CNN Press Release - One day out from Election Day, more than 27,000 Americans already have dialed into CNN’s Voter Hotline about voting concerns and irregularities. The crews managing the phones and the CNN “go-teams” investigating complaints are just getting started. By election’s end, CNN expects to field tens of thousands of calls through the hotline.

“Our goal in setting up the CNN Voter Hotline was to establish a simple and reliable destination for voters to report information about problems at the polls,” said Sam Feist, CNN’s political director. “In just two weeks, thousands of Americans have called the hotline and CNN has dispatched reporters across the country to follow up on these reports.”

Working with InfoVoter Technologies, CNN launched the hotline - 877.GOCNN08 (877.462.6608) – two weeks ago. To date, voters from Georgia, Florida, Washington D.C., West Virginia and Nevada account for the largest number of calls in proportion to their population. Registration issues rank as the highest number of complaints – 36 percent of the calls - followed by problems with absentee ballots, vote integrity, poll access and voting machines.

From Hotline calls, InfoVoter Technologies employees collect the data and code the problems according to categories, such as faulty machines, abnormally high numbers of voters, voter suppression or voter fraud. The hotline also directs callers to their correct polling location and, if necessary, transfers voters directly to local and state election boards.

From there the information goes to CNN, where producers and reporters examine patterns and major complaints to determine whether the network needs to follow-up with more extensive reports.

On Election Day itself, CNN will assemble “go teams” of correspondents and producers who will report on breaking election news and voting irregularities. Throughout the day, chief business correspondent Ali Velshi will anchor reports on voting irregularities from the “go teams,” and legal experts will track and analyze such issues across the country. Correspondent Carol Costello will be part of the teams tracking and analyzing such issues across the country. On air, viewers will see a map that highlights irregularities across the country. Online, CNN.com users can zero in on specific counties in each state experiencing the largest number of Election Day complaints, as well as the most commonly occurring type of problems.

Labels: 2008 Presidential Campaign, Ali Velshi, Carol Costello, CNN Domestic