A North Texas woman battling cancer is now facing another challenge: getting used to her local celebrity status.

Ana-Alecia Ayala, who’s battling a rare form of uterine sarcoma, has become an internet sensation after a dance video she posted on social media last month went viral. 

"Being recognized, especially when I'm here at the hospital, as that 'dancing chemo girl,' it's just been a lot of fun," she said.

In a post shared last month, Ayala, in her hospital gown with medical tubes attached to her, dances to "JuJu On That Beat" with her friend Danielle Andrus during a chemotherapy session at Baylor T. Boone Pickens Cancer Hospital in Dallas.

The video, shared with the hashtag "#JuJuOnThatChemo," has been viewed more than 8 million times. Ayala's phone was flooded with calls, texts, and emails from friends and family.

"I couldnt keep up with them and so I just put my phone down," she said.

The video caught the eye of a producer on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." After a quick interview Ayala was told she would be coming on as a guest. She can't help but smile when she recalls meeting Ellen and speaking to a nationwide audience.

"It was just amazing," she said. "My heart was pumping, which is probably a good thing because my blood counts had been low."

Ayala did not disappoint in her TV debut last week, bringing her inspirational message to the masses.

"There is life after diagnosis. Making the most of the good days and taking this diagnosis and running with it is what I've tried to accomplish," she said.

Ayala's nurses said she's achieved her goal, spreading positivity to fellow patients and staff.

"Seeing somebody like her, who passes the positive on from one person to the next and encourages you as much as we encouraged her, really makes a difference," said Deseree Cook, a nurse at the hospital.

During her appearance on Ellen, Ayala received a $20,000 donation from Shutterfly to help cover her medical costs. With her newfound fame, Ayala hopes the encouragement and support she's received will have her dancing all the way to a clean bill of health.

"My faith in god and my trust in my doctors has gotten me this far," she said. "We're going to beat this."

Even as a college senior nearly 50 years ago, Hillary Rodham Clinton was willing to be confrontational when it came to her political passions, challenging a U.S. senator about the urgency to alleviate poverty and earning herself a rebuke from the Chicago Tribune, which called her "discourtesy" unjustified.

As Wellesley College's first ever student commencement speaker, Clinton put aside her prepared remarks to address comments made by U.S. Sen. Edward Brooke, who had preceded her on the stage at the graduation. A moderate Republican representing Massachusetts, Brooke had urged the students not to overlook the progress already made.

Though concerned that she not be seen as attacking Brooke, she responded, "What does it mean to hear that 13.3 percent of the people in this country are below the poverty line? That's a percentage. We're not interested in social reconstruction; it's human reconstruction."

The 21-year-old offered an early preview of how she viewed politics, saying, "We feel that for too long our leaders have viewed politics as the art of the possible. And the challenge now is to practice politics as the art of making what appears to be impossible possible."

Nearly 100 years after American women got the right to vote, Clinton could be about to make another achievement possible for women by becoming the first woman elected president. She has been up against an opponent who tailored his message primarily to disaffected white men in a tight and intensely fought race rife with misogyny.

Clinton was chosen the Democratic presidential nominee after a lifetime of firsts, among them the first first lady to be elected a U.S. senator, but also after years of repeated investigations by her political enemies who even before she might ascend to the White House are threatening to impeach her.

"It's historic and not just for women and women's participation but it's historic for our democracy in the same way that electing Barack Obama was historic," said Debbie Walsh, the director of the Center for American Women and Politics at New Jersey’s Rutgers University. "It is a breakthrough."

Clinton, who lost her first try for the nomination to Barack Obama in 2008, initially made a name for herself for her work on behalf of women and children, joining Marian Wright Edelman's Children’s Defense Fund out of Yale Law School. Among her jobs: going undercover to collect data on school segregation. She went on to become the first female partner at the Rose Law Firm in Arkansas, the first lady of Arkansas and the first lady of the United States.

But she has had considerable defeats too, failing to overhaul the country's health care system while she was first lady for example and earning widespread censure for her clumsy approach. "I now come from the school of small steps," she said later while campaigning for the U.S. Senate.

Many of her opponents have criticized her policies or what they see as unethical or illegal behavior — though none has been proven — but others have attacked her as a woman.

At a rally for Donald Trump in New Hampshire on Friday, former Gov. John Sununu asked if Bill Clinton was referring to Hillary Clinton when he said, "I never had sex with that woman," (Bill Clinton was talking about Monica Lewinsky, the White House intern with whom he had an affair, when he said "I never had sexual relations with that woman.")

A tweet sent last week from the account of the Texas agriculture commissioner, Sid Miller called her a sexually explicit and derogatory term for a woman. His office later said had been sent inadvertently. 

That hostility has made it even more urgent to elect a woman, say activists and some of Clinton's Wellesley College classmates, who believe she is the best qualified for the job.

Terry O'Neill, the president of the National Organization of Women, said the election was important because Clinton is an "unapologetic feminist."

"She is a practical progressive politician who likes to get things done," O'Neill said. "But she has spent her entire career working to empower women."

During her tenure as secretary of state under Obama, she met not only with elite women around the world but also those working to advance women's position in society, O'Neill said. She expects Clinton would make priorities of closing the gender wage gap and ensuring that lower-income women have access to health care.

"All the ways in which women are currently discriminated against, they all circle back to keeping women economically insecure," O'Neill said. "And when women are not economically secure, their whole families suffer, including the men in their households."

