10:32 p.m. – Amid a terrible night nationally for the GOP, the East Baton Rouge mayor’s race is no better. Kip Holden has 60 percent of the vote with 97 percent of it in. That race is over.

9:58 p.m. – 93 percent of the vote is counted in CD-3, and it’s Boustany 44, Landry 30.

And in the Supreme Court race, it’s Guidry 35, Hughes 23. 88 percent of the vote is in, so it’s pretty clear that’s your runoff.

9:52 p.m. – With 58 percent in, Cedric Richmond gets to 50 percent. There wasn’t supposed to be a runoff in that race, and now it doesn’t look like there will be.

9:40 p.m. – Cedric Richmond inches toward an outright victory. With 42 percent in, Richmond is now at 46 percent.

And Boustany is at 44 percent with 83 percent reporting. Jeff Landry is at 30. Those aren’t great numbers to set Landry up for a runoff.

9:35 p.m. – The Baton Rouge mayor’s race looks like it’s taken a turn. Kip Holden is now at 54 percent with 49 percent counted; Mike Walker is at 40.

9:25 p.m. – Romney’s winning Louisiana, 62-36.

With 28 percent in, CD-2 still looks like a runoff is possible. Richmond is only at 42 percent with Landrieu at 30 and Bailey at 21.

The numbers are almost identical in CD-3. Boustany 42, Landry 31 and Richard 23 with 59 percent in. That one really will go to a runoff.

Supreme Court: Hughes 24, Guidry 22, Pierson 14 with 58 percent in.

9:08 p.m. – With more of the vote counted, some results worth passing along…

• 18 percent in, and it’s Boustany 42, Landry 29 and Richard 25 in CD-3. 
• Sincerely doubt this holds up, but in CD-2 it’s Richmond 33, Landrieu 31, Bailey 27 with 12 percent in. Bailey is the Republican. This thing going to a runoff doesn’t seem possible.
• Scalise, Fleming, Alexander and Cassidy all have at least 65 percent in their races.
• With 15 percent in, Mike Walker (47) and Kip Holden (46) look like they might be headed to a runoff in the Baton Rouge mayor’s race.
• In the supreme court race, with 22 percent in the results look like this: Hughes 24, Guidry 20, Pierson 15, Higginbotham 13, Morvant 12, Welch 11.
• The PSC race is still a runaway. Angelle has 54 percent.

8:45 p.m. – It’s only 1 percent reporting, but the Boustany-Landry race looks like it’ll go to a runoff. Boustany has a 41-36 lead.

8:40 p.m. – The returns are just starting to come in from a few precincts here and there. Not much to report yet. It does look, though, that former Department of Natural Resources Secretary Scott Angelle will win the Public Service Commission race without a runoff over state rep Eric Ponti.

5:35 p.m. – Not much to report just yet, but we do have this: Election Night Parties As Hook-Up Opportunities…

What’s red or blue and single all over? The amazing guy you’re going to meet on election night 2012!

Both political and non-political men will be out everywhere, and if you want to increase the odds that you win — even if your candidate of choice doesn’t — you need to lock in your election night plans pronto! While actually voting is a plus — after all, you never know who might be standing behind the curtain — this is definitely not the night to stay home watching the election returns alone.

Don’t believe it? Here are three reasons why election night is a great time to meet men:

Read the whole thing if you want to be dumbed-down a little. And yeah, there are election night parties all over the place tonight. We’ll likely drop in at Bill Cassidy’s victory party at the Renaissance Hotel in Baton Rouge when there’s a break in tonight’s action.

3:25 p.m. – And then there was this, which is likely to end up as your election-day viral video of the year…

2:40 p.m. – While we’re waiting for some news on the various races (Boustany-Landry, the PSC race, the state supreme court race, etc.), the left-wing free rag in Lafayette puts out a “cover story” about how terrible life is for “Acadiana Progressives” who can’t show their faces for fear of being burned at the stake.

Or something.

Like Boyd-Robinson, many of the 106 Acadiana Closet Progressives who participate in the Facebook forum have no reservations in discussing their left-of-center beliefs. But for a number of UL professors, lawyers, doctors, business leaders, artists, retirees, oil field workers, teachers and more, the secrecy of their membership is essential for conducting daily business among their largely conservative and very vocal peers.

“I have to be very quiet because people make decisions by and large out of emotions rather than facts, at least when it comes to federal issues and the role of government in society,” says one Lafayette businessman and former chairman of the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce who, like several business people interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Without a doubt my business would be affected by my political views. If I were public about social equality, the lack of understanding and what Democrats in general talk about, then people would most likely shy away.”

And the punch line…

“I’ve never seen this level of hatred toward a president before, and I don’t think it has as much to do with the economy as people like to say it is,” Boyd-Robinson says. “Unfortunately, here in the South, I don’t even think some people realize that his race has to do with their hatred toward him.”

“It’s always been a conservative place, but I think the words are harsher now with Obama,” says one of the business executives who attended the private debate party. “I think there are plenty of flat out racists around here. Unfortunately, we’re still talking about generations of racism.”

So if you’re a conservative and/or you don’t like Obama it’s because he’s black. Particularly if you’re in Lafayette, because, y’know, it’s the South. It’s not like that town is built on the offshore oil industry, which Obama shut down for a year after Macondo, and those folks are angry about all the money he lost them amid a generally lousy economy he’s delivered. And it’s not like that town is full of Catholics whom he insulted by attempting to dictate church teaching on contraception. And it’s not like Lafayette is full of hunters and people who take their 2nd Amendment rights seriously, which Fast And Furious was a reckless – hell, murderous – attempt to subvert those rights by manipulating public opinion in favor of gun control.

No. It’s because Obama is black.

Maybe Acadiana’s “progressives” need to stay in the closet so as to avoid having to be ridiculed for the idiocy of their views. Maybe that’s a good idea. If not, hey – there’s always New Orleans.

1:05 p.m. – One thing we can say is that turnout is going to be quite high in Louisiana, if our polling precinct was any indication today. It was a zoo from 11:00 to 12:30.

12:55 p.m. – Schedler is also telling people that tonight, when they’re trying to find out election results on GeauxVote.com, not to refresh the page all the time.

He says the election returns will auto-refresh on their own. Just leave the page open and it’ll stay updated. Hitting refresh only taxes the server and doesn’t get you results and faster.

Besides, we’ll be live-blogging this stuff. Refresh our site. We’ll have the results and we can use the page views a lot more than Schedler can.

By the way, this morning’s problems are supposedly solved.

10:27 a.m. – Regardless of the races and regardless of who wins, we have a loser on Election Day in this state.

Which would be GeauxVote, the Secretary of State’s elections website.

This morning, the chances of getting in there were basically nil. The SOS’ spokeswoman, Meg Casper, said that “incredible volume” was the cause of the site crashing.

Maybe that was due to folks downloading sample ballots.

But what’s going to happen when people are trying to find out information on vote counts tonight?