*Official Election 2005 Results Thread*

[socaldem]

Update to Saturday  6:57 PM

Margin is now 410

Another 178 votes reported from Norfolk city.

McDonnell  +33
Deeds      +136
Write-in        +9

McDonnell over Deeds by 410 (0.021%)

The two bunches from Norfolk were 85% Deeds, vs. 61% overall.  I still don't know where the votes are trickling in from.  The Fairfax County web site indicates a total of 48 provisional votes among 262 thousand votes (Fairfax County is by far the largest jurisdiction in the state, with about 5 times the Richmond vote and 6 times the Norfolk vote.  If the Norfolk additions were from provisionals, the provisional rate would be roughly 40 times that of Fairfax County.

So does this mean that there are still a lot of Fairfax County provisional ballots to be counted?

That, it seems to me, would suggest that Deeds would likely have enough votes to pull into the lead.

In a recount, though, you point out that the large county voting machines make it impossible to recount.  Does that mean the recount would focus on GOP-heavy counties, and, hence, counties where McDonnell would have a better chance to make up votes?

[socaldem]

The Lege races of 2005 also were interesting, imo...

I've been watching the central NJ 13th state assembly district where Republicans seemed poised to knock off the two Democratic incumbents.  Aided by a pair of Green party spoilers,  Dem. Robert Morgan was defeated by top vote-getter Jennifer Beck.  Dem Mike Panter, however, has apparently defeated his opponent Declan O'Scanlan by ONE VOTE! (according to politicsnj.com)  He had been trailing for weeks and the outcome will likely be challenged by a recount and, perhaps, in court.

If Panter wins, that means the legislative races in 2005 have the following results:

NJ:
GOP wins 1 Dem-held seat
Dems win 3 GOP-held seats
Outcome: + 2 D

VA:
GOP wins 2 Dem-held seats
Dems win 3 GOP-held seats
Indy wins 1 GOP-held seat
Outcome: +1 D, +1I

MO:
Dems win 1 GOP-held seat
GOP wins 1 Dem-held seat

outcome: no change

I think its also notable that NJ had a number of women enter the legislature with four more women in the state assembly and one more in the state senate.  Because NJ politics is so controlled by machines on both sides, it has often been hard for women to gain political office there.

[socaldem]

AuH2O posted that the Democrats got whupped in the Virginia state legislature.  Am I missing something, or was he just incorrect?

Well, given that there was a Democratic breeze strong enough to give Leslie Byrne over 49% of the vote--significantly more than Jerry Kilgore received, Democrats did not pick up as many seats as might have been hoped.  They did lose a number of northern virginia squeakers (though they blew away hated GOP incumbent Black and right-wing loony candidate Craddick).  While Dems made gains in Northern Virginia, they lost a couple outstate seats--seeing Southwest VA incumbent Keister lose out in the only region in which Kilgore overperformed.

[socaldem]

As of 4:47 Friday

Margin McDonnell +345

Changes (since Thursday 3:23)

McDonnell  +2 (Fauquier +4, Carroll -2)
Deeds        -2  (Carroll -2)
Write-in     +1 (Fauquier +1)

Edited to add 1 Write-in vote.

I'm addicted to watching these election returns trickle in...

McDonnell 970,883 49.96
Deeds       970,561 49.95
Write ins     1,801

McDonnell is now up +322...