politics

WASHINGTON -- It's a watershed event in what some are calling a watershed election.Across the country, Americans are turning out in record numbers to cast their votes early, with some standing for hours in enormous lines the likes of which are usually seen on Election Day.

On Nov. 4, when Americans go to the polls to elect a new president, a surprising beneficiary may be off the ballot: Mitt Romney.

Mitt Romney no longer is a presidential candidate, but Utah voters still are tossing money his way -- even after forking over more than $5.5 million for his failed White House bid.

Amid reports that Sarah Palin has "gone rogue" -- ignoring advisers and slamming her party's campaign tactics -- some have begun to discuss her as a political contender after Nov. 4."She's no longer playing for 2008; she's playing 2012," Democratic pollster Peter Hart told CNN.

BOULDER, Colo. -- This election, University of Colorado student Jennifer Bockelman is going to "give up" her vote to a friend, an international student from Brazil who zealously keeps up on American current events.

Wheat and corn grower Billy Bob Brown has been busy farming in the windswept Texas Panhandle, but not too busy to listen for the views of Barack Obama and John McCain on food and farm policy.

WASHINGTON -- Democrat Barack Obama is the overwhelming favorite of young people to win the coming presidential election, according to a study released Wednesday.A survey of 18 to 24 year olds conducted by Harvard University found that Obama commands a 26 percent lead over Republican candidate John McCain.

One warm September night in Fairbanks, Alaska, snowmachine dealer and parody songwriter Craig Compeau sat in his Dodge pickup listening to a country station when Gretchen Wilson's "Redneck Woman" came on.

The wife of Rep. Tim Mahoney, a Florida Democrat who has admitted to multiple affairs and is at risk of losing his seat, has filed for divorce.In legal papers filed Monday, Terry Ellen Mahoney called her 23-year marriage to the first-term congressman "irretrievably broken." The wife also accused Mahoney of "dissipating marital assets" in the last two years.

With two weeks to go until Election Day, the exceptionally volatile and closely watched U.S. Senate race in Minnesota has tightened up, and comedian Al Franken's lead is slipping.