Massachusetts Election Night Trends

We liveblogged these last night. Compulsion makes me post the final versions with 100% of precincts reported. Do note that it is common for the final certified vote to differ a bit from these 100% election night totals, so the final percentages and margin may move a tad.

Above is the trend in Brown's percent of the vote over the evening. Stable, but with a downward trend as the more Democratic areas reported relatively late in the evening after about 70% of the vote was in.

Below is the vote margin by estimated vote outstanding. It wasn't close enough to matter last night, but what you like to watch for is when the margin is getting big relative to the outstanding vote. At some point it becomes mathematically impossible to close the gap. That happened last night with 95.3% of precincts reported. Then the fat lady sings. (By the way, you read this one from right to left.)