Hour by hour: What to watch on Election Night
Here's a timetable for armchair election watchers on how the night will unfold, based on what time the last polls close in each state. All times are EST.

• 7 p.m.: Polls close in six states but all eyes will be on Virginia, the first of the battleground states to begin reporting results. If either candidate is comfortably ahead in Virginia, with 13 electoral votes, that could be a leading indicator of which way the night is going. Virginia typically has been fairly fast at counting ballots. But there's a new voter ID law in the state that could complicate things this year. Voters who don't bring identification to the polls still can have their ballots counted if they produce ID by Friday. If the race in Virginia is super tight, it could come down to those provisional ballots. On Election Night, no one will even know how many of them are out there.

• 7:30 p.m.: Polls close in three states, including all-important Ohio (18 electoral votes) and competitive North Carolina (15). If Ohio is particularly close, and polls suggest it might be, there's a chance the outcome there won't be known until after Election Day, and the presidency could hinge on it. In the last several elections, between 2 percent and 3 percent of the state's votes came from provisional ballots, which aren't counted until later.

• 8 p.m.: More pieces of the puzzle will start falling into place as polls close in the District of Columbia and 16 states, including battlegrounds Florida (29) and New Hampshire (four). Democratic-leaning parts of Florida tend to be the last places to report, so be careful about jumping to a conclusion if Romney looks strong early on. Most of the polls in Florida close at 7 p.m. Eastern, so by 8 p.m. Eastern, when the last polls close, results will start to roll out quickly. But fully 4.5 percent of votes in Florida weren't counted on election night in 2008, so if things are tight, no one's going to be hasty about declaring a victor in the state.Also keep watch on Pennsylvania for any signs of a Romney surprise. The state has long been considered safe for Obama, but Republicans started running ads there in the final week of the campaign and the GOP ticket was campaigning there Sunday. No Republican presidential candidate has carried the state in nearly a quarter century.

• 8:30 p.m.: Polls close in Arkansas (six), where Romney is comfortably ahead in surveys.

• 9 p.m.: Polls close in 14 states, including battlegrounds Colorado (nine) and Wisconsin (10). Democrats have carried Wisconsin for six straight presidential elections and Obama had the edge in polling going in, so a flip here would be especially noteworthy. Colorado, where almost 80 percent of voters cast early ballots, could be a straggler because it's so close. Historically, as much as 10 percent of the state's vote doesn't get counted on election night, and those ballots could be decisive in a close race.

• 10 p.m.: Polls close in four states, including the last of the battlegrounds, Iowa (six) and Nevada (six). If Obama wins Ohio and Wisconsin, Romney would have to have help from the West, in places like Nevada and Colorado. Nevada, where two-thirds of the electorate votes early, has been moving Obama's direction in recent weeks, powered by strength in huge labor and Hispanic voting blocs. A Romney incursion there would really mean something

• 11 p.m.: Polls close in five western states, but most are foregone conclusions for Obama. He gets 78 electoral votes from California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington; Romney gets four from Idaho.

• 1 a.m. Wednesday: The last of the polls close, in Alaska. Romney gets three electoral votes. Will many people still be up? (AP)

KARL ROVE’S FINAL CALL

 “Without twelve toss up states (MN, NV, CO, IA, WI, MI, OH, PA, NH, VA, NC, AND FL), Mitt Romney and Barack Obama are tied at 191 each. I predict Mr. Romney will win FL (29), NC (15), VA (13), NH (4), OH (18), IA (6), CO (9) and Mr. Obama will get MN (10), NV (6), WI (10), MI (16), PA (20). This brings Mr. Romney to 285 Electoral College votes and Mr. Obama to 253. These are just my base predictions and I still think several of these states are too close to call. For example, while I put them in Mr. Obama's column, I still believe NV, WI, and PA are in play and very winnable for Mr. Romney. If crowds at his recent stops in these states are any indication of his supporters' enthusiasm, Mr. Romney will likely be able to claim victory in these states as well.”

