we want to become viewers here in the united states and around the world. welcome. i'm kate boulduan. >> and i'm john berman. zero days to election day. zero. no more minutes until poll opens in most parts of the country. counting down to history, big history. either the country elects the first president with no government or military experience. >> or the 45th president of the united states will be the first to be a woman. either way, it has never happened before, ever. that is clearly a very big deal. so big that we will now tell you that the polls are just now opening in hawaii. meaning all 50 states are now open for business. millions of voters have been lining up across, all over the place, since before dawn. donald trump and his wife

melania arrived to cast ballots, we saw a short time ago in new york city. a while ago hillary clinton voted in chappaqua, new york, along with her husband, bill clinton. >> whew! >> so much at stake in the race to 270. our reporters in place across the country. es special lit battlegrounds states you may have heard us mention once or twice or 1,000 times over the past 18 months. >> first to cnn's jason carroll. jason carroll outside the place donald trump voted just a short time ago. >> reporter: back in new york, donald trump casting a vote for himself a short while ago. the whole thing took about ten minutes here on east 56th street when donald trump showed up with his wife melania and daughter

ivanka. met by cheers, people still standing in line and met by a lot of boos. people may not realize donald trump not as popular in manhattan as upstate new york or long island. trump for his part once inside did talk how he thinks the electoral map is shaping up. >> the plan for tomorrow -- >> we'll see what happens. looking very good. right now it's looking very good. >> what if -- [ inaudible ]. >> we'll see happens. interesting -- thank you. thank you. >> reporter: it might be tough to hear, donald trump basically saying things are looking very good, very good, in his words. he's said in the past states such as ohio looking good for him. new hampshire, and north carolina. but as both of you know, he's

also been very clear about this whole idea of the system being rigged against him. he's talked about this throughout his campaign. he talked about it again yesterday. so there's been some concerns about, if thing doss not go his way, would he concede? we do know hillary clinton, for example, is working on a speech if she wins. a speech if she does not win. donald trump for his part saying in an interview earlier today saying, "he wants to see what happens before "accepting" the results. kate, john? >> jason carroll. thank you so much. jason, going from new york city to outside new york city to joe johns who is in chappaqua, new york, where hillary clinton cast her ballot, for we assume herself, a short time ago as well. hi there, joe. >> reporter: hi, kate. hillary clinton showing up here at the polls to vote with her husband, the former president. hasn't done much else since that time. d done a number of radio intervice

trying not to make a lot of news. described to one radio station she hasn't had a lot of sleep, which we knew and running on adrenaline. earlier today going to the polls, hillary clinton once again very careful in what she was saying. projecting the image of a nominee who simply does not really, if she can avoid it, want to look like this is inevitable situation. listen. >> it is the most humbling feeling, dan, because, you know, i know how much responsibility goes with this, and so many people are counting on the outcome of this election. what it means for our country, and i'll do the very best i can, if i'm fortunate enough to win today. >> back in washington, the current president who is now awaiting word of who his successor will be engaged a bit of an election-year ritual. he went to play basketball with friends out in virginia.

now, president obama has played basketball on a number of occasions on election day. only this time it's a little different, because it's his former secretary of state, who's on the ballot. back to you. >> yes, sir. playing basketball for someone else this time around. joe johns in chappaqua, new york. thanks so much. interesting, one of the states really fought over with more intensity than we've ever seen before is north carolina. both campaigns heading down there towards the last minute. get to victor blackwell right now in raleigh. victor what are you seeing? >> reporter: well, john, let me tell you what's happening lighter just to my left. the republican governor of the state pat mccrory is coming here to speak with a few voters, shake hands and take pictures with voters. come here to this reliably republican precinct that went to romney in 2012, mccain in 2008, and he's locked in a very tight race with the state's democratic attorney general roy cooper. there are ig regularities, call them, next door in durham county. we've learned from the durham

county board of elections and state board of elections, there had been problems with the computerize check-in system there, when people show up to vote. now, out of abundance of caution we're told they've switched to polling books and checking people in on paper. now, from the president of the state's naacp branch we hear that is a problem for them because lines are growing in this reliably democratic county. democrats in durham county outnumber republicans 5-1, substantial number of unaffiliated voters. the naacp has attorneys going out trying to extend the hours, trying to make sure that this glitch is fixed so that they can get the people who are in line to vote and make sure people stay. now, if this, the line stretches beyond 7:30 tonight when polls close, anyone who is in line at 7:30 will be able to vote. so remember that. but, again, this is wake county, where i am. a battleground here within the

