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CNN Live Event/Special

Voting Underway in the U.S. in Unprecedented Presidential Election; Justice Department to Monitor Polls in 27 States for Compliance with Federal Voting Rights Laws. Aired 13-13:30p ET

Aired November 05, 2024 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CO-HOST, CNN ELECTION NIGHT IN AMERICA: A history- making election day in America, I'm Wolf Blitzer. More than 80 million early votes already cast about to be joined by many millions more today. Long lines at polling stations around the country with control of the House, the Senate and the White House all at stake.

ERIN BURNETT, CO-HOST, CNN ELECTION NIGHT IN AMERICA: A history- making day, no matter what happens, Wolf. I'm Erin Burnett, and here's the number we're all going to be watching, of course, when the first polls start closing and some states start to be projected.

And that is 270, the number of electoral votes needed for Kamala Harris to become America's first female President or for Donald Trump to be only the second President in American history to win two consecutive -- I'm sorry, two non- consecutive terms. He spoke just moments ago at his campaign headquarters, which is near Mar-a- Lago in Florida, saying he's encouraged by the number of Republicans he sees voting at his polling place. And here's what his running mate J.D. Vance told reporters after voting in Ohio this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JAMES DAVID VANCE (R-OH) & REPUBLICAN VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Look, I feel good. You never know until you know. But I feel good about this race. I felt good about my own race a couple of years ago when I voted in this exact same spot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: We have our CNN correspondents all over the map including Nick Valencia in Lawrenceville, Georgia, and Ed Lavandera in Surprise, Arizona. Let's go to Nick first. Nick, tell our viewers exactly where you are and what you're seeing.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, in the spirit of transparency, Wolf, we wanted to show our viewers the life of a ballot. And here we are in Gwinnett County at the voters' registration office, and this is where the vote totals for the 156 precincts in Gwinnett County will be tallied up.

As of state law, because of state law, October 21st, they've been tallying or I should say processing, pre- processing absentee by mail ballots, that's this machine right here. That's what it does. It separates the ballots physically from the envelope. But unique to today, election day, as of 9:00 a.m. , the tabulations could start, and this is what you're seeing right here behind me.

This row of machines was exclusively used during early voting. And what you're seeing here are volunteers who will later be sequestered, who are actually pulling that data, that voting data, putting it onto memory cards. They then take those cards and transfer it about 90 yards down the hallway into the tabulation room.

Those cards will then standby for 7:00 p.m. when they could officially start to upload those votes to the Secretary of State's office. And they are expecting by 8:00 p.m. to have about 60 percent to 65 percent of all of the votes here in the county tallied for, accounted for.

And I want to bring in the guy that's in the middle of it all, the elections director here, Zach Manifold. Zach, you said you expect to eclipse the 2020 voter totals for the county. Tell us about that.

ZACH MANIFOLD, ELECTION OFFICIAL, GWINNETT COUNTY, GEORGIA: Yes, so, you know, we were all together between advanced and absentee by mail, we were down about maybe about 20,000 altogether, about 320,000 so far, compared to 340 last time. But we only did 73,000 ballots on election day. Last time, as of 10:30 we were already at about 35,000.

So, we feel like we're going to make up that difference. We probably could end up having a record- breaking turnout by the end of the election.

VALENCIA: You sound -- it sounds like you're expecting 20,000 more votes this election than you did for 2020.

MANIFOLD: Well, 20,000 more election day votes.

VALENCIA: More election day votes, let's declare it --

MANIFOLD: It will make the difference --

VALENCIA: Yes --

MANIFOLD: So if we get there, we'll eclipse that number from 2020.

VALENCIA: And so, how are things looking at right now? You have a lot of precincts, 156 all throughout this county, it's a bellwether, a crucial county for both the Republican and Democratic candidates. How is it looking out there?

MANIFOLD: Yes, it's been very smooth today, no lines, everybody has been pretty happy, it's been pretty calm. We're feeling pretty good about the morning so far.

