[virginia] as predicted, down to the wire

Hey – I got it right! Yeah, yeah, I know - 20 million others did too. With 99 percent of precincts reporting this morning, Jim Webb, the Democratic challenger, led Senator George Allen, a Republican, by less than 8,000 votes out of more than 2.3 million cast. Virginia’s election laws allow an apparent loser to request a recount if a contest’s margin is less than 1 percent — and the margin in the preliminary results of the state’s Senate election stood this morning at about one-third of 1 percent. While a recount seems likely, though, if it comes it will not come quickly.