Kris Olson, the U.S. attorney for Oregon during the Bill Clinton administration, knew Clinton both at Wellesley and at Yale University Law School and said that even then she was building bridges among different groups. As president, Clinton would not only be tough on international issues, but would focus on the critical issues affecting women and children, she said.

"We need somebody to set the tone," Olson said.

A CNN/ORC poll done early this year, before Clinton was picked as the Democratic nominee, found that three quarters of registered women voters thought that United States was ready for a female president. But only a third said it was very important to elect one in their lifetime — a finding that Walsh believed could be a result of younger women already used to women in powerful positions.

A poll conducted of Wellesley College’s seniors found that 65 percent supported Clinton, 14 percent backed Sanders and 2 percent favored Trump. At the same time, 51 percent said that gender mattered only a little and 31 percent said not at all.

Olson, like many of her contemporaries, said some younger women failed to appreciate the battles her generation fought, over reproductive rights for example, and how easily they could be turned back. And the misogyny that Clinton has encountered, the opposition to her that runs so deep in the country, likely will continue, she said.

"The slurs over the years have been remarkable and they've intensified in the election and I don't see them abating," she said.

Sharvari Johari, a co-editor of the college's newspaper, The Wellesley News, and a current senior, agreed it was important to elect a woman as president, as a role model for younger women in politics and as someone who might influence the focus of legislation.

"With a woman president we might not have the same battles over women's reproductive rights, and we might have more support for single mothers and families," she said. "These are all issues that tend to be more important for women."

But women at Wellesley are choosing Clinton because she is the best candidate on the ballot, she said.

"Even though gender is incredibly important and it's important to support your fellow women, that comes with the asterisk — that you're going to support a fellow woman who deserves it, hard working women who are qualified and intelligent," she said. "Clinton is a woman but she is also incredibly qualified and incredibly intelligent and has political savvy. So my vote for her is both as a woman and as an educated voter."

After leaving Wellesley College with Clinton in 1969, Dr. Lonny Higgins, a obstetrician and gynecologist, founded women's health centers in Hawaii and cofounded the MariMed Foundation for Hawaii's young people and families. Electing a woman would show how much women's and men's roles have evolved and broadened, and allow the country to tap into everyone's skills, she said. The entire culture would benefit, she said.

"Why not a woman?" Higgins asked.

Nancy Wanderer, another former classmate who was the director of the legal research and writing program at the University of Maine Law School, said the world had already seen the effects of having men in power.

"We need to try the other half of the talent, really not just in the country but in the world," she said.

A woman would bring a different perspective to such decisions as whether to send people to war or how to take care of children and help women work without worrying about whether their children were safe, she said.

"I just think men haven't been able to do that so far," she said.

And although many female leaders have not focused on issues important to women, Clinton would, her supporters say.

A gender gap has been evident throughout the race. An NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll of Florida last month, for example, found Clinton ahead of Trump by 9 percentage points among women who are likely to vote — 51 percent for Clinton to 42 percent for Trump. An even larger gap was found in North Carolina, 14 points among women, where Clinton led Trump, 52 percent to 38 percent.

The reverse is also true in Florida. Trump led Clinton by 11 points among men likely to cast a ballot in Florida, 48 percent to 37 percent. But in North Carolina they were competitive among men, with Trump at 44 percent and Clinton at 42 percent.

Plenty of successful women have supported Trump, notably his campaign manager Kelleyanne Conway, the first woman to run a Republican presidential campaign. But other prominent Republican women, among them U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Meg Whitman, the chief executive of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, fled the Republican candidate after he was heard on a videotape bragging about groping women.

As historic as Clinton's win would be, Walsh pointed to the dearth of women in many other positions and she worries that the push to elect more women could falter if voters think the job is done. Women make up only 19.4 percent of Congress as a whole — 20 percent of the U.S. Senate and 19.3 percent of the U.S. House of Representatives — and 25 percent of state legislatures.

"We're behind many other countries when it comes to electing women as head of state," she said. "We're behind many countries frankly when it comes to electing women to our national legislature."

Sarah B. Larrabee, another member of Clinton's class, now with a real estate company in Boulder, Colorado, recalled watching women push their daughters forward to see Clinton at a Democratic forum for women leaders. The girls were energized, she said, and some of their mothers were in tears.

"I've been wishing I could contact my grandmother who didn't have the right to vote until she had already raised half of her family," she said.

And classmate Susan Doull, whose company, Commendable Tours, organizes privates tours in Africa, Italy and France, has lived abroad for more of her life than in the United States. Clinton would be both capable and caring, able to work across the political aisle and resilient after many years of attacks, she said.

"It's definitely time that the U.S. catches up with the rest of the world, which is much more comfortable with the role of women in politics," she said. "Not that it's perfect anywhere but we're behind."

Donald Trump's aides are considering a number of his loyalists for major posts should he win the White House, NBC News reported. 

Three campaign advisers said that among the names being considered are Rudy Giuliani for attorney general, Newt Gingrich for secretary of state, retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn for defense secretary or national security adviser, Trump finance chairman Steve Mnuchin for Treasury secretary, and Republican National Committee finance chair Lew Eisenberg for commerce secretary.

Reince Priebus, under consideration as Trump's chief of staff, earned the candidate's trust by steadfastly defending him while other top Republicans denounced Trump or shied away from brand.

Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions has taken a major role managing the transition effort as the official transition chief, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, has drifted from the campaign. It's not clear if Christie is being considered for a significant role in a potential administration.

After a year and a half of campaigning, it's almost time to settle a slugfest between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump that's been anything but normal presidential politics. Accusations are flying, election officials are prepping for cyberattacks and the electorate is disgusted. How did we get here?

Previous elections have turned on inspiring moments as well as major gaffes — think Barack Obama's defining speech on race in 2008 or Ronald Reagan's "Morning in America" ad in 1984. But this year the election has been driven almost exclusively by the drip, drip, drip of scandal, controversy and intrigue.

"Clinton's email scandal, Trump's controversial comments on a number of things. It's been about the candidates to a degree, perhaps, that it's never been," said Geoffrey Skelley, a political analyst at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

It's been dark, it's been dirty but it's finally almost over. Let's go to the videotape.

July 5: Clinton's Emails Catch Fire

Clinton was running fairly strong by the summer. She had locked up her party’s nomination and the support of Bernie Sanders, who gave her a tough challenge in the primary but said by the end of June that he would vote for Clinton. Then came the surprise announcement from FBI Director James Comey.

He recommended no charges for Clinton putting State Department emails onto a private email server while she was secretary of state. The decision would have been good news for Clinton if Comey didn't go on to rip how her team handled the emails as recklessly sloppy, vulnerable to hacking.

Clinton should have known better, according to Comey, even if no reasonable prosecutor would charge her for it.

The announcement gave Trump a powerful attack line. Two weeks later, when his poll numbers began to shoot up, the crowd at the Republican National Convention roared with a chant of "lock her up." It became a staple of Trump's rallies across the country.

"It clearly played right into the narrative of Clinton not being honest or trustworthy," Skelley said. "It obviously set the table for it to be a major campaign discussion."

Swing in the polls: +0.1 to Trump after one week, as measured by the change in the Real Clear Politics head-to-head polling average, bringing him to 40.9 percent vs. Clinton's 45.4
Key quote: "There is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information." –Comey
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July 22: Clinton's First Hacking Problem — the DNC Emails

Weeks later, the secret-publishing website Wikileaks made it even harder for Clinton to unite her party at the Democratic National Convention. It published a trove of emails from top Democratic officials, appearing to show them backing Clinton over Sanders.

The leak came not only ahead of the Democrats' convention, but as the Republicans were riding high from the close of their own convention. Democratic party Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was forced to abruptly step down, and Sanders supporters who felt betrayed caused noticeable discord on the floor of the convention.

It may have been more damaging in the long term. The revelation compounded Clinton's State Department email problem, reinforcing the perception that Clinton — and the Democrats — weren't transparent.

Swing in the polls: +2.6 to Trump after one week, bringing him to 43.3 percent vs. Clinton's 43.3 percent
Key quote: "This really does not come as a shock to me or my supporters. There is no question but the DNC was on Secretary Clinton's side from day one." –Sanders
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July 28: Trump's Gold Star Showdown

But Trump's troubles weren't far behind Clinton's. Two unlikely stars came out of the final day of the Democratic convention: Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the Muslim parents of an American Army captain killed in Iraq.

They stood in front of an increasingly thunderous crowd in Philadelphia, as Khizr Khan attacked Trump's proposal to ban Muslims from entering the country (it has since been modified) as un-American, and mocked his lack of sacrifice for the country compared to that of Gold Star families. He capped the speech off by pulling out a copy of the Constitution and offering to lend it to Trump.

The speech was a hit for Democrats and derailed Trump's momentum. He spent the next week defending his Muslim policy as being about "radical Islamic terror" while attacking the Khans. His unwillingness to apologize to the family earned a rebuke from some top Republicans, who wanted him to simply thank them for their sacrifice.

Swing in the polls: +7.7 to Clinton after one week, bringing her to 47.4 vs. Trump's 40.6
Key quote: "Go look at the graves of brave Americans who died defending United States of America. You will see all faiths, genders and ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing." –Khizr Khan
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Sept. 9, 11: 'Deplorables,' Pneumonia Trip Up Clinton

A new problem arose for Clinton when a recording surfaced of her telling a group at an LGBT fundraiser that half of Trump's supporters belonged in a "basket of deplorables," for being racist, sexist, homophobic and more. The remark galvanized Trump, who railed against the insult despite Clinton saying she regretted using the word "half."

Two days later, Clinton was videotaped stumbling as she got into a car at the Sept. 11 memorial in lower Manhattan, yet her campaign hadn't disclosed she was ill. Staffers revealed hours later that she had pneumonia, and it kept Clinton off the campaign trail. "I just didn't think it was going to be that big a deal," she explained the next day.

The pair of gaffes created the impression that Clinton acted one way in public and another in private — feeding into the narrative that she's secretive. "The story became about, 'Well, Clinton's hiding something again,'" Skelley said.

Swing in the polls: +2.2 for Trump after one week, bringing him to 44 vs. Clinton's 44.9
Key quote: "Wow, Hillary Clinton was SO INSULTING to my supporters, millions of amazing, hard-working people. I think it will cost her at the polls!" –@realDonaldTrump
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Sept. 26: Trump's Debate Damage

The most-hyped moment of any presidential campaign is the first debate, and this year's provided the requisite fireworks — a lot of them. The candidates battled over Trump's unreleased tax returns, Clinton's unreleased emails, the "birther" movement and much more.

