisconsin. imagine that. is that confidence or you elect me and republicans will never lose another election in wisconsin? in this climate a statement like that piques interest. someone that questioned the results of 2020 making a statement like that in one of the ultimate battle ground states, donald trump won it by 20,000 votes in 2016 and donald trump won it -- >> people forget what a battle ground wisconsin is but it really is. >> it's one of the most competitive states in american politics you could argue the most. it one of the most and you have a democratic governor like whitmer in michigan fighting in this climate to hold office and democracy is very much on the ballot in wisconsin. you move to the west, we talked to gary tuchman here.

lombardo says donald trump won in 2020. >> which he did not. >> he did not. it's purple and it's at play in presidential elections. >> yeah. >> you have it and then you come here, this is probably the poster child of the new trump candidates running in 2022 and that is the former broadcaster kari lake who again, says donald trump won in arizona. that arizona was stolen from donald trump and it was not and maybe the grace of this matchup running against the current secretary of state katie hobbs that certified the arizona results in 2020. again, arizona, nevada, wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania, all states absolutely critical to the citizens of those states but pivotal in american presidential politics. they will be for the foreseeable future. >> one other point on arizona which is if we can go back for a second. yes, kari lake a big election liar who said that if she had been governor in 2020, she would not have certified the state. the republican governor currently republican governor

did but one thing i have heard democrats say about arizona as opposed to all the other states, this is the only state they say where abortion laws actually changed post hobbs -- post dobbs, sorry, katie hobbs. post dobbs it now became illegal in arizona with these other battle ground states, it pretty much stayed status quo. >> you raised that question. that's one of the things, most, the preponderance, the track of the country and the mood people are in, that abortion number was much higher than our national poll, our last national poll had economy inflation of 51 and abortion at 15. if abortion is rising as an issue in some places, this is one of the places. let's go back to the 2020 presidential election in arizona, this is it. this is where it's decided in maricopa county and what is maricopa county, it's phoenix. where you do have a lot of

moderate voters, moderate republican voters inclined to vote for george w. bush and george h.w. bush and crime in texas but the abortion issue will that play in the suburbs? that was one thing that jumped out to me. the bones of the exit polls what we've seen so far not good news for the president of the democrats but if it's 27% nationally, abortion as an issue as we go state -- we want to see state by state what is it in the suburbs in arizona and a place like that. you can look at a big picture, those early numbers didn't look good for democrats but sometime there is are pieces within a poll and then you go to the american suburbs that will decide these close elections. >> maybe in the american suburbs it's bigger than 27% and maybe makes a difference in terms of the margins. we're nearing a significant moment on this election night. the first votes are about to come in. we're also standing by for new exit polls with a read on issue voters care most about and all of that is coming up and much more. stay with us.

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. looking at a sun setting in washington d.c., a metaphor probably in there somewhere but i'm probably not going to do that and congress could get a shakeup tonight depending what voters are deciding now. we have new exit poll information. david chalian has that, david? >> anderson, this is sort of

like a venus and mars election. i want to show you we were able to look at the most important issue just sort of among the people across the country who said they voted for the republican candidate in their house of representatives election. so among those voting for republicans today in this election, inflation 47% say most important issue. nothing else comes close. immigration at 14%. crime at 13. abortion at 11%. gun policy at 8%. now i want to show you the other side of the equation. among those voting for the democrat in the house of representatives election today, 44% say abortion was the most important issue to their vote. this mirrors what we saw on the republican side. 15% say gun policy. 15% say inflation. 11% crime. 6% immigration. about that abortion issue, now we were going to look nationally at all voters, okay? everyone voting today according to these exit polls, we asked should abortion be legal in all

cases? illegal in all cases? 30% say abortion should be legal in all cases. 30% say abortion should be legal in most cases. 27% illegal in most cases. 9% illegal in all cases. this is that 60/40 issue in favor of abortion rights why democrats thought it might be wise for them to lean into this. then we asked what are your feelings about roe v. wade being overturned and you see the same 60/40 split. 16% enthusiastic and 21% satisfied. that's 37% total. 21% dissatisfied and pou4 in 10 voters today in this election are down right angry about roe v. wade being overturned. >> david chalian, fascinating to see that. really just the tale of two americans. >> split screen america. completely different motivating factors. we knew americans would be motivated around the economy. i think democrats failed to

deliver a co-her rent message. i'm not surprised that was the motivating factors getting folks out to the poll. the numbers are a stunning breakdown. if you think about it, our country is broken into three different blocks how you view the abortion issue and there is really not a lot of over lap between the two parties. >> what is interesting is only 9% of voters say never any circumstances and you have so many republicans out over their skis with such an extreme position saying people should -- shouldn't be able to get those services and i think -- i don't think that now we can kind of in the cold political calculations say it wasn't wise to focus on abortion but it was terrifying to have a supreme court come down and wipe out rights for people and abandon american women to sometimes horrific fates. it wasn't just calculations. sometimes you actually believe in stuff and care about issues

in people and that was why i think we leaned in so hard on abortion. >> van, i think the numbers actually show democrats had a point. >> yeah. >> focussing on abortion. when you look at the difference between democrats and republicans, i mean, among democrats, 44% abortion the most important issue. they needed to talk about other issues that also appeal to independent voters. but when you look -- if you're trying to get your base out, this wasn't a bad issue to talk about. >> back to david chalian with more, david? >> anderson, we're also going to take a look at the trump factor. we talked about the biden factor in this election. so now we're taking a look at the exit polls and what they tell us about the trump factor in this election. again, this is the national exit poll. people voting for the house of representatives. these are preliminary numbers. 16% of people going to the polls today voted in advance of today say their vote was to support donald trump. 28% say their vote was to oppose donald trump and a majority, 54%

