Election Thread

UPDATE: 10:08

Election turning out to be a disaster for Marion Co. GOP. Brizzi limping to victory with only 52% of the vote. All other countywide candidates blown out. The best the GOP can hope for is a Republican prosecutor to put in jail some corrupt Democratic pols that are thumbing their noses at us tonight. 7th District race over. Carson lead builds to 7,000 votes. Buell lead evaporating. Now up only 52-48% over Barnes. Elrod clings to narrow 300 vote lead over Mahern.

UPDATE 9:52 P.M.

Carson pulls ahead with over 60% of the votes counted, 53-47%. She now has a 6,000 vote lead. This race will be called for Carson shortly. Sodrel looks to be a narrower loser to Hill. He's down almost 3,000 votes with more than 80% of the votes counted. The GOP will lose 3 House seats in Indiana alone. Suffice it to say Democrats will regain control of the U.S. House.

UPDATE 9:45 P.M.

What happened to Brizzi's big lead. It's down to 53-47% with 80% of the votes counted. This is bad news for the GOP--all other countywide races now puts Democrats ahead.

UPDATE 9:22 P.M.

Indiana Senate Republican lock on 33 seats? Merritt wins easily over Brown. Waterman and Walker clinging to narrow leads. May not lose a single seat tonight. Quite a feat! GOP candidates for Secretary of State, Treasurer and Auditor appear headed to sweep for statewide ticket.

Fox News declares Donnelly the winner in the 2nd over Chocola. Add that to Hostettler's loss and now Dems need only beat Sodrel in the 9th to sweep all 3 contested GOP seats in Indiana. Sodrel trails Hill. GOP will lose least 2 dozen seats tonight in US House as AI predicted.

Chafee declared loser in Rhode Island by Fox News, giving Dems a 3-seat pick-up--halfway to control.

UPDATE 9:15 P.M.

Lux loses to Eberhart. Battles leads Woodruff 52-48%. Cheatham beating Bright 54-46%. Orentlicher up 60-40%. Buell up 57-43%. Elrod up 56-44%.

Brizzi up 55-45%, White over Edgar 51-49% Ping over Breaux 51-49%. Bowes in dead heat with Wilson.

Carson-Dickerson, Hill-Sodrel, Donnelly-Chocola races too close to call.

Lieberman wins as Independent in Connecticut.

UPDATE 9:05 P.M.

State senate seats: Waterman has narrow 52-48% lead. Walker takes a small lead over Coriden. Merritt has strong 60-40% lead over Brown. Toll road legislators on Republican side fairing better than expected. Dems struggle to knock any off. Walorski has lead over Kovach.

UPDATE 8:52 P.M.

Carson back on top 51-49% with 30% of the votes counted. Brizzi lead at 56-44%. Anderson has big lead. Other county races extremely tight. Indiana House Dems have at least 2 seat pick up right now. More likely.

UPDATE 8:40 P.M.

Democrat leads slip away in Lux race. Eberhart looks like a winner. Bright takes commanding lead--looks like a winner. Saunders now looks like winner. Orentlicher holds 54-46% lead. Buell leads 58-42% over Barnes. Elrod upset looking more likely over Mahern, up 59%-41%. Anderson leads Davis 56-41%. Brizzi up 58-42%. Edgar holds small lead over White. Ping larger lead over Breaux, 54-46%. Wilson leads Bowes 52-48%. Dickerson holds narrow lead of 51-49% over Carson.

Fox News calls Casey winner over Santorum in Pennsylvania. Menendez declared winner in New Jersey. DeWine loses in Ohio. Net 2 seat loss in Senate for Rs.


UPDATE 8:25 P.M.

Dickerson takes first lead of night over Carson. He has a 1,000 vote lead, or 52-48% over Carson with 20% of votes counted. Michael Barone of Fox News on Indiana congressional races. Hostettler getting trounced in northern part of district--cost him re-election. Chocola getting beat 2-1 in St. Joseph Co.--will probably cost him election. Sodrel turnout effort on I-74 corridor helping a little--too close to call. Barone intrigued by Dickerson's lead. Refers to Carson as "Virginia Carson"--might be an upset--but he doesn't expect him to pull it out. Brent Hume reminds audience he's not the former Colts running back.

Gay marriage amendment winning big in Tennessee. Add another win for the bigots to the earlier Virginia win.

UPDATE 8:20 P.M.

Hill and Sodrel in dead even race. Souder has shockingly small, 52-48% lead over Hayhurst. Donnelly building big lead over Chocola. Carson holds narrow 51-49% lead. Hostettler already defeated.

ES&S responsible for screw up in Marion Co. Vendor employees programmed machines to shut down at 8:00 p.m. instead of 6:00 p.m.--cause of slow returns in Marion Co.

UPDATE 8:00 P.M.

Brizzi retakes clear lead, 56-44%. All other countywide GOP candidates in Marion Co. trail Democrats. Carson lead over Dickerson narrows to 51-49%. Fox News calls Ellsworth winner over Hostettler. Jon Elrod jumps out to early lead over Ed Mahern. Linda Ivey (R) leading Carl Drummer in early returns for Center Township Trustee.

