Guest Blogged by Jim Cirile

As of this minute CNN is projecting 207 electoral votes for Obama and 135 for McCain. 270 is the magic number to win. Once Obama scores California's 55 electoral votes, that puts him at 262--8 votes away. In other words, California plus pretty much any other state (okay, almost) and Obama wins.

Can McCain still pull this out?

We're watching with trepidation as McCain's numbers have been creeping upwards while Obama has been holding steady at 207 for some time. Of course, here on the West Coast the polls haven't even closed yet. But still, we here at The BRAD BLOG know from experience not to count our proverbial chickens. Frankly, I can't see how Mac can pull it out. But if there's a will, there's a way, and there certainly is a lot of will on the part of those who would do anything to keep the military industrial complex fully funded.

CNN also projects the Democrats now have 54 seats in the Senate, with another ten still in play. In the House, Dems have won 133 seats to 83 for the Republicans.

More breaking news to come, stand by...

Guest blogged by Jim Cirile

Into each life some rain must fall, only in the case of Senator Addison "Mitch" McConnell, we're talking a force 5 tropical storm. Republican Senate leader McConnell's seat was considered in play and was high on the Dems' wish list--not only because a win in Kentucky would get them very close to the magic filibuster-proof 60 votes, but because McConnell was a filibuster-happy Bush loyalist, crushing Democratic initiatives in their tracks (note to filibuster-petrified Democrats--you can learn a thing or two from Mitch. Filibusters--they're not just for Republicans anymore.)

McConnell survives to be a big ol' flat tire on (what will hopefully be the) Obama administration, stifling investigations, chipping away at what's left of the US Constitution and ensuring the money continues to flow into the military industrial complex. Sigh.

Guest blogged by Jim Cirile

Republican Congressman Tom Feeney, rated by nonprofit watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (C.R.E.W.) as one of the "most corrupt members of Congress" for three years straight, has been defeated in Florida's 24th district. Regular readers of The BRAD BLOG readers know Feeney as the man who allegedly asked computer programmer Clint Curtis to write vote-flipping software in 2000 and escaped all accountability in an investigation stacked with Jeb Bush loyalists. (Full Curtis/Feeney scandal story summarized here, indexed in full here, new documentary film about the terrifying story here.)

According to the official FL Sec State website, as of 9:25 PM Eastern time, Feeney is losing to his Democratic challenger, Suzanne Kosmas by 19 percentage points--59% Kosmas, 40% Feeney. While we here at The BRAD BLOG are of course saddened that it was not Clint Curtis himself --- who left the Republican party after his dealings with Feeney and ran as a Democrat to unseat him in '06 and again in '08 when he lost in the primary --- who finally ended Feeney's ruinous reign, hey, any way we can get rid of Feeney, we'll take it. Of course, Kosmas is a corporate blue dog Dem with ethics issues of here own, as we've discussed here previously, but at this point we'll take the lesser of two evils and happily discharge Mr. Feeney. Here are your walking papers, sir. Job poorly done. Now Go Away. Hopefully to jail. Until then, we're sure he'll land in a cush lobbyist gig within a week.

In other great news, Congressman Robert Wexler is projected to win Florida's 19th district handily with 69% of the vote. Wexler, one of the few Congressional Democrats with teeth, has been a proponent of impeachment and accountability for the Bush administration. His return to Congress to finish his work is a very good thing indeed.

Brad's anchoring along with Peter B. Collins from 3p-6p PT (6p-9p ET), and then with Mike Malloy from 6p-9p PT (9p-Midnight ET), and then he will finish it out, bradcasting live from Los Angeles for the rest of the night from 9p-Midnight PT (Midnight-3am ET).

In other words, all night long, covering reported results and concerns about election issues around the country. If your local affiliate is not carrying it, listen live online right here.

The show thread started here earlier today, but everyone's page will load and reload faster if we split this up.

***DON'T FORGET TO CHECK BELOW FROM TIME TO TIME BECAUSE THERE ARE GOING TO BE ELECTION NEWS UPDATES COMING ALL NIGHT.***

love, 99

[Like, I don't think I'm dreaming, I could swear I just heard them telling me that Tom Feeney is FINALLY losing in Florida.... Yes!]