say trump was not a factor. how about trump standing with the electret today in the midterm elections. just the opinion of him overall? 37% of voters in the midterm election have a favorable view of donald trump. 60% of voters in this midterm election across the country have an unfavorable view. we tried to get a sense how that compares to how people view the republican party. 43% of voters in this election have a favorable view of the e rub o -- republican party and 53% have an unfavorable view and we asked is the republican party too extreme? 54% say yes it's too extreme and 44% say no, the republican party is not too extreme. >> what do you think? >> i think interestingly, donald trump has been uncharacteristically quiet until maybe 48 hours ago, right? i think we were talking about this until he kind of popped up on the screen and maybe i'm going to run for president and

maybe i'm not and recently in the past 24 hours he's trying to steal the narrative again. not surprising people say trump didn't really play into anybody's factor because true social otherwise has been absent and democrats are smart because they figured this out. they can't just run against trump. they have been quiet. those numbers aren't surprising. >> i have to say, i look at the numbers and a similar number of people said that, you know, they're voting to express support for trump and oppose him as the numbers were for biden, a sitting president. so donald trump has really been a big piece of this eveni thoug he's been quiet and so many people are saying the republican party is extreme, the fact that he pushed candidates forward who were judged primarily by their ability, their willingness i think that that's -- the fact that republicans are still expected to do better despite the leader of the party being even less favorable than the sitting president is interesting. >> well, they've done it before.

in '20 trump was losing and we picked up seats in the house. if you look through the lens, sitting here tonight trump is sitting at 3760. biden, 4554. a question that potential opponents of donald trump in the upcoming primary will say is, well, should i tell my voters, it's not a sure bet that he would beat joe biden? can i raise a point about the abortion question? i didn't get a chance a minute ago. i just -- legal in all cases is 30%. that is the democratic position. every other position on here, legal in most cases, that's the lindsey graham position. illegal in -- >> no. listen -- >> the democratic position is legal in all cases, everything else is some variant of a -- >> republicans didn't want the lindsey graham position. >> a lot do. the three exceptions. >> they didn't want to vote on

it before the election. >> hold on. van. >> i want to correct the record here. safe, legal and rare is where 80% of americans are, okay, most americans are in some reasonable place in the middle. are there extremes in both parties that say no, the reality is the democratic position is much more reflective of where americans are coming from and, listen, lindsey graham tried to raise that. he got left at the altar by your party. so you can't pretend -- >> is there a democrat that ron a single limitation on abortion in a major race? >> sure. >> where? >> tim ryan did. >> in the senate vote, scott is right in the senate vote every senator voted for abortion. no limits up to -- >> believed in any abortion including in the third trimester and she -- >> fetterman did not. demings did not. 30% of the country legal in all indicates. everything else is a republican -- >> scott, the position of most

democrats is the position that is the majority position in this country which is, a, this is primarily a decision between a woman and her doctor, b., that most of these decisions are made early in pregnancies, not late and that there should be exceptions even later in pregnancy when a woman's health is involved and so that's the mainstream position. i don't honestly think you're going to want to go into a general election in 2024 arguing what you're arguing here and we'll see -- we'll see how -- >> but nobody can articulate a single limitation that a democrat candidate laid out in this election. what you're saying sounds reasonable -- >> every democrat pretty much embraced roe versus wade which had limitations. >> what was the senate vote on the schumer bill? i mean the democratic candidates when asked over and over could not articulate a limit. >> you know what roe versus wade

was, right? >> i'm familiar with it. >> it had limitations. it basically -- roe versus wade had limitations and they reflect generally what people feel in this country. >> then why -- >> i don't believe a statewide candidate -- >> and every other survey you see about two-thirds of the country were unhappy with that decision. if you -- it would be interesting as a strategist if you want to go in there -- >> i'm looking at the numbers. >> does it surprise -- >> one thing about trump, can i just say one word about trump? >> i'm going to add something too. >> the problem for the republican party is that you can't live with trump and you can't live without him. candidates can't get nominated without him and you can't win a lot of general elections with him. the reason your candidates are struggling in places where they maybe shouldn't be struggling is because he nominated people primarily on their fealty to him and it's created a big problem.

>> the one interesting thing also about trump on this ex-sit poll is that 54% of people said trump was not a factor. that will disappoint donald trump tremendously since he thinks if his candidates win he should be given credit. but if i'm a 2024 candidate and i think you were talking about this a little bit, scott, and i see that unfavorable rating for donald trump and you think of a trump/biden potential match-up, i would be saying, this is the only guy who can lose this election. >> i think there's a -- >> make it through the primary. >> there's -- >> the more candidates there are the more likely he'll make it through. >> i think there's a certain governor of florida who is going to, you know, skate to re-election tonight who will see these numbers and think maybe i should consider getting in. >> interesting. >> this is very vulnerable. >> a lot of republicans would say how could we possibly lose to biden again? you look at this and you can see how it could happen. >> on the brink of getting the first votes of the night, stay

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with a qualifying bundle. it's a high-takes night in washington, d.c. as voters are

having their say about control of congress and so much more standing by now for the first votes this hour, i'm jake tapper with our team in the cnn election center and nearing our first chance to make projections in the critical fight for control of congress. at 7:00 p.m. eastern, voting ends in georgia, indiana, kentucky, south carolina, vermont and virginia. some polling places in indiana and kentucky are closing right now and votes from those areas could start coming in at any moment. this is what it would take for republicans to take back the house, they need to win 218 seats to win the majority. that's five more seats than they have now. the battle will take place in 82 key house races, competitive contests that really could go either way. in the closely divided senate, republicans need 51 seats to take back control. that's only one more seat than they already have. we're watching 13 key races that will be crucial to the fight for control of the u.s. senate.

