My count has Kerry at 304 electoral college votes; Bush at 227; and Iowa still tied. Obviously, there is a dangerous, slippery slope in putting too much faith in exit poll data. But there it is….so far.

HERE IS THE LATEST FROM SLATE‘S JACK SHAFER: Florida Kerry 50 Bush 49 Ohio Kerry 50 Bush 49 Pennsylvania Kerry 54 Bush 45 Wisconsin Kerry 51 Bush 46 Michigan Kerry 51 Bush 47 Minnesota Kerry 58 Bush 40 Nevada Kerry 48 Bush 50 New Mexico Kerry 50 Bush 48 North Carolina Kerry 49 Bush 51…

A LOT OF PLACES ARE POSTING THE LATEST EXIT POLL DATA. I will too. But this short note came in from a well-placed DNC source: kerry slightly ahead in colorado, slightly behind in florida. scattered reports of voter intimidation, but overall dnc satisfied with how things are going. big surprise — slightly ahead in virginia….

TONIGHT, I AM GOING TO THREE ELECTION PARTIES and then probably watching the post-4 a.m. segments on my bedroom TV.

CONSERVATIVE POLITICAL SCIENTIST HENRY NAU SAID IT ALL YESTERDAY. When asked what message a Bush loss would send terrorists and the rest of the world if this President were to lose the election, he responded that the message America would be sending is: “DEMOCRACY.

AS REPORTED BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: Ten years ago: The Senate Intelligence Committee released a report saying CIA Director R. James Woolsey’s response to the Aldrich Ames spy case was “seriously inadequate,” but that his predecessors were ultimately to blame for the scandal. The original Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report is here.

I STILL HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO TO GET INTO JOSH MARSHALL’S league, but I just received my monthly web visits statistics for October, which are 250,683. Josh and Wonkette get more than this many visits by breakfast, but for a new site, I’m pleased. September visits were 140,386.

I AM ALL FOR FUN, BUT THE CRAZY PROGNOSTICATORS ON BOTH SIDES of this political race are going a bit far (and yes, I’m going to overstate my case, just for fun). It is Halloween tonight, and soon I’ll have little goblins and dwarf Dick Cheneys, George Bushes, and John Kerrys here to collect candy….

THOSE WHO THINK THAT COMMERCIAL AIRLINES ARE NOT SENDING back the remains of soldiers have outdated information or are wrong it turns out. I have been been flooded with information over the last day about the Department of Defense regulations regarding shipping back a soldier’s remains to the United States.

AFTER I PUBLISHED “A SOLDIER’S STORY,” A THREAD of extraordinarily interesting and useful comments by others has developed on topics ranging from whether the soldier I was speaking to was feeding me material that was part real and part rumor, all real, or entirely contrived.