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In an exclusive interview, Mayor Shirley Franklin told CNN's Don Lemon that she plans to vote for former Georgia state lawmaker Kasim Reed in Tuesday's election.

"Is that an official endorsement?" asked Lemon.

"That's just telling you the truth," Franklin responded. "I'm going to vote for him. I think he has the best set of skills. He has really been there to do some tough things over the state. He has Republican and Democratic support. . . . even though there are other candidates who have obviously some strengths, I think, through it all, he has the best chance of working in the region and the state."

Franklin singled out Reed's work in helping Atlanta deal with its water shortage issues, adding that "there are reasons to support each of the candidates" - but added that she has previously said she does not think Atlanta City Councilwoman Mary Norwood has the skills to be Atlanta's chief executive.

ATLANTA (CNN) – A political surprise created a wide open race for Georgia governor next year, as the leading Republican contender was forced to drop out Wednesday because of medical problems.

An emotional Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle announced he was leaving the race because he will undergo surgery on his neck and spinal cord to fix nerve damage. Choking up and pausing to fight back tears, he called the decision to withdraw "difficult personally," but said we "are all dealt certain cards that we have to face."

At least three other Republicans are seeking the GOP nomination to replace outgoing Governor Sonny Perdue. The GOP is trying to hold the Governor's office after winning it in 2002 in Georgia for the first time since Reconstruction. Three Democrats are already in the race as well.

The 43-year-old Cagle had been positioning to succeed Perdue, and said "things were strongly moving our way."

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CNN projects that Chambliss will win in Georgia.

(CNN) - CNN projects that Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia will win the Senate runoff, thereby killing Democratic hopes of gaining enough seats to halt filibusters.

Chambliss, who failed to win a majority of the vote in November's three-person race, was projected to win more than 50 percent of the vote in Tuesday's rematch against Democrat Jim Martin.

Full story

Track county-by-county results here.

CNN=Politics Daily is The Best Political Podcast from The Best Political Team.

(CNN) - In the latest installment of CNN=Politics Daily, President-elect Barack Obama unveils his national security team. Topping the list: his chief primary season rival. CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux reports on the nation’s new Madam Secretary.

Plus: Which political star did Republicans turn to in the home stretch of Georgia’s Senate runoff? CNN’s Sandra Endo takes a look at “the closer” of the GOP.

Also: CNN’s Jeanne Meserve has the latest on the immigration-related challenges facing Obama in her “Memo to the President.”

Finally: Former President Bill Clinton has pledged to release the names of some 200,000 donors who funded the efforts of his global foundation. CNN’s Jim Acosta takes a look at how this move cleared the way for wife Hillary Clinton to be nominated Secretary of State.

Click here to subscribe to CNN=Politics Daily.

Palin becomes the latest 2012 prospect to hit the trail in Georgia.

(CNN) – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin takes on the closer role today, teaming up with incumbent Sen. Saxby Chambliss at four campaign events in Georgia on the last full day of campaigning before tomorrow's Senate runoff election in the state.

The former Republican vice presidential candidate joined Chambliss at a pair of fundraisers last night. She adds her name to the list of big-name surrogates who have made campaign cameos in the year’s final remaining Senate contest.

Sen. John McCain returned to the trail to campaign with Chambliss just nine days after losing the presidential election to Obama. So have some of his Republican primary rivals, like former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani — all likely 2012 candidates for the GOP presidential nomination, along with Palin.

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Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is slated to campaign next week for Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin will make multiple campaign appearances on behalf of Sen. Saxby Chambliss next week in Georgia, serving as the political closer for the GOP senator who is battling to win a second term.

This is Palin’s first campaign appearance on behalf of another Republican candidate since losing her bid to become the nation’s first woman to serve as vice president.

Palin will attend a fundraiser on Sunday night, then appear at multiple campaign stops on Monday in an effort to rally the GOP base to turn out to vote for Chambliss. The incumbent Republican is facing a strong challenge from Democrat Jim Martin. A runoff is scheduled for next Tuesday, after neither candidate received the 50 percent plus one vote needed to win on Election Day.

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Rudy Giuliani will hit the campaign trail with Saxby Chambliss in Georgia on Tuesday.

(CNN) – Add Rudy Giuliani to the list of big name surrogates who are making campaign cameos in the last remaining Senate election this year.

