It's time! Who's going to watch election results?

[Maddy McCall]

Six minutes until polls close! I'm going to watch them live, as they come in.

Links:

Secretary of State Orleans Live Results Page:
http://www.gcr1.com/electionscentral/

NOLA.com Live Results Page:
http://www.nola.com/

[Pirate Smile]

1. Are you rooting for anyone, Maddy?

[Maddy McCall]

7. Pulling for Landrieu...

won't be disappointed either way, though.

:hi:

[Pirate Smile]

12. Me too, but it isn't my city so whatever they decide is fine by me.

:hi:

[Maddy McCall]

14. Not my city, either...

I'm in Mississippi, about 90 miles north of NOLA--60 miles north of the Lake. I visit frequently...

I hope that Landrieu gets in so that he can tap some of the connections his sister has.

[Rosco T.]

2. Live Video feed from WWL TV here (up now)

http://www.wwltv.com/sharedcontent/VideoPlayer/videoPlayer.php?vidId=57429&live=yes

[lisa58]

3. Me...

...this should be very interesting.

[LA lady]

4. no big difference

I will watch but don't think it matters which one wins.

[Rose Siding]

9. It almost seems like together they'd do better than either one alone

I don't have much to go on besides impressions but they each seem to have the ears of different entities that would both be valuable to the city.

[Nimrod2005]

5. I will

[W_HAMILTON]

6. I am...

...but I may get bored, I'm listening now but they aren't really reporting even the early results yet. I don't think they will till around 9pm ET?

[Maddy McCall]

8. Polls close at 8 Central. So, yes, that'd be 9 for Eastern.

[W_HAMILTON]

10. Thanks...

...I have it on the background now just listening to it every now and then, but I mainly tuned in to hear the early projections. Oh well, only 30 minutes away!

[Conker]

11. How come it is two Dems running?The GOP doesn't care about this race?

[Maddy McCall]

13. Open elections...

No single-party primaries. All the Democratss and Republicans run in the open election. If no one gets a plurality, then the top 2 vote getters go into a run off.

Mitch Landrieu and Ray Nagin were the top two, so they go into a run-off.

[Pirate Smile]

15. One of the Republicans, who obviously didn't make it to the run-off,

endorsed Nagin. He was on Hardball last week.

[Maddy McCall]

16. Wonder which one it was?

Was it a man?

Not surprising, since REPORTEDLY Nagin was a Republican before he ran for Mayor, and only jumped parties because he knew that he couldn't win as a Republican. He did stump for and contribute money to Bush.

[Pirate Smile]

19. It was a man, not the Republican woman from the earlier debate.

He thought Nagin would be more receptive to the business community (paraphrasing).

[LA lady]

22. Bob Couhig

ROB COUHIG ®, FMR. NEW ORLEANS MAYORAL CANDIDATE: Well, I don‘t think it‘s dramatically different. And you can actually go back and be ethnic and say in Boston we always voted on Irish.

MATTHEWS: Sure.

COUHIG: But here‘s what is going to be interesting for America to watch.

You‘re going to see a significant white turnout for Ray Nagin...

MATTHEWS: Who‘s African-American.

COUHIG: ... who‘s African-American. You‘re going to see significant African-American turnout for Mitch Landrieu.

I think it‘s really break along lines of philosophies. There are those of us who believe that the Landrieus are really the epitome of the governments of the past, and Ray, for all of his warts, is at least a new face for the future.

MATTHEWS: OK.

Describe—give me an image that the national audience that‘s watching right now would get.

Who is the lieutenant governor Mitch Landrieu like nationally? Is he a Hubert Humphrey, an old-style liberal? Is he a Tip O‘Neill, my old boss? Is he that kind of a person? How would you—tax and spend liberal? What would you call him? Give me an image here.

COUHIG: Well, we‘re trying to be positive about him.

MATTHEWS: Is he dishonest?

COUHIG: No, I don‘t think he‘s dishonest. He is a career politician. He spent his entire life in politics. He‘s one who believes government has all solutions at all times...

MATTHEWS: So he‘s a big government liberal?

COUHIG: In my estimation, yes.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12834927/

[Maddy McCall]

24. I love the way Tweety kept throwing out "big government liberal"

and "tax and spend liberal."

As IF the Republican party has done anything different the past six years!

