Mathews said he'll announce Ohio 'results' at around 7:30PM EST

[npincus]

and I believe he said he'll do the same for FLA around 8:00PM. Not sure how he can do that until all (or most) vostes are counted, but that's what he said. I also heard Vaughen Ververs on C-SPAN say that a failed memory chip on a voting machine in Florida deleted 13,000 votes but there were (thank G-d) backups on paper! I don't believe all e-machines in FLA have paper back-ups, correct?

Anyway (stating the obvious) Matthews said that if we see both Ohio and Florida going Dem then Kerry is in 'excellent shape" to win.

I feel change is in the air.

[LizW]

1. They have formed a new group to do exit polling

They're not going to wait until actual votes are counted. It will be just like old times when they announce their projected winner of each state based on exit polls as soon as the polls close in that state.

I did hear that the networks plan to have the decisions reviewed by a panel rather than by one person (to avoid Bush cousins calling the election, you know). They claim they are going to be supremely careful before calling any state. We'll see how it goes.

[papau]

2. optical scans used in white areas have paper - touchscreens do not

have paper and are used in other areas of Florida.

I do not have a map of who uses what this year.

In 2000 the few optical scans used in minority areas had the error scan turned off and did not offer a redo, which was offered in the more white areas of Florida with optical scans - resulted in 5 to 10 times the "no vote for president" result in minority areas compared to "white" areas using optical scans.

It will be interesting to see if Florida gets away with those games this time.