Democrat Bill Owens originally had a 5,000 vote lead over Hoffman. That vote shrank to 3,000. There are 5,800 of absentee votes left to count! And though Hoffman would need to win 75% of those votes, and though presumably many of those votes were cast before Republican Dede Scozzafava withdrew from the race (and endorsed Owens), Hoffman has decided that his concession was premature. Well, Glenn Beck decided that Hoffman's concession was premature. And Hoffman just does whatever Glenn Beck says. Because he is a true conservative.

It has been a depressing primary season, full of uninspiring hacks! Many candidates are people who thought they would be term limited out of their city council jobs, and then they were not, but it was too late to not run for whatever they decided to run for. The Democrats basically conceded the Mayoral race, even though this is basically a wonderful time to be running against an out-of-touch billionaire. (Sigh.) So we understand that it is not very exciting, but you should still probably go to your local middle school or whatever and vote. Because if you don't, Liberty will disappear! Check out this awesome animated gif from the Board of Elections website!

As for who to vote for? Christ, who knows.

Comptroller

This is a very important job! This person takes care of the city budget. The Working Families Party has endorsed John Liu, who seems fine, whatever, but he said he worked in a sweatshop when he was a child and that turned out to be made-up, and who the fuck makes that up?

New York Tumblrers have endorsed Melinda Katz, who has the best commercials, but she has taken more money from scumbag developers than anyone else, and that is lame. Also she was a Clinton delegate but she claimed she voted for Obama in the primaries until someone was like "what?" and she was like "nevermind." WTF, Melinda?

The Times endorsed David Yassky. He is the only candidate from Brooklyn and not Queens! He has complained about the G train! But RFK Jr. and Chuck Schumer also endorsed him, for what that is worth.

So, hell, this one's up to you.

Public Advocate

This is like the shadow-mayor, or something. This person's job is to annoy Michael Bloomberg—and on that count, Betsy Gotbaum has been a failure. So there is Mark Green, who was very good at bothering Giuliani, but he has just been hanging out on TV doing nothing ever since he was not allowed to be Mayor, before 9/11. There is Bill de Blasio, who won the Times endorsement. But is he too close to corrupt unions? And the Working Families Party, which is having some issues with their accounting, at the moment? There is Eric Gioia, who is some punk kid. How about Normal Siegel? He is the former head of the New York Civil Liberties Union and he is basically a pretty good guy. He receives the coveted Gawker Endorsement.

Manhattan District Attorney

Billion-year-old zombie DA Robert Morgenthau decided Cy Vance Jr. should be the next Manhattan DA, and that is a good reason not to support Cy Vance Jr. Leslie Crocker Snyder has always been a little too zealously "lock 'em all up" for our bleeding heart, and she used to enjoy killing people a little too much. Richard Aborn, the third candidate, will not win. In this race, Gawker endorses moving to Brooklyn.

City Council

Just indiscriminately vote against any and all incumbents.

If you live in City Council Distict 33, why not vote for Steve Levin? When he attended Brown, he played drums with MGMT! How awesome is that! (Or vote for Evan Thies who is less entangled in the filthy DEMOCRATIC MACHINE.)

Robbins' letter, in part:

"I would like to publicly apologize for being such a dim-witted dilettante on Election Day. I was under the naïve assumption that I could vote where I voted in the last two elections. Your thoughtful letter pointed out that if I had voted in the recent primary election in September I would have discovered that I was no longer registered in the polling place I have voted in since 2004. Considering your position at the Board of Elections and your deep respect for the democratic process I must assume that my local 14th St. poll worker, Betty J. Williamson's assertion that my name was on the active voter rolls for the primary in September of this year was erroneous and that she must be as confused and wrongheaded as I am." [HuffPo]

Read the rest of the letter if you must, but it pretty much goes like this: Blah blah blah blah blah "family's safety might be compromised" blah blah blah blah "you are a petty vindictive corrupt scumbag."

According to state and city election records, Mr. Robbins registered to vote, under the name Tim Robbins, in November 1997, listing an address on West 15th Street, and registered a second time, under the name Timothy F. Robbins, in February 2004, listing an address on West 19th Street. The 1997 registration is now listed as inactive, while the 2004 registration is listed as active...

[An elections board member] wrote that, based on the active registration, Mr. Robbins should have gone to vote at the Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library, at 40 West 20th Street, not at the McBurney YMCA, at 125 West 14th Street.

