Via BBC, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said he expects Saddam Hussein to be executed by the end of the year.

So much for appeals. How can the appeals judges even read the record that fast?

What a sham of a trial system.

Not a surprise.

Lugar wins in Indiana.

here. The highlight:

IN-08

Dem Ellsworth 41,145 62%
Rep Hostetler 25,539 38%

32% percent reported.

ELLSWORTH declared the winner by CNN. Donnelly and Baron Hill leading their GOP opponents. 3 Dem pickups in Indiana look likely.

here The highlight:

Kentucky 03

Dem Yarmuth 94,401 50%
Rep Northup 90,691 49%
81% of precincts reporting.

UPDATE: Yarmouth leads 117,000 to 110,000 with 4% left to count. It has not been called for Yarmouth. I do not know why. I am calling it. Yarmouth wins.

CNN: 16 precincts in Cuyahoga County Ohio (near Cleveland) were ordered to stay open till 10pm due to voting problems.

I'll steal this from TNR on Indiana, where polls close at 6:00 p.m., or 2+ hours from now:

Diebold is a prominent source of voter anger, but it isn't the only company that screws up our elections. Election Systems & Software claims to be "the world's most experienced election management company." If that's true, the company's performance has become a compelling argument against the privatization of election management.

From Imboden, Arkansas:

ES&S has struck again, causing more frustrations at the polls. "It was hectic because we were backed up all the way double line to the door and couldn't get them out," said Imboden poll worker Iva Jean Smith.

Around 7:00 a.m., most of the precincts in Lawrence County began experiencing problems with the electronic voting machines as they were preparing to open up the polls. The cause of the problem... ES&S, the company that runs the state's voting machine, supplied the county with the incorrect device that pulls up voter ballots.

The county clerk says she's "very dissatisfied" with ES&S. She certainly should be, given the company's poor performance during the county's primary and again today. And she isn't alone in her frustration. The list (pdf) of problems that ES&S or its voting machines have caused in other elections over the years is lengthy.

From Chris Bowers:

Don't know if these are accurate, but I just heard these.

Democrats leading in [Senate races]:

• VA: 52-47
• RI: 53-46
  
• PA: 57-42
  
• OH: 57-43
  
• NJ: 52-45
  
• MT: 53-46
  
• MO: 50-48
  
• MD: 53-46

Republicans leading:

• TN: 51-48
  
• AZ: 50-46
Corrected.

UPDATE - Still inaccurate, but also what the GOPers are sayng. The Corner has the exact same numbers.

Update: Judge Rappaport denied the injunction claiming that she does not have the authority to extend voting hours in Denver County. More at Colorado Confidential.

It's been bedlam in Denver.

The Colorado Democratic Party has asked a Denver District Court judge to extend voting this evening by two hours due to problems at Denver election centers.

Parties are gathered in a courtroom at the Denver City and County Building awaiting a ruling on the request.

Nothing on specific races, but, Bill Schneider of CNN says that 62% of voters disappproved of Congress, 36% approved.

Important issues - 42% corruption, 40% terrorism, 39% economy, and Iraq 37%. Hard to say what that finding is about. The methodology was pretty bad.

What was the most important issue? This poll question can't say.

Here's a good one - "Q - What mattered most to your votes? A - 62% National issues, 33% local issues."

Nationalizing the election is good for Dems and I would add this, this is agreat stand-in for Republican vs. Dem - most understood that Dems wanted to nationalize the election while the GOP wanted to focus on a race by race basis. Not one to one but probably pretty close.

Tea leaving reading I'll grant you, but this bodes well for Dems.

This is good for Dems I believe:

Reports from around Virginia early Tuesday indicated an extraordinarily high turnout for a midterm election, with perhaps 65 percent of registered voters expected to cast ballots, state elections officials said. That would double the midterm turnout in 2002.

This is darn funny:

I've got a bad feeling this afternoon about the elections. Perhaps things will go well. But things like this give me no comfort:

Cry me a river. When this happened to Democrats in 2004, it was the source of laughter from Republicans. I agree that it is a disgrace. But it was a disgrace long ago.