The former New York Mayor and Republican presidential candidate teams up today with Saxby Chambliss at campaign events in Woodstock, Georgia.

Chambliss is the freshman Republican senator from Georgia who is fighting to keep his seat. He faces a runoff election next Tuesday against Jim Martin, a former Georgia state lawmaker.

Chambliss won a plurality of the vote on Election Day three weeks ago, but Georgia state law calls for the winner to grab 50 percent plus one vote. Due to the inclusion of a third-party candidate, Chambliss fell just shy of that threshold, forcing a runoff.

Giuliani is the latest former GOP presidential candidate to stump with Chambliss. Sen. John McCain campaigned with Chambliss just nine days after losing the presidential election to Barack Obama. Nine days ago, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who ran for the Republican nomination before dropping out in March and backing McCain, campaigned with Chambliss. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney teamed up with Chambliss on Friday. Romney ended his presidential bid in February and backed McCain.

Giuliani dropped out of the Republican presidential race in late January and immediately endorsed McCain. Giuliani, Huckabee and Romney could all make another stab at presidential politics in 2012.

Martin is also getting some major-league help. Last week former President Bill Clinton campaigned with Martin in Atlanta and Sunday former Vice President Al Gore teamed up with Martin.

Do these big name surrogates make a difference?

"Generally they can help boost turnout, because of all the media attention. Turnout in a runoff election is often very low compared to a presidential election and each side needs to get as many of their voters to the polls as possible," says CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider.

Democrats have so far picked up seven Senate seats in this year's election, with the Republican seats in Georgia and Minnesota still undecided. In Minnesota, freshman GOP Sen. Norm Coleman topped his Democratic challenger, Al Franken, by just 215 votes, triggering an automatic recount which will extend into December.

If Democrats take both remaining contests, they'll reach their pre-election goal of controlling 60 Senate seats, which would be a filibuster-proof majority. A filibuster is a move by the minority party in the Senate that basically brings the chamber to a standstill by blocking votes on legislation.

One of Georgia Democrat Jim Martin's ads bears a striking resemblance to an earlier ad by the Obama campaign.

(CNN) - It's been less than three weeks, but more than $4 million has already been spent on the airing of campaign commercials in the U.S. Senate runoff election in Georgia, according to new numbers from the Campaign Media Analysis Group.

Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss, will face off against Democrat Jim Martin, a former Georgia lawmaker, in a runoff election on Tuesday December 2, one week from today. The freshman incumbent won a plurality of the vote three weeks ago on Election Day, but Georgia state law calls for the winner to grab 50 percent plus one vote. Due to the inclusion of a third party candidate, Chambliss fell just shy of that threshold, forcing a runoff contest.

According to the numbers from CMAG, Chambliss's campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Committee have spent just over $1.7 million in ad time since the day after the November 4 vote, with Martin's campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spending more than $1.6 million. Outside groups account for the remaining $770,000 in campaign commercial spending. The vast majority of that money was spent by Freedom's Watch, a group that backs Republican candidates.

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Georgia Democrat Jim Martin's new ad bears a striking resemblance to an earlier ad by the Obama campaign.

(CNN) – If Jim Martin’s new ad evokes a sense of déjà vu, there’s a reason.

The 30-second television spot recently launched by the Democrat in his run-off race against Sen. Saxby Chambliss bears a striking resemblance to an ad released by the Obama campaign in mid-September just as the country’s financial crisis was appeared to worsen.

Just as Obama’s ad used footage of McCain saying “the fundamentals of our economy are strong,” the new Martin ad “Recession,” utilizes footage of Chambliss saying, “We may not be in a recession. I don’t know what that term means.”

“For six years, he voted to get us into this mess,” an announcer also says in the Martin ad.

Responding to the ad, John Randall, the online communications director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said "Jim Martin campaigning on the economy would be laughable, if his own record was not so tragic."

"The out-of-touch liberal has indicated a desire and willingness to raise taxes on those making less that $75,000 a year. Perhaps, he is willing to put the economic squeeze on millions of Americans because he believes the middle class is a state of mind and not an economic reality," Randall also said in reference to comments Martin made to NPR in August.

Shortly after major investment banks appeared on the brink of collapse, McCain told his supporters “the fundamentals of our economy are strong” – coments that immedietly were highlighted by the Obama campaign in seemingly endless television commercials.

