# How do you plan to spend election night? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 11, 2020, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-plan-to-spend-election-night/922728 "2020-10-11T17:49:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-plan-to-spend-election-night/922728/1 "2020-10-11T17:49:59Z")
The title says it all. Have you made your plan for election night? If so, what is it? I will be watching on CNN. I hope John King and his magic wall will be featured even more prominently this year. I’ll also have the local NBC station on another set to keep track of the local races. I’m going to keep an old fashioned paper list of the various races, with a blue pen and red pen handy to fill in the results as they come in. I even decided on a theme song for the night, Leonard Cohen’s _Democracy_. ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-plan-to-spend-election-night/922728/2 "2020-10-11T17:56:09Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > The title says it all. Have you made your plan for election night? If so, what is it? What I usually do, nothing special. Likely less checking than normal around whatever else I am doing. I expect far slower predictions than normal thanks to increased voting by mail. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-plan-to-spend-election-night/922728/3 "2020-10-11T17:56:35Z")
I will likely be drinking while watching MSNBC. Hopefully just wine, but if things go south I may well switch to the harder stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Chisquirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@Chisquirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chisquirrel)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-plan-to-spend-election-night/922728/4 "2020-10-11T17:59:02Z")
Not watching anything election related. I’m dropping my ballot in the dropoff box today, and I’m done with it. Life is stressful enough, I don’t need to watch a forced horserace on top of it. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-plan-to-spend-election-night/922728/5 "2020-10-11T17:59:55Z")
Just occasional surfing of election websites. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-plan-to-spend-election-night/922728/6 "2020-10-11T18:04:11Z")
Watching MSNBC, with 538’s and Daily Kos liveblog on my laptop along with a few choice twitter feeds, being very very nervous. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-plan-to-spend-election-night/922728/7 "2020-10-11T18:32:57Z")
I literally took the night off from work so I could surf news feeds of various sorts. I tend to treat all presidential elections as a bit like a spectator sport. As indeed in some ways it is, only with rather higher stakes than next Sunday’s football game. I also have some [Hawaiian Sun passion fruit-orange juice](https://images.costcobusinessdelivery.com/ImageDelivery/imageService?profileId=12028466&itemId=6246&recipeName=680) and a bottle of Prosecco and I’m intending to indulge myself with ‘tropical mimosas’ as the night progresses 😁. No reason I shouldn’t pre-dull any potential tension headaches a tad. To quote that great philosopher [Fish Karma](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msJ3HdG8v54) on some of the dubious joys of spectator sports: When they lose I’ll be bitter and drink a lot of beer! When they win I’ll exult and drink a lot of beer! ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-plan-to-spend-election-night/922728/8 "2020-10-11T18:34:26Z")
Drunk ---
**Author:** ![MissTake](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misstake/32/3189_2.png) [@MissTake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissTake)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-plan-to-spend-election-night/922728/9 "2020-10-11T18:37:13Z")
Texting with my super political junkie best friend, watching something on Netflix, having a beer. She’ll keep me informed without having to deal with the blathering suits on whatever network. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-plan-to-spend-election-night/922728/10 "2020-10-11T18:40:07Z")
In 2016, I was working GOTV all day, drove home around 7, and my wife, two kids and I were going to have a smorgasbord of appetizers to celebrate the election of our first woman president. Kids went to bed before it was called. Those appetizers felt like rotting flesh in our stomachs by 11. This year, I don’t think we’ll have as big of a thing planned. Oh, we’ll all be watching the returns, but the kids being four years older and we being a thousand years wiser aren’t planning any celebrations. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-plan-to-spend-election-night/922728/11 "2020-10-11T18:46:52Z")
I’ll start by flipping between CNN and MSNBC. If (hopefully “when”) things start going south for Trump and the GOP, I’ll tune into Fox for some sweet, sweet shadenfreude. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-plan-to-spend-election-night/922728/12 "2020-10-11T18:46:54Z")
I’ll spend election night like always: Drinking beer and flipping through channels while the results roll in. I don’t have cable, so PBS will probably be the primary source. The difference will be that when I turn it off and go to bed I will have no expectation that I will hear the final result in the morning. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-plan-to-spend-election-night/922728/13 "2020-10-11T18:50:17Z")
Ignoring the entire fucking mess, thanks. From my viewpoint it’s a disaster no matter which way it goes so there’s no real reason to pay any attention to it. I’ll send my ballot in as soon as I get it, which should be this week sometime then I’m going to ignore all of it. I’m sure someone will tell me which flavor of shit sammich I’ll be expected to eat for the next four years eventually. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-plan-to-spend-election-night/922728/14 "2020-10-11T18:51:05Z")
Most years I’ve gone dancing with friends on election night. This year… I dunno. I don’t have the self control to not look, so probably watching the returns on TV, or maybe with some group on zoom. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-plan-to-spend-election-night/922728/15 "2020-10-11T19:03:07Z")
Go to bed early and just hope for the best. Didn’t work too well in '16. We’ll see. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-plan-to-spend-election-night/922728/16 "2020-10-11T19:15:16Z")
Probably the bar for a while, and a lot of Twitter ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-plan-to-spend-election-night/922728/17 "2020-10-11T19:15:54Z")
Probably having an anxiety attack. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-plan-to-spend-election-night/922728/18 "2020-10-11T19:16:55Z")
My votes already cast so I’ll just ignore it that day and read about it the next morning. No sense in watching all the pundits getting people worked up. Its not going to final that evening anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-plan-to-spend-election-night/922728/19 "2020-10-11T19:22:45Z")
I plan on dabbing my way thru the day (and night). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2020, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-plan-to-spend-election-night/922728/20 "2020-10-11T19:33:00Z")
In 2016, I was watching the early results and they were pointing towards a Clinton victory. I was bored so I went out to see a movie. When I got home a couple of hours later, the results were saying Trump was winning. I won’t be watching any movies this year. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-plan-to-spend-election-night/922728.md?page=2)