Polls have just closed in Massachusetts, where voters are selecting a replacement for John Kerry, who became Secretary of State earlier this year. The race is between Democratic Rep. Ed Markey, who has led in all public polling, and Republican businessman Gabriel Gomez.
Results: AP (statewide) | AP (by town) | Boston Globe | Huffington Post
6:09 PM PT: Now we're up to 53-46 with 75% reporting. It's gonna be over soon.
6:16 PM PT: And there we go: The AP has called the race for Ed Markey. Way to go!
7:13 PM PT (Steve Singiser): With over 99 percent reporting, the final margin points to a victory for Democrat Ed Markey of almost precisely ten percentage points. Markey will top out at 55 percent, in all probability, with Gabriel Gomez at 45 percent. This is a slightly wider margin than the Warren-Brown 2012 race. The big story may well be the absolutely anemic turnout. Fun fact: the combined totals of Ed Markey and Gabriel Gomez are less than 100,000 votes higher than Scott Brown's total in the 2010 special election by himself. That said, a win is a win is a win, and in the final analysis, it really wasn't all that close. With only some insignificant stragglers still in the pipeline, we're calling it a night. Thanks for hanging out with us tonight!