"In mid-September, only 32% of all voters agreed with McCain that the economy was fundamentally sound, and that figure would probably be a lot lower today if we asked the same question now," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "Throughout the campaign, economic issues were McCain's Achilles heel, and the financial crisis only made the problem worse for him."

Residents in Georgia have braved long lines during early voting in the state.

(CNN) – Go to work or go to vote? That’s a question voters across the country will be facing Tuesday in the midst of what is expected to be record turnout for voting to determine the next occupant of the White House.

A caller from Georgia reported on CNN’s voter hotline that an employer in Marietta was only giving employees 30 minutes off to vote when state law provided for up to two hours.

CNN contacted the Georgia Secretary of State and was sent the following information about Georgia law:

§ 21-2-404. Affording employees time off to vote

Each employee in this state shall, upon reasonable notice to his or her employer, be permitted by his or her employer to take any necessary time off from his or her employment to vote in any municipal, county, state, or federal political party primary or election for which such employee is qualified and registered to vote on the day on which such primary or election is held; provided, however, that such necessary time off shall not exceed two hours; and provided, further, that, if the hours of work of such employee commence at least two hours after the opening of the polls or end at least two hours prior to the closing of the polls, then the time off for voting as provided for in this Code section shall not be available. The employer may specify the hours during which the employee may absent himself or herself as provided in this Code section.

“Basically, if you report to work at 9 a.m. or after or if you do not work after 5 p.m. or earlier, employers are not required to give you time off to vote,” Whitney Halterman, a Communications Specialist for the Georgia Secretary of State, said in an e-mail to CNN.

CNN contacted the employer mentioned in the hotline call and passed along the information about Georgia law. The employer distributed new information about getting time off to its employees.

If you live in Georgia and have questions about voting, click here to go to the Georgia Elections Division Web site or call 404-656-2871.

CNN will be tracking voter problems through Election Day. If you have a problem or see a problem, call the CNN Voter Hotline at 877-462-6608. See what issues are a concern in each state by clicking on the interactive Hotline map at cnn.com/hotline.

Call CNN's voter hotline with your concerns or problems with voting.

(CNN) - With just three days to go before Election Day, calls were streaming into the CNN Voter Hotline.

More than 21,500 people have called in to the hotline as of Saturday.

More than 7,300 of them registered a complaint regarding voting issues. The largest number of complaints continues to be issues surrounding registration. With the deadline approaching for submitting absentee ballots, many callers are asking what to do if they still haven't received their forms.

Concerns about vote counting are the third most logged complaint on the line. Many callers also cited long lines and other difficulties at polling locations for early and absentee voting. Problems with voting machines are the fifth most discussed topic on the Hotline.

Watch: An iReporter on the early voting experience

Florida voters have called the Hotline more than any other state's, with many of the calls coming from Broward, Dade and Palm Beach counties. Georgia voters have also called in high numbers with complaints about the long lines and other voting location problems.

CNN will be tracking voter problems through Election Day. If you have a problem or see a problem, call the CNN Voter Hotline at 877-462-6608. See what issues are a concern in each state by clicking on the interactive Hotline map at cnn.com/hotline.

Long lines plagued Georgia polling places this Halloween.

ATLANTA (CNN) – The scariest part of this Halloween for some Atlanta voters is the unprecedented wait time at area polling stations, where heavy turnout and computer problems are leading to delays of 2 to 10 hours.

At a downtown Atlanta location the wait was up to four hours Friday as the line stretched down three blocks according to CNN’s Rusty Dornin, who was in line herself at the location.

And that location isn't even the longest wait for voters in that county. According to Jessica Corbitt of the Fulton County Office of Community Relations, at the Welcome All Center in South Fulton County the wait was five hours long.

Three thousand people have voted at the Adamsville location, according to Beverly Isom, executive aide to Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin. Isom told us that those at the front of the line at 4 p.m. had been waiting to vote since 9am, and that hundreds more have signed up and continue to wait in line. Crowds are reported to be orderly and patient - but are weary of the six-hour wait.

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Hundreds of people stand in line outside the Frank Bailey Senior Center Tuesday in Riverdale, Georgia.

RIVERDALE, Georgia (CNN) - Melvin Dubose wishes he had just decided to vote in New York.

