Election time
| 10:49 UK time, Tuesday, 7 November 2006
is once reported to have said "the trouble with free elections is, you never know who is going to win". And that why they're great fun for journalists - our equivalent of a cup final.
The thing about this job is that there's an election somewhere virtually every week - and there's always drama, no matter where the polling is taking place! Last weekend it was who were voting for a new president - today, it's (you see the two countries do have something in common after all).
And when it comes to drama, the US does elections in style. Not content with the hanging chads of 2000, and the close result four years later, now various officials are biting their nails at the prospect of new electronic voting machines malfunctioning.
Compared to the UK, they do things differently in the States. The polls close at different times in different states - we may get our first clues around midnight UK time, but the polls don't close in Alaska until 6 hours later. And imagine Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú presenter going on air in a British general election with the projected result while the polls are still open - but that's exactly what we'll be able to do tonight. Somewhere in New York, representatives from the American TV networks and the Associated Press will be huddled together in a windowless room, dubbed the Quarantine Room.
Determined to avoid a rerun of recent years, when its exit polls leaked out by early afternoon to the , and other web sites, a media consortium is allowing two people from each of the networks and the AP to pore over the exit polls. BlackBerrys and mobile phones will be confiscated - and the dedicated staffers will not be allowed to communicate with their offices until 1700 EST (2200 GMT).
Tonight we'll get our information from our US sister network . It's a military style operation - and true to form, we've embedded some Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú staff with our American friends. They'll be the key points of liaison for information from field producers and the Quarantine Room, as it becomes available throughout the evening. The consortium, called the National Election Pool, is conducting no surveys for House races. The exit polling will take place for Senate and gubernatorial contests in 32 states with competitive races.
It promises to be a big night - and a late one. And perish the thought: If it's tight, it could be at least Thursday before we know what's really happened. Just as well America's home of the all-night coffee store!
Comments
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The use of electronic voting machines seems an enormous risk. As I understand it, there are doubts as to their reliability, there is no "hard copy" paper trail and there is concern that the software could be hacked. On top of that, what happens if there is a power cut ? Disenfranchisement by the flip of a switch. A cynic might speculate that problems will occur in Democratic wards within close constituencies !
I have just finished voting. I voted Reform Party Candidate for Governor Max Linn. All others, I voted Libertarian. I did see the Republicans and Democrats use public transportation to transport their supporters to the polls. Otherwise, everything was uneventful.
Why is there excessive coverage of USA elections in the UK media, especially the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú. We are not an island off the coast of the USA but we get more information about the USA elections than we ever do about ones in Europe. Is the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú implementing a policy called "soft power"? This neo-con idealogy requires that American cultural dominance shall oppress the local culture and hopefully produce foreign societies who will share the views of Americans. This involves the local media being swamped with news, TV shows, films, celebrities, sports events all positively promoting the American way of life. Is the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú proactively promoting this idea?
They're not BOTH voting for a president!
Um, isn't Five Live relaying reports from CBS?
"peregrinus expectavi pedes meos in cymbalis"
This is what we were led to beleive to expect from our invasion in Iraq. And except in the North among the Kurds, we got exactly the opposite. They did not throw flowers at our feet. The election was a referendum on incompetence of the Bush administration and it has given us plenty of food for thought. The obvious paralysis of the federal government during the first 72 hours in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina as President Bush said FEMA's Michael Brown had done a good job was the last straw. As is typical of American politics, the pendulum constantly swings back and forth and having reached its apex of the so called conservative agenda, the voters want a change. The Democrats are poised to win the Presidency in two years if they don't do something really stupid like nominate another John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, or Barack Obama. But Democrats are full of shocking surprises and that just could happen. As for the Republicans, if they were unsuccessful convincing the voters when they had complete control of both the White House and Congress, how will they do any better in the next two years when Congress will be less than a fully loyal opposition out for revenge?