[Conker]

18. Was he a moderate-Repub that endorsed Nagin?

[Pirate Smile]

20. I don't really know. He sounded primarily concerned about business.

My impression was that he considered Landrieu to be more of an old-style FDR style Democrat but I may have gotten that impression more from Tweety who described Mitch as that kind of Democrat - mainly focused on the little guy.

[Maddy McCall]

21. Nagin is no little guy. He was VP of Cox Communication.

He's business friendly, of that there's no doubt...and I'll say that it's not always a bad thing.

I just want to see lower income housing rebuilt in NOLA, or the city will lose its pre-Kat flavor.

[bigtree]

17. It will be interesting to see the degree that the flood washed away

the votes of the poor folks who lost their homes and were forced out of the city. Hard to pin down the changed demographic on those who remain. It will also be interesting to see how many absentee ballots were cast, accepted.

[Maddy McCall]

23. That's true. Fortunately, some buses came in loaded with...

displaced voters from Houston and Atlanta.

But there's no doubt--the demographics have changed.

[Maddy McCall]

25. Numbers coming in. Nagin leading with 12 or 442 precinct reporting.

MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS 12 of 443 precincts reporting
Candidate Number of votes Percentage of votes
Mitch Landrieu (D) 259 23%
Ray Nagin (D) 839 77%

[Maddy McCall]

26. 99 of 442 - Landrieu winning...

Landrieu 55%
Nagin 45%

[Maddy McCall]

27. 103 pcts reporting...

Nagin 46% 12,391
Landrieu 54% 10,616

[Maddy McCall]

28. 24% precincts in.

Landrieu 14,000 55%
Nagin 12,000 45%

[Maddy McCall]

29. 30% reporting. Landrieu holds lead.

[Maddy McCall]

30. 32% reporting - Landrieu 53% - Nagin 47%

[Maddy McCall]

31. Nagin closing in!

33% reporting
Landrieu 54% 16245
Nagin 46% 14150

[bigtree]

32. we'd know more if it was broken down into precincts

probably get that on the broadcasts

[Maddy McCall]

33. It is, on the sec of state's office.

[Maddy McCall]

34. Landrieu is getting 80% of white vote; Nagin 80% of black vote.

They are analyzing precinct returns on WWL right now.

[goclark]

41. Kick ~ Mitch in lead

[mtnsnake]

How is that "closing in", Maddy?

He was doing better in the previous posts.

[Maddy McCall]

37. It changed while I was posting in the text box.

It's changing by a couple of pctg. points frequently.

[Maddy McCall]

35. 40% reporting - Landrieu 53% -Nagin 47%

[Maddy McCall]

36. 25,000 early or faxed votes still out.

[W_HAMILTON]

43. Yeah

I heard them say that they probably wouldn't know the results of those until much later in the night.

I figure that's probably a good sign for Nagin. You would think that many of the displaced, absentee voters are African-American, and I believe I heard that they are supporting Nagin by about 80/20 margin.

It seems like it's going to be a tight race either way, and I'm guessing we won't know the results until very late into the night, because it does seem like it might come down to those thousands of absentee votes.

[bigtree]

47. wonder how many will be counted?

anyone know the process, obstacles?

[Maddy McCall]

49. SoS office is counting them now.

Don't know what the obstacles would be. They are taking faxed and mailed votes.

As long as the person's registered, their vote should be counted.

[Maddy McCall]

38. Holding at 53/47

Landrieu 19219
Nagin 16811

[Rowdyboy]

39. I'm in for the duration! Mitch Landrieu is going to make one h3elluva ...

mayor for my favorite city in the world!

[Maddy McCall]

40. I am so hopeful that he wins!

It's looking good for him. :bounce:

[Maddy McCall]

42. 41% 53/47 holding

19393
17188

[Rowdyboy]

82. I'm a little surprised.....Not stunned, but surprised...

Regardless, New Orleans has made it's choice and its time to move on.

Congratulations, Mayor Nagin!

[Maddy McCall]

44. 43% reporting 52/48 now

[Maddy McCall]

45. 45% reporting. 53/47 again. and just updated to 52/48

[Maddy McCall]

46. 45% L52% N48%

L 20,992
N 19,053

[Maddy McCall]

48. 46% reporting 52/48

[Maddy McCall]

50. 47% reporting...holding at 52/48

[W_HAMILTON]

51. 1,100ish vote difference

Down from 1,400ish just a few minutes ago. Looks like the number of votes separating the two is getting smaller and smaller with each update they've given out lately.

