AMERICA VOTES

I’ve never been big on politics, but Tuesday night was different. Due to the events of the last six years, I’ve found a new interest in how the America is being governed and was particularly curious to see how the rest of the country felt on Election Day 2006.

With the sun shining on a beautiful 72-degree day in Columbia, I had a gut feeling it was going to be a special day—possibly, even historic. I’d be lieing if I said I was as into the election coverage as I would be the Super Bowl, but once polling places in different locations closed and results began to come in, my eyes were glued to the television.

Prior to dinner, I had done a careful check of the coverage on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News. Right away, I eliminated Fox from my radar. I could barely make it through five minutes of their coverage. The set and background were plain and non-inviting to my eyes and none of their anchors, reporters or analysts made me want to stick around.

So, I quickly turned to CNN and they were discussing trends from around the country. They reported that voter turnout was extremely high and that 66 percent of voters in the exit polls said they thought the country needed a change. Connecting the dots, it was logical to assume what this meant for the evening’s results. While the other stations could have reported the same statistics, I didn’t catch it due to bad timing.

I also greatly enjoy listening to Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper, both of whom were anchoring the election coverage in the newsroom. MSNBC posed an interesting duo with Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann, but for numerous reasons I decided to let Blitzer and Cooper lead me throughout the night.

The first intriguing part of CNN’s coverage was the layout of the set, which was placed right in the middle of the newsroom. While Blitzer mainly stayed positioned around the large board showing various percentages in the background, Anderson Cooper was literally walking throughout the newsroom chatting with different people. At times, he would stop at a certain desk and speak with various analysts including James Carville, Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley and Chief National Correspondent John King. At other times, he was talking to reporters at their desks. I enjoyed this setup because it gave me a better understanding of how much work is put in by people behind the scenes to make such an important show work.

My favorite part of their broadcast was the chart/graphic used by Jeff Greenfield throughout the evening. As opposed to many graphics that are too confusing, this one was perfect. It was extremely clear and easy for the viewers to follow. The chart would do a full revolution whenever he wanted to access the House of Representatives or the Senate. Each seat the Republicans had appeared in red and each seat that belonged to the Democrats was in blue. When a race was called, he would make the seat the rightful color. As the night grew old, he remained focus on the heated Senate races in Missouri, Virginia, Montana and Tennessee. All were currently red because the incumbent was Republican. Whenever he wanted to discuss the current situation and updated voting results he simply tapped the seat with the state’s abbreviation and a box would pop up showing both candidates.

I also felt as though CNN was really careful with its coverage. I distinctly remember an incumbent senator giving his concession speech, but CNN hadn’t confirmed the results yet and refused to call the race until they were certain. I thought CNN’s coverage was superb because it was a very relaxed and comforting presentation.