But two storylines dominated the coverage afterward: Trump continually interrupting the first woman to lead a major party ticket and Trump having once belittled the 1996 Miss Universe, Alicia Machado, whom Clinton said Trump called "Miss Piggy" when she gained weight.

As with the Khans, Trump spent several days defending himself over the Machado claim rather than apologize or move on. For days, he insisted that Machado's weight gain was a "real problem" for him.

Scientific polls showed Clinton won the debate, and much more damage came from Trump's refusal to back down, keeping a negative story in the news cycle.

Swing in the polls: +0.9 to Clinton after one week, bringing her to 47.8 vs. Trump's 44.6
Key quote: "This is a man who has called women pigs, slobs and dogs." –Clinton
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Oct. 8: Trump's "Access Hollywood" Crisis

Possibly the biggest bombshell of the campaign was the release of a decade-old "Access Hollywood" tape that kept Trump's relationship with women in the spotlight. In it, the then-"Apprentice" host is heard bragging with Billy Bush about being able to do anything he wants to women, including grabbing them by the private parts, because he's famous. 

Trump apologized twice for what many Democrats called an admission of sexual assault, but the remarks nevertheless brought denunciations from top Republicans, including Trump's vice presidential nominee. A few even said they could no longer support him.

His cavalier attitude about sexual conquests was damning in its own right, but Skelley said it fed into the pre-existing narrative about Trump that the Machado news had already set up: "There's plenty of evidence that he has been a misogynist at times and has made plenty of sexist comments."

Within a few weeks, 11 women came forward to accuse Trump of past sexual misconduct, including sexual assault and unwanted kissing and groping. He has denied all the allegations, which have not been verified by NBC News.

Bush, for his part, was suspended at his new job on NBC's "Today" then left the show. ("Access Hollywood" is owned and distributed by NBCUniversal, the parent company of this station.)

Swing in the polls: +2.1 to Clinton after one week, bringing her to 48.1 vs. Trump's 41.4
Key quote: "Anyone that knows me knows these words don't reflect who I am. I said it, I was wrong and I apologize." –Trump
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Oct. 13: First Lady Joins the Fray
 

As women were still coming forward with accusations against Trump, Michelle Obama summed up the scandal in a speech at a New Hampshire university.

"Enough is enough, this has got to stop right now," she said.

Arguing that even little boys know that men shouldn't take advantage of women, Obama said the country needs a leader who can unite the country, and that Clinton was the person to do it.

She spoke directly to one of Clinton's key constituencys: "Women's votes were the difference between Barack winning and losing in key swing states, including right here in New Hampshire," she said, urging them to make the difference in 2016 once again. Even if it didn't swing the polls more than they already had, Obama made the campaign's strongest and most passionate argument against electing a man who has admitted sexual misconduct.

And the speech was a political coming out party for the first lady as well. Her only other campaign appearance to that point was a similarly acclaimed speech at the Democrats' convention, but she became a powerful surrogate in the final stretch.

Swing in the polls: +0.3 to Trump, bringing him to 42.1 vs. Clinton's 48.5 (just down from her 2016 high) 
Key quote: "I can't believe that I'm saying that a candidate for president of the United States has bragged about sexually assaulting women. And I have to tell you that I can't stop thinking about this. It has shaken me to my core in a way that I couldn't have predicted." -Michelle Obama
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Oct. 28: Clinton's 2nd Email Surprise

Clinton's lead started to look insurmountable to many in the media, as Trump began insisting that he was trailing because the race was being rigged by the media and political class. Then Comey sent a short letter to a congressional oversight committee saying the FBI had discovered new emails related to the investigation into Clinton's email server.

Worse, the emails were discovered on the computer of disgraced former congressman Anthony Weiner, estranged husband of Clinton aide Huma Abedin. The FBI is investigating him for allegedly sexting with a minor — linking Clinton's scandal to his, despite any evidence from the FBI that classified information was stored on Weiner's server.

The announcement came despite a Department of Justice rule against such actions coming soon before elections, so it doesn't look like the government is meddling in them. Democrats and even some Republicans certainly saw the move that way, while Trump started telling crowds the system might not be so rigged against him after all.

"The race was already tightening a bit, probably because Republicans were coming home, but now [it looks like] Trump's pulling within 2 points," Skelley said late last week. He added that such a close race mirrored "what a lot of the fundamental models" analyzing the race initially showed.

When the Comey letter dropped, Clinton's campaign had just indicated it was making a play for the reliably Republican state of Arizona, a way to run up the score on Election Day. Afterward, her victory no longer assured, she and her surrogates added last-minute stops to states she once thought were reliably blue, like Michigan and Wisconsin.

The FBI review of the emails ended nine days later, just as suddenly as it began. In a second letter sent the Sunday before the election, Comey informed lawmakers the review was over and had not changed his original determination. Clinton didn't mention the saga at a rally in Cleveland later that day, as she made a play for Trump-leaning Ohio by appearing on stage with hometown hero LeBron James.

Swing in the polls: +4 to Trump within one week, bringing him to 44.8 vs. Clinton's 46.4 
Key quote: "In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation. I am writing to inform you that the investigative team briefed me on this yesterday, and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation." –Comey's letter
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Donald Trump's final appeal to voters in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was a collection of all his major talking points, from promising that Mexico would pay for a border wall to accusing Hillary Clinton of being a liar, NBC News reported.