we're also following the 36 governors' contests across the country including key races in a number of critical battlegrounds. our election team is in position for a very busy night including dana bash, abby phillip and chris wallace. over at the magic wall, john king is standing by. he'll track the results and give us perspective on the votes that have not yet been reported. kasie hunt is following all 35 senate races. as we get closer to the first results and boris sanchez is watching the 36 governors' contests across the united states. david chalian will soon share more exit poll information as polling places close and brianna keilar is keeping us up to date on how and when the ballots are counted in each state. our election team is fanned out across the united states including at the headquarters of the top candidates. right now let's go to two of the top battlegrounds in the fight for the senate, kate bolduan is in pennsylvania at the

headquarters of dr. mehmet oz and, kate, what are you hearing there in newtown from oz's campaign headquarters about their expectations for the night? >> reporter: well, i'll tell you, jake, mehmet oz's campaign, they are describing it as a feeling a continued sense of confidence if you will. that's how they're describing it to me as they wait for votes to be counted here in pennsylvania. and from another source, a republican close to the campaign describing the feeling as cautiously optimistic but still nervous saying that they feel good that they really left it all in the field. the campaign believes that they closed out this race on a high note. pointing to the big crowd that they saw in the philadelphia suburbs last night with a final rally that mehmet oz held. we were there. we saw it. they also believe that the end, the campaign is pointing to at this point, jake, they believe they have gotten into the good position that they believe they are in because of one factor

specifically, the contrast that they drew in their message, the contrast of balance, bringing balance to washington and contrasting that as mehmet oz describes it over and over again as extremism on both sides. that is what the campaign says they feel good about and a source telling cnn they believe the message really resonated with voters and that they've defined fetterman in a way that stuck with voters. we'll see tonight, jake. >> all right, kate bolduan at oz headquarters in newtown, pennsylvania. let's go to another important race in georgia. over virginia mckend is at the headquarters of raphael warnock running for re-election in a very, very tough fight. what's the mood there among the warnock campaign folks? >> reporter: well, jake, georgia democrats will tell you they always knew that this race was going to be incredibly close. what we have seen, though, is republican newcomer former nfl star herschel walker really mount an aggressive challenge

and warnock is trying to stave off that challenge, notably he has been confident in the last several weeks but warnock has been telling his supporters, look, we do not want this to go into overtime. he has two ads up in the state saying just that, the democrats need to come out and vote to avoid a disease runoff. if neither walker nor warnock get above 50% then this goes for another several weeks, that is something they are trying to avoid. you don't hear walker talking about a potential runoff as much. but warnock is. i asked him about this, why is this a concern? he said, listen, he reit righted this again today he is prepared to win tonight, but that this -- he's also prepared for this possibility as well. you know, his potential success in this state really, i think, underscores the challenge or that georgia democrats face, really it is a test, his potential success is a test to see if georgia democrats can pull out a victory even though

this is a difficult midterm for democrats across the country, if warnock wins here, it will ill straight that the way that he has run his campaign really focusing on his bipartisan credentials can work in a state that is so competitive like this one, jake. >> eva, at the headquarters of senator raphael warnock. we have another spot on what is on the mind of voters. >> we are looking at preliminary exit polls. i just want to make sure everyone understands some of these numbers will change throughout the evening. also this exit poll does represent voters who voted before election day in absentee by mail-in vote as well as election day voters. we wanted to take a look at how confident people feel about their votes being fairly and accurately counted in this election. obviously a big conversation, very confident, 50% of voters nationwide in this midterm

election very confident that their state elections are fair and accurate. 30% somewhat confident. so eight in ten have a level of confidence, 13% not very confident. 6% not at all confident. we also wanted to ask the straight up question, do you believe joe biden was legitimately elected president back in 2020? you see the results here, 63% of voters across the country, yes, believe joe biden was indeed legitimately elected but a third of voters in this election do not believe that joe biden was the legitimately elected president in 2020. which brings in this concern about democracy. do you think that democracy in the united states is secure or threatened? 9% say it's very secure. 19%, voters nationwide, somewhat secure. 33% somewhat threatened and the plurality, 37% of voters today believe that u.s. democracy is very threatened, jake. >> david chalian, thanks so much. that is a shocking number, dana

bash, one-third of the american people think that joe biden did not legitimately win the presidency in 2022. he did, of course, win legitimately the presidency in 2020 -- i mean, it's almost as if one-third of the country believes that the moon landing was fake. >> it's soul crushing. it is. not because of who we're talking about but because of what we're talking about. we're talking about truth and facts and reality and this is just the latest piece of evidence that the former president has been able to convince most of his supporters that it's not true, that he did not lose the election. well, you know, i mean, i think the other part of this to me is that i hear all the time from republicans, oh, this is just a fringe view. this is not a dominant view. 34% of the country. that's a lot of people. that is millions and millions of people and i don't see really a lot of people owning up to that and doing anything about it.

i think it's deeply problematic for the country. but in spite of that it's somewhat surprising that 80% or so of the country also thinks the elections are being run well or fairly. i mean i think both things are happening at the same time which is bizarre. >> my first election, i go back a ways, as a kid was kennedy/nixon in 1960. very close election. real questions as to whether kennedy stole illinois, whether he and johnson stole texas. but after the election was over, there was never any doubt, john kennedy was the president and from then until now, 62 years that -- well, i'd say 60 years but from 2020 on, suddenly this new issue has come up to my knowledge where there is a real doubt as to whether the president is really the president and whether the election was fair or was stolen. it's a paradigm shift in my lifetime. >> one thing i would underscore here, though, we should remember this is just people who voted

today that we're surveying in these exit polls which is not, of course, representative of the entire country. but i do think it underscores the importance of leadership or lack thereof, right? i mean there have been so many questions and there's a reason why many people will ask, i mean, i've spent years on capitol hill in hallways asking republicans why are you not condemning this standing up to it? why are you going along with it? i think it shows the impact of the silence with how they've gone along with this. >> if the majority of republicans in washington and governors' offices throughout the country were able to say, you know, of course, joe biden was legitimately elected. that would maybe make a difference but they're not. they're pretty quiet about it. david chalian, you have more for us now on the exit polls. >> jake, just a little while ago we were looking at the republican party and whether voters thought the party was too extreme or not. we learned a majority of voters in the election think, 54%

thought the republican party was too extreme. we asked that about the democratic party as well and, guess what, a slim majority, 51% roughly equal here think that the democratic party is too extreme. 47% say no it is not. we also wanted to test some issues and ask, which party do you trust to handle some of these top issues? so which party do you trust to handle inflation? 54% of voters in this election, a majority trust the republican party on inflation. 42%, the democrats, which party do you trust to handle abortion? it's sort of the reverse here, 52%, democrats are trusted to handle the issue of abortion. 43% republican. and which party do you trust to handle crime? this is back to a republican advantage among voters in this election according to these equity polls, 52% trust the republicans on crime, 42%, jake, trust the democrats on the issue.