Little girls urge mothers to vote for Obama, preserve abortion access
A political video by a novelist and a former “Sex and the City” co-producer caught the approving eye Monday of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s political arm.  It features young girls encouraging their mothers to vote to re-elect President Barack Obama so they can continue to have access to abortion. The children in the video, who range in age from toddlers to their early teens, urge their mothers to vote for abortion access because they cannot. “Mom, I can’t vote yet. But you can. So when you go into the voting booth, please think about me,” the girls say. “Think about me when you vote. And please, please, please, vote for President Obama. Otherwise your vote is a vote against me. Mom, make the right choice, so when I grow up, I can still have one,” the girls continue. The video ends with white text on a black background concluding “Make the right choice, while you still can.” The pro-life website LifeNews, which first highlighted the video, described it as “exploitive.” But Planned Parenthood Action Fund and Kelly Simmons, one of the video’s co-producers, tweeted YouTube links on Monday. Debra Kent, the former co-producer on the “Sex and the City” television series, created the film with Simmons, her friend and the author of “The Bird House” and “Standing Still.” (Daily Caller)

Allegation of unions putting illegal immigrants on voter rolls clouds Nevada voting
Just hours before voters go to the polls in the battleground state of Nevada, a national group has announced it plans to file a complaint regarding illegal immigrants purportedly being allowed to vote. ALIPAC, Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, based in Raleigh, N.C., sent the Nevada secretary of state an email outlining its intention. "We want to stop the felonious thefts of American elections," says William Gheen, ALIPAC's president. Gheen points to a commentary published in Sunday's Las Vegas Review Journal. In it, editorial writer Glenn Cook accuses the Culinary Union 226 of knowingly registering illegal immigrants and then pressured them to vote. Cook quotes an unidentified illegal immigrant who is on the Clark County voter rolls. The person claims a union representative told them they were "in so much trouble" for refusing to vote. Catherine Lu, a spokesperson for Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller, said she could not comment on Cook's editorial or ALIPAC's official complaint. Gheen says his group wants all non U.S. citizens removed from the voter rolls before Tuesday's election. He suggested the state could use Homeland Security databases such as E-verify to do the job. The voter in Nevada for president figures to be close. A compilation of the final polls shows President Obama with a 2.8 percent lead among likely voters. But political insiders give Obama a slightly more comfortable edge in large part because of the expected Hispanic vote. In the last two elections, Hispanics made up 15 percent of the electorate and voted overwhelmingly for Democrats. Gheen says Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, would have been ousted in 2010 if not for illegal immigrants voting. A complaint by loser Sharon Angle did not overturn the results. He also says his group, which has 40,000 members, will organize a boycott of Las Vegas if action is not taken. (Fox News)

Obama Wins More Newspaper Endorsements Than Romney, but Fewer Than in 2008
On the eve of the election, President Obama has won the race for major newspaper endorsements, though by a narrower margin than he did in 2008. Of the 100 biggest newspapers in the country, 41 have endorsed Obama and 35 have endorsed Mitt Romney, according to data compiled by the American Presidency Project at University of California (Santa Barbara). In 2008, 65 of the top 100 newspapers endorsed Obama and 25 endorsed Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona. This year, the combined circulation of the 41 papers endorsing Obama is 10,015,000, compared with 16,100,000 for the papers endorsing him in 2008. The combined circulation of the papers endorsing Romney is 6,476,000, compared with a total circulation of 5,194,000 for the papers endorsing McCain in 2008. (National Journal)

Jay-Z Performs '99 Problems but a Mitt Ain't One' at Obama Rally in Columbus
In the final day of campaigning before Election Day, President Obama brought to Columbus, Ohio, Jay-Z, who performed a version of his song "99 Problems," renaming it "99 Problems but a Mitt Ain't One." "I changed this one up, I have to do it, I'm sorry. I didn't get clearance from the Secret Service so if they come tackle me y'all save me," Jay-Z said onstage before Obama's speech, according to Yahoo News. "I didn't get that vetted, so let's do that real fast before they come snatch me off this stage." (National Journal)

