The Arkansas Times is sponsoring an election watch party tonight at Revolution Taco and Taqueria Lounge at Clinton and Markham in the River Market District. I’ll be blogging there and at the office nearby and posting occasional video to Facebook. For now, I’ll follow chronological updates, with the first big local news expected to be release of early voting in Pulaski County about 7:30.
The early vote will be about half the total vote, with total early and absentee voting over 80,000 in Pulaski, an increase of maybe 15 percent from 2012.
Otherwise:
7:30 PM — SENATE HOLD — Todd Young, a Republican, held an open Senate seat for the party against former Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh.
7:05 PM — SENATE TAKEOVER: Democrat Tammy Duckworth ousted incumbent Republican Sen. Mark Kirk.
7 PM — MORE STATES — Illinois goes for Clinton. New Jersey goes for Clinton. Massachusetts for Clinton. Maryland to Clinton. Connecticut to Clinton. Rhode Island to Clinton. Delaware to Clinton. District of Columbia to Clinton. Tennessee goes to Trump. Alabama to Trump. Oklahoma to Trump. Mississippi to Trump.
Question marks in Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Missouri, Maine, Florida. MSNBC has electoral votes 75-66 for Clinton.
7 PM — FLORIDA — County numbers from Florida are being widely interpreted as negative for Trump.
6:55 PM — SOUTH CAROLINA — For Trump.
6:35 — REPUBLICAN SENATE WIN — Rob Portman will be re-elected in Ohio.
6:35 — MORE STATES — Trump gets West Virginia. Ohio too close to call. North Carolina too early to call. Georgia remains too close to call.
6:25 PM — FLORIDA — Tidbit: Marco Rubio, running for re-election to the U.S. Senate is running 10 points stronger in huge Miami Dade against Democrat Patrick Murphy than Donald Trump being clobbered by Hillary Clinton. But the early voting advantage for Democrats, though strong, wasn’t as broad as Obama’s lead in 2012.
6 PM — FIRST STATES CALLED — The call of states begins, with Kentucky and Indiana to Trump, Vermont to Clinton and Virginia, Georgia (maybe a !)and South Carolina too early to call.
5 P.M. — EXIT POLLING — Networks begin revealing exit poll findings. Not much shocking. Low favorable ratings for both candiates. Big advantage for Hillary Clinton among Latino and black voters. Donald Trump widened Mitt Romney’s margin among non-college-graduate white voters. Hillary Clinton erased the conventional Republican edge among college-educated white voters. Women favored Clinton heavily. Men — white men 0particularly — went strongly for Trump. One interesting figure: MSNBC indicated a strong lead for Clinton among first-time voters. If the Clinton ground game was as superior as it appeared to be, that might mean something. Also: Voters oppose a border wall and heavily favor a path to citizenship for immigrants.