Election Night Timeline...Post The Time Your State Is Called

[KharmaTrain]

Tuesday night/afternoon we'll start gathering around our television sets and computers waiting for the results to start rolling in. The cable networks are sure to start their wall-to-wall coverage by 5pm Eastern (or earlier) and will start calling states and giving exit and other poll data the moments a state closes. This will start filling in their electoral map and the fun of the night begins as the race to 270 really kicks in.

Some may recall in 1980 the early wave of states falling for Raygun led to a dovetail effect that depressed momentum and turned the night not only into a surprise Raygun landslide (despite polls similar to what we see today) and also cost the Democrats control of the Senate. Network projections and "calls" had depressed Democrats that made enough of a difference not only to turn the election into a Raygun mandate but altered many local races as well.

The networks and the FCC & FEC attempted to "plug this hole", by having an agreement that the then major networks...CBS, NBC & ABC would embargo local coverage until the polls in that area closed...thus folks on the West Coast had to wait late hours to get the same results as folks on the East Coast had had for 6 hours or more.

That all changed in the cable age. Since CNNservative, Faux & MSPMSBC are national channels, the embargoing concept doesn't work. And the networks in their desire to be THE winner of the night with viewers run all over themselves to call states and be the first to put up the latest Electoral College numbers. Rewind to 2000 and you can see how the original Florida call/no call changed the tone of the entire night and the eventual stealing of the last election.

I expect we'll see the Cable networks rushing again to call states and be the first to have you and me and the millions of remote-wielding viewers to stick on their coverage for a bit. This will create a dynamic for the night that could create a momentum we saw back in 1980...results in the East having an effect on what is going on in the Midwest and West.

As I'm not familiar with all the state poll closing times, it'd be great to get a source where we can plot a timeline...which states close when that could start dictating the story of the night. For example, I expect that at 7:00pm EST, when the first polls close, we'll see a bunch of Electoral Votes (Indiana & Kentucky) for the evil empire, but also shortly afterwards a large number of New England Kerry states, including New Hampshire.

At 8:00pm then the Mid-Atlantic numbers start rolling in as do more of the Midwest. In that first hour or so, I expect a large number of Kerry states to start reporting in...New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massetchussetts and it could be a while before we see more numbers added for the other side. This could create an interesting dynamic that I wanted to share with other political junkies and to put our creative jucies to work to create a timeline that may enhance our viewing and surfing pleasure.

The bottom line: Please post the state you're in, what times the polls close and about what time (please state which time zone you're in...or put it in Eastern time) and what time your state will be called for either Kerry or Bunnypants. Mentioning the network that will call it first is optional.

Since I'm in an easy state, I'll begin:

Illinois - Polls: 7:00 Central/8:00pm Eastern - Kerry called at 8:00:00:00:00:00:01 EST. (only to be preceded by the Alan Keyes defeat).

Enjoy and Cheers!

[tedoll78]

1. Better yet.. I have a link to a website..

http://www.thegreenpapers.com/G04/closing.phtml?format=mc

Enjoy!

[blackcat77]

2. Indiana -- 6:01 PM

Indiana is ALWAYS the first state called for the Republican. It gives them something to say when they first come on the air.

[BluegrassDem]

3. Kentucky gets called at 6p

Our polls close at 6pm. I'm hoping and praying that it'll be too close to call, but I doubt it. Expect Chimp to get an early jump in the electoral votes with Kentucky and Indiana=19 EV's.

[ps1074]

6. .

The chimp won KY and IN with 57% last time. Anything less than 57% will be good news. I want to think that if he gets 55% in these two states then Kerry will sweep all the battlegrounds.

[LiberalFighter]

10. Indiana should NOT be called until after 7PM EST WHY????

Because there are at least 5 counties that are on CST. The 5 counties are near Chicago.

[THUNDER HANDS]

4. New York - 8 p.m.

[Mz Pip]

5. 8:01

California for Kerry. :thumbsup:

MzPip
:dem:

[Fed Up]

7. I may wait till 11PM to turn on the tube

I can't stand suspense in elections or big football games.

I can record the channels on VCR beginning at 5PM, but if things don't turn out rosy for us, I never have to watch it.

These newswhores will be spinning like tops from 5PM onward. Maybe I'll just wait and get the "final answer" then I don't have to watch the crud. Chinese water torture. Fuck that.

[KharmaTrain]

8. That Is Surely Your Option

My wife is one that will go to bed at 10 and tell me NOT to wake her up if there's not a result, she'll deal with it in the morning. She'll be pissed CSI: Whatever has been prempted...my fun is watching the watching.

Cheers!

[Weembo]

9. Texas

7:01 a.m. on Tuesday -he, he, I think they've already colored us in.