VALENCIA: We've seen other story lines from adjacent counties, Fulton County, particularly. There were non- credible bomb threats there. There have been safety and security issues. Anything to worry about here? I know extra -- I've noticed extra security presence, sheriffs' departments, deputies here.

MANIFOLD: Yes, so, we have had one incident just recently, and so --

VALENCIA: Oh, this is new to us --

MANIFOLD: Yes, we're looking into it, I don't have --

VALENCIA: Can you tell us about it?

MANIFOLD: I don't have additional information yet. I will share it when we get it, but we have had one incident just recently.

VALENCIA: Just recently. Well, we're to get more information on that off- camera, Wolf. But you see another county just near to CNN, Gwinnett County now dealing with its own security issues. Has it led to any disruptions at all in the precincts?

[13:05:00]

MANIFOLD: Yes, we did have one polling location that had to evacuate. So, we're working on that now.

VALENCIA: Is it still evacuated right now?

MANIFOLD: It is.

VALENCIA: OK, so, how long do you expect before that is remedied?

MANIFOLD: I don't know. Again, when we get more details, I'll let you know.

VALENCIA: OK, we'll let you get back to work, Zach, busy day for you, thank you so much for taking the time with CNN. This is a very active, very -- it's only continuing to get more and active as -- more and more active as the day goes on. They said between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. is when they expect to be the busiest times here in Gwinnett County.

So, as we work to get more information on that security threat, Wolf, we'll bring you back more details as we get it. Wolf?

BLITZER: Yes, people like to vote after work. Nick Valencia in Georgia for us, Nick, thanks very much. I want to go to CNN's Ed Lavandera right now, he's in Arizona. Ed, first of all, I understand you're with a Trump supporter right now, right?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we'll set the scene for you here. We're in Surprise, Arizona, one of those western suburbs of Phoenix here in Maricopa County. This county is incredibly significant in this battleground state. Reminder, in 2020, Arizona was won by Biden by less than 11,000 votes.

No other state had a closer margin than that. And Maricopa County went for Trump in 2016, went for Biden in 2020. So, this is kind of like the battleground within the background, and it is a festive atmosphere. We've got a DJ playing music, you've got people handing out flyers on how to vote.

If it was afternoon, we'd pour a cocktail and start dancing around here, but it's still a little early for that, Wolf. But we're going to talk to Georgine Marine(ph) --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Georgian(ph) --

LAVANDERA: Georgian Marine(ph), you just voted for --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump --

LAVANDERA: John -- for Donald Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump.

LAVANDERA: Walk me through why you cast that vote?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, so, just seeing what's been happening in the past four years, you know, I voted Democrat the past four years, and I'm really disappointed in the administration, how everything has been going. I was in the mortgage industry for quite some time, and that hurt us pretty bad, I lost my job because of it.

Dealing with the recession and everything -- I know that everyone is saying we're looking for solutions from every party, right? But in actuality, the solutions they came up with were no solutions. It hurt us even more. Now, we have to have a son with parents and you know, daughter, all the families get together to be able to even afford a home or even afford a rent, you know, so --

LAVANDERA: So, the economy is the number one issue for you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely, it impacts every one of us including you --

LAVANDERA: Did you vote for Biden in 2020?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I did. I'm sorry, I did. Yes, I did. I was deceived, but I'm a walking example of how people can change their mind, you know? You just go with the evidence of you know, what benefits you? What benefits you and your family? So, Biden has not been beneficial to my family, at least.

LAVANDERA: You're a car salesman now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a car salesman now, yes --

LAVANDERA: Is that one of the reasons why the economy is --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes --

LAVANDERA: Top and center for you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, lots of offices shut down, they had to kind of like regroup, right? With the banks trying to just regroup, and unfortunately, they have to let a lot of people go. It's just a matter of profit, right? I mean, profit is not a bad word for anyone. That's democracy. This is, you know, the country we live in. We vote to be able to make a profit and have a good life, right?

