First, Vote. Next, Get Set for Election Watching

by Seth Michaels, Nov 4, 2008

Tonight’s sure to be a historic evening as Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain square off. Voters have been lining up since early this morning, and polls will be closing starting with Indiana and Kentucky at 6 p.m. EST. Every state has interesting U.S. House and Senate races to watch, so there will be news all night.

Here are some election resources and enjoy your election-night festivities:

The National Committee for an Effective Congress has a list of poll closing times by state, as well as top House and Senate races to watch.

At Swing State Project, bloggers will post results from House and Senate races as they come in. They have a terrific map of poll closing times and a list of key counties to watch in the battleground states.

Daily Kos also will post frequent updates throughout the night on their interactive election map. Talking Points Memo also will announce results via an interactive map.

And, of course, check in often to the AFL-CIO Now blog for updates on voting experiences around the country and the Labor 2008 political program. (Tell us your voting experience here.)

Some things to remember today:

• Don’t get discouraged—or complacent—when you see exit poll results. They could be off in either direction.

• When a state closes its polls, it won’t have its results called by media outlets unless the outcome is relatively clear from polling. In almost any state that could be decisive, TV networks will wait for votes to get counted before announcing a winner.

• Just as in past election cycles, some of the closest races may not get called tonight.

• If you haven’t voted yet, get out there and do it, and take your friends and family with you!

• Union members can still take part in get-out-the-vote events today and help put our candidates over the finish line.

• If you run into problems at the polls, call the national Election Protection Hotline: 1-866-OUR-VOTE.

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