The shape of the race so far

64 electoral votes secured by President Obama, as of 8:50 PM EST

88 electoral votes netted by Mitt Romney so far

We’re still early days here, to be sure. Just a couple hours after the first polls closed across the eastern seaboard, and we’re getting a clearer idea of the early shape of the election — to this point, President Obama leads by about 200,000 votes in Ohio, and is fighting an extremely tight race in Florida. As to congressional races, the prospects of the Democrats maintaining control of the Senate look good so far — Linda McMahon has been projected to lose in her race against Democrat Chris Murphy, in addition to wins for Sheldon Whitehouse, Bill Nelson, and Angus King in Maine, an independent who may ultimately caucus with the Democrats.