The network predicts that Obama has won Iowa, a key swing state. Obama can now win Nevada and Colorado — and lose Ohio, Florida and Virginia — and win re-election.
Veteran Tammy Duckworth has unseated Tea Party Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL). Walsh was one of the leading opponents of raising the debt ceiling and claimed President Obama was only elected because “he pushed that magical button: a black man who was articulate, liberal, the whole white guilt, all of that.” Walsh once insinuated Duckworth wasn’t a “true hero” and described her record as “Female, wounded veteran … ehhh.”
“I went to Washington as my own man, and I’ll be returning as my own man. And for that, I’m very very proud,” he says conceding defeat to Elizabeth Warren.
If the Romney-Ryan ticket is disbanded tonight, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) will still have a job to fall back on: NBC projects that he will hang onto his seat in the House of Representatives.
Akin got himself in trouble earlier this election cycle for saying women who are victims of “legitimate rape” don’t get pregnant because “the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”
“People with debilitating medical conditions and permission from their doctors will be able to buy marijuana from state-sanctioned distribution centers starting next year,” the Boston Globe reports, after voters “approved a ballot question that makes Massachusetts the 18th state to legalize medical marijuana.” All New England states, with the exception of New Hampshire, “now have legalized medical marijuana in some form.”
CNN and NBC are projecting that Republicans will maintain control of the House. Over the past two years, Republicans have been largely responsible for stonewalling legislation pushed by President Obama. “There is no mandate for raising tax rates,” Boehner said during a speech in Washington D.C.
Fox News projects that Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) will win the Wisconsin senate race, beating former Gov. Tommy Thompson (R). Baldwin will be the first openly gay senator.
Rep. Joe Donnelly (D-IN) appears to have won the senate seat of Sen. Dick Lugar, defeating state treasurer Richard Mourdock. Mourdock’s campaign fell apart late last month after he claimed that pregnancies resulting from rape are “a gift from God.”
CBS News is calling New Hampshire for President Obama, a swing state which is also home to two key Romney surrogates: former Gov. John Sununu and Sen. Kelly Ayotte.
“The Republican party needs to think through” how it “delivers its message, what it stands for,” Tucker Carlson said on Fox News. “It won’t be enough to blame the press,” he added.
On Fox News tonight, Bill O’Reilly lamented that the country’s changing demographics are helping the Obama campaign, who is popular among Americans who “want stuff” — like African-Americans, Hispanics, and women:
O’REILLY: President Obama, he knows it and he ran on it….Twenty years ago, President Obama would have been roundly defeated by establishment candidate like Mitt Romney. The white establishment is now the minority. And the voters, many of them, feel that the economic system is stacked against them and they want stuff. You are going to see Hispanics vote for President Obama, overwhelming for President Obama. And women will probably break President Obama’s way. People feel that they are entitled to things and which candidate, between the two, is going to give them things?
Gov. Mike Huckabee argued that Romney will still win the election, stressing that his Chik-fil-A appreciation day helped rally voters for the former Massachusetts governor, but explained that it’s difficult to defeat an incumbent and that President Obama is still “personally liked.” He added that Republicans need to do more to reach out to minority voters.
AP is projecting that Rep. Chris Murphy (D-CT) will win the Connecticut senate race, beating Linda McMahon, who spent some $100 million in two failed bids for office. During the campaign, McMahon tried to encourage Democrats to vote for her and President Obama.
With results still rolling in, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly is already prepping to blame a Mitt Romney loss on Hurricane Sandy, Obama’s visibility in the wake of the storm, and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s (R) praise of the President:
O’REILLY: I did pick up two things. On the exit polling, Hurricane Sandy was prominent in the exit polling. And that is really interesting. Because it just impacted a bunch of Northeast states who would vote for Barack Obama but the country was so locked in on this fierce storm. Americans like storms. And they were — and there was Chris Christie and president Obama walking down the beach, you know, with a little ‘Seth in the Moon Glow’ music behind him and it just wiped the Governor’s campaign off the map. For five days. Five days Mitt Romney disappeared from the national debate and from the media headline.
