she's in arlington outside a polling station. big day today, sunlen. >> reporter: certainly is, brianna. the polls are now open here in virginia. we saw the very first voter go in and cast their ballot in arlington, virginia, a suburb just outside of washington, d.c. this is an extremely, extremely tight race, so every single vote today is going to have a real impact on the outcome. the candidates, the campaigns each know that, and that is why we've seen this frantic, last-minute dash, both candidates on the hunt for votes, trying to motivate people to come out today and cast their ballot in person. that went late into the evening last night for poetboth candida. we did see democratic terry mcauliffe not deviate whatsoever from the central part of his campaign strategy, which is to tie republican glenn youngkin to the former president, and he argued, falsely claimed last night in his campaign event, he said that glenn youngkin was doing an event with the former president. >> guess how glenn youngkin is finishing his campaign? he

first let's go to sunlen serfaty in arlington. sunlen? >> reporter: polls are open here in virginia, voting got started about two hours ago. and here at this polling location in arlington, virginia, which is a suburb just outside of d.c., we are seeing a steady stream of people coming in and out, not super long lines, but the director here tells me they have already had 150 people in just two hours vote already. and a lot of people are also coming in and dropping their mail-in vote at this official ballot drop box over here among the 1.1 million virginians who have already cast votes in the early voting. today, talking to voters as they come out, it is very clear there is a lot of passion in this race and that likely will compel people to come out and vote today, talked with one man a short time ago, he is an independent, but he leans republican. he sat out in the race in 2020, he did not want to vote for trump, he tells me he also didn't want to vote for biden, but he tells me he felt compelled to vote today. he said because he's talking

but as we watch that, i want to go to arlington, virginia, to talk about the other major race. cnn's sunland serfaty is there. sunland. >> reporter: john, certainly a big night for republicans here in virginia and a devastating gut punch for democrats. republican glenn youngkin defeating democrat terry mcauliffe to become this commonwealth's next governor and first time notably that a republican has won a state race here in virginia in over a decade. and youngkin did so by building his own brand, a brand that was separate from trump, appealing to moderate republican voters. but doing so without alienating the trump voters and appealing to the base, focusing on state and local issues like education to get him elected. here's the governor elect at his victory rally in virginia. >> on day one, we're going to work. we're going to restore excellence in our schools. we're going to start with 20 charter schools and we are going to make a down payment and close the gap on giving parents an opportunity to select where their kids go to school. friends, we're going to embrace our parents,

this week arlington national cemetery opened the site to visitors for the first time in almost 100 years as part of the tomb's centennial. tomorrow president biden plans to attend the veterans day laying ceremony at the tomb. cnn's coverage continues right now. >>> good morning, i'm erica hill. >> and i'm jim shciutto. breaking overnight, a major blow to former president trump and his continuing push to keep documents relate d to january 6h out of the public eye, out of the hands of investigators. in a scathing rebuke, a federal judge rejected trump's assertion of executive privilege. the judge wrote, quote, presidents are not kings and the plaintiff is not president. trump has already notified the court of his intent to appeal, but an appeal alone will not stop the archives from beginning to hand over records to the house committee. that begins on friday. >> that appeal is not the former president's only plan. president trump indicated he asked for a judicial order to prevent the release of the records as long as he's making arguments in court. that process could potentially

. >> let's go now to cnn's sunlen serfaty in arlington virginia, northern virginia, just outside washington, d.c. this is a nail biter here, sunlen. >> reporter: it certainly is, brianna. and the donald trump factor has frankly loomed large in this race. especially today, on election eve with this townhall for glenn youngkin. over the weekend, as you heard there, you saw glenn youngkin try to keep trump again at arm's length, insisting he's not participating in this townhall with trump, insisting he had no part in the planning. all of this plays into the hand and the strategy of democrat terry mcauliffe who tried to cast youngkin as a proxy for donald trump. here he is over the weekend. >> tomorrow we will have a little teleconference. donald trump is finally going to visit here. trump wants to win here so he can announce for president 2024. that's the stakes of this election. he's trying to get himself off the mat. he wants to win here tuesday. and wednesday donald trump announces he's running in 2024. are we going to allow that to go on here? >> no! >> reporter: early voting here in virgi

benefits it conveys in earning a purple heart, among other things, earns you the right to be buried at arlington cemetery. it is a big deal. 29 soldiers got those purple heart awards despite the fact that the commander in chief at the time was literally telling the country over and over again that he didn't think their injuries should count. the problem with this story now, for months now, has been this. it appears that it wasn't just those 29 soldiers who were seriously wounded that day. dozens more american soldiers were also wounded that day. "usa today" has spoken to both survivors of the attack and a u.s. official who reviewed the damage to the base immediately after the attack was over, and they now have multiple sources corroborating that, quote, commanders discouraged wounded troops from filing paperwork for the purple heart. if that "usa today" reporting is true and nbc news has not independently verified it, but if that is true it is vile, right? wounded soldiers hurt in an enemy attack told that they shouldn't apply for the purple heart as the president at the time gave these repeated

he then accompanied them to arlington national cemetery. he laid a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier, which is actually in its centennial year this year. since 1948, the tomb of the unknowns has been guarded night and day by 24-hour military guard, and while the public can witness that from afar, none of us are allowed to get anywhere near it as a sacred site and a literally well guarded one, but this week sort of especially for its centennial, for its 100th year, americas have been -- just regular folks have been allowed to line up and approach the tomb of the unknowns for first time in decades so people have been able to leave flowers or say a prayer there. it's a very unusual thing. it's the first time in decades. >>> today on veterans day, the biden administration announced new research, any resources, new support for iraq and afghanistan veterans who were exposed to toxic burn pits during their service thanks to the inexplicable but apparently systemic practice of handling waste of all kinds at military facilities in those wars