ELECTION UPDATE #1- VIRGINIA

GOP efforts to suppress voter turn-out in being reported everywhere and machine monkey-business has been reported in Virginia, California and Ohio. There were no exit polls anywhere but things seemed to be going well for the 2 Democratic gubernatorial candidates in VA and NJ. Schwarzenegger's reactionary propositions all looked like losers and Ohio was too close to call. The first counted votes I've seen for this first update are from Virginia. They have a great website with all the latest counts and the 8:17 (EST, of course) count shows almost 50% of precincts reporting with Kaine, the Democrat with 477,878 votes (51.55%) as opposed to the vile BushCo candidate, Kilgore with 429,086 votes (46.29%). The Repug is slightly ahead for Lieutenant Governor and the Democrat is slightly ahead for Attorney General.

ELECTION UPDATE #2


In NJ, the bellweather county is Bergen, where Republicans have a slight edge in voter registration and which they need to take in order to win statewide. Corzine is ahead in Bergen with 57% so far. In VA, Kaine has been ahead all night; the BushCo candidate is underperforming recent GOP results in both educated affluent suburban areas and in backward rural areas. The latest results, with about 2/3 of the precincts reporting shows Kaine with 649,957 (50.73%) and Kilgore with 602,443 (47.02%). The Republicans running for Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General are slightly ahead. The latest NJ results so far have Corzine ahead 52% to 45%.


ELECTION NIGHT UPDATE #3

With 23% of the votes counted in NJ, Corzine is holding his 7% lead against the BushCo candidate. Corzine has 270,256 votes and Forrester managed to somehow acrew 233,405 votes.

Meanwhile with almost 3/4 of the precincts reporting in VA, Kaine is ahead 718,541 (50.61%) to 669,100 (47.13%). Bush campaigned in VA with Kilgore last night, apparently sealing his fate.


ELECTION NIGHT UPDATE #4


I'm going over to Russ and Rebecca's for dinner now. (It was postponed for an hour 'cause Jimmy, the chef, was out voting.) I should be back in a couple hours and by that time I'm assuming we'll have confirmed victories in NJ and VA, voting will be over in CA and the extent of the disaster in Ohio will be known. Meanwhile, as I prepare to leave, with 36% of the votes counted in NJ, Corzine has surged to a 9% lead against the BushCo candidate. Corzine has 441,416 (53%) votes and Forrester has somehow managed to convince 361,804 (44%) voters that what they need to help solve the problems created by Bush's policies of greed and selfishness is... a Bush clone.

And now 88% of the precincts are reporting in VA and Kaine has increased his lead 871,306 (51.31%) to 788,562 (46.44%). Time for the night's first Repug concession speech.


ELECTION NIGHT UPDATE #5

Dinner was great at Russ and Rebecca's. I even learned something. What's-his-name... that former right-wing congressman from Florida who probably murdered one of his female staffers and now does a whacko show on MSNBC? Anyway, whatever that maniac's name is, he announced on his show, in reference to the story about the girl missing in Aruba (a story, I hadn't heard about in... months?), that if you don't understand why middle America is obsessed with this story, you don't understand middle America. Oh. I just thought it was part of a conscious effort on behalf of corporate mass media to dumb-down the population and get their minds off real problems like Iraq and how BushCo and its corporate allies are pillaging America. But what do I know?

Anyway I'm home and I noticed that they kept counting votes while I was at dinner. HUGE win for Kaine in Virginia. 99.05% of the votes are counted and Kaine had 1,012,555 (51.82%) of them while the right-winger for whom Bush campaigned last night got 897,010 votes (45.91%), losing by a bigger margin than the final polls (pre-Bush-campaigning-for-him showed). Let's hope Bush does a lot of campaigning for GOP candidates this year and next. In NJ, Corzine won by a whopping 10% over the BushCo candidate who conducted one of the vilest and most negative campaigns ever.

The asshole Democrat mayor of St Paul who endorsed Bush last year was slaughtered at the polls today by a real Democrat, Chris Coleman (two to one margin). Tomorrow I'll talk about the Reform Ohio Now amendments, which look like they are either losing or like lowlife crooked Secretary of State Ken Blackwell is doing his little magic trick with the voting machines again. And there are some other races I'm interested in-- especially the mayoralty in San Diego. The Schwarzenegger propositions are see-sawing and we'll see tomorrow too. Right, with about 30% of the votes counted, here's how they stack up:

#73- Minor's Pregnancy 50.2% Yes
#74- Teacher's Tenure 51.2% No
#75- Union Dues 52.3% Yes
#76- Budget 58.6% No
#77- Redistricting 55.5% No
#78- Fake Drug Discounts 57.8% No