Catch that? Robbins registered twice, most recently at an address (his office, it turns out) assigned a different polling location from his old one. Election officials said they would have caught Robbins in this inadvertent mischief sooner, but he used a new voter registration form instead of an address change, and he hasn't tried voting in at least the last two elections.

Robbins said he doesn't remember registering twice — right, see, that would be the problem — and a poll worker told the Times she remembers Robbins voting at the supposedly invalid location in September.

We're betting the movie star will simmer down once he receives the copy of his signed 2004 registration form, enclosed in a letter from elections officials. As a Board of Elections official told the Times: "We were confused, but he shouldn't have been confused... it’s all very logical: He filled out a new voter-registration form with an entirely new address, and went to the old address."

Robbins "resents" this statement, and is printing things out and accusing people of going after his family just generally acting like a lunatic. Which means he'll probably take his march to City Hall, just as soon as he can locate it. And also his wallet, and a pen, where the hell did he leave that damned pen...

(Photo from TMZ)

One breathless account: "A few minutes after the riot cops rolled in, I saw one cop break a beer bottle on the ground with his baton for no reason at all amidst all the positive energy and celebrating crowd. I assumed for intimidation purposes." (Uh, how about for open-container-law purposes?)

This is a perfect example of hipster overreach—you see, they deserve to block traffic in one of the densest cities on earth! We're all for reclaiming the streets—punk rock!—but the shock and indignation over some arrests only adds to the stereotype of the massive self-entitlement these relatively privileged young transplants possess.

Brooklyn Vegan's commenters pretty much agreed:

We had 3x as many people partying on 125th St in Harlem and not a single person got arrested. There are some things you just don't do during a joyus celebration.

i hope i'm not the only person sick of what's happened to bedford ave.
go back to the midwest. seriously. your votes mean more there anyway

It seemed the crowd was enjoying a slice of anarchy...
You know anarchy.. Like drinking a 22oz of Olde English in front of a cop out on the Quad. At one point, a woman on top of a vehicle was enjoying the attention she was getting after she took off her top and exposed herself. Go Obama!! From afar the celebration congregation looked like a good thing, but when I looked closer it was sad.

And also?

Voting’s lame. I don’t understand why all these people CARE. I get all these emails from friends and people I respect, urging me to vote and to get out for Obama. Those emails embarrass me. They think Obama’s different. They keep talking about “hope” and “change,” but all these politicians act like they’re at a karaoke session... None of them [the politicians] can be trusted.

But we admit he has a bit of a point on these last two things:

The idea that Obama somehow equals equality, the end of war, change and friendship is so childish. It’s the kind of thing people with Liberal Arts degrees talk about who never do their research.

There’s so much insincerity. These people threw “debate parties” to feel educated and involved. I went. You know what happened? They spent the whole time hanging out and drinking wine. No one even watched the debates.

[Pop + Politics]

CNN had the holograms. What was that? What was the point of that? NBC lost Tim Russert this year, and we missed his whiteboard. It was definitely preferable to Chuck Todd—who we like!—standing on the holodeck with magical 3D graphic map that kept slowly turning from side to side for no reason. John King and his stupid magic map still serve no actual purpose.

Meanwhile CNN refused to call any states too early, because of the 2004 debacle, even though no states were prematurely called in 2004, so to figure out that Obama won Pennsylvania and Ohio and hence the presidency (all before the polls closed on the West Coast!) you had to turn to MSNBC.

And finally, Wolf Blitzer needs to get off of TV. He's everything that's wrong with CNN—a complete inability or unwillingness to ever say anything, just mindless equivalence and hedging and cliche, because CNN is the "unbiased" network. Gah. We're with Jack Shafer on this: Blitzer's infuriating.

In 2012 we'll probably have to watch PBS. And then everyone loses.

First off, our notoriously cold-hearted publisher Nick Denton just admitted that he cried last night. "And I'm not even a Democrat!"

And there were a thousand different versions of this statement across the blogs: "I am so proud of all of you." Thanks, Mom.

Here's another anonoblogging overshare:

I was listening to NPR when they said that Mccain had conceded the election. I had to pull over because I was crying so hard. I've been on the edge between terror and excitement all day. I am feeling this in every inch of my body. I'm feeling this. I've never, ever been more proud to live in this country. I've never been more proud to be an American. I have never feel such a sense of belonging, or felt so strongly that the good guys won in such a massive, inarguable way. I am feeling this.

