An hour.
I wouldn't say it was chaos inside the polling place, because the people there to vote were calm and collected and there, clearly, because they wanted to be. They just wanted to vote. Even though people in New York City know that, at least for the majority of races and certainly for President, their vote doesn't really count. I know, I know, that's a horrible thing to say.
But it's the truth here, with the Electoral College part of the election equation pretty much predetermined. That's why you didn't see any Obama or Romney ads on TV, why would they spend the money on a state where the outcome is not in question? Oh, they came to New York to raise money. But they didn't spend much on ads. Spitting in the wind, as one of my salty uncles used to say.
But I'm not complaining.
On the contrary, waiting in line with all these people who were there, knowing that how they voted wouldn't change anything in tonight's Presidential election and, with many districts and races locally, won't matter with well-known incumbents running against relatively unknown opponents, well, that was inspiring. INSPIRING.
And what a tribute to the whole process. I'm just sayin'.
And so now we get ready to start counting. We're going to be here every step of the way tonight, along with ABC News, starting at 7 p.m., when the voting closes in Virginia. That's a crucial state, and one that many feel Mitt Romney needs to win if he hopes to be the next President. He made two appearances in Virginia yesterday. So what happens in Virginia and its 13 electoral votes might be an early indicator.
We have reporters out and about covering the election, political reporter Dave Evans with the Obama campaign in Chicago, Sandra Bookman with the Romney campaign in Boston, and we're also covering the key U.S. Senate races, in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.
One more thought about all this. It's fascinating to see all the bloviators make their predictions. There's one "political analyst" who swears Romney will get 325 Electoral votes, far more than the 270 the winner needs. You can turn on any of the cable news channels and see any number of them predicting this and predicting that.
Good thing about elections, we don't really know till it's over. And even then, sometimes, we don't know. Anyone remember Bush v. Gore? Anyway, one of my favorite day-after activities is to listen to all those who confidently predicted one thing explain how they knew all along that the end result would take place, and/or that here's the reason they got it wrong.
Love to hear this stuff.
Oh and how about the New Jersey voting snafu? What looked like a brilliant solution by Gov. Christie to ensure that victims of Hurricane Sandy could vote by opening up electronic and in-person voting through the various county clerks offices has now become something of a logistical nightmare.
There are huge delays in this type of voting, and so now the deadline for handing in ballots isn't tonight anymore. It's Friday!
We're also keeping an eye on the Nor'easter that's heading here. It appears that it's veering out to sea, which means a snow event, not that heavy for us here, with high winds on the Long Island shoreline. Meteorologist Lee Goldberg is tracking the storm for us and there are a ton of nervous people, worrying about getting hit so soon after Sandy. Let's hope it's a minor hit, as it now appears.
Mayor Bloomberg isn't taking any chances, however. He's closing parks and shutting down construction projects ahead of the storm.
We'll also have any breaking news of the night, and we'll be cutting in with local races throughout the night. I hope you can join Sade Baderinwa and me, tonight at 11.
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