How did you feel on election night?

[2952-0-0]

Well, I was rather ignorant of all the "promising" exit polls in the afternoon, and I only turned on CNN at about 8 PM (pacific). At that time they showed this:



I felt very nervous and hoped for the best, because after that they called PA and CA for Kerry and ID and AZ for Bush. Unfortunately, I had to go and came back shortly after 10 pm and saw this. At that moment, I felt it was all over since Bush took FL by a large margin.



Of course, at 2 am I saw this and felt a glimmer of hope since I didn't expect Bush to carry WI.



When the networks called OH, I officially told myself: it's all over.

[dazzleman]

I was pleased and very relieved to see the president's re-election unfold.

I always thought deep-down that he would pull it out, but I got very nervous in the last couple of days.

The whole exit poll manipulation ploy may have backfired by encouraging Bush supporters to go to the polls.  We'll never know for sure.

In any case, I was very pleased that the president won re-election.

The next day, I loved reading about how the telegrams from European leaders like Chirac to the president congratulating him on his re-election were pouring in.  I would have paid to be a fly on the wall in the room when Chirac was having that telegram dictated.

[Silent Hunter]

You've got to remember I was neutral.

I was somewhat nervous about my calling it for Bush earlier that morning when Luntz mentioned that they were voting on the economy.

I was wondering why they hadn't called Virginia.

I did a log on election night, I'll put it up tomorrow or Tuesday.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Heard the early numbers from KY and IN, decided that Bush had been re-elected, went to bed.

[Hitchabrut]

I watched from 7 - 4:30, copying down every exact result and comparing it with my prediction. I was sad about NJ's un closeness, but I was relieved to be correct about Bush winning.J

[muon2]

We had a small party of my neighbors on election night. The TV was going in one room and a screen projection of the internet in the other room. It was interesting to cross check the TV calls with actual statistics from the counties. It was clear for almost two hours before OH was called for Bush that he had won that state and the election.

[Erc]

Heard the early numbers from KY and IN, decided that Bush had been re-elected, went to bed.

See?  The Indianometer is always right.

I heard the early polling data at about 4-5 pm, and was really crushed--I was convinced (for whatever reason) that Kerry was, somehow, going to win this thing [the first time I had been so convinced since early August].

So I sit down in front of the TV with my laptop at 6:50 and wait for the first results...they're promising, so I'm a bit more cheered up.  The failure to call SC and such worried me for a bit, until I realized they were just being cautious.  The continuing results from FL after 8 cheered me up somewhat...and, by 11:20, I knew Bush had won, and couldn't help but having a big smile on my face (while I was sitting in the middle of a group of Democrats, nonetheless).

[Erc]

Oh, yeah, and by about 12:30, I really wanted to kill Wolf Blitzer.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Oh, yeah, and by about 12:30, I really wanted to kill Wolf Blitzer.

Does anyone like him?

[Rob]

My main feeling? Resignation.

[Will F.D. People]

At the start of the day I was buoyed by the WSJ article which seemed to refute some of the scary poll numbers that Fox had over the weekend. I told my 10-year-old that it would come down to PA, FL, and OH -- whomever won two out of those three would win.

At about 5:00 PM EST I heard Sean Hannity's radio program and he seemed to be reeling based on the exit poll numbers. I started to become resigned to a Kerry victory.

From 7 to 9 pm I had a meeting of a civic group at a restaurant with a TV. There was a table of people cheering each time a Bush state came in. The table was sombre when I left at 9 pm because NY had just been called and Kerry had a slight lead.  No surprises so far and WV was solid, so that was good news. VA was called when I was at the restaurant which made me feel very relieved for my home state.

From 9 to 10 pm at home I watched "Celebrity Poker Showdown" on Bravo. I needed escapist entertainment.

At 10:00 I went upstairs to bed expecting to get the bad news from my wife and was pleasantly surprised that there still had been no surprises and FL was looking good.

