10 pm: Iowa, Nevada, & the West

If you’ve gotten this far without either popping champagne corks or cerebral arteries, the toughest of the two major swing states are next up for us.  Iowa has been too close to call through a number of polls, but Nevada’s been leaning toward Obama — even though the population contains a significant Mormon vote that should swing to Romney.  With any luck, Romney ends up not needing either state; if he does, this might be a tough night.

For Iowa, you can get updates on voting results from Twitter by following the Secretary of State’s account.  Otherwise, you can brave slow load times by going directly to the results page on their website.  In Nevada, they don’t have a Secretary of State — they have the Cashier’s Window.  Just kidding! Nevada’s SoS has a very nice web page set up to display the data as well as map the results as they come in.

Update, 9:56 ET: Nothing much to report on my section of the country, but Iowa closes in a few minutes.  The paths for a Romney win have all been eliminated except FL-NC-VA-OH and either Colorado or Iowa.  This thread may not make too much difference overall, but Iowa might still be important.

Update: An interesting point:

This is a big night for Dems, but I hardly see it as a “wave” election. WH, Senate, House will all be the same.

— Alex Parker (@AlexParkerDC) November 7, 2012

With so much voter dissatisfaction, it’s interesting that we’re on the cusp of keeping the status quo in the House, Senate, and White House.

Update: Not sure what this means:

CBS says Iowa leans Obama

— Marc Ambinder (@marcambinder) November 7, 2012

Doesn’t sound as though CBS wants to make a call, but Iowa only has 11% of precincts reporting.

Update: Minnesota isn’t on my beat, ironically, but it’s worth mentioning that the early returns show both the voter-ID and traditional marriage constitutional amendments trailing, with about 41% Yes for each.

Update: The New York Post has a cheerier take:

Romney Takes Slim 174-163 Lead, Nabbing Arizona, Five States, Including California Set To Report at 11 p.m. EST: nypost.com/p/news/nationa…

— New York Post (@nypost) November 7, 2012

Arizona has a key Senate race, but I expect Jeff Flake to win that pretty easily, too.

Update: Colorado is also not my beat, but this isn’t good news:

denver post calls colorado for obama

— David Harsanyi (@davidharsanyi) November 7, 2012

Harsanyi’s there on the ground.

Update, 11:04 ET: Pacific & Mountain Time calls for Romney: ID, MT, WY, UT, AZ.  For Obama: WA, CA.  Still not called: NV, OR.

Update: Jim Geraghty works out the numbers and discovers that elections aren’t exactly efficient:

So we’ve seen two billion dollar campaigns, resulting in the flip of Indiana and North Carolina.

— jimgeraghty (@jimgeraghty) November 7, 2012

Imagine what it would cost to flip California!

Update: CBS calls Iowa for Obama:

BREAKING: Pres. Obama wins IOWA, @cbsnews projects cbsn.ws/election

— CBS News (@CBSNews) November 7, 2012

That’s been trending all hour, so it’s no surprise — but with Fox calling Ohio for Obama, it’s not very important.

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