Live Blogging The Election!

NBC 13HD’s Chris Pollone is live blogging the election tonight from Deborah Bell Paseur’s campaign party in Downtown Birmingham.  Keep checking back for updates.  New posts will be on top.

3:25AM—
Ok.  Bedtime.  Well, past bedtime, really…

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog as much as I enjoyed writing it.  I’ll leave you with a couple of thoughts:

I love technology.  I mean, I REALLY love technology.  I can’t imagine how we got along without the internet, camera phones, and slingbox.

Photographer Ben Traylor got mad at me tonight because he said I was constantly hunched over my Macbook all night, and not paying attention to other human beings.  Do you know how difficult it is to watch NBC, check two different vote total websites, write a blog, and keep up with Facebook and GMail all night?  Ben shot this photo:

Does this look “hunched” to you? 

Don’t answer that.

As the night wore on, we grew weary, but were buoyed by the fact you, the gracious viewer/reader, was there depending on us for the latest news as it developed.  You’re always what motivates us and keeps us going, night after night, even when the going gets tough.

Thanks for being there. 

If we ever don’t deliver what you expect from a news station, please let us know.  If we DO deliver, let us know that, too. 

We truly love what we do, even if we sometimes lose a little steam along the way:

Sweet dreams, Alabama.

3:10AM—
Yep.  I’m still up.  And still watching…

Supreme Court - Place 1 - General
2824 of 2843 Precincts Reporting - 99%
Name Party Votes Vote %
Shaw, Greg GOP 1,012,957 50%
Paseur, Deborah Bell Dem 1,000,236 50%

Paseur is down about 12,700 votes which, if these numbers stay consistent, would not appear to trigger an automatic recount.  Of course, there are still about 19 precincts out, and Paseur only needs to pull with about 1760 votes, at this vote total, to get into the half of one percent range which would trigger the automatic recount of ballots.  It figured the most expensive, nasty and hotly contested supreme court race in the land would come down to this small a margin.  You have to feel for Deborah Paseur a little bit since she was winning almost the entire night before Greg Shaw went galloping past her after 11PM.  But that’s the way vote counts go, sometimes.  Stay tuned to NBC13 on Wednesday for the latest on this race.
 
12:35AM—
Why do I always pull the longest races?

Supreme Court - Place 1 - General
2662 of 2843 Precincts Reporting - 94%
Name Party Votes Vote %
Shaw, Greg GOP 987,442 50%
Paseur, Deborah Bell Dem 979,439 50%

I’m not sure if we’ll get this far, but here’s what the Alabama Code says about recounts:
Section 17-16-20

(a) When, in a general election, the election returns for any public office, including a judicial office, reflect that a candidate is defeated or any ballot statewide measure is defeated by not more than one half of one percent of the votes cast for the office, or the ballot measure, as certified by the appropriate election officer, a recount shall be held unless the defeated candidate submits a written waiver for the recount as provided herein:

For the full code, click here.

11:18PM—
Well to paraphrase Ronald Reagan, “Here we go again”...

Fewer than 8,000 votes now… Not sure which counties are still out.

Supreme Court - Place 1 - General
2478 of 2843 Precincts Reporting - 87%
Name Party Votes Vote %
Paseur, Deborah Bel Dem 883,047 50%
Shaw, Greg GOP   875,738   50%

Might we have to flip a coin on this one?

10:54PM—

This Paseur/Shaw race is widening again:

Supreme Court - Place 1 - General
2366 of 2843 Precincts Reporting - 83%
Name Party Votes Vote %
Paseur, Deborah Bell Dem 839,184 51%
Shaw, Greg GOP 814,631 49%

The crowd is thinning out here at the campaign party a little bit.  People still have to work tomorrow.  Supreme Court Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb just stopped by to give Ben a hard time.  He shot a story with her last year.

10:18PM—
Wow.

What else is there to say?

I was preparing frantically for my 10:00 live shot… in a race that was separated by just eight HUNDRED votes at the time.  When our 10:00 show started, for some reason, our news wasn’t on.  I could see sweeping views of Grant Park in Chicago, and I thought I heard the voice of Brian Williams.  Did we lose our local feed?  I was really confused.  And then I dialed up msnbc.com and saw this:

And then I got chills.

It doesn’t matter for whom you voted, this is a remarkable moment for our country.  Now, black children and white children can grow up knowing that they TRULY can be anything they want to be in the United States of America.

I don’t know if Barack Obama will be a good President or a bad President, but I do know the significance of what has happened tonight.  As many people like to say about race relations in this country, “we’ve come a long way, but we still have a long way to go.“  That’s still true now.  But I doubt many of the old Civil Rights War Horses ever thought they’d see this day in their lifetimes.

Tomorrow, the real work begins.  It’s clear watching John McCain’s concession right now that there are going to be some REALLY upset people and this country needs some unifying.  That’s Obama’s job.  And given the economy, the war, and the countless other problems we face, this country needs leadership.  That’s now his job, too.

But wow. 

Being in Birmingham, Alabama, where the seeds were planted some 40 years ago to prove once and for all that all men are, indeed, created equal, you can’t help but feel a deeper connection to this moment.  I can’t imagine what it feels like for those who fought so hard to get us to this day.

Like I said, the real work begins tomorrow.  But tonight, congratulations, America.

