2016 Election Night Live Blog

Follow Salon's live coverage here

Published November 9, 2016 12:00AM (EST)

David Gonzalez, center, votes at the Salt Lake County Government Center Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016, in Salt lake City. Utah's mostly Mormon, mostly Republican voters are going to the polls Tuesday to determine if the GOP's five-decade winning streak in presidential elections will remain intact or be snapped. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) (AP)
David Gonzalez, center, votes at the Salt Lake County Government Center Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016, in Salt lake City. Utah's mostly Mormon, mostly Republican voters are going to the polls Tuesday to determine if the GOP's five-decade winning streak in presidential elections will remain intact or be snapped. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) (AP)

The end is near. Welcome to Salon's Live Election Blog, where we will provide you up-to-the-minute results on the fate of America.

1:09 am Salon is calling the state of Utah for Donald Trump (R).

1:07 am Salon is calling the state of Nevada for Hillary Clinton (D).

12:55 am (AP) The mood is dark at Hillary Clinton's election night party.

Stony-faced supporters were crying and anxiously staring at the big screens showing election results. Some began leaving as the race wore on into the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Thousands had gathered at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City for Clinton's election night party. The glass-ceilinged building was picked as a nod to what aides expected would be the historic election of the first female U.S. president.

Clinton, her family and close aides have spent hours ensconced in a suite at the Peninsula New York, a luxury hotel in midtown Manhattan.

12:50 am (AP) Republicans have clinched continued House control for the new Congress. They'll likely lose seats from their current historic high, but they won enough seats to extend their six-year streak of commanding the chamber.

With voting results still being counted early Wednesday, Republicans have won at least 218 House seats. That exceeds the number needed to control the chamber.

Democrats started the year hoping Donald Trump's divisive presidential candidacy would cost Republicans bushels of House seats. His impact on down-ballot candidates proved spotty.

Republicans now control 247 seats in the House. With a smaller GOP majority, dissident hard-right conservatives could have added leverage to press House Speaker Paul Ryan and other party leaders on the budget and other issues.

12:23 am (AP) Democrat Jay Inslee has been re-elected governor of Washington, beating challenger Bill Bryant.

12:06 am Salon is calling the state of Washington for Hillary Clinton (D).

11:49 pm (AP) Kate Brown has been re-elected governor of Oregon over Republican newcomer Bud Pierce.

11:46 pm (AP) The crowd at Donald Trump's election watch party is jubilant as returns continue to roll in putting him closer to 270 Electoral College votes.

Supporters packed into a hotel ballroom in midtown Manhattan are breaking into chants of "USA!" and embracing each other in groups.

Others are breaking into song, bellowing "God Bless America" at the top of their lungs.

The screens in the ballroom are turned to Fox News. When the station shows images of Clinton's election headquarters, the room breaks into boos and chants of one of Trump's slogans: "Drain the swamp!"

11:36 pm Salon is calling the state of Florida for Donald Trump (R).

11:21 pm Salon is calling the state of Oregon for Hillary Clinton (D).

11:20 pm (AP) California voters passed a ballot measure to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, giving a big boost to the campaign to end the drug's national prohibition.

Adults older than 21 can legally possess up to an ounce of marijuana and grow six plants.

California was one of five states where votes were considering the legalization of recreational marijuana Tuesday. Four other states were considering measures to legalize medicinal marijuana.

So far, voters in Florida and North Dakota have also passed marijuana measures Tuesday.

Collectively, it's the closest the U.S. has ever come to national referendum on marijuana.

11:11 pm Salon is calling the state of North Carolina for Donald Trump (R).

11:05 pm (AP) The results in California and Hawaii were not surprising. California, with 55 electoral votes, has voted for Democrats beginning in 1992. Hawaii has chosen Democrats consistently since 1988.

11:04 pm Salon is calling the states of California and Hawaii for Hillary Clinton (D).

10:59 pm Salon is calling the states of Colorado and Virginia for Hillary Clinton (D).

10:46 pm (AP) Virginia was reliably Republican for decades until Barack Obama won it twice, thanks in part to huge turnout from Washington, D.C.'s suburbs. Clinton's running mate, Tim Kaine, is a senator from Virginia, though Trump made a late push in the state.

10:44 pm (AP) Clinton had appeared ready to concede Ohio's 18 electoral votes to Trump as polls showed him pulling ahead even in some traditionally Democratic blue-collar areas. But Trump struggled after release of a video in which he talked about groping women and kissing them without their permission.