From New York dating columnist and noted political pundit Julia Allison:

From New York magazine's Jessica Coen:

From world-famous mommyblogger Dooce:

From the typically cynical Page Six Mag's Joshua David Stein:

From the always-earnest former HuffPo editor Rachel Sklar:

From boa-wearing MediaBistro maven Lauren Touby:

And finally, two much-needed correctives:

And here's one culled from an anonymous LiveJournal-er:

Yeah, I voted today. I wasn't going to at first because Texas isn't in play presidential-wise and the candidate I vote for never seems to win but I decided to be a good citizen and do my civic duty. Besides, I heard you can get a free chicken sandwich at Chik-Fil-A if you flash your "I Voted" sticker. Democracy is even tastier when served with waffle fries.

But seriously. After Obama won, I took a long, hard look at myself in the mirror, and thought: "Yeah, my eyeliner looks pretty good right now."

Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, who is a convicted felon, won his reelection campaign! Stevens, convicted just last week of seven counts of corruption, has a 4,000 vote lead over his opponent, some boring non-corrupt Democrat. There are still 50,0000 absentee ballots left to count, so you know, this could still go either way. But honestly, Stevens is probably a lock. Good work, Alaska.

Past examples? Well, September 12th in New York City. While people weren't sure what they wanted to do or what to think, the one thing they knew for sure was that they wanted to be around others. (Remember those trend pieces about post-9/11 sex and couples reuniting?)

The Blackout of 2003 was an awesome confluence as well. It took power out all the way west to Detroit, where I remember it as one of the few moments where the highly segregated black and white populations dropped their guard for two days and actually talked to each other without suspicion, offering clean water and the like.

Of course, there was also 1945's V-J Day and its iconic Times Square celebration:

But collective revelry isn't just an expression of excitement or a biological impulse: it's also a political act. Spontaneous mass gatherings, for example, inspired events throughout history, such as the French revolution and slave revolts. They can also be inspired by hate or fear—like Los Angeles's Rodney King riots, or the black-Jewish violence in Crown Heights in 1991.

According to anthropologist Robin Dunbar, as quoted by Ehrenreich in Dancing in the Streets: a History of Collective Joy:

It was a good year for Democrats, what with the economy melting down and the last dying breaths of the miserable presidency of universally despised Republican president George W. Bush, but it did look, for minute, like it might be another close one. If, for example, Hillary Clinton had won the Democratic nomination, as it was predicted she would last year, we probably would've seen a repeat of the "50+1" strategy of fighting the election only in two or three "swing states" (Kerry states + Ohio = victory!), and probably another 49/48 popular vote split. But Obama fought in "red states" like Indiana and much of the mountainous southwest. The map expanded, and stupid Ohio and Florida were justifiably stripped of a great deal of their terrible importance. Obama finally won with more than 50 percent of the popular vote, the first time a Democrat managed that feat in a generation.

Obama ended up a much stronger candidate than even his early partisans could've predicted, with a calm, intelligent, cool demeanor. That demeanor got him labeled a stuffy egghead early on, especially when contrasted with Hillary Clinton's newfound fiery populism, but in a time of great upheaval, "appearing presidential" suddenly looked good. And he looked presidential in three debates, while his opponent, John McCain, sputtered and shouted and, in Joe Biden's memorable words, "lurched" around the stage of the town hall.

Thing got completely fucking crazy in the last days, as the Republican dead-enders began trying, surprisingly without efficacy, to appeal to the basest instincts of the electorate, painting Obama as a Marxist Socialist (and quietly encouraging people to think he was a DANGEROUS MUSLIM TERRORIST), but every time voters saw the candidate he looked like a rational, moderate, smart family guy. It was a half-hearted use of identity politics by a Republican who always hated the rabble of the Religious Right but it did intensify to uncomfortable levels in the end.

The high point, weirdly, was a crazy young white woman in Pittsburgh filing a false complaint to the police claiming she was mugged and robbed by a huge black man who carved a B in her face. The self-inflicted B was, of course, carved backwards, and soon she was off for mental health treatment. It was a nice little microcosm of the state of the race nationally—the race-baiting didn't work!

He inherits a nation utterly fucked to it's core by the venal incompetents of the Bush years, and lord knows it's idiotic to invest all your hopes in one guy egomaniacal enough to want to be president at all, but we have secret hopes in our tiny heart that he'll be a decent success. And, of course, we all get fucking unicorns. Seriously. Check your mail next January. Unicorns and cocaine for all!

