A program note:

The Two-Way and NPR's Political Junkie blog, by Ken Rudin, will be combining forces later today to "live-blog" election results from Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Houston, Atlanta and other voting places across the nation. We'll embed a "Cover It Live" box in both blogs so that you can see what Ken and Frank are reporting — and comment as well.

Ken did a "what to watch for" post here. As he says, "off-year elections" can send important signals about what lies ahead:

In 1993, a year after Bill Clinton's election, Republicans wrestled the governorships away from the Democrats in both states, and they also won the mayoralty in five-to-one Democratic New York City. A sign of things to come for the GOP? Well, the next year the party won control of both the House and Senate for the first time since 1952.

Of course, being the responsible sort of "junkie" that he is, Ken also had to temper expectations:

Sometimes these elections tell us nothing. Look no further than 2001, when Democrats recaptured the governorships in Virginia and New Jersey — a scant few weeks after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. And yet, the following year, Republicans made historic gains in Congress, with 9/11 being a major factor.

If you want an audio preview, here's a "set-up piece" from NPR's Dave Mattingly and Isaac-Davy Aronson of NPR member station WNYC:

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