The next hours are a blur but when Fox called Ohio and explained why, it was like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. It is one of those moments of watching TV that I will never forget.

I then sweated for months the whole provisional ballot, recount Ohio, and electoral vote challenge nonsense. I don't think I really relaxed until W was home safely after the Inaugural Balls.

[nini2287]

I honestly nearly cried tears of joy when I heard the exit poll numbers at the local Kerry HQ around 1:30-2 PM, however, as the night went on it got worse and worse, although there I did have a glimmer of happiness when the early KY and PA numbers came in and it looked like we'd have Senators Mongiardo and Hoeffel (I was much more optomistic about Mongiardo since there were more precincts reporting in Kentucky).

[Rococo4]

I was confident all day.  Then when I saw the exit polls I almost threw up.  I didnt think they could be true but still.  When they called Ohio for Bush, I celebrated by driving around and playing Bruce Springsteen.

I always thought Bush would win, but those were some anxious moments mid afternoon of election day.

[MHS2002]

I was feeling confident in my prediction, but I was a little nervous when the exit polls came out in the early afternoon. As the night unfolded, I watched CNN on TV and followed it on the net. As the states fell into place, I became more and more excited. Around 4AM, when I was sure Bush won Ohio, I went to bed.

(Not to brag, but I did have a perfect prediction for the EC)

[WMS]

I was none too fond of either candidate - if you don't believe me, check my postings - so I didn't have a lot riding on this emotionally. What I mostly remember was, after the ENTIRE FREAKING SOUTH was called for Bush, the feeling that 'well, that certainly isn't good for the Democrats'. It confirmed some of the points I had made about social issues, though, and some of the foreign policy points others had made. The leftists who then went on a rampage after the election about how ignorant and stupid heartland Americans are confirmed for me how out-of-touch the left wing is with many of the people who used to vote for them in decades past...a point I still make.

All in all, I had mixed emotions about the race, but was mostly happy that the damn thing had ended!

[Filuwaúrdjan]

See?  The Indianometer is always right.

My thinking was that as in the U.K you can nearly always work out what's happend from the first few results and looking at the swing, and a few weeks earlier the same thing happend in Australia... it doesn't matter who wins the state, what matters is by how much.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

See?  The Indianometer is always right.

My thinking was that as in the U.K you can nearly always work out what's happend from the first few results and looking at the swing, and a few weeks earlier the same thing happend in Australia... it doesn't matter who wins the state, what matters is by how much.

That's why Bayh is unstoppable yeah, unstoppable........

[Silent Hunter]

See?  The Indianometer is always right.

My thinking was that as in the U.K you can nearly always work out what's happend from the first few results and looking at the swing, and a few weeks earlier the same thing happend in Australia... it doesn't matter who wins the state, what matters is by how much.

Indeed you could get the swing roughly right last time by looking at Sunderland South.

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Jeb Bush's corpse-like face on FoxNews scared me the night before the election.  And the early exit polls reinforced that idea. 

But when the first local results started to roll-in, it was clear that Bush outperformed his 2000 results.  WV getting called very early has HUGE and I knew it was over when Kerry's staff started hiding in their bunkers.  By 10pm it was clear Bush would carry Ohio.

Looks like I misinterpreted Jeb's expression, he simply was exhausted from running a great GOTV campaign in FL.  But I’d still like to give him a swift kick in the butt for messing up my prediction!  One of the few times I have watched FoxNews, and I got burned. 

[Gabu]

There were three stages to how I felt:

Exit polls released: "Oh, good."
Bush shoots most of them down: "Oh no."
Bush takes Ohio: "Oh, #@$%."

[King]

I laughed at mypalfish...

[RN]

I work afternoon-evening so on my way to work I listened to Hannity, who was talking about the exit polls showing Kerry ahead.  Hannity was even saying "vote just to add to Bush's popular vote."  I thought for sure Bush had lost. 