Image: (c) Jana Kohl and Robert Sebree, www.ararebreedoflove.com, used with permission from (c) holder.

Coleman/Franken

The Minnesota Senate race will be down to the wire. Franken is ahead at the moment but it's close. Exit polls look decent for him, but that third-party guy might hurt him.

Michelle Bachmann

The insane Minnesota congresswoman might pull this off—she's ahead at the moment but the write-in Repub challenger might kill her hopes.

Ted Stevens

The Alaska Senator and convicted felon faces a tough fight but, you know, Alaska loves that corrupt asshole. Alaska polls close late.

Proposition 8

Lord knows what's going on with California's gay marriage initiative. Whites want the gay marriage, blacks and latinos are divided. Cautious optimism?

GA 47-51
FL 52-49
IA 58-42
IN 52-48
MI 60-39
MN 56-39
MO52-48
NC 52-48
NH 57-43
NM 56-43
NV 55-45
OH 54-45
PA 57-42
VA 55-45
WV 45-55
WI 58-42

National 54-44

Senate numbers we don't believe at all (because the Coleman number is absurd):
Sununu down 18
Coleman down 12
McConnell up 2
Chambliss up 3
Dole down 52-43

AND:

THE RESULTS CANNOT BE USED UNTIL AFTER THE POLLS CLOSE IN EACH STATE.

VIRGINIA- POLL CLOSE: 7:00 PM

*22% of the vote is African American and Obama is winning 91% of it.
*Among white voters, 58% are backing McCain, while 41% are supporting Obama. In 2004, Kerry won 32% of the vote here while Bush won 68% of it.
*72% disapprove of the job Bush is doing; only 27% approve.
*More than half of voters think McCain will continue Bush's policies; fewer think he will take the country in a different direction.
*Obama is winning the support of both men and women, but white men and white women are backing McCain.
*Among whites, one in five said race was a factor in their vote today and they backed McCain.
*More blacks (4 in 10) said race was a factor and they voted overwhelmingly for Obama.
*Obama looks to be improving on Kerry's margins in Northern Virginia.
*Most voters say McCain as the candidate on the attack: nearly 7 in 10 say he attacked Obama unfairly; fewer than half say Obama attacked McCain unfairly.

INDIANA - POLL CLOSE: 7:00 PM

*The economy is the top issue here (as it is nationally) and Obama appears to be benefitting from that. Among economy voters, Obama 56% to 43%.
*White working class (those without a college degree and earn less than $50K) are backing Obama slightly over McCain by 51% to 48%.
*Men are divided in their support, while Obama has the advantage with women.
*42% of voters are white evangelicals, up from 35% in 2004. McCain is getting 68% of their support. Bush captured 77% of the vote in 2004.
*35% of voters in IN were looking for a candidate who could bring about change, while almost as many (33%) were looking for someone who shares their values. The change voters are supporting Obama, while the values voters are supporting McCain.

GEORGIA - - POLL CLOSE: 7:00 PM

*30% of voters are African American (up from 25% in 2004) and 97% are backing Obama.
*Whites are backing McCain by about the same margin they supported Bush in 2004.
*The top candidate quality was values, closely followed by change. Those who selected values as the most important quality backed McCain, while the change voters supported Obama.

NORTH CAROLINA - POLL CLOSE: 7:30 PM

*22% of voters were African American (26% in 2004) and Obama is getting 97% of their vote. As expected, an improvement on Kerry's performance four years ago.
*White voters are backing McCain by 62% to 37%.
*11% of voters in NC are new voters, voting for the first time this year, they too have the economy on their minds and 3 in 4 of them are backing Obama.
*Change and values are nearly tied for the #1 quality. Obama wins the change people, while McCain takes the values people.

OHIO - POLL CLOSE: 7:30 PM

*86% are worried about the direction of the economy, including more than half who are very worried. (Obama is getting the support of those worried voters.)
*Hillary Clinton won the primary here, and Obama is getting the support of 82% of Democrats who backed her in that contest. 16% are backing McCain.
*12% of voters in Ohio are black, up from 10% in 2004. 98% of them are backing Obama.
*Both white women and white women are going for McCain.
*More voters see view Obama has a candidate who is in touch with people like them, while more voters see McCain has having the experience to serve effectively as president.
*Still, 4 in 10 Ohio voters think Obama's positions on the issues are too liberal.

