I will be spending that week with family, about 800 miles from my current residence. I’m sure we’ll spend the evening (if not the day) tracking the election, casting aspersions on the characters of the voters & candidates alike, and generally being silly. We were going to have a pool, but I don’t think anyone will be betting on Kerry, so there’s not much point in that.
Probably watch it at home. The election will probably be so tight, we may not even know the winner that night. Oregon votes by mail, so their results aren’t immediately available. Several states will probably be too close to call. Also, no network wants to be in the position of calling a state and then reversing it like 2000.
I work twice a year (on election eves) for a company that designs & sells ballot counting hardware and software. I help run their ballot-counting equipment for one of the counties here in Ohio. Fun stuff.
I’ll be in New Zealand on Election Day, so on Wednesday afternoon, when the Tuesday polls are closing and the news begins to report their predictions, I’ll be looking for a TV or radio so I can find out what’s going on!
I’m a lifelong political junkie, but I’ll follow my usual practice of going to bed early, waking up in the morning, and turning on the tube to find out who won.
Traditionally I’ve planted myself on the couch with a big bowl of popcorn, only to be disgusted and throw the bowl at the TV when the networks called all the important races by 9:00 p.m.
The 2000 election, of course, was an anomoly, and a little TOO much of a nail-biter for me. I guess I’ll just hope for a tight race for governor to keep my interest up.
I’m going to watch to coverage on CBS and hope for a late night for Dan Rather, as he guts funnier as the night goes on. CBS should get Madden and hook him up with Rather for a night of crazy election commentary. I can just hear it now.
Last time, Florida “Gore”, uh, no, “Bush”, uh, no again - and on and on.
I know that there was supposed to be a law (written or implied) that national networks are NOT supposed to predict the outcome of the election until all the polls are closed on the West coast. People were complaining that, for example, if voters in CA heard that Kerry won, they wouldn’t bother go vote for Bush - and thus deprive local Republicans the needed votes to win in local elections.
But for the most part, barring another Florida debacle, you should probably have a good idea by 9:00 PM PST…then again, if there really are some “too close to call” states, you might not know until perky Katie Couric chirps it in your ear the following morning.
Probably trying not to have a conniption fit at work while watching the results online, then going to vote myself before the polls close (I leave work fairly early, this shouldn’t be an issue) and then heading over to my in-laws with my husband to watch the final results (it’s the first time I’ve never been the ONLY liberal in my immediate family - now I’m surrounded by 'em - yay!).
We’ll either open a celebratory bottle of champagne and get smashed or open a consoling bottle of champagne, or three or four.