Unifornm Poll closings

[Gustaf]

I never previously heard about this as such a problem. In Sweden all exit polls are traditionally presented one minute after the voting ends. We don't have constituencies though so the whole thing is different. But I agree with CM that the easiest thing would be withholding the information from the media untill the voting is done. Or what that also be unconstitutional? What about the UK do they have the same problem?

[Gustaf]

I never previously heard about this as such a problem. In Sweden all exit polls are traditionally presented one minute after the voting ends. We don't have constituencies though so the whole thing is different. But I agree with CM that the easiest thing would be withholding the information from the media untill the voting is done. Or what that also be unconstitutional? What about the UK do they have the same problem?

I don't think Sweden has as many time zones.

Ahem, no...hang on while I go collect my brain will you.

[Gustaf]

What I was saying was sweden doens't have as many time zones as the united States.  Or at tleast I don't think so.

Yes I got that, and I just felt a little thick for not seeing that right away. No, Sweden has one time zone (I think we are actually evenly split between two, but we have chosen one for the sake of convenience). But there are two different issues here, one about time zones and one about when results can be published in the media in relation to when they are counted.

[Gustaf]

There is one simple solution nobody seems to be thinking of, even though it's what other states with more than one time zone do: Close the polling stations whenever you like but just don't start counting yet as long as polling stations anywhere else are still open!

Ehhhh...let's not over-simplify this!