more than 200 years after a former colony won the right to determine its own destiny, the task of perfecting our union moves forward. >> america has spoken. president barack obama claim victory winning another four years in office touching off a wild scene outside the white house. >> the crowd outside the white

house eresulted into a frenzy when news outlets made the call predicting re-election for president obama, many cheering four more years. the president won the popular vote by a narrow margin of 50 to 49%. at last count, he had garnered more than 57 million votes while mitt romney had more than 55 million. >> a close popular vote indeed but not so close in the electoral college. president obama with 303 electoral votes. mitt romney got 206. still outstanding is florida's 29 electoral votes. the vote count there just still too close to call but that will not impact the end result here. >> the other major story, historic ballot questions in maryland approved. we'll have much more on those results in just a few minutes. >> good morning. i'm sarah simmons. >> i'm wisdom martin. welcome to fox 5 morning news. a very busy night indeed.

>> i hope everybody got a little bit of sleep. it is official. president barack obama wins another term as our nation's president. >> obama far exceeding the 270 electoral votes needed to win but the popular vote was a much closer race as we'll take a look at some of the numbers right now. melanie alnwick is live in the newsroom with the latest on this story. >> reporter: good morning. despite a still weak economy and one of the most expensive campaigned in history, president obama managed to prevail in the hard-fought spring states sending him back to the oval office for four more years. jubilant supporters of the white house rushed to the white house just as they did in 2008 to celebrate his re-election. they waved flags and honked horns and chanted, yes, we can. a few hours later, the president addressed the nation. >> we have picked ourselves up. we have fought our way back.

and we know in our hearts that, for the united states of america the best is yet to come. >> reporter: obama spoke in his hometown of chicago. he thanked vice president biden and former president bill commit for all their work on the campaign trail. he promised to help the nation continue on the path to recovery. a different scene in boston as mitt romney stood before a disappointed crowd. his concession speech was brief and heartfelt as he congratulated the president. >> this election is over but our principles endure. i believe that the principles upon which this nation was founded are the only sure guide for a resurgent economy and to a new greatness. >> reporter: running mate paul ryan returns to the house of representatives as chairman of the budget committee and possibly the president's chief critic there. it is not clear what mitt romney will do next after two unsuccessful runs at the

presidency. president obama returns to office with a deeply divided nation and government. congress must get to work right away on a number of issues that threaten to hit american pocketbooks. voters in the free state weighed in on seven key ballot questions. question six, legalizing same- sex marriage passed with about 52% of the vote. governor martin o'malley says the passage of question six sends a message. >> i think it is a really important statement. the people of our state understand that our diversity is our strength, that we are all in this together and that every child's home should be protected equally under the law. maryland chose to move forward on a very controversial issue. all right. taking a look at some of another ballot questions in

maryland. voters passed question seven allowing expanded gambling in the state. >> maryland voters also approved question four knowns athe dream act, allowing illegal immigrants to pay in- state tuition at public colleges passed with 59%. voters approved question five giving the okay if a new redistricting map. right now -- for a new redistricting map. >> let's take a quick look at the weather with tucker barnes. >> a nor'easter starting to crank up off the coast. that will bring us a cloudy and cold day and for parts of the area, it will bring us rain and then eventually a transition to cold weather. >> snow? >> parts of the area, if you are up towards baltimore and northern maryland, they have a

winter weather advisory so it is possible they could get some light accumulations. we are not going to see accumulations on the roadways around here. you might see some snowflakes flying. get ready for the possibility. you can see it starting to lift towards the washington area. it is cold, temperature back in the 30s. we are in the low 40s here in town. you are pretty much looking at the daytime highs. we'll only be in the low 40s today so bring a coat. you might want the gloves, the hat. it is a winter day. >> effect was so focused on the election, they'll step outside and be like what happened? >> more details in just a minute. >> time to toss things over to julie wright to see what is happening on the roads with the morning commute. >> i'm not sure people haven't been to bed yet or if they haven't woken up yet but there is not a lot happening out here on the roads yet at this time. traffic volume very light as you work your way along kenilworth avenue. overnight roadwork still in

play for our friends in virginia traveling the beltway between annandale and merrifield. the top stretch of the beltway looks great traveling between college park and university boulevard over towards 270 with no issues to report. your lanes are open as you continue to work your way northbound 395 leaving duke street in both the express lanes and the main line looking good toward the 14th street bridge. that's a check of your fox 5 on-timetraffic. imetraffic. >> thank you. our special election 2012 coverage continues next. spotlight on the u.s. senate race in virginia. we'll hear from the winner there. >> as we go to break, we're checking out the congressal races in maryland. no problem for representative donna edwards in district four. >> in district five, congressman steny hoyer will go back to capitol hill taking 69% of the vote in his race. that is not the right thing we are looking at. roscoe bartlett loses his seat.

democrat john delaney is the winner. that was expected as the democratic leadership had redrawn that district to favor their party. >> and chris van hollen easily wins his re-election. we'll be back in a moment. a moment.

in the virginia senate race, democrat tim kaine held off a chal fedex republican george allen.

kaine won a senate seat being vacated by jim webb and did it with strong support from younger voters and minorities. -- hell off a challenge from republican george allen. >> -- held off a challenge from republican george allen. >> it is time for all of us to come together to find common ground in our efforts to find solutions to our nation's common problems. >> with wins in both virginia and maryland, democrats are keeping control of the senate. >> that candidate in maryland, senator ben cardin. he won with 54% beating republican dan bongino. democrat keeping control of the senate again but just barely 1/3 of the senate was up for grabs. republicans lost two seats giving democrats control with

