Election Day 2008 (UPDATE 33: OBAMA NOW AHEAD IN NC)

Election 2008*This post will be updated often throughout the day, with the most recent updates appearing at the top of the post. Newer posts will appear below this one.*

Update 34 – 12:04 AM: I think NC is going to go for BO after all.

Fox showed a shot earlier of liberals demonstrating in front of the WH. You stay classy, far lefties.

Update 33 – 11:38 PM: With 95% reporting, Obama is now ahead again in NC by about 30K votes.

Update 32 – 10:45 PM: VA was just called for BO. Looks like Murtha will hold on to his seat. Franken’s barely in the lead right now in the MN Senate race. I can’t understand how in the hell that seat would go Democrat considering Franken’s past, but then again I didn’t think Obama would have the night he is, either. This is a strange America we’re living in right now.

Update 31 – 10:23 PM: The NC BOE website has McPalin up by 23K votes with 71 of 100 counties reporting. Will NC stay red?!

10:27 PM: ABC News is saying Mc is up by 3K with 82% reporting. Hmm.

Update 30 – 10:06 PM: There’s a difference of less than 16K votes in NC now (74% reporting). Looks like we’ll be stuck with a Dem governor again. Sigh.

Also, how important was race in this election? Byron York has some interesting stats.

Update 29 – 10:00 PM: Fox calls UT, TX for Mc. IA for BO. Wicker holds on to his Senate seat in MS, which makes the Dem supermajority in the Senate much harder now. Scratch that – Fox is now saying they are not calling the Wicker seat yet.

Update 28 – 9:55 PM: There are 35K votes now between BO and Mc in NC with 65% reporting. Obama now leads in VA by 10K with 82% reporting. Florida we’re still down by 140K with 64% reporting.

Update 27 – 9:35 PM: The gap has narrowed to 65K votes in NC (52% reporting). The only reason I am still up at this point is to find out what happens in NC, VA (8K vote difference – 73% reporting), and FL (180K difference – 59% reporting). NC in particular. If this state goes blue, I will officially be going to bed in tears.

BTW, check out a promo MSDNC aired tonight. Is there any lingering doubt left who they’re in the tank for?

Update 26 – 9:18 PM: Fox just projected OH for Obama. Losing OH and not being able to pick up PA is not good at all. This is shaping up to be a bad night for Mc and the GOP. No Republican has won the WH without winning OH.

The Dems have picked up another Senate seat, this one in NM (Udall).

Update 25 – 9:14 PM: The race is majorly tightening in VA. There is a 30K vote difference betwen Mc and Bo, with 64% reporting.

Update 24 – 9:06 PM: About 130K vote difference in NC now :(

Senator Roberts holds on to his seat in KS. That’s three Republican Senate holds. Jeff Sessions holds on in AL as does Thad Cochran in MS. That’s five holds – but the ones I just mentioned weren’t competitive.

Update 23 – 8:56 PM – 9:00 PM: The vote difference between Mc and Obama is now down to around 90K in NC, with 21% reporting. Oh please, please say this is the beginning of a trend that will eventually favor Mc in this state! Mc is still holding on in VA, ahead 70K votes with 51% reporting.

Fox has called WI and NM for BO. ND for Mc. NM is a pick up for the Dems (Bush barely won there in 2004). MN for BO. NY – BO. RI – BO. MI – BO. WY, KS – Mc.

Update 22 – 8:39 PM: Fox projects GA for Mc, and are saying that Chambliss will hold on to his Senate seat. That’s two holds for Republicans.

Update 21 – 8:30 PM: Fox is now calling PA for BO as well.

I’m getting really worried about NC. Only 9% reporting, but BO is up by 140K votes. In FL, Mc is down 230K votes with 36% reporting. The panhandle part of the state has the most votes left to count, and that is an area that is usually friendly to Republicans. We’ll see.

What a surprise. Meck. County (my county here in NC) went for Obama 68% to 32%. See what I have to put up with in this county? :(

Update 20 – 8:26 PM: Fox is projecting Shaheen to win against incumbent John Sununu in NH. That’s three pick ups in the Senate for the Dems.

Update 21 – 8:18 PM: VA is looking better for Mc right now than NC and FL. Hagen’s win here may be indicative of a bad night for R’s across the board in NC. Sigh.

Update 20 – 8:08 PM: Fox News calls KY’s Senate race for McConnell. Whew.