LAVANDERA: Hey, well, I appreciate you sharing your story with us and making time for us. That's just one of the voters -- we've been talking to voters here all morning long, Wolf, a great variety. We're watching this particular suburb closely, because as I mentioned, you know, this is one of those areas where a lot of the political world kind of watching closely what's going to happen with voters in these suburban areas around cities like Phoenix, Wolf.

BLITZER: Ed Lavandera in Surprise, Arizona, for us. Ed, thanks very much. Erin, back to you.

BURNETT: All right, Wolf, and really interesting to hear that voter who had voted for Biden last time, now voting for Trump. He said Biden has not been beneficial to my family. Joining us now, the senior Arizona Senator, Democrat Mark Kelly. And Senator Kelly, I don't know if you had the chance to listen to Ed Lavandera there in Surprise, Arizona, and talking to that particular voter.

But when you hear him speaking about -- you know, he gave his reasons for why he voted Biden last time, he chose to vote Trump today. Does that give you caution about what's happening in Arizona?

SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): Well, I was -- I did hear what he had to say. And what comes to mind for me is that Kamala Harris actually has a plan for him and his family, creating good- paying jobs in the state of Arizona, bringing down the cost of housing and healthcare, tax cuts for 100 million middle-class Americans, not billionaires.

He talked about, you know, affording a home -- you know, she has a plan for new home builder tax credits to help build more housing.

[13:10:00]

Donald Trump's plan, specifically for Arizona -- I just want to talk about that for a second, Erin. He wants to kill the CHIPS and Science Act. You know, killing that legislation is going to lay off tens of thousands of people in the state of Arizona. He also talked about tariffs on anything coming in from Mexico. Mexico is the United States' biggest trading partner. There are thousands --

BURNETT: Yes --

KELLY: Of people in the state of Arizona who have had jobs because of this trade with Mexico. So, Donald Trump's plan for the Arizona economy specifically is really --

BURNETT: Yes --

KELLY: Awful for the state of Arizona. It will affect him and his family.

BURNETT: So, Senator, and I -- the reason -- it's interesting that you chose to answer the question in that way. And I want to emphasize the time it is where you are, right? It's 11 O'clock in the morning, and perhaps you're answering it this way because you know that people in Arizona could have listened to that voter, and you want them to hear the other side, right?

I mean, I guess, if the context of this is 4.6 -- I'm sorry, 4.36 million people have already voted in Arizona already today.

KELLY: Right --

BURNETT: How many more do you think still have to go? I mean, how much more do you think is still out?

KELLY: There are going to be a lot of people that vote today. I mean, we've got the polling places -- polling locations are going to be open for about another -- about another 8 hours or so.

BURNETT: Yes --

KELLY: And there's incredible enthusiasm. I was just at a canvass kickoff event where people are going to go knock on doors, we've got a lot of volunteers over the weekend, here in Arizona, we knocked on 212,000 doors, made over 600,000 phone calls. We have thousands of volunteers doing this work.

Donald Trump's canvass operation is paid for here in Arizona largely by Elon Musk. We have volunteers that are committed to the candidate and are excited about this election. And we've got to --

BURNETT: Yes --

KELLY: Get out-the-vote, and I think it's going to be close here in Arizona. So, we've got more work to do. There's time for people to vote. They can vote all the way up until 7 O'clock, they can actually be standing in line. They get in line by 7:00 p.m., they're going to be able to vote.

BURNETT: Yes, look, I know -- you and I have talked over the past months, and I know when it comes to Elon Musk, you know, you've got you know, conflicting feelings, but a lot of respect for him in many aspects of his life. But interesting that he's playing such a significant role there, as you say, in the turnout for Trump.

