Turnout was 64 percent of registered voters, the highest in generations.
Sen. Ted Stevens, the newly minted felon, will be re-elected in Alaska. But when his conviction is affirmed and he resigns, a special election will be required for the seat and his Democratic challenger should be reasonably well-positioned. And the corrupt Rep. Don Young also was re-elected. Something is bad wrong in Alaska.
Minnesota is too close to call between Democrat Al Franken and Republican Norm Coleman. But Coleman had a narrow edge, of 762 votes with 2.5 million cast, at the end. There will be a recount.
The Oregon Republican senator may hang on, too, for a net gain of only five in the Senate. (I know, that sounds greedy.) It’s still enough for a working majority; still enough to send Joe Lieberman packing.
There’s a vote count foulup in Georgia. It could be that some 600,000 early votes in Fulton County weren’t included in running totals last night. This might mean there’s yet hope to force Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss into a runoff. Fulton County will produce a heavy black vote, generally Democrat-friendly.
Some truly repugnant House Repubs have been defeated — Virgil Goode of Virginia (oops, maybe not, this one is up in the air) and Steve Chabot in Ohio are but two of many — and that bears a good roundup some time later in the day. Sigh, the wacky Rep. Michele Bachman of Minnesota was re-elected 47-43.
Good golly. Obama won Indiana. Thank you, Gary.
California appears likely to pass Prop. 8, to ban same-sex marriage. With most votes counted, it leads 52-48.