Every election I’m bemused by the so-called IntarWeb and it’s timeliness. Inevitably, I give up and end up spending a few hours in the evening of the election flipping between the major networks, looking for their various numbers.
What I want – nay, need – is something to keep up while I’m at work today. I’m looking for an electoral map with some decently up-to-the-minute polling numbers from the states contained within.
Anyone have any suggestions?
Organized by time of expected polling results:
http://uselectionatlas.org/INFORMATION/ARTICLES/ElectionNight2004/pe2004elecnighttime.php
A neat map in which states are represented by squares indicating their electoral size; it’s interactive too (i.e. you can call TX right now yourself, if you want).
http://www.mydd.com/popup.html
How long would it take, roughly, from the polls closing to any state calling a result, or even partial results leaking out?
States don’t report results for days after polls close.
When people “call” states it’s based on exit polling, which is usually tabulated in real-time by the pollsters, so you get a running tally of votes cast. Since there isn’t much variation in voter candidate vs polling time, once you see a trend you have a pretty good level of confidence.
Because of this method, most states are usually (have been up till 2000, at least) called before the polls close, almost all by the time they close, and only states that are extremely close are called any significant time later.
When people “call” states it’s based on exit polling
Right, that’s what I wanted: I want a single site that tracks exit polling. That would be cool. To have a ticker on your screen…
Huh? I know for a fact that IA will not just report it’s unofficial results, it’ll have them online at http://www.sos.state.ia.us before midnight. And most other states will do something similar, although I guess there’s probably one or two out there that are still in the dark ages of election tabulation. When you watch tonight, sure some of the calls will be based on exit polling, but watch that “% of precinct reporting” stat they show with all the various projections, those are the actual counts from actual precincts.
Now official reports won’t come for a few days, sure, but that very rarely results in major swings either way.
I’ve been wanting something like that since early voting started…