Republicans held their nominating convention in Cleveland. Governor and one-time Republican presidential rival John Kasich refused to endorse Trump.

10:43 pm Salon is calling the state of Ohio for Donald Trump (R).

10:31 pm Salon is calling the states of Missouri and Louisiana for Donald Trump (R).

10:25 pm Salon is calling the state of New Mexico for Hillary Clinton (D).

10:08 pm (AP) Republican Gary Herbert has been re-elected governor of Utah.

10:08 pm Salon is calling the state of Montana for Donald Trump (R).

9:53 pm (AP) Preliminary exit polls show the racial divides that were expected to define the 2016 presidential election.

Polls conducted for national media by Edison Research show Republican Donald Trump winning a majority of white voters while Democrat Hillary Clinton is drawing support from about three out of four nonwhite voters.

Trump's support is strongest among whites without a college degree. He's winning nearly two-thirds of them. Whites with college degrees are split between Trump and Clinton.

Clinton's strongest support comes from African-Americans. She's winning about nine out of 10 black voters. She's winning about two out of three Hispanics and Asian-Americans.

9:42 pm Dow futures down more than 500 points according to CNBC.

9:41 pm Salon is calling the state of Connecticut for Hillary Clinton (D).

9:37 pm Salon is calling the states of South Dakota and Mississippi for Donald Trump (R).

9:29 pm (AP) Republican Eric Holcomb has won the governor's race in Indiana and Democrat Jim Justice has won the governor's race in West Virginia.

Holcomb defeated Democrat John Gregg in Tuesday's election and will succeed Gov. Mike Pence. Pence is presidential candidate Donald Trump's vice presidential running mate.

9:28 pm (AP) Polls in Colorado will close at 7 p.m. MST after a judge denied the Colorado Democratic Party's request to extend voting by two hours.

The head of the Colorado Democratic Party argued that voting hours should be extended to account for a 29-minute computer glitch Tuesday afternoon. The statewide glitch affected same-day voter registration and caused some voters to have to cast provisional ballots.

The Secretary of State opposed the extended hours. Deputy Secretary of State Stephanie Staiert says no one was prevented from voting because of the glitch.

9:08 pm Salon is calling the states of Texas, Wyoming, North Dakota, and Kansas for Donald Trump (R), and the state of New York for Hillary Clinton (D).

9:02 pm (AP) Exit polls conducted by Edison Research for national media outlets suggest Hillary Clinton is still struggling with white voters who have put Georgia in the Republican column for every presidential election but one since 1980.

Exit polls in Virginia show Clinton and Republican Donald Trump split white Virginia voters with college degrees. In North Carolina, Trump apparently won a slight majority of college-educated whites. But in Georgia, whites with college degrees sided with Trump by more than 2-to-1.

Among whites with no degree, the gaps were even wider. Trump won about two out of three of those voters in North Carolina and Virginia. In Georgia, he won about four out of five.

9:00 pm Salon is calling the state of Rhode Island for Hillary Clinton (D) and the state of Mississippi for Donald Trump (R).

8:38 pm (AP) Texas authorities say they arrested a man who claimed to be working for Donald Trump for voter fraud.

Phillip Cook, Jr. was arrested after trying to vote for a second time at a polling station in an unincorporated area outside of Houston on Tuesday. Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls says Cook told poll officials and sheriff's deputies that he was helping the Trump campaign and testing election security.

Nehls said Cook was booked on suspicion of a felony charge.

8:30 pm Salon is calling the states of South Carolina and Alabama for Donald Trump (R).

8:23 pm (AP)  An election watchdog says some voters were denied provisional ballots at several polling stations in Atlanta.

Georgia Election Protection coalition spokesman Harold Franklin says poll mangers refused to provide provisional ballots to voters Tuesday. He says the group received reports that voters were given no reason for being refused.

Franklin claims voters who are eligible or entitled to a provisional ballot were denied. He did not know the number of voters who were refused, but said the bulk occurred in Fulton County.

Franklin says he spoke with Fulton County election officials, who he said told polling managers to provide voters with ballots. The Fulton County elections office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

8:08 pm Salon is calling the state of Delaware for Hillary Clinton (D).

8:06 pm Salon is calling the state of Oklahoma for Donald Trump (R).