>> david chalian with exit polls so do i have that right, majorities of the voters think both the democratic party and the republican party are too extreme. >> i don't think that should be a huge surprise. most think -- >> welcome to america in 2022. >> they think the parties are too in the pocket of their extreme camps and even when they cast their ballot for one party or the other, it doesn't necessarily signal a wholesale approval. >> just do the math for me on this. so 40% think that the other party is too extreme and then there's like 10% to 15% that just think that both parties are too extreme. >> because people who think that the other party is extreme -- look, i think it's that people are well aware of the times that they're living in. that these are very, very polarized times so even if they are part of that polarization they can see it which there's no question adds to the despair that people are feeling about how this country is going. >> the other interesting finding i think is the one on crime, you know, you figure that people are going to think republicans,

inflation, democrats, abortion, but the republicans were really effective in the last couple of months of this campaign in hammering democrats as soft on crime and made a big difference in pennsylvania, oz did it to fetterman. big difference in wisconsin where johnson has done it to mandela barnes and it's really done a big -- made a big difference in new york state in the governor's race where lee zeldin, in a state that there hasn't been a democratic -- a republican governor since 2006 with george pataki, zeldin might beat kathy hochul tonight. >> to go back quickly and did it at the right time, chris, right at the end of the campaign, to go back to your point about the extremism here, i think it also underscores the people engaged in our political system are the people that are on the most extremes. there are a lot of people who don't vote who don't show up and they are the people that are just turned off by the entire thing and what you're left with is the most extreme on both sides. >> this election night really gets going soon with the first big round of poll closings and

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comcast business. powering possibilities. ™ this is the night when voters are deciding whether or not to reshape the political landscape here in washington, d.c. we are back with our live coverage of this very important midterm election. let's check in on voting in the

key battleground state of arizona. sara sidner is at a voting location in tempe, arizona. and, sara, it's a few more hours before the polls close there. what are you seeing? >> reporter: the lines have gotten really long here on the arizona state university campus. they have now quadrupled from when we initially started here this morning. lots of folks out here, a lot of students out here. but we're also starting to see some folks who aren't students who are voting at this location and here in maricopa county, you can vote anywhere because they're able to print out the ballot that marks exactly who you are and has all the issues and people that you need to vote for in your specific area. now, i do want to give you an update because there were some voting issues in maricopa county this morning that somebody basically put out to the public, now they've investigated it and what they found is that some of the printers at about a fifth of

the locations, the 223 vote centers were not having ink that was dark enough to mark the ballots, they have fixed that and 41 vote centers so far according to maricopa county spokesperson fields mosley. there are less than 30 that need to be fixed. no matter what happens, even if there's a problem with the tabulation machine that isn't printing properly, doesn't have the proper ink, that they are going to count your vote. you can either take your ballot and put it into that machine which has a lockbox and they will pick it up and take it to the tabulation center or they will take your ballot to the tabulation center and make sure that your vote is counted. they have been saying that over and over and over again. they do understand that people are concerned about this, that this has blown up on social media but they are being very clear that no one, not a single voter will be disenfranchised that your vote will be counted.

>> transparency is always the key to clearing up situations like that. sara, thank you so much. let's go to our voting desk. brianna, you're looking at two other key battlegrounds, georgia and pennsylvania. >> that's right. because they are two states that could keep us on the edge of our seats tonight. in cobb county, georgia, officials have extended the deadline for more than 1,000 absentee ballots, they weren't sent out due to procedure errors and they will be accepted till november 14th. also, there are six precincts statewide ordered to stay open past the 7:00 p.m. deadline, two in cobb and two in dekalb and two other precincts in smaller counties all because those polling locations opened late this morning. something to watch in georgia. candidates in nearly every race must get more than 50% of the vote to win. any race that doesn't meet that threshold will go to a runoff election between the top two candidates, that will be held this year on december 6th. and then, in pennsylvania,

luzerne county polls will stay open until 10:00 p.m. tonight after a county judge said voters there were disenfranchised and denied the fundamental right to vote through no fault of their own. this was the result of a paper shortage which resulted in the inability to print paper ballots there. in philadelphia, an election official said nearly 3600 mail ballots are at risk of being rejected because of incorrect information, missing dates or secrecy envelopes. people who were not able to cure their ballots at city hall can still vote in person today. and the philadelphia city commissioner tells cnn that more than 100,000 mail ballots have been received throughout the county and are being processed, jake. >> all right, brianna, thanks so much. i'm here with john king to take a look at some of the senate races we'll keep an eye on and the governor's races. what do you got? >> i want to follow up on what brianna said in a minute.

turn this way. those are your very first votes, 2022 midterms coming in. >> pop in. >> coming in now and these four congressional districts in indiana, very early votes and we'll get back. not in competitive districts but -- >> competitive district right there. >> the district that has gary, indiana. >> keeping an eye on that one. >> but you see that's our first votes. that's the wonderful of democracy whether you're democratic or republican. i wanted to put that out. stay off social media, people, if you're trying to figure out are there really issues with voting, trust your local officials and trust us there and a news source you know and trust to be honest about this. they're doing their jobs and doing it right so what was brianna talking about? she was talking about cobb county, georgia. that is right up here just outside of atlanta. it matter, right? it's 7% of the state population. joe biden carried it by 14 points in. the race for senate or governor in any race in this area cobb county matters. you heard brianna talking about polling places staying open.

