The Palm Beach Post reports a canvassing board decided to
recount all 37,379 ballots from early voting in the tight congressional
race between Rep. Allen West (R-FL) and Patrick
Murphy (D) after elections officials revealed that 306 ballots had gone uncounted.

Rick Hasen: “Just imagine if the presidential race hinged on Florida.  How many
more stories of missing and miscounted ballots would have emerged
(beyond the ones we’ve already heard about) if the fate of the
presidency hinged on the outcome.”

Newt Gingrich told Evan Smith that Mitt Romney’s explanation of why he lost the election — by giving “gifts” to minorities and young people — was “insulting and profoundly wrong.”

Said Gingrich: “He had enough billionaire supporters that if buying the electorate was the key, he could have got all of his super PAC friends together and said, ‘Don’t buy ads, give gifts.'”

[Read more…]

“I know we ran the most sophisticated and aggressive digital campaign in the history of Republican politics.”

— Romney campaign digital director Zac Moffatt, quoted by National Journal.

The Economist: “The Democrats won 50.6% of the votes for president, to 47.8% for the Republicans; 53.6% of the votes for the Senate, to 42.9% for the Republicans; and…49% of the votes for the House, to 48.2% for the Republicans (some ballots are still being counted). That’s not a vote for divided government. It’s a clean sweep.”

“We don’t — I know no one believes it — we have no agenda.”

— Fox News chief Roger Ailes, quoted by TV Newser.

The Rev. Franklin Graham claimed in an interview with David Brody that the “majority of Christians” did not vote.

Said Graham: “We know that from of the statistics that I’ve heard that the majority of Christians in this country just did not vote for whatever reason. The vast majority of evangelicals did not go to the polls. God is in control, and if Christians are upset, they need to be upset at themselves. We need to do a better job of getting our people- the church to vote. Now, I’m not trying to tell you how to vote, you can vote, but vote, my goodness, and vote for candidates that stand for Biblical values.”

First Read: “But Graham’s assertion — and implication that had white Christian evangelicals just showed up in bigger numbers, President Obama would have lost — is off base. In fact, white evangelicals/born-again Christians made up the same percentage of the electorate as they did in 2008 – 26%. They voted for Mitt Romney, a devout Mormon, by a wider margin than they did for Sen. John McCain four years ago.”

Two close congressional races in California were finally decided, with Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA) and Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-CA) losing their seats.

NBC News notes there are still three undecided House races: “The Undecided Three now include LA-3 (which is scheduled for a runoff in three weeks) and NC-7 and AZ-2 (where Democratic incumbents cling to narrow leads).”

Newark Mayor Cory Booker said his decision on whether to run for New Jersey governor has been pushed back by Hurricane Sandy but vowed not to keep Democrats waiting too much longer, the Newark Star Ledger reports.

Said Booker: “The reality is Sandy has pushed my timeline back.”

The mayor originally said he would make his decision by early December.

Daily Beast: “Republicans are searching for an explanation as to why voters rejected their vision of America. The answer may be on their television screens, where an ever-expanding, bluer definition of family values makes their nostalgic idea of family values feel like a foreign world.”