Southern Election Liveblog

11:50pm - IT'S A WRAP. That's all for our Election Night coverage. We'll be looking at other races across the South, as well as ballot initiatives and other issues like money in politics and voting rights, in our coverage in the coming days. Thanks for joining us! - Chris and Sue for Facing South

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11pm - Two big calls: Democrats hold onto Virginia U.S. Senate seat, with Tim Kaine defeating George Allen, who just conceded. And AP calls North Carolina for Mitt Romney, whose vote lead is similar to his lead in the polls going into Election Day.

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10:20pm - The Election Protection coalition has received reports of miscalibrated voting machines in Virginia and South Carolina, as well as Pennsylvania:

The 866-OUR-VOTE team received a report that a machine in Great Falls, Chester County, South Carolina is changing Obama votes to a vote for Romney. Our caller also reports that if you don't complete the entire ballot, the machine gives you a warning but doesn't let you go back to fix the issue. And according to the caller, a poll worker is telling voters to submit the ballot, but that it might not be counted -- even though the voter never gets an opportunity to fix it.

And in the Tidewater region of VA, voters told the 866-OURVOTE team that voting machines were registering incorrect votes, with votes for Obama switching to Romney. Another incident was reported in northern Virginia.

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10:11pm - The Election Protection hotline, 1-866-OUR-VOTE, reports receiving 87,477 calls as of 9pm this evening.

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10:06pm - What about the other Southern swing state, North Carolina? With 89% of precincts reporting, it's Romney 51% to Obama 48% -- just about what the polls projected. NC-based Public Policy Polling predicts that, based on counties remaining, Romney will hold onto the lead and win N.C. by one to two points.

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10:00pm - Numbers very tight in Florida and Virginia, but Obama camp happy with what votes haven't been counted yet or where results are still coming in. Lots of votes in South Florida.

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9:10pm - Romney doing a lot better in Virginia than many anticipated. With 61.82% of precincts reporting, it's Romney 51.88% to Obama 46.45%. Will the remaining third of precincts change the point spread? Obama hopes so.

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8:55pm - Florida just as tight as expected. With 6,572,340 votes in, Obama has a meager .33-point lead: 3,269,693 to 3,247,848. The words "Florida" and "recount" big on Twitter. Meanwhile, Sen. Bill Nelson (D) is called as the winner in Florida against Connie Mack.

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8:45pm - Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia all called for Romney. Again, no surprises.

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8:32pm - A big Republican victory in North Carolina: Associated Press has declared GOP candidate Pat McCrory delcared winner in gubernatorial race. Along with the predicted wins by Republicans in the N.C. state legislature, that's the first GOP trifecta in over a century -- in what in 2008 looked like a blue-trending state.

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8:26pm - CNN call both Georgia and South Carolina for Romney. No surprises there.

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8:20pm - Where to follow the Southern swing state live election results: Florida, North Carolina and Virginia.

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7:55pm - The Election Protection coalition, a nonpartisan group formed to protect voters' rights, is reporting a number of problems at polling sites nationwide.

In Florida, voters have encountered long lines and instances of disorganized polling places.

Voters in Virginia have also faced long lines, as well as police presence at a polling site in Hampton, voting machines switching votes for Obama to Romney in Tidewater, and Liberty University in Lynchburg handing out ballots at one site that are pre-filled with a vote for Romney.

To read reports of reported problems by state, click here.

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7pm - Polls have closed in Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia and most of Florida (except the panhandle). Follow results for the battleground Virginia here.

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6:50pm - Alabama and Florida account for three out of five on ProPublica's list of most confusing ballots in the country. Florida's 11 wordy constitutional amendments are being blamed as a factor in the state's long voting lines; Alabama's initiative to remove racist language from its constitution is also proving surprisingly controversial.

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6:42pm - NC-based Public Policy Polling is predicting that the North Carolina legislature, where Republicans took control in 2010 for the first time in over a century, will remain solidly in GOP hands: 33 GOP / 17 DEM in the Senate; 71 GOP / 49 DEM in the House.

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6:30pm - WELCOME to the Facing South 2012 election liveblog! We'll be tracking returns and key issues in Southern elections in this thread into the night. Here's a list of poll closing times:

6 PM EST
- Eastern half of Kentucky

7 PM EST
- Georgia
- South Carolina
- Virginia
- Western half of Kentucky - Most of Florida except the panhandle

8 PM EST / 7 PM CST
- Alabama
- Mississippi
- Tennessee
- Most of Texas except far western tip

8:30 PM EST / 7:30 PM CST
- Arkansas

9 PM EST / 8 PM CST
- Louisiana
- Far western tip of Texas