Live coverage: Election night 2021

Welcome to Election Night 2021! Lots going on tonight, and we’ll be with you every step of the way as the votes are tallied.

A reminder: due to the extensive use of early voting, the old “precincts reporting” designation simply is not what it used to be. So we wait till roughly 10% of anticipated turnout before we start to deliver results. In Virginia, a crazy-fast state as far as counting the votes goes, we should be able to do that pretty quickly.

With that caveat in mind, here we go!

FL-20 (D): We have our first substantial votes of the evening, but it is NOT in Virginia. In Florida, Broward County is already reporting some votes in the special election to replace the late Alcee Hastings. Broward County Commissioner Dale Holness leads with 28% of the vote, with businesswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick sitting at 21%. Bear in mind, this doesn’t include Palm Beach County, which casts about 1/3 of the vote.

St. Pete Mayor: One early and unambiguously happy result for Democrats. Just a half hour after the closing of the polls, Democrat Ken Welch has declared victory in his race against Republican Robert Blackmon. With 46,000 votes counted (about 75% of the turnout in the last mayoral election), Welch leads Blackmon by a 62-38 margin.

Polls have now closed in Ohio, home to two special U.S. House elections and mayoral elections in Cleveland and Cincinnati.

VIRGINIA: We have finally hit the threshold, it appears, with about 400K-500K votes tallied. And the one thing about elections in this new age? Results can be pretty unrepresentative. The Republicans have considerable leads that are unlikely to hold up at this margin. But one thing we can tell, at this early point. The three Democrats are clearly running about one percentage point clear of one another. Attorney General Mark Herring is doing the best, notching 45% of the vote at present. Lt. Governor candidate Hala Ayala is at 44% of the vote. And former Gov. Terry McAuliffe is performing the least well of the Democrats at 43% of the vote. What we can also tell: left-leaning independent candidate Princess Blanding is not drawing much impact: she sits at 0.8% of the vote.

FL-20 (D): As Palm Beach County starts to report some results, businesswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (yes, I will misspell that at least twice tonight) has now taken a narrow lead.