The Clayton County resident, who registered to vote in Georgia when he moved six months ago, showed up at the Frank Bailey Senior Center in Riverdale, Georgia, at 9 a.m. hoping to cast his vote early.

At 2 p.m. Dubose had just reached the front of the line - that ran hundreds deep and snaked around the senior center into the back parking lot.

After battling temperatures in the 40s and finally reaching the front door, yet another line and voter information forms stood between Dubose and the voting booth.

"It's ridiculous," he said. "It's worth it, but it's completely unnecessary. We shouldn't have to wait four or five hours in the cold to be able to vote. I would have voted in New York if I knew it was going to be like this."

Full story

(CNN) - Georgia must allow thousands of people whose citizenship was questioned by the state's new voter verification system to vote in the upcoming election, a panel of federal judges ruled Monday.

The court ruling will affect about 4,500 people in Georgia who had been "flagged" by the new voter verification system and faced being denied a chance to vote Nov. 4 because their citizenship was questioned.

It could also affect more than 50,000 other registered Georgia voters also flagged by the new system because of mismatches in their personal identification information, such as discrepancies in addresses.

The three-judge panel also ordered Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel to inform all the flagged voters that they can vote.

"We are very pleased that the court agreed with our legal position that the state violated the Voting Rights Act," said Elise Shore, a lawyer with one of the civil right groups who brought the lawsuit.

Shore said the ruling applies to the 4,500 Georgians that were flagged for citizenship reasons and she was uncertain whether it applied to the some 50,000 others that were flagged for other reasons.

The issue was raised in a lawsuit filed on behalf of a Georgia college student who claimed that the secretary of state's voter verification system violated the Voting Rights Act and the National Voter Registration Act and caused an illegal purge of voters in the weeks before the election.

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(CNN) - Why is the Georgia Republican race so tight? Because, as they are elsewhere tonight, conservative voters are splitting between Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney.

McCain is winning easily there among Republicans who identified themselves as moderates or liberals - 40 percent of them are voting for the Arizona senator. But those voters only make up about a third of primary voters there.

The 67 percent of Georgia voters who say they are conservative may be less inclined to support McCain - but they are splitting between Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, who are each drawing roughly 40 percent of the conservative vote.

If all that conservative vote went to one candidate, McCain would likely get blown out there.

– CNN Political Analyst Bill Schneider

Sen. Barack Obama will win Georgia's Democratic primary, CNN projects.

(CNN) - Sen. Barack Obama will win Georgia's Democratic primary in Super Tuesday voting, CNN projects.

CNN projects Sen. Barack Obama will win the Georgia Democratic Primary.

Georgia's Democratic voters generally deny that race or gender are important factors in their voting but their voting patterns indicate otherwise.

Early exit polling results in Georgia indicate African-American Democrats overwhelmingly supported Sen. Barack Obama.

A smaller majority of white Democratic voters in Georgia supported Sen. Hillary Clinton. White women are strong supporters of Sen. Clinton. White men are more divided.

Sen. Obama is doing well among young voters in Georgia, even among young white voters, which he more-or-less splits with Sen. Clinton.

Older white voters went for Sen. Clinton by a wide margin.

Georgia Democratic voters who are looking for a candidate who "can bring about change" are overwhelming supporters of Sen. Obama. Those who cite "experience" as most important are overwhelming supporters of Sen. Clinton.

The closeness Republican primary in Georgia makes it too early to project a winner. However, some clear patterns emerge among Georgia's Republican voters.

Mike Huckabee is clearly rallying religious voters to his side. By wide margins, Huckabee voters more often attend church (weekly or more than weekly) and say the religious beliefs of a candidate matter. Many Huckabee voters identify themselves as born again or evangelical Christians. Huckabee voters are also much more likely than McCain or Romney voters to say abortion should always be illegal. About half of Huckabee's voters say having someone who shares their values is the top quality of a candidate.

Sen. John McCain's voters are more often moderates, dissatisfied with the Bush administration, and - suprisingly - disapprove of the war in Iraq.

Mitt Romney shares conservative voters with Huckabee. He draws most strongly from Georgia Republicans who see illegal immigration as the most important issue in the election. Romney also draws more strongly from upper income and more highly educated voters.

Related: Watch CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser analyze the early primary results