Va victories for democrats Obama, Kaine

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Virginia gave its 13 electoral votes for a second time to President Barack Obama while fellow Democrat Tim Kaine defeated George Allen in a night of heartbreaks for the state's determined Republicans.

The results further cemented Virginia's newfound position as a swing state, even though they were not decisive. By the time Obama's 81,707-vote statewide victory — a 2.2 percentage point margin — became clear, he had won Ohio, clinching his re-election.

For Allen, the second loss in a row in a race for the Senate seat he held from 2001 to 2007 could kill his once-gilded political career.

Photos: Obama wins

The outcome of the presidential race in Virginia validated what polls and simple observation had already made clear: voter enthusiasm for Obama had ebbed substantially since 2008. Yet Romney couldn't overtake even a weakened Obama in a state where the GOP won 10 presidential races in a row through 2004.

Complete but unofficial totals from the State Board of Elections show that turnout for the presidential race declined 2.6 percent from 2008, and Obama was the reason. He received almost 135,000 fewer votes than four years ago, when he defeated Republican John McCain by a margin of 6.3 percentage points.

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Despite a passionate and resolute Republican effort in Virginia, Romney surpassed 2008 GOP nominee John McCain by only 18,236 votes, or 1.1 percent. Obama prevailed in spite of his faltering October debate performance, six Romney stops in Virginia in the campaign's final week, and being conspicuously outspent in an unprecedented television advertising battle that, by campaign's end, left Virginians frustrated.

Keys for Obama were victories in major urbanized swing localities he had carried four years earlier. Again, he won comfortably in large, affluent suburbs such as Henrico, Prince William and Loudoun counties and denied Romney the gaudy margins he needed to carry Republican redoubts such as Chesterfield County and Chesapeake.

Kaine's fatter victory margin of nearly 4.8 percentage points was a bitter one for Allen, and it was apparent in his doleful concession speech to a silent, somber ballroom full of supporters.

"The people of Virginia, until my dying breath, will have my eternal gratitude for the honor and responsibility of not just serving, but also for being the one who got into the arena," he said. "We're not happy with the results, but we're still alive. And so long as they don't kill you, you can keep fighting."

Allen for years personified the state Republican Party, having rescued it from the brink of irrelevance with his 1993 election as governor. That began a GOP insurgency that, by 2000, overtook Democratic legislative majorities that had endured since Reconstruction and put every statewide elected office, both Senate seats and a majority of Virginia's 11 U.S. House seats in GOP hands. Allen had explored a 2008 presidential run with substantial backing among the party's conservatives before losing his Senate seat to Democrat Jim Webb in a gaffe-strewn 2006 re-election bid during a difficult midterm election for Republicans. Webb chose not to seek a second term this year.

Kaine was giddy but conciliatory before exultant Democrats who only weeks before had fretted openly about Obama's plunging poll numbers and a Senate race that remained deadlocked.

"It's time for all of us who love this commonwealth and the country to come together to find common ground in our efforts to find solutions to our nations' common problems," he told a crowd that chanted "Tim Kaine! Tim Kaine!"

All 11 of Virginia's congressmen — eight Republicans and three Democrats — easily brushed aside little-known and underfunded challengers.

In some precincts, voters endured long lines and waits of four or five hours in near-freezing temperatures to vote. Those who were in line by the 7 p.m. poll closing were allowed to cast ballots, but in some jurisdictions, final votes were not cast until nearly 11 p.m., election officials said.

One fear — that the state's brand-new voter ID law would create tens of thousands of provisional ballots and leave a photo-finish presidential race in limbo until Friday — was dispelled. The SBE's total count of provisional ballots as of midnight was 2,347, far too few to affect either statewide race.

The new law required voters to any of several forms of identification with them to vote. Those without acceptable ID were given provisional ballots that would be counted only for voters who could prove their identity by noon Friday.

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Associated Press writers Brock Vergakis and Steven Szkotak in Richmond, Va., and Matthew Barakat in McLean, Va., contributed to this report.