battleground of north carolina. we know that, and we knee candidates know it, because each of them was here within the last 18 hours of their campaign. john, kate? >> victor blackwell, thank you so much. a key toss-up, now to boris sanchez outside a polling location in high lee aleah, flo. what are you seeing there, boris? significance lost on no one. >> reporter: good morning, kate. turnout so far has been somewhat slow at this location right behind us. about three dozen people lined up outside this morning when polls opened. now it's kind of quiet out here. but we're expecting things to get heated up as we get later into the evening. so far more than 6.5 million people have voted in the state of florida. that's more people than voted in the entire 2000 election, and the big story is turnout in the latino community. we're up 89% from where we were in 2008. that has major implications for both candidates.

for republicans, hoping that a lot of that turnout is here in miami-dade county, because cuban-americans, here in the city of progress hialeah, florida, tend to trend towards the gop. further north in orlando, they tend to trend towards democrats. those are puerto ricans. they're hoping if they can win cuban-americans here, they get closer to the gap that they have right now with democrats. they're facing about a 90,000 vote deficit in early voting. keep in mind, president obama, the democrats had about 100,000 vote advantage going into election day on 2012. able to hold on to about 70,000 votes. a lead of 70,000 votes and win the republicans are hoping to close that gap here today and a lot has to do with turnout in places like miami-dade. john and kate? >> boris sanchez in florida. thanks so much, boris. talk more about the watch in florida and the rest of the country. joining us now, cnn political analyst david gregory. we've said one of the ways we'll

know whether it's a short night or potentially very, very long night by whats in florida. you dug down into the state from understanding exactly where we should be watching and when. >> talk a lot about the early votes. the early vote statistics tell us about this surge in hispanic latino voting. 36% first-time voters this go-round in the early vote. those votes come in, you look at miami-dade county, obviously. look at results in 2012. overall florida. the results in miami-dade were huge for barack obama in 2012. we're going get a sense of whether hillary clinton is able to match that or even exceed it. that's gog that's going to tell a lot. orlando, look for the same thing. a lot of puerto ricans moved into florida, in addition to the cuban community, which used to be a little more conservative. here we look for these returns. the margins that will tell us a lot about whether florida is

realistically for donald trump or whether it's going to go for hillary clinton. it that is the case, she starts to cut off the pass for him to get to 270 pretty quickly. >> pretty quickly. florida is the beginning and could be the very quick end for donald trump. >> right. go back here and we'll look at the electoral map as we start, just to start off, we look at, she's here at 268. >> right. >> we don't even have to talk about florida, ohio, and north carolina. she could be done if she gets nevada. if she gets new hampshire. he's got to really kind of run the table. if we look, for example, where they were in their final night of campaigning. >> yes. >> again, she was in pennsylvania. she was in north carolina. she's thinking about the minority vote in pennsylvania. the college educated white vote in the county of philadelphia. north carolina. here, too, the latino vote is so important. the largest percentage increase in the latino vote in the country is in north carolina.

it becomes very important. the story for donald trump where he ended michigan. his final rally. he's got to rely upon a surge of basically white working class voters in the upper midwest, if he's going to make a go. >> look, the chief republican strategist on moments ago thought michigan would be the biggest surprise. night claiming they love what they're seeing there. and the math tells the story. if you flip michigan, if the republicans flip michigan, all of a sudden the map gets very, very different here and the math gets very, very different, talking about florida noornland carolina. >> right. give donald trump michigan. give him, say he holds on to arizona. you want to give him florida. gets limb him to 260. with michigan. wins if he gets north carolina. no question that he's still got to run the table with a lot of these other battleground states and then flip something really big. democrats will tell you to flip michigan to flip pennsylvania is kind of fool's gold in past

elections where republicans thought they had a shot. again where we could have a big surprise bep know about the enthusiasm for trump among those supporters in a largely white state, more working class voters. what they're banking on. >> look back at 2012. romney's team making a big effort in michigan, in pennsylvania. got closest to breaking through the blue wall in pennsylvania. losing by i think 5% in pennsylvania, but republicans do feel very differently about michigan in this late part of the race. they seem to see something different than they saw even in '12. >> because they saw trend line where is they saw polls moving in their favor and thought he had an ability to close. democrats argue it's still a little bit more difficult for them to do that. look for oakland county, outside detroit, this is where mitt rom inn was from. he lost that. look at those early returns and say, is donald trump making up some ground in that count ji could tell something about whether michigan can go for him. >> circle michigan and new

