The 2008 Election Day LIVE Thread
 

Didn't see a thread to discuss results as they came in.

OBAMA takes PENNSYLVANIA!!!

Wooo Hoooo!!!
I have Obama 78, McCain 34 without Penn.

Right now it looks like Obama may take Florida, North Carolina and Ohio. If he does, that should do it...

Florida worries me. Ohio has no votes in yet essentially and NC has Durham (a nearly 100% black county) as the only county with most of its votes in so far. Those two I wouldn't speculate about yet.

Could someone please explain how they are able to call states when only 20% of the results are in? Is it some ratio used?

CB is correct. Ohio doesn't have any votes in, but the PD Website is now reporting:
President - General November 04, 2008 - 08:12PM ET
Ohio - 0 of 11156 Precincts Reporting - 0%

Obama , Barack Dem 235,759 68%
McCain , John GOP 108,226 31%
Nader , Ralph Ind 1,863 1%
Barr , Bob Lib 784 0%
Baldwin , Chuck CST 465 0%
McKinney , Cynthia Grn 381 0%
Duncan , Richard Ind 143 0%
Moore , Brian Soc 83 0%

My guess is this is NE Ohio, whice is typically about 2/3 vs. 1/3. Cincinnati will see the inverse

Damn Ralph Nader screws up the Ohio voting every election.

Overwhelming exit poll advantage. Which may not prove to be that accurate in this election, but it has to be a huge advantage to call with as unreliable as exit polls were in 2004 I would imagine.

To all those watching in Detroit.... Tim Kiska on channel 7 was my college professor and is a brilliant man!

I'm nervous. Michigan is closed and still hasn't shown any results.

Kay Hagan defeated Elizabeth Dole in NC.

This is a beautiful thing! :D

I WISH I WAS IN GRANT PARK SO FREAKING BAD!

Obama 102
McCain 49

...CNN

I just came on here to post exactly that!

PM_Mama: Part of the UP is in Central Time and their polls don't close for 15 more minutes so they won't call Michigan yet.

Here they're calling states with less than 1% of the vote in. Exit polls or not, that's got to be about as accurate as flipping a coin.

I see it as the same type of thing as when a hurricane is coming. They know they've got our attention, and by God, they're going to make us keep watching even if they have to completely make things up to fill the time until we find out the real results.

Really? Our precincts closed at 7 pm CT (it's 7:48 now).

CNN just showed pictures of Grant Park. Now, I want to be in Grant Park.

They're only calling states if the exit polls were a huge difference. If it was anywhere near close in the exit polls, they aren't calling it and are waiting for more results. It also depends on which counties have reported. When they said 1% have reported, it's 1% of the precincts. If it happens to be the precinct that has 80% of the population, then it's more accurate too.

Fox is saying that McCain aides contacted them to ask why PA has been called and say internal exit polling shows it should be a tossup, Fox is saying they called it because of high turnout in Philly.

Ours close at 8 pm, either ET or CT, depending on which time zone they're in. I actually wrote to CNN this morning because they had us listed as polls closing at 9 pm ET. I thought that was misleading for the 95% of us in the rest of the state and was worried people would see that and think they had til 9 pm. About 30 minutes after I emailed, it was clarified on the big map, with the different time zones. I take total credit for that :)

*sigh* Grant Park. I miss Grant Park. It must be so pretty in the Fall...and even more amazing with thousands of Obama supporters.

It's just a 15 minute L ride for me :). However, we were waitlisted. Now we're glued to the tube.

I'm not delusional about a McCain win, but I am going to wait until the votes are counted for feel confident that anyone has won in any of the races.

Sununu and Dole defeated.. wowsa!

They are saying on local news that it looks like Oakland County (suburbs of Detroit), which is usually Republican, looks like it went Obama! The red folks are very worried about the other Republican offices in that county. hehehehe

CNBC has 103 for Obama and 58 for McCain. This station seems to update the most often. I'm watching with the mute on because all the commentary makes me anxious...so much speculation going on, I'd just rather watch the numbers!

ETA: They just changed to 175 vs. 70!

Rockefeller Center looks pretty cool too. I love how they made the map on the ice and keep filling it in with the appropriate color.

And, Michigan has been called :)

175 for Obama now on NBC

CNN has just announced that New York went to Obama. No surprise, but they are having fun in Times Square.
They are "projecting" Michigan (Hear that Dee) went to Obama
Minnesota they are also projecting will go to Obama. Can you imagine the lady that referred to Sen Obama as an Arab?

I voted no, but was still unsure about it. If it had been in northern Ohio, I might have been swayed.
It's Issue 5 (Pay Day lender restrictions) that I'm following closely. It will probably go Yes. Chalk one up to the Good Guys.

McCain won Georgia.

CNN...
174 - 49

Fox says: Obama wins in PA, MA, NH, MD, CT, NJ, DE, VT, DC, ME, IL; McCain wins GA, SC, AR, AL, OK, TN, WV, KY.

I think you should go downtown anyway... Grant Park will be packed, but there are outskirts!

We batted around the idea but decided that since live-in has to get up at 5:30 for work tomorrow, we weren't going to stay out all night (which, you know we would) unless we actually got tickets into the event.

Regardless, we did our part and went to the polls today, that's what's most important.

My coworker asked me today "If we were in Chicago, you'd go to Grant Park with me, wouldn't you?" And I was like "Heck yeah!"

This would've been a good night to have GreekChat chat rooms back again.

What I would do to be in Grant Park!

WHY oh why did I have to be .5 miles from McCain's rally on this of all elections?

We tried to get tickets but alas, waitlist.

The chatrooms would be sweet, but I think we're doin' ok. ;)

I got an email saying I could win a trip to Chicago and tix for Grant Park if I donated $250 more to the campaign.. that was Saturday night. It wasn't in the budget. I can take the train to Chicago for much less than $250 though!

CNN seems to be more conservative with their predictions than NBC

Did the guy on CNN just say "peace out cubscout?"

AWESOME!

He did!

I'm really hoping this doesn't come down to Florida

I don't know about that, but I'm getting Christmas music from one of the two TVs that are on.

Connecticut went to Obama (no shock there).

Looks like there won't be a constitutional convention for another 20 years. (A very contentious issue. Once every 20 years, the electorate votes on whether to have a constitutional convention. If a convention is held, it then proposes changes, and the electorate votes on each of the proposed changes. A lot of people were worried that gay marriage and abortion rights would go out the window if there were a convention.)

My House race is still too close to call. No Senate race here this year.

New sig?