2:15 a.m. … It all hung on Ohio or it may still hang on Ohio. Some media outlets have put Ohio in the Bush column, but it appears that the Kerry camp hasn’t given up all hope yet. Ohio’s 20 electoral votes may be up in the air for days. There are still ballots to be counted. But right now, it appears that George W. Bush will be re-elected and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts will go down in defeat. We hope that we aren’t pulling a “Dewey Defeats Truman” in saying this, but as of 2:15 a.m., that is how things are looking. But CNN declared Ohio as a “Green/Too Close to Call” state at 1:52 a.m., and there will be a delay in Iowa, which is having voter machine issues … The lawyers are going in. So we could be going into a Florida 2000 scenario. Nevada and Wisconsin are still quite close as well.
And Republicans seemed to have increased their margins on Capitol Hill. The GOP has retained control of the House and Senate. The Democrats lost/are losing critical Senate races in Alaska, North Carolina, South Carolina, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Georgia. Republicans lost Senate races in Colorado and Illinois. South Dakota and Florida are close, but the Republicans appear to have the edge.
It’s been a long day, DCist has to work in the morning and we’ll be taking a look at a lot of this in the morning. Good night.
UPDATE 7:45 a.m. It looks like not much has changed in the past few hours. According to the Post, President Bush’s chief of staff, Andrew Card, told GOP supporters at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center that they are all “convinced” of the president’s re-election. Kerry vows to continue the battle to count provisional ballots.
UPDATE 9:00 a.m. Small group gathering in Dupont Circle with banners, posters, passing out leaflets saying “the system is rotten.” Commuters on Red Line, N2 bus line generally silent, dazed, confused-looking, intently reading Post.