When you talk about how close it's going to be, though, how do you feel at this moment? I mean, what's your feel on the ground? You say you still got people out knocking on the doors. Do you think Kamala Harris is on track to win Arizona right now or are you not sure?

KELLY: I think she's going to win Arizona, I also think it could be really close. In 2022, our Attorney General, Kris Mayes, won a statewide election by 280 votes. As Wolf mentioned, in 2020, the Biden-Harris ticket won by just less than 11,000 votes. Statewide elections in Arizona are often close, mine were in 2020 --

BURNETT: Yes --

KELLY: And 2022. But because of the enthusiasm I see and also the bad deal that Donald Trump gave, especially to Arizona women, taking away their rights to make their own decisions about healthcare, has caused women in Arizona to bounce between one really bad abortion ban and another, and he takes credit for it.

He talks about how he killed Roe v. Wade, that has affected their healthcare here in our state, and because of that, we see women turning out at really very high rates.

BURNETT: Yes, all right, well, thank you very much Senator Kelly, it's good to talk to you, I appreciate it. Wolf?

KELLY: Erin, can I say one more thing here? Let me just also add --

BURNETT: Yes, sure, go ahead --

KELLY: That we have Senator Jeff Flake, Jim McCain, Mayor John Giles, Republicans, they want their party back. They're not -- and you know, this isn't the Republican Party of John McCain. I sit in John McCain's Senate seat. We have Republicans that want to see, you know, this whole Trump effort or this era of Donald Trump to be past us.

So, we have a lot of Republicans that are --

BURNETT: Wow --

KELLY: Supporting Kamala Harris because they know she's ready to do this job on day one, wants to take this country into the future. Donald Trump just wants to drag us back to the past, continue to shred alliances, take away rights especially from women --

BURNETT: OK --

KELLY: And give big tax cuts to billionaires. They know that that's not --

BURNETT: Right --

KELLY: The direction our country should be going in.

BURNETT: All right, Senator Kelly, I appreciate your time, thank you very much. And Wolf, of course, Senator Kelly speaking to people who have not yet voted in Arizona, right? There's a lot of them and he wants them to hear the argument, trying to make that closing argument there for them to hear again.

BLITZER: Erin, very good interview with Senator Kelly, thanks very much for that. Let's get a closer look at Arizona, his state right now. I'm here at the magic wall with Phil Mattingly. Give us a little sense from what you're seeing, what you're hearing, what do you see going on?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, can I just say the interview by Ed with the voter followed by Senator Kelly is such a wonderfully vivid window into the contrast right now in this critical battleground state.

[13:15:00]

As you mentioned, as the senator mentioned, 10,457 votes separated Joe Biden from Donald Trump. First-time Democrats won the state of Arizona in a presidential race since 1996. The reason why Democrats were able to win this state was where Ed Lavandera was standing, Maricopa County, 61. 5 percent of the voting population lives here.

This is the be-all-end-all on some level because other counties that have somewhat tangible levels of vote will cancel one another out. This is the question coming into today. Joe Biden won this county for the first time in a generation by just over 2 points. Is that margin attainable? Can the Harris campaign match that or just fall a little bit underneath it?

And then, perhaps, run up more vote in Pima County, second largest county, this is typically a Democratic-leaning county. Can they do that? I think the big question though, is two-fold. One, what we heard from the voter. Take a look at -- when he talks about cost of living, housing has been a huge issue here.

Where you see the darker color here, the darker kind of yellowish- brownish color here, that is where counties have kept up less -- with less parody, wages to cost of living, right? So, where you see darker counties, that means that there's been more struggles to keep up with cost of living in these particular communities.

What's the darkest county or one of the two darkest counties in the state of Arizona when it comes to the ability for wages to keep up with cost of living. It's Maricopa County. So, that's getting at the economics trouble here, that I think is important. The other one is abortion. There is an abortion --

(CLEARS THROAT)

MATTINGLY: Ballot initiative here. And you talk about that being a central issue that we've heard from campaigns over the course of the last year. Nationally, Wolf, abortion ads have been all over the place, almost 50,000 abortion ads over the course of the last several months, underscoring that -- for Democrats, they believe this is a winning issue, it's on the ballot.

