Governor turned away from voting - Chelsea Clinton also

There were some interesting stories overnight from the US:

The Governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford, was turned away by staff who work for him when he went to the polling station to vote. He didn't have his voter card. It was in Columbia. (eh?!). So he had to hang around while another card was produced.

Chelsea Clinton was also turned away at the polling station. She couldn't vote for her mother because she wasn't on the electoral roll. Perhaps Katherine Harris had deleted her name for a felony committed in Alaska in 1914?. Alas no. "Investigators determined that her name had been sent to the wrong polling location, so she wasn't able to vote in the polling booth. She was offered an affadavit vote, similar to provisional ballots used in other states."

It was good to see such an emphatic victory for the Democrats in the House - a majority of 33 projected by CNN at the moment.

It was interesting that the Tennessee Senate race was very close in the end - only 50,000 votes in it out of 2 million. That compares to Rick Santorum who was defeated by his Democrat challenger by a margin of 700,000 out of 4 million votes. In Ohio the Democrat won by 400,000 votes out of 3.7 million. So, comparatively, some of the Democrat wins were emphatic while their defeat in Tennessee was narrow.

The district where the Democrats poured the most money, Illinois 6th, went to the Republicans, with war veteran Tammy Duckworth defeated. That is bound to lead to criticism within the Democrat organisation.

The Republicans were trying to win Florida 16 with a write in candidate after Mark Foley resigned. The replacement, Negron, ran a great campaign, but the Democrat, Mahoney, still won.

Katherine Harris lost. Entertainingly, I hear a little story about George Bush's visit to Florida last weekend. The White House were furious with Charlie Crist, successful Governor candidate, for avoiding George Dubya. But Katherine Harris was pleading with Bush's aides to let her go on stage with him, but they wouldn't let her!