WEDNESDAY, 6:55 AM
You thought this blog was over, didn't you?!  Ha!

So I just wrapped up my bit on le morning show.  Overnight, the results kept on coming in.  Chet Edwards did emerge victorious in Texas's 17th District.  In fact, all the incumbents in our area won back their House seats.  The economy was supposed to be the big factor, and the bailout was certainly a talking point.  The two times it came before the House (the first time when it failed, the second time when it passed), Edwards and Kevin Brady voted for it, and John Carter, Joe Barton and Michael McCaul voted against it.  Hmm...

Also, my theory that I talked about many, many...many.........many hours ago here on the blog.  I'm not a betting man, so I won't put money on it, but I'm thinking President Obama might be giving newly-reelected Congressman Edwards a ring-a-ding-ding for a cabinet position.  I asked Rep. Edwards about that a couple months back, and he said all he was thinking about was the district and the campaign.  One of those is over...maybe I'll ask him soon...

11:00 PM
District 17 is certainly taking its sweet time to decide who's going to represent it.  Chet Edwards does have a 53-46% advantage with 77% of precincts reporting.  We'll break down the 12 counties down the line as far as who voted for who, but I can tell you in Brazos County, 31,316 voters gave Edwards their vote.  Curnock received 25,083.

10:30 PM
Been a while since an update...sorry...

No matter what your political leanings -- and history and the votes this election would bear out that Texas leans a bit away from the left -- what a historic night this is with Barack Obama winning the presidency.  We've had an interesting last few years in this country, and I don't think the "dull" times are anywhere near over.  We can all hope for better days for this country, no matter the person in the White House.

9:25 PM
You may have noticed numbers coming on our results page for the Congressional races.  The Associated Press service that was supposed to automatically funnel state results to us has obviously had a wrench thrown in the system.  We're set for it, but AP's numbers aren't coming.  Other outlets are reportedly experiencing the same problems.

What I'm having to do now is manually enter the results as they pop up on my screen, so bear with me.  Like most election nights, there are numbers coming from places numbers shouldn't be coming out of.

CBS News has Obama at 206 electoral votes, and McCain at 135.  As we just came on air with a cut in, Howard University was in a celebratory uproar over the results.  The 270 barrier still must be crossed.

FYI, with a quarter of the precincts counted, John Cornyn is leading the race for Senate by nine percent.

9:00 PM
Here's what CBS News has projected so far when it comes to the presidential race:   

8:50 PM
For those of you looking for numbers out of Grimes County, we are efforting them, but elections officials say they "aren't ready yet."  We obviously would like partial numbers to bring you, but if you're a voter in Grimes County, you probably know that election officials there probably would like a few less charter amendments.  I believe it's 34 in all...but I don't have time to count them ;-)

We're also waiting Chet Edwards-Rob Curnock numbers.  Those come to us through the Associated Press, which isn't funnelling those to us through our system.  Last I saw from the Texas Secretary of State has a 15 percent lead for Edwards.

8:30 PM
Again, numbers coming in fast, so sorry about the lack of updates...

Texas (duh) has gone to McCain.  There have been lots of states declared, so I'll just give you the Electoral College update:

Obama:  199
McCain: 124

8:20 PM
Numbers are coming in fast and furious...

College Station's percentages are holding steady, with Propositions 1-4 passing easily, Proposition 5 failing barely, and Proposition being rejected by a wide margin.

Bill Turner is also holding a steady lead.

7:40 PM
Alabama to McCain.  Obama has 102 electoral votes on his way to try and achieve 270.  McCain has 54.

7:35 PM
Obama takes Pennsylvania, according to CBS News.  Bill Clinton's home state of Arkansas has been declared for John McCain.

FYI, in Texas, McCain has garnered 51.6% to Obama's 47.7% with 1.85 million votes counted.  That's with about one percent of precincts reporting.

7:20 PM
Early voting totals are in for Brazos County.

Four of the six propositions in College Station are passing.  Prop 5 (a new community center) is 52-48% against, and Prop 6 is down 65-35%.  Healthy leads for the others in favor.

Bill Turner has a 56-44% lead after early voting.

In Brazos County alone after early voting:
John McCain: 23,329
Barack Obama: 13,243

Chet Edwards: 19,534
Rob Curnock: 16,176

7:00 PM
Lots of declarations by CBS News gives the lead now to Obama, 81-39.

Illinois (shock!) goes blue, along with New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maryland, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Delaware (Biden...shock!) and the District of Columbia

McCain picks up Tennessee and Oklahoma.

Texas polls have closed.

6:50 PM
Another one for McCain...South Carolina makes it a 21-3 lead.

Obama leads the popular vote, though, by a few percentage points.

Texas polls are about to close...get ready for totals, which you can access through the KBTX.com homepage.

6:30 PM
West Virginia to McCain...five electoral votes there.  13-3 McCain, 270 needed...

Indiana's too close to call.  It wasn't when I voted there back in 2000.

6:25 PM
Mark it down...John McCain leads in the electoral college tally.  CBS News and CNN has declared the Arizona senator a winner in Kentucky, while his Illinois counterpart has Vermont colored blue.

Texas polls close in 35 minutes...

As The Carpenters said, we've only just begun...

6:15 PM
Real Clear Politics, in their humble opinion, has said the race for Texas's junior seat in the US Senate is the 14th most likely to change hands.  That's out of more than 30 seats being contested.

The poll numbers (for whatever they are worth) don't show much chance for change.  Over the last couple of weekends, we've told you about the Rasmussen poll numbers in the race between incumbent Republican John Cornyn and Democrat challenger Rick Noriega.  Back in September, Rasmussen showed just a seven-point lead for Cornyn, but the October sample put the incumbent up 15 points.  This month, the University of Texas's survey gave Cornyn a nine-point lead.

Noriega waged an Obama-like campaign against Cornyn, tying the senator to President Bush as much as possible.  Noriega also decried Cornyn's yay vote on the economic bailout.  But Cornyn claimed the Houston legislator has run from hard decisions in the past, and said the bailout was a tough call, but one that would help Texans.

Whoever wins this race probably won't have to wait long to become the senior senator.  Kay Bailey Hutchison has said she will not run for reelection, and might step down before her term is up in 2012.  A run for governor might be in her future.

If I've got my history right (correct me if I'm wrong), Lloyd Bentsen was the last Democrat elected to the Senate from Texas.  Bob Krueger, who replaced Bentsen when he was chosen as Treasury Secretary, was the last Texas Democrat to serve.

5:30 PM
Can you hear that?  It's history knocking at the door...

OK, had to start with some cheese...only appropriate, I guess, coming from me...

I'll be at my desk throughout this Election Night as the votes come in to KBTX's world headquarters in Bryan, so I hope you'll check in with this blog as the night goes on.  I'll be knee deep in numbers as the ballots are counted, then relayed to me, but I'll try to keep this updated as much as humanly possible.

A couple big things on the ballot that I'm personally interested in are the District 17 race and the College Station propositions (even though I'm a Bryan resident, I've been delving into that one a bit...that's my job...that's what I do).  I have my theories about what will happen after this evening when it comes to the congressional district many of us live in.  I'll touch on that as we go along...stay tuned...

Keep in touch, leave your comments, and check back as we bring you all the local results.  Oh, and I apologize for any misspellings in advance...my fingers will be busy on the keyboard tonight.