hampshire today, david. they're interesting. no early voting. no real early voting in new hampshire or pennsylvania. michigan has a little bit but you have to be over 60 years old. it's weird there. another reason why these campaigns work sewed hard there in closing days. >> yeah, and add pennsylvania, right? maybe you just said. circled it initially. >> it's all good. >> i wanted to circle michigan again. i felt like -- >> like michigan. >> in the mood to draw a lot of circles. exactly right. hillary clinton finishes there. her husband, obama and springstein, bon jovi, want to take advantage of election day and getting people out. what it's all about. >> no day but today, as they say in musicals that i love. >> especially election day. >> david gregory, great to you have with us. >> so deep. thank you so much. all right. stay right here on cnn detail and night. on the election, covering it all for you. >> heard from the republican party. also donald trump, projecting a winning attitude. trump also says, though, if he doesn't win, this whole thing

will have been a huge waste of time. we'll discuss that, coming up. and show you live pictures from manchester, new hampshire. voters making their choice today in the presidential election. much more on this, after a quick break. approve this message. i could stand in the middle of 5th avenue and shoot somebody and i wouldn't lose any voters, okay?

and you can tell them to go f**á themselves. you know you could see there was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever. you gotta see this, i don't know, i don't remember. he's going like 'i don't remember.'

when the newest addition to the universe of blue states is the commonwealth of virginia pap republican state for a long time until president obama won it twice. now it's 13 electoral votes are essential to hillary clinton and some of the first to report in tonight as results come in. >> right. over to brian todd in ashburn, virginia, where voting is underway as we speak. brian, been there since early, early this morning. what are you seeing now? >> reporter: very robust turnout, kate and john. state officials telling us impressive so far. not giving numbers until after the polls close at 7:00 p.m. at this precinct at sanders corner elementary school, heavy turnout all morning. lines snaking out the door and

around the building when polls opened at 6:00 a.m. take you inside here where people check in with a photo i.d. look at these voting stations here. 14 of them. they've been pretty full all day long. so it's been very, very heavy turnout here in this precinct. the precinct captain told me a short time ago this is crazier than in 2008 where they had a heavy turnout. again, state officials not going to give numbers here until after the polls close at 7:00 p.m. eastern time. donald trump has to perform in this county, loudy cou on count little suburban, a little rural. chirm sunday night to hold a last-minute rally at midnight. thousands lined up to see him. we were there. impressive rally. donald trump counting on loudon county because it is a swing county. went to president obama in 2012, only slightly. trump and his campaign really wanting to kind of pull out these suburban and rural

counties in virginia to see if he were pull the upset. this race has been tightening as we've gotten closer to election day. where people go to get votes scanned. the sample ballot. eight slots to fill out including presidential candidates, congressional candidates. fill it out by paper with a pen. then gets put through the optical scanner over there. pictures taken on both sides. i just talked to a state election official saying they're going to do away with all touch screens in this state by the year 2020. the scanning is what they rely on, guys. >> brian todd. love watching it along with you. thank you so much. brian's will be there all day watching how the vote comes out. a lot to watch today, of course. let us discuss the panel here with us now. david gregory, analyst journalist and author. jackie kucinich, washington bureau chief for the daily

beast. errol louis as well. and carl barnstein, political analyst, investigative journalist to say the leefrt as. great to have you all. started this conversation earlier with david. early things he's looking out for. ear errol, pick up on that. looking into the not so far future? >> the day to have that tail off, getting real results. it's i think one of the big stories, latino turnout. that registration, mobilization and actual votes are way, way up. it's not just chicanos, not just mexican-americans. it's puerto rican americans. a big, growing movement and it is going to be a critical part of the hillary clinton coalition. see if that coalition comes through for her. in the i-4 corridor, florida for sure, keep an eye on that. nevada, definitely keep an eye on that.

