RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Openly gay Democrat Mark Takano beat his Republican opponent John Tavaglione by a double-digit margin in the race for California's U.S. House District 41, and will become the first LGBT person of color in the U.S. Congress.

Takano won 56.4% of the vote tally compared to Tavaglione's 43.6 percent. All precincts in Riverside County have been reported, however about 183,000 vote-by-mail, provisional and damaged ballots remained to be counted.

SAN DIEGO – Dave Roberts, a 51-year-old popular politician in Solana Beach, was elected to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors and makes history as the first known LGBT candidate to win a board seat.

Roberts beat out Steve Danon with 50.7% % of the vote, according to preliminary results announced early today, in the race to replace the District 3 seat long held by Pam Slater-Price. Danon, a Republican, is chief of staff to conservative Rep. Brian Bilbray.

WASHINGTON -- A right-wing Tea Party organization devoted to electing Republicans called "True the Vote" is training its volunteer poll watchers to target transgender voters.

True the Vote's training manual features a transphobic image [seen at the right] that claims transgender people are fraudulent voters and should be denied the right to vote.

On Tuesday, one day after the worst of Hurricane Sandy and one week before Election Day, I received an email from Republican VP candidate Rep. Paul Ryan, inviting me to phone bank for the Romney-Ryan ticket.

Me! The feminist who “won’t vote for Romney or anyone who embraces a fundamentalist interpretation of women’s rights and roles.” A liberal woman phone banking for Romney? Not!