Final Push to Election Day
KAYE: Welcome back and thanks for starting your morning with us. I'm Randi Kaye. It is now half past the hour. And here are some stories that we're watching this morning. We start with the presidential election now just two days away. President Obama and Mitt Romney seem to be trying to squeeze every last frequent flyer mile out of this campaign. They've got a combined 16 stops in eight states before heading home. President Obama kicks off his Sunday in Concord, New Hampshire, then it's on to Florida, Ohio, and a final stop in Colorado just after midnight. And here is where Mitt Romney is going. He starts in Des Moines, then, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and then Virginia. You can count on us to be there every step of the way. Mitt Romney ended his day yesterday in Colorado at the rally in Englewood. He had an admission about day one of a Romney presidency.</s>MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: When I'm elected, the economy and American jobs will still be stagnant, of course, but I won't waste any time complaining about my predecessor. From day one, I'm going to go to work to help Americans get back to work.</s>KAYE: Another big named endorsement for the president. He's now got the support of Israel's oldest newspaper. "Haaretz", which is actually liberal-leaning, says Obama is good for Israel. Quote, "The outcome of the elections will be determined by the voter's decision as to which of the two candidates is good for America. But if any of them are vacillating in their vote over whether Obama has been a good president for Israel, the answer is yes." Kind words by a big paper but the endorsement is expected to have little effect on the voters here in the U.S. And in President Obama's sprint to head a toss-up state this weekend. He made a stop in Wisconsin where he urged supporters to stick with him even if they sometimes have a difference of opinion.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You may not agree with every decision I've made. Sometimes you may have been frustrated by the pace of change, but you know where I stand. You know what I believe. You know I mean what I say, and I say what I mean.</s>KAYE: And recent poll of polls of Wisconsin shows the president with a seven-point lead over Governor Romney there. And overnight, newly released national polls are highlighting just how close this race is going to be. A new ABC News/"Washington Post" poll came out just after midnight. You see it there. It shows likely voters evenly split 48 to 48. And when voters were asked if they had a favorable impression of the candidates, the numbers are still neck and neck, President Obama with 54 percent, Mitt Romney, 53 percent. Early voting has come to a close in many states, but Sandy- ravaged New Jersey is allowing registered voters to email, even fax in their ballots. With so many new rules on early voting, voter ID and provisional ballot, the use of poll monitors is growing. But the new rules are also creating confusion over the role and responsibilities those monitors actually have. CNN's crime and justice correspondent Joe Johns explains.</s>JOE JOHNS, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Long lines in south Florida and in Cincinnati, Ohio, as early voting comes to a close, and those aren't the only crowd this hotly contested election has attracted.</s>ERIC MARSHALL, ELECTION PROTECTION: Ten thousand grassroots and legal volunteers across the country in election country.</s>CHRISTIAN ADAMS, TRUE THE VOTE: Everywhere. They're going to be everywhere. They've trained people in 50 states to legally poll watch.</s>JOHNS: Lawyer and poll watch of all political stripes descending on Ohio and across the country in search of any issues that need to be challenged.</s>MARSHALL: We're looking for long lines that might be the result of machines breaking down, poll workers that might be asking the wrong question, asking for ID when they shouldn't be.</s>JOHNS: Groups like the left leaning Election Protection have been training for weeks so they're ready to respond to any problems at the polls in real time.</s>MARSHALL: With all the changes nationally in the voting laws, I think we're prepared for there to be a significant amount of confusion on Election Day.</s>JOHNS: But controversy over how they do their job, poll watching has become part of the business. (on camera): What do you think of the election protection people?</s>ADAMS: Look, they have problems.</s>JOHNS (voice-over): Former Justice Department lawyer Christian Adams now represents True the Vote, a Tea Party-affiliated vote with a simple goal.</s>ADAMS: Free and fair elections. True the Vote stands with election integrity. Follow the law, period.</s>JOHNS: But True the Vote has real critics of their own from the left.</s>REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D), MARYLAND: True to Vote has been stay it is likely challenged the voting rights of legitimate voters we must address anybody who tries to deny anybody that right to vote and I consider it criminal. I consider it unpatriotic and I think -- and highly offensive.</s>JOHNS: A claim Adams does not take likely.</s>ADAMS: They're liars. They're bearing false witness against law-abiding citizens who are doing no more than observing the process, and they should be ashamed of themselves.</s>JOHNS: Whatever the election watchers find, it may ultimately be up to super lawyers like Ted Olson to determine whether to go to court. Olson, a Romney adviser, led Republicans to victory from a Supreme Court battle between George W. Bush and Al Gore in 2000.