Obama, Romney race to finish line
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- Monday was crunch time for U.S. presidential candidates to reach remaining undecided voters and urge Americans to exercise their right to vote.
"This is get-out-the-vote time, which is why [President Obama] is all over the battleground states urging people to get to the polls," Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said on CNN Monday. "Trying to persuade that last little sliver of undecided voters that they be out there, but mostly it's energizing voters making sure they get to the polls."
On MSNBC, 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain said the final day likely is nerve-wracking as well as exciting for candidates.
"And people are fired up," the U.S. senator from Arizona said, adding later. "There's incredible enthusiasm out there. How that translates, I'm not exactly sure, but it's bound to be encouraging" for Republican standard-bearer Mitt Romney.
CBS News reported Obama has 237 electoral votes and Romney has 191, after proportioning the states that will definitely vote for each candidate.
"Obama has a head start," said CBS News' Political Director John Dickerson.
Dickerson said Obama has 431 possible scenarios to win the required 270 Electoral College votes and Romney has far fewer -- 76.
If Romney wins battleground states of Florida, Ohio, North Carolina and Virginia, he still needs another state, Dickerson said.
The latest United Press International poll indicates Obama and Romney are tied at 48 percent among likely voters. And poll after last-minute poll indicated the race was tied, virtually tied or statistically in a dead heat -- phrases meaning it's just too close to call a day before the election.
Marines, Navy help in devastated NYC areas
NEW YORK, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- U.S. Marines and Navy sailors arrived to help victims in two storm-ravaged New York City boroughs and Mayor Michael Bloomberg took a commuter train to work.
Marine engineers did a block-by-block assessment of Staten Island's Father Capodanno Boulevard Sunday to determine manpower and equipment needs for Monday when more Marines were expected to arrive to help with the recovery from Hurricane Sandy.
The military forces also assisted people in Queens.
The New York Post said Marines and sailors were using hammers and hacksaws among tools for construction and cleanup jobs they could find.
"It was wonderful to see them," Jessie Gonzalez, 34, told the Post.
Gonzalez's home on Patterson Avenue was flooded after the storm.
"They gave us supplies, water and food. It makes us feel like we're actually getting help now. At least we feel safer with their presence."
Commuters trying to get into New York Monday had to suffer long waits and crowded trains, the newspaper said.
Bloomberg had promised to take mass transit, like many other New Yorkers trying to avoid the devastation in the city streets and was spotted riding the 5 train to City Hall Monday morning, the report said.
The mayor left his East 79th Street townhouse just before 7 a.m. He was driven in a black Chevy Suburban to the express 5 train stop at 59th Street, the Post reported. On the train, he read The Financial Times.
New York and New Jersey temperatures neared freezing early Monday and officials acknowledged tens of thousands of residents would remain homeless for weeks.
As many as 40,000 people in New York City needed housing, Bloomberg told reporters Sunday. About half lived in public-housing projects where wind-driven sand and water knocked out boilers and electrical systems.
Minimum tax may spur 'fiscal-cliff' action
WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- An alternative minimum tax "patch" by U.S. lawmakers may be the key to avoiding the pending "fiscal cliff" of tax increases and spending cuts, observers say.
If Congress doesn't act by the end of this year, more than 26 million households will get their first taste of the AMT, which threatens to raise taxpayers' bills an average of $3,700 for the current tax year, The Washington Post reported Sunday.
The expiration of tax-rate reductions enacted when George W. Bush was president garnered most of the headlines, but if Congress fails to pass an AMT patch the average household with two children and an annual income of more than $75,000 likely will have taxes raise dramatically for 2012.
Unlike most tax increases in the fiscal cliff, the AMT bill would come due almost immediately, the Post said, making it extremely troublesome to try to fix it after the 2012 tax year ends Dec. 31.
"That would be a disaster, an unmitigated disaster for the taxpayers of the United States. It's just not possible to do that," Nina Olson, national taxpayer advocate at the IRS, told the Post.
Lobbyists and aides in both parties say it is hard to imagine Congress would allow 2013 to arrive without AMT patch legislation, which some say could force Republicans and Democrats to work together to address the fiscal cliff -- $500 billion in tax increases and automatic spending cuts that take effect in January.
Lawmakers first put the minimum tax into place more than 40 years ago in reaction to wealthy people who legally avoided paying taxes. But the AMT is not indexed for inflation, so Congress has had to regularly approve an AMT "patch" to ensure it doesn't hit more middle-class families.
Demonstrators allege fraud in Ukraine vote
KIEV, Ukraine, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- Hundreds protested outside Ukraine's election commission Monday against alleged voting irregularities in last week's parliamentary election, observers say.
The ruling Party of Regions of President Viktor Yanukovych, won about 30 percent of the vote in the election, maintaining the party's alliance with the Community Party of Ukraine, RIA Novosti reported.
Leaders of the three major opposition parties questioned the results during the protest, citing numerous reports of election violations across the country.
Special forces police had formed a cordon near the rally as a police car used a loudspeaker to tell the protesters to immediately disperse, ForUm reported.
The Fatherland party of jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said in a statement it was considering calling for snap elections for president and parliament. The next presidential election is scheduled for 2015.
Opposition leaders also called on the election commission to declare opposition candidates the winners in 13 election districts.
Both Yanuykovych and Prime Minister Mykola Azarov have said the elections were free and fair, but international observers alleged the vote was marred by abuses of administrative resources, a lack of press freedom in reporting on the campaign and non-disclosure of campaign finances of some pro-government parties.
Volodymyr Lytvyn, the speaker of Parliament, said any committee created to investigate allegations of election fraud should be headed by an impartial person.
He instructed the deputy speaker and committee chairs to draft regulations for the investigative committee.
