Live blogging starts 7 pm eastern time. Meanwhile, here’s a video to watch —

Wish us luck.

Update:

Here we go!

* Well, we’ve got Vermont. I wish we knew about Virginia.

Update: It’s kind of exhausting to watch the MSNBC crew valiantly filling long stretches of no news with talk talk talk. I couldn’t do it.

Update: I went to the Virginia board of elections page, and it isn’t posting votes counted yet.

Update: There’s no information on the Ohio government website, either. I honestly don’t expect to hear about Ohio for awhile yet.

7:55: Lots of closing coming up at 8 pm.

8:00 PM:

The independent Angus King won the Senate race in Main.

Warren-Brown too early to call.

8:15. Right now, with called states, Romney has 67 electoral votes and the President has 65 electoral votes.

Update: With 939 of 2,588 precincts reporting, Romney is ahead in Virginia, 56 to 42 percent.

Mitt has 82 electoral votes. So far, both candidates have won states they were supposed to win. No upsets.

Connecticut — Chris Murphy has defeated the wrestling federation lady for the Senate seat.

8:55: Once we get to 9 o’clock there will be only eleven states left in which polls are still open.

* There were no lines at my polling place today, but it was busy. There was no where to park so I ended up walking to the polls, in a local elementary school. It’s not far, but it’s all uphill. By the time I got there I had to sit for a while to recover. I was grateful the walk back was all downhill. If it had been uphill both ways, I couldn’t have made it.

9:00:

We got Michigan and New Mexico, as expected.

We got New Jersey. I’m surprised we’ve got a projection already.

Update: Chuck Todd is saying that the President is way ahead in Hamilton County, Ohio. This is huge. Hamilton County is southern Ohio, very conservative, “Mean Jean” Schmidt country.

Update: We got Pennsylvania, as expected.

I’ve been watching the state government election return page from Virginia. Romney was way ahead early on, but it’s getting tighter.

Update: We got Wisconsin. Nate Silver said we would, but a lot of the pollsters were calling it a tossup state.

SHERROD BROWN WINS IN OHIO! A big relief!

President Obama is now ahead in the electoral vote count.

Elizabeth Warren wins!!!

In Indiana, Donnelly defeats Mourdock!

(Dancing) Warren wins! Warren wins! Happy happy happy!

9:51: So far there are no surprises, really. Warren and Donnelly were ahead in the polls, but it’s good to see the results.

9:55: MSNBC is reporting that the Obama campaign is feeling confident about Florida.

Update: Claire McCaskill wins!

Romney and the President are now tied n electoral college votes, 162 to 162.

I just flipped over to Fox. They’re very quiet over there.

Deb Fischer defeated Bob Kerrey for the Nebraska Senate seat.

Update: The Bangkok Post is reporting that Tammy Duckworth won her congressional race in Illinois, but I don’t think I saw anything about it on television.

Virginia. A couple of hours ago, Romney was way ahead. Now, with 81 percent of the vote counted, Obama has nearly drawn even. It could still go either way.

Why We May Not Have to Wait Up for Florida, Virginia and Ohio

If President Obama wins the following states, he gets to 272 electoral votes:

California
Colorado
Hawaii
Iowa
Nevada
Oregon
Washington

Colorado, Iowa, and Nevada are too close or too early to call, and the rest haven’t closed yet, but they are all expected to go for Obama. Those states plus the states Obama already has won add up to 272 electoral votes, by my calculation.
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Kaine beats Allen in the Senate race in Virginia.

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With the big enchilada, California, plus Washington and Hawaii, the President now needs 27 more electoral votes to win. Mitt needs 67 more electoral votes, even after we give him North Carolina.

We got Iowa. We need 21 more electoral votes.

We got Ohio!

That means

Obama wins!

Obama has 274 electoral votes. It’s over.

They are real, real quiet at Fox News.

Update: Looks like a great party in Chicago.

Update: With 92 percent of precincts counted, Obama has moved slightly ahead of Romney in Virginia.

BIG UPDATE: The Romney campaign is not conceding Ohio. All the media outlets are calling Ohio for Obama.

As I said somewhere tonight, the President will almost certainly get to 270 electoral votes without Ohio.

Jeff the Flake in Arizona was elected to the Senate. Boo.

Anyway — I’m looking at Virginia, and I think Virginia will be called for President Obama some time tonight.

* Some news outlets have called Colorado for Obama, but MSNBC hasn’t yet.