"We are hours away from a once in a lifetime change," he said as the rally went well into Monday night.

Trump swore an end to Syrian refugees being let into the U.S. and laid the groundwork for "a lot" more visits to the Mitten state as he works to bring jobs and factories back to the state.

Trump declared Tuesday "our Independence Day" and looked forward to closing "the history books on the Clintons and their lies and schemes and corruption."

Donald Trump led an unprecedented grassroots revolt against the Republican Party that now threatens to take over the White House, but lately he's had a warning for his voters: It's a one-time offer, NBC News reported.

"Do not let this opportunity slip away, folks, it's never going to happen again," he said at a rally Monday in Manchester. "Four years from now? Never going to happen again."

Just because the nominee cannot envision a Trumpist movement without Trump, however, doesn't mean one won't emerge. With the election finally here, voters and leaders on all sides are forced to contemplate what the lasting effect of his movement will be if he falls short on Tuesday.

Hillary Clinton capped off 18 months of campaigning with a star-studded midnight rally in the crucial battleground state of North Carolina, NBC News reported.

"This election will end but our work together will be just beginning," she said to a deafening crowd at North Carolina State University. "We have to bridge the divides in this country."

Pop star Lady Gaga and New Jersey rocker Jon Bon Jovi performed before Clinton took the stage. Afterward, President Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton spoke briefly to introduce the Democratic nominee.

"She stands before us proud, like a lady," Gaga said. She's ready to be president."

Hillary Clinton was planning on marking a potential Election Day win with fireworks over the Hudson River, but a law enforcement official told NBC News that the display has been canceled.

The New York City official said the display -- which had been permitted with the city -- was called off Monday ahead of the election. A reason for the cancellation wasn't given.

Clinton will be holding her Election Day party at the Javits Center. Trump, meanwhile, will be hosting a similar event at the New York Hilton Midtown. 

The U.S. government is gearing up for an unprecedented effort to protect Tuesday's presidential election from cyber attack, U.S. officials told NBC News.

"There are a lot of eyes on this presidential election — more than there normally would be," a senior Obama administration official said.

Cyber centers at the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department and the FBI — as well as the Pentagon, the CIA and other intelligence agencies — will be on alert, with extra staff hunting for any possible threat, officials say.

"It's all hands on deck," a senior intelligence official said.

Toblerone is facing a mountain of criticism for changing the shape of its famous triangular candy bars in British stores, a move it blames on rising costs, NBC News reported.

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Consumers in the U.K. noticed they were getting less chocolate in some bars because of bigger gaps between the distinctive chocolate peaks.

Modelez International, the U.S. company that makes the bars, said it was forced to widen the spaces because of "higher costs for numerous ingredients." 

It said bars in the U.K. were being reduced from 14.1 oz to 12.7 oz and 6 oz to 5.3 oz but the size of the packaging remains the same.

On Election Day, nine states will vote on ballot proposals permitting the recreational or medical use of marijuana, setting up what could be the biggest advance yet toward pot legalization and deepening tensions between state and federal drug laws.

Voters in Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada will consider legalizing recreational use of marijuana. In Florida, Arkansas and North Dakota, voters will decide whether to permit marijuana for medical purposes. In Montana, voters will face a question on easing restrictions on an existing medical marijuana law.

If “yes” votes prevail on Nov. 8, marijuana could be legal for medical or recreational use in 29 states, accounting for 62 percent of the U.S. population, according to the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA), an advocacy group that lobbies for federal marijuana reform.

But states like Colorado, Oregon and Alaska quickly learned that life after legalization wasn't much greener on the other side. Shut out of banks, businesses couldn't get loans and shops were stockpiling cash, creating a significant security threat. 

CASH CROP
In August, the Drug Enforcement Administration reaffirmed marijuana's classification as a Schedule 1 drug, the same category as heroin, with no recognized medical use or value — and without access to financial institutions. Subsequently, financial institutions have been prohibited from doing business with dispensaries, growers, distributors and other marijuana-related businesses that are operating legally under state laws, forcing them to run cash-only businesses.

The amount of money changing hands is substantial. By the end of 2016 the legal pot market is expected to reach $2.6 billion in sales, according to The ArcView Group, a cannabis-focused investment firm that gathers market research. 

U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, of Colorado, who has pushed for reforming federal banking laws, calls it “an issue of public safety.”

“As a result of being denied access to the banking system, there are millions of dollars in cash moving around the streets of Colorado,” Perlmutter said. “These businesses are forced to operate as cash-only enterprises, inviting crime such as robbery and tax evasion and adding to the burden of setting up a legitimate small business.” 

The owner of one Denver-based marijuana business, who asked not to be named for fear of being targeted, said because she is forced to operate in all cash, she has to factor the threat of robbery into every business decision.

"We only operate in daylight hours, we rotate pay schedules, and we have a buddy system where we walk employees to their cars to make sure they get there safely," she said, adding that her vendors, utility bills and landlord are all paid in cash. "I never travel alone."

In 2013, the Obama administration said it wouldn’t prosecute financial service companies that choose to serve state-sanctioned marijuana businesses, as long as they can assure that their clients are in compliance with the guidelines set forth by the Justice and Treasury departments. The administration stopped short of offering blanket protection against enforcement.

