McCain Wins Georgia! (No Surprise!)

ATLANTA - Sen. John McCain has been declared the winner in Georgia tonight. Polls officially closed in Georgia at 7 p.m. and now residents are checking the election results as they come in.

The lengthy lines that greeted voters in metro Atlanta last week yielded Tuesday to short waits in most precincts as millions of Georgia residents headed to the polls to cast their ballots. Still, election protection groups reported receiving more than 1,000 phone calls.Most polling places across metro Atlanta got through the lunch hour crush without any major problems being reported.Some voters reported waiting in line up to an hour, but the predicted six-hour waits failed to materialize.

Fulton County reported problems with 7-8 voting machines at one precinct. Voters were given provisional ballots, but technicians were able to correct the problem and the machines were up and running by noon, said Mark Henderson, the county’s voter education outreach coordinator. Henderson said the average wait at Fulton polls was about 90 minutes.At one polling place in northwest Atlanta on Mitchell St. the wait was just 30 minutes at 10:30 a.m. The polls opened at 7 a.m. across Georgia and will stay open until 7 p.m. Election officials in Fulton County decided Monday not to ask federal permission to keep polls open on Election Day until 9 p.m. They concluded that they have enough voting machines to handle the hundreds of thousands of voters expected to cast ballots.

In Clayton County, plagued by long lines for early voting, election officials are sticking with their game plan. The county's elections director, Annie Bright, says officials will do all they can to ensure those in line by the time the polls close get to vote. Long early voting lines concerned metro Atlanta registrars. More than 2 million people -- some 36 percent of Georgia's registered voters -- already have cast their ballots.Georgia voters are deciding whether Republican John McCain or Democrat Barack Obama will be able claim the state's 15 electoral votes. They'll also decide whether to send Saxby Chambliss back to the U.S. Senate for a second term. He's facing a tougher than-expected challenge from Democrat Jim Martin, a former state lawmaker. Libertarian Allen Buckley is also vying for the seat.There has been increasing speculation that three-way race could head into a runoff if none of the candidates wins more than 50 percent of the vote. A runoff would take place Dec. 2.

Voting Times Vary In DeKalb

How long people waited to vote in DeKalb County on Election Day depended largely on where they were registered it seemed. While the wait times across DeKalb County varied, the enthusiasm did not. So mere hours meant nothing to the people who see this vote as a milestone in history

Problem Reported At Atlanta Voting Location

“The computers just went down in the last 10 minutes and I've been out here for three hours," said one voter Tuesday afternoon. "They need to come out here so we can get them going."As poll workers tried to bring the dead voting machines back to life, the line at Cleveland Avenue Elementary in Atlanta started snaking around the parking lot.

An hour went by with no voting and poll monitors urged those waiting in line to stick it out. “We’ve got somebody calling the 1-800 number and just stay in line and vote," a poll worker announced to voters. Few left, but as tempers started to rise, county workers arrived and then a team with the Secretary of State’s office. They determined it was a simple power problem and a long extension cord to feed the dozen machines brought them back to life. Voting resumed, but monitors with the NAACP planned to ask the county to keep the precinct open longer to handle those who left but planned to come back.

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