Morning Update

I've been watching the Montana Senate race all night; they mentioned the possibility of calling it by 7am MST, so I'll stay up for awhile yet. It's gone back and forth, giving me hope, and taking it away. Here's how it's gone so far:

5500 even w/75%
5871 w/ 78%
5290 w/ 79%
5679 w/ 80%
3997 w/ 81%
4032 w/ 84% 146,672 to 142,640
5277 w/ 85% 150,210 to 144,933
4615 w/ 87% 158,068 to 153,453
4725 w/ 87% 158,536 to 153,811
3619 w/ 88% 162,294 to 158,675
2052 w/ 90% 173,259 to 171,207
1743 w/ 91% 174,045 to 172,302

First column is vote differential, then percent reporting, followed by vote totals for Tester and Burns, respectively, where applicable. It could end up being a week or so before we know who the majority party is in the Senate (or 50/50 split, whichever). Virginia is pretty close, but, unless I hear some big news (and that I haven't already makes me doubt that it's coming), I'd say Webb has it won.

I may have been hasty in dismissing Republican chances to regain the House in 2008 in my previous post. There might be enough to gain a bare majority, I'll have to think on it.

Interesting local results here. I'm in Arizona's 21st Legislative District, and for our House election, we vote for two people. There were two Republicans and one Democrat on the ballot. Yarbrough, a Republican, easily finished with the highest total and so will return to the legislature. However, Hettmansperger, the Democrat, currently has eight more votes than the other Republican, Nichols, 19658 to 19650. I heard on NPR (my antennae was stolen and it's the only news station that comes in clearly) last night that absentee and provisional ballots had yet to be counted. Could be interesting.

I'm also marvelling at the news organizations right now, that they have't called several races. Which ones vary by news organization, though the races tend Republican. For instance, CNN has not called the following races: CT-2, GA-8, GA-12, LA-2, MI-9, NM-1, NC-8, OH-2, OH-15, PA-6, PA-8, TX-23, WA-8, and WY-AL. Now, there's a reason for some of them. LA-2 and TX-23 are heading for runoffs. CT-2 has a 223 vote margin with 97% reporting. WA-8 is a 2 point race with 31% reporting. However, MI-9 has a 10 point margin with 91% reporting, OH-15 has a margin of over 11,000 votes with 100% reporting; these should have been called a few hours ago. In the case of OH-15, Fox News called it quite awhile ago. There were more examples, but CNN made a few calls in the last couple hours. Fox News needs to make some calls as well; they have fewer calls made than CNN (seems at least partially because they pretty much went to bed last night; they were quicker to call seats flipping than CNN all night). Still a few gubernatorial races not called (by some parties); CNN hasn't called Rhode Island or Minnesota yet, both of which look like Republican retentions (albeit by slim margins).

Update:
1507 96% 183,386 to 181,879