frankly even california and texas, in some areas where the outcome of the state is not in doubt but what's going on i think is really important. >> sort of asking, how-to guide to watch the election tonight as results start coming in at 7:00. the first thing that will pop up and say to you, jackie, uh-huh! >> depends on the state. i think we might know florida very early, because two-thirds of folks have voted there. >> such a big deal in florida. can't get past t. really is. i will talk a little about my home state of ohio. i'm watching cuyahoga county. turnout matters. a big democratic county. also a little bit, a little known auto county, a dealer pointed out today it has gone, picked the actual, you know, president for, has the longest streak running in ohio. a long time. >> and feelings when people say ron brownstein, ohio is no longer the bellwether? does that hurt your feelings? >> do you take it personally? >> maybe a little.

denine later. >> florida is such a big deal because it will tell us something about nevada. actually tell us about north carolina as well, in terms of that surge of the hispanic vote. given all the predictions, i think if people are terribly wrong and we've been wrong about what donald trump is capable of before, we really have to wait and see the results of michigan. wait to see whether he has the capacity and the upper midwest to mobilize a turnout among working-class white voters we haven't seen before and rival that of riggen in 19 -- reighen in 1984, without that, with women, college educated voters, we know how the deck is stacked against him and also know where hi strengths are. >> getting to the notion a lot of people discussed the idea there's a secret trump vote out there. there might be voters who aren't slowi ining at the polls. sean spicer says no secrets. tons of data.

the notion is out there. do you buy it? >> we want to know, are all of these advanced polls holding? and if there is an indication early on in place like pennsylvania, in a place like michigan that they are not holding, then the expectations could be very different than the assumption has hillary clinton has this thing almost locked up. another thing to watch through the day, and that is voter suppression, voter intimidation. regardless of whether it's an impact on tonight, it is an underlying issue in this campaign that ought to concern republicans all over the country, that is going have a lot to do with the future of how elections are fought in this country. it's a disgrace how republicans embraced through their secretary of states of state, through voter intimidation, the idea they tonight want a bigger tent and won't say it out loud is a real underlying issue that i think we ought to keep our eyes on. we also freneed to watch out fo

outside interference, anything having to do with the internet and today by the soviet union. yes, the old soviet union people, massacre apeople mass masquerading. hope there are no non-actors of our own political class involved in this. >> talked about expectations as the polls hold. donald trump kind of play wig expe playing with expectations and at a rally in north carolina and how well they're doing. listen to this. >> we're winning ohio. we're wing iowa. we're winning iowa. we're winning, with think, new hampshire. we're going to do great in new hampshire. i hear we're winning north carolina big. i hear. [ cheers and applause ]

we're winning florida. winning florida. doing really well -- headlines today on drudge. how well we're doing in florida. and i think we're going to win the great state of pennsylvania. >> one, two, three, four, five, six -- big states he's listing they're winning and chances he wins all of those, david? >> look, you know, you're a candidate, especially donald trump this is what he's done all along. whether it's true or not he'll be out there and talk about it. one of the things he's done is to try to suppress her turnout. by, and he did it there. suggesting, look, we're winning so big already. there has an effect of people, this thing is lost already. i don't think they'll buy it from either side. enthusiastic supporters of donald trump showing up and perhaps we'll see it in record numbers and i think the same is true among democrats as well. and, again, the latino turnout, it's very interesting.

in the play "hamilton" the great line is that immigrants get things done. it's not just hispanics who are voting because of some of the talk from donald trump about building a wall, about mexican rapists and deporting them. it is an attitude towards immigrants. and hispanics and other non-white voters are sensing that the republican party is really becoming an enemy of immigrants in this country. they've come a long way from the campaign we covered in 2000. george w. bush's governor saying family values don't stop at the rio grande to now we're going to build a wall. >> ann coulter, a sbag porter of donald trump, tweeted if the election were held among people with four grandparents born in the united states, donald trump would win. >> donald trump would be able to run. >> true. >> and an astounding thought. >> didn't even run spanish language ads. they didn't do any meaningful outreach to hispanic voters. i don't remember a campaign that didn't bother having a spanish

language website for goodness sake. he hasn't give an reason for these folks to cast their vote for him. why would they? >> let me suggest the most important word trump said there is drudge. that he's looking at matt drudge and his polls on matt drudgeal drudge report site, and the alternative universe of drudge alt right, the different press and social media that we have seen almost dominate to some extent a big part of the electorate. a wholly new phenomenon and it is maybe the other most important part of this election. and if it turns out, and i look at drudge, and if it turns out that drudge is right in what he has been putting up on his site, donald trump is going to win. but it sass nalso is not going . the ault right universe is going