CBS under fire for withholding Obama's Benghazi remarks
CBS News is continuing to draw fire for withholding footage of a Sept. 12 interview with President Barack Obama in which he said it was "too early to tell" whether or not the previous day's attack in Benghazi, Libya, had been an act of terror. That remark, which was not included in the "60 Minutes" package that first aired on Sept. 23, was also left out of a subsequent package that aired in the days following the second presidential debate, when President Obama said that he had called the attack "an act of terror" in his Rose Garden address on Sept. 12, which took place before the interview. The remark was not released until yesterday, a fact Bret Baier of Fox News called attention to earlier today.  In interviews with POLITICO, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said CBS had been "explicitly misleading" in order "to protect President Obama." Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said he was "dumbstruck" by the network's decision not to report on such a newsworthy item. On Fox News, Sen. John McCain said CBS was "not carrying out their responsibilities of informing the American people," while conservative columnist Byron York wrote on Twitter that the network had "a scandal on their hands."

Meanwhile, sources at rival television networks, who declined to speak on the record, expressed confusion over CBS's decision. "It's surprising they held on to any of it," one source said. "If [we had the interview], we would've put that stuff out the second it became news -- again -- after the debate. All of it." CBS News spokesperson Sonya McNair did not rebut the version of events as laid out by Baier. “We’re proud of our Benghazi coverage, which from Libya to Washington has been the most comprehensive original reporting of any network," McNair told POLITICO. She also provided a timeline of events, including the network's coverage. (The veracity of McNair's assertion that CBS has had "the most comprehensive original reporting" is a matter of debate. Fox News reporters, chiefly Jennifer Griffin, have done a significant amount of original reporting, much of which has led to new revelations and important developments in what we know about the security situation surrounding the attack.)

In the interview conducted on Sept. 12, Steve Kroft of "60 Minutes" asked the president about his remarks in the Rose Garden: "Mr. President, this morning you went out of your way to avoid the use of the word terrorism in connection with the Libya Attack, do you believe that this was a terrorism attack?," Kroft asked. "Well it’s too early to tell exactly how this came about, what group was involved, but obviously it was an attack on Americans," Obama said. Confusion over when Obama called the attack an "act of terror" was one of the most significant moments of the second presidential debate on Oct. 16. But when CBS aired footage of the interview three days later, they omitted the aforementioned exchange from the package. "The thing that is most egregious about CBS is that they edited out the part of the interview that would have undermined him after the second debate," Gingrich told POLITICO. "The first question is why did they release it? Once they had decided not to air it, the decision to release it just before the election is weird. What was the decision process at CBS? The second question is, why didn't they decide to release it after the debate? They only released half of his remarks, which was explicitly misleading."

Political ad: Even a 'Donkey Whisperer' can't reason with jack-asses
The ad was created for Roger Williams, Rick Perry's former Secretary of State, now running for Congress in Texas' brand-spanking-new 33rd Congressional District. In an era of violent, sometimes profane political rhetoric, this political ad stoops to neither labels nor name-calling. Williams is filmed in a pasture filled with demanding donkeys - donkeys who want more than he can provide for them. After many attempts to "reason with jack-asses" Williams threatens that "It's a lot easier to feed elephants than donkeys" and warns that "it might be time for a trade-in." Williams explains to the viewers, "They keep thinking Obama's going to take care of them. Obama's going to build their barn." "But, look," Williams tells a grey donkey who bares his teeth, "If I can get Obama outta health care, I can get these teeth fixed. Ok? I can get em fixed. But he's gotta get away. He's gotta let me do the things I need to do." Finally, after "whispering" political nothings in the ears of the donkeys, Williams points to one feature all of the donkeys share and says, "See those big ears? Still can't hear me. Unbelievable." (Washington Examiner)