Provisional ballot usage has become a big issue this election. Many voters don’t want to use them and who can blame them? Many voters need to use them as the only way they can vote. Part of the problem is that they are misused by election officials.

Voter suppression schemes are being used around the country. Someone hacked into the George Mason University intranet and sent an email to staff and students, via the Provost’s email, that election day had been moved to Wed. The Provost, on discovering this, sent an email to tell recipients this was a hoax. Robocalls have been placed to voters telling them the same thing. However, with all of these schemes, and more, the turnout will probably set a record at the polls.

A judge has ordered a restraining order at the request of the McCain campaign to require the state to extend the date for adding votes from military voters to the totals to Nov 14 from close of polls today. This means the election may not be certified until after Nov 14.

Also going to court is a group representing the voters of Philadelphia who are asking a judge to tell the county to follow a previous ruling and to count emergency paper ballots tonight and not later in the week as they want.

And the Ohio GOP has filed asked a federal court to rule that provisional ballots be verified and counted the same way statewide....

Provisional ballot usage has become a big issue this election. Many voters don’t want to use them and who can blame them? Many voters need to use them as the only way they can vote. Part of the problem is that they are misused by election officials.

Voter suppression schemes are being used around the country. Someone hacked into the George Mason University intranet and sent an email to staff and students, via the Provost’s email, that election day had been moved to Wed. The Provost, on discovering this, sent an email to tell recipients this was a hoax. Robocalls have been placed to voters telling them the same thing. However, with all of these schemes, and more, the turnout will probably set a record at the polls.

A judge has ordered a restraining order at the request of the McCain campaign to require the state to extend the date for adding votes from military voters to the totals to Nov 14 from close of polls today. This means the election may not be certified until after Nov 14.

Also going to court is a group representing the voters of Philadelphia who are asking a judge to tell the county to follow a previous ruling and to count emergency paper ballots tonight and not later in the week as they want.

And the Ohio GOP has filed asked a federal court to rule that provisional ballots be verified and counted the same way statewide....

Guest Blogged by John Gideon of VotersUnite.org

Problems with machines in Clay County, Arkansas. Pre-election tests were not performed and there aren't enough paper ballots to around...

Serious problems "continue to plague Virginia". The following info comes from the 866-OUR-VOTE website (via the Institute for Southern Studies)...

UPDATE: RAW STORY has more on "massive voting machine failures and voters being turned away from polls," and a call to extend polling hours in VA. VA uses 100% unverifiable DRE (usually touch-screen) systems across virtually the entire state. When machines of that sort break down, voters can't vote, unless there are emergency paper ballots on hand, and officials bother to give them out to voters.

UPDATE II: More on the dirty tricks at Virginia Tech, including a map to the remote pollsite students are being sent to.

Note: This is the same county in VA (Richmond) where the registrar had purposely distributed incorrect information to Virginia Tech students, as we reported back in early September, to warn them they might lose scholarships and ability to be declared dependents on their parents tax forms if they registered to vote there.

Some brief, mid-Election Day comic relief... It looks like The Onion is reporting that a Sequoia touch-screen voting machine has been elected to the White House. Congratulations are due to the first "non-organic life form" to achieve this honor. The horrible Sequoia Voting Systems company, apparently, has finally managed to be "successful" at something!...

"More than 100 voting machines in Kenton County have been shut down on a judge's order" after they failed to properly register straight-party votes in Kentucky.

The failed machines are Hart InterCivic eSlate DREs (Direct Recording Electronic devices, usually touch-screen, though Hart's machines use a wheel and a button instead of a touch-screen). These are the same machines which Hart spokesman Peter Lichtenheld had previously argued could not lose or flip votes after they were similarly reported to have not been recording straight-ticket ballots correctly in Houston last week. Details from WLWT, a local KY NBC affiliate, follow...

