Dem wins governor's race in Illinois

CHICAGO — Election results still trickling in Thursday made it clear Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn won his extremely close bid for a full term, allowing him to avoid the fate of other Democratic governors and adding pressure on his Republican challenger to concede.

An Associated Press analysis of uncounted votes from absentee and other ballots showed that Republican Bill Brady, a state senator from Bloomington, won't be able to overcome the approximately 19,400-vote lead Quinn held late Thursday.

"I think the people of Illinois know I won the election," Quinn said at a Chicago deli where he thanked voters and called his lead over Brady "insurmountable."

Brady wasn't giving up. "There's a number of votes that have yet to be counted: military, absentee and others," he said Thursday.

State officials have until Dec. 3 to certify all results.

Oklahoma is sued

over Shariah ban

A Muslim filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday in Oklahoma City to block a state constitutional amendment overwhelmingly approved by voters that would prohibit state courts from considering international law or Islamic law when deciding cases.

The measure, which got 70 percent of the vote Tuesday, was one of several on Oklahoma's ballot that critics said pandered to conservatives and would move the state further to the right.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, seeks a temporary retraining order and injunction to block the election results from being certified by the state Election Board on Nov. 9.

Among other things, the lawsuit filed by Muneer Awad says the ballot measure transforms Oklahoma's Constitution into "an enduring condemnation" of Islam by singling it out for special restrictions by barring Islamic law, also known as Shariah law.

Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Oklahoma, said 20,000 to 30,000 Muslims live in Oklahoma.

Fox tops rivals

on Election Night

Fox News Channel came out on top during the one hour of midterm-election coverage in which the three broadcast networks and the cable-news channels competed head to head.

The Nielsen Co. said Thursday that Fox had 6.94 million viewers during the 10 p.m. EDT hour Tuesday. NBC was second with 6.27 million, followed by CBS with 5.86 million and ABC with 5.53 million. CNN had 2.59 million viewers during that key hour and MSNBC had 2.04 million.

Seattle Times news services