National banks have remained wary of being implicated for money laundering and have avoided the industry for fear that if an account turns out to be a front for the illegal drug trade — no matter how diligent the vetting process is — it could put the institution at risk of losing its FDIC insurance, or its employees may face imprisonment.

Still, those guidelines have been enough to encourage a small number of community banks and credit unions to start offering basic services in states with thorough "seed-to-sale" enforcement programs, which track pot from cultivation to purchase.

Carmella Houston, vice president of business services at Salal Credit Union in Washington state, said they monitor accounts closely to makes sure clients are complying with the DOJ's Cole Memo priorities, which require states to prevent legally grown marijuana from crossing its borders, sales to minors and the use of legal sales as a cover for illegal activity.

"With seed-to-sale traceability, we can ensure federal compliance," Houston said. 

Salal began serving state-licensed businesses in Washington in 2014. It is one of a handful of credit unions openly serving the industry, though, according to Houston, several others are doing it "not openly." Applicants go through a thorough review process to obtain an account with Salal. 

"We not only review the business, but also the owners, develop an understanding of the types of products being sold, and where the initial start up funds came from to launch their companies," Houston said.  

The enormous regulatory and compliance burdens don't come cheap. Salal charges clients fees based on the number and amount of transactions.

Between March 2014 and March 2016, the number of banks and credit unions across the country willing to handle pot money under Treasury Department guidelines jumped from 51 to 301, The Associated Press reported, citing federal data.

Merchants, however, say there are not nearly enough banks willing to take their cash. In the meantime, "potrepreneurs" are developing creative, non-cash payment options.

'POTREPRENEURS'
PayQwick has been dubbed the PayPal for pot.

Much like the online payment system, PayQwick allows customers to use its platform to pay for cannabis and marijuana-related services via loadable cards, a smartphone app and, soon, debit and credit cards.

Dispensary owners can use the online payment platform to pay vendors, landlords and employees. Customers can use the preloaded PayQwick card to make purchases and collect rewards. 

The Calabasas-based company operates in Washington and Oregon, where state regulations enable PayQwick to comply with the Cole Memo guidelines, according to CEO Kenneth Berke. Berke hopes to expand to other states once a strict tracking system is in place. 

“The key to our platform is seed-to-sale traceability. Colorado is still a little bit of the wild, wild west because it doesn’t have the traceability system,” Berke said. “We assure every dollar deposited into a PayQwick account comes from the legal sale of marijuana. Every dollar going through the PayQwick system can be tracked back to legitimate marijuana sales."

Applicants undergo a rigorous screening process and the company conducts its own compliance checks four times a year, Berke said. Clients who aren’t following the rules or refuse inspections are dropped from the system. 

GUARDIANS OF GREEN
Even with some relief from cash stockpiles, security concerns still plague canna-businesses. Many continue to operate unbanked and their product is lucrative in the black market and across state lines, leaving them vulnerable to robberies.

The concern for safeguarding cannabis businesses has led to a boom in the security industry in states like Colorado and Oregon.

Derek Porter, a former special operations Marine who worked on an anti-terrorism security team before he founded Security Grade Protective Services in 2012, says there is a need for well-trained security teams that are used to handling important cargo.  And many former veterans are finding employment on patrol at dispensaries and marijuana growers.

"Veterans are a much better fit because they have a great work ethic and are still in a heavy security mindset," said Porter who noted about 70 percent of his employees are vets. "For a lot of these guys, they're doing work they see as familiar to the patrols assigned to them in Iraq and Afghanistan."

In July 2016, Travis Mason, a former Marine, was shot and killed during a botched robbery at an Aurora, Colorado, dispensary where he worked as a security guard. Mason's killing alarmed the industry and security firms like Porter's saw an increase in requests for armed guards.

Transport is another complication. The cannabis has to move from the cultivators to the stores, and cash needs to move between businesses and to state authorities for tax payments.

"Cash is a pain, time consuming and costly for everyone," Porter said. "We need to pay guards to go pick up the cash. It’s a risk for them to have a large amount of cash on hand. We count the money twice on our end, and then we have to take it to the bank and they have to count it."

TAXING FOR THE TAXMAN
Security isn't just a concern for those directly involved in the cannabis industry. The government is also reckoning with the risks and impracticality of bundles of cash.

In states where marijuana is legal for recreational and medicinal uses, businesses are subject to state sales taxes. 

Oregon, for instance, has collected $6.84 million from the pot tax’s first two months of 2016 — exceeding expectations for the entire year — and more than half of the state’s pot dealers paid that in cash, the AP reported. Of the $15 million-plus Washington collected from marijuana sales in February, nearly $4 million was cash carried through the lobby of the liquor board’s headquarters in Olympia.

In California, 100 percent of the taxes collected on $662,956,249 of taxable medical cannabis sales, roughly $59 million, was paid in cash, according to the state Board of Equalization (BOE). And without any access to banks or credit unions, marijuana businesses in the state have also incurred a 10 percent penalty when taxes over $10,000 were paid in cash. The penalty will be waived starting Jan. 1, 2017.

"Security is a concern," says Taylor West, NCIA deputy director. "Aside from the financial problems, the safety is one of the biggest. Employees are at risk since people know where and when there will be large amounts of cash."

To curb the risk of robberies, the California BOE says it changes its marijuana tax day collection, also known as "cash day," monthly, avoiding routine habits that could place taxpayers and employees at risk. 