John Boehner: No tax hike on top earners
You want to know how unbending Speaker John Boehner is on tax increases? He’s not willing to even consider hiking taxes on people making more than $1 million — something that’s been floated in the past as a possible compromise by members of both parties. “We’re not raising taxes on small-business people,” Boehner told POLITICO during an interview in an Italian restaurant here. “Ernst and Young has made this clear: It’s going to cost our economy 700,000 jobs. Why in the world would we want to do that?” Boehner’s strong comments on the eve of the election show just how tough a time President Barack Obama, if he is reelected, will have keeping his campaign promise to increase taxes on individuals earning more than $250,000 per year. Tuesday’s congressional elections are certain to give Boehner a stronger hand — at least on Capitol Hill — as Republicans are expected to lose only a handful of seats and maintain an iron hold on the House majority. Boehner sees this election as a validation of his no-tax-hike approach — and doesn’t view an Obama victory as a mandate to raise taxes on upper-income Americans. “Listen, our majority is going to get reelected,” Boehner told POLITICO. “We’ll have as much of a mandate as he will — if that happens — to not raise taxes. He knows what we can do and what we can’t do — I’ve been very upfront with him about it going back over the last year and a half.” (Politico)

Young workers’ retirement hopes grow bleaker amid economic downturn
The economic downturn is pressing more employers to reduce pension benefits and significantly delaying when people launch their careers, darkening the already bleak picture that young workers face in saving for retirement. Corporations have been slashing pensions for decades, but such cuts are common now in the public sector, where retirement benefits were traditionally much better. In both cases, employers frequently reach for the same tool — preserve benefits for current employees but make severe cuts for new ones. As Washington turns in the coming weeks from the presidential election to the long-term debt issues facing the nation, the discussions will center on whether the country can afford programs such as Social Security and Medicare in their current form. So far, these debates have focused little on how potential cuts in federal benefits may affect retirement for younger generations of workers who already are seeing employers shrink their safety nets. 

The confluence of events is creating a dichotomy in the nation’s workforce and a massive burden for the country that will not be fully evident until the next generation approaches retirement. “We have a looming retirement-income crisis in this country,” said Diane Oakley, executive director of the National Institute on Retirement Security. “The problem is we won’t see the ultimate brunt of it until 30 years down the road when it is too late to do something about it.” Young workers are having little or no say in any of this, but the changes will affect them most. “How the hell do I get ahead?” said Sandra Conchar, 27, director of community relations at Potomac Pizza, a local restaurant chain. “And retirement? Oh, God.” Blue-chip corporate giants such as IBM and Verizon are among those that have closed their traditional pension plans to new workers in order to limit future liabilities. Meanwhile, public workers in states from Rhode Island to California have seen pension promises scaled back as governments struggle to reduce debt.  As it is, most workers are vastly underprepared for retirement. Although coverage is near universal among the small minority of workers employed in the public sector, just over two in five private-sector workers between ages 25 and 64 are covered by pensions or 401(k)-type retirement plans in their current jobs, according to Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research. On average, workers in their prime working years have a retirement funding gap of $90,000 per household, the center has found. The share of workers covered by traditional pensions has been dwindling since the 1980s, and now the plans are a cherished rarity for young workers. (Washington Post)

U.S. Spending $900,000 to Help Women Start Businesses--in Peru and El Salvador
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the new Women's Entrepreneurship Trust Fund last month on visit to the Peruvian capital of Lima. “The United States is making an initial contribution of $900,000 to launch pilot programs here in Peru and in El Salvador,” Clinton said on October 16. “But we need more partners and more contributors to the trust fund, so I’d like to invite other governments and businesses to contribute.” The money, according to Clinton, will be used to train rural women in Peru and in El Salvador for jobs as entrepreneurs and small business owners. Clinton said the U.S. and Peru were working together as partners to support women in rural areas who “are replacing thousands of hectares of illegal coca fields with profitable crops, like chocolate and coffee and palm oil.” Approximately $500,000 of the money will go to Peru. The program will go far beyond job training, Clinton said. (CNS News)