to be the huge part of the next presidency, where we're going in this country and we have to learn what it means, alt right, and how to be an alternative to it that is fact-based and truthful, because it is not. >> i mean, we do what we've always done. >> viewers know and voters what we're looking at. on the screen, tim kaine arriving to the airport in richmond, taking off to come to new york city for the election night event. here in new york. errol, didn't mean to cut you off. almost like a tale of two campaigns. you've got donald trump on the stage saying, drudge and what he's seeing there, but also seeing really impressive stories about how there is a real data operation behind trump, not just the republican party, but if he's got a data operation that they are looking at not drudge, to say the least. >> doing what they should be doing as a national campaign, then they're doing nightly samples with big samples. 5,000, 10,000 people that they trek every night.

if he had said, we're hearing based on our own internal data analytics we have a chance in michigan, pennsylvania, wherever. one thing. when he's going down for the third time is when you hear him saying, hey, somebody call sean hant pip look at drudge. that kind of think. hannity. carl's right. an alternate reality is out there, but the interests of the breitbart media operation or of drudge are reality is not what they're selling. >> want to change the country, though in their image. >> one thing we know for sure, there will be a surprise tonight. there's always a surprise. every election night. whether in the presidential race -- >> aren't we surprised tz out? >> can never be enough surprises. october or not. >> a gander, jackie, david, what might be surprise be tonight? is it a state someone wins we didn't think they would win? is it the secret trump vote, the flip side pap not so secret latino surge? could be any one of these things. >> not knowing what the surprise

is, it does seem at this moment that the latino vote is going to be the biggest story coming out of this election, but as we've seen, throughout this election, it has been just a, you know, anything can happen. really can. don't mean to not answer your question. >> and i think the surprise were, if hillary wins that she give as speech tonight that somehow touches americans, that she hasn't been able to thus far. >> that would be a surprise. >> that would be a surprise. >> a long way to go. >> and hard to measure. >> i think -- >> hard to measure. >> i actually think trump might surprise tonight. that if it's decisive, it doesn't have to be a crushing defeat, but decisive enough that he comes out, fakes credtaked c changing the republican party. >> better than mitt romney. >> perhaps, right, and an impact taking on the system and try to consolidate in a way that will sound more civil than we've

heard, how he would like to continue the movement and continue the impact. he might himself be a little tired of the notion of i'm not going to accept the results and throwing everything into chaos. his son was interesting on "new day" struck is note of civility suggesting they would be very proud with what they've accomplished and want to continue that impact and maybe channel it a little in a more positive way. >> never too late to try ow civility. guys, a lot more discuss. stick around for us. again, so you know what you're looking at there on the side of your screen, or were, tim kaine, preparing to fly from richmond to new york for the election night party in new york city with hillary clinton. taking last-minute photos with folk there's. also ahead for us, donald trump made a last-minute pitch to voters last night in the traditionally democratic state of michigan. will that pay off jp will that be the surprise jackie can't wait for? >> a sentimental day. election day is a sentimental d day. a did gday for hugs.

across the country, one in wisconsin, voting underway. actually, counting underway. they're counting absentee ballots. we'll be right back. changes to make things right. first, all customers who have been impacted will be fully refunded. second, a confirmation will be sent when new personal or small business checking, savings or credit card accounts are opened. third, we've eliminated product sales goals for our retail bankers to ensure your interests are put first. we're taking action. we're renewing our commitment to you.

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welcome back. colorado one of the top ten states when it comes to ad spending in this general election. nearly $20 million spent by the campaigns and allies vying for the state's nine electoral votes. today all of that work and that cash gets put to the test. >> ona cabrera in golden, colorado and in a moment two other battleground states. in wisconsin. and dan simon in phoenix, arizona. but first going to ana in

colorado. go ahead, ana. >> reporter: hey there, john and kate. this is a bellwether county. jefferson county and the state twice went for barack obama. twice went to george w. bush. a mail-in ballot state. a lot of people voted early and conveniently, filled out their ballot at home, sent them in or dropped them off at a drop box conveniently spread out all over the state. this is where ballots come once they get here pup can see, recently they had a shipment arrive. this guy is sorting them out, putting them in bins that then get taken to these guys. these two tables are full of sorters working through some of the ballots making sure they're lined up in the right direction. weeding out those dropped off in the wrong counties ballot drop-off box and getting ready to go into the ballot counting machine. come with me. this is where ballots go through a signature verification process. they go through signature verification twice before there

