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Election Officials Are Telling Me They're Expecting Big Lines Closer To The End Of Polling; Coverage Of Election Day 2020; Republicans Feel Better About This Race Than They Did Three Or Four Weeks Ago. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired November 03, 2020 - 11:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[11:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Hey welcome back. Voters making their way to polls across the country. Includes Battleground, Iowa where already more than half the total number of ballots cast in the state in 2016 have been cast in this election.

Our Martin Savidge is on the ground in Des Moines, Iowa. So what's it like there since polls have opened?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Really busy, really busy. You know early voting in this state went all the way until five o' clock last night and the numbers were -- by the end of the day about a million votes had been cast by Iowa. So the thinking was that perhaps come the general election maybe you wouldn't see as many people coming but in this particular polling place where we are it has been extremely busy. And it's pretty much evenly split between the parties.

Polls opened at 7 AM local time, there was a long line outside this building when the polls opened. There's not a line now but it still continues to be just a constant flow and they're seeing roughly about maybe 150 voters an hour, sometimes 200 voters an hour and we're not even in those busy periods right now this is usually that lull that you get between lunch and when the polls open in the morning. So consistently busy here.

Again like many states Iowa set records when it came to its early voting. Also set records when it came to voter registration for 2020. And as I point out about a million early votes cast roughly. That's important to know because the Secretary of State thinks overall in this election there will be about a little over a million and a half votes cast which means of course the vast majority of votes have already been cast in Iowa.

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And that's important because in this state they can start counting those votes early, and they have. They started yesterday. And in fact, for Polk County, which is Des Moines, they pretty much have counted all the early votes that have been cast. So when the polls close at 9:00 tonight, central time, they will have

a huge leg up on all of the ballots and counting and processing them, which, of course, means the secretary of state is confident that Iowa will have a result tonight. Remember, it's got six electoral votes, it's a winner take all.

We should point out that it's been really close in Iowa. The president won it by nine points in '16, but this time around been exceedingly close for months. Then you had a break last weekend. The Des Moines register came out with a poll that said it looked like independents, and there were a lot of them in this state, have begun to break in the president's favor. We'll see. It could be an outlier or it could be accurate. We'll find out probably later tonight. Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Martin Savidge, thanks. Not only is the presidency in state, but control of the senate is on the line. There are a few key races across the country that democrats hope to go to their favorite, tip the balance of power. Our senior political analyst Mark Preston joins me. So what senate races are you watching closely tonight?

MARK PRESTON, SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Anderson, there are a whole lot on the board right now for democrats who think they have a shot at winning some of them, some of them much better than others. Let's start out west, first when you go out to Arizona, you have Mark Kelly, a former astronaut who is the husband of Gabby Giffords. He is running against senator Martha McSally. What's interesting about this race is that McSally has tied herself to President Trump.

They felt like they needed to do that. It doesn't seem to have necessarily worked so well, according to the polls. She's in much danger of losing. Going down to Colorado, you see Cory Gardner, he is running -- being challenged rather by John Hickenlooper, who is the former governor. Now our viewers may remember John Hickenlooper here on our air as a candidate for president.

While he decided to ditch that and in turn run for senate, he right now has a good chance of picking up that Colorado seat. I'll just quickly say, Iowa as well, Joni Ernst. We just saw Martin Savidge out there as well, Joni Ernst has tied herself as well to Donald Trump and we saw a good poll out of the Des Moines register for Donald Trump that may help Joni Ernst. She may survive, she may end up losing.

But as you go to the East Coast now, this is where some problems really are affecting republicans as well. If you look in North Carolina right now, you have Thom Tillis being challenged by Kyle Cunningham.

Now, republicans thought that they had a shot of getting back this North Carolina seat, or at least holding on to it, I should say, because a scandal erupted about two or three weeks ago regarding Kyle Cunningham acknowledging he had an extra marital affair does not seem to have hurt.