</s>THEODORE OLSON, 2000 BUSH CAMPAIGN LAWYER: I'm clearing my calendar just in case I need to be ready for the next five weeks.</s>JOHNS: He says if elections officials want to avoid litigation, they shouldn't change direction in the middle of the game.</s>OLSON: If you follow the rules that were in place on Election Day with respect to counting the ballots, then the presumptive outcome will be respected when the Electoral College votes are counted.</s>JOHNS (on camera): But the truth is there could be other changes to the rules especially as states affected by the superstorm get ready for the election. Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.</s>KAYE: And tonight a program note: CNN's Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer are taking a closer look at where the candidates are focusing their attention and whether the battleground states might hold any surprises. "America's Choice 2012: Countdown to Election Day" airs tonight at 8:00 Eastern. People in many of the smaller coastal towns devastated by superstorm Sandy depend on summer tourism to survive. But the storm ripped apart boardwalks, flooded businesses, and destroyed many homes. And all the sand from the beautiful beachfront was washed away or even mixed with nails and debris. And now, people are focused on rebuilding. CNN's Jim Clancy is in Belmar, New Jersey, an area that was flooded a few days ago. Jim, good morning. Are you noticing any progress? I mean, is the power back on there?</s>JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Belmar -- come on, Randi. This is a place that you know very, very well, up close and personal. And as you can see, the trucks are here, there's the mounds of sand. This, of course, for our viewers, there used to be more than a mile of beautiful boardwalk here. This is really one of the jewels of the entire Jersey Shore. It was ripped out by the force of hurricane Sandy and now because it's a bowl here, they're having to pump water from inland lakes to get it back into the sea, drain that, allow the residents to come back to their homes. They still don't have power yet, Randi. They don't think they'll have it until next Friday. So, people are really cold out there. They're shivering a little bit. But at the same time, they're thankful for what they have. They're having a mass today to honor the first responders who risked so much to ensure the safety of everyone, not only here in Belmar, but right up and down the entire Jersey Shore. I want to bring in somebody, though, to talk about the issue. You were talking about with Joe Johns. Jennifer Nicolay is a councilwoman here in the borough of Belmar. What you're going to do on Election Day? How people are going to vote?</s>JENNIFER NICOLAY, COUNCILWOMAN, BELMAR: What's funny, we were full force for the election about a week ago, for a couple of months, going door to door for the election. Now we're going door to door for other reasons, obviously, trying to help some people out. Not until yesterday, do we realize that the election is tomorrow. So we've been prepared to bring in -- well, we did. We brought in the voting booths. They're being held in our borough hall for all districts. And they're even allowing people to email their votes in. We do have a lot of residents out of town. They're able to do that. Hopefully, it will be like any other normal day where people vote and go back to their normal lives as far as --</s>CLANCY: You're going to go to the mass. You're going to be headed to the mass?</s>NICOLAY: Absolutely, absolutely. We're going to the mass to honor our first responders, the bishop will be there. And from what it seems like, anybody that's in town that's able to get there will attend. It's very important.</s>CLANCY: Jennifer, thank you so much for joining us. Good luck in the election. Jennifer is a candidate as well, but she's not as worried about that.</s>NICOLAY: Thank you.</s>CLANCY: I'm going to turn it back to you, Randi.</s>KAYE: And, Jim, as you know, I was up there this week along with you. You can really see the town pulling together. But a lot of people were wondering, you know, what are they going to do about voting? So how are they getting word out? I saw some councilmen going around in canoes and kayaks. Have you seen any of that?</s>CLANCY: As I understand, though, there's going to be generators that are going to enable them to cast ballots there. And as Jennifer was telling us, they can use fax. They can use email. I don't know exactly how that's going to work, but at least they're going to try.</s>KAYE: Yes.</s>CLANCY: Back to you.</s>KAYE: All right. Jim Clancy for us in Belmar -- Jim, thank you. It is a war being fought on U.S. soil. And feminist icon Gloria Steinem says it could be lost Tuesday night. The stakes and the victims, next. But, first, as we head down the home stretch of the presidential campaign, we wanted to look at the closest races in election history. We're not talking vote counts or percentages. Just electoral votes since that's what decides presidential elections. Here's our top four list. It starts George W. Bush and Al Gore in 2000. That was the fourth closest race. The disputed Florida vote went Bush's way, giving him the win by just five electoral votes. Number three, it's three. 1796, John Adams became our second president with a narrow win over Thomas Jefferson. Adams served two terms before Jefferson became the third president. After the break, the two closest races.