Check here throughout the night for links to highlights of washingtonpost.com's election coverage and for answers to selected questions about the day's news. 3:04 a.m. EST
As we bring our Election Day tour to a close, Republicans have recaptured Congress. In the Senate, three races have not been called: South Dakota, which is within a few thousand votes with more than 80 percent of the precincts counted, Minnesota, in which former vice president Walter F. Mondale is trailing Republican Norm Coleman with just half the vote counted, and Louisiana, which will be decided in a Dec. 7 runoff. But the outcome of these races will only determine the size of the GOP majority.
In the House, with less than a dozen races undeclared, Republicans appear to have added seats to their majority as well.
For those of you who'd rather click than sleep, keep your eyes on tonight's still close governor races in Alabama, Arizona and Oregon.
Be sure to take a look at Congressional Quarterly's "New Member Profiles," which will introduce you to the freshman of the GOP-controlled 108th Congress.
• CQ New Member Profiles
With that, thank you for coming along for the ride on another election night, in which the voters again confounded and surprised the pundits, defied expectations and reminded those of us who follow politics for a living what a fun, unpredictable business this can be. Good night.
Mo. Loss Tilts Senate to Republicans - 2:17 a.m. EST
Incumbent Democrat Jean Carnahan conceded in Missouri minutes ago, returning the Senate to Republican hands and giving the GOP control of both chambers of Congress.
Colo. Win Moves GOP Closer to Majority - 1:19 a.m. EST
Sen. Wayne Allard's win in Colorado closed off another opportunity for Democrats to gain a Senate seat and blunt Republican momentum. In the declared races, Democrats won in Arkansas, offsetting a GOP gain in Georgia. The remaining races -- Minnesota, South Dakota, and Missouri -- are must-wins for Democrats to preserve their majority, as is freshman Sen. Mary Landrieu's expected runoff in Louisiana next month.
The Louisiana runoff will be tough going for Democrats, no matter what happens in tonight's other remaining races. While Republicans' leading vote-getter, Suzanne Terrell, got less than 30 percent of the vote, the combined vote for the three GOP candidates on the ballot was close to 50 percent.
Republicans Close to Retaking Senate - 12:29 a.m. EST
Democratic Sen. Max Cleland's defeat in Georgia likely means the GOP will regain control of the Senate. The final outcome hinges on five seats. In Minnesota and Missouri, the Democratic nominees are currently trailing. In Louisiana, with most of the vote counted, freshman Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) appears to be getting less than 50 percent of the vote, which will automatically throw her into a December runoff. And South Dakota remains far too close to call. Any hope for a Democratic pickup appears to be in Arkansas, where Attorney General Mark Pryor is currently leading freshman GOP Sen. Tim Hutchinson. But that win would not be enough to offset Democrats' losses in any of the other races mentioned here.
Big Wins for Both Parties in Md. - 11:43 p.m. EST
Speaking of names from the past (previous item below), Maryland gubernatorial victor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. will be the first Republican governor there since Spiro T. Agnew left the office in 1969.
In the other Maryland race mentioned earlier here, state Sen. Christopher Van Hollen Jr. (D) defeated U.S. Rep. Constance A. Morella, unseating the popular Republican from Washington's suburbs after eight terms in the House.
• Ehrlich, Van Hollen Win in Md.
(Washington Post, Nov. 5)
Ghosts of Politics Past and Future - 11:25 p.m. EST
Republicans gained a seat in the race for control of the Senate with Republican John Sununu's win in New Hampshire, where the GOP also won the race for governor.
• New Hampshire Results
Thinking about New Hampshire makes all good political junkies think ahead to the presidential primary there -- in a mere 15 months. While the polls are still open in Alaska, and Election Day officially comes to a close in less than an hour in the East, it's time to start thinking seriously about 2004.
Among the Democrats considering runs for president two years from now are some contenders from the 1988 race, including Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr., comfortably reelected to his sixth term in Delaware tonight, and House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (Mo.), whose presidential prospects hinge on the outcome of his party's effort to reclaim the House.
Another name emerging from the 1988 race, which ultimately put the current president's dad in the White House, is -- we kid you not -- Gary Hart, the former Colorado senator whose front-running presidential campaign crumbled among allegations of extramarital relationships before the first primary votes were even cast. "If you love the country and are motivated by public service as I am, it's very hard to sit on the sidelines," Hart, now 65, told The Denver Post in an interview published today. A Hart candidacy might give Minnesota Senate candidate Walter F. Mondale another chance to ask, "Where's the beef?"
• Denver Post Interview With Hart
Polls Close in West - 10:59 p.m. EST
The Pacific states begin to be heard this hour as polls close in California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington.
The New Sen. Dole - 10:21 p.m. EST
North Carolina Republican Elizabeth Dole's win against Democrat Erskine B. Bowles, the former White House chief of staff, gives the GOP a critical win in the party's effort to reclaim the Senate. But with four, or more, Senate races too close to call heading into today's voting, and with Democrats holding only a one-seat majority by the grace of a single independent member's vote, we have a long way to go tonight in sorting out control of Congress. Stay tuned.
• North Carolina Results
• The Senate
Making the Call - 10:03 p.m. EST
A word about how exactly we're declaring winners in today's races. Every election, some users notice that our calls often lag behind what they're hearing on their televisions.
To declare winners and losers, we rely on the Associated Press, which as a primarily newspaper-oriented and usually rocket-fast news wire service, doesn't have to kick in the same kind of hyper-drive favored by the highly competitive TV networks. And we don't mind taking a little more time to get things right.