They’re also calling NC’s hotly contested Senate race between Dem Kay Hagen and incumbent R. Liddy Dole for Hagen. Not good. I figured this would happen. It’s been close for a while now, and the recent “Godless” ad run by the Dole campaign turned off a lot of people. That seat has been in Republican hands forever. That’s a big loss for the GOP.

Meant to also note earlier that TN had been called for Mc.

Update 19 – 8:03 PM: Hot Air’s AllahPundit reports that MSDNC has already called PA for Obama. So has ABC. Apparently the exits were pretty bad. This is not good news.

Update 18 – 8:00 PM: Several polls are now closed. The ones to watch PA and FL.

MA, MD, IL, DC, CT, ME, NJ, DE are (unsurprisingly) projected for BO. OK projected for Mc.

Update 17 – 7:52 PM: Fox projects SC for Mc. It’s about time! I was getting nervous.

Update 16 – 7:30 PM: NC, OH, and WV polls are now closed. Here are the links for those three states. Obviously, watch NC and OH closely.

North Carolina
Ohio
West Virginia

Fox projects WV for Mc. No shocker there.

Update 15 – 7:13 PM: CNN’s Virginia page is not updating right now, but ABC News’ is.

Update 14 – 7:06 PM: Major Garrett reports on Fox that the Obama campaign is not as optimistic this evening about winning NC as they once were, and they are saying the black turnout in NC may not be as high as it had initially been predicted. Hmm.

Fox projects Dem Mark Warner to win the VA Senate race (no surprise there). Seat pick-up for the Dems.

Update 13 – 7:00 PM: Take a deep breath, ya’ll. Here we go. The first polls are closing in the states below. Watch VA and IN in particular.

Fox projects Obama wins VT, Mc wins KY. They are saying SC is too close to call?! Seriously?

Update 12 – 6:43 PM: Here are the links for the 7:00 poll-closing states:

Update 11 – 6:39 PM: Geraghty has more exits.

Sheesh. I can’t wait til 7 to find out how Virginia went, since I can’t seem to stop myself from reading into the exit polls.

Update 10 – 6:26 PM: Great advice from Mark Steyn re: exit polling. Don’t rely on it and:

Polls are open. Keep on voting. Pundits at a loose end should find a goat to sacrifice and read his entrails. It’ll be as accurate.

This is interesting: Fox is showing a trickle of election results coming in from a few states. Obviously, no polls have closed yet. I wonder if the results they are showing are from early voting?

Update 9 – 6:12 PM: WSBTV reports on possible double voting in Georgia:

ATLANTA — Georgia’s Secretary of State has launched a full investigation and may seek criminal charges against three Georgia men who appear to have early-voted twice.

“This is extraordinarily disturbing,” said Secretary of State Karen Handel.

A team of investigative journalists from WSB-TV in Atlanta, WFTV in Orlando and WFTS in Tampa and WCPO in Cincinnati compared Georgia’s voter rolls with those in Florida and Ohio and found more than 100,000 people who appear to be registered to vote in more than one state, with no government oversight to catch it.

And the ModBee reports on two pre-marked (for Obama) Spanish language ballots found at a precinct in Oakdale, CA.

Update 8 – 5:56 PM: Drudge has a new headline up with no link that reads “EXIT POLLS SHOW OBAMA BIG” and Obama supposedly up 15 in PA exit polling. Ok – data, please?? **reminds self to keep in mind exit polling was off in 2004**

Another reminder, to all: Please don’t let exit polling keep you from voting.

Update 7 – 5:42 PM: Drudge is reporting that the first wave of exits have been released, but I can’t find the info on them yet. Mini-Update: Just found ’em. They’re reporting that things look closer than they did in the national polling done in several states prior to the election. Here’s a graphic they have posted:

Jim Geraghty rightly suggests that no one on the right “get cocky” over these results, but if they numbers aren’t wildly off, we may be in for a later night than we thought.

Hoping, praying.

Jonah Goldberg has more exit data.

Check out the ProPublica website’s list of polling place issues from around the country today.

Update 6 – 2:13 PM: MM now has video of the Black Panther intimidation that went on at one polling place in Philly this morning. Election Journal has much more about what’s going on in and around some Philly polling places. Is Philly the PA equivalent of Chi-town, IL? :-?

Update 5 – 12:37 PM: Via MM: Intimidation by the Black Panthers in PA?

