In early voting, Obama is crushing in Broward County (and they just called Pennsylvania for him, so this baby is just about done). He's pulling more than 70 percent of the vote so far. On CNN all the pundits have already said it's over and that this could turn into a bit of a landslide for Barack Obama.
Scott Israel is up 56-44 over Al Lamberti, a slightly surprising margin, though Pulp-expected. Only 103 of 786 precincts are reporting, however.
With 21 of 78 precincts reporting, Ellyn Bogdanoff has a healthy lead on Chris Chiari, up 54-46. It's not over, but it's looking good for Bogdanoff.
All three of my judge predictions are looking good, as Bober, Ehrlich, and Feren have big to huge leads. Murray is also up on Saltrick in the school board race, but I'm loathe to make any assumptions on that one yet.
Barrington Russell holds a small lead on Llevoyd Williams in the Lauderdale Lakes mayoral race with only one of seven precincts counted. This is an important race -- and the Pulp is pulling hard for Russell.
Another interesting race: Doug McKay has the early lead on incumbent Southwest Ranches Commissioner Don Maines. Also in Southwest Ranches, Freddy Fisikelli has the early lead on Holly Hugdahl. You can't lose with these two, but a return to office for the octogenarian Fisikelli would be an extraordinary thing.
Okay, it's 9 p.m. and this thing hasn't been officially called, so I fall short on that prediction. Who cares. I was right in spirit -- everybody knows who the next president is going to be. It's all academic now.
Check out the slowly updated results here.
More later.
ADDED: The most troubling result I see is the Broward vote on Amendment 2 to make gay marriage unconstitional. With 218 of 276 precincts reporting, 51.38 percent of the voters are going YES. How is that even possible in Broward County, the most Democratic counties in Florida and one with a very large gay population? Well, this is just more proof that Broward isn't progressive or liberal; it's just Democratic in a machine-like way. We have a Democratic mayor in Fort Lauderdale who falls slightly to right of the ghost Jesse Helms. Now we have a Democratic sheriff (assuming Israel holds on to win) who was a loyal Republican schmoozing up to Charlie Crist just a year ago. The list goes on and on. This is a great night for America, but the Amendment 2 vote doesn't bode well for Broward County.