PENNSYLVANIA - POLL CLOSE: 8:00 PM

*A quarter of voters in PA are white Catholics and they are splitting their votes. Kerry lost these voters to Bush by 48% to 52%.
*Seniors are one-fifth of the electorate and just over half are backing Obama. These voters narrowly backed Kerry by 51% to 48% in 2004.
*Obama is getting about two-thirds of the support of voters age 18-29. Kerry won 60% of them in 2004.
*Most voters in the Keystone state made up their minds long ago, but among those who decided in the last week (just over 1 in 10 voters), they are narrowly backing McCain by 51% to 47%.

FLORIDA- POLL CLOSE: 8:00 PM

*13% of voters here were Hispanics (15% in 2004) and they are breaking for Obama by 55% to 45%. This is a reversal from 2004 when Hispanics backed Bush by 56% to 44%.
*Seniors (24% of voters) are backing McCain over Obama by 53% 46%. In 2004 Bush edged out Kerry by 51% to 48%.
*13% of voters are African American in Florida and they and 95% are backing Obama.
*White men and white women are backing McCain.
*McCain wins on experience here, while more voters see Obama as being more in touch with people like them.

8:00 MISSOURI

* Young voters (19% of voters) are backing Obama; while seniors (17% of voters) give McCain the edge.
* White evangelical are 38% of the vote in Missouri and they are backing McCain by 67% to 32%. Not as strong a showing as Bush in 2004.

Meanwhile:

I doubt this means much of anything, but today's election among third graders in Hudson, Ohio was a landslide for McCain, approximately 250 to 100. Of course, you'd expect as much in Hudson, which is a fairly Red town.

Tracking, Not Polling [Mark Steyn]

A non-poll-derived analysis:

I am not running for President. You, the gentle reader, are not running for President. The only two people who are running for President, Obama and McCain, are going to states and sending advertising money to other states that don’t even match the public polls. For example, Pennslyvania is colored a ‘dark blue’, yet both Obama and McCain are visiting the state. ‘Dark blue’ or ‘light blue’ is the color of Iowa, yet both Obama and McCain are there. Many polls say that Georgia is a ‘toss-up’, yet neither Obama or McCain are visiting that state. Since the only two people running for President are performing actions entirely differently than the public polling, one can either say that the presidential candidates are just running around states randomly and are dumb, or it is the possibility that the public polling is not accurate.

From my perspective, it has been sheer comedy watching pundits and observers attempt to ‘rationalize’ the candidates’ visits to states the public polls say are not in play. When McCain and Palin hip hop across Pennslyvania, is it because the public polls are wrong? NO! It is because McCain is doing a ‘hail mary’ strategy to launch all efforts on Pennslyvania in order to win it as a last ditch effort to save his campaign. What about Obama visiting Pennslyvania, is it a suggestion the public polls are wrong? NO! It is because Obama is only going there to respond to McCain and clean up whatever mess he makes. What about when McCain went to New Hampshire? Could it be the polls were not the reality on the ground? NO! It is because McCain is senile. So how does this explain Palin going to Iowa which is considered a ‘lock’ to Obama by polling? Could the polls be wrong and that it may be more competitive than we thought? NO! The only possible answer is that Palin had gone completly rouge* and is going to Iowa to jumpstart here 2012 presidential campaign... But why is Obama going to Iowa then? Could it, possibly, be the polls in that state are more competitive than we think? NOOOO...

(*I don't know what Palin going "completely rouge" means but I like the sound of it.)

Ha ha ha. Also, Jonah Goldberg took a break from posting '80s comedy YouTubes to suggest that an imminent Obama victory has angered the king of the sea.

(And Andy McCarthy is still going on about Khalidi and Ayers.)

Elsewhere: RedState is down.

Glenn Reynolds, the most intellectually dishonest "libertarian" on the Blogosphere, reports high turnout at polling places this morning, along with reader reports begging him to at least claim that "high turnout favors Republicans." He can't, so prays for someone "who knows more than I do" to look at the numbers and deliver a blatantly misleading piece of delusional nonsense Glenn can link to with minimal comment, preserving his at-this-point in-his-own-mind-only reputation as a serious-minded centrist. Then he talks about sex toys and lawsuits and black panthers and fungi for a while.

It's going to be a miserable four years everyone.