Going Old School

In the first season of Mad Men, the workers of Sterling Cooper are shown staying up all night and having a part to listen to the 1960 election returns on the radio. The final results weren't available until the next morning.

I was reminded of this scene when I saw this news story that AP has announced that they will not be conducting exit polling in 19 states on election night. The various networks use a combination of the real returns, exit polls, and turnout statistics to help them make a descion on when to call a state for a particular candidate. Without the exit polls, the networks will be relying mostly on the real returns, which will probably push the call of certain states until late in the night.

Now, one caveat in all of this. The news story does not mention which states are losing the exit polls. They could be canning polls in states like California or Alabama where everyone knows who the winner is going to be. However, the context of the article suggest that they will be cancelling the polling in a few close states which are going to have high absentee and early voting (such as Ohio). If that is the case, calls for these states are going to go late into the night, unless they are absolute blowouts for one side or the other.

*UPDATE*

I just found a list of the states:

Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.

None of these states (and DC) should be in doubt as to who will win them, so I guess trimming the late night is still possible.