equality, that philly s own liberty ball bill represents. that s what america stands for. that s who we are. president obama gets tonight s last word, and the campaign s last word on this program, tomorrow is election day in america, as you, know tomorrow night i ll joined rachel maddow for special election night coverage, which begins at 6 pm eastern right here. 11th hour with stephanie ruhle starts now. tonight, on this election eve, candidates across the country making their closing arguments to voters, as 42 million americans have already cast their votes. then, the 16 billion dollar price tag for democracy. how the big money on elections is being used, to deep into the divide.
voters who cast ballots today, as well as those who voted early or mailed in their ballots all included here. take a look tonight. voters asked, which of these issues mattered most? 32% said inflation, 27% said abortion. followed by crime, gun policy, and immigration. asked which party they trust to handle inflation, 42% said democrats, 54% said the republicans. and asked whether they approve of president biden s job performance. 45% said they approved, 55% disapprove. and there are two numbers tonight that will you hear again and again during our election night coverage all night long. they are one and five. republicans need a net gain of just one seat to take back control of the senate, a net gain of just five seats to take control of the house. and one of those key senate races, the senate race in pennsylvania tonight. democrat lieutenant governor john fetterman voting this hour in his hometown of brad dock, pennsylvania. republican dr. mehmet oz voting in philadelphia. and abc s ev
correctly date a ballot is whether that is being nitpicky or not that is something that you have to decide before election day. once election day comes around, it seems it s time to observe what is in the law. yeah, on the ballot i did, there were all kinds of instructions. said you must do this. double-check this, have you dated this before you close it. do it the way it s supposed to be done. thanks, gentlemen. we ll see lots of you the coming hours through election day. great to see you both. we re two hours out from the first polls closing as we gear up for our special election night coverage. we ll be joined by brit hume live in new york with his final thoughts before we start to get to the counting when our coverage continues. my name is joshua florence, and one thing i learned being a firefighter is plan ahead. you don t know what you re getting into, but at the end of the day, you know you have a team behind you that can help you.
election. this was a building tide over the course of time. and these in part because of how the republicans structured elections and how they tabulate vote in places like pennsylvania, where the vote comes later, we are set up for something where a democrat might take a lead tomorrow. this is going to be a week-long thing. one quick last thing for folks looking at twitter right now on election day, what can they trust? just don t. go to the a.p. bencollins. you have rachel maddow, joy reid, steve kornacki, with our election night coverage. breaking down the results as they come in.
pleasure is mine. martha: we re going to have fun and great coverage. thank you. thank you, martha. martha: we ll see you later. that s the story for right now. the story will continue throughout the night and probably in to the wee hours of the morning when brett and i will take you through the election night coverage. we look forward to that. have a great afternoon. see you in a couple hours. usa, usa! so there s a lot of relief. it s up to the voters now. don t get lazy. don t feel like it s a landslide. make your voice heard. that s how we win. all right. how are you doing? you make me governor,ly make you proud to know that we can