High Turnout, Some Problems As America Goes To The Polls

20:37

November 06, 2012

Voters leave the Old Blanco Courthouse after casting their ballots on Tuesday in Blanco, Texas. (Eric Gay/AP)

On this Election Day, we get the lay of the land with Politico's Charlie Mahtesian, and drop in on four crucial states: New Hampshire, Florida, Ohio, Colorado.

Charlie Mahtesian, national political editor at Politico:

“Pretty much a standard election morning, particularly for an election where there’s a great deal of interest. There’s lots of reports of strong turnout, reports of strong turnout in Western Pennsylvania, and in the Pennsylvania suburbs, lots of different places. And I think its typical of an election day that you hear of lots of problems: ballot malfunctions, offices not opening on time, and then, on top of all that, you've got the states that had to struggle through Hurricane Sandy recently, and those are special kinds of challenges, so you see all that across the election landscape this morning.”

John Broder, reporting from Columbus, Ohio for the New York Times:

“[Enthusiasm] is high... it may be lagging a little bit behind 2008, when you had the historic Obama candidacy. I stopped in at the local AFL headquarters here and they were sending out dozens and dozens of volunteers to go door-to-door to make sure people got out and voted, but the head of the local here said that it was a little slower getting volunteers geared up than four years ago.”

Adam Smith, political editor for the Tampa Bay Times:

“In our neck of the woods, we got a call from a former governor Charlie Christ that his Democratic wife got a robo-call from his election office saying voting starts tomorrow from 7 to 7.”

Grace Hood, reporter for KUNC, in Greeley, Colo.:

“The top [ballot question] is amendment 64, which is calling for legalizing small amounts of marijuana. It’s called the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act.”

Josh Rogers, reporter for New Hampshire Public Radio:

“There are about 5,000 people registered in this ward and 4,000 have apparently voted by 11 a.m. So turnout looks big, and, from what I’m hearing, it’s peaked pretty much everywhere in New Hampshire.”

Guests:

Charlie Mahtesian, national political editor at Politico. He also writes a blog and tweets @charliepolitico.
John Broder, correspondent for The New York Times, reporting from from Ohio. He tweets @jbrodernyt.
Adam Smith, political editor for the Tampa Bay Times. He tweets @adamsmithtimes.
Grace Hood, reporter for KUNC public radio in Northern Colorado. She tweets @gracehood.
Josh Rogers, reporter for New Hampshire Public Radio. He tweets @joshrogersNHPR.

This segment aired on November 6, 2012.