MASSACHUSETTS VOTES – AT 7:53 A.M. ET:  There are no more days left in the Massachusetts campaign.  From the Boston Herald:

Polls are now open for the special U.S. Senate election to choose a successor for the late Edward M. Kennedy in a nail-biting contest between GOP state Sen. Scott Brown and Democrat Attorney General Martha Coakley.

Brown, Coakley and Independent candidate Joseph L. Kennedy are on the ballot.

Secretary of State William F. Galvin projects between 1.6 million and 2.2 million voters out of a total of 4 million will cast ballots. More than 105,000 voters have applied for absentee ballots.

Polls will close at 8 p.m.

The Massachusetts registration system is lax, and there is already concern about voter fraud, especially ineligible voters voting.  We will be monitoring any fraud charges, which usually become a factor only if the election is close.

Carl Cameron of Fox News said last night that this is the most consequential non-presidential election in 50 years.  I'm inclined to agree.  This is the Kennedy seat.  A Kennedy sat in the Congress of the United States since 1947, some 63 years, until Edward M. Kennedy's recent death, with only a brief interruption when John F. Kennedy went to the White House in 1961.  It is also a seat in the most Democratic state in the nation. 

Stand by.  We hope for a historic day.

January 19,  2010