Now again, Tillis is somebody who has tied himself to President Trump, he was with him last night at the rally in North Carolina, but he's also somebody who went against Donald Trump early on in the administration when they were talking about the border wall, that may have hurt him with the base.

Now if you go up north now to the eastern part, to New England, and you look at Susan Collins up in Maine, she's in deep trouble right now. She's being challenged by Sarah Gideon. This is a race that we're all going to be focused on, not just for the outcome but how the outcome is determined.

If somebody does not -- if one of these candidates does not get 50% tonight, Anderson, then it goes into rank choice voting. What does that mean? It means when you went in to vote, you put who is number one as your choice, but you also put who was number two and then who is number three and who is number four.

There are four people on that senate ballot right now. If somebody doesn't get 50%, then they go back and retabulate who the second choice was. So this could be an interesting race.

COOPER: There's also, obviously, the tight race in South Carolina, Republican Lindsey Graham seeking his fourth senate term running against Democrat Jaime Harrison, and a lot of money has been poured into that race for Jaime Harrison. What are you peck expecting to happen there?

PRESTON: I mean, it's an incredible amount of money that went in for Jaime Harrison. At this point, I think republicans feel a lot better about this race than they did say three or four weeks ago. If you remember, we saw Lindsey Graham, whenever he would be doing an interview, he would ask for donations because he knew that he was being hammered so hard.

Now Lindsey Graham always faced a tough re-election in South Carolina, some folks didn't think that he was conservative enough. Well, at this point, he clearly has tied himself to the Trump train. We saw him as being one of his biggest supporters and one of his biggest advisers on Capitol Hill.

He will have a bit of a fight tonight. If he loses South Carolina, then we will see an incredible wave that will sweep across the nation that could pick up other seats, including Texas, and you can even imagine that, perhaps even Kansas as well Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Mark Preston, appreciate it, thanks. Our CNN correspondents fanned out at polling places across the country. We'll take you live to Minnesota, the state President Trump is hoping to turn red this election.

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COOPER: The killing of George Floyd and the protests that followed sparked a political awakening for many young voters in Minnesota. About 13 percent of the states voters are under the age of 30. That's more than twice the level in 2016 in the pre-election figured. CNN Correspondent, Adrienne Broaddus, is one of the busiest polling stations - is at one of the busiest polling stations in St. Paul, Minnesota. Adrienne, how's it looking?

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Anderson. Right now not a long line. There were long lines this morning, but not now. Nearly two million Minnesotans have already voted. The Secretary of State, Steve Simons, says that's about 62 percent of all votes casted in 2016, so perhaps those early voters can be attributed to the short lines we're seeing here right now. We are in St. Paul. That's the state's capital. Typically this state leans blue. Hillary won Minnesota back in 2016. This year as always the prize, 10 electoral votes, but it's important to note President Trump almost won Minnesota in 2016. He captured and won more than half this state's counties, but this state is blue, and today as many people head to the polls, voters I've spoken with saying on their mind is George Floyd. You remember George Floyd was killed at the hands of police in Minneapolis. That's here in the twin cities. We spoke with a young voter, Lewis McCaleb (ph). He turns 23 next week.

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He was one of thousands who protested in the days following the death of George Floyd and he created a song called Why Vote, in it's encouraging others to look at other issues on the ballot and look beyond the presidential race. He's taking his pain and frustration from the streets to the ballot box.

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LEWIS MCCALEB, FIRST-TIME VOTER: I don't feel safe as a black man living in America. I don't. But I understand the lay of the land and I understand that a lot of these things are systematically organized, so we must systematically make changes, so that is why I'm going here, I'm exercising my right to vote.

(END CLIP)

BROADDUS: And Anderson, across the country, many black men have died at the hands of police saying I can't breathe. That was the case with George Floyd. You might have noticed Lewis was wearing a hoodie that says, we will breathe. He said that hoodie is a form of protest and his way of changing the narrative. When he cast his ballot today, on the back of it he wrote the name of black men and women across the country who died at the hands of police. Anderson.

