RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman, after doing a couple of television interviews, responded to a question from reporters about his dinner at the White House.

He was asked about the mood inside the White House. Despite Democratic gains, Mehlman said, "the mood was good."

NBC News projects that South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, a Republican, will win re-election.

NBC News declares Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse as the projected winner in Rhode Island, unseating maverick Republican Lincoln Chafee.

NBC News projects that Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, will win the Maryland governorship - unseating Republican incumbent Robert Ehrlich.

NBC News projects that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, both Democrats, will be re-elected.

The County Clerk from Jasper County,  Missouri,  has changed his mind and will indeed count all ballots tonight and call the races in that county. It will likely be in the wee hours of the morning.

For those of you in Missouri, put on another pot of coffee and get ready  for a long, long night.

NBC News projects that Democrat Ben Cardin will win the open U.S. Senate seat in Maryland. That seat was vacated by Democrat Paul Sarbanes, which means it remains in the "blue zone."

NBC News projects that Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat who ran as an independent after he was defeated by Ned Lamont in the primary, will win re-election. Lieberman will caucus with the Democrats - but he's also considered more sympathetic to Bush administration policies, particularly on national security, than most others in his party.

Special to First Read from Jennifer Duffy of the Cook Political Report
It's been two hours since the polls closed in a handful of states.  And, so far there have been no surprises.
 
In the Senate, Democrats have picked up two seats and held one of their open seats.  In Pennsylvania, Democratic state Treasurer Bob Casey, Jr. unseated GOP Sen. Rick Santorum.  And, in Ohio, Democratic Rep. Sherrod Brown has defeated Republican incumbent Mike DeWine.  In Minnesota, Democratic nominee Amy Klobuchar won the seat being vacated by Democratic Sen. Mark Dayton.  This is a net gain of two seats for Democrats, meaning that they need to gain four seats to win the majority.
 
What do these results mean in the larger scheme of things?  Absolutely nothing.  Both of these Republican incumbents were expected to lose.  The surprise would have been if either had actually prevailed.  Klobuchar was a heavy favorite in Minnesota.  Democrats have reason to celebrate, but they are still hours away from the bigger victory--control of the Senate--they are seeking. 
 
The story is the same in governors' races. Democrats have picked up Massachusetts and New York, but neither win is a surprise.  Democrats, though, are now two seats away from holding a majority of gubernatorial seats, something they haven't had since 1994.

According to NBC News, these are projected Senate winners: Democrats Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, Hillary Clinton of New York and Herb Kohl of Wisconsin; and Republicans Kay Hutchison of Texas and Craig Thomas of Wyoming.

In gubernatorial races, here are the projected winners: Arizona Democrat Janet Napolitano, Michigan Democrat Jennifer Granholm, Nebraska Republican Dave Heineman, New Mexico Democrat Bill Richardson, New York Democrat Eliot Spitzer (who represents a party changeover), Wyoming Democrat Dave Freudenthal and Oklahoma Democrat Brad Henry.

Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, a Republican, is projected to win re-election.

The Senate races in Arizona and Rhode Island are judged too early to call.

From NBC's Mark Murray
So far, according to NBC News and AP projections, Democrats have picked up two Senate seats (Mike DeWine's in Ohio and Rick Santorum's in Pennsylvania); two governorships (in Massachusetts and Ohio), and at least one House seat (John Hostettler's in Indiana).

To take back control of the Senate, Democrats need to net six seats, and to win back the House they need 15.

NBC News projects that Democrat Sherrod Brown will be elected to the U.S. Senate from Ohio, unseating GOP incumbent Mike DeWine. By NBC's tally, this would represent a gain of two seats for the Democrats in the Senate so far.

Robert Traynham, Santorum campaign spokesperson, tells NBC News that Santorum is NOT conceding.

"Exit polls have been wrong before," Traynham said.

NBC News projects that Democrat Bob Menendez will win re-election to the U.S. Senate in New Jersey.

NBC News has projected that Republican incumbent M. Jodi Rell will win re-election to the governorship in Connecticut. NBC is not characterizing the state's U.S. Senate race.

NBC News projects that Democrat Bob Casey will win the U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania, unseating GOP incumbent Rick Santorum. That represents a Democratic pickup in the Senate.

A senior advisor to Rep. Harold Ford Jr. says some of the early Tennesse exit polls are incomplete.

"This does not take into account early vote or unprecedented turnout in the black community," the advisor said. "Nobody needs to tell you that exit polls in last two cycles are like getting your palm read."

From NBC's Kevin Tibbles and Mark Hudspeth
What happens when they build the closest Senate race in the nation ... and they come?

That's what election workers in at least two Missouri counties are dealing with at the moment, as a tidal-wave voter turnout has swept up all the ballots in both Jasper and Jefferson counties.

Our NBC affiliate in Joplin, Mo., is describing a "mob scene" as voters scramble to mark their "x."

The woman who answered the phone in Jasper County told NBC's Michelle Hofland that "everyone is bringing their cats and dogs to vote out here!"

The solution, so far, sees voters being asked to use photocopies of ballots to make their mark ... and the county clerk says those votes will be counted by hand.

The Missouri race has been neck and neck since Day One, with Republican Sen. Jim Talent squaring off with Democrat Claire McCaskill.

Stem cell research is a ballot initiative here, and the voting on that could tip the balance. Missourians could be forgiven if they're feeling a little special these days with the number of high level politicians and celebrities that have been through in recent weeks.

