AFP editor Chris Graham leads our Election Day 2016 live blog with the latest news plus commentary and analysis up and down the ballot.
Tuesday, 10:28 p.m. NBC News has just called Virginia for Hillary Clinton.
At last report, Clinton has a 33,000-vote lead on Donald Trump in the Old Dominion, at 47.6 percent, to 46.6 percent for Trump.
Tuesday, 10:10 p.m. Doris Crouse-Mays, President of the Virginia AFL-CIO, released the following statement following the defeat of Amendment 1:
“Right to work laws have nothing to do with rights and voters saw through the lies. Workers deserve to have a voice on the job, safe working conditions, and earn a decent wage.
Voters have prioritized the issues that truly matter to our communities and elected officials need to focus on funding our schools, investing in infrastructure, raising wages, and creating good jobs right here in Virginia.
Virginia voters have spoken. Our Constitution is not a toy and working families will not be used as a pawn in their political game. Elections matter. We will continue to work to protect the rights of hardworking Virginians and fight to elect public officials who hold these same values.”
With 86 percent of precincts reporting, no was at 53.4 percent, and yes was as 46.6 percent, with 198,000-vote margin.
Tuesday, 10:06 p.m. Hillary Clinton has taken a 23,000-vote lead in Virginia on Donald Trump.
With 92 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton is at 47.5 percent, to 46.8 percent for Donald Trump.
A good number of Democratic Party votes are still outstanding, so it’s looking like a Clinton win in the Old Dominion, but obviously far closer than had been projected.
Not a good sign for the blue team.
Tuesday, 9 p.m. The Augusta County Board of Supervisors would like to thank all of the citizens of the County that came out and voted this evening. While we are disappointed in the results of the courthouse referendum, the Board of Supervisors continues to have a legal and moral responsibility to our judicial system. As such the board will take some time to consider what action we may take in regards to our facilities in the future.
Tuesday, 8:39 p.m. Not that you need to be told this, but Republican incumbent Bob Goodlatte has the Sixth District sewn up.
With 57 percent of precincts reporting, Goodlatte is at 66.3 percent, with Democrat Kai Degner at 33.5 percent.
As seen below, Republican Tom Garrett has already declared victory in the Fifth. With 83 percent of precincts reporting, Garrett is at 58 percent, and Democrat Jane Dittmar is at 41.8 percent.
Tuesday, 8:36 p.m. Surrounded by family, friends, and media outlets from across the Commonwealth, 5th District Republican Nominee Tom Garrett took the stage at Random Row Brewery to formally accept the election results.
Throughout the campaign, Senator Garrett touted his proven experience of job creation coupled with his military background and knowledge of emerging terrorist threats both domestically, and abroad.
As incoming vote tallies came in demonstrating a landslide win for the Republican Nominee, Garrett issued the following statement:
“First and foremost, I want to thank God and my family for their steadfast support. Similarly, I could not be more appreciative for the outpouring of support by volunteers, donors, and GOP units who have given so much during this election – it is truly humbling.”
Garrett went on to say:
“This campaign has always been about jobs and the equality of opportunity. I look forward to working on rolling back the destructive regulatory burdens on our job creators and pursuing creative solutions to replace Obamacare with a more affordable, market-based system. Further our legislators need to focus on pushing resources and decision making away from Washington and back to our localities. I will also make it a priority to fight to secure our borders and protect our nation from threats at home and abroad.”
The 115th Congress is slated to begin on January 3, 2017.
Tuesday, 8:34 p.m. Common Sense Courthouse Solutions’ Statement on the defeat of the referendum:
We are glad the voters decided to reject the expensive and unnecessary move to Verona. We are also glad that the voters decided to keep the county seat in Staunton where it has been for over 250 years. All sides agree that the current court facilities are in need of improvement. Now the challenging task of working out the details of the downtown court facility begins. We hope that the county will begin by forming a planning committee of the various stakeholders as recommended in the Virginia Courthouse Facility Guidelines. We also hope that the city and county will return to the table to discuss the best way forward for everyone. We believe that with a little hard work and creativity we can have a secure, state-of-the-art court facility of which we can all be proud. We stand ready to help in every way that we can.
Duane Barron, President
Common Sense Courthouse Solutions
Tuesday, 8:30 p.m. Some early numbers from Fairfax County suggest a big swing forthcoming in favor of Hillary Clinton.
Clinton is at 63 percent in Fairfax County with about 20 percent of the precincts in, with Donald Trump at 29.7 percent.