COOPER: Adrienne Broaddus, appreciate it. Thanks very much.

Coming up, now to Maine, let's go there. A state with only 4 electoral votes but voters are turning out to make sure those four count. CNN correspondent Evan McMorris-Santoro is in Brewer, Maine. Evan, you look -- well, it looks cold there obviously. How are voters handling the weather conditions?

EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Yes Anderson, welcome to a snowy, cold election day here in Brewer, Maine. This is one of the population centers in Penobscot County, it's actually a very important county in the 2016 election. It is one of those pivot counties that voted for President Obama in

2012 and then President Trump in 2016, and that helped this part of Maine flip and become one electoral vote that Trump surprisingly picked up on the 2016 election night, something he's trying to do again here. Now as you can see, we're voting in a pandemic, so there's a line outside of people that have been waiting, the polls opened at 7:00 and they've been sort of like this ever since.

And inside the building, there's only about 30 people allowed at one time to vote because of trying to keep the social distancing of only 50 people inside every building here during this pandemic. So let me talk to you -- let me introduce you to one of the voters we have here. Edna, hi.

EDNA TABER, MAINE VOTER: Hi.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: thanks for talking to us. Can you tell us why you chose to vote on election day instead of earlier?

TABER: Because it felt more normal to me. I think it's fine if people didn't feel comfortable with the pandemic or needed to vote, this felt normal to me, and nothing during the pandemic felt normal, so I decided to vote the way I always do.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: And who are you supporting today?

TABER: Do I have to answer that?

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: you don't, secret ballot.

TABER: I'm not going to answer then.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: All right. Well Anderson, here in Maine, people are voting in a lot of different -- in large, large numbers, we've seen big turnout in absentee ballots and people in Bangor, just across the river from where I am now and people here are seeing a big turn out here too. But as Edna has just suggested, we don't know what's going to happen. This is one of those areas of the country where you could see something interesting happen with the president picking up maybe an electoral vote or it going back to the Democrats.

COOPER: I know it's unsatisfying, but I always like it when the voters say I'm not going to tell you who I'm voting for. But it seems the wait there is pretty short.

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: Yes, right now the wait's not that bad. It was longer earlier this morning and they are expecting -- election officials are telling me they're expect big lines closer to the end of polling at 8:00 tonight. So maybe after 5:00 when people get out of work you might see the lines snake out back here. But they're ready to do it, and they're hearty folk, they're going to stand here in the snow and vote.

COOPER: It's so interesting she used the word normal, that she felt it was more normal and that nothing has felt normal. That's -- that's the word I keep coming back to today, just looking in all the polling places we've been, just at how normal this is given all the -- you know, the drama that's gone on, all the anxiety, all the anticipation.

You look at polling spots around the country, there you see Philadelphia on the right-hand side of your screen and it is election day. Americans are standing in line to vote. Some of the lines are long, some are short, but things are just proceeding along normally. And that certainly is a blessing. Evan McMorris-Santoro, appreciate it, thanks so much.

No matter who wins today's election, the Democratic party is going to look different with a split between progressives, like Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; and more moderate establishment Democrats. CNN political commentator and Former Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang joins me now.

So Andrew, first of all, good morning, what are your thoughts on Election Day seeing all these polling places, seeing all these polling places, seeing, you know, short lines in a lot of places because so many have voted already.

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Long lines elsewhere.

YANG: It feels great, Anderson. Over 100 million Americans have already casted their votes. You're seeing potentially record turnout. And if you're watching and you think it's too late for you, there is same-day voter registration in 20 states. You can get in on it. This is a historic election. I'm thrilled that turnout is so high. I think it's just a great emblem of democracy.