georgia did a good job counting votes in 2020. it will do a good job tonight whether at the county level or statewide level. if polls are being left open or if they're doing some things it's because something little happened. somebody had a problem with their password like happens to us every day at the office or -- >> running out of ink in maricopa county. >> running out of ink. life happens even in elections but you have to trust people and talked about luzerne county. critical. a big governor's race and a big senate race and competitive house races, this is a county donald trump won by 14 points. critical to mehmet oz tonight. a place where if doug mastriano will be competitive it happens to be here tonight. wilkes-barre, the more rural areas as you get out here, use the 200 flap to show this and come into the presidential area. this is trump country right here so they'll leave the polls open till 10:00 because there were issues this morning. that's what a good judge does. >> look, it's a republican county and the fact of the matter is the judge did the right thing. there was a paper shortage.

he wants to make sure no one is disenfranchised holding the polls open in that one county until 10:00. great, god bless. it's not a conspiracy. >> that's why -- look, we're going to take our time tonight going through the results but when you see there are in the case of arizona, there are republicans including the former president's son, you know, tweeting up this conspiracy storm already about the vote count. >> oh, and the former president himself as well. >> in arizona, trust the people who do this, if there are, again, both parties have observers in the room. whenever anything like this is coming up, and so they can go to court. they can raise their hand and protest this, is being done fairly and as it goes and i just wanted to come back here, let's take a peek and show votes. >> you can't resist. >> so you have a vote here, the incumbent is up 68%. it's only 3% of the vote. it's a republican district. the incumbent is likely to win. let's just move up to indiana's fifth district. >> the first ukrainian born

member of congress. >> leading in her district. we're doing this for a reason. these are not competitive districts but jim banks, a key member of the house republican leadership if they do take the house jim banks will be a name if you don't live in indiana you will hear a lot in the weeks and months ahead. a conservative rising star. we'll see if there are competitive elections whether he wins or loses but in the competitive -- >> these are all red seats. the one battleground we're looking for is this one and there's nothing yet. >> we're stitt waiting. polls have not closed. in this part of the state they have. so you won't get any results in. gary, indiana. i've been doing it for awhile. tends to be slow counting the votes. they count them. they come in. >> can we go to philly for a second? we had an inaccurate graphic about some ballots in philly that were not going to be counted because they've been filled out incorrectly. the graphic said 36,000.

it's actually 3600. it's actually 3600 ballots filled out incorrectly and if you're concerned that yours is one of them, the voting is still open in philadelphia. you can go figure it out and vote. >> and, again, most of this is a minor issue. he says he's retired because he doesn't like what his party does anymore but ben ginsberg was here earlier. he said most people forgot to put the date on the outside. if the signature is right and address is right and date right on the inside it's a legal ballot. if there's no date on the inside you get inside and the address or signature seems wrong you set it aside and the democrat and the republican and the independent person in the room sort it out over time. many can be cured is the ballot term for fixed. you come down and verify. that's me, i'm sorry, i forgot to fill out the date and it's done. >> we'll do this all night nearingi the first big round of poll closings.

what voters are thinking in a make or break battle of ground in pennsylvania. a new round of exit polls, that's next. stay with us. and state-of-the- art technology to a fully-electric suv. the all-new, all-electric eqb from mercedes-benz.

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i'm anderson cooper heading into the first round of big poll closings tracking the key contests and battlegrounds. want to go to the commonwealth of pains. jason carol outside a ballot processing center in philadelphia. jason, you're learning about frustration among officials there. >> reporter: right. that's right. this is the processing center where all the votes coming out of philadelphia will be counted. as you know, already city officials are telling us that this is a process that was going to take a long period of time, now it's going to take even longer and that's because of something called voter reconciliation. basically the results of a gop lawsuit, the city decided just in terms of full transparency to reinstate this policy of how they count votes which is going to make things take even longer, basically what this means is what they're doing is this process is meant to catch people who accidentally voted twice, once by mail-in and once in person, so in order to make sure that that doesn't happen, they

reinstituted this policy so that means it's going to take even longer to count all of these votes and when i spoke to a city official, i said how long are we talking here and how many votes are we talking about, she said it could be thousands, it could be hundreds of thousands. again, thousands to hundreds of thousands of votes that are coming in to philadelphia. so we knew this process was going to take a long period of time. now we're hearing, anderson, it could take even longer. but city officials say they feel confident about how they're doing things here. they say they're going to be here around the clock until every single vote is counted but, again, they wanted the public to know even though this was something that was going to take a long time, now you know why it may take even longer. anderson. >> jason, appreciate it. our first gims into what pennsylvania voters are thinking in our exit polls. david, what are you seeing? >> anderson, i want to remind folks both with the national exit poll and now state exit polls this is representative of the overall electorate whether

people voted before election or absentee by mail or early in person or they voted today on election day, this is a survey that represents the whole of the electorate. in pennsylvania specifically we're looking at the trump and biden factors because both the president and the former president were in pennsylvania for the final weekend of campaigning. they both saw it as a critical battleground for their party. so joe biden's approval rating in pennsylvania according to pennsylvania voters in this election he's got a 46% approval rating. 54% disapproval. this is a tick better than we see him nationally which maybe why it's the only battleground ground state joe biden was campaigning in. donald trump's favorability numbers here, interesting, 40% of the pennsylvania electorate today views him favorably. 58% unfavorable. that is a significant downtick from the 47% who viewed him favorably just two years ago when he narrowly lost the state to joe biden. and then how much of a factor