9:19PM—
This Paseur/Shaw race is really tight… with about 40 percent of the vote in, Paseur has about a 17,000 vote lead.  The tightness of this race makes me long for the corny “Rather-isms” that Dan Rather used to spout during election nights.  I kind of miss Gunga-Dan.  Here’s a list of some of his best:

Click for Dan Rather-isms

“This race is sweatier than Pollone on a live shot.“
Picture from Wikipedia

8:43PM—
I’ve been getting a lot of noise from the peanut gallery about the content of my blog posts… to which I reply, the news is on NBC13 TV, and on our live coverage on nbc13.com.  I just finished doing two live hits, one for the internet and one for TV.  If you want news, here’s some news for ya:  Deborah Bell Paseur is winning.  But it’s early.  Right now about 17 percent of the vote is in, and she’s got a 53-47% lead.  The race has tightened in the last 15 minutes.  Old pro politicos will tell you these early returns generally mean nothing in a vacuum.  What matters to the analysts is WHERE the votes are coming from.  How is the Presidential race going?  I haven’t seen a thing.

Anyone up for a little Democratic party, if you know what I mean:

7:25PM—
So I went with the steak sandwich and lobster (lobsta in my Boston accent) bisque.  Ben had the pepperoni pizza and Jamey had the Newks Club with chips.  It was just what the doctor ordered.  Now we’re ready for a long night of campaign coverage.  I’m sure this is captivating for my reader and my girlfriend, Sunday (who might end up being the same person).  But all I’m really trying to do is entertain myself.

Chris pauses before unleashing chaos.

Jamey is stunned Ben continues on his iPhone instead of enjoying his pizza.

6:43PM—
Ok, we’ve moved our live truck closer to the B&A Warehouse so we can broadcast live inside.  We’re now running to get dinner.  I think Newk’s Cafe has won out.  Yum!  Returns start rolling in in about 15 minutes.  Can’t wait.

5:45PM—
So I’m watching NBC Nightly News right now, and watching all the coverage made me wistful that future Presidential campaigns strike a better, less personal tone.  No matter which side you’re on, you have to be concerned with some of the ridiculous things which emerged as story lines and attack lines over the past 20 months.  I understand the point of an election is to win, but how do some of these candidates sleep at night after flinging so much mud, lies and innuendos at their opponents?  I think we, as voters, have to be better citizens, too.  There are so many people who have gotten caught up in things which, in the grand scheme of things, have absolutely nothing to do with governance.  How many smear emails have you gotten?  I get about 10 a day.  How many of them are true?  Just about all the ones I check out turn out to be false, or seriously stretch and distort the truth.  Why do we fall for such divisive and mean spirited things when there are real issues which affect our lives so much more?

I was struck by this passage from Bob Herbert in the New York Times today.  I think it really sums things up perfectly:

The U.S. is also a country in which blissful ignorance is celebrated, and intellectual excellence (the key to 21st century advancement) is not just given short shrift, but is ridiculed. Paris Hilton and Britney Spears are cultural icons. The average American watches television a mind-numbing 4 1/2 hours a day.

He continues:

...too many of our so-called leaders are behaving like clowns, or worse — spouting garbage in the public sphere that hearkens back to the 1940s and ’50s.  Thoughtful, well-educated men and women are denounced as elites, and thus the enemies of ordinary Americans…  Americans have to decide if they want a country that tolerates this kind of debased, backward behavior. Or if they want a country that aspires to true greatness — a country that stands for more than the mere rhetoric of equality, freedom, opportunity and justice. 

What do you think?

5:38PM—
Why is it TV reporters take better snapshots than professional TV photographers?

Can someone get Ben a station polo shirt?

5:18PM—
Well, I’ve done three liveshots already, and I’m trying to keep things interesting for the viewers at home.  That’s often difficult to do in the 4-7PM hours because candidates are often out of pocket, trying to relax, and quite frankly, not really making any news.  I’m here with photographers Ben Traylor and Jamey Bryan.  We’re having a spirited discussion of where we’re going to get our Election Night victuals.  I love working with these two guys because this isn’t their first rodeo.  They’ve done plenty of election nights and know what to expect.  They keep things low-stress and loose.  Plus, they’re funny as heck.  For those worrying about my insatiable hunger, good news:  I found my secretly stashed Fiber One bar in my briefcase and devoured it.  That should tide me over for another 5-7 minutes.  As for Greg Shaw and Deborah Bell Paseur, both are here in Birmingham to watch election returns.  I hope they don’t run into each other at a local restaurant or store tonight, because given the tenor of their commercials, they might fight to the death.  I’m kidding about that.  I think.  Here’s a look at our setup at the B&A Warehouse:

Jamey on the camera, Pollone on the microphone

4:39 PM—
One of the biggest jokes on election night is that the TV station management brings in all kinds of food for people working in the newsroom, and abandons everyone out actually covering the races… so that usually means reporters are stuck in some ballroom or banquet hall without a morsel of food for hours at a time.  Thankfully, our managers at NBC 13 understand the rigors of campaign reporting and have decided to reimburse us for our meal expenses out in the field.  Then the only problem is finding time between live shots and newsgathering to run and get some food.  And the reason why I’m telling you this is because it’s not even 5:00 PM yet, and I’m starving.

4:22 PM—
I can’t believe Election Day is finally here.  If you love politics, especially the ‘horse race’, then this is your Super Bowl.  I’ve been following the race between John McCain and Barack Obama for what seems like years.  I’ve watched so much “Hardball” I feel like I know what Chris Matthews is going to say before he says it, and I can recite Obama and McCain’s stump speeches verbatim.  Tonight, I’m following the AL Supreme Court race between Deborah Bell Paseur and Greg Shaw.  Right now, we’re at Paseur’s campaign party, which of course, isn’t really rolling at this early hour.  Election parties are always interesting.  Obviously, a winning candidate’s party is much more entertaining than a loser’s.  Being stuck with a losing candidate is like being at a funeral for someone you don’t really know, except there’s more alcohol… and balloons.  I’ll be anxious to watch the national results coming in between fact-finding for my race here.  Hope you’ll stay with me for the rest of the night… or as long as I can keep this up.  Take a look at how we warm up before a big night of election coverage below:

Pigskin, anyone?