Politics

Live Blog: Alabama Election Results

Posted on by Tom

I’m going to write about election results from The Big Alabama Election. I’m starting about 7 PM EST, which is about an hour before the polls close.

Just for the record, I don’t live in Alabama so technically this election is none of my business. But it’s the only election tonight so it’s getting a lot of national coverage. It’s like a Monday Night Football game… it’s the only one on.

I’ve seen this tweet a number of times today:

I’ve seen reports like this in literally every election I’ve paid attention to since roughly 2006. People try to suppress votes, and people try to get out the vote. It happens in every single election. This should not be a surprise.

Incidentally I’ll be watching CNN because I love watching John King and his election data touch screen thingy. I also think Wolf Blitzer trying to make election results exciting with his deadpan monotone is just about the funniest thing on television.

I’m actually expecting that the results will come in at exactly one minute after the polls close. I will be surprised if Doug Jones wins.

Erin Burnett is obviously losing her voice but I guess she didn’t want to miss The Super Bowl of Alabama Senate Elections. :)

That tweet pretty much guarantees a Roy Moore win.

This news about North Korea is arguably more important than this election:

Surprise, surprise: Tillerson and Trump aren’t on the same page about North Korea.

7:32 PM – John King just said that both sides are claiming a high turnout.

7:43 PM – (On the North Korea thing, I suppose it’s possible they are doing a deliberate good cop/bad cop strategy.)

7:48 PM – Incidentally, it is snowing again. I had hoped it would all be gone by tomorrow.

7:51 PM – Unrelated, but:

7:52 PM – (I, obviously, don’t think The Rock is a good choice to be leader of the free world, but since Trump opened Pandora’s Box, I guess it’s pretty much open season now.)

7:56 PM – CNN is doing their last-minute suspense-building before the polls close. I’m still predicting they are going to project a winner at exactly 8:00 PM. :)

8:00 PM – Awwwwwww. What a letdown. “Too early to call.”

8:01 PM – Give me a break. “Overperforming by a few points.” “Underperforming by a few points.” That’s obviously within the margin of error on those exit polls.

8:13 PM – Lulz. CNN reported results with less than 1,000 votes counted.

8:20 PM – “It’s going to be an exciting night,” says Wolf Blitzer. Oh boy! Actually I enjoy watching John King working this map. You can really tell that he loves doing what he does.

8:25 PM – “This is the black belt.” Every time somebody says that, they immediately add, “It’s called that because of the top soil! Really, it’s the top soil!”

8:48 PM – CNN seems to be very excited about Doug Jones leading with only 2-3% of the precincts reporting (mostly absentee ballots). That is not just “too early to call,” that is “don’t even bother.” I am embarrassed to even be writing it here, but there is a definite sense of “Doug Jones is doing great!” from Wolf Blitzer and John King. (Which is, incidentally, the more dramatic result–the come-from-behind victory, so to speak.)

9:07 PM – CNN’s John King is starting to sound like Roy Moore is “pulling ahead.”

9:13 PM – Sheesh. That last tweet expanded to be like a thousand feet tall.

9:36 PM – CNN says 51% counted, 51.4 Moore 47.2 Jones.

9:40 PM – John King keeps saying “the math is possible” but he sure doesn’t make it sound like it’s very likely.

9:42 PM – But on the other hand, we have this:

9:45 PM – I have no knowledge of how it works in Alabama, but here in Virginia, it is typically rural areas who report first, and cities who report later. So it usually looks like the Republican does well early on, with the Democrat pulling even or ahead later.

10:00 PM – CNN says 72% counted, 50.5 Moore, 48.1 Jones.

10:09 PM – John King seems a little more confident about Jones’s chances. Wolf keeps reminding us that it’s a really dramatic race. :)

10:22 PM – Twitter momentum seems to be breaking for Doug Jones. That is, people seem like they’re starting to believe he can actually win.

 

Tom