was joe biden in the vote for pennsylvanians today? well, 52%, a slim majority say not a factor but if he was a factor it was more negative. 32% voted to oppose biden, 14% to support biden. we also looked at that same question with donald trump among pennsylvania voters. a significant majority, 57%, not a factor but where he was a factor, it was more negative than positive, 24% oppose trump, 18%, anderson, of pennsylvania voters today said they voted to support donald trump. >> david chalian, thanks. come back to you shortly. david urban, you know pennsylvania well. >> statistically you think at the biden/trump not a factor. they're pretty similar. i think david axelrod noted earlier and david chalian mentioned that drop, that 7% drop in trump's favorability ratings over the past two years i think is telling and about this race in particular, right. remember, the president, the former president weighed in on in the primary here and both the

governor's race and the senate race and created a great amount of discord amongst all these different candidates and so there were a lot of people going to the polls tonight voting for a republican that's not their candidate and they may be doing so thinking that trump, you know, precluded them from voting for their person. >> it's emblematic of the most extreme elements of the republican party. trump dropped from minus 5 to minus 18 in terms of differential between positive and favorable and unfavorable. but you can see here why oz was so -- dr. oz was so cr cross-pressured at the end when trump decided he would rally in western manes. for most of the last few weeks, you know, dr. oz has been trying to erase trump from the whole discussion and pitch himself as a moderate because as you know, the philadelphia suburbs are pivotal in these races. >> and that poll earlier we saw

exit number, a third are independents, those independents probably, you know, they're not so aligned with donald trump needless to say. >> usually when a politician is out of office for a bit, your favorables go up. >> that's right. >> because people aren't hearing from you all the time and they're not as sick as they were before you left office or got defeated. this is just the opposite. donald trump has been out of office and people like him less in the state of pennsylvania and, you know, to david's point that is why the oz people were not thrilled to have him -- >> i was there on the ground. this interparty scrum in the primary really bruised up -- you go back and look on social media. people said i'm done with trump. i've had it with him. republican county leaders in the party. >> this was why the race looked so far apart coming out of the primary. oz had horrific image issues and they were persistent throughout. i'm not sure he ever got right side up where his faves were

higher than unfaves and donald trump being 40 versus biden at 46. it gives me some belief that maybe things were better. again, we don't know yet. the votes haven't been cast or counted yet but i have always thought of the big three, pennsylvania, georgia, nevada, pennsylvania was the one i was most unsure about in terms of would the macro political wins be enough and we'll see what happens. >> on that point i think pennsylvania is going to be a race that's hyper local in a state-driven race. on any of the contests, one we're probably most likely to see a split ticket i think we are confident shapiro will win the governor's race but this is something where you could see an oz republican win on the senate side because i'm not sure it's a total referendum on biden or trump but the issues voters care about. >> i was concerned that the biden numbers would be worse than they are for the people who went to vote. this is actually biden is not

more of a disaster for us than trump and a lot of people frankly are going they're voting for their pocketbook, voting for their concern about democrat a sen abortion and voting for other issues and so the idea that -- that may be one reason why we weren't afraid to have biden come to pennsylvania. >> three other races that will drive this we talked about and john king has, p.a. 7, p.a. 18. competitive house races and those are localized so people -- they're voting there and voting for their person there. that's going to kind of trickle up on the ballot as well. >> i don't think we can underestimate the josh shapiro factor here. very, very popular democrat, and that's why, you know, you see folks saying, well, you know, trump really wasn't a factor here. biden wasn't a factor here. i mean, you're voting for your governor, don't forget. you're voting for somebody you're talking about your local taxes, everything else that has to do with your family, schools, whatever, and i think josh

shapiro is, you're right, i mean by all accounts he's going to win and win handily and, you know, this is why oz needed to walk this really fine line. >> i think part of why fetterman -- sorry, had to make that drastic 180 on fracking, pennsylvania, the second largest energy producing state because it is a hyper state driven race and not running on a national platform but for the state of pennsylvania. >> several races where governors have maybe an outsized impact on the race, arizona, kari lake may drag masters a little. brian kemp in georgia may drag up herschel walker a little bit and in pennsylvania, shapiro if he does quite well will see him -- >> remember, in pennsylvania you don't go in and pull levers. they changed that with act 77 so biden, biden wins, you elect two statewide republicans in the same year. >> in the -- on the approval rating, you know, it is every candidate has to try and deal with the president's approval rating. 46 is pretty good. >> yeah. >> there's not much of a gap

there. you don't have to make up too much of a gap. some states where candidates are dealing with biden's approval rating, 40 or below. that's a lot of distance to make up. >> he's from there. >> the number has always been 45. if you've got the incumbent president at 45 -- you can see somebody outrunning about four or five but get down below into 44, 43, 42, it's a long jump. >> you think the race -- i mean in pennsylvania for senate it could go either way. >> look, you know, even when i was arlen specter's chief of staff for years and years every night you bite your nails on election night. as a republican you're pushing a big rock up a hill every election cycle. >> nearing the top of the hour. our first chance to make projections when votes end in the critical georgia race coming soon all after the break.

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my blood pressure is borderline. garlique healthy blood pressure formula helps maintain healthy blood pressure with a custom blend of ingredients. i'm taking charge, with garlique. we are just minutes away now from the first major round of poll closings on this election night in america. with huge consequences for the nation. at 7:00 p.m. eastern polling places close in georgia, indiana, kentucky, south carolina, vermont and virginia. and we will get our first hints

at how the battle for control of congress may unfold in the hours ahead. both parties battling for the 218 seats needed to win the majority in the house of representatives. a total of 65 house seats are on the line in states where polls are closing at the top of the hour. nine of them are considered competitive including four in florida where voting is about to end in most districts across the state though not all and the fight for the senate the georgia race could be a decider. incumbent democrat and pastor raphael warnock faces republican former football star herschel walker. walker has held on to the support of top republicans despite multiple controversies, warnock is aiming to repeat his special election win two years ago that was key to flipping the senate to democratic control. to the governors now, we're watching an epic rematch in georgia, democrat stacey abrams challenging republican governor brian kemp who narrowly beat her four years ago and close to our first chance to make projectioned. right now let's check in with