Minutes ago, on CNN, they reported that "mechanical problems" are their quickest growing category of problems coming in to their hotline. "They hadn't even registered on our ticker previously," said the host. Perhaps because the Obama/DNC campaigns didn't tell them about all of the problems they've been finding?

A press release issued from 866-MYVOTE1 and CNN...at 9:30am PT reports on an alarming number of calls coming from "key states, like Pennsylvania, Virgian and Florida," And yes, as predicted, problems in Philadelphia where "there are extensive reports of machines simply not working." A perfectly predictable issue, that this horrifying chief of Philly elections didn't seem to care about just days ago.

Details from the CNN/VoterAction.org press release follow...

Please join me, Peter B. Collins, Randi Rhodes and the rest of the NovaM family and loads of folks from across the country --- including OH's Sec. of State Jennifer Brunner near the top of the show! (Unless events on the ground change that.) --- as we offer "Special Election Night Marathon Coverage" tonight on the NovaM Radio Network like you'll find nowhere else.

I'll begin anchoring along with a simulcast of the Peter B. Collins Show from 3p-6p PT (6p-9p ET), followed by the Mike Malloy Show from 6p-9p PT (9p-Midnight ET), and then I'll finish it out, Bradcasting live from Los Angeles for the rest of the night from 9p-Midnight PT (Midnight-3am ET).

In other words, all night long, covering reported results and concerns about election issues around the country. If your local affiliate is not carrying it, listen live online right here. And spread the word now! Thanks!

Feel free to use this item as an open thread [Agent 99 bumped it to top during the live coverage], but check below for updates as warranted throughout the night! And give us a call with your thoughts, concerns and impressions at 800-989-1480.

Please note, the broadcast is open to all networks, stations and websites who would like to carry it, or any part of it throughout the night. Satellite coordinates are here [PDF], the network clock is here [PDF]. Internet sites can pick up the stream via NovaMRadio.com. The broadcast will be free for all! Just like America used to be!

This is it. The day we have been waiting for.

Problems began first thing this morning with machine failures in New Jersey. There were also reports of memory cards failing on AVS Winvote machines in Fairfax Co Virginia. The wet weather in some states has caused problems with paper ballots that have swollen enough to not work in optical scan machines. The ballots are being put in ballot boxes until they dry enough to be run. Voting machines in 8 Philadelphia precincts have failed and emergency paper ballots are being passed out.

Voting machines supplied for voters with disabilities have been removed from use by order of a court. The counties Hart Intercivic eSlates failed to register straight-party votes properly. ...

Wide-spread voting machine failures have been reported to the Obama/DNC election protection hotline in Nevada since early voting began more than a week ago in the state, The BRAD BLOG has learned. All voters who vote in person in the crucial battleground state are forced to cast their votes on 100% unverifiable Sequoia EDGE touch-screen voting machines with the VeriVote "paper trail" printer add-on.

Attorneys monitoring the incident reports coming in to the hotline have taken no action in regard to removing the failed machines from service, despite reports of the presidential race not appearing at all on some ballots; voters having problems selecting their preferred candidates; machines not starting up at all; "paper trail" printers jamming or running out of paper, and; a number of machines at a number of sites which refuse to work at all.

And this is just during early voting. A number of those startling reports are posted at the end of this article...

Election day is tomorrow

Fulton and Clayton Counties, Georgia have decided that they will have enough time at the polls for all voters who want to vote to do that. They both decided not to ask the state, before-hand, to allow them to keep the polls open longer than normally allowed. Wouldn’t it have been better to ask to keep them open longer and have no one waiting on line than to force people to wait on line so you can close at the normal time? Of course, both counties have said they can handle the crowds because they have enough machines. They ignore, again, that the bottle-neck has been and will be the voter check-in procedure and their overly slow computer system. In other states it may be the ballot-on-demand system for optical-scan ballots.

In another great article from Kim Zetter and the WiredBlog, Threat Level, she reports on ‘vote-flipping’ and the ES&S voting machines.

Also from Kim is the news that one Michigan election official warned the EAC over a week ago that ES&S M-100 optical-scan machines used in her county don’t consistently tally ballots. These machines are used all across the country....