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Many Americans will spend extra time at the polls today, not just choosing candidates but also making law. They will vote on a variety of state ballot initiatives, which Josh Goodman of the Pew Center on the States is tracking.

I've printed out here a list of ballot initiatives in various states. And it's more than a page long. It's a ridiculous number. The Oregon Gillnet Fishing Initiative, the Utah Military Property Tax Exemption Amendment, Constitutional Amendment B 2012. We could go on for quite some time. This is quite a list.

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And today's last word in business is: Pinching Pennies.

In Garfield, Pennsylvania, the owner of a tattoo shop wanted to spruce up her floors. She could have gone with a nice tile or parquet.

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Instead, Mel Angst of the Artisan Tattoo and Coffee Gallery went with pennies - 250,000. She recruited some volunteers, and spent three weeks painstakingly gluing pennies to the floor.

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On Election Day, it's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.

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And I'm Renee Montagne.

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep.

So many people are so cynical about politicians who give us so many reasons to be cynical, that it's easy to overlook the many Americans who believe. They believe in a candidate, believe in an issue, believe in democracy or at least believe they need to fend off the other guy.

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This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.

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And I'm Steve Inskeep.

Eleven years ago, September 11, 2001, was a voting day in New York City, a primary election for mayor. After that day's attacks the vote was postponed. But in the end, New Yorkers held the November general election on time, voting in Michael Bloomberg, who remains in office today.

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Now, let's talk next about Colorado, where Republicans edged ahead in early voting, the same early voting that was key to Democratic success back in 2008. Kirk Siegler of member station KUNC has our story.

KIRK SIEGLER, BYLINE: Early voting at polling stations like this one in downtown Denver ended this past Friday, but yesterday there was a steady stream of voters dropping off their mail-in ballots.

PAMELA MALONE: Well, I was just turning in my vote before the final last hours...

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Our next guest has been keeping track of trends in early voting. Michael McDonald directs the U.S. Election Project at George Mason University in Virginia. And he joins us now to talk about that.

Good morning.

MICHAEL MCDONALD: Good morning to you.

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Now for our latest installment in the series we're calling Fiscal Cliff Notes.

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UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: On January 1st, 2013, there's going to be a massive fiscal cliff of large spending cuts...

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: From the painful cuts to the Defense Department, food safety, education...

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: The Bush tax cuts, the payroll tax cuts...

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: Taxmaggedon.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #4: It's a cliff.

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Millions of Americans stand in line today to vote. Last night, thousands of Americans lined up to buy one of the most anticipated new video games of the year. "Halo 4" is the latest installment of the popular franchise for the Microsoft Xbox 360. Some younger gamers refer to "Halo" as their "Star Wars," a cultural touchstone. Now, after a five-year hiatus, the game's hero - the Master Chief - returns.

Noah Nelson reports.

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NPR's business news starts with Suzuki pulling out of the U.S.

Japan's Suzuki Motor Corporation has been selling cars in America for almost three decades. But unlike Toyota or Honda, it never managed to win over masses of American consumers. The company has the smallest American market share among the big Asian automakers. And when its current inventory runs out the company will no longer sell cars here at all. It will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection instead.

Superstorm Sandy got officials in New York and New Jersey talking about how to prevent flooding in a time of global warming and sea level rise.

But the place on the East Coast that's most vulnerable to flooding is several hundred miles south, around Norfolk, Va. — and Norfolk has already spent many years studying how to survive the rising waters.

Scientists say what Norfolk has learned is especially important in light of new research showing that the coastline from North Carolina to Boston will experience even more sea level rise than other areas.

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Now many who will cast presidential ballots in New York have been facing a complicated post-storm challenge - where they should vote. Superstorm Sandy has displaced many residents from their homes and some polling places are out of commission because of storm damage. Late today, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an order, telling voters they can cast ballots wherever they want.

I asked NPR's Quil Lawrence in New York about just what Governor Cuomo said today.

Everybody tries to predict who will win.

What we wonder, though, is when will we know whether it will be President Obama or Republican challenger Mitt Romney taking the oath of office next January?