our correspondents in georgia. first to eva mckend at the headquarters of democratic senator raphael warnock and, eva, as we wait the first results from georgia, what are you hearing from the warnock campaign headquarters? >> well, jake, they're feeling confident. they are saying that they did all they could. they campaigned everywhere. senator warnock, they say, has spent his two years thinking about all of georgians in suburban and rural areas and metro centers and say it is because he has run this type of campaign as a bridge builder he thinks he can win here. still, though, senator warnock dealing with a really aggressive challenge from the former nfl star, herschel walker. the warnock campaign says that is something that they always anticipated in a state like this one that the race would always be close, but still you can tell in the last few weeks, the momentum sort of shifts on the ground with conservatives consolidating around herschel walker. still, a lot of confidence here from senator warnock's team

thinking that they can pot potentially avoid a runoff but that is a real possibility. if neither warnock or walker get above 50% that is going to extend this race into overtime and lead to a potential runoff on december the 6th, jake. >> all right, eva. let's go to herschel walker's campaign headquarters where jeff zeleny is standing by, and, jeff, how does the walker campaign headquarters, how do they think the many controversies about herschel walker, especially about his personal life, how do they think that that played a role especially in the closing days of that campaign if at all? >> well, jake, it definitely did. you'll think back just to several weeks and even months ago when republicans here in georgia and in washington were just in a state of panic about the allegations that were, indeed, coming out about herschel walker but then republicans did one thing, they circled the wagons around him and dispatched many senators who are campaigning at his side and took a page from the trump

playbook and did not apologize and pushed forward. it was a page from the trump playbook without the former president himself. in the final days of this race as donald trump campaigned across the country traveling from state to state to state, he did not come to georgia and that was by design, i am told. i'm told that the former president was in frequent conversation with herschel walker, of course, he's the one who recruited him to run in this georgia senate race in the first place. over the objection of many washington republicans including senate republican leader mitch mcconnell but it was former president donald trump who urged herschel walker to run and i am told they have spoken all the time on the telephone. last evening they spoke a few times, i'm told. today they also spoke so very interesting, taking a page out that have playbook but leaving him out of this so that allowed the walker campaign to do one thing, to make this race about president biden and to tie senator raphael warnock to president biden. jake, i'm just struck here, either driving down the freeways, watching television, looking at mailers that voters

received, there was a side-by-side picture of senator warnock and president biden everywhere you went. effectively trying to tie the two together. what that allowed them not to do was to link herschel walker with donald trump. so as the votes are counted here at the top of the hour the polls will close across the state of georgia with the exception of a few polls that are staying open a bit longer because of some minor complications. it'll be fascinating to see which strategy actually worked but one thing that's clear, herschel walker was not disqualified as this campaign came to a close. jake. >> all right, jeff zeleny at herschel walker's campaign headquarters. david chalian has early exit poll data from georgia. david, what are you looking at gentleman. >> along these lines, we're taking a look about what was on georgia voters' minds in the election. when it comes to the calls they were looking for in their candidates and i think it's pretty clear it's sort of a character election that is taking place there. 36% of georgia voters are looking for a candidate who shares their values, 32% looking

for a candidate that has honesty and integrity. less so about empathy and experience, 19% say i'm looking for someone who cares about people like me and only 8% are look for the candidate with the right experience which may be good news for herschel walker since he is new to politics. who shows good judgment? we asked that of georgia voters. 46% say only warnock shows good judgment. far fewer say only herschel walker, 28% shows good judgment, both 5%, 18% of voters in this georgia election say neither candidate shows good judgment. are warnock's views too extreme? and this has been something that walker has been hammering away at on the campaign trail. look at this, the state -- the voters in georgia are evenly split on this. 48% of georgia voters say, yes, warnock's views are too extreme.

47% say, no. herschel walker scores a built better on this. are herschel walker's views too extreme? well, 43% of georgia voters say, yes, but a slim majority, 52%, dana, say herschel walker's views are not too extreme for them. >> so >> so interesting. david, thank you so much. let's talk about the georgia senate race and some of the exit polls that david was just talking about, specifically one of the things that really stuck out to me was which candidate shows good judgment. only 28% say walker, warner, 46%. maybe given everything that we've seen about the allegations about herschel walker, not that surprising. but even given this, it's not expected to be the determining factor as to whether or not herschel walker will win or lose. >> not at all. herschel walker's unfavorables and the image that voters have

of him are pretty negative, especially after all of this. but this is just an environment in which republicans are more likely to do well, the environment favors republicans. but as we were saying earlier in the show, when you have a state like georgia that is already purple to begin with, and then on top of that, you have an environment that is favorable, and on top of that you have a top of the ticket race that where the republican might be doing way better than herschel walker no matter the outcome, that i think is a recipe for walker to get a little bit of a pass surviving, perhaps, in this -- >> i mean, it is amazing that he's getting any kind of a pass at all. these allegations that a pro-life candidate paid for an abortion, that he didn't father a number of children of his. this would sink any other candidate. he's got two things going for him. he is a heisman trophy winner

from the university of georgia. and georgia is the number one team in the nation. they just crushed tennessee on saturday. and, two, to a certain degree, it's all about teams and the fact is that i think a lot of people may hold their nose about herschel walker, but they'd rather see -- >> chris, i agree -- >> let me just finish. as mcconnell as a senate majority leader than mitch mcconnell. >> i read about your second point about teams. maybe not so much about the first that only somebody like herschel walker could survive this because herschel walker, yes, i agree, he's a very famous person, and that's part of it. but he is following the donald trump playbook on how to deal with the scandal to a t, trying to use it to his -- in his favor, to say look what they're doing to me. >> and, look, i think that says a lot about where we are as a country. i do think, not to bring trump into this, but he has a lot to do with this. he changed the way voters interpret scandals, and whether or not they should matter to them. i mean, you may not like it, but that is the reality you're

