Massachusetts election updates – polls crowded, people excited

FINAL UPDATE: With this election over … please check main page for concession and victory speech here. Coakley concession now on line.

Forget what you hear from the national press about the weather. This is New England and Bay Staters are excited. They (national media) don’t know the region and so they look for stuff to say. Well my buddy Jeff Jacoby does.

Scroll Down for More Updates! All friggin’ day man! (Last update all the way down – Jim now blogging results and commentary)

If you missed Jeff Jacoby’s interview with Ray this morning you missed a lot. Jeff says long lines at the polling stations where he lives, Boston, specifically Brookline, my old neighborhood. And my guess elsewhere around the state.

I am not sure if that’s good or bad for Brown but remember this. Boston, Providence, Hartford, New Haven are all old New England cities with strong party machines. They can still get the vote out, dead or alive.

Stay tuned here. I will keep in touch with Jeff through the day.

Update: One last thing from the Jacoby interview that should be mentioned. Jeff explained that elections in Massachusetts (or is that MassachusettEs?) are normally forgone conclusions. True in Connecticut most times too. Jeff believes having an election that actually matters is a major motivator today. Add the national attention and you can forget weather as a factor.

Update [1 p.m. ET]: Absentee ballots floating around?

Update [1:55 p.m. ET]: GOP quietly moved $500,000 into Massachusetts in support of Brown during the last couple of weeks.

Update [2:51 p.m. ET]: From Glenn Thrush at Politico…

A Democratic operative familiar with tge get-out-the-vote push by Martha Coakley’s team, and boosted late in the game by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, says that outreach workers in and around Boston have been stunned by the number of Democrats and Obama supporters who are waving them off, saying they’ll vote for Scott Brown.

Update [3:01 p.m. ET]: Hey Joe Biden! Remember when you told George W. Bush – concerning his leadership – no one was following?

I remember President Bush saying to me one time in the Oval Office,” Biden told CNN, “‘Well, Joe,’ he said, ‘I’m a leader.’ And I said: ‘Mr. President, turn and around look behind you. No one is following.’

Well. If you and the president can’t get Massachusetts to follow you on health care legislation, and Democrats around the country are rethinking…

After watching the voter revolt in Massachusetts do the unthinkable — put a Republican in reach of the seat held by the Kennedys for almost 60 years — Democrats around the country are suddenly rethinking the bill that got deep-blue voters angry in what had been a reliable bastion for liberalism.

Update [3:22 p.m. ET]: The demand for absentee ballots went through the roof last week, especially on Friday. Considering we’ve got people like Isabel Melendez with a few extra to spare, you’ve got to wonder. If 125 residents from Randolph, Mass. showed up on Friday alone, I’m wondering what their excuse was. What stops voters from filling out an absentee ballot on Friday, and voting on Tuesday? I’m serious. Is there some sort of check that happens?

Update [3:30 p.m. ET]: All absentee ballots must be received by the time the polls close on election day to be counted. There is no “we have to wait until all of the ballots come in through the mail” stuff.

Update [4:09 p.m. ET]: Will a Brown win today lead to more events like this in the future? Even if Coakley wins – I think it may.

Update [4:12 p.m. ET]: Blame game. Blame game. Blame Game. Blame Game.

Update [4:17 p.m. ET]: Some say Massachusetts does not matter. Democrats have multiple options to pass health care if Scott Brown wins.

Paul Waldman totally misses the point of the voter backlash … it’s Obama and Democrat policies including buying car companies to bail them out, bailing out Wall Street, the climate change and global warming hoax, billions in pay offs to senators to buy votes for health care and the liberal left’s general desire to destroy capitalism which is driving change in Massachusetts.

Update [6:20 p.m. ET]: Union thugs at work at one of Martha Coakley’s campaign offices.

Update [8:51 p.m. ET]: Results are coming in…

If I had the energy, I’d be looking back to results from previous races to see what is going on with the individual towns that are coming in.

As an example, Coakley did take Lynn, Mass. as expected 53% to 47%, but Obama took Lynn 69% to 30% and when Kennedy last ran in 2006 he took Lynn by 56 percent – 78% to 22%.

I think something happened in Massachusetts today.

• Current Race Results (2010 Brown versus Coakley for Senate)
• Kennedy Senate Results from 2006
• Kerry Senate Results from 2008
• Obama versus McCain Results from 2008

Update [9:33 p.m. ET]: Coakley concedes. Good game – Good game – Good game – Good game – Good game – Good game – Good game – Good game – Good game – Good game.