Free Republic

A recount Wednesday upheld Republican Bob McDonnell's narrow victory for attorney general in the closest statewide election in modern Virginia history. McDonnell gained 37 votes in the statewide recount. The final vote, certified Wednesday night by a three-judge panel of the Richmond Circuit Court, was 970,981 for McDonnell and 970,621 for Democrat Creigh Deeds, a 360-vote margin.

Voting began in Germany's closely fought election today with millions of undecided voters holding the key to a result that will have major implications for economic reform in Europe. Angela Merkel, a Christian Democrat (CDU) chancellor, is expected to emerge as Germany's first woman chancellor, displacing Gerhard Schroeder who has led Germany for the past seven years at the head of a centre-left government of Social Democrats and Greens. A provisional result is expected to be announced in the early hours of Monday morning. The final opinion polls published on Friday gave Merkel's centre-right coalition with the liberal Free Democrats...

Thought I would start a thread on the New Zealand general election - returns starting to come in now. Non-NZ FReepers can try the live streams of Channel One News, http://tvnz.co.nz/view/news_minisite_index_skin/news_election_2005_group or 3 News, http://www.tv3.co.nz/listings/index.cfm

British police on Wednesday began a probe into possible electoral fraud in the parliamentary constituency won on May 5 by George Galloway, the MP who last month angrily defied a U.S committee over Iraq charges. "We have received a formal allegation of electoral fraud and are investigating," a spokeswoman for Scotland Yard said. Last month Galloway, 50, defiantly told a Senate committee that he rejected as "utterly preposterous" charges that he had profited from the Iraq oil-for-food program. Far from showing the usual deference of witnesses called by Congress, Galloway used the hearing as a platform to attack the U.S.-led...