[Maddy McCall]

53. Mail/Fax votes will make all the difference.

25,000 still to be tabulated--being counted right now.

[W_HAMILTON]

54. Yep

When you say Mail/Fax votes, do you mean the absentee votes, or are you referring to something different?

As I said in another message, I figured that the displaced voters would lean towards Nagin, so I would think that he would get a large percentage of the absentee vote, but maybe I'm wrong?

[Maddy McCall]

56. Yes--and most of the people still displaced are African Americans...

so those will probably go heavily for Nagin.

[W_HAMILTON]

59. That's what I was thinking...

...so I'm guessing this is a bad sign for Landrieu? It looks like the vote difference is less than 400 now, and I'm not sure that any of these votes being reported on now are the absentee votes, since they said earlier that most of those results wouldn't come in until later on in the night.

[Maddy McCall]

52. 50% reporting. Shifting a little 51/49

AFrican American precincts yet to report.

[Maddy McCall]

55. Numbers here

L23140
N22064

[Maddy McCall]

57. 52% reporting. NOW 50/50

Nailbiter for sure!

[Maddy McCall]

58. Only separated by 300 votes.

[Maddy McCall]

60. 55% L52/N48

[Maddy McCall]

61. 25555 to 23869 Landrieu leading with 55% precincts reporting.

[Maddy McCall]

62. Rumors are that Landrieu won the absentee vote!

[Maddy McCall]

63. Nagin now leading 51/49 w/ 1500 vote difference and 83% reporting.

Whoa!

[W_HAMILTON]

64. Nagin takes the lead!

83% reporting, about a 1600 difference in vote total.

[W_HAMILTON]

65. 21% of the white vote, 82% of the black vote

They said that if those trends continue, that will be enough to win for Nagin. They also said most of the trends are breaking in his favor, except for the fact that African-American turnout isn't quite as large as some figured.

[SPKrazy]

66. Landrieu, Landrieu, Landrieu!!!!

even though he's part of the old style Louisiana crooked machinery

he isn't Nagin

[Maddy McCall]

68. At least he isn't a former Republican.

:)

[Maddy McCall]

67. Absentee votes, 58 vote difference. L12336 N12512

[Maddy McCall]

69. 85% N51%/L49%

God is this close or what!

[Maddy McCall]

70. N50631 to L48396

It's looking like it's going for Nagin.

[W_HAMILTON]

71. Their election specialist is calling it for Nagin n/t

[Maddy McCall]

73. Yes, and it appears that that's the way it's going to go.

Closest election I've seen in a long time.

[Pirate Smile]

74. Yep. I turned it off. It is a little depressing. They are both Dems

but the vote broke down completely along racial lines. However, Nagin did increase his % of the white vote. Maybe he got the white Republicans.

[Maddy McCall]

76. I would guess that that's what happened. A Bush guy from the DHS...

supported him.

I like Landrieu--but Nagin will be ok, I guess.
I hope when the next hurricane hits, he has better plans in place.

[W_HAMILTON]

77. I was wondering what it all means...

...Nagin may have once been a Republican (hell, once I would have considered myself one as well), but I'm not sure too many Republican types are willing to embrace the guy now. In fact, the Freeper types seemed eager to see Nagin get voted out.

I'm not a resident, so I guess it doesn't really affect me either way. I know Nagin made some mistakes, but I don't believe he was solely responsible for what happened, and I'm not sure he was responsible for even most of the problems that happened. In an event like Katrina, it takes more than one city, or even one state. It really is something that requires national aid, and I think the federal response was pretty pathetic.

[Pirate Smile]

80. Yeah. I just thought a new mayor would help with a fresh start, without

the baggage. Oh, well...

[Maddy McCall]

72. WWL calls it for Nagin.

Congratulations, Ray Nagin. :toast:

[bigtree]

79. Mitch Landrieu

Good race. :toast:

[Maddy McCall]

81. I agree!

[Maddy McCall]

75. 91% reporting - Nagin 52% - Landrieu 48%

[Maddy McCall]

78. Congratulations to Ray Nagin thread here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1247859