Live coverage of U.S. election night
-
-
The Globe has several correspondents across the U.S. this evening, reporting from Obama's campaign headquarters in Chicago, Romney's HQ in Boston and from Washington D.C.
We'll be starting this evening's coverage shortly by checking in with our correspondents in the U.S. to see what's happening on the ground. Also joining us tonight are The Globe's Affan Chowdhry and Melissa Whetstone, based here in The Globe's newsroom in Toronto. -
Good evening everyone from the Globe and Mail newsroom in Toronto - my name is Affan Chowdhry, mutlimedia reporter. I've been covering the U.S. presidential election. This is going to be an exciting night. And it will likely be a long one. Terrific to be a part of this - and looking forward to talking to our correspondents, experts, and our Globe expats. -
-
-
Joining us later in the evening will be politics professors Michael Parkin (of Ohio-based Oberlin College) and Paul Quirk (of the University of British Columbia) will help us put the news into perspective, and John Ibbitson and Doug Saunders will provide instant analysis and reaction to the results as they roll in.
-
-
Cassaiya Oligario (C) waits as her mother Cassandra and older sister Eleahna vote in the U.S. presidential election at a displaced polling center in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, New York November 6, 2012. All of the Coney Island and surrounding area polling sites were damaged during Hurricane Sandy. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
-
-
Hi Affan: Virginia polls just closed and the exit poll says it's 49-49. That's not encouraging for Mitt Romney. If he can't take Virginia he will not have to bother about Ohio because there is almost no way to victory for him if he doesn't start out with Florida and Virginia. -
-
-
Key perk of working on #election2012 night: Free hot meal! @ The Globe and Mail http://instagr.am/p/RtRccxGPCL/by Chris Boutet via twitter 11/7/2012 12:10:41 AM -
Key perk of working on #election2012 night: Free hot meal! @ The Globe and Mail instagr.amby Chris Boutet via twitter 11/7/2012 12:10:41 AM
-
The Vermont and Kentucky results were expected - the key state, as Konrad Yakabuski just pointed out, is Virginia. Polls there just closed at 7 p.m. Too early right now to call Virginia - a state candidate Barack Obama carried in 2008, the first time I believe a Democrat has carried it since 1964.
-
Hamilton County which takes in Cincinnati is critical for Romney. It has gone Republican in every race since 1980 -- except in 2008. A Romney victory starts there. Cleveland is solid Democratic territory. Mr. Romney should do well in coal country. The area between Columbus and Dayton will be important, too. But the bottom line is that Obama seems poised to prevail. If he wins Ohio, Wisconsin and Iowa, his midwest firewall will be intact and he can count on a second term. The auto bailouts will have proven to be the definitive issue in Ohio since it has allowed Obama to carry a larger share of the white working class vote than in any other state.
-
-
-
-
Yes, and those ads were targeted at blue collar voters since they focused on plants that were closed after Mr. Romney's former company, Bain Capital, invested in them. But I would argue that the auto bailouts ended up being far more important. Romney could not live down his "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" op-ed. And he ran an ad suggesting that Chrysler's move to build Jeeps in China would cost Ohio jobs. That ad backfired badly. Of course, we still don't know the results.
-
Konrad I know you've got to run - but before you do, two questions: 1)You're in Chicago, where President Obama is. What has he been up to today and what will he be doing this evening? 2)You've criss-crossed this country during the GOP leadership campaign and now the presidential campaign - what was the turning point in the presidential campaign?
-
A man poses for photographs between cut-outs of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and U.S. President Barack Obama at an election party during the U.S. presidential election at the U.S Embassy in London earlier today. (Photo: Neil Hall/Reuters)
-
1) Obama's election night party is at Lakeside Center -- indoors among a few thousand invited volunteers instead of 250,000 people in Grant Park as in 2008. He played basketball earlier -- he's superstitious, and the one time he did not play basketball on an election day, he lost (NH primary in 2008).
-
-
2) You know, I don't see there as having been a turning point. Despite the economy, Obama has always been favoured to win reelection - -but by a much narrower margin than in 2008. Both campaigns had ups and downs that moved the polls. Romney had more downs (the 47 per cent remark will go down in history) and one major up (the first debate). Obama badly blew it in the first debate, but picked up the pace in the campaign's final stretch. Exit polls indicated Hurricane Sandy did not influence voters directly, but it cut short Romney's campaign and froze the state of the race.
-
-
-
-
-
Use #GlobeUSElxn to tell us your thoughts on the election as results roll in. Who do you think will win? #election2012by globeandmail via twitter 11/7/2012 12:22:58 AM -
-
It's very hard, It's happened only twice since the second world war. Jimmy Carter and George Bush senior, and Mr. Bush was serving the third Republican term in a row. So really only Mr. Carter got ousted after his party had held the White House for only four years
-
-
Just a quick update on Virginia. In Virginia, the president is polling strongly, as expected in the Washington DC suburbs. Mr. Romney must do well in rural areas and southern Virginia. Because without Virginia, it’s tough to see a path to the White House for the Republican. Even he admitted that this morning in a radio interview with a Virginia radio station. This is what he said: “Virginia is critical to this because without Virginia our pathway is much more difficult.”
So 49-49, which is the exit poll numbers, not a result, isn’t good for Mr. Romney -
-
-
You can also track live stat-by-state results with our interactive map: www.theglobeandmail.com
-
That is such an important point by Paul Koring - about Virginia. Mitt Romney has to clear that hurdle, win Virginia and move on to Ohio (polls close 7:30 p.m. EST) and Florida (polls close 8:00 p.m. EST). If he lose there in Virginia, a challenging path to the White House just got very very very difficult. But it's still early and no one is calling Virignia just yet.
-
That's really quite simple. The United States is a far more conservative society than Canada, so someone like Mr. Obama who might seem moderate and centrist, perhaps even small-c conservative in Canada is considered quite a leftist in the United States. Remember this is a country were a majority tell pollsters they are against universal government-funded healthcare
-
A quick update in Florida, another key battleground state. The very early results aren't encouraging for Mr. Romney. Mr. Obama and Mr. Obama look tied in Florida. It could be a long night. But there’s only 5-percent of the vote is counted so its still much too early to draw any conclusions.
Still, Mr. Romney doesn’t want to start his night tied in Florida and tied in Virginia. He needs both states, while Mr. Obama can win with neither. -
-
-
-
North Carolina is a state Barack Obama carried by the narrowest of margins in 2008 thanks to a massive African-American voter turnout; the Democrats held their party convention in Charlotte, N.C. is September. But frankly, no one is expecting President Obama to carry North Carolina again.
-