Waging War on Coal: EPA haze plans designed to circumvent court rulings
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has expanded its control of state regulations known as Regional Haze Rule in order to impose more stringent regulations on coal-fired power plants and avoid the judicial injunction against air quality regulations that it tried to impose in 2011. The EPA imposed haze plans on North Dakota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Nebraska in 2011 and 2012 that will increase energy compliance costs by almost $375 million. It also rejected plans in Wyoming and Arizona, demanding stricter regulations that would add at least $200 million to energy production, according to William Yeatman, an environmental regulations expert at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. “Ultimately every state will face this; Ohio, Pennsylvania, everyone,” Yeatman said. “The EPA positioned Regional Haze to stand in for other regulations that didn’t pass constitutional muster. It is clearly moving aggressively to extend these rules to all coal-fired plants.”

The EPA attempted to usher in new regulatory processes for coal with the Cross State Air Pollution Rule, which would have enabled the department to cap emissions for power plants operating in the states because pollution can travel across state lines. A federal appeals court blocked the rule from taking effect in 2011 and struck it down in August 2012, citing the rule’s onerous requirements and regulatory overreach. The courts may have thwarted the rule from taking effect, but that did not prevent the department from using its costly guidelines on existing regulation such as the Regional Haze Rule, a 1999 standard that requires states to enhance visibility in federal parks. The EPA allowed the states to count existing air quality standards, such as the Clean Air Interstate Rules, toward its haze plans. (Washington Free Beacon)

Tourism a surprise bright spot for Iran
International efforts to isolate Iran and force it to halt its uranium enrichment program are having an impact that is both unintended and, for Iranian officials, very much welcome: a jump in tourism. Although most sectors of Iran’s economy are struggling and oil revenue has steeply declined, foreign purchasing power is at an all-time high in Iran due to a plunge in the value of the Iranian currency, the rial. As a result, international travelers sensing a good deal are venturing to a country that for decades has been considered off-limits to all but the most intrepid tourists. Although Iran’s travel industry still has not reached what many here think could be its true potential, the trend in recent years has been one of growth exceeding global averages. (Washington Post)

Greeks strike against austerity
Workers in Greece have launched a 48-hour general strike across the public and private sectors in protest at a proposed new wave of austerity. Protesters have begun a march to parliament. Previous rallies have often ended in running battles with police. MPs are due to vote on the package of salary and pension cuts, and labour market reforms, on Wednesday. Greece must back the measures, and the 2013 budget, to receive the next part of a bailout and avoid bankruptcy. The latest strike, called by Greece's two biggest labour unions, representing half the four million-strong workforce, started at midnight. Trains, ferries and international flights were all being cancelled, schools were closed, and hospitals were reportedly open only for emergencies. The BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens says that with proposals for a fifth consecutive cut to pensions, an increase in the retirement age and reductions to salaries, benefits and healthcare, the fury among Greece's population is growing. (BBC)

Amazing! 109.99999 Yard Missed FG Return
A high school football player from Texas punctuated a blowout win by returning a missed field goal for a touchdown longer than any score in NFL history. After Edinburg North's attempt from the 33-yard line came up just short of the goal posts, Sharyland special teamer Sean Landez caught the ball at the far edge of the end zone and ran it all the way back the other way for the score. According to Max Preps, it was Landez' second long play of the game, as he also ran back the opening kickoff 92 yards for the touchdown. The Rattlers defeated the Cougars 48-7 to improve to 10-0 overall and clinch a share of the district title, per Todd Orodenker of The Monitor. (Huffington Post)

