This one is too close to call for the Washington Post and various politicos are saying it’ll go into the state’s automatic recount mode:
Republican incumbent George F. Allen and his Democratic challenger James H. Webb remained in a dead heat in the race to represent Virginia in the U.S. Senate. With more than 2.1 million votes tallied, Allen was ahead of Webb by fewer than 20,000 votes.
Allen had 49.85 percent of the vote and Webb had 48.94 percent, with more than 92 percent of the votes counted, according to unofficial results.
The ban on same-sex marriage won approval by a substantial margin. With 87.3 percent of the precincts reporting, the amendment had the support of 58.4 percent of voters.
Exit polls conducted for the Associated Press found that Allen drew strong support from religious voters, those who served in the armed forces and from voters who said terrorism was extremely important. Webb was favored by traditional Democratic voting blocs such as women and blacks and by those who believe the Iraq war is an important issue.
The exit polls also showed that the majority of voters disapproved of the war in Iraq and that the U.S. should withdraw some or all troops. Of those voters, the majority favored Webb. Webb also was supported by those who said the war in Iraq was extremely important in their choice for Senate.
In other words, the final determination on which party controls the Senate may take more than a day…
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.