The GLBT community will be pleased to learn that Sen. Jeff Drozda (R) clings only to a small lead of 52-48% in his heavily Republican district.

UPDATE 7:30 P.M.

Sodrel has jumped into a narrow 50-47% lead over Hill. Democrats looking good in efforts to unseat Bright, Smith and win open House seat with J.D. Lux. Tom Saunders in dead heat. Democratic chances of retaking Indiana House looking good.

Gay marriage amendment in Virginia winning 58-42%.

UPDATE 7:25

State GOP ticket now leads all Democrats. Chocola-Donnelly in a dead heat. Carson leads 55-45%. Brizzi now in dead heat with Kennedy. Not good news for Marion Co. GOP. Early returns typically favor GOP.

UPDATE 7:15 P.M.

Brizzi takes early 57-43% lead over Kennedy in prosecutor's race. Sheriff Anderson takes 57-40% lead over Davis. Souder has early 54-46% lead over Hayhurst. Dickerson holds slight lead of 51-49% over Carson with only a couple hundred votes counted.

UPDATE 7:00 P.M.

J.D. Lux leading Sean Eberhart. Borders still trailing Bledsoe. Trending towards takeover of Indiana House by Democrats. Ellsworth's huge lead over Hostettler, 72-28%, appears boosted by Vigo County vote. Rep. Chris Chocola takes early 57-43% lead over Donnelly. Terry Coriden takes early 52-44% lead over Greg Walker. Borders and Waterman take leads.

UPDATE 6:50 P.M.

Rep. Bruce Borders (R) getting trounced by Bledsoe (D). Sen. Waterman (R) in a dead heat. Former Rep. Ron Liggett (D) trailing slightly 51-49% in his comeback bid.

UPDATE 6:40 P.M.

Ellsworth leading Hostettler big in early return, 72-28%. State Dem ticket reverses early GOP lead, now leading all races. Pence margin smaller than normal 58-42% over Welsh.

UPDATE 6:25 P.M.

Redstate blog reporting conflicting information about today's exit polling. The blog reports: "We should point out that as bad as the national exit polling looks, should things stay constant, both George Allen and Jim Talent will sail to re-election and Burns and Chafee would be in a dead heat. Also, the job approval ratings in the poll track the WashingtonPost/ABC poll that showed a momentum shift to the GOP. One thing is sure: it is going to be a long night."

UPDATE 6:20 P.M.

Early returns show state GOP ticket winning by roughly 55-45% margins. Libertarian Steve Osborn picking up 12% against Lugar. Buyer winning by a 2-1 margin over Sanders.

UPDATE 6:05 P.M.

A late-afternoon restraining order was issued against the Marion Co. Democratic Party. Republicans filmed Democrats paying voters with bagged lunches after they showed up and voted at polling places according to WTHR. Republicans also presented evidence of a recorded audio message that went out over police radios urging LEOs to vote for Democrats. Pay for votes is a Class D felony.

Fox News paints bleak picture for Rs in key congressional races based on exit polling. Late-deciding voters broke heavily in favor of Ds. Some talking a 30-seat loss in House and 6-seat loss in Senate-giving control to both parties. Rumors that Hastert is stepping down from leadership. Speculation that Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) is launching a leadership bid.

UPDATE-6:00 P.M.

Polls just closed in most of Indiana. ABC News paints a bleak picture of voter attitudes towards Bush in this election. Only 4 in 10 approve of the job he's doing according to their exit poll. Not good for Rs, but the exit polls totally got it wrong 2 years ago--calling the election for Kerry.

UPDATE-5:55 P.M.

What is on voter's minds today? CNN election-day polling says 62% of today's voters voted on national issues, while 33% voted on local issues. The top issues in this order: Corruption (42%), Terrorism (40%), Economy (39%) and Iraq (37%). Hotline Blog is reporting that the GOP is doing a better job with absentee votes this election year than Democrats, particularly in some key states. Indiana's data isn't tracked.

This will serve as the election thread to update you on tonight's election results. Polls will close in most of Indiana at 6:00 p.m., except for the northwestern and southwestern portions of the state located in the central time zone, where the polls will close an hour later. Also, polls in Delaware County will remain open until 8:40 p.m. because the MicroVote electronic machines were programmed incorrectly by the vendor, which prevented voters from voting when polls first opened this morning. Expect a lot of heat on MicroVote after the election. Recall that MicroVote, along with ES&S, operated nonconforming machines in this year's May primary, resulting in sanctions being imposed against both vendors. The Secretary of State's office reports no problems with either Indiana's new voter ID law or the state's new statewide voter registration database to which all counties are linked according to WTHR.

Early returns in Marion County should start rolling in shortly before 6:30 p.m. It's always hard to read too much into the early returns because you don't know for sure what part of the county vote is included in those numbers. Stay tuned for more updates.