8:03 pm Salon is calling the states of Massachusetts, Maryland, and New Jersey for Hillary Clinton (D).

7:47 pm (AP) North Carolina Board of Elections has agreed to extend voting in eight precincts in Durham County, where Democrats have a 4-to-1 registration advantage over Republicans.

The state board voted 3-2 Tuesday night to extend voting by an hour in two precincts most affected by a computer glitch. The problem forced poll workers to check for registered voters on paper printouts, causing long lines at some locations.

The board says six more precincts can stay open for a shorter time.

The NAACP's North Carolina chapter had asked for the eight precincts to stay open for 90 extra minutes. Hillary Clinton's campaign also supported keeping the polls open later in Durham.

Two groups filed lawsuits seeking to keep the polls open, but a state superior court judge declined to intervene.

Exit polls conducted by Edison Research for national media outlets suggest a tight finish between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump for the state's 15 electoral votes.

The polls suggest a majority of men back Trump, while Clinton won a majority among women — with the margins essentially even. The polls suggest women made up slightly more of the electorate.

About four out of five nonwhite voters backed Clinton, while about six out of 10 white voters supported Trump.

7:34 pm (AP) West Virginia was one of Donald Trump's biggest supporters in the Republican primary. He is popular for promising to bring back coal jobs. Hillary Clinton had largely been largely shunned for making comments perceived as an affront to the industry.

West Virginia has voted for Republican presidential candidates in each of the last four presidential races.

7:32 pm Salon is calling the state of West Virginia for Donald Trump (R).

7:23 pm CNN reports that a senior advisor for the Trump campaign said, "It will take a miracle for us to win."

7:15 pm (AP) In both Virginia and Georgia, about 9 in 10 black voters and two-thirds of Hispanics backed Clinton, while most whites backed Trump.

That's according to exit polls conducted by Edison Research for national media outlets.

In Georgia, large majorities of whites with and without college degrees backed Trump.

In Virginia those two groups diverged.

Whites without a college degree backed Trump by a large margin, while those with a degree split their votes between the two major-party candidates. Women in both states were far more likely than men to back Clinton. Majorities of women in both states said Trump's treatment of women bothers them a lot.

7:03 pm Salon is calling the state of Vermont for Hillary Clinton (D).

(AP) Vermont gives Clinton three electoral votes. Vermont has voted for a Democrat every election since 1988, while Kentucky has gone Republican every cycle since 2000.

7:02 pm Salon is calling the states of Indiana and Kentucky for Donald Trump (R).

(AP) Trump was awarded Kentucky's eight electoral votes and Indiana's 11. .Indiana is normally a Republican stronghold but went for President Barack Obama in 2008. The Republicans captured it again in 2012 and Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, is the state's governor.

6:54 pm (AP) Americans who have voted already in the presidential election appear to be evenly divided on the benefits of international trade.

About four out of 10 voters believe trade among nations creates jobs, according to an exit poll conducted by Edison Research for national media outlets. Another four out of 10 say it takes jobs from Americans.

Republican nominee Donald Trump has railed against decades of U.S. trade policy and has energized working-class voters with his promises to create more jobs at home. Democrat Hillary Clinton has historically supported U.S. trade deals, including when she served as secretary of state.

But Clinton has backed off her support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

6:47 pm (AP) A majority of Americans who have cast ballots already are at odds with Republican Donald Trump on two of his signature immigration proposals.

Just four out of 10 voters say they support building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border according to the preliminary results of exit polling conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and television networks. A majority oppose the idea.

About seven out of 10 people who have voted already say they'd rather allow workers in the U.S. illegally have a way to apply for legal status than have them deported. About a quarter of voters support deportation.

6:15 p.m. (AP) More than half of Americans who went to the polls earlier Tuesday say Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has the temperament to serve as president. About a third of voters say the same about Republican nominee Donald Trump.

But neither candidate can claim a mandate as the honest candidate according to the preliminary results of exit polling conducted by Edison Research for The Associated Press and television networks.

About six out of 10 voters say they don't view Clinton as honest. About the same proportion say Trump isn't honest. About three out of 10 voters say they believe neither candidate is honest.

As for what percentage of voters think both nominees are honest, that number is in single digits.


By Salon Staff

MORE FROM Salon Staff


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Democratic Party Donald Trump Elections 2016 Hillary Clinton Republican Party