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Election Eve Update

And finally, the race draws to a close. I’ll be dropping by my precinct mid-morning tomorrow to pull some touchscreen levers, children in tow. Call it a homeschool civics lesson, or call it madness if the lines are long. I’ll let you know if the kids intimidate any voters while they’re there.

The outstanding Horserace Blog–whose methodology has given me an idea for a fairly simple web app that I should prototype in the midterms–is feeling very optimistic tonight. He’s calling it 317-221 for Bush, notably including Pennsylvania as a red state:

EV-Horserace.gif

RealClearPolitics’ state averages also got a bit better today. They don’t give Pennsylvania to Bush, but they do color Iowa, Ohio, Florida, and Wisconsin red. Overall, it’s a 296-242 night for the President:

EV-RCP.gif

Finally, Tradesports is unchanged from yesterday. It’s a Bush win by 286-252, giving Ohio, Iowa, and Florida to Bush, but Pennsylvania and Wisconsin to Kerry:

EV-Tradesports.gif

This ends the guessing. I’ll be more or less liveblogging tomorrow night, God willing. Oh, and for some insight into Colorado, Boulder County (one of our two Democratic bastions) is saying they may not be able to declare results until Wednesday night. If this is any indication of the other untested voting procedures in equipment we’ll be shaking down in the morning, we might have a lot more than 24 hours to go. May it not be so.

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  • Posted by Tim on Monday, November 1, 2004 at 10:23:34 pm PST
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2 Responses to “Election Eve Update”

  1. pentamom says:

    “Touchscreen levers?” I live in one of those remote parts of Middle Earth where you actually DO still pull levers (frankly I never understood why that kind of machine isn’t simply used universally — it doesn’t seem to have any of the pitfalls of punching, touchscreen, or anything else that people complain about), so I’ve never seen a touchscreen machine (I may be one of the rare Americans who’s never voted on any other kind of machine despite having lived in several different counties), and I can’t quite visualize levers and touchscreens going together — or was that irony again? ;-)

    Comment Permalink | Posted on November 2nd, 2004 at 2:13 pm |
  2. Tim Berglund says:

    Slight irony. They’re actually fairly pedestrian checkboxes that you check by touching them. The font is this 15-year-old 9×16 bitmap monstrosity–no aesthetic love at all. I was going to take a photo to post, but the election judges asked that I did not out of uncertainty over whether it was allowed.

    I’d totally dig a slightly jazzed up interface with little graphical levers, plus a big, physical lever as the input device that finalizes the vote. This would work so much better than the soul-less, hyper-modernist button Zach had the privilege of pressing. Oh, and sliding the lever also opens the privacy curtain, or at least actuates a motor that pulls it back. Yeah, if I must vote electronically, gimme some of that.

    Comment Permalink | Posted on November 2nd, 2004 at 2:26 pm |
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