There's a critical Senate race as well that they need to win. They think they can win. Can that pull Harris over the line? Or will this be an issue where the economy, and perhaps some of those Republicans that the senator was talking about, McCain Republicans, kind of traditional GOP-establishment types, moving back towards Trump because of those economic issues.

One other wild card I'd note here, Maricopa and Pinal Counties are now more of a Republican county, just in the course of 2020 and 2023, 219,000 new people cross a very diverse set of people. What does that do? Where do they go? Do they follow what we saw in 2020 or did they move in a different direction because of what we've seen? That will determine who wins this state this time around, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, we will find out, I'm sure, not too long from now. Thank you very much, Phil Mattingly. And Nick Valencia moments ago referred to issues at some polling places in Georgia. Up next, we'll have more on some of the other hiccups and the snags that are going on with voting around the country and what's being done to address them, as election day in America continues.

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[13:20:00]

BLITZER: Election day in America. I want to go straight to CNN's Nick Valencia in Georgia's Gwinnett County. We have some new reporting on the threats, yes, threats at various polling places of the state. What are you learning, Nick?

VALENCIA: The communications director here in Gwinnett County telling me, Wolf, that a precinct, two precincts, one location has been evacuated as of 12:44 because of a security threat. There's minimal details at this time, other than this being the mountain park activity center, which is about 26 minutes away from where I'm standing here.

We believe that center is still activated and there are -- or evacuated, I should say, and there has been a disruption to voting. We understand that the local police have now taken the lead in the investigation, we've reached out to them and are waiting on calls back. But again, here, Georgia finding itself at the center of the story on election day. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, Nick, thanks very much, hard to believe this is going on in our country, but it clearly is. I want to go back to Erin.

BURNETT: All right, Wolf, let's go to Phil Mattingly now just for a closer look at the magic wall, given Nick Valencia's reporting there on the issue for a closer look at Georgia.

MATTINGLY: Yes, look, where Nick is right now, and obviously, we hope everything ends up well there, everything gets sorted out. But Gwinnett is a critical county. Look, if you want to look back to 2020 when Joe Biden was able to flip the state of Georgia into Democratic hands in a presidential election for the first time since Bill Clinton in 1992, the story that everyone was following and everybody knows at this point happened right here.

It's the Atlanta metro area, it's nine counties that just went so heavily towards Democrats that Biden was able to overcome, Trump's strength, particularly in the northwestern part of the state. And what are you talking about here? Well, you start with Cobb County. It's the third largest county in the state.

This used to be a Republican county. It's part of that re-alignment- slash-transition in the suburbs that we've seen over the course of the last several cycles where Joe Biden won this by 14. 3 points. Back in 2016, Hillary Clinton narrowly won this, flipping it for the first time narrowly.

Now, the question coming in to today is, can the Harris campaign at least match that margin? Can they match it or can they bump it up a little bit given the fact that there's been a pretty significant population growth in this area as well? Obviously, we've been talking about kind of the critical urban areas in all of the battleground states.

Fulton County; the largest county in the state, 10 percent of the voting population is right here, not unlike Milwaukee or Wayne, these are critical areas for Democrats to run up huge vote. The question in Fulton is, does this margin hold? Bakari(ph) was addressing some of the things people have been talking about throughout the course of the last several months.

Is Donald Trump making some in-roads here with black voters, particularly black men. This will be a telltale sign right now for later this afternoon or later this evening, I should say, in terms of where that vote is in these critical battlegrounds. One other issue I think you want to look at here, Cherokee County, this is a place that Trump is expecting to win and expecting to win by a lot.

The question will be margins, can he run-up bigger margins here? They did in 2020. Can he match what he did in 2016 or can Kamala Harris make further in-roads to chip away at this. That will be one of the big questions coming into the night. Erin?

