At 8 p.m. the polls here in California closed. The networks took a deep breath, and they all immediately made their calls. Gray Davis out. Arnold Schwarzenegger in. Prop. 54 down.

The first set of absentee ballot returns has Davis being recalled 63.4 percent to 36.6 percent and Schwarzenegger with a majority of the tally. Absentee ballots typically trend more conservatively than the rest of the votes, so expect those numbers to change.