seeing. >> but walker wouldn't even have gotten the trump endorsement if he weren't a celebrity. his whole campaign is about celebrity. and he is an icon in the state of georgia. >> speaking of actually pretty new icons, the governor, governor kemp, this has been one of the most fascinating dynamics to watch. because the last time he won, it was a very, very tight race. >> 50,000 votes. >> right. between me and stacey abrams. it is a rematch. and he is just seen in such a different light because of donald trump, because he positioned himself sort of as a barricade between donald trump and the actual votes that happened. plus, people are kind of okay with his stewardship as governor. >> i think that people generally feel that he opened up the state, he didn't stay in lockdown as long, and that georgia didn't have a big spike in covid. and, in fact, the economy wasn't as hit as hard as a lot of other states were. >> i think the question a lot of

people had been coming into tonight asking is what are we going to see in terms of splitting tickets, are we going to see people skipping one race and voting in another? that's a huge question tonight. but it's particularly important for herschel walker, and whether or not he can actually get to a 50% mark to avoid a runoff. if he can't, then we're just doing it all over again. then the dynamics totally change. so i think both campaigns at this moment, they believe this race is just as tight as can be. and both sides are just trying to keep it alive a little bit longer. >> we should just introduce america to the name chase oliver. he is a libertarian, a former democrat. and he could be the person who keeps either of these guys from getting to 50%. and then you can blame him when we keep following the warnock race against walker until december 6th. >> jake and john, let's go over to you at the wall. >> right now we have votes coming in. it's exciting.

votes are actually coming. what are we seeing, john? >> we're seeing a lesson early in the night, if you're democrat or republican, cheer your party on. but be careful as you look. these are the two senate races on the map that we have votes so far. kentucky, the democratic candidate at the moment charles booker is ahead of the republican incumbent randall paul. we will watch this throughout the night. sometimes we do get surprise, but mr. booker is not expected to be the republican incumbent. jefferson county, the most populous county in the state, those results are coming in. that is a democratic county. that is the most democratic county in the state. so you you get the early votes and we're going to see this throughout the night and other states as well. some places it'll be mail votes first or election day votes first. let's just watch it. and then you have todd young out to a very early lead. he is heavily favored in this race. it's not that these races don't

matter because one of the things you're looking for if you're in the democrat or the republican headquarters, are you going to get any disruptions, if you will? if you're in a 50/50 senate, you're just trying to make sure you keep your own as a republican. we'll keep an eye when you see votes come in like this, you always watch and see. so what happens at the top of the hour is when things get interesting. if you're a partisan watching at home, this is when it starts to get more tense. >> the actual competitive race. >> we start to get actual votes. number one, we'll watch how the votes come in and how they're counted. georgia, their votes come in very quickly, they do a really good job, as we learned in 2020. fulton county, the biggest county out of 159 counties in the state of georgia. it's one of the most complicated, fun for me, states. i know it's not fun for partisans at home. and we'll go back in time. i want to go back to when brian kemp won in 2018.

this is the governor's race. we're talking about the senate race but it's the same math here. it's the suburbs around atlanta. it's not so much we expect those to be blue like they were in the kemp race. we expect them to be blue in the senate race. the question is the margins. so we're going to be talking about margins. let's go back to the senate map. come back to 2022. what else are you looking for? dana and chris and abby were talking about herschel walker. how do republicans view herschel walker? if you go back to the 2020 presidential race, donald trump lost. donald trump lost georgia by 11,000 votes. but look at all this red. this is a test for herschel walker in georgia tonight, the polls close in a few minutes. it's a test for mehmet oz in pennsylvania. can they run it up to trump voters who like that particular style of republican? do they turn out? do they turn out in decent high numbers? they're small counties. you go into some of these counties and they're tiny in terms of the population, 2,400 votes, but 73%. that matters.

margins, again. >> just to remind people, joe biden won georgia by 11,779 votes. so if that's our template, all night we're going to be looking at is raphael warnock matching what biden did? is herschel walker exceeding what trump did? that's what we're going to be looking at. >> most of that will be around the atlanta suburbs. so if herschel walker can overperform trump in the atlanta suburbs, and then break even with trump in the rural areas. do trump voters view him as legitimate and they turn out, and the suburbans voters who were frankly repulsed by donald trump and much of the country say we think herschel walker is good enough for us. it'll be a key in the governor's race and key in the senate race as well. that's where it starts to get real. let's come back to 2022 when we start to fill in the votes here. we also then at the bottom of the hour, 7:30, you get north carolina, if democrats are going to have a surprise tonight and an extra piece, if you will, in

the chess game, the cheryl beasley race, it's one of our competitive races. if it ends up being 51/49 in favor of the republican, democrats are going to be saying we should've spent more money. >> i've already heard democrats say they should've spent more money for cheri. >> obama won it in 2008. historic african american turnout. that'll be critical for cheri beasley. at the top of the hour georgia is the big one for us. because what happens here is this in the house race. these are the ones that are in so far. 11 races coming in so far. ten republicans leading, one democrat leading. these are not viewed as competitive races. but if you're in the party

headquarters, you've got to keep what you expect to keep. the challenge is as we get into the next hour, we bring up these competitive races. virginia closes at the top of the hour. just in the commonwealth of virginia you have these democratic incumbents in the northern virginia suburbs it's jennifer wexton. central part of the state, still suburban, abigail spanberger. considered the most vulnerable of these three, elaine luria. what happens in virginia as we start to count those house races? did democrats keep all three? that's going to tell us a lot about republicans need a net gain of five, polls close in virginia, that is a big early clue. >> all right, john, thanks so much. we are just moments away from the first big round of poll closings, and the first actual results from the critical battleground state of georgia. the senate race there among a handful of contests that will decide which party controls the chamber. and we are ready to make our firs