COOPER: It's also cool to me just how, as I said, just how normal it is. I mean, it's not - you know, people were worried about, you know, is there going to be violence? Are people going to be shouting at you as you're standing in line? Are people are going be wearing, you know, hats and t-shirts and coming up to you and trying to convince you to change your vote? We're not seeing that. That's not to say it's not happening somewhere, but for the most part, you know, there are strict laws in place about voter intimidation and there is, you know, good people who have volunteered who are working at these polling places, and it seems like it's moving along.

YANG: It's very positive, Anderson, but it's not surprising to me in the least having travelled this country over the last couple of years, meeting thousands of people who supported Donald Trump in the last election. Americans when you get down to the individual level are for the most part imminently reasonable. They know they're just going to go. They could disagree with someone in line with them, and they're never going to have any kind of exchanges. Just going to stand there, wait to cast their vote, and then come watch CNN to see the results. So not surprising at all to me having traveled to me having travelled this country.

COOPER: You know, we just talked to one reporter a little while ago about some of the slow downs that they - we continue to see in the mail delivery in some key battleground states. I mean, really serious numbers like 60 percent on time delivery is off by some 60 percent in some places. It's really stunning and could have significant impact on the results.

YANG: Especially because some of those states are tightly-contested battleground states, places like North Carolina and Wisconsin. To me this is one reason why you want to try and drive every single vote because there is some uncertainties with the process, and if there's one concern I think many of us share, it's really does the process hold up? I'm personally confident that if all the votes were magically counted then we'd have a very clear result, but the mechanics may hold up the vote count and may actually end up with a significant number of contested votes in a number of key states.

COOPER: Yes, I mean, in some of these - in some of these states as long as the ballot was sent in and post marked before the election it will be counted. In some of them, there's a three-day window or 10-day window, but in others if it's not there by election day it may not be counted. So the slow down of the mail is a huge concern and probably something the authorities are going to be looking into once this is all said and done because this is the kind of thing that can't happen again in the future. When do you think you're going to be able to get a sense of - well actually, I guess, Andrew, for you what do you like tonight, what state's in particular are you looking at?

YANG: Anderson, you're looking at Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, potentially Ohio. These are states that if they go to Joe we could have a very quick and powerful repudiation of Trump. Now, if Trump wins those states, in some of which he's expected to or he won last time, it doesn't necessarily mean that he's going to win the entire election, but if Joe wins some of those states then this could be a quick night, and that's what I'm going to be looking for. You're going to get those results by not that late tonight.

COOPER: You know, if whoever wins, you know, while the president has been saying the pandemic is going away, that they've rounded the turn, the truth is, you know, certainly for the next several months anybody - whoever wins, things are going to be dominated in this country by the surge of the pandemic. I mean, Dr. Deborah Birx, Anthony Fauci, others and we're seeing what's already happening in Europe there is, you know, a rising death toll, rising case count, and it is going to get very ugly and very, very difficult for the next several months.'

YANG: We've lost hundreds of thousands of lives and millions of jobs, many of which will never come back. Congress completely dropped the ball not having any pandemic relief after April, so whoever's the president in 2021's going to have an enormous challenge for them, Anderson, because we need a new, new deal. We need a massive rebuild of the country, economically, public health, infrastructure to try and get the pandemic under control. This is one reason why I'm very confident that Joe's going to win tonight is because so many Americans think we need a different leadership team in the White House, but it's going to be a monumental challenge for the new administration whoever it happens to be.

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COOPER: Yes. Andrew Yang, appreciate it. Great to see you. Just in to CNN election officials are warning voters in one state after an anonymous robo call went out telling people to stay at home. We'll have more on that. Stand by.

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ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Erin Burnett and this is CNN's special coverage of Election Day in America. At this hour polls in all 50 states plus Washington D.C. are open.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Erin, you know when you hear that music that means it is go time. It is go time. We are not even down to the wire. This is it. I'm Don Lemon of course joining Erin Burnett today. I'm trying to help Erin out today although she doesn't need the help. This is an election unlike anything we have ever seen before.

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