What are the best websites for watching election returns? Which ones have the latest, up-to-date tallies of election results?
That question started a search for reporting sites, but also spotlights the fact that the 2008 U.S. national election is now known as “the YouTube election” and “the Twitter election” due to inclusion of those influential communications channels. Many news sources, both traditional and new-tech, provide up-to-the-minute coverage on national and state elections, with designated election centers on the Web. For starters, check out these sites and the extended list at the end of this article:
- CNN’s ElectionCenter2008
- MSNBC’s Decision08
- NPR’s Election 2008
- Fox News Election 2008
- Google’s 2008 U.S. Election
- ReadWriteWeb’s Your Election Day Web Toolkit
- Twitter’s Election2008
Technology today is increasingly used to influence, collect, analyze, and report election results — and comment on it from a personal view. Some say technology is removing the “middleman” from the process. Individual and mass-media technology tools include Twitter polls, widgets to track specific results, numerous blogs, and interactive maps. For example, see Twitter Vote Report for live, self-reporting as people exit from polling sites across the country. The New York Times has a tag-cloud interactive feature where voters can type in the one word that best describes their state of mind on election day, with ongoing updates. And National Public Radio’s interactive map includes each state’s number of electoral votes, when its polls close, plus links to state news.
Below are more suggested sites for getting election information throughout the day, in addition to election results this evening after polls start closing at 5 p.m. on the Eastern seaboard.
- CNN, MSNBC, and ABC are streaming their coverage live to the Internet.
- Pollster and FiveThirtyEight
- For local elections: WIBW
- New York Times (may require free registration)
- National Public Radio