[J.R. Brown]

I had a really bad feeling all day that somehow Kerry was going to lose. When it took Virginia along time to come in, I got pretty excited. Also when Pennsylvania and New Hampshire came in so early for Kerry that had to my feeling of optimism. But when Florida came in for Bush by such a large margin, I fell into a deep depression and went to bed. Before I went to bed I told my roomate not to wake me up when Kerry finally concedes the election.

[DanimalBr]

In the span of about 11 hours , I completly went from one extreme to the other.  At that time, I didn't have a job.  So I sat home all day and was glued to the internet.  At about 3 or 4 p.m. when all the exit polls came out, I more or less resounded myself to the fact that Kerry was going to win and I was prepared to accept defeat graciously.  Hannity was pretty depressing to listen to that day.  I didn't eat anything that night, was just in a very glum mood. 

Then when election night coverage began, I got my first true glimmer of hope when West Virginia was called so early for Bush and Bush won it by such a huge margin.  That was really my first tip off that the exit polls were wrong.  It was still disturbing though that Virginia, South Carolina, and North Carolina were taking so long to call.  As the night wore on, it got better and better. 

I got my first real shot in the arm that things might not go the way the exit polls said at about 10:30 or so when the networks started to play the tape of Bush with his family sitting around watching the election returns and watching Barney.   Although it technically meant nothing, it's been my experience with past elections that winning candidates are shown watching returns and doing their normal routine activities than losing candidates.  In both 92 & 96, Clinton was shown jogging or doing a photo shoot during election night while you didn't see anything from Bush 41 or Bob Dole.   So the fact that Bush was shown sitting around the television and laughing and having a good time with his family clued me in that he must know something and things are probably not as bad as they once seemed.

 
Then when they called Flordia for Bush and he won by such a big margin, it was then that I thought "Hey Bush really does have a shot to win."   All afternoon and early evening I was prepared for Kerry to win, but when Bush won Flordia, my outlook changed.

When Fox called Ohio for Bush, I jumped up out of my chair and let out a yell that literally shook the whole house and woke up everyone in my house.  I knew right then and there that Bush had been re-elected.  It was like a huge nuce that had been around my neck all year long had been taken off and I was free.  I didn't sleep at all that night.  I stayed up and just soaked up as much of the coverage as I could.   

I would not change a thing about that day.  I had about 10 hours of being glum and down, but I had 2 months of being ecstatic and celebrating.  It's such an indescribible feeling to basically go from being down and glum and preparing to accept defeat to being so happy and relieved and reveling in victory.

[chris allen]

This thread might be dead, but I just wanted to tell my election day story.

I woke up that morning and decided not to go to school. I mean I had followed this election since January and wasn't going to miss one second of it's climax. I ate breakfast while watching Don Imus on MSNBC. Chris Mattehews was there saying how he "should" know who is going to win by 2 or 3 in the afternoon. They were in Rockefellar Plaza I do believe.
As the morning rolled along I flipped through all the cable news channel just to get a feel of what was going down. Some pundits were talking about how nervous Bush and Rove were when they appeared on camera that morning. Then I went on the internet and saw why. I had a grin a mile long. Kerry was ahead in the exit polls in Ohio, Florida, Iowa, New Mexico, Pennsylvania. He was down 1% in Colorado and North Carolina of all places. I though "hell maybe John Edwards was good for something after all."
About 4 p.m. CST I checked the latest round of exit polls and they still hadn't changed in there result. I was just full of excitement and couldn't sit still. I then went out to vote. Voted for Kerry and Blanche Lincoln and for gay marriage. I was in front of the TV the rest of the night.
The same old states were being called in the same order as they had in 2000. Then I saw the result of Florida with about 50% of the precents reporting and new something wasn't right. The night progressed with the same happening in Ohio, only a tad bit closer. Then Florida was called. Then at 11:00 P.M. NBC and Fox News called Ohio and along with Alaska which gave Bush 269. I felt like I had been punched in the face. I went to bed in disgust and disappointment.

I think my story is similar to other Democrats that day.