BURNETT: And Phil, I'm curious as when you look at some of those more rural counties, and we know that Kamala Harris actually went and spent some time there, right? Trying to do exactly as you said, trying to run-up the margin, knowing she would lose, but trying to lose by less --

[13:25:00]

MATTINGLY: Yes --

BURNETT: And therefore to run up the numbers overall in the state. I would imagine you're looking at that in a lot of those red, more rural counties.

MATTINGLY: Red, more rural counties, and I think one way to look at this, too, in fact, it wasn't just the Vice President, it was also Bill Clinton kind of going out on a -- on a sequel of his 1992 Bubba's for Bill tour out on the road kind of trying to make in-roads. And I think this is one, I think marker that's important here.

The darker the county you see here, the higher the percentage of African-Americans that live in that county. And a good chunk of -- yes, obviously, it's Fulton County, it's the Atlanta metro area as well. Over here in Columbus, Georgia, Savannah and Chatham County, but through here, what's known as the black belt, one of the questions going in is there were some smaller counties, 15,000 votes maybe max, where Joe Biden underperformed what Hillary Clinton did in this part of the state.

It's not a huge amount of vote. One of the big questions that I heard when I was down there a few weeks ago was, can we get out and show people that we care, show people we're engaged, actually show up for the first time when a lot of these people in these communities haven't heard from Democrats.

They're just expected to vote that way if they vote at all. And I think one of the key questions going into the night will be, will that actually have an impact? You come down here to places like Dougherty or Calhoun, these are smaller counties and are going to change the game in and of themselves, particularly when compared to the Atlanta metro area, or even over into Chatham.

I think what -- Chatham County where Savannah is. I think that's going to be one of the big questions coming in. The other two is pushing out into the rural areas, like Effingham outside of Savannah, Georgia. Bryan, Bullock County as well where you've seen Democrats make a push, not expecting, Erin, to change the game.

If you look at this margin right here, Donald Trump winning by almost 24 points in Bullock County, there's no expectation that Kamala Harris is going to win Bullock County. But if you shave 2 percent off that, if you shave 3 percent off that and you meet your margins --

BURNETT: Yes --

MATTINGLY: In the metro area, and perhaps you dig out a little bit more vote in Chatham County where Savannah was, where they actually did quite well in 2020 while everyone was paying attention up here, then you have a --

BURNETT: Right --

MATTINGLY: Pathway. The Trump campaign knows that, they're trying to do the same thing on the other side, Erin.

BURNETT: Yes, right. Of course, the margin less than 11,000 votes last time around as of course, we all know. Thank you so much, Phil. So, more now. The Justice Department has sent election monitors to keep an eye on proceedings in several states, not all though were welcoming of the Justice officials, as we are watching the vote come in across the country, CNN's Paula Reid has more on this specific issue from the voting desk. Paula?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Erin, we've learned the Justice Department will be allowed to send election monitors to polling locations in Texas and Missouri. And this development comes after Republican officials in both states filed lawsuits attempting to block the Justice Department from doing this work.

And notably, in Missouri, it was a Trump- appointed judge that said the federal monitors will be allowed in this little county here, St. Louis County. Now, in Texas, the state has actually indicated that they have reached an agreement with the Justice Department where monitors will be allowed, but they will stay outside of polling places.

Now, every election, the Justice Department sends monitors to observe the voting process in dozens of counties across the country. These monitors are specifically tasked with helping to monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws. And this year, monitors are slated to be sent to 27 states today, that's up from 18 states during the 2020 election. Erin?

BURNETT: All right, Paula, thank you very much. And when we come back, we're going to check in with Nevada's top election official. So much talk about what's going on across the state, but also crucial Clark County with Nevada, Las Vegas, also be speaking to a senior adviser to the Trump campaign as this history-making election day in America continues.

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