Barack Obama won Fairfax County in 2012 with 59.6 percent of the vote, to 39.1 percent for Mitt Romney.
Obama won by 108,500 raw votes, more than half of his 149,000-vote total margin statewide.
Obama won Fairfax County by 20.5 percent in 2012; Clinton is winning so far in 2016 by 33 percent.
Tuesday, 8:13 p.m. With 42 percent of precincts in statewide, Donald Trump has a 126,000-vote lead on Hillary Clinton in Virginia, with 52.5 percent of the vote to 42.2 percent for Clinton.
The total includes no votes from Richmond, and only a smattering of votes from Fairfax, Arlington and Norfolk, so don’t get too excited, or too depressed, depending.
Tuesday, 8:07 p.m. In the Fifth District, Republican Tom Garrett maintains a safe lead over Democrat Jane Dittmar, 57.2 percent to 42.6 percent, with 50.9 percent of precincts reporting.
In the Sixth, Republican Bob Goodlatte is cruising toward re-election, with 67.4 percent to 32.3 percent for Democrat Kai Degner, with 32 percent of precincts reporting.
Tuesday, 8:04 p.m. Augusta County, as expected, is breaking heavily toward Donald Trump.
With 19 of 26 county precincts reporting, Trump is getting 73.3 percent of the vote, with Hillary Clinton at 21.5 percent.
In 2012, Mitt Romney got 70.5 percent, to 28.0 percent for Barack Obama.
Tuesday, 7:58 p.m. Our home city, Waynesboro, is in, and Donald Trump won, probably not surprisingly.
Trump got 52.2 percent of the vote, to 41.0 percent for Hillary Clinton.
Mitt Romney defeated Barack Obama in Waynesboro in 2012, 54.5 percent to 43.7 percent.
Turnout was basically the same between the two cycles – roughly 8,600 votes each.
Tuesday, 7:46 p.m. Looking at two local congressional races, Republican Tom Garrett has a big lead on Democrat Jane Dittmar in the Fifth District. With 24.7 percent of precincts reporting, Garrett is at 58.0 percent, to 42.0 percent for Dittmar.
In the Sixth District, Republican incumbent Bob Goodlatte has a solid lead with 11 percent of precincts reporting, at 68.0 percent, to 31.8 percent for Democrat Kai Degner.
Tuesday, 7:44 p.m. Augusta County is saying no, big time, to the proposal to move the county courthouse.
With 11 of 26 precincts reporting, no is at 69.0 percent, with yes at 31 percent.
Tuesday, 7:41 p.m. The numbers in Chesterfield have tightened since last report.
Trump has 50.6 percent of the vote in the populous Richmond exurb, to 43.6 percent for Clinton.
The 7.0-point margin is slightly behind the 7.7-point margin that Romney defeated Obama by in 2012 in Chesterfield.
Tuesday, 7:35 p.m. The early returns on the Augusta County Courthouse referendum appear to be pointing toward … no.
No is at 68.9 percent in the early returns, with yes at 31.1 percent, at nearly 3,900 votes counted so far.
Tuesday, 7:22 p.m. Early numbers in Virginia have Donald Trump with a roughly 10,000-vote lead on Hillary Clinton.
Trump is at 53.7 percent with 4.4 percent of precincts reporting. Clinton is at 40.8 percent.
More than half of the approximately 69,000 votes reported so far are coming from Chesterfield County, a GOP-leaning Richmond exurb, where Trump has a 54.4 percent to 40.2 percent advantage.
Mitt Romney, in 2012, defeated Barack Obama in Chesterfield by a 53.1 percent to 45.4 percent margin.
Tuesday, 3:37 p.m. A federal judge has ruled against a Hail Mary effort from the Donald Trump campaign to contest the extension of early voting in Clark County, Nev.
The legal challenge was that the registrar violated state law in keeping a precinct open two hours past the 8 p.m. deadline on Friday to accommodate people in line at the scheduled close.
A poll watcher claimed that the extension allowed an additional 150-300 to join the line.
The ruling handed down today went against the Trump campaign for not taking the issue up first with the local registrar.
The fact of the suit itself, and the rhetoric flying around on the interwebs from Trump and surrogates playing up the “rigged” narrative advanced in the latter stages of the campaign, give off the sense that the campaign’s own internal numbers are telling them that they’re not going to win, and that we’re seeing the self-destruct button being put into motion.
This is going to be a fun night, folks!