It Begins...

Well, the first polls are starting to close on the east coast and the nail-biting begins...

The first exit polls are slowly coming out. So far, no major surprises (except maybe Independent Bernie Sanders winning the Senate seat held by Independent Jeffords in Vermont, keeping that seat indie for another six years). Keep in mind the polls are still open in most places. Most of these races are still tight, so vote, vote, VOTE if you still have time.

Worth noting: CNN's polling shows the most important issue to voters was... corruption (followed by terrorism, the economy, and Iraq). Sounds good to me- at least we won't have to hear about some 'moral values' mandate now. National issues overwhelmingly outweighed local ones by 2-to-1, of course, so that disproves the GOP spin that this wouldn't be a national referendum. The polls from ABC News show (again, no surprise) that Iraq weighed heavily on voters' minds.

Turnout was near-presidential levels. Impressive. Youth turnout was particularly strong.

UPDATE (9:30pm): House races are going as expected, with solid gains. In the Senate, too close to call. Democrats have big early wins (in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida), but Virginia may yet go to Allen (?!) and Tennessee seems a lost cause. In Connecticut, it's been called for Connecticut for Lieberman candidate Joe Lieberman (making it an even two indie votes in the Senate). Seeing Sen. Santorum go down is proof that karma does exist, though... It may all hinge on Missouri now (where the GOP used an anti-stem-cell ballot measure to drive up turnout by the religious right). Let's hope common sense overcomes ideology there-- Help us Obi-Wan McCaskill, you're our only hope.

UPDATE #2 (10:30pm): No big changes since the last update. Lincoln Chaffee went down hard to the Dem candidate in Rhode Island (a shame- Chaffee was a good guy; voted against the war). Webb v. Allen in Virginia remains too close to call, but the numbers so far indicate Sen. Macaca is ahead. No news from Missouri. House numbers remain good for the Dems, but it's clear now that it won't be a huge wave. Joe Scarborough on MSNBC says that we shouldn't judge the night so far because only the blue east-coast numbers in; wait until the heartland numbers come in to judge how the Dems will do. He's right. And so we wait.

TPMCafe will be updating with live results- here.

[AP: Scandals, Iraq hurt GOP, exit polls say]