51 senators. in the house, republicans are keeping control despite losing a cup of seats in new hampshire and new york. in virginia, all 11 incumbents won re-election. and in maryland, john delaney beat republican roscoe bartlett. a theme reminiscent of four years ago. i'm loud celebration outside the white house as president obama gets four more years. >> our matt ask land was there. up next, he will show us that scene as it unfolded. let's take a look at the results in key house races in virginia right now. stay with us. we'll be right back. ight back.

look at that. the empire state building turned blue up in new york city to show president barack obama won the election. on the top of the building was a display showing the race to the 270 electoral votes, blue for president barack obama and red for mitt romney. >> president obama's second term victory cause the a lot of celebration here in d.c. >> matt ackland shows us the crowd's reaction at the white house. >> reporter: the celebration began here at the white house immediately after the networks

started projecting president barack obama's re-election. people coming, running to the white house, cheering four more years, saying we did it. and then they gathered right here. i'll step aside. you can see there are thousands of people. folk still arriving here to cheer on the re-election of president obama. this looks a lot like it did four years ago this night when the president first won re- election. so all of it starting just as the networks projected the networks winning re-election and the celebration continues over an hour later. in the district, matt ackland fox 5 news. >> a lot of excited people there. >> definitely happy. >> the president's opponent, mitt romney gave a short concession speech in boston last night. >> he thanked his wife run and

running mate paul ryan and said he ran because he believes in america. >> so eager to get in here. >> we are starting early today. >> the further east you have, the better chance you have of seeing this rain-snow mix we've been talking about. >> we wake up and we're like oh, that's right, the storm. >> let's get right to your weather and we'll start with temperatures once again cold overnight. it feels kind of wintry with the cloud cover and the temperatures in the 30s. >> yeah, it does. >> wisdom isn't happy about it. i'm not look forward to this. i have to hear about it from julie all morning. temperature are above freezing so anything that falls in the next several hours likely won't stick on the roadways because the roadways are generally in

the 40s. you can see temperatures haven't even bottomed out near freezing. concerned about anything sticking here close to town. the further north and east you get as we get into the afternoon, that is where we'll be most concerned about the potential for some of the snow to stick. let me show you the satellite- radar as we switch maps. you will be able to see that our system is really starting to expand and look more impressive here in the last couple of frames. we'll just skip all of that. we'll go right to the seven-day forecast. the magic of morning tv early. wednesday, 42. here is your seven-day forecast. the storm developing here off the carolina coast. you have to stay tuned and come back. i'll show it to you in a couple of minutes. we'll be looking at the possibility of rain and/or snow showers this afternoon. the high temperatures only in the low 40s so very, very chilly around here later this afternoon. all right. that is a very brief and not

quite full look at your forecast. i'll have more coming up in just a couple of machines. let's talk to julie wright and find out about traffic. >> on the roads right now, light traffic volume around the area. still some roadwork in place for those traveling along 355 south of the beltway working your way out towards cedar lane. no issues reported right now here at kenilworth at eastern. you will find yourself at speed on 95 and 295 coming in out of laurel. late-coloring construction remains on the beltway in the hot lane zone over in virginia and you will find your lanes are open for those continuing eastbound along 66 make being -- making your way from man as is to the beltway. no issues reported southbound 270. you will find the pace across the american legion bridge good to go both directions. that's a check of your fox 5 on-timetraffic. imetraffic. continuing our election results coverage now with a focus on the district. >> the big race this year was

actually a special election for the d.c. council. who would permanently replace kwame brown after he resigned. voters elected council veteran phil mendelsohn who has been in the chairman seat on an interim basis. the one upset appears to have come in the d.c. council at large race. incumbent vincent orange will keep his seat but it looks like michael brown has lost his. he was beat by david grosso. yvette alexander holds her seat in ward seven. and marion barry returns to the council to represent ward eight taking 87% of the vote in his race. let's get the numbers on some of the d.c. council races right now if we can take a look at those perhaps. d.c. voters also, by the way, had some ballot amendments to decide on all stemming from

recent ethic scandals that have plagued the d.c. government. >> all three amendments passed by an overwhelming majority. aamendment five will allow the council to kick out a member if that member has committed gross misconduct in office. >> amendment six will make it that a councilmember convicted of a felony will lose their seat. amendment seven does the same thing for the mayor. lauren demarco reports from baltimore on the other races. >> reporter: the atmosphere in here is very jubilant and very confident as the decembers celebrating a lot of big

victories. all of the big players, senator barbara mikulski on hand. elijah cummings and john sarbanes and the man of the hour, senator ben car dip who has won re-election. he spoke about spending cuts and tax reform and the gridlock on capitol hill. >> ben cardin is a man of integrity, a man of honesty, a man that has political courage and is so exited to every single family in the state of maryland. he works hard every day. he is always on our side and tonight, the people of maryland said, we want ben cardin to continue to be on our side. >> we need to set partisanship aside to develop a balanced approach that considers reasonable cuts in spending with fairfax reform. no one, especially the middle class, should bear this burden alone. and we can no longer make the federal employees a scapegoat for every fiscal problem we face. face.

>> reporter: senator cardin also spoke about his work on medicare and on student loans and also about working across party lines to help restore health to the chesapeake bay. that is all a big topic here tonight. senator cardin has been on capitol hill working as a congressman since 1987. once he serves out this latest term, he will be representing maryland for more than three decades. in baltimore, lauren demarco, fox 5 news. >> a long time. >> a very long time. >> all right. some call day major blow to the war on drugs. up next, we'll tell you which two states are now the first to legalize recreational marijuana. >> but first, a look at more election results in our area. n our ar stay with us. we'll be right back. ack.