are any votes or ballots counted, actually. you can see once they get their signatures verified they're put into other bins and then taken to a completely different room for the next step of the process. now, a few details, and information we've learned here in colorado. more than 2.2 million people cast their votes early. about two-thirds of the registered electorate in this state. remember, this is a state that previously voted for president obama in 2012, and when you look at the vote returns right now, republicans have a slight lead in terms of the registered republican whose have already cast their votes compared to registered democrat, but also about one-third of the state registered as unaffiliated on independent. when you look at latest poll, 39% supporting hillary clinton. 39% supporting donald trump and 14% undecided gives a lot of questions which way colorado is going to go on this election day. john and kate? >> watching behind-the-scenes,

how it all happen there's in colorado. ana, great to see you. thank you so much. so ten electoral votes is at stake in wisconsin. check in there with ryan young. ryan, correct us. is it wowatosa? >> four sure. got it right. trying to get that name out. i learned it when i first got there. you did get right. congratulations. one of the things we're doing, looking at ballots, counting of absentee ballots. electoral votes, this state hasn't vote ford republican since 1984, but you talk about, look, you've got paul ryan here. you have governor walker. a lot of people are concentrated here in terms of conservative movement and thinking maybe they'd be able to turn the state red. see if that happens. of course, carla, who works here as the clerk, please, tell us how are things going so far with counting of votes and everything that's taken place so far? >> this is the central count office counting all absentee ballots, going very, very well.

issues 8,010 ballots. expecting the last mail delivery today. should be the rest of the ballots. >> reporter: early voting is huge in the state. talk about how, seems people are energized. >> absentee voting, no early voting and very robust. about 32% of the registered voters here who opted to cast absentee ballots. >> reporter: in the process what they're doing there, verifying the sheets that go through the computer? how does that work. opening all envelopes. all ballots are sealed in envelopes subpoena to op s envelopes. feed them into the tab laulator. and sent in one the individual voting locations here have sent results. >> reporter: fantastic. thank for joining us. appreciate it. >> you're welcome. >> reporter: also the up for grabs senate seats between russ feingold and ron johnson.

a lot of conversation, feingold had a 15-point lead now down to single digits p. a hotly contested senate seat. a lot of people obviously talking about that. a lot of people going out and doing door knocking last minute. still a highly contested state. >> ron young in wauwatosa, wisconsin. and rarely gets much attention in presidential election years is widely republican. at least one. now very much in play. hillary clinton swooped in last week. and going to dan simon in the battleground state of arizona in phoenix. dan? >> reporter: hey, john and kate. we are at a church here in central phoenix. we've seen a steady stream of voters coming into this church. right now it appears to be empty. one reason that might be, this is an early voting state and more than 60% of the expected vote has already come in. now, when you look at the

landscape here in arizona, talk about a reliably red state. only one democrat carried the state in the past 64 years. wondering who that was? bill clinton in 1996. the democrats think they have a legitimate chance once again with hillary clinton, thanks to the hispanic vote, and they like the historical trend they're seeing. liking that the trends throughout the nation. it extends here to arizona where more hispanics voted early. double in terms of what they saw in 2012, but donald trump, he poured a lot of resources into the state map made numerous visits. been here seven times. we'll see what happens. but in this past week, the clinton campaign, they have increased their ad spending and like their chances but latest polling shows them down by about five points. the nation is waiting to see what happens here in arizona. john and kate, back to you. >> dan simon, great to see you. thank you, dan. do you want a chance to be featured in cnn's election day coverage? tag your instagram #myvote

before did you vote and where? send us pictures. we'll showcase them throughout the day. >> showing you live pictures of voters heading to the polls in battle ground state, florida. hialeah, florida. live all day, polling stations across the country bringing you the very latest. this exciting day pe. election day in america. we'll be right back. @!@!

