November 3, 1992

Today is Election Day. Voters in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut will vote for President and for members of their Congressional delegations. Voters in New York and Connecticut will also select members of their State Legislatures, and there are ballot questions in all three states. There are also municipal elections in many communities. NEW YORK STATE: Polls are open from 6 A.M. to 9 P.M. New York City voters with questions may call the city's Board of Elections at (212) VOTE-NYC or the New York Public Interest Research Group's Election Day hotline, (212) 349-6986.

Robert Abrams bumped across a relentlessly gray upstate landscape through intermittent rain, sleet and snow yesterday in a final appeal in areas where polls show a tight race for the United States Senate, then raced back to heavily Democratic Manhattan to stir enthusiasm at a union rally in Harlem and at a handshaking stop on the Upper West Side. Sounding a theme of party unity and pounding away at the need for change in Washington, the Attorney General spoke repeatedly of a "new era" in American politics and stressed that Bill Clinton, if elected, will need another vote on the Senate floor if he is to overcome Washington gridlock. He also contended that Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato, his Republican opponent, had joined with two Republican administrations to draw jobs and money away from the state.

On the last day of his quixotic Presidential campaign, Ross Perot made his final live pitch, to supporters in a mostly empty hall. But the main forum for his appeal today was not that appearance but the medium that sired and nurtured his independent campaign: television. For an election eve video blitz, Mr. Perot paid nearly $3 million for two hours of television time tonight in the form of 30-minute blocks on ABC and CBS and an hour block on NBC.

Democratic candidates labored furiously yesterday to capitalize on the strong victory they expect Gov. Bill Clinton to capture today in New York State, while Republicans in a variety of races worked just as hard to avoid being swept away in a local Democratic landslide. From a United States Senate race that has become the costliest and possibly the nastiest in the nation, to the struggle for control of the State Legislature in Albany, the Democrats' expected strong showing at the top of the ticket was having a marked impact on campaigns all the way down the ballot.

On the last lap of a Presidential race notable for its hard, harsh language, Gov. Bill Clinton took the high-minded tone of a man ahead in the polls, avoiding the mention of George Bush's name to focus on promises of better times. Winging around the country in 30 hours of ceaseless campaigning, Mr. Clinton made a final, grueling effort to generate a high turnout at the polls with a 4,106-mile trip, from the East Coast to western Texas. For this last push, he chose to touch down for brief airport appearances in nine states, ending at home in Arkansas on Tuesday morning.