NBC projects a win for independent Angus King in Maine and is expected to caucus with the Democrats. Angus won Sen. Olympia Snowe’s (R-ME) seat, who is retiring at the end of the year.
“Virginia election officials said statewide turnout would likely meet or exceed the 2008 presidential election,” the Associated Press reports. “State Board of Elections Secretary Donald Palmer said robust turnout led to long lines at polling places across the state and waits varied from one to up to four hours.”
Two Temple University students from Pennsylvania Public Interest Research Group who are stationed at a polling location at 16th Street and Berks in Philadelphia told ThinkProgress that as many as 70 of their fellow classmates have been forced to vote on provisional ballots after a flood of last minute registrations failed to end up in the state’s voter rolls.
Carolyn Perri and Alaura Knoble recorded five students who were not allowed to vote using a regular ballot in the hour that they had been stationed at this polling location. “When I was voting, I personally witnessed someone get turned away,” said Knoble.
Kentucky, with its 8 electoral vote, goes to Mitt Romney, the networks project. Romney will also win Indiana (11 electoral votes). Vermont goes to Obama (3 electoral votes).
CNN’s Jennifer Yellin is reporting that Obama sources are expecting an early election victory tonight. Candy Crowley says the Romney campaign is in for a long night. Earlier, the network reported that internal polls from the Romney campaign showed Obama up by 5 in the key battleground state of Ohio.
While Romney claims to have written only his victory speech, Obama told a local Colorado station today that he has two prepared. “You always have two speeches prepared because you can’t take anything for granted,” Obama said. “My hope is that after four years of working as hard as I can every single day to help working families all across Denver and all across America, that people will decide that this is someone who works hard for me and cares about me and I want to make sure that he can finish the job.”
A poll worker in Ward 43 told ThinkProgress that an unusually high number of provisional ballots — roughly 50 in one location alone — were cast this morning by registered voters who for whatever reason were not on the voter rolls.
José Rodriguez was one of those voters, who left frustrated just after 6 PM waiving his provisional ballot slip. “I voted four years ago, I’m registered and got confirmation of my registration,” he told ThinkProgress. He added that he planned to call VotesPA to try and get his ballot counted.
Voters at Cayuga Elementary School in northeast Philadelphia are leaving the polling place frustrated because their polling location was changed at the last minute — and at least one voter wasn’t notified of the change until earlier this morning.
Laura Elam had voted for 20 years in the same polling place before getting notice earlier in the day that her voting location had changed. Exiting the school, Elam told ThinkProgress that she had still not voted after three tries at three different locations.
Versions of her story were repeated several times in the school parking lot, with other longtime voters explaining that they too were unable to find their correct polling place.
Early Indiana results are showing Richard Mourdock (R) running behind Romney. The Libertarian candiate is getting over 5% of the vote, potentially swinging the election to Rep. Joe Donnelly (D).
Multiple Ohio election officials told CNN that while the race will be close, they hope to project a winner some time tonight. Ohio is a key swing state.
At polling places in Pennsylvania today, materials and signs told voters — incorrectly — that they need to have photo identification in order to vote. Pennsylvania’s voter ID law was put on hold last month, but that hasn’t stopped several poll workers from asking for ID from today’s voters.
Even official materials are misleading voters on the ID law, like this piece of information material obtained by the Advancement Project from a Pennsylvania polling site today:
New state laws require all voters who appear to vote in a precinct to provide election officials with proof of identification. ALL VOTERS must show one of the following approved forms of Photo Identification to vote… If a voter does not have an approved form of photo identification, the voter must be offered a provisional ballot.
Via Politico: “Asked on his final campaign flight whether he might get a puppy if elected, Romney said “one of the benefits would be to get another Weimaraner.”
Approximately 80 “private jets were streaming into Boston’s Logan International Airport Tuesday afternoon, officials said, as Mitt Romney’s well-heeled supporters arrived for his post-election party in the Seaport District.” Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and Donald Trump are among the big donors who will party with Romney tonight.
Welcome to ThinkProgress’ Election Night live blog, we’ll report the results in real time and offer on-the-ground analysis from our reporters in Pennsylvania and Ohio. The first part of our election live blog can be found here.
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