h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We may not have any results for me to report until tomorrow. The polls have officially closed, but many precincts still have long lines of people waiting to vote.

Finally caught your interview from last night Now listening live to Rhod and the results.

I heard you this afternoon...You sounded great...And I found the other interviews very interesting....I will continue to tune in...... .. .. ... .. .

Folks, I probably won't be on tonight. The race in Missouri won't be decided before the program goes off the air. In my county we ran out of ballots! There are at least 5 other counties that did the same. So, voting still hasn't ended and the "emergency" ballots will have to be hand counted. In some places that won't begin until morning.

Famous last words. I was on after all. With my mouth so dry from antihistimines that I felt like I had a mouth full of cotton. All I could do was tell them where we are right now. It will be hours before the results are final here - maybe tomorrow.

Oh damn and blast - I dozed off on the sofa. Woke up just in time to hear Mr Burns and Ned-diddley-Ed

You aren't the first man my conversation has put to sleep, Gosho.

Oh, I fell asleep long before you came on, Hyp

Here's something interesting - the current standings in the Texas gubernatorial race:

Chris Bell Dem 48,624 47%
Rick Perry Rep 28,396 27%
Carole Strayhorn Ind 14,011 13%
Kinky Friedman Ind 12,170 12%
James Werner Lib 1,126 1%

25 of 219 precincts reporting (11%)

I suspect that it's mostly urban precincts who have sent returns in so far, and those are more likely to be democrat. Once the rural figures start to roll in I figure Perry's numbers will increase, but at the moment that's quite a percentage for Chris Bell and it'll be something of a shock if Perry gets thrown out of the Governor's mansion.

We can but hope

I wish I was as hopeful about the senatorial race here. Talent is staying at 53%.

Oh, I think that was just Travis County. Rick Perry's been re-elected

According to this page though http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/americas/06/vote_usa/html/899.stm the Democrats have taken the House

Yes, that's good news. But both houses would be better.

I just heard that Saint Louie and KC's tallies came in, switching the lead...!

According to the commentators, they're still waiting for SOUTHWESTERN MISSOURI's ballots to come in.

Well, we have the charismatic Austrian in charge in Ka-lee-forrn-yah for the next four...

My county hasn't reported in at all yet. It will be morning before they even begin with the hand count. We're the ones who ran out of ballots. Talent will probably get 65% of the vote here. So, McCaskill needs to open it up more than she already has in order to be safe.

How could they run out of ballots? Was there an unexpected influx of voters?

Yep. Our county clerk, bless his little Republican heart, planned for a 25% voter turnout and got a 50% turnout. So they had to photocopy ballots. But the photocopies won't register in the optical scanners. They have to be hand counted. And they're too tired to count them today, naturally. There were 5 or 6 other counties that ran out of ballots, also.

McCaskill is polling 64% in Jackson Copunty and 79% in the City of St. Louis. Also she is polling 54% in St. Louis Copunty and 45% of the vote there is still out. So, this thing isn't over.

My thought is, the unexpected voter surge may be an unpleasant surprise for the repubs.

McCaskill is going to speak soon, according to CNN. I'd feel better if she had a lead of 35-40 thousand instead of 15 thousand.

Clay County is still out, too.