In the closest races and some important local races, we will wait a few extra minutes to make the calls ourselves. There are 23 of these races this year: six governor races, nine Senate races and eight House races. We also override any call by the AP, based on our independent editorial judgment.
Polls are closing this hour in five states: Idaho, Iowa, Montana, Nevada and Utah.
The Other Kind of Political Gridlock - 9:51 p.m. EST
Virginia Gov. Mark Warner has released a statement conceding defeat on a major traffic referendum that would have raised the sales tax by a half cent in the Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads areas to address both regions' growing gridlock.
The defeat is a setback for Democrat Warner and his bipartisan group of supporters on the initiative, including reelected Sen. John Warner, no relation, and other top Republicans. It's also a huge victory for the measures' unusual coalition of opponents, which united "smart-growth" advocates, environmentalists and anti-tax Republicans, including the state's two previous GOP governors.
Government leaders around the country were watching this measure to see if it was a way for cash-strapped states and local governments to address traffic problems and other issues in tough economic times.
• Background: Virginia Tax Referendum
• Ballot Referenda
In Other News... - 9:23 p.m. EST
Don't overlook the link from our home page to tonight's other big news, which just broke a few minutes ago: Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey L. Pitt, under investigation for the controversial selection process for members of a new accounting oversight board, resigned this evening.
Pitt's resignation, which was widely expected after Election Day, is already part of the chatter in tonight's Live Online discussion with Post senior correspondent Robert G. Kaiser.
• SEC Chairman Resigns
(Associated Press, Nov. 5)
• Background: SEC Chief Losing White House Favor
(Washington Post, Nov. 2)
• Live Online: Post's Kaiser
It's Good to Be an Incumbent - 8:56 p.m. EST
Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry, a possible candidate for his party's presidential nomination two years from now, joins the list of reelected incumbents from our last item.
As the top of the hour approaches, polling places will begin to close in 11 more states, including Minnesota, where voters are choosing successors to late senator Paul Wellstone and independent Gov. Jesse Ventura, who is retiring after one term. Also start looking for results in the next hour from Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana, New Mexico, New York, Nebraska, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
8:34 p.m. EST
It's worth noting that four Senate incumbents have already been declared winners: Republican Mitch McConnell in Kentucky, Republican John W. Warner III in Virginia and Democrats John D. Rockefeller IV in West Virginia and Richard Durbin in Illinois.
Heading into today's elections, Congressional Quarterly forecast that half of the Senate seats up today, 10 Republicans and seven Democrats, were safely in the incumbent party's hands even before the first votes were cast. The proportion of safe seats is even higher in the House, where CQ estimated that at least 356 seats (174 Democratic and 182 Republican) were almost guaranteed to remain in the same party's hands in the next Congress.
• CQ Rates the Races
Closing Time- 8:16 p.m. EST
Some of you are asking when the polls close in your state. The easiest way to find the closing times, other than to watch for them right here, is to use our Election Explorer, which is linked to below, on the right side of this page and prominently on the home page and throughout our election coverage. Click on a state from one of the interactive maps and the poll closing time will be displayed until the first votes begin flowing in.
• Election Explorer: Interactive Map of Races
Maryland on Center Stage - 7:55 p.m. EST
Poll watchers in the Washington, D.C., area and across the country will be watching for results from two big races near us in Maryland, where polls begin closing at 8 p.m. EST. One is the governor's race between Democrat Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Republican Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.
• Video: Md. Race Turns on Turnout
The other race is the reelection campaign of 8th District Rep. Constance A. Morella (R), who faces a tough challenge from her Democratic opponent, state Sen. Christopher Van Hollen Jr.
Democrats have targeted the eight-term incumbent, who represents a Democratic district, as one of their best chances for gaining a seat in the narrowly divided House. Morella is running on her moderate voting record, which often puts her at odds with her party's leadership.
• Maryland Election News
At 8 p.m., polls also begin closing in 15 other states and the District of Columbia, including: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Maine, Mississippi, Michigan, Missouri, North Dakota, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas. Whew. At 8:30 p.m., polling places start closing in Arkansas.
Carolina on Our Minds - 7:21 p.m. EST
Among the night's most-watched Senate races is the contest in North Carolina, where Democrat Erskine B. Bowles and Republican Elizabeth Dole square off to fill retiring GOP Sen. Jesse Helms's seat. The polling places in North Carolina begin closing in a few minutes, along with those in Ohio and West Virginia.
• North Carolina Election News
Exit the Exit Polls - 6:55 p.m. EST
An Election Day without exit polls? Looks like many media critics will get their wish this year.
As the polls began to close across the country, Voter News Service, the media consortium that conducts the exit polls that news organizations traditionally depend on for their live election coverage, announced that it would not release data from its nationwide polling place surveys because of computer glitches.
• VNS Abandons National Exit Poll Operation
(Associated Press, Nov. 5)
The consortium, which includes the Associated Press and the major television networks, will deliver on its national voting tabulations, which news organizations such as washingtonpost.com -- just for example -- plan to use for vote counts in the 435 House races, 34 Senate and 36 governors races on today's ballots.
As of 7 p.m. EST, polls will have closed in Indiana and Kentucky, and the first polls will have closed in Florida, Vermont, Alabama, Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina and New Hampshire. Click on the states above to see the vote counts, once the counting begins.
It's worth noting that at 7 p.m. EST we will also be declaring winners in 15 uncontested races in Virginia, Florida and Georgia.
