The first polls close in a few moments. I will be updating this thread with live news from NPR, plus stories and local reaction (via telephone and email) from my fellow New Mexicans. Let's get this party started with a photograph taken in my small town this morning. Our local Obama campaigners aren't all young - even the older folks are looking for some change:
Stay tuned for news, photos, stories, and FUN! Just keep refreshing this post and follow the thread below. I am also adding LOTS of photos of both the event here at NPR plus photos sent in to me from Las Vegas, New Mexico. During lulls in the evening, I'll tell a few good stories, too.
Please join in the conversation!
Projected Electoral Votes:
McCain: 144
Obama: 338
270 needed to WIN
BARACK OBAMA WINS the 2008 Presidential Election!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What's it like blogging at NPR on Election 2008 Night?
You know his voice, the somehow smooth nasal lilt that caresses millions of ears each weekday afternoon during All Things Considered, a voice that massages confidence and instant intelligence into any listener's temporal lobes. Robert Siegal. He sits, tonight, in a padded black rotating chair, shifting this way and that, watching huge screens lining two walls of NPR's Studio 4-A. I stand, just two feet from him, as he grabs a stiff sheet of copy paper from a file box and reads it on air.
NPR's announcers handle breaking news in a curious mix of old school style and high technology. Robert's copy paper is typed, sometimes handwritten - a decidedly un-digital script. Every square inch of the room is filled with intention, with steady-eyed engineers mixing sound, with web specialists writing and updating web content to reflect the quickly changing election map.
Nina Totenberg sits in the same mid-sized room, her eyes glued to a computer screen. She doesn't notice the bustle surrounding her. Her perfectly coiffed hair doesn't move even as she leans closer to the electronic results. She wears a gray body-hugging dress the color and fuzzy texture of the studio walls. An NPR worker tells me that the walls are specially padded to deaden sound, to collect cough, tick, rustle of paper and suck it into nothingness. The amount of people in the room - the amount of sheer NPR celebrity - is staggering considering its size, but all this visitor hears is Robert's soothing anecdotes.
Two floors up, in a small room overlooking Massachusetts Avenue, NPR President Kevin Klose addresses twenty people in a tiny, packed room. NPR has just begun closed-captioning for audio audiences, the first program of its kind in the nation. A young woman signs his words for the hearing impaired in the audience. Kevin wears a navy blue suit though the hour is late. His face is lined, translates a mix of exhaustion and gratitude. He claps for his workers, for the people who made radio truly available for everyone. He claps long and loud.
I sit at a long table in a rectangular room just a few feet away from Studio 4-A. 20 bloggers from around the country are gathered to live-blog the election. Our table is strewn with power cords, empty cans of Diet Coke and Sprite, black plastic plates covered in brownie crumbs, in half-eaten chicken wraps. Three televisions flash coverage from CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC. A huge projection screen houses NPR's official election map. We're like Nina - our eyes are drawn to our screens. Hearty discussion about whether different calls are valid punctuate the talking heads' banter.
Sitting across the table from me is NPR's Andy Carvin, NPR's senior product manager for online communities. He's organized this event - invited bloggers, coordinated a dizzying array of snackage - from tiny bite-sized brownies to huge trays of sliced red peppers, zucchini, carrots, and celery - as well as helped each of us keep abreast of NPR's late-breaking news. Andy keeps close a chart showing what time each state's polls close, keeps one hand on his keyboard as he sends frequent updates to his Twitter account.
It's only 10 p.m. and it looks like Obama will sweep the election. I'm hanging in here, as late as it goes. Alaska's polls close last, at 1 a.m. Washington D.C. time. No way will I fall asleep. I've got Robert Siegal's voice to keep me company...
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Comments: 318
Hi, Birdie!!!
I am so relieved! I was so afraid I was not going to be able to get to vote before the polls closed. My husband and I had problems with our transportation and had to wait for our grandson to come home from school to take us out to our polling place. We got there and there was just one person ahead of us. We were greeted by name (that's the nice thing about being in a small town) and given our receipts and cards for the electronic voting machines, within minutes. It would have taken less time if we hadn't spent time chit-chatting with the judges, they were all friends we've known for years. We were done... and happy to have been part of the process. Now, I can sit back with you... and wait for the results. :-)
Me in the NPR bloggers' newsroom! I uploaded some pix of the other bloggers and NPR folks to this post as well, check it out! Lots more to come...
When he arrived, there was only one other person there: his younger brother!
Natalie, YAY!! So glad you are here!!
that dude DEFINITELY looks like he's "looking for some change"! but I think he'd take folding green too.
[sorry, just couldn't resist. ]...
L.
http://news.yahoo.com/election/2008/dashboard
Laurie, GREAT to see you here!
Doc - I am waiting for the official word - once the states give the official nod, we get the word immediately and I'll post the returns. Right now it looks like those are probably accurate calls, but we'll know for sure in a bit. Sometimes the media gets it wrong!
I hope Doc is wrong.
where are you blogging on NPR,...? Looks remarkably well hidden coming in from the landing page.
[I'll shut up for awhile...].
:)
Yeah, Doc, with only a percentage point or two being counted, a LOT can happen.
Polls in Ohio are Closed. Few problems have been reported.
Predicted by NPR - Kentucky has been won by McCain and Vermont has been won by Obama. Of course, not all votes have yet been counted.
People are pretty fired up about this and that's a wonderful thing.
I voted EARLY today and warned him. But he didn't listen. At least he is voting the same as me :)
hmmmmn..
I think people with 'agendas' answer them.. other just walk away.
8:27 p.m. EST, Nov 4 '08
McCain 81,048 55%
Obama 65,712 44%
9% of precincts reporting
Texas »
Obama 1,396,314 50%
McCain 1,394,241 50%
MA, Ill, CT, DL, NJ, MD, ME, DC, TX, FL
McCain now projected to win:
OK, TN
No projections yet:
AL, MS, Missouri, NH, PA
McCain: 34
Obama: 103
270 needed to WIN
States: Projected Winners according to NPR, these may change as votes are tallied
Obama takes:
Vermont
New Hampshire
Massachusetts
Connecticut
Pennsylvania
New Jersey
Delaware
Illinois
Maryland
D.C.
McCain Takes:
Kentucky
Oklahoma
Tennessee
South Carolina
Obama 102
McCain 49
the last RACE RIOTS over school desegregation were ins BOSTON.
try this one..
http://news.yahoo.com/election/2008/dashboard
they are using AP's numbers.
But it appears that the early momentum is very favorable for Obama.
I'm going to miss those Tina Fey sketches!
Like McC. being almost 10% ahed in VA with half the precincts reporting and it not being called for him,.