back where it all started right now. iowa. remember back to the caucuses there, ted cruz won on the republican side and hillary clinton won barely by, like, a

handful of votes over brns. >> brernie sanders. >> a long time ago. what is the big issue you're hearing from voters? what are they voting on, rosa? rosa, can you hear us? >> reporter: john and kate, good afternoon. i'm in pot wanmy county here in western, iowa. the word here is, efficiency, because these poll workers, look behind me, working very, very hard to make sure that the lines are short. now, i've got to give you the lay of the land here, because iowa, of course, you will find the democratic stronghold to the east and you will find the republican stronghold to the west. now, i'm on the west here, and if you look at iowa historically, you'll see that six out of the last seven

presidential elections have gone to the democrats. but this time around, both candidates have their own demons to fight before they can claim any victories here. when you talk about the hillary clinton camp, you will find that this is not hillary country. she actually lost the primaries back in 2008, and this time only beat bernie sanders by very small margin. the big question, will those bernie sanders supporters come out and vote for her? when it comes to donald trump, this is actually ted cruz country. he won the primary this time around, and the big question is, will those ted cruz supporters actually come out and vote for donald trump? now, i've talked to some of them. they do say that it helped tremendously for ted cruz to actually be out on the campaign trail with donald trump. but here we are. it's election day. only time will tell. john and kate? >> rosa flores, thank you so much. >> bringing back our panel now.

joining the discuss, alex burns, a cnn politicalen strategist and what does this all mean? tomorrow will be easier to assess, but we'll make it harder today. for you, covering it from the beginning, what's the one thing you've learned from the election? >> john, where this differs from 2012 and the 2008 election, monument until its own way, the degree to which this was almost entirely fought on these really broad and deep questions about national identity. this is not really a narrow policy election. in the way we saw four years ago. the degree to which voters out there were actually less ideological than we thought they would be in the conventional sense wanting somebody who checked all conservative boxes and so intensely wanted this fight over just national character and what it means to

be american and america's place in the world. i think that has surprised a lot of us and i think it says a lot about just the shape of the two parties in the political debate in washington going forward. >> and what it means going forward, if it stays like that in elections going forward, fascinating. errol to you, what convention's wisdom has been flipped on its head in this election, do you think? >> some of the conventional wisdom, you have the gender income race and geography of a voter you kind of know where they're going to go. that has been scrambled in a lot of different ways. you can find a middle aged working class white voter in pennsylvania and can't really be sure where they're coming from. in part because the nation changed. very much as alex talked about. more multiracial families than ever before, more same-sex couples legalized than ever before. lots of people college educated who take up residence in north carolina and never go home. they're changing what had been a

very conservative -- i remember being in college and jesse helms the senator in north carolina. this is no longer jesse helms north carolina. say the same thing in state after state including a place like arizona. >> true. what is ohio? what is pennsylvania? means something very different than a few years ago. trump and clinton, the names on the ballot today. who do you think the bigger winner is beyond them right now? >> a really good question. you know, it's funny. all i can think of is how much work there will be for either of these people to do. when they are elected. >> hmm. >> because we've got the most -- the most disliked, distrusted people to ever be on the ticket. and no matter who wins, they're both going to have work to do in their own parties as well as for the country by and large. so it valley extraordinary. >> you -- >> the end of the, the great

senate race, robert redford wins the election, looks in the camera, what do i do now? >> maybe easier to answer who's the biggest loser than the actual winner? unfortunately -- >> it's not paul ryan. it's not the senate. it's not, all of the conventional winners and losers we talk about every single election. not as clear. maybe because it's been so negative and it's been kind of a slog. >> i do think rewind the tape to the beginning of the cycle and think about what are the assumptions overturned? what does that say about the actors? i'm old enough to remember when we all thought the big challenge for hillary clinton, persuading people she wouldn't be a third term of barack obama. think about the last part of the campaign, the message is basically four more years, right? you have to say at least one of the winners, irrespective, president's hold ever his own party and the basic political calculus he advanced in the party is so dominant for

democrats and not going away anytime soon. >> unless he loses. has to watch republican systematically break down everything he's worked for over the last eight years. i agree but have to see if it works. >> we're missing a huge sea change in our country. the most significant thing about this election. the idea that a demagogue could run an essentially racist, anti-immigrant, nativist campaign, become the nominee of the republican party, almost capture the presidency and perhaps capture it. this is astonishing. >> millions of voters who voted for donald trump and support him don't describe that man -- in that way at all . >> we have pretty good evidence in his biography and the campaign he's run, talk factually about that. the fact that people who support him might not necessarily and are not racist.

