Election Live Blog

• November 04, 2014, 6:30 p.m.: The Off on a Tangent election night live blog is . . . live! Stand by for breaking news and updates as the results begin to come in after 7:00 p.m. Eastern time.
• 6:37 p.m.: I have built a lot of new tech for our coverage tonight, and it is untested in ‘real world’ scenarios. I am hopeful that everything will work as designed, but I’ll report any issues here in the blog.
• 6:55 p.m.: The Virginia polls will close in about five minutes, but anybody already in line will be allowed to vote. Results should start coming in within an hour.
• 7:01 p.m.: CNN is projecting that Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has won reelection.
• 7:09 p.m.: My live blog is experiencing an intermittent issue where it will stop updating automatically in the background. Refreshing the page fixes the issue, but it may recur later in your session. I am working on identifying and fixing the issue.
• 7:28 p.m.: I have made some changes in my caching system that I hope will resolve the problem. I’m still keeping an eye on it though.
• 7:48 p.m.: Results are coming in. Had some big bugs initially, so if you’re seeing weird results please refresh the page. I’m also still seeing the live blog issues, but I’m working on a new fix.
• 8:59 p.m.: Off on a Tangent can project that Barbara Comstock (R) has been elected to Virginia’s 10th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
• 9:08 p.m.: Off on a Tangent can project that the Virginia Tax Amendment has passed.
• 9:16 p.m.: I am troubleshooting an issue that is over-counting the total number of precincts for the Virginia Tax Amendment. Not a big issue, but an annoying one. . . .
• 10:08 p.m.: The precinct count issue is now resolved. It was caused by malformed data being provided by the Virginia Department of Elections. I am now compensating for their weirdness.
• 10:09 p.m.: Off on a Tangent can project that all three Loudoun County bond referendums have passed.
• 10:12 p.m.: With over ninety-six percent of precincts reporting, the race for U.S. Senator from Virginia is too close to call. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) had been expected to win the race handily, but is currently within 0.2 percentage points of Republican challenger Ed Gillespie.
• 10:47 p.m.: The pollsters are going to have some ‘splaining to do. The RCP averages had Warner 10 points ahead, and he’s running practically dead-even with Gillespie. The 10th District race was also polling dead-even, and was considered a toss-up or maybe a slight ‘leans republican,’ but Comstock won by more than 10 points (and possibly as much as 15).
• 11:08 p.m.: The Virginia Department of Elections is having trouble with their results site again (similar to what happened last year). This won’t affect my coverage, since I am using a separate feed designed for media outlets, but it sure reflects badly on the state, especially after last year’s debacles.
• 11:11 p.m.: The Republican Party will take at least fifty seats in the U.S. Senate. If Republicans win only one more seat, they will hold a Senate majority.
• 11:33 p.m.: The Republican Party will become the majority party in the U.S. Senate with at least fifty-one seats. They will also hold a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
• 11:43 p.m.: More weirdness with the precinct counts caused by duplicated entries in the Virginia Department of Elections feeds, resulting in goofiness like more precincts reported than there are precincts. I’ve implemented a new fix to filter out duplicated entries.
• November 05, 2014, 12:27 a.m.: Larry Hogan (R) has been elected Governor of Maryland, defeating Anthony Brown (D).
• 1:20 a.m.: The precinct numbers here on the site are still iffy, thanks to malformed feed data from the state, but the vote percentages are accurate. There are twenty-one precincts still unreported. Craig County has not reported any election results from any of their eleven precincts. Albemarle County, Halifax County, Isle of Wight County, Rappahannock County, Rockingham County, and Radford City each have one precinct still unreported. Dinwiddie County, Roanoke City, and Winchester City have not yet reported their central absentee precincts.
• 1:25 a.m.: Many of the outstanding precincts are in rural counties that tend Republican, so although Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) is slightly ahead of Ed Gillespie (R) in the count, it is likely that the gap will narrow as the remaining precincts are reported. Off on a Tangent is not yet prepared to project an outcome.
• 1:28 a.m.: Off on a Tangent is concluding our live coverage for the night. We will pick up again in the morning and reevaluate where the U.S. Senate race stands, and continue making updates (as time permits) until we are able to make a call. Thanks for tuning in!
• 10:04 a.m.: Craig County has reported results for their eleven precincts, but the nine other counties and cities each remain with one outstanding precinct each. Senator Mark Warner (D) is showing ahead by just under 17,000 votes (less than 0.8% of total votes cast). It is very likely that Warner has eked out a narrow win, but given the unreliability of the official returns last year I am holding off on making a call until a few more precincts are counted. Warner has already declared victory (prematurely), but Ed Gillespie (R) has not yet conceded defeat. It is still likely that the gap will narrow, though it is unlikely to be enough to change the outcome.
• 1:07 p.m.: I’ve finally worked out all of the weirdness and hassles with the Virginia Department of Elections feeds, which are still malformed and have lots of problems. I implemented a series of hacks to correct for their mistakes, and I’m finally getting precinct numbers that match up with the actual number of precincts. Better late than never!
• 10:06 p.m.: Off on a Tangent can project that Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) has been reelected by a surprisingly narrow margin of less than one percent, defeating Ed Gillespie (R). Outstanding provisional ballots and recounts may narrow the margin, but it will not be sufficient to change the outcome.
• 10:16 p.m.: With the call of the Senate race for Warner, we are concluding our live coverage. As the few remaining precincts come in, I’ll adjust the final numbers as needed.