For thousands of voters in Ohio, Election Day is going to be a day of rest — because they worked hard to vote on Sunday.

Thousands stood in long lines at voting sites in northeast Ohio, in southwest Ohio and in central Ohio. But the Franklin County Early Voting Center may have had the most carnival-like atmosphere.

Ben Sollee is not only an unconventional cellist, but also an unconventional human being. Recently, he took his cello, walked up the long steps of the Lincoln Memorial on the mall in D.C. (along with the Mason Jar Music film crew) and began to perform. It's not legal to do that, but like I said, Ben Sollee — the guy who bikes his cello across the country — is not a follower. The following video captures the moments in the shadow of Lincoln amid a throng of tourists.

From Ben Sollee:

With all the really big numbers flying around this campaign season, here's one more: $165,062,250.

That's how much Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS has spent attacking Democrats and helping Republicans this election. Perhaps this number doesn't seem so special, compared with the $1 billion spent by President Obama's campaign and at least $900 million by Gov. Romney's team.

There is one critical difference, though.

Early voting ended in Florida on Saturday. But on Sunday, some county elections officials opened their offices to allow people to vote using absentee ballots.

In Miami-Dade County, elections officials opened the office for over-the-counter absentee voting, but then inexplicably shut down. A couple of hundred waiting voters began chanting and pounding on the doors. An hour later, the office reopened.

The fighting in Syria was both nasty and widespread on Monday. Here's a summary of some of the worst fighting:

-- Two deadly car bombings took place, one in a residential neighborhood in Damascus that killed 11 people, according to Syria's state-run SANA news agency. The other one, near the central city of Hama, generated wildly conflicting claims. An activist group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the suicide attack killed 50 government soldiers and allied gunmen. But the government put the death toll at two civilians.

The battle for control of the U.S. Senate has been expensive; no place more so than Ohio. Outside groups have spent more tens of millions dollars on the seat.

Over the past few weeks, we've been checking in regularly with pollster Andrew Kohut, president of Pew Research Center. On the eve of Election Day, he talks to Robert Siegel about the difficulties of polling during this campaign and the center's final poll, in which President Obama regained the lead.

The three seasons of Treme have all found their way to Mardi Gras; appropriately, the day is always depicted with all the spectacle, vice and musical mayhem you might expect. Josh Jackson of WBGO returns to break down the many musical scenes in this year's go-round.

Patrick Jarenwattananon: So many flashes of live music this episode. Let's start at the beginning. Did you recognize the band where Lieut. Colson and his fellow officer are talking, and there are (clothed) women on poles in the French Quarter?

Tens of thousands of people have been forced out of their homes as a result of superstorm Sandy. Melissa Block talks with Martin Kaste about the situation and the government's response.

U.S. regulators have found that Hyundai and Kia motor corporations have overstated the fuel economy for many of their vehicles. Melissa Block speaks with Jerry Hirsch of the Los Angeles Times about the issue and what it means for the auto makers that had been on the rise in the U.S market.

Melissa Block talks with senior Washington editor Ron Elving about the Senate races to watch on Tuesday.

If you bought a Hyundai or Kia over the past three years, you could soon be getting some money back from the two automakers.

The Environmental Protection Agency says the South Korean carmakers, owned by the same parent company, overstated the gas mileage on 900,000 vehicles over the past three years. The EPA discovered the bloated figures during an audit of gas mileage tests undertaken by the companies. The agency said last week it was investigating how the carmakers arrived at the numbers.

Schools in New York City opened for the first time since superstorm Sandy hit the city last Monday. Some buildings had to be cleaned up before students arrived and a few had no heat. Still more than 90 schools remained closed due to storm damage or because they are still being used as evacuation shelters.

The two presidential candidates made their final campaign stops ahead of Tuesday's election. Melissa Block talks with Ari Shapiro, who traveled with Mitt Romney, and Scott Horsley, who traveled with President Obama, about their final pitch to voters.

Almost all Americans will use either electronic voting equipment or have their ballots counted by an optical scan machine in Tuesday's election. While there are still concerns about reliability and security of voting equipment, many experts say things have improved greatly since 2000.