Update 4 – 12:28 PM: The Charlotte Observer has photos of the lines at NC polling places and other polling places from around the country.

Update 3 – 12:04 PM: Good grief: NBC 10 has a list of the problem areas of PA that have been reported so far. Red State has more.

Ben Smith has some anecdotal turnout info from several states.

Update 2 – 10:46 AM: Critblogging the 2008 election!

Guess who also voted this morning at the same polling place, just minutes before Barry O? Bill Ayers. Friend-of-Rev.-Wright Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan also voted at that polling place this morning.

Update 1 – 8:52 AM: Jim Geraghty and Rasmussen both have posted timely reminders on why it’s not good to rely 100% on what you hear from the early exit poll results that usually come out a few hours before the first polls close.

And Drudge has some intriguing headlines posted:

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The polling is over, the ads have run, the debates are over, and all the speeches and arguments have been made. Now it’s time for America to decide who they want in the WH, Congress, their city, county, and state legislatures, what judges they want on the bench (on local levels), and what ballot measures should pass. Already voters in the 32 states that have early voting have been lining up in record numbers to make their voices heard. Here in North Carolina, 41% of registered voters have already voted. To view more early voting stats, click here.

Real Clear Politics will soon have links to pundit predictions, and I doubt you’ll find too many who are predicting a McCain victory tonight. Some pundits have even suggested that Republicans should look down the ticket for possible good news. For example, NC may – may – see a Republican governor for the first time since the mid-80s. That said, anything can happen – so make sure you stay tuned as the election results come in, and try not to put too much stock in the early exit polls, as the McCain campaign explains here.

Here’s a map of poll closing times. Remember that Florida and Indiana both are in two different time zones so the results from those states won’t start coming in until after the polls close in the central time zone areas. (Early Evening Update: Add Kentucky to this list, and also a slight correction: The nets will start displaying the results but they won’t project a state until after it closes. My bad.)

Polls opened here in NC at 6:30 and will be open until 7:30. I’ve watched the local news this morning and they’re reporting in some areas of Charlotte that people started lining up at 5:00 a.m. The weather forecast calls for rain in some parts of central to Eastern NC today.

Michael Barone has provided a list of possible hour by hour scenarios that would be favorable to McCain and Obama respectively.

Did you vote already today? If so, what were the lines like? Dixville Notch, NH – always the “first in the nation” to vote, has cast the majority of their 21 votes for Barack Obama. This article notes that Dixville Notch and nearby Hart’s Location (where Obama won 17-10), are not known for always being accurate predictors of who wins the presidency. Let’s hope and pray that holds true today.

Any predictions? Please post them in the comments section.

A little humor to get your day started: File this one under “you know it’s getting bad when”:

HELENA – Republican gubernatorial candidate Roy Brown this week accused Democrats of spreading a false rumor that he is a vegetarian in this meat-loving state.

“I am not and have never been a vegetarian,” Brown said.

“I am disgusted by the baseless allegation that I am a vegetarian and that my personal eating habits should somehow be construed as opposed to the economic interests of Montana’s livestock industry.”

Brown did say that he and his family temporarily cut back on their consumption of meat and dairy products 25 years ago when they were caring for a dying loved one who couldn’t eat those products.

“It was the least we could do to make the life of a loved one more comfortable at a very difficult time,” he said.

Brown was responding to an undated e-mail sent by his Billings neighbor, Pat Etchart, to Dennis McDonald, chairman of the Montana Democratic Party and a Melville cattle rancher.

McDonald, in turn, forwarded Etchart’s e-mail to some cattle ranchers Friday and asked: “What do you make of this?”

The letter also has been send to agricultural publications and blogs.

In the e-mail, Etchart said that when the Browns moved next door in Billings, Roy Brown invited her husband and her to their house to get acquainted.

“In the course of conversation, he told us that he and his wife are vegetarians,” Etchart wrote. “At the time, I thought nothing of it, but as Roy now makes the rounds and campaigns for governor, I have a concern. Would it not be a problem, in a state where cattle ranching is such a vital industry, to have a governor who does not eat meat?

“What caused me to think about this is that I told my brother-in-law, a rancher who usually votes Republican, about it. And he said that he could never vote for a vegetarian, because it’s against his economic interest.”

LOL.

I’ll update this post as I can throughout the day, and start a fresh one tonight for results as they come in.

(Start time of this post – 6:55 AM)

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