The preliminary (unofficial) results of the 2010 Massachusetts Special Senate Election are available. In a surprise, Republican candidate Scott Brown defeated Democratic candidate Martha Coakley 52% to 47%. This result is actually very similar to the 2002 Gubernatorial Election Result where Mitt Romney defeated Shannon O’Brien by 5 percentage points (50% – 45%). Also, interestingly, the voter turnout for the snowy January 19 Special Election actually exceeded the turnout in both the 2002 and 2006 General Elections (preliminary figures show 2,249,026 votes in the special election vs. 2,194,179 votes in the 2002 General Election and 2,219,779 votes in the 2006 General Election).
