Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Is this a great country or what? Voting updates...

I just got back from voting and (breaking news) I encountered no intimidation or voter fraud (though truth be told I live in a heavily Republican area). After five ballots worth of propositions I finally finished. I came home grabbed a snack, a beer, put on my "W '04" t-shirt, flipped on Fox News, turned on the radio to overload my senses with more information than is humanly possible to consume.

God bless America!

UPDATE 5:22PM PST: Nothing significant has been called either way, no surprises, but with what looks like a positive for conservatives (and possibly the Dubya), all the "defining marriage as between a man and a woman" seem to be passing handily.

UPDATE 5:24PM PST: Fox showing Bush up in Florida.

UPDATE 5:27PM PST: Shot in the Dark comments on Zogby already calling the election for Kerry and the proper response to such a poll this early in the evening:
  1. Roll it up
  2. Use it for kindling
  3. Never, ever pay any attention to Zogby again.
    Zogby, whose brother leads an Arab-American group that is in the bag for Kerry, may as well be a wholly-owned subsidiary of the DNC at this point.

Sounds about right.

UPDATE 5:33PM PST: Fox projecting NC and VA for Bush and Bush still with a significant lead in Florida.

UPDATE 5:47PM PST: Fox makes a similar statement to what Hugh Hewitt just made: exit polls are underestimating the votes in the favor of Bush. Is MSM going through its death throws?

UPDATE 5:58PM PST: More talk of Bush outperforming the exit polls, sounds great.

UPDATE 6:06PM PST: Fox ticker showing Bush ahead in Michigan but only a couple percent of precincts reporting. And good omen in Ohio, Rep. seantor incumbent winning easily. All things look good.

UPDATE 6:14PM PST: California Republicans pounding the pavement. I just got a call from Republican HQ letting me know that if I and the fetching Mrs. Wookie hadn't voted yet, the polls were still open. Hope they did the same across the rest of the nation.

UPDATE 6:30PM PST: CNN has LA for Bush no big surprise. Bush with leads in MI, OH, and NM. Kerry leading in PA.

UPDATE 6:46PM PST: CNN no shows NM for Kerry, but it's still early, and Bush up still in FL.

UPDATE 6:50PM PST: I'd talk more about the senate, but since CA's republican candidate was the missing candidate, I'm slightly disappointed. But go Thune, hopefully we get rid of Daschle.

UPDATE 6:58PM PST: Bush up in CO by about 8% but Coors only up by 800 or so votes. Come on CO, keep it up.

UPDATE 7:03PM PST: Lots of early totals starting to come in (via Fox) NM, MO, MN, MI, AZ, WI & CO leaning to Bush, NV for Kerry.

UPDATE 7:05PM PST: Kerry talking head on Fox from Kerry headquarters "not surprised" by early Bush positive returns in blue states, & in fruitless last ditch to take the higher road, says America should just be "proud of the high voter turnout." Dude, too late to try to add class to your campaign.

UPDATE: 7:14PM PST: Bush up in FL by some 200,000 votes. Still close but nothing like predicted by exit polls. I think we're seeing a trend with those rascally exit polls.

UPDATE 7:23PM PST: ABC showing Bush up in WI, Kerry up in MN. Come on Northern alliance you guys have got to get the snowmobile vote out.

UPDATE 7:31PM PST: Nothing to update, just needed to post something here.

UPDATE 7:41PM PST: Barone showing Republican turnout is up OH (leaning red)and apparently the polls are still open due to rain and crowding (same in PA leaning blue).

UPDATE 7:44PM PST: Watching CNN breakdown the county map of FL shows almost the entire state a nice beautiful deep dark red. Bush still up there by 250,000.

UPDATE 7:48PM PST: RedState saying it's over and inside sources say OH and FL are going to Bush. We can only pray.

UPDATE 7:51PM PST: Some results showing Thune up by 600 in ND and Bunning winning by 2%.

UPDATE 8:03PM PST: MN for Kerry, MI for Bush so far. Polls closed here in the Pacific time zone; we're finally coming to the meat of the election night.

UPDATE 8:08PM PST: We now show NH leaning to Kerry, and WI still pretty strong for Bush.

UPDATE 8:11PM PST: Via Fox and Greta, the ACLU is filing lawsuit to have the deadline for absentees in state extended to the date for absentees out of country. Somebody please shoot the ACLU. Please.

UPDATE 8:35PM PST: Fox has Bush up by 100,000 in OH, bu MI has shifted to Kerry (doh!)

UPDATE 8:38PM PST: CNN and RedState mention 10 of 11 same sex marriage bans (OR still too earlier but the ban is leading in the polls) have passed. All bodes well for the conservatives.

UPDATE 9:01PM PST: Just watched Karen Hughes on Fox, and everything in the Bush camp sounds relaxed and confident. The numbers are looking good. MN and MI are leaning to Kerry but they went to Gore in 2000 so they would have been gifts. Blue to Red shifts look to be WI and NM while red to blue may be NV. Regardless, some have called FL for Bush and OH is strongly leaning red. I don't see many ways for Kerry to pull this out.

UPDATE 9:20PM PST: Fox finally calls CA for Kerry (like that was in doubt, though I'm disappointed). Fox has been extremely cautious and (go figure) conservative calling states, and I really can't blame them.

UPDATE 9:32PM PST: Best line of the night just came from Brit Hume on Fox, "Kerry is playing catch up." I frankly (no hotdog pun intended) can't believe he even said it.

UPDATE 9:36PM PST: Captain's Quarter's reporting that Kerry's lead in WI is due to counts heavy in urban area and slow counting in the more conservative suburban areas. Watch for a possible swing there. See Powerline as well.

UPDATE 9:42PM PST: Fox calls OH for Bush!!! That should be the final nail in the coffin of Kerry.

UPDATE 9:54PM PST: Fox now projecting Bush the winner. Let's hope it sticks this time.

UPDATE 9:57PM PST: Kerry's only ahead by 1,000 votes in Iowa. Let's slam dunk this baby. Go Dubya!

UPDATE 10:00PM PST: MSNBC projecting AK for Bush now, putting Bush 1 vote away from the magic number.

UPDATE 10:24PM PST: CNN shows Bush ahead by 4,000 in Iowa and 20,000 in NM.

UPDATE 11:00PM PST: No one wants to call IA or NM but those leads are 13,000 and 25,000, so I'm going to bed for peaceful sleep knowing Dubya has been re-elected.