[Leroy S. Mort]

I'd be interested to hear from Georgia Freepers on why Perdue won.

A) Barnes took victory for granted and thus made little effort to energize his base in the cities.
B) Nasty weather kept all but the dedicated from the polls.
C) Perdue benefitted hugely from Chambliss's coattails and the anti-Cleland vote.
D) The new flat-panel voting machines made fraud more difficult and straight party-line voting easier.
E) The flag issue didn't have squat to do with Barnes losing and it's typical of the Times to think it did. Lazy, yankee-centric journalism has become a way of life there.

Leroy (near @lanta)

[ambrose]

So were you absolutely shocked by his win? This seemed to be on no one's radar screen. Even the "wishful thinking" Freeper contingent that said Jay Wolfe would beat Rockefeller in W. Virginia made no mention of this race.

[William McKinley]

My guess for the reason behind the Republican sweeps in Georgia and Florida:

D) The new flat-panel voting machines made fraud more difficult and straight party-line voting easier.

Has Illinois gone to touch screens yet? If not, I would be very curious to see what would happen there.