UPDATE: For final results, click here.

From the Battle Creek Enquirer:

U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Tipton, all but conceded Michigan’s 7th Congressional District race to Democratic challenger Mark Schauer, who declared victory about 2 a.m. today.

[...]

Speaking to staff and reporters in Jackson shortly before 2 a.m. today, Walberg said
“From the counts that we’re seeing right now, it looks very clearly that when the sun breaks tomorrow, it will not go in our favor. We will hold off til then before making any final statement.”

“But I want you to know that we’re living with reality right now, and it looks as if there will be a new U.S. congressman from this district,” Walberg said in Jackson. “That being the case, I will certainly wish Mark Schauer well when given the opportunity to speak to him. But for right now, I just thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

With nearly 93 percent of precincts reporting as of 2 a.m., Schauer led Walberg 142,542 votes to 138,690.

That's good enough for me. I'm done for the night.

The Enquirer has slightly different numbers than I do via the MLive site. Here's where they've got the results as of right now:

324 of 356 Precincts Reporting - 91%

	Name	Party	Votes	Vote %
	Schauer , Mark	Dem	145,388	48%
	Walberg , Tim (i)	GOP	141,023	47%
	Meadows , Lynn	Grn	8,878	3%
	Proctor , Ken	Lib	5,353	2%

That's a margin of 4,365 votes. It's close, but it should hold. By county:

Branch (100% reporting)
Walberg - 9,865 - 56%
Schauer - 6,879 - 39%

Calhoun (100% reporting)
Walberg - 23,920 - 40%
Schauer - 33,649 - 56%

Eaton (70% reporting)
Walberg - 21,571 - 45%
Schauer - 23,209 - 49%

Hillsdale (100% reporting)
Walberg - 12,015 - 60%
Schauer - 6,981 - 35%

Jackson (100% reporting)
Walberg - 34,231 - 47%
Schauer - 34,977 - 48%

Lenawee (83% reporting)
Walberg - 19,361 - 52%
Schauer - 16,627 - 45%

Washtenaw (90% reporting)
Walberg - 20,060 - 44%
Schauer - 23,066 - 51%

The winner or current leader in each county is italicized. We're still waiting on results from three Windsor precincts in Eaton County, the seven precincts covering the entire city of Adrian in Lenawee County (.pdf), and four precincts in Webster Township in Washtenaw County. If they have any meaningful impact, I think it will be Adrian adding to Schauer's margin and making Lenawee County a little bit closer. I don't know enough about the voting patterns of the others to speak intelligently.

(Fun fact for the night: Even without Adrian, Senator Barack Obama actually leads in Lenawee County right now, 49.10 percent to 48.81 percent. Wow!)

Personally, I'm not comfortable calling this, and I'm nervous that I'll wake up tomorrow morning and be disappointed. Maybe that's why I'm just a blogger and not a professional political operative. I'll have a longer write-up sometime when all the results are in.

Until then, congratulations to all of the candidates. It's finally over.

Labels: 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Ken Proctor, Lynn Meadows, Mark Schauer, Tim Walberg