Woman who drove on sidewalk must wear 'idiot' sign
A woman caught on camera driving on a sidewalk to avoid a Cleveland school bus that was unloading children will have to stand at an intersection wearing a sign warning about idiots. Court records show a Cleveland Municipal Court judge on Monday ordered 32-year-old Shena Hardin to stand at an intersection for two days next week. She will have to wear a sign saying: "Only an idiot drives on the sidewalk to avoid a school bus." The judge ordered her to wear the sign from 7:45 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. both days. Hardin's license was suspended for 30 days and she was ordered to pay $250 in court costs. Messages seeking comment were left at a telephone listing for Hardin and at her attorney's office.  (AP)

Swedish firms prefer not to hire fat people: study
The study, carried out by the Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy (IFAU), found that obese jobseekers have an 83 percent lower chance of landing a job compared with people of normal weight, Sveriges Radio (SR) reported. Small companies are more likely to reject job candidates who are overweight, older, or have a history of health problems, while larger companies can more easily afford to "take a chance" during the recruitment process, said Uppsala University economics professor Per Johansson, one of the authors of the study. "We interpret it as if employers believe all people who are overweight are less productive," Johansson told the TT news agency. Johansson emphasized that choosing not to hire someone because of their weight is not only illegal, but that companies risk missing out on talented workers who happen to be somewhat heavy. One manager at a small IT firm told TT that he refuses to hire people who are extremely overweight. "My experience has been that they often can't handle working at the pace I demand of myself and my coworkers," he said. He added he has nothing personal against people who are overweight and that he is simply concerned about recruiting the wrong person. "It can be seen as unfair, but hiring the wrong person can be fatal for a small business," the IT manager said. "My feeling is that really fat people, I mean guys who weigh 120 kilos, often perform worse and often have worse health than skinny people." (The Local)

Police Investigating Leukemia Hoax
The photograph of smiling 9-year-old boy, his bald head covered by a hat, who was apparently losing his terminal battle with leukemia, pulled at the heartstrings of a Colorado community. But the story, and the boy, were fake. The picture of the 9-year-old was reportedly traced back to a Kids Cancer Crusade website and is of a South African boy, who is still alive. The wool seemed to have been  pulled over the eyes of the Eagle, Colo., community by a 22-year-old woman named Briana Augustenbourg. The story unraveled on Friday when a fake obituary was posted in the Vail Daily,  and was investigated by local radio station KSKE. “Our beautiful angel Alexander Jordan lost his two-year battle with leukemia on Thursday at the age of 9,” reads the obituary that the newspaper has since unpublished. When the station found that no death certificate existed for the boy, it alerted authorities, said Holli Snyder, general manager of  KSKE. “We are committed to our community and felt that this needed to be brought to light as soon as we found out,” Snyder said in a statement to ABCNews.com. Chief of Police Rodger D. McLaughlin confirmed that police were investigating what seemed like a  hoax. The police have questioned Augustenbourg  but have not commented further.  They are also investigating  whether any laws have been broken.

Montana man mauled to death by captive grizzly bears
A 24-year-old man was mauled to death over the weekend by two grizzly bears at a Montana facility that trains captive animals for films, commercials and public appearances, authorities said on Monday. Benjamin Cloutier was cleaning the enclosure that secured the two captive-bred bears at Animals of Montana in Bozeman, Montana on Sunday when the mauling occurred, Gallatin County Sheriff Brian Gootkin said in a written statement. The more aggressive of the two grizzlies, purchased from an out-of-state vendor and permitted for the facility in 2005, was destroyed, said James Kropp, chief of law enforcement for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. It was the first fatality in Montana linked to some 20 captive animal facilities, including zoos, licensed by the state. National attention was drawn to private ownership of exotic wildlife earlier this year when authorities gunned down dozens of wild animals in Ohio after they were freed by an owner before he committed suicide. Montana authorities on Monday declined to provide additional details about the incident. Chuck Watson, attorney for Animals of Montana's owner and principal trainer, Troy Hyde, told Reuters there were no witnesses to the incident. Watson said the bear that was killed, which he estimated at between 300 and 400 pounds, was not considered a risk. (Reuters)