that's a given. but in terms of the campaign he ran, in terms of his personal histori histories, in terms of the radical notion of who this candidate is, this is a huge event in our history. it reflects a change in who the people of the country are and how they view our political system, and it is going to reverberate for many, many years. that's the big surprise in this election. nobody -- anybody here think that there was any possibility of this, when it started? >> i mean, donald trump announced, you know, 16 months ago in june. happened during this show, and i admit, i was one of the people that thought he would never run. once announced works never stay in the race. once stayed in the race never thought he'd win the nomination. >> and what he embraced and ran on? >> a value judgment. >> right. a lot of people who support him, waiting to hear from someone like him. >> i rest my case. >> carla is right pap radical fringe off on the margins under

a rock someplace that have come forward. the fact there are journalists who have to have armed security or some security. the fact that there's been this explosion of anti-semitic sort of output, garbage, that's been sort of -- made to feel as if it was legitimate somehow is a real problem. i think some of what happens after today is that some of those people will have to be moved back to the margin. whether they've won or not. >> play this game for us -- >> real issues that concern all kinds of people that are really legitimate and which the major party candidates have not until sanders and trump really embraced, and that has to do with the way many, many people are suffering in this country. so, yes. there is an availability for demagoguery in this environment. >> alex if donald trump wins, who does his first thank you note need to be written to, do you think? >> gosh, probably reince priebus. a guy who when there was

overwhelming pressure from a lot of donors in the party, a lot of candidates in the party, to say, give us space to get away from this guy, reince priebus, chairman of the national committee hupged him tighter and tighter and a lot of that was a calculation that you can sort of steer trump better if you're closer to him. but the result has been that trump and the republican party are way closer together than i think anyone anticipated they would be. >> hang on. breaking news, maybe, out of florida now. going to boris sanchez in florida. i believe in miami-dade. news about election clerks in broward county? fired? what's going on, boris? >> reporter: that's right, john. just getting this information now. please, bear with me, but it appears earlier today two election clerks in broward county, north of us, where we are right now, miami-dade county, were fired. they were "not working to the level of integrity they were trained to." from the public information officer for the broward county board of elections, tonya edwards who says that the clerks

were not adhering to procedures. she refused to explain exactly what procedures were not being followed correctly, but we know that those two clerks were fired and removed from the premises. the broward county deputies were requested. they moved those folks along. it appears voting in that area is back to normal and that polling location is fully operational. this is, again, just breaking. we haven't gotten exact clarity what happened, but it is only one instance we've heard of, of irreg wlaularities here. things are running smoothly, they told us, so far. we'll keep an eye on this situation both in broward and miami deed and keep you updated with the latest. >> watching that closely. not working to the level of integrity trained to. everyone is watches that closely now. thank you, boris and all of you for joining us at this hour. >> special coverage of the 2016

election day kov rov continues right after a quick break. donald trump campaign buttons (chanting) love trumps hate!

did you happen to see this dog out in the parking lot? i am trying to find his owner? he's really really sweet. is he a stray? he was running with a leash so he's obviously someone's so we're looking for the owner. you're a hilary supporter are you? i am are you a trump supporter? and you're wearing.um, huh... (laughs) i am hey there little fella' what a beautiful dog. michael would you like to pet the dog? aw look at that. i have my own dog so i wouldn't want to have my dog lost or anything. yeah definitely, i have a golden retriever too. i've been a dog lover forever. i am too! dogs don't criticize. if this was my golden retriever he'd be laying on my feet right now.

oh look that's my dog. there she is. oh my god! i love that apparently when it comes to dogs there are no political parties. i didn't ever expect myself to agree with a trump supporter. we do agree that we love dogs and dogs love us. i think fundamentally if you talk person to person they care about each other and they care about kids and they care about dogs and unfortunately that's not what gets out in the media things like this give us hope that we can all find common ground in some places and that was what we were just a part of. we all have our differences but everyone loves dogs.

and we are up live here in the nation's capital. i'm brooke baldwin. pretty important house behind me. someone else living in in a matter of months and today we figure out who that will be exactly. today is the day. the finish line. talking nonstop about all of this for 17, 18 or so months. it is election day in america. and after all of the campaigning, the debates, the attack ads and what has been such an unconventional election year, you, voters, are hitting polls today to decide who will be the next president of the united states.