A Canadian's U.S. Election Night Live Blog...

6:56pm: Results are trickling in very slowly from Kentucky and Indiana. Both are expected to go to McCain, but Indiana might be a fight.

6:57pm: Polls are three minutes away from closing in Virginia, Vermont, Georgia, South Carolina, most of Florida, and others. I'm getting nervous.

7:00pm: Kentucky called for McCain. Vermont called for Obama. 8-3 McCain so far. Can't call Virginia yet, which is no big surprise.

7:13pm: Things are getting a little slow. Flipping between CNN and NBC's Election Night coverage. Indiana still too close to call. That can't be good news for McCain. Obama has 57% of the vote in Vigo County, with 54% of the ballots counted.

7:30pm: Polls in North Carolina and Ohio have closed. Two of the big ones to watch. McCain needs these states. McCain's still leading in Indiana, but CNN's county-by-county breakdown still gives hope that Obama will pull it out.

7:32pm: In addition to watching Election Night coverage on TV, I'm also flipping around multiple Firefox tabs and reading commentary from around the blogosphere. People are already freaking out that McCain has a lead in the electoral college, and in Virginia and Florida right now. People need to calm the fuck down. Rural returns come in first. Wait for the urban centres to report.

7:41pm: Exit poll data is causing way too much noise right now. My eyes bugged out a little bit when I saw that the African-American vote was down in NC and VA vs 2004. Then I found out that the exit polls don't include any early voting numbers. Exit polling is notoriously unreliable at the best of times, but with the huge number of votes cast via early and absentee ballots this year, the exit polls are just going to be even more full of crap.

7:45pm: This Interactive Election Map from Politico.com is really fucking cool. I think I'm in political junkie heaven. (Click on the states to get County by County breakdowns.)

7:57pm: CNN's called South Carolina for McCain. No surprise. 16-3 McCain. Whole whack of states have polls closing in three minutes. Including Pennsylvania. Obama should take the lead in the electoral college vote quickly once Illinois, Massachusetts and DC are called for Obama.

8:00pm: Polls closed in fifteen additional states. Obama now up 77-34 on CNN's projection. McCain picks up Tennessee and Oklahoma. Obama takes Massachusetts, New Jersey, Delaware, Connecticut, Illinois, and Maine.

8:06pm: NBC calls PA for Obama. (I'm just going to use state abbreviations from now on.) CNN has no projection yet. NBC must be going on exit polling data. I'm not celebrating yet. I'm not celebrating yet. I'm not celebrating yet.

8:16pm: ABC's also called PA for Obama. Still not buying it. Numbers in NC, FL and IN are looking good for Obama. Too early to get a read on OH. If Obama pulls off all five of those states, McCain's pretty much done.

8:17pm: Going out to pick up some chicken for dinner. Hopefully, good news when I get back. And the celebratory drinking can begin.

8:39pm: Back. Have dinner. Not much has changed. Obama picked up NH. Wait. CNN just called PA! 102-34 Obama. This is huge. And I think this calls for a drink.

8:52pm: GA and AL called for McCain on NBC. Again, solid red states. 102-58 Obama. Obama still leading in FL and NC, but still behind in VA. Still too early for OH, and IN is still too close to call.

8:53pm: Elizabeth Dole defeated in NC for the Senate seat. Beautiful.

9:00pm: Another whack of states have closed their polls. MI, MN, NY, WI and RI called for Obama right out of the gate. ND, WY and KS called for McCain. 175-70 Obama from NBC. 174-49 Obama from CNN.

9:07pm: AZ, McCain's home state, is being listed as 'too close to call'. Thats... interesting. Still no call for IN, VA, FL or OH. MO will also be an interesting state to watch.

9:09pm: Apparently, FOX News has actually called OH for Obama. I can't confirm on the website and I don't get FOX on TV. I believe it when I see it on other networks.

9:21pm: Obama's really closing the gap in VA. Now less than 20,000 votes down with results from Northern VA starting to pour in. It was looking a little dire there for awhile, but it's tight now.

9:34pm: CNN just called OH for Obama. I think McCain's done unless he can sweep NC, FL, VA and IN.

9:53pm: I think we're done. I was playing around with the electoral math given the states remaining to be called, and I just can't see a plausible way for McCain to win. John King on CNN did much the same five minutes ago. Even if McCain wins NC, FL, VA, IN... hell, EVERY other state aside from the west coast liberal block of CA, WA, OR and HI, he's still screwed.

10:33pm: NM and IA were called for Obama awhile back. He's also overtaken McCain in VA with a large number of votes from the DC suburbs in Northern Virginia still to come in. It's done. Obama will be President-elect. He's just running up the score at this point. I expect a formal call and speeches will come shortly after polls close in CA, WA and OR at 11:00pm.

10:58pm: I said it was over before. It's more over now. VA now called for Obama. 220-135 Obama. Obama only needs 50 votes to win. California has 55 electoral votes. It's done.

11:00pm: CNN calls the election for Obama. Now I just have to stay awake for the speeches.

Good going, America.

(I'm just going to keep updating this post when I feel like it. Saves overloading the RSS feed.)