Will things be clear on Election Night?

[Silent Hunter]

That's last polls closing, BTW.

I say only for the Senate.

[Mr. Morden]

Will they be clear by the time those of us on the East Coast go to bed?  Not necessarily.  Will they be clear within 24 hours of the polls closing?  Most likely.  How many races are typically left still uncalled a full day after the polls have closed?  Not very many.  1 or 2?  Does anyone have that info from past years?  In any case, even if there are a couple of races that go to recounts, the guy who won the initial count is usually the guy who wins the recount, so we could still have a pretty good idea of who won each race.

[Eraserhead]

I hope so but I'll be staying up all night watching coverage anyway.

[Nym90]

We could very well end up with recounts in two or three House races deciding the majority.

Oh yeah, and then a flurry of party switching (or at least offers to try to get people to switch) in the following weeks.

[poughies]

Yes..... For one thing the closest races are in the east, so that takes care of part of the time thing. I think races like Missouri will keep us the longest.

[DownWithTheLeft]

Just for fun, here are the interesting races in the Mountain and Pacific time zones:

Senate:
Montana

House:
AZ-01
AZ-05
AZ-08
CA-11
CO-07
CO-04
ID-01*
NM-01
NV-03
WY-AL

*This wouldn't be interesting except that Sali seems to be universally hated, by Republicans possibly more than by Democrats.

Most of those races will over quite quickly, only MT Senate and CO-7 will really be that close.  I have a hunch that the Pennsylvania race will take a while to sort out.

[Smash255]

Just for fun, here are the interesting races in the Mountain and Pacific time zones:

Senate:
Montana

House:
AZ-01
AZ-05
AZ-08
CA-11
CO-07
CO-04
ID-01*
NM-01
NV-03
WY-AL

*This wouldn't be interesting except that Sali seems to be universally hated, by Republicans possibly more than by Democrats.

Most of those races will over quite quickly, only MT Senate and CO-7 will really be that close.  I have a hunch that the Pennsylvania race will take a while to sort out.

CO-7 and the Montana Senate will probbaly the easiest to sort out of those on that list

[DownWithTheLeft]

Just for fun, here are the interesting races in the Mountain and Pacific time zones:

Senate:
Montana

House:
AZ-01
AZ-05
AZ-08
CA-11
CO-07
CO-04
ID-01*
NM-01
NV-03
WY-AL

*This wouldn't be interesting except that Sali seems to be universally hated, by Republicans possibly more than by Democrats.

Most of those races will over quite quickly, only MT Senate and CO-7 will really be that close.  I have a hunch that the Pennsylvania race will take a while to sort out.

CO-7 and the Montana Senate will probbaly the easiest to sort out of those on that list

Some of the races on that list like AZ-08 and CA-11 were over before they started

[Mr. Morden]

Just for fun, here are the interesting races in the Mountain and Pacific time zones:

Senate:
Montana

House:
AZ-01
AZ-05
AZ-08
CA-11
CO-07
CO-04
ID-01*
NM-01
NV-03
WY-AL

*This wouldn't be interesting except that Sali seems to be universally hated, by Republicans possibly more than by Democrats.

I doubt AZ8 or CO7 will be all that close, and most of the other House races you mentioned are unlikely to be in play unless there's a big national wave, meaning that we'd already be able to see that something's up by watching the returns from the East Coast.  Really, the only House seat you list that I can see being the decisive 15th seat that decides control of Congress is *maybe* NM1.  Although a better choice would be WA8, which you don't list.

Bottom line: it will be the seats in the Eastern and Central timezones (mostly the Eastern timezone actually) that will determine control of the House.  Although of course, the vote counting isn't instantaneous, so it's not like we'll know right as soon as the polls close.

[MarkWarner08]

I still can't believe the House could be tied at 217-217 with Bonilla's seat headed to a runoff.

I think we won't knoe the House, but we will know the Senate.


Let's hope the Democrats or the Republicans get 220+, otherwise, we'll be seeing litigation like the 2000 election debacle.

[Downwinder]

I think we'll have a pretty good idea of who controls the chambers by Wednesday morning--I think whichever side takes it will do so by enough seats to be immediately clear.