America Votes Today; Obama Rallies Troops One Last Time
REP. RON PAUL, FMR. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think it's going to be sad if we don't have any gridlock or any debate. I mean, if everything gets rubber stamped, of course, I wouldn't mind a little bit of movement to get rid of the Patriot Act, that wouldn't be too bad. If they were doing the right things it wouldn't be a problem.But right now, there's no evidence that we are all of a sudden going to see a shift that we're going to see new policies, that we're going to have a deep concern about the constitution that we're going to talk about non-interventions foreign policy that would talk about the Federal Reserve, the culprit in this whole financial mess. Nobody's talking about that. So, yes, I think if we rubber stamp and see no gridlock and one party power, I think it's very bad for our country.</s>KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Congressman Ron Paul, it's great to talk to you this morning. Thanks for your take today.</s>PAUL: Thank you.</s>JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: We're crossing the top of the hour and here's new video from a polling center here in New York City. People standing in line outside and inside the polling place waiting to cast their vote. New York is one of 13 states where polls are already open, but we're already hearing about some problems there. Machine shortages apparently in some precincts. And also new video in from Richmond, Virginia, this morning. Voters there waiting in long lines, braving the rain as well, to cast their votes. Thirteen more states plus Washington, D.C., opening their polls now because it's the top of the hour.</s>CHETRY: And breaking right now as 13 more states and our nation's capital opened their polling stations. Included in those 13, three crucial battleground states, that's Florida, Missouri, as well as Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania did not have early voting so this is the first time folks there are going to be coming to the polls. Voting precincts are now open in more than half of the U.S. and that includes 26 states and Washington, D.C. And Barack Obama won the nation's first Election Day tally. It was a small one, but the Democrat was the winner in the tiny hamlet of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire. People in the isolated village in the northeast corner of the state voted just after midnight. Fifteen votes going to Obama, six to McCain, the first time in 40 years that the village leaned Democratic in a presidential election.</s>ROBERTS: The last night on the trail was a late one for both candidates. Barack Obama made his last campaign appearance in the battleground of Virginia in the town of Manassas, in the all-important Prince William County. And he returned to the one-word message that he used to launch his campaign, change.</s>SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: One voice can change a room. And if the voice can change a room, it can change a city. And if it can change a city, it can change a state. And if it can change a state, it can change a nation. And if it can change a nation, it can change the world. So, I've just got one question for you, Virginia. Are you fired up? Are you ready to go? Fired up! Ready to go! Fired up! Ready to go! Fired up! Ready to go! Virginia, let's go change the world, thank you. God bless you.</s>ROBERTS: And our Suzanne Malveaux is live for us in Chicago this morning, Obama headquarters. Suzanne, what's the mood in the campaign today, and what will the senator be doing?</s>SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John, it's funny, I think we all remember when they first told that story and they had the fired up ready to go chant, there's certainly a sense of relief. There's a sense of anxiety and confidence all in one in the campaign. They are looking forward to this day. They are optimistic, but they're not overly confident here. They've been working for quite some time, and they feel like they've got to work until the very end. Barack Obama just got home about five hours ago in Chicago, but he's going to be up and he's going to be voting in about an hour or so at the neighboring elementary school. Then he's going to head over to the next door neighbor state, Indiana, for some last minute campaigning. That -- it just underscores kind of the sense of confidence that they do have that they could actually take that Republican leaning state, that that is a possibility. You know, they share the Chicago TV market, so that is a real possibility there. And then he's going to spend the rest of the day playing a pickup game of hoops with some friends. It's a tradition, kind of a good luck thing that he does in these big days. Then he's going to watch those election returns at a local hotel before heading here to Grant Park. And I have to tell you, John. The set up here is really kind of extraordinary. They're expecting about 70,000 people to be here and that's not including the number of people they think might be on the lake, which will be about a million or so. So, either way, probably about after midnight, whenever those numbers, those results come in, they expect there's going to be a huge crowd here and they are hoping that it's going to be a party, John.</s>ROBERTS: Good weather there, Suzanne?</s>MALVEAUX: It's amazing. It's 70 degrees out here. I mean, it's so atypical for Chicago weather. A little bit of that wind that you expect, but yes, it's beautiful.</s>ROBERTS: He's got good luck with the weather anyway. Suzanne Malveaux for us this morning as we're looking at pictures from a polling place in Richmond, Virginia, there. People have been lining up since 4:00 in the morning to cast their ballots -- Kiran.</s>CHETRY: That's right. Polls open there an hour ago. They didn't get so lucky with the weather. As we saw, they've been getting a lot of rain there but it's not stopping people from coming out to the polls. John McCain, by the way, the campaign trail ended with him back in his home state. Actually, we'll just tell you a little bit more about Virginia right now. This is a battleground with 13 electoral votes and John McCain is hoping that it will be a lucky number for him. Nearly half a million new young voters have registered. Many of them expected to skew toward Barack Obama, though. CNN's Dan Lothian is live in Richmond. And, Dan, the Democratic strategists say that if Obama wins Virginia -- actually, let's go to Ed Henry right now. He's with the McCain camp in Phoenix. He joins us live, bright and early this morning. Let's talk a little bit about the momentum as we look at these live pictures right now out of Virginia. This is another key one for John McCain.</s>ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And the bottom line for the McCain camp is they need to do several things today. First of all, they have to hold those red Republican states George W. Bush carried in 2004, like Virginia, like North Carolina, also Florida, where John McCain started really a grueling day yesterday; 3,700 miles on straight talk air hitting seven states, most of them, those red states. They need to hold those. They think if they do, they'll be in about 260 electoral votes and then they need to do one of two things. They either need to turn Pennsylvania from blue to red, 21 electoral votes. That would put him over the magic number of 270 to win or they need to cobble together some smaller states like New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada. A lot of the ones out in the Mountain West. In fact, that's why John McCain is taking a rare step today. He is actually going to not just rest, he's going to go to both Colorado and New Mexico after he votes this morning. He is going to go out there and do some more campaigning, a rally in Colorado and then a call center in New Mexico to try where people are making calls to turn out the vote. It's interesting because John McCain used to have a tradition on Election Day where he'd go to the movies here for senate races in Arizona, try to decompress, relax. Obviously, he's got a much bigger Secret Service detail. Can't be going to the movies, but also, he's got a race he needs to try and win here in the final hours. He's going to try and pull out all the stops. No time for movies, Kiran.</s>CHETRY: All right. Absolutely. Ed Henry for us this morning, thanks.</s>ROBERTS: It's easy to forget that as America goes to the polls, the entire world is watching now more than ever after the Bush years which saw radical changes in America's foreign policy. There's huge interest in who America will pick for president. And international polls show the world got to vote Barack Obama would win in a landslide. Right now, it's seven minutes after the hour. Here in New York City at the top of the hour, polls opened in another ten states. That includes Arizona, where polls indicate McCain is having to fight off Barack Obama on home turf. And we're watching out for your vote throughout this Election Day. As you can tell, we have got a keen eye on that voting place in Richmond, Virginia, to see what happens. If you've got any problems, just give us a call at 1-877-GOCNN-08. Again, that's 1-877-462-6608.</s>CHETRY: And still ahead, battleground Florida, it's a must-win for John McCain. We'll be talking about that a lot this morning. One of the stops on his final whirlwind push hours before, Barack Obama appears there as well. The best political team on television weighs in.