Meanwhile, tax collection offices are doing what they can to manage the heaps of pungent cash pouring into their buildings. Offices in Oregon and Colorado have bolstered security, hiring more guards and investing in safety glass and security cameras.

HAZY FUTURE
The marijuana industry remains eager for a federal solution to their banking problem, and many hope that if Florida and California, which has the largest economy in the U.S, legalizes the recreational use of marijuana on Tuesday, the federal government will be forced to begin to align its policies with the will of the people. 

"These are very large states, with large populations and have a strong cultural influence," said West with the NCIA.

A recent Gallup poll found that a record 60 percent of Americans support making cannabis legal. West said that bills to amend marijuana laws have gotten bipartisan support, but they haven't moved out of committee because committee chairs don't want to talk about it.

"They aren't feeling the pressure to take on the issue," West argues. "But when you have 101 members of the House and 18 senators representing millions of constituents in legal adult-use states, Congress won't be able to keep looking the other way and pretending it isn't happening." 

Not all pot advocates are hoping marijuana ballot initiatives pass. In California, longtime growers fear Proposition 64 will bring costly regulations and taxes and could put them out of business if corporate interests and big farms take over. 

West argues against those who oppose regulation, noting that cultivating cannabis is resource intensive process and businesses should be held accountable for running it in a sustainable way. 

"After this year's election, I believe we may reach a tipping point and Congress will be forced to address the issue," said Perlmutter, the Colorado lawmaker. "The American people are leading the way at this point, and it's time Congress catches up to the evolving views and will of the voters."

An active military member called the Election Protection hotline in Washington, D.C., because a poll worker said he could not vote.

The service member, who is from Arizona but is stationed in Texas, was improperly told he couldn't cast an absentee ballot because he’s out of state. Attorneys volunteering with the hotline explained to the poll worker that the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act grants the service member the right to fill out an absentee ballot in elections for federal offices.

The call was among hundreds fielded on Monday by volunteers at Election Protection, the nation’s largest nonpartisan coalition of more than 100 organizations, led by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Election Protection's goal to help ensure that voters are able to cast a ballot. The group is active year round, including for the primaries and early voting, but the bulk of calls come on Election Day.

“The volume of call has been fairly intense,” said Kristen Clarke, the Lawyers’ Committee president and executive director. She added that the Election Protection National Command Center and the 12 national and 11 local call centers across the U.S. were bracing for a huge number of calls on Election Day, higher than in 2012. That year, the Election Protection hotline answered 37,000 calls the day before Election Day and 90,000 calls on Election Day from voters in 50 states and D.C., according to the Lawyers’ Committee.

As of 8 a.m. on Tuesday, the main voting issues reported to Election Protection were registration problems, long lines, late poll openings in New York, and machine problems in Virginia.

On Monday, Election Protection received calls from people reporting voter intimidation in Broward County, Florida. Voters said a group was assembled near the Hollywood Branch Library and were acting aggressive toward voters going inside to cast their ballots. One woman said she was inside her car when a group approached and touched her vehicle. She told hotline volunteers she drove away because she felt she could not freely cast her ballot. Clarke said Election Protection contacted local election officials but it was not immediately clear who the group was. Clarke said every complaint of potential voter intimidation raises the possibility that it could impact the rights of many voters.

“We want to ensure that voters are able to cast their ballot free from discrimination and harassment and we most especially want to ensure that some of the calls that have been made for law enforcement to mobilize and for untrained individuals to be on the lookout for problems on election day does not translate into widespread suppression and harassment of voters,” Clarke said. “We want to ensure that all voters are able to participate this election cycle.”

Another issue reported in Florida Monday was voters receiving their absentee ballots late. Voters called the hotline concerned that their vote won’t be counted, according to Clarke.

Over the weekend, voters in Lake County, Indiana, contacted Election Protection about long lines at polling places and officials trying to block people standing in line from voting after the polling site closed.

"Anyone standing in a long line should be allowed to vote if they are in that line at the time the polls close," Clarke explained.

She said Election Protection intervened successfully on Indiana voters’ behalf but long lines have been reported at other locations through the U.S., including in Georgia and North Carolina due to counties cutting down on polling sites.

Clarke added that this is the first presidential election in more than 40 years without the full protection of the Voting Rights Act with many states passing laws and undertaking other efforts to make voting more difficult.

In Texas, there have been reports of confusion over the state’s voter ID law. A federal appeals court loosened ID rules in July, allowing voters to present alternative documentation such as a voter registration certificate or a utility bill and sign a document affirming a reasonable difficulty in obtaining a photo ID. But voters reported to their early voting sites in Texas only to find outdated information.

Adam Laughton, an associate at Seyfarth Shaw law firm who serves as a call center captain in Houston, Texas, said incorrect printed instructions about the voter ID law were posted in polling places in San Antonio and the hotline has been fielding calls from confused voters and poll workers across the state.

"Poll workers just don’t have the grasp on the final points of the law and how it’s changed or the workaround the court put in place," he said.

Election Protection has ramped up with 1,000 more volunteers this election cycle, while the federal government has cut back on its team of election monitors. As the early voting period came to a close the Election Protection Hotline received more than 75,000 calls during the 2016 election cycle.

The Justice Department announced Monday it will send more than 500 staffers to 28 states on Election Day to monitor the polls, a 35 percent reduction from the number four years ago.

The personnel will be dispatched to 67 jurisdictions to watch for potential civil rights violations, such as discrimination on the basis of race, religion or gender.

