[JURIST Election Special] 8:00 PM ET - The polls have just closed in Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, DC, western Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and eastern Texas, representing some 224 electoral votes.

8:05 PM ET - AP and the networks have projected AL, OK, TN for Bush, and Kerry DE, CT, DC, IL, MA, ME, MD, and NJ for Kerry.

8:11 PM ET - With almost 15% of the votes counted in Florida now, the balance is:

Bush/Cheney - 754,095 54.9&
Kerry/Edwards - 608,669 44.3%

8:17 PM ET - The first early returns are now coming in from Ohio, courtesy the Columbus Post-Dispatch:

George Bush 13,252 55%
John Kerry 10,606 44%

8:21 PM ET - Pennsylvania results will be somewhat slow coming in due to the fact that there is no unified online reporting system - the counties post their own election returns individually. Around Pittsburgh there were long lines to vote today - some precincts in Allegheny County ran out of provisional ballots for those who were not on the rolls. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has more. Mercer County encountered problems with touchscreen voting machines. Again, the PG has more.

8:27 PM ET - Bush is still winning Florida, with over 15% of the vote there now counted:

Bush/Cheney - 900,810 54.5%
Kerry Edwards - 733,911 44.5%

There is, however, a slight percentage dip away from Bush here, so we need to watch where that trend goes.