Open Thread: The Morning After

Well, I'm going to have a hard time breaking it off with Election '08 after a nearly two year long relationship. But I'm keeping my eyes peeled for the next one, Election '12, I think it's called.

I've got to say, it feels strange not to have a new map to put up this morning or to be working on. There were a lot of maps up between the close of the conventions and yesterday. I'll update those posts from yesterday to include the polls and other graphics a little later today and will have a nice real versus predicted Electoral College Spectrum comparison when the results are finalized in these last few states. And I'll obviously update the maps to reflect any changes there when they occur.

Let's update things a bit for the morning before I open it up to comments.

Indiana: NBC and FOX have called it for Obama. CNN is still holding out. I suspect that NBC and FOX have it right.

Missouri: NBC -- as S.D. just pointed out -- has become the first to call the Show-Me state for McCain. No one else is following suit.

...yet.

North Carolina: The Tar Heel state looks to be following Indiana on this one, but early votes are the outstanding portion of the vote at the moment. I haven't heard or seen this anywhere, but I also wonder if there are some military votes from the military bases in the state that may still be out. I would suspect if it was just early votes, they'd perhaps go ahead and make a call since that is likely to favor Obama. Military votes, on the other hand, would be expected to go in the other direction.

Speaking of military votes, does anyone know how that shook out last night? I remember reading that the contributions from military sources this time around was much more competitive in 2008 than it had been in the past, but I'm curious to see if that translated into votes in any way.

And one more question: Are Indiana, Missouri and North Carolina states where an automatic recount is triggered if the race is within a certain margin? Missouri certainly looks like a candidate for one and North Carolina could too once the final votes come in.

Thoughts on that or anything else? The comments section is now open.


Recent Posts:
Election Night Liveblog and Open Thread

FHQ's Final Electoral College Map (11/4/08)

Election Protection