Election Protection is a resource for voters in places that may not be covered by DOJ or other monitors. Clarke said the Election Protection National Command Center handles the bulk of calls through the election, and national and local call centers pitch in the day before and on Election Day. 

At one of six national call centers in New York City on Monday, attorney Sara Zablotney was fielding questions from voters in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin who wanted to know what would satisfy voter identification requirements in their state and where their polling places are. Two hours into her morning shift, Zablotney was gearing up for what was expected to be a barrage of voters’ calls and concerns on Election Day.

She was among a group of 30 volunteers working in four shifts at the call center, which was managed by Kirkland & Ellis law firm inside a midtown Manhattan high rise. The call center will have 160 attorneys working in four shifts, beginning at 6:30 a.m. ET. The center is expected to answer thousands of calls by the time it closes at 9:30 p.m. ET.

“It’s a really important project. I think the privilege that we have to be able to vote is a very important thing,” said Zablotney, a partner at Kirkland & Ellis who was volunteering with the hotline for the first time. “So helping people understand when and how to vote is a great service that we can provide.”

Election Protection can be reached at 866-OUR-VOTE (English only), 888-VE-Y-VOTA (English/Spanish) and 888-API-VOTE (English, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Bengali, Hindi, Urdu and Tagalog).

Police are investigating the mysterious death of a 63-year-old man who was found with head trauma in the Russian Consulate in Manhattan. 

The NYPD says the 63-year-old man was found unconscious in the consulate on East 91st Street shortly before 7 a.m. Tuesday. 

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The medical examiner will conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of death. 

Two women, naked from the waist up, burst into a midtown Manhattan polling station early Tuesday, shouting: “Out of our polls, Trump. Out of our polls, Trump!”

The women, identified as Neda Topaloski, a women's rights activist from Quebec, and Jordan Robson, of Spokane, Washington, were soon escorted out of the basement of P.S. 59 at 233 E. 56th Street, ahead of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's anticipated appearance at the polling station to cast his own vote.

The women wore jeans but no tops. Topaloski had the word “Trump” near her collarbone and the words “Grab your b---s” scrawled on her belly.

"We see women objectified all the time…what we do is exactly the opposite — using our bodies to express our own ideas," Robson said in an interview after the two were escorted out. "This is how we defend our values of freedom and inequality, by writing them on our body so our bodies do not oppose the message, they are the very message of us defending our freedom of expression."

Topaloski is a well-known Canadian FEMEN activist who tweeted out later that she was fighting the “rise of right-wing nationalism and its authoritarian sexist macho leader #DonaldTrump.” She wrote that women are not made to be sex toys, and people of other religions and nationalities should not be discriminated against or banned. As for why the topless protest? She wrote, “today, p---- grabs back and you lose.”

Police charged the two with electioneering (a misdemeanor activity prohibited under New York law that includes wearing badges and signs supporting a candidate to a polling place) and booked them at a local precinct. 

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Some poll workers took the ruckus in stride, barely looking up at the chanting. Other voters turned around from their white booths, trying to see what was going on.

Despite the commotion, the mood in the gymnasium remained mostly calm. Some jeered the women as they were escorted out; others gave them thumbs up signs. 

Topaloski said there was nothing wrong with their protest. 

"There is something very wrong with the way people see us," she said later. "If they criticize us for using our bodies as political tools, they criticize us because we’re women so it’s our stand for equality and freedom to actually enjoy these freedoms and rights.”

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Election season may be coming to an end, but a new campaign sign is sending a strong message: Make America kind again.

Amanda Blanc of Sacramento, California, designed the lawn signs, hoping to change the tone of the political conversation.

"You have so many people saying I'm voting for so-and-so because it's the lesser of two evils," she says. "This message is just about dropping that and being nice to your neighbor."

It may be a play on words on Donald Trump's now infamous slogan, but Blanc says her message is for everyone.

"It's for everybody, it's been next to Trump, it's been next to Clinton," she says. "I just want to represent kindness. I don't care about the politician."

You've put up through an endless election cycle, weighed the pros and cons of the candidates and cast your vote. Now tell us the why: Share your vote story by tweeting or posting on Instagram with the hashtag #MyVoteStory, #IVoted or #VotingSelfie, then search the mosaic above to find yourself.

If you include a photo, be sure to follow your local voting booth selfie laws -- you don't want to wind up like Justin Timberlake, in trouble with the law for doing your civic duty. Voting selfies are illegal in 19 states, and nine other states have ambigious laws. Click here to see what the rules are on your state.

NBC News relies on two key sources of information during the general election. The National Election Pool, a consortium formed by NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox and the AP, provides exit polls, absentee polls, precinct votes in selected sample precincts, and models for the analysis of the election information. The Associated Press delivers statewide vote counts as well as county by county results for general elections.

NBC News election unit analysts will first examine exit polls, any absentee polls and estimates in a given race to determine if the race can be called. Analysts also examine results from selected sample precincts, county by county model results, the actual raw votes (both statewide and county by county) and additional statistical information. In order to make a call, all senior election unit analysts must agree, the NBC News director of elections must agree, and the senior news division management representative must agree. If everyone agrees, a call is made.

When all the votes have been counted, a candidate may be named the apparent winner.

NBC News will not project a winner in a state until after the last scheduled poll closing time in that state. If the race appears to be close in any given state, an abundance of caution will be used before calling a race in that state.