And for that reason, perhaps they've decided to hit the polls en masse.

The result? Instead of throwing unused ballots away (as the county clerk says they usually do) ... they can't print 'em fast enough.

NBC News projects that Democrats Bill Nelson of Florida, Thomas Carper of Delaware and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts will win re-election to the Senate, as will Republicans Olympia Snowe of Maine and Trent Lott of Mississippi.

Senate races in Connecticut, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Tennessee are judged too early to call.

In gubernatorial races, Democrat Deval Patrick is the projected winner in Massachusetts - which would represent a party changeover. Democrat Ed Rendell is projected to win re-election to the governorship in Pennsylvania, as is Democrat Phil Bredesen in Tennessee and Democrat John Lynch in New Hampshire.

Special to First Read from Jennifer Duffy of the Cook Political Report
What does a political analyst do on Election Day? Apart from trying to imbibe enough caffeine to stay up all night, we field two kinds of frantic calls and e-mail from campaigns, consultants, reporters and friends. The first kind of call comes in the form of questions: Is voter turnout higher than normal or about the same? What do the exit polls say in (insert the race you care most about here)?

In reality, we know very little. How high or low turnout is can't be determined until after the polls close and ballots are counted and compared to turnout in past elections. And, this Election Day we knew even less thanks to a well-considered decision to withold exit poll information until 5:00 pm.
 
The second kind of call or email seeks to impart some piece of information that may or may not be relevant and may or may not even be true. On one level these missives and calls are enormously important to those imparting them. At the same time, they are often amusing. Consider some of the early e-mail:

At 7:27 am, the Michigan Republican Party sends out a release about a precinct in Ann Arbor that didn't open on time.

At 8:04 am, we learn it is raining in Detroit.

At 10:25 am, Republican Tom Kean, Jr.'s campaign sends out a release detailing vandalism to their headquarters. It seems that the main entrance to their office was chained shut and keys were broken off in the locks of the other entrances.

At 11:10 am, GOP Sen. Lincoln Chafee's campaign informs us that "Keep Chafee" yard signs are disappearing around the state, yet his Democratic opponent's signs are untouched.

Then the phone calls begin.

Turnout in Northern Virginia is hitting historic levels.

Someone spilled coffee on a voting machine in Minnesota, but the machine is still working.
Exit polls say the Republican in a House race is losing badly. (But wait, there aren't any exit polls in House races).

There are things that happen on Election Day that are important: malfunctioning machines and voter suppression tactics and these situations need to be taken very seriously. But, for most people on the sidelines, there is little else to do on Election Day except engage in gossip and trade rumors.

From MSNBC political analyst Bob Shrum
Tom Delay offered the Republicans an early evening recommendation that could make a bad election outcome worse – or even catastrophic.

He invented this wonderful phrase "lame duck majority," in effect conceding defeat before anyone could announce it and while the polls were still open. His strategy, which has contributed so much to bringing the Republicans to this night, is obliviously to stick a thumb in the eyes of the voters if the Democrats prevail, marshal the defeated ranks of the Republican Congress and force through more of the policies that America has just repudiated.

It is not just anti-democratic, but potentially disastrous for Republicans who do have to live with the results of this election – even if they got around the results in 2000. There is no prospect that the surviving Republicans will go along with a scheme to make Bush's tax cuts for the wealthy permanent or privatize social security.

The Democrats would love to have this fight. Karl Rove, who couldn't have believed anything he was saying in the closing weeks of this campaign, can't possibly believe that would serve the president's interest or his party's.

So let me, based on my deep knowledge of the inner workings of the Republican machine, make a few predictions:

1. The election for the Republican leadership in the House will be postponed.
2. Dennis Hastert, the speaker who ignored the warnings about Mark Foley, is out of the running.
3. The Democrats, as I predicted yesterday on the air, will take back the Senate as well as the House.
4. Tom Delay's potential income as a lobbyist just took a big hit. 

Mr. Delay may not have run the House as a democracy; fortunately, we still run America that way.
 

NBC News projects that Democrat Ted Strickland will win the governor's race in Ohio, and Democratic incumbent Robert Byrd will win the West Virginia Senate race. The Ohio Senate race is currently judged too close to call. Ohio's outgoing governor, Bob Taft, is a Republican - so Strickland's projected win would represent a party changeover, and he would be the first Democrat to hold the Ohio governorship in 16 years.

Circuit Court Judge F. Keith Brown in Illinois' Kane County (which includes the suburban west side of Chicago and Aurora) has ruled that polling places in all 223 of the county's precincts should remain open an additional 90 minutes, until 8:30 p.m. CT.

This comes in response to a motion filed by the Kane County state's attorney, who found evidence that at least 10 precincts (mostly Latino) opened as much as two hours late this morning. According to the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, which also sought the court order, "many voters walked away unable to exercise their right to vote" due to the delay.

A federal judge in Ohio has ordered Cuyahoga County to keep 16 Cleveland-area polling places open an extra 90 minutes, until 9 p.m. ET, because of long lines and earlier problems with voting machines. The order came in response to a lawsuit filed by the Ohio Democratic Party.

NBC News projects that independent Bernie Sanders will win the open Senate seat in Vermont, and Republican incumbent Richard Lugar is the projected winner in Indiana. Polls have closed in Virginia, but the Senate race there is currently judged too close to call.